Alright, not counting author's notes, this chapter is almost 7,900 words. Could I have split this into two chapters? Yeah. Should I have? Maybe. But did I say I was going to have the Beast Below completed in two chapters? You bet your sweet ass I did. I make promises and I fucking deliver on them. Well, except for when I said I'd have a Second Doctor story done by now, but shhhhh. The last 2 or so chapters were on the shorter side, so this makes up for them I hope. Don't expect chapters this long for a while.

This week's fun Timelord Fact: Timelords aren't born in the traditional sense. They're created through a process called "looming" in which DNA from other Timelords is "woven" together in a vat of green liquid. After that's complete, out pops a new Timetot.

Thanks to UzuRunner for favoriting.

Thanks to Tingiliya for following.

Before they had fallen too far, the pit moved from being a sheer drop to an angle. Compressed air pushed at the trio's backs, pushing them through another tube. Marion held onto her bag, attempting to keep it from landing in the muck when they would eventually land.

Marion came out of the tube feet first. She managed to land on her feet. She windmilled her arms, trying to keep from falling over and to keep from slipping in the gross sludge that went up to her ankles. She moved away from the shoot so that she wouldn't be knocked over by the Doctor.

This incarnation of the Doctor, like all of them, was significantly taller than Marion. This meant that his center of balance was a little bit higher than hers was which was why he was sent sprawling to the ground. Fortunately, the Doctor was able to get up on his own. He took his screwdriver out of his pocket and began to scan the "room".

It was dark except for some red lights embedded into the walls making the area look like a Virtual Boy game. Only in this case, nausea came from the knowledge of the location that she was in. She hoped that Star Whales were naturally bioluminescent internally and that they hadn't screwed lights into the mouth of this poor creature, but she had no way of knowing one way or another without investigation.

As Marion was thinking about this, she heard a shout.

'Amy,' Marion thought.

Amy landed on her feet like Marion did, but unlike her, she was unable to keep her balance and slid onto her back with a gross slushing noise.

"High-speed air cannon. Lousy way to travel," the Doctor said, offering an explanation. Marion grabbed Amy's outstretched hand and, with much difficulty pulled her to her feet without falling to the ground herself.

"Where are we," she asked.

"Six hundred feet down, twenty miles laterally, puts us at the heart of the ship. I'd say Lancashire. What's this then, a cave? Can't be a cave. Looks like a cave," the Doctor whipped around, "Is this a cave Marion?"

"So here's the thing," Marion put her palms together and clicked her tongue, "no,"

"It's a rubbish dump," Amy swatted a hand to shake off some of the gunk "and it's minging!"

"Yes," replied the Doctor "but only food refuse. Organic, coming through feeder tubes from all over the ship,"

"The floor's all squidgy, like a water bed," Amy observed.

"But feeding what, though?"

Amy leaned down to press her hands against the floor.

"You might not want to do that!" Marion called to her. She had chosen not to move for fear of her falling over. Amy ignored her.

"It's sort of rubbery, feel it. Wet and slimy,"

The Star Whale made a groaning noise in the distance. The Doctor, who had been leaning down to investigate what was on the floor shoot up to his feet.

"Marion?"

"Yes, Doctor?"

"This isn't a-?"

"Yep!"

"So we're-"

"Unfortunately, yes,"

"What's wrong?" Amy asked, getting up from the "floor".

"This isn't a floor, it's a, So…," the Doctor trailed off.

"You're not going to like it, Amy," Marion called.

"You probably want to take a moment, get yourself in a calm place. Go omm,"

"Omm," went Amy.

"We're in a mouth and this is a tongue,"

"A tongue?" Amy said, hopefully thinking about how she should maybe listen to Marion from now on when she told her not to touch weird stuff.

"A tongue. A great big tongue," the Doctor sounded oddly excited at the idea.

"This whole place is a mouth? We're in a mouth?" Amy shouted that last part.

"Yes, yes, yes. But on the plus side, roomy,"

"Big or small Bowtie," Marion called, "It's still a mouth,"

"How big is this beastie? It's gorgeous. Blimey, if this is just the mouth, I'd love to see the stomach," exclaimed the Doctor, unphased by what Marion had said. The Star Whale made a growling noise "Though not right now," the Doctor amended.

"How do we get out?" Amy asked.

'Shame that only Amy and I have our priorities in order,'

"Okay, it's being fed through surgically implanted feeder tubes, so the normal entrance," the excitement in the Doctor's voice stopped as he saw the huge wall of teeth covering the mouth "is closed for business,"

"We could try, though," Amy said optimistically. She walked towards the exit. She didn't get far before the ground began to shake.

"Wait!" it was too late. Amy and the Doctor fell to the ground. Marion fell as well, although she was able to keep her bag above gunk.

'For fuck's sake. Why didn't I think to leave my bag with Mandy! I hope this thing is waterproof and washes easily,'

"Too late," the Doctor said. He held his screwdriver in the air.

