I'm seated between the Doctor and Gwyneth, obviously refusing to sit next to the pervy man on Docs right.
"This is how Madam Mortlock summons those from the Land of Mists, down in Bute Town. Come, we must all join hands." Gwyneth explains, gently taking my hand. Doc grips mine as we all look up to see Charles Dickens refusing.
"I can't take part in this." he complains standing from his seat in an attempt to leave, his exit though was interrupted by a certain Timelord.
"Humbug? Come on, open mind." he orders jokingly, Charles just looks even more upset as he turns to retort.
"This is precisely the sort of cheap mummery I strive to unmask." he rants, I roll my eyes. Are all men this whiney this time period. "Seances! Nothing but luminous tambourines and a squeeze box concealed between the knees. This girl knows nothing!" Gwyneth looks down, slightly embarrassed at the harsh words.
"Hey leave her alone." I state, glowering at the man across from me.
"You don't command me woman, acting as though above me." he snaps, I huff at the mans audacity.
"Now, don't antagonise her. I love a happy medium. I most definitely prefer a happy Alula." the Doctor continues.
"I can't believe you just said that." I mutter, earning a grin from Rose and I's driver.
"Come on, we might need you." Doc convinces, Charles gives in and returns to his seat. "Good man. Now, Gwyneth, reach out." he commands.
"Speak to us. Are you there? Spirits, come. Speak to us that we may relieve your burden." Gwyneth starts, faint whispering and a sudden chill slowly drift through the room.
"Da fuck." I whisper to myself, this earns a chastising squeeze in the hand from the Doctor.
"I see them. I feel them." Gwyneth continues, her head tilted up at the ceiling. My eyebrows raise at her wording.
"What's it saying?" Rose questions softly as we all look up. Blue tendrils of what looked almost like smoke twisted around above our heads.
"They can't get through the rift. Gwyneth, it's not controlling you, you're controlling it. Now, look deep. Allow them through." Doc encourages, Gwyneth focuses harder.
"I can't!" she exclaims, opening her eyes.
"Yes, you can. Just believe it. I have faith in you, Gwyneth. Make the link." I voice, squeezing her.
"Yes." she states, blue humanoid figures form behind her. A uneasy feeling in my gut causes me to inch closer to the Doctor and away from Gwyneth.
"Great God! Spirits from the other side." Sneed yells, eyes wide in fear.
"The other side of the universe." Doc adds, grinning in awe.
"Pity us. Pity the Gelth." the humanoid creatures voice, their ethereal voices drained of any emotions. "There is so little time. Help us!"
"What do you want us to do?" our alien asks.
"The rift. Take the girl to the rift. Make the bridge." they state, my head snaps down to Gwyneth. What if it harms her? I imagine multiple creatures passing through you would take a large toll on the human body.
"What for?" Doc asks, also cautious of the foreign entities.
"We are so very few. The last of our kind. We face extinction." they explain, sympathy tugging at my heart. No species deserves to go extinct.
"Why, what happened?" I speak up, the main speakers head swivels towards me.
"Once we had a physical form like you, but then the war came." a sense of melancholy smothered the room, the mention of war seemed to do that.
"War? What war?" Charles questions, I nod along. Curious myself.
"The Time War." I drop my gaze to the Doctor, his eyes switch from the table to mine and then away again guiltily. "The whole universe convulsed. The Time War raged. Invisible to smaller species but devastating to higher forms. Our bodies wasted away. We're trapped in this gaseous state." I tighten my grip on the Doctors hand hoping to cause some kind of comfort, even if he didn't react.
"So that's why you need the corpses." I sum up, addressing the creatures again.
"We want to stand tall, to feel the sunlight, to live again." they start of strong, my heart tugging in sympathy ever so slightly. "We need a physical form, and your dead are abandoned. They're going to waste. Give them to us." thats where I draw the line. They aren't abandoned, they're at rest.
"But we can't." Rose protests, her mouth slightly ajar in shock.
"Why not?" the Doctor retorts, his gaze icy as he peers at Rose.
