xɪɪɪ. ʜʏʙʀɪᴅ
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The Tardis lands, and the Doctor puts on the hand brake.
"There we go. Perfect landing. Which isn't easy in such a tight spot.", He comments.
"You should be used to tight spots by now. Where are we?", Martha asks.
"The end of the line. No place like it."
Martha goes outside.
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The Tardis is next to the clothes horse.
"Home. You took me home?", Martha gapes.
"In fact, the morning after we left, so you've only been gone about twelve hours. No time at all, really."
"But all the stuff we've done. Shakespeare, New New York, old New York?"
"Yep, all in one night, relatively speaking. Everything should be just as it was. Books, CDs, laundry. So, back were you were, as promised.", Juliet comments, a bit disappointed that Martha is actually staying home.
"This is it?"
"Yeah, we should probably er-", The Doctor is cut off by Martha's phone ringing.
The answering machine starts up.
"Hi, I'm out. Leave a message."
"I'm sorry."
"Martha, are you there? Pick it up, will you?", Her mother's voice says over the machine.
"It's Mum. It'll wait."
"All right then, pretend that you're out if you like. I was only calling to say that your sister's on TV. On the news of all things. Just thought you might be interested."
Martha turns on the television, which was on stand by.
"The details are top secret-", A man stands, speaking.
"How could Tish end up on the news?", Tish is standing next to an elderly man who is making an announcement.
"Tonight, I will demonstrate a device which will redefine our world.
"She's got a new job. PR for some research lab."
Juliet nods her head.
"With the push of a single button, I will change what it means to be human."
"Professor! Professor!"
Martha puts the TV back on standby.
"Sorry. You were saying we should...?", Martha trails off, to let him finish his sentence.
"Yes, yes, we should. One trip is what we said."
"Yeah. I suppose things just kind of escalated."
"Mmm. Seems to happen to us a lot.", Juliet chuckles lightly.
"Thank you. For everything."
"It was our pleasure."
The Doctor and Juliet go back back into the Tardis, and it dematerialises. Then it materialises again.
"No, I'm sorry. Did he say he was going to change what it means to be human?", The Doctor says.
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On the desk is a replica of Michaelangelo's David, and a model of a cathedral is on a stand. An older woman is speaking to the elderly man.
"Are you sure it's safe?", The woman, Lady Thaw, asks.
"There were some issues. They've been resolved. I'm confident I'm in no serious danger."
"That's comforting, Richard, but it wasn't just you I was worried about."
"Your concern is touching.", Lazarus comments.
"The people in that room will represent billions of pounds worth of potential investment. Mister Saxon wants to be sure they like what they see."
"Don't worry. Our friend will get his money's worth."
Tish enters.
"You wanted to see the guest list for tonight, Professor?"
"Yes. Thank you, Leticia.", He smiles at her.
She puts the file on his desk, and he puts his hand on hers.
"That's an interesting perfume. What's it called?"
"Soap.", Tish pulls her hand away in disgust and leaves.
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The Doctor, Juliet and Martha are in formal evening dress.
"Oh, black tie. Whenever I wear this, something bad always happens.", The Doctor groans. He is trying to avoid looking at Juliet, too worried he'll give away his feelings.
She hits his arm.
"Shut up and have fun.", She mutters.
"It's not the outfit, that's just you. Anyway, I think it suits you. In a James Bond kind of way.", Martha laughs.
"James Bond? Really?", They walk up to a building labelled Lazarus Laboratories.
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In the middle of the room is a circular dais. On it is a man-sized frosted glass chamber and four upright posts, slightly curved at the top to aim at the chamber. A waiter walks past with a tray of food.
"Oh, look, they've got nibbles! I love nibbles.", He grins like a child as Juliet rolls her eyes.
"Hello."
"Tish.", Martha smiles at her sister.
"You look great. So, what do you think? Impressive, isn't it?"
