"Behold!" the Doctor cried as he opened the doors and stepped out the TARDIS, the humans excitedly following him out.
Thea stepped out, laughing at where they were, not where they were supposed to be, "Not Rio!"
It was most certainly not Rio, but an old graveyard, clouds in the sky and not the sunshine they had been expecting and very much looking forwards too.
"Nah." Amy shook her head, closing her jacket more. She had dressed for Rio, short skirts for the hot weather, not cloudy typical British weather.
"Not really getting the sunshine carnival vibe." Rory mumbled.
"No?" the Doctor slumped his shoulders.
It had been Amys choice to want to go to Rio, she and Rory had always wanted to go there one day for a holiday, even trying to save for their honeymoon and Thea had asked to go somewhere present day Earth and so Rio was happening. He had really tried this time to get them to Rio. He wanted to prove to Thea that he could actually pilot them to when and where they wanted to go, that he wasn't as bad at piloting as everyone claimed he was. this was not helping his case.
It was no wonder she never asked to go back for a visit, she didn't think they'd make it too the right time.
"I mean, its Earth," Thea had to admit they were closer to Rio than she expected. She had known as soon as the Doctor started piloting that they would not make it to Rio, "2020," she inhaled, "I think. Stars, Luke would be 26."
"Oh, do you feel that?" the Doctor looked over at Thea, thankful for the strange feeling on the ground for the distraction.
She never said it, tried very hard not to show it but he knew she hated the idea that the gang would all age and grow up. The curse of the Time Lord, it was why he never looked back, he hated seeing how old his friends got while he continued looking the same.
"Feel what?" she frowned, bouncing on her toes with him, "Oh. What is that?"
"Ground feels strange." the Doctor noticed Amy and Rory just staring at them, "Just us. Wait." he frowned at something beyond them, "That's weird."
"What's weird?" Rory asked
"Doctor, stop trying to distract us." Amy huffed, "We're in the wrong place. Doctor, its freezing and I've dressed for Rio. We are not stopping here. Doctor. You listening to me? It's a graveyard. You promised me a beach."
"Well, next time I'll pilot." Thea promised her, crossing her arms at the slight chill. Like Amy she had dressed for Rio, the weather temperature wasn't as bad for her but she had changed from her thicker arm warmers and socks and replaced them with a rainbow mesh type for carnival vibes.
Amy snorted, "With him teaching you, you'll be as bad as him."
"Hey!" she pouted, as the Doctor cried, "oi!" at the insult to not only his piloting, but his teaching.
"He's a very good teacher," the Doctor started to smile at her words, "...I just do the opposite of what he says." and turned into a pout as Thea crouched besides him before a patch of blue grass.
"Blue grass." he mumbled, picking some up and looking closer at it, "Patches of it all around the graveyard. So, Earth, 2020-ish, 10 years in your future, wrong continent for Rio, I'll admit, but it's not a massive overshoot."
"Same planet." Thea patted his back.
Amy looked over, catching sight of two people waving at them from the other side of the valley, "Why are those people waving at us?"
The Doctor pulled out a set of binoculars, "Can't be." he looked through them as Rory waved back, "It is. It's you two."
"No, we're here." Rory shook his head, "How can we be up there?"
"Time travel." Thea smiled widely, "10 years in your future, you remember coming here and came for a visit." she waved back at them.
"Humans, you're so nostalgic." the Doctor said fondly.
"We're still together in 10 years?" Amy asked, surprised.
"No need to sound so surprised." Rory rolled his eyes.
"You'll be together forever." Thea smiled, "might have some ups and downs but what relationship, doesn't?"
"Hey, let's go and talk to them." Amy suggested, "We can say hi to future us. How cool is that?" she took Rory's hand and began to pull him off.
"Er, no, best not." the Doctor called, "Really best not. These things get complicated very quickly, and oh look." he caught sight of a big drill at the bottom of the hill, "Big mining thing. Oh, I love a big mining thing. See, way better than Rio. Rio doesn't have a big mining thing."
"We're not going to have a look, are we?" Amy sighed.
"Do you really have to ask?" Thea countered.
"Let's go and have a look." The Doctor grinned, taking off running down the hill, "Come on, you lot, let's see what they're doing."
"If he can't get us to Rio, how's he ever going to get us back home?" Rory groaned.
"You will." Thea told him, "safe and sound, just..." she frowned, "maybe not quite in the way you expect." she shrugged, "he was supposed to drop Sarah Jane back home at Croydon years ago."
"And did he?" Rory asked.
He knew a bit about the woman, an old companion to the Doctor who took Thea under her care as the girl no longer had family alive. He had obviously managed to get her home close enough to her own time for her to continue her own regular life after the Doctor. It assured him well enough that after their travels they would be able to settle down again if others managed it.
"It was Aberdeen." she winced, "only a few hours away on the train."
"You worry too much." Amy waved off his concern, "Did you not see over there? It all works out fine."
"After everything we've seen, we just drop back into our old lives?" Rory shook his head, "The nurse and the kissogram?"
"Everyone does." Thea shrugged, "you can't spend your entire lives in the TARDIS."
"Why not?" Rory asked, more wondering why she sounded so insistent about that than wanting to challenge it.