"It's not... I mean, it's not.." Rose stumbles over here words, trying to find the right phrase.
"Not decent? Not polite? It could save their lives." he snaps back. Even though I understand his view, there is something not right about the Gelth. They aren't telling the whole truth. I can feel it in my bones.
"Open the rift. Let the Gelth through. We're dying. Help us. Pity the Gelth!" the aliens continue to try and convince us. Plead with us. They suddenly disappeared, their forms slipping back into the gas pipes whilst Gwyneth's body falls forwards onto the table seemingly unconscious.
"Oh my God, Gwyneth!" I yelp sliding of my seat to the ground nearby her, Rose runs over to the other side. Together we gently lift the girl up to try and wake her. Charles begins to have some sort of existential crisis whilst we move Gwyneth over to the couch.
After a few moments she begins to awake, her eyelids fluttering open. She moves to sit up but is gently pushed back down by Rose who had gone full mother mode on the poor girl.
"It's all right. You just sleep." I gently say, resting a comforting hand on the young woman.
"But my angels, miss." she protests weakly, "They came, didn't they? They need me?"
Rose opens her mouth to answer but a Northern man's voice interrupts,
"They do need you, Gwyneth. You're they're only chance of survival." he states, leaning against the wall away from us. I send a glare towards the man, she had just woken up and was in no state some important decisions.
"I've told you, leave her alone." Rose orders, I nod along beside her.
"She's exhausted and she's not fighting your battles." I state, softening my gaze towards the man behind us before turning to Gwyneth and offering her a glass of water. "Drink this."
"Well, what did you say, Doctor? Explain it again. What are they?" Sneed questions, the man completely out of depth. I roll my eyes, the very presence of that man drives me up the walls. I shuffle to my feet heading over to the Doctor.
"Aliens." is his very dull, short and bored answer.
"Like foreigners, you mean?" Sneed further questions, struggling to get his head around the concept.
"Pretty foreign, yeah. From up there." Doc answers again, a small smile on his lips as he points to the roof.
"Brecon?" the old man queries, I snort very unlady like at that.
"Close. And they've been trying to get through from Brecon to Cardiff but the road's blocked. Only a few can get through and even then they're weak. They can only test drive the bodies for so long, then they have to revert to gas and hide in the pipes." Doc explains, humouring the old man and the rest of us as he clears the situation up.
"Which is why they need Gwyneth." I mutter, my face twisting into a frown. "Something about this doesn't feel right."
"Which is why they need the girl." Dickins pipes up, nodding over to Gwyneth. This causes Rose to stand up straight.
"They're not having her." she states, her tone final. The Doctor ignores this though and presses.
"But she can help. Living on the rift, she's become part of it. She can open it up, make a bridge and let them through." Doc tries to convince.
"Incredible. Ghosts that are not ghosts but beings from another world, who can only exist in our world by inhabiting cadavers." Charles speaks, the Doc nods along.
"Good system. It might work." he adds.
"You can't let them run around inside of dead people." Rose protests, walking over to us. I nod slightly. It's wrong, but they said they were going extinct.
"Why not? It's like recycling." the Doctor points out. I cringe slightly at his choice of example.
"Seriously though, you can't." Rose argues.
"Seriously though, I can."
"It's just wrong. Tell him Luna." Rose brings me into the spat.
"Those bodies were living people. We should respect them even in death." I begin. The Doctor goes to interrupt but I hold my hand up. "I understand both of your points of views, the weight of knowing we could have saved an entire species from extinction and we did nothing would be heavy, but what about what these dead people wanted. Their loved ones? Seeing their lost relatives or partners walking around on the street. Also not including the fact that there is something of with these 'Gelth', they aren't telling us something and have already made it obvious that they will go to any extent to get through, or have you forgotten the young man that they killed and how ready they were to kill Rose just for her body?"
Once finished they both stood there taking in my words, I sigh thinking I had gotten through to them. Only for the Doctor to open his mouth,
"Do you carry a donor card?" he demands, glaring at the pair of us now, like I hadn't just said that I understand his view.
