Chapter Seventeen:

Third POV

"Hazel?" Hazel flinched, surprised at the vaguely familiar voice that was calling her. It couldn't be... After all this time, he actually...? "Hazel, is that you? Please tell me that's you." She tried to speak, but after several hours of screaming, all she could make out were a few weak groans.

Everything hurt. It hurt to even breath at this point. She wanted to answer him, but the pain was too great that she simply couldn't. He ran up to her, cupping her tear-streaked face in his hands. "Oh, what did they do to you?" She gasped, slightly trembling as she stared directly into those all-too-familiar dull green eyes that were hundreds of years ahead of his body.

"Water!" He suddenly said, pulling a bottle out of his jacket and helped her drink it. Hazel guzzled it down far too fast, nearly choking, but he helped her. The dryness in her throat had went down and she was able to speak a little.

"M... M—"

"Don't talk until we get you settled, " he ordered, taking his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket. "Let's get you out of those." He pointed it at the plastic clamps on the ceiling, and they instant released her arms. Hazel slumped forwards, gasping when she suddenly felt like she was falling again, but the Doctor steadied her. "Easy. Easy," he soothed, his hand moving to steady her back gently, she flinched at the touch, but he tried not to think of it. "We have to go, Hazel. The soldiers might be back any minute and—"

The Doctor cut himself off, staring at her back. His eyes widened in horror, "Hazel..."

"My–My wings..." She finally managed to croak out a sob, another onslaught of tears streaming down her face. "Doctor, I can't—I can't feel m–my wings!"

-/••/-/• •••/-•-/••/•-•

Doctor's POV

He didn't know what would drive him to insanity first: the fact that it was taking longer than he expected to find his friends, or that he had to practically babysit Hazel—no, not Hazel, It.

Ever since he had reversed the brainwashing that was on the Hazel-lookalike, she's been like something he had never seen before. She was like a scarred small animal half the time. Either in complete terror that she would be punished for doing the smallest of things — tripping, standing still for more than three seconds, or just being generally confused. It became a regular task to prevent her from accidentally harming herself when she assured him — or even begged, in some cases — that she needed to be punished. It was almost as if not letting her harm herself was driving her mad.

Or, It — he hated that title, but she wouldn't accept anything else — would be completely obedient that it bugged him. She would do exactly as he said, when he said it, and if she had made even the smallest of errors, she would literally beg for his mercy not to punish her. Then, she would ask to be punished, as if not being punished was a crime in itself. This usually resulted in her being sent to her room like a child, just to keep her out of the way as he worked. He would often forget about her and neglect her in her room. That is, until she had a memory relapse.

Because of her brainwashings, she would sometimes experience memories that would show up. They were rarely ever pleasant and usually left her ending up on the floor, shivering even though it wasn't cold, screaming, crying, and writhing from phantom pains, or completely detached and would be unresponsive for hours upon hours just staring into nothingness. Once or twice, however, she would lash out at him, if he had been careless enough to touch her. Usually, it had been a swatting with her wings — which definitely was painful later — or him being pinned on the ground while she tried to strangle him to death.

After that, he had refrained from touching her as she experienced these relapses.

There wasn't much he could truly do for the girl. Of course, he could repeat her 'trigger words' as he called it, turning her back to the Hazel copy, but he felt as if that were cheating her and Hazel, whom he hadn't yet been able to find.

He clenched his fists on the console, thinking of his friend. She was trapped somewhere, just like Amy, but he had no means of locating her. The only information It had provided for him was a string of ramblings that was something along the lines of, 'No! No! They've killed the mission! The mission is still there, but she's dead now,' or 'It is no use. The mission has fallen. The mission won't allow it to connect to her.' Both of them suggests that she was dead, yet still alive. How was that!? How could she be both?!

He groaned, leaning his head against the board. For the past two weeks, they've been acquiring information, but has only been able to learn information on Amy, not Hazel. Wherever she was, it would take much more than a pub-information bribery or even threatening an entire fleet of cybermen to find her. Whatever information It had given him wasn't useful in the slightest. It was just a random planet that wasn't inhabited and hadn't been in a millennia.

