Fifteen minutes later, Amy and Alex were still wandering the dark tunnels. Wherever Rory was, he was doing a good job at avoiding them.
"Rory!" Alex called. She poked her head into what looked like a storage room, based on the brooms, mops, and buckets cluttering every square inch of floor. She sighed. No sign of Rory.
A little ways down the corridor, Amy approached a large set of wooden double doors. "Rory!" she cried as she opened them. She peered inside the small, dark room. "Rory!" Not seeing anyone inside, she turned away to shut the door, but then she heard a metallic click, not something that belonged in an acid factory. She spun back around.
On the wall directly in front of her was a panel. Looking at her through that panel was none other than the Eyepatch Lady. But just as suddenly as she saw it, the panel swiftly slid shut.
Amy gasped and jerked back, slamming the door. Alex whirled around. "Amy?" she called, a touch of worry in her voice. "Are you okay?"
Amy, still staring in shock at the door, opened her mouth to answer, when a familiar voice shouted out, "Amy!" The girls spun around to see Rory at the end of the tunnel.
"You're okay!" Amy exclaimed in relief. "What happened?" She started to rush towards him but came to a quick stop when Ganger Jennifer cautiously stepped out from behind him.
"She needs protecting," Rory explained.
"Jen?" another voice called. A second later, Dicken and Buzzer ran into the tunnel.
Amy shook her head. "No, it's a Ganger." There was no other reason for Rory to say she needed protecting if she wasn't a Ganger, something the humans all disliked at the moment. "Rory, listen—"
"No, you listen!" Rory shouted. He straightened himself to his full height and did his best to block Ganger Jennifer from the others. "Nobody touches her!"
Alex smiled broadly. At least one human was working to protect the Gangers. "Nicely done, Rory," she complimented. She gave Ganger Jennifer a reassuring smile before turning to Buzzer and Dicken. "Now, if you two could kindly restrain yourselves from trying to inflict bodily harm, let's listen to my boyfriend and go to the dining hall."
~The Pros and Cons of Silence~
Alex had managed to get everyone to the dining hall with no harm being done to Ganger Jennifer, certainly an accomplishment considering how the humans were acting towards her. Although she hadn't quite pictured an interrogation taking place the second they all sat down.
"Where's Jen? What have you done with her?" Buzzer demanded. He, Jimmy, and Dicken were all sitting on one side of the table directly across from Ganger Jennifer. Rory was standing behind the understandably shaken girl protectively while Amy stood across from him. Alex, having made a conscious decision to separate herself from the makeshift interrogation, leaned against the wall, one of her boots up and pressed against the stone.
Now, her lips flattened into a thin line, and she crossed her arms as she watched the scene disdainfully.
"I haven't seen her," Ganger Jennifer insisted. "I swear. But look, I'm her. I'm just like her. I'm real."
"You're a copy," Jimmy argued. "You're just pretending to be her."
Alex ran a hand through her hair. "For God's sake, do I really have to keep repeating myself?" she wondered. "They're real!"
"Rory," Amy whispered, "we don't really know anything about them yet. . ."
"Well, I know that she's afraid and she needs our help," Rory defended.
Amy sighed and tried again, "Rory. . ." But Rory just waved her off and focused back on the interrogation.
"Jimmy, Buzzer, come on, you guys," Ganger Jennifer begged. "We've worked together for two years!"
Buzzer glared at her. "I worked with Jennifer Lucas," he nearly spat. "Not you."
Alex let out a loud groan. "Alright," she sighed as everyone looked at her. "Clearly, this isn't going anywhere, so here's a lovely idea. Let's not do anything at all. . ."
". . .until the Doctor gets here," both she and the Doctor said as the latter entered the room. The Ganger versions of Cleaves, Jennifer, Buzzer, and Dicken followed.
"Hello!" the Doctor grinned, not that anyone save Alex noticed. They were too busy gawking at the new arrivals.
Jimmy stared at his Ganger. "This is. . ."