"Bitch? How the hell is that the same? Did you just ignore what I said." I raise my voice, the audacity of men.
"That's different." Rose begins, this seemed to piss the alien off as he snaps back.
"It is different, yeah. It's a different morality. Get used to it or go home. You heard what they said, time's short. I can't worry about a few corpses when the last of the Gelth could be dying." I stand there shocked as he shouts at the pair of us.
"You're a fucking bastard, 'a few corpses'. Those corpses were someone's loved ones! How would you feel if this was your people? Your dead relatives? Your lost ones? I can bet you wouldn't be so quick to offer them up!" I shout, pointing my finger at the Timelord. His eyes flash in an emotion I could only decipher as uncontrollable rage.
"Don't you dare bring up my people again! Understand?!" he bellows, I flinch at the volume, his eyes seemed to darken almost. Like out of a book. I nod, wiping any fear that was on my face away to a blank slate before walking away towards Gwyneth.
"I think Gwyneth should have a say." I state, not meeting either of their eyes. She nods thankfully.
"I know my own mind, and the angels need me. Doctor, what do I have to do?" she questions, the Doctor walks over to us.
"You don't have to do anything." he voices, his tone a polar opposite to his frustrated shouting prior.
"They've been singing to me since I was a child, sent by my mam on a holy mission. So tell me." her ideology made me smile slightly, still ever so superstitious.
"We need to find the rift. This house is on a weak spot, so there must be a spot that's weaker than any other. Mister Sneed, what's the weakest part of this house? The place where most of the ghosts have been seen?" the Doctor questions, turning to the old man.
"That would be the morgue." Sneed replies after a moment of thought.
"No chance you were going to say gazebo, is there?" Rose mutters, tugging my cloak around her shoulders.
~1~
We walk down the dirty, dungeon looking corridor. A freezing breeze biting into my bare skin. I walk behind everyone shivering, fucking Time Lord, fucking Gelth, fucking winter weather. Why did I have to be nice and give Rose my cloak? Stupid, stupid me.
Whilst I was talking to myself the Timelord, that I was pissed off at, must have slowed down to walk beside me because next thing I knew a jacket was being placed over my shoulders.
"Your freezing." he states, walking along side me. I nod, to stubborn to actually talk to him. "Oh, the silent treatment then?" I shrug still not talking. "I'm not going to apologies."
"Well neither am I, just don't be surprised if this all goes tits up." I snap glaring at the space ahead of me. He sighs loudly, either at my language or the fact that I'm still angry. Noting that I was in no way ready to talk to him he speeds up, leaving me to walk by myself.
"Urgh. Talk about Bleak House." he states outloud to the others, trying to make the situation lighter as the scent and sight of decaying bodies flood us.
"Doctor, I think the room is getting colder." Charles points out I nod along in agreement.
"Here they come." Rose mutters as blue gas flies past us. The Gelth settle in the archway.
"You've come to help. Praise the Doctor. Praise him." the leader chants, their voice angelic.
"Promise you won't hurt her." Rose shouts out only to be ignored.
"Promise!" I shout, my attempts ignored also.
"Hurry! Please, so little time. Pity the Gelth." they continue.
"I'll take you somewhere else after the transfer. Somewhere you can build proper bodies. This isn't a permanent solution, all right?" the Timelord tells them, at least he wasn't planning on keeping them here. "Okay, where's the weak point?"
"Here, beneath the arch." the Gelth reply, Gwyneth walks over to the arch standing in the middle. Rose rushes over her in one last attempt to change her mind.
"You don't have to do this." she states, holding Gwyneth's shoulders.
"My angels." is her only reply before she jolts away standing straight.
"Establish the bridge. Reach out to the void. Let us through!" the Gelth demand in loud voices.
"Yes, I can see you. I can see you. Come!" Gwyneth calls out.
"Bridgehead establishing."
"Come to me. Come to this world, poor lost souls!"
