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A Little Blue Box | Saelent & carsgovroom

Adrian felt his stomach drop as Cassie paused in her answer, the effect didn't have time to show on his face as she gave the answer he had been hoping for. Part of him had expected it and the Hologram's voice in his mind muttered something about '90 percent of them say yes'. But he didn't care about that, he just returned Cassie's hug, for the moment he didn't care about the past and right now he didn't notice a lack of old memories...
This was going to be his first adventure - and he was terrified.

"Cassie." He began, not letting any trepidation enter his voice. "If you couldn't fit comfortably inside, based on my observations, you wouldn't be able to get through the door." He grinned down at her, he then stepped back and took her hand as he started to walk towards the TARDIS. He came to a sudden stop and looked back at Cassie's home. "One thing..." He muttered and let go of her hand to and jogged up to the door, he closed it and jogged back to Cassie. "Even if you left the stove on...I'm sure I'll be able to set it to bring you back only five minutes later." Adrian grinned at Cassie again as he took her hand once more.

There wasn't a tremble in his fingers or a look in his eye that gave away how scared Adrian was feeling. Apparently as well as not being able to stay serious, he could hide his feelings very well too.
Adrian stood before the door and rooted through his pockets. "Right rear pocket." The Hologram pointed out and Adrian followed the suggestion. The key fit into the lock with less of a 'click' sound and more of a 'snick' Adrian hadn't noticed that before, but pushed the observation aside as he stood right of the door and tugged Cassie right in front. He looked at her and had his hand on the door ready to push.
"All of time and space...apparently..." Adrian bit his lip on the last word, then shrugged and pushed the door open before stepping through quickly.

"I don't know how much the heating costs so come in! Don't let the cold in!" Not that it had felt particularly cold outside. The Hologram...or Hallucination, had stood himself directly opposite the doors. Adrian moved himself smoothly around the figure as to avoid contact and placed himself at the console.
Unseen and unheard, the Hologram watched Cassie enter and even raised his eyebrows as she unknowingly passed through him.

Adrian simply tried to act as if none of what surrounded them was as alien to him as it was to Cassie. He was also doing his utmost to not look at the Hologram. While its voice patterns followed those of the Eleventh too closely to sound like the 'Enemy' the appearance was none the less was too close for his comfort. Adrian also tried to look like he wasn't stumbling around hoping for help from an otherwise invisible guide.
Said invisible guide was playing mute and simply watched. Adrian would have guided Cassie through and named everything...if not to impress her then to find out what they were called himself. Which would have ruined the point of it being him who named each part.

"How does Victorian England sound?" Adrian asked as his hand came to rest on the date controls. The Hologram finally helpfully whispered a date to him, one that would place them away from any 'dangerous times' as well as a location that would set them near friends of the Doctor.
"Your friends." The Hologram pointed out.
Now Adrian looked at the slightly smiling face and looked away again. He couldn't lie to himself, he wasn't sure about the title yet...he didn't feel he had done anything that lived up to this apparently well loved figure.

His silence having passed, the Hologram led Adrian through the controls and the TARDIS finally took off. It did so smoothly and quietly...which didn't feel right, had he been alone, he might have asked the Hologram what was different, but he wasn't and didn't. There was however a case of the 'hand break' not being left on.
Adrian felt the TARDIS land even though the engines were almost silent. Now he let his trepidation show. "As far as I know it should be safe outside..." He looked at the doors and then as Cassie. "But I'll go first to make sure." He added and paused only a moment before he headed for the doors.

When he opened them he found what struck him as an oddly familiar sight...from the life he had woken to less than a week ago. Staring down the barrel of a Sontaran rifle.
Adrian's eyes followed the rifle up to the Sontaran head and the narrowed inset eyes. Apparently his lack of recognition in the individual sense, or perhaps is lack of calm comment telling him to 'lower the gun' didn't help.
"Who are you? Where's the Doctor?" The Sontaran demanded.

A Little Blue Box | Saelent & carsgovroom

It took Adrian several seconds to kick his brain into gear at the sight of Cassie, from her hair to the way she dressed, she looked entirely different to what he remembered. 'Six months can change a person.' A very different voice to his own piped up in the background. It was in fact this strange sensation that helped Adrian say something instead of just stare blankly. "I'm also not spitting gold light or having disjointed flashbacks every ten minutes, it's actually quite a relief." Adrian grinned at Cassie and his eyes flicked over her, she looked healthy - happy even. Certainly a far cry from the overworked barmaid she had been months before. "You look amazing." He added with a laugh, she really did look completely different, she barely reminded him to the scared woman he had seen before the TARDIS had near enough kidnapped him. "So!" Adrian began clapping his hands together in a slightly nervous manner, as if he was struggling to find something to say. "Here's an update on what I've found out, apparently I have a ship that travels through space and time." He motioned over his shoulder with his thumb in the general direction of the TARDIS. Adrian then took hold of the door frame above where Cassie was leaning (a feat that was not difficult considering her height and his new reach) if nothing else it was an attempt to look relaxed. He was sure at one point or another in his past he might have been able to pull off 'suave'. Adrian however was currently too jittery naturally (or at least naturally for his current body) to relax enough and order his thoughts to try a 'James Bond' style invitation. There was also the fact that his brain had chosen that moment to remember the fact that Cassie's door was supposed to be damaged. After all, doors didn't just 'heal' from being kicked in by big booted soldiers...did they? Somewhere they must have...because the thought was awfully familiar. Adrian looked at the doorframe and the door then stepped back with a blink and a surprised look as he took in the rest of the house. A grin lit up his new face as he took in the sight of her house. The voice in the back of his mind didn't need to 'helpfully' state that 'houses on Earth do not heal' he could work out what had actually happened. "You got them to fix everything!" He correctly guessed since the damages couldn't have come from her own pocket...unless she had won the lottery. 'My search comes up with that being a negative, there is no Lottery winner called Cassie Marie Baker in Earth's history.' Adrian scratched the back of his neck to hide his slight flinch at hearing the other voice, it sounded an awful lot like the hologram. 'That would be because that is who I am, I have a link with your brain, I can talk to you over distances, it also means that Cassie cannot hear or see me.' Adrian didn't like the thought that he had in fact been talking to a programmed hallucination - rather than a hologram. "Now." Adrian started again with his attempt at being 'suave'. "I know I look creepy doing this, but I really am just- never mind..." He stopped himself making even more of a fool of himself with a laugh. "Okay, I have a time machine and I would really like to see where it goes, but I would much rather do it with the woman who saved my life, sanity and all of those important things. So, waddaya say?" He looked at her with a smile that made it clear he was barely containing another fit of laughter. "That's my James Bond impression, I don't even remember who that is but I'm sure I've met the man." Adrian couldn't help but add that in explanation, but it wasn't helping his self control contain his barely controlled laughter at his own act as the fool.

A Little Blue Box | Saelent & carsgovroom

If Adrian had thought about it, his reaction to being locked in the box would have fit in a cheesy romance novel. But how many cheesy romance novels involved spaceships that looked like blue boxes? It was a few hours before Adrian stopped pounding on the doors. He stopped partly because something in his head was telling him how pointless it was, but mostly because he had a severe headache. The ache was making his hands numb and he knew exactly how little sense that made. Perhaps it was just the pounding that made his hands numb and the headache was stopping his thought processes.
He wasn't sure and was currently too tired to care.

