A/N: Welcome back! Let's continue reading!
I do not own Doctor Who. All I own is my OC and this story.
Please review and no flaming will be tolerated. Cheers :)
AN UNHOLY MESS
"Wish we could turn back time.
To the good old days.
When our mama sang us to sleep.
But now we're stressed out (oh).
Wish we could turn back time (oh).
To the good old days (oh).
When our mama sang us to sleep.
But now we're stressed out.
We're stressed out."
– Twenty-One Pilots: 'Stressed Out' (Blurryface [2015])
Corridor
The Doctor finds the nearest speaking tube and immediately talks into it.
"Deck twenty-two to the bridge. Deck twenty-two to the bridge. Is anyone there?" He reports in and immediately Frame answers him. However, Frame is injured and frightened.
"This is the bridge." He responded, weakly. The Doctor perks up, feeling relieved that somebody was alive that could potentially alert the right people to send help.
"Oh hello, sailor. Good to hear you." The Doctor praises Frame. "What's the situation up there?"
"We've got air." Frame confirms after a brief scan of the ship wide monitor in front of him. "The oxygen field is holding." He then hesitates, glancing off to the side towards the dead body of Hardaker, who had deliberately put his crew and the passengers in harm's way for whatever reason. Frame swallows hard before continuing. "But the Captain, he's dead. He did it. I watched while he took down the shields. There was nothing I could do." Frame confessed, feeling very guilty. "I tried, I really did…."
"Alright. Just stay calm." The Doctor reassures him. "Tell me your name. What's your name?" He requested.
"Midshipman Frame."
"Nice to meet you, sir. What's the state of the engines?" the Doctor asked, attempting to help distract the obviously scared sailor.
The Heart frowns when she senses the sympathy and worry coming from her tether and comes over to investigate. Frame turns towards another monitor and attempts to look at it from his current position but cannot get a clear enough glimpse.
"They're er… hold on." Frame takes a step towards the other monitor, unfortunately disturbing the injury he had sustained and lets out a pained cry, alarming both the Doctor and the Heart.
"Have you been injured?" the Doctor questioned, alert.
"I'm alright." Frame lies but stubbornly carries on and manages to get over to the monitor to confirm the Doctor's previous request. His eyes widen in horror. "Oh, my Vot! They're cycling down." Frame reveals and the Doctor swore silently underneath his breath when he realises what could happen next.
"That's a nuclear storm drive, yes?" He confirms with Frame.
"Yeah."
"The moment they're gone—"
"We lose orbit." The Heart finishes his sentence, with dread. Frame glances out of the window towards the Earth and pales.
"The planet…" He realises and the Doctor nodded grimly.
"Oh, yes. If we hit the planet, the nuclear storm explodes and wipes out life on Earth." The Doctor stated. "Midshipman, I need you to fire up the engine containment field and feed it back into the core." He instructs.
However, Frame has big doubts about the Doctor's advice.
"This is never going to work."
"It'll buy some time and keep the engines going until I can get to the bridge." The Doctor insists. The Heart suddenly feels a huge spike in fear and anxiety and locates it in Foon who had gone pale and had started to draw accurate, but unnecessary conclusions because of their predicament.
"We're going to die!" she fretted, and the Heart immediately goes over to the poor woman to reassure her as best she could. Thankfully, Astrid was already one step ahead of her, attempting to do the exact same thing.
Copper, however, wasn't helping matters.
"Are you saying someone's done this on purpose?" He questioned, sounding appalled.
"Quite possibly." The Heart confirms. "But we're trying not to focus on the negatives right now.
"We are. We're going to die." Foon continues wailing, and even Astrid looks bewildered that someone could go to such lengths to sabotage a cruise liner and jeopardise so many innocent lives.
"But we're just a cruise ship." She stated, and the Heart decides to pull rank while the Doctor was preoccupied with Frame on the bridge. She attempts to grab the surviving passenger's attention.
"Okay, that's quite enough!" She snapped, firmly. "We need to remain calm and not panic. We will all get through this together." The Heart stares all of them down with a firm, no nonsense glare. "Now, first things first. One. We are going to climb through this ship. Two. We're going to reach the bridge. And three. We're going to save the Titanic." The Doctor chooses this moment to rejoin his tether, having overheard her attempts to rally the passengers to help save themselves.
"Couldn't have said it better myself, my love." He compliments the Heart and rewards her with an approving kiss on the forehead. "Right then, follow us!" He seizes the Heart's hand and turns to head off down the corridor.
However, Slade immediately interjects.
"Hang on a minute. Who put you two in charge? And who the hell are you anyway?" He demanded, snidely. The Doctor already fed up to the eyeballs with this man, spins round and glowers fiercely at Slade. Enough to make the pompous man back up a little.
"I'm the Doctor, and she is the Heart. I am a Time Lord, and Heart is a Time Lady. We're from the planet Gallifrey in the constellation of Kasterborous. I'm nine hundred and three years old, and the Heart is…" He trails off, hesitating a little.
