This one's a bit shorter because I wanted to finish off the episode. As such, I'll post ch12 as well :) hope you enjoy!

I was cautious as I walked through the halls, looking around carefully until I found the ghosts huddled together in one of the corridors. They spotted me and turned before approaching.

"Oh, I'm going to hate this just a bit," I muttered, grimacing as they got rather close and shifted around to look at me.

One of them brushed up against my arm and I spat a curse as a sharp rivet of pain rolled through it.

"Ow! What the hell—"

I looked down at my arm with furrowed brows as I lifted it away from them. It wasn't my injured one though, which I half expected. No, it was my right arm: the one with the odd tattoo markings that had appeared when I was first brought here. Said tattoo was glowing now, shimmering a light golden color where the ghost had touched me and I glanced at them more warily now. Weird. Probably something the Doctor hasn't mentioned that I could really use an explanation for.

"Just… gotta be a bit more careful then," I muttered to myself as the ghosts all took a step back and gave me room to move past them.

I looked around for the phone and stepped back into the cafeteria where I finally spotted it on one of the tables. I went over and reached to take it, only to pause.

"Yeah, why does this feel like a trap?"

I grabbed the phone and turned, just as the doors closed.

"Of course. That's because it is a trap. Smart," I huffed. "Should've guessed as much or even just fuckin' remembered this happened in the damn episode."

I scratched at the back of my head, looking around. "Don't know shit about coding so can't try to override controls. Could try breaking the glass in the door, I guess."

I hummed, looking around and picking up a few things that I debated on using. Need something pointed but not thin. Can't use a knife, chair won't work… I grinned when I finally found something, holding up the screwdriver happily.

"Oh, the Doctor will get a kick out of this if it works."

I bounded over to the glass and tucked Clara's phone in my pocket, adjusting my hold on the screwdriver and swinging it. I winced when it bounced off initially, grumbling complaints under my breath before trying again… and again.

"Oh, come on," I drawled, making to swing again when the doors suddenly opened to reveal Cass, Lunn, and Clara. "Oh, hello."

"Ash!"

"Yeah, reunions for later, I think. The ghosts locked me in. This was a trap to lure us out," I said quickly before the ghosts themselves phased through the walls. "Which is why we should run."

We took off running again as Clara gave me a look.

"What were you trying to do?"

"Break the glass in the door," I said, holding up the screwdriver I'd not dropped. "I honestly don't know how the Doctor does it. These things are useless."

We skid to a stop when Prentis prevented us from getting to the Faraday cage, making us turn and head toward the main hangar instead. We backed up away from the door only for the coffin behind us to suddenly turn on and start opening. When the ghosts entered, it appeared that we were caught between two threats but the coffin opened and the Doctor sat up, taking off his sonic sunglasses with a grin.

"Don't kiss me. Morning breath," he said, climbing out as Clara let out a sigh of relief.

"Doctor?"

"Follow me," he said, leading us all back to the bridge and plugging in his sonic sunglasses into the intercom system.

A loud roar rang out, making the ghosts pause and turn away.

"What's that noise?" Clara asked.

"It's the call of the Fisher King. The call of their master."

"Where are they going?"

We all turned to the security camera footage and watched as the ghosts all walked into the Faraday cage where the Doctor's ghost was playing the roar before it vanished and they were all trapped once again.

"Not a ghost," I replied, earning a smirk from the Doctor.

"One hundred percent not a ghost. Right on all accounts, Asher. Now, Clara put these on." He put the sonic sunglasses on her face as she cracked a smile.

"What for?"

"The writing."

"So, what was it?" She asked. "Your ghost."

"A hologram. Like the one we made of you to lure the ghosts into the Faraday cage. With a soupçon of artificial intelligence, and a few pre-recorded phrases thrown in," he hummed, lightly smacking her hand when she went to take them off before he removed them himself and Cass took Clara's place. "All beamed from the sonic sunglasses. As soon as you brought me and the chamber on board, it connected with the base's wi-fi and Bob's your uncle, you've got a ghost Doctor. Asher was the only one who figured it out. Almost gave it away."

"What, seriously?"

