Lyssa bit her lip as she held the door shut, silently praying that Rory would come out the victor in his confrontation with the fake Amy. Then, reluctantly turning her mind from him, she turned around and scanned her surroundings.
By sheer luck she seemed to have found one of the only doors that wasn't completely open to the rest of the room, the corner she was in being blocked off from the rest of the room by large boxes stacked twice as high as her head. There was another door just to her left, but she couldn't hear any signs of activity inside, so she decided to ignore it for the time being and hope that it wouldn't come back to bite her.
Not sure who all was in the room with her, she crept forward through the boxes as quietly as she could, crouched low to the ground. Reaching the end of the boxes, she poked her head around the edge, and immediately dodged back behind them again.
The fake Eleven was there, staring down at a still unconscious Ten, hanging limply from his chains.
"You know, for being one of our first specimens of a Time Lord, you're not putting up a very good fight. I know what you can survive." He laughed coldly. "I know what you will survive, thanks to your future self's memories, wherever he might be." He crouched low, so that his face was close to the Doctor's. "You've survived so much. It almost seems a pity that this is where you fall. Don't take it personally, Doctor. It's just business."
He stood up with a sigh, seeming to study the Doctor's still form. "I could make it easier on you if you complied, but something tells me you won't. Not without her, at least. Good thing I've got her, then." He paused, his hand going to his ear. "Yes, I'm here. Send Maesita to do the conversion on her now. I want as much information on the girl as I can get, the Time Lord's locked most of it away behind shields I can't get through. He'll spill whatever we want if we play our cards right."
He paused again, a slow grin creeping onto his face. "Really? Well that does change things. Keep him there until I arrive. I'll be there shortly." He dropped his hand and leaned down, putting his mouth by the Doctor's ear and adopting a false cheer. "I'm going to have a playmate for you soon. Have a nice nap! It'll be time to wake up all too soon."
The Doctor didn't respond, didn't even twitch. The false Eleven scoffed, standing to his feet and kicking him lightly. "Pathetic. I can't wait until you've been merged and we're done with this whole business." Stalking to the set of double doors, he looked back one last time and smirked. "Sweet dreams," he crooned before disappearing through them, the doors falling shut with an ominous click.
Lyssa waited a minute to be sure he wasn't immediately coming back before setting her pipe on the floor and darting towards the Doctor, falling to her knees in front of him. "Doctor!" she hissed, tentatively shaking his shoulder. "Can you hear me? Are you all right?"
Tugging on his chains in a pathetic and inevitably fruitless attempt to free him, she paused when he didn't respond. Looking him over for signs of injury, she frowned when she caught sight of a slight discoloration behind some of the hair that had fallen over his forehead.
Pushing the hair back, she sucked in a breath at the developing bruise spread across his right temple. Brushing her fingers lightly across it, she winced in sympathy at the large bump already forming. "That's not gonna be fun when you wake up," she whispered. "But, you know, it would be nice if you did wake up; so would you mind picking up the pace a little?"
Brushing his hair back, she let her hand fall to the side of his face, wishing he wasn't hurt. A rush of warmth went through her hand where they were touching, and a flash of gold appeared around her hand, swirling through her skin and into the Doctor's.
She jerked her hand back as if it had been burned, staring at it with wide eyes. That had never happened before. It almost looked like regeneration energy, except... she didn't have regeneration energy. Or at least, she didn't used to have it. She swallowed hard, trying not to freak out. This was just more proof of her changing, becoming less human. Becoming more like the woman in the hotel.
She shook her head. She refused to let that become her future, to let her fears define her. Everyone changes as they grow older, this was just another sign of her maturing as a person. She could change physically all she wanted, but she wasn't going to let herself lose her humanity.
And hey, maybe that woman wasn't even her. Maybe it was some physical embodiment of her fears, but wasn't actually her.
She could dream, right?
The Doctor stirred beneath her, groaning slightly as his head fell to the side.
"Doctor?" she asked immediately, bending to see his face. She jumped when he groaned again, eyes still closed, but his forehead wrinkling as he started to stir. "Doctor?" she asked again, stroking his cheek with her thumb. "Are you awake? Can you hear me?"
A loud bang sounded behind the double doors, and she flinched, whirling around to face them. They didn't open, but the sound was repeated, followed by yelling, growing closer to her and the Doctor.
She had to leave.
She turned back to the Doctor, cupping his cheek once more. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "But I have to go. Please be all right. I'll come back if I can." She hesitated before leaning in to kiss his cheek with a blush, her embarrassment skyrocketing when he murmured her name, leaning - falling, he was unconscious, she told herself firmly - into her touch.