"…the same age." The Heart supplies helpfully.
"Thank you, darling." The Doctor thanks her, momentarily surprised by this, before continuing with his tirade. "And we're going to save your lives and all six billion people on the planet below." He finished and the Heart raises an eyebrow at them.
"Anyone got a problem with that?" she questioned.
"No." Slade was surprised, as was the rest of the survivors.
The Doctor grinned triumphantly.
"Good! Now, allons-y!" He crows before seizing the Heart's hand again and striding off, followed closely by everyone else.
Stairwell
The Doctor leads everyone to a bulkhead door which he has to shoulder open due to some debris that was leaning against it. The Heart sidles up to him.
"Never thought that I would be participating in a real-life version of 'The Poseidon Adventure.'" She commented dryly and the Doctor. He gives her a small smile and rolls his eyes a little before looking over her head towards the small group of survivors.
"Careful. Follow me." He instructs, while the Heart stays to help the others through.
"Rather ironic, but this is very much in the spirit of Christmas." Copper commented, looking amused. "It's a festival of violence. They say that human beings only survive depending on whether they've been good or bad. It's barbaric." He scoffs and the Doctor decides to clarify a few things with the misinformed historian.
"Actually, that's not true. Christmas is a time of, of peace and thanksgiving and…" He pauses and amends what he says at the last minute. "Oh, what am I kidding? My Christmases are always like this." He mutters, dryly.
"And it never gets old, dear." The Heart grinned at him when she catches up to them. The Doctor sifts through the rubble and jumps back when he finds a Host Angel trapped underneath some metal plates.
"We've got a Host." Then gets an ingenious idea. "It's got a strength of ten. If we can mend it, we can use it to fix the rubble." He realises and both Morvin and Foon step forward.
"We can do robotics. Both of us." Morvin reveals.
"We work on the milk market back on Sto. It's all robot staff." Foon explains and the Doctor grinned triumphantly at them.
"See if you can get it working." He requests before waving everyone else on. "Let's have a look." He leads the rest of them further up.
"It's blocked." Astrid reveals.
"So, what do we do?" the Doctor hints.
"We shift it." Astrid replies and the Doctor beams at her.
"That's the attitude!" He exclaimed, and the Heart takes one look at the gap in the rubble calculatingly before she straightens up and grabs a handful of her long skirt and rips it away. "Wha… what are you doing?" the Doctor stammers, looking a bit flustered when he sees what his tether is doing. She looks at him like it should've been obvious.
"Removing a tripping hazard," the Heart explained. "We've gotta crawl through this, and my skirt is only going to get in the way." Then she notices a rather lecherous expression on Slade's face when he saw what she had done, and she calls him out on it. "Oi! Eyes front, mate!" Slade flushes when he realises he had been sprung and the Doctor glares possessively at him. "I'll go through first to help everyone else." The Heart tells the Doctor who nodded.
"Good idea." He agreed and the Heart squeezes her way through the gap to the other side.
"I'm through!" The Heart reports back, and the Doctor immediately turns towards the others.
"Right! Rickston, Mister Copper, and you, Bannakaffalatta…" He pauses, looking a little bit frustrated. "Look, can I just call you Banna? It's going to save a lot of time." The Doctor asks the little red alien, who frowns and shakes his head.
"No. Bannakaffalatta." He insists and the Doctor groaned.
"Alright then, Bannakaffalatta. Follow the Heart." He requests and Bannakaffalatta nodded.
"Easy. Good." He heads towards the gap and easily slips through without any problems. However, the ship suddenly starts shaking and more debris shifts.
"This whole thing could come crashing down any minute." Slade panics, pessimistically and the Doctor once again glares at him.
"Oh, Rickston, I forgot. Did you get that message?" the Doctor casually asks him, and Slade eyes him suspiciously.
"No. What message?" He asks.
"Shut up!" the Doctor yells in his face.
"Bannakaffalatta made it!" the little red alien shouts.
"Send through the next person!" The Heart added. Astrid immediately volunteers.
"I'm small enough, I can get through."
"Careful!" the Doctor cautions her, and Astrid smiles reassuringly at him.
"I'm fine." She tells him.
Foon and Morvin are still tinkering away at the Host Angel, and Slade, who had obviously not learned his lesson, or was too ignorant of anyone else's feelings but his own, takes notice of them.
"Thing is," He comments slyly. "How are Mister and Missus Fatso going to get through that gap?" He asks, rudely. Foon pauses and looks over at him with a hurt expression on her face. Morvin glowers at him as the Doctor retorts coldly.
"We make the gap bigger. So, start!" He states and Slade very reluctantly and begrudgingly obeys. Morvin notices that Foon was tearful and immediately attempts to console his wife.
"Hey, hey. Come on, sweetheart. Don't listen to him."
"No, but it's all my fault, though. The tickets." Foon confesses and Morvin looks at her, perplexed.
"We won then fair and square." He reminds her, but Foon shakes her head insistently.
