A/N: I am so sorry for the late update! I was busy (mid-term exam), and my beta was equally busy, so it took us a while to get this chapter out. But it's finally here, and I hope you will enjoy reading it.

Again, many thanks to my lovely beta Black Angel of the Underworld for making this readable (the first draft was really quite hellish).

This chapter also marks the end of the witch-hunt. Enjoy!

The Witch-hunt (Part III)

Molly bit her lips worriedly as she walked down the stairs, seeing that almost an hour had passed and there was still no sign of the Doctor.

A lamp hung over the basement stairs; its light illuminated the stone-walled cellar beneath the manor, showing electronic sensors along the walls, and across the floor were several crates of metal devices that Molly knew nothing about. However, what caught her eyes weren't the alien gadgets that were scattered around the place, but the iron door that was located at the far end of the room.

The door was locked from the outside and covered with numerous silver chains. Each chain was bolted at all corners of the door and linked to what looked to be a biometric scanner.

Whatever it was, the Xeraphins had taken extra measures to keep it behind that door.

And Molly wasn't sure if she wanted to know what it was.

Just when she was turning around to head back up the place, a deep voice rang harshly in her mind, causing her to jump and drop the wooden plank she had in her hand.

"Human."

The voice was loud and it rankled her mind. Molly clutched her head with both hands as the wave of pain subsided.

The voice spoke again, gentler now, "It is not wise to stay here any longer, human. I suggest you leave this place now."

As the pain faded, Molly looked around the room and saw no Xeraphin.

"Show yourself."

When there wasn't any reply, she turned her focus to the locked door and eyed it warily. "Are…are you in there?"

She took a step forward but immediately stopped as the voice spoke again in her mind, "I said leave now."

"Why did they lock you up?"

When there wasn't any reply, she took another step forward.

"One more step and the others will be alerted of your presence."

Molly looked at the sides and saw the first electronic sensor blink at her proximity. She swiftly took a step back and it stopped.

"My name is Roan."

Molly kept her gaze on the locked door. "You're one of them, aren't you? But why are you here?"

"You are looking for a man called the Doctor."

"Yes. But how—"

"Can you do it?"

"What?"

"Can you stop us?"

Molly's brows furrowed in confusion. "I…I can try."

There was a moment of silence before Roan spoke again. "The planet my species was residing in was destroyed in a war. The planet explosion tore open a fabric of the universe and created a wormhole that brought our spacecraft here through time and space.

"The spacecraft crash landed on this planet in this time and the crash itself created a source of radiation that destroyed our corporeal form. We turned into a gestalt form as a result. We then constructed this place to house the ship and us until the radiation waned.

"But it wasn't that easy. We are a time-sensitive species, Molly Hooper. The proximity to the time rift is slowly poisoning our mind. And the time energy from the rift caused a split in our personalities, dividing us into good and evil. The others, they wanted to possess the human mind to return to our corporeal bodies. I did not agree."

"Split personalities? How?"

"We are of a hive mind. No matter what forms we take, our minds are always connected to each other through the psychic link. The time energy managed to seep into our mind connections and affect one side of the link."

"So you're the good one?"

"As a matter of speaking, yes. Zardox locked me up when I protested against his method. He put a device on me to stop me from forming similar connection to the others. But the device also protected my mind. It prevented my mind from being tainted by the time rift, like what happened to them."

"Do you mean that you don't want to kill us? The humans?"

"We were never an aggressive or violent race, Molly Hooper. The rift interfered with our yearning to become a proper species and made us the monsters we are today."

"You want us to stop the others."

"Yes."

"Will you help?"

There was a pause before he answered, "…Yes."

"Okay." She took a deep breath and let it out. "Alright. So…what do I do?"

The Doctor knew the Xeraphin were taking him to the time-rift because the nearer they were to the destination, the stronger the disturbance. Not to forget, he could almost taste the expanding time-energy in the air. As they walked, the walls shook occasionally as the ground rumbled under their feet.

