Update 08/25/23
I uploaded the rest of the chapters, but from this point on, I will be primary uploading chapters through Archive Of Our Own (AO3,) it's the same username: RKWesley.
Come by if you want to see more from this story, thanks for the company if you're sticking around here.
It's with a heavy heart, but I really like being able to delete questionable comments on my own terms.
Hope you understand.
-RK
Lying on the ground with their eyes wide, the trio discovered the bodies of the different scientists left on the ground after someone effortlessly killed them in quick succession in the same fashion.
Cleanly stabbed through the hearts once, dead centre, the scientists couldn't react fast enough, someone came up from behind without them realising what was happening, and likely only had a brief second before losing consciousness.
When the guards came to investigate, whoever done it was quick to dispose them, same way, straight through the heart.
"What… who… did this?" Taylor held a hand over her mouth in disgust at the sight of the deaths.
Seeing the clean carnage, Paul answers that it was possible that whoever backed the lab got scared and decided to do away with everyone involved with the experiments.
Alyson asks if it was the military's doing, but Paul responded that he doubted this was the case, before urging Alyson's help guiding them to the killer.
He didn't see the woman who took Alyson from her adoptive parents, there's a good chance she's in hiding from her killer, and if they're quick they can prevent her death.
Her blond hair bobbing, Alyson guided him and Taylor through the corridors, passing opened doorways with bodies on the floor with broken glasses glistening in the sickly white light above.
The killer was proactive, starting with victims further from others before ramping up their killings, and precautious by destroying the cameras above as they went, leading to Paul suspecting this was the work of a professional.
Nobody could scream since they were quickly killed, their bodies carefully dropped to the ground preventing them from creating a disturbance, before it no longer mattered as there's no left alive to warn.
How this killer got into the lab, Paul doesn't know, but they were familiar with it from the way they calculated how to efficiently kill the scientists before they could alert their coworkers.
Swift to the point, no gun, whatever weapon they used was silent as a grave, they were able to move through the corridors without anyone knowing what was going on until it was too late.
Her eyes widened, Alyson spoke up as she reminded the couple, "Arliss!"
He was still in the cell!
Following her, the couple ran through the corridors backtracking to where they found Arliss, Alyson nearly pulling the door off the hidden hinges as she forced herself inside.
Going through the cell block, the three discovered that Arliss was nowhere to be found, and his cell opened from the outside.
Whoever killed the scientists, and the guards took him.
For what reason, they don't know, yet.
Paul knows that they couldn't have gotten far.
"He wouldn't done this!" Alyson spoke for Arliss' innocence in the deaths as she worried that the couple would insinuate that he was part of the conspiracy.
Smiling at her, Paul assured her that he and Taylor were not thinking that they wanted to find Arliss as much as Alyson did.
With that, they resumed their search.
No map of the area and no longer they needed to mask themselves, Paul turned off the pocket watch before switching back to his Sonic Screwdriver, as it guided them to presumably the lead scientist behind the experiments.
It didn't look good, the Sonic Screwdriver was only able to lock on her computer, but not much else, and given how this killer operated, they're going to cover the killings up, by any means necessary.
With haste, the trio hurried, and with Alyson guiding them, Paul and Taylor were led to a closed office door.
Going ahead, Paul went towards the door, with his hand he got it opened with ease, inside he heard silence, and nothing else.
With his hearts beating against his chest, Paul walked through the doorway, where he saw a woman on the ground with similar wounds as the other scientists.
She was the first one killed; the blood was already dried.
Going around her desk, Paul investigated the contents left behind, but her killer had already gone through the desk prior, nothing stood out to him as he rejoined the women.
"Where could've her killer have gone?" Paul muttered under his breath before Alyson took a deep breath and pointed him in the general direction, thus began the hunt for the killer and Arliss.
The killer was backtracking to where they entered, but it looked like they came from a heavily restricted area of the lab.
Given Arliss being missing, the killer took him to gain access into the deeper parts.
With only one way leading towards the restricted area, the three walked with Paul and Taylor covertly speaking to each other.
