Lots of things change in this one. Enjoy it. Warnings as usual for PTSD, panic attacks, claustrophobia, and the next chapter will have a light gore warning.
"Behold, Rio!" The Doctor announced, pulling the door open to Amy's choice of location only for us all to step out with looks of disappointment.
"Nah."
"Not really getting the sunshine carnival vibe," Rory added as I sighed and reached back into the Tardis for a coat.
"No?" The Doctor questioned, earning a raised brow from me.
"No."
He wrinkled his nose with a little frown before suddenly stepping away. "Ooh. Feel that, though? What's that?" He bounced in place a few times and I tipped my head with a frown, scuffing my shoe in the dirt in confusion. "Ground feels strange. Just me. Wait… That's weird."
"What's weird?" Rory asked as I followed his gaze and saw the problem.
"Just a bit, yeah," I muttered, moving up to join him in the cemetery as Amy complained behind us.
"Doctor, stop trying to distract us. We're in the wrong place," she grumbled, continuing when he ignored her. "Doctor, it's freezing and I'm dressed for Rio. We are not stopping here. Doctor. Are you listening to me? It's a graveyard. You promised me a beach."
"Blue grass," the Doctor said, plucking some grass from the other side of the church as they followed us. "Patches of it all around the graveyard."
"Soil differentiation?" I offered him, getting a hum. "Though blue grass isn't exactly normal."
He snapped his fingers at me before plastering on a smile for Amy as she came over with a disgruntled expression.
"So, Earth, 2020-ish, ten years in your future. Wrong continent for Rio, I'll admit, but it's not a massive overshoot."
"Who are those people waving at us?" Amy asked then, drawing our attention to a couple across the way.
Rory started to wave back before she stopped him but the Doctor took out a pair of binoculars with a mumble.
"Can't be… It is. It's you two," he informed them.
"No, we're here. How can we be up there?" Rory questioned as I scoffed.
"Because you're sentimental. This is ten years in the future. Ten years from now you two will come here to enjoy the memories."
"Humans. You're so nostalgic," the Doctor chirped happily.
"We're still together in ten years?" Amy breathed, earning a look from Rory.
"No need to sound so surprised."
While their relationship had improved due to whatever happened when my Dream Self was around, they were still obviously working on it. Amy still said some off-handed things without meaning to and Rory dealt with them in the hopes that she didn't mean them. It was a work in progress, which was why Amy got to choose the next trip. Except something odd is obviously happening here, so the Doctor will make us stay to figure it out. I guess Rio is postponed until later.
"Oh, look," the Doctor called out, distracting Amy from whatever she'd asked him about, though his enthusiasm was gone. "Big mining thing. Oh, I love a big mining thing. See, way better than Rio. Rio doesn't have a big mining thing."
"We're not going to have a look are we?" Amy complained as I gave her a look.
"Random patches of blue grass in a graveyard, strange ground, and a mining thing? Why do you think I grabbed my coat?" I huffed. "Of course, we're going to have a look. It's like bloody Christmas for him."
"Oi!" The Doctor whined as I grabbed his shoulders and turned him around.
"Yeah, yeah. Come on, ya big child. Let's go see what weird things are happening."
"You're not supposed to encourage him!" Amy complained behind us as we walked through the graveyard.
"Ten pounds says she follows," I muttered and the Doctor wrinkled his nose.
"Yeah, I'm not risking my money on that. Of course, she follows."
We soon reached a gate blocking our way and the Doctor read the sign as Amy caught up, informing us that Rory would be just a minute.
"Restricted access. No unauthorized personnel. Hm," the Doctor hummed, smirking at me before using his sonic to unlatch the lock on the gate.
"That is breaking and entering," Amy commented.
"What did I break?"
"The law," I muttered, making him lightly touch the end of my nose.
"No. Sonicking and entering. Totally different."
"Right, because cops care about specifics," I drawled as Amy walked through and the Doctor glanced back behind us.
"Come on then," Amy called out as he questioned her.