Adrian turned around to look at the console room again, he didn't think that there were many novels in general that had anything like what he was looking at in them. In keeping with his thoughts of being 'too tired to care' Adrian slid down the doors at his back till his bum hit the floor. He sat there for several seconds. It could have been minutes, or hours...or even days for all he cared or the room showed. The metal walls, supports, railing and (quite frankly) awful lighting didn't change with the time he spent sitting and staring into space.
"I'm not moping." He stated to no one in particular, he just felt like he had to say something. He felt as if the room was expecting him to say something, anything. He also felt as if someone was meant to be there, but not just that Cassie should have been with him, others had been in the console room. But those people hadn't been with him, they had been with the person he was trying to be, the one in his head who had left him to 'make a mark'. Something felt off about the situation, he just couldn't piece it together. For starters, he wasn't actually sure what 'situation' he was in. He'd just (apparently) been kidnapped by the one thing he had felt a link to from his past.

So much for making a mark.

For his denial, Adrian was moping, he wouldn't have admitted it to anyone else and certainly not Cassie. But he was getting close to admitting it to himself. He rubbed his head, there was a faint, but familiar, pulse of a headache letting him know of its presence. Adrian stood slowly and walked up to the console. None of the controls he saw made any sense to him, it looked like junk thrown together in such a way as to look like something from a science fiction story.
It certainly didn't look as if it worked though.

A soft cough made him pause, he stood straight from having been bent over the controls. Another cough made it clear to him that what ever was making the noise, was doing so on purpose, to get his attention. Adrian turned around slowly and felt his pulse quicken at what he saw. As his brain pulled itself back into gear from the shock, he corrected his earlier thought, he had two hearts, it was 'pulses' - plural, not singular. He could have slapped himself on the American line of thinking, he really could stay on one subject for long.

"That's shock, you'll get used to it." The bow tie wearing figure of the Eleventh Doctor explained helpfully. "You..." Adrian dumbly pointed at himself then the Doctor and back again. "Me? I'm not part of you, I can't read you mind, you'll have to be a little bit clearer." Adrian felt his mostly unspoken question had been answered, but it was the sort that led onto other questions.
"Who are you then? Why do you look like that?" Adrian watched as the Eleventh narrowed his eyes for a moment, as if to consider which question to answer first. "I was programmed by the Doctor, you, but in your Eleventh incarnation." The figure flickered and Adrian blinked in realisation. "Programmed...you're not really here..." The hologram shrugged. "I am here to some extent, I was originally supposed to be a way for you to speak to the TARDIS directly, but I wasn't completed." The image paused, watching Adrian, he realised it was actually gauging his reaction. "I am connected to the telepathic circuits and through them, to you. But I can't read your mind, even though...technically I am based and working off of part of it."
"Which part?" It seemed like the next best question to Adrian.
"The part...rather 'parts' you aren't using. Old memories in particular." The hologram put his hands behind his back. "You can remember things...I mean...access them?" Adrian looked hopeful if slightly wary. "I was designed to access part of the TARDIS you couldn't, your mind is simply a reuse of still useful - though incomplete - programming."

Adrian scratched the back of his hand in an absentminded way as he thought about the 'situation' as it now stood. "TARDIS..." Adrian began. "Time And Relative Dimension In Space." The hologram added helpfully. "Speak to the TARDIS you said, it's alive?" Adrian asked, somewhat disbelieving and the hologram frowned at him. "She." He corrected, as if it had been his ship referred to as 'it'. "And 'she' is called 'Sexy'." Adrian sputtered with laughter in reaction, the stress was either getting to him or his disbelief was turning to humour. Either way, he couldn't help the sudden burst of laughter.

Adrian laughed after a good few minutes of listening to his laugh echo through the room. It still sounded like a stranger's voice to him, but he was at least getting used to how it sounded whilst speaking. "I'm not sure which is funnier, the fact she was named that, or that I supposedly named her that." Adrian sniggered and wiped his eyes, it must have been the stress getting to him.
"You did, you're-"
"Can you fly her?" Adrian interrupted the hologram, who shook his head and the amnesiac's shoulders slumped. "I can show you how though." The image offered and stepped towards Adrian from where he had been standing next to the stairs leading to the catwalk. Adrian tensed as the hologram moved, not because he wasn't expecting it could do that, the image looked solid enough, but because of who he looked like.

"Fear..." The image looked at Adrian, confused at his emotional (and so physical) reaction. The hologram blinked and flickered, he was thinking, but also accessing Adrian's / the Doctor's memories to find out why. "Oh...I see, the Enemy took this form even when you had this appearance." The image nodded in understanding. "But I can't change my appearance, I wasn't even supposed to look like anything. My 'sentience' is an effect of your split mind, otherwise I would have taken the appearance of what the TARDIS wished to look like, had I been completed."

Even with the hologram's words, Adrian still couldn't help but stand on the other side of the console as the image stepped up to the controls. "You realise that you'll have to do this? I can't actually make contact with anything, I said I can show you." The hologram's voice had turned (if only slightly) annoyed. Adrian wondered if that was in part due to him feeling foolish for backing off from what was essentially a three dimensional image.

Adrian stepped forward, a very much forced movement if how slowly he did it was anything to go by. Nonetheless, the hologram took the hint and began point out the controls Adrian would need to use, as well as explain their functions. When it came to the point for Adrian to begin using them, the hologram moved around the console so the man could reach the controls without having to come too close. His hands just shook too much when he came near.

Adrian had failed at getting the machine to start when he remembered something. He was quite sure it was a 'Doctor Memory' because he had no idea where it had come from in his own mind. "I need to set the date." As he spoke he stepped around the console and reached for another control, then paused. The hologram watched and waited, a surprised yet pleased expression on his flickering face, at least until Adrian looked at him. "I don't know what to do with it." The had a nearly mirrored disappointed look as teacher explained to student how to set the date. Feeling generous, the hologram told him the date he had left.

"The month is jammed." Adrian snarled and pushed harder at the month controls. "Ah, no." The hologram snorted, he didn't look away when Adrian turned his glare on him, he just smirked. "She's not letting you go back to the start, at least she's making it clear." Adrian tried clicking the year but it only went back from where it was set to the one after when he had left Cassie. All Adrian really had free range on was the day, which he set to the first. All in all, the date was just about six months after he had left.
"She's going to hate me." Adrian suddenly found himself complaining. "Oh don't mope." The hologram snapped, gaining another glare. "Six months isn't bad, better than several years...I know that's happened before." Adrian eyes widened slightly as he heard this, he turned back to the console without admitting that yes, six months could have been worse.

When the hologram led Adrian through another try at 'launch', the amnesiac followed a little closer. When the engines roared to life neither particularly cheered, even though it held the Eleventh's form, the Hologram did not share his personality to that degree.
The location had not been set for the vault in UNIT, rather it hadn't been set at all. Something which required Adrian to launch the TARDIS - again - when the error caused the engines to quiet again.

One of the few available locations came up in the screen, which was to say there was one. Adrian had no idea where Cassie lived but the location was in London. He had walked far enough to know that it didn't matter how far away the TARDIS landed, he wouldn't need any other transport than his legs to get there.
When Adrian did step out of the TARDIS however, he found himself on a familiar street. "Her house is near here...really near." Adrian muttered to himself, only for the hologram to peek his head out from the still open doors. "You realise that your clothes are too small and her house is on this street? You look like a homeless bum." Adrian turned and looked at him, excitement draining from his features as he understood the otherwise unspoken command to 'get back in and get dressed'.

Being led through the TARDIS meant he didn't get lost and waste more time. When it came to clothes the choice was relatively easy, loose plain white shirt over jeans, similar if less scruffy to the appearance of his last self. But the jacket was the problem, there was one made of leather but it was too big for him, it also smelled a little too old for how he felt. It looked as if the sad looking leather jacket had been through a war.

