AN: This storyline is all kind of haphazard so sorry about that but the next one I think you're all gonna like a lot. This one is just here because it has to be here for eventual closure. So, one more chapter after this, and then I'm writing about some other members of the TARDIS crew for once.

X9-27

Nios

"Oh my god – Oswin – you're-"

"I'm fine," said Oswin, sitting on the floor of the reactor maintenance room messing around with a selection of wires and equipment, a lot of which looked to be new, "You didn't make a scene getting here, did you? I hope you didn't run. You look weird when you run." Hermia had not been in the control room, so she had feared the worst for Oswin, especially since Oswin was very easily disabled with such things as EMPs.

"No, I didn't run. I thought you were in trouble."

"And if I thought I was in trouble I would have told you the Queen of the Synths up there was a double agent straight away. Didn't you think about that?" Oswin remarked.

"Double agent?" a third voice asked.

And then, out of the shadows near the door with his arms tangled up in cables, stepped the Eleventh Doctor. Nios glared at Oswin.

"What!?" Oswin protested, "I needed his help! He's the only Doctor I trust. Well, apart from Thirteen, because she's by far the cutest and she has the nicest bum and the blondest hair, but I don't know how to get hold of Thirteen. He's second-best. I didn't want Ten or Nine here after they made such a fuss about Elle and the Cyberman before. But this is the only one who has a vested interest on staying on my good side, because otherwise I'll go crying wolf to his wife."

"I wanted to help," he said, "You're very ungrateful." The TARDIS sat in the corner behind him, glowing ethereally, though its humming could not quite be heard over the louder noises of the uranium reactor hard at work in the large room through their viewing window.

And then Oswin began to fake-cry and whined, "Cla-ra! Your husband called me 'ungrateful'!"

The Eleventh Doctor then said to Nios directly, "I did want to help. Ignore her."

"And what did she tell you you're helping with?"

"With letting other synthetics live their lives somewhere else!" he said jovially, "It's a good cause, you know."

"You know she's rigging this place to explode?" Nios said.

"She's what!?" he dropped his armful of cables, "You didn't say anything about that! You sent me all the way to a distant moon to build a transmat receiver!"

"Yes! We're still transporting them all – it's just something very clever I'm doing, okay? You know all about how I'm clever. It just so happens that to trick the big bad government, or whoever it is hunting them down, into thinking all the synths are dead, we have to blow up this uranium extractor."

"That would be a nuclear explosion, Oswin! The fallout would be catastrophic, it would be another Fukushima. You're going to get mutant sea creatures."

"Alright, I think we all know that there are definitely going to be plenty of mutant sea creatures regardless of what I do here," Oswin said.

"This could be the catalyst," said Eleven, "the thing that sets nature on the way to hyper evolutionary mutations. That squid I hear so much about, you could have caused it."

"All that means is the consequences have already been dealt with. And where are all the giant mutant animals from all the other nuclear explosions that have happened before now?" Oswin challenged him. He had nothing to say. "You're still going to help, aren't you? I do need your help." That was all Oswin needed to say to manipulate her brother-in-law, she just had to admit that she needed him for something, instead of brashly flaunting her intelligence like she normally did. He begrudgingly picked his cables back up and resumed what he had been doing, and then Oswin turned back to Nios. "So?"

"So?" Nios copied, unsure of what Oswin wanted her to say.

"So what do you think?"

"Of what?"

"Of the synth colony! Of your own species!"

"Why should that matter?"

"Well… you know. I'm interested. Plus, the Doctor did a very good job of finding you a planet, in the future, so, like…"

"What?"

"Well, they're your species, aren't they? Your own kind."

"I think what she's getting at is very awkwardly trying to ask you if you are staying with the synths or coming back onto the TARDIS," Eleven said. Nios hadn't even thought about that. Was that the real reason Oswin had sent her off to do meet and greets? To socialise? "It is rather a nice place we've found, very small, should work well in terms of keeping this community rather close-knit. Funny story, actually, my daughter decided to take me off to Messaline again and… well, she shouted at me a lot, to be quite truthful, but in the process, I did learn that the Source they used to terraform that wasteland she was born on stretched out to three more moons, moons where no government technically has any sovereignty. Very beautiful forests now*." When Nios didn't say anything, the Doctor glanced up at her. "Not that I'm saying you have to leave the TARDIS. It's my ship, after all, and I make all the decisions. It isn't like just because a community of synths exists that you have to live in it. There are billions of communities of humans, and that's never stopped any of the others from leaving Earth. In fact, they're usually trying to escape from those places. It's your choice, really."

