Timeless [Doctor Who/11th Doctor]

32. Trust Me

CHAPTER THIRTY TWO

My mind was burning like a computer in overdrive, with no fan to cool it down and nothing to extinguish the sparks that roared into flames. It was agony.

Through the keyhole in the hardwood door, I could see two guards standing firmly outside. I spent hours pacing back and forth across the small room I was trapped in - the distance between the bed and the CCTV monitors, over and over again. No windows were there to offer an escape. I was enclosed in the quarters with little idea on how to get out.

First plan: I gently opened the door, the creak startling the guards into action as they spun around and bared their weapons.
"Excuse me," I drawled, my eyes big and pleading. "You don't think you could get me some food, do you? I'm really hungry."
No reaction came from my pouting, not that their faces were visible beneath the full-coverage metal helmets anyway. I glanced between the two hopefully, until I caught sight of something unexpected. Between the visors of the helmet, I was met with a blinking green light instead of a human eye.
Robots, of course.
This was inevitably going to make it near impossible to distract them as I had originally hoped.

Second plan: if they're robots, they must be wired up to the mainframe somehow.
Accept defeat, and sulk back into the bedroom. The Doctor's mind seemed to be much quicker in working these things out, solving which buttons on the monitor command which action, figuring out that if I fuse the wires to the mainframe for just a second, the robots will glitch.
This overflow of thoughts sent me tumbling back for a moment, the pain unbearable.

The next step: once I had fought past the ache, rewind the CCTV footage that hung above the fireplace. There the guards were, pushing the Doctor backwards through a corridor. I pressed play, making the scene play out forwards this time, and watched them turn a corner that wasn't covered by security cameras. But it was a start.

At that current moment, the security cameras showed the King heading towards a door. My door, I realised.
The squeak of his footsteps outside interrupted my plans as I dashed towards the bed and faked sleep.
I could feel the mattress dip on the other side as the King joined a few moments later. He chuckled quietly, a sound that made my insides churn uneasily, and placed a grotesque kiss on my cheek. Fighting the urge to awake from my pretend slumber and send a solid right hook into his face, I lay there until I could hear his deep snores fill the room.

Slowly, I crept away from the bed and towards the computer monitors. After fiddling with the countless wires for a moment, I carried out my earlier plan, fusing the technology in the hopes it would work to disable the robotic armoury outside.

Luckily, it did. With one last glance at the sleeping King, I decided it was as safe as it was going to be. Which, honestly, wasn't very.
Past the powered down guards, I placed each foot carefully upon the floorboards so not to make the slightest of creaks. When I reached the corner, a lightning strike of pain daggered through my brain. I stumbled forwards, clutching the wall to hold myself up for a second.
My thoughts were brimming with words I didn't even understand. Chameleon arch. No, no that was Time Lord technology. This was a bad version, a rip off, a one-way biodata transfer. Memories from one brain into another, leaving the original subject empty. A mere experiment that has an unlikely survival rate.
That's what they did to me?

Breathing heavily, I pushed forwards. Not far to go. The corridors were blurred by my vision, the fluorescent lights like a nail hammering into my head. After a dozen corners, I was beginning to think I must have lost my way.
Just as I cursed myself for this, I glanced out of the corner of my eye, a gut feeling. Sure enough, there was the pristine white door to the quarters I had been staying in before. With the guards deactivated, it was simple enough to enter.

The girls were soundly sleeping when the lights flickered on automatically at my movement. They abruptly lifted their heads from their pillows, fear and confusion scattered across the room.
I held my hands up in surrender, scanning each face until I found a familiar one. Annalise.
Her brow was knitted, more shocked than anyone else there. "Charlotte?"
With a reassuring smile, I took in a sharp breath and lowered my arms.
"Listen, I need everyone to calmly and quietly get out of here. I've disabled the security mainframe, you'll find the front door at the assembly hall. Don't look back, get as far away from here as you can. No time for questions." Words tumbled from my lips faster than I could keep track of. You know how sometimes when you speak, and you don't feel like yourself, your voice sounds echoed in your head? And you know you're talking but you don't remember choosing to say those things? Perhaps that was only me, in that moment...

"But... outside... it's not safe," one girl spoke up.
I looked to her frightened stare, then back to Annalise. "You trust me, right?"
She hesitated for a moment, before giving a definitive nod.
"Then get out of here. All of you. You'll be okay, I promise."
Just as I had ordered, they swiftly rushed out of the door behind me, towards the assembly hall.
"You're not coming?" Annalise lingered for a moment, fiddling nervously with the hem of her nightie.
I shook my head. "I have to do something first."
She opened her mouth to protest, until she saw the determination in my eyes. "Okay," she whispered, and with that, I watched her run.

Time for the last step. I was rushing more than before now, the pain subsiding into a different surge of energy. There was no time to waste as I sprinted through the winding corridors of the palace. The guards heads were still hanging low, thankfully.

To my surprise, I found the room with ease - the one they had locked the Doctor in.
It appeared to be more of a prison, a similar place to where I had been kept before Noah and Xander came to save me.
I shook the thought of my friends out of my head, no second to spare to worry about what had happened once I got dragged away from them.

Through the metal bars in the door, I could see his empty face staring at the walls blankly.
There was a padlock hanging, rusted, on the handle. I had expected higher technology, but then this was the practically the dregs of the palace - I had a feeling they didn't usually have to protect much from their obedient captives.

I pulled a hair grip from my plaits, smirking at the fact it was the second time I was using the stupid thing to try and save the day. My mind flitted back to that night in Paris; how the Doctor had been so furious at me for risking my life like that. He had softened since then.
The memories flooded in reverse to how I experienced them, though. His viewpoint from the top floor of the Eiffel Tower, his hearts dropping in his chest when I landed back down onto the metal ground, windswept. Accompanied by other moments weren't mine. I could hear his voice, happy but fearful: "Don't ever do that again," he was saying, but it wasn't to me. It was to himself. His anger back in Paris had only been directed inwardly, I came to realise. Even then, he was scared to lose me?

Squeezing my eyes shut, I fought through the dull ache that returned with these memories. There was so much in my head that felt blocked off, just a fraction too far, but as time progressed it became more uncovered.

The door clicked open, and I rushed to him. I had never been more glad to feel his skin against mine as I placed a hand over his cold one. "We have to get out of here," is the last thing I remember saying.
All of a sudden, the Doctor could stand, and his face flushed with life. For me, the opposite feeling flooded through my body, causing me to collapse into his arms that had grown weak from the time locked away.

"How lovely," I could hear the King's voice muffled by the agony in my head. "Reunited at last."

Then, everything went black.