"I know. I never told you. I dialed the competition line five thousand times. That's five thousand credits." Morvin's mouth drops open at the confession and Foon cringes at his expression. "I might as well have paid for the tickets. I've been hiding the vone bill for months now."
"Five thousand credits?" Morvin was stunned. "You spent five thousand credits?"
"Don't hate me." Foon pleaded but was surprised when instead of being furious with her, Morvin gives a belly laugh. "What's so funny?"
"Five thousand?" He laughed.
"We'll never pay that off." Foon points out to him, but Morvin continues to laugh, confusing her.
"I know. I'll have to work twenty years, you mad, bloody woman."
"You're not cross?" Foon was puzzled.
"Does it matter?" Morvin responded. "Look at us. You drive me barmy." The Doctor looks over at the couple and smiles at the affection he could see in Morvin's eyes. "I don't half love you, Mrs. Van Hoff. Come here." He pulls a tearful but relieved Foon into his arms and embraces her.
"What happened? Did they find a doughnut?" Slade comments, and the Heart barks at him from the other side, having overheard the hurtful comment he had made about the Van Hoff's earlier and was curbing her language up until that moment.
"Shut up and keep shifting!" She snaps. Astrid is struggling with the rubble on the other side of the gap but is determined to help regardless.
"I can clear it from this side. Just tell me if it starts moving." She requests, then notices Bannakaffalatta sitting awkwardly on the floor not to faraway from the entrance he had just crawled through. "Bannakaffalatta? What's wrong?" The Heart glances over and frowns with concern as well.
"Are you hurt?" She asks him, but he shakes his head and immediately the Heart suddenly senses … shame. "No, something is definitely wrong. Even if you're not injured." She insists and Bannakaffalatta looks away.
"What is it?" Astrid joins in the interrogation.
"Can't say." Bannakaffalatta mumbles, awkwardly.
"Why can't you say?" the Heart asks gently, sensing that it was a particularly personal and touchy subject for him.
"Ashamed." He tells them.
"Of what?" They say in unison and react in surprise when Bannakaffalatta pulls up his shirt to reveal that he was…
"You're a cyborg?" Astrid whisper shouted and he nodded.
"Had accident long ago." Bannakaffalatta explained sadly. "Secret." The Heart smiles at him sympathetically.
"I'm very sorry that had happened to you." She tells him.
"But everything's changed now," Astrid insists, trying to cheer him up. "Cyborgs are getting equal rights. They passed a law back on Sto. You can even get married."
Bannakaffalatta looks at her with interest and gives her a coy smile.
"Marry you?" He asks, looking somewhat hopeful. Astrid looks flattered and smiles at him.
"Well, you can buy me a drink first." She laughs, before both the Heart and she assist him in getting to his feet. "Come on. Let's recharge you. Just stay there for a bit." They work together to get him to a nearby electrical socket and discreetly hook him up to it. But as they move away to continue shifting debris, Bannakaffalatta grabs both their arms and looks at them pleadingly.
"Tell no one."
"My lips are sealed, love." The Heart promises with a wink.
"I promise." Astrid nodded.
"What's going on up there?" the Doctor calls out, sounding both impatient and concerned that something might have happened to them. The Heart giggles and shouts back to him.
"Oh, nothing. Just witnessed an engagement. That's all." She explained, and the Doctor pulls a bemused smile before shaking his head and resuming shifting debris.
Stairwell
The Van Hoffs were laying on the finishing touches on their tinkering with the Host Angel. Morvin glances over at the Doctor and makes the announcement the Time Lord was waiting for.
"Almost done!"
"Good, good, good." The Doctor nodded, pleased that everything was running smoothly. He accesses the intercom and contacts the Bridge. "Mister Frame, how's things?" He asks and grimaces a little from the static that comes over the line as Frame makes an attempt to respond.
"Doctor, I've got life signs all over the ship but they're going out one by one." The Doctor raises an eyebrow at the sound of alarm in Frame's voice. He was also concerned that survivors were dropping like flies for no apparent reason.
"What is it? Are they losing air?" He asks.
"No." Frame confirms. "One of them said it's the Host. It's something to do with the Host."
"It's working!" Morvin announces triumphantly and the Doctor snaps his head in the Van Hoff's direction in horror, particularly after what he had just learned seconds ago from Frame. The Host suddenly comes to life and seizes an alarmed Morvin by the throat.
"Kill." It states robotically. The Doctor launches himself at them to help pry the Host away from Morvin.
"Turn it off!" He shouts in alarm. Foon makes a desperate attempt to do so but is finding it hard.
"I can't, Doctor!" She wails, as the Host tightens its grip around her frightened husband's throat.
"Doctor! What's happening? Are you okay!?" The Heart yells out when she, Astrid and Bannakaffalatta overhear the commotion from behind the gap in the debris they were attempting to make bigger for the rest of them.
"Not just now, darling. I'm a bit preoccupied!" the Doctor shouts back hastily as he and the Host start wrestling with an unfortunate Morvin caught in the middle.