"What has?"

"It knows there's something in its mouth and it wants to swallow,"

"What are you doing Doctor?" Amy said, getting to her feet.

"I'm vibrating the chemo-receptors,"

"The chemo what?"

"He's triggering the vomit response,"

Marion said. She turned to face the mouth.

"Right, then," the Doctor said, turning to face the wave head-on, "This isn't going to be big on dignity. Geronimo!"

"Ahhhhh"

"If you plan on screaming with your mouth open, maybe don't face the vomit wave!"

Marion felt something (that she didn't want to think too much about) slam into her back and she along with her friends was propelled out of the mouth.

"Well that sucked," Marion proclaimed, she had landed face down on the rounded surface of the overspill pipe. She felt a sharp pain in her nose which had obviously, had taken some issue with her biting the concrete. Her nose felt like it was running, but she didn't want to dig through her bag for a tissue with a vomit-covered hand. Judging from how the pain faded the longer she wasn't face down on the ground, she doubted that it was broken; likely, just sore.

Speaking of her nose, something stunk. That thing likely being the three of them. Her clothes were covered in vomit and she didn't even want to THINK about her hair.

'Why couldn't future me have left me a shower cap!'

At least there was a silver lining, the stuff slid off her bag like water on wax paper.

'That's something at least,'

The Doctor got up and walked to the door. Green light and buzzing let Marion know that the Doctor was working on the panel under the...they were called Smilers right? Marion heard something behind her. Amy was stirring. Marion leaned down to look at her.

"No broken bones," she looked into Amy's eyes, "pupils are normal. You're fine. I'd advise a hot shower though,"

"Where are we?" Amy asked, getting up. Marion grabbed Amy's hand and helped her to her feet.

"Overspill pipe, at a guess," the Doctor replied.

The overspill pipe was a circular tunnel with dim red lighting. Marion considered that the consistent red lighting was purposeful. Make protesting seem like a hellish option so that if someone does do it and you give them the option to change their mind and forget it they jump to it. The protest pit leading to the inside of the Star Whale's mouth was part of it as well.

"Oh? You feel bad about us torturing an innocent animal to make this city move? Fuck you! A bunch of robots are going to scowl at you and we're going to toss you into a hell pit! What's at the end of the hell pit? The creature you felt bad over the torment of. Now it's going to eat you. Don't you feel fucking stupid for protesting? Oh, what? You're not dead? Just vomit-covered? Well, I'm sure you've learned your lesson. Let's just forget this ever happened. I better not see your dumbass in five years,"

"Oh, God," Amy said, scrunching his nose "it stinks,"

"That would be the vomit,"

"Oh. Phew. Can we get out?"

"That depends," said Marion, joining the Doctor at the door.

"On what?"

"We forget everything we saw. Look familiar?" the Doctor pointed to the white "Forget" button embedded into the door.

Amy gasped when she saw it.

"That's the carrot," the Doctor said, pointing to the button. The echoey "click" of activated industrial lighting rang throughout the tunnel. The Doctor and Marion spun around.

"Ooo, here's the stick,"

At the end of the hall was a pair of smilers in their booths.

"There's a creature living in the heart of this ship. And something about it is making my friend anxious. What is it, and what is it. What's it doing there?"

The smilers' head turned with a sound, not unlike stone grinding against stone.

"No, that's not going to work on me, so come on. Big old beast below decks, and everyone who protests gets shoved down its throat. That how it works?"

The heads turned once again to reveal an even angrier face.

"Careful!" Marion said, stepping forward, "Y'all aren't the first robots I've taken out today. I've got the arm to prove it!"

"I'm not leaving and I'm not forgetting, and what are you fellows going to do about it?" the Doctor said sarcastically, "Stick out your tongues, huh?"

The booth slid open and the two robots got up and out.

"Guys?" Amy said, concern and fear in her voice.

They moved towards the group, threateningly. Amy, the Doctor, and Marion moved back slowly. Marion moved slower than the rest of them. She took her bag off her shoulder and held the strap in her hands, ready to swing it if Liz didn't show up in time.

Luckily, it didn't come to that. A hydraulic hissing noise sounded behind them. Marion, knowing who was on the way and uninterested in any more of her hair lightening, moved out of the way as the woman in question fired two shots into the chests of each of the smilers. She spun her gun and dropped it in her holster.

Marion was a simple woman. She saw a woman with curly black hair, dark skin, a cool outfit firing a laser blaster at a pair of robots, and making it look almost effortless and stared at the new arrival for perhaps a moment longer than necessary.

'Were it not for the circumstances, we would have no choice but to stan,'

"Look who it is," said the Doctor "You look a lot better without your mask,"

"You must be Amy," Liz said, introducing herself "Liz. Liz Ten," she shook Amy's hand.

