Untold Knowledge (Doctor Who x Genius Fem! Oc) [Book 1]

Chapter 96: The Lazarus Experiment

Coming up to the back of the stopped ambulance, they found only desiccated corpses within. "Lazarus, back from the dead. Should have known, really." the Doctor said with a deep frown as he scanned everything with his sonic screwdriver.

"Where's he gone?" Martha asked, hoping it wouldn't be too far.

Following the signal, he then found it going into the adjacent building to their right. "That way. The church."

"Cathedral. It's Southwark Cathedral. He told me." Tish corrected, unable to keep the information to herself.

Once inside, they looked around at their eerily silent surroundings. "Do you think he's in here?" Martha couldn't help but whisper.

"Where would you go if you were looking for sanctuary?" the Doctor asked rhetorically.

"Not a Cathedral." Echo muttered as they walked up the nave and to the alter.

They found Lazarus there on the floor, shivering and wrapped in the red blanket. "I came here before, a life time ago. I thought I was going to die then. In fact, I was sure of it. I sat there, just a child, the sound of planes and bombs outside."

"The Blitz." the Doctor said in recognition.

"You've read about it." he said in return.

"We were both there." Echo informed matter-of-factly.

Lazarus scoffed. "You're both far too young."

"So are you." the Doctor replied.

He chuckled a bit before his body made painful cracking sounds. "In the morning, the fires had died and I was still alive. I swore I'd never face death like that again. So defenseless. I would arm myself, fight back, defeat it."

The Time Lord furrowed his brow. "Is that what you were trying to do today?"

"That's what I did today." came his immediate correction.

"But what about the other people you've killed?" Echo questioned, fed up with his clear disregard for the lives of others.

"They were nothing. I changed the course of history." Lazarus replied without a second thought. To him, they truly were nothing in the grand scheme of things.

"Any of them might have done too." the Doctor shot back without skipping a beat. "You think history's only made with equations? Facing death is part of being human. You can't change that."

Lazarus shook his head. "No, Doctor. Avoiding death, that's being human. It's our strongest impulse; to cling to life with every fiber of being. I'm only doing what everyone before me has tried to do. I've simply been more successful."

"Look at yourself. You're mutating! You've no control over it. You call that success?"

"I call it progress." he confirmed with a single nod. "I'm more now than I was. More than just an ordinary human."

Echo frowned at his unseeing ways. "Neither am I simply ordinary. But I'll let you in on a little secret of mine. I wish I was. For half a millennium I've been on my own. And I'll tell you this. Humanity? Immortality? They mean nothing if you don't have anyone to stand by you as an equal. When you're immortal, there is no one you'll be able to hold onto. No matter how tight you hang on."

As Lazarus convulsed again, Martha spoke in a sotto voce manner. "He's going to change again any minute."

The Doctor nodded. "I know. If we can get him up into the bell tower somehow, I've got an idea that might just work." he muttered back.

"You're both so sentimental. Maybe you are older than you look."

The Time Lord approached them again. "We're old enough to know that a longer life isn't always a better one. In the end, you just get tired. Tired of the struggle; tired of losing everyone that matters to you; tired of watching everything turn to dust. If you live long enough, Lazarus, the only certainty left is that you'll end up alone." As the Doctor spoke, Echo's frown deepened in understanding.