"This is the one Grandpa won't like very much and Aunt Hel is in," Emerson announced. Nine's widened as he tried to barricade himself from a possible Klyntar attack, while Hel scowled. Tony looked at her in concern, "What's wrong?"
"My sister experienced something traumatic, and they show up in this," Hel said quietly. Maiken gasped quietly, worried for her aunt who was still sat with her parents while her Uncle by marriage hid away.
The Doctor showed Rose her bedroom after directing Annika to hers. She was quite exhausted from being in the sun and had to be helped to her room after she had gotten something to eat. She had plopped down on her bed as soon as she had seen it. The next morning the Doctor had found Rose trying to find something, "What are you looking for?" he asked, making her jump.
"You said there was a kitchen," she responded. The Doctor nodded and guided her there, apparently Annika had already found it and she was eat raw organ meat straight out the fridge.
"Ew!" Wanda cringed.
"Get used to it," Eddie, Annika, and Emerson say sternly, but annoyed.
Annika paused seeing the other two, "Hi," she said. Rose simply just went to go look for her own food, "After finding out she's been eating the stray cats, I'm not really thrown off. And that's not the worse I've seen her eat," Rose told the Doctor.
"Well, eat all your Chinese food next time and I won't eat it out the trash," Annika argued. Rose aimed her hand in Annika's direction, "See? The reason we didn't finish it was because it wasn't fully cooked. I was really curious as to how she didn't get a stomach bug as a result," she explained.
The Doctor had gotten his own bit of food, "Do you two want to go into the past this time?" he asked. The two nodded and soon they were back in the console room, the TARDIS going a bit jerky as the Doctor was trying to drive it. Thankfully Annika understood a little bit about what to do and was helping. "Hold that one down!" the Doctor told Rose.
"I'm holding this one down!" she yelled back. Annika just rolled her eyes, lifting a leg up and holding down the lever.
"I promised you a time machine and that's what you're getting. Now, 1860. How does 1860 sound?" the Doctor asked.
"Sounds like something you'll regret," Hel said and Nine sunk further almost all the way off of his seat.
"What happened in 1860?"
"People lived and died," Annika bluntly replied.
"No shit, Sherlock," Rose said.
"Oooo, does Sherlock exist?!" Annika asked excitedly. Before anyone could respond to her, they landed rather roughly. "Blimey!"
"I never found out if Sherlock existed," Annika said a bit solemnly.
"You're telling me. Are you all right?" the Doctor asked the two.
"Yeah, Mayhem broke my fall," Rose started.
"She didn't break mine, but I'm healing. Oh stop it Mayhem I know she's breakable it just would've been nice," Annika said from the floor, the Doctor assumed she was arguing with Mayhem afterwards.
"Anyway," Rose spoke up again, "Nothing broken. Did we make it? Where are we?"
"I did it. Give the man a medal. Earth, Naples, December 24th, 1860," the Doctor told them. Annika's eyebrows scrunched together as she was trying to think of something, but Rose just looked amazed, "That's so weird. It's Christmas."
Christmas Eve, but yeah, sure, "All yours," the Doctor said.
Annika finally stood up as Rose continued, "But, it's like, think about it, though. Christmas. 1860. Happens once, just once and it's gone, it's finished, it'll never happen again. Except for you. You can go back and see days that are dead and gone a hundred thousand sunsets ago. No wonder you never stay still."
"Not a bad life," the Doctor told her. He still felt a lot of guilt from the past, it was actually not the best for him to be one his own, and he knew that.
All the Doctors looked down at that point. Amy, Rory, and Clara in particular looked shocked as they now realized why the Doctor always asked them to come on an adventure. He wanted more company. Annika gave Nine a small smile which he returned.
"Better with three. Come on, then," Rose said, heading for the door.
"Hey," the Doctor stopped her, "Where do you think you're going?"
"1860."
"Not dressed like that," Stephen said under his breath, a bit thankful Fenrir didn't hear him and threaten to tear him apart again.
"Go out there dressed like that, you'll start a riot, Barbarella. There's a wardrobe through there. First left, second right, third on the left, go straight ahead, under the stairs, past the bins, fifth door on your left. Hurry up!" the Doctor urged the two.
*******
Rose walked down the hall with Annika, "What did he say next?" Rose asked herself. Annika grabbed Rose's hand to stop her, "Dear, can you show us where the wardrobe is?" she asked, looking up at the ceiling. Rose jumped seeing the floor lit up going off in a direction, "Thank you," she said, remembering the TARDIS was sentient.
"Why didn't you tell us about that?" the other companions tell their respective Doctors.
Fenrir laughs, "He doesn't tell anyone to ask the TARDIS. Just that its sentient, and hope you figure it out."
The girls entered the wardrobe, looking around in amazement, "Wow, this is bigger than my wardrobe on Asgard," Annika commented.
"Wow," Natasha couldn't help but say.
"Can I—?"Wanda asked, but cut off.
"No," the Doctors and Annika say sternly in unison.
Natasha was thinking she could easily sneak in, then felt a pain in her head, 'Don't even think about sneaking onto me. Annika, My Thief, and I will immediately know, it is me after all,' a voice said. The pain stopped and she looked up to find Annika and all of the Doctors looking at her before the screen started again.
"Really?" Rose asked her.
"Yes, I'm a Princess, I have to dress up. Are there any green dresses for the period?" she said, asking the last bit to the TARDIS. The wardrobes started moving around and two dresses were in front of them, a black off the shoulder dress for Rose, and an emerald green dress for Annika. "Cool," Rose commented.
"I do have a question," Rose told Annika as we were both getting dressed, "Yeah?" I heard.
"Why do you always seem to be wearing green?"
"Yeah? All of you have green on," Clint asked. Loki had on green and gold but they also saw a black and white bracelet. Eddie was in dark colors with white accents but wore a green and gold ban. Their children also all wore some type of grey, but they spotted the Doctors all wearing a blue and red ring. Rose wore a bit of green but also had grey and amber, Pietro had a wrist band like Loki and Eddie that was green and red so it wouldn't fly off if he was running, Jack wore a bright blue shirt with green accents, and Tony had designed his newest ark to look like it had black, green, and white accents. Currently it was exposed since Vision and Bruce kept checking his heart rate and his newest scar going straight through his arc and stomach. He didn't like it, but Hel had put a protection over his arc to make him feel better, it helped that it felt cooling.
"Because my Mama's colors are green and gold, my siblings and I wear some kind of green to say we're their children. Dad wears green and gold because he's married to them," Annika explained. "So I would wear black and green, green for Mama, and black for Dad. Mama sometimes wears black to represent Dad."
"Why?"
"Because Venom's color is black. My siblings all have their different color combinations but Dad also kind of adopted them. I will see them wearing black too as there colors at events, but that's by choice, I have to wear it. Thankfully I like the combination."
"Oooooh, so that's why Tony has a different designed arc," Clint pointed out.
