Until Forever Ends ?| Doctor Who |?

Chapter Three: Prisoner Zero

The Doctor became impatient. "Man and dog. Why?"

"Oh my God, it's him."

"Just answer his question, please."

"It's him, though. The Doctor. The Raggedy Doctor."

"Yeah, he came back."

"But he was a story. He was a game. Oh God. He looks exactly like your sketches Em."

The Doctor grabbed Rory by his jacket and pulled him close. "Man and dog. Why? Tell me now."

"Sorry. Because he can't be there. Because he's-"

"In a hospital," the Doctor and Rory chorused together, "In a coma."

Rory looked surprised. "Yeah."

"Knew it. Multiform, you see? Disguise itself as anything, but it needs a life feed. A psychic link with a living but dormant mind."

The man barks at them.

"Prisoner Zero."

The Doctor gave him a steely gaze while Rory just looked even more confused.

"What? There's a Prisoner Zero too?"

Amy let out a frustrated "Yes."

One of the pretty eyeball spaceships comes down.

"See, that ship up there is scanning this area for non-terrestrial technology. And nothing says non-terrestrial like a sonic screwdriver."

The Doctor flicks up said device and makes all the streetlights explode, the car alarms go off and a poor woman's mobility scooter zoom off down the road. A fire engine goes past on its own, two tone blaring. A fireman was chasing it down the road.

"Oi, come back here! Come back!"

The Doctor continued smugly. "I think someone's going to notice, don't you?"

He blows up a red telephone box, then the screwdriver explodes.

"No, no! No, don't do that!"

"Look, it's going."

"No, come back. He's here! Come back! He's here. Prisoner Zero is here. Come back, he's here! Prisoner Zero is-" He gives up dejectedly.

Prisoner Zero goes squidgy and disappears down a drain cover.

"Doctor! The drain. It just sort of melted and went down the drain."

"Well, of course it did."

"What do we do now?"

"It's hiding in human form. We need to drive it into the open. No Tardis, no screwdriver, seventeen minutes. Come on, think. Think!"

[Coma ward]

Patient Barney is shaking and Doctor Ramsden was attempting to calm him.

"Barney? Barney? Barney? Can you hear me, Barney? Barney? Barney?"

The multiform slithers through an air vent above Barney's bed.

[Leadworth]

"So that thing, that hid in my house for twelve years?"

"Multiforms can live for millennia. Twelve years is a pit-stop."

"So how come you show up again on the same day that lot do? The same minute!"

"They're looking for him, but they followed me. They saw me through the crack, got a fix, they're only late because I am."