"Very.", Martha nods.
"And two nights out in a row for you. That's dangerously close to a social life."
"If I keep this up, I'll end up in all the gossip columns.", Martha jokes.
"You might, actually. You should keep an eye out for photographers. And Mum, she's coming too. Even dragging Leo along with her.", Tish warns her.
"Leo in black tie? That I must see. This is, er, the Doctor and Juliet."
"Hello."
"Hi!"
"Are they with you?"
"Yeah."
"But their not on the list. How did they get in?"
"She's my plus one.", Martha says pointing to Juliet.
"And him?"
"He's-"
"My plus one. Hi, Thea Pelagius. Nice to meet you.", A young woman suddenly walks over an extends her hand towards Tish.
"Of course.", Tish nods at the girl.
"So, this Lazarus, he's your boss?", The Doctor asks, wearily eyeing the mystery woman that is standing rather close to Juliet.
"Professor Lazarus, yes. I'm part of his executive staff.", Tish confirms.
"She's in the PR department."
"I'm head of the PR department, actually.", Tish corrects her sister.
"You're joking."
"I put this whole thing together."
"So do you know what the professor's going to be doing tonight? That looks like it might be a sonic microfield manipulator.", Juliet rambles.
"She's a science geek. I should have known. Got to get back to work now. I'll catch up with you later.", Tish says before walking off.
"Science geek? What does that mean?", The Doctor squints, confused.
"That your obsessively enthusiastic about it.", Martha explains.
"Oh, nice."
"Who are you?", He suddenly turns to the woman called Thea.
"Just as I said. Thea Pelagius. You might know my sister, Anastasia."
His eyebrows raise slightly but he accepts the answer.
"Nice to meet you Thea. I'm Juliet French, this is the Doctor and Martha Jones."
"Nice to meet you, all.", Thea grins.
Just then, Francine enters with Leo.
"Your father's caused me enough heartache already with his menopause and his trophy girlfriend."
"Yeah, Mum, I know. It's just something he said last night.", Leo says.
"Martha."
"Mum!", Martha gives her mother a big hug.
"All right, what's the occasion?", Her mother asks.
"What do you mean? I'm just pleased to see you, that's all."
"You saw me last night.", Francine points out.
"I know. I just miss you. You're looking good, Leo."
"Yeah. If anyone asks me to fetch them a drink, I'll swing for him."
"You disappeared last night."
"I just went home.", Martha shrugs.
"On your own?", Francine raises her brows.
"These are my friends. Juliet French, Thea Pelagius, and The Doctor."
"Doctor what?"
"No, it's just the Doctor. We've all been doing some work together.", Martha lies as she includes Thea.
"You all right, mate?", Leo says, addressing the Doctor.
"It's lovely to meet you, Mrs Jones. Heard a lot about you."
"Have you? What have you heard, then?", Francine narrows her eyes at him, questioningly.
"Oh, you know, that you're Martha's mother and. Er, no, actually, that's about it. We haven't had much time to chat. You know, been busy."
"Busy? Doing what, exactly?", She prods.
"Oh you know. Stuff."
Professor Lazarus taps on his glass for attention.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I am Professor Richard Lazarus and tonight I am going to perform a miracle. It is, I believe, the most important advance since Rutherford split the atom, the biggest leap since Armstrong stood on the moon. Tonight, you will watch and wonder. Tomorrow, you will wake to a world which will be changed forever.", Lazarus goes inside the chamber. A pair of lady scientists start up the machine and press a big red button. The four columns start to oscillate and rotate around the chamber as they pour energy into it. Then an alarm sounds.
"Something's wrong. It's overloading.", Juliet notices.
The computer agrees. There are sparks from the controls, then smoke. The Doctor and Juliet rush over. He gets out his sonic screwdriver.
"Somebody stop them. Get them away from those controls!", Lady Thaw exclaims.
