Liz led the way to the door to the overflow pipe, saying as she went, "This way. So, is he really as clever as my ancestors have told me?"
"Oh, he's cleverer than they would have described." Terry answered, coming to a stop beside the other woman as they reached the door. "They would have pegged him down a few notches given how many times he outsmarted them. But you already know that because you're listening to him even at this moment aren't you?"
Liz smiled in response, but it dropped quickly as she listened to something the Doctor was saying in her earpiece. Terry noticed the change in expression and she looked down at Mandy where the girl was following them.
"Mandy, stay out here." Terry ordered while Liz opened the door to reveal the Doctor and Amy, sopping wet and standing with their backs to the door, facing off against two Frowners.
Liz was quick to react, raising her gun and firing two quick shots to bring the Frowners down.
Terry followed Liz inside the pipe and she grinned while the Doctor and Amy watched in somewhat stunned silence as Liz casually and expertly twirled her gun before holstering it.
"Close your mouth, Doctor, you'll catch flies." Terry teased and the Doctor turned to her delighted surprise.
"Ah, Terry!" He greeted, giving her a once over. "Looking delightful, love. I expect you didn't join us so as not to ruin your clothes?"
"Well, given that they're the first proper clothes this me gets to wear..." Terry trailed off meaningfully. "Sick is not a good look, even on you, Sweetie."
"Wait, what? You knew this would happen?" Amy demanded and Terry shook her head.
"I knew something was likely to happen - and I was right." Terry answered easily.
"You say it like you expect me to always get in trouble." The Doctor joked, and Terry laughed back.
"Sweetie, I know that eleven times out of ten if trouble doesn't come looking for you, you'll go looking for it. Now, come on you two - business awaits."
The Doctor was grinning madly while Amy looked distinctly less-pleased. Liz observed to Terry, "I see what they meant about you being the one wearing the pants. You're the only one who can control him, aren't you? You must love her very much."
She looked to the Doctor as she spoke, but it was Terry who replied.
"Of course not." Terry scoffed. "No one can control another being with love, least of all with the Doctor. Influence him, however? That's possible."
Terry winked while the Doctor chuckled and Liz smiled.
"I'm sorry, what is going on and who is she?" Amy interjected, looking quite confused.
"Oh, sorry Amy." Terry replied, instantly contrite. "I must still be recovering my manners."
"Are there any to recover?" The Doctor joked and Terry answered, "Oh, shut up."
The Doctor's grin widened while Terry continued aloud, "Amy, meet Liz Ten. Liz, Amy."
"Hi." Amy greeted.
"Pleasure." Liz smiled, reaching over to shake Amy's hand; only to recoil slightly as she felt the sick on Amy's hand.
"Yuck. Lovely hair, Amy. Shame about the sick." Liz said before she walked off.
Amy glanced down and grimaced, and Terry grinned sheepishly.
"We'll get you cleaned off." Terry promised before they followed Liz as the woman led the way out of the pipes.
"You know Mandy, yeah?" Liz added as Mandy stepped out from where she had been waiting where Terry had told her to. "She's very brave."
Amy smiled back at Mandy as the girl gave them shy smiles, but the Doctor was focused on Liz.
"How did you find us?" He asked suspiciously, and Liz smiled.
"Stuck my gizmo on you." She revealed, holding up her handheld computer system and tossing it over to the Doctor. "Been listening in. Nice moves on the hurl escape. So, what's the big fella doing here?"
The Doctor looked up from where he'd been examining Liz's gizmo, and he replied with a hint of accusation in his voice, "You're over sixteen, you've voted. Whatever this is, you've chosen to forget about it."
"No." Liz corrected quite calmly. "Never forgot, never voted, not technically a British subject."
"Then who and what are you, and how did you know me earlier?" The Doctor countered.
Liz smiled.
"You're a bit hard to miss, love." She answered mischievously. "Mysterious stranger, M.O. consistent with higher alien intelligence, hair of an idiot. Often in the company of a female under the exact same description except for the hair, and who goes by the name 'Terry Storm'."
The Doctor's eyes narrowed. "Who is she?"
"Think, Theta." Terry replied while Liz went on.
"I've been brought up on the stories. My whole family was."
"Your family?" The Doctor repeated. "Her family?"
"Yes, her family." Terry replied when a clicking sound had them looking back to see the Frowners she had shot down were slowly starting to put themselves back together.
"They're repairing." Liz said sharply. "Doesn't take them long. Let's move."
She led the way quickly away, and the Doctor added to Terry, "You're being deliberately unhelpful."
"No - you're being unusually slow." Terry replied. "Liz Ten?"
The Doctor just frowned. Liz, catching onto the Doctor's growing impatience and confusion, explained.