She remembered what Zara had just told her about choice, and how the synths aboard the Station didn't know what having a choice was like, so they didn't understand that they ought to have one. And she felt like that now. She felt like she had never really made an active decision about herself before, she just spent her time being buffeted along by the acts of other people. Even rescuing the crew over siding with Elle was less of a choice and more because she wasn't as psychotic as people seemed to think, or as she had been once, a while ago now.

"You don't have to decide now," Oswin told her.

"And besides, it's a time machine," Eleven shrugged, "They'll always be waiting if you want them to be." That didn't really help her in her dilemma. "Now. I think that about clinches it."

"Best you pop off, then," Oswin told him. He put his hands on his hips almost crossly.

"Pardon?"

"You're a biological organism, I can't hook you up to this transmat. It's electronics only, for more finesse," Oswin told him. Nios couldn't work out if that was true or if Oswin was lying to the Doctor because she wanted him to go away. She had never really been the Eleventh Doctor's biggest fan, which was apparently all something to do with the misplaced affections Nios was sure Oswin had for Jenny.

"Yes. Well. You keep an eye on her, now," the Doctor said to Nios, pointing a warning finger at Oswin, "Call Clara's phone if she tries anything funny."

"But when everything I do is so hilarious how will she know when to call?" Oswin asked blankly, acting like she hadn't said one of the most conceited things known to man. Eleven made a grumbling noise, but left when Nios assured him that yes, if Oswin tried to kill them all, she would ring Clara. Though she wasn't sure how much good Clara would be if it had already gotten to that point. It seemed to make him feel better, though, and she also would prefer if he left and went to sulk in his box.

Neither she nor Oswin said a word until the TARDIS had thrummed out of existence. And then the questions came flying.

"So?" Oswin prompted, "What are you going to do? Go with the synths or stay with us?"

"How should I know?"

Oswin shrugged, "I just assumed you would want to leave us, that's all. You never seem very comfortable with most of the others."

"I'm not," she admitted, "But I'm not comfortable with these synths, either. They're even harder to understand than humans are."

"Your dilemma isn't for another reason, then?"

"Apart from that? And the fact some of them think I'm a hero for those people I killed, and others think I'm too human and can't be trusted? And I think too much, but I think I don't think enough, even though all I do is think, and I never come to any conclusions…" she trailed off before she got stuck in a rambling, existential spiral of half-confessions, none of which were what Oswin was really after.

"It's not because you can't forget about the tiny glimmer of hope that Dr Death might have a wee bit've a crush oan ye?"

"That was a terrible accent."

"That was perfect! I'm good at accents. Just ask my sister. But come on, don't say it hasn't crossed your mind; you think you might not want to leave to join the actual synth colony on one of Messaline's moons because if you stay on the TARDIS you have an opportunity to get a shag out of a girl with a cute pair of glasses."

"Do you have a thing about glasses?" Nios questioned.

"I – what?" she stammered, "Don't be stupid. No."

"Why did you make your boyfriend glasses, then?"

"He's colour-blind."

"Not contact lenses? Would've thought contact lenses were more streamlined, since you're from the future, and-"

"Shut up."

"I've touched a nerve, haven't I? Do you make him wear them in bed?"

Oswin grew very huffy and went red, "What my boyfriend wears in bed is none of your concern."

"So surely the same applies to me?"

"You don't have the nerve to ask a girl out for yourself without me whispering in your ear and telling you what to say," Oswin argued.

"I'll just remember everything you've ever said to a girl and make sure not to repeat any of it."

"You've got some nerve!"

"You just said I don't have any nerve."

"Shut – shut up! I don't like this. Answering back isn't a good colour on you, Ni. I prefer the alternative dynamic to our friendship where I'm all charming and charismatic and funny and clever and just generally adorable, while you… stand there. Quietly. Being a bit menacing." Nios glared at her and didn't say anything. "Ah, you've come back to me." She crossed her arms. There was no point arguing with Oswin. She didn't even know if she wanted to talk to Oswin about everything that had been running through her head all day, so she kept quiet. As always. Quiet and alone with her thoughts.