After nearly an hour, Adrian finally stepped out of the TARDIS into the midday sunshine. Though it could have been late afternoon for all he could tell, everything -felt- bright to him. All he had with him item wise was a version of the sonic screwdriver (as far as he could tell), the TARDIS key, a blank wallet and Doctor Taylor's access card. He wasn't sure how he had kept hold of the final item, he was petty certain the man wouldn't want it back (bent and shot as it was) but he felt the thought counted.
Adrian had been trying to use those thoughts to distract himself from hoping foot to foot as he stood outside Cassie's door. He wasn't sure whether to knock or ring the doorbell, he hadn't even remembered how the building was supposed to be riddled with bullet holes. Instead the man stood and stared, deciding and failing to come up with a way to just get her attention in the house. He settled on a few soft knocks on the wood with his knuckle, only for his hand to come away with some pain. Adrian hadn't realised that he had hit the wood a little harder than first intended, if only to succeed in making the 'soft knocks' audible.

A Little Blue Box | Saelent & carsgovroom

Good different? In who's opinion? Adrian began to wonder to himself, he felt the line of thought shatter as Cassie wrapped her arms around him. Adrian instinctively replied on kind, wrapping his own arms around the small woman. He felt much taller, he could now comfortably rest his chin on top of Cassie's head, something his last form would have had to stretch to do, even if only a little.
He didn't say it, but he nearly replied with 'I thought I was dead too' and he most certainly didn't mention how close he had come to accepting it. Had he been able to remember life as he was feeling it now, he couldn't imagine he'd have relaxed in the grey waters and let death take him.

He felt a lump rise in his throat as Cassie pulled back, tears sprang to his own eyes as he felt her punch. "Never, never again. Not to you, not for anyone." As he wrapped her in another hug he couldn't help but look past Cassie's blonde locks to the people behind her. They hadn't trusted him, these friends of the Doctor, the man he was supposed to be. Her meant what he said to Cassie...not for anyone...but somewhere inside his mind he heard an echo - the Doctor lies, it said. Adrian may not have known better than most (those who knew the Doctor at least) at that moment, but even he had a feeling the Doctor had lost more than one life protecting this planet.
Adrian looked down at Cassie as she spoke, in some way the Doctor had sacrificed himself to save her too, long before either of them could have met her.

Adrian smiled at her words, the new mouth felt odd and he knew he would have to shave, the scruff hadn't been this distracting in the last body. "I'm still him, I'm still me." He most certainly wasn't the Doctor yet after all. "I promise." He added then paused and frowned slightly. "Speaking of which, I'm starving." He added in a bid to lighten the mood and grinned to try and hide the fact he himself was on the verge of tears, he gave Cassie a kiss on the forehead and hugged her tightly again.
That wouldn't do at all, save a planet and start the waterworks, a universal legend crying because he almost died. It really wouldn't be a good start to him filling the Doctor's shoes.

Of those watching, Martha had pulled a smaller radio from her back pocket, a spare since the last had been damaged in the excitement. As the new comer to the Doctor's crazy world (or universe) got to grips with the fact her friend had just transformed, she was speaking into the radio. "We'll need a clean up crew...probably quarantine the area too..." Akana was watching the woman as she spoke, she glanced at Adrian then looked back at Martha. The man was the amnesiac (if he still counted as such she wasn't sure) form of a man they clearly respected, but he was still by all rights - disabled. Akana took the initiative and placed a hand on Martha's shoulder. To the Silurian's slight surprise, the woman (who had looked as of she had been concentrating) didn't jump or even tense at the contact. Instead, Martha paused and lowered her radio and turned to look at Akana.

"I was brought here with the promise the man I know as Adrian and you know as the Doctor, would be able to help me negotiate for my people beneath London." Ever the one to get straight to business, Akana explained the situation without sugar coating it for the woman. Martha wasn't the sort to need sugar coating though, she was slightly surprised though. "Another outpost?" She lifted the radio again. "And bring someone cleared for negotiating with Silurian's." The voice on the other end gave a quick affirmative. "We'll have it cleared up for you, if he trusts you and your outpost then there won't be any issue." Martha reassured the Silurian.

Any further conversation was stopped when something shining gold flew through the air. The item darkened as it travelled across the room, it's entry point still rippled with whatever energy had sent it. It only shone silver because of the reflected lights when it made contact with Adrian's head. His resulting cry was one of shock than pain. One of his hands held his head, but the time had already started its descent. A 'ping' of metal on concrete broke the following quiet. Adrian's hand lowered from his head, he was uninsured, only surprised. He took a moment to step back from Cassie and picked the time up from the ground.

"It's a key." He said in a dumbfounded voice, clearly not recognising the significance. However, the noise that started behind him was as recognisable for him as it was for Jack and Martha, if for different reasons. When the wind picked up, Adrian hugged Cassie close again to protect her, this hadn't been in his hallucinations. The forming blue box was a sight he couldn't feel anything but glee at the sight of. He relaxed his protective grip on Cassie as the wind died down and the TARDIS landed.

Adrian didn't need anyone to tell him what to do, he looked at the key still in his grip and then at the lock on the door. He pulled back from Cassie for a moment and smiled down at her to reassure her. "It's okay, I recognise this." He whispered to her and stepped away from her to then begin walking towards the box. He placed an hand on the door a moment and slowly pushed the key in place. The TARDIS had landed between the door and the scanner. Adrian didn't notice the globule of black matter drop off of the side in a manner befitting a very much dead creature.
Adrian turned the key and pushed the door open, the sight of the console room had him entering the TARDIS in a dreamlike state. Shadows of memories came to the forefront of him mind to make themselves known. But so many doors still stood closed, their knowledge locked away from him, so the significance of names that came from the faded memories was lost upon him.

A creak snapped Adrian out of the dream state, he had just stepped over the threshold. He whipped round to face the doors as they closed and locked.
"No..." His muttered and rushed at the doors, his frantic hands found the lock and twisted but the mechanism wouldn't budge. His heart rate only skyrocketed when he heard the sound of what he recognised to be the engines start up again behind him. "No, no, no!" He cried as he battered on the doors. "Cassie!" He yelled, outside the blue box began to fade again. "I'll come back! Cassie! I will! I'm coming back! Cassie!!!" He couldn't hear anything on the other side, a small part of him mind guessed that part of the reason for this was his yelling and banging. It certainly wasn't helping him hear any reply from the other side of the door.

The TARDIS faded completely, leaving as if it and Adrian had never been there.

A Little Blue Box | Saelent & carsgovroom

A complete lack of recognition, that was what Adrian saw in Cassie's eyes. He didn't realise quite how much it hurt him till he tried to stand up from leaning against the scanner. He held onto the alien device as he felt his knees about to give way. Adrian managed to hide the moment of weakness, if barely. He didn't feel it would have helped the situation to fall to his knees and cry, all because Cassie's couldn't see it was him.
Adrian didn't miss what Jack was doing to help him, he couldn't hear the words clearly but from what he could make out along with the actions, it was clear as day.

As Cassie took her first step towards him, Adrian glanced at Jack in a silent thanks. He knew he would have to talk to the man later to ask what the hell had just happened, he had clearly seen this process before.
Adrian kept quiet as he watched Cassie walk up to him. He could understand her reaction, if he had had enough time to get used to his face before and had a mirror now, he expected he would be similarly shocked. But how much had he changed? There was no doubt he felt different...stronger, certainly, but he had been dying earlier. His voice was different, if it sounded odd to him, how might it sound to the other people in the room? His hair was longer and had no curls, that wasn't a huge change but the curls would be missed. There wasn't all that much he even knew about his old appearance to complain about this one, but it wasn't half distracting how tight his shirt felt.