"Could the assassin have been one of the scientists?" Taylor wondered if the assassin disguised themselves and went undercover as one of the scientists, once the order came through, they were able to kill the others effortlessly.
Wouldn't it be the first time a wolf hid among sheep.
"Capable of getting through the deeper parts, I don't know, that's a tall order even for an assassin," Paul didn't doubt the thought, but given how the scientists created Alyson, there would be suspicion, at most.
Once they catch up to the assassin, they can ask questions, as they reach the large grey doors latent with warnings.
Where there'd be two guards, there were two dead, same wounds, neither able to register what was happening when the assassin killed them.
Despite being capable of killing everyone swiftly while destroying the cameras, they didn't lock the doors into the restricted area.
Chewing on his lips, Paul turned to Taylor and Alyson as he wanted them to stay outside the doors, but Alyson protested, wanting to see this through and find Arliss.
She can handle herself, she swore, if she was a super soldier as Arliss says, then the assassin won't have a chance.
While it was in the same vein the assassin knew everything about her to have an idea how to handle her, still she wanted to see this through.
Reaching into her pocket, Taylor searched for something before bringing out a pocketknife, insisting that she can handle herself, as well.
Seeing the determination, Paul sighs before he makes them promise to stick together.
Stepping inside, it was colder than outside the corridors, sickly green light compared to the white outside the doors, and from there the three went looking for the assassin and Arliss.
Cold steel walls, racks with white body suits lined, warning signs posted everywhere on the walls, they hadn't found anyone else dead since stepping through the doorways, but Paul braced for when they inevitably did, since they hadn't found Arliss, yet.
There weren't many places for the assassin or Arliss to hide, Paul doesn't believe they found a secret passageway out of there, and there had to be a reason the assassin came back through here.
Could've easily fled through the opposite way after taking Arliss, but the assassin didn't.
There's a sickly smell in the air that made them cover their noses as they ventured deeper, their shoes sloshing in the unknown liquid that poured over the steel floor.
They briefly stopped when they heard a groaning noise before picking up speed and reaching the downed Arliss, clutching his chest.
"Arliss!" Alyson reached him first as she dropped to her knees, looking at him with worry in her blue eyes.
Kneeling beside her Paul and Taylor see blood oozing out of his chest.
Struggling to breath, Arliss groans as he groggily moved his head towards Alyson, his face struggled contorting into a smile.
"Where is he?" Paul quickly asks Arliss.
Groaning, Arliss mustered, "You… won't…"
Tears running down her face, Alyson held Arliss' hand.
Seeing movement in the corner of his eye, Paul caught sight of a figure moving.
Biting on his lip, Paul tried to reach into his pocket for something to stabilise Arliss, but Arliss refused.
He wanted this.
"What?" Alyson's eyes widened as Arliss explains that he wanted to be killed.
Having a pragmatic reason, Arliss can't be regressed back into a human, his DNA had been damaged by the experiments beyond repair, he was doomed one way or another.
So, he welcomed this.
"Who killed them?" Paul demanded to know the identity of the assassin.
Unable to shrug, Alriss instead said, "I don't know."
Even if he did, he doubted it would matter, and he bitterly said that he was glad that the assassin came, they all deserved to die for what they had done.
"What's going to happen to me?" Alyson worried about what'll become of her.
Smiling, Arliss expressed that Alyson had succeeded where others failed, she would be the one and only successful experiment.
And she will live a long-lasting life where she won't worry about being kidnapped, again.
The assassin believed so, too.
"You spoke to him?" Paul grew even more curious.
Something broke in the distance, Paul, incapable of letting this go, went after the assassin.
Wanting answers herself, Alyson jumped up and ran after the assassin, too.
Leaving only Taylor and Arliss.
Holding his hand as she comforted him during his final moments, Taylor sees that curious look in his eyes, and asks about it.
"Taylor…" he called out to her.
Her emerald eyes focused on him, Taylor goes, "What is it?"
