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Chapter Text

Chapter 1:

The Ciendran Portal

by: IzaTheSoftOne

[aka: Sieya's Star in other fandoms]

The Eleventh Doctor was sitting in the desk chair near the TARDIS's control consul, clearly in deep thought.  His current companion: Amy Pond, was sleeping in her bedroom down a few halls from the control room, and probably wouldn't wake up for a few more hours.  This gave the Doctor, who didn't need nearly as much sleep as humans, time to think alone.  Most of the time he found the time when his companions slept to be boring, but this time he was grateful for it.

The reasons for this were complicated.  But they all centered on the fact that he should have 2 companions right now.  He should have Rory, Amy's fiance, with him as well.  But he didn't.  He blamed himself for this, for Rory's death and then subsequent erasure from existence.  If he hadn't been so distracted by what he dug out of the white crack in space-time and had instead gone into the TARDIS straight away like Amy and Rory wanted him to, then Restac wouldn't have come out of the toxic fumes, found them, and tried to shoot and kill him. 

And if Restac hadn't have tried to kill the Doctor, then Rory wouldn't have seen this and went to protect the Doctor, getting himself killed in the process.  Getting killed, Right Next to the Mysterious White Time-Space Crack, which promptly "ate him up" and erased him from known existence.  He, the Doctor, had tried to keep Amy focused on remembering her fiance after they had entered the TARDIS, but bad luck had followed, and between the TARDIS getting jerked around, and then their other temporary passengers coming back into the Control Room, he could tell the young red-headed woman had already completely forgotten her dear and brave fiance.  It was evident in her eyes and the way she talked.  She was no longer distressed and afraid for Rory. 

He blamed himself for her loosing and forgetting her fiance.  So after that, and after he had dropped off the other humans at their home, he had done everything he could to be nice to Amy, to treat her like a princess, to treat her as he knew Rory would be if he were still around.  He did it for Rory's memory, he did it as a way to apologize to her for something she didn't even remember having happened, and he did it out of an intense sense of guilt. 

The Doctor had just recently taken Amy on an adventure to meet Vincent Van Gogh in person, to assist him in killing the dangerous and lonely alien creature that was tormenting the painter's town. Before bidding him farewell, they had tried their best to show him how valued he was as an artist many years into the future of Earth.  Even though the artist had still ended his life so early, they had had the benefit of knowing that they had made a difference, when they had seen that he had painted an additional painting of Amy's sunflowers, For Amy.  They had seen his dedication to her on the painting in the museum in Amy's current time. 

Now they were taking a brief traveling/adventuring break before going somewhere new, to let her sleep, and to let him try his best to figure out what amazing place to take her next. 

But as the Doctor was fiddling around the control area after Amy went to bed, he had an idea enter his mind; not an unusual occurrence.  But this idea was more like a memory, a very old memory.  A memory that was so old that it predated his adventures in his "borrowed" TARDIS.  It was a memory from his Gallifreyan childhood.  It had come into his mind now because that evening Amy had been looking around in the TARDIS's huge library for a book to read during her downtime in the TARDIS.  He was walking around helping her and he had stumbled on an ancient book of childhood myths.  That was what reminded him.

“The Book of Ancient Myths” is what it was called.  The fact that it was an ancient book even to the Gallifreyans, one that no Time Lord knew when it was written, must have meant that the stories in it, which were in themselves old, must be beyond ancient. All of this his mother had told him about the book. She had also told him that it was gifted to her when she had met and helped one of the very few benevolent, traveling Vondrax-ians, a species thought to have been born minutes after the Big Bang. The fact that the previous Vondrax owner told her that he had found it in ancient planetary wreckage in his young adulthood, when the Universe was still less than a hundred years, gave even more testimony to how ancient the book must be, and how even older it's myths would have to be.

When his mother would read these myths to him as a child, she would tell him that the stories must be from a Universe outside of, and before, their own. She would remind him that their Universe was thought to have been created “off the back of” another Universe, and that these stories could be the ancient stories or myths of that Universe, or some other Universe lost to time and knowledge. And she would tell him that the ruins that the Vondrax must have found the book in, must be from that other Universe as well.

Because of all of that, those stories had always fascinated the young Doctor, and honestly, they continued to fascinate him all the way to his current much older age.  It was these stories, in part, that had fueled his desire to go exploring all of Time-Space.  He wanted to see ancient civilizations first hand, and confirm or debunk myths.  His insatiable curiosity for what all Creation held within it had first started with these ancient myths his mother would read to him as a very young child.

And it was in these same ancient myths that 1 particular myth had embedded itself in his memory forever, and 1 that might also lead to a possible answer to the current Time-Space rift that followed Amy and him around wherever they went.  And that might help him learn how he could mend the rift and bring Rory back!

That myth told of a planet the size of a small moon, that was desolate and that would spend an eternity moving from the end of one Universe after another, beyond the very last star.  It was suppose to be the only remaining relic planet of a “Mother Universe” that existed before all others.  And it was also suppose to have been a major teleportation hub of one of the oldest civilizations in all of Creation, a civilization whose name and nature was lost to time.  But their was suppose to be a lone fallen, crumbled, stone temple on it's barren landscape.  And somewhere around that crumbled temple was suppose to be an ancient puzzle that if solved, would recreate the civilization's last remaining teleportation gate. 

The myth rumored that this gate, if activated, could take you to a Trans-Dimensional Universe in between all Universes.  And in this Trans-Dimension Universe, you could access anything, any place, anywhere, anytime.  This included tears in Space-Time according to the myth.  The myth said that this ancient civilization used this unique Universe to mend rifts in Space Time.  You simply had to think about what you wanted to see or where you wanted to go, or what you wanted to fix, and it would take you there.  And it was also rumored that if you did this while in this Unique Universe, that you could also wish rifts to heal, and they would do so. 

But no one had ever known where to find this planet, this rogue planet on the edges of Universes, not even the Time Lords.  That is, no one had until way after the Time War, when The Doctor was in in his 10th incarnation.  Back then, he had spoken to a space pirate whose ship he had rescued from the edge of a black hole.  A space pirate who told him about a rogue planet that he had used to escape from an enemy, and had barely had enough power to get away from.  The pirate had detailed a tiny planet that was exactly like the myth the Doctor had been read as a kid!

But the Doctor had had a lot going on at the time he had been told that story, and shortly after that, he had reincarnated to his current regeneration.  So he had forgotten about that information the space pirate had told him. 

But now he remembered.  If he could zero in on the coordinates that the pirate had told him, he could go to the planet.  And if, no When, he solved the puzzle, whatever it was, he could access the Trans-Dimensional Universe, and then, if the myth was correct, he could ask the Universe and it's inner-portal to take him to the origin of the white rift that was following him and Amy around, and he could heal it!  And he could bring back Rory!

He had no way to know if the Myth really was true.  But myths were frequently true if you could travel through space and time to discover their secrets.  He had already proved so many myths to be real honest ancient history.  So this time should hopefully be the same!  He had to try it!  With no other leads other than the disturbing one of learning the piece inside the rift was of his own Tardis, he had to try Something!

So he decided; and on deciding he jumped up out of his seat in excitement!  A real chance to make everything better!

Without wanting to wake up Amy, he remembered where he had stored the coordinates and programmed them in and sent the Tardis to travel to them.  Amy should stay asleep until she woke up on her own, as the Tardis buffered all outside motion everywhere other than the control room.

Once the Tardis arrived, the excited Doctor ran to the door after scribbling a note to Amy telling him to find him outside, which he placed on the circular control panel.  Then he threw open the door and stretched a finger outside, relieved and happy to find that the strange gray planet outside did indeed have a human-breathable atmosphere like the space pirate had said!

He raced outside instantly in his excitement.  Not only did he have a chance to fix everything, but he also got to be on an ancient planet known only in myth, belonging to a mysterious ancient civilization, that contained a puzzle that would activate a mysterious portal!  It was everything that the Doctor loved: new discoveries, ancient civilizations, complex puzzles, new Universes, and a chance to make things better, all rolled up into 1!

He looked around him and the Tardis, and was excited to see that they were right in the middle of a large circle of grapefruit sized stones that were 3 different colors: bright purple, turquoise, and bright white.  These stones, scattered in different piles as if they had been shifted from their original places by someone shaking the planet, were what formed the circle around the Tardis.  He also saw that some of them were still fit together to form a raised platform about a foot high.  He immediately went to one of these still formed areas to solve the puzzle of the stone's arrangement.  He knew that This had to be the puzzle the myth spoke of; the one that would activate the doorway into the Trans-Dimensional gateway.

When he saw that all of the stones were actually many different kinds of intricate 3 dimensional shapes, made out of some kind of transparent crystalline rock, and that the ones that were still in their platformed configurations were arranged in a very organized, complex geometrical pattern, his mind quickly went to work figuring out the geometrical math involved.  It wasn't long before he had figured out how to arrange all of the many stones around the whole circle, and went to work eagerly and full of excitement, deep in his own "happy space" in his mind as he worked....

^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^

Amy Pond woke up, and not having any reason to think that the Doctor and the Tardis had landed anywhere yet, or were in any rush to do so, took her time to shower and get dressed, and even got some food from 1 of the Tardis's many kitchens. By the time she made it back to the Tardis, she was almost finished eating an egg burrito she had found in a refrigerator and drinking a bottle of water she also found there.

Finishing the last of both, she walked around the control room, surprised to not see the Doctor around. Not particularly alarmed yet, she looked around more carefully, and saw his note. Her curiosity peeked now, as to why he had decided to land somewhere while she was still asleep, and where that place might be, she found a recycling bin outside of the Tardis, threw the remains of her breakfast in it, and headed to the doors to the outside.

When she opened them, the sight would have disturbed her greatly if it wasn't for seeing the Doctor, off to the side and a few meters away from her, playing with colored rocks? The reason the sight would have been disturbing if it wasn't for the Doctor's calm behavior, was because it looked like the surface of the Earth's moon. It was gray and barren of anything beside stone. The sky was gray too. The only thing with any color in it, aside from her, the Doctor, and the TARDIS, was the grapefruit sized stones the Doctor was lifting up and moving around, that lined in a circle all the way around them.

And everything was flat. Endlessly flat like a huge desert. The only thing that wasn't flat other than the low circular rise of colored stones was what looked like a big haphazard pile of huge cobblestones a few meters outside of the ring of colored stones. It reminded Amy of the different old stone ruins of churches and other buildings that dotted her own home of England.

Clearly, whatever strange planet the Doctor had put them on this time, had once homed someone, very long ago, who had made some kind of church or temple here. That much she could see.

But why in the world had the Doctor come here, and why was he arranging colored stones? And what were the Very Out of Place Stones doing here to begin with? And why hadn't he waited to wake her up first?

She was dying to know the answers to these questions, but when she tried to get the Doctor to answer any of them, it was like trying to get a kid to do school homework on Christmas morning. No luck at all. He was deeply engrossed in... Whatever it was he was doing with the colored stones, with that look in his eyes she would see when he was having fun solving a puzzle.

Given that he had been looking particularly sad and troubled for some time, ever since they had last been to Earth to help with the Silurian issues, Amy wasn't in a rush to take away his fun and happiness. She wanted to see him happy, not troubled like he had been before. So she let him play with his colored stones, even if it meant she was bored for awhile, and without answers to her questions...

But since she couldn't find the answers to her questions from him, she thought maybe if she explored the church or temple ruins, maybe she would find answers there, and maybe she could keep from getting too bored. She told the Doctor what she was going to do, and he spared a bit of his attention to look at her, smile, and say to be careful, not to touch anything, and to stay in his line of sight.

She smiled back, gave a thumbs up, and went outside of the ring of stones and towards the ruins as he bent back to his work.

It didn't take long for her to get there. And it also didn't take long for her to notice that they Might Not Be Alone on this desolate planet. She was seeing shadows... she was sure of it....

She felt a stirring or a breeze behind her. This was a bit alarming, as this whole planet had no wind before that she had noticed, no breezes, no wind, nothing. It was as still as a musty old house whose doors had not opened in ages. But now, behind her, their was a stirring. She tried not to be too afraid, even with the strange shadows she was seeing all around. She carefully turned around, and had to fight the urge to scream or run...

There was a humanoid shadow, black as space, right behind her, with no features, nothing but pure blackness. It had it's arm raised, not to hurt her apparently, but to point. It's hand was pointing behind her, the way she had been facing and the direction that she had been going, but slightly to the right. She turned around and saw there was what looked like the remnants of a doorway there. She turned back around to see what else the shadow person might be doing... But they were gone, not a trace.

Goosebumps raised all over her skin, she carefully walked towards the old doorway, mostly fallen apart, noticing on her way that all the other shadows had disappeared too. When she went through the doorway, she realized why. They had all reappeared in this big “room” she had found herself in. That is this big remnant of a room, with it's square wall ruins of cobblestone.

But 1 thing remained in the room other than it's mostly crumbled walls: A cobblestone pedestal. And on the pedestal, a smooth wooden rod with a spherical attachment at it's end. The spherical attachment had a ring made of tinier versions of the colored stones the Doctor was playing with outside, and in the middle, a black shiny orb, as black as the shadow beings, as black as a black hole.

She stood at the edge of this ruined room, staring, unable to move, looking at a ring of these shadow people who seemed to be looking at her, the pedestal in the middle of them. She knew they were looking at her only because they all had their arms raised, and they were all pointing at her, and they were all making the hand movement to come.

She thought this was the point where she should probably yell for the Doctor, that maybe this was a huge trap or something. But before she could even think to do that, they must have read her mind. Instead, the 1 from the far back of the room, the furthest from her, walked towards the pedestal, picked up the scepter looking object, and walked through to the other side of the ring of shadow people.

She felt herself compelled to walk towards it, and she did.

Bracing herself for anything, mostly bad things, she was surprised when it came the rest of the way towards her, and held out the scepter to her.

In her head, she heard a voice that wasn't hers, and it said:

Take this Key with our Blessings. It is the Key of the Ciendrans. Your friend is activating things he doesn't understand. If you don't have this key with you, then you will be unable to return here, or elsewhere, from where you came. With this key, you Will. He has been able to figure out how to activate the portal. So he will be able to figure out how to activate this key, when it is time. Go with our Blessings, in Peace and Wisdom. When you come back, return the Key to us.

Amy was both amazed and in a state of shock, hearing the voice in her head and seeing everything she was seeing. Without really being aware of what she was doing, she found herself lifting her hand to take the scepter, or rather the Key they had called it. The Ciendrans they must be called, and they had called the Key, the Key of the Ciendrans. She took it from the Ciendran shadow, and then she was dizzy for a moment. She closed her eyes to clear her head, and when she opened them, the shadows were all gone. All that remained was the stone ruins, the pedestal, and the key in her hands. It was the length of a tennis racket, and about the same weight, even though it looked like it should be much heavier.

She heard the doctor's somewhat worried voice from a distance then: “Amy?! Amy Pond? Where are you? Are you okay?!”

Amy felt dizzy again briefly and shook her head to clear it, and when she felt alright again, the key was gone. She barely remembered any of what had happened with the Ciendrans in the room, but found her hand straying to her neck. On her neck her hand found a gold necklace, and on the necklace, her hand went to a tiny version of the Key of the Ciendrans, about the size of a sewing needle. She couldn't remember how she had acquired it, she had now lost the entire memory of the key and the Ciendrans. She shook her head again, and then headed out of the room and into the Doctor's view.

“Yes, Yes I am fine Doctor, I am fine! I.. got carried away with my exploring, you know how that goes! I didn't realize I was out of your sight. Sorry! Is everything okay over there!?” she asked in her usual casual, strong willed way as she made her way towards the ring of stones and the Doctor.

“Yes, Yes everything is rather good actually! I am almost finished arranging these stones! And when I do, do you know what is supposed to happen!?” he said excitedly, and Amy looked at him like: How am I suppose to know that, you haven't even told me why we are here!

As usual, the Doctor didn't respond to her unworded response, and went right ahead with what he was going to say:

“What will happen, or should happen, is what the ancient myth I was read as a child says will happen! An ancient portal will open! A portal to a Trans-Dimensional Universe! One with the special and unique ability to take you wherever and whenever you want to go, even to rifts in Space-Time! And it can also heal Space Time, so the myth says! If so, then we can get to the Root of the Problem with that rift from your bedroom that is following us around everywhere! And we can Fix it and everything that it has been doing! It could be our Answer!” the Doctor finished with even more excitement in his voice than before.

Amy looked at him with equal excitement, having the same desire to figure out and solve the mystery of the rift/crack in her wall and in space-time. She also felt, somewhere deep in her heart where she couldn't reach, that if they could fix the rift, then a deep sorrow in her heart would be mended. A sorrow she couldn't explain. She blinked her slightly wet eyes and smiled brightly at the Doctor, not knowing where all this sorrow was coming from, and thinking that it must not be real.

She saw that look in his eyes again. That deep sadness and sorrow. That deep regret. She didn't understand it anymore than she understood her own. She blinked her eyes again and the look in his eyes was gone. The excitement, strong and intense, was back, as he grabbed her hand.

Taking her to the Tardis, he said, “Stay Right Here until I am done! Right at the doorway, in case something goes wrong, at least the TARDIS will protect you! I am going to correct the last group of stones. Then we will look around and see if we see an activated portal up in the sky somewhere!” he said to her as he made sure she stepped into the TARDIS's doorway and held onto the door.

Afterwards, he ran back to the last group of stones, and placed them in their correct format...

And then the Unexpected Happened...

The portal appeared....

But it didn't appear above them in the sky....

And it didn't appear somewhere else on the ground of the planet....

But it appeared, Right Below Them on the Ground!!!

The previously stone ground turned into a brilliant bright golden color...

And then, then they and the TARDIS fell downward.... for what seemed forever.....

Before landing on a golden stone small island, floating in the middle of an endless blackness, the only light emanating from the golden stone itself! Off in the distance there were other small golden stone islands as well, floating in the utter blackness.

The Doctor immediately looked to the TARDIS behind him and to where he had left Amy. He was relieved to see that she was ok, desperately hanging onto the doors as they settled onto their new island.

“Um.. Doctor... Where are we now!? This is Definitely Not the same place we were... and as weird as it is for me to say this, I think I preferred that desolate planet to Wherever This Place is!” Amy said, making to step towards him and outside of the edge of the TARDIS.

“NO, Amy, stay there, at least you have the TARDIS to protect you in there. The answer is.... I think this is the Trans-Dimensional Universe that the ancient myth talked about! And if it is, then the myths say that we can heal Space-Time from here! All we have to do is---” but he got cut off by Amy.

“Doctor, Run, get in here! Behind you, you need to get in here Now!” Amy said, and of course, the Doctor couldn't help but turn around and look despite the extreme urgency in Amy's voice.

And discovered quickly that he was about to come face to face, rather violently, with a huge flying purple and black flying creature that looked like it came out of the latest horror movie! He barely dodged it's first swing by attack, before doing what he was famous for: Running!

He sprinted the short distance towards the TARDIS doors, Amy grabbing his hand as he got close enough and pulling him the rest of the way in, with the Doctor barely managing to close the doors behind him as she did.

A moment later the TARDIS rocked around violently, and this time they knew it wasn't because of transporting somewhere else in Space-Time, cause they hadn't had time to even get near the controls!

It was the creature, it had rammed right into the Tardis before veering away. The Doctor ran for the controls, turning on the relatively small monitor screen to see the view the TARDIS had all around it on it's small glowing yellow stone island.

And was alarmed to see that there was now not just 1 flying purple and black creature, but at least 10 of them, joining the first one, about to make a return flight back towards the TARDIS! The fact that just 1 of those creatures was capable of making such a crashing impact on the Tardis disturbed the Doctor more than he cared to admit. He not only tended to be overconfident with his own abilities, but also with the TARDIS's as well. The fact that just 1 of those creatures could shake it up so badly made the Doctor genuinely afraid of what 10 or more of them could do if they worked together!

“We are Getting Out of Here Now! I will go back to that planet and try again, cause This Can't Be Right! I must have missed a way to prevent this!” he said as he quickly punched buttons and moved levers on the control panel, to put them back to their home universe on that planet. He switched the final lever to get them clear of the creatures...

And....

Nothing at all happened.

The TARDIS was working fine, but it's controls didn't recognize any coordinates. With all those creatures about to make an impact, he reluctantly but quickly had the controls take them to the last place they had been before the desolate planet: Earth, near Vincent Van Gogh's house. This location was chosen because it was a matter of 2 quick button presses and the lever to get him to the 2^nd to the last coordinates he was at, and much more work and time to figure out somewhere else to go, when time was of the essence. The creatures would impact his ship in less than a minute otherwise!

This time however, the controls worked, at least to the extent that it transported them somewhere else. His monitor showed that they narrowly missed being impacted by the creatures by a mere fraction of a centimeter, with all of the creatures crashing into each other instead.

He didn't have time to congratulate himself on the accomplishment and luck however, because he quickly realized that the controls had only succeeded in moving them away from their original location on this Trans-Dimension, but not in getting them out of it.

They were floating directly above another small glowing rock island, with another circle of the patterned stones decorating it's landscape. The Doctor wondered why they hadn't landed right On the Island, until he noticed from the corner of his eye that Amy's chest was glowing. A moment later he saw from his monitor that the ground inside of the colored stone circle was also glowing.

He didn't have much time to notice anything else, before the glowing of the circle portal on the island seemed to pull the TARDIS into it! He had no idea where the portal would take them, and if it would be good, so he tried using the Controls to move them away from it. The glowing energy from the portal resisted the attempt and made the TARDIS jerk around as if it was inside of a tornado! Needless to say this caused Amy and him to be violently thrown to the ground by the movement, desperately grabbing the nearest stable thing so as not to get banged up anymore as the Tardis continued to shake around in the same way!

After what seemed like Forever, and the most Intense shake of all, that to the experienced Doctor was Definitely a landing somewhere, the violent shaking ended, and all inside the TARDIS settled quickly down.

“Um... What in the world Happened Doctor?! Was that your Trans-Dimension fixing the rift, that you were talking about before those … Creatures started attacking us?!” Amy asked as she stood up from where she was against the railing around the control consul.

The Doctor stood up, trying to hold onto his confident look, but having a hard time of it. The truth was he had No Idea where they were, and he knew he had not had the time to think about going to the rift to heal it. Not only that, but he Had been punching in the coordinates for Earth, when they had transported above the portal and the portal had pulled them in. So there was Very Little Chance that they had gone to the rift, or that they had healed it.

“Uhh... No. I would say that we definitely Did Not go to, nor heal the crack in Space-Time. As to where we are....” he replied as he looked at the monitor, but the monitor had been effected by the rough ride through the portal, and was only showing a very fuzzy image of metal with what looked like some kind of light source coming in from somewhere. A most confusing image.

Meanwhile, Amy was looking at another screen that had a readout on the location they were in, and the air quality. She had seen River Song using it once or twice, so she thought maybe it would hold more information than the Tardis's fuzzy monitor.

And indeed it did! It said they were on Earth! Earth around 7 million years into the future of when she and the Doctor had left together to begin their TARDIS adventures! That sounded pretty exciting! She tried to remember if she and the Doctor had been to Earth around 7 million years into her time's future. But she couldn't remember any such adventure. She had also seen that the readouts indicated that the atmosphere was breathable for humans, and that there was plenty of plant and animal life around the surface.

Which meant: Exploring Time!

“You picked a Great Place to go next, Doctor! Earth, 7 million years into my future, is what the Tardis says it is out there! And I am ready to soak up some more adventure!” she was saying as she headed to the TARDIS's doors!

The Doctor, initially distracted by the fuzzy appearance of metal most of the way around them, took in her words a few moments after she said them, when she was almost at the doors.

Earth, it said they were on Earth? Seven million years into the future? That was when the continents had started to dramatically divide from what they were in Amy's time.... And right around the time that the National Trust had started to deploy their gravity satellites to hold back the heat of the expanding Sun.

Earth was uninhabited by that time, all of humans having traveled to other planets and or space colonies, or intermingling with other races, also on other planets. But as far as he knew, it should be safe. But if it was when Earth was Uninhabited, and had been for quite some time... Then Why and How could they be surrounded by strong sheets of Metal on 3 out of 4 sides??

Amy continued talking as she made the rest of the way to the Tardis doors, “Far Future Earth, Here I Come! Maybe there are humans still around with super futuristic cities? Or maybe they all left and there are wild animal types all over the place! Ouuu Fun, Fun, Fun! Too bad Vincent couldn't' be here with---” but she never got to finish that sentence, as that is when she had opened the TARDIS doors and stepped out, and screamed and disappeared at the same time!

“Amy!!? Amy, what happened!?” the Doctor spun around from the monitor he was looking at and his inner thoughts on far future Earth. But 1 moment he saw her disappearing red hair down by the bottom view of the doorway, and the next second she was totally gone, as if something had sucked her down into the ground!

“Amy!! Hold on! I am coming to get you!” the Doctor said running to the doorway of the TARDIS, thinking that maybe she had fallen through a hole of some kind.

He was almost right, but it wasn't a hole. It was the edge of a metal platform of some kind, and he wasn't anticipating the platform's edge to be right under the edge of the TARDIS's doorway! One minute he took a step outside of the ship's doorway, and the next moment he too was falling down!

Way down! Bumping against what he thought was a huge pipe against a metal wall, though it was hard to figure that out when he was tumbling around like a bowling ball at pretty fast speeds. By the time he rolled off of the pipe, he had hit his head too hard against some metal somewhere, and got knocked unconscious.

He wasn't awake to see where he, and hopefully Amy too, had landed......

Chapter Text

Chapter 2:

The Intelligent Cat &

The Opening Door

by: IzaTheSoftOne

[aka: Seiya's Star in other fandoms]

Although they were too far away to have been aware of the sudden appearance of the TARDIS and it's small “crew”, a group of 4 cats were exploring around the same area of huge metal walls and pipes. They walked around on the platforms and pipes in between the gigantic walls, which were filled with colorful rain forest flora, birds, and other small animals and insects.

It was mid-summer, with sky-high humidity, and it was about 10 minutes after the Doctor and Amy had fallen... somewhere, and gone unconscious, that saw these 4 exploring cats slowly getting closer to the area where the Doctor and Amy had fallen.

Any intelligent human passerby, hearing the cats, would swear that they were meowing in a very patterned way, as if their meows were an intelligent language. These hypothetical passerby people would also think that it seemed that the 4 cats were looking around as if they were searching for something in particular. They might even fancy for a few moments that the cats were like animal versions of detectives. All of this would be if there Were any intelligent people or aliens in the area, but there weren't. Aside from plants, and small animal life such as birds and insects, the 4 cats were the most intelligent creatures around.

Much more intelligent than one might guess. And these cats were indeed here for a reason beyond just random exploring and hunting for food. Indeed, the cats meows were for the purpose of communicating, and they were passing back and forth any information they found, which was to say not very much.

What they were gathering from their initial exploration so far was very confusing. The vastly huge shiny rock egg did not just have 1 smooth large outer shell like other much smaller eggs they knew of. This one had huge crevices, nooks, patterned cracks, and even some kind of symbolic drawing on it that the cats were astonished to be able to partly understand. It was as if much smaller beings than the egg, but bigger than the cats, were meant to crawl all around the egg... but for what purpose, the cats couldn't imagine. Usually eggs were meant to completely and safely encase and protect it's occupants. But this egg seemed to have too many physical invitations for small creatures to nest within it's shell and maybe even find ways to go in and out of it. None of it made much sense to the 4 small cats.

They traveled up and down huge metal branch like things that ran along the shiny rock surfaces, and into big cave like grooves with cracks and bulbs sticking out of it in the most strangest ways. What the purposes of any such things were, they had no idea. They kept climbing around and poking their heads or bodies into any place they could, trying to figure out the meaning to it all, trying to find more clues. All they found, other than more and more plant life, was more and more questions. They were getting further and further away from answers to the nature of this strange egg, and certainly no where near close to an answer as to what kind of animal was inside the egg making such strange noises, and how they might find a way to help it break it's egg shell....

Then they went underneath of a huge shiny rock wall with a very thin opening at the bottom, that they assumed was meant to keep water from building up on the long platform they had been walking on. On the other side of the opening in the rock wall, they found that the platform continued for a small bit before dropping off. The 4 of them walked to the edge, alarmed to see that the very easy paths in between the 2 walls of the egg vanished for quite some space before resuming on the other side. And large gap in between the 2 platforms fell so far down that they couldn't see the bottom, as it was cloaked in darkness.

The cats knew it would take quite a while and be very tricky to get back to regular land and find a way to the walls on the other side.

Then the black cat amongst them looked down in the gap, more carefully, and realized that their was indeed a way across... but not an easy one....

There were some smaller, strange metal branches suspended by what they could only figure were super thick spider webs, dangling precariously in a line across the steep drop at the end of the platform. These dangling branch pieces lead to another of the curved, much bigger shiny rock branches, that made a bridge the rest of the way across to the other side of the platform.

This could be a way across, if they were careful. But... there was a very risky part about 3 fourths of the way across, and half way across the larger shiny metal branches: One of the rock branch pieces had broken in it's middle, leaving a gap. The gap was barely small enough that a cat like them could jump across. They would all have to hope and pray that the metal branch pieces could hold their weight, including the broken one on the other side of the gap.

The 4 cats meowed back and forth to each other, discussing their options before coming to the inevitable, but scary, conclusion that they had to risk walking across the dangling rock branches.

Their leader, a mostly white cat with a bit of orange on the top of her head, lead the way, and despite a lot of held back fear of heights and the risks, made it across. The calico cat and then the black cat followed suit, all 3 of them making it safely across, including jumping successfully across the gap where the branch had broken.

It only remained for the last cat, an all orange cat, to get across safely. And she had made it safely so far, right up to where the gap of the broken rock branch had occurred. The problem was, and the cats had known this would happen: each of the other 3 cats jumps had weakened the wide metal branch on the other side of the gap. The gap was now almost out of range for any cat to jump across. Any cat except for the cat they decided to be last, the orange one.

The orange cat was thought of by its other cats as being as good at jumping and climbing as a monkey. It's ability to adeptly jump and climb and use stealth when necessary, was the reason it was chosen for this exploration in the first place. The cats had decided to have the orange one be the last in line across this dangerous expanse, because it had the highest hopes of making it across the jump in one piece.

The orange cat looked with anxiety, but also determination, before making the leap. The other cats looked at it with anxiety but confidence. They knew the orange one could do this.

Then the orange cat leaped, And Made it to the Other branch!

The other cats sighed in relief, as did the orange cat....

Until...

Until the branch it had landed on gave way much more, till it was almost dangling straight down. And the other cats knew the rock branch was smooth, there was no way to dig your claws into it's hard surface to climb up....

The orange cat tried very valiantly to do just this however...

It hugged the large rock branch like a long lost relative... to no avail. The cat slid off of it anyway....

...and fell a little ways down to a downward sloping platform!

When the orange cat would have surely fallen off this platform at it's end, it did manage at the last minute to dig it's claws just a bit onto the virtually smooth surface of the very edge of the platform.

The other 3 cats could tell from their vantage point that there was a very long drop below their orange friend. A drop that went down into a darkness that they couldn't see into and had no way of getting to. They also knew there was no way that they could reach their orange friend where she dangled now, at the edge of the sloping platform....

The orange cat looked up at it's friends knowing the same things... It looked up at them with a face full of fear and sadness, it's friend's eyes looking back with as much hope and confidence as they could put into their cat eyes, before the orange cat's claws slipped out of their precarious hold...

….and fell down, down out of sight of it's friends and into a dark and dank place, hitting lots of rubble of some kind and sliding the rest of the way down a shallow slope before landing on a warm, damp, rocky ground.

The rubble it had fallen on had dampened the impact of the cat's fall, to the point that it was pretty sure it had avoided any broken limbs. But the cat hurt all over, including on it's head, and something was wrong with it's back leg. It tried to get up, while hearing the communicative meows of its friends high above.

The meows were reassuring meows, meows to let it know that they would wait for it to return to them, and that they believed in the orange cat's ability to find a way back to them, and to survive whatever it might face down there.

The orange cat meowed back, trying to sound confident and strong, but feeling neither at the moment, as it could barely keep its consciousness above the pain in it's leg and head.

Finally it's body and head couldn't take it anymore, as it tried to walk around and find a way out. It bumped against something surprisingly soft laying on the ground. The cat's eyes hadn't gotten use to the dark yet, from the brightness of the day higher above, plus its sight was getting blurry from the pain in it's head. It prayed that whatever soft thing it had found was safe to rest against.

It found a nook, an area in the soft thing to wedge in between, and so it did just that, before going completely unconscious.....

^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^

He couldn't believe it... No, it couldn't be.... but he had viewed it... and then just when he was coming to terms, in a good way, with the sight of the 2 humans falling down [he hoped they were still alive, he Had to believe they were still alive], then he viewed the cat falling down in the same exact area!

Because he was So Desperate to see such a sight: living sentient beings; he doubted his own perceptions, and his own sanity. Then he realized he probably wasn't capable of having sanity or insanity. Why did he think he did? Why was he now questioning everything!?

Why did he think that it was much More likely for him to see a cat than humans? Why could he barely remember anything? Why was he so darn happy to see these 3 unconscious beings outside the door?

Because he had been so incredibly isolated for so incredibly long, that was why; he did Finally remember that much, again.

He had to stop thinking too much, and he had to focus on figuring out if these 3 were even still alive. They had to have had a bad fall, so were they still alive after their fall? He couldn't actually go over to them and examine them, or shake them to see if they would wake up. The only thing he Could do was to make as many noises as possible with the computer operated equipment nearest to them, and if they stirred, he could open the doors for them, and guide them hopefully to relative safety, and to him.

So that is what he did. He activated the doors near where they all were. It took some work, because the systems were so used to not being activated. He had no idea how long it had been since someone had been around to activate them, and since those individuals would have been allowed to do so. So activating the doors took a lot of coding and re-coding and going through different computer protocols. Finally though, he got them to respond and activate. Lots of noises were made by this process, and thank goodness it was enough. Enough to wake up the cat at least. He would accept that. Hopefully the cat could wake up the 2 humans.....

^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^

Beeping...

Lots and lots of loud beeping sounds, unlike anything she had really ever heard before, a little bit like hearing bird voices outside when you are deep inside a cavern. It had woken her up from a very deep slumber. It went on for quite awhile before it stopped, and Dawn Stealth wondered what it was and why it wouldn't let her sleep in peace with her clan-mates....

She was so comfortable, she just wanted to stay resting in between Midnight Hunter and Snow Star.... Couldn't she just go back to sleep??

But some fact or thought in her head wouldn't let her go back to sleep.

The intense pain she felt in her leg was another reason.... A dull but bearable pain in her head was the other. She knew that if she licked herself, it would help both the pain and the healing. Her kind, the Felids, had learned long ago that if they kept a diet of certain plants, those plants in their bloodstream would imbue their saliva with healing properties.

But that meant she would have to wake up all the way, open her eyes, and probably not be able to go back to sleep...

Then she started to wonder what had caused her to be in so much pain anyways....

Oh... wait a minute, her mind thought to herself..... she was not with her clan... she had fallen... they had been exploring... what? Oh! The huge shiny rock egg in the Flooding Rain Lands near the Great Body of Water.... that's right... But what had happened to land her... away from her clan, and with so much pain??

Oh... oh no.... oh no, no, no... she didn't want to remember, but she knew she Needed to remember, because denying it would only lead to a miserable death... and failure... failure of what??

And then all of the rest of the memories came flooding back... the hanging branch path, the perilous hanging rock branch path across the two split pieces of walking ground or platforms, while they were exploring the huge eggs' 2 walls. And the broken branch, the gap... and the jumping across... it had been too weak by the time the 4^th cat, Her, had tried jumping across. She made the jump, but it had given way underneath of her, and there was no way to hold on....

She had fallen, and then barely held on to a sliding platform underneath, before her claws, with too little to hold onto, had given out, and she fell again.... into darkness.... so much pain then, and so much fear... trying to fight the doubt, and hearing her clan mates way above, telling her they believed in her, and in the vision Farsi had had recently about her. And that they would wait for her, and that they knew she would come back to them.

And she remembered trying to keep walking in this cave she found herself in, even though she had no idea where to go, how to get out, what to do, and her leg hurt so much, and her head hurt even more!

She temporarily stopped her wave of recovered memories, when thinking about the pain, realizing her head Was better. But she needed to lick her body to help it heal faster, so she could try to figure out how in the World she was going to get out of here alive.

So she moved from her dark, but soft area, slightly, and started to lick her leg really good, till it was very damp with her saliva, and then did the same with her paws and rubbed them all over her head. By the time she was done, she could feel the body tissues starting to mend, even if the pain felt the same at the moment. But now she knew her body would be okay, her body could continue on with this fight to make it out of here. But could her psyche? Where even Was she? How would she get out? And how was she So Lucky enough to find such softness in such a dark and hard area?

Wait, the softness.... What was it? It felt kind of like an animal, so had some other creature fell down here? Was it still alive? Could maybe she and it help each other to escape from here?

She turned around to look at it, and she realized that her eyes were much better equipped now after her forced healing rest, to adjust to the darkness. She could see much better especially the more she looked.

So she studied the softness she had rested against. She saw it was bigger than her... and not an animal she immediately recognized... But there were eyes, closed eyes, she realized that right away. She had rested near it's head, a bigger head than hers.

She looked closer... it kind of resembled the bigger ape animals she and her kind had seen in other areas not near here. It had arms and legs like they did, but built differently. She had never seen the likes of it's kind before, and she doubted any Felid had. It had different types of fur, different textures and colors she thought, though it was hard to tell in the dark. It's fur patterns were very strange. And it had some kind of brighter colored, odd shaped tuft of fur near it's neck. The color of it stood out against it's darker, duller colors of fur. Very strange, a very strange animal, she thought to herself.

She wondered if it was still alive.... She hoped it was still alive. Then she heard a few very gentle sounds behind her, and she looked around, and she realized there was Another one of the same odd ape like animals behind her and a few paces away! It had stirred a tiny bit in it's unconsciousness, but wasn't yet awake.

She looked back at the one she was resting against. It's head had a main of hair around it's head sort of like lions. She thought it was brown like tree bark. She had rested in the crook of one of it's front limbs. Then she realized it was breathing! She hadn't taken notice of that before!

They were both alive! She wasn't alone! And she hoped fervently that when she woke these 2, that they would be friendly, and if she was even More lucky, maybe they both actually belonged to this egg, and would know how to open it for the babies inside, And how to get out of this cavern in 1 piece!

With renewed hope in her heart, Dawn did what she would do to wake up one of her own kind: licking the fur on the top of it's head. So she went to work, licking the top of it's main above it's small ears, while she heard the other animal making more sounds, as if trying to wake up.

^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^

Why in the World was Amy rubbing his head with a damp cloth? Had he gotten sick? He hoped he hadn't gotten so injured from the fall that he had started to regenerate again... he wasn't ready to regenerate again... It hadn't even been that long since his Last regeneration... and this was Not the time to regenerate.... Not when he and Amy had fallen Gosh only Knew Where...

Wait!!! Amy had fallen, so Had He!! That's right! After landing gosh only knows where, but the TARDIS seemed to think it was Earth 7 million years into the future. But the Doctor kept thinking how that didn't seem right to him, because they had appeared inside of metal or something and What in the World was Going on!!??

All of this The Doctor was thinking as he was continuing to feel a damp cloth being rubbed around the top of his head.... had they been discovered by others? But how? Humans had abandoned Earth 7 million years into the future, so none of this made sense....

He had to get up... but he hadn't gotten this banged up in quite some time... so it took him a bit to force his body to get up... But he HAD to check on Amy, make sure she was okay!

He managed to get up, and the wetness on his head stopped...

It was quiet... and dark, and very damp.... Where in the World Were They!?

And in a place like This, WHO had been administering to his head with a damp cloth??!

He had to make sure Amy was okay, so he looked over and saw her shadowed form and went to it, after not having seen anyone else around. He gently held her arms and very lightly shook her once.

“Amy, are you okay? Amy Pond, can you hear me?” he said in the calmest voice he could, wanting Very Much for her to be OK...

She had already been gradually working towards consciousness, and feeling and hearing the Doctor's voice helped her reach it the rest of the way. She opened her eyes, and felt her head and side of her torso hurt like Crazy!

“Yes, yes, I'm alright, I'm fine... well... alive anyway. I think I can move... Where the heck are we Doctor?” she said as she slowly got herself up with her hands to a sitting position as she immediately pinched her nose, “And WHY does it stink so much down here...”

He had smelled it too, though he was doing his best to ignore the stench.

“We fell a long way down... I think down a huge pipe of some kind, though my memory is a bit … Dizzy, understandably so... The TARDIS must have landed on some kind of balcony or something and we were on the edge of it. We must have fallen down... but Down to Where, I have no idea. There aren't suppose to have been humans on the Earth for at least a few hundred years, and I think more like a few thousand.... so how there could be balconies and pipes, especially on the scale of all of this, is frankly Mind-bending...” he said with that voice he got when something utterly fascinated him.

Amy's eyes were quickly adjusting to the darkness, especially with the help of some orange-ish colored sunlight filtering from some opening way above them, probably where they had fallen in, she thought to herself. Then she realized that they were not alone.

She smiled at the cat she saw behind the Doctor and replied, “Well, I think you are obviously Wrong about that Doctor. Not only are we all around something that Must have been made by humans or aliens, But there is also a Cat right behind you! These people must have pets too!” she said as she held her hand out to the cat, who slowly but surely walked over to her hand and licked it, a lot.

Amy smiled again as the Doctor looked at the cat as if he was seeing an elephant flying with wings.

“A cat, down here! And one that is friendly towards humans... Fascinating! That Must mean that there is some kind of intelligent life that settled here that no one knew about. Hmmm... let me see... let's Talk to it then....” he said and he also held out his hand in a friendly way to the cat, which proceeded to lick his hand, also a lot.

The Doctor added, before he did what he intended on doing next, “OH.... so You [meaning the cat] were the one that was tending to my Face! You were licking my face, weren't you!?” he said, his face yet again getting that intent look of fascination mixed with excitement.

Amy thought she must have hit her head really hard falling down here, cause she was seeing things. She swore she saw the cat, a ginger cat by the look of it, Nodding in response to the Doctor's question. She could tell by the Doctor's face that He hadn't missed the motion either.

“Okay, little one, let's see what you can tell us about where we are...” he said as he slowly moved his hand to pet it, and make the touch contact needed to deploy his Time Lord ability to psychically communicate with animals.

What the Doctor WAS expecting was to get basic impressions and images of the cat's life from the psychic bond, mixed with some very Light ability at minor communication...

What he got instead was Much More than what he was expecting, and what delighted him even more: Intelligent conversation through their mental link!

This cat was just as intelligent as Amy and humankind! Cats, that still looked like cats from Amy's time, had evolved mentally! They had gotten as intelligent as humans, without changing their appearance! Fascinating!!! He Did Not remember that from his jumping around in this time period... So was it possible that cats had evolved and lived on Earth this far in the future, without anyone else in the time being aware of it....

OR... had the portals they had gone through taken them to a different Universe, a different Reality, like when he had been fighting the Cybermen in his 10^th incarnation, and gotten Separated from Rose by a Dimensional Universe Split... a thought he didn't care to think about any longer than a moment....

He quickly put aside any of his questions and theories, as the cat, named Dawn Stealth, talked to him and tried her best to answer his questions, as Amy watched, not knowing what was going on, other than that the Doctor was petting the cat.

The Doctor: “You, and your kind, you have evolved?! You are intelligent, you can talk and communicate like humans! Did you learn to do so from them?”

Dawn, the cat: “Um.. yes, we have evolved, at least according to the oldest stories past down from our ancient Elders.... We have been able to talk and communicate with each other, and cooperate with all kinds of ideas, for a very long time... but I do not know of these Humans that you speak of... are they like you and your friend? We just learned how to speak and do other things on our own.. there was no other kind of animal that helped us, not in any kind of significant way at least that I know of..”

The Doctor: “Totally Fascinating. So you do not even Know about humans.... And yes, my friend is a human. I am not. I Look like a human, but I am from somewhere entirely different. So were your evolved cat-kind the ones that made all of these structures and these pipes? [and sensing that she did not know some of the words he used, he included images of what he had managed to see before he passed out, and his memories of the fuzzy image of metal on the monitor in the TARDIS, as well as gesturing around at the metal walls that he was noticing was near them in this dark place, and including some memories of other similar structures from his past.]”

Dawn, the cat: “Oh heavens No... Our kind could never make something on this scale. This place is Huge... This Large Egg [and she, intelligently “seeing” what he had done in the psychic communication, attaching images along with the words, duplicated the “action” and included images that her kind, including her, had seen of the huge egg they were besides, as seen from the mountains on the edge of the Flooding Rain Lands, in addition to what she and her clan had seen on their exploration in the big wall before her fall]. We have known of this huge Egg for a long time, but never ventured to it till the last 2 cycles of the moon. Our kind could hear very odd Noises inside of it all that time... noises like odd animal babies wishing to escape from their egg.... So after a long time, we decided to try to help the babies escape their egg, since their mother never came back for them. But it is huge... and we are totally unfamiliar with their kind... so we came here to explore, me and my clan. We came here to learn what we could of the egg so we could help the babies escape.”

The Doctor took a few moments to respond, as he absorbed the imagery she had sent him.... He saw now what, or rather where, it was that his TARDIS had landed besides, or he guessed rather, Inside of....

And he saw enough to Immediately recognize that this was indeed a Human Structure, on an immense scale! He saw the doors in the alcoves in Dawn's memories, like the one his TARDIS must have landed in, dotted throughout the huge wall, and the writing, Human Writing, written on various doors and machinery. Their could be No Doubt.. this WAS a Human place, and Humans Had Made This Massive Structure...

There could also be No Doubt... He and Amy were on a Parallel Universe.. a Parallel Earth... but Definitely Not the one Rose had ended up on... and not one that was anything close to his own... This Universe, and this Earth, had developed Totally and Completely Different from his own Universe and the Earth he had always been protecting.

But then the question was: How Had it Developed and Evolved? And What had happened to the Humans? Dawn, and all her kind, had Never seen a human before Amy.... So were the odd sounds Dawn's kind had heard inside of what they called a giant egg, were they trapped humans? But the sounds that he got from Dawn's memories, though vague and distant... didn't sound like human sounds...

Which meant, A HUGE mystery needed solving! And the Doctor LOVED mysteries! And maybe Humans needed saving! Maybe the last humans were the “babies” the Felids, Dawn's kind, needed to save from the “egg”!

And, even if he Hadn't have wanted to save the humans inside the structure, which he did of course, the fact remained that from what he could see so far, there was no way to get Up from where they were, and back to the TARDIS, except for to go Into the Structure, and find a way Up and Out.

Which meant, they would have to find a way to “break the egg” just as Dawn's kind wanted to do, in order to get out to the upper Outside, and back to his TARDIS.

And now, the Doctor was totally back in his element, his Very Happy Element!

The Doctor had also forgotten that he was not shielding his own thoughts and many memories, long ago ones and current ones, from Dawn. And so he suddenly realized and remembered just how very intelligent Dawn Was. Also, Dawn was Not Used to Psychic communication, nor with knowing how to recognize and avoid “seeing” personal thoughts and memories in a mental connection. Which meant, Dawn was Accidentally picking up on the Doctor's memories..... a lot of the MANY memories he had.

Dawn, the cat: “You are not from here at all... both of you... And You... are not from Earth... your Own Kind are So Much Different, and So Far Away from Earth... I did not mean to invade your privacy... but my curiosity lead me down the path of your memories... very varied, lots of them.. and many of them very sad, though some very happy... I am sorry... I did not mean to …”

To have a cat, and an intelligent one at that, and apparently a very compassionate one, read his mind and memories, was Definitely Not something the Doctor was prepared for....

Surprisingly enough though, he wasn't, and couldn't, be upset or angry with her.... He knew it was an accident, and he Also Knew that she was definitely Not the type to pry or judge or even question anything... this cat, somehow, seemed much wiser than her years... something else that fascinated the Doctor as he left open the mental doors to his memories, a decision that surprised even himself.

To her, he mentally said, “You have nothing to apologize for... It was my own fault, especially as you had no experience with psychic mental bonding. And I had no idea when I formed the connection, that you were as intelligent as you were.... No idea at all. Or else I would have not made the connection--- so intense... I thought it was necessary when I thought you were.. lesser evolved.... So no need for apology. And for some reason, I trust you with them. So I won't close them... But... the time for questions about our lives is not now... we are both trapped.. correct?”

Dawn nodded in her mind and with her head, and Amy blinked again, not believing her eyes.

The Doctor continued, “Then we need to find a way out. And based on your memories and my own, I doubt we will find one unless we go into this massive Egg Structure and find a way up and out of it, yes?”

When Dawn nodded again, he continued, “So we will work together, and we Will Find a way Out of Here, and in the process, we can learn about, and help, the “babies” inside of this egg. We can help the Humans that must be trapped in there. Because you gave me enough information from your own memories of exploration, to know that Humans Made this Structure you call an Egg, and that they might indeed be the ones that are trapped inside and that need help to escape!” he finished, and Dawn agreed with him.

Meanwhile, both of them had been so intensely into their mental link and communication, that they had failed to see Amy, growing restless at their silent interaction and the state of their situation, get up and start to explore the man made cave they were inside of.

That is, they were unaware of this until they heard her brief startled scream!

She had gotten up and had searched along the metal wall, finding what looked like a computer consul of sorts with a big metal door! But what had made her scream briefly was seeing... something, something small, pink, and about the size of baby pig, come out from 2 piles of trash outside the door, and scuttle under a narrow opening that the door had just made as she had approached it!

Something about those baby pig things had made her hair stand on end after getting goosebumps all over.... she didn't know what they were... and she felt like she Really Never Wanted to.....