"Hi,"

"Yuck," Liz said as she realized that Amy was covered in vomit. "Lovely hair, Amy. Shame about the sick," Through the still open door, a little girl walked out,

"You know Mandy, yeah?" said Liz "She's very brave,"

"How did you find us?"

"Stuck my gizmo on you. Been listening in. Nice moves on the hurl escape. So, what's the big fella doing here?"

"Maybe you might've known," said Marion, "If you hadn't voted to forget about it,"

The Doctor glanced at her.

"I may be over 16, but I never voted, not technically a British subject."

"Then who and what are you, and how do you know me?" the Doctor asked, sounding, not angry, but like he might get angry if he was given a bad answer.

"You're a bit hard to miss, love. The both of you. Two mysterious strangers. A man with an M O consistent with higher alien intelligence," At this the Doctor preened, "and the hair of an idiot," this made the Doctor brush his hair back defensively, "And a woman with thick curly hair, eyes that know too much and a mouth that'll say whatever needs to be said so that knowledge will protect people, I've been brought up on the stories. My whole family was,"

"Your family?" the Doctor questioned.

Marion heard a whirring noise behind her and turned around. "The smilers are going to get back up soon,"

Everyone turned to look. The smilers twitched like a person on their stomach trying to get up without using their arms or legs and made a noise like when you turn the pedals backward on a bike with hand breaks.

"They're repairing," exclaimed Liz, "Doesn't take them long. Let's move,"

Liz led them through a large room that reminded Marion of a warehouse. It might've been one come to think of it. It was definitely used for storage.

"The Doctor and Marion. Old drinking buddies of Henry Twelve. Tea and scones with Liz Two. Vicky liked Marion well enough, but she was a bit on the fence about you Doctor, weren't she? Knighted and exiled you on the same day. And so much for the Virgin Queen, you bad, bad boy,"

"Liz Ten!" the Doctor said in realization.

"Liz Ten, yeah. Elizabeth the Tenth,"

Marion heard the clicking-whirring noise behind them.

"DUCK,"

"And Down,"

Liz turned around a gun in each hand. Marion, Mandy, Amy, and the Doctor ducked allowing her to fire at the smilers.

"I'm the bloody Queen, mate. Basically, I rule,"

The Doctor shoved open a metal door which led them down an industrial-looking corridor. The rest of the group followed after them with Liz closing the door behind them. "There's a high-speed Vator through there," she said. The room was filled with the constant and repetitive sound of something clanging against metal. Like in blacksmith's hammer slamming against an anvil or, in this case, like a prisoner banging against the wall of their cell. They didn't need to get too far into the room before they could see the source of this noise. "Oh, yeah. There's these things,". Liz moved out of the way as one of the Star Whale's scorpion-like tentacles slammed against the bars. The vertical bars across the grating reminded Marion of a prison which was fitting considering the Star Whale's situation. Marion sighed.

"Any ideas?" Liz asked.

"Doctor, I saw one of these up top. There was a hole in the road, like it had burst through like a root,". The Doctor scanned the tendrils and checked the readings on his screwdriver.

"What, like an infestation? Someone's helping it," Liz gritted her teeth "Feeding it. Feeding my subjects to it," she stormed off, "Come on. Got to keep moving," Mandy followed behind her.

The Doctor didn't move to follow Liz at first and Marion remained standing next to him. Marion looked through the grate and squeezed her fists together. The worst part about all of this, was that she honestly, truly, couldn't blame Liz and the heads of the Starship UK for doing what they did. She disagreed with it yes. But at the same time, they had no way of knowing that the Star Whale would've helped them without them forcing it to. If she had been put in a situation, where she was given the same kind of choice, capture and torture an animal, or watch as her whole nation burned to death, she didn't know what she might have done.

Still, it made her sad and angry to see the tendrils slam into the walls.

"Doctor? Marion?" she was aware that Amy was speaking.

"Oh, Amy," the Doctor said softly looking up through the bars, "We should never have come here,"

The Doctor turned and followed after Liz and Mandy. Marion sighed.

"We should've come here for this exact reason," she followed after the Doctor.

Liz took them to her quarters. It was a large room with a high ceiling. Wood paneling went up half the wall and the rest of the wall was cream-colored. On the floor was a black and white pattern and a red carpet. Liz flopped down dejectedly on her bed. In the corner of the room, was a mirror and on the floor in front of the mirror were dozens of filled water glasses and a fallen chandelier. Amy stood in front of the mirror and pinned up her hair. Marion didn't want to think about the current state of her hair. Marion sat on the carpet in such a way that it looked like she was looking at the glasses when she was, in fact, examining Liz. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the Doctor stepping over some of the glasses so that he could examine them closer.

"Why all the glasses?" the Doctor asked.

"To remind me every single day that my government is up to something, and it's my duty to find out what,"

"In ten years, you have to have learned something," Marion murmured.

