A strong pain struck my head. I groaned, but only ended up breathing in more gas. The Doctor was under the car and working on the ATMOS. Donna yelped, "He's going to choke. Doctor!"
Her mother, Sylvia, came back out of the house with an axe, closed the bonnet and broke the windscreen. My eyes widened before shutting again in pain. I inhaled too much of the gas and it wasn't exiting my body. "Well, don't just stand there. Get him out," she ordered. The Doctor did as told before examining me.
Donna and Sylvia discussed the ax, but my mind didn't process. There were enough clouds in there to block the sun. He warned, "Get inside the house. Just try and close off the doors and windows."
Cole came back in a black cab. "Celeste," he greeted, "This is all I could find that hasn't got ATMOS." I nodded mockingly and swayed. The Doctor grabbed my arm. "Donna, you coming?"
"Yeah." He shoved me in the cab and waited for Donna. "What's wrong with her?" He asked.
The Doctor rambled, "Negative Time Lord effect to the gas, apparently. She's not herself. Her neural-"
"Oh, blah, blah, ramble, ramble," I interrupted, "Can't you talk normally? And screw you, Cheerios." I thought for a bit. "Now I want Cheerios." Before I could get said Cheerios, Donna came back. "Screw those Cheerios," I huffed.
On the ride over, the Doctor examined me more. He scanned me a couple of times. "Why aren't you expelling it?" He wondered aloud, "Have this happened recently?" I shook my head like a child. We got there in lightning speed. "Cole, look after yourself," the Doctor advised, "Get inside the building."
"Will do." I waved happily. The gas covered the factory. Donna noted, "The air is disgusting."
"It's not so bad for me." He glanced at me. "Really bad for her." His hands gestured to the TARDIS. "Go on, get inside the TARDIS. Oh, I've never given you a key. Keep that. Go on, that's yours. Quite a big moment really." I rolled my eyes. "And watch over Celeste, will you?"
"Yeah, maybe we can get sentimental after the world's finished choking to death," she suggested.
"Good idea."
I asked, "Where are you going?" My eyebrows puckered.
"To stop a war," he answered hurriedly. The Doctor ran to the ATMOS factory while Donna pulled me to the TARDIS. I struggled and protested, "No! I should be there!"
"You screwed Cheerios!" She exclaimed, "That means no saving the world!" I pouted.
"But that's unfair!" I yelled inside the TARDIS, "Because I owe him a dance! Wait, no, that's not me. Well, it isn't me. Did that sound familiar to you? That sounded ginger." I paused, feeling the change. "We've moved."
"What? How?"
"Sontarans," I answered, "Those potato heads never know when to grow ears and leave." I held my hand up to stop her from talking. "I'm aware that it makes no sense, but I stand by it."
The scanner came on, showing the Doctor. "This is the Doctor."
Donna responded, "Doctor, I'm here. Can you hear me?"
"He can't hear you," I sing songed.
Staal at the other end snarled, "Doctor, breathing your last? Where's your little partner?"
Mace gasped, "My God, they're like trolls."
"Yeah, loving the diplomacy, thanks," he said sarcastically, "So, tell me, General Staal, since when did you lot become cowards?"
"How dare you!"
"Oh, that's diplomacy?" Cheeky Mace retorted.
Staal continued, "Doctor, you impugn my honour."
"Yeah, I'm really glad you didn't say belittle, because then I'd have a field day," he teased, "But poison gas? That's the weapon of a coward and you know it." I nodded in agreement. "Staal, you could blast this planet out of the sky And yet you're sitting up above watching it die. Where's the fight in that? Where's the honour? Or are you lot planning something else, because this isn't normal Sontaran warfare. What are you lot up to?"
"A general would be unwise to reveal his strategy to the opposing forces."
"Ah, the war's not going so well, then. Losing, are we?" The Doctor inquired.
The Sontaran replied immediately, "Such a suggestion is impossible."
Donna asked me, "What war?"
Before I answered, the Doctor continued, "The war between the Sontarans and the Rutans. It's been raging, far out in the stars, for fifty thousand years. Fifty thousand years of bloodshed, and for what?"
"That would be the war," I concluded. The Sonatarans did their little war cry, but the Doctor left until they finished.
"You will not be so quick to ridicule when you'll see our prize. Behold," Staal announced, "We are the first Sontarans in history to capture a TARDIS."
"Well, as prizes go, that's noble." I nudged Donna. "As they say in Latin, Donna nobis pacem."
I scoffed, "That means 'Grant us peace'. Completely out of context."
"Did you never wonder about its design? It's a phone box. It contains a phone. A telephonic device for communication," he hinted, "Sort of symbolic. Like, if only we could communicate, you and I."
"All you have communicated is your distress, Doctor."
"Oh, my God." She picked up my phone that I left on the console. The phone was passed to me, but I shrugged. The TARDIS jolted around as the scanner shut off. Donna asked the blank screen, "But what do I do?"