Adrian focused on Cassie and pushed aside the thoughts of how he looked, he was still himself after all. Tying his own mind around how he looked would only add his own apprehension to the mix, he felt that at lest one of them had to remain somewhat calm. He eyed her expression and the way she bit her lip, his eyes ran down to her fists and how tightly they were clenched. He'd have to keep an eye out for this body language in the future. If one meant fear and the other was a sign of her fighting against the need to do something, namely run away...he...didn't remember being so unfocused brained before. Or perhaps he was focusing on too many things, had his mind changed with his body? Was he still Adrian?

He felt like he was.
Didn't that mean something?

He knew it meant something to her, so when she stopped a short distance from him, he was as close to unafraid as he could get when it came to meeting her eyes. He started with a nod as she said his name, because he couldn't immediately trust his voice. "It's me." He finally said after a few seconds. "I'm still Adrian, I'm still me." As he said the words, he could almost physically feel something slide into place in his mind. The first piece in 'making his mark' in the mind of a legend.
He had some shoes to grow into.
But right now he wanted to hug the woman in front of him.

Adrian's knees had enough feeling in them that he felt comfortable taking a step towards Cassie. The step was slow, small and very careful, as if he was afraid to scare off a frightened deer. She may not have been a forest animal, but from what he could tell of her, she most certainly looked ready to bolt.
"Cassie..." He'd have to get used to how his voice sounded. "I'm still the same person." He raised his right hand and tapped on the side of his head with his index and middle fingers. "In here." Adrian added as he tapped.
He waited a few seconds. "So...how do I look?" He asked quietly, there was the hint of a smile on his lips. Couldn't this version of him stay serious? Or was that his mind's reaction to this change? It didn't matter, what did was Cassie's reaction. Of all these people who apparently knew the Doctor, she was the one who knew him as much as he currently knew himself.

A Little Blue Box | Saelent & carsgovroom

Malcolm kept wiping the stress brought on sweat from his brow, all the while his eyes were locked on Adrian. Akana was looking from Malcolm to Adrian, "why are you still panicking?" She hissed at him, "if he's dead, the threat had passed, now we have to look after the interests of my people." Anyone who didn't know the Doctor, or had no idea what Malcolm was panicking about, would probably have snapped at her for being insensitive. As it was, Malcolm knew there was still a threat, "he's not dead, if he dies - we are dead...and so is most of London." His words were quiet, only for the Silurian next to him, he didn't want to start a panic, after all, there wasn't anywhere in England (that they could get to in time) that would save them.

The creature headed towards the vault, his clothing had shifted from the donated clothing to mimic the eleventh Doctor's attire. The copy of Cassie was right beside him, keeping up a charade was wired into his DNA and so hers as well. Even while he was relaxed as he walked, no longer concentrating on acting like the Doctor, he still moved like him, muscles copied too closely to move any differently.
He didn't pause as he walked into the vault, Martha was too busy to notice, she was staring at Adrian's hands, willing the golden light to reappear. 'I'm sorry, I didn't know, I'm so sorry' her mind kept running over the same useless, scattered thoughts. When she did notice, her weapon, which she had holstered (as Jack had pulled her away) was once more in her hand as 'the Doctor' walked into the room.

The Humans and Silurian were standing at the back wall of the vault from the door, across the room from Adrian. So when the creature walked into the vault and up to the near-corpse of Adrian, he seemed to be a safe distance distance from them. But no one in the room could have any idea what this creature was truly capable of.
The monster looked down at Adrian, as Martha had raised her weapon, the other soldiers had done the same. Malcolm grabbed Jack's shoulder and shook his head, when the other man had moved in such a way that gave the doctor the impression he was reaching for his own weapon.
"My dear...companion" the creature spoke, he was using the Doctor's voice but not his tone, this was too 'sweet'. The Cassie copy, who had been grinning at the real Cassie from the point she had walked in the room, now gave all of her attention to her 'master'.

"Kill the soldiers, leave the...tastier ones for me." Cassie grinned as he gave the order, then her gaze turned to the Human soldiers. Before the men could react, she carried out her order, Weeping Angel style, it took only a blink for her to complete three actions. The first was raising her right arm, the second was stretching that arm, the third was driving it though the soldiers. There was a fourth action but it took longer, as the black flesh of Cassie's copy wound through the group, it began to spread through and convert the bodies it had impaled. In a matter of seconds, the men had turned to black goo and been absorbed into the arm/tentacle. The copy drew it back into her self, she took a moment to pull Martha's gun with it, then just for effect she licked her finger tips. She hadn't even given the soldiers a chance to scream, but any who had viewed their faces would have seen the pure agony in their expressions.

Now the monster looked at the group, "I have something to finish, you will have to bare with me a moment." At this, he knelt down and grabbed Adrian around the throat, lifting his limp form from the floor and into the air. The ease with which he did this made Adrian look as if he weighed nothing at all.

Elsewhere, the man in question stared at darkness.

"Don't leave me"

A stranger's voice echoed through darkness. Adrian was floating in something, his fingers twitched as he tried to identify the texture, it was a slimy liquid. No...not slimy, more like powder...but it was a liquid at the same time...
He frowned, his own description confused him, the substance was cool though, relaxing, comforting and somewhere he felt he wanted to stay.

"Please don't leave me"

The voice echoed again, he could understand the words, but he couldn't recognise who the speaker was.

"Don't leave"

His face relaxed, his lips pulled back in a contented smile. It was far easier to just enjoy the sensation of the strange liquid around him that to...what was that word? He frowned again, but just before he was about to let the thought go, it came to him.
Fight.
It was far easier to give in than to fight.

"Don't leave us just yet, the party has only just started." This voice didn't just echo through the darkness, it rumbled in its very foundations.
Outside the creature placed his free hand on Adrian's chest and grinned, the reason for his expression became clear moments later.

Blood began to seep through Adrian's clothing once more, the hand that had once been on his chest had split in two. Tentacles of black sludge had buried them selves into Adrian's chest, digging inside to grab the pair of hearts and begin a macabre form of CPR. The monster kept 'beating' the hearts a their otherwise natural rhythm.
The glow began to return to Adrian's hands.

In his mind light opened above him, he felt a pull begin to draw him out of the strange liquid. Now he found the will to fight, he wanted to stay in the darkness, there was something in the light he didn't want to see, didn't want to feel.
"Come now, wake up, my dear friend, this isn't the time to sleep" the voice was close, Adrian didn't want to see the source, didn't want to-

Too late.

Adrian opened his eyes to the discomfort of something in his chest.
He looked down, the had that had been at his throat had moved to his shoulder, the monster wanted him to see this. The pain only hit him as his eyes settled on the sight of the things in his chest. This was the point he began to yell and struggle, but it counted for nothing, he moved so weakly, creature only laughed and began to withdraw its tentacle. Adrian quieted as the golden energy sealed the wounds that had ironically brought him back from the brink of death. Without the pain to keep him aware, his body was now trying to concentrate on healing, staying awake was becoming harder and harder.
He stayed standing with the support of the creature as the hand on his shoulder moved back to his throat and lifted him in the air again.

His eyes rose as his body did, gaze settling on the creature, his memories of the last time he had been awake returned. He tried to look at Cassie, but both versions were too far for his restrained gaze to find. His eyes moved back to the familiar face, he couldn't have spoken even if his air passage wasn't blocked. The part of his mind now awake and aware wished the man to just kill him, get it over with, save these people's lives. Another part wondered though, what sort of people were they to seek a man like this to save them?
The tiniest part of his mind, not fogged by pain or anguish, began to understand what he was looking at.