There were humans in the rooms he passed; eyes wide and bodies stilled, securely strapped to the beds they were on. What intrigued him was the machines that were attached to each of them.

"You didn't just wipe away their minds, you collected their brain waves. Why?"

The Doctor focused his attention on the machines when they passed by another room. The readings on the screens were oddly familiar to him. "You need their minds empty. You don't need to collect their brainwaves. Why do you need the brainwaves? Why?" His brows furrowed as he muttered quietly to himself.

Suddenly, he looked up at the Xeraphin walking beside him. "Oh!" He grinned. "Oh, that is clever, Zardox, very clever."

When there was no reaction from the Xeraphin, he continued, "The first ones that gone missing were just experimental subjects, weren't they? You ran tests after tests to find the perfect frequency for you to wipe their minds and take over their bodies, and you succeeded! But it was too slow, wasn't it? To catch them one by one. You didn't have the time for that, not with the time-energy leakage. And that's why you are extrapolating their brainwaves – the human brainwaves – to something that will perform a mass deletion on the human race. You are building a transmitter!"

He knew he was right when Zardox said, "And you will not stop us, Doctor."

Molly's head hurt.

Her eyes were burning and her brain felt like it was going to explode. By all reason, she should have passed out from the psychic transfer – she should have – yet her will was keeping her on her feet.

"The restrictor they put on me will pick up on the energy signal from the transfer and it will alert the others of your presence here."

"How long do I have?"

"You have three minutes."

She heard the alarm as soon as the transfer was done, and ran through the many corridors in the manor with her mind overflowing with the newly acquired knowledge.

Her mind was a jumble of information and it was difficult to sort them out. It took her almost a minute to bring forward the map to the crashed ship.

The spaceship was at the lowest level of the manor. The time-sensitive species couldn't go back to the ship after it crashed because of the radiation. But as a human, the radiation would only have a minimal effect on her.

There was a mind crystal in the ship. A crystal that kept the Xeraphin' psychic power alive. And they'd built the manor around the ship to protect it. However, the one thing that was sustaining their psychic power was also the one thing that could destroy it. Her purpose was to get to the crystal and sever the psychic connections between the Xeraphin.

Following Roan's instructions, Molly was able to avoid coming across any Xeraphin and found the ship quickly.

She'd seen the spacecraft in her mind. A cylindrical-shaped spacecraft that was more than a hundred meters long, made up with tens of thousands of components harvested from the Xeraphin' home planet. Its silver-chrome surface metal made the ship looked like a shining star while in deep space, surreal and beautiful.

However, looking upon the crashed ship now, it was a miracle that the Xeraphin had survived the crash at all. The spaceship, once a beautiful and majestic machine, had dug itself deep into the ground. Molly could only see one end of it as the other end was deeply embedded in the ground. The fluid shield was gone and the bright skin beneath was a burnt and charred waste.

The door was sealed. Molly touched the panel beside it and hastily retracted her hand when the surface burned her skin. She shed her jacket and wrapped it around her hand to open the panel. After the crash, all the computers had gone offline, with the ship channeling all power to the main control room that housed the mind crystal.

However, a secondary security protocol would be activated as soon as the ship detected her intrusion. It would send out as many automated defense bots it has to kill her. With that in mind, she rerouted the power to the door quickly and set to find the way to the main control room.

After a quick check on the ship's schematic, she located the damaged parts that she could not access. All the doors on the main pathway to the control room were sealed and it would take too much time for her to override every single one of them. The tunnels were her only option.

The tunnels were built in between walls and floors for easy access to the circuitry that kept the ship moving. Molly opened a floor hatch and climbed down a ladder through the innards of the ship.

The tunnels were dark. Molly walked through the narrow corridor as fast as she could without tripping on anything she couldn't see.

Suddenly, there was a click behind her, and she whirled around, her hand going to the Xeraphin gun that Roan told her to take along. It must be the defense bots.

