
TWENTY EIGHT
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EXECUTION
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The Doctor, Cassiopeia and Nasreen stood in a large courtroom almost identical to a human one, a long table in the centre with large ranks of benches on either side and two pillars in an also large, open area at the end of the room.
"You're not authorised to do this." The Silurian who stopped the decontamination on the Doctor stated, having followed the group the whole way to the courtroom.
"I am authorised to protect the safety of our species while they sleep." Restac hissed.
"Oh, lovely place." The Doctor stated, eyes glancing around the large courthouse-style room. "Very gleaming.
"This is our court and our place of execution," Restac replied.
"Not so lovely" Cassiopeia's small smile fell before they all frowned as none other than Hollie and Amy appeared in the large open arched entrance of the courtroom.
"Let them go," Amy warned as she walked in with Hollie, Mo, Orion and Nova behind them. Amy and Hollie both holding the Silurian weapons.
"Amy Pond and Hollie Aria!" The Doctor cheered. "There's two girls to rely on."
"Oh, thanks." Nova rolled her eyes as her brother shook her head."
"Watch it." Hollie shot at the ground as one of the Silurians stepped forward.
"You've covered both ways as well," Hollie narrowed her eyes. "So don't try anything."
"Mo!" Nasreen then spotted him.
The Doctor raised a brow. "You're a good shot."
"Natural talent." Amy nodded at Hollie. "So the instructor said."
"I think he just fancied me." She snickered.
"Now let them go, or we shoot," Amy ordered. "I'm warning you."
Restac hissed before lunging at Amy way too fast for either of the girls or Mo to react, the Silurian grabbed the gun as the Doctor's eyes widened. "Don't you touch her!"
"And you." Restac pointed the gun at Hollie who sighed and slowly crouched down, placing the gun to the floor as another Silurian took the gun off Mo when he wasn't looking.
"All right, Restac," the Silurian in the lab coat stated. "You've made your point."
"This is now a military tribunal." Restac looked at him. "Go back to your laboratory, Malohkeh."
The two Silurians hissed at each other for a moment and Malohkeh narrowed his eyes.
"This isn't the way."
"Prepare them for execution."
"Looks like we got here just in time." Orion sighed as he and Nova were pushed towards the columns on the right. Nasreen was already shackled up to rings attached to it while the Doctor and Cassiopeia stood shackled alone on the left.
"Okay, sorry." Amy apologised as she and Hollie were pushed to the column on the left, Mo was also taken to the right. "As rescues go, didn't live up to its potential."
"I'm glad you're okay." He looked at Amy as she was shackled up. "Both of you." He turned to Hollie.
Hollie nodded before she smiled. "They're called Si-loo-rians right?"
The Doctor shook his head as he corrected her. "Silurians Or. Homo Reptilia. They occupied the planet before humans. Now they want it back."
"But that's after they've wiped out the human race," Cassiopeia added.
"Right. Preferred it when I didn't know, to be honest." Amy sighed.
Nasreen frowned. "Why are they waiting?" She looked to Orion and then to Nova. "What do you think they're going to do with us?"
"I'm not one hundred percent sure." Orion frowned.
"Maybe they're going to bargain," Nova suggested. "The other one is still on the surface."
×××
In the crypt, Ambrose sniffed and sat down next to her dad as Rory had found a blanket and covered Alaya. "I didn't know it would go like that, Dad."
"My little girl," he shook his head. "What have you done?"
"What happens now?" She asked.
A computer screen in a box, in the crypt, suddenly fizzed to life making them all stand.
"Oh, my God." Ambrose breathed.
"Who is the ape leader?" Restac ordered.
"It's them." She whispered to her father. "How are they doing that? How do they know that we're in here?"
"Who speaks for the apes?" Restac repeated.
Tony turned to Rory. "Don't tell them what's happened."
Nervously the man stepped forward, swallowing hard. "I speak for the humans." He glanced at Ambrose and Tony. "Some of us, anyway."
"Do you understand who we are?"
"Sort of." Rory lied before he shook his head. "A bit. Not really."