He ran a hand down his face, maybe he should look again. Maybe they took her—

Screaming. That was It again. Maybe she had accidentally fallen asleep again? She wasn't fond of sleeping. She always said that it brought memories that she should've forgotten.

As he put his stuff away, he hurried down the hall and quickly made it to her room. She was still screaming, but it turned into loud sobbing now. He inhaled as he opened the door.

Her room was a mess — which was a massive change since It had... 'Arrived' — the blankets were on the floor and so was she. She was curled up in a ball, her wings moving to cover her as well. She was crying, but had stopped when he entered the room. Now, she was just shivering and shallowly breathing.

"Ha... It. Are you alright?" There was a slight pause before she responded quietly.

"It... It must be wiped again... Correct?" Wiped? Maybe the brainwashing procedure, which he knew was anything but humane by how she described it. They would torture her for hours, sometimes even days, and eventually they'd break her to the point where she knew nothing of what happened and became a puppet to them. He grimaced at the thought, vaguely wondering if they did the same to his Hazel.

"No," he answered. "Never. You won't be hurt here. In fact, you'll never be hurt again."

"It... It does not understand," she never did when he told her something like that. "It... It... It knows things it should not know... It wants to tell master, but master will punish it if it tells."

"I won't hurt you," he assured, dismissing the fact that she called him 'master' again. "You can tell me if you want."

It paused, he could tell that she was contemplating whether or not she should speak. "It... It had a dream. It was not a memory, it had never seen this before. There was a... Human. Or maybe not a human... A girl. She–She was in a cage, a clear cage, and there was a woman in front of her. She was... She was punishing the girl."

"Is that all?"

"N–No, it gives its apologies, she, the woman, was ordering the girl for something, and she would not talk. She was not moving, actually..."

"What did the woman want to know?"

"She–She said... 'I want to know the location of Maximum Ride.'" He froze. That was Hazel! So, that meant that It had some kind of psychic connection with her. Maybe he could use it to track her down!

He grinned, "Come on!" He said, grabbing her hand and pulling her up. It jumped and he half expected himself be to strangled on the floor again. Instead, she listened, raising to her feet, but she crossed her hands, keeping them by her sides, not allowing him to touch her. Racing down the halls with her behind, he brought her to the main console room, darting around to find what he needed.

"It does not understand what its purpose is at the moment," It muttered, watching as he dance around the console, finally pulling a tackily built head piece. It was decorated in loose wires, cords, and other assembling parts. He beckoned for It to come, for once proud of its obedient personality.

Placing the piece on her head, he began to type a few commands in and fiddled with it. "Okay, this may sting a little, but don't worry. I need to you think about the girl you saw in the glass cage, okay?"

It nodded and closed its eyes. After a few minutes of anticipation, it cracked an eye open, "Is–Is it working yet?"

He frowned, looking back at the console, "You have to think of the dream."

"It's thoughts are useless and unneeded," It replied automatically. "Expressing opinions will result in punishment."

"No, no! No punishing here!" The Doctor insisted. "Remember? I won't hurt you; nobody'll hurt you. You're safe."

"It..." She looked down, "It feels strange. It feels... Scared." Scared? She never tried to express emotions, much less name them.

"It's okay," he assured. "It's okay to be scared. All you need to do is think about the dream and you'll be done. Can you do this?" It stared into his eyes for a second. Seeing such fear spread so easily in Hazel's stubborn face was uncanny to him.

"Yes," It replied. She exhaled, and closes her eyes. A second later, she grimaced, flinching slightly in pain, but didn't move. He turned back to the console. The dream was brought up holographically as he tried to pinpoint the location of her.

"Tell me where she is!" A woman's voice demanded. He glanced up to see a red headed woman standing with a sharp knife in her hand.

"I'd rather die!" Hazel's voice spat.