The Xeraphin weapon did not work like an ordinary gun. Even though it was shaped like a gun, it released energy beams instead of bullet. Her hand shook when she grabbed it. She had never fired a weapon before.

There was another click from the same spot and Molly pressed her back against the wall, exposing as little of herself to the thing as possible.

When the next click sounded, it was closer. She took a few steps backwards cautiously and all of a sudden, the corridor was illuminated with harsh beams of red lights and an alarm echoed loudly in the tunnels.

The flashing lights allowed her to see there were at least seven bots in front of her. When she took another step back, the bots whirred and advanced.

They were standing on the platform overseeing the time rift below when the alarm blared.

When Zardox tensed and turned around sharply to look at the others, the Doctor twisted his body around fast enough to detach the hold the Xeraphin had on him.

He didn't use his hypnotic ability often because it drained his energy and it only allowed him to glean the information that was on the surface of a mind, but there were no alternatives in this situation so he quickly used it to put the Xeraphin behind him to sleep and turned around to face Zardox, who already had a gun pointed at him.

He sighed exasperatedly. Where was his sonic screwdriver when he needed it?

"This is not you, Zardox. Don't you see? You are poisoned. You wouldn't want to be what you are right now if it wasn't because your proximity to the time energy."

"I do what I have to do. I have to protect my race."

"I can help you."

"You are a Time Lord. A contact with a complicated space-time event like you would seal the rift forever. "

"And what would you do when the rift is closed, Zardox? Continue what you are doing now? Killing the humans? Can't you see? Your mind is already poisoned!"

"You are wrong."

"Your race is one of the most peaceful races in the entire universe, Zardox. You would not be doing this if you're in your right mind."

"You are wrong."

"Don't do this." The Doctor's hand crept behind him slowly to look for anything that would distract Zardox.

His fingers touched something and he threw it at the unsuspecting Xeraphin.

Zardox moved to avoid the projection and the Doctor dodged the misfired laser beam from the gun. He tackled Zardox to the ground and placed his hands at the side of the Xeraphin's head, rendering him unconscious.

In a matter of seconds, he found the source of the alarm and memorized the schematics of the manor.

Molly was now three levels below the control room. She stumbled forward down the narrow corridor, her legs burning with exhaustion and heart threatening to break free from her chest.

She was trapped. There was no hatch for her to escape aside from the one she came from.

She leaned against the wall and breathed deeply through her nose, bringing up the blueprint in her mind again to look for any other way out.

"Molly? Can you hear me?"

Hearing the familiar voice, she was afraid to be hopeful. For all she knew, it could be an auditory hallucination.

"Doctor?"

"Oh, Molly Hooper. How did you know how to get into this ship?"

"Doctor?"

"Yes, Molly. Why do you keep on calling me? Oh, I've got my sonic screwdriver back!"

For the first time since they entered the manor, Molly smiled. "It's you!"

"Of course it's me! Now –" The sentence was cut off and she could hear him cursing in the distance.

"The bots are closing in your location, Molly. I'm going to deactivate the security protocol now but it's going to take some time."

"How long?"

"A few seconds. A few minutes. Maybe longer. Maybe quite a bit longer."

"Maybe?"

"I've never been on a Xeraphin's ship, Molly. There's no manual for this!"

"There is. Not the manual, but…" Molly closed her eyes, trying to calm the blood pounding in her head. "There is. I mean, the what-to-do. It's in my mind."

Silence reigned for a few seconds before there a small sigh was registered on the other end of the communication. "You did a psychic transfer."

Molly let out a shaky laugh, "Not good?"

"That's…Not good, Molly - " He paused. " - but don't mind that. There is an air duct on your right hand side that should be able to lead you back to the main level."

Somewhere above her, there was a click, and her heart leaped when she heard the sound of laser melting the metal floor. The bots were closing in on her faster than expected.

"Doctor?"

"Yes, yes I know. There are ten, no, twenty bots directly above you."

The air duct was sealed, so Molly had to switch the gun's power to heat-beam in order to melt the bolts.