"We have ape hostages." Restac moved out of the way. Rory's eyes widened as the group in the courtroom looked up at a large projection in the air.
"Doctor! Amy! Hollie!"
"Mo!" Ambrose gasped. "Mo, are you okay?"
Mo nodded. "I'm fine, love." I've found Elliot. I'm bringing him home."
"Amy, I thought I'd lost you."
"What, 'cause I was sucked into the ground? She questioned. "You're so clingy."
"Leave him alone." Hollie snicked. "You'd be the same."
"Tony Mack!" Nasreen laughed.
"Having fun down there?"
"Not to interrupt," the Doctor cut in, "but just a quick reminder to stay calm."
"Show me Alaya. Show me, and release her immediately unharmed, or we kill your friends." Rory swallowed at the order. "One by one."
"No." Ambrose shook her head.
"Ambrose," Rory whispered.
"No?" Orion frowned.
"Steady now, everyone." The Doctor warned.
"Ambrose, stop it," Tony said, stepping towards her and placing an arm on her shoulder.
"Get off me, Dad." She shrugged him off. "We didn't start this."
"Actually you kind of did," Nova replied before wincing as her brother kicked her. "Ow!" She glared at him. "What it's true!"
"And it's not helping Nov." He gave her a stern look.
"Okay." She pouted at him.
"Let Rory deal with this, Ambrose, eh?"
"We are not doing what you say any more," Ambrose shouted, ignoring the Doctor's words. "Now, give me back my family."
"No," Restac stated. "Execute that one." She pointed at Cassiopeia who's eyes snapped over to her brothers and sister as she was unchained and pushed forward. "Followed by her." She pointed at Amy."
"Cass!" Nova shouted, pulling on her shackles while Rorys eyes widened with fear.
"No! No, wait!"
"Rory!" Amy shouted as she was unchained.
Cassiopeia looked to Restac. "You're making a mistake."
"Cassiopeia!" Hollie shouted to her.
"She's not speaking for us." Rory tried to speak up.
"There's no need for this." The Doctor shouted, his eyes widening further as the Silurians got into position.
"Listen, listen," Rory begged. "Whatever you want, we'll do it."
"Aim," Restac ordered.
"Amy!" Rory shouted.
"Don't do this!" The Doctor begged. The projection cut off, and Rory cried out just as Alaya shouted:
"Fire!" Cassiopeia closed her eyes tightly waiting for the pain. Orion and Nova stared at their sister in anticipation and fear, hearts aching as the Doctors pounded in his own chest, hand tightly holding Hollies, scared she'd be taken next.
"Stop!" A voice shouted a second after Restac's order. The room all turned to look at a Silurian wearing some sort of robed clothes walked in. "You want to start a war while the rest of us sleep, Restac?" He asked, looking straight at the soldier.
"The apes are attacking us." Restac replied.
"You're our protector, not our commander, Restac. Unchain them." He ordered.
"I do not recognise your authority at this time, Eldane."
"Well then, you must shoot me." He opened his arms, welcoming the fire as he continued to walk further into the courtroom.
Restac narrowed her eyes at Malohkeh, spotting the Silurian standing slightly behind Eldane. "You woke him to undermine me."
"We're not monsters. And neither are they." Malohkeh replied, eyes glancing over to Orion, the poor man's eyes fixed on his sister.
Restac raised her scaly brow. "What is it about apes you love so much, hmm?"
Malohkeh pulled his attention back to Restac. "While you slept, they've evolved. I've seen it for myself."
"We used to hunt apes for sport." She spat. "When we came underground, they bred and polluted this planet."
"Shush now, Restac," Eldane ordered. "Go and play soldiers. I'll let you know if I need you."
The Silurian huffed, glaring at Eldane before she turned away. "You'll need me, then we'll see."
"Cass?" Orion called as a Silurian removed his chains, the man rubbed his wrists together as he walked over to his sister and sighed, tightly hugging her, allowing his sister to bury her head into his neck as she let out a shaky sigh. "You okay?" He said aloud.
