Author's Note: I did my best to write certain parts of this as realistically as possible, but wow some things are difficult to research! So, grain of salt, please!

Emerald Green

Chapter Eight

Mistake

Molly and the Doctor were approaching the city, too far behind the ship. There was already the sound of screaming ahead of them, and people running towards them, away from the streets.

The Doctor reached out and grabbed one of the retreating people. "What is it? Can you see it?"

The man shook his head. "No. No, but whatever it is it's ripping out parts of the street, and streetlamps, and knocking off parts of buildings. Some people tried shooting at it when it got there, but no one can see it."

"Do you know if-"

"Is anyone hurt?" Molly asked, ignoring the Doctor's irritated look at her interruption.

The man nodded. "Must be. There were people in the buildings."

The Doctor let go of the man's arm. "Where is it? What section of the city?"

"It was headed for Germany. You should run," the man suggested. "It's big. Whatever it is, it's huge."

"No," the Doctor replied. "But thank you. You should head toward the World Market, on the opposite side. It's been headed this direction; I don't think it'll go back."

The man nodded, and took off running.

Molly listened to the screams, the sounds of crushing concrete, the unmistakable sound of the collapse of walls. Suddenly everything was very real. People might be dying just ahead of them. And they were the city's best hope at stopping it. The world on their shoulders. "What do we do?"

"I don't know," replied the Doctor, his eyes scanning the top of the city ahead of them. "I usually just start talking and figure it out somewhere along the way. For now, follow the smoke."

She looked back at the city, and noticed the trail of red smoke the Doctor had been tracing. He took off again, and Molly followed after him. They entered the city again through a gap between buildings. Molly looked around and shuddered. Chunks of buildings were ripped out, almost like something had taken a bite out of them. She could see into people's apartments, see people trapped by rubble and trying to climb out. Others were reaching out of pits caused by the collapsed sidewalk, and a few people had stopped to try to unbury them. People rushed by, some holding bleeding head wounds (which made her feel woozy), others carrying children. Almost everyone was screaming, in fear, in anger, in sheer terror. This up-close-and-personal panic was not something they'd shown on the show. But it was something she'd seen before.

Molly made a split-second decision. "Doctor!"

He turned back to her. "What? Do you see something?"

She saw a lot of things. "The damage. It doesn't have to cause the damage; it's doing it on purpose."

"Yes," the Doctor agreed. In his eyes she saw focus, but also sadness, and some anger. "It's attacking the city."

"Did it land here on purpose?"

"I don't know." He turned back when another crashing sound echoed down the street. "Molly, we have to catch up with it. We have to try to stop it."

Molly looked around herself again. "No. You need to try to stop it." She held the gavel out to him. "You need to prevent it from causing more harm. You need to find out what it wants. I'm not going to be much use in that. But I can help here. I'll do the most good here."

The Doctor took a few steps towards her. "I know you want to help people, but think of the bigger picture. That thing, whatever it is, has to be stopped before it destroys everything."

"I know that. But you know what you're doing there. I know what I'm doing here." She held the gavel closer to him. "I'm going to organize these people as quickly as I can, so they can have a workable system of evacuation and rescue efforts until medical, fire, police, whoever arrive. This way, you can work on prevention, and I can work on recovery. I'll catch up, I promise."

He looked torn. She could see him wondering how long it would take to convince her to follow him. Too long, he seemed to decide. He made a growling sound of frustration. "Why are you like this?! And why did I say this was my favorite part of you?!" His hands and voice said he hated it, but his eyes reflected some admiration. "Taking care of the ordinary people. Alright, fine. Fine! Keep the gavel, in case you suspect something has come back here. Don't risk yourself, and catch up to me as soon as you can."

Molly nodded. "Just follow the smoke, right?"

"Right." The Doctor looked around for a moment, and clapped his hands together. "Okay. You get this done, I'll get that done. Somehow. I'll see you in a bit."

"See you in a bit," she promised. After a moment of hesitation, he turned to run after the ship. Molly glanced around, and looked for a place to get everyone's attention, and hoped she hadn't gotten in over her head. Phoebe, Heather, Olivia, Eleanor, Nina, Ivy, Xyla. There – some sort of truck with a tall cab. She stuck the gavel in her boot, ran over to the bed of the truck, which was also unusually high, and used the slight spring in the ground to lift herself up. She waited a moment for the pain, and when she remembered again that it was gone, she ran across the truck bed, and pulled herself up on top of the cab. She got to her feet, took another quick look around, and whistled while waving her arms over her head. She'd learned the high-pitched, echoing whistle during her time volunteering for relief efforts.