“Amy, are you okay!? What happened!?” the Doctor said as he immediately got up and spun around. Seeing that she seemed to be okay he took a moment to bend down and pick up his new friend Dawn, and then walked over to Amy, taking note of the computer console and keypad beside the big slightly opened door.

“Yes... yes... I was exploring and finding this doorway stuff... when … gross things came out of these trash bags and went into the opening... they scared me... sorry... that probably sounds silly now.. but this place is creepy... “ she said, sounding disgusted with herself for being so jumpy at seemingly nothing now.

The Doctor put a reassuring hand on her shoulder, “Under the circumstances, I think it's very reasonable to be jumpy, and to be even a bit afraid. We have no idea what all of this is, or what it means... So of course we should be worried. Don't be too hard on yourself Amy.... But it Would be nice if that opening were a bit bigger..... so that more than just our cat friend could get through...” The Doctor said as he used the arm that wasn't holding Dawn to pull out his sonic screwdriver.

He was just about to turn it on and aim it at the controls, to see if he could convince them to open the doors more.... when they, meaning the control panel, seemed to read his mind, and after beeping a few quick beeps, made the doors open more!

“Wow Doctor, you are getting faster with your sonic screwdriver.. I didn't even see you turn it on, and yet you already got the doors to open more... Impressive!” she said giving him that impressed look of hers before turning to the opening again.

The Doctor was about to say that he hadn't even Done Anything, or Turned On the screwdriver, but seeing her look at him all impressed, made him decide Not to say anything.

But he Did wonder exactly What had made the doors open more... or for that matter, what, or Who, had made them open At All... and was whatever it was.. Friendly?!

“Well... we Need to go in there to get to the TARDIS, plus we have some People that Might Need Saving! So there's no where to go but Inside!” he said in his excited way! And with that, the 2 interested and intrigued humanoids, and the intelligent and hopeful cat, walked into the doors of the Massive “Egg Structure” to figure out how to get Up and Out, and to save whoever was Inside!.....

Chapter Text

Chapter 3:

Looking for Clues

By: IzaTheSoftOne

[aka: Seiya's Star in other fandoms]

When the Doctor, Amy, and Dawn Stealth went through the big metal door into the Structure, they were completely unprepared for what they would find on the other side, even if they went in knowing that the Structure was made by humans.

“But.. This looks like a whole entire human city?!....” were Amy's first words as they walked through the doorway, took a few more steps, and let their eyes yet again adjust to the difference in light.

They looked around them as they continued walking a few more steps, seeing very high “skyscraper” buildings made of metal, for as far as the eye could see on the main street they found themselves on. But this wasn't like a city street in downtown London, or many other cities they had been on in their travels, because this city looked like it had fallen on very hard economic times and was completely abandoned, in a hurry. It was dimly lit with light blue fluorescent lights that sometimes would flicker on and off. And there were stickers, Everywhere on the metal walls they could see from where they were. Many of them having what looked like odd phone numbers on them, though there were other ones in different languages. The predominant language on the stickers, signs, and other places however was one that none of them, not even the Doctor, recognized.

Some buildings looked like closed city shops, with the same kind of pull down metal doors in front, and the occasional closed doorway. Neon signs above different doorways, most not working, had the odd language writing on it the same way stores in London would. There was a normal dumpster, like you'd find in London, off in front of a nearby side shop, and one further down the street, in front of a locked and boarded up gate that blocked further progress down the road. Trash was Everywhere, littering the streets like there had been some huge party celebrated outside that everyone had suddenly abandoned, dropping their trash wherever they were.

Amy walked up to a wall on a building to the right with a doorway and tried to open it, to no avail. The doorknob wouldn't even turn, it was clearly locked tight. She saw a sticker written in English on the wall next to the door, that said the store was permanently closed. It didn't say why. She tried knocking on the door, and she thought she heard some squeaking sounds from inside, but if she did, they were faint, and she stopped hearing them just as suddenly as she thought she did hear them.

“I appreciate the lift, Doctor, but I am already starting to feel better. Licking my wounds helped a lot. Our saliva has healing properties. You are better off with both of your arms free I would imagine,” Dawn said mentally through their psychic link, in a warm tone to her new friend.

“Yes, yes, you're Entirely right! Here you go...” he said as he gently put her down on the ground, “And interestingly enough, ever since you licked my own head, it has been steadily feeling a lot better. Fascinating! And that might come in handy later, if we have any more … unfortunate accidents,” he finished as he smiled down at the cat before digging in his pocket again for his sonic screwdriver.

“Are you talking out loud to the cat, Doctor? Surely it doesn't understand what you are saying,” was Amy's response to the Doctor talking out loud to Dawn.

The Doctor then briefly explained about his psychic abilities with animals and his conversation with Dawn outside the city, to which Amy got one of her impressed looks on her face again as she looked at him.

“You are always FULL of surprises Doctor! Well it's nice to meet you Dawn, even if it is in such a Depressing Place!” she said, smiling again at the cat.

Dawn meow-purred back at Amy, flicking her tail, before they both continued looking around.

The Doctor tried opening up a door to a shop on the left, with a whole bunch of trash outside of it, and just like Amy's door, it was locked. So he aimed his sonic screwdriver at it and “convinced” the door to open for him. The door acquiesced, and it opened with a squeak that would have fit very well in Any kind of horror movie. The sound Also startled Something in a heap of trash a few paces in front of the boarded up, closed gate further down the street. Amy yet again saw a few of those pink, baby-pig like things she had seen outside the door, twitter and squeak before running away to nearby building walls and vanishing.

“There! Did you see them!?” Amy yelled to the Doctor as he was about to go inside the opened up shop, pointing at where they had originally been.

“See what?” the Doctor said, looking at where she was pointing, and the nearby area, and seeing nothing but lots of trash on an empty street.

“Well they Were there! Darn it, every time I see them, you Miss seeing them, but I am Not imagining them. They are Very Disgusting looking. They make my skin crawl....” was Amy's response, shivering a bit at the memory of them.

“Again Amy, I am sure its just your nerves in a place like this... it is.. Very Creepy in here, a seemingly vacant.. huge enclosed city like this...” the Doctor responded compassionately.

But Dawn interrupted his further response, both with verbal meows And with talking to him through their mental link, “No Doctor, she is right! I saw them too; see?” she added, and she used the same psychic technique of attaching memories with mental words, showing him what she herself had seen.

“Oh... oh my, you Are right Amy,” he said out loud, “Dawn saw them too, and shared her memory of the sight of them with me... Well we will just have to hope that they are either harmless, or that they are friendly. There isn't much else we can do about them right now. If cats have been able to evolve in all this time here, maybe those pink things are evolved or changed rats, or even pigs. But until we know more about them, it's best to not get too close to any of them, especially large groups...” he replied before turning back to his open doorway.

He went inside the shop, and knew that he had seen out of the corner of his eye, 1 or 2 of those pink things crawling behind building furniture or wall pipes. He turned his attention to the inside of the building itself.

The inside of the shop looked like it could have been from his own Universe's Earth. It had obviously been a hardware store of some kind, with many of its shelves still lined with different metal pieces and fixtures in different boxes. The boxes, interestingly enough, looked like the labels had been changed several times over the years. Some had initially been labeled in English, French, Korean, or Chinese, but then later been printed over top these older labels in the unknown language he had never seen before. He knew this because the newer labels were peeling off in places, revealing the older ones.

Had humans also evolved, and changed their language, before something had either happened to them, or they had abandoned this place, and planet, to go elsewhere? He walked over to the payment counter and saw that there was an old fashioned cash register that looked like it would have fit perfectly in London in the early 21^st Century. But it had clearly not been used for quite some time, even if the inside of this shop was almost devoid of dust, probably because everything was so enclosed, that there was little opportunity for dust to get anywhere.

Of the shop's human or alien owners or workers, there was no sign. There were however a few posters or stickers on the walls with drawings of what must be the pink pig-like things, along with other drawings that could be of parts of the city. The writing was in the strange language however, so the Doctor couldn't read it.

The Doctor realized that usually the TARDIS could interpret and translate languages for him and anyone else traveling inside her. But for some reason, she was not able to do that here. He figured that it must be because they were in a previously unknown Universe that the TARDIS wasn't used to, and couldn't understand, at least not right away. Which meant, the Doctor would just have to figure out the language on his own! He took a few minutes to take some readings and recordings of the language with his sonic screwdriver, before taking one last look around the shop before leaving. But there wasn't much more to see, no more clues to where everyone was, or who they were, or what had happened to them. So the Doctor went back outside, closing and locking the door behind him, in case the owner came back.

“Did you learn anything in there Doctor?” Am asked him when he came out. She was closer to the door, looking through the huge piles of trash heaped against the metal gates further back, hoping to find clues of anything, without getting too dirty.

“Not really, other than that this city has very human things in it. That was a hardware store, and it looked like it had been fairly normal before it was abandoned. And I am pretty sure a few of your pink pig things were inside there before I scared them away,” he said as he looked around again.

“What I don't understand is why there are so many of These!” Amy said, handing the Doctor what looked like a beer bottle.

The Doctor at first wondered why Amy was so interested in a beer bottle inside of a city clearly made for humans. That is until he looked at the label, which clearly looked like it was meant for a beverage, only to find that it was labeled, in English, as being some kind of oil, like the kind you would use to lubricate a car in Amy's time. But Why would anyone drink Oil, the Doctor wondered to himself. And yet, the label and design of the bottle really did look like it was meant for drinking. He had to conclude that it was another case of relabeling, but that the original label had been completely removed. Maybe these humans had needed to recycle everything, which made sense in a place like this.

He voiced his thoughts to Amy, who nodded, accepting them as possibilities, before both of them were interrupted from their thoughts by Dawn's meows and mental words to the Doctor.

“From your own memories of 'human cities' Doctor, I am figuring that the small rectangular thing on the wall above, and on the other side of the closed up gates on the street, is a 'security camera'.... And I am also pretty sure that this Camera, is moving back and forth to our movements like we Felids do when eyeing mice. It looks like someone is using it to keep track of us,” Dawn said to the Doctor mentally, from her place on top of the closed dumpster beside the gate on the street.

The Doctor continued to be surprised by Dawn Stealth's intelligence. If she kept surprising him like this, he might even think she was as smart as he was.... She had figured out things that were totally alien to her and her kind's experiences, based only on the memories and ideas she was piecing together from his memories of his many travels....

The Doctor passed on Dawn's words to Amy, and the two of them walked over to join Dawn by the dumpster, looking up at the camera as they did so. They too noticed that it seemed to follow their movements.

“Interesting... so Somebody with some intelligence is inside of this city then, or else the cameras wouldn't be doing that. Unless they are programmed to do that of course. We will have to continue on into the city to figure it out!” the Doctor said, with his voice again having a lot of enthusiasm.

Amy, after having wiped sweat and humidity off of her face and hair for the fifteenth time, was realizing that her really bad headache from her fall was slowly going away, as was the pain in her torso. The Doctor explained to her that Dawn's saliva has healing traits, and was probably responsible for that. She looked over at Dawn, right before Dawn jumped onto an awning on the other side of the gates, thanking her.

Dawn looked back around at her and meow-purred, before turning to the security camera and walking closer to it on the balcony. It was clearly following her, and when she meowed at it, it actually nodded it's camera “head”, and continued to do that when she tried meowing at it 3 other times!

The Doctor and Amy were able to see this, and were as intrigued as Dawn was, as the Doctor used his sonic screwdriver to unlock the lock on the gates. The two of them went through the gates as Dawn jumped back down to street level to join them, and the 3 of them made their way further down the street. They looked around on both sides of the now narrower street, finding the same kinds of stickers with numbers and the strange language, the same turned off neon shop and store signs, and the same locked doors.

Random trash was dotted around this part of the street too. There were shops on the bottom of these buildings, with what looked like apartments on the upper floors going pretty far up, some having balconies with railings on them. Awnings were over doorways, and the usual stickers and posters dotted many of the buildings, along with graffiti on some walls, mostly in strange symbols that none of them recognized.

There was even what looked like some kind of manufacturing work cart in the middle of the street with different stuff that one might need for working on it, as if the worker pushing it around was in the middle of work when he had to abandon it all of a sudden. It was a rather eerie feeling to see so much normal stuff, looking like it was abandoned in an instant, with no traces of those who abandoned it. The 3 of them walked slowly down the street, ready for almost anything, looking around carefully. The Doctor had decided to walk for a time before checking out the inside of another building.

They had barely walked another block when they were all pretty sure they saw a body laying on the ground. The Doctor started running towards it, in the hopes of saving whoever it was, giving them a second chance at life, whatever applied. Dawn and Amy were just a bit behind him, the former catching up quick on her 4 legs.

When the Doctor got close to it, he was realizing that something was off.... but what was it, he wondered as he got closer. The fact that it was so dim in this dark, enclosed city, didn't make things any easier. He bent down beside the figure at the same time that Dawn made it up to her new friend and the collapsed figure on the ground. Both of them figured out what was different at the same time.

The Doctor scanned the figure with his sonic screwdriver to verify what his own hands and eyes already knew, as Amy came up beside them and looked down while still standing.

“That is... most unexpected...” he said as he looked up at Amy.

“What is?” she replied back, not able to see what was unusual about the figure on the ground, in the darkness and while still standing.

Dawn batted at it's “head” lightly with her paw to see if it would move, but it did not.

Meanwhile the Doctor answered Amy's question: “It is not a human... It is a robot. And a rather complex one at that.... that runs on a battery. But its battery has run out... from the readings I have on it... it's battery has been empty of power for... a very long time. It's insides are full of rust.”

Amy, rather understandably, had fear and anxiety go through her mind, having a pretty good knowledge of all the different kinds of dangerous alien robots that lurked in her own Universe.

With these fears in her mind, she asked, “Is it a Cyberman? Or some other dangerous robot alien? Is that what happened to the humans, did they get taken over by Cybermen or something?” she asked, taking an involuntary step backwards even though whatever the fallen form was clearly seemed to be inert.

“No, definitely Not a Cyberman. Cybermen have... living beings inside of them....” and yet again, the Doctor had to force away unwanted thoughts of the Cybermen that had been responsible for separating his prior incarnation from Rose... , “This robot is, Only mechanical, and it's body workings are very different from Cybermen, or Any other kind of robot alien I have ever faced, or that I know about from Time Lord history.... I am Not familiar with it's kind, though quite frankly, its design is Brilliant! Whoever created it is a masterful engineer, and I would Love to talk to them about their design...” the Doctor said, and Amy could tell from his eyes that he was getting lost in his own thoughts again, a common occurrence for him.

“I don't want to take you out of your reverie, but this street is still very creepy, and we should probably keep going, if we can't... help the robot in any way, or get any information from it,” Amy said, looking a bit uncomfortable talking about robots in this eerie and empty city.

“Yes, yes, quite right, quite right. Onwards and Upwards as they say,” the Doctor said, half distractedly as he got up to continue walking down the street, his mind still thinking about the readouts of the robot.

Dawn, who had already run ahead to scout the area, gave another double communication, meowing out loud and talking to the Doctor mentally, “There is another one down here, and it looks to be as dead as the first one... it didn't respond when I batted at it. And it is rusty in places too,” Dawn said, having learned what “rust” was from the Doctor's thoughts.

The Doctor kept being impressed by Dawn's intelligence, by how quickly she learned things and pieced things together.

The Doctor and Amy had to jog down the street to catch up to where Dawn had already run to. They found another humanoid figure laying on the ground, and a closer inspection from the Doctor, with his own senses and the readouts from his sonic screwdriver, told him the same thing as with the other robot figure: it's battery juice was also dead, it was made in much the same way as its counterpart down the street, and it's battery and other body parts were also very rusted inside. Even the Doctor was starting to get creeped out at this point, for no particular reason he could figure out.

Then Amy looked at something on a wall a bit ahead of them, and called out his name in a very, very worried kind of voice....

“What's wrong Amy? Any more wrong than a city that is dark and so far empty of biological life, that is..” The Doctor said, walking up to where she was standing, near the edge of the paved street, near where the rest of the street seemed to have gotten flooded with a very green looking liquid.

Before Amy responded to him, he took a quick scan of the green liquid with his sonic screwdriver, which confirmed what he already suspected, especially based on the metal barrels with labels floating around on it's surface: the green liquid was acid filled water. It would be a very painful, toxic death to step in it, much less get immersed in it.

When he finished reading his readouts on his sonic screwdriver, he looked over at where she was pointing, at a wall of a building that was above and over the toxic water. It had the same stickers and some random graffiti painted on its surface.

Amy was pointing to one such painted graffiti marking, that was actually in perfect English. And when he read the words on it, he understood the fear in her voice. The words read:

RIP Humans

No Escape

“Doctor... I don't want to die down here... What do you think killed all the humans? Will it kill us too? You said Dawn had never seen a human before.... So that must mean they all died out here, inside this city....” Amy said, fighting a rising fear that they would not make it out of this dark city before Something, some nameless thing that killed everyone else, killed them.

If Amy had a known enemy to fight then she could easily be brave. If she had some known person to rescue, she could be brave. But the eerie stillness and unknown, creepy threat of this place unsettled her in a way she wasn't used to, and really didn't like. Such a huge empty place that seemed like it should be teeming with life, but so far was totally devoid of it, except those horrid baby pig things. It ate away at her normal self confidence.

The Doctor was about to try to console Amy when Dawn did a double communication again, saying in the Doctor's mind: “Doctor, to your right, the building wall across the green water, look! Look at it for a few moments, you'll see what I have been seeing! Amy might not have to fear about the humans after all!” and she meowed this same thing out loud, even if neither of them understood her meowing language.

Out loud the Doctor said to Amy, “Dawn sees something over on the other side, across the water, let's look! Maybe she sees something hopeful!”

The Doctor was using his reassuring, confident, kind voice on Amy, and it helped to stabilize her, as it always did, as the two of them looked to where Dawn had mentioned. When they did, they immediately saw what had caught Dawn Stealth's attention. A Neon sign for some business or organization on the other side of the water, was up there, and unlike many of the other signs, which were not turned on, This sign had some of the letters lit up intermittently.

The sign was originally suppose to say something else, but the English letters that were lighting up made a totally different word, and a very specific one that made a lot of sense.

It said: HELP. And after the letters were two lit up arrows pointing to the right of the overflowing, narrow street!

“See Amy! Someone Must be Directing us to some place, and it Must be the same individual that was responsible for the computer console outside the City lighting up and for the door starting to open up for us. That same someone is now guiding us to either themselves, or a way out. All we have to do is follow their lead!” he said with his excited and still reassuring voice as he kept his hands on her shoulders.

Amy nodded, saying in a quieter voice, with just a small trace of her previous doubt, “Hopefully it isn't leading us to a trap.”

In the Doctor's mind, Dawn spoke again, “I can get across using those barrels and the pipes along the opposite wall. But I don't know how you two would get across, and I won't leave you both here...” she finished, sounding upset.

Out loud, he responded, “No, Dawn, you go ahead until you get to solid ground again, and then wait for us, and we will find a way in that direction and catch up to you. Don't worry, you know better than anyone now how Very many times I have found a way out of very difficult situations. You can read all my memories, remember! So don't worry, we Will catch up to you!” he said, smiling at the furry cat that was facing him from a nearby raised part of the street, overlooking the toxic water.

“If you say so. You Are right, I Can see just how many times you have gotten out of impossible seeming situations. You and I are much alike. You can read My memories too, you know how many times I have done similar things in my own environment. So I will trust you. But I Won't leave until you catch up to me, no matter how long it takes!” she said, already thinking of this much different man named The Doctor, as a member of her own family.

Then she confidently and successfully jumped across the barrels in the water and onto the pipe on the opposite wall. Turning to the right, she saw the pipe lead to a platform after a short bit, and inside the platform, past a small gated doorway, was another neon shop sign with arrows, pointing to the left. She followed the pipe to this platform and went through the broken barred doorway, where she would wait for the Doctor and Amy to catch up.

The Doctor wasted no time finding a way to catch up to Dawn. He quickly scanned the street near to where the acid water started, and saw that just a few paces away to the right was a door to the building on the other edge of the water. He quickly went to it and “sonic-ed” it open with his screwdriver, and gestured for Amy to follow him inside.

This building seemed to have been a deli at one point in time long ago. There was a deli counter in the middle of it, but the trays that would normally have meat in them had various kinds of liquid. A quick scan indicated that they were different kinds of machine lubricant, which the doctor found quite fascinating. But this time he resisted his fascination, staying focused on moving, while keeping a keen eye out for any clues as to where all the humans had gone or what had happened to them.

They passed some sitting stools and counters that looked yet again like the occupants had been in a rush to leave. More of the same stickers, drawings of the baby pig things, and other signs of both human life, and something else. The Doctor took quick note of all of it as the two of them made their way through the deli, to a door on the opposite side, that the Doctor thought must lead to wherever Dawn had gone.

It instead lead to a narrow metal hallway that went in both directions. A couple of the pig like things were way down the hallway to the right, which was thankfully Not the direction they were needing to go. These pig things did not seem interested in running away, but instead just seemed to study the two travelers as they started to head the opposite way, The Doctor keeping an eye on their backs in case the pig things did anything worrisome.

Thankfully the hallway to the left lead to a door, which, after the Doctor used his sonic screwdriver on it, opened right away, and the two went through it and closed it, locking it behind them to deter the pig like things way down the hallway from wanting to follow them. Even the Doctor was starting to get a bit of a “creepy instinct” from them, that Something Wasn't Right about them, even though he couldn't put his finger on Exactly Why he felt this way.

They looked around, not immediately seeing Dawn on this junk filled platform, until they looked a bit of a distance away, and they saw her small furry form looking up at a metal wall of some kind, that was not the normal wall of a tall building. They couldn't see what she was able to see from their position, so they walked up to where she was.

When they did, they looked over to the smaller wall, to see that it was a shelf, and it was Full of monitor screens like you could see in the old days of London city shops. But on the screens, was not advertisements, or TV shows, but something both expected, and Unexpected: Arrows pointing to their left, to a small window like opening in an unusual wall; the words: Follow Me; and a digital sketch of a Cat Head!

“Well it seems that I was right Amy, Dawn. Someone is Indeed Leading us.. Somewhere. For what reason, and whether or not they are friendly or not, we do not know. But given that we are strangers to this odd City, and we are needing information and clues to who all is still here, and how to free them and ourselves, I say we keep following their lead. And Hopefully, they will give us the answers we seek, when we get to where they are Taking Us!” …..

Chapter Text

Chapter 4:

Formidable Terrain &

Running the Gauntlet

by: IzaTheSoftOne

[aka: Seiya's Star in other fandoms]

“The arrows point to the left, but there is nothing there but a wall, 2 small, high windows, and a locked door. I guess you are planning on sonic-ing the door?” Amy said to the Doctor as they all looked at the monitors telling them, or specifically Dawn, where to go next.

“Well... it would Definitely be easier than trying to go through those windows! So Yes, we will go through the door!” the Doctor replied, readying his sonic screwdriver and turning to the door that wasn't too far away from them.

Before he could do anything though, he heard Dawn talk to him again as she meowed out loud, “Wait my friend. We are in a mysterious city [again she took a word from his mind, since her kind had never had any experience with cities], and we don't know where we are being lead to, and where we might run into danger. I am much better able to scout ahead securely to see if it's safe to proceed a certain way. Whereas you two might jump head first into something you would regret. So let me scout a bit ahead and use our psychic link to guide you two down the right path.”

The Doctor was surprised, he was not really use to having an efficient and competent individual with him who could safely scout ahead and warn him of trouble before he went into it. He thought he could get used to that. He gave her the go ahead and added more:

“Just be careful. You are small, and you are obviously very smart and resourceful, but you are no more indestructible than Amy or I. If you see Danger ahead, wait for us to catch up to you before you go into it,” he said out loud for Amy's benefit.

Dawn meowed and nodded her head, before she jumped up on the high short window to look around. A metal floored room about the size of the platform she had just been on, awaited them all on the other side of the window. The room had big pipes, almost as wide as the one she had fallen off of outside, running along it's length on both sides, and a high platform too high for her see the top of its surface, at the far end. Steady drips of water were leaking from several places on the ceiling and from the pipes. She could tell from looking around that the doorway that the Doctor had been about to open would lead to a completely different room below, and one that would either dead end, or that would lead somewhere different from where they were going. She shared what she was seeing with the Doctor through her mental link.

The Doctor already knew that he was going to miss having this remarkable cat named Dawn with him on future adventures, as it was so helpful, as well as Fascinating, to be able to see things up ahead through another one's eyes, especially one that was as agile and stealthy as Dawn's cat form was.

Outloud, he said, “I agree with you Dawn. Unfortunately that locked door probably won't help us. Which means, we will need to crawl through that same window.... definitely not the Best way to get somewhere, but it wouldn't be the first time we had to go through uncomfortable passage ways...” the Doctor said, his young sounding voice yet again filled with excitement for this strange trip.

Amy took one look at Dawn on the windowsill, and one look at the Doctor, and then another look at the window sill, “That window is pretty high up Doctor. How do you propose we go through it?” Amy said, judging it to be about chest high by the looks of it.

The Doctor looked around real quick, saw a metal chair that looked stable enough for standing on, and grabbed it, bringing it over to the window that Dawn had gone through. The orange cat had already gone into the room she had just described, scouting it out further.

Amy wasn't relishing climbing through the window, but judging from the condition this mysterious city was in, she had a feeling that this wouldn't be the first time that she was going to have to do some uncomfortable maneuvering. Breathing a loud sigh, she walked over to the chair the Doctor had set down, and stood on top of it. She pushed herself up into the window, already feeling her arms hurt from the strenuous exercise. By the time she had gotten through the window, her arm muscles were already sore, and she knew they had So much more of this city to get through.... She sighed again, waiting for the Doctor to make his own way through.

By the time the Doctor had also gotten though the window, Dawn had already jumped her way up to the high platform on the other side of the room, and seen that the only other way out of this room was through a big, but moving fan. They would need to find a way to stop the fan and get through it's blades, if they were going to continue to make progress through the path that they were being given. She shared her sights and thoughts with the Doctor again.

The Doctor responded out loud again, to both of his companions, “We can't get out of here unless we find a way to stop the big fan that is up on the platform. So we need to find either a power source, or something we can use to jam it. My guess is that... unfortunately, the power source is most likely in the room below, as I know how these kinds of rooms usually work.... So we will Probably have more luck finding something to jam the blades with in here, hopefully...”

Amy was Not relishing climbing up to the high platform, Or going through fan blades, but she also didn't want to have to go back out the window, into the lower room, and then repeat everything all over again, just to get through this room. She looked carefully around the descent sized metal room while the Doctor double checked what was on the other side of the door under the platform.

“Just as I suspected... this room under the platform is Just a supply room, and controls for the pipes... the controls for the fan are in the room below us. We aren't going to do that... so let's find something to jam the fan blades.”

“Like This!” Amy said, as she had Just found a metal bucket that someone had left laying on the ground under one of the big pipes.

“Good Job Amy, yes that will do Nicely!” he said as Amy walked over to the side of a pipe that was about shoulder high, where Dawn had jumped down too.

Amy envied Dawn her small, light, lithe cat body right now. She handed the resourceful cat the bucket, and Dawn took it by grabbing it's metal handle with her mouth and then jumping back up to the platform with it. Amy heard Dawn dropping it down the fan shoot as she was struggling to leverage herself up on that same lower pipe.

With the Doctor helping to push her up on that first pipe, and then with Amy balancing herself with her bent legs, and pulling the Doctor up, they slowly but steadily made their way up the pipes, continuing this process painfully for each pipe and for the platform. By the time they had made it up to the platform, Amy's muscles ached like she had spent all day at the local gym. Of course, she noted dryly, the Doctor looked like they had just walked up a normal flight of stairs. She sincerely wondered if his body was made up of nothing but pure muscle...

They saw Dawn waiting for them when they turned around to face where the fan was. When they walked up to her, she looked at them before sliding down and walking through. Amy followed suit, praying that the bucket would continue to do its job so that she wouldn't become Sliced Human. It did, and the Doctor made his way through next all in one piece.

Amy was ready to breathe a sigh of relief, hoping that maybe it would be normal exploring ahead of them for awhile, like before they had crossed the toxic water. That is she was about to sigh in relief until, after taking a few steps, it was made terrifyingly clear that the path was only going to get more difficult!

The three of them walked to the edge, and saw that they were on top of a pretty high multi-storied building, surrounded by even taller ones. It reminded the Doctor of when he had gone running along the tops of skyscrapers in New York City in a previous incarnation. Between how high up they seemed to be, and the eerie semi-darkness in the city, they couldn't even see the ground level from where they were... And there was no clear way to keep going, and no lit up signs that they could see telling them where to go... So what next? Where were they suppose to go Now?!

“Okay, so I Highly doubt that Whoever it is that is guiding us, would assume we would run off of a sheer building edge of our Own Accord, to die a painful death. SO, their Must be an answer to where we go next! The Question IS, what Is that way...” the Doctor said in his typical thinking and determined fashion as he walked around the platform, examined walls, and looked at readings from his sonic screwdriver.

Amy was just standing in the middle of the platform, wondering whether or not they Should have trusted whoever was controlling different parts of the city. And Dawn, was being a typical cat. That is to say, the orange tabby was not caring about great heights, and walked over to the edge of the platform again, where a can of blue paint was resting.

Meows issued from her mouth again in the patterned way, as she mentally talked to the Doctor again, “I'm going to knock this paint off the edge to see how far down it goes before hitting the bottom. If you want to use your measurement device [what she was calling his sonic screwdriver, since she could read from his memories that he used it to take measurements] when I do so, now is the time.”

The Doctor looked at Dawn again with impressed eyes, “That is Brilliant, Yes! Do that! Maybe there is something down there to break our fall or something....” was his response.

So she did knock it down, and it took about 3/4ths of a minute for it to make a rather loud landing sound... which didn't bode well for anyone falling down from that height. She told him again that she was going to do the same thing with some paint cans on some painter's scaffolding within walking range of the top of their building, which she also did, also with the cans taking awhile to land with loud noises. Amy couldn't watch Dawn walking on the edge of the rather rickety looking scaffolding while knocking off the paint cans, as she kept imagining the poor cat falling to her painful death. Thankfully that didn't happened.

The Doctor was about to continue to do his scanning, hoping that he had overlooked some reading on the walls, or anything that might lead to an answer, when Dawn did her double communication thing again, “I can make the jump across the building over there, by jumping off this scaffolding. There might be some kind of answer on the other side.”

The Doctor looked at Dawn with a bit of worry on his face, “I don't think that is a good idea. There must be an answer over here somewhere. If you fall, I don't know how we could save or help you,” he said out loud for Amy's benefit.

Amy looked back over at Dawn. She was a cat, but already Amy, used to strange aliens that cared, and humans that didn't, had grown to think of Dawn as a trusted new friend. Amy didn't want Dawn to risk such a big jump either, and she said so.

“I appreciate both of your concerns a whole lot. I would feel the same way in reverse. But we need answers, and I AM a cat; I can make that jump. And I can make it back if need be. So I have to to do this, to figure out where we are suppose to go next,” she said, and before either of them could say or do anything else, she took a step back on the scaffolding, readied herself, and made the leap, expertly landing on an air conditioner across the way and down a bit, right next to a room they had seen across the way with a windowed-ceiling!

“Amazing! I knew cats were good jumpers, but you Must be the Best Jumping Cat I have ever seen! Do you see any clues about where we should and could go next!?” the Doctor said, as Amy took her hands away from her eyes from before, when she couldn't watch Dawn make the jump.

Dawn looked around as she jumped off the air conditioner and onto the glass door ceiling that was directly across from the platform the Doctor and Amy were still on. She looked all around on the walls, and then looked down below into the home underneath of the windowed ceiling, and saw not only a bedroom with bunk beds, but another of the monitor screens, or possibly a TV set [all more words/ideas she got from the Doctor's mind], and this screen said “Follow Me” with another arrow!

“Do you see any way for us to proceed, over there?” the Doctor asked Dawn, both mentally and out loud.

In both ways, Dawn responded, “Yes! This is Definitely the way we are suppose to go! A screen in this apartment below me, says 'Follow Me' with an arrow pointing to your left! But that means that you and Amy will Definitely have to find a way over here...” she said as she mentally shared her view of the apartment she was over top of.

Out loud the Doctor responded, “Well then there's no way for it but to jump across in the same way you did. If you can make the jump, then we can too. You said there is a bed down there? Is there any way you can push the mattresses over to the far left, near where you jumped? I am going to sonic open the windows. All doors and windows around here seem to have computerized controls, which is very convenient for me and my sonic screwdriver. But we will need something to break our fall.”

“I can try my best Doctor,” she said, and the Doctor nodded and used his sonic screwdriver on the windows underneath of Dawn, after she jumped onto one of the many air conditioners on the nearby walls. She jumped down onto the top of the bunk bed, and then studied the bed and mattress. She then wedged herself between the wall and the mattress and pushed as hard as she could, moving around as she did so. The plan worked, even if it took some time, and she repeated her actions on the bed below, and then used her body to carefully push both fallen mattresses right over top each other and over to the far side of the room like the Doctor had asked. She was exhausted by the time she was finished, but the deed was done.

“There is No Way you want us to Jump all the way over there Doctor, no way in the World!” was Amy's response as she pieced together the Doctor's plan.

“It is the only way we can make progress I'm afraid. I know you don't want to go back the way we came, and then try to find another way to go, without any guidance at all from... Whoever it is that is helping us, and especially with those pink pig like things hiding around. Dawn says the screen in that apartment wants us to go over there and then make a left... The only way we can go there is by jumping. We'd get hopelessly lost, and maybe run into endless trouble, if we tried to go any other way.... We Have to make this jump! And You should go first,” the Doctor responded.

Amy responded by taking 2 steps back and shaking her head, remembering how far the paint cans had taken to land on the ground. She shook her head some more after imagining her missing the other building and falling down to join those cans. The Doctor walked over to her smiling and looking as reassuring as he could.

“Amy, You Can DO this! And You HAVE to do this! The only way we can find a way out of this creepy city, and make it back to the TARDIS, is to make this jump. And Dawn could make it, and We have made jumps like this before. So you Can Do This Amy” he said very reassuringly.

Amy looked at him, then the jump, and then at Dawn, who had jumped back up onto an edge of one of the window frames. She kept feeling that if she just had... Something, something she couldn't remember, with her, then she would have So Much more courage for this then she did right now. But she had no idea what that would be... so she shook her head again, but before the Doctor could misinterpret what it was that she was shaking her head about, she looked him straight in the eye.

“If I don't make it across, my ghost will haunt you all over time and space Doctor, just Remember That!” she said, some of her old fire back in her eyes, and in her voice, again.

The Doctor smiled excitedly again, because he knew that his pre-creepy town Amy was coming back, and that was the Amy he needed if they were all going to get out of this city in one piece, and save whoever else might need saving.

“That's my girl! You Can Do This! So just stand against the corner of the building on the scaffolding, and then take one big step and leap! Don't think about it, don't pause, cause then you will just get afraid again. Just go out there, and Do It!” the Doctor directed and Amy nodded resolutely.

And that is what she did, keeping her eye first on where she was going, and then on Dawn, for focus and courage, she followed the Doctor's directions and then made the jump! For one terrifying second, she was afraid she wasn't going to make it, but it was just a trick of the eye. The next second she was passing through the window frame and tucking in her legs as if she was doing a canon ball jump into a swimming pool. She landed on her butt on the mattresses, and although it wasn't a super comfortable landing, she had endured much worse with the Doctor.

The Doctor followed suit, and even did what looked like a professional swimmer's dive, where he pointed his body head first, then did a half-flip while curling up his body, all before he passed through the windowsill. The result was a perfect landing on the mattress. His response when Amy looked at him intensely was: “Well.. I have been practicing in the TARDIS's swimming pool in my spare time, for instances Just Like This! It came in handy, don't you think!”

Amy looked at him incredulously for a few minutes before they got up off of the mattresses, thanked Dawn profusely, and pushed the mattresses back over to the bed frame. They did the latter task so that they could have access to the doorway that the “Follow Me” arrow was leading to, with the Doctor quickly studying some more stuff in the room before they left.

The doorway lead into a small kitchen area, where water was dripping from a pipe on the ceiling and onto a pan that someone had used to catch it. The Doctor told Dawn to wait a second, while he tried the faucet over the sink. A little bit of water, that looked half way descent, came out of it when he did. There were also 3 water canisters on the small fridge. Since he had no idea how easy it would be to find water to drink in here, he took the time to quickly fill the water bottles up for the three of them, while Dawn drank from a pan that someone had put to catch the water dripping from the ceiling. He found a backpack in the other room, and put the water bottles in it and slung it over his back before they continued.

The next doorway lead out to a small railing-less balcony with a bucket-pully-string system on it, which the 3 of them used to get down, with Dawn getting Into the bucket, while Amy grabbed the rope above it, and when they got down, and the bucket went back up, the Doctor repeated Amy's action. In this way, they were on a new street again finally. Amy thanked no one in particular, out loud, to have a normal street to walk on again.

The street went only one way, and half way down it they saw another shop sign with an arrow that was actually lit; a sign from their unknown guide, letting them know that they were still on the “right path”. They followed the street through a very nice looking gabled gate, and into a dead end courtyard, if you could call the litter filled, dark, dank area a courtyard...

And for the first time in awhile, they saw their little pink-piglet things again, hovering around something. As the 3 of them got nearer, their movement scared the pink things away, with them running underneath of junk against the building walls. When those things did scamper away, the 3 travelers saw that it was another of the fallen robots the pink things had been hovering around...

“Wait.. this one is moving it's head-thing, isn't it?” Amy said as they got nearer still.

“Yes, yes it is! Maybe we can actually Help this one!” the Doctor said, as the 3 of them ran over the rest of the way to it.

It's head was actually similar to an old fashion computer monitor from Earth in the 1990's and early 2000's, complete with a black screen background and olive green colored displays. All 3 of them were very sure that it was trying to form a face symbol with it's display, but it wasn't working out, like when you try to have a monitor display something after you've fried it's circuits. Green lines kept running through it's face symbol markings while some kind of digital noises would come out of a small speaker grating in the lower part of it's screen.

The Doctor pulled back out his sonic screwdriver from the pocket he'd stored it in before he made his diver's leap into the apartment. As he was about to sonic the robot to see what kind of a state it was in, Amy took a closer look at it's entire body.

“Doctor, it is missing... all but one of it's limbs?! It only has that one lone arm...” Amy said, feeling bad for it, even though she had no idea if it had feelings or complex thoughts like some alien robots she had met, or if it was just a basic elementary robot without such things, like some robots she knew existed in her own time on her Earth.

“Yes.. Yes I noticed that.... most unfortunate.. let's see” he said as he sonic-ed it with his screwdriver as it kept trying to lift it's head up further with it's lone arm, “Yes.. it's just as I feared... something has damaged it's inner wiring to the point that it can barely function... if these readings are to be believed... it looks like something literally tore them away... and did.. I Don't know What with them... there's no trace of the missing wire fragments Anywhere...” the Doctor responded confusedly.

Amy looked at it's poor looking body again, reaching down to hold up it's monitor head, adding to the Doctor's comment, “There's no trace of the missing wire fragments.. just like there's no trace of it's missing limbs either... Shouldn't they be laying around here somewhere? Even if they broke off or got bent up.. they Should be here Somewhere, even if in small parts. There is No Way this robot got here, in this alley all alone, with just One arm on it's body. And aside from us and those pink pig things, which Also couldn't have brought the robot here, there's been no trace of other robots, humans, or aliens.... So... Where did it's other body parts go....” Amy said, her voice getting that tone of simmering terror and creepiness again.

The Doctor wanted to soothe her again and bring back her fire, but even he was getting totally creeped out, because she Had a Point. The robot couldn't have gotten to where it was on it's own in this state, but there also Had to be some trace of it's many missing body parts, inside and outside ones.... But there wasn't. And those pig things Had been around it before they had approached.....

Both his and Amy's thoughts were interrupted by the robot's monitor suddenly going completely out, and it's head dropping down into Amy's arms, completely limp.

“No! No, No, no, no, no! I Wanted to Save you! Even if I don't know how sentient you are... among Other reasons, you are the only living or moving thing we've seen around here other than those pink things! You Can't collapse!” the Doctor said, clearly frustrated, as he scanned 2 more times with his sonic screwdriver, from different directions, before having to reluctantly admit defeat.

Amy felt bad for the robot too, and agreed... that robot might have had answers too. She got chills up her spine, not only at it's collapse, but with thinking more about why and how they couldn't find traces of the rest of it.

“I Really don't like this Doctor... First we see no traces of anything living, no traces at all, and yet everything showing that people were doing things normally for a good while. And then we see robots lying 'dead' on the streets. Now we see a robot barely holding onto it's life, and we can't account for the rest of it's body, anywhere, except for the appearance and disappearance of those darn pink things!” Amy said, her voice going back and forth between creeped-out and fiery.

“I would Agree Amy.... Something doesn't fit, and I feel that when it Does fit, we Aren't going to like it. Still, there's nothing to do but keep going. If we want to make it back to the TARDIS, and if we want to find survivors of... whatever wrecked this place, then we Must find a way up and out of here...” the Doctor replied.

Meanwhile, most of the time that the Doctor and Amy were trying to help the robot, Dawn, leaving that kind of work to them, was trying to figure out where and how the pink things were disappearing to. She had started getting used to their smell, and was also starting to get an idea of what they sounded like, with her very good feline hearing. It took her awhile, because they were totally new animals she and her kind had never experienced before. But every time she had been around and seen them, even briefly, she had smelled certain smells, and heard certain sounds, which went away when they had vanished for a few minutes, and came back when she'd see them again, or shortly before she saw them.

So now she was starting to associate certain smells and sounds with them. The sounds she heard whenever they were nearby were a high pitched chittering sound, almost like mice or rats, but different somehow. Maybe as if you were hearing mice or rats chittering underwater before they drowned.

The smells that were connected to them was much more distinguishable, probably because of how distasteful it was. Sometimes, when her Felid-kind would be looking for animals to hunt for food, they would find carcasses of animals that had already been killed by another animal, and then for one reason or another, abandoned afterwards before the whole body could be eaten. In some of these cases, the dead bodies had been there for awhile, and had also been drenched in the rains of the land. When this happened the body would be all festering with the different looks and smells associated with the Earth gradually reclaiming the body for it's own.

In the Doctor's mind, she could tell that people he knew, including him, called some of the things that would take over the dead body: bacteria, and others mold. These bacteria and mold would make the dead bodies smell very foul, and Felids had always known to stay away from anything that smelled like this, whether the bacteria and mold had shown itself or not. She gathered from the Doctor's mind that he called this kind of bacteria and mold taking over things: decaying. It was this Decaying smell of mold and bacteria taking over stuff, that was connected with these pink things. A very confusing thing for Dawn, since these pink things were most certainly alive.

So she was following the smell of the pink things that they had seen around the robot, and when it lead to the closed up walls of the nearby buildings, she was about to give up. That was, she was about to give up until she realized that she was smelling that smell coming from some other, more accessible areas. So while the Doctor and Amy were trying to figure out how to help the robot, before it collapsed for the final time, Dawn was tracing the other, fairly intense decaying smell, up onto the top of a wall that ended a lot lower than the ones all around it. This low lying wall was also the only way to move forward that didn't involve going through doors or windows.

She had found a dumpster right beside an awning, right underneath of the lower wall, with a Lit Up neon sign at the top of it. That series of jumps was perfect for her go track the smell. And the lit up neon sign where everything else was dark, indicated that this WAS the path they were being guided down. She quickly sent a mental message to the Doctor, letting her know she was investigating something and would be right back, along with an image of the lower wall she was jumping on top of to look around.

He mentally nodded and told her to be careful and not to go to far, right before he and Amy started talking about the robot's missing body parts. While they were trying to figure out how to help it, and talking afterwards, she had already jumped up the different jumps, finding an “upper street” on this ledge.

The smell was Definitely getting stronger up here, and as she carefully made her way down the street, that seemed to end after a short bit, she saw even more of the pink things scampering off of the street ahead. The further down this short street she went, the stronger the smell, and the more of a faint “chittering hum” she was hearing from somewhere off in the distance. She sent the Doctor some more mental imagery and senses from her current exploration, before walking very carefully to the end of the viewable street.

When she got to the very end of the street, she was Very glad that she had been so careful, and had been deliberately slow in her movement, because where she couldn't see the street continue anymore, was an immediate drop down, probably to the level of the street on the other end where the Doctor and Amy were. Dawn leaned as far out over the drop as she could without falling, and looked both ways carefully. When she did, she smelled huge drafts of the decaying smell, All Over, especially from the left. A closer inspection with her eyes and whiskers, looking that direction, lead her to notice lots of the pink things lining the street in that direction, perfectly still, their glowing big eye features not apparent. Dawn had to wonder if that meant these ones were asleep and had the eye thing closed...

Asleep or not, Dawn didn't need to remember what the Doctor had said about not messing with large groups of the things, to know that she was Not going to go down there unless she had to, and she Definitely was Not going to try it without her 2 friends. She backed up and retreated back to the other edge of the upper street, back to the Doctor and Amy, while sending the Doctor imagery of what she had seen.

“I Don't like it.... a robot that has totally missing body parts, laying in the street dying, in a city that has no traces of organic life beside possibly those pink things, and robots that are either powerless and dead, or almost so.... And now Dawn is showing me a nearby street Filled with those pink things...” the Doctor was saying and thinking out loud.

Amy got an intense look on her face when replying, “A whole street Filled with them, up ahead!? Then whoever has been guiding us Was leading us to a trap...”

“Not necessarily. It Could be that there IS no way to get to where we need to go, without going through a large group of them. And that Whoever is guiding us, is bringing us through the shortest path to get through them, even if it IS necessary for us go to through them for a little bit. Remember that we Know that sometimes there Isn't a Perfect Answer, just the Best answer for a given problem... and I'd also remind you, that Neon Sign where Dawn went, IS a sign that we need to go forward there. No other sign around her is lit up, and there IS no other way to go but backwards, which I doubt any of us want to do,” he replied back to her in his serious, thinking things through out loud, kind of way.

Amy had to reluctantly agree, even if she didn't like to admit it, and even if she still didn't Trust whoever was guiding them. She wouldn't trust them until it was obvious it had taken them to a safe zone that they could stay for awhile, at least. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Dawn appear back above the lit up sign.

“Fine, fine, you have a point, like Always. So how do we get up to where Dawn is, This time, Doctor?” Amy said.

The Doctor looked around their immediate environment, and after a few moments, he answered, “Okay, so hopefully that closed dumpster near the ledge will hold our weight like it held Dawn's. We'll have to grab some of those big garbage bags, place them on top of the Dumpster, and use it to stand on top of long enough to pull ourselves on top of that awning and then we'll hope the awning will hold our weight Again, as we climb onto the ledge...”

Amy looked at the Doctor, and then at the different things he was talking about, especially the flimsy looking awning, and then looked at the awning again, before saying, “Doctor, no disrespect or anything, but that idea Isn't going to work. I think we are going to have to go a different way than how Dawn went, again. I think we should sonic our way into one of these buildings right beside or underneath of the upper street Dawn was on.... And hope there aren't a cluster of those pink things waiting to ambush us when we do...” Amy said, shivering at the thought.

She didn't like the idea of going into buildings so close to where Dawn saw lots of pink things, any more than it seemed the Doctor did... but there was no way in the world that that Awning would support their weight like it did Dawn's. Just one of them was a lot heavier than a cat, and 2 of them were a Whole lot heavier. The Doctor agreed, even if he got a bad feeling about this area up ahead.

They all agreed with Amy, and Dawn jumped back down to their level, because she refused to go a different way than them. They would stick together though this part, or they would go no further, in her opinion. The Doctor and Amy agreed, and so the Doctor used his screwdriver to open the door right underneath of the neon sign. They all walked inside, and were immediately repulsed...

The long narrow passage way had pinkish orange … pustules, that was the Only word they could come up with for what they were seeing all over the walls of this hallway. Big, pinkish, throbbing Pustules, that ranged in size from the size of their fists, to the size of a basket ball, and the pustules were emerging from a thick, slimy layer of pinkish-orange, throbbing stringy, Goo, that looked like someone had combined melted flesh with mucous. It was one of the most disgusting sights that Any of them had ever seen, Even the Doctor, which was saying something.

“Okay... None of us are going to Touch any of that stuff... because Whatever it is, it Can't possibly be Safe to touch it, and it might get us into a whole lot of Very Sticky trouble... So we are going to Very Carefully keep walking down this hallway, not stopping until we reach the other end, and hopefully a doorway. But before we do, we should come up with a plan for when we get to the street at the other end, since we Already have an idea of what to expect, and it Probably isn't good...” the Doctor said as he had them back up and temporarily closed the door behind him until they could formulate a plan for the opposite end of this tunnel, and the street with all the pink things.

Dawn replied in both communication ways, “The way was totally blocked with piglet things down to the left. To the right, I think I saw a store sign light up when I looked, when all the others were dark. Our mysterious guide Must be wanting us to go the other way, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the other way is any safer, just that It is the way that our guide wants us to go in.”

“Agreed Dawn, agreed. So that means that we go that way. And if that hallway we have to go down is any indication, then we can't assume that there isn't more trouble next to the streets that we can't see. We may have just figured out what happened to everyone in this city, though hopefully there are some survivors hidden somewhere, that we are being guided to. So when we get to the street that Dawn looked at, we need to agree: We make a run for it as fast as we can, no turning back, and hope that our guide keeps showing us the path forward.

“And Dawn, you are our scout. I will be counting on you to keep ahead of us, stay alive, and keep letting us know which way our guide wants us to go. You can run faster than us. If you were to run slower to stick with us, I might not be able to keep you And Amy safe, if we are ambushed. So Keep Running until you are clearly in a safe place, And THEN Wait for us, Not Before! And just keep sending me mental images of any lit up signs you see. Your biggest ally through this part will be your speed and your size. Our biggest ally, I am hoping, will be my sonic screwdriver. I have used my screwdriver to disintegrated other things with similar appearances, and I am hoping that I can do so with the pink-things, or anything else that might be connected to them or those pustules on the wall. If I need to, I will try to use it to clear us a path to follow you. Are we all agreed on the plan?” the Doctor finished, looking and sounding very serious now, and looking intensely at both of the others.