"You're sure Rory will catch us up?"
"Unless he gets distracted by something," I mused, glancing back as well but allowing the Doctor to take my hand and pull me into a tunnel, where he continued to question us.
"What about now? Can you two feel it now?"
"Honestly, I've got no idea what you're on about," Amy huffed as I tried to figure it out myself.
"Yeah, I dunno. Do Time Lords have extra sensitive feet or something?"
"No!" He whined. "We're just very aware of our surroundings! The ground doesn't feel like it should."
"It's ten years in the future. Maybe how this ground feels is how it always feels," Amy tried and I hummed.
"Don't think that's how things work."
A short alarm went off and the Doctor whipped out his sonic again briefly.
"Hear that, drill in start-up mode. After-waves of a recent seismological shift and blue grass." He chewed on some tufts of grass he had in his hand and I shot him a look of disgust and disbelief.
"Really? You had to eat it?"
"Has he always been this disgusting?" Amy added as he pulled the grass out of his mouth and threw it on the floor.
"No, that's recent."
"It's really not," I muttered as he turned to a door.
"What's in… here! Hello!" He greeted the startled woman inside.
"Who are you?" The woman asked, rather politely given we'd just trespassed in a drill site. "What're you doing here? And what're you wearing?"
"I dressed for Rio," Amy huffed as the Doctor lightly smacked her hip in scolding and drew out his psychic paper.
"Ministry of Drills, Earth and Science. New Ministry, quite big, just merged. It's a lot of responsibility on our shoulders. Don't like to talk about it. What are you doing?"
"None of your business," the woman replied, as he stepped over to look at the readings on a computer screen.
"Where are you getting these readings from?"
"Under the soil," she answered, picking up a device from a nearby hole in the ground as someone else walked in.
"The drill's up and running again. What's going on? Who are these people?" The man asked upon having seen us and I sighed.
"I'm Fallon. This is Amy and the Doctor. We're just checking things out."
"We're not staying, are we, Doctor?" Amy added, shooting him a pointed look as the Doctor picked up some dirt from the hole and dropped it.
"Why's there a big patch of earth in the middle of your floor?"
"We don't know. It appeared overnight," the woman informed us as I joined Amy over by a forklift.
"Just adding more mystery to it," I noted, giving her a glance. "We're gonna be here a bit, I think."
"Good. Right. You all need to get out of here very fast," the Doctor said then, confusing us all.
"Why?" The woman questioned as Amy and I neared the hole.
"What's your name?"
"Nasreen Chaudhry."
The Doctor brought her over to her readings. "Look at the screens, Nasreen. Look at your readings. It's moving."
"What is?" Nasreen questioned.
"Hey, that's specialized equipment. Get away from it," the new man who'd walked in scolded the Doctor as I picked up some dirt as well and eyed the steam now rising from the hole.
"Hey, Doctor? Unless this is some underground hot spring cropping up, I don't think it should be steaming."
He turned and stepped over as well. "It's shifting when it shouldn't be shifting."
"What shouldn't?" Nasreen pressed before the ground quaked and I dropped the bit of dirt I'd picked up uneasily.
"The ground, the soil, the earth, moving. But how? Why?" The Doctor questioned as Amy spoke up.
"Earthquake?"
"In England?" I argued lightly, standing up in uncertainty. "The likelihood of that here isn't exactly high."
"More than that," the Doctor added, offering me a worried look. "It's only happening under this room."
More holes started to appear, pushing us all back.
"Doctor? What does that mean, exactly?" I questioned, eyeing the ground in concern.
"It knows we're here. It's attacking. The ground's attacking us."
"No, no. That's not possible," Nasreen argued as I shot the Doctor a look.
"The ground? Seriously? That's your best guess?"
"Going off minimal readings, yes! I've only been looking for a minute and under the circumstances, I'd suggest… run!"
The Doctor took off with us following. He grabbed Nasreen and pulled her along as I pushed Amy ahead of me before there was a shout. The other man had a foot fall into a hole and I groaned, doubling back.