"Everyone moves on eventually." she murmured.
Rory just nodded, taking in her tone and knowing it wasn't quite the real reason but seeing she didn't want to talk about. He could guess the reason why actually and the reason was pretty good. Time Lord didn't seem to age like humans. He doubted when they were old and grey they would be able to keep up running for their lives as tended to happen on board the TARDIS.
Thea turned and ran down after the Doctor, "Hey, wait up!" she called as she caught up with him at the bottom of the hill.
"Quite the runner aren't you?" he asked.
"Didn't run away from the Untempered Schism, if that's what you're getting out."
"You said," he recalled her words from the Naismith mansion, "you kept staring until the elders pulled you away."
She smiled lightly, "you remembered I said that."
"Course I did. I told you, I'm listening and I hear you, Thea."
Thea let out a small breath at that, she was so used to most people in her life's hardly listening to her that she ended up hardly bothering to speak, so much so that at first Sarah Jane thought she was either mute or didn't speak English.
Knowing that she and the gang did actually listen to her an engage conversations it got her talking more and more.
With all that knowledge the Doctor had in his head, she didn't think he would have enough room to remember the silly little things she said.
"Doctor!" Amy shouted running down towards them.
"Where's Rory?" the Doctor asked, not seeing him behind Amy.
"He's putting my ring in the TARDIS." she waved him off, "said he'll catch up." she stepped past them and headed off, leaving them little choose to follow.
They reached the drilling station to find the gates locks, "restricted access." Thea read the sign, "no unauthorised personnel."
The Doctor just grinned, flashing his sonic on the lock.
"That is breaking and entering!" Amy gasped.
"What did I break?" he countered, "Sonicking and entering. Totally different."
"Come on, then." she slipped through the gate.
The Doctor looked back the way they came, "you're sure Rory'll catch us up?"
"He's probably just checking out the graves." Thea commented.
"What?" the Doctor turned to her but she had already gone through after Amy. "Hey, don't wander off." he hurried to catch up with them as they wander the halls, searching for the main control room, or any workers. "What about now?" he asked Amy, "Can you feel it now?"
"Honestly, I've got no idea what you're on about." Amy said bluntly.
"The ground is...wrong." Thea offered, not sure how to explain it. It didn't feel like Earth ground should.
"It's 10 years in the future." Amy shrugged, "Maybe how this ground feels is how it always feels."
"Good thought," the Doctor nodded, "but no, it doesn't." he looked up at the whirling sound, "Hear that, drill in start-up mode. Afterwaves of a recent seismological shift and blue grass." he pulled out some blue grass from his pocket, tasting it.
"Oh, please." Amy scoffed in disgust, "Have you always been this disgusting?"
"No, that's recent."
"Is it, though?" Thea laughed, stopping outside a door.
"What's in here?" the Doctor wondered, moving to the door behind Thea. The Doctor pushed open the door and stepped inside, a woman standing the middle of the room before a patch of dirt, "Hello."
"Who are you?" she demanded, rounding on them, "What're you doing here? And what're you wearing?" she eyed Amy.
Amy tried to tug her skirt down, huffing, "I dressed for Rio!"
"Ministry of Drills, Earth and Science." the Doctor said, holding the psychic paper to the woman, "New Ministry, quite big, just merged. It's lot of responsibility on our shoulders. Don't like to talk about it. What are you doing?"
"None of your business." she resorted.
The Doctor gave a small smirk, moving to the monitors, "Where are you getting these readings from?"
"Under the soil."
Thea frowned, her attention drawn to the hole in the middle of the room, crouching besides it and peering down.
An older man entered the room, "The drill's up and running again." he spotted the three of them, "What's going on? Who are these people?"
"Amy," she introduced, leaning against some machinery, "Thea. The Doctor. We're not staying, are we, Doctor?"
"What's with the patch of Earth on the floor?" Thea asked as the Doctor moved to her side, running the soil through his fingers.
"We don't know. It just appeared overnight." the woman replied
"Good. Right." the Doctor nodded, "You all need to get out of here very fast." he moved back to the monitors.
"Why?"
"What's your name?"
"Nasreen Chaudhry." she replied.
"Look at the screens, Nasreen." he gestured to them, "Look at your readings. It's moving."
"Hey, that's specialised equipment." the man stormed over, "Get away from it."
Amy frowned, moving to Thea side, seeing how she had not once looked away from the dirt. Like there was something really interesting about it, but it was just brown and...dirt. Nothing interesting at all.
"What is?" Nasreen squinted at the screens.
"Doctor, this hole is releasing steam." Thea called, finally moving back as steam rose from the dirt.
"That's not a good thing?" Amy guessed.
"Shouldn't think so." he moved back over to it, "It's shifting when it shouldn't be shifting."
"What shouldn't?" Nasreen asked when the ground began to shake.
"The ground, the soil, the earth, moving. But how? Why?"
"Earthquake?" Amy suggested.
"What's going on?" the older man demanded.
The Doctor shook his head, "Doubt it, because it's only happening under this room." the room shook violently as more hole began to appear, "It knows we're here. It's attacking. The ground's attacking us."