"My colors are also black and white because of my hair, but the green is to say he's a part of Mama's family," Hel explained.
"The Doctors that are married to Annika have a blue and red ring to represent Mayhem's colors," Rose added. All of Loki's in-laws briefly showed the other pieces they wore to represent their respective spouses.
Rose stopped what she was doing for a second, she was just putting up her hair, "You all have your own colors?"
Annika came into Rose's view and started doing her hair for her, "Yes, even with Klyntars your color, if you're in your human form is your symbiote's color. That's why Dad's is Black. My colors ended up being ones similar to a Frost Giant because Mayhem took on those colors," Annika explained, the tendrils forming on her arm that she showed Rose, "So I have dark blue with red accents," Annika added.
The married Doctors looked down at the dark blue rings they wore. Loki also had a black ring to also represent Venom. MJ wore a silver and red ring for Riot.
A new ribbon dropped in front of the girls, making them jump, "Oooh, thank you," Annika said, picking up a dark blue ribbon outlined in red. "Now, my sister Hel, her colors are the same as her hair. Black and white. Dad likes to joke that he's her favorite parent since it's his colors too. Our brothers all have grey, because there animals sides are mostly grey. Jörmungandr's is accented with red for his scales, Fenrir's is amber accents, and Sleipnir's has vibrant blue accents," she explained. Annika took the ribbon and put her own hair up, "So when do you wear green?"
"I am Hel's favorite," Eddie declared.
"Mmmm," Hel made a noise of disagreement making Eddie gasp and turn around making Hel snicker.
"Well, we all like green, we can wear it whenever, but at events, it's best to wear some kind of green, but we also wear our own colors and I sometime's look like a damn rainbow as a result," Annika joked, making Rose laugh. Red, blue, green, and black? She could see it.
"Now that I've officially seen it, you're a rainbow," Rose snickered and Annika extended one of Mayhem's tentacles and whacked her on the head making her laugh more.
Rose walked out, Annika following behind. The Doctor greeted her again before he looked stunned at Annika, "Blimey!"
"I know, I look great," Annika smiled.
"No, Rose looks great, you look beautiful," was the Doctor flirting with her. Since when did Annika blush purple?
"I've always blushed purple," Annika stated.
"Its annoying," Jörmungandr grumbled.
"It's adorable," Pietro countered.
Caldur and Pontus both scrunch their noses up at their dad's flirty-like comment.
Rose looked between the two in thought, those two need to happen.
"I got my wish," Rose celebrated quietly.
"Aren't you going to change?" Rose asked him.
"I've changed my jumper. Come on," he said.
"You both stay there. You've done this before," Rose directed towards the Doctor, "And been to other planets already," she directed towards Annika and walked out the door. "By the way," Rose looked back at Annika as she smiled at the snow, "Since when do you blush purple?" she asked her quietly.
"I was blushing?"
"Ugh," Annika groaned and Rose laughed.
"Yes, you were blushing when the Doctor complimented you," Rose told her and she started blushing again, "Sometimes our glamours don't fully work, we'll blush purple sometimes," she mumbled before scrunching up her nose as if she smelled something disgusting.
Annika's face turned into disgust as she remembered the smell. She was hoping to not remember what had happened when they met Charles Dickens, but it seems she couldn't get away from it. Hel watched her sister from Tony's side and debated moving forward to sit with her, but Annika was sitting with her parents so Hel thought it would be definitely better to sit with her injured mate.
Annika and Rose walked ahead of the Doctor, mumbling about something. The Doctor had decided to show up in the winter, he thought Annika would like the snow after dealing with being in the Sun.
"Awwww," Annika gushed. Nine then blushed, while the other Doctor's smiled, they liked surprising Annika with the random cold environments, especially after they went to some place hot.
The Doctor bought a newspaper and looked at the date, "I got the flight a bit wrong," he noticed.
"I don't care," Rose responded.
"It's not 1860, it's 1869."
"I don't care,"
"And it's not Naples," the Doctor told her.
"I don't care," Rose repeated again.
"It's Cardiff," Annika and the Doctor both said, hers seemed a bit more questioning though.
"Right," Rose stopped looking around so amazed.
"I smell gas, and death. This seems familiar," Annika said.
"Very, very familiar," Annika mumbled, now hugging her dad. Eddie only knew two instances where Annika was distressed when she was with the Ninth Doctor. One time in the 90s where Rose prevented her father's death and before that when the—no, they were going to see the Gelth on Earth.
"Nika?" a new voice sounded out and a woman with half black half white hair appeared, wearing a black dress with hints of green, "Hel!" Annika responded and ran into her arms.
"Gorgeous," Tony mumbled and was rewarded with a kiss on the cheek from Hel.
"Your sister?" Rose and the Doctor asked.
Annika nodded excitedly, "Yes, we all knew Nika would travel with you, Doctor, we run into her on occasions. I just knew the version of you with big ears was who she would travel with first," Hel explained. Rose looked confused, but before she could question what Hel had said, they heard screams.
"That's more like it!" the Doctor said with a smile.
"Such an adrenaline junkie," Jack said.
"Like you aren't, you become a giant head," Sleipnir countered.
"But how?" Jack questioned.
"Yes, there's a small problem that has caught my attention," Hel mentioned, and they all ran for the theatre. "Really smells like gas," the Doctor heard Annika mutter. There was something flying around, it looks like blue gas, and it came out of a person, "It's a dead body, something is using dead bodies," Hel said.
"Fantastic," the Doctor said, looking around.
"Not really, but that's your thing," Hel responded, keeping a hold of Annika's hand.
"Did you see where it came from?" the Doctor asked the man in front of them.
"Ah, the wag reveals himself, does he? I trust you're satisfied, sir!" the man spat.
"Oi! Leave her alone! Doctor, I'll get them," the Doctor heard Rose call out.
"Shouldn't have gone," Rose said a little freaked out. At least when she visits Hel the walking dead look a bit more lively. Fenrir pulled her a bit closer for comfort and Sylvie grabbed her hand. Sylvie grabbed her other hand
"Be careful!" the Doctor called back, turning back to the man, "Did it say anything? Can it speak? I'm the Doctor by the way. The brunette is Annika and the half black haired one is Hel," the two girls waved. Annika was laying her head against Hel's shoulder, and Hel looked as if she was trying to protect her sister from something.
"Figured out what was there," Hel said. Nine mentally groaned from that statement.
"Doctor? You look more like a navvie. Who the hell names their child 'Hel'?" the man said.
"Excuse me?!" Loki screeched. Angrboda had named their children.
"What kind of name is Jörmungandr?" the snake shifter grumbled, "My own children have trouble saying their last names. Why the difficult name?"
"Why did you have to come out as a snake? Your mother wouldn't leave me alone about it," Loki countered.
Jörmungandr pauses, then looks at his twin boys, "You came out as humans?"
"Yes," the twins said, looking him in the eye.
