A/N: sorry for the delay this chapter was supposed to be released Monday but I have had issues with my internet had to have an engineer come look at it, it's back on for now but knowing my look it may not stay that way, anyway due to this I am also behind on chapters on patreon as well so I got my energy drinks I plan to get as many as I can done to day before I lose my internet again, anyway I hope you like this chapter.
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Waking up, move to the edge of my bed and, standing up, finally get a good look at my new room for the foreseeable future, it's a mix of black and red everywhere, with my bed on an elevated section of the room with a massive walk-in wardrobe embedded in the wall.
Leaving my room, I head to the workshop, surprisingly it is rather easy to navigate, or the TARDIS is rearranging the paths to make it easier for me to navigate. Once I arrive in the workshop, I start looking around, seeing that all the tools I will ever need are present, making things much easier. The doctor probably had the first generation of Robo bear help my TARDIS put all the tools in here while I was asleep.
After looking around for a bit, I decide it's time to make another Robo bear. Of course, it will be better than the first generation, but it will be white rather than the metal grey, like the first generation, it will also include the storage but this time I will include the feature that allows it to change its size that way it can shrink to a size that will be more appealing that a giant bear.
To start off, I need components, so I make my way to the TARDIS Architectural reconfiguration system, to get the components I will need, it could possible make the Robo bear itself, but I like tinkering with it during production to get the best possible Robo bear possible so having it make the components will allow me to fine tune things to where I am satisfied.
Once I arrive, I move the terminal in front of the tree and import what I want made and how many of each component, while my thoughts wander if I should make Ada a body, I can only have a discussion with Ada herself in future about that topic, even if it will allow her to interact with those who join me in the TARDIS it will not be able go on adventures since taking her outside her home does not end well as seen in the episode a Doctor's wife.
Focusing back on the present while I wait for the components to be made, I decide to go to the control room to see where we are, I was not very specific when I enabled autopilot, with just somewhere remote, it could mean anywhere.
Once I arrive, I enable the view on the screen, and to my surprise, I appear to be on Earth. The only issue is that it looks like Victorian London" Wait, if I remember right, this was the time when Madam Vastra and her human spouse, Jenny, were. Was this intentional or just a spot of luck? It's the perfect opportunity to test my Singular Entity In Time passive. I know it prevents me from having future selves, but time is not that linear in this universe, so they may have met me before" my thought show exactly how clueless I am at what that skill does, the system is not very helpful either all it saying there's no future self and I can change events through time but that's it not much help on how I go about doing that.
While I was contemplating, I let my focus drift from the monitor that was showing what was outside. My thoughts are interrupted by a knock at my TARDIS door. Looking back at the screen, I see a human I recognise as Jenny from the show.
Holding back my surprise, I move to the door, opening it," Greeting, sir, it's good to see you again, the Madam is waiting for you" I am so not used to the old Victorian way of speech, though as it turns out my TARDIS had put me right where the Doctor would land when he came back for Clara, after eleven regenerated into twelve.
Exiting my TARDIS, I lock the door before following her to a house that looks like a classic Victorian-style house. Once inside, I am greeted by Strax, who, despite living here with Vastra and Jenny for a long time, still speaks like a Sontaran warrior, calling everyone puny or suggesting blowing problems up with a grenade.
Hell, he even offered to blow my coat up with a grenade; suffice to say that he was not included in whatever meeting I was about to have with Vastra. Once we finally leave Strax, we head into a dining room with a few chairs around a table, sitting in one of those chairs is Vastra herself.
Taking the seat that's opposite her, I wait for her to explain, to which I do not wait long as she speaks after Jenny offers me a pot of tea" I know you must be confused as to how we know you, you told us as much, although it's a surprise that you look the same as when we first met." Hearing her, it finally clicks, no future incarnation of me exists, meaning only this version currently exists, so that means no meeting future incarnations, but past ones should be possible, but they may forget the entire event, maybe. It's all way too confusing, but this is something I can work with. It means no adventures with myself until after I regenerate a few times.
This leaves me a few options in this scenario. I can ask for information on how we met, but something in me likes the whole no-spoiler thing; it at least lets me have actual fun going through the experience," do not tell me how we met, best let things play out" Vastra laughs at my word before speaking " you said as much when you warned me we would meet again" hearing her I thank my future self for thinking ahead or is it thinking in the past, anyway never mind that I focus on what's ahead, I think I am not here by accident.
"Am I correct in assuming that I am not here by some stroke of luck?" Hearing my words, she shakes her telling Jenny to retrieve something. Jenny comes back with a small spherical device that I instantly know its purpose. It's a beacon of sorts that connects to a certain TARDIS that, once activated, said TARDIS will lock onto it, even a TARDIS that has yet to reach a year old could follow it.