Ragged breathing, Arliss warns her, "Don't look for it, Taylor. You may not like what you find."
Before she was able to ask what he meant, she watched as life wavered before finally ceasing behind those walnut eyes, his grip around her hand lessening.
Elsewhere…
Running around the area, finding dead test subjects, all with holes through their chests, all laying on the ground covered in unknown liquid, Alyson smelled the unknown presence, desperate to find the assassin, and getting answers.
Her senses of smell heightened; she tracked down the figure going towards the very back where there was an old grandfather clock.
"Wait!" Alyson shouts at the figure.
The figure stopped in their tracks as they turned their whole body towards her.
She could read the body language as someone who isn't panicking about being discovered, angry, as if they were expecting her.
"Took you long enough!" Alyson heard a woman call out to her.
Going towards the figure, Alyson sees the woman with curly brown hair, eyes, and fine lines on her pale face.
"Why…?" Alyson wanted to know.
Shrugging with a disinterested look, the woman goes, "I did you a favour."
With everyone dead, she has everything they ever done destroyed, no one will finish what the lab started.
Seeing the woman clearly as she stepped closer, Alyson questioned, "Who are you?"
The woman didn't respond, almost confused, baffled, before she changed the subject, telling Alyson that she knew that in a different life, things would have been different.
A lot more people would have been hurt, far worse than Alyson could imagine, but because things took a turn, what happened here will be a myth for generations to come.
"Your parents are fine. Go home. And don't worry, I'm thorough. Nobody's coming for you," the woman swats the air as she urged Alyson to go home to her parents, both alive and well, not a wound on them.
Seeing the look in her eyes, the woman sighs as she stated, "Don't ask too many questions, kid. You may not like the answers."
With that she turned around before opening the old grandfather clock and disappearing through it.
Hearing footsteps behind her, Alyson only turned her head once out of reflex, when she turned her head back to the old grandfather clock, it was gone.
"Alyson!" Paul called out to her.
Panic in his angel eyes, he was quick to grab her wrist before pulling her with him as he warns that the lab was on fire.
Alyson didn't notice, but the lab started filling up with smoke, that she only noticed because Paul said something about it, and when she turned her around to where she saw the old grandfather clock, all she saw was a wall of smoke.
Rejoining Taylor, the three fled.
Fire erupted from every room, taking everything with it, that it was lucky that they managed to return to the safety of the TARDIS without the lift collapsing or stopping in place of the power loss.
The fire overtook everything in mere seconds that it almost touched the TARDIS hadn't it disappeared sooner.
When it reappeared, it was outside the house.
"Everyone alright?" Paul coughed as he looked between the women.
Slowly nodding, the women affirmed that they're okay.
Alyson was going to tell Paul what she encountered, but for some reason, it was like someone told her that she shouldn't, but no one told her anything.
She instead followed him and Taylor out of the TARDIS and venturing on the dirt path leading up to the door.
Hugging them tightly, Alyson thanked the couple for rescuing her and they modestly told her it was their job.
"What about the lab, now?" Alyson asks about it.
Frowning, Paul admitted that there's a chance that nothing comes of it, it was a hidden lab with blood on its hand, far as he's aware, that it'll be buried with the rest.
For now, Alyson now has a chance to live the rest of her life in peace with her adoptive parents.
Handing her a calling card, Paul then added, "We're only a ring away, if anything happens, you know who to call."
Thanking them with a hug once more, Alyson watched as the couple departed back to the TARDIS, where Alyson watched it disappear before her very eyes.
The door opened behind her with her adoptive father poking his head out.
He started calling for her adoptive mother and the three had a reunion with Alyson describing everything that happened.
…
Standing underneath the large peach tree outside the house, a man in a fitted suit watched through the kitchen window as the family sat around the table.
His glowing eyes poked through the darkness as he watched Alyson hugging her adoptive parents tightly.
She briefly stopped with a curious look in her blue eyes.
Peering through the kitchen window, she stretched her neck out, when she didn't see anyone, she returned to happily hugging her adoptive parents.
The End