The redhead lunged at Hazel and It screamed, falling to the ground, the headpiece snapping off her head and hitting the side of the console. The search was immediately aborted from lack of a source. "NO! Sorry! It is sorry, please don't hurt it! It can't—It doesn't know!" She began to cry again, trembling.

"Hazel, calm down," he tried to say, but then she stiffened.

"It isn't Hazel. It isn't Hazel. It is it. It doesn't need emotions. It begs for mercy. It begs for punishment. It—" he managed to tap her forehead, shutting her down, and she fell, her head hitting the grated floors with a sharp thud.

He sighed, staring at her unconscious body, trying to think of other ways he could possibly get the information to find Hazel.

-/•-/-

It's POV

It sat at the end of the bed that the Doctor had given it. It didn't move at all, the Doctor had ordered it to do that. It didn't want to disobey orders in case it would be punished.

The room was dark. The light had turned out when he left. It didn't like the darkness. It reminded it of the base. Her small cell with no light — never any light. It sat in the corner, waiting to be used again, to be helpful to its master. That was its orders. Sit there. Don't move. Don't speak. Don't emote, never emote.

It followed these orders with a dangerous accuracy, for the punishment of breaking an order like that would be death. Being dead would it was useless. Useless was wrong. Useless meant punishment; it meant that it was unneeded, it was a waste of space, a waste of oxygen, a waste of supplies.

Useless was worse than death.

"It," it looked up, the Doctor was standing in front of it, holding a plate with strange smells coming from it. The sight made it confused, but the scent made its mouth water. It hadn't eaten a lot since it was reawaken, that was the rule. It wasn't allowed to eat more than the nutrients worth of a half a slice of bread and a small glass of water, and even then, that was too much.

"Here, you need to eat something," the Doctor said, handing it the food. It was several triangle-shaped wheat products with a red substance on top that was partially hidden by yellow substance melted together.

It blinked, "It does not understand."

"What do you mean? It's pizza. You love pizza."

"It does not love anything. It does not emote; emoting compromises missions."

The Doctor exhaled, "You need to eat something. By this rate, you'll be less than skin and bones." He set the plate in her lap, and sat down on a chair — after clearing off a few misplaced items. "I'm not leaving 'til that plate is clear." It stared at him, then at the plate.

"Is this an order?" Again, he exhaled.

"Yes," he said, a strange edge to his tone. "That's an order. Eat your food." It sat straighter, and picked up the triangular shape of... Pizza by the corner. It looked at it strangely for a second, then tearing it in half, then in half again. It's fingers were covered in the strange red and yellow substances, but it took the ripped piece of the pizza and ate it.

After it finished, it set the plate on the ground. "What are its next orders?"

The Doctor looked up, he had been reading a book. "You didn't finish."

"It ate its required amount," it explained, confused.

"You barely ate anything."

"It was not supposed to."

"Ha—... It," again, he made a face. "You need to eat more than that. Even for a normal person, that's too little, and you need, what, 2,000 or 3,000 calories? Eat all of it."

"But... It could be pun—"

"Oi!" He cut her off abruptly, "What did I say about that word?" As of a few days ago, he and the human, Rory, had banned that word from the TARDIS. That had confused it a bit. Saying that word would mean punishment, but they refused to punish it, so what would it do? Punish itself? Was it allowed to do that?

"May it punished itself?" It asked the Doctor, who's eyes went wide at the question.

"What!?"

"May it punish itself?" It repeated, but the Doctor shook his head.

"I–I heard you the first time, but wha... Why would you ask to do that to yourself?"

"Master refuses to punish it, and Master and the human banned the word 'punishment', therefore speaking or thinking of the word would mean punishment. But, Master refuses to punish it, so that would mean it would have to punish itself." The Doctor gaped at it once it finished its explanation. It looked away, now focusing on the plate with the food.

"I... Ugh, I don't want to call you 'It'. Can we just give you a name?" The Doctor said suddenly after a short silence.

"It does not—"

"I know," he cut it off. "But, it would be easier to address you if you had a name. It isn't really a name, it's more of a... Title."

"It does not understand."