"Stay back, Fallon. Stay away from the earth!" The Doctor called out as I jumped over a hole to land beside the man, staying as still as I could once I did.
"It's not the fuckin' ground you idiot!" I snapped, eyes flickering over the earth as I grabbed the man by the arm and reached for a nearby barrel; pulling it down beside him. "Grab hold of this and treat it like quicksand. Don't move."
A hole suddenly opened up under me then, making me spit out a curse as the Doctor came sprinting back over.
"Fallon!"
"You idiot! Stay back!" I scolded but he was sliding down on his stomach to grab a hold of me as I sank down to my waist.
He latched onto my arm and held firm as I shot him a glare.
"I swear to God if we both get dragged down because you're being stupid—"
"I've got you. I'm not letting you go."
"Again, being stupid," I spat, gaze flicking toward the dirt. "They were going after movement. We would've been better off standing still or climbing onto the equipment, not running. This isn't the ground," I informed him as his worried green eyes ran over my face.
The dirt was up to my shoulders now as Nasreen managed to pull the other man up and out of the hole with Amy's help.
"There's something under the ground," I continued, trying to get him to understand. "It's got a hold of my leg. This isn't the ground that's attacking."
"Okay. Okay, then we can reason with it, right? It's not the ground but there's a million other things it could be."
"Not the point," I bit out, sinking further. "The point is, if it's something that lives underground… then why would they be attacking? What threat do we pose to them right now?"
His eyes widened. "The drill." He turned to speak over his shoulder, shouting at the workers. "Your drill, shut it down. Go. Now!"
"Can you get her out?" Amy questioned, concerned as he stared at me desperately.
"I'm not going to let you go."
"Doctor—"
"I won't!" He argued, voice tight with emotion as he tightened his grip only for me to get jerked further down and his hands to slip.
He hastily grabbed my hand but I knew it wouldn't last.
"Doctor, shut up and listen."
"Fallon, I won't—"
"Listen!" I snapped, silencing him. "Whatever this is, I can deal with it but they need you here. If you want this fixed, you need to deal with the people up here and I'll deal with whatever's down there. Got it?"
"Fallon," he muttered as my hand started to slip; dirt up to my chin.
"Doctor, I'm not scared," I told him, eyes serious. "I'm not worried. I'm not upset. What happens happens and I know that it will work out because you're not entirely stupid. You'll fix this mess and if I can help while I'm wherever the hell I end up, then I will. So, let go."
He shook his head, not wanting to. "I-I can't. I won't."
"They need you," I reminded him, not holding onto him anymore. "I can handle myself, remember?"
He hesitated before gripping my hand tightly. "Then, promise me one thing. Promise me you won't die."
"You know I can't—"
"Fallon, please," he begged and I sighed.
"I will do my best."
He closed his eyes, sucking in a long breath before nodding and letting go, allowing me to sink below the surface and everything to go dark.
The Doctor was pacing back and forth, trying to think, and putting Amy a little on edge. No one was entirely sure what had happened but Fallon being taken did not bode well.
"Is that what happened to Mo?" Mack asked, gesturing to the hole in the ground. "Are they dead?"
The Doctor didn't want to think about that. Fallon had died enough for a lifetime.
"It's not quicksand. She didn't just sink. Something pulled her in. It wanted her," he muttered mostly to himself.
"The ground wanted her?" Nasreen questioned as he continued.
"You said the ground was dormant. Just a patch of earth, when you first saw it this morning. And the drill had been stopped."
"That's right," Mack agreed.
"But when you re-started the drill, the ground fought back."
"So, what? The ground wants to stop us drilling? Doctor, that's ridiculous."
The Doctor knelt down to scan the hole again, making the dirt rumble. "I'm not saying that. Fallon even said that it's something under the ground. Something grabbed her. I just don't think it's right." He slapped a hand to his head then. "Oh, of course. It's bio-programming."
"What?"