"It is begun. The bridge is made." the aliens state in victory, I flinch back when Gwyneth's mouth opens wide. Gelth figures rushing out of her in a larger magnitude of numbers than perceived. "She has given herself to the Gelth. The bridge is open. We descend."
"Given?" I loudly state, "Gwyneth? What the fuck does that mean you fucking dead smurfs."
"The Gelth will come through in force." they rage, the blue turning red as their humanoid figures create elongated fangs.
"You said that you were few in number." Dickens shouts.
"A few billion. And all of us in need of corpses." they clarify, the blue figures disappear into the dead surrounding us.
"Gwyneth, stop this. Listen to your master. This has gone far enough. Stop dabbling, child, and leave these things alone, I beg of you." Sneed begs, whilst focused on Gwyneth a Gelth approaches the man. I reach out to grab him making contact with his arm at the same time of the Gelth. We play a brief game of tug of war until the Gelth rips Sneed from my grasp and the Doctor winds an arm around my waist dragging my backwards as I stumble slightly.
"Mr Sneed!" I shout, the Gelth reaches his head and snaps the old man's neck, I stand there frozen. I had him, I could have saved him. A blue wisp rushes into the now vacant space.
"I think it's gone a little bit wrong." the Timelord holding me mutters walking us backwards towards a gated wall.
"We need bodies. All of you. Dead. The human race. Dead." the Gelth leader demands, pointing at us.
"Gwyneth, stop them! Send them back now!" the Doctor shouts, hoping to solve the now fatal situation.
"Three more bodies. Convert them. Make them vessels for the Gelth."
"Doctor, I can't. I'm sorry. This new world of yours is too much for me. I'm so-" Charles starts only to be cut off as he runs away leaving us to deal with the Gelth. Asshat. We walk backwards until we reach the metal gate, slamming it shut creating a barrier between us and our looming demise.
"Give yourself to glory. Sacrifice your lives for the Gelth." the Gelth inside Sneed demands, I shakily press myself against the wall behind us.
"I trusted you. I pitied you!" the Timelord spits out, angry at himself and the Gelth for tricking him.
"Is it the right time to say I told you so?" I hiss at the man on my right.
"We don't want your pity. We want this world and all its flesh." they bite back, each dead person gripping the bars shaking in futile attempts to shake the gate loose.
"Not while I'm alive." the Doctor retorts defiantly, blatantly ignoring my own comment.
"Then live no more." the aliens snark, a smooth comeback that I can give them.
"But I can't die. Tell me I can't. I haven't even been born yet. It's impossible for me to die. Isn't it?" Rose rambles, the obvious looming death seemed to be making her nervous.
"I don't think that's how it works, time isn't straight it's rather wibbly." I answer, the Doctor nods along.
"I'm sorry. Time isn't a straight line. It can twist into any shape. You can be born in the twentieth century and die in the nineteenth and it's all my fault. I brought you here." he guiltily continues.
"We decided to come along." I mutter looking over at the man.
"It's not your fault. I wanted to come." Rose replies, I nod in agreement.
"What about me? I saw the fall of Troy, World War Five. I pushed boxes at the Boston Tea Party. Now I'm going to die in a dungeon in Cardiff." the man beside me whines, of course this is what he is thinking of. What else would one think of during a fatal situation.
"It's not just dying. We'll become one of them." I add, obviously helping -note the sarcasm- Rose sends me a disturbed look before fearfully glaring at the possessed corpses.
"We'll go down fighting, yeah?" Rose states, gripping my left hand.
"Yeah." The doctor replies, gently taking my right. I allow the hand to stay, after all we might die in a few minutes.
"Together?" I mutter, staring at our death.
"Yeah." they both reply. I feel a small tug on my arm the Doctor was holding. I turn my head slightly facing the man.
"I'm so glad I met you." he whispers, I smile slightly don't you just love a life threatened action of affection.
"Me too." I whisper back. He smiles gently at me, the three of us coming to terms with our death. Although the silent thinking didn't last long when the traitor himself comes running in.
