The Time of Change

A Husband's Worry and Alaya's Defiance

Tony scrambles frantically around in the old first aid kit hidden in the floorboards of the rundown church. His fingers are numb with fright, and his vision is blurry with unshod terror tears. Where the creature lashed at him pulses grossly, and he shivers. He can feel the veins thickening with each passing moment, the blood flowing within them like molten lava. His movements become more forced as he searches through the little red box. Where are those painkillers? he demands silently.

"Dad, are you alright?" Ambrose inquires as she comes up behind him. He jumps to cover the wound again. "Dad?"

He waves her away. "I'm fine, Ambrose. Leave me alone," he grumbles.

"You are not fine," says his daughter, concerned. She reaches out to him to make him turn around, and he freezes. He worries she can hear the sick flow of the toxin inside him. "Let me look," she instructs. Her hand on his shoulder tightens painfully, and he flinches back. "Get off," he tells her warningly, but she persists. With a swipe of her hand, she manages to dislodge the collar of his shirt to reveal the horrifying ailment. Ambrose gasps, "No... Dad."

Tony's body goes limp with defeat, and he slumps against her. She runs her fingers across his thinning gray hair, accidentally touching them to his sweat-coated head and realizing his is extremely feverish. "I don't know what's happening to me," he says, his voice almost inaudible, like a breath of wind.

Ambrose feels dread wash through her at the sound of her father's voice, a man she always thought to be strong and unbreakable. "It's going to be fine," she assures him. "First thing is to get this temperature down, get you resting."

Simultaneously, the Doctor and Nasreen walk side-by-side under the watch of both Malohkeh and Restac as they make their way through the tunnels of the Silurian establishment. "These two must be some of the only who are awake," the Doctor says to Nasreen casually, as if she had enquired upon the weather. "The others must still be in hibernation."

"So why did they go into hibernation in the first place?" asks the woman.

"Their astronomers predicted," he answers, "a planet heading to Earth on a crash course. They built life underground and put themselves to sleep for a millennium in order to avert what they thought was the apocalypse, when in reality it was the moon coming into alignment with the Earth."

"How can you possibly know that?" Malohkeh asks, incredulous.

The Doctor glances at him with a glint of that familiar deep pain in his eyes. "A long time ago," he says, "I met another tribe of Homo Reptilia. Similar, but not identical."

"Others of our race have survived?" demands Restac, who suddenly sounds intrigued.

Another look of dismay crosses the Doctor's face, and the air around them seems to chill by several degrees. "The humans attacked them," he says grimly. "They died. I... I'm sorry."

There is silence for a few moments, and Restac breaks it by growling, "A vermin race."

Nasreen shivers beside the Doctor, and he pats her arm gently. Despite being led to their execution, his every thought is consumed with worries for his wife's safety. If he only knew where she was, he would be more at ease, but he has seen no sign of her. He considers asking about her but fears this would only put her in danger, so he squares his shoulders and continues to walk.

I'll find her, he reminds himself determinedly, if not stubbornly. I will always find her.

High above them, tension flames inside Ambrose as she approaches the crypt. Once at the bottom of the stares, she demands, "What's the cure?" She stalks up to Alaya with fire in her eyes and a fierce look on her face. Something is clenched in her hands behind her back, but it cannot be seen.

The lizard-woman sits up straight. "What?"

"I saw what you did to my dad. What is the cure?"

"Why would I tell you?" There is a smug smirk curling the corners of her scaly lips.

Ambrose stiffen, and pulls the object out from behind her. It is a small, compact Taser she managed to hide from the Doctor when he instructed her to take the weapons back. She points it threateningly at Alaya. "Because if you don't, I'll have to use this on you."

"Now you reveal yourselves," Alaya says quietly.

"First you take my son. Now you hurt my dad," chokes Ambrose, her hand shaking. "I'm just protecting my family here. That's all. I don't want to use it. I just want you to put things right."

"Use it."

Ambrose freezes and gazes at the reptile-woman in disbelief. "What?"

Alaya raises her head in defiance, her scales shining as they catch the light. Her yellow eyes flash challengingly. "Use it on me," she orders. There is a pause in which human and Silurian stare each other down, willing one to break before the other. "But you're too afraid. A woman who can't even protect her own child must be too weak to—"

With a shriek, Ambrose pulls the trigger, and the two prongs shoot out, implanting themselves in Alaya's chest. They zap her mercilessly. The Silurian warrior convulses, twitching, on the stone ground for a full fifteen seconds before Ambrose is aware of her finger still pressing the trigger, and she releases. She stares at what she's done in horror.

"I didn't want to do that!" she gasps. "Are you alright?" Alaya chokes on her own breath, regaining the ability to breathe with much difficulty. Still Ambrose pushes her. "Tell me: what's the cure for my dad?"

"He's vermin," spits Alaya, her head level with the stones of the floor. "He deserves a painful death."

Ambrose flinches back but does not desist. "I'm giving you a chance," she tells the creature, pity sloshing around in her chest to mask her guilt.

Alaya glares up at the mother with such venomous hatred that it could singe her at the touch. With failing breath, she snaps hostilely, "I knew it would be you. The one with the most to lose. The weakest."

Ambrose uses the Taser again, this time without any regret. Alaya shouts in pain. Seconds after she makes the sound, footsteps approach hastily, the soles of shoes pounding on the stone steps. Hunter and Tony charge forward just as the electric shock subsides. Alaya is still alive, but just barely.

"Ambrose, what have you done?" demands Tony.

"She kept taunting me about Mo and Elliot and you—"

"We have to be better than this!" says her father.

Ambrose shows no sign of remorse. "She wouldn't tell me anything. I thought sooner or later she'd give in. I would have. I just—I just want my family back, Dad."

Hunter kneels beside Alaya and checks her sluggish pulse with a growing sense of panic. "I'm sorry," he whispers. "How do we help you? Tell us what to do."

Her eyelids twitching, her muscles spasmodic, Alaya hisses her last words with disgust and pride interwoven in her tone: "I knew this would come... and now, the war."

"You are not dying," Hunter tells her as certainly as he can. "I'm not going to let you. Not today."

As a final act of rebellion against the humans, the reptile-woman breathes her final breath.