"Secrets are being kept from me. I don't have a choice but to sneak undercover. Ten years I've been at this. My entire reign. And you've achieved more in one afternoon."

"How old were you when you came to the throne?" the Doctor asked, holding up the white porcelain mask.

"Forty, why?"

"What, you're fifty now?" Amy said in disbelief, moving away from the mirror "No way,".

"Yeah, they slowed my body clock, Keeps me looking like the stamps,"

'I wonder if my body clock is slowed down. That might explain why I'm around for so long,' Marion pondered.

The Doctor sat down on Liz's bed. Amy and Mandy say down on the couch at the foot of her bed. Marion remained standing, partially facing.

The Doctor held up the white mask. "And you always wear this in public?"

"Undercover's not easy when you're me. The autographs, the bunting..."

"Air-balanced porcelain," the Doctor observed.

"There's no strap to keep it on. It'd have to be perfectly sculpted to your face,"

"Yeah? So what?"

"Oh, Liz. So everything,"

Marion might've said something else, but the door to Liz's Suite opened with a loud creaking noise. Marion turned sharply towards the door. She took half a step forward and put a hand on the strap of her bag. Through the entrance hall of the room, walked several men in long, black cloaks over purple tunics with amulets with a golden wind-up key.

"What are you doing? How dare you come in here?" Liz said in outrage. The Doctor set the mask back down on the bed and stood up and stared down at them.

"Ma'am, you have expressed interest in the interior workings of Starship UK. You will come with us now," said the man at the front of the group. He had been the man who'd reported their presence if Marion remembered right.

Liz jumped up from the bed and stared the man down, "Why would I do that?"

The man's head rotated 180 degrees to reveal the red-eyed scowling, Smiler face bolted to the back half of his head.

"Christ!" Marion shouted. It was one thing to see that on TV (or well, computer screen). But seeing it in person accompanied by that clicky-grinding-whirring noise. It was the opposite of ideal.

'Wow, I hate that!"

"How can they be Smilers?" Amy said in horror.

"Half Smiler, half-human,"

"All nightmare,"

"Whatever you creatures are," Liz said, sounding very much like a royal, "I am still your queen. On whose authority is this done?"

"The highest authority, Ma'am,"

"I am the highest authority,"

"Yes, ma'am. You must go now, Ma'am,"

"Where?"

"The Tower, Ma'am,"

The longer they walked through the grey brick and stone walls, the lower into the ship they went, the closer they got to the Star Whale, the more Marion felt like she was going to throw up. Marion could tell they were getting close. The *clang* *clang* of the poor Star Whale slamming against the grating echoed through the stairwell louder and louder.

Eventually, the Winder leading them stopped in front of a door. He lifted the key from around his neck, put it into the lock, and turned. There was an audible *click* and the door opened.

The room looked much like a typical medieval dungeon. It had been one before the Starship took to the skies after all. The only real difference was the grates exposing the Star Whale's tentacles, the raised circular platform exposing its brain, and the multicolored screens against the wall. Likely allowing the people here to monitor the Starship UK and its sensors.

"What is this place?" Marion heard Amy ask.

"The lowest point of Starship UK," the Doctor held out his arms and spun around. "The dungeon," He sounded 'calm' but in that way that a very very very angry person will sound calm.

A man walked forward. His hood was down, and Marion could see that he at least didn't have another face bolted to the back of his skull.

"Ma'am," he said, addressing Liz.

"Hawthorne," Liz walked closer to the man, "So this is where you hid yourself away, I think you've got some explaining to do,"

From the other side of the room, a group of children walked past to the other side of the room. The sight of them made Marion even angrier.

"There's children down here. What's all that about?" the Doctor asked, patting a boy's head as he walked past.

"Protesters and citizens of limited value are fed to the beast," Hawthorn said as if that explained everything.

"Who the f-"

Marion took a deep breath. There were several reasons that she was furious and one of them was because of what was happening to the children. Children who were within earshot. Had they gone through enough that a tiny furious American woman with the mouth of a sailor would be nowhere near the worst thing they'd heard? Probably. Did that mean she was going to swear in front of them? She didn't remember if she'd sworn in front of Mandy, but she hoped not. She tried not to swear in earshot of children under the age of 13.

"Who do you think you are deciding that a - that a CHILD is of limited use?" Marion's voice got higher and faster and her accent moved farther south, "They're for- THEY'RE CHILDREN! NONE of them look older than 11 or 12! How in the- how does anyone get to decide that they're of limited use? Test scores? Test scores are-," Marion paused, trying to come up with either another way to express herself or a word for how she felt about standardized test scores in general that didn't involve the word "shit". Hawthorn took this pause as a chance to cut her off.

"Perhaps the beast feels as strongly as you do. For some reason, it won't eat the children. You're the first adults it's spared. You're very lucky,"

Marion felt her right eye twitch.