"Kill. Kill. Kill." The Host continues chanting.
"Go!" the Doctor yells fiercely as he pulls out his sonic screwdriver and aims it at the Host. He groaned in frustration when it has no effect on the mechanical robot. "Double deadlocked!" The Doctor has no choice but to resort to prying apart the Host's hands from around Morvin's neck with his own two hands. It takes a few minutes, even with the Doctor's alien strength, but eventually he manages to free him. "Quickly, go upstairs!" He urges the Van Hoffs who do not hesitate to abandon the Doctor and the murderous Host Angel.
"Run, darling, run!" Morvin urges Foon as they both run for their lives; the Doctor easily keeping up with them and attempting to fend off the Host Angel as best as he could.
"Information: Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill."
"Foon! Foon!" Morvin panics when he sees that his wife was lagging behind due to her rotund size and lack of fitness. The Doctor claps anxious eyes on both Slade and Copper who were watching them approach with shock on their faces.
"Rickston, get them through!" The Doctor orders, but Slade shakes his head.
"No chance." He immediately turns tail and squeezes his way through the gap, much to the Doctor's disgust.
"Rickston!" An appalled Copper reams him out for his cowardice. On the other side of the gap, the Heart glowers at him furiously.
"You, unmitigated coward!" She spits at him, but Slade barely acknowledges what she had said. Foon freezes and stares at the gap with dread and immediately whimpers.
"I'll never get through there." She frets, but Copper recovers from his disbelief of Slade's callous actions and looks at the poor woman with brave determination.
"Yes, you can! Let me go first." He volunteered and went in ahead of her, before turning and offering Foon and hand through. The Host Angel, meanwhile, takes a swing at the Doctor's head. He ducks in time and misses the deliberate swipe to clear his head from his shoulders.
"Kill. Kill."
"It's the Host, they've gone berserk!" the Doctor realises and relays this to Frame back on the Bridge.
"Are you safe up there?" Frame asked, sounding very concerned. But is cut off by the sounds of Host Angels attempting to break into the bridge.
"Kill. Kill. Kill."
Ignoring his pain, Frame gets to the door control and activates it, causing the door to slam shut. It traps one of the Hosts' hands between the door frame and the sliding mechanical door.
The Doctor abandons the microphone, realising that Frame was dealing with his own problems right that second, and focuses on getting the Van Hoffs through the gap. However, it becomes clear that Foon is seemingly stuck.
"I'm stuck!" Foon wails, but none of the others were about to give in attempting to help her through to safety.
"Don't worry, love. We'll get you through." The Heart soothes Foon, who was straining with everything she had to pull herself through the gap.
"Come on, you can do it!" Astrid encourages her. The debris starts to shift, causing everyone to look up in horror.
"It's going to collapse!" Copper realises to his dismay.
"Oh, no you don't…" the Heart mutters and goes over to assist Copper in levering the debris up with a metal bar they had found earlier and were using as a prybar. "Just a little bit more…" She grunts as she and Copper press down further on the metal bar and Foon manages to get through. Now it was Morvin's turn. But it didn't seem like there was enough time before the Host Angel was likely to take out him and the Doctor.
"Rickston, vot damn it, help us!" Copper glowers over in Slade's direction.
"No way!" Slade was stubborn.
"Forget about him, Mister Copper. He's a pathetic waste of space." The Heart stated, caustically, earning a filthy look from said man for the comment.
"Morvin, get through!" the Doctor shouts impatiently, as he nervously eyes off the rapidly approaching Host Angel.
"Kill. Kill. Kill."
"Doctor, he's stuck!" Astrid realises and the Doctor groans out of frustration and desperation and starts pushing at Morvin's backside to help him out.
"Mister Van Hoff, I know we've only just met, but you'll have to excuse me." The Doctor grunted hurriedly before finally managing to get Morvin safely through the gap.
"Now, sweetie! Come on, get through!" the Heart shouts at the Doctor, who suddenly gets an idea and turns at the last minute to speak to the Host. "No! What the hell are you doing?!" The Doctor ignores his tether's protests.
"Information override! You will tell me the point of origin of your command structure!" the Doctor orders the Host Angel. Copper and the Heart struggle with the weight of the debris.
"I can't hold it!" Copper wails.
"Doctor, hurry up!" the Heart growls. The Doctor looks expectantly at the Host Angel who pauses momentarily to automatically answer the Doctor's request.
"Information: Deck thirty-one." It responds, and the Doctor nodded.
"Thank you." He clambers his way through the gap, and once he had cleared it; he gives Copper and the Heart the signal. "Let go!" They do so, and the debris smashes down on the Host Angel's head.
On the bridge, Frame manages to seal the door, which chops off the Host Angel's hand. It looks at him through the window in the bulkhead.
Corridor
Once it was clear that everyone was safe and unharmed by the sudden, and very random attack from one of the Host Angels; they continued making their way towards the bridge. Along the way, they came across an abandoned trolley that had trays of sandwiches sitting on top of it. The Van Hoffs instantly brightened.