"You're telling me," his Ganger agreed as the two eyed each-other.
Alex smiled and pushed herself off the wall. "Hey, Doc," she greeted, walking over to him.
The Doctor smiled, but he was quick to turn serious. "How's it going over here?" he asked.
Alex grimaced. "About as well as can be expected with a bunch of thick-headed humans and their paranoia."
The Doctor attempted to smile at her words, but he couldn't. Alex was taking this very personally, something she shouldn't be doing, although he doubted she could help it. "Don't worry," he murmured. He ran a hand through her hair in an attempt to soothe her. "I've got a plan."
Alex raised a curious eyebrow. She was about to question him when Ganger Cleaves spoke. "Alright, Doctor." Ganger Cleaves eyed him warily. "You've brought us together. Now what?"
"Before we do anything, I have one very important question. Has anybody got a pair of shoes I could borrow?" Alex looked down to see the Doctor's feet clad only in his socks. "Size ten. Although I should warn you, I have very wide feet."
A little smirk appeared on Alex's lips. "Stepped in some acid, did you?"
The Doctor shot her a defensive glare. "Not on purpose."
~The Pros and Cons of Silence~
A few minutes later, the Doctor's shoe situation had been sorted out. The Time Lord, now wearing a pair of brown work boots, sat on the edge of the table. Amy stood behind him while Alex sat in his lap. On one side of the table were the humans; on the other were their Gangers. Rory stood with this latter group, still acting as Ganger Jennifer's protector.
The Doctor took in the two factions as he spoke. "The Flesh was never merely moss," he explained. "These are not copies. The storm has hardwired them. They are becoming people."
"With souls?" Jimmy questioned.
"Rubbish," Dicken scoffed before sneezing. "Achoo!"
"Bless you," the Doctor said. "We were all jelly once. Little jelly eggs sitting in goop."
Amy grimaced. "Yeah, thanks. Too much information."
"We are not talking about an accident that needs to be mopped up. We are talking about sacred life. Do you understand?" The Doctor stared the two groups down until they all nodded. "Good. Now, the TARDIS is trapped in an acid pool." He pretended not to hear Alex's mutter of 'she's gonna kill you'. "Once I can reach her, I can get you all off this island, humans and Gangers, eh? How does that sound?"
"Can I make it home for Adam's birthday?" Jimmy asked hopefully.
"What about me?" his Ganger questioned. "He's my son, too."
"You? You really think that?"
"I feel it."
"Oh, so you were there when he was born, were you?"
"Yeah." Ganger Jimmy smiled wistfully at the memory. "I drank about eight pints of tea and they told me I had a wee boy and I just burst out laughing. No idea why." His expression turned sorrowful. "I miss home, as much as you do."
"Look," the Doctor gently cut in. He nudged Alex off him and stood. "I'm not going to lie to you. It's a right old mess, this. But as you might say up north, 'oh, well, I'll just go to t'foot of the stairs.' Ha, ha. Eh, by, by, gum. . ." He trailed off when he saw that no one was laughing and that Alex was staring at him in complete bewilderment. "Or not. Good. Right. The first step is we get everyone together, then get everyone safe, then get everyone out of here."
"Human Jennifer and Cleaves are still MIA," Alex pointed out.
"I'll go and look for them," Jimmy offered, heading for the door.
"I'll give you a hand, if you like," Ganger Jimmy volunteered. "Cover more ground."
Jimmy eyed him for a second, then smiled. "Yeah, okay. Thanks."
"This circus has gone on long enough!" a voice shouted from the back of the room. Everyone spun around to see Cleaves charging in, a sparking electric device in hand.
"Oh, great," her Ganger dryly remarked. She stared at Cleaves with a bored expression. "You see, that is just so typically me."
"Doctor, tell it to shut up."
"Please, no," the Doctor begged as he shoved Alex behind him, putting himself between her and the electric device. There was a sinking feeling in his stomach. All his work at uniting the Gangers and humans was about to go up in smoke. He could sense it. "No! No!"