"No, no that's not possible!" Nasreen cried.
"Might I suggest running!" Thea shouted.
"Good idea." the Doctor agreed, grabbing Nasreens hand and pulling her to the door where Thea was already standing, the man wasn't so lucky, getting trapped.
Amy ran towards them, doing an excellent job of avoiding the holes.
"Tony!" Nacreen cried seeing the man trapped.
"Stay back, Amy." the Doctor warned as she moved around the holes to help the man, "Stay away from the earth."
"Its okay." she smiled, only for a hole to open beneath her, her feet falling through, "It's pulling me down!" she cried.
"Amy!" the Doctor shouted as he and Thea ran to her.
"Doctor, help me." she pleaded, as she dropped to his stomach, grabbing her arms as she sunk lower, "something's got me. Doctor, the ground's got my legs."
"I've got you." he told her.
Thea quickly moved to help Tony around the holes, they seemed to have stopped creating more now Amy was trapped, like they only had them to trap one of them. She ushered him to Nasreen by the doors before moving and helping to try and pull Amy out.
"Don't let go."
"Never." Thea swore.
"What is it?" Amy swallowed, "and why is it doing this?"
"Stay calm." the Doctor ordered, "Keep hold of my hand. Don't let go."
"The drill." Thea turned to the other two, "shut it down!"
The two ran out of the room and Thea knew they wouldn't shut it down in time.
"Can you get me out?" Amy breathed.
"Amy, try and stay calm." the Doctor tried to reassure her, "If you struggle, it'll make things worse. Keep hold of my hand."
"Breathe." Thea told her.
"I'm not going to let you go."
Her arms slipped and she sunk lower down to her chest, "Doctor, it's pulling me down." she gasped, "Something's pulling me."
"Stay calm. Now, hold on till they can just shut down the drill."
"I can't hold on! What's pulling me? What is under the earth? I don't want to suffocate under there."
"You wont suffocate." Thea murmured.
"Amy, concentrate." the Doctor tightened his grip on her wrist, "Don't you give up."
"Tell Rory..."
"Tell him yourself." Thea cut her off.
"No. Amy!" Amy sunk lower, "Amy, no!" he shouted as she sunk below the soil, swallowed into the Earth, "No! No! No!" he dug through the pile, "No! No. No!" he flashed the sonic around the area but it was useless.
"Hostages." Thea murmured.
The Doctor whipped around to her at that, "what?"
But she didn't answer as Nasreen and Tony ran back in, "Where is she?" Nasreen asked.
"She's gone." the Doctor swallowed, "The ground took her."
"We'll get her back." Thea determined.
Amy said she felt something pulling her down to the ground. There was something under the Earth, another species living under the Earths surface that had pulled Amy down to them. They just needed to go and find her now.
"Is that what happened to Mo?" Tony frowned, "Are they dead?"
"No." Thea shook her head, seeing the Doctor unable to answer that. He clearly didn't want to think of his companion as dead, but he couldn't be sure himself. She had sunk underground, easily could have suffocated. She knew Amy wasn't dead. She couldn't be.
"It's not quicksand." the Doctor muttered as he paced, "She didn't just sink. Something pulled her in. It wanted her."
"The ground wanted her?" Nasreen scoffed.
"You said the ground was dormant. Just a patch of earth, when you first saw it this morning. And the drill had been stopped."
"That's right." Tony nodded.
"But when you re-started the drill, the ground fought back."
"So what, the ground wants to stop us drilling?" Nasreen laughed, "Doctor that is ridiculous."
"I'm not saying that, and it's not ridiculous, I just don't think it's right."
"What about bio-programming?" Thea wondered. "It bio-signals to resonate the internal molecular structure of natural objects." She explained. "Mostly used in jungle planets, not earth in the now." the Doctor stared at her, she shifted under his gaze, "not just a cute little face you know, also got a decent brain."
"I can see that." The Doctor laughed.
"Sorry, did you just say jungle planets?" Nasreen gave her an odd look.
"You're not making any sense!" Tony shouted.
"Excuse me, she's making perfect sense." the Doctor replied, "You're just not keeping up. The earth, the ground beneath our feet, was bio-programmed to attack."
"Yeah, even if that were possible, which, by the way, it's not, why?" Nasreen lifted an eyebrow.
"Stop you drilling. Okay, so we find whatever's doing the bio-programming, we can find Amy. We can get her back!"
"Shh." Thea suddenly put her hand over his mouth to silence him, listening intently, "you stopped your drill right?" she looked over at the humans.
"Yes." Nasreen nodded.
The Doctor lowered her hand from his mouth but raised his own hand to cover it again at the look she sent him.
All it took was the one little look from her. He wasn't sure exactly but he was starting to think she was using her baby face to her advantage to make people think she was sweet and innocent and then out do everyone in the room.
"So who's drill is that?" she whispered.
The Doctors eyes widened at that, able to feel the faint vibrations now it had been brought up. He dropped to the ground, resting his ear next to a hole, "It's under the ground."
"That's not possible."
The Doctor jumped up and ran to the computers, flashing the sonic on them, "Oh no, what, what are you doing?" Nasreen demanded.