"Morvin, look. Food!" Foon exclaimed happily as both she and her husband went straight for them.
Slade rolls his eyes with obvious disgust.
"Oh great. Someone's happy." He scoffed sarcastically. Morvin gives him a dirty look over his shoulder.
"Don't have any then." He stated matter of fact. The Doctor spots another nearby intercom and goes over to it to check up on Frame on the bridge.
"Mister Frame, are you still there?" He asks, worried. Frame's response was almost instantaneous. But he also sounded weary and even more frightened than before.
"Yes, sir. But I've got a Host outside." He explains. "I've sealed the door." The Doctor was pleased that Frame had the common sense to barricade himself in out of reach of the Host Angels, but he was also completely bewildered.
"They've been programmed to kill. Why would anyone do that?" He ponders out loud. However, Frame hadn't finished his explanation yet.
"That's not the only problem, Doctor." Frame continued.
"What could possibly be worse?" the Heart piped up, quizzically.
"Well, Miss. I had had to use a maximum deadlock on the door, which means no one can get in." Frame had obviously overheard the Heart's comment, but what he had said threw a potential spanner into the works for the Doctor's plan. "I'm sealed off. Even if you can fix the Titanic you can't get to the bridge." Frame stated, despairingly.
But the Doctor was already on 'plan B'.
"Yeah, right, fine. One problem at a time. What's on deck thirty-one?" He questioned Frame.
"Er, that's down below. It's nothing. It's just the Host storage deck." Frame confirmed, sounding a bit bemused about why that was so important. "That's where we keep the robots." The Doctor turns back to the intercom and scans the layout of the ship on the screen in front of him. The Heart suddenly points towards a section on the screen that had been completely blacked out.
"What can you tell us about that panel?" She asks Frame. "It's completely blacked out and registering nothing. No power, no heat, no light. Nothing at all."
"I've never seen that before." Frame admitted.
"One hundred percent shielded." The Doctor mutters looking intrigued but also disturbed. "What down there?"
"I'll try intensify the scanner." Frame states.
"Good man. Let me know if you find anything. And keep those engines going." The Doctor instructs before going offline. The Time Couple turn and see Astrid coming up to them holding out two plates of sandwiches to them.
"Saved you some." She tells them. "You might be a Time King and Queen from Gabbabee but you need to eat." Astrid reminds them and the Heart giggles at being called a 'Time Queen', while the Doctor smiles graciously at her.
"Yeah, thanks."
"You both look good for nine hundred and three years." Astrid observes and the Heart shrugged.
"We moisturise." She joked glibly, smirking when the Doctor snorted in amusement for the deliberate 'Cassandra' reference and elbows her in the side. The Heart playfully sticks her tongue out at him in response.
Copper comes over to them, looking excited.
"It must be well past midnight, Earth time. Christmas Day." He informs them and the Doctor brightens almost immediately.
"So, it is. Merry Christmas!" He responded, as Astrid looks at the Time Couple in a puzzlement.
"This Christmas thing, what's it all about?" She asked curiously.
"Long story," the Heart responded, covering her mouthful of sandwich to avoid showing Astrid her masticated food. "But long story, short; it all centers around the birth of a special baby boy over two thousand years ago."
"I should know, I was there." The Doctor nodded in confirmation. "I got the last room."
The Heart looks at him incredulously.
"You did not. That poor woman…" She chided him, looking appalled. Copper interjects once again.
"But if the planet's waking up, can't we signal them? They could send up a rocket or something." He pointed out, but the Doctor shook his head, looking apologetic.
"They don't have spaceships."
"No, I read about it." Copper insisted. "They have shuffles. Space shuffles…"
"Uh, Mister Copper," the Doctor decided to get a proper explanation from him. "This degree in Earthonomics, where's it from?" He asks, politely. Copper instantly looks sheepish and rather embarrassed.
"Honestly?"
"Inquiring minds want to know." The Heart nodded eagerly, just as curious about it as the Doctor was.
"Mrs. Golightly's Happy Travelling University and Dry Cleaners." Copper admitted, and both the Doctor and the Heart looked at him with stunned amusement.
Astrid blinked at him.
"You, you lied to the company to get the job?" She guessed. Copper looked ashamed of his actions.
"I wasted my life on Sto." He confessed. "I was a travelling salesman, always on the road, and I reached retirement with nothing to show for it. Not even a home. And Earth sounded so exotic."
"Hmmm, I suppose it is, yeah." The Doctor conceded.
"There are good points and bad points about Earth. But nothing to write home about." The Heart shrugged.
"How come you two know it so well?" Astrid asks them, curiously.
The Time Couple hesitated, as it was still a touchy subject with them.
"We were sort of, a few years ago, we were sort of made, well, sort of homeless, and, er, there was the Earth..." The Doctor explained clumsily.