"I think so." She replied as she removed her arms from around him and stepped away, looking at her sister as Nova walked up beside her brother. "Are you guys okay?"
Nova nodded. "I honestly thought we were about to have a lot of explaining on our hands." She glanced her eyes briefly over to the pillar on the other side of the room, eyes watching as the Doctor used his sonic to remove the shackles on Hollie.
"Or maybe we wouldn't," Cassiopeia replied with a small shrug, turning around to quickly look at the Doctor who gave a small reassuring smile to the trio. "I don't think anyone knows, really." She added, turning back to her siblings.
"Very true." Orion nodded, he spotted Nasreen, the poor woman looking slightly lost with the Silurians surrounding the room. "You okay?"
"Yes, I think so." She replied with a nod. "Thank you."
×××
Back in the Crypt Rory shook his head after he smacked the computer screen with his hand. "Nothing. I've got to get down there."
The screen suddenly flickered on and an image of the Doctor appeared. "Rory." The Time Lord said, waving slightly. "Hello."
"Where's Amy?" He asked.
"She's fine." He replied. "Look, here, she is." Amy leant into the frame before stepping completely in it, Hollie next to her. "Oh, thank God." He breathed.
"Keeping you on your toes." Amy grinned.
"No time to chat." The Doctor cut in. "Listen, you need to get down here. Go to the drill storeroom. There's a large patch of earth in the middle of the floor." He explained. "The Silurians are going to send up transport discs to bring you back down using geothermal energy and gravity bubble technology. It's how they travel and frankly, it's pretty cool. Bring Alaya. We hand her over, we can land this after all. All going to work, promise. Got to dash. Hurry up." Rory opened his mouth to speak but the computer screen went blank again before he had the chance to get a word in.
"The moment we get down there, everything will fall apart." Tony spoke aloud.
Rory shook his head. "We have to return her. They deserve at least that."
×××
The Doctor sat down at the large table with Hollie, Nasreen and Amy. Eldane sat on the other side of the table with the Trio standing behind him, watching curiously. "I'd say you've got a fair bit to talk about." He looked between the humans and Silurian.
Eldane looked to the Doctor, confusion written across his face. "How so?"
"You both want the planet." He explained, gesturing to them all. "You both have a genuine claim to it."
"Are you authorised to negotiate on behalf of humanity?"
Cassiopeia let out a quiet snort of laughter and her brother jabbed her in the shoulder. "Me?" The Doctor questioned, completely missing the interaction between the two. "No. But they are." He nodded towards Amy, Hollie and Nasreen.
"What?" The Scientist blinked.
"No, we're not." Amy turned her head towards the Doctor while Hollie shook her head in agreement.
The Doctor smiled, nudging the blonde. "Course you are. Amy Pond, Hollie Aria and Nasreen Chaudhry, speaking for the planet?" He grinned at them. "Humanity couldn't have better ambassadors." Hollie and Amy nervously looked to each other, the Doctor jumped up and moved between them, placing his arms around both of their shoulders. "Come on, who has more fun than us?" He asked.
"Is this what happens, in the future?" Amy asked. "The planet gets shared? Is that what we need to do?"
"Er, what are you talking about?" Nasreen looked from Amy to the Doctor.
"Time travel," Nova spoke up. "It's what he does."
"And space." The Doctor huffed, looking up at the triplet. "No one ever mentions both of them.
"Anything else?" Nasreen asked.
Orion nodded. "Sometimes there are these things that must always happen, they have to stay the same for history to run smoothly and sometimes things can change.
"Someone's been doing their research." The Doctor raised an eyebrow at the man.
Orion shrugged. "I had a good teacher."
The Doctor grinned. "Thanks."
"Actually it was Hollie." Cassiopeia chuckled as the Doctor's face fell and a small 'whatever' escaped his lips.
Hollie giggled and the Doctor shook himself, snapping out of his small sulk as he blinked. "Where were we?"
"Fixed points?" Nova supplied.