"A name," he explained. "Can we give you a name? My name's the Doctor, so what can your name be?"

"It."

"No."

"Subject 63—"

"No."

"... Pet?" The Doctor ruffled his eyebrows.

"'Pet'?" He repeated, sounding a bit disgusted.

"That was what... It's former Master would call it," It felt... Strange. It felt it's wings raising, curling around it. It tried to look at the Doctor, but then the strange feeling would come back, so it kept its eyes in the ground.

"... No. We're not calling you that," he finally said, and cleared his throat. "C'mon, it can't be that hard to think of a name. What about..." He scratched his head for a second. "... Destiny?" It frowned, Destiny? That was m odd—

"Help us!" A woman's voice rang in It's ears, making it stiffen. "Please, please help us!"

Then, it scrambled of the bed, breathing heavily, "It?"

It held its head, shaking. Laura. No, no, Laura! "... Save her."

"What? It, what's going on?"

"Laura!" It felt its eyes leaking again, and it felt its eyes. The water was coming again. Stop. Stop emoting! It does not emote!

"Those... Those aren't your memories. How do you know that name, unless..." His eyes widened, "... The psychic link."

"They are going to kill her!" It sobbed, covering its mouth with its hands. Undesired images flashed in her mind. She could see Laura's — who is Laura, who is Laura, wh — dead corpse sprawled on the ground. There was her blood, so much blood, so much blood, so much blood, so—

"Okay, I need you to calm down," the Doctor said. He was on his knees, staring at her. "Your having another relapse, but this time, it's not your memories. Now, this is very important. I'm going to go into your mind and remotely find the psychic link. They're usually easiest to find when the other person is feeling a overwhelmed with emotion, which may affect you, not quite sure. If I can get to it, I should be able to find her."

"She is—she is dead! They are all dead! I—"

"I might touch on some of your memories, but don't worry, it won't hurt, I promise." He placed his hands on its head, and it jerked its head back.

"It does—it does not want punishment! Please, do not—do not punish it!" It was shaking, staring at the Doctor, its Master, with horror. "Please."

He blinked, his eyes softening into some emotion it didn't have time to recognize. "I'm sorry," he pushed his hands back on its temples, and in seconds, it slumped over.

•-/•/•/-•-/•••

Third POV

If the Doctor had to describe It's mind, he'd call it a post-war zone. Everything seemed to be broken, lost, or out of order. There was barely anything keeping it together, and the few things that were were so mangled that it would be more work trying to get it than tying to piece it back together.

He was getting distracted. Turning away, he searched for the psychic link, which would be a feat in itself in this mess. The bigger problem was tracing it with the little power it had left. He could be here forever looking for a memory that would be the most traumatic.

'... Ura...'

The Doctor turned sharply to see a small blue flame floating warmly in the air. '... Laura...' A whisper, he realized. A small whisper was usually the brain's way of remember small things that might snowball into a full memory.

'... Laura...' It beckoned, slowly moving away from him, but was gaining speed as well. The Doctor followed close after as the blue whisper, jumping over black, shadowy obstacles.

The whisper led the Doctor into a dark forest. He would have felt a bit hesitant, but he knew that he wasn't able to get physically hurt in her mind if nothing happened to his body. Since he knew nothing would, he continued quickly, following behind the whisper as he moved branches past his face so it didn't whip at him as he moved. He felt water splash against his shoes, and he frowned. Bending down, he touched the strange substance that was too thick to be water. It ran off his finger, sliding into his palm. The bluish fire giving a little light, showing the red tint on his finger.

Blood.

He jumped back, blood!? He looked around for a body to match the discarded substance on the ground. '... Laura...' The blue flame whispered.

"I kn—"

'... Laura!' It was distressed, and he looked over, where the blue flame was hovering. A crumpled body was illuminated underneath it. It had been a woman, but he was only able to recognize that from the long brown hair that laid against her back. She was turned on her stomach, blood puddling around her. He looked back where he was, someone had been lying here, that's why there were remnants of blood.