"Hacking into your records." he answered, "Probe reports, samples, sensors. Good. Just unite the data, make it all one big conversation. Let's have a look. So, we are here and this is your drill hole. 21.009 kilometres. Well done."
"Thank you." she smiled, "It's taken us a long time."
"Why here?" Thea wondered, "why this sight?"
"We found patches of grass in this area," Nasreen explained, "containing trace minerals unseen in this country for 20 million years."
"The blue grass?" the Doctor looked over at her, "Oh, Nasreen. Those trace minerals weren't X marking the spot, saying dig here. They were a warning. Stay away. Because while you've been drilling down, somebody else has been drilling up." he pulled up a screen, showing a series of vertical tunnels surrounding the drill, "Oh, beautiful. Network of tunnels all the way down."
"No, no, we've surveyed that area." Tony shook his head.
"You only saw what you went looking for."
"What are they?" Nasreen asked, pointing to some flashing red lights.
"Heat signals. Wait, dual readings, hot and cold..." he glanced at Thea as she moved over, frowning at the screen, "does that make sense to you?"
"Not yet." she murmured, tilting her head at the results.
"And now they're moving." his eyes widened, "Fast. How many people live nearby?"
"Just my daughter and her family." Tony shrugged, "The rest of the staff travel in."
"Grab this equipment and follow me." he ordered, grabbing a computer, Thea instantly grabbing what she could and following him to the door.
"Why?" Nasreen asked, "What're we doing?"
He turned back to them, "That noise isn't a drill, it's transport. 3 of them, 30 kilometres down. Rate of speed looks about a 150 kilometres an hour. Should be here in oh, quite soon."
"12 minutes." Thea called.
He snapped his fingers at her, "Whatever bio-programmed the Earth is on its way up, now."
"How can something be coming up when there's only the Earth's crust down there?" Tony questioned as he and Nasreen followed behind the Doctor and Thea, with a wheelbarrow of equipment.
"You saw the readings." the Doctor replied.
"Who are you, anyway?" Nasreen shook her head, "How can you know all this?" there was a whirling sound and red lightning shot across the sky, "Whoa, did you see that?"
"No, no, no!" the Doctor cried, rummaging through his jacket pocket and pulling out a slingshot, picking up a rock and firing at the sky, hitting some sort of forcefield, the sky lighting red around the village. "Energy signal originating from under the Earth. We're trapped."
"Doctor!" Rory shouted, running over with a woman and young boy, "something weird's going on here, the graves are eating people."
"Not now, Rory." he waved off.
"Eating people?" Thea frowned at him.
"Energy barricade, invisible to the naked eye. We can't get out and no one from the outside world can get in."
"What?" she frowned, "Okay, what about the TARDIS?"
"The what?" Nasreen scoffed.
"Er, no." the Doctor sighed, "Those energy patterns would play havoc with the circuits. With a bit of time, maybe, but we've only 9 and a half minutes."
"9 and a half minutes to what?" Rory shook his head.
"We're trapped," Nasreen offered, "and something's burrowing towards the surface."
"But don't worry we will get Amy back." Thea assured Rory seeing as he noticed the ginger wasn't with them.
"What do you mean, get her back?" Rory asked, "Where's she gone?"
"She was taken." The Doctor told her, "into the Earth."
"How? Why didn't you stop it?"
"We tried." Thea insisted, "I promised, we tried to get her out."
"Well, you should've tried harder!" he snapped and Thea flinched back at the anger directed at her, "sorry." Rory instantly apologised.
"It okay."
"Come on, please." the Doctor looked at him, "I need you alongside me."
Rory sighed but nodded, taking the computer from Thea.
~.~
The Church was in quite a state of disrepair, disused boxes scattered around. The Doctor, Nasreen and Toby quickly got to work setting up the equipment as Thea hung back with Rory, knowing how much her worried about Amys safety.
"So we can't get out, we can't contact anyone, and something, the something that took my husband, is coming up through the Earth." Tonys daughter, Ambrose scoffed.
"Yes." the Doctor nodded, "If we move quickly enough, we can be ready."
"No, stop. This has gone far enough. What is this?"
"He's telling the truth, love." Tony turned to her.
"Come on. It's not the first time we've had no mobile or phone signals. Reception's always rubbish."
"Look, Ambrose. We saw the Doctor's friend get taken, okay?" Nasreen added, "You saw the lightning in the sky. I have seen the impossible today, and the only person who's made any sense of it for me, is the Doctor."
"Hey." Thea pouted. Rory patted her back.
"Him?" Ambrose eyed him.
"Me." he nodded. "and Thea."
"Can you get my dad back?" the young boy, Elliot asked.
"Yes." the Doctor said as everyone looked at him, "But I need you to trust me and do exactly as I say from this second onwards, because we're running out of time."
"So tell us what to do." Ambrose whispered.
He turned to her, "Thank you. We have 8 minutes to set up a line of defence. Bring me every phone, every camera, every piece of recording or transmitting equipment you can find. Every burglar alarm, every movement sensor, every security light. I want the whole area covered with sensors."
~.~
Thea followed Ambrose and Rory as they set up camera around the outside of the church, sonicing them in place while the Doctor stay inside the TARDIS setting up the computers
"Right, guys, we need to be ready for whatever's coming up." the Doctor said, "I need a map of the village marking where the cameras are going."