She got up to leave as the shouting grew closer, almost outside the door. She turned back to look at him one last time, then darted back to her boxes, peeking through a crack between layers just as the doors were flung open and the fake Eleven strode through.
"Welcome to your new home!" he proclaimed proudly, throwing his arms open wide. "You won't be leaving here for a very long time, so do try to get comfortable. It makes things so much more interesting for me."
Lyssa watched in confused shock as another adult Eleventh Doctor - how was he an adult? -wearing a different shirt and pants was dragged into the room by two guards, struggling wildly against his captors. She could tell by the way he carried himself that he was in pain, but that didn't stop him from trying his hardest to get free as he was chained to the wall next to the Tenth Doctor.
"You might as well not even bother, Doctor," the clone said in amusement. "I mean, I find it quite enjoyable to watch you struggle, but all it's going to do is prolong the inevitable. I know how strong you are."
He smirked. "I know how easy it is to hurt someone. Did you know that human girls are that fragile? Because I didn't. I might have made a tiny mistake, but that's okay, right? Humans adapt easy. They heal pretty quick too."
"If you've hurt Lyssa -!" The Doctor bit out furiously, cutting himself off abruptly and glaring at the clone.
"You'll do what?" the clone mocked him. "Throw empty threats at me from your chains? Glower menacingly, perhaps? Oh, I'm so scared! Maybe I should bring the girl in here to protect me from you! If, you know, she's conscious. I rather doubt it though. I may have used a bit too much force on her."
The Doctor snarled, lunging at him, but was jerked back by the chains. Ignoring the way the clone began to laugh, he continued to struggle against his bonds, only stilling when the clone stopped.
"I don't make empty threats," he growled lowly. "You of all people should know that. Look through my memories and find out what I do when the people I care about are threatened. I always make sure to leave at least one of those memories unguarded."
The clone sighed, nostrils flaring in frustration as he glared at the Doctor, who returned the gaze with equal malice. "I've already seen it. I've seen all the memories I can access, remember? But you're also forgetting that you were free when you got revenge."
He strolled closer to the Doctor, staying just out of reach as he gloated. "You have caused enough problems that you'll be merged immediately. We'll just do all our experiments on your past self before we convert him. Shouldn't be a problem."
"I've been in worse situations and still gotten free," the Doctor bit out, arms tensing as he strained against the chains once more.
The clone shrugged nonchalantly. "I mean, yeah, you definitely have. But you know what else you had in those situations?" He leaned in close, practically purring. "Lyssa. And guess who has her this time?" His lips curled into a smirk. "Not you."
He jerked his head back just in time as the Doctor's fist flashed where his face had been moments before. "Ooh, feisty!" he chuckled. "You don't like it when people threaten Lyssa, then." He whistled. "Well, Doctor, have I got some bad news for you."
The Tenth Doctor groaned, shaking his head before tensing as awareness started to return. He lifted his head tiredly, squinting against the bright lights in the room.
"Oh, look who's awake!" the clone clapped. "How good of you to join us, Doctor! We've been waiting for you!"
"What...?" Ten just blinked at him slowly, still not fully awake. He shakily got to his feet, only realizing that he was restrained when he tried to push off the wall and walk away, and found himself unable to move more than a foot. He stared at the manacles on his hand uncomprehendingly, following the links to the wall.
He scanned the room, taking in the giant bush, his future self in similar straits, and the clone. Alertness returned in an instant, and he straightened, immediately testing his restraints, only to meet with similar results as the Eleventh Doctor.
His head whipped around to the clone, and he glared at him. "You!" he snarled.
The clone waved cheekily at him. "Me. Hello again! The name's Maken, by the way. Did you have a nice nap?"
"Where's Donna?" Ten demanded angrily, wrists straining against the manacles.
"Not even a 'how do you do'," Maken pouted, crossing his arms. "How rude. But that's not the point. Now that you're awake, we can finally get started! Do you know how long I've been waiting?"
"Not long enough?" Eleven muttered, leaning back against the wall. To an outsider, it almost looked as though he was relaxing, and had given up trying to break free. But Lyssa could see the way he held himself, and the tension in his muscles. He was getting ready to act.
"Funny." Maken rolled his eyes, putting a hand to his ear. "Is Maesita ready for the other female yet? I need her converted within the hour." He paused, listening. "Well, tell her to get a move on! The Time Lords won't cooperate unless we bring the girl into it."