Amy gulped and nodded, very glad that she had opted to wear running shoes and a pair of flexible jean pants when she had woken up in the TARDIS, in what seemed like a life time ago, on that desolate planet with the colorful stones. Dawn, not happy with having to possibly leave her new friends in her dust in a possible sea of danger, but agreeing with him that his plan was a sound one and made lots of sense. She nodded her head in agreement, saying yes to him mentally at the same time.

With them all agreed on what they would do, they carefully proceeded down the hallway under the higher short street, where there was indeed a door on the opposite end. Thankfully the pustules had stayed the same and not turned dangerous, and nothing else had come out to harm or intimidate them. The Doctor slowly opened the door at the other end, finding that just like the door they had initially gone through, it was not locked, probably because it was just a hallway under a street, and not a home or business.

The three of them carefully went out and after closing the door, they couldn't help but turn to the left, because they immediately heard a very loud chittering sound, none of them needing the excellent ears of a cat to hear it this time. And they were greeted by the very creepy sight of 20 or 30 of the pink things opening their yellowish orange eyes to stare at them! None of them needed to say anything out loud, their was just a Feeling the 3 of them got seeing those eyes on them. They KNEW that those pink things weren't afraid of them anymore, and that for whatever reason, the pink things were definitely NOT friendly....

“RUN!” the Doctor said, even though none of them needed to hear that to know what they HAD to do, Right NOW.

The 3 of them stuck with the plan, and they all immediately booked it down the other way on the street, Dawn immediately taking a lead. All of them could Hear the chittering, “sliding” sound of the pink things following behind them. What was worse, the pink things were starting to come out of nearby shops and buildings too, just as the Doctor had feared!

Dawn quickly shot out of immediate sight of her two humanoid friends, dodging groups of the pink things running or jumping out of buildings and off of awnings or roofs, as she ran past them. She kept wondering how in the world her 2 new friends were suppose to make it out of this with their running speed so much less than hers. But she stuck with the plan, dodging more and more. A few times some of the pink things actually managed to jump on her, and she would feel intense pain before she managed to buck her body like a raging bull, throwing them off as she continued running. But she ignored the shooting pain she felt, knowing full well that to slow down for more than a moment would most likely mean her death.

Finally, after 2 or 3 of those close calls and so many city blocks she had lost count, all while continuing to follow intermittent glowing signs, she saw a building window up ahead with a glowing sign pointing right to it. As she approached it still in full run, she realized with heart stopping intensity that there was a big gap between where the ground dropped off and where the window was, about the same size as the jump onto the windowed ceiling earlier in their travels!

Thankfully, she didn't have too much time to worry about it, or even to think much about her chances, because in another moment, she was at the edge, and she could hear and smell the pink things right behind her! So she did what her animal instincts demanded her to do: She Jumped with all her remaining might and energy, straight towards the open window!

And she made it! She landed right on the windowsill, and then leaped down off of it into a room that had a bunch of storage boxes lining the left wall right near her, and the other 2 walls that she wasn't behind, had loads of monitor and TV screens lined up against it. The moment she landed in the apartment, all of the screens lit up with either arrows, digital cat head drawings, or the words “Follow Me” which mean this was Definitely where their guide wanted them to go.

With a bit of alarm, she looked back, wondering if the pink things were able to follow her across that jump, though she'd think they would have jumped her by now if they could. She quickly affirmed this when she looked behind her at the window and saw nothing, and of course nothing had followed her into the living room. She jumped back onto the sill and saw a few last straggling pink things, eyeing her from their place at the edge of the street platform with their huge glowing eyes, before they must have given up and started to vanish down the street. The mysterious guide must have known that the pink things couldn't make the jump, and counted on the fact that the 3 of them Could. Now Dawn waited with worry for her 2 new friends, hoping that they could outrun or outsmart all the pink things in their way, and somehow make it across this jump too....

*_*_*_*_*_*

Meanwhile, the Doctor and Amy were running for their lives. They had managed to successfully clear 3 or 4 city blocks, one having a flight of stairs, without having any pink things land on them or reach them. Sometimes they only avoided their disgusting pursuers by very small margins, and all the time they were dodging left and right as more and more of them came out of buildings or jumped off of roofs.

Eventually, shortly after clearing the first flight of stairs, they started having a harder time. Some groups of pink things ambushed them in front, coming out of places they couldn't see that had pockets of the pustules sticking off of walls. When this happened, the 2 of them both felt very intense pain, similar to puncture wounds, wherever on the Doctor and Amy's bodies the pink things managed to stick. But the Doctor ignored the pain as he always did, and immediately sprang into action. He had started out the run having his sonic screwdriver in his hand, set to “maximum impulse high frequency waves” setting, saving it for when it would be desperately needed. That time was now.

Amy and the Doctor were continuing to ignore the pain and fear and continuing to run even with the few pink things on them, knowing that if they slowed down or stopped, many more would join them. So while still running alongside Amy, the Doctor grabbed the 2 that were on his shoulders and threw them off, immediately repulsed by their slimy, squishy bodies. Then he reached over and grabbed one of the ones on Amy that was nearest him, and threw it off as well. She had 1 left on her back, and he aimed a very narrow screwdriver beam on it, and thankfully that forced it away from her before evaporating it into splatter on the street. He took no time to see how it was damaged, as they both continued to run as fast as they possibly could.

Now however, the Doctor realized that he was going to need to do damage control. Even though they had continued to run when they had been jumped by a few of the creatures, it had slowed them down some. That slow down was one they couldn't afford to continue. So he quickly put his sonic screwdriver on a wider version of the same setting as he ran, and then whenever he saw a cluster of them come out, either from a bit ahead of them or from the corner of his eye on a rooftop, jumping off, he would aim his sonic screwdriver at them and fire. It had the desired effect, splattering them into so much goo before they could get too close to the two of them.

After doing this successfully down a few more city blocks and up another flight of steps, and around 2 corners, they had another incident of a totally surprised ambush around a corner with a shallow set of stairs, where the bend in the wall had a hidden bunch of goo with pustules, and some pink things hiding in between the pustules, that jumped out and onto them before they realized what was going on. The Doctor looked at Amy as her fear made her slow down some, and he grabbed her arm and continued running full speed, building her own speed back up in his momentum.

He yelled to her, “We Can't afford to slow down! I will get them off of you as we run, but whatever you do, Don't Slow Down!” he said to her between breaths of air.

Amy nodded, eyes wide, as she continued to keep up her previous running pace, lungs stinging from all the exertion. Her adrenaline from sheer terror was the only thing keeping her running despite the pain from her lungs and from the wounds being inflicted by the three pink things on her legs and back. The Doctor just had 2 on his shins as they kept running, and he aimed his sonic screwdriver down at first one and then the other, while briefly looking up to make sure he was going in the right direction. They both fell off with just a brief hit with the ray from his screwdriver. Then he did the same thing with the ones on Amy, dropping just a slight bit back behind her so as to do it safely. Thankfully they fell of of her in the same way.

They continued running, continuously glad when they continued to not see any signs of Dawn laying dead somewhere, hoping that meant she had made it to safety somewhere up ahead. They rain past one last flight of stairs, numerous almost-ambushes of the pink things, and many times where the only thing that saved them was the Doctor using his sonic screwdriver to pulverize one or more of the pink things before they could get on them and attack. All the while Dawn would periodically feed the Doctor with mental images of different parts of the path, reinforcing the way along with the lit up signs they would run past.

And after they had run past the 3^rd flight of stairs, the Doctor got Dawn's image of the final jump, and the apartment of safety. He immediately knew that he better Not tell Amy about the jump. Better to just tell her shortly before hand when she needed to do a baseball-like, head-dive, running jump, than to tell her Why she needed to make the jump. So that is what he did, making sure to fall behind her when he knew the jump was approaching. He knew they also didn't have any time to spare for him to convince her to make the jump while she slowed down or stopped to think about it. A growing cluster of the pink things were trailing not that far behind them. Yet another reason that he knew he had to just tell her what to do and when, without telling her Why.

So when they made the last turn onto the last small stretch of street with the jump at the end of it, he yelled to her: “Amy, when you see a glowing sign up ahead, do a run-dive-jump like baseball players do when trying to get on base to safety! Don't ask why, because they are all Right Behind us, Just Do It!” he said to her.

Amy, still scared to death, with so much lung pain that it now completely overshadowed the pain inflicted by the pink things, which was saying something, nodded, not having enough air in her lungs to spare for asking questions anyway. In the back of her mind, as she saw the sign a short distance up ahead, she wondered why she needed to do a jump like that. She wondered what would happen if she didn't do it right. She wondered how in the world jumping like that down a street was going to keep her from being tackled like a football running backer by a whole cluster of the pink things. And she wondered if, like so many other times, if there was something that the Doctor wasn't telling her about this street.

But she was exhausted, she was terrified of a painful death, and in the end, she knew she could trust the Doctor to always have her best well-being in mind. And she didn't really have any time to think, cause she knew the Doctor was right about there being so many of the pink things just waiting to get close to her, so when she saw the sign right beside the corner of her eye, she did as the Doctor said, and without looking any direction but forward, she jump-dived straight forward, only briefly aware that the only thing straight ahead of her now was a window? Before she could be afraid or doubt, much less slow down, she was almost at the window... and then she was On the window, her belly slamming down on the window's edge in her momentum so hard that it knocked all the remaining breath out of her belly and hurt like someone had kicked her in the stomach with a metal toed boot!

But still, in the back of her mind, she knew that at the very least, her legs might be in danger, and also, that the Doctor couldn't make it into the hopeful safety of the windowed room if her body was in the way. So she mustered the very last of her strength, through burning lungs, stinking body injuries from the pink things, and intense pain in her stomach, to grab the windowsill's inner edge and pull, while bending her knees to give her the angle to make it though. She managed the maneuver, falling over into a tumble-roll down the inside wall and down onto a carpeted floor. With the very last few drops of her energy and muscles, she crawled to the side, to make room for the Doctor, before curling up into a ball and closing her eyes. At that point, she didn't care if the pink things could follow her into this place, or what happened to anyone including herself. Her body was riddled with pain, and she had no energy left to even think, much less move. She just closed her eyes and waited for.... whatever would happen next.

While all this was happening, as the Doctor was periodically checking Amy's progress through the window in moments that seemed like years, the Doctor kept aiming his screwdriver at any pink thing that got too close, with the setting still on the widest range possible. Thankfully the creatures had caught onto how dangerous the rays of it were to them, as the man wielding it stood right next to the lit up sign and the sheer drop to, who knows how far down. This last part of the road was also somewhat narrow. The Doctor figured that there must not be any pink things Inside any of the buildings around here, because none were jumping off of roofs or out of windows and doors to try to get to him. From the corner of his eye he could see that the windows and doors were all closed tight.

“That's right, if you want to continue to live, you Don't want to get close to me, or I Will Fire this thing at you! I don't know how intelligent you lot are, but you are At least smart enough to understand what happened to those of you that I destroyed, and therefor you all Must know that I can do that to you all too! So Stay Back, if you value your lives!” he said with his most defiant and angry voice, remembering all the dead robots, and imagining all the dead humans, that must have become victims to these things, and letting anger at that fuel his voice now.

The creatures all just stood, about 5 feet away from him, with those creepy glowing eyes like the sun, staring at him. Dawn, who had been sitting on top of a storage shelf on the left wall from the window when Amy had made her jump inside, now meowed very loudly from her same perch, while also telling the Doctor psychically that the window was clear for his jump.

“And That was my notice that I am clear for safety now! So Bye!” the Doctor said to the creatures as in one quick fluid motion, he swiveled a 180, tucked the turned off sonic screwdriver down the front of his shirt near his armpit, and then leaped with all of his strength after taking one stride on what remained of the street platform.

Without having the same kind of running start, and without having much time to prepare for his jump, he didn't have exactly the same kind of success as he had on the previous jump earlier into the window-ceiling-ed apartment, nor the success Amy had had jumping to this window. Instead, he made it to the awning a bit underneath of the window, holding on to it for dear life by his arms, his shoulders aching from the jolt of landing on them so harshly, the rest of his body dangling off the edge. Dawn could just barely see him from where she was resting still on the shelf, and she meowed encouragement to him, letting him know that Amy was down for the count and couldn't help him because of the roughness of her own landing.

“That's okay Dawn,” he said through gritted but determined breath, “I have been getting by and surviving without help for quite some time, as you know... and I haven't died yet....” he was saying as he was swinging his legs back and forth to build momentum for a final swing that would get him on top of the awning, “... Okay,” he again said through still gritted breath, “maybe I DID die a Few Times... but that doesn't count.. I am a Time Lord after all, so I can die and still be Okay! So Anyway... no need to worry about Me! I will be Okay!” he said, and on the word Okay, he made his biggest leg swing ever, while pulling forward with his arms.

It had the desired effect, and resulted in him making a very neat upward tumble, tucking in his back and head, as the momentum rolled him right up the awning and up to the window as he rolled to a stop with his butt and feet against the wall right under the window. Knowing that the awning would start to buckle if he stayed on it much longer, he wasted no time at all, lunging his upper body forward and out of the curled position, grabbing onto the windowsill with his hands and pulling the rest of his body after it. He ended up tumbling again down the side of the wall under the window, to land in a sitting position with his back up against the wall.

“I think I made it!” he said, smiling, as Dawn jumped down from her shelf, coming up to lick his hands in greeting.

“Yes you did Doctor! We all made it, and the pink things can't, or don't want to go this far. So for the time being we are Safe!” she said, as she jumped up onto the windowsill, confirming for herself what she had just said.

She saw with satisfaction, the last of the pink things, backs already turned towards them and disappearing far enough down the street that they were out of sight.

When Dawn turned back around to jump down, she saw the Doctor picking up Amy from her curled up position on the floor near him, and standing up.

“Are you planning on going the rest of the way to... wherever we are being guided to, while holding her like that? If we run into any more of those creatures, or have to make any more jumps... there'd be No Way even You could do so safely with her in your arms...” Dawn said worriedly through their mental link.

“Oh no.. No not even I would try that... well unless I was desperate, and even then... as much as I might be reluctant to admit it... probably with very little chance of survival for either of us.... But no... she needs a break... so much has already been asked of her and her body already.... and I won't try to make her do any more... I doubt any human could after all that, even her...” he said, looking down fondly at her curled up form, eyes closed in exhaustion, in his arms.

“No, there's a mattress over there in this room, beside all the screens. It looks relatively clean... so I will let her rest there for however long until she is good enough to keep going again.. And try to get her to drink too... We all have to be dehydrated after all that exercise... and with all the heat that is in this place... No Wonder there are so many air conditioners around here....” the Doctor said as he did just what he said, walking over to the single mattress on the floor and gently placing her on it.

The screens all continued to intermittently flash with their different guiding images, and they could also hear a faint digital voice coming through the nearby speakers too.

“I know you are guiding us to somewhere important... Whoever you are. I trust that it is a place of temporary safety, and to where we can get some more answers at least.... but right now, my friend is utterly exhausted, and can't go any further without some rest. As soon as she is rested enough to continue, we will keep following your lead,” the Doctor said to the screens, hoping that whoever was guiding them would hear and understand that they needed to pause for a little while.

Somehow, their guide must have heard and understood because the screens went black again. Dawn, who was Also pretty tired, decided that taking a cat nap would be a good idea so she found a place against Amy's chest to curl up next to. Shortly after she did so she fell asleep. Based on Amy's breathing the Doctor figured that Amy had Also fallen asleep.

The Doctor, though more fit than all of his companions he'd ever had and with a more durable body biology, had Also gone through a lot, without adequate rest time to recover. And so when he had made a place for him to sit on the floor against one wall, in between the group of monitors and a small sink, he ended up falling asleep too.

Thankfully, Luck must have stayed with them, for nothing disturbed the 3 of them as their bodies got the much needed rest they all needed. In fact, the apartment, and the whole building and streets around them, stayed deathly quiet and still the whole time.....

Chapter Text

Chapter 5:

Finding Their

Mysterious Guide

By: IzaTheSoftOne

[aka: Seiya's Star in other fandoms]

Dawn woke up first. She wondered if it was actual dawn up above them out in the outside. She wondered how her cat clan was doing. She wondered if the mysterious guide that was supposedly helping them through this dangerous city actually was trying to help them, or if they were just trying to help themselves, and would end up trying to kill them or hurt them once they, the guide, was helped.

She looked around and saw that the Doctor and Amy were still asleep. The Doctor was sitting up against a wall, slumped over to the side, his head resting against one of the monitors. Amy was still curled up on the mattress like Dawn, breathing deeply. Dawn had absolutely no idea how long they had been asleep for, since her usual way of telling time was impossible here: looking at the position of the sun, or, when that wasn't possible due to cloud coverage, examining the routines of the animals around her. Since both the sun and practically all animals were not accessible in this underground city, there was no way to tell time at all.

Realizing that her two companions might need some assistance with small injuries received during their harrowing traveling, she went about licking them while they were still asleep, to speed the recovery of any injuries they might have sustained. She was lucky, she had not needed to do anything that was too much outside of her ability, like they had. Amy stirred a little bit when Dawn licked her, but didn't completely awaken. The Doctor however did eventually wake up during his own licking.

“You are assisting in our healing and recovery from that running ordeal before, aren't you? That is very thoughtful, thank you!” he said on opening his eyes.

“Of course. It is what my kind, the Felids, do for each other on our travels. We frequently have to do things that get us hurt, and so we lick each other to help with our healing so that we can continue our journeying. Hopefully neither of you got too hurt during all of that...” Dawn replied.

“Other than jarring my shoulders during that last jump to this windowsill, I didn't do anything I haven't had to do countless numbers of times... But Amy... well, hopefully between her rest and your licking, hopefully she will feel a lot better when she gets up,” the Doctor responded.

“Do you have any idea how to tell time in here? I don't know if it will be important or not, but it would be nice to know,” Dawn added.

“I Did see some clocks in some of the different apartments, back before we ran into the large groups of pink things. They Did seem to be working... whether or not they were working correctly though I am not sure....” the Doctor answered, still thinking back to those clocks he saw, and examining his memories more closely, a skill he and other Time Lords were very good at, before he realized something, “Wait.... the clocks I saw, like the one in that deli.... they weren't the 12 hour analog clock that Earth was using a lot of the time during human civilization.... It was a 16 hour clock, I remember noting that for future contemplation... And it Was still working.... Very interesting,” the Doctor added, thinking out loud and mentally.

They decided that the next time they were in a building room that had a working clock on it, that they would study it more closely if it was safe to do so. They also decided that it was probably time to wake up Amy and see if she felt ready to continue traveling. They had no idea if this apartment would stay safe to be in, and even if it didn't, they couldn't linger here forever with only 3 water bottles, no food, and no idea how much longer they would have to travel before they could find more of those things, much less a way to go up and out of this city, back to the outside. So they both went to her and woke her up gently, the Doctor by gently shaking her and calling her name, and Dawn by licking her face.

She gradually woke up, and found that thankfully, she Was feeling noticeably better than she had been before she had fallen asleep. Her stomach didn't feel like it had been beaten real hard anymore, her lungs only stung a slight bit, and her body didn't ache as it had before. She knew, even if she really only wanted to continue resting on this comfy mattress, that she would be okay now, and that she Could continue to move. And even she realized that they couldn't stay here too much longer, it wasn't wise to do in a city that was still so mysterious to them, so devoid of basic resources, and so dangerous in many areas. She opened her eyes and started to sit up, looking at the other two and finding the energy to smile a little bit.

When she told the Doctor that she was feeling good enough to continue onward, and after they all drank a bunch of water from the 3 thermoses that the Doctor had found in another apartment, they spoke out loud towards all the monitors saying that they were able to continue onward now, and that their guide should continue to guide them. Again, their guide, whoever they were, must have been monitoring them and heard them, because immediately afterwards the screens all lit up, the digital sounds resumed, and the arrows all lead to the only doorway the room had, with a beaded door curtain.

They followed their guide's lead and went out the door, finding a stairwell up on the other side with a lit up sign pointing upward. They followed the stairwell upwards to find a balcony that ended with a sheer drop way down and with no very clear way to get to the next lit up sign way on the other side of the sheer drop. The only real way for the Doctor and Amy to proceed was to go to a closed door on another side of the balcony that lead into one of a set of buildings on either side of the sheer drop.

“I could make it to all these points through jumping on things, but there would be no way that you two could do the same. I won't leave you here to fend for yourself, so I will go how you go,” Dawn said resolutely.

The Doctor looked down to where she was standing on the ground, tail lashing back and forth, eyes determined. The Doctor smiled at her the same way that he smiled at Amy when she was determined to do something that the Doctor knew she shouldn't do. Amy, recognizing this look on the Doctor, looked and listened with interest, hoping that the Doctor would communicate with Dawn out loud, so that she would know what was going on, and why he had that look while looking at their new cat friend.

“Oh Dawn, you and Amy remind me very much of each other sometimes, and I truly appreciate you caring about me enough to want to stick by me, when the quicker answers and hopefully salvation would come to you much quicker if you went on your own... So this is what I have to say about that. You can help me much more if you go ahead, and send me mental imagery of where you go, and act as my map ahead. Just like it helped, more than you can ever know, when you did the same things for me during that very long run through all those very terrifying pink things! With you showing me the different lit up signs, and where they are in relation to everything else, you can effectively act as a guide for me as Amy and I are going through all the upper building levels to follow your lead. Without that help, we'd get hopelessly lost. And our mysterious guide might not have the resources and knowledge to help us get through, but with your help, I can figure out a way for Amy and I to get to the same places. Do you understand?” he said both mentally and out loud, gently but firmly, getting down on his knees to look Dawn directly in the eyes.

Dawn looked at it him in the eyes in return, understanding him perfectly, and nodding while purring, her cat way of saying she agreed and approved. With that said, she looked at Amy in the same way, before going to the edge of the balcony, and jumping up onto a nearby air conditioner, and then a nearby awning, and onward till she got to the next lit up sign, including walking along a somewhat narrow pipe. When she had reached the lit up sign, and it went out, they saw her take a turn somewhere, and Dawn flashed him some mental imagery, letting him know where the next lit up sign was in relation to where she was when the other one went out.

When the Doctor received that mental imagery, he looked to Amy, smiled, and asked, “So, are you ready to go through lots of locked doors, windows, and hallways, through wherever we have to, in order to parallel Dawn's progress, and Hopefully finally meet our mysterious guide!?”

Amy smiled, always loving this part, when the adventure was about to continue, and the Doctor had formulated a good plan, “Absolutely! Let's go!” she said with her excitement and fire back in her voice.

With that, the Doctor opened up a door into the same building that had the air conditioner in it that Dawn had first jumped onto. And with that, their building journeying began, following Dawn's imagery of the different lit up signs and her own trail following.

The two of them went through a lot of previously locked doors, squeezed through a couple of windows, walked along scaffolding, sometimes squeezed between tight, small balconies, and had a few times when they had to turn back for a certain distance and try out another way, because they would end up at a place where they'd have to make a jump that they couldn't possibly make safely. But eventually, they found their way to the last place Dawn had sent imagery of to the Doctor: a very small laundromat with yet another calendar on it's walls that said October 11^th, as well as a fan inside a hole in the wall.

The Doctor had taken some time to examine things in some of the many, many apartments they had needed to go through, and the Doctor and Amy had managed to find a few such apartments that had working water in their sinks, and so had managed to stay hydrated. The Doctor had also pocketed a couple of interesting things he'd seen in some of the apartments, as well as taken note of many interesting things, such as many diagrams of the pink things, a lot of trinkets or memorabilia of human life, and even some paper notes in the strange language he still didn't understand.

When they got to the laundromat, they realized that Dawn was in their waiting for them.

“I didn't want to make the final part of the journey without you, and I think this is it. There's been no lit up signs or monitor screens since coming up here, where everything else pointed to. I could be wrong, but something tells me the next room or apartment will be it. And since we still don't know if our guide is friendly, I didn't want to confront him by myself. I thought we should All do that,” Dawn explained mentally to the Doctor.

The Doctor told Amy what Dawn had said, before replying out loud and mentally, “No need to explain, you are entirely right. We Definitely should confront the person, or robot, together, since we are still unaware of their motives. So then... as I have not seen any other way in or out of this laundromat except for the fan's hole, does that mean that we have to to find something to jam it with again?”

“I don't think so Doctor. From your own memories and knowledge, I picked up that these kind of “working on their own” kinds of objects, work with energy that is given to them by certain things, including batteries, just like you mentioned with the dead robots. So based on my own inspection of this room and the fan, I think it is powered by a square battery over here,” and she walked over to a corner near where the fan was, with them following her, “and so I would imagine, if we took it out, we could stop the fan. That would then allow me to go through, and you to dismantle the blades with your screwdriver, allowing the 2 of you to go through as well,” Dawn replied.

Again, the Doctor was more than impressed at Dawn's intelligence and how quickly she put things together in her brain to figure things out. Dawn, in many ways, was like a cat version of himself, which was an interesting thought for the Doctor to think about.

“How right you are, very impressive Dawn, very impressive. Well then, should we get to it then!?” the Doctor replied out loud, and then he bent down and pulled out the battery, placing it in the corner.

That complete, he reached in and used his screwdriver to take out the screws keeping the blades part of the fan secured in the hole, and pulled it out carefully, laying it down in the corner with the battery. Dawn then jumped up and walked through the hole, finding a metal grating on the other side of the wall that connected the fan wall with another wall, containing a window directly across from the fan. She told this to the Doctor, and then carefully proceeded across the grating and into the open window on the other side, with the Doctor telling her to go slowly and be careful. Amy then carefully followed behind her, with the Doctor trailing.

A bed was directly under the window, with Dawn seeing no one in the bedroom at all, nor hearing or sensing anyone else, robot or otherwise, with any of her other senses, including her whiskers. She told this to the Doctor and then jumped down onto the bed, followed by Amy and the Doctor.

“I guess I was wrong. We'll probably find a lit up monitor or sign if we go to the other end of this apartment....” Dawn said to the Doctor again as she hopped down from the bed.

Amy stayed on the far end of the bed as the Doctor made his way into the room through the bed, and saying to him, “Wow Doctor, you might have really liked whatever human person lived here. They had a degree in Engineering from a University down here so they must be pretty smart.”

The Doctor made his way onto the mattress, and saw a bulletin board on the wall on the bed's left side, and on it, he saw many curious things, including the degree Amy had mentioned. It was indeed a Ph. D. Degree in Engineering. Along with the degree were some pictures of the outside, which the Doctor found very curious, though he wasn't surprised by it, since he had seen similar pictures in many of the apartments and rooms he had been through since entering this strange city.

But what he Did find Very interesting and Very surprising was one photo, or rather digital painting, on the bulletin board next to the diploma, that he had Not seen in any of the other building rooms they had been in: a very good painting of a cat, an Orange Cat, standing on a city street of what looked like This city, right outside of a gabled gate, with a red glow on the other side of the gate....

The cat in the painting bore a striking resemblance to Dawn Stealth, and he swore he had seen that gabled gate before. When he mentioned it to Amy and Dawn, the latter, who had been about to crawl through a window in the joint bathroom section of this bedroom to scout for any trouble, turned back around. The cat walked back over and hopped on the bed. The Doctor offered to pick her up and lift her to the level of the painting to study it more closely, and Dawn agreed. Being held by a humanoid was a very curious experience for the orange cat, and one she thought she rather liked. When she was lifted up to the picture's height she then studied the image that the Doctor was pointing out.

“Yes, you Have seen it before my friend. It is the gate we went through before we saw the dying robot in the courtyard,” she said to him mentally.

“Now THAT is interesting.... the coincidences are too remarkable to be random. But How would this person have known that You would be coming to their city....” the Doctor replied in out loud thought.

Meanwhile, Amy, who had been known to stride forward into possible trouble without the Doctor with her, had finished looking at things in the room and had gone through the beaded door. Immediately afterwards, her attention was perked.

“Doctor! You are going to want to see this!” she said as she hurried to the far side of the new room, which looked like it served as a living room, a kitchen, and a mini-library all in one.

The Doctor and Dawn both almost jumped from being startled, that's how intense they were thinking about the cat painting they had been looking at. The Doctor quickly headed toward the doorway, Dawn still in his arms, thinking that maybe Amy had encountered their mysterious guide, and that maybe she needed help with the encounter.

Neither were expecting her to be standing in front of a low lying desk on the far side of the room. A low lying desk that had a very huge, more modern looking monitor on it, complete with a keyboard in front of it. The monitor was activated, and had what looked like an old DOS interface on it. But what had obviously caught Amy's attention wasn't the fact that the monitor was on, or that it was using a DOS interface, and oddly enough, it wasn't that she had found a person at the desk, using the computer.

No, it was what someone had typed and entered on the monitor: \Need. Help...

“Did You type that?” the Doctor asked Amy, looking at her with confusion.

“No! Of course not Doctor, if I needed help I'd just ask for it, you know that. No, this must have said this before I even walked in here. Because the screen hadn't changed at all as I was coming in, nor had I seen anyone in here when I came in,” Amy answered.

Dawn, who could understand the message using the Doctor's memories and knowledge, added, “Maybe I was right then, maybe this is the end of the line. If so, then we just need to hunt around this apartment for either a human or a robot. It must have been one or the other who has been helping us out all along, since those are the only 2 type of sentient beings we've seen indications of in this city,” she said, looking up to the Doctor.

“But you have seen this apartment Dawn, you've seen All of it already. All these apartments including this one are tiny, like apartments in New York City in the 20 and 21'st centuries. Everything is compacted together, like the bedroom, bathroom, and office in the same room, and in here, the kitchen, living room, 2^nd office, and library. And I don't see any other doorways other than the one that must lead out of the apartment. It must lead out cause it follows the pattern of all of the other apartments that Amy and I had to go through, with keypad locks on any and all entrances to any apartments or stores. So since we haven't seen anyone in both, they can't be here,” the Doctor replied to the cat, as both were standing behind Amy and a bit to the left, near the door with the keypad.

As the Doctor and Dawn were concentrating on their mental conversation, Amy was yet again doing her own thing. No novice to computers, she wondered if she could still communicate with their guide, even though whoever they were didn't appear to be in the room. Maybe they were trapped somewhere else, and needed a computer like this one to communicate with people outside their prison. Thoughts of “Prisoner Zero” and the time she first met the Doctor, entering her mind. It made her wonder if maybe their guide was a prisoner who had managed to get access to certain parts of the city, and was using this old apartment as a distant technology base somehow.

So she decided to type to whoever this person was, and she typed the following into the next prompt: “Hello? Are you our mysterious guide? Where are you?”

And the individual on the other end actually replied! But not in the way she was expecting, in fact, she didn't even exactly understand their reply. It was:

\Data corrupted. Need help....

But, Amy thought to herself, what did that Mean? Were they having trouble using this old computer equipment, and so they needed help fixing it, or accessing it? If so, she thought, they had chosen the right people to guide, cause she had no doubts the Doctor could make the computers respond in the way the person wanted...

So she decided to try to get more information from the other person or robot. To find out what kind of help they needed. So she typed in her next prompt: “What kind of help do you need? What data is corrupted?”

Again, she got a response, but it was Definitely Not what she was expecting. The other individual typed back:

\Body required for Download. Body required....

At that point, Amy was starting to get either really worried, or really creeped-out, depending on what the message actually meant. She was really worried if the One she was typing to wanted to download some important information into one of the kinds of robots they'd seen around the city, because so far, they were all completely dead, with no power, and gutted bodies and circuitry. They'd found many more such robots resting forever “dead” in different places in the many apartments they'd gone through to get here. So if the one she was typing to needed data put into a robot, then she was worried about their chances of finding one that would be suitable for the task, and what it would mean if they couldn't find a suitable one.

On the other hand she would be creeped-out if it turned out the Other one typing on the computer interface wanted her, the Doctor, or the cat, to “give up” their body in order to download information, because then that would be like what Daleks or Cybermen wanted. She hadn't yet met all of the Doctor's dangerous enemies, but she had heard about them or seen images of them many times, enough to know that biological people and robotic equipment frequently didn't blend together happily, especially if the robotic people's intentions were malevolent. And she definitely Did Not want herself or her 2 friends to have to go through an experience like that.

So now she was worried about what to type next, not wanting to inadvertently get them all into trouble by accidentally typing the wrong thing, since this was obviously going to be more complicated then she had been anticipating.

“Um.. Doctor.. I think you should take a look at this again...” Amy said out loud.

“I Already have Amy, and it is Very Interesting! I will take your place then... make sure that this wasn't Actually a trap, since so far, we haven't seen any bodies in here, unless they mean ours... Meanwhile, you and Dawn see if you see any other secret rooms, entrances, clues, anything that might let us know who this person is we are talking to, where they might be, or how we might get out of this city!” the Doctor said, as Amy backed up, and the Doctor sat all the way down in front of the keypad to type the next response, with Dawn jumping out of his arms onto the floor nearby.

So Amy took a look at the wall that the kitchen was up against, looking at and around the window and other areas on that wall, while Dawn jumped onto some piles of books up against the opposite wall, and then the bookshelves that lined it, hunting for anything that might stand out and indicate a clue or a secret door.

Meanwhile, choosing his response carefully, the Doctor typed into the next prompt: “Why do you need a body for download? What do you need to download?”

With this response, he was hoping to find out if their guide, if this was in fact their guide, was benevolent, or if they were a threat. He half expected to see a Cyberman or Dalek come through the door next to him at any moment, and so he had his sonic screwdriver in his other hand, ready for just such an occurrence.

But it was unnecessary. No Dalek or Cyberman came through the door to his right. Instead, he got the following response, along with hearing some kind of a door slide open.

\Enter the Door. Turn on. Find a Body.

Not wanting to miss anything that might come up new on the computer, he asked the others if they saw anything different and if they had heard the same sliding sound as him.

Amy had swiveled around on her feet from where she was next to the desk and in front of the window, having heard the sound and not wanting to have her back to it, whatever it was. She saw that the wall opposite her, and next to where Dawn was exploring the shelves, had slid open to reveal: a whole other room almost as big as the one they were in now! A secret room!

Dawn had also jumped down from the shelf she was on, and walked over to the doorway to look in, while still not entering it until she knew it was safe.

Both her and Amy told the Doctor what they saw, at the same time, one mentally and the other out loud, and said the same exact thing: “It's a room almost as big as this one! And there's... no one inside, no robots, no humans, it's empty of any living or robotic thing so far as we can see... It just appears to be lined with computers...”

The Doctor, not wanting to take any chances, and berating himself for not thinking of doing this earlier, aimed his sonic screwdriver towards the doorway, and set it to scan anything on the other side for a several meter radius. It confirmed what the two of them had said: There was no signs of biological or robotic life. No indications of active robots like the one that had seen dying on the street, and certainly no human or other biological life, except for a few spiders and tiny flying insects, which were the only living things he and Amy had seen in this city since exploring it.

When he told them what his screwdriver came up with in it's scan, or rather Didn't come up with, Amy said out loud what all 3 of them were thinking simultaneously: “Where is the person or robot that has been guiding us then? And since it seems that they Were leading us here, even though they themselves aren't here, then Why do they want Us here, unless it's to put something in Us...? I don't want to become an enslaved robot alien.... I hope that this wasn't a trap to make robots out of us or something...”

The Doctor agreed, and knew that one or more of them needed to explore the secret room, while one of them kept trying to talk to their guide. But he felt very uneasy about a secret room after the person on the other end of this computer had mentioned downloading something into a body. Though he remembered that it Did say to Find a body, which could indicate that it didn't want them to use their own bodies, maybe....

So he made up his mind, “Amy, catch!” he said as he tossed her his sonic screwdriver, thinking that whoever went into the secret room was at more risk than the person out here in the living room next to a locked door.

“Go in there with Dawn and see if you can find any clues, or any more secret doors. IF you find any, wait until I join you before going in! I don't want us getting any more separated than this one wall! And if anything bad happens, I've shown you how to use the screwdriver to open locked doors, and to at least temporarily disable weapons, and even most kinds of robotic aliens, at least for a few moments. Use it if you have to until I can come and help you. Hopefully it won't come to that, hopefully it's just a normal quiet room with some clues for us inside of it, or something obvious in there to download stuff into, like our guide is asking of us,” the Doctor said to Amy.

Amy nodded, and looked down to Dawn beside her feet, “Are you ready then? Hopefully you and I won't become the next alien cyborg! Maybe we'll even find another secret door to wherever our guide is trapped, and we'll meet them and set them free!” she said to the cat, and Dawn nodded and meow-purred in agreement, whipping her tail back and forth straight up to emphasize her agreement.

Amy smiled at Dawn, held out the Doctor's screwdriver like it was a protective knife, and together they walked into the secret room. The moment both of them cleared the doorway, they heard it: the sound of the door sliding again. They both swiveled around and saw it: the door had closed behind them! They were trapped in here!

Amy kept her cool though. The Doctor was smart enough to have given her his sonic screwdriver. So she used it, aiming it at the door and firing.

Nothing happened.

She tried again with the same results. She wondered if the locking mechanism was made out of wood, if that was possible... since she knew from the Doctor that the sonic screwdriver wouldn't work on wood. The door did Seem to be all wooden, from what she could tell.

Dawn told the Doctor about their situation.

“I thought I heard that... And the screwdriver won't work on it.. interesting.... the question is Why.... if the guide wanted us trapped, I'd think there would be much better ways of doing it.... Their must be a reason for all of this.... The door Opened in the first place because Amy and then I typed things to someone, presumably our guide... since then, I've tried typing in this computer: 'Please open the door again, my friends are trapped in there', but obviously that didn't work. So maybe the door can only be opened if you find a computer in there, and type something into It. Like a reversal of how it opened up to let you in. So I will keep trying to type things in this computer in here. You two just examine all the computers in there, try to find something that would indicate a way to get out. And Dawn, keep me updated, including with constant visuals, in case I 'see' something you two might miss,” the Doctor replied both out loud and mentally.

Dawn agreed, and gave the Doctor access to everything she saw in real time, while Amy nodded understanding of the Doctor's words in Dawn's direction before she started looking around at the different computers for any indications of what the Doctor had talked about, or any other important clues. The Doctor continued to try different type commands and replies on the computer, but always got the same exact reply at this point: \Enter the Door. Turn on. Find a Body.

Meanwhile Amy and Dawn were looking around the room they found themselves in, noticing only that the few screens that were turned on had lots of 1s and 0s on the screens, nothing else seemed to be active as far as they could see. But Amy, who was taller, was realizing that there were security cameras in here too, and they were acting similarly to the one near the entrance to the city that Dawn had noticed.

When she mentioned this to Dawn, the cat realized with chagrin that her translator, the Doctor, was in the other room, but she nodded her head noticeably, which Amy recognized. Dawn also realized that she didn't have an easy way to share her ideas of what to do with Amy, other than to do something, and have Amy figure it out.

Amy Was good at figuring things out however, so she realized that all the computers, and there were many of them, on the opposite wall, were not activated. She mentioned this to Dawn. Dawn was starting to realize this too, as she had jumped up on a table in the middle, that Did have it's computer on, and it also had one of the cubic battery units in it that the fan had been using outside of this apartment. So in order to let Amy know what she was thinking, she grabbed the battery by it's handle with her mouth and pulled it out, and then jumped down, brought it to the base of the computer units on the far wall, where there were 4 empty battery jacks, and pushed the battery into one of them. When she did this, a few of the computers up above turned on.

“Ahhh Yes, I agree Dawn! We need to try activating the computers on the wall and see if they are the ones that will allow us to open the door back to the Doctor, as well as perhaps let us know where our guide, or anyone else, might be. Okay, I'll look up above, you look on lower surfaces, and let's see what we can find!” the redhead said, and they continued looking for more battery units.

A few minutes went by and they found 3 other batteries, and a minute after they installed the last one, all the computers started to make a humming noise, and then they heard another door sliding sound. They both got excited thinking it would give them access to the Doctor's area of the apartment again, but were disappointed when that door was still closed.

However, they realized that another wooden sliding door had opened up where previously there was only a wall. Amy readied the sonic screwdriver for defense, and Dawn readied her claws, and when another minute went by with no one walking through it, and no voice coming from it, the two of them looked at each other, with Amy shrugging her shoulders in confusion.

“Well, I guess we go look in the room, without actually going in then. Do you agree? Our guide has to be Somewhere...” Amy said while looking at Dawn on the floor.

When Dawn nodded again, the two of them cautiously walked over to just outside of the doorway, and were yet again surprised at what they found. Both of them were expecting to finally see a human trapped in a cage or lying unconscious on the floor, or at least a robot. Neither of them were expecting to see a storage like room, with shelves on either side filled with boxes, a small table filled with the same, and on the far wall of the long room, what sort of resembled a metal casket or deep-freeze pod, complete with a window, with a sitting, listless, dead robot on a chair next to it, slumped over. Wires and cables were all over the place around both the robot and the pod/casket. An additional thing of note was an actual note, like a sticky note from Amy's time, stuck on the outside of the pod/casket.

Forgetting the Doctor's “rule” about not going any farther without him, Amy walked carefully up to the pod with the sonic screwdriver, in case someone dangerous came out of the pod, but it remained still and closed. She looked at the note. She couldn't read it, as it wasn't in a language familiar to her, which was actually only English without help from the TARDIS.

Meanwhile Dawn was looking around the room from outside the doorway, and was noticing that as soon as Amy had gone inside, several monitors dotted throughout the room had lit up, and were displaying what looked like some kind of robotic face? She ran over and jumped up to where one was, and meowed loud enough for Amy to see. Amy turned to look at it, and then looked around at the other lit up displays with the same face.

“Do you get the idea that our Very Mysterious guide is Still guiding us, even if they don't want to show themselves, or can't show themselves, and that they want us to find a robot head. Maybe That is the body they want to download stuff in... hopefully if we Do download stuff into a robot head, our Guide can continue to guide us all out of here. And hopefully the downloaded robot head won't become a threat to us...”

Dawn nodded her head to agree.

“Okay, we'll do the same thing, since the door didn't close behind us this time. You look around on lower levels of the room, I will look around up top, and we'll see if we can find any kind of robotic head,” Amy said to Dawn, who nodded again and jumped down from where she was.

At first both Amy and Dawn wondered if the robot, or robot head slumped beside the pod was what their guide wanted them to get, but they decided to keep looking in the room, since the robot's head didn't look anything like the digital sketch on the screens. They mutually decided that if they didn't find anything else that was a probable fit, that then they would try the robot's head.

It turned out it didn't take that much time at to find what they were looking for, and something that fit the digital display so much better! A big box, like one that might hold a big printer in Amy's time, was up on a corner of the highest shelf, kind of hard for Amy to reach. It had the usual illustrations and words describing what it was, surprisingly printed in English. Amy could see right away the photo of a head that looked just like the digital sketch on all the screens! And what was even more interesting, it was being sold as a “Drone Companion” on the box printing...

Obviously it had been made and sold at a time when humans, speaking English, were still around, however long ago that was in this version of Earth. And it collaborated with what she and the Doctor had seen in countless apartments, as well as the few stores they had been in: humans Had once lived in this city, and there writing in their various languages, all familiar to the Doctor and Amy, were all over the place, including on this drone box. She wondered yet again, what had Happened to all of them, and was their guide a surviving human, or a robot, or something else. And Why did they want to download.. Whatever, into this Drone Companion...

Amy wanted to get the box down so they might be able to answer all these questions, but she didn't relish it landing on her foot if she grabbed it wrong since it was too high for her to be able to get a good grip on it. If it broke her foot, or even severely injured it... there were no hospitals nearby, and her feet were very important for getting out of here. She had no idea how heavy the box was either. Most robot heads weren't actually light weight. So she Really wanted to have a better way of getting it down.

Dawn must have gathered this worry from Amy, as Amy heard the orange cat jump onto something and turned around to look. Indeed Dawn had jumped up onto the robot head, and then as soon as Amy saw that, she saw the cat jump again onto the top of the strange pod. She looked with a bit of alarm when the robot's head, that the cat had leaped from, ended up falling off of the robot body and landing on the floor. Amy hoped that this robot wasn't important to anything later, unless of course the Doctor could figure out how to reattach it.

Dawn, meanwhile, had made another leap onto the top shelf, and proceeded to walk over to where the box was, there not being much of anything else on that top shelf. Amy turned back over to Dawn.

“Good idea. You're going to carefully slide it off the shelf while I have my hands ready to grab it, right?” she said, and Dawn nodded and meowed.

Together, they got the box safely in Amy's hands, the redhead finding it much lighter than she was anticipating. Then again, she thought to herself, it was a drone, not a robot head, so she guessed drones on this Earth were like the lightweight drones of a different appearance on her own Earth. She carefully bent down to the floor and placed the box down. Then she grabbed the sonic screwdriver from where she had put it in her jeans pocket, and used it to cut open the box with it's laser.

Opening it up, surely enough inside there was a lightweight metal drone-head like device that had “B-12” written on it's sides, and was about the size of a grapefruit. She picked it up carefully and turned to one of the monitors, noticing that all of the displays had gone dark again.

“Is This what you wanted us to get, in order to download, whatever you want to download, onto it?” she asked, hoping that yet again their guide could hear them through the devices they used to show their displays.

As if in response, the displays briefly lit back up with the same digital drone face, and Amy took that as a yes.

“But now what?” she asked of both the monitors and Dawn, looking at both while standing up and holding the drone.

Dawn meanwhile had headed back towards the doorway, hoping to maybe see different displays telling them what their guide wanted, on the monitors and computers in the other room. When she got to the doorway, she saw that indeed, those monitors on the wall had arrows on them! And what was much more, the arrows, all in different directions, pointed to the same device! Dawn meowed and used her tail to point into the other room.

“Okay Dawn, I gotcha.. I guess our guide is showing us something else in the other room. I'm coming. I'm right behind you,” Dawn said as she followed the cat out of the newest room, and back into the room filled with computers.

When Amy walked back into that room, she saw the same things Dawn saw. All the screens on the computer wall, that previously had lots of 0's and 1's on it, now had arrows, and all of them were pointing towards a device she wasn't familiar with, in the center of all the equipment. It looked to her like a large Drawing Tablet, complete with 4 very odd looking mini-pillars on it's 4 corners. She had never seen anything like it before, and she wondered what it did. She also wondered if she Should put the droid on it. They still didn't know if their guide was dangerous or not. Maybe their guide wanted to download a weapon into the droid, in order to take care of them and any survivors that still lived, or perhaps to take care of the pink things....

“Dawn, can you ask the Doctor what he thinks we should do now? He has supposedly seen everything you did through your eyes. And he hasn't yelled to us to do something different so far. But we're locked alone in here without him, so I'd like to know that he thinks it is okay for me to give these computers this droid...” Amy asked of Dawn.

Dawn nodded, and right afterwards, apparently the Doctor was paying attention to everything the whole time. His reply was this:

“Yes. Go ahead. I think that if Our Guide wanted to hurt us, they could have done so by now. If they wanted us dead, they could have lead us to a trap amongst those pink things. If they wanted us turned into robots, again, they would have done something other than ask you to grab a droid and place it on a device. So my guess is, it wants to download important, possibly secret city information on the drone, possibly even the location of remaining human and robot survivors. So I feel it's pretty safe. Go ahead,” the Doctor said, secretly hoping he wasn't wrong, like he had been many times before when he thought his logic was sound.

So after hearing the Doctor's response, Dawn jumped up onto the mini-desk with the keyboards and the device on it, the same one that had the whole wall of computers and monitors on it, and meowed at Amy. She also used her tail to point first to the room the Doctor was in, then to Amy, and then to the strange device.

“Ok, I got it Dawn, thanks! The Doctor says, Go ahead. I'm sure he had a whole bunch of reasons for it too, but chances are, most of them I wouldn't understand anyway. Okay, well here we go then, cross your whiskers for luck!” Amy said, as with one hand she crossed her fingers, and the other hand she bent over the keyboards while holding the drone with the other hand, and carefully placed the drone on the drawing pad looking device.

Immediately when she backed her hand away from the device, all the computers and monitors lit up and their lights flickered, and computing sounds issued from all of the computers on that wall! Then at the same time, lights started flickering from the computers, through cords she and Dawn hadn't even noticed, and continued into the strange device attached at their other ends. Then the lights went into the device at the same time that the droid started to actually hover up in the air. Finally, lights came out of the mini-pillars and hit the hovering droid!

The Doctor in the other room looked at this site through Dawn's eyes, utterly fascinated. He too was very curious as to what their guide wanted to download into the droid.

Then, almost as soon as all the computer lights and associated digital data had seemingly been going into the hovering drone, everything turned off, including the device, with the drone falling down and rolling off of the desk, almost landing on a startled Dawn Stealth! Dawn backed away so as not to get hit, and looked along with Amy at the drone as it just lay down on the ground, doing absolutely nothing???

When they were about to give up hope, thinking that the whole series of events to lead them here would fail, with them never knowing why they were brought here, the drone started to light up and move! Two metal antenna popped out of the little grooves on top of the head, a light came from the bottom-back of the head, and some other lights came on that looked like they were meant to be eyes. Then, the whole drone floated up in the air at Dawn's head's level....

Dawn cautiously walked up to it, with Amy taking 2 steps to get right behind her with the sonic screwdriver, in case the cat needed protection from the droid. When it didn't do anything at all, Dawn's cat instincts kicked in, and she batted at it to see what it would do. To her surprise, it's lights flickered, and it dipped down to the floor, flopping over and going inert. Again, the travelers started to wonder if their guide's mission was a failure. Until the droid regained its lights and its hovering, and flipped over again, staring at Dawn before issuing some indecipherable digital sounds???