Jörmungandr gasps, "You didn't, you lied. Mother, I am sorry. Is this karma?" he dramatically spoke looking up at the sky.
"Hey!" Caldur and Pontus exclaim.
"What my mother had to only give birth to one snake, apparently I've got two!" their Papa yelled.
"And you will do great and we won't regret having the twin," Pietro said calmly.
"You're not the one has to give birth to them! And it's your fault for them being twins!" Jörmungandr yelled back. Caldur and Pontus watched with wide eyes, "But I love you two dearly already, even though you will make me unbelievingly uncomfortable."
"So they come out as snakes, but not eggs?" Clint asked quietly.
"My mother, deal with it," Hel gave him a bitter smile.
"What's wrong with this jumper?" The Doctor asked, a little offended, and watched the blue entity type thing fly into the gas light, "It's made of gas," the Doctor noted. He guessed that's why Annika could smell gas.
"Rose!" Annika suddenly called. Hel and the Doctor turned around and saw Rose getting taken by two people, the three of them hurrying up into a nearby carriage, "You're not escaping me, sir. What do you know about that hobgoblin, hmm? Projection on glass, I suppose. Who put you up to it?" the man kept questioning.
Sylvie didn't say anything when Jackie's grip tightened on her. She was worried for her mother too.
"Yeah, mate. Not now, thanks," the Doctor told him, turning to the driver, "Oi, you! Follow that hearse!" the Doctor told him, helping the sisters into the carriage.
"I can't do that, sir," the driver replied.
"Why not?"
"I'll tell you why not. I'll give you a very good reason why not. Because this is my coach," the man spat out.
"Then get in!" Annika yelled, pulling the man in.
Hel snorted, "He was so startled when you did that," she laughed.
The Doctor was hurrying the driver along as he saw the hearse get farther away, "Everything in order, Mister Dickens?" the driver asked.
"No! It is not!" the man replied.
"What did he say?" the Doctor asked Annika, who just replies with an 'Oooooh!' and Hel just smiles and nods excitedly.
"Charles Dickens?!" Bruce practically squealed.
"Yes Brucie Bear they just said it was the great Charles Dickens they met," Tony said, trying not to groan about the slight pain he felt from Bruce making him jump.
"Let me say this first. I'm not one without a sense of humor," the man continues.
"Dickens?" the Doctor asked the sisters and the man.
The sisters nod, making the man look at them oddly, "Yes," he tells the Doctor.
"Wait, how does Hel know who Charles Dickens is?" Graham asked.
"Sometimes Heimdall knows the classics on Midguard and then we get it on Asguard. When I freed my niece and nephews they all pretty much migrated to the library and to the Charles Dickens books," Thor explained.
"I went for Agatha Christie," Fenrir corrected with a big smile. Donna and Ten shared a look, Fenrir loved meeting Agatha.
"Charles Dickens?" the Doctor specified, getting the same responses from the three.
"The Charles Dickens?" the Doctor asked again, this time with excitement.
"Should I remove the gentleman and ladies, sir?" the driver asked.
"Charles Dickens? You're brilliant, you are. Completely one hundred percent brilliant. I've read them all. Great Expectations, Oliver twist and what's the other one, the one with the ghost?" the Doctor continued.
"A Christmas Carol?"
"No, no, no, the one with the trains. tHe Signal Man, that's it. Terrifying! The best short story ever written. You're a genius," the Doctor corrected.
"Mama would've flipped internally," Annika comments.
"Does he like him the future?" Hel asked.
"Oh yes."
"Mhmm," Loki agreed.
"You want me to get rid of them, sir?" the driver spoke up again.
"Er, no, I think they can stay. The two ladies haven't done anything anyway," Dickens responded, seeing the two offended looks on Hel and Annika's faces turn into smiles.
"Honestly, Charles. Can I call you Charles? I'm such a big fan," the Doctor said.
The Doctor saw the confused looks on Charles and Hel's face while Annika raised an eyebrow, wearing the same expression Loki had given Eddie previously.
"They all do so well at that look," Rory mumbled to his wife.
"You can't blame me for yelling about a volcano and them not knowing what I mean," Donna said to Ten, "Don't roll your eyes at me," she added with a bit of snark after he rolled his eyes.
"A what? A big what?" Charles asked, confused.
"Fan. Number one fan, that's me," the Doctor went on. He felt a slap on his arm, "They don't know what means, dumbo," Annika said.
"Oh, it means fanatic, devoted to. Mind you, I've got to say, that American bit in Martin Chuzzlewit, what's that about? Was that padding or what? I mean, it's rubbish, that bit," the Doctor said.
"I thought you said you were my fan?" Charles asked, slightly confused and slightly offended.
"Rose!" Jackie screamed.
"Rose!" Hel and Annika spoke up.
"Right, right, right, follow the hearse, faster, faster, faster," the Doctor ordered the driver feeling us move quicker.
"Thank you!" Jackie yelled dramatically at the screen. She wondered if it was a common thing that the Doctor's get distracted easy?
"Who exactly is in that hearse?" Charles asked.
"Our friend. She's only nineteen. It's my fault. She's in my care, and now she's in danger," the Doctor explained.
"Well, why are we wasting time talking about my dry old books? This is much more important. Driver, be swift! The chase is on!" Charles ordered.
"Yes, sir!"
"Attaboy, Charlie," the doctor praised.
"Nobody calls me Charlie," he comments.
"The ladies do," Annika and Hel said in sync, both wearing mischievous grins making the author blush.
"Y-you got Charles Dickens to blush?" Bruce asked, dropping his jaw in shock.
"We did," the sisters with the same smirks they wore on the screen.
"Now, what exactly is the problem?" the Doctor asked Hel quietly. Annika turned her head to listen, "The dead are suddenly walking, those bits of blue gas are possessing the bodies," Hel explained. They pulled up to the funeral home and knocked on the door, "I'm sorry, sir. We're closed," a woman answered Charles who had been in the front.
"Nonsense," Dickens spat, "Since when did an Undertaker keep office hours? The dead don't die on schedule. I demand to see your master."
"He's not in, sir," the girl lied. The Doctor thought Hel and Annika know when someone's lying, they are both giving her the 'tell the truth' look. "Don't lie to me, child. Summon him at once," Charles scolded.
"I'm awfully sorry, Mister Dickens, but the master's indisposed," the girl said. The Doctor spotted the gas flaring again and Annika with jerky movements, barged past, "Mayhem?" the Doctor quietly asked Hel. Hel nodded and they all followed, "Having trouble with your gas?" the Doctor asked, walking by.
"What the Shakespeare is going on?" the Doctor heard Charles question.
"You're not allowed inside, sir," the woman urged the Doctor, she had tried to grab Annika, but wasn't able to stop her. "Rose?" Annika called.
"Let me out!" they heard in the room next to where Annika had been standing. Annika hiked up her skirt and kicked the door down revealing two dead bodies trying to attack Rose.
Jackie screeched and yanked her daughter up, "Mom, I was fine," Rose swore.