I shrugged. "It didn't make sense to me. The other ghosts didn't have injuries but the Doctor's did. Other ghosts tried to kill us, the Doctor's didn't. The Doctor's ghost never said the words from the ship which should've been what happened when or if he died while the words were in his head," I said, pointing at him with the screwdriver. "That, and the order of the ghosts was wrong. Should've been Prentis, Moran, Pritchard in the order that they died in but instead, it was Moran, Pritchard, Prentis in the order that the Doctor saw they died in. It was sus, is all."

"Why do you have a screwdriver?" He questioned as I raised a brow with a teasing smile.

"In case I need any cabinets put up."

He wrinkled his nose in annoyance as Clara spoke up again.

"Why did they only come out at night?"

"Because they're electromagnetic projections that were out of phase with the base's day mode. Right." He removed the sunglasses from Cass. "That's it. I've erased the memory of the writing. Though you might find you've lost a couple of other memories too. You know, like people you went to school with, or previous addresses, or how to drink liquids. That's you two done. Where's Bennett?"

"With O'Donnell," I hummed, glancing at the security screen nearby where the two were hiding poorly from us as they kissed in the hall. "I would… you know, give them a minute."

They weren't the only ones who'd gotten closer either. I noticed Cass and Lunn stepping away too but said nothing as the other crew members had their memory of the writing erased and we headed back toward the Tardis. I paused outside the doors though, eyes narrowed in suspicion and making the Doctor and Clara pause.

"Are you not coming?" Clara questioned, confused.

I pointed at the Tardis. "I'm suspicious. This is suspicious."

"The Tardis is… suspicious…?"

"No, me getting to the end of an adventure without tripping into another time and place is suspicious. Feels like the moment I step into the Tardis I'll stumble and be trapped on a life raft in the middle of the ocean or something."

"Seriously?" She questioned and I shot her a look.

"I've already been lost in a desert, captured and tested by a government agency, nearly killed by stone statues, and showed up here in an underwater base where I was yet again tied up and interrogated. Hanging around him kinda puts me in awkward positions."

"Hey," the Doctor complained, pointing at me. "None of those were my fault."

"Right, so being driven to Downing Street when I first met you was totally not because you parked where I was walking."

"No," he pressed, looping an arm across my shoulders to bring me into the Tardis. "I was already parked. You walked into me. See?" He hummed once we were inside. "No dimensional hopping. You won't always pop off the moment danger is done."

"Still wish I had a heads up," I huffed as Clara spoke up.

"What will UNIT do with the ghosts?"

"Drag the cage into space, away from the Earth's magnetic field. With nothing to sustain them, the ghosts will eventually fade away," the Doctor explained. "Now, give me a minute to patch her up before she trips into more trouble. I'll answer your other questions later."

Clara shrugged, pointing at the hall as we headed toward another corridor. "Is it cool if I shower?"

"Whatever you want. So long as the Tardis doesn't hide it from you again," the Doctor joked.

"Oh, ha, ha," she scoffed, giving me a wave as we split up and once again headed toward the infirmary.

"I have a question," I spoke up, making him hum.

"Wouldn't be the first time."

"Funny. Why did you have me not say anything about your ghost? Would it have screwed something up?"

He shrugged, opening the infirmary door for me. "Dunno. I asked you to out of caution. I wasn't sure what connection the ghosts had with who was controlling them. If they overheard you, then the plan could have been upended before it even started."

"Okay. Complicated paradox. Got it…" I paused, hopping up on the bed as he went to gather what he needed to deal with my arm. "What about these?"

He looked over as I pointed at my tattoos. "What about them?"

"Well, one of the ghosts took Clara's phone, right? I went to go get it since I can't really be hurt by the ghosts but then one of them sort of phased through my arm and for some reason it hurt? Then, it kind of glowed. That's… Well, that's very much not a normal thing for tattoos to do and I don't even know where these ones came from."

He rolled his stool back over and started working on my bandaged left arm. "Do you really want to know?"

I frowned at him, confused. "It'd be nice. Why are you asking me? Usually, you just tell me or say it's spoilers."

He paused, staring down at my hand that he lightly held before glancing at me. "Because you might not like the answer."

A hint of worry rolled through me as I mulled that over for a minute and he returned to removing my bandages.

"Tell me," I finally said and he nodded.