"We lost our home planet." The Heart added, succinctly. "So, we adopted Earth as our new home."
"The thing is, if we survive this, there'll be police and all sorts of investigations." Copper fretted. "Now the minimum penalty for space lane fraud is ten years in jail. I'm an old man. I won't survive ten years." The Doctor opened his mouth to both reassure and give Copper some advice when there was a sudden loud bang that started everyone.
"A Host! Come on, we gotta go!" the Heart shouted.
"Move! Move! Move!" the Doctor hastened and started leading everyone down the corridor and further away from the murderous Host.
Engine Room
The Doctor leads the survivors and his tether through to the next bulkhead to a catwalk and a fallen narrow beam that formed a walkway across a massive empty space in the middle of the ship. Slade peers over the edge nervously.
"Is that the only way across?" He questioned. The Doctor also looked a bit uncomfortable himself but shrugged.
"On the other hand, it is a way across." He pointed out. Everyone looks over and pales when they see the 'engine' which looked more like a swirling sun-like ball far in the distance. Undoubtedly extremely deadly, should you accidentally trip and fall into it.
"The engines are open." Astrid stated, fearfully.
"It's a nuclear storm drive." The Heart explained. "As soon as it stops, the Titanic will fall." Morvin toed the edge of the pit before looking over into it, a little too precariously for the Heart's liking. "Ah, Morvin, I'd stand back if I were you…" She warned him, but he was too distracted by what he was looking at that he barely registered what she was saying.
"But that thing," he points at the narrow metal beam. "It'll never take our weight."
"You're going last, mate." Slade stated bluntly. The Doctor throws the selfish, arrogant man an annoyed look.
"It's nitrofin metal. It's stronger than it looks." He reassures, but Morvin and Foon still looked very doubtful.
"All the same, Rickston's right. Me and Foon should—" Morvin was cut off mid-sentence when the metal underneath his foot suddenly gives way when he was about to step backwards to safety, and he falls towards the engine furnace. The Heart attempted to make a desperate grab for him but was too late.
"Morvin!" both Foon and the Heart yelled out in horror.
"I told you. I told you!" Slade wails and Copper turns on him angrily.
"Just shut up. Shut up!" He growls at Slade, before going over to the Heart who was staring down at the furnace with wide, stunned eyes. "You're okay, Heart. Just come away from the edge." He urges, gently grabbing the 'younger' woman by the shoulders and pulling her back as the Doctor attempts to do the same thing to an inconsolable Foon.
"Bring him back!" She bawled before turning and looking desperately at the Doctor who looked back at her in anguish. "Can't you bring him back? Bring him back, Doctor!"
"I can't. I'm sorry, I can't." the Doctor soothed the poor woman.
"You promised me!" Foon accused brokenly, and the Doctor winced sympathetically.
"I know. I'm sorry, I'm sorry…" Foon immediately started weeping and turns to cry into Astrid's neck when the younger woman comes over to help the Doctor comfort him.
"Doctor, Heart needs you…" Astrid reminded him and he immediately glances over and sees the horrified Time Lady still staring down at the furnace, being comforted by Copper. He goes over and receives his tether from Copper.
"Darling, look at me." He urges.
"I failed him…" The Heart mumbles.
"No. No, you didn't. Sweetheart…" the Doctor soothed pulling her into his arms and planting a firm kiss on the crown of her blonde head. "There was nothing you could've done to prevent what happened. It was just bad luck." He stated firmly. The Heart shook her head stubbornly and turned away to hide her face in the Doctor's shoulder.
"Doctor, I think that those things have got our scent." Copper fretted and Slade had heard enough and makes for the metal beam.
"I'm not waiting!" He decided and took a step onto the beam.
The Doctor immediately yelled up at him.
"Careful. Take it slowly!" He exclaimed before the ship promptly shakes and Slade falls onto the beam, making the Doctor cringe. As much as he didn't like this man, he didn't want another death on his conscience.
Slade whimpered.
"Oh, Vot help me…"
"You're okay," the Doctor reassures him. "A step at a time. Come on, you can do it."
"Kill. Kill. Kill." They all freeze when they hear the Host Angels approaching off in the distance.
"They're getting nearer," Copper announces, anxiously.
The Doctor plants one more firm, but affectionate kiss on the Heart's head before reluctantly moving away from her and heading for the bulkhead door that was separating them from the murderous Host Angels.
"I'm sealing us in." He announces, earning a perplexed look from Copper.
"You're leaving us trapped, wouldn't you say?"
"Never say trapped, just inconveniently circumstanced." The Doctor corrects the man who nodded uncertainly.
"Oh." He responds as the Doctor pulls out his sonic and aims it at the bulkhead controls. Slade pulls himself together and gets back to his feet slowly before looking back at the group still waiting to cross.
"I'm okay…" He reassures them, but nobody is really listening or paying him any attention. Foon was still looking hopelessly down at the furnace; her eyes moist from the tears she had been shedding.