"Bio-programming. Oh, it's clever. You use bio-signals to resonate the internal molecular structure of natural objects. It's mainly used in engineering and construction, mostly jungle planets, but that's way in the future and not here. What's it doing here?"
"Sorry, did you just say jungle planets?"
"You're not making any sense, man," Mack complained as Amy headed over.
"What? So, it's alien then? How's it alien if it's under the ground?"
"The earth, the ground beneath our feet, was bio-programmed to attack," the Doctor started to explain, mind whirring with possibilities but none fitting the situation properly enough for him to have a clue what to do to get Fallon back.
"Yeah, even if that were possible—which, by the way, it's not—why?" Nasreen pressed, trying to wrap her head around this too.
"Stop you drilling. Okay, so we find whatever's doing the bio-programming, we can find Fallon. We can get her back. Shush, shush, shush. Have I gone mad? I've gone mad," he muttered, trying to hear whatever his ears were suddenly picking up on.
"Doctor?" Amy questioned as he shushed them again.
"Shush, shush. Silence. Absolute silence. You've stopped the drill, right?"
"Yes," Nasreen replied.
"And you've only got the one drill?"
"Yes."
"You're sure about that?"
"Yes," Mack grumbled, annoyed with him a bit.
The Doctor hopped back over the hole and laid on the ground. "So, if you shut the drill down, why can I still hear drilling? It's under the ground."
"That's not possible," Mack muttered as he bounced back up and went to the computers.
"Oh, no. What are you doing?" She questioned, hurrying over with him.
"Hacking into your records. Probe reports, samples, sensors. Good. Just unite the data, make it all one big conversation. Let's have a look. So, we are here and this is your drill hole. 21.009 kilometres. Well done."
She smiled a bit. "Thank you. It's taken us a long time."
"Why here, though? Why'd you drill on this site?" The Doctor asked.
"We found patches of grass in this area, containing trace minerals unseen in this country for twenty million years."
"The blue grass? Oh, Nasreen. Those trace minerals weren't X marking the spot, saying dig here. They were a warning. Stay away. Because while you've been drilling down, somebody else has been drilling up." He looked back at the screens that showed more lines heading up toward the facility. "Oh, beautiful. Network of tunnels all the way down."
"No, no, we've surveyed that area," Mack argued.
"You only saw what you went looking for."
"What are those dots?" Amy pointed out, showing three dots heading up one of the tunnels.
"Heat signals. Wait, dual readings, hot and cold, doesn't make sense. And now they're moving. Fast. How many people live nearby?" The Doctor asked Mack.
"Just my daughter and her family. The rest of the staff travel in."
"Grab this equipment and follow me," he ordered, closing one of the computers.
"Why? What're we doing?" Nasreen asked, making him double back.
"That noise isn't a drill, it's transport. Three of them, thirty kilometers down. Rate of speed looks about a hundred and fifty kilometres an hour. Should be here in ooh, quite soon." He held up his fingers, trying to do the mental math. "Twelve minutes. Whatever bio-programmed the Earth is on its way up, now."
Nasreen and Mack scrambled to get the other equipment as Amy caught up with the Doctor.
"So, what's happened to Fallon then?"
"Don't know. Whatever's down there could have taken her. They had to come up from somewhere."
"So she's been kidnapped or something?"
"Or something," he muttered, not wanting to think of the worst as the others caught up with their own computer.
"How can something be coming up when there's only the Earth's crust down there?" Mack asked.
"You saw the readings."
"Who are you anyway?" Nasreen questioned, hauling a wheelbarrow with more equipment. "How can you know all this?"
A red shimmer went across the sky then and the Doctor groaned.
"No, no, no." He pulled a slingshot out of his coat and fired a rock up into the sky where it hit a red barrier before pulling out his sonic. "Energy signal originating from under the Earth. We're trapped."
Rory walked out of the home in front of the group with a young boy and his mother. "Doctor, something weird's going on here, the graves are eating people."
"Not now, Rory. Energy barricade, invisible to the naked eye. We can't get out and no one from the outside world can get in."