"I gave you that, didn't I?" she nods before speaking "You gave me this with specific instruction that if we ever came across something we cannot deal with to use it and you would come, you did worn us that the first time you appear you will be a past self" nodding I see what the situation is.
"So what's the problem?" My words are direct and to the point. She smiles before speaking, "People have been going missing, but that's not the main issue, it's the fact that when they are found, they are alive but are acting strange, they attack anyone who gets close to them, like they are wild animals" Hearing this I frown, before speaking again" is there any indication of why".
Jenny leaves after I ask this, probably to retrieve something. Once she returns, she hands me a folder, opening it, I see that all the victims have a singular puncture wound on the side of their necks" its identical for all the victims from the looks of these pictures" despite them being something that should not exist in this era I can only assume that Vastra must have made able to come into possession of a camera of some sort by the fact the pictures are in black and white its not a modern one.
"Yes, all the wounds are identical. These were taken when they were taken to what classes as a hospital of this time, shortly after these were taken, the victims started attacking everyone who came close." I look through the knowledge I have on races that would do this sort of thing from both my time as a fan of the show and from what I have from the time my timelord self was a student learning at the Gallifreyan academies, but none match this.
After thinking about it, I realise I may need to see a recent victim or get close enough to scan a victim that's acting this way" Is it possible to get close enough to scan a victim with my sonic wrench" she nods asking me to follow her, leading me towards a bookshelf in the corner of the room before she pulls on the book that's right in the middle of the bookshelf, causing a click to sound, as she grabs the side of the shelf pulling revealing a secret basement.
Following her down the stairs of the basement, we arrive at what only looks like a dungeon, although only one of the cells has someone in it, a woman who looks like a rabid animal thrashing at the bars of the cell.
Not waiting for anyone to speak I take my wrench from my waist pointing it at the woman and activating the sonic, it takes a few minutes to finish the scan and what I learned was shocking, it's a parasite what that shares a similarity to a parasite from resident evil, that enslaves individuals to the one who has the command parasite.
"We have good news and bad, it's some kind of parasite that can't be removed once matured; however, it has one major weakness, that this one is not the main parasite, it's nothing more than a receiver and controller. The main parasite allows its host to control the rest. Destroy that and the rest die, freeing the hosts."
Hearing my words, both Jenny and Vastra release a sigh in unison" That helps now, all that we need to do is find out who has the control parasite" I nod at her conclusion to my words before I speak" well by the way the victims are acting its most probably an animal of some kind, otherwise the victims would not be acting like wild animals, they would be showing intelligence of some kind, according to the scan the Parasite takes it behaviour from the prime parasite".
I know I am getting involved with this, which is delaying the construction of my new Robo bear but I find it strange that I the first two adventures I have without the Doctor are aliens never mentioned, it could be chalked up to the show only showing a small fraction of this universe or someone is controlling these events.
I had half expected to run into cybermen first since they are probably the easiest to come across, since they are machines that use organic parts, which in this universe are abundant, I should not really complain, at least it's not the weeping angels, right?
After leaving the basement, Vastra takes me to a workshop with plenty of parts, and as I look at the room. I am sure she is familiar with what I excel at, moving to the workbench, I start making a device that I can input the scan into to help identify those infected, as well as the prime parasite.
It takes me about 20 minutes to build the machine before we head back to the basement to test the device. Once we confirm it works, Vastra puts on her veil or rather, to anyone looking it would have I can notice something similar to a perception field that makes it appear.
With everyone ready, we leave the house only to find Strax waiting outside with a carriage "I suppose it beats walking ", is my only thought before everyone enters the carriage, except for Strax, who is the driver.
As we move through the streets of London, I activate the device, which begins to scan the surroundings, Most of the time, it's does not show any results; however, as we reach the centre of London, the device flares to life, indicating that it has found someone who is infected. After looking at the small monitor attached to the device, I see it not only detected a parasite, but the parasite it detected was the prime.
Informing everyone, we found the prime, the carriage comes to a stop as we all exit. Vestra tell Strax to stay with the carriage before we follow the signal, to a stair leading below a bridge, leading to the same beach that twelve arrived at; after being spat out by the dinosaur he brought back from the prehistoric age.
Once on the beach we start to look towards the bridge only to see a small dog lying on the beach looking like it was dying, seeing this I realise what happened the dog was dying when the parasite found it since it needs a host it latched on, all the ones who were infected had seen the dog and tried to help, but the parasite did not know this. Trying to protect its host, it created the parasite it uses to control others to protect its host.
Unfortunately for the parasite, due to the state of its host, the parasite also started dying, meaning that neither the dog nor the parasite will survive, even without our intervention. Seeing this, we all stay in silence as we can tell that the dog is going to die soon, the dog notices us but does not growl at us most likely because the parasite is aware that we are not going to approach.
Not long later, the dog's head falls as the dog is finally unable to muster the strength to look up anymore. It closes its eyes, embracing the endless sleep that awaits it.