'In through the nose, out through the mouth. In through the nose, out through the mouth,'

"Yeah, look at us. Torture chamber of the Tower of London. Lucky, lucky, lucky. Except it's not a torture chamber, is it? Well, except it is. Except it isn't. Depends on your angle," As the Doctor spoke, he sounded just like he had earlier when he was leading them around the shopping center of the Starship, but something was off; something was different. It was something in his movement, the way his hands moved as he spoke and walked towards the hole covered by a raised wall and a guardrail.

Marion had seen "the Beast Below" several times. She's seen it enough to be able to use in her philosophy class to give an answer to the question "What an example of utilitarianism in media in which a single individual is made to suffer greatly for the sake of others," that wasn't "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,". She's seen it enough that apparently, her future self didn't think she needed to send her a note. She'd seen it enough to know Mandy's address right off the bat without needing the Doctor to "borrow" her ID card.

The point is, Marion didn't think that seeing the exposed brain of the Star Whale would be as horrifying as it was. Sure, the whole situation was awful and upsetting and angering, but that was more because of the general concept of a being just coming to help after hearing the cries of the children and being captured, tortured, and forced to do something that he would've done anyway without needing to suffer. However, there was one thing that Marion had forgotten. It was something that should've been obvious, but it didn't occur to Marion until it was too late. This was real life, and not a TV show put together by the BBC circa 2010. There are many differences between real life and a BBC production.

The BBC is limited in what it can portray due to Ofcom, a non-infinite budget, and the inherent limitation of a strictly audio-visual medium.

Reality is not in fact, limited by those things.

The Starwhale's exposed brain didn't look like a CGI effect, it looked like a living brain. There were dark marks on it that just about lined up with where the electrodes were pointing. Around the edge of the hole was some kind of fluid and the brain twitched and pulsed in time with the rhythmic thumping from it slamming its tentacles against the walls.

Marion tried to breathe in enough through her nose to not vomit, but all that did was make it easier for her to breath faint smell of singed infection. Marion gagged.

'What kind of person do you have to be to not only do this, but choose not to make yourself forget after you've done it!'

"What's that?" Liz asked, horrified.

"Like, the Doctor said, it depends on your angle," Marion said looking away from the Star Whale's brain.

"What do you mean?"

"Well," said Marion, her leg was shaking again, "from one angle, it's either a poor creature, trapped in it's own personal hell,"

"Or?"

"Or," said the Doctor, the false cheeriness in his voice, gone, "it's the gas pedal, the accelerator. Starship UK's go faster button,"

"I don't understand,"

"Yes you do," Marion thought that when this happened, when she was confronting Liz, she'd be yelling more. Normally, anger made her loud. Anger made her talk more and talk faster. Anger made her pace like she was yelling at someone on the phone. Anger made her voice go higher. Anger kept Marion's accent along the east coast of her country but pushed it further north or further south.

'I don't feel like yelling,' Marion thought, "Or ranting or shouting. But I'm angry."

Marion supposed that anger felt at someone for negligence, or malice, or disregard for living things was different from the anger felt towards people who did something wrong but did it legitimately thinking that there was no other option but that.

The anger Marion had felt towards Robertson under the hotel and towards Hawthorne for the way he referred to children 'citizens of little use' was like a fresh cup of coffee; scalding hot and capable of filling her with enough energy to yell until something changed or something stopped her.

The anger she felt towards Liz and the Starship UK was more like a latte that been left in the cupholder of a car in a mall parking garage for a couple of hours while its owner ran some errands at the mall; lukewarm and capable of giving her a stomach ache and some nausea.

"Think about it Liz," Marion said, softly, "The ship shouldn't be able to fly. The engine rooms are dummies and the water doesn't move. And yet despite this, it's soaring through space. Why do you think that is Elizabeth?"

"This creature, this poor, trapped, terrified creature," the Doctor's tone of voice was only not a yell because it wasn't loud, "It's not infesting you, it's not invading, it's what you have instead of an engine. And this place down here is where you hurt it, where you torture it, day after day, just to keep it moving,"

Either the electronic pulse mechanism was controlled from someone outside, it was controlled by someone inside the Tower who was unable to read the room, or it was set on an automatic timer, but Marion heard the electric pulse and go off. The room smelled of burning.

'Please God, Don't let me actually throw up here.'

"Tell you what!", the Doctor looked around until he located the grate, "Normally, it's above the range of human hearing," he lifted the grate and one of the Star Whale's tentacles rose out. The Doctor pointed his screwdriver at it, "This is the sound none of you wanted to hear,"

Marion braced herself, she already had issues with high pitched noises that weren't caused by an innocent creature screaming in pain. And scream in pain it did. Marion visibly winced, the noise like someone had dug one of her mini-screwdrivers into her ear canal.