Amy went over to Rory and spoke quickly under her breath. "Fallon was taken underground."
"What?"
"There was some hole that opened up and just took her. We're trying to figure it out."
"Okay, what about the Tardis?" He asked, turning to the Doctor in the hopes that the Tardis would be a way out of this mess.
"Uh, no. Those energy patterns would play havoc with the circuits. With a bit of time, maybe, but we've only got nine and a half minutes," the Doctor said, worrying him.
"Nine and a half minutes to what?"
Nasreen was the one who answered. "We're trapped, and something's burrowing towards the surface."
"And Fallon?" Rory asked, concerned for the woman whom he might not have known long but long enough to see that she was a seemingly decent person and very close to the Doctor. "Amy said she was taken."
"Get everyone inside the church," the Doctor said, giving Rory a serious look. "I'll get her back."
"She'll be okay though, right?"
The Doctor nodded, helping to bring the computer toward the church. "More than anyone, she'll be fine. Or, well, not fine but—" He closed his eyes as Amy reached out and took his hand.
"She'll be okay," Amy pressed. "Immortal or not."
The Doctor let out a breath but nodded, trying to convince himself that was true. "Yes. Yes, I-I'm sure she'll be fine."
Things got very busy very quickly after that. It took some doing to convince the wife of the missing worker who'd also been taken that morning and the Doctor still held some uncertainty about her, but otherwise, things were going smoothly. The young boy—Elliot—was drawing up a map of the village, the adults were either setting up sensors around the graveyard of the church or working on the computers, and his concerns about Ambrose were confirmed when he stepped outside to check a van and she dropped an armful of weapons in the front seat.
"What are those?" He asked.
"Like you say, every little helps," she replied as he eyed her.
"No, no weapons. It's not the way I do things."
"You said we're supposed to be defending ourselves," she argued.
"Oh, Ambrose, you're better than this. I'm asking nicely. Put them away," he ordered, walking away but upon stepping into the church he went over to Amy. "I want you to keep a close eye on Ambrose."
"Okay, what for?" Amy asked, eyeing him suspiciously.
"We're doing this weapon-free and she doesn't trust me. Any sign of trouble, stop her."
"Sure thing."
He pat her on the shoulder and went over to the computers, mind drifting to Fallon and how she might be doing. Probably being stubborn. Hopefully not causing any trouble. He cracked a small smile at the thought of how annoyed she was going to be wherever she was and imagined the look on her face when he popped down to save her. He was always a sucker for those knight in shining armor novels.
Elliot headed over then and handed him the map he made, making him grin.
"Look at that. Perfect. Dyslexia never stopped Da Vinci or Einstein. It's not stopping you."
"I don't understand what you're going to do," Elliot admitted and the Doctor hummed.
"Two-phase plan. First, the sensors and cameras will tell us when something arrives. Second, if something does arrive, I use this to send a sonic pulse through that network of devices. A pulse which would temporarily incapacitate most things in the universe."
Elliot grinned as the Doctor switched computers. "Knock 'em out. Cool."
The Doctor gave the map a look and eyed it in appreciation. "Lovely place to grow up 'round here."
"Suppose. I want to live in a city one day. Soon as I'm old enough, I'll be off."
"I was the same where I grew up."
"Did you get away?"
The Doctor smiled somberly. "Yeah."
"Do you ever miss it?"
The thought of Gallifrey always left a bittersweet taste in his mouth; the citadel, the orange sands… "So much."
"Is it monsters coming? Have you met monsters before?" Elliot asked as the Doctor went back around to his side.
"Yeah."
"You scared of them?"
"No, they're scared of me."
"Will you really get my dad back?"
"No question. They took a good friend of mine too. She'll give them hell, alright, but I want her back. Won't leave them behind."
Elliot nodded, slightly reassured before realizing something. "I left my headphones at home."
The Doctor waved him off, eyeing the computer scans and not really hearing what he'd said. Once he was sure the computers were set up, he hurried out to check with Rory.