"You were still human!" Jackie freaked out.
"But she defended herself just fine against them," Hel spoke up. Nine was wondering why Jackie said 'You were still human'. Is Rose not human anymore? He assumed she had extended like if she married Fenrir and had a child with him.
The Doctor was about to go forward but Hel stopped him, "This is my dance," she says, pulling Rose away and forcing the gas out of the dead body just by touching it.
"Cool," Tony and Maiken mumbled, both now eating popcorn.
They heard another man grumbling about them running into his building, "It's a prank," Charles declared, "It must be. We're under some mesmeric influence."
"Nah," Annika said, wrapping her arms around her human friend.
"The dead are walking," Hel adds, "I'm the only one supposed to do that," she mumbles.
"Huh—AHHHHHH!" Steve let out a high pitched scream so loud, because Hel suddenly turned around revealing a half corpse face. Tony laughed really hard, holding on to his arc desperately hoping to get it to stop hurting. Many other people laughed so hard they couldn't breath as they knew Hel had a half-corpse form.
"Hi," the Doctor said to Rose.
"Hi. Who's your friend?" she asked, turning in Annika's hold to see the new person.
"Charles Dickens," Annika, Hel, and the Doctor said.
"Okay," she says like it's no big deal.
"You're meeting Charles Dickens like it's no big deal? You should've seen Ten reacting to Shakespeare," Martha said.
"Or Donna reacting to Agatha Christie," Ten added, making Donna gasp in offense seeing his smirk.
The Doctor stepped up to the dead body that was still standing, "My name's the Doctor. Who are you, then? What do you want?"
The body's mouth opened, "Failing. Open the rift. We're dying. Trapped in this form. Cannot sustain. Help us. Argh!" the gas leaves the remaining body as it slumps to the floor.
They were all in the living room of the house as Rose goes off on the undertaker, "First of all you drug me, then you kidnap me, and don't think I didn't feel your hands having a quick wander, you dirty old man," Rose spat. Immediately Hel and the Doctor wrapped themselves around Annika, the Doctor covering her mouth, and both of them pushing her behind them in case Mayhem wanted to make an appearance. Although, thankfully nobody besides either of them saw a dark blue head sneak up past their shoulders for a brief second.
"I hope he's dead," Jackie deadpanned.
"He is," the people who were involved said.
"Well, he's dead now, but I mean dead then," Jackie said.
"He is," the same people repeated.
"Good," Jackie said with her arms crossed, "Nobody lives if they touch my daughter like that."
"Agreed," Fenrir said, both agreeing Rose won't be touched like that by a stranger, or his own daughter being touched.
"I won't be spoken to like this!" Sneed, the undertaker argued.
Rose wasn't done though, "Then you stuck me in a room full of zombies! And if that ain't enough, you swan off and leave me to die! So come on, talk!"
"It's not my fault. It's this house. It always had a reputation. Haunted. But I never had much bother until a few months back, and the stiffs," Sneed quickly corrects himself seeing Hel's glare, "the er, dear departed started getting restless," he explained.
"It's a funeral home, of course it's bloody haunted," the Doctor heard Hel mumble.
"Tommyrot," Charles spat, wow he really likes that mood today.
"You witnessed it," Sneed argued, "Can't keep the beggars down, sir. They walk. And it's the queerest thing, but they hang on to scraps."
Gwyneth walked by with a few cups of tea, somehow knowing all of our preferences, the sisters and the Doctor looked at each other confused as Gwyneth also seemed to be very weary of Hel and Annika's presence. "On old fellow who used to be a sexton almost walked into his own memorial service. Just like the old lady going to your performance, sir, just as she planned," Sneed was now explaining to Charles, trying to get him to believe him.
"Morbid fancy," was all the writer said.
"Oh, Charles, you were there," the Doctor add, trying to get the man to believe.
"I saw nothing but an illusion," he believed.
"If you're going to deny it, don't waste my time. Just shut up. What about the gas?"
"That's new, sir. Never seen anything like that," Sneed told me.
"Mean's it's getting stronger, the rift's getting wider and something's sneaking through," I thought out loud.
"What's the rift?" Rose asked.
"Weak point in time and space," Hel and Annika said making the Doctor look at them oddly, "Uncle Heimdall," they both add.
"We learn a lot from him," Sleipnir added.
The Doctor turn back to Rose and the others to continue, "It's a connection between this place and another. The cause of ghost stories, most of the time," the Doctor added.
"That's how I got the house so cheap. Stories going back generations," Sneed explained. Charles got fed up with everything and left, slamming the door behind him. "Echoes in the dark, queer songs in the air, and this feeling like a shadow passing over your soul. Mind you, truth be told, it's good for business. Just what people expect form a gloomy old trade like mine."
They all went their separate directions, the Doctor going to follow Charles, Rose was with Gwyneth, and Sneed had more work to do. Hel found her sister wandering around, "Okay, Rose is questioning everything and the Doctor still has big ears and a leather fetish, have you told him he's your mate?" Hel asked her, making her freeze.
"Oh no," Annika mumbled, still wrapped around her dad. Nine's eyes widen in shock. He turned back to his older selves who all give him slight nods, Ten partly wincing, remembering the events before Nine became him. It was a disadvantage for Nine not knowing the events that led up to the regeneration. He just hoped him changing to Chinny behind him wasn't so bad.
Annika slightly shook her head, "I didn't want to, he was put off by having a Klyntar in his TARDIS at first. I didn't want to say anything because I think he wouldn't want to be with me," she said a bit sadly.
Nine blinked at the screen with wide eyes and almost dropped his jaw. The rest of the Doctors looked up at the screen in sadness, they hadn't known she felt that way. Eddie hugged his daughter closer knowing Eddie and Loki had had those same feelings towards each other at first.
"Well, you won't know until you tell him," Hel told her, pulling her into a hug.
"I don't want to," Annika's muffled voice said.
"And why not?" came Mayhem's voice, her head disconnecting from Annika's body.
"I'm scared," she admitted.
"The amount of times Venom had argued with me about talking to your Mama..." Eddie trailed off as he felt Annika smiling. Emerson looked almost relieved to his mother's own nerves over talking to his father about being her mate. Emerson knew she had been nervous, she had told him when he found out about MJ, but seeing it was different.
Hel sighed, "Papa was like that with Dad, I'm sure Dad was like that towards Papa too. I remember our brothers and I practically screamed Papa, or Mama as she was most of that time, was a Jotunn and had a male form. Mama had froze and that's when Venom's head had stuck out said he was Klyntar and Mama was his mate, they didn't give a shit if she had a male form and actually fathered three out of four of us. Five years later we celebrating a new sister," Hel said, making the two smile. 'They both knew the Doctor had a past, he had caused the Time Lock on his planet and carried the guilt. He could be cruel if need be, just like Papa. Then there is the fact that he could regenerate into a woman, he was like Papa and my little sister is just like Dad. This'll be something,' Hel thought, Hel knew they get together in the future, but he looked different at the time and Hel still don't know how they got together. "Don't you dare," Annika muttered to herself, what did Mayhem say?