"Maybe he's all right…" the Heart snaps out of her fog and sadly looks over to Foon who was stilling being comforted by a sympathetic Astrid. She then realises that she needed to pull herself together and help the Doctor get the rest of them to safety. The Heart gets to her feet and walks over to the metal beam to supervise Slade's progress while the Doctor was preoccupied with the bulkhead door. "Maybe, maybe there's a gravity curve down there or something." Foon was hopelessly optimistic that her husband was still alive. However, the odds of him surviving the fall were slim. "I don't know. Maybe he's just unconscious."
"I'm sorry, Foon. He's gone." Astrid was gentle but resolute and Foon immediately begins sobbing once again in the waitress's arms. Slade finally makes it to the other side and cheers triumphantly.
"Yes!" He shouts gleefully. "Oh. Yes! Who's good!"
"Alright, Bannakaffalatta, you're next." The Heart instructs, coolly.
The little red half-alien, half-cyborg nodded.
"Bannakaffalatta, small." He immediately steps onto the beam and starts hurrying across.
"Slowly!" the Doctor urges when he looks over to see the progress; relieved that his tether seemed to have snapped out of her moment of self-loathing to focus on the situation at hand and help him. The Host Angels start hammering on the bulkhead door.
"They've found us!" Copper panicked. The Doctor abandons the bulkhead door and goes back over to the Heart's side and addresses Astrid.
"Astrid, get across right now. You too, darling." He also tells the Heart who nodded and reaches over to help Astrid to her feet.
"But what about you?" Astrid asks him, worriedly, causing the Heart to frown at her a little suspiciously. The Doctor misses this look as he is a bit more preoccupied with getting the survivors across safely.
"Just do it. Go on!" He insists, impatiently.
"You first." The Heart gives Astrid a light shove towards the beam before immediately following her.
The Doctor gestures insistently at Copper.
"Mister Copper, we can't wait."
"No, but we—"
"Don't argue." The Doctor immediately shuts him down before focusing on Foon. "Foon, you've got to get across right now." But the distraught woman just looks at the Doctor like he was crazy.
"What for? What am I going to do without him?" Foon laments.
"Doctor?" He looks over at Slade, who had been attempting to open the bulkhead door on the other side of the engine room. " The door's locked!" He chooses to ignore him momentarily and refocuses on Foon.
"Just think. What would he want, eh?" the Doctor prompted Foon.
"He doesn't want nothing. He's dead!" Foon wailed.
"Doctor, I can't open the door." Slade tries again, and the Doctor looks over at him impatiently. "We need the whirling key thing of yours." He insists and the Doctor straightens up and shouts back at him indignantly.
"I can't leave her." He insists.
However, Slade, typically is only thinking about himself and his own survival and not giving two shits about the fact that Foon had just watched her husband fall to his death.
"She'll get us all killed if we can't get out." Slade stated evenly, and the Heart groaned in frustration and hops off the beam and goes over to her tether.
"Let me have the screwdriver, sweetie." She offers. "It's the only way we'll get him to shut up and stop being so insensitive." The Doctor nodded in agreement and hands over the sonic "Keep trying." The Heart encourages his attempts to coax Foon to continue on without Morvin and heads back to the beam. Bannakaffalatta, Astrid and Copper are already making their way across just as the Heart begins climbing on with them.
Bannakaffalatta looks at her with alarm.
"Too many people!"
"Oi! Quit focusing on what I'm doing and get a move on! Keep going!" the Heart sharply responds to him and Bannakaffalatta eventually makes it across the weakest part of the beam, followed closely by Astrid.
It immediately starts crumbling.
"It's going to fall!" Astrid starts panicking, but the Doctor is quick to reassure her.
"It's just settling. Keep going!" He encourages. Suddenly everything goes quiet, and the Heart immediately gets a sinking feeling.
"Oh, great. Now what's happening?" She questioned out loud.
"They've stopped." Astrid stated with surprise.
"Gone away?" Bannakaffalatta piped up, looking confused.
"Never mind that. Keep coming." Slade states, waving frantically at them to continue climbing their way forward. The Doctor steps away from Foon momentarily, looking wary.
"Where have they gone? Where are the Host?" He asks rhetorically and Copper chooses that moment to look up.
He instantly pales.
"I'm afraid we've forgotten the traditions of Christmas. That angels have wings!" Copper exclaimed, fearfully pointing right above where they were, and everyone tilts their heads up to see that some of the Host Angels were currently gliding down to surround them.
"Information: Kill." One of the Host Angels pipes up before removing its metal halo from on top of its head.
"Arm yourselves!" the Heart yells and everyone, including the Doctor who immediately scrambles onto the metal beam, snatches up a bit of metal piping and uses it as a bat to fend themselves off the metal haloes the Hosts were throwing at them.
However, one manages to cut the Doctor's arm and another injures Copper's side. One of the haloes whooshes past the Heart; narrowly avoiding decapitating the Time Lady and nearly causing her to lose her balance and suffer the same fate as Morvin.