"How're you doing?"
Rory glanced upward though, concerned as the sky began to darken. "It's getting darker. How can it be getting dark so quickly?"
The Doctor glanced up as well, unease filling him. "Shutting out light from within the barricade. Trying to isolate us in the dark. Which means—"
The ground rumbled and he hummed.
"It's here."
They hurried back to the church where Ambrose was struggling with the door.
"I can't open it. It keeps sticking. The wood's warped."
"Any time you want to help," the Doctor chimed to get Rory moving as they all shoved up against it.
"Can't you sonic it?"
"It doesn't do wood."
"That is rubbish."
"Oi, don't diss the sonic!" He complained before the door opened and they hurried inside, closing it behind them. "See if we can get a fix."
He began rushing the computer through the process before the lights exploded and the computer sparked, sending them into the dark.
"No power," Mack announced as the Doctor frowned.
"It's deliberate."
"What do we do now?" Rory asked.
"Nothing. We've got nothing. They sent an energy surge to wreck our systems."
"There's got to be something we can do," Amy pressed as Rory checked on everyone to make sure they were alright.
Then, there was a larger rumble.
"Doctor, what was that?" Rory questioned nervously as Mack eyed the ground.
"It's like the holes at the drill station."
"Is this how they happened?" Nasreen asked as the Doctor ducked down to listen.
"It's coming through the final layer of the Earth."
"What is?"
Everything went eerily quiet then.
"The banging's stopped," Mack noted before Ambrose got a look around and realized someone was missing.
"Where's Elliot? Has anyone seen Elliot? Did he come in? Was he in when the door was shut? Who counted him back in? Who saw him last?"
The Doctor felt guilt roll through him, remembering what he'd ignored in his rush to get this figured out; to find Fallon. "I did."
"Where is he?" Ambrose demanded.
"He said he was going to get his headphones."
"And you let him go? He was out there on his own?" She snapped before there was shouting and banging on the door.
Elliot was outside begging to be let in and they all hurried over but the door was jammed again. Everyone struggled against it, trying desperately to get it open and when it finally did, Elliot wasn't there.
"Elliot! Where is he? He was here. He was here. Elliot!" Ambrose shouted, rushing off as Mack hurried after her and everyone else waited on the porch in unease.
They heard screaming then and the group hurried to find them, Mack holding his neck as Ambrose called out to them in concern.
"My dad's hurt!"
"Get him into the church now," the Doctor ordered as Ambrose stopped the Doctor.
"Elliot's gone. They've killed him, haven't they?"
"No," he said firmly. "They've taken three people when they could've just killed them up here. There's still hope, Ambrose. There is always hope and…" He swallowed thickly. "And my friend is down there. She won't let anything happen to him. You have my word. We'll find them all but first I've got to stop this attack. Please, get inside the church."
She hesitated but nodded, helping Mack as Rory and Amy came up beside him.
"What now?"
"I've got a few ideas. Amy, same thing as usual for you. I want eyes on Ambrose. If she wasn't a concern before she will be now with… with what happened to Elliot."
Amy nodded but eyed him before punching him hard in the shoulder.
"Ow!"
"That's for blamin' yourself. Figure Fallon would want me hitting you for that."
The Doctor wrinkled his nose, knowing that she was right and he waved her off. "Go. Rory, with me."
Once he explained the plan, it was just a matter of finding the culprit who was still lurking about. The Doctor pulled on a pair of sunglasses to confirm his suspicions and smiled to himself. Now, to play bait. He waited outside of the refrigerated van parked out in front, whistling and pulling out a fire extinguisher from the front seat. He heard someone rushing up on him and with the reflection of the window, he dodged their attack; turning and spraying them with the extinguisher. Rory hopped out of the van screaming, helping the Doctor grab them and lock the figure inside, stunned when they succeeded.
"We got it."
"Defending the planet with meals on wheels," the Doctor chirped and they raised their hands to high five only for a rumble to echo through the area.