"I can't do the words." Elliot muttered, "I'm dyslexic."
"Oh, that's all right, I can't make a decent meringue, Thea insists it shouldn't be as hard as I make it out to be. She makes the best meringues I know." he winked, "Draw like your life depends on it, Elliot." Elliot smiled and ran off as he checked his watch, "6 minutes 40."
Nasreen and Tony stood before the monitors as Tony pulled out an overlay of the village, "Works in quadrants." he reported, "Every movement sensor and trip light we've got. If anything moves, we'll know."
The Doctor patted his back, "Good lad."
~.~
The Doctor and Thea were looking through Ambroses Meals and Wheels van as she walked past with her arms full of gardening supplies.
"Oi!" she glared, "What're you doing?"
"Resources." Thea answered, "Every little helps."
"Meals on wheels." the Doctor muttered, "What've you got here, then. Warmer in the front, refrigerated in the back."
Ambrose dropped her supplies in the front of the van, "Bit chilly for a hideout, mind."
"What are those?" the Doctor frowned at the equipment, seeing a gun amongst them.
"Like you say, every little helps."
"No, no weapons." he shook his head, "It's not the way we do things."
"You said we're supposed to be defending ourselves."
"Oh, Ambrose, you're better than this. I'm asking nicely. Put them away." he turned and walked back into the church.
Thea stared at Ambrose a moment longer, the woman debating the Doctors words before she quickly ran after him and Ambrose shut the van door.
"How long?" the Doctor glanced at Thea.
"3 and half minutes." she answered promptly, not even looking at the countdown.
He nodded as Elliot came running up with his map, "Look at that. Perfect. Dyslexia never stopped Da Vinci or Einstein. It's not stopping you."
Elliot smiled at the praise, "I don't understand what you're going to do."
"Two phase plan." the Doctor told him as Thea turned to the monitors, "First, the sensors and cameras will tell us when something arrives. Second, if something does arrive, I use this to send a sonic pulse through that network of devices. A pulse which would temporarily incapacitate most things in the universe."
"Knock 'em out." Elliot grinned, "Cool."
"Isn't it?" Thea agreed.
"Lovely place to grow up round here." the Doctor remarked.
"Suppose." Elliot shrugged, "I want to live in a city one day. Soon as I'm old enough, I'll be off."
"I was the same where I grew up."
"Did you get away?"
"Yeah."
"Do you ever miss it?"
He swallowed, "So much."
"Is it monsters coming? Have you met monsters before?"
Thea moved away from the monitor allowing the Doctor to finish up, knowing him doing so would keep him distracted from Elliots questions. It was innocent enough and he didn't know any better, still, it hurt.
"Yeah." the Doctor nodded, typing away.
"They're not monsters." Thea murmured.
"You scared of them?" Elliot eyed the Doctor.
"No, they're scared of me." he gave a small smirk.
"Will you really get my dad back?"
Thea smiled at him, "that's a promise."
"No question." the Doctor agreed.
"I left my headphones at home." Elliot realised and hurried off.
Thea watched him go before turning to the Doctor as he focused on the monitors. She leaned against the desk, crossing her arms, watching him.
"What?" he asked, feeling her gaze on him.
"Why do you never talk?" she asked quietly.
"I talk all the time."
"About home." she amended, "you never talk about home and you always change the topic as soon as you can."
"Because it hurts." he whispered.
"I know." she swallowed, "they're...they weren't good people."
"The council weren't. But there were more innocent civilians who..."
"Who never even spoke out about the negative ways off life." she cut him off, "we lived in fear of the council, of what we saw in the Untempered Schism. We had to follow every single rule of the council or..."
"Thea, that's enough." the Doctor silenced her.
She hesitated, looking as though she wanted to say more before mumbling, "I...ill go check on Rory."
"Thea," he called after her, "No, I..." he sighed, resting his head in his hands.
All his talk saying he was listening to her and then he silenced her.
He couldn't help but think she wanted to tell him something.
~.~
"How're you doing?" the Doctor asked as he came to call everyone back inside, seeing Thea standing with Rory having a quiet conversation he couldn't quite hear as he approached, Thea had obviously either heard him or sensed him and didn't want him listening and fell silent. Which hurt a lot actually, to know she was having conversations with Rory that she didn't want him to hear. Of course he expected her to have private conversations with Luke and the gang, but with Rory, when he was only inside...
He shook his head. Had she been trying to tell him something? And he waved her off. He really didn't like to talk about Gallifrey or their people but she seemed to love to mention them to keep their memory alive, even if she had gone to talk quite so negative about them. Whenever he brought up Gallifrey he liked to remember the best of it.
"It's getting darker." Rory looked up, "How can it be getting dark so quickly?"
"Shutting out light from within the barricade." the Doctor said, "Trying to isolate us in the dark."
"It's here." Thea murmured as a low rumbling began.
"Back to the church." the Doctor called urgently, the three of them running back only to see Ambrose struggling to get the door open.
"I can't open it!" she cried, "It keeps sticking. The wood's warped."