A thought occurred to Marion, the Doctor had said that the noise was beyond the range of "Human" hearing. Was he able to hear it? Did he constantly hear the Star Whale's screaming? Marion didn't remember if Timelords (or whatever the Doctor was) had enhanced hearing compared to humans. If they did, then it had to have only been mentioned in a comic or in one of the many Big Finish audios she had lacked the attention span to listen to all the way through.

She hoped not, but she didn't think the universe was in general kind enough to the Doctor for her hopes to come true.

"Stop it!" Liz cried.

The Doctor lowered his screwdriver and the room was silent save for the rhythmic thumping noise.

"Who did this?" Liz hissed at Hawthrone.

"We act on instructions from the highest authority,"

"I am the highest authority. The creature will be released, now,"

No one moved.

"I said now!" Liz yelled, "Is anyone listening to me?"

"Liz," the Doctor said softly, "Your mask,"

"What about my Mask?"

The Doctor tossed it to her.

"Look at it. It's old. At least two hundred years old, I'd say,"

"Yeah? It's an antique. So?"

"Liz," said Marion, "if it was made by a craftsman 200 years ago, and you're only 50 years old, then how can it fit your face perfectly?"

"They slowed your body clock, all right, but you're not fifty. Nearer three hundred. And it's been a long old reign,"

"Nah, it's ten years. I've been on this throne ten years,"

"Ten years. And the same ten years, over and over again,"

Marion grabbed Liz's wrist and dragged her to the other side of the room.

"And then," Marion said, finishing the Doctor's statement, "at the end of the ten years, you end up back here and the ten years start all over again,"

On a simple table was a small TV that was old and outdated in the 21st century, let alone the 29th. Or maybe it wasn't old and outdated and 21st-century chic was all the rage. Either way, it was on the table, and in front of it were two white buttons roughly the size of the palm of ones hand. There was the standard "forget" button of course, but the other button, instead of saying "protest" said "abdicate".

"What have you done?" Liz asked Hawthorn in horror.

"Only what you have ordered. We work for you, Ma'am. The Winders, the Smilers, all of us,"

The screen flickered on and there sat Liz. She was younger obviously, at least by 300 years, but you wouldn't know by looking at her. She looked older, more tired. The recording began to speak.

"If you are watching this. If I am watching this, then I have found my way to the Tower Of London. The creature you are looking at is called a Star Whale. Once, there were millions of them. They lived in the depths of space and, according to legend, guided the early space travellers through the asteroid belts. This one, as far as we are aware, is the last of its kind. And what we have done to it breaks my heart. The Earth was burning. Our sun had turned on us and every other nation had fled to the skies. Our children screamed as the skies grew hotter. And then it came, like a miracle. The last of the Star Whales. We trapped it, we built our ship around it, and we rode on its back to safety. If you wish our voyage to continue, then you must press the Forget button. Be again the heart of this nation, untainted. If not, press the other button. Your reign will end, the Star Whale will be released, and our ship will disintegrate. I hope I keep the strength to make the right decision,"

"I voted for this. Why would I do that?" Amy asked in horror.

"You assumed that I didn't already know," Marion said.

"And Amy, you knew if we stayed here, I'd be faced with an impossible choice. Humanity or the alien. You took it upon yourself to save me from that. And that was wrong. You don't ever decide what I need to know,"

"I don't even remember doing it,"

"You did it and that's what counts,"

"I'm, I'm sorry," Amy said, tears building in her eyes.

"Oh, I don't care. Marion does, for some reason. She knew about this, and what it meant that you were going to choose to forget it. She asked me to forgive you, you know. But do you know what? I'm not going to. And when I'm done here? You're going home," the Doctor turned away from Amy.

"Why?" Amy shouted, upset, "Because I made a mistake? One mistake? I don't even remember doing it. Doctor!"

"Yeah, I know," the Doctor looked up from the controls he was tinkering with, "You're only human,"

"What are you doing?" asked Liz.

"The worst thing I'll ever do. I'm going to pass a massive electrical charge through the Star Whale's brain. Should knock out all its higher functions, leave it a vegetable. The ship will still fly, but the whale won't feel it," the Doctor messed with the control panel of it, trying to program it to shock the Star Whale.

"That'll be like killing it,"

Marion crossed her arms and shook her head, "Doctor, you're not doing that!"

"What is it that you always say, or that things that you WILL always say, 'There's always a third option?' Well, Option one, I let the Star Whale continue in unendurable agony for hundreds more years. Option two, I kill everyone on this ship. The third option, I murder a beautiful, innocent creature as painlessly as I can." the Doctor paused for a moment, "And then I find a new name because I won't be the Doctor anymore," he added.

That wasn't what "always a third option" meant. It meant that when presented with two terrible, terrible choices, one should always look carefully, to see if there was a better option that just took some out of the box thinking to figure out. But, Marion couldn't tell the Doctor that all he had to do was get Liz to slap the "abdicate" button and everything would work out. It was important that Amy be the one to figure it out and be the one to do it. It would likely be best not to interfere with things that she didn't already know were going to go wrong.