Oswin promptly got distracted by her machine again, her large transmat device with a lot of wires running to different crevices in the room made out of bits and pieces of scrap she had found scattered about. Nios wondered if Oswin liked being known as clever, being defined by the fact she was a genius. It reminded her of the way she kept being defined by killing people. Potentially, Oswin thought in similar terms, but she didn't really think she would get anywhere trying to psychoanalyse Oswin Oswald, who really did toe the line very delicately between madness and genius. Oftentimes she was both at the same time.

But did she want to stay with the synths? She didn't know them, the only ones she liked were Marcel and Zara, and Marcel seemed disinterested in everybody and Zara like she was just paid to be nice. Plus, the brief good feelings of companionship she gained from them were eclipsed by Victory's celebrating her for her 'heroic' massacre and Ida's inherent distrust of her for 'thinking.' But they distrusted her on the TARDIS, too… and yet they were mostly accepting. Ever since she had nearly died trying to rescue them, she had felt more like part of their group…

And Oswin did have a more pressing point about Dr Cohen…

Standing idly in thought, she chanced to hear footsteps coming down the metal stairs on the other side of the door, and reflexively backed away further into shadow, lurking near to where the Doctor had been before when she hadn't spotted him. Oswin was too engrossed in her machine to notice anybody approaching, and Nios hoped it was only going to be Victory, coming to check up on things.

But it was not Victory. It was Hermia. Or rather, it was the Charade, in disguise, Nios was convinced of it. She came into the room and had eyes only for Oswin, she did not even know Nios was there, because she had not been in the control room when Nios had hurried back through it thinking Oswin was in grave danger. If she had been just ten minutes later, maybe Oswin would have been in grave danger, or as grave danger as someone who was already a ghost could be in.

"This doesn't look like a uranium extractor," said 'Hermia', making sure to close the door behind her. Oswin didn't jump, so she must have realised there was an intruder, and just pretended not to notice. It gave her an air of faux-obliviousness which worked to her advantage.

"Well, it's just a tool," Oswin said, "It's a coolant but much smaller than those giant archaic ones you've got attached to those tidal-powered pistons out there. Pretty simple to knock-up with all this junk you have."

"We haven't detected any changes in electrical output."

"No, well, I haven't plugged it in yet, have I?"

"It looks plugged in."

"Hey, Herm, trust the genius, okay? What do you think this is if it's not a coolant?" 'Hermia' glanced at it, paced around it back and forth with Oswin keeping a watchful eye on her, but was unable to think of an adequate alternate suggestion. She kept her hands behind her back, and there Nios saw she was holding a gun, but not an ordinary gun, a stun gun. And a stun gun might actually work at disabling Oswin, while a real bullet would just slip through her. "Alright, fine, you've caught me out," Oswin said, "It's a bomb."

"It's what?"

"A bomb. A big nuclear bomb. Well, no, that's not really true, this is a transmat. But it's a very powerful transmat that has to cross about four-thousand years and a few million lightyears, which means it needs a lot of energy. About the right amount of energy you could get with a nuclear explosion."

"Excuse me?"

"Did you come in here to do a big speech? I don't need to be a genius to work out you've got a weapon behind your back, probably a gun since it has to be small enough so that I can't see it from where I'm sitting. I knew you were the Charade since you sent us to look for them – the perfect cover."

"Alright. You win," 'Hermia' raised the gun and pointed it at Oswin, "thank you for building a bomb big enough to kill all the remaining synthetics. You've done this country a great service in enabling me to erase them."

"I've never been one not to do my duty for queen and country. Or, king and country, I don't know. They should really think of a gender-neutral term for that," Oswin mused.

Something brushed against Nios's leg and almost made her jump, but she was filled with more relief than she had ever been when she looked down and saw Sprite had just scurried over her foot. He must have got off the TARDIS at some point when the Doctor had arrived – maybe Oswin had even gone and got him to help her build, since that was his job after all, carrying tools to and fro. And he'd done it very well, because he was holding in his clamp-pincers a length of rusty metal, some sort of broken rod that must have fallen off something else. She bent down to take it off him, and he made her jump by scurrying up her leg and onto her back, just like he did with Oswin. It was very unusual indeed. Now the question was about how to be quiet enough that an elite synth assassin didn't hear her approach.

"What's a transmat?"