The companions were a bit shocked except a few of them. They didn't know the Doctor could be cruel, but they saw the dark look after Cassandra died. Donna knew after she found him and Annika the first time. Amy, Rory, and Clara were in shock about Eleven. Clara was iffy about Twelve; she could see him doing something, but she would still be surprised. Graham, Ryan, Yaz, and Dan, were a little surprised, but Dan had been told about the giant spider infestation that Thirteen had killed. Fourteen and Fifteen just sat their kind of glad they didn't have companions at that moment.
They followed the Doctor as he was going to go find where Rose went since he found the sisters pretty quickly, "You're from London, the brown haired one is from America, the one with the odd hair is Norse but sounds British. I've seen London in drawings, but never like that. All those people rushing about half naked, for shame. And the noise, and the metal boxes racing past, and the birds in the sky, no, they're metal as well. Metal birds with people in them. People are flying. And you, you've flown so far. Further than anyone. The things you've seen. The darkness, Mayhem, the big bad wolf. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, miss," they heard Gwyneth ramble. The Doctor and Hel both looked at Annika when Gwyneth mentioned Mayhem, what could it mean?
"It's all right," Rose said, trying to calm Gwyneth down.
"I can't help it. Ever since I was a little girl, my mam said I had the sight. She told me to hide it," Gwyneth said.
"She has some kind of seer ability, but something is affecting it," Hel whispered to her sister and the Time Lord. The Doctor nodded and entered the room, "But it's getting stronger, more powerful, is that right?" he asked.
"All the time, sir. Every night, voices in my head," Gwyneth responds.
The Doctor nodded, as if confirming a thought, "You grew up on top of the rift. You're part of it. You're the key."
"I've tried to make sense of it, sir. Consulted with spiritualists, table rappers, all sorts."
"Well, that should help. You can show us what to do," the Doctor told her. 'Oh no, what does he have planned?' Hel thought.
"What to do where, sir?" Gwyneth asked.
"We're going to have a séance," the Doctor said with a big smile.
"Really?" Eddie asked in disbelief.
"Not like you have the Goddess of Death with you," Loki added.
"Really?" Annika spoke in disbelief, "Not like we have a goddess of the Dead, who is saying they are not actually spirits," she continued her muttering making Hel smile.
Hel smiled again hearing the similar comments Loki and Eddie to Annika and seeing the smirk on her sister's face while their parents looked at the screen oddly.
They all gathered around in the living room at the table, "This is how Madam Mortlock summons those from the Land of Mists, down in Bute Town. Come, we must all join hands," Gwyneth guided. Annika and Hel held hands, he goddess grabbing Rose's hand with her other hand and Annika grabbing the Doctor's and began blushing hard, "Stop it," she mutters angrily hiding her face.
"Mayhem was making me blush," Annika mumbled.
'Because someone is so oblivious,' Mayhem replies in her head.
The Doctor looks at her confused but Hel figured out why Annika said that when she looked up and had no blush. Mayhem is trying to make it obvious.
"I can't take part in this," Charles said, shaking his head.
"Humbug? Come on, open mind," the Doctor said.
"This is precisely the sort of cheap mummery I strive to unmask. Seances? Nothing but luminous tambourines and a squeeze box concealed between the knees. This girl knows nothing," Charles argued.
"Now, don't antagonize her. I love a happy medium," the Doctor said cheerfully. Rose, Annika, and Hel giving him an odd look, "I can't believe you just said that," Rose said. Annika turned her head to look back at Charles, "Then if you think it's fake then sit with us. Are you scared?"
Charles looked at her a bit offended and then sat in the space between Gwyneth and Rose. They motioned for Gwyneth to start, "Speak to us. Are you there? Spirits come. Speak to us that we may relieve your burden," she says.
There was some kind of whispering around them, those that were definitely not spirits, and Hel could see Gwyneth's length of life shorten drastically, she would die that day and Hel couldn't do anything about it. "Can you hear that?" Rose asked.
Nine shrunk down lower knowing Gwyneth's death was likely his fault.
"Nothing can happen. This is sheer folly," Charlie argued.
"Look at her," Rose said. Gwyneth was glowing as something was forming above her, "I see them. I feel them," she was saying, more gas tendrils forming. Hel could see her sister getting uncomfortable and scrunching up her nose. Out of all her siblings, Annika didn't like fire the most. It wasn't a Klyntars weakness but it made them slower to heal so they try to avoid it.
Nine almost didn't want to look because of how oblivious he was to Annika at that moment, but he needed to look. He needed to know how oblivious he had been.
"What's it saying?" Rose asked.
The Doctor shook his head, "They can't get through the rift. Gwyneth, it's not controlling you, you're controlling it. Now, look deep. Allow them through," he guided the girl.
"I can't," she argued, that might be good though. But then again, they would probably would just continue possessing the bodies.
"Yes, you can. Just believe it. I have faith in you, Gwyneth, Make the link," the Doctor said. Hel's hand was squeezed a bit more and she looked back at her sister to see her look warily at the gas but also slightly jealous of Gwyneth and the attention she was getting from a certain Time Lord.
"Yes," Gwyneth said and outlines of people started forming. Hel felt Annika stiffen.
Eddie was holding on to his precious daughter again, realizing those things would appear on the screen again.
"Great God! Spirits from the other side," Sneed said in shock, resulting in Hel rolling her eyes. "The other side of the universe," the Doctor corrected.
"Our sister looks done," Fenrir said to Sleipnir.
"Our other one looks terrified," Sleipnir said in return, curious about what made Annika so scared.
"Pity us. Pity the Gelth. There is so little time. Help us," child like voice had merged with Gwyneth as she spoke to them. Annika was frozen, that was saying something that she was part Frost Giant and she was frozen. Hel could see parts of Annika's dress extend out, Mayhem was trying to comfort her, Hel knew symbiote halves could comfort there human counterparts. Hel wanted to hug the life out of her sister right now,
Eddie was currently that job for Hel. "It's those," Loki says, scrunching her nose up.
Hel wanted to know why Annika looked like a terrified child.
"What do you want us to do?" the Doctor asked, not noticing what was going on.
Nine hid his face, peaking through his fingers to look at the screen, he should've noticed.
Annika wasn't squeezing his hand as hard as she was Hel's. It might've been a mate thing; Hel has noticed Dad would walk out of the room and away from Papa and the rest when he's angry. Uncle Thor has said before that Eddie has completely destroyed a room in his own anger.
"Didn't want to scare or hurt any of you," Eddie mumbled, feeling the eyes on him. He had his head rested on Annika's head as she didn't really want to look at the screen.
"The rift. Take the girl to the rift. Make the bridge," the Gelth say. ', no, no, no, no, no, they have another motive, and if they are the reason my sister is terrified I won't put up with it, if he even helps them any, I will stop them,' Hel declared mentally.