“Now would be a really good time for the TARDIS's translating ability to kick in...” Amy replied, before the drone spoke again, with actual English words! At the same time, it also displayed a holographic image of what it was saying, in perfectly “typed” English!

It said the following series of things:

“It worked. I'm free. Thank you.”

“I couldn't believe the cameras. A cat, And 2 humans, in Dead City.”

“I'm.... I can't remember my name. It seems my memory is corrupted.”

“I've been trapped in the electronic network for so long.”

“I know I worked for a scientist who lived here.”

“For now you can call me 'B-12'. That's what it says on my exterior.”

“It's dangerous in Dead City. But you 3 seem to know how to handle yourselves.”

“Let's get out of here. Follow me.” …..

….....

Chapter Text

Chapter 6:

Does this City even HAVE

any Survivors???

By: IzaTheSoftOne

[aka: Seiya's Star in other fandoms]

“Wait.. This is Fascinating... You said you have been Trapped in the Internet of this city for a long time? Were you a human or a robot? And How did you get trapped in the computer systems in the first place?” the Doctor said while he was going inside the computer room whose door had slid opened around the same time that B-12 had started to speak intelligible English.

“And if you could open the door for us to enter the city, and you could light up all those signs and control all those city cameras, why could you not have gotten out of here long ago, instead of getting stuck in the Network? Why not take your body out the same doors you let us in through, or some other doors, instead of putting yourself into Computers of all things?” Amy added, relaxing her stance, but still not sure if she trusted the entity that put itself inside this small droid.

Dawn eyed and studied the small droid as it, B-12 it said to call itself, responded to the words of her 2 new friends.

B-12 hovered higher and turned to look at both of the 2 taller travelers before answering, “I... I am trying to remember more for you and your questions... but as I said before... my memory is very corrupted... I remember playing a video game here with the scientist whose home this was.... I remember that there is a key over here, his key, that will let us leave through the front door, which is where we have to go to get to the elevator that will lead us up.... And I remember a little more, that I was about to tell you... but other than that... I can't recall anything else... yet. But that might change as we travel through more of the city. Seeing more of the city Outside of the computer system, might stir some memories, I hope.... In the meantime, we should make some progress, am I right?” he said, his small body starting to loose some of its height as he was talking.

“Damn, that has to really bite, to not remember anything about who you are...” Amy said sympathetically.

“You don't know the half of it...” the Doctor said quietly to Amy's words, reflecting briefly on how he would feel in the first quick moments of reincarnating, before his memories would come flooding back again, or when they would slowly come back again, depending on the reincarnation.

Then louder, to B-12, the Doctor added, “You have a point B-12, so you can lead the way. But, are you Okay? You seem to be loosing power already...” the Doctor said, pulling out his sonic screwdriver, ready to try to help the small droid, not wanting to see Yet another robot die on “His watch”.

B-12 must have figured out what the Doctor intended, more or less, because he quickly replied, “Oh, thank you, but no need to try to fix me... Here... let me get this key first...” the drone said as he found enough energy to float up and grab the key by aiming a laser light at it and making it vanish!

The Doctor was Dying to ask the droid what he did with the key, but remembering that it looked like he was loosing power and was working on fixing it itself, the Time Lord found the willpower to Wait to ask any more questions, as hard as it was for him to do.

Sure enough, B-12 floated yet again to a small desk counter on the wall beside the sliding door leading to the rest of the apartment, where a small wooden stand resided, holding, of all things, what looked like a small, black vest or backpack, the Doctor and Amy couldn't tell which one.

“You, orange cat, are going to have to put This on,” B-12 said before anyone could react, as the drone then sent a beam onto the small black backpack thing, and it vanished! Then just as quickly, it reappeared, On Dawn Stealth! It turned out to be a vest-backpack for a Cat?!

Dawn was very ill prepared for such a thing, as she had Never worn anything on her body before in her life.... She was fighting an immediate instinct to run away or to try to scratch off the strange thing wrapped all around her, as if it was a predator like a snake. But she resisted it, instead Trying to walk with the strange thing on.

Meanwhile Amy was speaking to B-12, “The cat is actually very intelligent and can understand us all, obviously. Her name is Dawn Stealth, or just Dawn. And Why in the World does she need to wear that vest-backpack anyway?” Amy said, the fire back in her voice, feeling bad for her new cat friend.

“Because I need to be able to recharge, or else I wouldn't have placed it on her against her will.... But it is Only made for small quadrupeds like her, and it needs to be worn by the right kind of animal in order to work at all. So she is the only way that I can stay recharged and help us all get out of here..... And already, my battery is almost out. So you will have to … to pardon me... Must get energy.. will need to … to be in there for 10 or 15 minutes or so... then will... guide us out of here....” B-12 said, the whole time dipping almost all the way to the ground, with his drone lights getting very dim, before zipping directly into the opened pocket on the backpack, on the upper side, where Dawn's back was.

The fascinated Doctor bent down to Dawn's level to inspect the vest, seeing B-12's drone eye-lights tucked inside the backpack's pocket. He hovered his sonic screwdriver all around the backpack, his eyes deep in thought and fascination.

Finally, after doing that for about 2 minutes, he stood back up and spoke, “Fascinating!... B-12 spoke the truth alright.... that vest is indeed made Exactly for the drone unit that his consciousness was put into.... But How did he know that a cat would come around to wear it? Or how did the human scientist whose home this is, who presumably made the vest, and put his robot helper into the computer systems, know that a cat would come by and be smart enough to get his drone self out of the city?.... The odds of all that happening coincidentally are... Astronomical.... I Need to explore this apartment before we leave, and see if I can learn anything more about this fascinating human scientist...” the Doctor said.

And he did just that, going through every single room they now had access to, from the main part of the apartment to the 2 secret rooms, going through every single inch of it with is sonic screwdriver, recording every readout, every diagnostic in every room. He also collected a few smaller things he found in the apartment for future reference.

Meanwhile Amy was keeping an eye out on Dawn in her new backpack, “Are you going to be okay in that thing? And will you still keep all of your same flexibility and jumping strength with it?” Amy said with concern to the orange cat.

Amy knew that Dawn had no easy way to communicate back to her, with the Doctor totally preoccupied currently, but she also knew that Dawn was extremely resourceful, just like the Doctor, so she waited for the orange cat to figure out a way to respond.

Dawn looked at Amy and issued a series of purr-meows, saying in her own laungauge that she would try to get use to it. She also wondered whether she could have her same flexibility and strength, so she decided to test it, while also answering Amy's question at the same time. She walked near to one of the human scientist's precariously tall piles of books on the floor, aimed herself, and jumped. She made it, even if she almost missed because she wasn't use to the additional weight. But she knew that she could get used to the backpack, and she knew that she would be able to regain her former flexibility too. She jumped from the book pile to the nearby desk, turned around to Amy, and purred with her tail held high. Amy smiled and gave her a thumbs up in reply, with Dawn quickly learning what that meant from the Doctor's mental memories.

Amy was glad that Dawn would be okay wearing the backpack. She herself definitely would NOT want to have to have a backpack on her own self for all the running and jumping they were doing, even though the Doctor had been wearing one for awhile now in this city, in order to carry around the thermoses of water for them. She watched with amusement and a healthy dose of admiration, as Dawn spent the rest of the 20 minutes practicing walking and jumping far and high heights with the backpack on, using different areas of the apartment.

After B-12 had been in the backpack for 20 minutes, he did indeed come out like he said, right around the time that the Doctor had finished examining everything carefully around the whole apartment and when Dawn seemed to have gotten fully used to moving around in the backpack.

“See, wearing the backpack is easy! And in case any of you were wondering, with this drone, I can digitize into data storage any physical object, like I did with the keys. Equally..” B-12 said as he sent a laser beam onto the desk with the big monitor on it in the living room, making the key in the other room reappear there, “I can re-materialize anything I put into digital storage. So just let me know if you want me to digitize or materialize anything. That will lighten your load, Amy and the Doctor, and will also allow any of you to collect any useful items. If you want to know more about something, you can ask me, or anyone else that we might find here. But for now, I think we are ready to go, so follow me,” the drone finished.

After the Doctor decided to leave the backpack here at the apartment and have their newest friend digitize their water bottles and some of the smaller items that the Doctor collected from the apartment, the group of 4 went to the front door of the apartment where B-12 materialized the key briefly into the proper place in the keypad, before entering a number sequence into the keypad, and opening the door. After they looked around and found a second code written on a white board in a small nearby room, they opened a 2^nd locked door at the opposite end of a small hallway, that lead onto another high cement balcony, much the same as many other balconies they had been on in this city.

“Okay, so what I want to know is: Why can't anything in this Darn City be on Even Ground, with predictable and sensible city layouts! And WHAT is with this 'Transport by Bucket' thing anyway! Were all the humans that use to be in this city the size of Cats?” Amy said with disgust as they looked at the edge of the balcony, and at a very long bucket and cord transport device that would lead the bucket all the way down a very long city street, of course way up in the air, to a just barely viewable balcony platform on the other end with a bright light shining on it from somewhere. Of course that distant balcony was also high up from the ground, Amy thought to herself with disgust and apprehension.

Normally, the Doctor would have attributed all the bucket-pulley systems in the city to the desire to be able to have an easy transport system for small things throughout the city, by either the human inhabitants, or the later robot inhabitants. But after having seen so many indications of foreknowledge of a cat's presence in the city, in the human scientist's apartment, and even before that with lots of drawings of cats on outside walls, and lots of cat figurines, he wasn't so sure now that the pulley-systems weren't in fact to allow a cat, and This cat in particular, to more easily get around.

At first, when seeing these different odd indications of cats, he thought they were just because humans had pet cats in this city, like so many other cities he'd seen. But he and Amy had not Once seen Any indications that humans here Had any pets in this city. No cat or dog food or water bowls. No cat trees, or scratching posts, no fake dog bones on the floor, no leashes hanging on walls, no cat carriers or dog cages, no signs of pets at all in Any of the apartments he and Amy had gone through, which by this point was quite a few. They should have seen at least something of that kind by now if the humans here had been able to or allowed to have pets. Oddly enough, the Only sign of pets at all in this city had been a plethora of different sized golden, Asian “Lucky Cat” statues?...

When the group of 4 looked below the bucket-pulley-device, at the lower levels of the buildings on either side of the street, they were immediately repulsed. Huge thick webs of the mucous-flesh like substance they had seen earlier in the city where all the pink things were clustered, was literally strung out across the distance of the buildings like an obscene twist on huge spider webs. There was also big blotches of the mucous-flesh stuck to the sides of many of the buildings, sporting the pustules of varying different sizes, though thankfully all Below the bucket pulley-cord.

“Well I can see how Dawn and B-12 are suppose to get over there, if that is where we have to go... but if that IS the way we have to go... there's no way the Doctor and I are going to manage to get safely across that distance on the cord....” Amy said, managing to still keep the fire in her voice despite the very gloomy looking circumstances.

B-12 hovered up to Amy's eye level as he responded to her, “This is true, however, as you have discovered, most of the tightly sealed and locked apartments didn't allow any space for the pink things to have access. The robots there all ceased functioning permanently because they were unable to recharge or replace their batteries because of being stuck in their homes. So you and the Doctor can get across the distance by doing the same exact thing you did to get to the apartment where you freed me.”

“But... but that means more endless squeezing through windows, going up and down flights of stairs, and sometimes having to double back small distances because of finding a dead end.... I don't know why I thought we were done with that just cause we found you... when we are still very deep inside of a huge city... but for some reason.. I did...” Amy said, her fiery voice starting to dampen with resignation at the prospect of yet another winding through high-rise buildings.

“Oh come on Amy, it will be Fun! We'll get to see a bunch more endlessly dozing robots, and interesting signs of human and robot life, all over again!” said the Doctor, walking up to her and putting his hands on her shoulders in his reassuring way, his smile looking deep into her eyes again.

Slowly she got her customary smile on her face that she always got when the Doctor did this to her: Giving her a reassuring pep-talk complete with looking her directly in the eyes with his boyishly intelligent gaze.

“Okay... Okay... I guess I am ready to go do That All Over Again....” she replied, a full smile back on her face.

“That's the Spirit!” the Doctor said, a big excited grin on his face as he spun back around to the other 2 on the balcony, excited at the prospect of going through upper level apartments again, as there were so many fascinating clues yet to be uncovered in them, clues to a mystery he found fascinating, if very difficult to solve.

“I should say,” B-12 said to the Doctor and Amy, again floating on their eye level, “that you should do everything possible to stay on the floors above where the bucket cord is.... even though most of the apartments are sealed shut from the pink things, you would still be in some danger from them when you are climbing through the narrow spaces in between the windows of the buildings. But the farther up you are, the less the pink things and their webs seem to be. You can see that just by looking down this street.”

And indeed, Amy and the Doctor could in fact see that none of the web like goo stretched or stuck to any wall or area on the same level as, or above, the bucket's cord.

“Thanks for the advice B-12, we will Definitely take it! Wait for us over on that other ledge, and we will meet you There!” the Doctor said as he gestured for Amy to follow him, and he headed over to a window of one of the side buildings, and opened it up with his sonic screwdriver. A few minutes later, he and Amy had already climbed through it and were out of sight, after closing the window behind them.

“I guess it is just now for you and I to go down to the other end and wait for them then, Dawn” B-12 said, and Dawn meowed back to agree with him, before she hopped into the bucket, causing it to start to slide slowly down the cord.

B-12 floated above her head for a few moments when the bucket started, before he ducked into the backpack's pocket to both conserve, and regain, some energy.

When the two smaller members of the group Did make it to the other end, Dawn expertly jumped off the bucket onto the solid concrete balcony, and headed towards it's other end which seemed to have a colorful wall on it. It took her no time at all to get to the wall where she was fascinated to see what looked like a wall painting, and a fairly good one, of a tropical beach similar to beaches she had seen in her travels above ground in earlier years of exploring with different cat exploring clans.

B-12 Also seemed to be fascinated with the painting on the wall, as he zipped out of the backpack pocket and buzzed around the wall, looking at the painting from different levels, before stopping at a small piece of paper with a photo on it, in the upper right corner, way above Dawn's eye level.

“Wait... I remember... the Outside,” B-12 started to say as he stared at the small photo, “It feels like I've been there before... Is this where you three came from?” he said again, and Dawn meow-chirped to try to say yes.

B-12 must have registered her answer, as he continued, “I promised someone I would go there? Promised who?... This postcard... the mural was painted from it. Let's take it,” he added, using the drone's digital laser to digitize it into data storage, before continuing his out loud thinking, “Why do I have these memories? How did they get here?.... They are not memories a robot assistant would have naturally, I would think...” B-12 said, and lastly added, “If you are okay without me as we wait for the Doctor and Amy, I will make sure I am full on battery power,” he finished, and Dawn nodded, so he tucked himself back inside the backpack.

Dawn sat against the wall with the painting and pondered what it meant that B-12 had the few memories he had come up with, and also pondered the different memories she had “waded through” in the Doctor's mind, trying to piece together what kind of life humans and humanoids had, which was so different from her life with her Felid-kind. She also started to reflect on the huge vast library of the Doctor's memories, trying to sort out what she should “leave alone” out of a respect for his privacy, and what was okay to dwell on. But given how totally unfamiliar and alien any non-Felidian memory was to her, it was very hard to sort his memories in any kind of sensible fashion....

*_*_*_*_*

Meanwhile, the Doctor and Amy Did manage to successfully weave their way through all the different adjacent buildings on the right side of the street facing the platform they had seen from a distance. But it took them much longer to do so then it did their 2 smaller traveling companions. And B-12 was right about mucous-flesh strands being below and in between the buildings as they would sometimes go through windows from building to building seeing it stretched just a few meters below.

By far the most challenging area in this latest building journeying of theirs, was one place in particular where the buildings resting right near each other gave way to another street that must have run perpendicular to the one that the bucket cord went over top of. This was a big problem for the two of them, because there was a distance of about 6 meters between the 2 buildings. Amy was fighting really hard to not go into despair, because she knew not even Dawn could jump that distance safely, and the street stretched as far as they could see in either direction, or the space that indicated a street far down below, stretched for that long. In the apartment living room whose window showed this insurmountable distance, she slumped into a sofa next to a long defunct robot wearing what looked like a flower kimono and a straw hat, wishing she was Anywhere other than in this horrible, depressing city from her worst nightmares.

Of course the Doctor didn't give up at all as seemed not to have lost any of his resolve to get across, nor his belief that it was possible. Instead, he took some measurements of distance with his sonic screwdriver while carefully leaning out the window, and then looked down and around, also scanning anything around with it. His face brightened even more when he reviewed that latest scan, and he swiveled around, after bringing his whole body back inside the window, so as to face Amy.

“OH, don't look so Gloomy! You look More Dead than the poor robot next to you... who had an awesome taste in clothing by the way....” he said, shaking his head to stop getting distracted, “But that's beside the point... Right! Yes! So we Need to get across, and I have found Just the Way for us to do that... But... you may be cross with me when I tell you what it is....” he said, his expression fluctuating the way it always did when he had to tell Amy a plan that she would definitely Not like.

In return she got the look on her face she always got when he did Just that: a look that said silently but effectively “Okay, it's going to be dangerous and stupid, so What Is it This Time?”

Recognizing the look, and taking it as an invitation to tell her what his plan was, he began, “So, there is a big pipe coming out of the ceiling of the apartment above us, probably the main water pipe for this neighborhood back when humans were still around here... which makes me wonder if we actually will find any living humans around here... or even robots for that matter, as you'd think we'd have found some by now...” he started rambling in his distracted thinking mode, until...

“Doctor! Keep focused... you were about to tell me what was so important about a huge water pipe above us, and how I wasn't going to like how it was going to help us get across that street...” Amy said, her voice growing it's edgy tone when she knew she was “in for it”.

“Oh Yes! Yes! So the pipe is Still In Tact! My sonic confirms that! And it is about as wide as those pipes were way back when we had to put the bucket into the fan blades. More than wide enough for us to safely straddle like a horse's saddle. So if we very quickly crawl across it, it Should hold our weight! You are lighter, and so should Definitely go first! We just have to go up 2 stories, probably to the roof, and we should be able to get on it and move across!” the Doctor finished, smiling with his I-Know-This-Isn't-The-Best-Idea-But-It-WILL-Work Expression he was so famous for.

Amy eyed him with her usual That-Is-THE-Worst-Idea-I've-EVER-Heard-Expression-But-Unfortunately-I-Have-To-Admit-It-Probably-Might-Work-And-All-Other-Possibilities-Stink Expression.

“So, How About It!?!” he said to her again, grinning with that same expression from before.

Amy got her mock-sour look on her face that she got when she resigned herself to another of the Doctor's insane ideas that might work if it didn't get them killed, and looked over at the inert robot in the flower kimono, “Would YOU have done this if you were still alive? Hopefully I won't end up like you, or worse, in a few minutes...” she said only half-kidding, as she got up and followed the doctor to the locked entrance to the apartment they were in.

It didn't take them long to find the steps leading up to the next levels, and they quickly made their way up, finding that the Doctor was right, the pipe was just a bit lower than the roof of this building. Amy then did what she Always Did when she had to do something Extremely Risky when on an adventure with the Doctor: She closed her eyes briefly, imagined that she was just acting in a movie and Nothing could possibly happen to her cause it was all scripted and safe, and then she Very Carefully lowered herself down to the pipe while keeping her eyes fixed on the window across from her, and No-Where Else!

Then, still keeping her eyes on the window across the street, just a bit below the other end of the pipe, she slowly crawl-straddled her way across the pipe. Flashbacks of the one and only time she had ever gone horseback riding, on a birthday party adventure with a second cousin, stuck in her mind. She had been squeezing her legs for dear life around the horse's mid-section back then too, terrified as the muscular animal bolted super fast across a park meadow. She had gotten on the horse on a dare from her 2^nd cousin, and she had regretted it immediately afterwards, as the horse hadn't even had a saddle on. Just like with this pipe, she felt she could slide and fall off of it any second. And just like back then, she made her whole inner leg muscles hurt like crazy by squeezing them like heck the whole time she was on the horse. With this pipe, she did the same thing, though this time carefully zigzagging her legs and arms, keeping her eyes fixed on the opposite window. Her upper back and neck muscles ached like crazy with the constant strain of keeping her head tilted up while her body was down on all 4s.

But she made it across, just like she had with earlier crazy stunts in this city, her legs and neck Killing Her with pain as she watched the Doctor crawl across with a big grin still on his face, like he was out taking his favorite dog on a walk instead of straddling a smooth pipe gosh only knows how many stories up above the ground....

When he also made it across safely they took a few minutes to rest from the exertion, in this room that looked like a maintenance room with dozens of other pipes of different width's crisscrossing all around them, with a few maintenance closets and metal doors interspersed with electrical and fuse boxes, valves, and knobs. They sat down on a lone metal bench in the middle of the room, listening as water trickled down in between pipes and wall somewhere out of sight in the room near them.

When they felt they had enough energy to continue, and Amy thought her legs wouldn't spasm when she walked, they got up and found the exit door, and continued on their way entering and squeezing out of one apartment after another, the occasional maintenance room or office, and finally onto a cement balcony surrounded by a fence door and a railing. Thankfully though, this small balcony had narrow steps after the gate, leading down to a lower balcony... and another bucket-cord-pulley system...

“You've Got to be kidding me... Not AGAIN... Can't we just Stay on the Bottom level for awhile, until we get to the elevator... like normal people in a normal City!” Amy said exasperatingly, not feeling like going through another bunch of apartments, windows, doors, and maybe even crazy high pipes, Again!

“Again... Fascinating! As if someone KNEW Dawn or another smart cat would come by into the city and would be able to go through it and find a way out! Incredible! Who knew That? And are they still alive!? For that matter, Are there any survivors other than B-12?!” the Doctor said as he also managed to sonic open the gate.

“There Better be a much easier way for us to get to... wherever we are suppose to go, that Doesn't' involve walking through that god awful slimy pink stuff...” Amy said exasperatingly as they carefully made their way down the narrow steps, after Dawn made her way over to them after hearing Amy speak.

The Doctor reflected that the steps they were going down seemed more like a slanted, tiered roof made of some kind of hard metal rather than an actual pair of steps. He made sure he and Amy made it down fast, before the roof could decide to give way under their feet...

They carefully walked across the rest of this upper cement balcony but stopped in the middle when could when they heard the unmistakable sound of those awful pink things. Judging by the sound, the group thought that quite a number of the disgusting things must be relatively near by, which made all of them, even the Doctor, shiver.

Dawn, for the first time in awhile, mentally talked to the Doctor again, “You stay here in the middle of the balcony my friend. Let me and B-12 investigate the edge first, just like I did back by the dying robot. I will see what will be the safest way for All of us to get across, and what lies on the other end when we do. We don't want the creatures to detect you or Amy when you walk to the edge of the platform,” she said to him, and he gratefully accepted her strong suggestion.

Dawn opened up her present-moment visual impressions to him through their mental connection, as she made her way with B-12 to the edge. The sight that greeted them was more or less what they were all expecting. Dawn did spare a few thoughts that Amy would be at least happy to hear that they were almost on ground level again. That was the good news. The bad news was that On that Ground Level, there was a big spread out cluster of the pink things roaming around like a bunch of rats in a trashed warehouse full of food. There was a wide street crossing in front of the platform that the bucket system went across, that had what looked like a water or sewage channel going across the middle of it. The last thoughts were the Doctors as he viewed what Dawn saw through her eyes.

At the other end of the wide cement street was a nook in between a long row of buildings. Dawn, and the Doctor through her eyes, as well as B-12, all made out what looked like a neon-lit sign of a house in the far section of that nook. There were also a bunch of hand made signs in that area that were hard to make out. Equally as hard to make out were random other small things laying in front of and around what looked like a trash dumpster. Dawn and B-12 walked back to the middle of the cement platform which she now knew was about 3 stories above ground level at this point.

The Doctor asked B-12 to materialize one of the things he had collected from the human-scientist's apartment: a small, but high powered, set of binoculars. It was something that he thought would be useful in a city like this, and he had been right. B-12 did as the Doctor asked, and they materialized in the Time Lord's hands.

The Doctor then very carefully and slowly walked to a step away from the platform, careful not to make any noise and therefore draw attention to himself. He used the binoculars to more closely examine the nook on the far end of the wide street. What he saw when he did so immediately grabbed his interest right away!

He turned to the rest of his group and walked back, whispering, “That's fascinating! There might Actually Be survivors of some kind here after all! Unless of course there were a long time ago, but they all died out... But seriously, I want to be hopeful here! On the other end of the wide street and the canal, in a building nook, there is what looks like a brilliant, makeshift, pink thing-defense wall! It's boarded up a whole lot over there, like it's the entrance to a safe area, and I think there is even a sign saying “Safe Zone” over in that very area! There also appears to be a lot of barbed wire on the ground and knives and other pointy objects hanging or glued to the boarded up street or alley! A Brilliant idea for a defensive perimeter if I do say so since the pink things seem like they'd be just as defenseless against sharp points and edges as they are against my sonic screwdriver's laser. So we might just have found our way to some Survivors, or at least a hopefully safe barricaded area around the elevator to get us out. Maybe a lot of occupants of this city actually survived and built the barricaded area to keep out the pink things while they all got up to safety on the elevator. Maybe they even escaped some small opening in the city somewhere up higher, who knows.... Either way... I would prefer to figure out a way to see if there are any survivors in there before Amy and I try to go in ourselves using my sonic screwdriver...” the Doctor finished, his face having his contemplative expression on it.

“How in the World are we suppose to see if there are any survivors over there, while staying here, and before going across Those pink things? And why don't we just get there through buildings like we have been doing Doctor? … Oh my god... I can't believe I just said that... but I prefer weaving through apartments, and even straddling water pipes, as opposed to trying to wade through, or dangle over top of, those nasty pink things...” Amy replied.

“I.. haven't worked out how to see about Survivors before we go over there.... As to Why I want to know before we would try to go there through buildings and pipes... the reason is simple. If there Are survivors, they might have a very precise barricade and security system in place, that protects them from being invaded by the pink things. I don't want to accidentally undo their protection from the things by undoing any locks or opening any barricades, thereby leaving any Survivors unknowingly vulnerable to the slimy things.... So I need to know what is on the other side of the barricade First. If there Are survivors over there, then hopefully we can get a message to them somehow that we are here, and have them tell us a safe way for us to get in,” the Doctor answered her.

Then Dawn meowed, and talked to the Doctor through their mental link, “I could do another scouting mission. I can take the bucket over most of the pink things, and probably manage to jump over top of the defenses and find a way in over the barricade somehow. Then I can look around for survivors. If there aren't' any, I can tell you with our mental link and you can enter the area any way you choose, without risk to anyone. If there Are survivors, B-12 can give them any message you wish, and I can let You know their answer through our link!”

The Doctor's eyes widened in excitement, “That is a Great Idea! However, I don't want you to risk yourself for us if you don't think you can do it safely. But I Did see that the barricade isn't too much taller than human height. If you can run over to where this trash dumpster is against the barricade, you should be able to use that to jump onto a pipe, and then use the pipe to get over the barricade. These binoculars are very powerful and useful; I am very glad I picked them up! If there Are survivors, then tell them that they just need to tell you how I should enter inside their fortified area, and I can figure out how to get to wherever that place is!”

Dawn agreed to this and took note of the way to get over the barricade, and the Doctor shared the idea out loud with Amy and B-12. Everyone agreed to the plan. B-12 then zipped into his pocket in the backpack, while Dawn jumped into the bucket, while Amy used the binoculars to follow her progress. The Doctor didn't need the binoculars, because Dawn gave him access to what she was seeing in real time.

Thankfully for all of them, the initial plan worked without a hitch. Dawn sailed over most of the pink things on the bucket, jumped off, and had to make a wild dash for the trash dumpster a little ways on the far end of the street against some tucked back buildings, a bunch of the pink things hot on her trail. But she jumped onto the dumpster before they could get to her, with 2 of them getting caught and exploding on the barbed wire in their zealousness to reach her. Then she jumped onto the big pipe above the dumpster, and followed it over the boarded up barricade, and into a narrow alley. She was easily able to jump down to ground level in the alley after she cleared the boarded up gate.

B-12 zipped back out at this point just in time to see what greeted both of them. There were closed up doors with keypads on a dimly lit street, but probably much more interesting was something tall a bit further down the alley, but they were too far away to make out what it was yet. The two of them slowly and cautiously made their way down the alley towards whatever the tall thing was which seemed to be moving.

When they got closer to it, without it seeing them, they realized it was a robot! A Moving Robot! It seemed to be mopping the alleyway, looking down, totally unaware that they were there. B-12 and Dawn looked at each other, unable to communicate anyway, but also not wanting to startle the robot that was working ahead of them. But they also knew that they had to try to communicate with it! The first survivor other than B-12 any of them had seen so far in this city!

So B-12 and Dawn moved slowly forward towards the robot, with the Doctor watching using Dawn's eyes as he stood on the distant platform leaning against a door, smiling and whispering to Amy that the other 2 had found a living robot. Amy gave him an excited smile and a thumbs up in return.

Unfortunately, the cat and the droid got a response to their approach that no one was expecting: Terror?!

The robot, turning to clean in their direction, took a quick glimpse at the two of them, mainly at Dawn, and jumped in much the same way Dawn, or any Felid, would if they were startled: by jumping straight up and back. That is what the robot did, immediately dropping their mop onto the ground, the bucket falling over and rolling towards another perpendicular alley. Dawn would have done or said something to reassure it that she was no threat, but she couldn't speak to it in any way it could understand, all she could do was purr or meow. That is what she did, she purr-meowed...

But the sound of her purr-meow seemed to reassure the robot not at all, as it backed up even more into the wall across from the other alleyway, immediately spinning around, jamming it's hand down on a big red button on the wall next to it, and then bolting in the other direction down the other alleyway. Immediately afterwards a very loud siren sound issued from and echoed all over the streets. Dawn went after the robot, trying desperately to figure out a way to let it know she came in peace. B-12 was about to try to tell it the same thing, in English, both verbally and with it's hologram feature, but he didn't get the chance. Before either of them could find Any way to reassure it at all, it had pulled at something along the side of the wall, at the top of a short flight of steps in the alley, that turned out to be a reinforced, tall, metal gate. It slammed it in front of itself and in between it and the approaching Dawn and B-12, looking for all the world like the robot had seen their own death approaching, before they spun around again and ran out of sight down this other alley.

There was nothing left for Dawn and B-12 to do but to go back to the original narrow alley, and continue walking down it, hoping that there would be some other person or robot that they would get a chance to actually talk to and reassure. The Doctor, viewing all of this through Dawn's eyes, recognized that the big red button must indeed be part of some alarm system that had been rigged throughout that part of the city. A brilliant idea he thought to himself. It also meant that he had been correct about these survivors having a complex defense system set up. If he and Amy had tried going over there through buildings, they might have unknowingly let the enemy into the fortification and put everyone there at risk, without even a warning. The Doctor did not want to be responsible for something like that. He had seen enough die in his lifetime because of something he did, and he didn't want to add to the list. Thoughts of Rory flashed back to him with renewed pangs of guilt.

Meanwhile, B-12 zipped back into the backpack as Dawn continued to wander through the alley. He wanted to preserve his energy for when Dawn might need his help when she got to hopefully interact with one of the Survivors. Dawn was thinking and hoping that for this level of security and organization to exist, there must be some kind of leadership involved. She was thinking of her own Felid kind, also called the Felidians, and how their leadership, the Elders, would set up extensive security procedures to protect everyone during the periodic, huge, Cat Congregation meetings, when many Felidians would gather together in one place.

So she wandered down one alleyway after another, noting many curious things she didn't understand, hoping to find anyone who wouldn't run away from her, and who looked like they were a leader of some kind. Leaders never ran away when a threat was inside of their own fortification. They took the responsibility to protect their people, that was how the Felidians were, and how many other animal species were. She figured that these robots, and/or humans, must be the same way.

The Doctor, continuing to view this through Dawn's eyes, saw that there must be an extensive number of Survivors, who had lived in this section of the city for quite some time without threat from the pink things. Signs of much more recent, normal, frequent, living activities were all over the place. Disheveled blankets on top of a stretched out blanket up against one wall, where people had obviously been sitting until a few minutes ago. A whole porch like area complete with awning, with what looked like a symbol of a grandmother's face on it, and with baskets of wires, knitting needles, and other craft project implements, all clustered near a metal fold-up chair. Even a few bottles of some kind of beverage on the pavement floor that had obviously been dropped recently from someone's hands, as they were rolling around on the ground dripping out bits of their dark contents onto the pavement.

Rounding yet another wider street, Dawn saw 2 different robots, both wearing different kinds of clothes sort of like the Doctor and Amy's clothes, stare in terror at her as they immediately rushed inside the nearest doors and slammed them shut, the telltale sounds of keypads being initiated to lock the doors sounding from inside the buildings. She saw some more cement stairs off in the near distance, that looked like it must lead to the elevator. Dawn wasn't about to go up the elevator without the Doctor and Amy with her, but she figured that if she went to the elevator and just Stayed there for long enough, that Some Survivor, most likely a leader, would probably come to her and either challenge her, or ask her questions. She hoped the latter.

So she continued slowly walking towards those cement steps leading up to the elevator, doing her best to seem as nonchalant and non-threatening as possible. When she was not too far away from the steps, she saw another robot running from an even wider perpendicular street that were just before the steps. The robot, wearing drab looking dirty white robes, was heading towards the steps, tripping a few times in its wild dash to some spot ahead that it deemed safe. Dawn continued slowly walking towards the steps, and caught sight of that same robot again as she was cresting the raised cement area with the elevator. It was headed towards... the elevator?

In front of the elevator was a very unusually dressed robot, that Dawn immediately got a “leadership vibe” from. Whenever she was around the Elders of her Cat Congregation, they all had very strong “leadership vibes” that emanated around them like airwaves. You just Knew, being around them, that they were in charge, they were wise beyond measure, and that they would know what to do in most any situation. This oddly dressed robot had the same vibes. The Doctor, who also got “leadership vibes” around natural leaders who had taken on the role, got the same kind of feeling about this robot.

The robot was noticeably tall and “slender”, but that wasn't what stood out about it's appearance. The fact that it had a bright red robe wrapped around it's body in much the same way as that of a Buddhist monk, a golden samurai jingasa about the size of a small umbrella tied tight over its monitor-looking head, and that it had a wooden quarterstaff with symbols adorning it that was noticeably longer than it was tall, was what made this robot visually stand out amongst all the others. Dawn and the Doctor both had No Doubts that This must be the leader of these survivors, and that It must have guided the efforts to make such an effective defensive around this community despite the horrid threats so close by.

Dawn watched as the one robot that had stumbled up the stairs ran past it's red robed leader and underneath of the open metal slide down door of the elevator. It looked to her like this leader-robot was about to pull down that door, with itself on the outside of it, when it stopped because it realized a robot was coming from it's left, down another wide street that was adjacent to the big wall that the elevator rested against. The golden hatted robot leader turned around towards this other robot which was rushing towards the elevator as fast as it's robotic legs could take it. It's leader was gesturing with it's free arm to reassure it to keep running, to not give up. The robot did make it to the elevator and joined some of it's other robots inside as the leader did finally pull down the metal door. This leader-robot then turned back around to face Dawn, who had already reached the top of the steps, and who was now sitting at the edge of this new ground level, attempting to be as non-menacing as she possibly could be.

Dawn, and the Doctor looking through her eyes, wondered what this leader robot would do now. It seemed silly for it to fight something clearly so much smaller. And Yet, they both realized how small, yet How Dangerous, all those pink things were. This robot was clearly a fighter when it had to be, and was probably quite seasoned at attacking and overtaking the small pink things. Would it rush over and attack Dawn first and ask questions later? Or would it be like the Doctor, and ask questions first, and fight only if it had to? What kind of leader was it, they both wondered.

They were both pleasantly surprised when the leader-robot first just studied them closely with it's monitor, standing in a semi-relaxed posture with it's quarterstaff in its one hand standing straight up next to it. They noticed that it had a face symbol on it's very dark green screen, just like the dying robot they'd seen so much earlier ago. This robot's face symbol was an olive green color, very similar to the dying one too.

Dawn continued sitting by the steps, waiting to see what the leader-robot would do. Finally, after studying Dawn closely while standing up with it's staff, it took a few steps towards her, slowly, and then knelt down in a low side-squat, resting it's long staff diagonally across its lap: a universal gesture of peace and curiosity. This time it was obvious that the robot-leader was the one waiting to see what these new visitors would do next.

Dawn and the Doctor recognized the gesture instantly, and both were impressed with this leader's reaction, especially when contrasted with the rest of its robot brethren. Dawn responded in kind, getting up to a walking position and slowly making her way over to this fascinating robot leader dressed like a human Buddhist-monk-samurai. When she was only a cat's length away from it's closest robotic knee, B-12 decided to zip out to help out his friend. The robot leader clearly saw him come out, but made no move of alarm, just watched them both with clear interest and curiosity.

After neither of them did anything for the next few moments, the robot-leader finally took the initiative: he started to speak! As he spoke, his olive green mouth symbol line vibrated and changed length and width, as if mimicking the changes of a human mouth when speaking. The only problem was, unlike B-12, whose words Dawn could understand, even if she didn't know why, this robot-leader spoke in a completely different language. The Doctor, hearing through her ears, Also couldn't understand it, since the TARDIS still wasn't able to translate anything since coming to this Earth. He still didn't know if that was because of the walls of the city, or because of how they had gotten to this strange other Universe in the first place.

However, thankfully, B-12 DID understand the robot-leader's language! How he understood the robotic language was a question that both Dawn And the Doctor knew they were going to have to ask him very soon. But for now, this ability was coming very much in handy!

B-12 started his reply by saying and holographic-ally displaying, for Dawn's sake: “They seem to have their own language. He also gave us his name. Allow me to translate his speech for you. He says his name is Guardian. He says: 'You're no Zurk. We're not familiar with your kind. You are welcome in our village, as long as you don't eat anyone.'”

In many situations, such a response would sound very silly, especially coming from a being much bigger than the one they were speaking to. But given that Dawn's group had already faced the pink things, that Guardian was calling Zurks, so much already, they totally understood. That is why they found the dying robot further back in the city, lying down all by itself, without any legs and with just one arm, and no explanation for how it had gotten their in such a state.... The Zurks that had been around it were... were eating it to death, while it was still alive.... that poor robot, both Dawn and the Doctor thought to itself. They wondered how any leader could be so effective in a defense against so many of these Zurks, that were so deadly.

As they were both thinking this, Guardian slowly stood back up in the original stance he had started in when facing them before. Then he slammed the ground end of his staff hard against the ground where it made a resounding thud, before starting to shout something very loud in his digital voice in his robotic people's own unique language. Shortly after this, the different red warning lights turned off around the neighborhood at the same time as the warning sirens ceased.

Shortly after that, Dawn noticed that someone from inside of the elevator had started to pull up the door. She figured that their leader Guardian must have yelled out that there was No Threat, and that it was safe to come out. She also figured that robots throughout the city must have heard their leader and also heard the siren stop, and therefore they all must be starting to come out of their own building hiding spots.

In just a few additional moments, all the robots that Dawn could see from where she was near the elevator, seemed to go right back to their normal lives, acting like they hadn't all been running for their lives to the nearest hiding spot just a few minutes ago. It was like they were used to being ready for a threat at any time of any day. She thought to herself that that must be a very sad way to live, and she wondered how long they had been living like that. The Doctor wondered the same thing. Judging by the extent of the Zurks throughout the city, and the extent of the disgusting webbing and goo that must be connected to them somehow, both the cat and the Time Lord figured that Zurks must have taken over much of this city some time ago. How long, they did not yet know...

Dawn saw that Guardian had taken a position over by the side of the elevator again, as if this was his current watch post. She thought that guarding an elevator up seemed like a sensible thing to do, but she wondered why all these robots hadn't gone up to safety using it a long time ago, and the Doctor agreed with her. They both thought at the same time: maybe there were more bad threats up there, like there were here, and these robots didn't have any weapons to fight with or defend themselves against, so they had decided to fortify themselves here instead. It was the only reason they could come up with for why this community stayed here.

Dawn walked over again to Guardian, since she felt comfortable around leaders, and he was the only one she had interacted with so far. She hoped that B-12 realized this was when he should relay the Doctor's message to Guardian about the Doctor and Amy....

He did. The droid popped back out of the Backpack's pocket and hovered at Guardian's waste level a bit in front of him, while saying and displaying:

“Hello Guardian, and thank you for allowing us to stay in your village. This orange creature with me is called a cat, and her name is Dawn Stealth, or Dawn. I am her droid assistant B-12. But we did not come through the city alone.... We have 2 friends that made it most of the way with us, but they are stuck on the other side of the wide street with the canal, beyond your barricade, and up on a cement platform, on the other side of a whole bunch of clustered Zurks. These 2 friends of ours didn't want to run along side us, or try to get into your village through closed up buildings, because they were afraid of accidentally unlocking or opening up your village's defenses... So they asked us to scout ahead and ask you if you could tell them where they could go to meet with someone who could safely let them in. They are not robots like you; they are Humans,” B-12 said, not even knowing like Dawn did, that the Doctor wasn't human, “they are named The Doctor, and Amy Pond.” ….

Chapter Text

Chapter 7:

Guardian

by: IzaTheSoftOne

[aka: Seiya's Star in other fandoms]

Guardian's black monitor, with its dark green screen, hooded over by part of his red robes, studied both the small floating drone, along with the drone's holographic-ally displayed words floating above him. His screen switched from its olive green face symbol, to a series of question marks in the same color, before settling on a symbol of a thinking person symbol and an exclamation point.

He replied, “I am unfamiliar with what a human is, but I think we may call them something else... Is THIS who/what you mean?” Guardian asked, as he turned around and walked into the elevator cab, which Dawn noticed for the first time was decorated like a living room in a historical museum house, another idea borrowed from the Doctor's memories.

Guardian carefully walked over to the far wall, walking around some meditating robots siting on the floor. He got as close to the far wall as he could since it had a lounge chair and some low level bookshelves against it, behind where some of the meditating robots were. Dawn walked over to him and then jumped up on top of the chair, first the seat cushion and then the top of the back of it, in order to study more closely what Guardian was pointing to.

She realized that the wall had very old looking colored sketches of a robot holding the hand of what looked to be a human. There were symbols all over the wall around the drawing too. B-12 scanned the artwork on the wall before responding.

“Fascinating! This graffiti mural says: 'Our long-gone ancestors, The Soft Ones, left us this city. Our home is their legacy.'”

B-12 looked back over at Guardian, while Dawn and the Doctor had a quick mental conversation:

Dawn: “So these robots don't Know about humans like Amy? That must mean that they have been here for a very long time without ever seeing any... just like how I and my Felid kind have never seen any humans.... They must be extinct except for B-12....”

The Doctor: “That is Fascinating! It would make sense for the robots to call them Soft Ones, since human bodies are much softer than robot bodies.... But What in the World happened to all the humans, and how long ago did they all perish? And was it the Zurks that killed them, or something else? So many questions... And when were the robots created, and how? And how did they get so intelligent, trapped down here in this city for what seems like it must have been a long time.... I am Dying to meet these robots myself,” he finished, fidgeting with his sonic screwdriver way over on the cement platform, trying to contain his lack of patience.

Meanwhile B-12 responded to Guardian, “Yes, that sounds Exactly like what humans are... So you have Never seen any in this city before?” B-12 asked.

Guardian's monitor screen reacquired it's olive green face symbol, but with wider green dots for eyes, possibly expressing surprise at finding out that there were “Soft Ones” still around the city.

“No, none of us remember ever having seen any humans, even Before the Zurks. They, the Soft Ones, and our supposed Ancestors, are part of Ancient Myth around here. Not even the eldest of us, me included, remembers seeing any, and some of us, myself included, have been around for a very long time. Some even doubt whether there Were any Soft Ones around in the first place, or if this city was just here for us robots for some inexplicable reason.... But I digress.... you say you have Actually Been Traveling through the city with 2 of them?!” Guardian replied, his eye dots going from their bigger dots to even larger, hollow, olive green circles, to show his surprise.

B-12, his “eye” lights growing brighter with his own fascinated excitement, bobbed up and down before replying, “Yes, they helped Dawn, this orange cat, save me from being trapped inside the city's computer system. Here... I can show you a holographic photo-memory of them, the same way I can display my words,” B-12 said, and he coasted over to the front of the elevator again.

Guardian carefully followed him back outside of the elevator, where B-12 hovered back down to Dawn's level, the cat having followed them back out, and then displayed above his drone form, a holographic visual of the last time he had seen the Doctor and Amy Pond. The image was life sized, and showed The Doctor leaning against a wall, studying a nearby, unlit, neon sign, and Amy, near him against the same wall, sitting on 2 stacked boxes, looking very bored or frustrated.

Guardian studied the image, walking around the hologram like he was seeing ghosts of his family members. He carefully studied the Doctor's brown short hair, and small eyes, his clothes, and Amy's fiery red longer hair, her face, her own clothes. The Doctor, seeing this through Dawn's eyes, was reminded of young kids getting to see brand new animals or plants for the first time ever. Guardian had definitely never seen a human before, and was clearly fascinated by his first holographic view of them.

Guardian's face symbol was now glitching a whole lot as he responded while continuing to look at the image, “I found it hard to believe you that you had humans traveling with you and waiting for you to report back to them.... For reasons you now know.... But that is either Very Good robot costumes of Soft Ones, or you are telling the truth.... Though how they survived all the Zurks I can not figure out at all... I still doubt you, because believing humans are still around is like believing that the Outside exists, which of course is a Ridiculous idea.... and yet, if there are humans out there, I can't let them die alone from Zurks in good conscience... So I will trust you and help them come into our village, and hope that you Are indeed being honest with me,” the red robed leader-robot said to B-12.

To conserve energy, B-12 removed the display of the Doctor and Amy, waiting to see and hear what Guardian's strategy would be for getting his 2 new human friends inside the village safely.

“They do not need to meet me anywhere they are not already familiar with. You can tell them that next to the boarded up gate with the barbed wire and the house sign, and beside the dumpster, there are two doors. One door is locked from the outside with a padlock, the other one can only be opened from the inside, and only with the right security code. That second door has vents on it. I will go out by myself to that wide street and clear it of Zurks, and when they see it is clear, they can swing down on the pulley cord like you Did, Dawn, to join me,and I will have another Companion let us all in from that same door. That way no Zurks will come in, and yet your friends can safely join us in the village.”

B-12 would have had an expression of surprise and disbelief if his drone body was capable of expressions, and the Doctor, who could hear Guardian through his mental connection with Dawn, shared Dawn's own disbelief: How could one robot by themselves clear out All of the many Zurks that Dawn and the Doctor had seen out on that street?? They had all seen the devastation that these Zurks could reap, wiping out large swaths of robots from the streets and trapping many more in their apartments.

“The Doctor and Amy already have the message, through Dawn. The Doctor and Dawn have a psychic link. They can each hear and see what the other experiences, as well as communicate mentally, if they give each other access. They will do as you say Guardian. But are you sure you do not need to call on the assistance of anyone else for this?” B-12 said, still finding it hard to believe that one robot, no matter how much of a leader they were, could possibly take out so many Zurks spread out across such a wide area.

Guardian displayed a slightly curved mouth line on the face symbol on his screen when answering, as B-12 translated yet again for Dawn and the Doctor's benefit, “We are called Companions. The other companion I will bring with me to stand on the other side of the closed door to let us in, he will have strict instructions that if I don't make it, to close the door and keep it shut, no matter who has made it or who has not, for the safety of everyone else. But in all my many years, that has never been necessary when other survivors have come this way. I have always been able to clear a path and let them in, and stayed alive myself. You will see. You can accompany us if you wish, and stand with the other Companion, or I can show you a safe lookout window to watch, if you would prefer that. But if your friends are out there, they will have a safe route to the door in a few minutes.”

B-12 and Dawn looked at each other, and then back at Guardian, with the Doctor saying to Dawn, “Who are we to argue, even if it's hard to believe? After all, they have been surviving in this city for a long time obviously. And he has most likely been their leader and presumably protector through it all. So maybe he knows something we don't, and he really Can handle this.”

Meanwhile Guardian reached around the corner of the elevator to grab what looked like a mini-computer input device complete with a mini-keypad and a speaker. He pressed a few buttons on the keypad and spoke into it and then placed it back in a tucked in corner of the elevator's wall.

“Okay, Kavril, one of the members of my guard team, will meet us at the door I have mentioned. A stairwell is near that door where you can go up to a window and see everything I do. Are you ready?” Guardian asked, his voice, even though digital, sounding very kind and confident.

When B-12 and Dawn indicated they were ready, the 3 of them followed Guardian down different broader streets and narrower alleys. Meanwhile the Doctor told Amy what was going to be going on shortly.

“Wait.. so you are telling me that 1 single robot is going to single-handedly kill off or scare away all those pink things... I mean Zurks, and make a clear passage for us to go across on the bucket thingee and then to the door?” Amy asked, her own voice holding its own skepticism.

“Believe me, that was Dawn and I's reaction too, but as I said to Dawn, they Have been surviving here for quite some time, and he has been presumably protecting them all this time. I have to imagine he has known what he is doing if he has succeeded all this time, however long that is. And if he fails... well we can stay up here and at least fortify ourselves in an apartment... we just have to... watch him be eaten alive.... “ the Doctor said, his voice going from reassuring to sad, not wanting to see another robot die in this city, especially within his own view.

“Okay, you have a point. And really... its not like we have a lot of choices... I don't want to go back the way we came... and it wouldn't do us any good anyway, cause obviously we can't get out that way... And we Have to get to that elevator to go up... so okay. Hopefully, as you said, we won't have to watch another robot die...” Amy said, as the two of them very quietly moved to the edge of the platform near the bucket, to await Whatever was going to happen next.