After stressing a bit, for some reason, she decided to call her parents. "Mum, you all right?" Donna asked. I motioned for the phone and turned on the speaker. Sylvia worried, "Donna. Where are you, sweetheart?" There was shuffling in the background. "Your granddad's sealing us in. He's sealing the windows. Our own house, and we're sealed in. All those things they said about pollution and ozone and carbon, they're really happening aren't they?"
"There's people working on it, Mum," Donna firmly stated, "They're going to fix it, I promise."
She scoffed, "Oh, like you'd know. You're so clever."
"Oi, don't start," I warned them, "I'm not hosting a family help show."
Wilf got ahold of the phone, "Donna, where are you?"
"It's sort of hard to say," she hesitated, "You all right?"
"Yeah."
"Fighting fit, yeah. Are they with you, the Doctor and Celeste?
"Oh, the Doctor," Sylvia groaned.
"It's just me and Celeste." Donna looked at me. "And she's a bit sick."
He responded, "Look, you promised he was going to look after you."
"He will, Gramps," she promised, "There's something he needs me to do. I just don't know what."
"Well, I mean, the whole place is covered. The whole of London, they're saying. The whole, the whole world. It's the scale of it, Donna." I listened intently, trying to keep my mind from wandering. The clean air helped. "I mean, how can one man stop all that?"
"Trust me. He can do it," I breathed.
"Yeah, well, if he doesn't, you tell him he'll have to answer to me," Wilf joked.
"I will. Just as soon as I see him, I'll tell him." She put the phone down and paced more.
After a long wait, the phone rang again. I picked it up. "What's happened? Where are you?"
"Still on Earth," the Doctor informed, "But don't worry, I've got my secret weapon."
She asked, "What's that?"
"You two."
"Somehow that's not making me happy," Donna suggested, "Can't you just zap us down to Earth with that remote thing?"
"Yeah, he hasn't got a remote," I scoffed.
"Though I really should," he agreed, "I need you on that ship. That's why I made them move the TARDIS. I'm sorry but you've got to go outside."
"But there's Sonteruns out there."
"Sontarans. But they'll all be on battle stations right now," I tried to persuade her, "They don't exactly walk about having coffee."
The Doctor added, "I can talk you through it."
"But what if they find us?"
"I know, and I wouldn't ask, but there's nothing else I can do," the Doctor stated, "The whole planet is choking, Donna."
She looked at me stolidly. I smiled confidently. "What do you need us to do?"
"The Sontarans are inside the factory which means they've got a teleport link with the ship, but they'll have deadlocked it. I need you to reopen the link," he explained.
"But I can't even mend a fuse."
"But you got me. Stop talking like that," I said. We opened the TARDIS door slightly to peek out and saw the Sontaran outside. I gestured for Donna to stay there. Moving slowly, I walked behind it. There was the probic vent. He went down easily. "Donna!" I whispered.
"What did you do?" She asked in a hushed tone.
"The Probic vent. One blow to the Probic vent knocks them out," I explained, "Back of the neck."
"Back of the neck," Donna repeated.
"Now then, you got to find the external junction feed to the teleport," the Doctor instructed.
"What, what's it look like?"
I stated from memory, "A circular panel on the wall. Big symbol on the front, like a, like a letter T with a horizontal line through it. Or two Fs back to back."
"Oh. Well, there's a door."
The Doctor muttered, "Should be a switch by the side."
"Yeah there is," Donna sighed, "But it's Sontaran shaped, you need three fingers." I looked at her.
"We've got three fingers," I gestured. Her face lit up and she opened the door. "We're through," I said into the phone.
"Oh, you are brilliant, you are," he complimented before correcting, "You two! I mean, you and Donna." She rolled her eyes. "Shut up," Donna firmly stated, "Right."
"Got to go. Keep the line open," the Doctor explained hurriedly. Donna found the box that he wanted us to find. She rung him. "Oh! Blimey, I'm busy. Got it?"
"Yes. Now hurry up." I took off the covering. The Doctor instructed, "Take off the covering. All the blue switches inside flick them up like a fuse box, and that should get the teleport working." I faintly heard Martha in the background, talking to herself?
I shook my head and did as he said. Once I finished, Donna looked behind us to see Sontarans. "Doctor," she reported, "Blue switches done, but they've found us." They circled us and Donna tightened her grip on my hand.
All the sudden, we appeared at UNIT to a smiling Doctor. Donna laughed, "Have I ever told you how much I hate you?"
"I agree totally on that." But, nevertheless, both of us hugged him. "Hold on, hold on. Get off me, get off me," he pushed us off, "Got to bring the TARDIS down." I rolled my eyes and sent his TARDIS to the alleyway where we started. "Right, now. Martha, you coming?" I offered and acted like the two Martha's didn't bother me. Sontarans like clones.
"What about this nuclear launch thing?"
"Just keep pressing N. We want to keep those missiles on the ground," the Doctor instructed.
Donna stated, "There's two of them."
"Yeah, long story," he dismissed, "Here we go. The old team, back together."
"Well, the new team," I corrected. The Doctor just made a face. The girls joined us in the teleport. Donna protested, "We're not going back on that ship!"