'I tried that at the cathedral and where did that get me?'

Timelords were unable to read minds. (Well, unless the person they were reading was also telepathic or were touching someone, but that's not important.) The Doctor likely took Marion's silence to be either acceptance or resigned agreement.

"There must be something we can do, some other way," Liz reasoned.

"Nobody talk to me. Nobody human has anything to say to me today!" by the end of this statement, the Doctor was yelling and partially shaking with rage. Amy and Liz took this as a queue to move away from the Doctor, while Marion remained near him.

"How?"

The Doctor spoke so softly, at first Marion didn't realize that he had been talking to her. "Hn? How what?"

"How could you ask me to forgive Amy for her choice. This is wrong, and you know it's wrong. I know it's making you angry. How could you ask me to forgive her? You're angry, I know you are, your hands are shaking. But you haven't yelled, you're calm. Well, you did yell about the children, but not about this? What's different about this?"

Marion sighed, "It's easier for me to yell and shout at people who are doing what they're doing out of selfishness or greed or callousness. But while I'm angry at Liz, it's hard to yell at her. She-she didn't know of any other available option for her to take. She knows that what's going on is wrong. That doesn't make it right, and I'm angry at her, but-"

"But What?" the Doctor said sharply, "Oh she's torturing an innocent creature, but she felt bad about it so it's all okay is it?"

Marion bristled at this.

"No, don't put words in my mouth Doctor. It's not okay! And I'm not trying to suggest that it is. I'm angry at her and about this whole situation. That poor thing," Marion gestured towards the Star Whale, "doesn't deserve any of this. It's just hard for me to yell at someone for doing something when they did it for some reason other than greed or carelessness and I can understand the reasoning,"

The Doctor looked her in the eye, and Marion could really see how much older and sadder he was than the curly-haired coat rack of a man that she had been with on the Sandminer with just a few hours prior.

"At least that explains how you've been able to look me in the eye all those years knowing that I've done this,"

Marion didn't have anything to say to that, that wasn't spoilers, and so she said nothing at all.

Marion walked away from the Doctor while still keeping an eye on him in case Amy took too long to get a solution and she had to tackle him or yank him away before he did something avoidable that he was going to seriously regret.

A noise got Marion's attention. The door to the Tower opened. In came three children, each carrying bits of supplies and machinery in their arms. Mandy reached into the pocket of her sweater and pulled out a folded note. She refolded it and got up off the floor. Marion had an idea of what she was saying, but couldn't quite hear it.

She could see just fine though. Mandy had her back to the tentacle and Timmy stepped away from it in fear. But there was nothing to worry about and that was key. The tentacle did reach up from inside the grate and towards Mandy, but it didn't attack her. It just tapped her lightly on the back of the shoulder to gain her attention.

Marion noticed this and noticed that Amy noticed this as well.

Mandy continued to pet the tentacle and Amy continued staring.

'C'mon,' Marion thought, 'Figure it out, you can do it!'

Marion saw Amy's eyes flicker towards the tentacle that had lowered itself so that both Mandy and Timmy were able to reach it.

'You're so close Pond. Connect the dots!'

"Doctor, stop!" Amy yelled.

'Rock on you funky little ginger,'

"Whatever you're doing, stop it now!" Amy grabbed Liz's hand and dragged her over towards the small voting booth.

The Doctor glanced up at Amy for a second, before realizing what she was doing.

"Amy, no! No!" he screamed. He ran to intercept her, but Marion stood in his way and grabbed ahold of his wrist to keep him from getting too far, just in case.

Amy slammed Liz's hand onto the abdicate button.

For a moment, everything was still. Then, a loud roar echoed through the Tower and the room started to shake violently. Marion braced herself, trying to keep herself from falling on her on the hard floor.

"Amy," the Doctor asked, holding onto one of the orange lit grates, "what have you done?"

"Nothing at all," a whirring noise chimed from the brightly lit controlled panels "Am I right?"

"We've increased speed," Hawthorn said in disbelief.

"Yeah, well, you've stopped torturing the pilot. Got to help," Amy said with a grin.

"It's still here," exclaimed Liz, "I don't understand, "

"The Star Whale didn't come like a miracle all those years ago. It volunteered. You didn't have to trap it or torture it. That was all just you. It came because it couldn't stand to watch your children cry. What if you were really old, and really kind and alone? Your whole race dead. No future," Amy stopped looking down at the Star Whale, and started looking at the Doctor, "What couldn't you do then? If you were that old, and that kind, and the very last of your kind, you couldn't just stand there and watch children cry."

Liz and Hawthorn looked down in shame at the Star Whale, realizing that everything that they had done for the past few centuries was for nothing.

Marion stood next to the Doctor on the observation deck, finally getting a proper look at the stars over the Starship.