He sighed, lowering his hand and turning back to the two Doctors. "Sorry about that. You know how work gets. So much incompetence. Anyways, let's get down to business. Do you know why you're here?"
The two Doctors just stared at him wordlessly in contempt.
He sighed again. "I'm trying to figure out how much you actually know. Time Lords have a much higher capacity for intelligence than any other species I've converted before, and I'm curious to see how close to the truth you get before I merge you."
He rolled his eyes when the silence continued. "Look at it this way. The longer you talk to me, the more time you have to come up with an escape plan to get free and wreak your revenge."
Ten raised an eyebrow. "And the more time you have to convert Lyssa and the others."
The clone rubbed his forehead. "She never said Time Lords were as hardheaded as a rock when she told us about you," he complained under his breath. He raised his voice. "Lyssa and the others will be converted either way if they haven't already been. Your stalling tactics will do no one any good."
Eleven stared him down for another minute before sighing and seemingly giving in. "Atrellians biologically only live to be about ten years old. Axellis claimed to be thirty-two, and said your elders were at least twice that. You make most of your money off of your regenerative mud in your spas. You have a side business where you convert adults to toddlers, and at least some of your people have the ability to assume the features and memories of your victims. When Amy and I escaped, you assumed our identities and followed us, presumably to get us back."
Maken smiled. "You're on the right track so far," he admitted. "What else? That's all well and good, but it doesn't mean anything unless you put two and two together and get four."
"There's a high emphasis on the mud being organic," Ten spoke up, his voice steady and deliberate. "Too much emphasis. The casual listener would assume that to mean that it's chemical free."
Maken's smile was growing wider. "But?"
Ten glared at him, the disgust plain on his face. "But organic has two definitions. One: being chemical free. Two: relating to, or derived from, living matter. Your people as a whole have been seeking to enhance your natural lifespan since your planet was discovered centuries ago. Now, your people are suddenly more than quadrupling your lifespan.
"Your mud has the ability to rejuvenate people - you claim your mud adds years to a person's lifespan and makes them look younger when it never had that ability before you had visitors. You turn people into children, thus resetting their biological clock. Those children are conveniently never heard from again, replaced by someone who looks and talks just like them."
"You've got two and two now," Maken hummed. "Now what do you get if you put them together?"
"The mud is organic," the Eleventh Doctor bit out. "It's not chemical free, it's made from living matter. Made from people. You use it to absorb the years of the people you turn into children, and then use the mud on yourselves to make yourselves live longer."
"Give the men a prize!" Maken clapped before pausing, looking thoughtful. "Actually, since the two of you are technically the same person, would it be 'give the man a prize'?" He shrugged. "It's all the same in the end, so I suppose it doesn't really matter. Both of you will be merged. The only difference is, if I'm feeling merciful, I might just convert you first. Only Ten, though. Eleven had his chance at mercy."
He strolled over in front of Eleven, chuckling darkly. "You see, in our bountiful kindness, we try to make sure our specimens are children when we merge them. It's much less painful, and they usually end up falling asleep before they're fully absorbed." He put on a look of fake surprise at the Doctors' startled looks.
"Oops. Did you not figure that bit out? Yeah, they're totally absorbed into the mud. That's the merging process. We set them by the Alprazolam, and they're slowly absorbed by it. It's the only way to ensure that all the years are fully dispersed. Then, once they're gone, we package the mud and ship it off to be used. It's an ingenious process, really."
He tilted his head, the cold fury in his eyes at odds with the smile he was wearing on his stolen face. "And we've never had a problem until you showed up. It was so simple. We had you and the human female converted, and then you had to go ruin it all and escape! Marelli and I had to assume your adult forms to try and do damage control before you could ruin everything our forefathers worked so hard to perfect."
The smile slipped, leaving him with bared teeth and clenched fists. "You alone could have added centuries to our lifespan. We didn't have to take the rest of your companions! We would have let them leave peacefully. But you couldn't leave well enough alone, and threatened our entire livelihood! Now all your friends will be merged while you watch helplessly, and once they're gone I'll harvest their lives, then watch with pleasure as you're slowly absorbed into the mud. You will die knowing that all your friends are dead while you did nothing to help them."
Eleven snarled at him. "Lay a finger on any of them, and you'll find out precisely why I'm called the Oncoming Storm."
"Because you promise danger but may never actually deliver on your threats?" Maken mocked him. "I have your memories, Time Lord. You pretend to yourself that you're not a killer. You may get others to do your dirty work for you, but you don't like getting your hands dirty. You like to pretend you're above all that."