"Doctor! Doctor! Turn off the flame, turn up the gas! Now, fill the room, all of it, now!" Dickens yells, flitting around the room turning all the gas lamps up to max.
"What're you doing?" Doc questions, his face twisted in confusion.
"Turn it all on. Flood the place!" Charles explains, the Timelord's face lights up with understanding.
"Brilliant. Gas." Doc mutters, smiling widely at the three.
"What, so we choke to death instead?" I snark, not particularly fond of the idea of suffocating.
"Am I correct, Doctor? These creatures are gaseous." Charles continues, covering his mouth in a cloth.
"Fill the room with gas, it'll draw them out of the host." Doc explains, I nod along finally understanding.
"Suck them into the air like poison from a wound!" I add, smiling brightly.
"I hope, oh Lord, I hope that this theory will be validated soon, if not immediately." Charles stutters slightly as the zombie like being start to leave Rose, Doc and I and head towards him.
"Plenty more." the Doctor pipes up, gripping the pipe nearby in his hand and wrenching it free. snapping the metal in half. Gas floods the area quicker, welp no going back now. The bodies begin to drop as the Gelth are dragged into the air, wailing and screaming.
"It's working." I mutter, opening the gate. Doc rushes past to stand in front of Gwyneth, Rose and I trailing behind him.
"Gwyneth, send them back. They lied. They're not angels." the Timelord tries to convince.
"Liars?" she states, something about her is off.
"Look at them!" the Doctor demands, "If your mother and father could look down and see this, they'd tell you the same. They'd give you the strength. Now send them back!"
"I can't breathe." Rose gasps out, I frown slightly at myself. If Rose is suffocating, shouldn't I?
"Charles, get them out." Doc orders not sparing a glance back. Charles moves to guide us out, only for Rose to shrug his arm off.
"I'm not leaving her!" she exclaims passionately.
"I'm not even being affected, sorry Doc there is no way you're getting rid of me." I state, crossing my arms over my chest. My hands covered by the length of the jacket's sleeves.
"They're too strong." Gwyneth whimpers, her eyes still void.
"Remember that world you saw? Rose's world? All those people. None of it will exist unless you send them back through the rift." Doc tries, thinking the Gwyneth wouldn't because she empathised with the Gelth.
"I can't send them back. But I can hold them. Hold them in this place, hold them here. Get out." she orders, her hand disappears into her pocket bringing out some matches.
"No!" I shout lunging forwards, Charles wraps a hand around my bicep preventing my advance.
"You can't!" Rose shouts out, proceeding to cough loudly after.
"Leave this place." Gwyneth continues, I squirm removing Charles's grip.
"No! Gwyneth No! You can't!" I yell, I only make it three more paces as the Doctor wraps an arm around my waist, effectively halting me. I squirm and wriggle hoping to help Gwyneth only for the Doctor to grab me by my shoulders and shake me.
"Alula, get out. Go now. I won't leave her while she's still in danger. Rose you too, now go!" he demands, shoving me towards the door.
"No." I defy, Rose and Charles running past me. "I'm not leaving."
"Alula now! I will get her out. Now get out of the danger!"
"I'm not leaving you! I'm not focused on Gwyneth, it's you. I don't think it's Gwyneth anymore, she feels different." I shout, the Doctor nods slightly unsure on what to do with the information. He slowly raises his hand to Gwyneth's neck, dropping it promptly after.
"I'm sorry." he mutters, I was right.
"Thank you." I say, stepping closer to the young lady. I place a kiss on her forehead before I'm dragged away as the Timelord takes my hand and sprints out.
Just as we make it half a meter from the front door the building behind us explodes. We fly forwards, Doc landing on the ground whilst I land on him. I sit up slowly, aching all over. The Doctor and I grimly look at each other, Gwyneth saved the world and now she's dead. I slide off of the man below me to stand up.
"I'm going to the TARDIS." is all I say, the Timelord nods slightly. Gently squeezing my shoulder before allowing me to walk away.
"She's unlocked." he mutters as I depart.