"What was that?"
"Sounds like they're leaving."
"Without this one?" Rory questioned as the barrier around them finally dissipated. "Looks like we scared them off."
The Doctor wasn't convinced though. "I don't think so. Now both sides have hostages."
I woke up wearily, head swimming for a moment before my vision cleared enough to stare at the patterned glass in front of me. I blinked hard for a minute before opening my eyes and reaching up to press my hands against the glass. My breath caught in my throat at how close it was and a quick shifting told me I was stuck in a rather tightly confined box. O-Oh, not good. Nope. hate it. I took a shuddering breath, clenching my eyes shut as rather unpleasant memories started to pull themselves forward.
Suffocating.
Darkness.
Wood splinters digging into my fingers.
Screaming until my voice was gone.
Not enough room. There's not enough room.
Not enough, not enough, notenoughnotenoughnotenough—
I was hyperventilating now, spitting a round of curses under my breath because this was the least likely thing I expected to happen and be a trigger. I didn't prepare for this. It wasn't a death that happened often—suffocating—but more than that, I wasn't often brought back to life in a coffin. The few times I were, weren't pleasant but I hadn't expected the sudden feeling of claustrophobia to creep up like this. N-Not here. Not now. T-This wasn't an issue before! My mind idly reminded me that being trapped in a small box wasn't a problem before either but I couldn't focus with the sound of my breathing so loud in my ears. Then, a swirl of fog drifted into view; behind it, through the glass, a figure dressed in white lightly shushing me as my mind started to grow heavy once more.
It was a relief, honestly, as I succumbed to darkness; silently hoping that the next time I woke up wouldn't be in the same confined space of a coffin.
The Doctor hurried downstairs with Rory on his tail; Amy having stayed up to keep an eye on Ambrose still, given their concerns over the stubborn woman.
"So, I think I've met these creatures before. Different branch of the species, mind, but all the same. Let's see if our friend's thawed out."
"Are you sure? By yourself?" Rory cautioned him.
"Very sure."
"But the sting?"
"Venom gland takes at least twenty-four hours to recharge. Am I right?" He called out into the basement of the church, earning a low hiss in response before giving Rory a firm pat on the shoulder. "I know what I'm doing. I'll be fine."
Rory hesitated but stepped back upstairs to join the others as the Doctor moved down; clapping the dirt off his hands and facing the creature in the shadows. They slowly moved out of them, hands chained together as they hissed.
"I'm the Doctor. I've come to talk. I'm going to remove your mask," he said, hands up before he knelt down slowly and removed the grey mask covering the reptilian face underneath. "You are beautiful," he complimented with a smile, slightly surprising the woman. "Remnant of a bygone age on planet Earth. And by the way, lovely mode of travel. Geothermal currents projecting you up through a network of tunnels. Gorgeous. Mind if I sit?"
He got up and moved to a chair as she eyed him cautiously but intrigued. It wasn't often one gets captured by the enemy and is… complimented.
"Now. Your people have a friend of mine. A very close friend. I want her back. Why did you come to the surface? What do you want? Oh, I do hate a monologue. Give us a bit back. How many are you?" He asked, getting no responses thus far.
"I'm the last of my species," she spat.
"Really. No. Last of the species. The Klempari Defence. As an interrogation defense, it's a bit old hat, I'm afraid," he informed her but she was stubborn.
"I'm the last of my species."
His eyes grew cold now. "No. You're really not. Because I'm the last of my species and I know how it sits in a heart. So don't insult me."
She shifted a bit at that, a hint of guilt, perhaps. Still, the Doctor calmed himself, knowing he wouldn't get anywhere if he continued to be tense. I need to stay calm. For Fallon.
"Let's start again. Tell me your name."
"Alaya," she answered, willing to give him that much, it seemed.
"How long has your tribe been sleeping under the Earth, Alaya?" He asked, earning a cautious look. "It's not difficult to work out. You're three hundred million years out of your comfort zone. Question is, what woke you now?"