Meanwhile Guardian lead Dawn and B-12 to a very narrow alley barely big enough for Guardian himself to pass, that ended at a door.

“That door opens to the hallway with the door I mentioned at the other end. Immediately to your right there will be the staircase. Follow it up 3 flights, and there will be a window in the hallway up there that you can see, complete with a ledge to sit on. There should be enough light for you to see hopefully. I will not be long. Kavril will be at the end of the hallway waiting for me,” Guardian said, and with B-12 nodding and Dawn giving a slight meow-chirp, Guardian opened the door using a keypad to punch in the right code. He opened it and had them go in first. They did, with Dawn and B-12 going up the flight of stairs while Guardian walked down the dimly lit hallway.

The Doctor and Amy were the first ones to spot Guardian coming out the door, given their better vantage point.

“Wait...” Amy said softly, as the Doctor had given her the binoculars, since she hadn't been able to see anything inside the fortified part of the city, “That looks like Rurouni Kenshin from the live action movie... wearing a gold hat...” Amy said with disbelief, and when the Doctor looked at her strangely, not knowing she liked Japanese anime, she added, “What? I have had this really close friend all my life named Mel.. and when she wasn't.. well we won't go into that.. but when she wasn't doing stuff I wanted her to do... well she would have me watch Japanese animes with her, the ones with lots of fighting and stuff. She really liked that. She likes fighting and martial arts and stuff. And she Really liked Rurouni Kenshin... and that robot is wearing something very similar to Kenshin Himura... Wait! He's going right into the canal! A bunch of the Zurks are headed right over to him, he's going to get majorly ambushed! What the he----” but she didn't finish, and even the Doctor could see what had grabbed her attention!

Zurks were starting to throw themselves at Guardian, and many more were heading in his direction, but none of them stood a chance! The moment that Guardian lowered himself down to the canal and took 2 steps away from the edge, he started to move. To say that he started to move didn't do it justice however. Once he started to move, he became a blur of red, gold, silver, and light brown, moving so fast that even those several colors on him, his clothes, and his staff, were whirling around so fast in different movements that the colors blended together just like his body positions did! One minute he was about to be ambushed by a large crowd of Zurks, the next minute he was standing still again, and all that was left of the Zurks was a lot of their gross pink goo splattered on the ground around him, and some splattered on his red robes.

Afterwards Guardian looked right up to the platform where the Doctor and Amy were both leaning, both their mouths agape in absolute astonishment and awe, “It is safe to come down now. I will watch your backs in case any Zurks stayed hidden as I fought. As soon as you get down from the cord, run to the door with the vents. My friend will open it for you. We don't want to take any chances out here!” he said, his voice kind but urgent, gesturing for them to come down with his non-staff holding robotic arm.

The Doctor and Amy were able to understand him because Guardian had brought with him, just for this specific occasion, a portable communication device, and had linked it to the speakers in the building that B-12, Dawn, and Kavril were inside of. There was a comm unit device near the upper story window that B-12 used to translate Guardian's words, which then came through the speaker on the portable device Guardian had, so that the Doctor and Amy could hear his words in their own language. The fact that Guardian had come up with this plan showed the Doctor just how intelligent this extraordinary fast fighter robot was. The Time Lord continued to be more and more impressed with this red-robed leader.

“Wow!! That was Amazing!” Amy said as she looked first at Guardian and then at the Doctor, waiting for the Doctor to make the first move.

The Doctor was also almost in shock from how effective Guardian's fighting had been, but shook his head to clear it and make sure they didn't forget that they were still in a very dangerous city and needed to get themselves to safety, so as not to put themselves or Guardian at risk. So he gestured for Amy to grab the cord right before the bucket, which she did, and then he grabbed it right before her hands, and together, they pushed out and forward with their legs in a diving like way. Immediately the bucket, and them, went sailing over the width of the street, and eventually slightly over Guardian's golden hatted form, to land on the street on the other side of the canal.

They wasted no time, doing exactly what Guardian told them to do, making a run for it towards the vented metal door. They heard Guardian leap back onto the street pavement from the canal and follow them. They were immediately glad that he did, because his instincts were right: a few Zurks had indeed been hiding behind some trash bags, waiting for a better time to attack. They rushed out towards Amy and the Doctor's side.

But they were no match for Guardian's shear speed. Somehow, in a matter of a second, Guardian had raced up beside the other two in a blur of red and gold, and was once again swinging his body around in such graceful, quick, fluid movements that it almost looked like he was doing choreographed dancing instead of fighting. In the next 2 seconds, the Zurks were nothing but splatters on the ground, as the Doctor and Amy had been unable to keep from watching. When Guardian finished he gestured with his arm for them to keep going, and they immediately shook their heads, turned towards the safety of the metal vented door, and ran the last short distance to it, Guardian right behind them.

Indeed, as they approached it, a silver metal arm opened the door from inside, the owner of the arm standing back in the shadows holding the door opened for them all to slide past him into the narrow hallway, which they all did. As soon as they cleared him, that robot slammed the door closed with a resounding thud, while Guardian punched in a series of numbers on the keypad next to the door.

As the 2 robots and the two humanoids were going through the door at the other, safer end of the narrow hallway, Dawn and B-12 joined them from the stairwell, and they all made their way to the slightly wider alley as Guardian locked the 2^nd door. Clearly security was very tight around here, and the travelers knew that there was very good reason for such security.

When Guardian was satisfied that everything was back to its normal level of security, he turned to the two that he had just helped, his face symbol glitching off and on. The Doctor was growing concerned when Guardian didn't immediately say anything, as once again, he Did Not want another robot to die “on his watch”. He was pulling back out his sonic screwdriver, thinking maybe Guardian had accrued some damage during the Zurk fighting that he had not noticed, when Guardian must have noticed, and held out his hand, first shaking it to say he was okay, and then giving a thumbs up.

“Sorry... I.. have a number of reasons why I am having a hard time “finding my voice”, not all of them easy to explain.... The more obvious one, at least to most of us here, is that until just recently.. I thought your kind were just a myth.... If Clem... if she were here... she'd probably be telling me 'I told you so'... not with malice.. just with mirth... if she were here... she'd be so happy to meet the two of you.... “ and the red robed robot with the dark green screen and black monitor swept a gold colored metal hand over his screen, and when his screen was visible again, his more frequent screen glitches cleared up noticeably.

The other robot, Kavril, seeing his red-robed leader looking distraught just a moment ago, decided that with the dangers over, he should give Guardian and these new guests some time alone. As curious as Kavril was about these new people, he bowed his head in respect to Guardian, then everyone else, and then quietly walked away down the alley, turning to the right and going out of sight.

“Again... sorry. It is hard for me to see mythical people in solid form, not in legends, and not.. and then not think of her, of Clem.... but I digress... you two must need to rest from what must have been quite a journey for you all... and to take refreshment. I can find a place for you to stay in our village... and I can see if my dear friend Jacob can figure out some refeshments for you and your cat and drone friends.... So if you will follow me, I will do just that. Also... I will Most Definitely not be the only one to be.. shocked to see the two of you. So don't be alarmed or offended at more robots staring at you. As long as you are with me, they will not bother you. But if you are without me... I believe their curiosity will probably get the better of them. None of them will mean you any harm... It's just that you Are Myths come to life. You Are our Soft One Ancestors in solid form. So please just be understanding, is all I ask of you both,” he finished, most of his glitches gone from his screen again.

The Doctor and Amy Also had so many questions, both questions in general as well as questions for this remarkable robot leader called Guardian, but they also realized that they were indeed getting very tired again, and it had been... they had no idea how long, since they had eaten anything, and they had done A Lot of excercising since then. So they quietly followed behind Guardian as he lead the way to.. wherever it was he was going.

Dawn and B-12 recognized that Guardian was taking them back towards the elevator. However Guardian stopped after he was on the wider street that lead to the short steps up to that elevator, making a right instead of going forward. He made a right, into one of the buildings, that had a sign above it in the language of the Companions. Amy thought to herself that it looked like the signs of quite a few alien bars she'd been in in her time with the Doctor, and a few bars she'd been in in England.

She was right, when they went inside, they saw that it was indeed a small bar, complete with a bar counter at the far end, and small round wooden high bar tables dotted throughout it's small main floor, and a wooden stairwell going up to the left. An old fashioned jukebox like Amy had only seen on Internet photos stood against the right wall near the bar table in the back, and some kind of digital sounds music was issuing from it. Only 2 robot occupants were in sight, 3 if you included one that appeared to be passed out on their bar-stool at the bar counter, his red jacketed body slouched over and his bucket hatted head resting in his arms.

Of the two “awake” robots the one Amy noticed first was a robot with the same monitor face as all the robots dead or alive she had seen so far, theirs a cream color, and wearing somewhat ragtag white and beige loose pants and the same kind of very baggy top. They were drinking a bottle of something, if you wanted to call it drinking, Amy thought to herself. Instead of pouring it down a mouth, which they didn't have, they were pouring it down openings in their neck where lots of cables and mechanics were exposed. She supposed that made sense, that robots would need to keep their inner workings lubricated. She thought it was an interesting version of humans drinking beverages, especially to “drink” in such a similar way, but obviously very different.

The Doctor didn't pay nearly as much attention to the white garbed robot as he did to the only other moving robot occupant: the bartender. The Doctor was absolutely Delighted to see the bartender, and not because he was particularly thirsting for an alcoholic beverage... But because of what the bartender was Wearing: A Bow-tie, and one that was very similar in color to the one that the Doctor himself was wearing!

The bartender was looking at all of them entering with about as much interest as the Doctor was looking at him. The bartender's monitor screen, which had originally had a straight lined face symbol on it when they had first entered, switched at first to a smiling face on seeing Guardian, and then to several big exclamation points when the rest of the party had walked through the door. But he never once stopped wiping down mugs.

As they approached the bar counter, and before either Jacob or Guardian could even speak, the Doctor couldn't contain himself. He took a step towards the bartender, a big huge grin on his face as he half turned to face the rest of the group.

“Sir, I don't even know your name yet, but I must say that you have an Impeccable taste in clothing! Especially, I Absolutely Love your Bow tie! As you can see, I sport one myself!” he said, looking right at the bartender as he said the last 2 things, and then looking at Amy, he added, “Now See Amy!? First the guide at the Vincent Van Gogh museum display, and Now a robot bartender in a far future Earth! No Matter Where you are, or Who you are, or What you are, you can Always Appreciate that Bow Ties are Cool!” he said, in the Exact same way he had last said that to her, as if it was an indisputable fact, like stars shining in a night sky.

Amy shook her head and raised her hand to her forehead, as Jacob stared at the Doctor, taking in the Ancient Soft One and how the clothes he wore were very similar to his own. But the bartender couldn't understand English, and the TARDIS still wasn't able to translate anything for the Doctor. B-12 ended up zipping back out of Dawn's backpack, from where she was on the floor, and taking the opportunity to give a verbal and holographic translation in the Companion robot's language, for the sake of the bartender and everyone else in the room.

The bartender, having a lot to take in, but also now understanding the Soft One that had appeared out of myth and into his establishment, regained his smiling screen, held out his hand, and shook the Doctor's as he responded.

“Thank you, Sir! I don't know your name either... as a matter of fact, until you all stepped in here... I don't think any of us thought we'd Ever see any Soft Ones as long as the city we lived in still stood... And thank you for the compliment on my attire! I have been wearing this outfit every day for... Oh gee... I don't know Guardian.. how long have we had our memories in this hot sweaty dark city now?.... And I love this clothing... I found myself in it way back during my first memories.... and I have loved it ever since, Including the bow tie! I really love your clothing and bow tie too! It's nice to see someone wanting to wear the same clothes as me, I am not used to that!” he said in return.

Guardian took this opportunity to finally give the introductions he had been planning on giving before. Not that he was at all upset that the Doctor had spoken first, since he was giving very nice compliments to one of Guardian's closest friends. He wondered if the Doctor and Jacob would have even more in common than clothes. Jacob didn't socialize that much with many people. He had socialized with dear Clementine when she was still around. Same with Balladin. But he had met both through Guardian himself. Now it was just Guardian that he related to beyond his work, that was all.

“Jacob dear friend, I want you to meet two Human Soft Ones, and their friends and traveling companions a cat and a drone,” the red robed bot said as Dawn jumped up onto first a bar stool, and then the bar counter near Jacob, “This,” he said, pointing to Dawn, “Is Dawn Stealth, the cat that raised the alarm earlier, and who is very intelligent; the small drone that is doing all the translating for us, is her friend B-12; and their two friends and Soft One Ancestors are Amy,” he said, pointing to the redhead, “and the Doctor!” he said, pointing to the Time Lord.

Guardian continued, “They have all been traveling through the city for awhile, and whereas the cat and the drone's small forms could sail over the Zurks outside the city, and jump over and through our barricade, their two human friends could not do either. I helped them to get through the Zurks and have welcomed all of them to our village. I am hoping, my dear friend, that you can find suitable refreshments for all of them.. even though I know that no one has served organics in this city since... literally beyond known memory.... As for how long it has been since us Original Unit Companions, the oldest of us, can remember our first memories.... I think that Zbaltazar and Momo calculated it was around 7 million years ago.. If I am not mistaken,” he finished, his finger pointed up to his screen just like a human might do when they were thinking hard about something.

Amy and the Doctor both took notice of the time frame Guardian mentioned, both having their eyes go huge in shock and disbelief, and they could see from Dawn's head movement, that she too took notice of the long time period.

To the Doctor, through their mental link, Dawn added, “That would explain why none of us Felids have been aware of who the owners of this 'egg shell' city were. If it was That Long since it was created, that probably pre-dates our species evolving to how we are now.... That is an incredibly long time....”

The Doctor agreed with her, adding mentally, “Yes, it is.. that means that in this dimension, or time-line, whatever you want to call it... humans made this city inside this wall, for Some reason, whatever it was, a Very Long time ago. But Why? And How? And what was going on Outside of it to make them want to live in here? And what happened to the humans that made it? So many questions... So much to figure out!” the Doctor said, his mental voice both curious and excited.

“Well Jacob, it's a pleasure to meet you! I think you are the first friendly robot I have ever met aside from your friend Guardian, of course! Its nice to know that even after 7 million years, there are still something as familiar as Bars around in cities! I have bars where I live too,” Amy said to Jacob, and the last parts to both him and Guardian.

She added to Guardian, “It's a pleasure to meet you too Guardian, I didn't get to say that before. I have to say too... I don't know if you are even familiar with the Japanese anime called Rurouni Kenshin, but if you are, you fight like he does! And that is Saying something! That fighting was Amazing! I couldn't even see your moves, you were so fast! My friend Mel would have been drooling with excitement to have seen you in action, she is the one who got me into Japanese anime, and she LOVES anything related to physical fighting prowess. No wonder you were chosen to be the leader of this village!”

Jacob smiled brightly at Amy, and then looked at Guardian, just as the red robed bot started to have his face symbol glitch. Jacob then started to chuckle a digital laugh, that B-12, who had been non-stop translating for everyone, even managed to translate, as the bartender looked at his friend.

The bartender spoke for Guardian, who appeared to have trouble formulating words again, “If I was not used to having others dress like me, And getting complimented for my attire, then Guardian, my dear friend, is even Less used to having someone compliment him like that, at least right to his face. We All think the world of him, because if it wasn't for him, none of us would most likely be alive right now, nor for the last couple million years... but we know him too well to compliment him right in the screen... we just thank him a lot for what he does, that's the closest he is used to hearing, except for from a distance. He is very modest, and actually pretty shy in many cases... But yes, he IS most definitely good at his fighting. Even Balladin, when he was still around, couldn't beat him, and he's the next best robot around in martial arts.... Guardian's been that good since I met him... and gosh... how long has it been since we knew each other Guardian?” Jacob said, pausing to see if his friend could speak yet.

Apparently he could, “It's been at least 2 million years Jacob, at least... Amy... thank you, your words are very kind. I... I have been able to fight like this for... literally as long as I have memories... which would be around the aforementioned 7 million years, as I am one of the Original Unit Companions.. that is, robots that were designed by, and made during, the time when this city still had humans living in it, if you believe those Soft One Legends. Many of the robots living here now are Offspring Units, robots created by other robots. Like the resting robot at the bar with the hat, that is Seamus, and he was created by his father Companion, Doc. But Doc was an Original Unit Companion too, just like myself and Jacob and many others....”

He continued, “I am un-familiar with the things you mentioned, but I am honored that you have those kinds of memories connected to me... But I should say, I am Not this village's leader... nor would I seek to obtain such a role. I am their protector... because I stepped up to that role a very long time ago, because no one else could or would do it, and no one else seemed to have the skill to take on the Zurks and survive. So I protect as many of my people as I can, because I care about them, because I don't want anyone to die or to suffer if I can help it. But they do not need Leading. They are responsible enough on their own. I am happy to just keep them alive and safe; I seek nothing more. As for my fighting, like I said, I don't know how I learned it, or gained its ability in my programming. When I started having memories and discovering who and what I was, it was ingrained in my programming already, not even as an App, but as actual direct and distinct coding in my main central core... so I guess the Soft One Ancestors that made me are the ones who programmed it in me... if that legend of where we come from is true...” he finished.

“See?” said Jacob, digitally chuckling some more, “He doesn't know how to take a compliment without blushing and glitching, and he will swear by not being a leader till the day his cables disintegrate into the ground! But he is one of the best robots I have ever met. Him and Clementine of course...” he said, and then looked at Guardian's screen glitching even more at Clementine's name, and added, “Um, yeah, I try not to mention her around Guardian... its hard for him to hear her name anymore... I'm sorry my friend... these new visitors of yours have me much more talkative than I usually am... you know that!” he said apologetically to Guardian.

“It's okay... it's hard Not to mention Clem when literal Ancestors from beyond remembered time show up practically at our doorstep... She would have been utterly fascinated, and definitely rejuvenated in her efforts to open up the city to the Outside and freeing us all.... I just hope that she is...” and Guardian found it impossible to continue, glitching more and more as he was talking.

Jacob got a big heart on his screen as the Doctor, Amy, Dawn, and B-12 observed this whole conversation and interaction between the 2 robots with much interest, and all of them with varying levels of empathetic understanding.

Jacob, in his desire to console his close friend, and with the current circumstances being so unusual, called his friend by his very personal nickname, in his efforts to make him feel better:

“Ian... I am sorry... but really, there is No Reason at All to think that she died... no reason at all. You Know how Strong she is, and you know how prepared she was to get through the Sewers and to make it up to the Upper City in order to find the way to open up the ceiling... So don't presume she is gone... unless you hear it from a reliable source. Until then... she is probably not communicating with Momo or anyone else because she can't.... Before she left here, way back a few decades ago, she was telling Zbaltazar over by one of those tables, that she had received a signal from someone up in the Upper City. Whoever it was said that they had their own problems up there. I didn't hear if she indicated what the problems were, or if the one from up there had even told her. So she might not be able to send a signal because she is staying hidden or disguised from whatever the problems are up there.... So don't worry Ian... She is Fine! And I am sure any day now we will get word from her...”

Right at that moment, everyone was startled when the 3^rd robot that was in the bar, the one that had been slumped and presumed asleep at the bar-counter, rose up suddenly.

“No Disrespect Guardian, but I am going to leave... I was trying to rest in peace and quiet and I can't with all of you talking around here...” the red jacketed robot with the bucket hat said as he took in the new visitors without it changing his mood, “Ancestors eh? I suppose next the Zurks themselves will turn into ancient birds and open up the ceiling for us... Well I welcome you all, to a hellish sentence on this dark pit from hell that we call a city.... Again, no offense at all Guardian.. you do a remarkable job keeping us all alive.. and it's not Your fault about... well about you know what... But you all new folks here, Ancestors or not... the Zurks can still kill you... So just best find a way to be happy here, don't do anything stupid, and let Guardian keep you safe.... because that's all there is to do in this stinking city we were cursed to be in if you don't want to become a Zurk feast....” Seamus said grumpily, nodding respectfully to first Guardian, then Jacob, and then to every single other new “person” before carefully walking around them all and out the door.

As they watched him leave, they realized that the other robot in the drab off-white clothing must have left some time ago while they were all talking. Jacob had seen them leave shortly after Guardian had started to be noticeably uncomfortable with compliments and other things. He knew that all robots in the village, no matter who they were and what their personalities were like, deeply respected Guardian as their fearless and dedicated protector. He also knew that if they sensed that he needed to be left alone, they would all leave the area in a heartbeat in respect to him. That is undoubtedly what Rosie, the name of the robot in the drab clothing, had done: left to give her protector some much desired privacy.

Jacob immediately felt better about calling Guardian, Ian, in a public place, knowing that other than the newcomers, Seamus was the only other to hear, and he knew Seamus wouldn't tell anyone.

To the newcomers, he added, “Don't worry about that one.. his name is Seamus, and he has personal reasons for being so grumpy... And no doubt memories of those personal reasons are being stirred up again by their being Soft One Ancestors in the village... I guess the actual existence and presence of our Ancestors is stirring up difficult memories for several of us....” Jacob said, nodding his head in Guardian's direction, as the red robed bot was working on clearing up his glitching screen, something that Jacob knew was very, very unusual for the stoic robot to be facing.

“But I am being Very Lax in my bar-tending duties throughout all of this... You 4 must be Very Much In Need of refreshments and relaxation after traveling through a city infested with Zurks! Wherever it is that you all came from... you have had a harrowing journey to get here, and so I will do my best to tend to whatever organic needs you may have.... Give me a few minutes in the storage area to see what I can find.... and in the meantime, make yourselves at home in my bar. There is also an upstairs with a pool table and booth tables, so the choice of where to sit is up to you!” Jacob said, a smile back on his screen.

Before opening up a door on the side wall behind the bar-counter that lead underneath of the side stairwell, he added to Guardian, “And of course Ia-... I mean Guardian... you are welcome to stay here too, you know that dear friend. If I am right.. you aren't scheduled to do one of your Walking Patrols until another 2 hours from now... so rest my friend, and get to know our new visitors. You know how much Clem would have wanted you to do both...” he said, a brief heart on his screen towards the end and before he went through the doorway.

Guardian nodded, still having trouble clearing his glitchey screen, and all 4 of the travelers felt compassion for him, realizing that if he could be calm when facing horrifying Zurks, but get This upset when thinking about his friend Clementine, then he must be Very upset.

The red robed protector-bot Did manage to find his voice enough to say, “Jacob is right, you all must be exhausted... especially since you are organics and you've had to travel through this city through countless Zurks and managed to survive... So allow me to guide you upstairs, and we can find you all a more comfortable booth table to sit at, follow me,” he said as he turned towards the side stairwell, the rest of them following him.

They were all very surprised to find such a restaurant style floor up on this 2^nd level complete with the aforementioned pool table, booth tables, window curtains, and wooden chairs. Amy could almost imagine she had gone back to her time and her Earth being up here, except for the faint, odd, digital music sounds issuing from the jukebox down below. This 2^nd floor was empty except for them, and Guardian lead them to a booth table in the far back, tucked away behind the pool table. He stood out of their way, to let them choose where they would sit before taking a seat himself.

Dawn took to sitting on the bench seat facing the wall, and Amy decided to join her there. The Doctor then took a seat facing the rest of the room with his back to the wall, and Guardian sat down next to him. B-12 hovered over Dawn's head for a bit, before saying:

“I am afraid that I am going to run out of battery very very soon if I don't go into the recharging pack, since I have been doing so much translating and displaying for awhile now. But that will leave you 3,” he said, indicating Amy, the Doctor, and Dawn, “unable to understand Guardian, and vice versa... I feel bad about this, but this drone only has a limited energy span without recharge...” the disappointed drone said.

The group could see visible proof of what he had said in both languages, as his holographic display was getting dim, and his voice was getting weak. The Doctor however, already had his mind spinning with different problem solving thoughts. He was remembering about how his 10^th incarnation had learned that a future version of himself would have a sonic screwdriver with enough storage capacity to hold an entire human consciousness in it [River Song's dying consciousness in the episode “Forest of the Dead”], and if it could do that, then the TARDIS had probably designed this one with enough storage space to house whatever coding was inside B-12 that allowed him to translate the languages.

He quickly mentioned this to B-12, asking the drone if his translating was something that was stored in code within the droid, and if it could be transferred into his sonic screwdriver. B-12 took a few seconds to consider this, while resting his body on the table to conserve energy, and came to the conclusion that the Doctor's idea would work. So with the last of the drone's energy, he made a copy of the programming that allowed him to translate and understand between the 2 different languages, and transferred it via his materializing/digitizing technology, into the sonic screwdriver that the Doctor placed on the table next to him. After that, B-12 had used up the last of the drone technology's energy, without even leaving enough energy to hover into the backpack energizing pocket. Amy, sitting next to Dawn, gently picked up the drone and carefully placed it inside the pocket with help from Dawn.

Dawn then walked onto Amy's lap and curled up, resting her eyes, as the others started verbally talking. The Doctor would turn on his sonic screwdriver and aim it at whoever was talking, so that it could scan the words and translate them. He even managed to get it to display a much less sophisticated holographic writing of the translation on a nearby surface, in this case the table top.

So they started to talk, as they waited for Jacob to hopefully come back upstairs with something that organics could eat. Amy petted Dawn while they all talked, with Dawn realizing that she really enjoyed the sensation and purring without even realizing it. Amy smiled when she heard Dawn's purring, thinking that this cat had missed a lot by not having any humans around to give her affection.

The Doctor really wanted to ask Guardian about the group he heard mentioned called “The Outsiders”, but he was worried about upsetting the robot by doing so, since apparently a close friend of the red-robed bot had started it, and mentioning her seemed to upset him, if Jacob and recent events proved anything. The Time Lord was trying to figure out how best to bring up the subject without making the bot sitting next to him glitch a lot, when Amy beat him to it.

“Guardian... I hope I won't upset you by mentioning this, but can I ask why you get upset anytime your one friend's name gets mentioned? You're a robot, and not a human, so I'm not at all used to your reactions to things, but I am guessing that when you Companion robots get upset, your screens glitch... but it sounded like Jacob said that your friend is most likely still alive?... What happened to them, if I may ask?” Amy asked, her own inexplicable sadness having been brought back to the surface after seeing Guardian so upset anytime Clementine's name was mentioned.

Guardian, who was sitting directly across from Amy, brought up his monitor to look at her, after reading the translation of her words that the Doctor's sonic screwdriver displayed on the table, his screen starting to glitch again.

“It's... okay Amy, I have been dealing with the …. loss of Clementine for quite some time. You are right, Jacob Did say that there is no reason she might be dead.... She used to live in this village with the rest of us... And she and I used to be friends for.. well a very, very long time.. But she left to go through the Sewers, which are inside of the wall behind the elevator and underneath of the Upper City, about 40 to 50 years ago... She and some of her friends, and others that shared the same opinions about things as her. She has never come back, and we have never heard from her through the radios. Not even Momo...” Guardian answered, his screen glitching, and he would occasionally put one of his metal hands on his monitor as if to try to give strength to himself to clear the glitches, but it didn't seem to work.

Amy, feeling compassion for him, and what felt like empathy even though she knew she hadn't lost anyone like Guardian had, reached out a hand to the hand the robot still had on the table, and placed her hand over his when responding. The Doctor, seeing a few tears escape Amy's eyes, knew exactly why Amy felt so empathetic with Guardian, and new waves of guilt washed over him as he started to stare at his sonic screwdriver, to keep from seeing her pained face.

“You really cared about her, didn't you? Robot or not, it's written all over your face... If you were a human, you'd either be crying, or having your face twitch trying to hold it back...” Amy said, squeezing his hard metal hand in hers, a few more tears escaping her own eyes, and wondering if she was just feeling his pain.

Guardian's screen, though still glitching a lot, added a faint red heart underneath of his face symbol as he replied, his digital voice intermixed with static, but the sonic screwdriver still able to translate it on the table, “I did... I do..., I care for her more than words can say... she's been... my best friend.. forever... but she and I had different beliefs about things. She believed in An Outside existing beyond this dark city... and I did not... She believed in there being a way to open up this city to that Outside, and I did not. She believed... that we should be able to be freer and safer in that Outside, and I did not... So after researching things a whole lot down here... and forming the group called “The Outsiders” she, and some of them, went into the Sewers, to try to make it to the Upper City, so as to find whatever that way might be to open the city up to the Outside... I didn't want her to go... The Sewers are infested with countless Zurks.... but she was determined... and then I wanted to go with her... to protect her... but if I did that, this village and the rest of the robots here would surely perish. No one else has the skills to defend against the Zurks, nor the organizational skills or the courage to keep the village safe... So I had to stay here and watch her go... the only thing I could do was ask a very competent friend of mine, who is also good with martial arts like me, to go with her and keep her safe...”

Thoughts and ideas, personal ones, that made no sense for Amy to be having, surfaced in her mind, thoughts that she knew what it was like, to wish she could have protected someone, to wish that she could Be With Someone right now.. but she didn't have anyone like that, and it confused her. But she knew she could feel compassion for another that did, so she focused on helping Guardian, just like she had tried to do for Vincent Van Gogh not that long ago [in her own timeline].

“You loved her, didn't you? Oh gosh, you loved her and you had to watch her go....” Amy was saying the words, and didn't understand why she felt so much of her own pain when she said them, as if she had also watched someone she loved depart... she focused on Guardian, understanding his pain without understanding how she could, “You didn't even fully know how much you cared about her until she was gone, am I right?” she added, and again, it was almost like she was talking to herself as well as him, and the confusion this caused her was considerable.

Guardian's screen was almost as glitchy now as the robot's was who they had watched die on the ground that only had 1 limb, but he managed to nod his head a few times, and he gently squeezed her hand over his with his other hand.

A moment later, Amy and the Doctor, were sure they heard Guardian faintly say something. The sonic screwdriver faintly displayed the words: “I have always loved her, but I know she can't feel the same way back,” a few moments later, as if struggling to translate such faintly spoken digital words.

The Doctor watched all of this out of the corner of his eye, feeling so much guilt witnessing this conversation between Amy and Guardian. The Doctor knew that if he was one of these robots, his screen would be glitching noticeably too. Thoughts of previous incarnations of himself, including his last one, loosing dear companions, especially having to say goodbye twice to Rose Tyler, and having to leave behind Sarah Jane even longer ago, flooding into his mind. He also thought about how he hadn't been able to tell Rose how much he loved her either, just like apparently Guardian couldn't do with Clementine.

He thought to himself that he could also relate to loosing people, as he'd been constantly loosing people, including all of his own race, for most of his life. He thought that Guardian and he probably had lots in common, because no doubt the red-robed warrior-bot had witnessed many robots die or stay trapped, ones that he alone couldn't save, or that got cut off from the rest. The Time Lord wondered how Guardian coped with it all, and hoped to have the opportunity at some point to ask him. But in the meantime, the Doctor thought to himself, he tried not to think too much about any of this right now, as dealing with guilt over Rory was hard enough for him to manage, that and making sure Amy and Dawn made it safely out of this city....

Guardian surprised both the Doctor and Amy when he found his voice to reply back to her, “If I remember some books Clem found in Doc's library correctly, it said that humans crying means they have water leak from their eyes... and you said that if I was a human, I'd be crying over Clem right now.... So does that mean that you have also lost someone that you care about dearly? If so, I am sorry that you have to go through that... I have been dealing with Clem's loss for several decades... and it is still very painful when I let myself think about it. I hope that you can work through your pain better than me...,” he said, a faint heart still on his screen underneath of his face symbol.

Amy was immediately reminded of Vincent noticing her crying too, and telling her that she must be sad, even if she didn't think she had reason to be. First Vincent, and now Guardian... was she forgetting someone? Had something happened to her that she had forgotten about? She reached her free hand up to wipe off some tears she did indeed find on her face, and smiled at Guardian.

“I am sad... even though there is No reason for me to be sad.... and even though I don't remember anyone being lost in my life... so I don't know why I'm crying Guardian... but thank you... I'm sure its just that the Doctor and I have been through a lot getting through this part of the city alive through all those scary Zurks...” she said, squeezing Guardian's hand back in gratitude for his kindness.

Guardian's screen, which was starting to clear up some now that he had been focused on Amy's reactions and not on Clementine, had the same faint red heart, along with a question mark and a concerned face expression, which Jacob, coming up the stairs and walking over to them, knew meant that Guardian was concerned about Amy, since Amy was the one he was looking at. Before Jacob made it over to their table, Guardian had also witnessed, through the corner of his small camera screens and other detectors, the Doctor, acting as if he felt guilty about something. The red-robed bot made a digital note to himself to ask the Doctor about this at a later time.

Jacob hated to interrupt one of the most caring social engagements he'd seen his friend Ian have since before Ian and Clem had stopped living together as roommates, but he didn't want to keep the 2 humans and the cat from some much needed food any longer than he had to. So he knocked his knuckled hand against a nearby table to get their attention without startling them, and then walked the rest of the way to their table. The Doctor, relieved to have someone break up this painful conversation that was bringing him so much renewed guilt, looked up at the bartender with the awesome bow-tie and smiled, and Jacob smiled back.

“Okay, so you 3 organic life forms are in luck! I had Always wondered what the purpose of the big, cold, white room with all the electricity flowing into it, was in the back of my basement storage room... But I was always too busy with other stuff to look, plus I guess some superstition or something left over from our Ancestors must have also been spooking me out... Anyway.. I opened it up, and found a whole lot of labeled clear packages of... something, inside of it.... hopefully in a language you understand. I copied down the words of the different labels, and put them on this digital pad. So if any of this looks appetizing to you, let me know, and I'll see if I can follow the Heating Up directions that it has on it... that is if I can borrow your sonic screwdriver Doctor... as I see it can now translate like that B-12 friend of yours can?”

When the Doctor gave Jacob permission to borrow his screwdriver, Amy took the digital pad from the bartender, seeing that everything he wrote down was in fact written in English, thankfully. None of it was anything that she would normally eat, cause it didn't sound too good, since it was all labeled as being soaked in vinegar, of all things... but she wasn't about to be picky when she was starved inside of an enclosed city filled with robots. She told Jacob what she wanted and then handed the pad over to the Doctor.

The Doctor looked at the menu of items and winced... Definitely not fine human cuisine... every single labeled item was a different kind of vacuum packed “full meal”, some breakfasts, some lunches, and some dinners, but all were soaked in vinegar? When he thought about it some more, it made sense. When humans had still lived here, they were living in a city that was completely enclosed, and yet still very warm and extremely humid. That humidity was not only evident in the droplets all over his and Amy's skin... but also in the air conditioners they had seen in most if not all of the apartments they had gone through or walked past, as well as in the rusty condition of many robots, both the live ones and the dead ones. In fact, Guardian was the only one they had seen so far that was perfectly shiny like a new car sitting on a car sales lot. The Doctor guessed that Guardian regularly oiled or waxed his body to keep it that shiny, because even Jacob's body was full of rust.

In an atmosphere that was constantly this full of humidity and heat, food would spoil very quickly, and yet food was probably at a super premium here, with such very little extra space to grow or raise it like there was for civilizations above ground. So these ancient humans in this city would have been extra careful about preserving their food until the very moment they were going to eat it. They had probably been forced to get used to vacuum packed vinegar drenched food very quickly when they moved to this city, the Doctor thought to himself. Exactly Why these humans had felt the necessity to move to this city at all, under such gloomy and encased circumstances, the Doctor couldn't even begin to imagine. They must have felt very desperate to do such a thing in the first place.

He looked over to Amy, still not sure which of these very unappetizing things he wanted to try. Normally, he didn't need to eat as much food as humans did, as any of his incarnations could utilize more energy from food than humans, and he could also gain energy by being in close proximity to any Time/Space Vortex, which in his case these days, was always the TARDIS, as it had several such Vortexes inside of it to enable it to travel as it did. But there was something about traveling through that Inter-Dimensional Universe and into this different version of Earth, and being separated from the TARDIS by the massive walls of this city, that made it harder for his body to acquire energy from his beloved ship. Add to all of this the fact that he had been required to do an exceeding amount of climbing, walking, squeezing through things, jumping impossible distances, and running faster than even he thought he could ever run, for a very long distance, and he had Definitely used up much more energy than his body had been able to acquire recently.

“Alright Amy.. none of this looks like what the pubs in your neighborhood would serve, much less any other restaurant or home in England or anywhere on your Earth... so What did You order? And what do you recommend I eat?” he said, smiling at her in his quirky way that he usually did when he asked her a question like this.

Amy looked back at him as if to say: Well Everything looks bad, but beggars can't be choosers, and even You Must Be Famished.

What she said instead was, “I picked the meal that I was the most okay with eating even though it's soaked in vinegar: Beef, with potatoes and carrots... hopefully it won't be too bad... No offense at all Jacob, I know you aren't used to feeding humans, and I Really appreciate you feeding us!” Amy quickly added to Jacob before looking back at the Doctor, “But you are a Time Lord, so I don't know.. maybe your kind eat vinegar soup for breakfast every day!” she said, chuckling in the way she did when she talked about things she didn't understand about the Doctor, “So I don't know... there were also those 2 vegetable soups, one with beans and one with meat.... that might not be too bad with vinegar in it....” she finished, shrugging her shoulders.

“You have some valid points Amy!” he said, doing his insatiable best to keep lighthearted about this whole situation, “And I probably need to keep hydrated too... so okay, Jacob, how about that vegetable and beef stew, I will have that!” he said in his usual chipper voice.

“Right! You got it, both of you! I will get to work right away on those! And Guardian... do you want your usual evening RAMen Soup with Micro-USD chips?” Jacob asked, looking first to the 2 humans and then to his friend.

“Yes Jacob, thank you... and I'll cover all of us, so don't worry about that.. “ Guardian replied, and Jacob nodded.

“I'm not at all worried about that, they can eat free until they either have a chance to find a place in the village, or decide to be as gutsy as.. well you know who, and try to keep on traveling. IN the meantime, does the cute little orange cat on Amy's lap want to eat anything?” Jacob added.

Dawn had already been talking to the Doctor about the food choices, and so the Doctor spoke up for her, “Yes, she says she will have the chicken and vegetables. She asks that you do your best to squeeze as much vinegar out of it as you can. She doesn't know what a lot of vinegar will do to her digestive system.”

“Will do! Okay, I will have those out to the 4 of you as soon as possible! In the meantime, relax, feel free to use the jukebox downstairs, make yourselves at home!” Jacob said as he turned around and headed back downstairs with the Doctor's screwdriver.

Thankfully B-12 came out of the backpack pocket, saying: “I should have acquired enough energy in this time to translate for you until Jacob is finished borrowing your screwdriver Doctor.”

They thanked him, and then Guardian turned towards the Doctor, “Amy talked about you as if you were not actually a human. She called you a 'Time Lord'. Is that something that is Not human?” he asked, a question mark on his screen underneath of his now smiling face symbol, his screen now clear of any glitches.

Amy smirked, cause she hadn't been paying attention to the fact that she had “let the cat out of the bag” sort of speak, about the Doctor not being human.

The Doctor got his “Oh, okay so now I have to try to explain” smile on his face and looked at Guardian, “Well, yes, you are right, I am Not a human. Yes, you are Also right, Time Lords are kind of like another type of … human looking kind of organic, to use the word Jacob used for all of us. It's kind of complicated... but I am Definitely Not from the same place as Amy is, and my kind, who are all gone now unfortunately except for me, are very different from humans like Amy. We just Look like humans,” the Doctor tried to explain.

Guardian got a “thinking face” symbol on his screen along with a question mark, and replied, “Living, surviving humans, and.. other kinds of Soft One Ancestors... can't possibly all be residing and surviving in the limited space of this city... to say nothing about her kind,” Guardian said, pointing his monitor's screen towards Dawn for a moment, “And yet you both have indicated that there are many more of you somewhere else....so does that mean that you come from Outside of this City somewhere?”

Both Amy and the Doctor, and even Dawn, nodded, not sure exactly how to reply in words to someone who had gone so very long not thinking anything else existed outside of their city. They had already found out about that being Guardian's belief right up until now. They were changing a strong belief he had for over 7 million years. They didn't want to say the wrong thing.

They didn't have to, as he continued after seeing them nod, “Wow.... It doesn't seem fair to Clem....” a long glitched pause here, as Guardian started thinking about Clementine again, “she tried to convince me for all those countless millennia that life and existence existed beyond the city, and I never believed it... she tried so hard to convince me... and now you 4 come along, and in just a few minutes, I start to change my mind... But for me, you 3, Amy, the Doctor, and Dawn, your existence and your talk of there being many others like you still around, while we are all talking in such a relatively small enclosed city full of such dangers, is so much more compelling evidence then all the books and trinkets supposedly left by our Ancestors talking about life before the city. The books can be explained as fake stories, the photos the same.... the trinkets as made up things for a made up world.... But living breathing Ancestors.. humans, human-like peoples, cats, that came from areas with others like you, having to Be From Somewhere.... is Much more obvious to me... even if I don't understand How yet.... But I feel guilty... guilty now for not ever having believed her arguments...” he said with lots of static in his voice again, and Amy reached out and held his one metal hand again in compassion and sympathy.

The Doctor also felt bad for him, and remembered very long ago when different companions he had found and taken along with him on traveling adventures had gradually opened up not only his “world-view” but also his mind, getting him to care about new things and believe in new things that his Time Lord upbringing would never have normally embraced. He knew the power of relationships in opening up the mind. He also knew what it was like to feel like he couldn't give back what his different friends deserved. He could give them adventures, but he couldn't give them “normal life” things, because that simply “Wasn't Him”. But he was always the optimist, at least outwardly. He might not always feel optimistic about his own self image, far from it in fact, but he always tried to get others to be optimistic about themselves. That was no less true now than it had ever been.

“There's no need to feel guilty Guardian.. We all discover new things, we all learn, we all change. And as Jacob said, you have no reason to think Clementine is gone for good. So why not do what you can to try to get in touch with her or others of the Outsiders that went with her! I bet she is Still Okay, and still fighting for what she believed in! And it just so happens that the 4 of us are Also looking to find a way out! And when we do find our way out of here, and a way to open up this city, then we want to take any of you that want to get out of here, with us! You might not be able to leave all these robots behind. But if you have a safe place to go, then you can take them with you! And I am here to tell you that there IS an Outside of here, and from what I could tell, it is Very Livable! Your dear Clementine is Right! So lets try to get in touch with her, and then find the best way for the 4 of us to go up to where she is and help her. And when we do and when we Succeed, Because we Will Succeed, then you can bring the rest of your people Outside to join us and her! Then you two don't have to be apart anymore, And your people no longer have to live in fear and darkness! I Promise you that I will do Everything I can to make that a reality!” the Doctor said, in the same determined and hopeful tone that he always used and felt when he said things like that to people in seemingly dark situations as he looked Guardian in his screen with a very hopeful, determined, caring expression on his face.

And the Doctor was just as determined This Time, to make do on his promise, as he had always been countless other times when he had made promises to people like this in similar situations. He Would find a way to get Out of this City and back to the TARDIS, and when he did, he would make sure to free all these robots to a brand new world. He was Dedicated to that Cause even more so Now, than he had been before....

Chapter Text

Chapter 8:

Momo & The Story of

The Outsiders

By: IzaTheSoftOne

[aka: Seiya's Star in other Fandoms]

The group consisting of Guardian, the Doctor, Amy, Dawn, and B-12, sat together with Guardian expressing his gratitude to the Doctor and the whole rest of the group for being willing to try to help in The Outsider's cause, which he now believed in, and for being willing to find a better life for all these bots he'd been protecting for so very long. The group of travelers from beyond the city knew that the next thing they needed to do, that Guardian had mentioned, was trying to find a way to contact either Clementine or Zbaltazar, the only other known possible surviving member of the Outsiders that had actually traveled through the Sewers in hopes of opening the city.

“So you have mentioned Momo..” the Doctor said, looking to his left at Guardian again, “and you make it sound like he was Also an Outsider, a member of Clementine's group... But yet he stayed here? I think you said that he was still in this village, right? And that's right, I meant to ask this too... why did Clementine decide to go through the dangerous Sewers, when the elevator to the upper city is right there in your village, safe and protected from Zurks?” he asked the red-robed protector-bot.

Guardian had a smile on his screen and nodded, as if understanding the reason for a common confusion or an easily mistaken assumption as he faced the Doctor, “Ahh yes. Sorry, I have been in a village where everyone has known the truth of things here for many, many millennia.. so I forget that newcomers wouldn't understand the situation with the elevator. This lower city's elevator hasn't worked in... “ and again, even Guardian had a hard time keeping track of such vast spaces of time in a city that Always was perpetually dark and unchanging, aside from the Zurks, “I guess it has been a couple of million years, since the Zurks started to be a big threat. That's right.. there was a time when some Upper City bots had come down to do a tour of the University... the only higher level coding school available in the entire city, even though they were warned about Zurks being more prevalent in that area. When they went back up on the elevator, rumor has it that some Zurks got on there too and that when they got up to the Upper City, all that was left of their bodies were bits of arms and legs... And whoever was in charge of the city up there then closed off the elevator and forbade even maintenance people from getting near it or turning it on. Bear in mind, this is an ancient rumor, and I don't think anyone who could have been a witness to this is even still around down here. If there were any witnesses up there, well they were smart enough to stay where it was safe from Zurks. But that was about 2 or so million years ago according to the urban legend, and that was around the time that the elevator cab was brought back down, and no one was able to get it to go back up again. Since then it has stayed down here, and become what you have seen now...” Guardian said, answering the Doctor's 2nd question first.

“As to Momo, yes, he was a member of the Outsiders. He was the last of them to join. It only had 4 official members...” he said and paused, seeing the surprised looks on faces, that resembled surprise on monitor screens enough that Guardian figured out the surprise they must have been feeling, “Yes.. most bots were either like me, not believing, or in some cases not even being able to Understand the concept of the Outside, whereas others believed in it, but didn't think it was possible to ever go there, and so had made as much peace as possible in themselves to just stay here. There were only the 4 of them: Clementine, Doc, Zbaltazar, and Momo, who not only believed in it but fiercely believed that it was obtainable, obtainable, and possible, to open the city up to it somehow...”

Guardian had drifted off in reflected memory of that time long ago, of his memories or knowledge of the 4 of them meeting, and what he'd heard about their meetings so far back ago before he continued with his reply, “Momo was the last of the 4 to join, and also the least confident in himself. He was Very confident about his beliefs, but he was always a very shy, reserved, and fearful bot, from the day I first met him, way before Zurks were around, till now. So when Clem... when she started to formulate the idea of going through the Sewers, a lot of us bots in the village speculated on whether or not Momo would go with her. We knew Zbaltazar would, he was Very faithful to the cause And to Clem.... “ Guardian had started to glitch a lot at this point and was clearly trying to regain control of himself before continuing.

Amy and the Doctor both took note of this glitching too and looked at each other before Guardian found his voice again, “But Momo.. we could All see him practically blanch every time the Sewers were even Mentioned.. much less when it was mentioned for a group to go Through them... I felt bad for Momo really... even though I thought the idea of Any of them going through there was Insane and just toying with your own death.... But I digress... I heard from Jacob that when Clementine asked Momo if he was going to come, he turned her down. It came as no surprise to her just as it came to no surprise to all the rest of the village... And I am sure he regrets it the same way I regret not being able to go with them to keep them all safe.... I am silent about my own regrets... but Momo is much more obvious with his, the few times he leaves his apartment that is... He has been Very depressed ever since a few days passed without any word from any of them. I guess that he Blames himself for them possibly.. well not making it... and thinks that if he had gone, they'd all still be okay. He spends most of his days now trying to receive or send radio signals to or from them, or anywhere else where someone might have information on them... And as far as I know, he still hasn't succeeded, and that was 40ish years ago... Of course, it doesn't help that the highest antenna for most radio signals in this whole city is in the middle of heavy Zurk territory... The antenna was on the edge of the University campus on the left side of the lower city.... so if there was something wrong on That End of the radio signals, there would be No Way to fix it before you were literally eaten alive...” Guardian finished, his screen having gradually turned empathically sad during his tale of Momo and the Outsiders.

“So Momo is actively trying to get in touch with the rest of the Outsiders, but hasn't had any luck yet?” the Doctor asked, and when Guardian nodded, he continued, “Is he getting a signal through but no one is answering, or is he having trouble with the equipment, do you know?”

Guardian raised a metal finger up in the air, the way a human would as if to say: Hold on a minute, I think I hear something. Then he looked at the Doctor and then Amy and Dawn, “I think I might actually hear him now... talking to Jacob downstairs...” he said, and in another couple of moments he was sure of it and continued, “Yes, I do! He probably heard the word spread through the village of our unusual new visitors, and of course, any Outsider would not be able to resist getting to meet a Soft One Ancestor... even with you all being with me. Plus Momo is familiar and comfortable with me, so he wouldn't be afraid of upsetting me like some of the other bots might..” Guardian thought out loud.

A minute later confirmed for the others that Guardian was indeed right as they heard some heavy footfalls coming up the steps towards them, with Amy and Dawn turning around to see if Guardian was right. Sure enough, a brand new “head” started to come up from the banister.

Not a moment after his feet reached the 2nd floor, he was speaking, “Guardian, are you up here? Is what everyone in the village said true, and Jacob? Did you help 2 Soft Ones and their cat come into the village?” the newcomer's voice said as he walked towards their table.

The Doctor, Amy, and Dawn saw a bot who seemed to be equally as tall and slender as Guardian, but wearing distinctly different clothing. They didn't have the protector-bot's distinctive Asian style, nor did they have the drab style of the bot that was “drinking” in the bar when they came in, nor did they have Jacob's very old-fashioned formal attire. Instead they had a very flamboyant, very long Hawaiian green and pink Hawaiian shirt with flamingos all over it. They also wore an Asian straw and bamboo farmer's hat.

Amy already liked this bot, because they weren't afraid to wear something so flamboyant and full of life. When Guardian greeted the new bot as Momo, Amy was very surprised that a depressed and super shy and fearful “person” would wear something so different like that.