"If this thing goes up, it'll take the whole building with it. Is that what you want?", Juliet shouts at her.
Finally, the Doctor pulls out a big power cable and the contraption slows down, then stops. Martha and Thea rush to the chamber.
"Get it open!", The Doctor orders.
Martha opens the door, and a young man staggers out. Lady Thaw is delighted. Thea looks on with wide eyes.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I am Richard Lazarus. I am seventy six years old and I am reborn!"
Wild applause.
"He did it. He actually did it.", Lady Thaw mutters quietly.
A little later, Lazarus is posing for the photographers.
"It can't be the same guy. It's impossible. It must be a trick.", Martha whispers in shock.
"Oh, it's not a trick. I wish it were.", Juliet's jaw clenched as she speaks.
"What just happened then?"
"He just changed what it means to be human.", The Doctor glares at the man.
"Excuse me. That was the most astonishing thing I've ever seen. Look at you.", Lady Thaw gushes.
"This is only the beginning. We're not just making history, we're shaping the future, too."
"Think of the money we'll make. People will sell their souls to be transformed like that. And I'll be first in line."
Lazarus stiffens and gasps, then grabs a tray from a passing waiter and proceeds to eat all the food on it.
"Richard."
"I'm famished.", He tells her.
"Energy deficit. Always happens with this kind of process.", Juliet says.
"You speak as if you see this every day, Miss and him.", Lazarus points at Juliet and the Doctor.
"I'm the Doctor. This is Juliet. And well, no, not every day, but we have some experience of this kind of transformation.", He admits.
"That's not possible."
"Using hypersonic sound waves to create a state of resonance. That's inspired.", Juliet tells him.
"You understand the theory, then."
"Enough to know that you couldn't possibly have allowed for all the variables."
"No experiment is entirely without risk."
"That thing nearly exploded. You might as
well have stepped into a blender."
"You're not qualified to comment.", Lady Thaw suddenly says, sharply.
"If they hadn't stopped it, it would have exploded.", Thea points out.
"Then I thank you, Doctor, Juliet. But that's a simple engineering issue. What happened inside the capsule was exactly what was supposed to happen. No more, no less.", Lazarus waves it off.
"You've no way of knowing that until you've run proper tests."
"Look at me. You can see what happened. I'm all the proof you need."
"This device will be properly certified before we start to operate commercially.", Lady Thaw assures.
"Commercially? You are joking. That'll cause chaos.", Martha scoffs, loudly.
"Not chaos, change. A chance for humanity to evolve, to improve."
"This isn't about improving. This is about you and your customers living a little longer.", Thea spits at the man.
"Not a little longer. A lot longer. Perhaps indefinitely.", Lazarus corrects her.
"Richard, we have things to discuss, upstairs."
"Goodbye, Doctor, Juliet. In a few years, you'll look back and laugh at how wrong you were.", Lazarus kisses Martha's hand, and leaves with Lady Thaw.
"Oh, he's out of his depth. No idea of the damage he might have done.", Juliet shakes her head as the Doctor nods in agreement.
"So what do we do now?"
"Now? Well, this building must be full of laboratories. I say we do our own tests.", Thea suggests.
"Lucky I've just collected a DNA sample then, isn't it?", Martha smirks.
"Oh, Martha Jones, you're a star.", The Doctor grins at her.
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"I grew up over there. A tiny flat above a butcher's shop."
"It'll have a blue plaque soon. Richard Lazarus lived here.", Lady Thaw says.
"It's gone. Destroyed in the war. The bombing."
"Of course.", She nods.
"1940. Do you remember? Night after night. Explosions, guns, firestorm.", He asks her.
"My parents had sent me to the country by then.", She remembers.
"When the sirens went, we'd go to the cathedral there. We used to shelter in the crypt. The living cowering among the dead."
"But look at what you've built here, now. You've laid the foundations for an empire. An empire we can rule together.", She pulls him in for a kiss, and he pulls back in disgust.