"There's no need to play this game any more" 'The Doctor' placed Adrian back on the ground and the monster's hand again moved from his throat to his shoulder, holding him up. Adrian's head was hanging forward now, gold pulses under his skin were getting stronger.
Adrian felt as his head was held under his jaw by the Doctor's free hand, his face turned this way and that as the other man looked at his appearance. How ever fog filled mind was, he couldn't help but pick up on 'the Doctor's' next words.
"Doctor, you didn't change much in your last several regenerations - not that they lasted that long." If he hadn't been held up by his shoulder, his body too weak trying to heal itself to struggle, he'd have stumbled back in shock. "Is a tampered scanner all that you need to give up on life?" The planet eater grinned as Adrian no longer needed his support to lift his head and meet his eyes. His injury slowed mind struggled to understand, to get past his initial thoughts of being the...very creature standing before him.

"Then..." Adrian tried to form the question, get his head around the creature's near enough admission that he wasn't this 'Doctor'. For those with a clearer mind, the fact the monster called Adrian 'Doctor' should have been enough to prove who the amnesiac really was. But in the time it was taking for Adrian to wrap his mind around this fact, the hands the creature had on his jaw and shoulder moved to either side of his face.

"Save the messing around, Doctor, give me what I want" the creature grew several inches as he spoke. It's legs and torso stretched oddly, he seemed to forget about the audience, the meals could wait, he had something far more important to find out. Adrian's reaction to the now much taller man was nearly instinctive, "my name is Adrian" the words were stated, clear, if quiet due to the state he was in. "Enough, give me what I want and I'll leave this planet, you've given me a good game...I'm feeling generous." The creature didn't sound generous, he sounded angry.
But Adrian was looking at him blankly, not understanding or remembering what it was the creature wanted. "I don't-" "I have lived far longer than you, far longer than your now dead race, Time Lord. Do not play with me, the process your body is now ready to undergo, I want it, I want your power of regeneration." His voice didn't even sound remotely like the Doctor any more. Instead, it was as if he was speaking with the voices of all of the people he had killed and absorbed.

Adrian was now finding the strength to try and pull the creatures hands from his face, but his still weak attempts did nothing. The creation was still mimicking Cassie, it was now standing in front of the group, keeping them from moving to try and help. "You somehow kept it from me, you have it, you can tell me how to-" he stopped as Adrian's eyes locked on his, the light there was no longer confusion, his struggling had increased as the pulses of light beneath his skin lasted longer. "Ah" the creature's breath came as a whisper, he shrank back to his body's normal size and wrapped his arms around Adrian. "No-" he managed in a strangled whisper.

Adrian's struggles meant nothing as the form of the copied eleventh Doctor's body turned back to the creature's black near liquid flesh. Martha grabbed for Jack's weapon, back handing Malcolm aside as he moved to stop her. She grabbed the pistol and wrenched it free of the holster, only Akana was heeding Malcolm's motioned pleas for those armed to not fire. All the while, Cassie's clone was laughing.

Martha emptied the revolver into the black egg that now surrounded Adrian, but the bullets bounced off. As much as it resembled liquid, the substance was perfectly solid.
Akana forcefully held Martha back as she made to attack with another weapon and grabbed Jack's arm (pre-emptively) incase he chose to do the same.

But even the Silurian's arm slacked as the clone of Cassie began to scream, Malcolm initially looked at the real Cassie to see if it was anything she had done. He and Akana had been too far from her (blocked by Martha and Jack) to stop any action she may have chosen to take. As it was, anything she had chosen to do was not the cause of the copy's agony.

The egg was no longer its original shiny black colouring. Instead, in several places the surface seemed to have thinned, the most interesting thing was that through these thinner areas, was golden light.
"The planet eater just saved our lives..." Malcolm murmured, awed by he sight.
The thinning areas turned to cracks and molten edges fell inwards, the copy stopped screaming as this started, falling into the sludge that was its real form.
The light dimmed as enough of the egg fell away to release the rays to such an extent that if it had been as bright as it had started out, the group would likely have had to cover their eyes.

Instead, as the last pieces fell to ash, Adrian, looking exactly the same as before, though far healthier and fully healed, was left standing at the centre. The man looked at them and blinked, Martha made a move first towards him, but he raised his hand to wave her back. "There....there's..." He sounded out of breath, but Malcolm finished it for him, "there's more" he was holding his scanner again. "Not enough to cause anyone harm if we stay at this distance...I think this is...normal."

"Cassie..." Adrian whispered, his eyes falling on the blonde, his expression apologetic and pained.

As if to prove Malcolm's point, Adrian's arms were thrown out at his sides against his will, equally so for his head as it was thrown back. The uncomfortable position he was forced into was hidden by the bright stream of golden light. It was no longer restrained by the darkness he had only moments ago burned away.

In his mind everything burned, Adrian could almost taste the memories that kept him from being the man he had been before. He reached out for them, every beat of his heart - his hearts - echoed the name of a race, his race, 'Time Lord, Time Lord, Time Lord, Time Lord..."
In the light he could see silhouettes of people, thirteen men stood and watched him. Because of the bright light behind them, Adrian couldn't see any detail of their faces or even their clothes. Just their stances stood out as familiar to him, but that was it for any true memory.
Then he noticed one of the thirteen was missing, he turned his head and found himself face to face with the very creature that had caused his death in the first place. His first reaction was to stumble back "Calm down, I'm not that...thing" the stranger tightened his bow tie, "I'm the original" he frowned then, "sort of." Adrian was still gaping at him, "oh don't give me that look, I only mean that...technically, I -was- the original, I was the first out of the two of us to have this face" he grinned as if he'd said something smart.
Adrian couldn't actually understand what he had said.

"And now?" It was the only two words that could leave his lips at the moment, "now? You're the original" Adrian relaxed, of only slightly at these words.
"Where are we?" He felt as if his head was moving awfully slowly, "that's because it is" the man, the Doctor, the 'eleventh' incarnation answered the unspoken question first. "We're in your head - our head, some things need moving around." Adrian looked around, all he could see was light, bar the silhouettes, it was almost peaceful - but it hurt his eyes...if he had any with this not being real and all. When he looked back the eleventh had changed, "does this make you feel better?" The Eleventh had changed, thinner, older, the Tenth now stood next to Adrian and the amnesiac visibly relaxed, he nodded. Now he wasn't faced with what had been a nightmare the last several days, he could think clearer, if only a bit.

"What needs moving around? Why can't I remember anything if we're in my...our...head?" Now the Tenth grinned, similar but bigger than the Eleventh's it even touched his eyes. "I think I'm going to take a back seat, all these memories can be overwhelming, get your feet, make a mark in here. Then....it'll still be you when you do remember everything, you won't be...'over written'".
The Tenth stepped away from Adrian then, walked towards the other silhouettes, "you'll remember this - and don't worry, we'll always be here, watching...in a good way." He paused and turned around, "and stop thinking of Rose when you look at Cassie, they really are very different." Adrian frowned, "who's Rose?" He called, but the Tenth had already joined the others.
"Keep her close, keep her safe, she's good for you." The words were whispered into his ear by many different voices, not as many as the monster had spoken with, just thirteen.

