Maintaining Harmony (Doctor Who Fanfiction)

Book 1: Chapter 50

"Again I was trying to tell you but no one would let me talk" I say frowning at the flowers that were now scattered on the floor.

"How would you kill me?" the half-face man asks again.

"Why don't you have a drink first? It's only human." the Doctor says and I pick up the glass I hadn't drank out of and held it out to the half-face man, doubting he would take it though.

"I am not human." the half-face man says.

"Neither am I or her" he says gesturing to himself then at me and I nod then shake my head.

"Since when have I not been human?" I ask confused and he just shakes his head as a 'not now'

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

We were now seated at the table the Doctor and I on one side and the half-face man on the other side.

"What do you think of the view?" the Doctor asks.

"It's too high up" I mumble out not wanting to look outside at all.

"I do not think of it." the half-face man says.

"I don't think of it. I don't. Droids and apostrophes, I could write a book. Except you are barely a droid any more. There's more human in you than machine. So tell me, what do you think of the view?" the Doctor asks and the Half-Face Man gets up and draws back the net curtain.

"It is beautiful." the half-face man responds just barely looking out the window and the Doctor stands up offering for me to get up as well and I bite my lip and debate for a second but get up and take his hand as we walk over to the window but I grip his hand rather tightly.

"No, it isn't. It's just far away. Everything looks too small. I prefer it down there. Everything is huge." the Doctor says and the half-face man closes the curtain and I nod in agreement to the Doctor's statement about liking it better on the ground. "Everything is so important. Every detail, every moment, every life clung to."

"How could you kill me?" the half-face man says turning to us.

"For the same reason that you're asking me that question, because you don't really want to carry on." the Doctor says and the half-face man looks down. "What'll happen to the other droids when you die? You're the control node, aren't you? Presumably they'll deactivate."

"I will not die. I will reach the promised land." the half-face man denies.

"There isn't any promised land. This is just. It's a superstition that you have picked up from all the humanity you've stuffed inside yourself." the Doctor says turning and pulling me with him away from the half-face man.

"I am not dead." the half-face man says.

The Doctor and I slowly turn around to face him again. "You are a broom. Question. You take a broom, you replace the handle, and then later you replace the brush, and you do that over and over again. Is it still the same broom? Answer? No, of course it isn't. But you can still sweep the floor. Which is not strictly relevant, skip that last part. You have replaced every piece of yourself, mechanical and organic, time and time again. There's not a trace of the original you left." the Doctor says and holds up a silver plate between himself and the Half-Face Man "You probably can't even remember where you got that face from." he says and the half-face man takes it, looks carefully, then drops it.

"It cannot end." the half-face man says.

"It has to. You know it does. And there's only one way out." the Doctor says and opens the doors.

"Self-destruction is against my basic program." the half-face man says.

"And murder is against mine." the Doctor says and they struggle in the doorway, and I just stand frozen away from the door, not wanting to be up high in this height.