"Look up my memories of the Time War," Ten snapped. "More specifically the Warrior and how he was formed. Then look me in the eyes and tell me again what I'm not personally capable of."
There was a pause before Maken, sounding markedly less sure of himself, spoke again. "You call yourself a Doctor. A life-giver. Yet you claim you would kill, and easily, despite your vow?"
"I never said it would be easy," Eleven said solemnly, eyes heavy with a grief he seldom showed. "But I never took an oath to not kill."
Maken frowned, looking more and more uncertain. "But your oath - you call yourself a Doctor, you claim to dedicate your life to protecting others."
"I am on the side of life," Eleven confirmed. "But don't ever assume for one moment that that means I'm not capable of taking one to protect those I hold dear."
"I don't like to talk about it, but I was a soldier," Ten continued where Eleven left off. "And a good soldier protects his own. He defends when others attack, and he stops those who would take the lives of the innocent. Sometimes that means a permanent solution. I give everyone a chance to back out. Not everyone takes it. So here's my only warning, Maken. You can stop this. Set us and the others free. We'll let you and your people live out the rest of your lives in peace."
Maken scoffed. "And you'll just let us go about our business as usual with no more interference? Like I'm going to believe that."
"And you'd be right not to," Ten said coldly. "I have no intentions of letting you go on murdering innocent people - yes, it's murder, Maken, and you know it," he snapped when Maken opened his mouth to interrupt.
"Peaceful or not, you're abducting and experimenting on innocent people before you murder them for your own profit. That ends today. Whether or not it ends with you a free man is up to you. Yes, you'd be without a job, and you would have to get used to living a natural life rather than one filled with stolen years and memories, but your people survived that way for generations, I'm sure that you can do so again."
"Hmm..." Maken pretended to think it over, but Lyssa knew what he was going to say before he said it. "I think I'm gonna have to pass on that. You can make promises all you like. I've made it personal, and I don't think you're gonna let that go."
He tilted his head, evidently being contacted once more. He listened for a minute, responded in the affirmative, and then smirked. "You'll forgive me if I cut our session short, Doctors... But a slight issue has come up. Namely, your friend. The one with the nose? He's been causing a few issues. We might have to merge him first. And Amelia, of course. Can't forget her. She's still a little girl, though. Should be easy enough to take care of her. Just drop her in, let the Alprazolam do the rest...."
"Hurt Amy, and I won't be the only one you have to worry about," Eleven growled.
Maken shrugged. "You know what makes this all the more fun? I still look like you. I'll be sure to wake up little Amelia just before I drop her in. That way you'll get to see every bit of the betrayal she'll be feeling as her supposed best friend sends her to her doom. How does it feel, I wonder," he leered at Eleven, "to know that your friends will all be dead by your hands before the day is out?"
Lyssa, still watching silently from her perch behind the boxes, clenched her hands into fists. Maken didn't seem to be any better than the Master, taking pleasure in other's pain and willfully harming others even when it didn't benefit him in any way. Crouching down, she grabbed the pipe she'd left behind the last time she'd left her hiding spot. She wouldn't leave it behind this time.
"Send Maesita in," Maken ordered through his earpiece. "Yeah." He chuckled. "Give them the special. I want to make it fun." Waving cheerily at his two captives, he strolled out the doors, escorted by the two guards.
Just like last time, Lyssa waited for a minute to be sure no one would come running back in before darting out from the two boxes. The two Doctors, who had remained silent after Maken's departure, looked up at her arrival. They both looked startled at first as they took in her extremely disheveled appearance. However, rather than looking happy - or even worried - at her showing up, their expressions quickly faded to fury.
She slowed to a stop uncertainly. "Doctor? Is... something wrong?"
Ten's lip curled, and she shrunk back as he looked at her with contempt, an emotion she'd never seen him connect with her before. "Do you really think we're so stupid as to fall for that? I could have guessed that you were going to show up before Maken even left the room."
"What?" She looked between the two of them in growing confusion and slight hurt. "I don't understand."
Eleven snorted. "I bet you don't. You know, I can forgive a lot of things. But this? You've crossed a line."
"What?" She shook her head in bewilderment. "I don't - what are you talking about? What line have I crossed? I don't understand!"
"Atrellians mimic exactly," Eleven hissed. "Which means that you look like that because Lyssa does. Which means she's been hurt, and trapped, and scared, and you dare to come in here wearing her face and use her against us. And that is something I will never forgive."
Understanding dawned, and she felt an urge to both hug them and smack them for their stupidity. "You think - you think I'm -" She shook her head, feeling hysteria start to bubble up inside, threatening to spill over into laughter. Or tears. Quite possibly both.
