Midnight ⋆ Doctor Who²

25. The Acid

AURORA STUMBLES INTO THE ROOM. She immediately gets as far as she can both from the door, and from the Doctor already inside. But most importantly at that moment, away from the G-Doctor, following in after her, worried and flailing his arm around in panic.

The Doctor stands up and tries to walk to her, out of instinct, but she steps backwards hurriedly. The G-Doctor tries to do the same, and she presses herself flush against the wall. "Keep them away from me!" she orders, voice wavering, tumbling backwards. "Both of them."

Amy almost runs to her. "Ro? What happened?" she asks, taking her in her arms, enveloping her totally to make her feel safe.

"You ask him!" Aurora cries out, pointing at the G-Doctor.

"Did you sense it?" the G-Doctor dismisses her, looking at the Doctor.

He frowns, tearing his gaze away from Aurora. "Briefly. Not as strong as you." Would he... Would they hurt Aurora? No, something must have gone wrong.

The G-Doctor starts to step towards Aurora. "Aurora, I'm sorry."

Amy immediately turns into mama bear mode, and quickly shields Aurora away from him. "No, you keep away!" she threatens.

The Doctors flinch when they see Aurora quickly step back. She looks both of them in the eyes. "Right now, I don't trust either of you." And she's right too — if they can get their minds so scrambled up by being connected to the Flesh, neither one of them can be trusted. She points to the G-Doctor, swallowing thickly. "He's connected to the Flesh, and it fuc... messes with his head."

"He is Flesh," Amy spits out. Aurora doesn't say anything, and Amy considers what just happened as proof that Flesh cannot be the same as human beings.

"I'm beginning to understand what it's been through, what it needs," the G-Doctor says, reluctantly.

"What you want," Amy insists. "You are it."

He ignores her, still too distraught. "It's much more powerful than we thought." He turns to Cleaves. "The Flesh can grow, correct?"

"Its cells can divide," she agrees.

"Well, now it wants to do that at will. It wants revenge." He looks quickly at Aurora. If that's what he felt out there, that could explain how accusatory and blind he was to what she was telling him. "It's in pain, angry." Just as quickly, he looks away. "It wants revenge," he repeats again.

Amy scoffs, and looks back at Aurora, still safely tucked in her arms, as if she wasn't the one who lived through a war and wasn't an ageless alien. Honestly, right now, Aurora just feels like some girl that needs to be comforted, Time War and Hybrid or not.

Amy inspects her, trying to figure out if she's hurt. She wipes a few of her tears. "Amy, I'm fine."

She turns to the G-Doctor. "I was right. You're not the Doctor. You can't ever be. You're just a copy."

Aurora shakes her head. "It's their fault, not just his," she says, looking at both of them. "They're the same minds."

And saying it out loud might be the worst thing. She has to fight the urge of crying again.

Cleaves frowns, and turns to the G-Doctor. "Doctor, it might be best if you stayed over there for now, hmm?"

"Hold on a minute, hold your horses," the Doctor stops. "I thought I'd explained this. I'm him, he's me."

"Doctor, we have no issue with you, but when it comes to your Ganger..." Cleaves trails off.

Aurora looks into the G-Doctor's eyes, and she can see the pain he's trying so hard to hide. She has to look away. Right now, she just can't. If she focuses on the pain of others, it'd be too much.