"Okay! Okay! Everyone who can hear me! We need to get organized if we want everyone to survive!" She was shouting at the top of her lungs. She was grateful when she saw most people near her look at her, even the people behind her. They seemed confused, maybe a little suspicious, but she had to get them to listen to her. "This isn't my first rodeo – uh, disaster. So please listen!" Her mind raced ahead to the most important tasks: Evacuation. Medical. Rescue. They needed supplies. "Take a look around! If your car still works, please come line it up. We'll use them to evacuate people to the World Market on the fastest possible route. You'll drop people off, come back, and pick up more, okay? You're the evacuation team. We're getting out anyone who can't help. Anyone who can, stays. Got it?" She looked around, and no one moved. She clapped her hands over her head repeatedly. "Come on, get your asses in gear! You want to save your city or live with the fact you ran away when someone needed you? Because, trust me, it's not as easy to live with as you think. Let's move, people!" Well, she'd assisted with disaster relief. That didn't mean she was good with people.

Two or three people moved down the street, finding their cars and preparing to line them up. Molly smiled. "Okay, that's better! Anyone medical?" She saw a few people acknowledge her. "Get a marker, lipstick, anything you can use on skin. Decide on symbols, and then one of you use them to start triaging. The others set up a clear space away from fire to take people too injured to evacuate until stabilized, then come back and start patching people up. I need another couple volunteers to work with the medical team to find the supplies they need!" People still seemed hesitant, but a few impatient glares from her earned her two volunteers. "Great. Next, we need people to grab any digging implements you can find, and rope or cord, and anything to use as counterweights. You're the rescue team. Dig people out, but be careful! If someone has a crush injury, don't remove it until the medical team has seen them! The same goes for anyone with a foreign object sticking out of them. Let's also get people out of these buildings, so grab ladders. Get some scarves and handkerchiefs and cover your mouths if you're anywhere near fire, and get some fire extinguishers or buckets of water ready. If you're going to get close to fire, drench yourself first. Are we clear?!" At that moment, there was nothing as beautiful as the sound of assent. "Okay, then! Let's get moving!"

The area around her was mobilized, and she saw others spreading the plan in the distance. She climbed down and joined a group nearby that was finishing digging a woman out. She pulled the woman back onto the surface, and immediately had to look away as the red soaking the woman's clothing made her dizzy and her vision was obscured with flashes of red. She looked up. The path of red smoke had gotten longer, and more twisted around the city. But she could see the source of the smoke.

Molly ran to a set of stairs that looked like a fire escape and climbed up to the roof of a nearby building. She could see from there the pathways and streets that wound through the city, and see exactly where the 'ship' was. She quickly calculated a shortcut through and climbed back down, and took off running full-sprint.

Please let him be safe. The Doctor was almost always safe, of course, no matter the danger of the situation. But this was real life, not TV, and she had made him face the 'ship' alone. Had that been the wrong decision? She couldn't help but feel she'd abandoned him. But she also couldn't help but feel that her efforts to help the injured and trapped were just as important as the Doctor's task.

She was reaching the source of the smoke now, watching it flow a few streets over in what was clearly a poorer part of the city, filled with worn buildings and tight alleys, and a downed power line. Before long, she heard the Doctor's voice with relief. He was shouting at something – the ship, probably – but it took her a little while longer to make out his words. "Listen to me! Listen to me. You don't have to do this. I can help you! Please, just listen!" he begged. He wasn't far away – maybe a street over?

A sharp right turn down an alley, out onto the next street, and a few feet down, she could see him. He was down another alley, trapped against the brick wall of a dead end. Between him and her, she saw the air move like a ripple. She crouched down and started approaching it from behind, hoping it wouldn't hear her sneaking in on her toes.

There was a loud, grinding sound, and she heard the Doctor continue, "I know you're scared. I know you're angry. But you don't have to do this! You can go in peace!" There was another grinding sound. The Doctor hadn't even seen her yet; he was so focused on the ripple. And now Molly could see it was getting closer and closer to him. "No – please – let me help you." He said something else, so soft she couldn't hear it. Still, it continued to corner him.