The Doctor heard loud flapping, like a eagle descending, but far to loud to be a eagle, or any bird of that size. He watched as Hazel reared her wings, favoring her right shoulder in her arm. Her back was to him, so he couldn't see her face. The Doctor watched as she easily scooped up the dead woman with her good hand, hissing a little in pain.

She lugged the woman over her shoulder as if she had been a sack of flour, and turned around. The Doctor gasped. Dried blood was splayed across her face and her eyes were dark, hollow almost. Her face had a blank expression, but her eyes were bloodshot and tear tracks ran down her cheeks. He noticed that she looked a few years young than she was, but her eyes... They were as dark and as tired as he was.

The Doctor pulled out his sonic, this should be the memory of her most emotional point, meaning he should be able to find the other end of the psychic link and save the coordinates in his sonic. His screwdriver made the familiar whirring when in use as it memorized the information he needed.

Hazel began to fly away, pumping her wings as she rose into the air. The Doctor began to worry that she would be too far away for the sonic to pick up on her signal, when suddenly, she stopped and hovered in the air. The thick tree's foliage seemed to part giving him a view of the grave situation.

Despite Hazel being nearly twenty or thirty feet above him, he could hear we words clearly. "I... I'm sorry," she said, her voice sounding hoarse, as if she spent the last ten hours screaming. "This is all my fault. I... If I had just protected you, all three of you, this wouldn't have happened." She paused, a sob rising in her voice. The Doctor noticed his sonic had finished copying the signal, but he was too interested in her small goodbye.

She sucked in her breath, "You deserve a better than me crying. God, you would've called me a baby." Hazel laughed bitterly, before continuing with a solemn tone. "Laura Dawner. A friend, mother, daughter, and wife. She... She was amazing and he–helped me when I was dying. She saw the kindness in everyone and thing. She didn't deserve to die, not like this..." She cleared her throat, "I love you, Laura... Goodbye." Hazel dropped the body, watching it fall like an rock until she hit the ground unceremoniously in a crumpled heap of broken limbs.

The Doctor grimaced. When he died, he made a mental note not to let Hazel be in charge for it.

Hazel began to fly for a few meters before she, too, fell. But, she landed on her knees, her hands covering her face, and she was sobbing. "I–I–I'm so–so so–sorry!" She hiccuped, trembling. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" She repeated these words over and over again. He felt his ears begin to ring from just listening to her. He winced as it became louder, covering his ears. This wasn't supposed to happen! What was going on!?

The Doctor pulled his hand away, surprised to see his own warm, burgundy blood coating his palms. She hadn't stopped crying and he noticed a few animals falling out trees, only squirrels and the like, but what surprised him was that they were all completely still and not even breathing — they were all dead.

Her words back in Venice what felt like forever ago finally made sense to him,

"But, at a higher level, like it's song or a scream, it could quite literally... Kill someone."

The Doctor decided to leave at that moment, not bothering to comfort the screaming girl and instead let go of her mind.

•-••/•-/••-/•-•/•-

Doctor's POV

He jumped away, staring at It who's eyes were still closed and her back against the messy bed. Her face was distressed, but she didn't look like she would wake up any time soon.

He touched his ears, still feeling blood. He rose an eyebrow, she hasn't exactly been singing in her memory, but... Could that 'ability' be triggered by simply speaking?

Several other questions rang in his head, but he decided to cast them away for now. He pulled out his sonic, grinning when he saw that the signal was still saved.

Finally, he had a chance at finding her.

••-•/-/••-/•-•/-•••

Third POV

"You ready?" The Doctor asked, and Destiny gave a small nod.

He was able to get the TARDIS just outside the building that they were holding Hazel in from where he traced the signal to. He already knew the security would be doubled to keep her in, but he had been lucky enough to feed all the cameras between her and them a continuous loop of recording so they wouldn't notice. Then, he and Destiny would be able to sneak through the halls, with Destiny being able to control anyone who came near them until they made it to her cell. When they eventually got to Hazel, he could remotely bring her back, where he had Commander Strax and Rory who had already prepped the TARDIS's infirmary and was waiting for her.