Finally his eyes opened to the real world, now the burning was back and it made him want to cry out but he wasn't sure if he actually managed it or not.
What was left behind as the light died was a very different looking person. He leaned against the scanner, the clothes once worn by the Adrian Cassie would recognise were still on his body, but they were clearly too tight on this new form. A noticeably taller man had taken his place, eyes dark enough to be mistaken for black fell on Cassie. His hand reached up and pushed aside hair that had grown nearly down to his shoulders. Now his view of Cassie was clear, he could see the way the others were looking at him. He frowned and reached back to the hair he had nearly pushed aside without a thought, there wasn't anything in the way of curls in it. The shade of his hair was slightly lighter than it had been earlier, not that Adrian would know, he had barely had the chance to look in a mirror.

"Cassie?" He paused at his own voice, it sounded completely different, but not much deeper, his accent (one he hadn't realised he'd had) was gone. He could tell because his pronunciation of 'Cassie' sounded wrong to his own ears, while in fact he was probably saying it 'correctly'. "I feel...different" he said, his words sounded stupid to his own ears, "you look it" Malcolm answered quickly, if unhelpfully. Akana looked as if she had somehow been expecting it, Martha seemed ready to collapse but...Adrian couldn't see their faces, he was too busy watching Cassie.

A Little Blue Box | Saelent & carsgovroom

The elevator stopped for Adrian on the 'tech' level, by the time it had started moving, both the floor and console were slicked with red blood. When the doors opened, a rather sad sight awaited anyone on the other side. Adrian was leaning against the left wall with his un damaged shoulder, his right side was the source of the mess in the elevator. His had tried staunching the flow from his shoulder with his right hand, hence the control panel for the elevator looking a mess.
Unfortunately, it wasn't a face that was ready to feel sorry for Adrian's rather sad state.
Fortunately the wasn't anyone there at all yet.

Adrian shuffled slowly out of the elevator, he looked down at his currently useless right hand as he walked. He could feel a familiar warmth spreading from the wound in his shoulder, "finally" he managed to murmur as he kept moving in his injured version of a walk. Movement had become noticeably easier by the time the map in his mind brought him before another doorway, this one was a set of large, reinforced double doors. His left hand still held the sonic screwdriver, he realised at that moment he must have dropped it somewhere behind him. He didn't expect Doctor Taylor would want his identification card back if it was covered in blood. The control panel next to the doors yielded to the sonic screw driver as well.
As the doors opened, Adrian stepped into the room beyond with only a slight pause as his nose once more cracked back into place. The back of his left hand came up to touch his nose in a futile attempt at making the pain fade away. He was healing faster now, but as helpful as it seemed to be, he couldn't hold the thought that this was a good thing. Instead, his mind told him something very clear, which even in his still pain boggled state, caused him to move faster. He needed to hurry up, time was running out.

The room beyond the double doors was a vault of sorts for unidentified, damaged but otherwise harmless technology. It was currently housing much of the Sontaran ship that had destroyed most of the Houses of Parliament. The particular part he wanted was sitting in the middle of the room, suitably pooled in the light from a spot lamp set into the ceiling above. It made the device look almost divine in its appearance. His heart beat faster at the sight of this device, this was the scanner, the one thing that could tell him for sure if all of the others were right and that he was a monster. Or if Cassie was right and he was...not a normal man, but not a threat to the planet at any rate.

He shuffled to the device, he didn't notice that the doors stood open behind him. There wasn't anyone else in the room that he could see, not that he cared. His heart beat so fast that again, it felt as if he had two of the things, maybe this device could tell him what was wrong inside his chest at the same time.
He reached the console and something struck him as odd, the control panel was open, not just the control panel to use it, but the one above that would allow information input. The Sontarans must have been keying in the planet eater's bio-signature when everything had gone to hell. Adrian only hoped that the code had been completed before the crash.

The amnesiac raised his left hand over the console, his little, ring and middle finger let go of the sonic screwdriver while his index and thumb kept hold of it. Now he just needed to figure out how to use the damned thing.

Martha had reached the elevator too late, she glared at the blood covering the floor before eyeing the trail. She took a step to follow the trail when a thought struck her. If this was a planet eating monster...why would bullets be affecting him? Why was there so much blood? More importantly...how was it still looking like blood? Surely that would be a waste for an 'injured' shape shifting monster, just leave behind bio matter and what would be the point of looking hurt? She knelt down near a large puddle of blood in front of the open doors of the elevator. He had been moving slowly, definitely injured then. She dipped her left little finger into the puddle and looked at the liquid more closely. It had the texture, the colour, even the smell of what it looked like, it was blood. It also wasn't eating into her fingers, the thought of which made her wipe her pinky on a clean bit of wall. Her mind paused as other possibilities she hadn't contemplated till now began to bubble up. What had this man, thing, whatever - actually done? The only 'proof' they had was from the mouth of a man who's words had always (or at least usually) gone unquestioned. Certainly, no one had even had a thought against him since this mess had started...until now anyway. The level she was on made sense now, the 'harmless' pieces of the Sontaran ship had been brought here, the techs had thought it odd that most of the equipment wasn't even designed for battle. But the ship also hadn't looked particularly 'smoothed out' as if it was a prototype that no one had finalised the designs of.

At this thought, Martha started sprinting, now she knew what the man was looking for. She should have been looking for the same thing.

Doctor Malcolm Taylor was fidgeting as the group was led down several more corridors. There was a bleeping coming from somewhere and he had a really bad idea as to where it was coming from. "What is that?" The Silurian woman - Akana, whispered to him, only to earn a shove from a guard that she very nearly hissed at. Malcolm pulled the device from his pocket and looked at it, he wasn't being discreet about it. "What is that?" The guard asked, the others stopped in their 'prisoner transport' and all their eyes fell on the doctor. "It a...a...energy reading from Adrian...he's been giving off massive readings of energy build up...inside of him...he's only getting worse." Now the guns were raised and pointed at his head, "why didn't you say this earlier?!" Malcolm panicked, "I thought we had time to explain the situation to Doctor Martha Smith!" Each guard looked at their officer for the kill order, Akana was just staring at the man in shock. She remembered the nightmare that had taken Adrian as he had slept, the result had been a release of golden energy.

Adrian let muscle memory guide his trembling fingers, the pain had just about dissipated, but now he kept having what he couldn't describe as anything else except 'hot flushes'. It felt like his whole body was healing over and over again, he removed his fingerless gloves and threw them aside. This action allowed him to see the backs of his hands and the fact his veins were pulsing with a golden light as every hot flush took hold. He frowned and lifted his right hand to get a better look in the light above. A bleep for the scanner brought his attention back to it and with his right hand working at the same time, he felt a little more comfortable as he worked. His finger found the buttons and keys until finally his left hand was on a screen scanning his hand while his right was resting on a lever, steady to pull it down.

"Go on then" Adrian turned his head at a familiar voice and found his eyes meeting Cassie's. "You made it" he said relieved, but a tiny part of his mind wondered 'how?' He frowned slightly as he noticed her clothes, had she changed in the time they had been apart? He didn't recognise the clothes as being on her, but the shade of purple her top was brought an image to his mind. Another blonde girl, straight hair, unlike Cassie and...there was something else about this other woman he couldn't out his finger on. Adrian pinched his nose as a headache came with the image, the shard of memory and the pain distracted him from noticing anything wrong with Cassie's appearance. "Activate it" her voice called him back to reality and he opened his eyes again. He turned his head, placed his left hand back on the scanning screen, now he looked at his right hand...and hesitated. Had he seen something akin to fear in her eyes? He closed his eyes again and pushed the lever down, the machine shuddered, but even damaged as it was and removed from the ship, it had its own power source and started working.
The lights which had been idly shining up and moving around from the screen under Adrian's left hand, now focused. They ran over his skin and each beam made his palm tingle. He opened his eyes to another shudder and a bleep from the machine. Symbols he shouldn't have and wouldn't have understood if he were Human, flashed up in a holographic fashion before his eyes. The answer was literally, staring him in the face, it even had a recording playing right next to it.