"What for?"
"We are so very few. The last of our kind. We face extinction," the Gelth said.
"Why? What happened?" the Doctor asked.
"Once we had a physical form like you, but then the war came," the Gelth said. 'Oh, so they're playing on his hearts strings,' Hel thought.
"What? What war?"
"The Time War, the whole universe convulsed. The Time War raged. Invisible to smaller species but devastating to higher forms. Our bodies wasted away. We're trapped in this gaseous state," they said.
"So that's why you need the corpses," the Doctor assumed.
"We want to stand tall, to feel the sunlight, to live again. We need a physical form, and your dead are abandoned. They're going to waste. Give them to us."
"But we can't," Rose argued.
"Why not?" the Doctor argued. 'Well, this is going to go great', Hel thought.
Nine peaked at Rose, finding out she was looking back at him, 'I'm sorry,' he mouthed and she nodded. She wasn't the biggest fan of the youngest Doctor for what he did to Annika, but this Doctor didn't know he had done it.
"It's not. I mean, it's not—," Rose stuttered out until the Doctor cut her off, "Not decent? Not polite? It could save their lives," he argued.
"Open the rift. Let the Gelth through. We're dying. Help us. Pity the Gelth," the Gelth finish and vanish, making Gwyneth collapse. Rose goes to check on her while Hel turned to her sister who has gone pale, but not from a temperature change, just from fear.
Gwyneth had recovered and seemed worried for her 'angels', "They do need you, Gwyneth. You're they're only chance of survival," the Doctor told her.
"I've told you, leave her alone. She's exhausted and she's not fighting your battles. Drink this," Rose said the last bit to Gwyneth, getting her something to drink while noticing Annika's frightened state. 'The last time I had seen her this frightened was...no,' Hel thought in horror.
Emerson moved over to try to hug his mother, not like seeing her upset. So Annika didn't have to turn in an odd angel, she cloned herself and Emerson hugged the clone (Eddie wasn't letting go of the real one) and the clone still looked away. Emerson could tell from Annika and her clone's still connected feet that the clone was Mayhem.
"Well, what did you say, Doctor? Explain it again. What are they?" Hel heard Sneed ask while she looked down at her sister in surprise. Annika was snuggled into Hel's side, refusing to move.
"Aliens," the Doctor said.
"Like foreigners, you mean?"
The Doctor nods, "Pretty foreign, yeah. From up there," he points up.
Sneed looks confused, "Brecon?"
"Close. And they've been trying to get through from Brecon to Cardiff but the road's blocked. Only a few can get through and even then they're weak. They can only test drive the bodies for so long, then they revert to gas and hide in the pipes," the Doctor explained the best he could. 'Did he just say "test drive the bodies" are you kidding me?!' Hel thought.
Nine was now hiding on the ground.
"Which is why they need the girl," Charles concluded.
"They're not having her," Rose argued. Hel would have to if she didn't know Gwyneth was going to die that day, meaning the Doctor was going to do something stupid and it was going to anger Hel.
Nine moved to under the table.
"But she can help. Living on the rift, she's become a part of it. She can open it up, make a bridge and let them through," the Doctor argued again.
"Incredible. Ghosts that are not ghosts but beings form another world, who can only exist in our world by inhabiting cadavers," Charles thought out loud. 'Oh no, he's getting a story idea,' Hel thought.
"Why is that a bad idea?" Bruce asked calmly, trying not to freak out.
"Charles died the next year, I didn't know if he would release another book," Hel answered.
"Good system. It might work," the Doctor says, totally avoiding Hel's eyes, he must have sensed the glare. Hel is a Goddess of Death, she would obviously not agree with this.
"You can't let them run around inside of dead people," Rose spat.
"Why not? It's like recycling," the Doctor argues back.
"Ooooh!" most of the people said in offense.
"He said it, we regret it," the older Doctors say in sync.
"Are you kidding me? The spirits won't be at rest as a result and this town will be even more haunted then it was before. They will kill people just to get their own bodies," Hel finally joined the argument.
The Doctor made no sign to acknowledge what Hel had said, so Rose continued, "It's just wrong. Those bodies were living people. We should just respect them even in death," she says, making Hel give her a thankful look.
"Do you carry a donor card?"
"Oh, no you're not going there," Stephen mumbled. The older Doctors held their hands up in defense.
Hel buried her head in her sister's almost black hair in annoyance. Hel couldn't wait to see the Doctor's who cared for their companions thoughts and feelings. Right now the Ninth one is ignoring one companion's thoughts and his other companion's feelings. 'Maybe it's because he looks like Malekith,' she thought.
Nine winced at Hel's thoughts. He really screwed up that time. Even she was comparing him to an enemy of Asgard he happened to look like.
"That's different. That's—," Rose gets cut off.
"It is different, yeah. It's a different morality. Get used to it or go home. You heard what they said, time's short. I can't worry about a few corpses when the last of the Gelth could be dying," the Doctor argues.
"I don't care. They're not using her," Rose argued again.
"Don't I get a say, miss?" Gwyneth finally spoke up. She made her own argument finally getting Rose to give in.
"We need to find the rift. This house is on a weak spot, so there must be a spot that's weaker than any other. Mister Sneed, what's the weakest part of this house? The place where most of the ghosts have been seen?" the Doctor asked.
"That would be the morgue," he said.
"No chance you were going to say gazebo, is there?" Rose asked jokingly. Hel gave her an amused smile, "They aren't that bad," Hel said.
"Yeah, you would say that," Rose returned making Hel let a small laugh.
"Please don't—," Hel heard Annika plead.
Nine winced under the table when he felt six pairs of eyes on him with a glare, knowing they came from his older selves. He also winced now hearing how desperate Annika was for him to not help the Gelth.
"I have to do this," the Doctor argued.
"But they—,"
"No Annika, they are going to die. I am going to help them," the Doctor said and left, not giving her a chance to speak.
"What's wrong with her?" Rose asked in concern.
People sat forward wanting to know why Annika, Mayhem, and Eddie were currently acting the way they do to Annika on the screen and the Gelth.
Hel shrugged, "I don't know, I have an assumption, but I haven't seen her this scared since she showed up on Asgard by herself as a young child, wondering where Dad was, we didn't see him for more than twenty four hours," Rose looked at Hel in shock and Hel noticed her sister looking like she was going to have a breakdown, her dress making movements on its own again, "Mayhem's hugging her," Hel told the confused Rose, moving a bit of Annika's dress so she could see the dark blue that had spread across her skin.
"Now, what has you so scared?" Hel questioned.
Annika took a deep breath, "We didn't flee because of the Dalek's and the Time War, the Gelth had attacked us first," she revealed making Hel and Rose gasp in shock.
People gasped at the reveal. Then that must've been traumatic as a child. Tony understood a bit better and he thinks Bruce did too from his greenish eyes, and Pietro could be seen tightening his fists. Caldur, Pontus, and Maiken looked like they would cry for their aunt who still would not look at the screen.