Their mission went smoothly with no faults. Destiny — who had formerly been 'It', but the Doctor refused to address her with the name, so she was given Hazel's former name — was able to render any unfortunate guard unconscious. The Doctor was able to sonic the door to her cell open, there were three men sitting down, guarding a single door with guns strapped on their waists. As soon as they saw the duo, they rose to their feet, reaching for their weapons.

"Go to sleep," Destiny ordered and all three of them slumped to the ground. The Doctor dead bolted the door closed, so no one would be able to enter again. Then, he pulled the plugs he kept in his ears out.

"Come on," the Doctor ordered, and Destiny nodded, beginning to seal the door shut. The Doctor sonicked the single door open. He was surprised to find that there had been a rather long, torchlit hallway. He knew there was a long hall from the room to Hazel, but it had been so old-fashioned that it shocked him.

The two hurried down the hall, until they found a wooden door with a large, old wooden-slab over the handle to keep he door shut. "Stay here," the Doctor ordered Destiny and she gave a firm nod, standing steadfast at the door, ready at a moment's notice.

The Doctor pushed the slab away and pulled the large door open. Again, the scenery changed from wooden and medieval to plastic and 2260's earth humanistic. The entire room was an opaque, dense plastic, with the only opening being the door he entered through. It was completely dark, and he noticed Hazel's limp form stirring in the center of the room.

Hazel had been hanging in the center of the room by her wrists. Plastic chains girded her wrists, and her wings had been limp against the floor behind her, but he didn't spend too much time looking at that. Hazel had been half dressed, wearing only ripped, mangled jeans and a sports bra that revealed her torso. Dark bruised and white scars that looked far too old to be only nine months healed lined her skin, most of them being jagged lines, most likely from whips, but a few had been bite and claw marks from what looked like wild beasts. Most of her body, however, was covered in blood that had crusted over the wound so, or had puffed up from exposure to bacteria, more likely than not being infected. On top of that, he had a clear view of her ribcage which had been painfully outlined from malnutrition. Her dark hair had grown out to her mid-back, and had shrunken from lack of care.

The Doctor stared at the girl for several minutes, almost unable to recognize the injured girl. "... Hazel?" The girl didn't move for a second. Finally, she flinched, as if being awoken from a deep sleep. "Hazel, is that you? Please tell me that's you." The Doctor didn't know why he asked that, maybe in fear he had found the wrong bird-kid, or maybe he had just been jinxing himself, and it truly was another clone.

Hazel opened her mouth to reply, but all that came out were croaks and a hoarse, groan of pain. Suddenly, the Doctor remembered he had been on a bit of a schedule and didn't have time to waste. He ran go here, cupping her sunken cheeks in his hands. Hazel flinched from the gesture, probably not being used to physical contact like how he was doing to her, but he was far to relieved to release her. "Oh, what did they do to you?" He whispered, knowing she couldn't answer. Or maybe she couldn't list all the inhumane acts they committed to her because it would take far too long to name.

"Water!" The Doctor exclaimed, remembering suddenly how Rory insisted he'd take the liquid with him incase she had been dehydrated. The Doctor reached into his jacket, pulling out a plastic bottle and gently pouring it down the girl's throat. Hazel guzzled it down like it had been the last drop in the universe, most of it spilling over the sides of her chin, but she didn't seem to mind.

Once the bottle had been empty, Hazel attempted speech again, "M... M—"

"Don't talk until we get you settled," the Doctor ordered, fishing his sonic screwdriver out of his jacket. "Let's get you out of those." He pointed the screwdriver at the ceiling and the chains instantly released her arms. Hazel sagged to the ground, but the Doctor held her up by the waist. He was surprised to see how light she had been, but didn't comment on it.

Hazel gasped as he rose her to her feet, probably feeling as if she had been falling again. "Easy. Easy..." The Doctor coaxed, placing a hand on her back to steady her. "We have to go, Hazel. The soldiers might be back any minute and—" he froze, looking down at her wings, his eyes widening in horror. "... Hazel...!"