Soon, there was a high-pitched whirring in the air as an army of defense bots advanced towards her.

Forcing herself to stay calm, Molly quickly switched the gun's power again and aimed it at the bots. Her aim might not be good but she had already taken out four of the bots before they got to within five meters of her. However, more and more bots appeared along side the ones that were already there and there was no way she could destroy them all.

One of the bots got a hit at the wall beside her and tiny pieces of metal cut into the skin of her left hand. The pain was enough for her to lose her grip on the seal.

"Molly!"

"I—I'm fine." She tightened her grip on the gun and shot another five bots before her other hand managed to grab onto the bars again. However, the blood caused her hand to slip and she couldn't grab onto the bars tight enough to start pulling.

Just when she was seriously considering to let go of the gun in favor of pulling the seal open with both hands, the whirring sound stopped and the bots started to drop onto the ground.

"Yowzah!"

Molly let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. Her hands dropped limply to her side when she leaned against the wall, blood dripping down from her arm to the floor.

She allowed herself a few moments to catch her breath before she tore a strip of fabric from her shirt and bandaged her bleeding arm.

"Molly?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah." She finished the knot with the help of one hand and her teeth. "Yeah, I'm good."

Molly arrived outside of the control room out of breath and sticky with blood and perspiration, but she found the Doctor standing there, smiling at her.

His smile vanished upon seeing her, eyes taking in her injuries. "Oh, Molly, Molly. There you are!" He went forward and hugged her tightly. "How are you?"

"I'm fine. It's just a few scratches."

He bent down to look her in the eyes. "Not good, Molly. Extremely not good."

Molly, knowing what the Doctor was referring to, told herself not to panic. "I had to do it. I couldn't find you, there was no other way."

"I know." He pressed a kiss to her forehead gently and sighed. "You're a brave girl, Molly Hooper."

Molly blinked back the tears that threatened to fall. "Can't you — Can't you take it away?"

The Doctor looked down at her sadly. "That's the thing with psychic transfer, Molly, it's a two-way thing. The knowledge, and the memories, were given to you through a psychic bond that was formed willingly between two beings. The information you acquired are rearranging themselves in your mind ever since the transfer. They are becoming a part of you."

"So you can't—"

"I cannot just take it away, Molly. I would disrupt the process and it would destroy your mind."

Molly felt a wave of panic sweep through her and knew now was not the time to have a breakdown. Even with the radiation, the Xeraphin would come to the ship when they get desperate enough.

The Doctor could see how scared Molly was. Fighting the urge to grab her in an embrace again, he went to work on the panel to get the door open. "So what is the plan, Molly? What did the Xeraphin tell you to do?"

"Roan. His name's Roan."

"Alright. What did Roan tell you?"

"When I cut off the psychic link, he will be free to deal with the others. So I find you, and we get out of here."

Even with his head bowed, Molly caught the expression on his face. "What's wrong?"

"What?"

"The plan. Something's wrong with the plan, isn't it? That's why you have that face on."

"What face? I wear this face everyday! Well, not everyday, after my – "

"You know something. Just tell me."

At this moment, the system worked under the Doctor's ministrations and the door opened.

Molly put a hand on his arm after they stepped into the room. "Doctor?"

The Doctor looked at Molly quietly for a while before turning his gaze to the crystal. "Most of the ship's power is directed to the crystal, yes?"

"How long has it been doing that?" he asked when she nodded.

"Urm…" She closed her eyes and raked through her disarray mess of a mind. "Seven months."

"Seven months inside, a decade outside," The Doctor muttered to himself when he pointed his sonic screwdriver at the crystal.

The triangular crystal was floating in mid air, secured in a glass case in the middle of the room, pulsing brightly in blue.

He spoke again when he looked at the reading on the screwdriver. "When you cut the psychic link, there will be an explosion in ten minutes."

Her eyes widened in surprise. "Explosion?"

"The crystal doesn't just sustain the psychic link, Molly. It is the corporeal form of the psychic link. When you cut it off, the concentrated power it collected so far will be released."