"Dad had sent me ahead by calling Heimdall, he was trying to get people out. There was fire everywhere and people had been killed, burnt alive because of them. A few even attacked Dad while he was calling for me to get out," Annika explained. She turned to Rose, "It's not as much of a weakness as high frequency noise, but it takes us longer to heal from fire. When the Gelth gained those forms, they became flammable and knew how to use it. I was more prone to the fire and I'm a Princess of Asgard and Jotunheim, I was easily a target with that fact. The Gelth were trying to possess us thinking we would have a perfect defense because of our other halves but really they just got killed because our other halves refused to have somebody else take over their bodies, so the ones that had the human half died, ate their own organs so the Gelth had nothing to latch on too," she said.
Emerson shivered at his own memories of being kidnapped and experimented on. Riot moved around hugging his human half as the Annika Clone/Mayhem moved closer. Annika reached over and grabbed Emerson's hand and giving it a squeeze just to say that she's there and when the time came, she would get him out of there.
Hel remember when Dad had finally shown up, Sleipnir, Jörmungandr, and Hel were all huddled into either Fenrir's or Papa's sides as they waited. Annika had shown up with some burns on her from something, she was the physical age of a five year old at the time and that age shown, she was terrified. Her hair was a mess, her skin was dirty, she was crying, actually she was wailing. Papa's motherly instincts acted up and he picked her up, finding the burn quickly and his hand turning blue as he held his hand over the burn, not caring if it burned him in the process. Heimdall had said Dad had wanted to send Annika ahead because there was a lot of fire. Dad was getting everybody out, that's why he stayed. When Dad had shown up, the healers had to put his human side in a small coma so Venom could recover and help himself heal from all the burns he sustained.
The screen had actually played the memory from Hel, and people had gasped again to find out Annika had been physically a five-year-old who had to be sent away from her dad who was trying to get people to safety. Fenrir, Jörmungandr, and Sleipnir all glared at the memory. Emerson, Sylvie, Caldur, Pontus, and Maiken all cried at the sight of the young version of their mother/aunt sobbing on the screen while covered in burns.
"The Doctor doesn't know?" Rose asked.
Hel shook her head, wiping a tear, "I don't think at this state he truly knows what had been affected from the war, the Gelth is manipulating him. I would have said something more but I doubt he's listening and unfortunately Gwyneth is going to die today," Hel informed her. She looked sad about the news but understood.
They all ran into the morgue, Annika covering her nose again as the smell of gas was rather overwhelming, "She has given herself to the Gelth. The bridge is open. We descend," the voices said. Gwyneth had already begun to open the bridge, and she was already dead, I could see her looking at her own body in shock. The voices deepen, and the blue gas turns red, "The Gelth will come through in force," it said.
"You said you were few in number," Charlie argues while Hel hears Annika whimper.
"A few billion. And all of us in need of corpses," they say, the dead bodies all stand up and Hel wrapped her arms around her sister to protect her from the beings that destroyed one of her homes. Sneed tried to stop Gwyneth but then got his neck snapped, his spirit joining and trying to calm down an upset Gwyneth.
"He's dead. Good," Jackie stated.
"I think it's gone a bit wrong," the Doctor admits.
"Really?!" Hel replied sarcastically as Sneed's body stands up, now as a Gelth, the real Sneed looking at his body in horror.
"Five more bodies. Convert them. Make them vessels of the Gelth," the Gelth ordered. They were backed up against the gates, "Can't you do what you did before to them?" the Doctor asked Hel.
"If you want them to go kill more people then, yeah, sure," Hel spat back. This was his fault after all. "Charlie, take my sister out of here," Hel told the author who was about to run out of the building.
"Give yourself to glory. Sacrifice your lives for the Gelth," the Gelth continue as the Doctor, Hel, and Rose were now barricaded by the gate, "I trusted you. I pitied you!" the Doctor yelled.
"We don't want your pity. We want this world and all its flesh," the Gelth said.
"Not while I'm alive," the Doctor declared.
"Then live no more," the Gelth said. They heard a loud shriek in the distance, "Oooh, a Klyntar, get it," the Gelth ordered.
"One attacked you?!" Annika's brothers, Mama, and in-laws minus Rose all screech.
"Yeah," Annika and Mayhem both say, still looking away. Annika may have been young at the time, but that also meant Mayhem was young and it traumatized her too.
"We need to get the gas on, it'll draw them out, I think," Hel told the other two. "What about your spirits?" Rose asked. "They'll be at peace as long as they aren't possessed. Now move," Hel forced the bodies to move back, she looked at Gwyneth's spirit, allowing Sneed to try to take control of his body to help move people back, "You need to stop them," Hel told her. She nodded, being able to enter her body again and they all saw her raise up matches, "It would not be wise for you to be in here," she mumbles looking right at Hel. Hel nodded and the Doctor, Rose and her ran out, the Doctor throwing Hel in front of them as the building exploded.
"You throw the immortal one, but not the mortal one?" Rose asked, giving Hel a look meaning she meant no offense. "Well it was either one that somebody could heal with magic or the one that has a weakness towards heat," the Doctor countered.
"Good point," Rose said, "Was that Annika who shrieked?"
Hel immediately sprung up, "That's what a Klyntar sounds like when they're in pain, you'll hear both sides of them, where is she?" she asked urgently and found Charlie trying to get their attention, "One of them was trying to get us as we ran out and used the gas to somehow make fire and then Annika let out some inhuman like screech," he said as they ran over. Annika was holding her shoulder that now had a big hole burned in the shoulder, "Can you freeze it?" she mumbled. Remembering what her Papa had done, Hel let her hand turn a light blue and held it over her sister's shoulder, allowing it to freeze. "Do you have ice packs that work on us?" Hel asked her, she nodded and Hel saw dark blue tendrils slowly start to heal over the ice.
"Be careful where you touch," Hel told Rose when she came over, "When she was younger and had shown up on Asgard with those burns her Frost Giant side kept peeking through. She might not turn blue, but she will be very cold. I remember the healers not being able to touch her," Hel warned her. Rose nodded and walked over, only touching Annika in the clothed parts of her body as she helped her make her way to the TARDIS.
Hel joined Charlie and the Doctor, "The poor child," Charlie spoke.
"She was dead the moment she stood in that arch," Hel told them.
"There are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy. Even for you, Doctor," Charlie said, coming around to the idea. Charlie started to follow the girls but Hel pulled the Doctor back, and slapped him across the face.
"Deserved," all the people in the room, including the older Doctors say. Nine muttered it under his breath, he did. He also winced remembering the cold slap.
"Ow!" he says, rubbing his cheek, Hel's hand might've still been icy, if it was intentional or not was up for debate. "What was that for?"