“Hello Momo! Yes, indeed I did, as you can see for yourself. Might I say it is a pleasure to see you out of your apartment? Please meet, the Doctor, Amy, Dawn, and B-12!” Guardian responded to Momo, gesturing to each of his new bar companions as he said their names.

Momo walked the rest of the way up to their table, standing where a waiter would stand, and the group got an even better look at him. He also had the same monitor head as Guardian and Jacob and others they had met, looking like old-fashioned computer monitors from the 1990s and 2000s on Amy's Earth. But his screen was very different from both Jacob's and Guardian's. His screen had a rainbow background, and Amy thought that his screen was just as flamboyant as his outfit. How could such a flamboyant-looking robot have such a shy and diffident personality, she wondered.

His monitor was a very light shade of beige, almost white, and his silver robot body seemed to have a pink “leotard-like” metal body casing instead of other more typical metal colors. Amy realized however that she had no idea what that same metal part of some of the other bots she had met were because Guardian and Jacob both wore clothes covering that area. But Momo only had the long Hawaiian shirt, unbuttoned and open.

“Wow... I Definitely did Not think that I was going to be the Outsider to meet a Soft One, and so soon! Soft Ones and Soft One pets.... wow.... It is a Pleasure to meet all of you! I am Momo. I have theorized about your existence for soo very long. I didn't have the bravery and strength to try to find a way to open the city in order to go looking for them... like Clem....” and Momo paused in his excited talking at Clem's name, looking from the visitors to Guardian, “Oh gee Ian..” and he paused again when he realized that he had forgotten not to use Guardian's nickname in public just like Jacob had earlier.

“It's okay Momo, both things are okay, the name and saying Clem's name. Being able to see our Ancestors In Person is throwing everyone off today. Why don't you pull over one of those wooden chairs near the pool table and sit with us... That is if my companions don't mind?” the red-robed bot said, first facing Momo, and then turning around to look at all of the others at the table.

“No, not at all! Sit with us Momo; we were, in fact, Just Talking about you!” the Doctor said in one of his very friendly and excited tones.

“We definitely were! It's Very Nice to meet you Momo! And Doctor..” Amy said, a smirk on her face while looking at the Time Lord right in the eye with one of her distinct Right-Back-At-Ya looks, “If YOU can compliment Jacob on his bow tie and say it is cool, then I Can compliment Momo on his clothes, and say that Flamingos are Cool!” she said, looking back at Momo with a big smile on her face.

Dawn purr-meowed in her cat version of laughter at this whole thing, as B-12 was trying very hard to keep translating everything, though only audibly, so as to save on his very low energy levels. She hoped that Jacob would come back up with the Doctor's sonic screwdriver And their food, very soon. She was Famished!

“Um, Thank You! I didn't think I was going to come here to get a compliment on my outfit, of all things, by an Ancestor,” Momo replied, blush lines appearing on his smiling face symbol, before he switched gears in the conversation, “If you don't mind me asking, how did you all even make it to the edge of our village and through all those Zurks!?” Momo asked with several question marks on his screen.

Guardian nodded, a question mark on his own screen as he had wondered the same thing.

The Doctor and Amy looked at each other and smiled, and Amy raised an eyebrow at the Time Lord. Dawn thought to herself she would answer, but B-12 couldn't translate directly for her. B-12 took the initiative to answer himself, still only verbally.

“I guided them, and had Dawn, the cat, using a lot of the bucket-pulley systems around the city. As for the Doctor and Amy, they went through a lot of the paralleling apartments in the nearby buildings, following along near us as best they could. The Doctor has an ingenious device that lets him open locked doors and other things of the like. I, in a different, robot-assistant body, used to work for a human scientist when humans still lived in the city. I was trapped in the city's computer systems for a very long time, but I could see things going on in the city. These 3 literally fell down, OUTSIDE of the city's big wall. I managed to open the nearby door into the city, if only briefly. Security is very challenging for me to get through and very taxing. The door wouldn't help anyone to get out of the city anyway, as these 3 know, it was a deep cavern of types, with no way out. The only way these 3 were able to get out was to come into the city,” B-12 said, adding, “And I am sorry everyone, but until Jacob comes back with the Doctor's sonic screwdriver, you won't have any way to translate each other's languages. I am about out of power and will need to stay in the recharge pack now for about an hour before I will be able to be of use to anyone. I am sorry for the inconvenience,” he said, as he managed to lift his drone body off of the table where it had been resting this whole time, and floated it into Dawn's backpack's pocket.

“We understand B-12, and we thank you for so faithfully and accurately translating so much! I am sure Jacob will be here any minute with our food and with the Doctor's screwdriver!” Amy said, patting the backpack pocket, while the Doctor and Dawn nodded in agreement with everything she had said.

In the remaining time that they had before Jacob came up with their food, Momo asked some things of Guardian:

Momo: “They actually came from the Outside? Do you believe them? Do you believe in the Outside now? And um... please don't think I mean any disrespect.... I am only--”

Guardian: “Momo, it's okay! Really! Yes, yes I believe in the Outside now. Especially as I learned that there are actually 3 races represented here. A cat, a human/Soft One, and whatever a 'Time Lord' is, which is what the Doctor is. And they talk of coming from societies of many of their kind. I don't believe they are making it up, and of course, B-12 collaborates that they came from Outside the city. So for me, that is much more real evidence than any of the books and other items found in the city, which could have all been faked. So yes, now I believe.”

Momo, looking at Guardian with lots of exclamation points and then a smiling face symbol: “.. She would have been thrilled beyond belief to hear you say that.... She never knew it I'm sure.. but whenever your name would come up during Outsider conversations, there was always a very faint heart behind her face symbol. I am not making that up, nor would I. She never stopped being very fond of you. I wish... I wish she was still here... But then, of course, she wouldn't be Her if she was still here then, would she...”

Guardian, smiling but also glitching a lot: “Yes... And she would have loved to have met these 4... she would have had So many questions for them. So I will believe that She is still okay and that she and Zbaltazar made it to the Upper City and are even now working on a plan to open up the city. These 3 plan to follow in her footsteps, literally I think, locate the 2 of them, and help them with their cause. They want to open up the city and free us all too, as well as be able to return to their various homes Outside. I think they all come from different places if what I have heard from them is any indication.”

Momo, nodding his monitor with a big huge smile on his rainbow screen: “Of course she Is! I have been trying to contact her on any radio signals at all, but I always get nothing back. I don't know what to make of that; I have no idea what is wrong. Maybe they are all just still hiding out, and they will get back to me when they are not in danger....”

Guardian was about to reply to that but held his reply because he saw Jacob's head crest the wooden banister, meaning hopefully that he had everyone's refreshments. A moment later showed that he did indeed have everyone's refreshments, And he had Swanito apparently behind him, who had offered, apparently, to help him bring up everything!

The Doctor had to give the outfit-wearing robot equivalent of himself a lot of credit. When Jacob put down the plates of his and Amy's food, it actually looked Very Good, and at least from looking at it, you'd never know that it had been literally soaking in vacuum-sealed bags of vinegar for literally millions of years. Swanito came up from behind him, trying his hardest not to stare at the visitors, as he placed a big bowl of another very appetizing dish down beside Dawn Stealth, who purred Very Loudly in response, because the bowl of food Actually Smelled Very Good, and would even if she Wasn't Famished.

Everyone did their version of a chuckle to hear such a loud sound from her throat. Swanito then placed another bowl of RAMen soup complete with actual RAM cards, and some USB cards also resting against the inside of the bowl, in front of Guardian.

“Thank you Swanito! I couldn't have gotten all of that up here in one trip without your help! Now I guess you will want to stay up here With our Fine Guests, right?” Jacob said, and the tall, slender, shy robot nodded his monitor head, “Ok, then will you be having your usual then? A bottle of Siuba Oil, and a bottle of Alcohol?”

Swanito nodded with a big smile on his screen, and Jacob turned to Momo and Guardian, “I will get your normal bottle of Siuba Oil Guardian, no worries. Momo, do you want anything? RAMen soup? Oil? Alcohol? Air?”

“I will have some RAMen soup and alcohol too Jacob, thank you!” Momo answered with a big smile on his face still.

Jacob was about to turn around and head back downstairs, when he got an exclamation point on his screen, dug his hand into his waist apron, and pulled out the Doctor's sonic screwdriver.

“Thank you So Much, Doctor! This came in So Much Handy in learning how to use the long unused microwave down in my prep area! And to heating up the dishes, thank you!” he said, using it one last time before giving it to the Doctor.

The Doctor smiled back at him took his screwdriver again, and used it to translate everything they had all said from recorded memory for him, Amy, and Dawn. Meanwhile, Jacob went back downstairs alone, and Swanito pulled up another chair near Momo and the others.

Amy was looking at Guardian's RAMen soup, wondering if they actually ATE something like that somehow and if so, for what reason? She decided to just ask, after gesturing for the Doctor to let her use the screwdriver.

“Okay, so what I Have to know is, are you really going to Eat that soup?! And if so, are you just mimicking us Soft Ones or do you actually Need that to survive, like we need to eat for the same reason?” Amy asked, looking at the odd soup with its clear liquid floating around in the big bowl, with several USB and RAM cards resting against the side of the bowl, mostly submerged in the liquid.

The Doctor, however, had a theory and gestured with his pointer finger for Guardian to hold off answering, took the screwdriver back again, and used it to scan the bowl, his eyes getting wider in his excitement at having figured something out.

“The liquid, it is Isopropyl Alcohol, isn't it! My guess is... with how immensely Humid it is in this city, you use it to keep your inner components free of rust. Especially for someone like you, who has to stay in tip-top condition in order to move as quickly as you do, you would need to be constantly keeping your inner and outer workings and parts rust and corrosion-free,” he said, his voice getting more and more excited to realize such an ingenious idea, “But as to the RAM and USB's.... I guess I'd have to say, they are dipped into the alcohol to keep them totally free of both... and … And You Use them to Replace Some of Your Current cards that might be starting to get rusted or otherwise scarred with corrosion because small cards like that are harder to constantly maintain, and get used a lot. So you replace them with new ones periodically, with ones kept in alcohol!?” the Doctor said, guessing on the last parts, still with his excited expression.

Amy looked at him as if he just said that the city was dark because it was alive and it hated sunshine when she was surprised to see Guardian have a big smile on his screen and nod his head, “Very good! Yes, that is Exactly what RAMen soup is for. It is expensive, unfortunately, as both components are harder and harder to acquire given things as they are. But as the protector of this village, I can afford it, and I must have it regularly so I can continue to be effective at swiftly moving and taking care of Zurks when necessary. Those who find it harder to pay for it regularly will just have bottles of the same kind of alcohol, doing their best to keep rust out of inner components. And obviously, the oil is to keep our inner, and outer, metal workings lubricated to prevent seizure or damage. And the air is obviously compressed air, to prevent sensitive and hot inner workings from frying due to dust buildup, and also to prevent caking and corrosion.”

Guardian turned to Amy then, "As to whether or not we 'eat' this, the answer is yes we do. I will show you, as best I can without undressing here in public, of course," he said to her with a smiling face symbol.

Guardian then picked up one of the RAM cards with a pair of special tongs that Amy realized were in a canister on the edge of the table. He then slightly loosened his robes around his upper chest area, pressed some part of his body hidden underneath, and then used his other hand to place the tongs through this widened gap in his robes and under his monitor. A few moments later and he pulled the tongs back out again, empty. Amy was fascinated but wished that she could see a bot do this same thing Without clothes in the way of the view but didn't feel comfortable saying that, especially to Guardian.

After Guardian answered Amy's other question, Jacob came up with Momo's and Swanito's refreshments, and the two sat across from each other in the booth behind Amy and Dawn, with everyone being quiet as they enjoyed whatever they had. Amy, the Doctor, and Dawn were all surprisingly happy with what they ate. From what they could tell Jacob must have found some seasonings to add to the food, and also must have found a way to evaporate a lot of the vinegar out of it. They all enjoyed it a lot better than they were expecting, which was helped by how starved all of them were.

Amy got her previous wish granted when Momo took a moment to let Amy see how He ate his RAMen soup, with his Hawaiian top still very much opened up so she could see what he did very clearly. She saw that he pressed down on his "Around the Neck" metal panel, making it incline inward and away from his chest panel. Then he placed the tongs with the RAM card inside that and back out again, empty. He explained to her that there was a "metal grabbing part" inside that area that took cards and other similar equipment parts and placed them where they had to go while removing older pieces and placing them in a spot for emptying later when the robot was in a private location. He explained that for robots, opening up their chest panels was a super private thing. Amy again thanked him for sharing all that information, as did the Doctor, who found it all utterly fascinating and super brilliant!

Afterward, when everyone was finished eating their refreshments, Momo and Guardian offered to take the dishes back down to Jacob, with Amy helping them. When they all came back up, they found Swanito and the Doctor playing a game of pool, as the Doctor hadn't played pool in a very long time, and was curious how his skills. He and Swanito were apparently equally matched, the robot not having played in a long time too.

As they played, Momo, Guardian, Amy, and Dawn sat in the original booth Guardian had selected, sometimes watching the game, and sometimes talking. Amy took this as an opportunity to find out more about the Outsiders, and how she, Dawn, and the Doctor might be able to catch up to them and help them in their mutual quest. She did this right after congratulating the Doctor on a particularly skilled shot on the pool table that had Swanito looking quite distressed.

“So Momo, you have said that you haven't heard anything from your frequent attempts to contact your Outsider friends who went into the Sewers. Might there be some kind of way of knowing what all ways they were planning on going, so the Doctor, Dawn, and I, know how to follow them and get to the Upper City? And hopefully, be able to meet up with them on the way so we can all help each other with opening up the city and getting out of here?” Amy said, smiling at the rainbow-screened robot who was sitting across from her, facing the rest of the 2nd floor.

Momo smiled back at Amy, as there was just something about her personality that he really liked. He thought to himself that there just seemed to be something about her that really reminded him of Clementine. But he couldn't put his finger on exactly what.

“Without being able to contact them and ask them directly... I think the only way that might discover an idea of how to follow them and meet up with them, would be in their journals... They all kept 'Outsider's Journals” of their ideas, thoughts, and stuff like that.... I don't know if they took the journals with them or not... But it might be worth looking. I.. never tried looking for them for that purpose... because I was always too scared to go after them by myself... Even though I miss them terribly.... I always wish I could go back to that time when Clem asked if I was going with her, Zar, and others... and said Yes instead of No...” Momo responded, his face getting sad again.

Amy hated seeing him start to look sad, just like she had with Guardian, and again there was the nagging feeling that she Understood Missing Someone and was doing that herself... Which made no sense. So she reached out her hand to him the same way she had done with Guardian. Guardian, sitting across from Momo, watched all this, and thought to himself the same as Momo: That Amy really reminded him of Clem. There were a few differences, but many similarities. He thought that Clem would probably really like Amy like a sister.

“Momo, as the Doctor said to Guardian, we all make mistakes, and we can all change. You are here now, and you are helping them by helping us. So think of it This Way, if you Had gone with them, then you wouldn't have been here to guide Us to be able to follow them and help them out! I know it was quite some time ago that they all left, but I have faith, like the Doctor, that just like this whole village withstood the Zurks for so long, so too can your Outsider friends and the others withstand whatever they are facing, and are fine. As we've said before, there must be Some Reason that they aren't communicating back, like they're afraid of getting caught by someone or something. So we will just take this 1 step at a time! The Doctor, Dawn, B-12 and I will start looking for those journals after we have gotten some Much Needed Rest! We have all done So Much arduous traveling, but once we are fully recovered from that, we'll look for those journals, and figure out from that how to go after your friends! So have faith, and don't be so hard on yourself, Okay?” Amy replied, her voice just as kind and understanding as it had been for Guardian.

Momo's smile came back as he looked at Amy's kind face, “Thank you, Amy, I feel so much better already! You are right! We will figure out how to meet up with them! And when you all are ready to go looking for them, I am going to go with you! I will not fail the Outsiders a 2nd time!” Momo said excitedly, and Amy smiled brighter, with Guardian getting a faint heart underneath of his smiling face symbol.

When the pool game ended, with Swanito and the Doctor actually tying, both considered it too late to play again.

“But rest assured, before we go off looking for your Outsiders in the Sewers, I will have a rematch! That was a great game, Swanito, you are Very good at this game!” the Doctor said, shaking the shy bot's hand, who smiled with an underlying heart.

Amy quickly filled the Doctor in on her and Momo's conversation, with the Doctor smiling at both Amy and Momo.

“Good work Amy! Cheering up everyone, And figuring out a way for us to move forward! I agree, with just a bit of rest, we should be good to go for finding the journals, and figuring out the best way to proceed! I Usually don't even Need rest... or not much and not for a long time.. but unfortunately going through into a different Universe in such an odd way, And being separated from my beloved TARDIS, And having done so much arduous traveling, has me Really Needing rest, almost as if I had just Reincarnated!” the Doctor said, his excited voice never stopping in its youthful energy.

“Oh wow... everything must have really worn you out then.... We Better get rest soon then... cause if you need another dose of fish fingers and custard... I doubt we'll find any of that in this entire city.... and if we do... it would probably taste Absolutely Horrible drenched in vinegar....” Amy said, smiling and making a face at the end, just thinking about the horrible food combination.

The Doctor agreed and made an equally disgusted expression. Then he looked at Guardian and Momo, who both had question marks on their screens when the sonic screwdriver was translating what the two travelers had said.

“Oh... yes,” the Doctor replied to their unspoken questions, “That's another thing that makes Time Lords different from Humans or Soft Ones. Time Lords can regenerate when we die. So if I were to say.. fall off of the edge of the Upper City... which I wouldn't do cause I'm too smart for that, but if I did, energy would engulf me and I would form into another body. It would be me.. but not. I would remember everything from my different 'me pasts', but my personality would be different, as would my strengths and weaknesses. Though there is a limit of regenerations....,” the Doctor explained, his expression getting much more thoughtful and somber, as he thought about the fact that he had run out of regenerations when this version of him died, and he shook his head to stop thinking about such troubling thoughts.

Momo and Guardian looked at each other, with interested face symbols on their screens, with a quick digital conversation passing between them that was too quick for the sonic screwdriver to translate.

Guardian then spoke up to the rest of the group in a way that the screwdriver Could translate: “That sounds a little like if one of us Companions replaced a lot of our basic coding and switched it with other coding, while still keeping our data storage. We'd have all our same memories but we would act and behave totally differently, and we'd also have different computer programs dictating how we did and viewed everything...”

Momo nodded his head, as the Doctor had to be impressed yet again at these Companions, “Yes, it is Very Much like that,” the Doctor agreed with a thoughtful smile.

Momo was also fascinated by this concept, and added, “So are you in your first version, or in a later version?”

The Doctor's expression got more somber as he replied, “This is my 11th 'official' version... but technically I have had an additional one that was... different totally, and another one that I cut off or changed dramatically, however, you want to look at it. So if you want to get really honest with it, this is my 12th reincarnation,” he said, looking very pensive.

Momo and Guardian looked at each other again, having another really quick conversation that the screwdriver couldn't follow. Both bots recognized, from their own lives, the body behavior of someone who was troubled a lot by something and found it hard to talk about. They both decided to stop talking about this for now. Guardian decided to try talking to the Doctor about it at a later time, along with why the Time Lord always seemed to be upset when Amy was mysteriously upset. But for now, the protector-bot realized that it was getting late for all of them. He would have to start his last Guard Round of the day cycle before retiring to his home for the night, and these 3 travelers who weren't robots must really need their rest.

“Well it is getting late, and I think we all have different things to attend to very soon, and for you our visitors, you must be in serious need of sleep. I have an idea of where you can stay for the night, so you can follow me and I will take you there, before I go on my last Guard Round for the night. And if you want, I can wake you up when I do one of my morning rounds on tomorrow's day cycle,” Guardian offered with a smile on his screen.

“Yes, and I don't know what your time cycles are where you all are from, but night cycles here last around 14 to 16 hours, that's the clock we are on. We only know this from the records left over from our Ancestors in this city, but their science backs this up. So Guardian's first earliest morning watch would be in about 10 hours from now, and his 2nd in about 13 hours from now, if I am right about that...” Momo added and Guardian looked at him with surprise, amazed that the usually depressed bot had kept track of Guardian's schedule that well.

“Wow... that is a nice long time to rest! Even I should be well rested by the first patrol round, though the 2nd one would be nicer....” Amy replied.

“That Does make a lot of sense, given how far into the future we are here,” the Doctor said with renewed excited interest, his previous pensive expression gone, “And yes, I think this time, Amy and I should rest for a longer time, because we went through a lot before getting here, and we most likely have a whole lot to go through in the Sewers before we would hopefully get to another safe place,” the Doctor said.

“Well it's settled then, rest and/or relax until Guardian's 2nd patrol, where he will get you up, and then you can meet me at my apartment, and I will help you to look for the journals of my friends! Guardian can tell you how to get there! He has always visited me at least once a day to check up on me, so he knows where I live!” the now very chipper and excited Momo added.

So they all decided on this plan, and Momo left the bar with Swanito, followed soon after by Guardian and the travelers, after saying goodnight to Jacob, who smiled at them all and told the newcomers that they were welcome here any time.

So Guardian led them down a couple of streets and stopped at a door that had lots of signs on it. He knocked a few times and stood back, waiting for something. A few seconds later another tall robot opened the door, this one wearing a drab white outfit much like the one at the bar when they'd first come in. Amy couldn't tell if it was the same robot or another one, because this one also had a monitor head, and the lighting was very dim by this doorway. This robot answering the door looked like it had initially been very sleepy, as it started out with a sleepy face symbol on its screen, but upon seeing Guardian it snapped to attention very noticeably.

Not yet noticing the odd people behind the red-robed bot, and maybe not even being able to see them in the dim lighting in the street, the other bot greeted Guardian, adding for the sonic screwdriver to translate, “Guardian.. I'm sorry, we weren't expecting you. If I had known it was you I would have turned on the porch light. Do you need something from one of us? Would you like to come in?”

Guardian gave this bot another of his warm smiles, “It is okay Nestor, this was an unexpected visit. Have you heard the village gossip about the Soft One Ancestors and the cat who I helped into the village?” Guardian replied.

Nestor's expression got wide eyes on its screen symbol as he replied, “No! I hadn't.. I have been working so hard lately and then not been able to charge my battery like I should be... and probably overheating my processors... So No! Really? Soft Ones and a Cat?? Here? Really?? Wow... so you can't be here Just to tell us that. Is there something we can do to help them out, or you?” Nestor added, his screen flipping between his surprised symbol to exclamation points and back again.

“As a matter of fact, yes! Three of the four of them are, of course, organic creatures. They will need to rest, preferably on a bed. As you know, home spaces have been at a premium ever since the last bad Zurk attack around a century ago when we had to bring in the borders of the village by several kilometers. So there aren't too many extra mattresses with space around them for someone to take somewhat private respite. But we know that you two have those 2 bunk beds on your lower floor that you haven't used ever since Momo moved out a while back. So would you two please be willing to let the 3 visitors room with you for the duration of their stay?” Guardian asked after explaining the situation.

“Of course Guardian, you know we will always try to do what we can to help out, especially with anything you need us to help out with. So of course, send them in, and I will help get them settled in!” Nestor said with his screen displaying a smiling face.

So Guardian stood aside and waved for Amy, the Doctor, and Dawn to walk past him to the doorway. They took his cue and headed towards Nestor and the doorway, with Nestor's screen getting wide-eye dots on it upon seeing them. It was obvious that the tall bot wanted to ask them questions and take time studying the first Soft Ones he'd ever seen, but was holding back because he knew they must need to rest and be refreshed. After they walked past him into his and his partner's home and work space, he said a respectful goodnight to Guardian who did the same, and Guardian told the trio of unusual guests that he would knock on this door again on his 2nd guard patrol like they had talked about, and then swing by a bit later after that to take them back to the bar for food before taking them to Momo's apartment.

When Guardian left and Nestor closed the door, he was very kind and polite to the group, as he asked them if they needed anything besides beds to rest on. When they said they had all their other needs taken care of at the Dufer Bar, Nestor then looked awkward, by leaning on one leg and looking down while playing with the back of his monitor with his hand. He needed to ask something, but he always felt weird asking it when he didn't know the individuals involved. Being that he was in a partner relationship with Elliott, he knew about the needs that different beings had to sleep with those they were involved with. And he had forgotten to step Guardian aside and ask him if these two were a couple or not. But he didn't want to upset or offend them by offering them beds apart from each other if they Were in a relationship.

Thankfully Amy was more than familiar with this kind of behavior and what it meant.

“Is there something you want to ask us but don't know how Nestor? I promise that neither the Doctor, myself, or Dawn bite, so really, whatever it is you want to ask or say, go ahead!” she said, one of her friendly and slightly amused smiles on her face.

“Well... Um... As you can see over on the wall, we have spare beds, one above the other.... But if you two... would like to rest together... I can put the mattress from the top bunk down next to the lower one, or even place them down on the floor together for you if you like.... Guardian didn't say if you too were a couple or not...” Nestor replied.

Amy got a big smirk on her face, and this time it was the Doctor's turn to look very uncomfortable, with quite a dose of guilt added thinking of Rory, the one who Should be resting with her tonight. Amy realized, in a baffling way again, that even though she was smirking at the funny circumstances with bots here thinking that she and the Doctor were a couple, she Also had a tear come out of one of her eyes which were watery..... Again, why was she acting so sad to something when she had no reason to? It made No Sense....

She tried to use amused, teasing behavior to cover her nonsensical sadness, especially when she saw the Doctor looking super nervous and upset now, “Well Nestor, You Look At Him,” she said, pointing to the Doctor, “And you tell me, is that the behavior of a man who is dating me or married to me, and comfortable with everyone knowing it? If he Was in a relationship with me, why would he be that uncomfortable with the question being asked? Right Doctor?” she said, her voice even more teasing now on seeing the Time Lord looking so uncomfortable.

The Doctor was actually having trouble finding the right words to say this time, as he was warring between guilt over Rory and her forgetting him, with awkwardness that He was being mistaken as the person in that role with Amy...

When the Time Lord kept being quiet because he literally couldn't come up with what words to say over all his turmoiled feelings, Amy finally took pity on him, “No Nestor, the abnormally quiet and nervous-looking Doctor over there and myself, we are Just Friends. So the bunk beds will be Just Perfect for us, thank you!” she said, her teasing voice and expression gone, and only her kind and warm expression and behavior apparent.

Nestor and the Doctor both looked relieved, and after Nestor made sure that they had fresh bed linens, and that they didn't need anything else, he said goodnight to them and retired upstairs, where he said they could go and knock on the door up there if they needed anything.

Amy really wanted to ask the Doctor why he was so upset by that question, but he honestly looked more rundown and tired than she was used to seeing him, and she herself, now that they were alone, just her, the Doctor, Dawn, and B-12 back inside of his pocket, she realized she was utterly exhausted, and now she was feeling it finally. She told the Doctor that she would take the top bunk if that was okay. He wordlessly nodded, clearly in pensive deep thought. She walked over and rubbed his shoulder in a friendly gesture of “hang in there and get some rest”, and then climbed up to the top bunk and got under the blankets Nestor had provided up there. It was only a short matter of minutes before she was totally unconscious and in a very deep, restful slumber.

The Doctor just stood in the same place he looked uncomfortable in before for a few more minutes after Amy fell asleep, rerunning all of the images of Rory dying and being swallowed by the Time-Space rift, over and over again, unable to stop feeling bad about that moment. Nestor asking about the two of them being a couple just really opened up that wound for the Time Lord.

Dawn wanted to help, as she stood on a desk that was in the corner of the room, looking at the mentally paralyzed Time Lord. She hoped that she wasn't making the wrong decision by her next actions. She had been wondering what was tormenting the Doctor about Amy, so she studied the memories he was replaying in his mind, and then everything became very apparent.

“I apologize profusely if I am out of line here... But I can see what you keep thinking about. It wasn't your fault about Rory... You couldn't have known that scenario with him and the Rift was going to play out that way... And of course, you would have done things differently if you had known... You just wanted to learn more about that rift in your world, so that you would be able to find a way to repair it.... There is no shame in Any of that. And Rory would Not Have Wanted Amy to follow him in Death and in Being Wiped From Existence.... So you need to stop being so hard on yourself. Not everything that you put on your own shoulders to bear is actually your fault and your responsibility. You did Exactly what Rory would have wanted you to do Doctor, you kept Amy alive,” Dawn said reassuringly to the Doctor through their mental link.

That mental connection is what the Doctor really needed to snap out of the inner torment he was feeling over the whole Amy/Rory situation. If he let himself focus on his guilt for too long it was very distracting, even paralyzing, as was the case this time. He turned his head to where Dawn was sitting and smiled gratefully at her.

He walked over and gave her a few pets as a thank you and then walked over to the lower bed and sat down on it, his back against the wall nook that the bed was inside of. He just kind of sat there for a while, and Dawn jumped down from the desk and walked over to his bed and jumped first onto it, and then onto his lap.

He instinctively started petting her, listening to her purr, and slowly getting back to his “normal” state of being. He continued to sit quietly and pet her, gradually unwinding from both his mental torment over Amy, and the ordeal they had getting through this lower city while being separated from the strength and energy he was so used to getting from his TARDIS.

As he sat there silently petting her, she was mentally walking through his memories, trying not to feel bad, since he had specifically given her permission earlier to do so. She felt that he had a very long and tormented existence, and was curious what all he had been through to cause that. When she would examine some memories, including painful ones, he would sometimes make a brief mental comment or clarification, like when she saw a previous incarnation get separated from Rose through a dimensional barrier, and he'd clarify that yes, that was someone he really cared about and yes, they thought they were permanently apart at that time.

When he was finally starting to get wound down enough to be ready to fall asleep, Dawn mentally walked down what could best be called a mental hidden door. She was only able to find it because of her own unfamiliarity with another's mental memories, and her unfamiliarity with how to recognize mental doors and barriers. So she went through the mental block without knowing that it Was a mental block.

She ended up finding memories that were Even More unusual for her than all of his previous ones, which were already unfamiliar to her as a Felid-Cat in a nature-filled Earth.

She saw and experienced the life of a kid being somewhere unfamiliar, in a very unfamiliar place, and getting found by an adult and taken care of. In addition, she saw that kid falling from a high cliff and getting fatally injured, and then having a regeneration sequence reminiscent of the ones this 11th Doctor had described, all in front of their caretaker. Some memories soon after that of tests and experiments done on themselves, were also there for Dawn to see.

She was very confused by it all, since the Doctor hadn't eluded to any of it, and the memories had a very “shadowy” undertone to them. She was about to ask him about it before he fell asleep when she was interrupted from doing so...

He Isn't ready to know about those yet. It isn't the right time. Eventually, he will be, and by that time, you and the Doctor will be much better acquainted with each other. Until then, you are encouraged to learn from his memories as much as you want, even these, because the Doctor will need you more with time. His meeting you now was no coincidence.

Dawn wasn't sure who the voice was coming from, as it definitely was not the Doctor's. Then she felt someone's mental presence behind her. In her mind's eye, she turned around inside of the mental passageways of the Doctor's mind and saw a humanoid form as black and empty looking as space itself on a dark night.

She didn't know what this thing was, though she sensed it was not malevolent in any way.

Then one single word was given to her mentally in her own head before the “super-black” humanoid creature vanished:

Ciendran

.............

Chapter Text

Chapter 9:

Photos, Memories, &

Journals

By: IzaTheSoftOne

[aka: Seiya's Star in other fandoms]

Amy woke up just a few minutes before Guardian came by for his first-morning guard patrol, crawling down from the top bunk. She knew it was only a few minutes before that based on looking at the functioning clock on the nearby wall.

She was delightedly surprised to see the very cute image, on the Doctor's bottom bunk, of the aforementioned Time Lord curled up on his mattress, apparently fast asleep, with Dawn Stealth curled up against his chest in between his curled-up legs and arms. If she had ever seen a cuter image, she couldn't remember what it was! She did her best to allow the two of them, who really had been through a lot, to get however much more rest they could. She personally felt really good and well-rested and was really grateful for Nestor and whoever else he lived with, as well as to Guardian for thinking of this place, so that she was able to have such a comfortable mattress to sleep on. She had no idea if future places to sleep in this dank city would be so comfortable, so she was grateful for this very restful sleep.

She was Very thirsty and didn't know if the sink in Nestor's home actually worked, and didn't want to wake anyone up if the plumbing went horribly wrong. She decided not to risk flooding their home, since she knew they didn't regularly need to use water, and instead quietly opened up the front door and slipped out of it. She knew that Guardian and whatever bots worked with him, made sure to keep the neighborhood safe, so she wasn't afraid of either Zurks, or dangerous bots. She looked both ways down the relatively narrow street that Nestor lived on, trying to remember how to get to Jacob's Dufer Bar, figuring that maybe the bar would be open this early, and she Might be able to get some water or beverage there.

She couldn't remember which way they had come, with how dark everything was around here, and was about to randomly decide on a direction, when she heard the heavy metal footfalls of some-bot around a nearby street corner. Soon enough, in another moment, Guardian's red-robed, metal-bodied, gold-hatted form, complete with long quarterstaff, came around the corner.

He was clearly surprised to see her up already, right before the end of his first patrol, “Amy? What a pleasant surprise, good morning. I know that you are probably used to having a much prettier morning than our dark ones. Can I help you with anything? I am almost done with my first patrol. I always begin at the Dufer bar, and end there too,” he said as Amy pulled out the Doctor's sonic screwdriver which she had been given permission to borrow, and used it to display Guardian's translated words in small print on her palm.

Amy smiled, realizing how nice all of these Companion bots were, “Good morning Guardian! Actually yes, you Can help me! Speaking of the Dufer Bar, I was hoping to go there, because I am so incredibly thirsty, and I didn't know if Nestor's plumbing worked... and I didn't want to flood his home if it didn't, especially with everyone else still asleep...”

Guardian gave a smile symbol on his screen in return, “Well then, you can follow me there. I usually hang out in the bar for a little bit after each of my rounds is over. Jacob opens up early, just as I start my rounds early. Honestly, I think he does that for my sake, cause he usually doesn't get too many bots coming in that early,” the red-robed bot said as he gestured with his arm for Amy to walk with him, which she did.

The two walked in a bit of silence the very short way around the corner to the Dufer bar, where they walked in to find it was indeed empty besides Jacob, behind the bar counter as always, making sure all of his mugs and other dishes were squeaky clean and dry.

Jacob greeted them both very warmly, and Guardian did the same. The latter gestured to Jacob that he was taking Amy up to the 2nd floor, and Jacob nodded and displayed a thumbs-up on his screen. Amy was surprised to see Jacob coming up to join them very soon after Guardian had chosen a booth table nearest to the only window. The bartender had a bottle of something in his hand as he approached their table. He set it down in front of Guardian with a warm smile symbol on his screen.

“Thank you, Dear Old Friend, as always, you remember!” Guardian said as the sonic screwdriver Amy had with her translated Jacob's words by displaying them on the table.

Amy used the sonic screwdriver to read the label of the bottle; it read: Coriander & Sesame Flavored Oil?

“Coriander and Sesame Flavored Oil? I didn't even know that was a thing... Do you actually sometimes Flavor Oil? Why? Can you taste anything, including the flavorings? Do you prefer them?” Amy asked, intrigued and amazed.

Guardian and Jacob looked at each other, smile symbols on their screens before looking back at her, with Guardian saying, “I don't know if we taste like you Ancient Soft Ones, or even like your Time Lord friend, but different 'flavors' bring up different data memories for us. I guess you would call it 'Association Memory'; different flavors have different associations for us. And if the data memories are favorable, we prefer them, and if they are unpleasant, then we strongly try to avoid them. In my case, with this flavor combination, I think of home, I think of pleasant things, I even think of the happy days of this city before the Zurks were even a trickle of presence in this world. I am not sure why. I had those associations with these flavors from my earliest memories. Perhaps the Soft Ones that made me found a way to code those preferences in me; I will probably never know,” he said picking up the bottle.

Guardian then started “drinking” the bottle by reaching into his hooded robe, fiddling around briefly, and then pulling out a thick insulated cable with what looked like a rubber or silicone funnel, and pouring some of the oil down into both.

Jacob showed a big smile on his screen in Guardian's direction, “And no doubt it reminds you of Clem too. She is both home for you, as well as a major part of your life before the Zurks, Dear Friend,” he said, and then turned to Amy, “And what about you young Soft One, what can I get for you! There were also beverages stored away in that special storage room below. A lot of bottles of different colored liquids, with labels I couldn't read of course. If you let me borrow your friend's screwdriver again, I can read what your choices are. There IS also water here.... but I don't know how good it might taste. I know it is clean, but it is probably loaded with elements from these old pipes....” Jacob said to Amy.

Amy thought about it for a few minutes, watching Guardian seemingly savor his bottle of oil, pouring only small amounts of it into the silicon funnel at the end of the thick insulated cable.

“Sure you can borrow his screwdriver; I doubt he'd mind cause he left me a note last night saying that if I needed to translate stuff before he woke up, to go ahead and borrow it. And I will tell you what, I am going to assume what kinds of beverages are down there. It will be up to you to choose, but either bring up anything saying Coffee, Tea, or Juice! Let it be a surprise to me which one I get to drink! But I am Super Thirsty!” Amy answered, smiling up at the robot bartender dressed so much like her 'Raggedy Doctor'.

Jacob digitally chuckled and nodded his assent, and then took the screwdriver from Amy and headed downstairs with it. A few minutes later while Amy was watching Guardian savor his oil Jacob came back up and set down a bottle in front of her with a question mark on his screen, indicating “Was this okay”, and handing the screwdriver back to her. She took the sonic screwdriver back and then looked at the label on the bottle. It said, “Pineapple Guava White Tea”.

“Wow, that sounds pretty good actually. This bar, when there were 'Soft Ones' in it, must have been a pretty classy place for humans to go! Thank you, Jacob, This sounds Perfect!” she said, and he displayed a smile symbol and a thumbs up sign as he told them if they wanted anything else to just yell down to him and he'd be right back up, then he went back downstairs, leaving the two of them alone on the 2nd floor.

Amy was a very compassionate person, but at the same time she sometimes just spoke what was on her mind, and this was one of those times, “You must Really Miss her. How do you deal with it? How do you go by so many days, doing everything that you do, and having to cope with not having her around or knowing where she is?” she asked, once again having this gut clenching feeling that she Needed to hear how someone dealt with things like this, to help Her go through it, even though she wasn't missing anyone in her own life.

Guardian, who had almost finished his oil bottle by this time, placed it down on the table and to his left as if to make sure he didn't actually spill it. Amy could swear he drew in a deep breath, even though she knew that robots couldn't breathe. He fiddled with something inside of a fold of his red robes and then pulled it out. Amy was curious about what exactly it was until he placed it in one of her hands that was on the table. She was completely surprised to see that it was a photograph. Guardian wasn't saying anything, leaving the redhead to wonder what the photo was, so she picked it up and studied it.

She was astonished to see that it was a rather happy photo of Guardian, looking pretty much the same as he did right now, standing next to a slightly smaller bot, wearing, of all things, a pair of brown baggy Capri pants complete with a fanny pack over top, a long, tan fashion scarf wrapped around her torso, and a tan Newsboy hat on their head, with a bright blue face symbol smiling on their black screen, which was inside of a silver monitor! The two of them were standing next to each other, arms around each other, both very happy. It looked like they might be standing on top of one of the tall skyscrapers because the edge of the upper city was in sight, and nothing else except for a big radio antenna. The photo was browned all over in the light from the lamps on the 2nd floor of the bar. Clearly, the photo was ancient and well-handled by the red-robed bot who had handed it to her.

“Clementine?” Amy asked, looking up, and tears fell down her cheeks.

She had super brief flashes of a slim man of average height with medium brown hair, and various younger versions of said man. The super brief memories were of her running around with him doing things that were so vague in her memory that she couldn't pin any of it down, or give any credibility to it at all. More tears streamed down her face, and Guardian reached out with his one metal hand and gently held hers, she looked up and smiled through her tears. Amy looked again at the photo and then handed it back to Guardian, who used his other hand to take it from her and placed it back in his robes. He also found his voice and held the Doctor's sonic screwdriver in his hand so that it could translate his words for her.

“Yes. That is Clementine. We were friends forever, the closest of friends. We lived together for eons, we weathered through so much together and had so many great times too.... And if I knew she was gone forever... and I was a human, I think I would look like you do now, Amy. Haunted, and like a huge piece of me was forever lost. You Must have lost someone because you look as haunted as I feel,” he said as she started to shake her head in the negative.

He just gave her a smile symbol with an underlying faint heart on his screen, indicating compassion, before replying, “To answer your other question of how I get by while missing her so terribly; Honestly a combination of staying busy with meaningful 'work', and practicing my different martial art forms. The former helps to remind me of why it is important for me to keep on living. Reminding me that I am needed, that I have an important purpose other than being a part of Clementine's life, and showing me that many others care about me, and me then, other than Clementine. The latter helps by Grounding me, I guess that is what the Soft Ones would call it. It keeps my digital mind and RAM DE-cluttered of worries, fears, concerns, and sadness-es, and keeps it focused on my own robot body, and what it is doing. It clears my mind and narrows everything down to what I am doing in the Now. Not to mention it reassures me that all of the coding that enables me to do my martial arts is still intact and working fine. And together all those things allow me to keep going, even when constant memories and feelings about Clementine keep coming back up, along with missing her ever so much,” he said, putting his other hand over the top of the one that was holding hers already.

Amy felt her heart get warmer when reading the screwdriver's translation of his answers, thinking just how Human these robots sounded, “Honestly Ian,” she said, using the private nickname he said she could use, since they were in private right now, “that is so real, so down to Earth... I don't know how to put it into words... So I have another question for you Ian: If someone or some circumstance happened to make you lose your digital memories of Clementine, but kept Everything else intact, do you think you'd still be haunted by her lost memories? Would you still be sad like you unfortunately are now, even if you didn't know why you were sad?”

Guardian studied his metal hands for a few minutes, thinking about that very carefully, before looking back up at Amy's face, “I have thought about that sometimes, and honestly I would have to say that yes I would. We robots don't have hearts, but then again, from the little I know about Soft Ones from the 'legendary' books in Doc's library that I would read sometimes, you humans don't actually feel feelings from your heart anyway... But even though I am made of metal and wires and circuits... I still feel emotions, obviously. And so I think that whatever the source of those emotions and love are, it would still be intact, even if the memory source that caused those specific emotions and love feelings was wiped clean. So Yes, Amy, I think I would continue to love and miss Clementine even if someone or something wiped out every single memory of her from my RAM and data storage. I think I would Know that Somebody was in my life, deep in my figurative heart, and I would feel sad about it, deeply sad, and even sadder perhaps because I couldn't even relish the memories of the person, because they wouldn't even be there in my memories anymore.... Is that what you think has happened to you? Do you think someone somehow wiped all your memories of someone who was close to you, as Clementine was to me?”

“Honestly.. yes. I think that even more after having met you, and hearing you talk about Clem... And then with you answering that last question. That is how I think I would be too, if I loved someone and then their memories were wiped. And of course, if my memories were wiped clean somehow, I would not have any way of knowing....”

Guardian gently squeezed Amy's hands again, “That is actually one of my fears: having something cause me to forget her. All those memories, all those cherished memories of her. They can be so painful sometimes, but yet, they are also beautiful. Every single one. I can replay them in my digital mind like you would watch TV... and I do, frequently, in my spare time. I fear one day not having any of them somehow, and how deeply lost I would feel. I don't want to Ever forget her.... Even if I Never get to see her again, or I do, but she wants to spend the rest of her life with someone else... So you think it's possible that your own organic memories were cleared of a Cherished One? Is that even possible, so specifically? To have lost Only the memories of a Cherished One and nothing else?”

Amy squeezed Guardian's hands back in gratitude for his understanding and compassion, “The Doctor is awesome, never get me wrong about that. But he travels through space and time. And wherever he goes strange things tend to happen. When he and I first met, I was a young kid, and he had apparently just turned into this current regenerated form... And it just so happened it was the same time as I was asking Santa Clause,” and when Guardian showed a question mark on this screen cause he didn't know who that was, Amy added, “an almost magical person that makes kid Humans Very Happy and can pull off seeming miracles. Anyway, I had just prayed or asked Santa Claus to send someone to my home to fix this weird and scary big crack in my bedroom wall. That was when the Doctor came, Right at that time. And it turned out that that crack in the wall, according to him, was not just a crack in the wall of my house, but a crack in the 'Wall of Space-Time'.”

Amy continued, “Since then, when we go different places, it seems like that crack just follows him around, and possibly me. And I have seen and heard indications, when inside of his ship the TARDIS, of how previous versions of him have lost friends, or had them go to other dimensions in Space-time, or have had other amazing things happen to them. So with a man that has the seemingly impossible happen around him or following him, and can seemingly alter the very fabric of space and time.. well it isn't too much of a stretch of the imagination to think that maybe he caused me to forget someone. Maybe they went to another dimension, like we have already done in order to be here. We come from another Earth... So maybe it was an accident... Maybe if the Crack in Space-Time is really following us, then maybe it is causing people to drop into another dimension... And maybe my own Cherished One fell into another dimension too, and maybe the Doctor knows about it.... Maybe that is why he has been treating me so Incredibly nice lately and looks uncharacteristically sad so often too....” Amy replied.

Guardian nodded his head, “So you Have noticed that then? I, and I think even Momo, who is also no stranger to missing people, and to feeling guilty, have noticed your friend the Doctor sometimes having a strange look on his face. We don't know Soft Ones very well, but it reminds us of guilty face symbols... Guilty and sad, and regretful... And yes, it sounds like your Time Lord friend is good at making the amazing and seemingly impossible happen, or at least following him around. You could ask him about it. He seems to care about you a lot, and want you to be happy,” Guardian suggested.

“I don't know if I want to know... maybe he had me forget because remembering will tear me apart.... and yet you remember Clementine... and you know that she went into great danger, and yet you still get by and do so much.... So maybe I Do want to know. I just hope I don't bring him any huge sadness-es that he doesn't already have...” Amy answered.

Guardian responded, “If he already knows about someone you have forgotten, and that is why we are all detecting these looks in him, then you won't add to anything bad that has happened to him. Equally, If you have forgotten someone, you are not being saved from the sadness of missing them, since you are still sad and you even cry heavily when you hear of someone else missing someone. And if there Is additional sadness for you to learn about, much better for you to Know what is going on, and be able to face it, like me about Clementine's danger, than to be in the dark. Running from fear or other hard things Never works.... Look at Momo... he is forever tortured by what he avoided, and I have seen it wear away at his robotic 'heart' and erode his life... So whether forgotten or remembered, running away from anything will always haunt you. No matter how challenging or painful, facing hardships or fears is already better than being in continuous fear of them,” he finished, squeezing her hands gently again, with a faint heart underneath of his face symbol like before, showing his compassion yet again.

Amy nodded and smiled, agreeing with him, even if she was afraid of what she couldn't even know currently. Guardian decided they had both talked about enough serious and sad stuff for this morning and needed something more cheerful.

He asked her if she had ever played pool before, and she said that she hadn't. He confessed that he used to a long time ago, before Zurks. That he had played sometimes after work and before going home, to unwind. Even though he hadn't played in a couple of million years, he still remembered how to play, since he was a robot with a digital computer mind, so he would be able to play again. He suggested that he teach her how to play, in order to cheer them both up. He told her that there would be plenty more for them to go through before things would get better, so they should enjoy themselves in this free time they had. She agreed, and since he had some more time to spare before his next patrol, and whatever other responsibilities he had, and she was waiting for Dawn and the Doctor to wake up, so they could go over to Momo's together, she took Guardian up on his offer.

So they went downstairs long enough to order some more refreshments from Jacob and then went back upstairs to set up the pool table. By the time Jacob had come up with their prepared food, Guardian had already taught Amy how to use the pool cue, how to set up a game, and about the basic rules and objectives. They sat down to eat their food, some regular oil and some RAMen soup for Guardian, and an egg and bacon biscuit sandwich for Amy, with another fruit-flavored tea bottle.

Afterward, they both got up and Guardian taught her some more things about playing pool, including techniques for better shooting. He would demonstrate the technique and then help her to repeat it. By the time another hour and a half had gone by since finishing their meal, it was time for Guardian to prepare for another guard patrol, in the process of making sure the Doctor and Dawn were awake, Amy and Guardian had played a few games together. Guardian was actually a very good pool player even after not playing for the longest time, and Amy had learned enough to be able to shoot half of her desired balls into their respective pockets. She was a quick learner, Guardian thought to himself. When it was time for him go to, they hugged each other, just as if they had been friends for years, and then Guardian took his leave of the bar for his patrol. Amy reflected that it was no wonder why this Companion garnered so much respect and probably admiration from all of the bots in this village. He earned it every day, with his caring personality and his courageous and dedicated efforts to protect everyone here from a very scary threat that never ceased...

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*

The Doctor woke up to the sound of Guardian's knocking on the door. He was pleasantly surprised to find that Dawn had slept in the nook of his arm the entire time he had been asleep, given that she was still there when he woke up.

Guardian, not wanting to wake up Nestor and Elliott if they weren't ready to wake up, opened the door up enough to poke his head through to see if the Doctor had awoken. The Doctor, seeing this, gave one of his quirky grins and a thumbs-up with the arm that wasn't against Dawn. Since there wasn't anything the Time Lord or the cat had to do before going to the Dufer Bar, the Doctor raised a finger up to Guardian, signaling the question: Could Guardian wait a minute for them? Guardian displayed a thumbs-up sign on his monitor, and closed the door, waiting outside beside the doorway for the two of them to come out. The red-robed bot had finished 99% of his 2nd patrol and was on his way back to the bar, so he could spare a few minutes or more.