Her heart beat painfully fast. It, whatever it was, was coming for him, and nothing he said was making it stop. If it could tear buildings apart, it could definitely tear the Doctor apart. If it was him or her that died, she chose her. But what could she do? How was she going to stop this thing she couldn't even see? How could she buy the Doctor more time? What did she even have?

The gavel. That was it. She pulled it from her boot, and stood. She pulled her arm back. Phoebe, Heather, Olivia, Eleanor, Nina, Ivy, Xyla. She let the gavel fly before she registered the Doctor's cry of 'no'.

It was too late. The mallet hit whatever it was with a loud th-wack against the hard metal. She saw some part of it fall off, a round, bronze keyboard thing of some sort. There was a clanking and hissing sound that almost sounded like a roar, and sparks against the sidewalk as whatever it was turned. "Come on!" she screamed, then took a deep breath, turned, and ran.

The sound of its footsteps – if it had feet – were nearly silent, but the metal still made the odd squeaking sound. It was following after her. A flood of relief quickly gave way to a flood of terror. She hadn't thought of the Part Two of this plan. Hopefully, like the Doctor, she'd think of something on her feet.

What stops a giant mechanical ship? She wasn't technical, not like the Doctor, not even like the average person. She couldn't even figure out Snapchat. So how was she going to stop this thing? She racked her brain for anything she knew about robots, which was essentially what she'd seen in movies. A giant magnet? An electrical surge?

That was it. The downed power line. She just had to loop around and somehow trick it into walking into the electricity. Which probably wasn't possible, and she wasn't sure if it would even work, but it was the best option she could think of.

She took a sharp right down a narrow street, leaping over discarded items people had abandoned in order to run. Molly was even more grateful to the TARDIS as she realized how much easier it was to move after the stretches, but still her legs screamed in agony. Too much running, too fast, too soon, and with burns up and down her legs. She glanced back to see if she still had a lead on it, but could just barely make out the air moving behind her, not enough time to register how far ahead she was. The squeaking was just a blur in her ears, barely audible over the wind blowing past her as she ran as fast as she could. Another right.

Molly spotted the Doctor up ahead. "Molly! This way! Now!" he shouted, then turned back down the alleyway he'd come from, leading back to the street she'd started the chase on. Another sharp turn, but too sharp. She slipped and hit the concrete, the road ripping up the burns in her legs. She screamed, and thought for a moment that she wouldn't be able to stand again. I will not be that girl in a horror movie, she thought, and pressed her palms into the ground in order to get back on her feet. As soon as she could, she darted down the alley – just in time, it seemed, as the concrete where she'd been lying imploded in on itself.

She made it to the other side of the alley, where the Doctor waved her out of the way. She dodged to the left, hitting the hood of a car, just in time for the sparks that marked the creature walking through the narrow alley stopped. As she turned to lean back on the hood of the car, she saw the ripple emerge. The Doctor aimed the sonic screwdriver at it, taking slow steps backward, his face determined. It didn't take long for there to be a slight rumble to the ground, and then the ripple turned into a shimmer, which revealed a tall, large creature made up of metal and screens and wires, almost in the shape of a wolf, with a large hump on its back like a bear. It was sprawled across the street, unmoving.

Her breath was so ragged it took some time to put words together. "Is it…dead?"

"Turned off," replied the Doctor, as he slid the sonic back into his pocket. "The others should be turned off, now, too. They're connected by a network, sort of like Wifi, but not really at all like Wifi."

"Others?"

"A group of them. They all must have crashed and emerged from the hole, going different directions. I didn't see any of the footsteps headed for the World Market, did you?"

"No, but I…" Breath in. Breath out. "I didn't see any others."

"There were a few. They weren't a real ship, they were robots created to serve as whatever their creators needed – in this case, an escape pod."

"Where did they come from?"

"Better question!" he announced, and turned towards her, his eyes narrowing as he approached. "What the hell do you think you were doing?" The anger in his voice was so thick it seemed a question he would have bellowed, but instead his voice was quiet, almost cold.

Confusion filled her head and made her dizzy. "What are you talking about?"

"You don't do that. You don't put yourself in danger on my behalf, ever. You don't attack anything unless it's in self-defense, ever. You're not smarter than me, you're not as experienced as me, and you never will be." Don't try to play games with me, don't ever think you're capable of that. The Impossible Astronaut. That's what he was reminding her of in that moment. "You don't make those decisions. I do."