Cleaves wiggled her electric device, a malicious gleam in her eye. "Circuit probe," she explained. "Fires about, oh, 40,000 volts? Would kill any one of us, so I guess she'll work on Gangers just the same."
"It's interesting you refer to them as 'it', but you call a glorified cattle prod a 'she'."
"When the real people are safely off this island, then I'll happily talk philosophy over a pint with you, Doctor."
"And what, pray tell, are you going to do to them?" Alex questioned, standing on her tiptoes and poking her head over the Doctor's shoulder to ask.
"Sorry. They're monsters. Mistakes. They have to be destroyed."
The Doctor stepped forward. "Give me the probe, Cleaves."
"We always have to take charge, don't we, Miranda?" Ganger Cleaves smirked. To Alex, it sounded a lot like she was baiting her human self to try and attack one of them. Something which, in Alex's experience with the Doctor, always served to make the enemy mad and all that more determined to destroy them. "Even when we don't really know what the hell is going on."
Right as she said this last part, Ganger Buzzer charged at Cleaves. But the woman was too quick for him. In an instant, she fired the probe at him three times. Electricity struck him in the chest, sending him falling backwards into a cart and onto the stone floor.
The Doctor, Alex, Amy, and Rory ran over, the first three kneeling at his side. "Argh!" the Doctor growled. "He's dead!"
Cleaves smirked triumphantly. "We call it decommissioned." She pointed the probe at Ganger Jennifer as if to shoot at her next. The girl shrank back in fright.
Alex glared up at her, eyes narrowed into tiny slits. "Others would call it murder!"
"You stopped his heart," the Doctor glowered. "He had a heart! Aorta, valves, a real, human heart! And you stopped it."
"Jen?" Rory said, attracting Alex's attention. She looked up to see that Ganger Jennifer was starting to back away, her back stiff and her face full of anger.
"What happened to Buzzer will happen to all of us if we trust you!" she screamed.
"Wait, wait, just wait," the Doctor begged.
"No!" Rory shouted. He ran forwards upon seeing Cleaves about to fire the probe at Ganger Jennifer. He tackled her to the ground and snatched the probe away from her. At the same time across the room, the remaining Gangers took off, heading who-knew-where.
"You idiot!" Cleaves screeched.
"Wait!" the Doctor and Alex called after the Gangers, but none of them turned back.
The two whirled around on Cleaves as she and Rory struggled to their feet. "Look at what you've done, Cleaves," the Doctor scowled.
"Started complete and total bloodshed," Alex finished. Her face was tight with anger, and she could feel a deep, burning, passionate fury running through her, just begging to be unleashed on the woman, but she forced herself to push it down. "They're going to strike back and it's all your fault."
"If it's war, then it's war," Cleaves spat. She didn't sound regretful at what she'd done, only proud and determined to see what she had started finished. "You don't get it, Doctor, Alex. How can you? It's us and them now." She turned to Dicken, Buzzer, and Jimmy. "Us . . . and them."
"Us and them," Dicken quickly agreed. Buzzer simply nodded in confirmation.
Jimmy sighed, looking like he regretted what he was about to do. "Us and them," he declared.
Alex closed her eyes and gritted her teeth. She could feel her boiling rage snapping just under her Flesh skin. Why, why, why? She shook her head and tried to calm down. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three. . . But she was still fuming at 'one'. Twenty, nineteen, eighteen, seventeen, sixteen. . .
When she got to 'eleven', she felt a hand squeeze her shoulder. She opened her eyes to meet the Doctor's emerald green gaze.
"Okay?" he asked quietly.
Alex smiled softly despite the shaky situation at hand. "I am now."
~The Pros and Cons of Silence~
A few minutes later, everyone had branched off to their own little sections of the dining hall. Amy and Rory were off to the side covering Ganger Buzzer's body, the humans were talking quietly in a corner, and the Doctor and Alex were standing at the other end of the room, discussing just how screwed they were.