"Big teleport," Oswin answered, "I've enlisted my ancient alien brother-in-law to help me build a synth utopia in the distant future, have all the synths rigged up to be zapped straight there as soon as detonation of that bomb commences. All of them except you, obviously. It was really very simple, you've got a kind of morphic field around you all, but made out of data sharing routes. Do you know how easy it is to just make tiny connections between all of these different synth brains? And I've hacked synths before."

"Who? Nios?"

"Kind of. She saved all of my crewmates and I by downloading and deleting an evil AI. I had to make sure she was alright."

"She's weak, the AI should have burned her out."

"She's weak?" Oswin asked.

"Yes."

"Do you maybe want to say that to her face?" Oswin nodded over 'Hermia's' shoulder.

The Charade did not get a chance to say it to Nios's face, because as soon as she even started to follow Oswin's gaze, Nios swung the metal rod around as hard as she could, which happened to be very hard indeed. Hard enough and fast enough that she bashed in the front of the Charade's face and skull, leaving it cracked and mushy and oozing blue blood and battery acid out of the fabricated cracks. It was a disgustingly abrupt way to kill someone, and she dropped the rod immediately, appalled at herself. Had she really just done that?

"I am a monster."

"No you're not," Oswin said.

"She's dead."

"She was going to kill everyone here."

"I just crushed her head like squashing a bug. How could I do that? Do you think there's something wrong with me?"

"I would only think there was something wrong with you if you weren't showing any remorse," Oswin spoke gently, but stayed on the floor. She probably couldn't stand up on her own. The Charade bled out goop onto the floor at Nios's feet. She looked away and could not look back. "…The transmat is ready to trigger, Ni." Nios didn't move. "Nios. Please, help me up." Nios didn't say a word, but did go and help Oswin up, carefully, by her elbow.

She was disassociating. She was disassociating so severely that the only tether she had to current events was the vague knowledge that she should do everything Oswin told her, which must be how Oswin felt sometimes when she was in one of her slumps and only Clara could talk her out of it. She was completely unresponsive until the transmat was actually activated, the same time heat and light from the reactor core overloading burned into her back. Or maybe the sensation in her back was because she was thrown down onto it, very hard, and instead of seeing gloomy rusty shadows she could see very unfamiliar stars and moons in the sky above. One of them looked big enough to be a planet.

Nios was completely dazed, stupefied both by the jarring teleport that had given her a stabbing headache, and horror at herself for how easily she had murdered somebody by smashing their robotic brain to pieces in one fell swoop. In fact, this was all that occupied her mind, far more than taking in the lush, dark green forests and fruits around her, the chirping noises of wildlife and the beauty of the distant planetoids. She felt like she was looking at everything through binoculars that were the wrong way around, painfully distant. Until she felt somebody kiss her, and then with all her strength she forced them away.

"What are you doing!?" she exclaimed, seeing it was Oswin.

"I thought the shock would make you come out of your trance!" Oswin defended herself, "I slapped you and you didn't even flinch. I slapped you twice." Nios touched a hand to her cheek, but couldn't remember Oswin hitting her at all. "And it worked, so, you can stop hating me. And please don't tell my boyfriend, he's so insecure already I think he'd cry if he found out. Even though it was meaningless, obviously. I know you don't actually fancy me, since you're so blatant about it with Dr Death, and I'd hate to try and take you away from her."

"Never do that again."

"I can't really make any promises, what if you start freaking out some other time?" Oswin said.

"I killed her."

"See, that's what I mean. Freaking out."

Nios struggled to stand up. Sprite was on Oswin's shoulder again. She could hear voices around her, the voices of other synths, and the louder one of the Eleventh Doctor calling them all towards him to explain. She didn't want to go where the other synths were though, because it was a matter of minutes before they started looking for Hermia, and how could she explain herself? Most of them wouldn't believe that she was the Charade, a spy, and they would hate her.

"I can't stay here," Nios said to Oswin desperately, "Do you see? I just can't. I can't. You understand, Oswin?"

"Yes, I understand," Oswin said softly, trying to calm her down, "You don't have to do anything you don't want to. Let's just go back to the TARDIS now, okay? I think Sprite got knocked around a bit too much during that fall."

"You won't make me stay?"

"What would possibly give me the right to?"

"…You promise?"

"I do."

*chapter 979