Molly closed her eyes in despair. "Why didn't…why didn't he tell me this?"

"Because then you wouldn't do it."

She looked at the Doctor, eyes full of confusion. "I don't understand."

"He accessed your mind, Molly. He knows who you are. So he knows you will try to save them."

She stared at him in disbelief for a few moments. "You mean…"

When he pulled her into his arms, she whispered, "No."

He tightened his arms around her. "The rift is expanding every seconds, Molly. It will have to come in contact with a large complicated space-time event in order to seal off itself. With the psychic link broken, the Xeraphins will turn into their gestalt forms and get reabsorbed into the crystal. Their lives, in combination with the essence of the crystal, will be enough to close the rift."

"The entire species will be gone, Doctor."

"Yes."

Roan knew the moment the link was severed. There was a sharp pain in his head that would've rendered him unconscious if it wasn't for the restrictor around his neck.

He knew what he had to do.

His species will be extinct. But the poison would be gone when their minds joined again, and however brief that is, they will die with a clear conscience that they can never harm anyone else.

It was painful, to know that your species will never again see the stars. But he took comfort in the fact that one person in this universe will remember them.

Molly Hooper.

Bolts of bright gaseous forms flew into the crystal moments after Molly cut the psychic link. And with a heavy heart, she knew it would be the last time she saw them; that they would live for a brief ten minutes before they were gone forever.

With the knowledge and memories of Roan lodged in her mind, Molly felt as though she was one of them.

"Let's go, Molly." The Doctor took her arm when the place started to shake.

With one last look at the pulsing crystal, she nodded dejectedly and let him steer her towards the door.

When they stepped out of the spaceship, Molly's breath caught when she saw Roan standing there, looking straight at her.

"Roan."

The Xeraphin gave her a nod. "Molly Hooper." Then he turned to look at the Doctor. "A Time Lord. Pleasure to meet you."

"I am sorry you had to do this, Roan. If there is any other way – "

"You would help us, I know. I saw her memories."

Molly took a step forward. "You don't have to do this. You can come with us, right? We can go everywhere in the TARDIS! The Doctor can find you a safe planet and – "

"You know it, that Xeraphin cannot exist alone, as we are creatures of a hive mind." He continued when Molly opened her mouth to protest, "I want to be with them, to be reunited. For us, it is a luxury before the end."

He gave the pathologist a deep bow. "Goodbye, Molly Hooper. It is an honour to have met you." Then he turned away, continuing his journey to the spacecraft, without looking back.

"Goodbye, Roan," Molly whispered, her voice carried softly in the air.

The Doctor turned to look at her when she put her hand on his arm. Her lips trembled and her eyes welled up in tears, but she only looked at Roan whose figure was getting more transparent every second. He placed his hand on top of hers, hoping to give her some consolations, and was thankful that she couldn't see the expression on his face.

He knew the feeling of being the one to wipe out your own race. The ever-consuming guilt threatening to break your mind apart.

But he also knew that for Roan, it was a blessing; that he didn't have to live every day of his remaining life regretting his action.

They stood there, watching silently as Roan transformed back to his gestalt form in a final flash of energy. The Doctor could almost hear the voices of the gestalt, voices talking in the crystal, their minds united, oddly calm in the face of destruction.

Then he felt it. The shift in the air. The rift had detected the accumulation of concentrated time energy, and was now seeking it.

"Come on, Molly. Let's get out of here."

Serbia, 17th November 2013. Present Day.

Behind the closed door, a man with long filthy hair slumped forward as far as he could with both of his hands shackled to the railing.

"Sorry, but the holiday is over, brother dear."

"Mycroft."

"Now back to Baker Street, Sherlock Holmes."

A/N: Yay! Finally we have all of them back in London! Thank you so much for reading, and sorry again for the delay.

I can't wait to write the next chapter, new adventure with all favourite characters :D

Reviews are very welcomed :) Let me know what you think!