"Stupid Cleaves," Alex muttered. She ran her sonic necklace over the woman's circuit probe. A few moments later, her necklace emitted a little chirp. "There," she said, tossing the now useless probe to the ground. "Completely dismantled."
The Doctor rubbed her shoulder soothingly, knowing that her anger at the Flesh's predicament – at what was, technically, her predicament – was steadily building again. "Keep calm," he cautioned.
Alex took a deep breath and closed her eyes, concentrating on the Doctor's touch and how good it felt. "I know, I know," she sighed. When she felt a bit calmer, she opened her eyes and stared up into the Doctor's. "So, Doc, what do we need to do?"
"The Gangers will attack again, so we have to find somewhere safe to hide out until I can reach the TARDIS."
"And how are you going to manage that when the TARDIS is currently stuck in a bunch of acid?"
"Don't know, working on it."
"Okay." Alex rolled her eyes. "Let's concentrate on finding a safe place to hide."
"It's got to be defendable," the Doctor mused. "But we're in a monastery."
Alex shrugged. "One of them might know." She nodded over to the humans before sparing a glance at Amy and Rory. To her surprise, they appeared to be arguing about something. Rory seemed to be trying to get Amy to agree or listen to whatever he was saying, while Amy was going on the defense. She strained to make them out, getting a sense of déjà vu in the process, but all she caught was, ". . .wanted to help her . . . all do . . . don't . . . that . . . agree with you, drop it. . ."
What on Earth could they be fighting about? Alex wondered, her brow furrowing. But before she could ponder it any longer, the Doctor's voice rang out. "The most fortified and defendable room in the monastery." When no one said anything, he turned and called, "Cleaves! The most fortified and defendable room in the monastery!"
"The chapel."
"Thank you."
"Only one way in. Stone walls, two feet thick."
"You've crossed one hell of a line, Cleaves," the Doctor warned.
"You've killed one of their own," Alex picked up, "and they're not going to let that go unpunished."
"They're coming back," the Doctor agreed.
"In a big way," the two finished.
~The Pros and Cons of Silence~
The group ran down the tunnels towards the chapel as fast as they could go. At the end of the tunnel was a large gray door. Jimmy thrust it open. "What about the flares?" he asked as Cleaves, Buzzer, and Dicken ran inside.
The Doctor waited until Alex was inside the chapel before answering. "We'll worry about the flares when we're locked inside." Only he, Amy, and Rory remained in the hall.
The Doctor started to urge Amy in when he caught sight of Rory. The latter was standing a few feet away, looking hesitant. "Rory Pond!"
One of the Jennifer's screams rang out in the distance. Rory turned in that direction.
"Rory, come on!" Amy called.
Alex poked her head out the door. "What's the holdup?"
"Jen's out there," Rory explained. "She's out there and she's on her own."
"Well, if she's got any sense, then she's hiding," the Doctor reasoned. "Rory!"
"I can't leave her out there!"
"Rory!"
Alex just bit her lip. She knew what Rory was going to do, though whether it was good or not was debatable.
Rory looked at Amy. "I know you understand that."
But it appeared Amy did not for she shouted, "Get in here! Get in here!"
At that moment, the Gangers appeared at the end of the hall. All of them now wore acid suits for armor.
"There they are!" Ganger Cleaves shouted. The Ganger army immediately started marching down the hall while Rory ran off down a side corridor.
"Amy!" the Doctor cried. He grabbed Amy by the arm and, ignoring her thrashing, pulled her through the doorway.
"Rory!" Amy yelled helplessly. She tried to struggle and squirm her way out of the Doctor's grasp, but by the time she did, she was already in the chapel and the others were slamming the door closed.
The Doctor spun her around by the shoulders. "Amy, they are not after him, they're after us."