"We were attacked," she snapped.
"The drill."
"Our sensors detected a threat to our life support systems. The warrior class was activated to prevent the assault. We will wipe the vermin from the surface and reclaim our planet."
"Do we have to say vermin? They're really very nice," the Doctor huffed lightly.
"Primitive apes."
"Extraordinary species. You attack them, they'll fight back. But, there's a peace to be brokered here. I can help you with that," he offered.
"This land is ours. We lived here long before the apes."
"Doesn't give you automatic rights to it now, I'm afraid. Humans won't give up the planet."
"So we destroy them."
"You underestimate them," he warned.
"You underestimate us."
"One tribe of homo reptilia against six billion humans? You've got your work cut out," he said, silently hoping it was only one small tribe beneath the surface.
"We did not initiate combat, but we can still win," Alaya challenged, getting to her feet.
"Tell me where my friend is. Give us back the people who were taken," the Doctor ordered as calmly as he could.
"No."
"I'm not going let you provoke a war, Alaya. There'll be no battle here today," he said with a sigh, getting up and putting his chair aside.
"The fire of war is already lit. A massacre is due."
"Not while I'm here."
"I'll gladly die for my cause. What will you sacrifice for yours?"
He offered her a small, sad smile knowing that he was already sacrificing something. Fallon was already down there going through who-knows-what. Now, he had to make a decision. Does he wait and hope that Fallon can negotiate her way out of things and contact him or does he go down there to do things himself? He chewed on that thought all the way back upstairs and was met by Amy and Rory quickly checking on him.
"How'd it go?"
"What'd she say?"
"She wasn't the most cooperative but I've dealt with worse," the Doctor mused, taking a seat once more. "We have a few options to negotiate things."
"You're going to negotiate with these aliens?" Ambrose complained and he shot her an annoyed look.
"They're not aliens. They're Earth-liens. Once known as the Silurian race, or, some would argue, Eocenes, or Homo Reptilia. Not monsters, not evil. Well, only as evil as you are. The previous owners of the planet, that's all," he said, getting up and explaining. "Look, from their point of view, you're the invaders. Your drill was threatening their settlement. Now, the creature in the crypt. Her name's Alaya. She's one of their warriors, and she's my best bargaining chip. I need her alive. If she lives, so do Elliot and Mo and Fallon, because I will bring them back."
"You said there were options," Amy reminded him.
"Yes. Yes, well… two options, exactly. One, I go down below the surface, to find the rest of the tribe, to talk to them."
"And option two?" Rory asked, seeing him pause.
"Option two is… is we wait."
"Wait?" Mack argued, not liking the idea.
"Yes, we wait because my friend is down there. My very, very close friend and I trust her more than anything," he informed them, eyes blazing. "I trust that no matter what has happened thus far, she will find a way out of it and realize what is happening. She will get in contact with us and help start negotiations from down there. I just…" He cut himself short, struggling to push aside the doubts and thoughts of Fallon dying again and again and again. "I just don't know how long she needs."
"And what if they come back?" Mack asked, uneasy. "Shouldn't we be examining this creature? Dissecting it, finding its weak points?"
The Doctor grimaced in disgust at the thought. "No dissecting, no examining. We return their hostage, they return ours, nobody gets harmed. We can land this together if you are the best you can be. You are decent, brilliant people. Nobody dies today. Understand?"
Nasreen clapped, appreciating his speech before stopping in embarrassment.
"So… how long do we wait?" Rory asked, knowing which option the Doctor had chosen without even needing to ask.
"As long as we can," he muttered. "I'll try to contact them for now. See if we can set up communications."
"And what if this friend of yours doesn't do it?" Ambrose grumbled and the Doctor took a steadying breath to hold back his temper with the woman.
"If—and that's a big if—Fallon can't get into contact with us within the next hour, I'll go down myself. But know this, I trust her with my life and there is no one else in the universe I would say that about but her. She will get in contact. So do me a favor. Sit down and don't say another word."