"Well, what's wrong?"
"Look at yourself, woman.", He scoffs at her.
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An image of a strand of DNA is on the computer screen.
"Amazing.", Juliet and the Doctor both gasp.
"What?"
"Lazarus's DNA."
"I can't see anything different."
"Look at it.", Juliet says, pointing at the DNA on the screen. Thea also looks at the DNA.
"Oh, my God. Did that just change? But it can't have.", Martha gasps.
"But it did."
"It's impossible.", Thea mutters.
"And that's two impossible things we've seen so far tonight. Don't you love it when that happens?", The Doctor grins.
"That means Lazarus has changed his own molecular patterns."
"Hypersonic sound waves to destabilise the cell structure, then a metagenic programme to manipulate the coding in the protein strands. Basically, he hacked into his own genes and instructed them to rejuvenate.", Thea explains, shocking them all.
"She can definitely stay!", The Doctor grins, as the young girl blushes slightly from embarrassment.
"But they're still mutating now.", Martha says, changing the subject.
"Because he missed something. Something in his DNA has been activated and won't let him stabilize. Something that's trying to change him."
"Change him into what?"
"I don't know, but I think we need to find out.", Juliet answers.
"That woman said they were going upstairs."
"Let's go."
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"It's me who made this all possible. This is my triumph, and I will not be denied, not by you, not after everything I've done."
"You backed me because you saw a profit. Your concern was financial.", Lazarus scoffs.
"Well, you want the money as much as I do. We had a plan."
Lazarus looks ill.
"When the device is ready, I'll be rejuvenated, too. We could be rich and young and together.", Lady Thaw cries.
"You think I'd waste another lifetime on you?", He spits at her.
"Did that process make you even more cruel?", He glares daggers at him.
"No, my love. That I learnt from you. You have a gift for it."
"Then you know that I'll protect my involvement in the project. I'm sure Mister Saxon will be interested-"
Lazarus gasps and pulls at his collar.
"What's going on?", She asks.
"It must just be, ah!"
"What is it?"
"I'll be fine in a moment. It's probably just cramp.", His back suddenly arches with a nasty cracking sound. He falls to the floor, tugging at his bow tie and writhing.
"Oh! Richard! Is it some sort of seizure? What should I do? I don't understand what's happening. Richard.", Lady Thaw cries.
Something very inhuman rears over the terrified woman, opens what one can only call a mouth, and lunges at her.
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A string quartet is playing.
"Tish! Have you seen Martha and her friends anywhere?", Francine asks Tish.
"Not since the demonstration."
"Do you know anything about them? Has she ever mentioned them before?"
"Not to me.", Tish answers.
"The way she followed them."
"She's a doctor. She was just doing her job.", Tish tells her.
"She's not a doctor yet. Never will be, if she doesn't stay focused."
"Look, she's found friends. So what?", Leo asks.
"There's something going on, Leo, I can feel it."
The lift doors open and human Lazarus steps out. He has changed his shirt, and he stretches his neck
in a very inhuman way.
"Leticia Jones. I'd recognize the smell of that soap anywhere."
"Professor.", Tish swallows hard.
"I'm sorry, ladies and gentlemen, you'll have to excuse me while I take care of Leticia here. I've been neglecting her.", Lazarus smirks.
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"This is his office, all right."
"So where is he?", Thea mutters, looking around the empty office.
"Don't know. Let's try back at the reception.", Martha sees a skeletal leg with a ladies shoe on it sticking out behind the desk.
"Is that Lady Thaw?"
"Used to be. Now it's just a shell. Had all the life energy drained out, like squeezing the juice out of an orange.", The Doctor explains.
"Lazarus?", Thea asks.
"Could be."
"So he's changed already?"
"Not necessarily. You saw the DNA. It was fluctuating. The process must demand energy. This might not have been enough.", Juliet answers her.
"So he might do this again?"