'DNA Recognised - 'Unnamed Planetary Threat' - Destruction HIGHLY Recommended.'

The recording showed the destruction of a planet, the true form of the monster, of -him- sliding over it and devouring everything from the atmosphere to the energy in the core. He knew just from watching it the people were long gone, the ships surrounding the planet. Even designed as they were for evacuation, he knew they were empty, the people inside were long dead. How could he know that if it wasn't true?

Adrian stumbled back from the scanner and turned slightly before collapsing into a sitting position. He sat on the ground, his body facing the double doors of the vault, his legs were in a half crossed position, hands resting on his slack knees. Adrian's head hung low, the hot flushes had been banished by how cold his body had become at the sight of the scan's result. He only looked up when he heard the 'click'.

It was Cassie, she had pulled the hammer back on a side arm, one she must have been carrying stuffed down the back of her pants. He swallowed and looked from the gun to her face, his face was reddening with the tears now welling up in his eyes. Adrian's face only held an expression of despair, Cassie's was set in one of satisfaction but also betrayal. He could feel niggling, yet growing tendrils of self hate unraveling in his mind and wrapping around his heart, making them selves known.
Cassie had come into the large vault and was now ten paces from Adrian, a rookie would have to be pretty bad to miss the target. But her hand was too steady, she wasn't untrained, something she hadn't told him? Or just certainty strengthening her resolve?

"I'm sorry, Cassie" Adrian whispered in the silence of the room. She didn't need to say her next words loudly for him to hear them, nor did she, they were whispered. "You lied to me" Adrian's face paled once more and he felt sick, he shook his head and gritted his teeth as the tears threatened to over flow. "No, please, Cassie, you have to understand! I didn't know..." He trailed off as she took a threatening step towards him. His hands had been raised in expression as he'd spoken, now though they clenched into fists and lowered back to his knees. He looked away from Cassie as his lips peeled back from his teeth in a despaired half snarl, half suppressed cry of anger focused as himself.
"There you go" Cassie whispered, catching his attention once more, "snarling like the rabid monstrosity you are." Adrian hiccoughed slightly as he chocked back a sob, tears ready to stream freely. It was as if she was reading his mind, he should have just jumped off of that building, damn Akana and her 'morality' she should have left him to it.

"I...I nearly didn't come here, you know?" His voice was shaking as he spoke, "I was ready to jump off a roof but Akana stopped me...said I should have spoken to you first..." He looked at the ground between the two of them, "should have saved us all the time and trouble of getting here, Monster. Should have been able to tell what I'd say too finding out what you really are." Now it was her turn to come close to tears, "why did you ever have to come into my life?" He looked up at her again, she looked so...crushed, he'd caused her house to be shot to pieces, her life turned upside down. "I'm sorry, Cassie..." He swallowed again, those words seemed to come to his lips so easily. 'I'm sorry' how often had he said those words before today? As he'd ripped through billions of lives and destroyed every last one.
"Do you know how many people I'll be saving by killing you?" She asked almost calmly. His answer for her words was quick, he didn't even need to think about it. "Not as many as I've killed" the words rang true in every part of his mind, nothing gave an answer against it.

Adrian heard the bullet before he realised it had hit him. The force of the projectile threw him back against the ground, he was lying face up when she stood over him. He felt the warmth of his unnatural healing pool around the chest wound, somewhere near his heart he imagined. Cassie frowned and levelled the weapon down at him again, now emptying the clip into his chest, left and right sides. His body jumped with every impact, now the warmth leaked away with his blood. But he could only look at Cassie and watch as she held the the gun is such a way that suggested she was about to club him to death with the butt of the weapon.

He barely registered the weapon being shot out of her hand, he couldn't lift his head and look at his 'rescuer'. He wanted to tell them not to, 'don't stop her' he wanted to say, 'use your gun too' but he couldn't form the words. His mind clicked over strange points, it held the fact that this must have been what dying felt like, not to mention that the warm liquid he was coughing up was blood. Considering the lead now in his chest, is was safe to say that Cassie had hit one if not both lungs.

Adrian's eyes unfocused, he shut them tight to try and get them back to normal, he wanted to see who finally finished him off after all.

Martha rounded the corner to the vault and stopped dead at the sight before her, the doors were wide open. She stopped and wondered what she might find in there, the Doctor's earlier words of warning about the planet eater caused her to hesitate. The sound of a gun shot pulled her out of the trance and she ran to the doors, weapon raised, she stopped and stared at the second sight to make her stop dead in as many seconds.
Standing - in very different clothing to the last images she had seen her in - was Cassie. She was alone and armed with a hand gun, standing over the otherwise prone form of 'Adrian'. Her brain froze entirely as she watched an innocent looking girl empty her clip into a defenceless looking man. Instinctively she shot the gun out of the other woman's hand, hopefully doing no harm to her, but she didn't have enough mind to think past the confusion of the situation.

Her mind cleared somewhat when the 'innocent looking girl' turned and looked at her with a snarl that no Human mouth had the muscles to make. The...thing...looking like Cassie Baker took a step towards Martha, who took a step back at the same time, weapon raised and aiming at a new target. The creature stopped moving and seemed to listen to something Martha couldn't hear, a moment later it turned and fled from Doctor Jones. Martha had an idea who it might be running to, but she still couldn't be sure.

Doctor Martha Smith raised her side arm at the prone form of the man before her. Only her medical training and especially her experiences with the Doctor kept her from shooting him. The man didn't even seem to realise she was there as his eyes opened and looked at the spot light above him. His eyes were soon most of the way closed, squinted with pain, his breathing was coming in quick, short gasps and his skin was deathly pale. Everything about him that she could see told her 'blood loss'.

Martha walked up to the man and lowered her weapon, keeping it away from him. His eyes opened slightly wider and he seemed to almost recognise her.
Adrian gave the smallest smile and whispered something that would have been too quiet for the security systems to pick up. Martha swallowed as her eyes widened, but she couldn't ask if she had heard correctly because at that moment, the man's eyes rolled back.

Martha dropped the gun and knelt at his side, she put pressure on the wounds too numerous to stop bleeding. She grabbed her radio from her belt and clicked it on, the next words flying from her mouth were the scream garbled orders for "bandages" as well as other medical equipment. Mixed up somewhere in it all was a call for medical personnel and for Malcolm and the other people to be brought to the vault.

"Alons y"

The frantic shouting over the radio allowed Malcolm to keep his head intact. At Martha's screamed orders the guards started running to take their 'prisoners' to the Sontaran tech vault. It was obvious from Doctor Smith's tone, never mind her words, that there was something terribly wrong.

Else where, the creature still in the form of the Doctor's eleventh incarnation smiled as his minion reformed from a ventilation shaft next to him. "I couldn't have you killing him just yet, I still need something from him." He was no longer talking 'in character' his voice changed dramatically when he wasn't drawing from the Doctor's memories to match his personality. He started walking with his creation close behind and made his way back to the vault.