"No, no, no. No. I needed to get the teleport working so that we could get to-" we appeared in Rattigan Academy, "Here. The Rattigan Academy, owned by-" We turned to Luke, who was pointing a gun at us.
"Don't tell anyone what I did," he pleaded, "It wasn't my fault, the Sontarans lied to me, they-."
Fed up, the Doctor snatched the gun and threw it away. "If I see one more gun," he grumbled. I looked at him aggravatedly. All the sudden, the Doctor started assembling a gizmo.
"That's why the Sontarans had to stop the missiles. They were holding back," he explained, "Because caesofine gas is volatile, that's why they had to use you to stop the nuclear attack."
My face lit up. "Ground to air engagement could spark off the whole thing," I finished.
Martha checked, "What, like set fire to the atmosphere?"
"Yeah. They need all the gas intact to breed their clone army," I explained, "And all the time we had Luke here in his dream factory. Planning a little trip, were we?" The Doctor sighed at the lack of gas effects.
Luke sighed, "They promised me a new world."
"You were building equipment, ready to terraform El Mondo Luko so that humans could live there and breathe the air with this," he gestured, "An atmospheric converter."
"That's London," Donna noted, "You can't even see it. My family's in there."
"If I can get this on the right setting." We struggled with it.
"Doctor, Celeste hold on," Martha stopped us, "You said the atmosphere would ignite."
I sighed, "Yeah, we did, didn't we?" The Doctor activated the atmospheric converter. An energy pulse went up into the grungy clouds.
I held the Doctor's hand tightly as the fireball engulfed the upper atmosphere. He chanted, "Please, please, please, please, please, please, please."
I heard Luke whisper, "They're geniuses."
"Just brilliant," she agreed.
"Now we're in trouble." The Doctor ran to the recreation area with the teleport. I followed with the atmospheric converter. We went into the teleport. The group looked at us confusedly. "Ok, right," I stated like nothing is wrong, "Goodbyes out of the way."
"Right. So, Donna, thank you for everything," the Doctor responded, "Martha, you too. Oh, so many times. Luke, do something clever with your life."
Donna looked at us incredulously. "You're saying goodbye?"
"Sontarans are never defeated. They'll be getting ready for war," I replied airily, "And, well, you know, We've recalibrated this for Sontaran air, so-"
"You're going to ignite them."
"You'll kill yourselves," she stated.
"Just send that thing up on its own. I don't know," Martha suggested, "Put it on a delay."
"We can't."
"Why not?" Donna demanded.
"We've got to give them a choice," I explained in a helpless expression. The Doctor hit the teleport and we teleported back to the ship.
Staal immediately scowled. "Oh, excellent."
"General Staal, you know what this is," the Doctor reasoned, "But there's one more option. You can go. Just leave. Sontaran High Command need never know what happened here."
"Your stratagem would be wise if Sontarans feared death, but we do not. At arms," he stated.
"I'll do it, Staal," I warned, "If it saves the Earth, I'll do it."
"A warrior doesn't talk, he acts."
I protested, "I am a girl! Girl with girly things and parts and likes! Girl! I am giving you the chance to leave."
"And miss the glory of this moment?" Staal smirked.
The Doctor gritted his teeth, "I'm warning you."
"And I salute you. Take aim." The Sontarans pointed their guns at us.
"Shoot us, we're still going to press this. You'll die, Staal."
"Knowing that you die too." The potato head smiled evilly. "For the glory of Sontar. Sontar-ha. Sontar-ha. Sontar-ha."
"I'll do it," I insisted.
Staal provoked over the chanting, "Then do it!"
Instantaneously, we were teleported back to Rattigan Academy. The Doctor breathed heavily when he saw that Luke wasn't there and the solemn looks on the girls' faces.
I rubbed my eyes, disappointed that the young man had died for us. New promise: no person will die for me again. There were too many people on that list.
Donna visited her family to say goodbye and Martha hung around in the TARDIS with the Doctor and I. She and I joked a bit and caught up. Martha told me about her Tom fellow who sounded wonderful. I just told her about the Doctor recently.
Donna came back and she immediately asked, "How were they?"
"Oh, same old stuff. They're fine," Donna dismissed, "So, you going to come with us? We're not exactly short of space." I smiled as if to convince.
Martha groaned at my smile, but continued, "Oh, I have missed all this, but, you know. I'm good here, back at home. And I'm better for having been away. Besides, someone needs me. Never mind the universe, I've got a great big world of my own now." As she gestured to the door, it shut abruptly.
The TARDIS started and threw everyone around. She yelled, "Doctor, don't you dare!"
"No, no, no. I didn't touch anything," he insisted, "We're in flight. It's not me."
"It's not me," I concluded. We looked at each other.
"Where are we going?"
"I don't know." I tried to decipher the readings. "It's out of control!"
"Doctor, Celeste, just listen to me. You take me home" Martha demanded, "Take me home right now!" We both looked at her helplessly and tried our best with his tantrum-having TARDIS.