Exhausted and confused wasn't enough – now she was hurt, and with the hurt always came the anger. "What are you talking about?" she repeated. "It had you cornered! It was going to kill you!"

"No, it wasn't." The louder her voice became, the quieter his. "It was speaking to me; we were making progress."

"But it was just making noise-"

The Doctor sighed, exasperated. "Code, it was speaking in code, Molly. Computer code, using the squeaking sounds to speak to me. It was afraid, they're all afraid, and the fear made them angry, and being attacked made them rage against their attackers, but I was getting through to it before you attacked it. Which left me no choice but to attack it back. I promised it no human was going to hurt it again, but you did, and now it will never trust me. Now I'll have to leave them all shut down. I've essentially killed them all, a whole new, intelligent, robotic species." He paused clenching his jaw, pressing his lips together. "And it's because you decided to try to save me by putting yourself in danger. Because you attacked it." The disappointment in his eyes felt like needles in her heart. "I thought you'd know better."

As he stared at her accusingly, she stared back at him, knowing her eyes and expression were blank. She hadn't found an emotion to portray yet. She was devastated by their deaths – but wasn't it necessary to save others? She was relieved – but wasn't it tragic to destroy these new beings? She was angry – but wasn't he right? He was angry – but wasn't she right? "I'm sorry," she said in a breath, finally. "I am. But I'm also not. And I want to talk about that, but later. More important right now is trying to figure out how to save them."

The Doctor frowned. "Didn't you hear me? I can't turn them back on. The people that built them enslaved them, made them to be used for whatever they needed, whatever they liked, and when they gained sentience, their creators didn't care. When their creators used them as an escape pod, the robots ejected them into space, and crashed here. They think humans are a threat to them, that they'll be enslaved again. And now that you've attacked them, they have no reason to believe otherwise."

"Okay. Can you just…wake this one up, but keep it from moving? So we can explain?"

"No," replied the Doctor. "No, I can't turn it on partially. It's on or it's not."

Molly ran her hands down her face. "Okay. Could you program some kind of message using the code, and then turn it on, so it'll know the moment it wakes up?"

"Not now you've knocked off the control panel," said the Doctor. Molly remembered the bronze thing that had fallen off when the gavel hit the robot.

She turned and headed back to the alley to find it. "There's got to be some way to reattach it, then."

"Molly," came the Doctor's irritated voice as he followed behind her. "Do you think I haven't already thought of all of this?"

The anger exploded in her mind like a field of red. She spun around. "I don't know, okay?! I don't know what I'm doing! I know that. I am aware. But there has to be something, there always is, so please, if you could, kindly explain to me like I'm four years old why it can't be repaired, why there is nothing we can do. I know you're good at talking to people like they're stupid, you do it to people all the time, and you clearly think that's what I am, so go for it. Tell me why I can't fix this."

They'd switched places. Now she was angry, and his expression was nearly blank. She thought she saw a trace of hurt around his eyes, but she couldn't be sure. If it was there, well, then good. He'd hurt her, and in her anger, hurting him back felt justified.

The Doctor shifted his weight a few times before clearing his throat. "They're all connected, it's part of their system. If I do anything to it, if I touch it, and something goes wrong, it will just make everything worse."

"If it's dead either way, what does that matter?"

"I'm not familiar with this technology. I don't know if something I do might turn it into a bomb," the Doctor explained. "They were built to be used as everything, it's possible that includes as missiles. And if I accidentally turn this one into a bomb, and they're all connected, then the others may go off, too, creating explosions all over the city."

Okay. Another strategy. "If you turned it back on, do you think it could tell you how to repair it?"

"Molly, I can't risk turning it back on."

"But if you could," she insisted, turning again to find the part she'd torn off. "Say I can buy us a couple of minutes. If it can understand your words, it can understand mine. Maybe if I'm holding the part out to it, if I'm apologizing, if I'm on my knees showing submission, it will pause long enough for you to convince it to let you help repair it, to cease hostilities and save them."

The Doctor grabbed her arm to stop her just as she reached the alley the Doctor had been cornered in. "And risk your life again? Give it the perfect opportunity to kill you before I have to kill them again?"

She tore her arm out of his grasp and took a few steps back. "Look. I did this, but I can't fix it on my own. My life isn't more important than theirs, even if they're technically machines. So, let's just try this, and if I get through to it, everything is fine, and if I die – I die." She did her best to stare him down despite his height advantage, his age and experience and intellectual advantage. "We're going to do this. If there's any chance it'll work, we have to. And yeah…I'm making that decision on my own. Because risking my life should be my decision. Not yours."