A Little Blue Box | Saelent & carsgovroom

Adrian stared at Cassie as if she had slapped him, the blank nearly uncomprehending look in his eyes as well as his gaping mouth. He looked about to say something but without any idea what he'd had on mind, it was the look she had given him, the tease and that look. An image of his dream flashed into his mind again, Cassie in a purple track suit holding a very large weapon. He shook his head as he felt Akana's hand on his shoulder, "I'm fine" he managed, "let's start moving and see if there are any sign posts." He was going to follow his own plan as they stepped into the otherwise insignificant looking corridor when he had the strangest feeling. It stopped in in his tracks as he was taking lead of the trio, he had been going right from the door when he turned slowly and looked behind him. He wasn't sure he could have gone any further if he'd tried to force himself, but he didn't, instead he followed the feeling and turned around. "I think...left is the right way..." He said the words quietly, he wasn't sure, but the feeling in his mind certainly was.

Adrian started walking again, this time nothing in his mind stopped him, at the end of the hall they were following was the mail sorting room. It didn't need a sign post on the door, it had a big enough window instead, the room was empty except for the mail man they had followed and he had his back to the door. The amnesiac led Akana and Cassie past quickly and quietly, he didn't look armed but there was really no way to tell.
It was two corridors later, a left and then a right when Adrian felt the stopping force in his mind again, it felt different, not as strong. It was while he took a moment to contemplate this that he heard the footsteps, they weren't rushing, but they were big booted and something in Adrian's mind said 'armed'. They were just coming round the corner when Adrian pushed Cassie and Akana back the way they had come. They were at a crossing of four corridors, the amnesiac only now realised how focused he had been on the part of his mind guiding him, he hadn't realised they had been traversing a maze.

A split second thought that barged its way to the front of his mind, this coupled with a massive sudden dose of adrenalin cause Adrian to grab Cassie and Akana. He threw them down a corridor intersecting the one they were in before it met the 'crossroad'. Moments later a pair of security guards came up behind where they had been, "there he is! Fire!" The pair immediately raised their weapons and started shooting, had Cassie and Akana not been thrown down the other corridor they'd likely have been killed. Akana grabbed Cassie, ripped open the door of a nearby storage room and shoved the girl in before following. Adrian started running as the bullets hit the walls around him like horizontal rain, hand guns, not machine guns from the rate of fire and fortunate for him.

Adrian ran past the crossing corridors, directly in front of the other pair of security guards, he kept going but the initial alert and gun fire from the other pair meant they were ready. He felt a sharp sting in his side but adrenalin kept him going, he vaguely heard a clatter and someone shout the word 'grenade' but he was already running at full pelt. It was the explosion which made a difference to his pace, it hit him from behind and blasted him forward. It was far enough away from Cassie and Akana that all they felt was the dull rumble of the roof collapsing from the explosion, the sound was something else however. One of the security personnel in the corridor yelled "you idiot! Alert Martha and the Doctor!"

Elsewhere the creature everyone was taking for the Doctor stepped out of the room with the sensor, his work was done here and now he needed to rid himself of possible dangers to his plan. The Doctor took companions for a reason and they always helped him...well...usually, however even those that had posed a problem at one point or another had saved his life in others. Rose Tyler was an example of this.
None the less, it proved that, Human or not, these 'chosen' of the Time Lord could pose a problem, whether or not the man himself had all of his memories.

Malcolm stumbled back from Jack and nearly found himself sitting in a cleaner's bucket. He stopped in a off balance position, most of his body leaning back and his right hand against the wall behind him. He only started breathing once he was steady, at which point his breaths came is gasps. For a scientist he found his mind working slowly, it took him time to work out what Jack was saying and that he had asked him a question. "Um...uh...umm..." He was off to a brilliant start, noises were coming out of his mouth before he had formed the answer never mind the words to give it.
"C...control centre I think...would be like her if she was ordered behind." They both knew she would have been on the field unless something or someone had kept he behind. Dr Malcolm Taylor didn't see any reason for the monster to have her with him, but there was a reason for him not to, she was one of the few people who would be able to pick out a fake Doctor from a real one. But then again, a regeneration could throw her off...could...maybe...Malcolm was still finding it hard to level his thoughts and a problem with too many variables was not what he needed.

Malcolm looked around and suddenly felt claustrophobic, he needed to get out into the corridor at least. He grabbed the door handle just as there was a yell from someone outside and the door was thrown inwards. He found himself with the wind knocked out of him, thrown to the ground with another body on top of him. All he knew about his apparently attacker was the fact she had blonde hair, he coughed and rested his head back with a wheeze.

Akana slammed the door shut and turned to find two others in the room she had chosen to hide with Cassie. In an instant her hood was down with one hand and in her other was a palm version of the Silurian rifles. She glanced at the ground where she had apparently managed to use Cassie to fell one of the possible attackers, her gun was pointed at the still standing one. "Who are you?" She hissed, if nothing else, her exposure to Adrian had taught her to pause before killing a possible threat, after all, the blonde and the amnesiac might still be useful.
Only the explosion drew the Silurian's attention away, "Adrian" she whispered, her face visibly paled at the thought the amnesiac might now be dead.

On the other side of the collapse Adrian coughed and lifted his face from the ground, he was sure he looked a mess, covered in cement dust. He touched under his nose and it came back red, cement dust and blood to boot apparently. As he heard the yell he looked behind him, there was no way anyone was getting through the collapse any time soon, it also didn't look like any patrols were on his side. He had thrown Cassie and Akana before anyone had seen them, so as far as he could tell he was still the most in danger...which he felt was a good thing.

Adrian slowly lifted himself into a kneeling position, or tried to, he stifled a cry as pain flared in his side. His hand grabbed the painful area on instinct, he rolled onto his left side and his right hand came away red from the area just above his hip. Adrenalin kept the pain from reaching him in its full glory, but he knew it wouldn't be long before he couldn't move, especially if he didn't get to it right now. Adrian's hand was already shaking, his right leg felt numb, there was another bullet in his thigh but he couldn't feel it yet. As he struggled, lifting himself (on his left leg and arm for the most part) to his feet he staggered to the wall. His breathing was as bad as his walking, it came in shaky gasps.
Adrian groaned in pain and leaned his head against the wall. He wasn't healing like he had before, "just when some alien weirdness would be handy" he muttered and tried to take a step forward. With his left hand against the wall and not too much weight on his right leg he took it as a chance he could make it.

The map was in his mind again, but it didn't feel like a memory, this was an insistent pull...something else was driving him. It held the pain at a bearable level, this allowed him to nearly walk but there was no way he could run. He could feel something hot and wet running down his shoulder, another bullet. It had taken the time between waking up from a post fight stupor, to finding Cassie's house before he had healed last time. Considering he was much more badly injured this time, he didn't want to think how long it would take to heal, if he lived long enough...
His mind had started on maths equations, the amount of blood loss of one bullet wound times the number of holes in him. Then there was another variable to consider, how long would it take him to reach the scanner, would he make it?
He staggered on till he reached an elevator, his left hand struggled to reach the right back pocket of his jeans, fortunately what he was reaching for was sticking out. He grabbed Malcolm's card and scanned it, but rather than flashing green - it came up red. Adrian gave a grunt somewhere in between anger and pain, he held the card in his teeth and reached for the time in his left back pocket. He grabbed the sonic screwdriver and pointed it at the elevator console, he could have laughed if it didn't hurt so much when the green light came on.

Elsewhere Martha had ordered a lockdown of the elevators to narrow the planet eater's options, she couldn't help but wonder where the thing was headed. She also couldn't help but grit her teeth in anger as she saw the thing use the Doctor's sonic screwdriver to gain access anyway. She turned away from the screen she had been looking at and grabbed her side arm, "I want the people he came in with found, I want them checked and in custody if they are Human, shot if they are anything else!" She ignored any questions as to what she was doing, she had seen where the elevator was headed. She was going to take the stairs and meet it there.