In no time the two travelers were ready, and they headed out and were greeted warmly by Guardian. B-12 had had a whole long night to recharge and was in very good shape for translating. He translated the warm greeting and also translated Guardian telling them that they could grab some breakfast at the bar before heading over to Momo's and that Amy had already done so a few hours before.

In fact, when they made it over to the bar, Amy had already ordered a lunch for herself and also taken it upon herself to convince Jacob to let her wait on 2 of the tables on the lower level beforehand, because she felt bad for not having any way to pay for everything she was getting at the bar. Indeed, Rozey and Jauxi, each at different tables, were So Surprised to see a Soft One, or what they assumed was a Soft One, waiting on them at the Dufer Bar, using the Doctor's sonic screwdriver to translate what she asked and they answered. Jacob just displayed a rare grinning face symbol watching their own screen reactions to Amy's bartending. He was also grateful to her since it took him a while to dig up a Soft One meal from the basement and get it warmed up and prepared.

When the Doctor, Dawn, and Guardian came in, she gave them all a wink and a grin and then walked back to the bar counter, went behind it, and used the sonic screwdriver to ask Jacob where the oil beverages were that the 2 customers had requested. He pointed them out, and she grabbed them like a seasoned barmaid and brought them back to the tables, as the 3 newcomers indicated with their arms that they were heading upstairs and she should join them when she was ready.

She Joined them and also asked them what all they wanted food or refreshment-wise, having memorized the list of different food and drink possibilities from when she and Jacob had gone down in the basement to look together, about a half hour before. The Doctor ordered a fruit salad with cheese, and he was curious how it would taste being that it had been drenched in vinegar like everything else. Dawn ordered rosemary and parsley chicken with rice and peas, thinking that sounded like something a cat could eat. Amy even helped Jacob prepare all the human/cat food and her own lunch of a chicken sandwich with greens and mayo. By the time she helped him bring everything up, including a bottle of orange-flavored Isopropyl alcohol for Guardian that he had requested, Jacob told Amy that she had more than paid for any food and drink that she and her 2 friends would request while they were here.

The Doctor and Dawn were very impressed that she had managed to work for her food and drink while they had slept, and as Amy handed the Doctor back his sonic screwdriver, he told her that he was glad to see her fiery, helpful spirit back again so strong. She smiled, thinking at the same time that she Was going to take Guardian's advice later on and ask him if he knew why she was sad when it seemed she had no reason to be.

Meanwhile, they all received and worked on ingesting their various refreshments while talking about light subjects with B-12's translation help, giving the Doctor's sonic screwdriver a chance to cool down and take a break for a while. The organic members of the table really enjoyed, yet again, their heated-up ancient human meals, and Amy asked Guardian if his latest beverage, which he was “drinking” in the same way as before, with the tube, also reminded him of Clementine, since it was orange flavored and she couldn't help but notice the ironic coincidence of the orange flavored beverage and the fact that Clementine was named after a member of the citrus family of fruits. He nodded his head, and she let the subject drop after that, since they had already had their long serious talk before, and everyone was trying to keep the conversation light this time around.

By the time everyone had finished their refreshments, everyone was feeling well rested, energized, and in good spirits, and the 3 travelers and their friend B-12 were ready to take on the next part of their quest to find a way out of the city and to free everyone inside: Helping Momo find the journals of his Outsider friends, and hopefully information therein leading to how they could meet up with Clementine and her companions in the Sewers or beyond.

Guardian took them to Momo's apartment building and even walked up the many flights of stairs with them since Momo lived on the top floor. If Dawn had been alone, he would have assumed that agile cat could have found a way to jump up there, but with the two humanoids, he knew they would need to go up the same way that most bots went to the upper-story apartments, with the inner stairwells.

When they reached the topmost floor, there were only 2 doors, and Guardian took the one to the right and knocked on it a few times. Momo came to the door fairly quickly, very happy to see them all. He gestured for them all to come in, with a big grin on his screen. Guardian gave him a friendly rub on his shoulder and told him that it was time for his first of three martial arts practices for the day and that everyone was fine without him. Momo rubbed him back on his shoulder and said thank you for everything, and then Guardian headed back down the stairs.

Momo closed the door and turned around, finding that Amy had taken a seat on his sofa, with Dawn on Amy's lap, and the Doctor and B-12 hovering around the different posters on his walls, studying them and/or translating them, respectively. Momo headed over to his living room area seeing B-12 translating his poster about the moon, the Earth, the tides, and the dimensions of the city.

“You have to be very smart to have figured all these facts out, Momo. I can see why you joined the Outsiders now, based on just these discovered facts alone!” the Doctor said to Momo, his typical impressed and excited look on his face.

Momo's smile and screen illumination got even brighter at the nice words from the Time Lord, “Thank you Mr. Doctor! But I am nowhere near as smart as Doc... and nowhere near as Wise as Zbaltazar. And of course, I could never be as brave as Clementine...” he said, his voice going from excited to down, and back up again, thinking about his Outsider friends.

Dawn had moved to sit directly on the couch as Amy had gotten up to study a photo on the wall above the big TV screen across from the sofa. She saw that Momo was in the photo. There were also 3 other bots on it including a bot that must be Doc, because he was wearing a white lab coat, as well as a wicked set of wires sticking out of his monitor head, like some kind of crazy hair, and some scientific goggles right above his monitor screen. Amy swore that he reminded her of someone, but she could not figure out who. Another bot, sitting down on a couch next to him, looked very friendly and warm, and also very short for a bot compared to all the others. He didn't seem to have much if any clothing on, but tons of paint splattered all over different parts of his robot body. The 4th remaining bot strongly gave Amy “leadership” and “headstrong” vibes, even if she hadn't recognized the bot from the photo that Guardian had hidden in his red robes that he had shown her earlier that day. The bot, who was Clementine, had a quirky and “strong-willed” looking face symbol on her black screen, the same exact brown short baggy pants and body scarf, and the same exact Newsboy hat on her monitor head. She also had her metal arm stretched out and a thumbs up on her metal hand. Clementine showed her strong-willed nature and leadership qualities just by “being herself” in this photo.

Momo had walked up beside Amy and pointed out who everyone was, proving that Amy's guesses were right.

Then Momo looked at all of them, the Doctor having gone over to one of Momo's plants and studying it with his sonic screwdriver. The Time Lord had been wanting to get a chance to study such fascinating plants that could grow without any sunlight ever, ever since he had first seen potted plants in some of the abandoned apartments he and Amy had gone through before arriving in the Slums.

“Doc was the genius. He was going to invent a weapon that could actually Kill bunches of the Zurks at one time... He had done a ton of research on them, and I think even managed to capture a few of them with Guardian's help.. though that might just be urban legend... who knows these days.... But he never got a chance to succeed.... I guess kind of like me... But yeah, I digress, he had 2 homes kind of. He had a floor-level home with his son, and then an upper-story home elsewhere with a super extensive library filled with books he had acquired from all over the city before the Zurks started destroying everything. His was the biggest library ever short of the one at the University... before that also got run over by the Zurks. I think he even found a way, way back in time, to save a lot of those books too, and add them to his library. Anyway, he might have had notes in his journal about the best places to go in the Slums, maybe.... or maybe he had a better radio he invented for better communication... either way, it could really help to find his journal,” Momo explained to them, and then walked them over to a window near a door leading to his balcony, and pointed to the right across some tall buildings.

“You see that Almost-Circle-Face-Symbol sign lit up over there on that balcony?” when they looked where he was pointing, Dawn up on the window ledge and the other 2 to either side of Momo, and they all nodded, he continued, “That sign, is the same as the sign you must have seen in my living room, over by the couch. It is the sign Clementine came up with for the Outsiders, and all of my friends in the group displayed it in and outside of their homes. So the one that I am pointing to, is Doc's 2nd home with the extensive library. If he didn't take his journal with him, then it would be somewhere in there. I am hoping that there are some obvious clues over there to where it is because otherwise, it would be like finding a nail in a pile of cables.....” Momo added.

“Wait, over there, directly across from here and over that big pipe, is that one of the other Outsider's houses then, cause I see a sign like that over there too,” Amy said pointing to the one she meant.

“Yes, that is dear Clementine's old apartment. Of course, she hasn't been there for a while, just like with Doc... but it is reasonably small, like all apartments here, and if she left her journal, it should be somewhere over there, and not too hard to find. Zbaltazar's is the furthest away, and over to the left; you see it? You see that very wide chimney sticking out of one of the taller buildings, where the lit-up sign is? That is actually a ventilated ceiling unit with a fan at the top. That is Zbaltazar's apartment. His journal, if he left it there, also shouldn't be too hard to find. He was pretty neat, and I think he boxed up most of the stuff in his old home before he left, in case he was ever able to come back home to take his stuff to the Outside. He was always an optimist that one... bless his metal wires...” Momo finished.

“Okay! Well then, you all, should we split up and each take a different Outsider apartment?! We can get the work done much quicker that way!” the Doctor said, his voice filled with excitement now that some real investigating was about to happen after some time with none.

“That sounds smart! But I Do Not want to do any scary, dangerous roof or pipe climbing or crawling to get to any of them! I want a break from that before we go into the Sewers and face … whatever we have to face in there. I would even take another long flight of stairs if I had to over roofs and pipes!” Amy said fervently, wanting some kind of more normal exploring for a while.

“Well, then you should head over to Clementine's old apartment. When she moved to that apartment she must have still wanted to be near an old friend when moving out from her home with Guardian, judging by what Guardian said. So she moved into the apartment complex right behind Jacob's Dufer Bar. Jacob himself could probably show you, and also let you in, as he had keys to her place way back, she told me that. You wouldn't need to break in, and you wouldn't need to climb in through any windows either.... “ Momo replied, looking at her with a smile and a wink, after having earlier heard of all of the window climbing and other antics that she and the Doctor had had to do to get to the Slums.

“That Works for Me! I claim Clementine's apartment search then!” Amy said excitedly.

Meanwhile, Dawn was talking to the Doctor via their mental psychic link, “I can tell from your thoughts that you are fascinated by Doc's huge library, with possibly a plethora of information about this different version of Earth. Judging from here, you could probably just walk across the roofs if you wanted to get there, instead of trying to find your way through these winding confusing streets in a foreign language. That one robot down there, lying on the roof, looking up at the ceiling, he had to have walked around on the roofs without falling through, and he Must weigh more than you with all that metal and wiring. So that should also be an easy trip for you.”

Dawn continued, “But Zbaltazar's looks kind of tricky to get to by either street or by roof. But I should be able to find a way to get over there by the rooftop, and if there is a fan ventilation unit on Zbaltazar's top floor like Momo said there was, then I should be able to take out its battery and jump through into it, without needing you with your sonic screwdriver, and without needing to find someone with a key to his place. So that makes Zbaltazar's home a natural place for me to go, and Doc's a natural place for you. None of the 3 of us should have too much trouble getting into all 3, and we should all hopefully make quick time of finding the journals, with some luck,” Dawn finished explaining.

“Have I told you yet Dawn, that I love the way you think!? That is Brilliant! I agree! Amy will have Jacob to let her in to Clementine's old home. I can walk across the safe roofs to Doc's balcony let myself in with the sonic screwdriver, And get to see his great library collection. And You can find a way over the roofs with your agile cat body, to Zbaltazar's apartment, through the fan unit, to get in there without breaking in or needing to find a key! Absolutely Perfect! Let's Do It then!” the Doctor said, all of it out loud for everyone else's benefit!

“Great! Thank you So Much for looking for them! I would.. but I lost my keys to their homes awhile ago, and didn't have the heart to break into their old homes... nor the bravery to go after them before, if I actually found anything useful....” he said.

They all patted Momo's back to cheer him up, told him that they were happy to help, and then they all headed to their respective apartments as they had agreed on. Momo went downstairs and out to the streets with Amy, to explain to Jacob what her objective was and what help she needed from the bartender since Amy wouldn't have a translation method during her exploration.

Meanwhile, Dawn jumped out the window and down the bucket device to the rooftops she needed to use to get to Zbaltazar's apartment, scouting each segment first to figure out the best route there. The Doctor carefully went out on the balcony through the door, climbed over the railing, and carefully made his way down to the nearby rooftop, hanging on to the lower railing in order to do so safely. He then had to climb up and down some rooftops to get to Doc's library balcony. On the way he found a rooftop that had an outdoor living room on it, complete with a couch, a TV stand, a TV, a remote, and some bottles of discarded oil. Fascinated, he sat down for a minute and turned on the TV with the remote, spending a minute or two observing what was on the TV as he flipped to different stations. Amazingly enough to him, these robots had all kinds of Human-Earth-like TV shows currently going on. There was a shopping network, a game show, a couple of comedies or dramas, though it was hard to tell which when you couldn't understand the language, one or two News Shows, and a few educational channels. He thought there might even be a cartoon or something. He was fascinated, as apparently these Companions had their whole entire, unique, detailed, and complex culture! He had to mentally force himself to turn off the TV and get up and continue on with his quest, his fascination with this whole new culture tempting him to stay at the TV to explore things further.

It wasn't too far after the roof with the outdoor living room, that the roofs ended at a small gap, followed by another one of the small, railing-ed, balconies leading to a boarded-up door that led into a building. It was on this balcony that the lit-up Outsiders sign was resting, and therefore this was the way into Doc's huge library. The Doctor found it amusing that he, who named himself the Doctor, was intrigued and fascinated to see the library of someone else who called themselves a shorter version of “Doctor”.

He wondered if he would get a chance to meet this robot naming themselves Doc, since Momo, Guardian, and Jacob all seemed to indicate in their conversations that Doc had not been around for a while, and had also Not gone into the Sewers with his fellow Outsiders. The Doctor wondered what happened to him, and hoped he Would get a chance to meet this interesting robot, as he examined the balcony and formulated a way to get across the small gap safely.

Finally, he simply decided on what he'd been doing for years upon decades, upon centuries: Making a jump for it and getting banged up in the process. Thankfully the circulatory and exoskeletal systems of Gallifreyans, or at least Time Lords, were very sturdy and healed super quickly from such risky deeds. So he took just a couple steps back, since the leap was not that far at all, and then took big strides towards the balcony. He ended up banging his knee a bit, but other than that, he was right on the other side of the balcony, holding on to the top of it. He then managed to climb-volt over the tall balcony, using his sonic screwdriver to open up the boarded-up door, and walked inside, closing the door behind him.

What greeted him on the other side was every bit what he was hoping for! He was Really wishing that his dear TARDIS was able to translate for him right now, because he was in a room with wall-to-wall bookshelves, floor-to-ceiling, of books! And not just any books, but books on what seemed to be all subjects, both fiction and non-fiction, some were even in English, French, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and even a few in Latin and Greek! But many more of the books were in the unique language of the Companions, and the Doctor wished very hard that he could understand them. But he did make sure to school himself to first look for the journal before he started perusing the many other books.

He figured that if this Doc robot was anything like him, he would keep something like a journal in an office, locked in a desk drawer, or something like that. He had done something like that way back a few times in his personal history. So he went around the wonderful library looking for something that looked like either an office or a personal desk. He found one possible room that was almost hidden by some decorative curtains and several super-high stacks of books that were almost as tall as he was! He carefully walked around those, not wanting to damage any of the priceless books, and found a comfy sitting area like you might find in Amy's Earth in a big library or bookstore.

He kept on looking carefully around this small room, using his sonic screwdriver too, in case his eyes missed anything. He ended up finding what looked like a handwritten note in the language of the Companions. Using the screwdriver again, he translated it, and saw that it was from someone named Jess the Librarian, he guessed a friend of Doc's who had maintained his extensive library for him. The note said that they had found Doc's keys and that he had to be more careful with them because it wasn't good enough to hide his safe behind a big pile of books.

Interesting, the Doctor thought to himself. So the keys must be for a personal safe of Doc's. Yet again, a locked safe Would be a place where he might keep a very personal journal or other item. So he decided to look for any and all tall piles of books and see if there was a safe behind any of them. He was fairly sure that the huge piles of books blocking this room were Not the ones this librarian friend meant, so he carefully walked around them.

He walked around the different isles then, trying Very Hard Not to Get Distracted by all the fascinating books he was passing. He found several tall piles of books in front of the different bookshelves. Some just covered up books on the shelves, others covered up unplugged or plugged-in refrigerators, some of which contained more books. He guessed that robots had no need to store anything other than books or trinkets in a refrigerator, as they did not need to eat food or drinks that would spoil with germs.

Of course, the last pile of books that he carefully moved over to the side covered a small safe about the size of a microwave oven. If he didn't know better, he would think that someone had converted a microwave oven Into this safe, as the inside, when he turned the key in it, Looked a Lot like a microwave oven.

Inside, he found one of the Asian Lucky cat figurines, AND what looked suspiciously like a journal! He eagerly pulled it out and opened it up, scanning it with his sonic screwdriver to translate the last written page.

It read: After weeks of research I've combined a spectrometer with a powerful UV lamp. With this, we should be capable of warding off the Zurks on our way out.

Interesting, the Doctor thought to himself. He kept finding different robots in this Other Earth, that resembled different aspects of him, like Jacob who dressed like him, Guardian who protected others like him, and now Doc who had his inventive, science-minded mind like him, and who also loved collecting books, just like him! He put the journal in an inner pocket of his suit jacket, and then decided it was time to investigate the books! He sent a mental message to Dawn that he had found his journal, and now wanted to take some time to peruse through the library's books, requesting for her to let him know when she had returned to Momo's place and when everyone had found the other journals, so he'd know when to return. Dawn, who had spent a bit of time going back and forth amongst the rooftops looking for the best way to get to Zbaltazar's roof, and who had even accidentally distracted one of the 2 robots throwing paint across the street between buildings, told him she would do as he asked, and that she herself had finally reached the ventilation unit of Zbaltazar's home.

With this communication made, the Doctor wished Dawn good luck finding her own journal, and then eagerly walked around the different bookshelves, picking out different books, before sitting in a nice, comfy, leather sofa at the end of a bookshelf isle, as he started to use the sonic screwdriver to translate one of them and reading the first few pages....

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*

Meanwhile, around the time that the Doctor had found his way into the Doc's library, Momo and Amy had entered the Dufer Bar again.

“Jacob, these new friends of ours have graciously agreed to look for the journals of the Outsiders for me. The Doctor walked across the rooftops to Doc's, and he can get in with his sonic screwdriver. And the cat is doing the same thing for Zbaltazar's apartment home and is going to turn off the fan and get in that way. But Amy needs a way to get into Clementine's home and ---” Momo started saying to Jacob as they walked towards the bar counter.

“--And you, just like most bots around here, know that she and I have been friends almost as long as Guardian and I have been and that she gave me the keys to her apartment before she left for the Sewers. Yes, she did, and yes I can, help that is. I will take Amy up to Clem's apartment and let her in, no problem Momo. I am So Glad to see you happy and excited after all this time,” the bartender answered in his deep digital voice.

Momo had a super bright smiling face symbol on his rainbow-colored screen and thanked Jacob, before sitting down on a bar stool to await their return. Jacob gestured for Amy to come back around the bar counter, so they could go through the back door together as they had when they'd gone down to the basement together earlier in the day. She did, and this time, instead of going through the 1st door in the hallway, they went down the 2nd one and the only other one, in the relatively short hallway, that led to a room that was both his office and sleep quarters. There were 2 doors on the opposite side of the room on both sides of his office desk. The one that was closer to the bar was a stairwell that led to an upper floor and also the rest of his home apartment. The 2nd one, which was further from the bar, was the one he went to, after grabbing a pair of keys on his desk. This door led out to the back street. When Amy followed him out it and looked to the right, she saw that a huge splatter of white paint was outside a building near the corner of the street and a tall, thin robot with a yellow metal leotard-like body color and a bright orangish-red screen on their monitor was bent down trying to clean it up with a wet cloth. They would occasionally look way up and yell something angrily in their robot language. Amy wondered what had happened as she turned back around to follow Jacob directly across the street, to a wide metal door that was locked.

The bartender walked a short way down the street and used the keys to unlock the lock on a door farther along the wall of the door they came out of, and then opened the door and gestured for her to go in first. He followed her and closed and locked the door behind him, and then he took the flight of stairs, with her following him. Again they went all the way to the highest story, which this time wasn't nearly as many stories as she was used to having to walk up. He took the left door and used the keys again to open it, along with punching in a combination of numbers in the keypad. The door opened to reveal a living room that was very dim with some faint light coming from somewhere she couldn't see.

Jacob walked in and sat down on a couch across the small area from the door, gesturing for her to go in alongside him. She did, and he made another gesture forward and sweeping, indicating that she was free to walk around at her leisure to look for what she was here for. She turned towards him made a thank you gesture, and then turned back around to start her search.

She looked carefully around the long un-lived in living room first, putting her hands inside of chair and sofa cracks, underneath of the furniture, around end-tables and shelves, taking a systematic search method to find the journal. She had always just left her own journals out in the open in her own home growing up because her house had always been so devoid of people. Her parents had died, or whatever happened to them, when she was very young, and not have any siblings, just an Aunt that would periodically come around and make sure she was okay and that her needs were met. So there was never any reason to hide anything personal, as she trusted her closest friends with that kind of stuff.

So Amy had no idea where specifically to look for someone's journal, especially another female's, as Clem seemed to identify herself as. So she just took it one room at a time, looking Everywhere possible. When the living room came up empty of journals, or much of anything else personal of any individual, she went into the kitchen and did the same thing. She found it amusing that there were some pizza boxes, along with other indications of human living, that she Really Wondered what the use was for, and some empty and full cans of oil and Isopropyl alcohol, but nothing else other than the kitchen appliances, most unplugged.

So she went into the next room she found, which turned out to be a narrow office. She thought to herself, Okay, THIS might be where someone would keep a journal. She figured that Clementine probably wrote in her journal in her office, so she again started with the shelves nearest the door along the wall, and moved towards the opposite wall and the desk, looking everywhere. Of course, the last place she looked, On the actual desk around the different computer equipment, was where she found what was Clearly a Journal! Eureka, she thought to herself, Clementine's Journal!

Since she had no one or nothing around to translate the contents for her, she held it in between her arm and waste and headed back out to the living room and to where Jacob was waiting for her. When she got within his view, she held out the journal with a big grin and used her other hand to make a thumbs-up gesture. He displayed a thumbs-up gesture and grinning face symbol on his screen in return and then gestured for her to walk out the door. He followed her as she did and closed and locked the door behind him. Together they walked back down the winding stairwell, back out the door onto the street, with him closing and locking it again, and then down the street to the back of his bar and his personal living area.

Along the way, Amy saw the same poor angry robot trying in vain to clean the paint off the cement in front of his shop or store, she couldn't tell what was inside the room. She made a mental note to go over there and help that bot later on if they were still trying to clean up the mess after they all reported to Momo with their respective journals.

She followed Jacob back out into the bar, where she showed the flamingo-suited Companion the journal with her same grin and thumbs up, which he returned in the same way as Jacob. Momo thanked Jacob again very much, which he accepted before going back to his office briefly to return the keys to his desk, while Momo and Amy went back outside and headed to Momo's apartment home with Clementine's journal!

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*

Meanwhile, when the Doctor was sitting on the leather couch reading, and when Amy had just started her search for Clementine's journal, Dawn Stealth had just pulled out the battery from the ventilation system above Zbaltazar's home and jumped inside onto the top of two bunk-beds. She jumped down to the floor, and B-12 came zipping out of the recharge pocket of her backpack.

“How do you want to go about looking for the journal in here Dawn?” B-12 asked, knowing that Dawn would find a way to communicate with him without the Doctor present to translate.

Dawn had been thinking about that on the way over to this roof and had decided that she would try looking inside any enclosed spaces first. Her Felid kind usually stored important things Inside of other things, so that they couldn't easily be discovered by others. So she figured that maybe these metal robot people were similar. When she entered the apartment, she immediately saw that there were big stacks of cubic objects on top of each other. It reminded her of how the Elders stored important food and herbal items: inside of hollowed-out rocks or wood pieces, or in gathered-up animal hides, that were usually stacked on top of each other in places like caves that the Elders might be staying in for a while.

So Dawn figured that maybe Zbaltazar had placed his personal journal in one of these boxes. So, being a cat and not having humanoid ways of looking at such objects, she did what any cat of any age would do: She jumped on top of the stacks to make them fall over and hopefully empty their contents. She did this with all of the stacks in the first main room she found herself in and then went walking around poking her paws into all the cubes to see what she could find. She found most of them oddly empty. But the 2nd stack had an object fall out of one of the cubes, and it looked like the mental image of a journal that the Doctor had in his own mind! She had found Zbaltazar's journal!

B-12 had been watching all of this with fascination, intrigued by her searching method and way of looking through the boxes, and was delighted when she had relatively quickly found the journal they were searching for! He floated over to it, lying in front of her on the floor.

“Very Good Work Dawn! You Did it! I will digitize it for safekeeping until we get back to Momo!” he said as he did just that.

Dawn meowed excitedly in reply to B-12's comment, and when he had stored the journal, he zipped back into her pocket, conserving his energy for whatever might happen after they showed the journals to Momo. Dawn then looked around to find the best way back outside again. She saw one blind to a hidden window, and used her claws to pull it down, hoping to pull the whole thing down so she could see if there was a better way out behind it. Instead, it zipped all the way up, revealing an open window. So she jumped up on the window ledge and was happy to see an easy way to make her way down to street level, where she should be able to find Momo's apartment complex again. Doing just that, she made her way back to the tall Outsider's home to see what luck Amy had had.

When she returned to his balcony and jumped through the window, she was the first to return. But in about 30 more minutes, Amy and Momo also joined her. They had found Clementine's Journal! She sent the Doctor a mental message that everyone had found their journals and he should return. So Now they just needed the Doctor to return with Doc's, and then they could see if they could figure out the way to go where Clementine and Zbaltazar and company had gone, into the Sewers, to hopefully meet up with them and help them in their quest to open up the City and go back Outside!....

Chapter Text

Chapter 10:

Places to Go &

Bots to Save

by: IzaTheSoftOne

[aka: Seiya's Star in other fandoms]

“Wait! By the Outside! Zar, dear Zbaltazar mentions in one of his last journal entries that there was a problem with the transceiver design! He says that that is why it wouldn't send and receive signals! The transceiver they were relying on for that Was one that they found lying around discarded after the last one was lost to a Zurk attack. Apparently, it had a design error, which is why someone had discarded it.... But he and Doc figured out the way to Fix it! We can Fix the radio connection and reach out to them and find out where they are!!!” Momo said, jumping up and down in his excitement, for all the world like a kid waking up on Christmas morning, Amy thought to herself with a smile.

Momo, the Doctor, Amy, Dawn Stealth, and B-12 had been in Momo's apartment for the last hour, with each of them that had a way to read Companese [the language of the Companions] taking one of the journals and reading through it for clues, either on how to find the Outsiders that went into the Sewers, or how to communicate with them. They weren't having as much quick luck as they were hoping for, as they had thought to find obvious clues, very noticeable mentions of either clue, throughout the journals, right away. Instead, they had found the inner thoughts and recollections of the bot author, ideas about the Outside, and very general plans for how to get to the Upper City, for the most part, until Momo's latest excited words.

In the case of the Doctor, who was reading his journal with his sonic screwdriver that B-12 had added translation information into, it didn't help that he was rather fascinated by Doc, whose journal he was reading, and kept forgetting that he needed to be looking for specific things. In Amy's case, reading the journal with B-12's assistance, she was also fascinated by its author: Clementine. She felt like Clementine and she could have been really good friends if they had met in the past. She liked reading about the interesting she-bot's thoughts, and then started to feel guilty, in case she should ever meet the brave Outsider-bot; she'd be guilty that she would have read her journal.

Momo, reading Zbaltazar's, had gotten through all of the pages of the journal but the last 4. He found the information he had mentioned, at the end of the 2nd to the last journal entry.

The Doctor offered to help Momo fix the transceiver, which Momo thanked him for, but apparently, Momo was very good with radio equipment and circuitry, even having a little tiny desk workshop for doing such work. He immediately brought the radio over to the little desk, turned on the desk lamp, and got to work with a speed that impressed even the Doctor, after telling the Doctor that he used to work at a radio antenna manufacturing shop. In under 10 minutes, he had finished the circuit alteration, turning back around to the group and saying “Wallah!” And some other words that Dawn and Amy didn't recognize.

“That's awesome Momo, that was so fast! So now you can just plug it into your home antenna and we can send out a signal to them in just a few minutes, right?” Amy said, getting all excited herself.

The Doctor however had a pensive look on his face and was looking out the different windows of Momo's apartment that he could see from where he was standing. Momo looked equally as pensive, though still very hopeful. Dawn studied the two of them, knowing that there was still an additional, unmentioned piece of the puzzle that had yet to be revealed before they would be able to communicate with Momo's friends, and waiting patiently to hear what it was. B-12, picking up on the same, hovered by the orange cat's head, also waiting to hear what else needed to be done.

“Well, with them having gone into the Sewers, those are Underneath of the Upper City... underneath of and behind a lot of metal, and probably having complex wire and radio wave hookups.... And equally, if they have made it up to the upper city, that's way far above our heads, even in this high-story apartment... So we need an antenna that is as high as possible in this lower city, that is available, and the most powerful connected equipment, to make sure we can reach them wherever they are, and with whatever kind of equipment they have, including lower powered equipment. That is the problem...” Momo answered, his voice dropping off at the last part, as if not wanting to mention the next part.

“Yes... I agree...” the Doctor piped in, “And I saw it from here, out the window. The building off in the distance that is noticeably higher than any others. There is a very tall set of antennas on top of it. It was undoubtedly the communications base of the whole city when humans still lived here... And it is Definitely high enough and looks like it is powerful enough, to send the kind of signal we need to send out. But by the expression on your screen, and by how an eerie red light seems to pervade around that area, and at the top of that building, I am assuming that that area is deep into Zurk territory, Am I right?” the Doctor thought out loud and asked, looking at Momo at the end.

Momo looked at the Doctor with amazement, “Yes! I don't run into too many individuals anymore who know the ins and outs of how radio signals work. I wish you had lived here long ago, I think the two of us could have lots of fun conversations and become very good friends,” the flamingo-coated companion said truthfully to the Doctor before continuing, “But I don't think any of us bipedal tall folks could manage to get over there. That used to be the main building of the University, with the Radio and Communications Department up on the top floors. The only one of us that would probably have any chance of getting all the way over there with the transceiver.... would be....” and he stopped because he still felt bad asking such a dangerous thing of one lone being, all by themselves.

Amy had an inkling of who Momo meant but didn't want to think about it, because she already had lots of fondness for her orange-furred friend, and even for their newest companion, B-12. She didn't want to see both go into such threatening trouble all alone.

“Tell Momo that I will gladly accept the quest and am happy to help these brave and kind Companions,” Dawn said to the Doctor mentally.

“Are you sure you want to do this by yourself though? I am sure that I can find a way to go with you and help you. Now we know how dangerous the Zurks are, and for you to go only with B-12 to help you... it is Very risky. I have gotten through a lot of very big 'scrapes' myself that seemed daunting, and managed to live, even with the same body. I am sure I could find a way to do so this time too. You 2 shouldn't do this alone... “ the Doctor said, surprising even himself with how much he didn't want any harm to come to this cat.

He had always felt lots of protective care for most or all of his traveling companions, who were always more like friends to him. Some were even more than friends, such as Rose Tyler and even Sarah Jane. But there was something about his connection with Dawn that made her something much more, and yet also different from the strong connection with Rose and Sarah Jane, and he couldn't explain it. He just Knew that he did Not, could Not deal with losing her... and in the very back of his mind, from the mental shadows, the word “Again” snuck out and deposited itself into that thought. Again? The Doctor thought to himself. That made no sense... They had only met outside the door to this city, and he had not lost her since then.... He chalked up the “again thought” to how exhausted he was being separated from the energetic aura of his TARDIS for the first time in a very long time. He shook his head to clear it and concentrated again on his conversation with Dawn.

Dawn hadn't missed the Doctor's thoughts, however, since he had never started to shield any of them from her, leaving himself completely open to her if she was paying attention. Again? She also thought to herself, and she was reminded of the set of hidden memories of the Doctor that she had found, and the odd black being that had told her that she had special access to them, but not to tell the Doctor about them yet. She had to wonder if there was any connection, but she held back that train of thought for now, as there were more urgent matters to attend to.

“Believe me, my new friend,” she said mentally back to him, and she realized just How much the word 'new' felt wrong to her. She felt, deep down in her gut, like she had met the Doctor before, or knew of him before, like they had had some kind of connection before. This made No Sense to her, and she mentally shook her head to clear it and focus on the present moment.

“Believe me, I have seen many of your memories, and I KNOW you have gotten through some miraculous perils, and that even if you did not make it, you could regenerate into another version of yourself, a new one.... But there is a large risk that this could be one of the times when you won't have the same kind of luck. I have seen memories of yours where a new or old Companion has saved you from getting into Very Bad Trouble you wouldn't have survived through otherwise. This, I do feel certain, is one situation that Even You couldn't make it through alive. And your regeneration skill isn't omnipotent... if you regenerate in a place where your body would be destroyed then I know that that is it. I can see that from your knowledge of Time Lords.”

She continued, “I have to go on high building tops, and right into the very middle of huge nests of Zurks. If you try to follow me, and you fall down.... if the height and impact of the fall don't kill you for good, then the Zurks Would, they would eat your body, new or old, before you even started reforming, much less before you could find a way out. And I'd have no way to save you.. I have no weapon, I can't use your sonic screwdriver, and it wouldn't be enough in a huge lower Zurk Nest anyway. You'd die a horrible death.... The risk is too high. Plus, I am famous among my people for my agility, my stealth, and my ability to run and leap out of trouble. I have rescued many of my cat kind from terrible dangers. If Anyone can do this, alone, it is me. I was Meant to come here and do my part to help these people, Doctor. Don't worry, You Won't Lose Me,” and she had to consciously stop herself from using the word 'Again', much to her surprise. That word kept wanting to insert itself into her thoughts, just like it seemed to with the Doctor.

The Doctor could also read her thoughts, and he was very intrigued that she too kept thinking about the word, Again. He mentally bookmarked that thought to revisit at a better time and then responded to his cat friend mentally.

“As much as I don't want to admit it, you are right... Maybe one or 2 building tops I could manage, and lots of what Amy and I already have done to get here... but a whole lot of building tops, with Zurks all over the place.... with one little slip up meaning a huge Zurk Ambush... I am not sure that I Could survive that.... I just don't want to see you risk it either.... And yet... we need to help these people, and we also can't get back outside, and to the TARDIS, unless we escape this place... So I must admit I am stuck. We Need your feline skills to get us out of this situation here, this part of it. I just hope you know what you are getting yourself into... I.. don't want to lose you,” and he also bit back a mental 'again' word.

“Don't worry Doctor, you won't. As you always tell your traveling companions: I Promise!” and she gave a mental wink to him that he had to return with a mental smile.

“How about B-12 then, is he okay with going too? He has to go with you to 'carry' the transceiver since you can't. And if anything happens to you out there... he is stuck in that drone in the middle of Zurks, forever... his consciousness having no hope of going anywhere else.... That would have to be an eternal hell even I don't want to ever experience... Is he willing to take that risk?” the Doctor mentally asked Dawn next.

“It's either that or him be stuck with us here in the Slums forever, or as long as Guardian can keep all of us safe, and resources and food hold out. I doubt he wants to be stuck here forever any more than we do, but you will have to be the one to ask him, since I can not speak to him directly,” Dawn answered back.

The Doctor mentally nodded and then talked out loud to everyone else. During that whole mental conversation between Felid and the Time Lord, Amy had been explaining to Momo that the cat and the Time Lord had a psychic mental connection and that they were most likely talking to each other quietly this whole time about the situation.

“Dawn says that she will gladly accept the quest to place the transceiver on the University building antenna. But we still need to ask her team-mate, B-12, as he would have to carry the antenna in his digital storage, and the risk for him is as bad as for her, if different,” the Doctor said, turning his face to look at the floating drone hovering over Dawn's head where she sat on Momo's sofa, “B-12, do you accept all of the risks involved in getting the transceiver to the tall antenna building?”

B-12 did several flips in the air before responding, “I go where Dawn goes. I Also want to go back to the Outside. I know I promised Someone I would go there. And I also want to get Dawn and the two of you back to your home-ship above this city. The only way to accomplish all of this is to know what path the Outsiders took and if it was successful. So Yes, I accept the risks and will gladly accompany Dawn on this quest,” the drone answered.

“Okay Momo, it looks like you have your answers and your quest receivers. And while the two of them are doing that, Amy and I can make ourselves useful elsewhere. I will keep reading Doc's long journal, and look through his library to see if he had anything useful there about how to get up to the upper city, or how to fight Zurks, or anything else,” the Doctor said.

“And I can look around Clementine's and even Zbaltazar's old apartments for any more clues as to where they all planned to go and how they planned on succeeding in getting there. I am sure between all of us working at this, we can figure out how to meet up with them in a very short time! Maybe even before you come back, Dawn! Just, please be careful, okay? I don't want to lose anyone else,” Amy added, her voice dropping off at her last words, wondering why she chose them.

Now it was Amy's time to wonder: “...Loose someone else?” What did I mean by that? Yet again, it's like I lost someone but my memories of that person are gone..... I Must ask the Doctor about that soon, like Guardian and I talked about before. Maybe while Dawn is on her quest... And I just hope She will be okay.... I don't want to lose her too, and then forget all about her later... if we'd even survive later if she fails...

Dawn meowed and raised her tail as if to say, “Don't worry, I won't”, which is exactly what she was thinking, and B-12 did a back flip with enthusiasm to impart the same thing. Momo headed over to a locked window with a keypad on it. Amy reached over the sofa and picked up Dawn hugged her and petted her head a few times.

“You Have to make it alive, Okay? You are Amazing, and I Don't want to never see you again, okay?” she said, a few tears escaping her eyes.

Dawn, touched beyond measure, rubbed the side of her face against Amy's cheek in response, purring very loudly, while telling the Doctor to tell Amy: Don't worry Amy, I Will Succeed, I never let anyone down when I go on an important mission, and I have been on Many!” When he Did immediately deliver the message, Amy hugged Dawn again, and kissed the top of her head, saying Good Luck to her before she set her down on the opened-up window's ledge.

Momo explained to Dawn that he would have to lock the window behind her for safety from the Zurks, as the Zurk zone was across the street behind his apartment complex. Dawn nodded her head in acknowledgment. He also explained that he had learned from many bots who used to work long ago in that building with the antenna, that there was a bucket pulley system on the top with the antenna, that would lead to a building further down the street from Momo's apartment complex, and would get Dawn safely and easily back to the Slums and his apartment, once she reached the antenna top. Dawn again nodded to acknowledge the information and purred to say thank you to him. Then she looked once more upon all of her friends older and newer, meowed cheerfully, and then, with B-12 zipping into her backpack, she jumped down onto the balcony outside of Momo's apartment, decorated with some potted plants and a few chairs and a small table, and headed towards the short bucket pulley system she found there, that lead to the other side of the street, and the beginning of Zurk territory. Momo took one last look at her, and then closed and locked his window.

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*

After Dawn jumped out of view across the street on the top of another building, the Doctor managed to convince Amy to go with him over the top of the buildings that lead to Doc's library. He wanted her to see how extensive it was and how much this robot must have been like him. He also confessed to her that he wished he knew what happened to Doc. It was obvious that he hadn't been around the Slums in quite some time, and it was also obvious from Momo and Guardian's words, that he hadn't gone into the Sewers with his Outsider friends. So what Had happened to him?

And truth was, the Doctor was also wanting to keep his mind on something else, so as not to worry too much about Dawn, which was surprisingly hard to do. He hated feeling like he was waiting for someone else to do what He felt He should be doing, even though he knew she was right, she had to do the quest, not him. It didn't help that there weren't any other real quests to do that he knew of except look for more clues as to where the Outsiders in the Sewers had gone. So he satisfied himself as best he could showing off the books in the library to Amy, and looking for clues in its comfortable confines.

However Amy got very bored there very quickly, especially as most of the books were in a language that she couldn't read, and B-12 was off in the midst of danger. And she really didn't want to read a bunch of books with the Doctor's sonic screwdriver. She let him guide her around for a little bit until he decided to sit down on the leather sofa and start reading some more of the books he had found earlier. At that point, she started to wander around and explore things there other than books and found the unfortunate rusted robot that was slouched over a round wooden table.

She felt very bad for it and wondered what its life story had been. There was something about it that seemed sad, as if it had been very depressed and that is what made it rust away there. She thought that what was adding to that feeling she had about the robot was the fact that it was rusted in the middle of a safe area. The rusted defunct robots they had met outside of the Slums had had no choice, they were surrounded by enemies and had run out of resources. But this one was not in that situation. But regardless of its relative safety, it still had rusted and gotten a dead battery. It reminded her of people on her Earth who let themselves waste away from depression. She wondered if she was right about this robot, and if so, what had caused it to feel so sad. She shook herself away from such sad thoughts and wandered around some more. She saw the note from Jess the Librarian in another hidden sitting area and wondered if that was the rusted robot at the table. Shaking her head some more, she wandered on.

Finally, seeing the Doctor still happily entrenched in different books, using his sonic to translate them, she gave up on him leaving anytime soon and crawled back out of the balcony and leaped over to the rooftop with the living room set up and the TV. She sat down and flipped the TV on with the remotes, finding with interest that these bots had all kinds of TV shows just like she did at home. Even though she couldn't understand anything they were saying, she could easily figure out some of it from the visuals. She sat lost in the shows for a while, just enjoying some familiar activities, and realizing how homesick she was starting to get in this dismal city.

Eventually, the Doctor stopped his reading at the couch and found her. He seemed to have gotten very interested and excited about something if his excited face as he sat down on the couch beside her was any clue. She recognized this expression on his face and wondered what had engendered such excited emotions for him at this time.

She didn't have to wait long to find out, as he had brought Doc's journal with him as he had come and sit down. He flipped it to a page, and then also pulled out a note from his jacket pocket.

“I found this note in one of those really fascinating books! The book it came from was a Companese translation of a book from your Earth's time called 'All Creatures Great and Small'! They actually translated it so their own people could read it! I thought that was one of the most fascinating things I could ever learn about these Companions: their wanting to read books that we are familiar with on Your Earth! That is, I thought that was the most fascinating thing I could learn Until I found THIS note inside some of its pages!” he said, brandishing the note excitedly both times he mentioned it.

He continued, “This note is from his Son! He somehow has a Son! I don't know how these bots can have children, or if it's some kind of adoptive thing, or what! But this note was written by Doc's Son: a bot named Seamus, and the note is calling Doc his Pa! Not only is this Utterly Fascinating: that they have families somehow with kids! But it Also means that maybe Doc's Son might have some clues or ideas about where the other Outsiders went, or where Doc himself disappeared to! We need to ask him!”

Amy's ears and brain perked at the name Seamus, she had heard it somewhere before, and she Knew she had.

“Seamus... where have we heard that name before.. I Know I know that name...” she said aloud, frustrated with herself that she couldn't remember.

The Doctor remembered however, and provided her her answer, “Yes, you are right! We have already met him...” and he paused thoughtfully, replaying the memory in video format like his Time Lord genetics allowed him to do, “It was in the bar when Guardian first took us in there.... he was the slouched over bot that we had considered to be passed out or asleep, he was so still and silent... And he was not in a good mood at the time...” the Doctor thought, falling silent recalling the memory and thinking about it.

The Doctor recalling the memory out loud caused Amy's memories of that scene to flood back into her mind, “Yes, and Jacob told us that he had personal reasons for being in a foul mood! And Seamus himself was respectfully telling Guardian that Something wasn't the brave bot's fault. Could he have been talking about whatever happened to Doc? It makes sense that he would be mad or sad because his father is lost or gone. It could be Seamus was telling Guardian that he didn't think Doc's fate was Guardian's fault. But if his mood at that time was sour, what might this mood be if we bring up the subject of his father now? He might not want to have anything to do with us,” Amy thought out loud to the Doctor as they sat together on the sofa in front of the TV, on top of the building in the Slums.

“He might have a problem with me talking to him about it. And I guess he has a problem with almost anyone else talking about it since everyone we've talked to has avoided bringing up what happened to Doc. But if my long experience has taught me anything, it is that people usually open up to others who have gone through something similar. They feel more understood by those people, and they frequently will open up to them more,” the Doctor replied, looking very pensive, and also a touch haunted, Amy thought.

She wondered if he was thinking about whatever it was that had her eyes tear up when she thought of anyone's loss. Wondering that, in addition to the sad topic of Seamus and his father, made her feel that inexplicable sadness again. The Doctor looked over at her, that even more haunted look in his eyes before he spoke.

“You suspect you lost someone dear to you, don't you?” he simply said to her.

Her eyes, which she hadn't realized had gotten wet when talking about Seamus losing his father, were welded up with more tears when he asked that question. Because of the unexplainable sadness bursting back out she found that she could only nod her head in reply.

“Yes. That would make sense that you would start to wonder that.... Let's try to convince Seamus to talk, or rather, have You try to convince him to talk. If he does, and after we figure out if he has any clues... then I will... attempt to explain your tears, and your sadness, ok? I don't think that I will have much energy for anything for a while after I tell you, and you might not either. So let's at least do our part to further things along, while Dawn is risking her and B-12's life to help everyone, and then... when we are waiting for her after that, I will tell you what I can, okay?” he said, his voice sounding more somber then she had ever heard it.

Again, she found herself only able to nod her head, fleeting images of the same slender man from earlier, who was about her height, with short brown hair, flashing into her mind briefly before vanishing as quickly as it came.

The Doctor, wanting to change the mood as quickly as he could, found a channel on the TV that had a robot singing a lively song. He kept the TV on that channel and they both listened to the lively song in the Companion language, before turning off the TV. Then he stood up, offered her his hand to get up, which she happily took, and the two headed back to Momo's apartment, which was the only way they knew of to safely get down from the tops of these buildings.

Back in Momo's apartment, when they knocked first before re-entering and he opened the door for them, Momo looked in his same better spirits. That is, until they mentioned Doc and their plans about Seamus.

“Oh... yes. You are right, Seamus Is the son of Doc. Doc created him as a baby-bot first, just like all of us bots do who decide to become parents... Seamus was well into young adulthood by the time Doc... never came back,” Momo said, fiddling with the pages of his journal thoughtfully as he walked back over to his sofa and sat down.

Amy walked over and sat beside him, looking at him in his rainbow-colored screen, “Can you tell us what happened to him? Maybe it would allow us to better approach Seamus to ask him if he has any clues about where Clementine and the others went in the Sewers. Or even what might have happened to his father? Without a map, we will Need to have some idea of where we are going, so we can have any hope of finding any of them,” she said gently.

The Doctor walked over and sat down on a wooden chair near the couch, as Momo looked like he was about to finally reveal the mystery of Doc's disappearance and Seamus's depression.

“Well... when he was still around here... and of course before the others left, they were trying to figure out how they would get through all the Zurks that they would meet between here and wherever the entrance to the upper levels was... Clementine and Zbaltazar thought that they could get their hands on some chainsaws and maybe one or two flame throwers that still worked from the time of the Soft Ones. But Doc thought that was very risky, if they would even have any luck finding things like that. So he started researching how best to kill Zurks. After quite a while he said he had found their weakness and he was starting to design a weapon that would pit that weakness against them. The only problem was that he didn't want to tell any of the rest of us what he had discovered until he had tested his discoveries and his device in a real Zurk environment. Doc was Always that way, he never wanted to reveal his discoveries and inventions until he Knew they would work. I think it hurt his pride too much to reveal his hard work and then have it fail,” Momo's voice replied, trailing off briefly in thoughtful reflection.

After a couple of moments, he continued, “Anyways, he told us that he was going to go to an isolated part of the city that had a small Nest of Zurks in it and test his device there. He said that he knew of a safe Zurk-free way to get there that should be safe, and there was only 1 nest of the Zurks at the end, so even if his device didn't work, he should be able to run back down the path to the safety of the Slums. Clem and Zar were worried about this idea, and Clem even told him she'd go with him, with Guardian asking Baladin to go with the 3 of them when he heard news of Doc's plan. But again, I think Doc's pride wouldn't let him have anyone else at all around if his device didn't work. He made plans with the other 2 to go in 2 days, and then the first day, that night, he slipped away when everyone was in sleep mode, even Guardian. I am not sure how he got the key code to exit, as only Guardian knows those. If he gives it to anyone else, he changes it the next day, so rigid is the protector-bot with the protections of the city. But Doc got out somehow, and well... he never came back... I don't even remember how long ago that was.... Clem founded the Outsiders around 400 years ago I think... and it was around 40 or 50 years ago that she and Zar left with the group... So I think it must have been about 80 years ago. They waited for him to return for around 20 years before they finally gave up and started making the final plans for how to go into the Sewers without him....” Momo reflected, finishing his tale.

“Oh gee... that's so sad.... and that was the last anyone, even Seamus, has ever seen or heard from or of him?” Amy said, more tears in her eyes, “No one knows what happened to him, if the Zurks got him, or if something else happened, in all this time?”

Momo nodded, a sad face symbol on his rainbow screen.

“Then That is the other quest we need to go on! We need to find out what happened to Doc! Maybe he is still alive, and if so then he can help us find the rest of Clem's group!” the Doctor said, getting excited again.

Momo didn't share in the excitement, however, “That's the problem though Doctor... He didn't share with Anyone, not even Seamus or Clem, or Guardian, where this isolated place was, or how to get there. Darn, I wish he wasn't so stubborn about being alone if his ideas didn't work!” Momo said, a brief glint of irritation stirring on his face before it grew somber again, “If he had left any note, or clues, or told Someone, even 1 bot like Guardian for gosh sake! Then we could have found a way to rescue him! Or at least contact him maybe.... But he didn't tell a soul.... we have No Idea where he Went! I don't know how we would ever find even the remains of his body, much less find him intact somewhere....” Momo finished responding, his digital voice fading with his sadness over the situation.