"The Doctor and Terry Storm. Old drinking buddies and dancing partner of Henry XII. Tea and scones with Liz II." She glanced back over her shoulder as she added, "Vicky was a bit on the fence about you, Doctor, wasn't she? Knighted and exiled you on the same day. She liked Terry much more; so did old Charles I."
She then gave the Doctor a sly look as she added, "Although Liz I liked you, didn't she? So much for the Virgin Queen, you bad, bad boy."
The Doctor's eyes widened and he breathed in realization, "Liz X."
"Oh." The Doctor said mentally and Terry agreed.
"Yes, oh. Are you sure the cricket bat to your head didn't affect you permanently?"
"Oh shut it." The Doctor replied affectionately while Liz was saying, "Liz Ten, yeah. Elizabeth the Tenth. And down!"
She suddenly spoke loudly, almost shouting the order. Instinctively, the group ducked down while Liz drew her twin pistols and fired at two more Frowners that had started to come after them. The robots were downed instantly, and Liz smiled in triumph as she looked down at the four crouched in front of her.
"I'm the bloody Queen, mate." She announced smugly. "Basically: I rule."
Moments later
Liz led them down through another secretive corridor, and Terry grimaced a little at how hot the air suddenly got. And at the noise. She shook her head but she couldn't quite escape the faint noises she knew only she and the Doctor could hear.
The entire room was lit only by a dim red light, throwing an eerie glow everything but Liz didn't seem to mind as she called, "There's a high-speed Vator through there."
Something else caught the Doctor's - and Amy's - eyes and they stopped to stare at the sight behind the gratings on the side of the wall.
"Oh, yeah." Liz added with a tad of sarcasm in her tone as she too looked into the grating. "There's these things."
The Doctor pursed his lips while Terry remained silent as they all stared at the tentacles that whipped about and bashed against the metal grating, banging on the metal. And the noise… Terry tried her hardest to block the faint scream.
"Any ideas?" Liz asked and Amy sidled up to the Doctor.
"Doctor, I saw one of these up top." She told him in a low voice. "There was a hole in the road, like it had burst through like a root."
"Exactly like a root." The Doctor replied grimly, his green eyes tight as he glanced at Terry while he continued. "It's all one creature, the same one we were inside, reaching out. It must be growing through the mechanisms of the entire ship."
Terry didn't deny or confirm his assertion, but the expression in her eyes gave her away. The Doctor's lips thinned while Liz demanded, "What, like an infestation? Someone's helping it. Feeding it. Feeding my subjects to it. Come on. Got to keep moving."
She ushered Mandy forward, and Amy started after him before she stopped when she saw the Doctor hadn't moved.
"Doctor?" Amy called, disliking the way Terry was waiting patiently beside the Doctor - as if she knew what was in his head.
"Oh, Amy." The Doctor sighed. "We should never have come here."
Terry reached out and took his hand, giving it a good squeeze. The Doctor turned to look down at her mournfully. Amy's eyes narrowed but the two Time Lords missed her look as Terry said quietly in the Doctor's mind, "Just remember, Theta: there is always a choice."
The Doctor's lips were still curved down sadly but Terry kissed his cheek (making Amy's brows furrow even further) before she let him go.
"Come on, we really should get going."
She ushered them on after Liz, the Doctor following while Amy trailed behind, the redhead's eyes fixed on the Doctor's hand still in Terry's.
In the Queen's state rooms, Amy and the Doctor cleaned themselves up quickly in the Queen's bathrooms courtesy of Liz herself.
Terry didn't join them, opting instead to wait in the Queen's rooms. Spotting a yellow scarf hanging from Liz's full-length mirror, Terry made for it.
"Can I wear this?" She asked Liz over her shoulder as she took the scarf and Liz looked startled.
"Oh, well," Liz began, a strange look on her face. "Actually, that was yours once a long time ago. It became something of a family heirloom although I understand Liz I wanted to burn it at one point..."
Terry barely heard the Queen as Liz continued to explain how the scarf had been passed down through the generations. Instead, she was rooted to the spot while her gaze was riveted on the Queen's full-length mirror. Terry had taken a glance as Liz had been talking, curious about her new face.
But nothing could have prepared Terry for what she saw as she looked at her reflection for the first time since she regenerated. Wide blue eyes that looked startlingly like her daughter, Jenny's, stared back at her but it wasn't just the blueness of her eyes that looked familiar. And unfortunately, Terry could remember exactly where she had seen her current face before. The roar of a minotaur echoed in her mind and she trembled a little while she thought about why she would have this face. Had her subconscious chosen it based on what she'd seen, or was what she'd seen in that hotel of fears a sign of what her new face would bring?
Shaking her head, Terry filed away the thought for the moment and she said aloud quickly, "Right, well then, if you don't want me to have it-"
"No, no." Liz looked surprised and a little confused. "I only meant that it was originally yours so it should rightfully be returned to its owner."