"I can't even deal with this right now," she declared wearily, rubbing her temple. "You're both idiots."
"The only idiot around here is -"
The Tenth Doctor was cut off from his angry spiel when the door slammed open and someone came running in, stopping short when they saw the two Doctors.
"Doctor! Thank goodness you're here! I was only just able to escape, but they're hunting me!" they cried, jerking when they saw Lyssa standing there. "Wait - what?"
Lyssa stared at a cleaner version of herself, deep bruise blossoming on her jaw and fingerprint-shaped bruises growing on her arms. "Uhhh, I could say the same to you. What's going on?"
The girl who looked like her thought fast, Lyssa'd give her that. "But I'm not a child, how could they have cloned me? I thought I had to be a child for them to clone me." She frowned at Eleven, careful to stay out of reach of Lyssa and shrinking back against the wall in apparent fear. "And - how are you an adult again? I thought you were a child!"
Lyssa just gaped at her like a fish, not even sure how to respond to that.
"Oh, Lyssa..." Ten breathed out slowly.
Gathering herself, Lyssa turned to him, only to follow his horrified gaze to the deepening bruises on her clone's arms. Bruises that matched the ones on her own, hidden under the grime as they were.
"Yeah, the fake Doctor wasn't very nice," the fake said, following his gaze to her arm. "He grabbed me pretty hard. They aren't going to be pretty when they fully develop."
Eleven went white, looking like he was trying not to vomit as he stared at her arm, then her jaw. Then, still grimacing, he turned to his past self, who was slowly starting to look the same. "I think we've been right idiots."
Ten nodded slowly, veins popping in his jaw as he spoke through clenched teeth. "I think you're right."
The clone blinked at them. "I'm sorry?"
"It was a nice try, but Lyssa's too overprotective," Eleven informed her, still pale and now looking incredibly guilty.
"I don't - I don't understand," the clone admitted, and if she hadn't been - well, herself, Lyssa would've thought it a fairly accurate representation of the way she would have - and had - responded.
"Take a look at her," Ten said, gesturing to Lyssa as best as he could with his chains. "Most of her face's been noticeably scrubbed clean except for a large patch covering her matching bruise, and there's been no attempt to even touch the dirt on her arms. Most likely left there deliberately in an attempt to cover it up. You wanna know why?"
He leaned in towards the clone. "Because Lyssa accuses me - often rightly, I'll admit - of having a guilt complex, and would never deliberately do something to trigger that. Such as admitting that my double had hurt her. Matter of fact, she'd do everything she could to hide it."
Lyssa very deliberately avoided Eleven's gaze, gnawing on her lower lip and keeping a firm grip on the pipe in her hand. She had a steadily growing feeling that she would be needing it very soon.
Lyssa's clone glared at her, then dropped the act, pushing off from the wall and assuming a threatening aura that immediately had Lyssa stepping back. "Oh, all right. It was fun while it lasted, although Maken's still an idiot for not fully informing me of the situation."
She tilted her head at Lyssa and smirked coldly - which looked really weird to see on your imposter's face. "I hope you realize that this means you won't be leaving this room alive. You just made things a whole lot more messy than they needed to be."
Lyssa lifted her pipe with both hands and tried to hold in the air threateningly. "If you have my memories, you should know that I'm not going down without a fight."
"Actually, that was precisely why I was going to say I thought you would go down without a fight," the clone sneered. "Running away from confrontation is what you do best. Feel free to start any time. I'll even give you a head start."
Lyssa shook her head slowly, ignoring the two Doctors trying to warn her. "If I leave, that leaves them in your hands. Forgive me if I don't trust them."
"I was hoping you'd say that," her clone chuckled. "This should be easy."
"Funny," Lyssa smirked, digging down deep for the ball of courage she knew was in there somewhere. She glanced over at the Doctors, both of whom looked very worried, and found her courage, knowing that she wasn't just fighting for herself.
"I was about to say the same thing."
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A/N: Okay, I give up. I have no idea when the confrontation with Fake!Eleven will take place. It could be next week, it could be a year from now.
I also want to say thanks for your understanding when I have to put up shorter chapters. Last week's chapter was a lot shorter than I wanted it to be, and didn't have everything I wanted it to, but you guys were still so awesome and supportive, and I can't tell you how much I appreciate it.
Thank you all so much for voting, commenting, and following! Your support really means a lot to me!
Thank you all for reading, and I hope you enjoyed! :)
General Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who, just Lyssa and my never-ending story arcs