The Doctor moved to help, showing his body against the door, but it wouldn't budge, "Any time you want to help." he looked at Rory.
"Can't you sonic it?" he frowned.
"It doesn't do wood." Thea crossed her arms.
"That is rubbish."
"Oi, don't diss the sonic." the Doctor snapped.
Rory rolled his eyes and stepped up to help, the three of them forcing the door open, where Nasreen and Tony stood inside. Thea shut the door behind her as Ambrose moved to barricade the door with the abandoned boxes.
"Don't!" she gasped as Ambrose looked at her, "don't barricade us in!"
"And why not?" she demanded.
She shrugged, "we might need to quickly leave." She turned, not noticing the odd look Ambrose gave her as she left the boxes.
The Doctor frowned at her before shaking his head, "see if we can get a fix." he mumbled, rushing to the computers only for the power to go out, the computers sparking, as they were left in darkness.
"No power." Tony announced.
"It's deliberate." Thea sighed.
"What do we do now?" Rory asked.
"Nothing." the Doctor sighed, "We've got nothing. They sent an energy surge to wreck our systems."
"Is everyone okay?" Rory turned to the others, "Is anyone hurt?"
"I'm fine." Nasreen nodded.
"I'm good." Tony agreed.
"Me too." Ambrose called.
Rory looked up as the rumbling got louder, "Doctor, what was that?"
"It's like the holes at the drill station." Tony remarked.
"Is this how they happened?" Nasreen wondered.
Thea knelt down, pressing her ear to the floor, "It's coming through the final layer of Earth."
"What is?" Nasreen asked.
Thea stood as silence fell.
"The banging's stopped." Tony remarked.
"Where's Elliot?" Ambrose looked around urgently, "Has anyone seen Elliot? Did he come in? Was he in when the door was shut? Who counted him back in? Who saw him last?"
The Doctor stiffened, "I did."
"Where is he?"
"He said he was going to get headphones."
"And you let him go? He was out there on his own?"
"He could be in another room." Thea tried to reassure her, despite the feeling in her stomach that told her otherwise.
As though hearing them, Elliot starting pounding in the door, "Mum! Grandpa Tony! Let me in!"
"Elliot!" Ambrose shouted, trying to pull the door open.
"Let me in!"
"He's out there. Help me!"
"Open the door. Mum!" Elliot cried, "There's something out here."
"Push, Elliot." Ambrose encouraged as everyone moved to try and get the door back open, "Push, Elliot. Give it a shove."
"Mum. Hurry up. Mum..." Elliot whimpered, no longer pounding on the door.
"Come on." Tony grunted, as the door finally opened, but there was no sign of Elliot.
"Elliot!" Ambrose shouted, "Where is he? He was here. He was here." she looked around, running down the hill, searching for him, "Elliot!"
"Ambrose, don't go running off!" the Doctor called after her.
"Ambrose!" Tony ran after her.
The Doctor ran his hand over his face, one day he would find someone who listen when he said don't run off. "Rory, watch Thea and Nasreen." he called as he took off to find Ambrose and Tony.
"He said stay." Rory shouted as Thea took off after the Doctor.
"This way," Thea told the Doctor, leading him to the humans where Tony was on the ground in pain, Ambrose kneeling besides him.
"What happened?" the Doctor asked.
"My dad's hurt." Ambrose sniffled.
"Get him into the church now."
"Elliot's gone. They've killed him, haven't they?" she sobbed.
"I don't think so. They've taken three people when they could've just killed them up here. There's still hope, Ambrose. There is always hope."
"Then why have they taken him?"
"I don't know. I'll find Elliot, I promise. But first I've got to stop this attack. Please, get inside the church."
Thea rested her hand on Ambroses arm, "they only store the young."
Ambrose stared at her horrified, "is that supposed to comfort me?" she shrugged of her hand, helping Tony back to his feet, leaning him back to the church as Rory hurried down to help, "come on, dad."
She didn't want to be anywhere near that girl now, if she thought that was meant to comfort her. She shook her head, all that did was make her worry more about her husband being down there as well. What were they doing to him?
"What was that?" the Doctor frowned at Thea.
She rubbed her arm, glancing behind her, as the bushes rustled, "I just..." she shook her head, "Silurians."
"What?" he frowned.
"It's just...Silurians live under the Earth, don't they?"
"I suppose." he nodded slowly, before clapping his hands together, "I've got an idea."
~.~
The Doctor walked around the area, a pair of sunglasses on his head, giving of heat readings. He looked over hearing a rustling in the bushes, but seeing nothing giving of a heat signature, "Cold blood." he murmured, "Thea was right. I know who they are." he called out in sing-song moving to the meals of wheels van, whistling and tapping the side to signal to Rory and Thea to be ready. He opened the door in the front, grabbing the fire extinguisher and shutting the door again, seeing the reflection of a reptilian humanoid behind him and quickly released the extinguisher to chill it.
The creature screamed, and Rory and Thea quickly jumped out the back of the van, the latter giving a battle cry as she jumped on the creatures back and over it, the three of them pushing the creature into the van and locking it inside.
"We got it." Rory cheered.
"Defending the planet with meals on wheels." the Doctor laughed, moving to high five Rory when another rumble sounded.