Her wings were broken. No, not broken, shattered. She had lost so many feathers that it hardly looked like wings anymore, but just red, bleeding flesh. Her wings laid against her back, but he could see the bones of the wings sticking out in several places. It was as if someone came and snapped her wings over their knees several times! The Doctor couldn't imagine how much pain she had to be in because of that.

"My–My wings," Hazel finally managed to croak, her body trembling with sobs. "Doctor, I can't—I can't feel m–my wings!" She fell into a coughing fit, wincing as she involuntarily moved. Blood dripped down her chin, and she shivered, probably very cold.

"He–Hey, it's okay," the Doctor assured, pulling out his sonic to remotely call it back to him. "Destiny! We're leaving!" He shouted, and Hazel winced, slamming her eyes shut. Destiny entered the room, stony faced as usual.

"It believes that they noticed something is wrong," she said. "It heard footsteps — they're coming."

As the TARDIS materialized around the three, they heard the noise of loud alarms blaring, finally realizing someone had intruded their facility. But, by the time they came, it was far too late. The Doctor had taken Hazel and escaped.

••••/•-/-••/•/•-••

Hazel's POV

"Get her to the Infirmary!" Someone shouted, "Carry her! Don't put her on her back! Her wings are terribly damage. You'll have to walk at a steady pace as well, or else she'll freak out and think she's falling again."

"We got it, Doctor," Someone else said in somewhat of a annoyed tone. "Some of us are actually certified nurses." I couldn't see much. All I saw were blurry outlines of people and bright lights. I shuddered, I'm–I'm scared. Where's the Doctor!?

"D... Doc... Tor..." I barely managed to speak. My throat hurt, just as much as they did when the Whitecoats experimented on my vocals. Were they going to experiment on me? Was I back in the School!? "D–Do–Doctor...!"

"I'm right here, Hazel, I haven't moved," the Doctor's voice assured. I barely looked at him my eyes half-shut.

"W... Where...?" I couldn't manage to speak another full sentence. My throat hurt again. I coughed, but that didn't help anything.

"Water! Someone get me water!" More shouting, more moving. I didn't realize how pretty the orange and yellow lights looked when all blurred together.

"Okay, let's take her to the Infirmary," a voice says. We're moving again, and my head lolled to the side, resting against someone else. I began to wonder where we were going. The Doctor hadn't moved, I could smell him. He was close, definitely close. I could also smell a lot of other things too, that I didn't recognize.

Then, we stopped, I heard something open, "Get her on the bed." We moved again, and I sniffed then, froze.

No. No. No. Not the School. No no! I can't be back! No! "Let–Let me... Go!" I croaked, struggling to get away from whoever was holding me. Liars! All of this was a lie!

To much of my surprise, they let go, and I crumpled to the floor. My instincts took over and I went invisible, shivering against the hard floor. "Hazel! Calm down! We're not going to hurt you. You're on the TARDIS, remember?" That was the Doctor. The fake Doctor.

I stayed silent, which wasn't really much because I had been breathing so heavily. I felt a hand touch my shoulder and I jumped, trying to scramble away, but they gripped my arm, keeping me in place. "I'm sorry," the Doctor whispered before touching my forehead, and I fainted.

-••/•/•••/-/••/-•/-•-

I didn't want to wake up again, but I heard people calling my name, so I forced my eyes open. I felt something hard pressing on my chest, and I looked down. A leather strap.

I jolted, my eyes wide, "No..." I whispered, my throat feeling a little better than it had before. I recalled my latest memories before I fell asleep. I was in the School again! I pulled my arms against the straps, but I couldn't move. The actual buckles themselves were iron, but I was far to weak to control anything. I'm surprised, I managed to go invisible earlier. It probably was just partially, but still.

"Hazel?" The sound of the voice made my heart skip. The Doctor! But my eyes narrowed, he was working with the School!? "Great, you're awake. Come on, you need to eat something."

"Where... Are we?" I whispered.