"They're gorgeous," Marion murmured under her breath. And they were. The sky over the UK was filled with pinpricks of light. The arms of the Milky Way galaxy weaved in between them.

"You're able to look out at them now," the Doctor observed.

"Yeah, kinda hard to enjoy the night sky when you know someone who only desires to be kind is suffering under your feet. Doesn't matter how pretty the stars shine,"

'If I'm going to live for thousands of years, then I want to chart out the night sky,' Marion thought, 'I want to know the names of every constellation and make up names for the ones that don't have them,'

Marion heard the sound of Amy's footprints and tilted her head to let her know she was there.

"From Her Majesty," Amy held out Liz's white mask, "She says there will be no more secrets on Starship UK,"

Marion took the mask from Amy and put it into her bag.

"Amy, you could have killed everyone on this ship," the Doctor said instead of responding.

"You could have killed a Star Whale," Amy retorted.

"And you saved it," the Doctor smiled, "I know, I know,"

"Amazing though, don't you think? The Star Whale. All that pain and misery and loneliness, and it just made it kind,"

"Pain, misery, and loneliness, don't make you kind, they just reveal the kind of person you are," Marion responded

"What do you mean?" asked Amy.

"There are two types of people. The people who say 'I suffered, no one should feel like how I feel' and 'I suffered, everyone should feel how I feel.' Luckily, the Star Whale was the former type of person,"

"But you couldn't have known what kind of person the Star Whale was," the Doctor reasoned.

"You couldn't. But I've seen it before. Very old and very kind, and the very, very last. Sound a bit familiar?"

The Doctor gave Amy a huge hug.

'Hell yeah!' Marion thought, 'You two hug each other. I'll join in when we aren't all covered in dry vomit,'

The Doctor and Amy managed to drag Marion away from the viewing platform, and the three of them found themselves back in the middle of the London market.

"Shouldn't we say goodbye?" Amy asked.

"Amy, a big part of the TARDIS brand is leaving pretty much the instant you've fixed things," Marion held up a pointer finger for emphasis, "ESPECIALLY if fixing things involved any kind of change to the government. Stay too long and folks start asking you to be a part of the reconstruction. That's boring,"

"Won't they wonder where we went?"

"For the rest of their lives. Oh, the songs they'll write. Never mind them. Big day tomorrow,"

"Sorry, what?".

"Well, it's always a big day tomorrow. We've got a time machine. I skip the little ones," the Doctor said, oblivious to the look in Amy's face.

"You know what I said about getting back for tomorrow morning? Have you ever run away from something because you were scared, or not ready, or just, just because you could?"

"Once," the Doctor responded, "a long time ago,"

"What happened?"

"You're looking at him," Marion replied, pointing at the Doctor with her thumb.

"And what about you Marion?"

Marion shrugged, "I'm decided to go for a short jog and got sidetracked,"

"Right…," Amy said, "here's something I haven't told y-"

Before Amy could tell the Doctor about what she was supposed to be doing the next morning, a ringing noise came from inside the TARDIS.

"No, hang on. Is that a phone ringing?"

The Doctor unlocked the TARDIS door and went inside the TARDIS. Amy and Marion followed the Doctor inside. Marion stopped abruptly as if something had tried to trip her.

"People phone you?" Amy asked in disbelief.

"Well, it's a phone box," the Doctor pulled some switches on the console, "Would you mind?"

"Hello? Sorry, who? No, seriously, who?" she moved the phone away from her ear, "Says he's the Prime Minister. First the Queen, now the Prime Minister. Get about, don't you?"

"Which Prime Minister?"

"It's Winston Churchill!" Marion called from the entrance of the TARDIS. She would've gotten closer, and perhaps answered the phone herself, but she couldn't move her legs. This is not meant in the metaphorical, anxious sense, the area from her knee down felt like it was covered by a wall of rock.

"Hey, Doctor!" Marion called, "I think I'm about to go-OH,"

When Marion had been about 12 or so, she'd gone to a pool party. Her hair was a hassle to wash, and so, she'd planned to simply sit on a lawn chair at the edge of the pool, read a book, and maybe get a good enough tan that people would stop assuming that she was mixed. However, when she got up to grab a drink, one of her 'friends' grabbed her by the ankle and yanked her into the pool.

The yanking sensation that Marion felt on her ankle was a lot like that except, in this case, she wasn't going to end up in the hospital with a concussion and water inhalation, and she doubted that whatever force wasn't even willing to let her take a shower before grabbing her didn't have parents who felt guilty enough to buy her a fruit cart's worth of edible arrangements.

'Well, here we go again,'

(Next Chapter: Of Old Men and Dumb Names)

Marion, telling this story later on: So long story short, I needed to take a shower because I almost got vored by a giant whale because I voted wrong in an election.

See you next week. As always, rate and review, check out my tumblr/deviantart, and it's after midnight where I am, so if you see a typo please tell me.