However, the Doctor wasn't willing to give up, as he was never one to give up no matter how daunting something seemed. He thought that someone with a huge library in a city like this, who wrote the things he had read in his journal, and someone who had done lots of research for learning and inventing something to destroy Zurks, would Have to Have a laboratory somewhere. But if anyone knew where that was, he was sure they would have brought it up already. Still, he wanted to know for sure. Doc's laboratory would be sure to have some clues as to his testing destination in it Somewhere, the Doctor thought.

“Doc Must have had a laboratory to do everything you mentioned. Do you, or anyone else, know where it is?” the Time Lord asked of Momo.

Momo looked sad again as he looked up at the Doctor's face, “Again, his darn pride.... He never wanted anyone to know where he was discovering things and working on his projects, because he wanted to be sure everything was right and working correctly before he showed it to anyone... So no, no one knows where his laboratory is.”

The Doctor gave Momo one of his cheery expressions, “No need to worry Momo! Amy is very good at drawing people out of their shells, especially when they have something that is really eating them up inside. So she can talk to Seamus, even if he doesn't know where his father's laboratory is, he might be able to provide some clues so that we can find it anyway!”

Amy looked at the Doctor as if to say: “Thanks for always signing me up for things after giving me odd compliments.”

Momo looked at the Doctor, “She did certainly seem to help in doing that with me... so maybe you are right. Seamus won't talk to me, because I think he feels that all of us Outsiders should have left his Pa alone, and maybe if we had, his Pa would have never left the safety of the Slums. He blames the Outsiders for his Pa's actions, cause it is too painful for him to blame his father for them. But he doesn't have any issues with Amy, so your plan might actually work. Do you want me to take you to Seamus's apartment, the one he shared with his Pa until he left?” Momo questioned a hopeful look on his face symbol again.

The Doctor and Amy took Momo up on his offer, even if Amy didn't know how well she thought she could do on this endeavor. So they walked out of his apartment, down the stairwell, out the door, and took several turns after walking down different small blocks. Finally, when they had passed the laundromat and walked most of the way down that block, they stopped at a metal door. At that door, Momo knocked a few times, with no response, even after telling Seamus that he should open the door and that his father would have wanted him to help Momo and the others.

Amy bit back her desire to tell Momo that that wasn't the most emotionally sensitive thing to say to a person in that situation after she saw the Doctor's sonic screwdriver's translation of Momo's words. But she held back because she figured that Momo was simply feeling desperate to get things to work right for a change.

“Well, now I don't know what to suggest... His lack of a response is to be expected, as I told you before. So how you are supposed to get the chance to talk to him now, I have no idea...” Momo said despondently.

“Now now Momo, don't give up yet! Say.. it's been a while since Amy and I have eaten, so how about some food for thought at Jacob's Dufer Bar? And Seamus will probably need to go there himself eventually, so we'll just hang out there until he does,” the Doctor said cheerfully.

“And truth be told, I wouldn't mind helping out your clothing doppelganger again anyways, to continue to pay him back for providing us such good food here! And if I am helping to wait on people, I ought to get a perfect chance to talk to Seamus if I am patient enough, and in the meantime, I can talk to other bots, that is if I can borrow your sonic screwdriver again of course!” Amy added.

The Doctor permitted her to use it, and so they all headed back to the Dufer Bar. The Doctor and Momo headed up to the 2nd floor to keep out of Seamus's line of sight as well as to have the comfort offered up there. But before they did and before the Doctor gave Amy his sonic screwdriver, he borrowed some paper and pencil from Jacob, and had Momo tell him what the Companese Alphabet was, and what sound was made for each letter. After that, the two of them headed upstairs, and Amy went to help Jacob with the Doctor's screwdriver in hand for translations.

After around an hour, when the Doctor and Momo had had a chance to get halfway through their refreshments, and Amy had started to munch on her food in between serving people down by the bar counter, Seamus did indeed come in. He looked around as if wanting to make sure he avoided Momo and anyone connected with him. He saw Amy and stared at her for a minute, standing inside near the entrance, as if trying to decide where he should go and what would happen if he took his usual place near the bar counter.

Amy, not wanting this wait to go on forever, found her spunky charm, and using the screwdriver to translate, raised her voice loud enough for him to hear her, “Seamus, really, I'm not going to bite, and I am not going to suggest that you go running into a bunch of Zurks so you can see the Outside, so why don't you come up where you usually sit, and let me know if you want something, okay?” she said in her cheery and mock sarcastic voice she was famous for at home.

Seamus nodded respectfully to her, not seeing Jacob anywhere around [he had gone upstairs to take a break and talk to Momo and the Doctor], he took her suggestion and walked up to the bar and took the 2nd seat to the left.

“I just want a synthetic blueberry alcohol drink; Isopropyl that is, I don't come in here to get drunk, just for bots to think I am drunk so that they will leave me alone,” he said in an almost curt voice, trying hard to keep it respectful even though he was more annoyed than usual with things being different from what he was used to.

“Coming right up,” Amy said and went to where she knew she'd find the drink, and put it in front of Seamus.

A few minutes later, as Seamus was a quarter of the way through the drink, Amy thought to herself that it was now or never, so she went ahead and spoke to him again, “A lot of bots around here seem to be dealing with a lot of loss, which makes sense under the circumstances. And I too suspect I have lost someone dear to me, though I think I lost my memories of them. I suspect the Doctor knows why, but isn't telling me for my own sake.... I don't know if I am glad he isn't telling me, or if it would be better if I knew... if I knew who it was I lost and why... But I am going to have him tell me what he knows real soon, one way or another” she said, starting with her feelings of loss to see where that would take the conversation.

Seamus looked at her with a sour face symbol, but underneath, she swore she saw a faint heart, very, very faintly. She remembered from Guardian that a faint heart underneath a face symbol usually meant either gratitude or compassion, depending on the situation. Gratitude didn't make sense, so she was given a new happy resolve to see that he might be feeling warmer compassion to her now. She was about to say something more to him, but he beat her to it.

“Don't. Don't have him tell you if you have lost someone. You are better off not knowing anything about it and living your life normally. I know of my loss, and I wish I didn't. I wish I could forget,” the bucket hat-wearing bot said grumpily, but softly, not looking up at her, focusing on his bottle of drink instead.

Amy took her opportunity, trying to figure out the best approach, “Guardian knows of his loss, and he told me that it is better for me to know, and face it, than to run away from it. Do you disagree with that opinion,” she said as she took an empty bottle from a bot on the other end of the counter and started cleaning it.

“Guardian Would say something like that. But then again, he is brave, and he is smart, unlike... Unlike others, I know. He knows when to stay put and tend to things at home instead of running off and doing something stupid like my Pa... “ Seamus said, acting as if he hadn't meant to say that last part and was trying to pretend as if he hadn't.

Amy decided this was the time to just come out with it, “Seamus, I know about your Pa. I know he ran off to test his device and never came back. I want to help, the Doctor, and I want to help. We want to see if we can find where he went, and rescue him. Will you help us help him?” she said, compassion and softness in her voice now, as it had been with Guardian and Momo.

“Why would you want to do that? And as I said before, the Zurks can and will eat you all too, just as surely as us. They eat Anything, I've seen them do it before, eat all kinds of things. Why do you two stand any better a chance of making it alive to wherever Pa went than he did, or anyone else could?” Seamus said, half defensively and half despondently.

“Because this sonic screwdriver has been used successfully as a weapon to kill Zurks, as surely as whatever device your Pa was working on, and because the Doctor and I are very resourceful, we have gotten through all kinds of scrapes before and survived, including Very Difficult ones. We Can find a way to get to him, to your Pa, in his isolated place, wherever it is, but we need your help to figure out where he went. The Doctor thinks that if we could locate your Pa's laboratory, maybe there would be a clue there. Do you have any idea where it could be? Here is his journal, if you think that might help,” Amy responded, pulling out Doc's journal, which the Doctor had given to her before he went upstairs, from a pocket inside her jacket, and handing it to the young adult bot.

Seamus looked in awe at the journal, “Oh wow... I didn't know you all found his journal... I never knew where he kept it, and of course... when he was still around I would have never tried to find it.... “ and after looking through it a bit, he even found a page the Doctor had missed, that mentioned his secret laboratory, “The Doctor is right! He Does have a secret laboratory... but I have No idea where it is... this says it is in our home... but that is so strange... I am not aware of any other rooms...” he said, half in thought, his expression on his screen one of being in a daze.

Amy took this as a golden opportunity, “Will you take me to your apartment so I can help you figure out where it might be? If we find his laboratory then there will surely be a clue there as to where he went so that we can rescue him!” she asked.

And to her delight and surprise, he agreed. Still, in a daze, he quickly finished the rest of his drink and placed it on the counter along with his money for paying for it, and then got off his stool and waved for her to follow him. She yelled up quickly for Jacob to cover for her, knowing that he knew that this outing with Seamus was her intention all along, and then left to follow Seamus back to his home. Jacob quickly came down after giving the Doctor and Momo a thumbs up with his hand which they returned; the plan was working!

When Seamus got back to his home with Amy in tow, he was still in a daze, and walked in a circle in his living room, repeating that it seemed impossible that he had never known that his home had his Pa's secret laboratory in it all this time. Amy, intending to be much more resourceful and successful with her activity, started snooping around the main room like Sherlock Holmes, looking for anything out of the ordinary, or anything that looked like it might be the entrance to a secret room. Remembering something she had seen from a movie she watched once, with someone she couldn't quite recall, and a tear escaping her eye when she thought of it all, she started looking behind photos on the wall above a desk. The last photo she looked behind, which was above the edge of the desk and a bare part of the wall, had a Keypad behind it!

“Eureka! Look!” she said excitedly to Seamus and pointed to it.

She had also found a note written on the wall behind another photo, that had said: “Time Will Tell”. She figured that that must be another clue and she also pointed to that.

“Wow... I Never Knew there was a keypad there! I never thought to look behind those photos for any reason....” Seamus said in amazement, “But what is the code? I can't imagine what Pa might have made the code be...”

“Time will tell, written behind that other photo, must be the clue for the code.... we just have to figure out what it means...” Amy said, and they both started trying to think of the significance of the phrase and how it could lead to the right code combination.

Then as Amy was starting to get frustrated with so much time escaping with no ideas, she looked up at the clock above the sofa, wondering how much time had gone by since she'd come here. Her intention when doing so was to go back to the bar until an idea hit her.

But when she looked at the clock she realized: Someone had put 4 clocks right next to each other on the wall?! If that wasn't strange enough, each clock had a different time?! That would make No Sense at all... Unless... Unless those clocks weren't Meant to Tell the Time!!! Unless they were meant to remind someone in the room what the key code was! After all, the note on the wall said: Time Will Tell! Those clocks each had a time that was right at the beginning of an hour, and so she took the number of the hour from each and tried putting it into the keypad.

And.... It Worked!

“Eureka again!” she cried triumphantly, as both she and Seamus got amazed looks on their faces as the wall right next to the keypad literally split open and slid into a wider and wider doorway, similar to the secret door to another secret room Amy had seen in this city: the one that lead to the computers that restored B-12's consciousness into the drone!

“But How could I have Not Known this was here all this time...?” Seamus said, back to being in a daze, old memories of growing up in this place coming back to him as he slowly meandered into the dark, dusty room.

Amy followed him inside, thinking that the Doctor would really love to be here right now, as this room had him written all over it. The two of them and Momo had agreed that Amy alone should go with Seamus if she was lucky enough to get him to open up to her. They all thought he would be less defensive with Just Her, than he would be with 2 strangers and/or Momo. They had been right.

But Amy knew that the Doctor had to be allowed to come back here later, she thought as she walked around, back in Sherlock Holmes mode again hunting for clues. Several glass containers were holding what she hoped were dead Zurks inside them, numerous books, small devices, whiteboards with notes and Zurk drawings, boxes on the same shelves as the books, and a round wooden table with more notes, what looked like newspapers in Companion language, and other items that made sense to have in a laboratory. Seamus was still in his daze, randomly looking around at different things in the dark room, muttering to himself that it was amazing that this was here all along and that he had no idea, in a way that sounded so longing and reminiscing that Amy found more tears of her nameless loss springing back to her eyes when hearing the loss in Seamus's voice.

Yet again, like before, Amy's tireless clue-hunting and ponderous thinking about everything she looked at was yielding no results, even after almost completely inspecting the whole room. She was starting to think that she had made Seamus go through all this for no reason at all, with no clues as to the whereabouts of his Pa, and was about to leave and head back to Dufer Bar, when she saw that there was one last box, way up on a top shelf, that she had not looked into yet. She almost decided not to bother with it, as it was almost out of reach for her. She almost thought that it wasn't worth it when it was just a box and probably had nothing useful in it. But then she decided that she would curse herself if she didn't at least look, and know that she had combed Every Inch of this place for clues. So she asked for Seamus's help and together, they barely managed to wedge it off the shelf.

They wedged it off the shelf, but neither of them was tall enough to get a good hold of it, and it ended up falling on the floor behind them. They were both grateful when it seemed very little was inside of it to break, except... Except for a device just a bit bigger than Amy's smartphone.

Seamus got an even more dazed expression on his screen when he saw it, and bent down to pick it up. Amy was about to walk out, disgusted with her lack of success, as she did not think a small device was going to yield any clues. She thought that until, as she was almost out the doorway of the laboratory, she overheard Seamus thinking out loud as he was still stooped down holding the device.

“I remember this. This is his tracker... Papa always used that tracker to keep an eye on where I was.... Maybe we could reverse it to find out where He Went! I can't believe my Papa might still be alive! I've missed him so much...”

Amy teared up more hearing the intense missing and longing in his voice, and Knowing that she felt that way for Someone too, even if she didn't know who. She turned around, seeing Seamus getting up from the floor with the device, now known to be a tracker, in his hand.

He continued: “With all of you wanting to go into the Sewers to find Clementine, and to open up this city presumably, you will need more than the Doctor's sonic screwdriver as a weapon! My Pa definitely had a good Zurk weapon with him. If you find him, then you will have another good weapon against the Zurks! We just need to repair the tracker so we can find him! Someone in the Slums must know how to fix this! Can you find someone to fix it so we can try to reverse its signal? Can you really find and save my Pa!?” Seamus said, such longing and hope in his voice now.

Amy wiped some tears off her cheeks as she took the tracker from Seamus.

“Of course we can! I meant everything I said to you, Seamus! And the Doctor is Great at fixing things! Maybe He could even do it! I will take this back to the bar and see what we can do! I will let you know as soon as we get it working again!” she said and she reached out and hugged him, and he hugged her back, still somewhat in his daze at everything happening that he never dreamed could happen.

She left him to regroup himself in his home and headed for the bar. When she got there, she found Jacob behind the counter, and he gestured for her to wait a moment before she headed up to the 2nd floor. She waited as she saw him reheat the rest of her meal and then head over to her and hand it to her. She thanked him, which he gave a thumbs up to, before she headed back up to tell and show the Doctor and Momo the good news!

The Doctor and Momo were very happy that the plan and Amy had succeeded. They all finished their refreshments together talking about how to fix the tracker....

Chapter Text

Chapter 11:

The Trouble with Zurks

By: IzaTheSoftOne

[aka: Seiya's Star in other fandoms]

She didn't mind having to look around her for safe routes to go while standing atop narrowly safe high areas and then making a desperate run for it past large clusters of the terrifying Zurks that were chasing her, sometimes narrowly escaping death with many of the pink creatures on her body, before finally jumping up to, or into, a safe area that they couldn't go. None of those parts really troubled her.

Okay... so that was not really true, she thought to herself. She had managed to make it to the correct building finally, even if she had quite a few levels to go on it before she would get to the top where the antenna was. She had absolutely hated having to mentally bat away terror and fright while having to stand on things barely high enough or out of the way enough to keep her safe from clusters of very nearby Zurks, knowing that she would have to run past or around them in the super near future, and having absolutely no guarantee of her success. It only made her hatred of doing this worse, knowing that she had to do it over again several more times before her mission was complete and she could go back to safety.

Times, when there were Zurks blocked off from her by a locked fence with a keypad, were no better, and maybe even worse... She had to figure out a way to move forward, Through where they currently were, without getting eaten by them. This was worse than the other situations because she had to see them jumping at the fence, their horribly terrifying circular mouths with razor-sharp teeth biting at the fence metal, desperately wanting to reach her and tear her apart. And she had to see this while Knowing that she had to free them and give them access to her... and then manage to outrun or out-think them, so that those horrible little mouths didn't make a meal out of her in a terribly gruesome way....

But she had persisted, continuously fighting back her intense fears and loathing for the creatures. She had done it and persevered because this was the only hope they all had of continuing through the city and finding a way out. The only way for her to be reunited with her fellow Felids, and with the Outside world she loved and called home. The only way to get her 2 newest friends: The Doctor and Amy, back to their ship, so that they too could go back to wherever they called home. And the only way to free all these poor, kind robots that deserved a way better place to call home than this horribly dank, dark, dangerous home in the underground.

There were a few times on some of the other high-rise building tops, that she had almost succumbed to the creatures, when one or more of them would make it on top of her back or her sides, and would start to do their horribly painful sucking and tearing with their crazy little mouths. But it was always near the end of her short running she had to do, when she was almost to a place where she could jump to safety, and so she'd shake off the creatures when she made it near the safe jump or run area, and then she'd get out of their range, immediately taking a break before going on to the next place she had to go.

Some of the breaks lasted longer than others. When the creatures would tear and suck really bad before she shook them off, during the running jaunts where that happened, her breaks could sometimes be as long as 2 to 4 hours. Because she would need to lick her wounds and give at least a little bit of time for them to start healing, otherwise she would end up losing too much blood and getting wounds that were too bad for her to keep going. Thank goodness the Doctor and Amy had thought for B12 to keep the water bottles the Doctor had procured earlier in their adventures, for Dawn to be able to use if she needed them on her mission. Between the harsh exercise of running past Zurks and making difficult leaps and all the blood and bodily fluids she was losing from both wounds and the healing licking of her wounds, she was very dry-mouthed after every single Zurk-fleeing area.

She also hated it that she had to run through not only Zurks but run or walk or sometimes even sit on top of and/or near layers and/or webs of the gooey mucous flesh and sometimes more of those gross throbbing pustules.

When Dawn needed to drink during her breaks, B12 would materialize the water bottles, with the lid off, and on its side, so Dawn could lick up the water that accumulated on the lower side of the thermoses. It was enough to keep her hydrated enough to get her job done. If they hadn't thought of that idea, Dawn doubted that she could have survived this mission, as the continued exertion and wounds would have added up and made her unable to have the strength or energy to keep going with this grueling journey.

She wasn't sure what was worse during these times of having to wait to heal, all alone except for B12, in the middle of enemy territory: the complete dangerous isolation from anything remotely resembling safety and any friendly Beings, or the never-ending presence of the gross mucous flesh and throbbing pustules, in which she swore she could sense a malicious intelligence from. She chalked up her eerie sense of intelligence from the pink webs as just being a mix of terror and isolation. But the sooner she was done with this mission and could rejoin the sane world of people, robots, and safety, the better off she thought she would be.

She was thinking of all of this after she had crossed the dangerously high, hanging metal piece to reach the building with the antenna. By using another memory of the Doctor's, she could see that this dangerous-looking bridge, the likes of which she had also seen outside of the city in the Outside Wall, as well as inside the city in other locations, was called a tower crane which was holding a steal beam. She would definitely be glad when she could take a Very Long break from having to cross steel beams being held up by tower cranes....

So she had crossed the steel beam held way up high by the tower crane, that led to the final building she had been aiming for, whose tallest height held the antenna that needed the fixed transmitter to be placed on it. She wondered in the back of her mind who had managed to get up here last to even get the transceiver to find out what problem it had. But she didn't linger on that thought, as she still had a lot to do before she was free to think about things safely. Instead, she jumped up on a shelf that was at the edge of this building floor's balcony, onto something that was relatively soft but firm, and had B12 help her with retrieving more water from the water bottles he had digitally stored. After she spent a bunch of time drinking as much water as she thought she could handle, she licked her latest set of wounds once more and a few of the older ones which had started to heal. Then she did her best to nap for a little while, to regain her energy from the last run through Zurks, and all of the difficult jumps and walks after that.

Somehow, despite being surrounded by so much terror, she had managed to fall asleep, possibly from having gone through so much terror and so much exertion in such a short time, with very little rest. When she woke up, she had no idea how much time had gone by, as there was very little, if anything, to give her any kind of gauge of time over here. Even B12 admitted that without being able to connect to the city's network he couldn't read the city's clocks, and for some reason, the Wi-fi signal out here wouldn't work. The Wi-Fi antennas were still operational, but their signals wouldn't work out amongst all these Zurk-related things, according to the drone.

She again drank some water, after relieving herself by peeing off the edge of the shelf she was on, near the edge of the building. She doubted the pink mucous flesh cared whether it was peed on, as she had been doing this for a while now with no response at all from the gooey stuff. Then, without any more delay, despite her reluctance to continue with her journey, she jumped up to the highest shelf to figure out how to continue going upward on the building.

The only way she saw to get to the only opening that she had access to, was to push over a long wooden board that should fall right onto the only open window into the rest of the building. There was no other way to proceed, as she had already tried pushing on the door with no success. So, since it was the only way to go, she jumped to the appropriate level of the industrial shelf she was on, pushed the board over, and was relieved that it did indeed go to the window. Seeing this, she jumped down onto the board, which held her weight easily and proceeded to walk up it to the window, stopping at the window's ledge to see what was immediately ahead for her.

Other than a horrifying amount of gooey mucous flesh, and the occasional throbbing pustule, there wasn't much else in this room on this floor, other than a stool by a big stair-like wall, a closed door, and some shelves and boxes. She jumped down onto the gross smelling goo, long since accustomed to its disgusting, squooshy feel, and walked over to the stool, cautiously keeping all of her senses, including her whiskers, attuned to anything different coming from the level on the upper side of the wall that the chair was next to, for any signs of dangers. Coming up with nothing, at least anywhere up close, she cautiously jumped up onto the top of the wall. Again, what greeted her was a lot of the goo, a stool off in the short distance, a shelf or table or two, and a few tall stacks of big boxes or square-like objects, this time with a big fence at it's far end and not much else as far as places to go.

Walking carefully over to the fence, it was hard to see too far beyond it from her low-lying vantage point, though she could Hear the creepy chittering voices of the Zurks off in the distance beyond the fence somewhere. She could also tell that this part of the building was the part that had been under construction when the hell that was the Zurk problem had exploded throughout this city. That was easy to tell by how much of the area beyond the fence wasn't finished. That was to say, most of the outer walls of the building were open and unfinished, and most of the interior walls were the same way. Many building construction materials were lying around beyond the fence too, like insulation sheets, small stacks of wood panels, and other things. Using her innate intelligence, she figured that the only way to proceed up to where the antenna was was to use the same kinds of maneuvering equipment that the construction people or robots had used, which were still in place all around the building. If they had been able to get around and work on the building, and all their stuff was still around as it appeared to be, then that must mean that she too could use the same equipment and setups to get around and move upwards.

But, that would mean crossing over the fence and going past the Zurks. To survive, she would have to do what she had done before. She would have to scout out from each safe zone, the next safe zone, which would also have to, eventually at least, be a way to move up to the next level. If she made a mistake, she would have to backtrack and look around for another way to go. Any mistakes like that that she might make would mean more chances for her to fail in surviving past an area of Zurks. This meant that, since she Could Not Fail, she would Have To “get it right” the first time, because the risk of Zurk Death was far too great to repeat any runs, especially with a partially unfinished high-rise building to navigate, where something going wrong could also easily land her on the ground far below.

Bearing all of this in mind, she took a few mentally steadying deep breaths, remembering all she had to live for, all the living beings, both robots, and people, that were relying on her down here in this city, and drew in her courage and fortitude as if it were air to breathe. When she felt ready to proceed with what seemed like the hardest part of this mission, she took one last deep breath and then looked around for the best way to get over the high fence. Finding it in a high stack of insulation blocks with a wooden panel going from it to the top of the fence, she took another quick moment to relieve herself, right where she was since it didn't matter on this gross pink goo she had as a floor, and then proceeded to run to the stacks, jump on 2 others, and then the one she needed, and then jump onto the plank that lead to the fence. She followed the plank to its far end and then looked around for the best way to proceed.

She found it, with her good dark-seeing eyes, in a long run across to almost the opposite side of the building from where she was. She would have to take it in several different sections, taking a “safe break” in between different partially constructed rooms with high stacks of things, as ways to escape groups of Zurks. On the other edge of the building was a series of scaffolding shelves that led up to the next floor. She took a few additional breaths, as this was Not going to be easy, and she had to seriously resist terror at attempting any of this at all. Once she committed to this, there was no going back... she either succeeded or... no, there was no room for failure, she WOULD succeed. There was no other way to go, and it would be Very Hard if Impossible to go back the way she had come, even if she wanted to. This was her only option, and she realized that.

She took one last breath before jumping down, having already chosen her path and her way of hopefully convincing the Zurks to go after her. She started meowing to get their attention while running a certain way around a stack of construction materials, and thankfully the Zurks followed her around that way. She waited till the last minute, and then jumped over the small stack and headed the way she needed to go, fear threatening to cloud her brain as she ran towards the safety area she had seen. It nearly didn't work, a few Zurks did manage to get to her right before she made it to the safe height area, but she shook them off with all of her might right as they were beginning to do their suck-tearing, and they fell off with only slightly scratching her skin. She stayed on the safe area that was a higher stack of materials, for a little bit, recovering her breath, her resolve, and her courage, panting with the effort she had just made. Hearing the chittery voices down below, desperately trying to reach her, didn't help regain her courage. If she were a human, she would be sweating profusely right now.

Then she repeated the behavior with the next area, this time with more Zurks catching up to her, and this time digging into her skin, with her having to shake them off as she leaped to the safety of the scaffolding, their bodies coming free of her shortly after, as she landed on the safe area, their bodies falling past it and over the edge, to land far down below.

She felt like she couldn't keep doing this, the terror threatened to consume her, all these thoughts of what could happen to her wanting to steal her mind. She forced them to go away with more thoughts of what she and others had to live for, and how everyone was counting on her. She found thoughts of her black cat companion, named Midnight Hunter, persistently staying on her mind. She clung to those whenever fear wanted to come back. She found her courage to keep going then.

She jumped up the scaffolding levels to the next floor of the unfinished building, to find another arrangement of unfinished rooms. No Zurks threatened her as she landed on the floor, but she heard them in the not-too-far distance. After finding some high areas to scout and jumping on them, she saw that she wouldn't even have to trap or trick any Zurks on this level, as they all appeared to be underneath her high area, and in a fence room that had another of those common keycode pads by the gate. They couldn't get to her as long as she didn't jump down into that fence-room, and as long as she didn't open up the gate.

But she knew also that she must have yet another level to go up, as this was not the top yet, that much was clear. So she would have to find more scaffolding or some other way to get up. She stayed on the high shelf by the fenced room, looking for her way up. The Zurks in the fence room below her still hadn't caught on to her higher-up location nearby, as they were chittering away on the opposite side of the fence room from where her utility shelf was located.

She found a probable way to go further up, in a hanging beam right outside of the fence room, that she presumed led to an unfinished part of the ceiling above, though it was hard to see from her angle. She would have to try it, and hopefully be right, as she could see no other way to make it to the floor above. She also realized a problem with leaving the Zurks in the locked-up fence room... The only way for her to reach that beam was to jump onto something higher than the floor, and then use that to jump onto the beam, as she couldn't make the jump all the way up from the floor, it was too high. The only thing she could see that was mobile, for her to do that with, was one of those big metal canisters that she had been using before in her time in this city, as jumping stools, to make high jumps. She would have to roll it over to underneath the hanging plank....

The part that was the problem was that the canister was in the fenced area. She would have to roll it out of the fenced area to get it under the plank. There wasn't going to be any way for her to keep the Zurks in that area and also get the canister out, so she'd have to find a way to trap the Zurks away from her, and also Outside of this fence room. She looked around again for any other way of keeping the Zurks trapped elsewhere. She found 2 possible options. She decided to attempt one of them then and there. If it didn't work, she would have no other option but the other one, and she had already worked out how she would do it.

This decided on, she jumped off the high shelf, outside of the room, and ran around two long, low piles of construction materials that formed a quasi-room, to the area in front of the fence room where the Zurks were clustered, having B12 set them free as she then continues to run right past them, hoping that this first idea worked: heading for an area at the end of this floor that was like a wide hall ending, that also had a low lying metal plank along it blocking it off. She hoped that they would follow her over it, and then she could double back around and they wouldn't be able to follow her. From her scouting height earlier, she couldn't tell how deep the plank was, and she had hoped it would be too much for them but low enough for her. She was also hoping that they would find a way to go over one way, but not the other.

She jumped over the plank but was disappointed that it was very shallow, and also disappointed that the Zurks seemed to lose interest in following her before she even made it to the plank. She wasn't sure why. She was about to head out of the area and to where she'd have to go for her 2nd and only other option to trap the Zurks away from her when B-12 slid out of her backpack, for the first time since she had first made it to this building and he had helped her with drinking water.

“That sign... I remember it...” he said, “And it is bringing back more important memories of the past of this whole place...” he said.

Since she and the Doctor did Want information about this whole place and its backstory, and another such sign had given B12 some other memories earlier in her building hopping journey, plus the Zurks didn't seem to care about them over here in this goo-filled zone, she walked over to the sign, following him, and let the memories come to him as they would.

B12 started to talk and display words as he stared at the sign for a few moments, “Neco Corp. They were responsible for waste management. As trash from the upper levels overloaded the Slums, they tried to develop a bacteria to dissolve it all. After the humans disappeared, that bacteria mutated. Growing, eating away more than trash. And now we have Zurks,” he said, as if reading from a cue card, the memories coming back to him in chunks.

Oh gee... she thought to herself. In trying to solve a problem they could have avoided, they ended up creating an even bigger problem, a problem she was now deep in the middle of. If they had only just done things differently so as not to make so much waste, and to be responsible with the waste they already had, they wouldn't have needed to mess with nature in a way that they obviously didn't understand. Oh well... she thought to herself, they ended up paying the final cost in one way or another, and now the robots were left to pick up the pieces and try to forge a life for themselves. If the Doctor hadn't already collected this latest memory of hers, she would make sure he was aware of it when she got back.

In the meantime, she realized they better continue. Her energy from the food she had eaten before she left wasn't going to last forever, especially with all this exertion and all the wounds she had received and was working on healing from, to say nothing about the dwindling water in her water bottle. She wasn't even sure how she was supposed to get back down, both from the building and over to the Slums, Momo hadn't told her that. She was just hoping a way would show itself to her after she had gotten the transceiver on the top of this building.

B12 had zipped back into her backpack, probably taking the time to think about the latest memory, and not to distract her with the difficult task of continuing upward. So she wasted no time, she jumped back over the shallow metal plank and ran right past the cluster of Zurks, this time with them very eager to get a hold of her. She didn't give them the chance, running just a bit faster than them, racing past the open entrance to the fence room, and all the way down past where the two intersecting shallow stacks of long construction materials formed a shallow walled room. She then proceeded to run around those stacks and go into that area, the Zurks wrapping around the stacks too and going into the room-like area they made. Just when they would have jumped on her as she reached the fence on the outside of the fence room, she jumped up onto the shelf that was against that fence and then jumped up again until she was on the same level as the top of the fence. Then she jumped down into the open fence room and immediately headed into the canister and started rolling it to underneath the hanging plank.

The idea worked, the Zurks, apparently not very smart, and also not good at jumping very high, stayed trapped against the outside fence of the fence room, madly throwing themselves against it trying to get to her. But she quickly managed to get the canister where it needed to be, and jumped onto the plank, and then onto a partially constructed wooden ceiling diagonally above it. On seeing some Zurks at the other end of the partially made ceiling, and not having seen anything behind her that would help her go up, she immediately meowed and ran along a plank to her left, eventually getting their attention. She then ran back the way she had come, not going too fast, giving them a chance to catch up to her a little bit. Then when they were almost at the end of that plank, she raced around to the plank on the other side from them and ran very fast. The stupid Zurks were confused about how to follow her and where she was going and didn't follow her, allowing her to run on into the fully constructed ceiling/floor beyond.

Sighting another shelf, that allowed access to another floor, she headed there, hoping she didn't have much more of this left before she reached the antenna. She was running out of energy and needed a good sound nap and ideally, some food, along with some more water. She ran over, jumped onto first the first level of the shelf, and then the 2nd, and was Very Happy to see that the final, small, tower-like part of the building was a way in front of her on this odd-shaped floor, with the antenna on top of it!

This was the last part of the jaunt, and what made her even more happy was that she didn't see or hear any Zurks! It looked like a clear shot to the elevator and then up to the top where the antenna was! A thorough eye scan of the area revealed a big lever on a pedestal on her side of the open metal floor and also revealed the small, tower area on the opposite end of this floor with an elevator. This whole floor on this level was unfinished, like the ceiling/floor back where she had been, with some planks stretching across the floor, and some long gaps with no floor at all. But as long as there were no more Zurks, it wouldn't really matter! An easy last jaunt!

The elevator was stationed on the top of its range, up by the highest floor of the small tower with the antenna, so she would have to bring it down. While she thought she could see a keypad on the high fence surrounding the door, that more than likely was what opened the gate into the elevator, she didn't think that was what activated the elevator itself. She figured that it's default position must be the top, which made sense from a security point of view back when humans were here. You didn't want anyone going up there. They would have to be authorized and have the means to bring it down And go inside.

She also figured it must be the big pedestal lever on the side of the floor nearest her and the shelf that operated the elevator. Not seeing any obstacles or things to worry about between her, the lever, and the elevator, she started to head over to it. She had noticed lots of the gooey pink mucous flesh from a distance, seemingly lacing the outer edges of the different smaller floors of the tower part of the building, and presumably lining each and every floor, but again, she didn't hear or see any Zurks, and didn't have to go into the lower levels of the tower itself, so she was not worried.

She had reached the lever and was about to pounce on top of the lever on the pedestal when she suddenly stopped. She had a memory.. although it wasn't really a memory, or rather, it must be a memory from a dream. She sat back on her haunches by the side of the pedestal, looking briefly around her environment again, attempting to bring the memory back, or the memory of the dream....

And it came to her... It was back during her nap when she had first reached this building. She had actually had a premonition-al dream, like her one orange and white cat clan companion, Farsi (short for Drops of Farsight). She had seen herself jumping on a lever that looked exactly like this, in an area that looked exactly like this! She had then raced to the elevator, to await its arrival on her level.... But something had gone terribly wrong, she had seen herself doing all of this as if a floating ghost above the building. She had watched helplessly as her physical self had not realized that tons and tons of Zurks would be awakened or alerted to her presence on the floor, from their places in the tower, by the sound and motion of the elevator! As the elevator made its very slow descent downward, so too did all the Zurks, much faster than the metal lift that had awakened them. By the time she was 3/4ths of the way to the elevator across the floor, they were surrounding her physical self in the dream.

Normally this wouldn't be a problem, as she could most likely make it to the elevator before they closed in on her and overcame her. In fact, this her in the dream that she watched from her ghost form up above, Did get up to the locked gate of the elevator a few seconds before the Zurks could close in on her, with B12 madly inputting the correct code. Had everything gone smoothly, she would have been able to shake off any Zurks on her and run inside the fenced elevator, with B12 closing it behind her and keeping all the Zurks at bay.

But things Didn't go smoothly at all. The gate, once unlocked by B12, was jammed, it wasn't able to open at all. Her physical self in the dream could not get inside, and the fence was way too high to jump alone. She looked around madly for another way inside, spotting some stacks of construction materials near where the elevator rested, but by that time, it was way too late.... the Zurks had plenty of time to reach her and all jumped on her at the same time, with her completely surrounded by them and with nowhere to run. She meowed loudly and bucked her body like a wild bronco, but to no avail, they overtook her, and the scene then froze. She remembered that this is where the dream froze....

What had happened next? Then she remembered... another one of those mysterious black shadow-like figures, like when she had been mentally walking around in the Doctor's memories.... one of those stood in front of her... that's right, her ghostly observing form had dissolved, and so had the scene of her death by Zurks. In its place was the scene of... of.... of this very moment in time, with her right by the pedestal-lever, sitting on her haunches, with the elevator still up in it's highest position. The deepest dark shadow figure was standing/appearing right next to the lever and right in front of her and to her right.

These creatures will overtake you if you are not careful here. This dream vision is true, the elevator is stuck, it will not open when you unlock it. But there is also something else you need to know ahead of you. There will be too many Zurks for you to wait for the elevator to come down for you. You must out-think, And Outrun them on this floor until it makes it's way all the way down, and then you must find your other route inside of its confines. This is the only way for you to survive and complete your mission. There is no other way. Make your choices here very wisely, we can not interfere any more than we just have.... Then the shadow-being vanished.

And then she had woken up on that shelf several levels below. That's where the dream ended, and now she was at the exact same spot as at the end of the dream. And she wasn't sure, but she thought she saw a faint outline of the shadow figure vanishing from the same spot as in the dream.... and she thought she could feel the faint feeling of air stirring that always seemed to come before and after its arrival or departure.

Dawn took a few deep breaths and looked around very carefully. Just like with all the areas before, she needed to have a very mapped-out plan of where and when she would go, because there was no room for error, she could not fail, and she could not die.

She decided to take a figure-eight running approach then. She hoped that the Zurks would behave the way they had in her dream. Her plan was she would run all the way up to where the elevator would come down to, draw all of them close enough to her, and then run in figure-eight-like circles around the whole floor, hopefully losing many of the Zurks from her trail while she was jumping from one wooden plank to another. She would do this until she saw the elevator about to rest on the ground, at which time she would make her final run and jump in the middle of the wooden plank area towards the gate. Once there at the gate, she would instead run in whatever direction was away from most or all of the Zurks following her, onto one of the many stacks of construction equipment that were surrounding the elevator's resting area, and use that stack to make the rest of the jump to the top of the elevator's fence, and into it's confines. She hoped that this was the way to survive this mission. It had to be.

On so deciding this, she took a few steadying deep breaths, remembering the wonderful new companionship of B12, Amy, and the Doctor, and even the companionship of the friendly robots she had met in the Slums, before taking one last final breath, and leaping onto the lever.

The next few minutes, were probably only around 10 to 15, but seemed like a whole year to the orange female cat, as she landed back down on the ground of the floor, executing the first part of her plan. The Zurks did indeed follow the same behavior as in her dream, as they all came pouring out of different levels of the tower as the elevator made it's slow descent downwards. She kept memories and fond feelings of her newest friends in her heart and mind to ward off the extreme terror she felt at seeing those waves of pouring down Zurks as she literally ran right toward them. Then she continued to execute her plan, which thankfully went just as she hoped. The Zurks barely missed ambushing her as she made it to the front of the stacks of equipment, and then she veered left towards the outermost edges of the floor and a bigger pile of metal equipment, all of the Zurks hot on her tail.

There were times when she almost ran too near the edge, and just barely turned before plummeting off and down. Sometimes those times had the happy result of some Zurks actually running off the edge to their doom. Sometimes a couple of Zurks would catch up to her, or go a different way than following her, and manage to jump on her side or back. She couldn't take the time to shake them off, however, not on this endeavor. She was just barely keeping the others behind her, and if she slowed down even a bit to shake off the ones on her, the rest would catch up and add to the attack. With the elevator only halfway down, and at least 2 more circles to make before she could head towards it, she had to endure the sucking and tearing of the 2 or 3 creatures as they dug their mouths into her fur. She had to endure the pain, because it was the choice of either endured pain, or a horribly gruesome death. Death was not an option.

Relief from the pain would come on the elevator, and up by the antenna, where she was pretty sure there were no Zurks, based on her viewing of the area at first arriving on this floor. So she let those Zurks stay on her body, as she continued to force herself to run onward in the pattern she had mapped out for herself. She continued to force herself to keep moving her body, even as horrible tearing, burning, and throbbing sensations were penetrating both of her flanks like someone digging a sharp stick of flames deep into her flesh. She ignored it as best she could; she kept focused on where she needed to run and on the progress of the elevator. Her whole world was reduced to where to run, and where the elevator was, and nothing else. The floor she was on disintegrated from her awareness, as did the Zurks following her and the Zurks on her. All she became aware of in those final moments of the running were her body, her running path, and the elevator, and the timing of all of them.

When the pain was becoming so much that it was threatening to overcome her super-powered like focus, the elevator touched down on the ground and she found herself making the final bound to the nearest equipment stack beside it. She wasted no time at all, with her quickly dwindling energy and concentration. She leapt in that last bound executing a maneuver that would have surprised every living member of her Felid Congregation, as she bucked out with her back legs after making the leap and before landing on the top of the stacks, in a motion that had every ounce of force that she could muster behind it.

It worked, and the Zurks fell off of her, totally unsuspecting of the need to cling more closely, as they fell off, stunned.

As soon as she landed on the stack, she wasted no time at all, hearing the Zurks right underneath of her at the bottom of the stack, trying to jump high enough to reach her. She gave them no time to possibly succeed as she immediately leaped again with all her remaining might.

She succeeded once again, making it to the top of the fence, somehow balancing with effortless grace despite her profound exhaustion and overwhelming pain. She jumped down again on a nearby stool and stayed there as B12, aware of the whole entire escapade, zipped out and began to input the keypad code to make the elevator go back up. Dawn just sat, staring at the furiously active Zurks, the waves and waves of them, trying to jump over the super tall fence, and failing miserably, their creepy chittering having an extra angry tone in it.

Finally, after what felt like hours but must have only been seconds, the elevator started its slow ascent upward. Dawn let out a sigh of profound relief, and also silently, but very sincerely, mentally thanked the dark shadow figure from her dream, that had probably kept her from a most gruesome death...

She wanted to curl up on the stool and fall asleep. She didn't want to go on... she was in So Much Pain, and she was So Tired, and the inside of her mouth felt like the driest desert her people had ever walked on.

But she knew she must continue once the elevator got to the top. If she fell asleep here... she might never wake up again. She had lost enough blood, exerted herself way beyond healthy amounts given her wounds, and sustained enough injuries, that her body might sleep longer than it should in a dangerous place like this, so far away from help and water and food. Plus she knew she was very dehydrated from exertion and bodily fluid loss from her injuries and her licking. The water from the digitized thermoses had helped, but it wasn't enough for all she had been through, and it was almost gone...

So she dug one of her right front claws into her left paw to keep herself awake, and to keep focused on Something, other than all her physical grievances. Eventually, the elevator made it to the top, and after she saw, with a sigh, that the gate on the other side, leading to the top of the tower was also stuck, she leaped onto the top of the fence from her stool she was already on, ignoring her pain and exhaustion to the best of her ability. Thankfully the roof of the tower had a little fence ledge right next to the elevator, that was easy for her to jump on, and to follow to its opposite edge and make her way with declining jumps, down to the ground of the roof.

She walked slowly over to the control base where the antennas were mounted, and sat on her haunches, to afraid to sit down any more than that, cause maybe she'd fall asleep here, and she still wasn't sure it was safe to stay here too long.

She watched as B12 zipped out of her backpack once again, and immediately materialized the transceiver onto the empty bay that was meant for it on the control wall. Then he hovered over by her, telling her that he was very proud of her, and he was sorry that she had to go through all of that, to which she meow-purred, softly, that being all she had the energy to do. Then they looked up, waiting... hoping that the transceiver had in fact been fixed, and that all this hadn't been for nothing, and that there would somehow be Some Sign that it did work, that it Was installed correctly....

They were starting to doubt when a few moments passed by with nothing...

...Until, a tone sound, loud, long, and clear from above them, followed by the lowest lights on the antenna above them flickering on and staying on! It had worked, They had Done It!!!

Slowly, 1 by 1, the lights above the lit ones came on, and then those above those, and so forth, until every light on the one previously dark antenna came on, the resounding tones getting longer and more frequent, until it blended together to sound as one long continuous tone, before fading away into silence once again.

It was the most amazing and blessed sound Dawn Stealth had ever heard in her life, and she purred, soft, faint purrs, in happiness and relief.

B12 offered to look around to find a way back down while she rested, and she took him up on it, still not daring to sit any more than she already was, knowing she would never be able to wake up and move again if she did.

He came back doing flips, which meant he was excited. He had found another one of those mysterious bucket-pulley systems on the opposite end of the tower roof, a very long one that went down to places out of sight. But he had been keeping track of directions and distances with the computer programming in the droid, and he knew that the direction and distance of this bucket system should take them very close to, or into, the Slums! He told her all of this after he stopped flipping around.

She did a short but very heartfelt purr in response, that being all she had the energy for at this point, and then she followed him as he led the way. She saw it, on this metal grading balcony facing towards the elevator to the upper city off in the distance; she saw the bucket-pulley device with the bucket on the grading right next to her. She was so relieved. Before she jumped into it, B12 hovered in front of her, and she could tell another memory was coming to his awareness.

He said and displayed, “Look, the view, it's beautiful from here. I remember now, the city, it was meant to be a shelter. They look like stars, but they're only lights marking the hermetic roof sealing off the city. Humankind built this shell to protect themselves from the Outside. But it came at a cost. Nobody can go out. The Outside was a disaster. Completely barren, unlivable, and dangerous. But if you come from there, it must mean it's safe again. And my promise wasn't just to go to the Outside, it was to open up the city. I still don't understand why some memories are coming back and others aren't. But I'm certain now that this is my purpose. I have to open the city. Come on, let's go back and find Momo. Now that we've connected the transmitter, we should be able to get help.”

He said these words with much more emotion in his digital voice than in his previously retrieved memories. Then he took another close look at Dawn, and his voice got another deeper tone of emotion in it.

“Plus, you have been through so much.... When we get back, you deserve and need some rest, plenty of water, and some food. I am sorry you had to go through so much to do that, my friend.... Your bravery, your sacrifices.. they mean a lot to me... more than you can know....” he finished, making his hovering drone body rub up and down against the side of Dawn's head in a move that meant so much to the drained and exhausted cat.

She found the energy to Purr in response, to purr in gratefulness for his words and actions. And she found the energy because of both, to also continue onward, to go back to the safety of the Slums via the bucket. He zipped back in her backpack as she jumped into its cylindrical confines causing it to head downward, across and way above the creepy red webbed buildings they had traveled across such a short time ago, and eventually to a building that must have only been 2 or 3 buildings away from Momo's. She also saw, judging by having a look down below the building that the bucket landed on, that she was already back in the Slums! She knew this because she saw 2 robots, walking hand in hand, down an alleyway beneath her, as if they were totally safe. She knew she was now in the Slums!

She looked around her and underneath of her to get her bearings and find the best way to get back to Momo's apartment. She was not too far away, as she saw the top of Zbaltazar's apartment with the Outsider's sign, and even the two robots throwing paint cans back and forth. She knew where she was, and she knew which way to look for Momo's place. She also found some buildings and rooftops that would lead her right there! In her eagerness to see her friends again, and her relief to be back to her strange temporary new home, she found a last wave of energy. She took a few moments, with the last bit of moisture she could bring to her mouth, to lick her different wounds as best she could, and then she headed towards Momo's apartment, finding a small window into it that she knew must be the side one she had noted earlier before she had left. She made the last jump onto its ledge and then pushed the window inward. Thankfully it wasn't locked, as she then jumped down into the very short hallway of his apartment, licking herself again as a bunch of pain jolted through her at the impact.

She meowed and purred with what little of her energy she had left which was very little at this point, looking around as she headed towards his living room area with it's sofa and TV. She was surprised not to see any humanoid figures anywhere, robotic or biological. When she was behind the sofa without seeing anyone, she jumped up onto the small shelf behind the sofa and then walked onto it's back, seeing a note stuck on his TV. B12 zipped out of her backpack again, and translated the note, saying that it said that Momo, the Doctor, and Amy were at Jacob's bar, and to come join them. She was glad that everything was okay.

Then she realized just how very tired she was, worn out, and in so much pain too. She thought that they wouldn't mind if she waited before joining them. She just wanted to curl up on Momo's comfy-looking couch, against one of the armrests, and try to let unconsciousness block her pain and give her some well-earned rest. So she jumped down onto the right side of the sofa and curled up in its corner where Momo had a pillow resting. Once situated, she closed her eyes, and thankfully for her, she was So Exhausted and Wounded that she was able to instantly fall into a very deep state of rest....

About an hour later, Swanito, who had been given Momo's keycode long ago, since they were close friends, entered Momo's home, as he had a set of binoculars there that he wanted to lend to a friend. He had left the binoculars on the small shelf behind Momo's sofa, so he headed over there to get them. When he did, he saw out of the corner of his monitor's camera, something he wasn't used to seeing on his friend's couch: a curled-up orange cat!

Not expecting for Dawn to be back yet, and not expecting to see her resting here, he greeted her, but she didn't move. He already knew that she must have succeeded in her mission. He knew this because just about 15 minutes ago it was the talk all over the Slums that everyone's radios had many more signals coming in than before. Knowing that she must have had to brave many Zurks to make that happen, he was worried for her. So he walked around the sofa to see if she was okay. He did remember that biological creatures needed rest, since Dawn, the Doctor, and Amy had gotten their own long rest during the night cycle here in the Slums already.

When he got around and crouched down low enough to take a good look at her, he saw she was still breathing, as her curled-up body was rising and falling. However, he was alarmed to see that she had many tears and small craters in her skin that he knew were not there before. What worried him much more than that, however, as he knew that biological beings could heal themselves, was that some of those nasty-looking wounds had pinkish goo seeping out of them, and the skin was very puffy. He was no expert on biological beings, but he was fairly sure it was not a good sign that she had bits of Zurk-like material around her wounds.

Not knowing what else to do, he very gently picked her up in his arm, where she stayed asleep, and then headed out of Momo's apartment, locking it behind him, and headed towards Jacob's Dufer Bar, knowing that was where Momo, the Doctor, and Amy were. He hoped one of them would know what to do to help this brave, wonderful cat....