"Mmm.", The Doctor hums.
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The Doctor, Juliet, Thea and Martha get into one lift just before another arrives.
"You seem very young to have such a responsible position. Have you much experience?"
"Not really. But the interview panel thought I had all the necessary attributes.", Tish explains.
"How perceptive of them.", Lazarus hums.
"So where are you taking me?"
"Up to the roof. It's a lovely evening. I thought I'd show you the view. It's extraordinary."
"Like a lot of things around here, then.", Tish comments.
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"I can't see him.", Thea mutters.
"He can't be far. Keep looking.", Juliet tells her.
"Hey, you all right, Marth? I think Mum wants to talk to you.", Leo approaches her.
"Have you see Lazarus anywhere?"
"Yeah, well, he was getting cosy with Tish a couple of minutes ago."
"With Tish?", Martha asks with wide eyes.
"Ah, Doctor, Juliet."
"Where did they go?", The Doctor asks, quickly.
"Upstairs, I think. Why?"
"Doctor, Juliet-", The Doctor and Juliet past her, he spills her drink. Martha follows them, Thea right behind her.
"I'm speaking to you!", Francine shouts after them.
"Not now, Mum."
Francine gets a napkin from a table to try her arm.
"I think you need one of these.", A man offers her another glass of champagne.
"Thank you. That's very kind of you."
"Do you know that man and woman?", He asks her.
"No. Their friends of my daughter's."
"Perhaps she should choose her friends more carefully.", The man comments, cryptically.
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"Where are they?", Martha asks.
"Fluctuating DNA will give off an energy signature. I might be able to pick it up.", He scans with his sonic screwdriver.
"Got him.", Juliet mutters, looking at the sonic.
"Where?"
The Doctor points upwards.
"But this is the top floor. The roof.", Thea gasps.
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Looking north west towards St Paul's Cathedral, with the tower of the Collegiate Church of St Saviour and St Mary Overie in the foreground.
"That clock tower's beautiful all lit up like that.", Tish says.
"It's Southwark Cathedral. One of the oldest churches in London. Been around even longer than I have.", Lazarus laughs dryly.
"Well, you're looking pretty good for your age.", Tish comments.
"Thank you."
"Can I?"
"Of course.", She strokes his cheek.
"Still can't take it in.", She breathes out.
"I'm still adjusting myself. I've been working toward it for so many years, it's hard to believe the moment's finally arrived.", Lazarus says.
"And is it like you expected?"
"I find that nothing's ever exactly like you expect. There's always something to surprise you. Between the idea and the reality, between the motion and the act-"
"Falls the Shadow.", The Doctor finishes.
"So the mysterious Doctor knows his Eliot. I'm impressed.", Lazarus sighs.
"Martha, what are you doing here?"
"Tish, get away from him.", Martha says, looking out for her sister.
"What? Don't tell me what to do."
"I wouldn't have thought you had time for poetry, Lazarus, what with you being busy defying the laws of nature and all."
"You're right, Doctor. One lifetime's been too short for me to do everything I'd like. How much more I'll get done in two or three or four.", Lazarus smiles at the thought.
"Doesn't work like that. Some people live more in twenty years than others do in eighty. It's not the time that matters, it's the person."
"But if it's the right person, what a gift that would be."
"Or what a curse. Look at what you've done to yourself.", Juliet interjects.
"Who are you to judge me? Either of you?", Lazarus glares at the timelords.
"Over here, Tish."
"You have to spoil everything, don't you? Every time I find someone nice, you have to go and find fault.", Behind Tish's back, Lazarus spasms and falls.
"Tish, he's a monster!", Martha cries out, at last.
"I know the age thing's a bit freaky, but it works for Catherine Zeta-Jones.", Then Tish turns and sees the transformation in progress. Lazarus is now a massive bony scorpion with a human face.
"What's that?", She asks.
"Run!", Thea shouts.
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