Two feelings seemed to be at war inside him, and she couldn't identify either of them. He soon turned and stalked away, and pulled out the sonic screwdriver. He passed it from hand to hand again, pacing. She was about to speak when he spun back towards her. "You are infuriating!" he shouted. She took a breath to shout something back, but he continued, pointing the sonic at her to emphasize his words. "And if you survive this, we're going to have a chat on the TARDIS."

Molly couldn't help but smile. She didn't want to risk her life, but she'd rather die than live with the consequences of her actions weighing her down. "Good. I want that chat, too."

The Doctor frowned, but she spotted some pride in his eyes. "Well, good, then," he said, a little ornery. "You'll save them, and we'll head back." You'll save them. He specifically said that she would.

Which was a comforting thought. If it worked.

Molly knelt, nearly completely across the street from the creature, the control panel in her hand, breath hitching in her chest, as she waited for the Doctor. He stood to one side, near the hood of the car, and aimed the sonic at the robot.

"Ready?" he asked.

She took a deep breath. "No. But let's do it."

"If it lurches at you, dive under, then roll out," the Doctor reminded her of the plan they had made. She nodded. "Three…two…one." The unmistakable sound of the sonic echoed in the breeze, and slowly, the creature in front of her began making a grinding sound, gears inside beginning to turn. She watched, uncertain of when it was fully awake. The Doctor helped with that. "Now, Molly."

She was surprised to hear herself clear her throat like she was about to give a presentation in school. "Um. Hi." Strong start. "My name is Molly Quinn." Introduce yourself. Make them see her as an individual, and one that was willing to take the time to give them information about herself. "There's been a misunderstanding." Was this how one spoke to a robotic creature that may, potentially, kill her? "I thought you were going to hurt my friend. I didn't mean to really hurt you." She held the part in her hands out towards it. Them. "I found the bit I broke off. We wanted to know if you could tell us how to fix it for you." This didn't feel like enough, and now they were getting to their feet, or paws, or whatever they were. She took a breath and tried again. "I'm genuinely very sorry. I let my fear dictate my actions, and I should have done better. I will do better. You deserve better. You and your…friends." Something. Something, something more powerful than this. "All you've known is cruelty. You were born of cruelty, and lived in cruelty. You deserve more than that, and we want to help you find it."

They stood, but didn't move closer to her. There was no sign they fully understood her, or understood her at all. But they must have – the Doctor had spoken to them.

Molly heard creaking noises as it stood to full height, and then a few clicks and beeps and squeaks. She turned to the Doctor, waiting for a translation, but his eyes were on the creature. "Right. I'm lowering the sonic," he said calmly. He did so, even sliding it into his pocket. "See? Completely unarmed. She's telling you the truth. We just want to help." He paused, and the sounds returned. She wished the TARDIS would translate the code. For now, she had to try to infer what it was saying from what the Doctor's replies were. "Yes, I can reattach it, if you tell me how." He paused, and realization lit up his face as the creature 'spoke' again. "Oh. Yes. Yes, of course." The Doctor turned to Molly. "Toss me the panel."

Molly slowly got to her feet, hoping the creature didn't view that as a threat. But then, it was easily three times her size and made of metal. She was hardly a real threat to begin with.

She turned and threw the Doctor the panel. "Can you fix it?"

"Better," replied the Doctor. He pulled the sonic screwdriver back out of his pocket and aimed it at the panel. A moment later, sparks flew from the panel, and the Doctor tossed it aside into some rubble. He turned back to the creature. "There. Now no one can control you. You're free. We'll remove them from the others, as well."

A long moment of silence. Molly held her breath and looked from the creature to the Doctor, watching every bit of his face for any emotion that would tell her what was going to happen next. Just as the moment was stretching on so long she felt she would scream, a sound came from the creature. The Doctor's eyes closed, and he released the breath he'd been holding, too.

A sigh of relief or failure? "What? What is it?"

The Doctor turned to her, and she caught a smile in his eyes. "Time for peace talks." And just as suddenly as he'd smiled, he frowned. "And then it's time for that chat."

Author's Note: One more great, big 'thank you' to those of you who have reviewed, favorited, followed, or even just read. You're rock stars.