"What was that?"
"Sounds like they're leaving." Thea murmured.
"Without this one?" he nodded back to the van as the darkness disappeared, the sun shining back through, "Looks like we scared them off."
"No." Thea shook her head, "I don't think its that."
"Now both sides have hostages." the Doctor said grimly.
~.~
"Are you sure?" Rory asked as he followed the Doctor and Thea down the stairs to the basement where they had the Silurian chained up.
"Very sure." the Doctor nodded.
"But the sting?"
"Venom gland takes at least 24 hours to recharge." Thea stated.
"Exactly," the Doctor nodded, "I know what I'm doing. We'll be fine."
Rory hesitated a moment but turned and headed back upstairs to watch the others.
They walked down the remaining steps, watching the creature wearing some sort of chain mail armour, a dark mask overs its face.
The Doctor held up his hands as they stepped closer, "I'm the Doctor, this is Thea. We've come to talk. I'm going to remove your mask." slowly he reached out and removed the mask, reveal the humanoid feminine green scaly face.
"Oh, you are beautiful." Thea smiled, slowly stepped over so not to alarm them.
"Remnant of a bygone age on planet Earth." the Doctor remarked, "And by the way, lovely mode of travel. Geothermal currents projecting you up through a network of tunnels. Gorgeous. Mind if I sit?" he moved across the room, pulling out a folding chair and set it up before the Silurian as Thea crossed her legs besides him, "Now. Your people have a friend of mine. I want her back. Why did you come to the surface? What do you want?" she was silent, "Oh, I do hate a monologue. Give us a bit back. How many are you?"
"I'm the last of my species." she hissed.
"No." Thea stated, not believing that for a second, "Last of the species?" she tilted her head, "The Klempari Defence. As an interrogation defence, it's not believable."
"I'm the last of my species." she repeated.
"Liar."
The Doctor reached out a hand on Thea shoulder, "No. You're really not. Because we're the last of our species and we know how it sits in a heart."
Thea shifted to sit on her knees, resting her arm on the Doctors knees, taking her hand in his, hearing the darkness in his voice. Even she got defensive when people tried that on her, "So don't insult us."
"Let's start again. Tell me your name."
"I'm Thea," she introduced again, "and this is the Doctor."
"Alaya." she replied after a moment.
"Beautiful."
"How long has your tribe been sleeping under the Earth, Alaya?" the Doctor asked, "It's not difficult to work out. You're 300 million years out of your comfort zone. Question is, what woke you now?"
"We were attacked."
"The drill." Thea realised.
"Our sensors detected a threat to our life support systems. The warrior class was activated to prevent the assault. We will wipe the vermin from the surface and reclaim our planet."
"Do we have to say vermin?" the Doctor sighed, "They're really very nice."
"Primitive apes." Alaya spat.
"Extraordinary species."
"If you attack them, they'll fight back." Thea told her.
"But, there's a peace to be brokered here. We can help you with that."
"This land is ours." Alaya glared, "We lived here long before the apes.
"Doesn't give you automatic rights to it now, I'm afraid. Humans won't give up the planet."
"So we destroy them."
"You underestimate them." Thea remarked.
"You underestimate us." Alaya hissed.
"No, I don't, but one tribe of homo reptilia against 6 billion humans?" she raised her eyebrows, "Good luck."
"We did not initiate combat, but we can still win."
"Where are the people you took?" Thea demanded, "give us them back and we will send you back to your people, safe and unharmed, peace in our time. Please don't try to provoke a war when it isn't necessary."
"No."
The Doctor sighed, "I'm not going let you provoke a war, Alaya. There'll be no battle here today." he stood up, holding out a hand to help Thea to her feet, turning to leave.
"The fire of war is already lit." Alaya called after them, "A massacre is due."
The Doctor looked back at her, "Not while we're here."
"I'll gladly die for my cause. What will you sacrifice for yours?"
The Doctor just turned and walked up the stairs. Thea looked back at Alaya a moment longer.
"Don't try me." she warned before following the Doctor.
All too aware of how far she would go to protect the people she loved.
She could see a lot of herself in Alaya.
She wasn't afraid to take the first step into the dangerous unknown if it helped her people. She would gladly sacrifice herself for others.
She did it often enough with Luke, Clyde and Rani, she would always but herself in front of them if weapons were out. She didn't care if she regenerated, she had plenty left, but they only had the one life. She wouldn't let them die young.
She was very protective of those she loved.
~.~
"You're going to what?" Rory gaped as they all gathered in the main area of the church, having listened to the Time Lords explain their plan.
"We're going to go down below the surface," the Doctor explained once more, "to find the rest of the tribe, to talk to them."
"You're going to negotiate with these aliens?" Ambrose scoffed.
"They're not aliens." Thea argued lightly, "they lived here way before you did."
The Doctor nodded, "They're Earth-liens. Once known as the Silurian race, or, some would argue, Eocenes, or Homo Reptilia. Not monsters, not evil. Well, only as evil as you are. The previous owners of the planet, that's all. Look, from their point of view, you're the invaders. Your drill was threatening their settlement. Now, the creature in the crypt."
"Alaya."