"Ah yes!" He exclaimed. "This is an opportunity." He pulled Amy and Hollie closer in his excitement. "A temporal tipping point. Whatever happens today, will change future events, create its own timeline, its own reality. The future pivots around you, here, now. So do good, for humanity, and for Earth."
"Right." Hollie swallowed and looked at Amy who looked just as scared. "No pressure there, then."
Nasreen shook her head. "We can't share the planet. Nobody on the surface is going to go for this idea. It is just too big a leap.
The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Come on. Be extraordinary." He let go of Amy and Hollie, he leaned over the table and clapped his hands together in the middle of the two sides in excitement. "Okay. Bringing things to order. The first meeting of representatives of the human race and Homo Reptilia is now in session." He grinned widely, looking between Eldane who looked unsure of the whole thing and the humans who were equally as sceptical. "Ha! Never said that before." He looked to the trio. "That's fab. Carry on." He waved to them. "Now," He spun around, looking to Mo who stood off to the side, eyes looking around the courthouse. "Mo. Let's go and get your son." He quickly spun back around to the Trio as he moved away from the table. "You three coming?"
×××
Rory looked at the ground, a small amount of steam emitted from what were four holes before four small disks raised up and waited for them to step on.
"So we get on those, and they take us down through the Earth?" Tony asked.
"Geothermal gravity bubbles," Rory replied before blinking and looking at the group, "or something."
Ambrose swallowed. "They sent four." She looked at the other two. "She was our only bargaining chip."
"We have to hand her back," Rory stated.
×××
The Doctor walked through the tunnels with Orion, Cassiopeia, Nova, Mo and Malohkeh. "Elliot." He smiled, spotting the boy in the small dome room. What looked like vines, were attached to him. "There you are."
"If you've harmed him in any way." Mo looked to Malohkeh.
A look of horror passed over Malohkeh's face. "Of course not. I only store the young."
Orion frowned, crossing his arms. "Why store them?"
"I took samples of the young," He explained, "slowed their lifecycles to a millionth of their normal rate so I could study how they grew, what they needed, how they lived on the surface."
"You've been down here working by yourself," Nova looked to him, an almost saddened look on her face, "all alone for this time?"
Malohkeh nodded. "My family, through the millennia, and for the last three hundred years, just me." He gave Mo an apologetic look as he typed on some sort of Silurian computer. "I never meant to harm your child."
"Malohkeh," The Doctor smiled. "I rather love you."
The Silurian nodded awkwardly as he moved away from the Silurian computer and into the alcove. "It's safe. We can wake him." He unhooked the wires from Elliot and gestured Mo into the alcove as he stepped away from the child.
"Elliot?" Mo gently placed a hand on his son's shoulder. "Ell, it's Dad." The boy blinked slowly before looking up, slightly confused.
"Dad?" He questioned before engulfing his son in a hug.
"You're safe now," Mo whispered to him before letting Elliot go.
The child looked around, eyebrows furrowed before looking back to his dad. "Where are we?"
"Well," Mo swallowed, unsure how to actually tell his son that they're in the middle of the Earth. "I've got to be honest with you, son." He started, not even believing what he was saying himself. "We're in the centre of the Earth, and there are lizard men." He turned, moving his body out of the way so Elliot could see Malohkeh, the Doctor and the Trio in the tunnel.
"Hi." Malohkeh gave a small wave.
"Wow." Elliot looked from Malohkeh to his dad in amazement.
"Elliot. The Doctor stepped forward. "I'm sorry. I took my eye off you."
"It's okay. He nodded with a small smile and held his hand out to the Doctor who grinned and shook it. "I forgive you."
Walking out of the small alcove, the Trio, Mo and Elliot followed the Time Lord towards a door. "You go on, Doctor." Malohkeh gestured. "I'll catch up." The Time Lord nodded and they headed back towards the courtroom.
─── 。゚☆・*.☽ .* ☆゚. ───
I can't just update one of my fics and not the other when I have chapters ready to go, that's just not fair!
I really missed Hollie and my little time trio it's good to be back <3
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