"Thanks." Terry muttered, trying to focus back on the issue at hand.
She wrapped the scarf around her neck, tugging it in place just as the Doctor re-entered the room, Amy following out of the second bathroom not long after. The Doctor spotted the addition to her outfit and gave her a brief grin of approval - but the smile didn't reach his eyes and Terry didn't blame him as his gaze quickly fell to the many, many glasses filled with water that were set neatly upon Liz's bedroom floor.
Glasses filled with absolutely still water.
"Why all the glasses?" The Doctor questioned, gesturing at the cups of water that lined every free space on the unused part of the floor.
Liz's face was grim as she answered, "To remind me every single day that my government is up to something, and it's my duty to find out what."
The Doctor cocked a brow and he questioned with a slight smile that again didn't quite reach his eyes, "A queen going undercover to investigate her own kingdom?"
"Secrets are being kept from me." Liz replied sharply. "I don't have a choice. Ten years I've been at this. My entire reign. And you've achieved more in one afternoon."
The Doctor had frowned as Liz spoke, and the Time Lord asked slowly, "How old were you when you came to the throne?"
"Forty." Liz answered promptly before she became confused as the Doctor's question fully sank in. "Why?"
"What, you're fifty now?" Amy asked in surprise, looking Liz up and down. The redhead then scoffed, shaking her head as she took in the woman who didn't look a day older than thirty-five at the very most. "No way."
"Yeah, they slowed my body clock." The queen answered, shrugging as she became distracted by Amy's question. "Keeps me looking like the stamps."
She smiled but the Doctor was still frowning as he looked from the mask that sat on Liz's dressing table to the Queen of England.
"Angel." He called and Terry glanced at him discreetly. "This mask..."
"I know, Theta." The sadness in Terry's voice told the Doctor all he needed to know. "I know how old that mask is."
The Doctor's lips thinned and he asked aloud, "And you always wear this in public?"
He held up the mask to Liz, who shrugged.
"Undercover's not easy when you're me." She pointed out, gesturing to her face in general to emphasize her point. "The autographs, the bunting-"
"Air-balanced porcelain." The Doctor commented as he held up the mask to Liz's face, showing how the mask was an exact match for her face shape down to the set of her brow and nose bridge. "Stays on by itself, because it's perfectly sculpted to your face."
"Yeah." Liz replied, sounding puzzled as she looked at the Doctor oddly. "So what?"
"Oh, Liz." The Doctor breathed in response, lowering the mask as all the pieces but one fell into place. "So everything."
"Terry, what is the creature that lies under this spaceship?" The Doctor asked Terry abruptly.
Terry grimaced. "Theta-"
"Answer me, Teresa."
She knew he was extremely angry when he used her actual name. Terry's face fell, and Amy noticed but she could only stare in confusion, unaware of the devastation that was about to fall upon them. Terry tried to school her features but she didn't think she succeeded very well as she finally admitted the truth to the Doctor.
"A Star Whale… the Star Whale. The very last of its kind, at least that I'm aware of."
The Doctor's face had clouded over, and Terry could almost see the thunderstorms that promised the Oncoming Storm in the depths of those brilliant green eyes.
'I knew it… I shouldn't have let him win. I shouldn't have told him.'
It was as the thought crossed her mind that the familiar blue light enveloped Terry's body. Liz and Amy stared in shock while the Doctor's face became even darker, clearly growing more upset. Impulsively, Terry leant up on her toes and - with greater ease than her previous body had ever had - she kissed the Doctor softly. Liz raised a brow while Amy positively started before an odd, almost jealous look crossed her face.
Neither the Doctor nor Terry paid them any attention however as Terry pulled back to stare into the Doctor's eyes.
"Don't forget, Theta - there is always a second chance."
The Doctor tilted his head, his brows furrowing as he tried to make sense of her words. But Terry was already gone by then, leaving only the echo of her thoughts in his mind and a deafening silence in the stately chamber.
Terry was startled when, as soon as she landed, she found herself almost nose to nose with a green, scaled face. A very familiar green, scaled face even if it was somewhat difficult to see in the dark room.
"Madame Vastra." She greeted in surprise while the Silurian raised a hairless brow.
"Well, then. That certainly decides that." The stately female commented as she looked to her wife, who stood beside her. The dark-haired Jenny nodded while Terry frowned.
"Decides what?" She asked, looking from Vastra to Jenny.
Vastra gestured at the photograph she and Jenny had been examining in the literal dark room. Terry looked.
"Oh."
The Time Lady stared at what was apparently a picture of an enlarged eye. Or, more specifically, she stared at the image of the screaming Doctor reflected in the eye.