He gave me a strange look. "The TARDIS, of course. I brought you something to eat so I can fill you in while you're eating." The Doctor walked over, setting a tray with a sandwich and a glass of water beside me. He handed me the plate with the sandwich on it. "Eat up."

I didn't reply. Instead, I tore off a sizable chunk and handed it to him. He blinked for a second, probably confused, but then rose an eyebrow, "You think I poisoned it?"

"I'm thinking... A lot of things right now..." I whispered slowly. "If–If you're my Doctor, you would eat it."

"I am your Doctor."

"Prove it." The Doctor gave me a sad look, but not for me, but for himself, and took the sandwich piece.

"I'll eat it, but... I put a lot of hot sauce in it because I know you like it like that." I scoffed, as the Doctor finally ate it, and made faces as it burned his tongue.

"Thank you," I whispered, suddenly able to relax. He nodded, but his face was turning red. I chuckled, "Go get some milk." He ran out of the room as soon as the words left my mouth and I laughed.

••/-

The Doctor finally finished explaining everything that had happened in the past twenty-four hours. They got Amy, but lost her baby, which happened to be River. He we a monk. Rory got all centurion-y and saved her. So, now we were back in the TARDIS again, but needed to find River, or really, the younger version of her.

"Where do we... Start to find her?" I asked.

"You can start by getting some rest," the Doctor explained. "You've been tortured for nine months."

"Nine months?" I frowned, "You... Mean eleven."

The Doctor's eyes bulged, "What? No, you were taken when Amy was kidnapped with the Silence, remember?"

"What's... The Silence?" The Doctor stared at me, and I squirmed uncomfortably under his gaze.

Then the door opened, "Master Doctor, the human, Amy, is—" Our eyes met, my widening with each second. Simultaneously, our eyes flared yellow. I tried to get out of the bed, but the leather straps wouldn't allow me. Instead, the clone lunged, but the Doctor grabbed her arm before it could hit me.

"Whoa! Whoa!" He shouted, struggling to keep the clone away.

"Why haven't you... Killed that thing yet!?" I demanded, coughing in-between my sentence.

"What are you taking about?" The Doctor asked. "Why would I kill her!?"

"It's a clone, Doctor!" I hissed.

"Hazel, she's a person too. I expect you of all people should understand that," the Doctor looked rather upset. "Destiny, go for now," he said, dismissing the clone, and it hurried out of the room silently.

I stared at the wall, angrily. "Hazel—"

"The clones... Back at the School were usually used... As slaves." I grimaced, remembering when I was able to slip in on one of the Clone Auctions a few years ago. "Sometimes, they're put into a fighting ring for entertainment..." I exhaled, "They're usually connected... Mentally with the original — me — and can interject... Themselves in my memories or my mind. I've... Felt her in my mind," I shivered, remembering when that clone would simply sit in and ways when that Whitecoated bitch tortured me. That clone did nothing! Had it had just told the Doctor, then I ... I wouldn't have had to go through that. It was that damned clone's fault!

"I want it dead," I growled, my eyes narrowed and my shoulders shaking with anger.

"I'm not killing her," the Doctor said, firmly.

"You don't have to. Next time I see it, it'll have its eyes rolled back in its head."

"Hasel, you're not thinking straight. Get some rest, we can have this discussion later." The Doctor left, but not before undoing the leather straps holding me down.

I stared at the closed door, several angry thoughts racing in my mind, yet one of them repeated itself over and over.

I was going to kill that clone. We both can't be here, and the Doctor will never decide on one. It's either me, or her, and this time, I refuse to lose.

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I'm so happy omg. After nearly a year and a month working on this book, I'm finally, finally finished!

Now, I gotta finish SIF and GAW so I can write the SuperWhoLock–Maximum Ride crossover! I'm so excited omg! I can't wait!

I have a lot of work to do so I'll get back to writing! Thank you guys so much for all the support throughout this story. I love you all and I'll see y'all next time, and remember...

Don't melt~!
~ Happyritas OOO
(Thank you all for an amazing year ❤️)

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Edited: 1/28/17