Alex moved to his side and nodded adamantly. "He's right!" she agreed, even though she felt rather anxious at the thought of Rory running around the same tunnels as a bunch of vengeance-seeking Gangers. "You saw how protective he was of Jennifer! They won't go after him!" Rory had been the only person other than herself and the Doctor trying to protect the Gangers. He'd been protecting Ganger Jennifer from the very start. The woman surely wouldn't let any harm come to him.
She hoped.
"Why?" someone whispered in the back of the room, deep within the shadows. "Why?"
The Doctor released Amy at the sound of the voice, allowing her to run over to the door. He planted himself in front of Alex and stared out into the darkness. "Show yourself," he ordered, his voice low. "Show yourself!"
Alex followed his line of vision. "What is it?" she asked, squinting in an effort to make something out. She jumped. Was that . . . someone moving along the edges of the shadows?
"Doctor!" Amy called. She wasn't even paying attention to the possibility of someone else being in the room. She was too busy helping the rest of the humans barricade the door.
"Pass me the barrel!" Cleaves ordered.
"We need something heavy," Dicken remarked. "Anything you can find."
"This is insane," Jimmy commented as he leaned against a barrel. He laughed at the absurdity of the situation. "We're fighting ourselves!"
"Yes, yes, it's insane," the Doctor agreed distractedly. "And it's about to get even more insanerer." He glanced at Alex and an approaching Amy. "Is that a word?"
"No," Alex replied, still staring out into the blackness.
"Doctor!" Amy snapped. "We are trapped in here and Rory's out there with them! Hello? We can't get to the TARDIS, and we can't even leave the island!"
"Correct in every respect Pond," the Doctor said . . . but his mouth didn't move. The Doctor, Amy, Alex, and the humans all gaped as a figure slowly ambled into the dim light.
"It's frightening, unexpected, frankly a total, utter splattering mess on the carpet, but I'm certain, 100% certain, that we can work this out." The figure fully stepped into the light.
It was none other than a Ganger Doctor. His face was half-formed, but he looked like the original Doctor in every other way, right down to his clothes.
The Ganger Doctor tweaked his bowtie proudly and smiled as much as his half-formed face would allow. "Trust me. I'm the Doctor."
~The Pros and Cons of Silence~
A/N: A pretty short chapter and one I'm not completely happy about, but here it is! And in the next three chapters, we have the Ganger Doctor! I had SO much fun writing his interactions with Alex and the Doctor. :)
Notes on reviews. . .
NicoleR85 - Thank you! I enjoyed writing Alex's interactions towards the Flesh, as well as the negative attitude it and the Gangers receive from the others. Hope you enjoyed the chapter! :)
TheBlueRiver - Thank you! Hope you enjoyed this one! :)
ShadowTeir - Haha, I loved writing the last chapter's opening scene. It starts out pretty steamy, but then takes such a sharp, terrifying turn. I was aiming for the kind of scene you would see in a horror movie, where things start out normal - and even a bit steam, lol - only to take a dark turn. I think I managed it, lol. :) Most of the last chapter is definitely an emotional storm, yeah. I didn't even realize that until I started editing it and then I thought, 'There is a lot going on here'. The bonding moments - especially the photograph scene - were my favorite parts to write. :) I'm glad to hear the concert was awesome! DEFINITELY wish I could've gone. :) I like Jimmy, too. He's probably the only one of the factory humans that genuinely realizes his Ganger is a living, breathing person. It's too bad he chose the wrong side. And he will still die, unfortunately. I can't really see other way to go about it, unfortunately. Maybe in a future story I'll try to rectify that. :) Oh, I CAN'T WAIT to start 'The Almost People' tomorrow! The Doctor, his Ganger, and Alex were my favorites to write! Expect a bunch of flirting, yep, as well as more emotional outbursts from Alex, considering how Amy acts towards the Ganger Doctor in that episode. . . :( Hope you enjoyed the chapter! :)
Thanks to everyone that reviewed, followed and/or favorited this story! Please review and see you tomorrow! :)