"On the day you traveled to this universe, you told me you had stopped to pick up something on the ground. You weren't sure what it was but when you realized something was wrong… the item was gone, you were in this universe, and you had the new markings that allowed you to travel through time and space following me," he said. "You haven't been there yet but I assume you remember the adventure where the Tardis explodes, causing all those cracks."

I nodded, staying silent as he worked and continued to explain.

"Those cracks were splitting the universe. Tears in the fabric of reality and some of those cracks… were tears in the universe itself; openings into the Void between universes. This piece you picked up happened to be something that slipped through, passing through the Void, and somehow finding its way into your universe. When you picked that piece up—a piece of the Tardis—and we prevented the Tardis from exploding, that piece was called back in the only way it knew how. It latched onto something that could bring it back. You."

My brows furrowed, following his explanation but not quite understanding. "Okay, but what does that mean? I'm hardly going to be upset about that."

"What it means is, a piece of the Tardis has fuzed with you, pulling you through time and space back to the Tardis any way it can in the hopes that it will return to being a part of it. The reason your arm hurt when a ghost touched you is because the Tardis recognized them as being problematic. The ship itself didn't want to be in that base because of them and while one little piece hardly holds the full sentient power of the whole thing, it holds enough of the Tardis's residual energy to reject the ghost that brushed up against you."

"Hold on. So, I somehow picked up a piece of the Tardis that's merged into my arm and is just constantly trying to be reunited with her? Like some long-lost family pet trying to get back home?" I questioned. "How is that upsetting? It's weird, don't get me wrong, but tripping into other places is honestly fine so long as I stop ending up in the desert or smack in the middle of some secret government organization."

He took in a deep breath, lightly tugging my injured left arm to show it to me. "It may be upsetting because it means… it means you're not simply human, Ash. You're something more."

I stared at him and then down at my arm which was already partially healed. The blistered red skin was no longer a bright, gaping wound but a far lighter pink with twisted, rippled scars trailing up my arm. I opened my mouth to say something but the words caught in my throat and I just went silent once more, processing. He too stayed quiet and began to lightly rub salve on what was left of my burns before bandaging it back up. When he finished, I brought my arm close and looked at my open palm with a light frown, finally able to speak.

"What, um… What does that… What's going to change?"

"You'll heal faster than usual," he said, gesturing to my arm and speaking calmly and clearly. "You will become more sensitive to things. The Tardis is telepathic so given time, you will be as well. It'll mean your mind will become sensitive to other telepaths for a time until things settle in and I work with you on that the moment we become aware of it. The other thing is… you will live longer than a normal human. I'm not sure how much longer as… well… we've not seen yet."

"Can I die?" I blurted out, though he didn't seem surprised by the question.

"Yes. You're not immortal by any means. You can still be killed though it will be… harder."

I went to speak, opening and closing my mouth a few times as I tried to get the words out. "I… I'll be able to talk with you? Mentally?"

He looked stunned for a moment, worrying me before he slowly nodded. "Yes. Yes, with time and practice we are able to… to speak to each other telepathically. There's still some time until then. Everything has to work itself out in your mind and body first, and your mind will be the hardest to deal with, but then we work on it and… and it settles."

I nodded a bit, glancing down at my hand again before nodding a little firmer. "Okay."

"O… Okay?" He questioned and I nodded again.

"Yeah… Yeah, I think I'm okay," I admitted, running a hand through my hair. "I-I mean, it's all a bit… messy a-and a little strange but it's already started and it's not like I'm growing a second head or a third eye or anything. And, well…" I glanced away awkwardly. "A-At least I won't be dealing with it alone?"

He cracked a smile that soon turned into a full-blown grin as he nodded and pat my knee. "Yes. Yes, I will be there to help you through it. Maybe not well, you've always been better at explaining things than me, but we work it out and you pick up on things relatively quickly. Yes!" He practically cheered as he rolled over to a cabinet and began digging through things as I cracked a small smile myself. "We can get started now if you like. All we need is—"

My eyes widened when I was shoved forward a bit, turning with a scowl and a threat ready on my lips only to see I had once again picked an inopportune time to jump to another place.

"Right. Course," I grumbled, dropping my chin in my hand in annoyance. "Couldn't have picked a better time, could you?"