"She's one of their warriors, and she's our best bargaining chip. I need her alive. If she lives, so do Elliot and Mo and Amy, because I will find them."
"So no one lays a hand on her." Thea added, looking between them, her gaze focusing more on Ambrose.
"While we're gone, you 5 people, in this church, in this corner of planet Earth, you have to be the best of humanity."
"And what if they come back?" Tony asked. "Shouldn't we be examining this creature? Dissecting it, finding its weak points?"
"No dissecting, no examining. We return their hostage, they return ours, nobody gets harmed. We can land this together, if you are the best you can be. You are decent, brilliant people. Nobody dies today. Understand?"
They nodded, Nasreen applauding but stopped seeing as no one else joined in.
"Rory," Thea stepped up to him, "You're in charge."
"Me?" he blinked, startled.
"You're the only one we can trust," she whispered, "keep an eye on her." she turned and skipping off with the Doctor to the TARDIS.
The Doctor smirked, seeing Rory surprised to be left in charge, he gave the man a small nod, assuring him that he agreed with Thea that he should be left in charge of the others, "you know what..." he began.
"What?"
"I think it's about time you take charge."
Thea stopped, staring at him with wide eyes, "what? Serious?"
"Yes," he smiled at her, "serious."
"Why? I mean...what if I mess up?"
"You won't."
"What if I do?"
"You won't..." he moved his hand over her mouth as she opened to argue again, "Thea, I trust you can do this." he crouched before her, "I need you to start trusting yourself. I'll be right by your side, but I know you can do this."
She bit her lip, seeing the sincerity in his eyes, "alright." she nodded, "I can this."
He grinned, "thata girl." he straightens up only to see Nasreen catch up with them, "No, sorry, no. What are you doing?"
"Coming with you, of course." she replied, eying the TARDIS, "What is it, some kind of transport pod?"
"Sort of, but you're not coming with us."
"He's right. You're not." Tony agreed.
"I have spent all my life excavating the layers of this planet," Nasreen said, "and now you want me to stand back while you head down into it? I don't think so."
"We don't have time to argue about this." Thea cut in.
"I thought we were in a rush." Nasreen agreed.
"It'll be dangerous." the Doctor warned, unlocking the doors.
"Oh, so is crossing the road."
"Come on," Thea turned and headed inside, right up to the console.
"Hey, I didn't agree to this." the Doctor wagged a finger at her.
"Who's in charge?" she smirked.
He opened his mouth and closed it again, lowering his finger, "alright," he gave a small chuckle, "I brought that on myself." Nasreen stepped in, shutting the door behind her and staring in awe, "Welcome aboard the TARDIS Now, don't touch anything. Very precious."
"Very old." Thea added, running a hand along the edge of the console.
"No way," Nasreen breathed as she walked over to them, "But...but that's, this is fantastic." she laughed, "What does it do?"
"Everything." the Doctor answered, "I'm hoping, if we're going down, that barricade won't interfere."
The TARSDIS jerked suddenly, knocking them off their feet and they grabbed the console for support.
"I wasn't me!" Thea cried, moving to the monitor to see what happened.
"Did you touch something?" the Doctor turned to Nasreen accusingly.
"No." Nasreen shook her head, "Isn't this what it does?"
"We're not doing anything."
"We've been hijacked." Thea called, seeing dirt and layers of crust fly past as the TARDIS fell through the Earth.
"They must've sensed the electro-magnetic field." the Doctor mused, "They're pulling the TARDIS down into the Earth."
"Brace yourself." Thea warned and a moment later the TARDIS landed with a crash, sending them to the ground.
"Where are we?" Nasreen asked.
Both the Doctor and Thea jumped up, racing to the doors.
"Hey, I'm in charge therefore I get to step out first." Thea huffed as the Doctor reached the doors before her.
"Oh, alright," he gestured to the doors, bowing deeply, "spoilt princess."
She stick her tongue out at him stepping out as he and Nasreen followed her out into a large cavernous room, roots and fungus covering the walls. A bit of loose soil fell on them from the hole they fell through.
Thea looked up, "must have fallen through the bottom of their tunnel system."
"Don't suppose it was designed for handling something like this." the Doctor agreed.
"How far down are we?" Nasreen wondered.
"Oh, a lot more than 21 kilometres."
"So why aren't we burning alive?"
"The Silurians must have some sort of shields to protect them." Thea reasoned, glancing at the Doctor, "anytime you want to tell us, would be great."
"Even better," he grinned, clasping his hands on her shoulder, "I don't know. Interesting, isn't it?"
"Is like this is everyday to you?" Nasreen asked them.
"Not every day."
"Every other day." Thea laughed, turning to lead them down a tunnel, "this way."
"We're looking for a small tribal settlement probably housing around a dozen Homo Reptilia?" the Doctor spoke as they walked, "Maybe less."
Nasreen stopped, catching sight of another tunnel, "One small tribe."
"Possibly." Thea murmured as the Doctor frowned.
"Maybe a dozen?"
"Maybe." the Doctor shrugged, glancing back to see Nasreen was staring at something and they back up to her, staring down at the large city.
Thea blinked, "maybe more...like an entire civilisation living beneath the Earth."