"HEART!" the Doctor shouts in panic, but the Heart glances over at him reassuringly after regaining her balance.
"I'm alright!" She stated, breathing a little hard because of the exertion. Eventually, it becomes too hard to continue fending off the lethal 'frisbees'.
"I can't…" Astrid whimpers. Bannakaffalatta notices this, and throws down his metal pole, looking very determined.
"Bannakaffalatta stop. Bannakaffalatta proud. Bannakaffalatta CYBORG!"
He opens his shirt and sends out an energy pulse. It short-circuits the Host Angels, sending them plummeting down into the engine core, except for one that lands on the catwalk behind where the Doctor had joined them when the Host Angels had appeared, to help defend the others.
The Doctor was impressed.
"Electromagnetic pulse took out the robotics." He realises and sends the little cyborg a beaming smile.
"Bannakaffalatta, that was brilliant!" the Heart agrees with her tether, but the triumphant grin on her face disintegrated when Bannakaffalatta immediately collapsed. "Oh, no!"
"He's used all his power." Astrid realises in dismay and goes over to him. The Heart scrambles forward too. The little red cyborg weakly opens his eyes and peers up at both women.
"Did…good?" He croaked.
"You saved our lives." Astrid confirmed, with a tearful smile.
"Bannakaffalatta… happy."
"We can recharge you. Get you to a power point and just plug you in." the Heart stated with a determination, but Bannakaffalatta just gives both of them a sad smile.
"Too late."
"No, but you got to get me that drink, remember?" Astrid reminded him, tearfully.
Bannakaffalatta lets out a pleased little chuckle.
"Pretty… girl." He croaks once again before promptly dying.
Astrid deflates before starting to fasten up his shirt. However, Copper comes over and stops her momentarily, reaching for a component on his chest. He looked uncomfortable, but confident with what he was attempting to do. The Heart looks at him incredulously.
"What are you doing?" She demanded, a little angrily.
"I'm sorry. Forgive me…" Copper apologises.
"Leave him alone!" Astrid protests, trying to push away his hands. But Copper resisted her attempts.
"It's the EMP transmitter." He explained, and both Astrid and the Heart pause and look at him questioningly. "He'd want us to use it. I used to sell these things. They'd always give me a bed for the night in the cyborg caravans. They're good people." Copper reminisces, fondly. "But if we can recharge it, we can use it as a weapon against the rest of the Host. Bannakaffalatta might have saved us all."
"Do you think?" Slade spat acidly. "Try telling him that." He points towards the Host Angel that was still currently lying behind the Doctor, reminding them that the danger wasn't over, and the Doctor immediately spins around and jumps back in horror when the Host Angel starts moving.
"Information: Reboot." It says promptly.
"Oh shit! Use the EMP!" the Heart shouts at the same time as Slade, the former scared that the Doctor was about to be killed. Copper presses frantically on a button situated on top of the EMP that sets it off. But nothing happens.
"It's dead. It's dead." Copper frets.
"It's got have emergency power!" Astrid insists, but the Doctor has another plan in mind to subdue the Host Angel.
"No, no, no. Hold on. Override loophole. Security protocol ten. Six six six. Er, twenty-one, four, five, six, seven, eight." Nothing was working as the Host Angel continues to reach for its halo. "I don't know, forty-two? Er, ONE!" the Doctor shouts and cringes away. But the Host Angel thankfully stops moving in for the kill and returns to its 'praying' position.
"Information: state request." It instructs the Doctor, who blinks at it in shock.
"Good. Right. You've been ordered to kill the survivors, but why?" the Doctor promptly asks.
"Information: No witnesses."
"But this ship's going to fall on the Earth and kill everyone. The human race has nothing to do with the Titanic, so that contravenes your orders, yes?" The Doctor asks.
"Information: Incorrect."
"But why do you want to destroy the Earth?" The Doctor was bewildered.
"Information: it is the plan."
"What plan?" the Doctor demanded.
"Information: Protocol grants you only three questions. These three questions have been used." The Host Angel explains to the Doctor who looks exasperatedly at it.
"Well, you could have warned me." He complained.
"Information: Now you will die." The Host Angel resumes reaching up for its halo. However, it is unexpectedly lassoed from behind. The Doctor blinks in confusion, then pales when he sees a determined Foon with red-rimmed eyes standing behind it, holding the rope.
"You're coming with me." Foon states fiercely before promptly jumping over the side, dragging the Host Angel with her.
"NO!" the Doctor screams.
"FOON!" the Heart yells after her with horror as she, the Doctor and the other survivors watch her rejoin her beloved Morvin. The anguish on the Doctor's face immediately turns into fury.
"No more." He vows, before making his way passed Copper and Astrid; following the Heart who was already in front of the bulkhead door Slade had been attempting to get open unsuccessfully. The Heart uses the sonic to unlock the door and wordlessly opens it and both she and the Doctor walk through it without another word.
A/N: Keep your eyes peeled for the third and final part of this chapter!