"That is for not being considerate of your companions. I know you in the future, I have met your future selves who always consider the opinions of their companions. What you did today was very wrong, it was morally wrong. Rose didn't want you to do this, because it was just wrong for somebody to see their dead loved ones running around, she was thinking about her father probably, but you didn't listen. I only didn't say anything because I knew you were going to go through with it because I knew Gwyneth would die, but you did insult me by not considering my opinion as a Goddess of Death," he looked down ashamed and guilty, 'good I'm about to make it worse,' Hel thought, "And don't even get me started about my sister," his eyes shot up, "What about her? Is something wrong?" he immediately asks.
Hel raised an eyebrow, "You didn't notice how terrified she was during this whole thing?" she asked him, he looked at her surprised, "When I was a lot younger, about physically a ten year old human, I remember being rushed to where Heimdall was, there was my burnt little sister laying there, crying. Her glamour had broke, her red eyes looking heartbroken because she didn't know where her dad was. Klyntar had been attacked by the Gelth," his jaw dropped in shock, "The Gelth had attacked them before the Daleks could. Klyntar stand a chance against a Dalek, but not fire. Dad had to send Annika ahead of him because she was more vulnerable than other Klyntar, he had to stay because he was making sure people got out. She was physically a five year old at the time, she experienced that as a young child, she couldn't be held in her father's arms because she was too cold to be held as she healed, and he was put into a coma because of his burns. It might have been more recent for you, but it's been a while for us, and you brought those memories back to her," Hel ranted.
Emerson was startled to feel the humanoid Mayhem cry. He saw Annika's body shaking and Eddie holding on to her and trying to comfort her. 'Hug her,' his grandfather mouthed. Emerson was already hugging Mayhem, but he tightened his hold on her and leaned back more, hoping his symbiote mother would get more comfort from him.
The Doctor looked so guilty, Hel might've cried, but then again, she know they get together eventually and she get the pleasure of being first to threaten him,
A few did cry from the guilty and heartbroken look on Nine's face on the screen. Annika's family grumbled about Hel being the first of them to threaten him
"And keep in mind, if she gets injured or harmed in any way, you have a giant wolf, snake, and an eight legged horse you have to watch out for. My Papa, as the God of Mischief can be very vindictive, and there's my Uncle Thor and Uncle Heimdall, one of which I no doubt knows what you have done. And then, when you die, I will make sure you come into my domain and live up to my name," Hel said sweetly and turned to walk after Charlie.
"You threatened him, didn't you?" Annika immediately asked.
"What gave you that idea?" Hel asked innocently.
"Well, I don't know, the very red cheek and cut on said cheek look very promising," she says back.
"Like something hard and cold had smacked against it," Rose adds looking very okay with the fact I had threatened him.
"Must be when your protective instincts started acting up," Jack quietly said to Rose.
"Does he know about the Gelth?" Annika asked.
"Yes, he does, now go see Dad," Hel told her, knowing that's where she wants to go, and that will be where she goes, 'Good luck, Doctor,' Hel thought with a sadistic smirk.
Eddie was now smirking. Annika finally had turned around and she and Mayhem merged again, so Emerson moved closer before his grandmamma could tackle his mother in a big hug.
"Right then, Charlie boy, I've just got to go into, my, er, shed. Won't be long," the Doctor speaks up.
"What are you going to do now?" Rose asks.
Charlie decided to not ask about the cut on the Time Lord's face, "I shall take the mail coach back to London, quite literally post-haste. This is no time for me to be on my own. I shall spend Christmas with my family and make amends with them. After all I've learned tonight, there can be nothing more vital," he says, very motivated.
"You've cheered up," the Doctor comments.
"Exceedingly! This morning, I thought I knew everything in the world. Now I know I've just started. All these huge and wonderful notions, Doctor. I'm inspired. I must write about them," Charlie declares.
"Do you think that's wise?" Rose asked, a bit cautiously.
"Didn't know when he died," Rose said. Bruce perked up now realizing there was an unfinished Charles Dickens book somewhere. Hel slightly smirked, "I have it," she said quietly and Bruce's head snapped to her. "Can I?!"
"I suppose," Hel said with a shrug and Bruce did a happy dance in his seat surprising everyone.
"I shall be subtly at first. The mystery of Edwin Drood still lacks an ending. Perhaps the killer was not the boy's uncle. Perhaps he was not of this Earth. The Mystery of Edwin Drood and the Blue Elementals. I can spread the word, tell the truth," Charlie rants, 'I don't think it would make it that far though. It takes a while to write a book, he doesn't have much longer,' Hel thought.
"Good luck with it. Nice to meet you. Fantastic," the Doctor says, probably having the same conclusion Hel did as he didn't argue.
"Bye, then, and thanks," Rose said and kisses the author on the cheek, making him blush, "Oh, my dear. How modern. Thank you, but, I don't understand. In what way is this goodbye? Where are you going?" Charlie asked, confused. IHel had hurriedly hugged her sister as she gave Charlie a wave.
"You'll see. In the shed," the Doctor tells Rose and Annika, Rose waving Hel goodbye.
"Upon my soul, Doctor, it's one riddle after another with you. But after all these revelations, there's one mystery you still haven't explained. Answer me this. Who are you?" Charlie asked. Hel almost snorted, 'yeah, that's the question.'
"Just a friend passing through," the Doctor replies.
"But you have such knowledge of future times. I don't wish to impose on you, but I must ask you. My books. Doctor, do they last?" Charlie asked.
"Oh, yes!"
"For how long?"
"Forever," the Doctor starts.
"They become otherworldly," Hel add, he did have books being sold on Asgard.
"Right. Shed. Come on, Rose, Annika," the Doctor says, motioning the two in.
"In the box? The three of you?" Now Hel did snort. She heard loud laughter from Annika who had overheard, and a smaller laugh from Rose who was probably told.
The Doctor smiled, "Down boy. See you," he said to them both. We watched the TARDIS dematerialize in front of us. Charlie laughs and says goodbye to Hel and they part ways.
"Doesn't that change history if he writes about blue ghosts?" Rose asked the Doctor.
"That's why I took it," Hel said. She didn't want to chance someone finishing the book. Only Charles Dickens himself could finish that book.
"In a week's time it's 1870, and that's the year he dies. Sorry. He'll never get to tell his story," the Doctor told her.
"Oh, no. He was so nice," Rose said, Annika, who was still holding her shoulder, agreed.
"But in your time, he was already dead. We've brought him back to life, and he's more alive now than he's ever been, old Charlie boy. Let's give him one last surprise," the Doctor said allowing the TARDIS to dematerialize in front of him.
"Doctor?" Annika spoke up.
"Hmm?"
"I want to see my Dad," she says, Rose immediately adding she wants to see her mom. 'Shit, I'm going to have to face Eddie Brock about his injured daughter,' was the Doctor's ;ast thought.
Loki cackled, "You're screwed."
Ten looked under the table, "Are you going to come up?" he asked when he met the blue eyes of his predecessor. Nine quickly shook his head. "Okay," Ten said and sat back up.