THE SACRIFICIAL LAMB
Chapter Twelve Rose helped the Doctor loosen the ropes so they could walk. The clone sat on his chair, relaxing while he watched them closely. The Doctor knelt down beside Amy, loosening the rope while Rose worked on Rory. River, who was still waiting, was lying nearby, glaring at the clone who was looking at her and making kissy faces. "Sure you don't wanna know how you die?" the clone asked River. "No thanks," River said. "Blast, I was hoping you'd say yes so I could scream "Spoilers!" in your face. You're no fun," the clone said. "Who are you? How do you know me?" River asked him. "He's my clone, River. The clone of my last life," the Doctor said to her as he finished working on Amy. "You are?" River said with a frown. "Indeed I am, Professor Song. In fact, when Witless first met you, it was when he looked like this. And as I said before, he didn't know you yet." He noticed Rose had paused a moment to listen to that and got up. She flinched when he walked over to her. The clone grabbed her chin and forced her to look at him. "And according to Ms. Song there, she's your lover's future wife or something like that. So see, he isn't as faithful as you think!" River stared at Rose in shock while the Doctor groaned. The clone let go of Rose's face and sauntered back to his chair. He sat down and relaxed, eager to see what would happen now that the cat was out of the bag about River and Rose both being the Doctor's lovers. Rose and River stared at each other silently while the Doctor finished with Amy and helped her stand up. River jerked her head towards the Doctor as he and Amy came towards Rose. "This woman is your lover?" River asked as the Doctor knelt down beside Rose and worked on Rory's ropes. "Yes, she is, I knew her long before I met you and I've never stopped loving her," the Doctor said to her before he started untying Rory. "I realize we have some sort of relationship but I don't have any feelings for you at the moment, apart from friendship since you won't tell me who you are and how you're connected to me." He could see the hurt look on River's face while he heard his clone sniggering and the urge to pummel the living daylights out of his double increased. He glanced at Rose who had her eyes on the floor, a crestfallen look on her face. He and Rory shared a look. "I didn't get to them in time to tell them anything," Rory said to him. "We stepped into the room and I closed the door and he opened the door and lobbed this metal ball into the room and electricity came out of it and shocked us all and that's all I know until I woke up here." "Electricity grenade," the clone said. "Another nifty thing from Torchwood. They do have a lot of cool gadgets, I must say. I had no idea geeky boy was going to explain about River and Rose but I'm glad I got to them in time so I could see the reaction on Rose's face when she found out her knight in shining armor had another princess waiting in the wings. Guess he tires of you in future, Rose? I don't blame him because you became very tiresome to me as well." The Doctor rolled his eyes as he finished untying Rory's ropes. He helped him to stand up and once he was on his feet, the Doctor leaned into his ear and whispered something. The clone raised his eyebrow, watching while he whispered to Rory and Rory nodded. "Okay, what just happened?" he said while the Doctor patted Rory on the shoulder and went to help River. "Did you just tell him to walk the Earth and use the countdown because I know all about that little ploy." He raised his eyebrow again when Rory whispered something to Rose. "Okay, what's with the Chinese Whispers all of a sudden? Are you telling your companions to walk the Earth?" the clone said. Rose nodded and smiled at Rory. "Or are you planning a ménage a trois?" the clone asked the Doctor. "Spoilers," the Doctor said airily as he finished untying River and helped her up. The Doctor heard the clone sigh in frustration. He was facing River and saw her looking past his shoulder. He turned just in time to see the clone lunge at him and he grunted when the clone decked him. "I said no back chat!" the clone screamed at him. River snarled at him. She raised her leg, kicked at him and the clone laughed hysterically when the leg bounced off his force field and the recoil nearly sent her to the floor. She hopped on one leg, planted her other foot and managed to keep from falling but she glared at the clone while he gave her a smug look. "I neglected to mention that I have a personal force field around me. So I can injure you lot but you can't touch me and if you do that again, I'll make sure you die before it's time," he growled at River. "You won't be so smug when I find a way around that and kill you," River growled back. "Ooo, a challenge, looking forward to it. Give it your best shot. But if you fail, perhaps you and Rose can have a celebratory fuck with the Doctor as a consolation prize…which will be me by that time. Unless, you're into necrophilia, of course, in which case have at the Doctor's corpse and shag it senseless." He chuckled when River shot him a look of death. She gritted her teeth when he gave her a condescending pat on the head and walked back to his chair. On the way there, he suddenly lashed out and smacked Rose hard in the face. "And that's for keeping secrets from me!" he yelled as Rose reeled from the force of the blow. He turned to sit down and noticed the Doctor was now behind him, glaring at him with utter hatred. "You may think that force field protects you but trust me, if River doesn't find a way around it, I will, and I'll make you sorry you were ever born," he snarled. "Well, just think on this then," the clone said. "If it wasn't for your vanity, I wouldn't be here now since you were so desperate not to regenerate. And seeing what you look like now, I don't blame ya one bit. I would wanna be this body too after seeing this," he added, gesturing to the Doctor's body. "But anyway…is everyone ready to go now? If so, then you can follow the Doctor. But be warned, Doctor, no tricks or I'll not only turn on the disc in Rose's head and throw the remote in the Thames but I'll also torture the other three to death. And once that's finished, I'll lock the doors to the other disciples' rooms and burn them all alive. I'm not to be trifled with, so consider that fair warning. Whatever you whispered in their ears better not be some sort of plan to defeat me because they will suffer if it is." "I can assure you it's not," the Doctor said. "Now can we get a move on?" "Of course," the clone said with sudden cheerfulness. "Lead the way back to the old girl." The Doctor stepped ahead of the clone and the clone gestured to the others to follow him. Rory stayed beside Rose while Amy and River followed them. The clone brought up the rear, whistling cheerfully while they went back up the stairs. When they reached the top, Rose helped everyone who was tied up to step up out of the hole. She tried to help River but she jerked away from her hand and walked up on her own. Rose sighed, shook her head and walked out after her. Amy noticed that Rory stopped, long enough for Rose to catch up to him and then he resumed walking with her. As they walked out the door, they noticed that most of the rooms were silent and the lights were now out. "Bedtime, you know, we keep a tight schedule around here," the clone said to them. "Keep going. We're going out the front door." They went down the stairs, the Doctor leading the way. He reached the bottom, turned and headed for the front door. His companions followed with the clone bringing up the rear. While they walked, River let out a frustrated sigh. "Wait, can we at least have our arms free? We can't attack you with that force field on," River said to the clone. "No, because if we get inside the TARDIS, you might do something, flip a switch and kill me or something like that," the clone said. "The Doctor could do that as well," River said. "Yes, but he won't because if he does, you all suffer," the clone said. "Well, what if we're held to the same threat? If any of us tries anything, the rest suffer," Amy said. "I would like to have my arms free as well." "Let them go," the Doctor said. "I give you my word that they won't rise up against you." The clone sighed angrily. "Fine, be quick about it, we're wasting time," he said. The Doctor and Rose finished untying everyone. Rose let the Doctor deal with River since she figured River wouldn't let her touch her after everything that happened. She loosened Amy's bonds and she thanked her before she moved to Rory. She untied him and Rory smiled and patted her on the shoulder while the Doctor finished with River. "Is everyone finished now?" the clone said. They nodded and the clone ordered them to move. They walked to the front door and the Doctor opened it, looking outside at the night sky. He led everyone as he walked down the steps and headed towards the alley.
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