Curiouser and curiouser (Alice, 12th Doctor)

East Sussex, 1869

She was standing in the middle of a street. The sounds of things rushing around her could be heard yet there nothing there. She could hear people walking by and speaking, some she could understand while others sounded like animal noises and odd dialects. Yet the most that could be seen where shadows of people walking by. The source of light was a mystery as well as it seemed everywhere.

Alice was lost and confused, wondering where she was and why she was here. It wasn't until a shadow began to envelope her that she realized someone was approaching. The light from behind made it hard to see him but Alice knew who he was by the shape of the hat he wore and the glowing magic wand in his hand.

As he approached the words echoed "Who are you?"


Alice awoke from her dream, sitting up from bed and looking towards the rest of her room. It took her a moment to relax when she realized she had the dream again, about her mysterious man she knew never existed.

Now awake she picked herself up from her bed and stretched, her night dress falling down to her ankles when she did. After letting the joints crack and settle Alice walked to the window and opened it, letting the breeze of a new morning enter. She took a small whiff of it before looking back to her room.

As soon as she had there came a knock at the door, Alice asking who it was to enter. As she suspected her aunt Emily came in, already dressed for the day, asking how Alice slept. Her only response was "As best as it could be" before asking where her uncle Samuel was. Emily explained he was already in town to run a few errands before returning home in time for the party all three were to attend.

Hearing that Alice was reminded that they were invited to an afternoon party from a friend of her uncle's who was hosting it as his estate a little ways east. Alice gave a reluctant sigh, knowing that she wasn't going to fully enjoy the party for reasons of not knowing anyone there. She then feared those who would try to get to know her would probably only ask about her 'experience' that had given her such infamy to begin with. But for the sake of pleasing her aunt and uncle Alice had already agreed to attend for the day and knew the best response was to 'grin and bear' as they say.

The remainder of the morning was spent with Alice having her breakfast before helping her aunt Emily with the dress she planed to wear to the party. It needed a few stitches in some parts and, with Alice's help, the two were able to mend it. They were lucky to have done so in time before uncle Samuel had returned home and indicated that they had to leave within the hour.

Alice prepared herself as well, wearing a quaint light blue dress while letting all of her hair rest down her back. It wasn't very often these days for Alice to dress as she did when she was among her rich family, now mainly down to wearing common clothing. As much as she enjoyed the nostalgic feeling, it did bring back bitter memories she would often try to avoid. Despite this Alice was intent on avoiding any unneeded tension or depravity while attending the party for her family's sake; thought she did make a mental note that any mention of the 'ridiculous book based on someone of the same name' would lead to some harsher words.

With everyone ready, as well as the carriage taking them, the three were riding off north to the estate. Alice was glad that it was one that was close to the sea, someplace she always enjoyed seeing, and eagerly awaited enjoying the view there. And only within an hour would she finally be able to enjoy it.

The Doctor wrote out the dates on the chalkboard, then stood back and stared at the numbers, attempting to think of some link or connection between them. It felt familiar, portals leading to different times, there was something about it that was scratching at the back of his mind, a memory perhaps, who knew. Nevertheless, he had taken it upon himself to investigate since nobody else really could, after all, he was one of the few people in the universe with access to a time machine.

He had already managed to figure out where the next portal was, from locking onto the chronal energy that the portals emitted and he knew he had to hurry, from his observations, he saw that they destabilized rapidly after their appearance, which meant the Doctor didn't have very long. Pulling the lever on the console, the TARDIS dematerialized from its current position and began its journey through the Time Vortex to its destination.

Eventually, the TARDIS landed and the Doctor crept out of the blue box slowly, at the same time trying to discern where exactly he had landed. It wasn't hard to work out that he had landed in some kind of coat room, so he removed his sonic screwdriver from his coat, which he had previously calibrated to detect the chronal energy from the time fissures, and started to scan the room he was currently in.

"Nothing." He remarked frustratedly, tapping his sonic screwdriver against his head in annoyance.

Immediately, the Doctor left the coat room he was currently in and found himself stood in some kind of ballroom which was filled with people. Judging from the clothing, he was either in the 19th century or at a party organised by a very detailed reenactment group, probably the former. He ignored the strange looks he was getting as people passed him and sneered at his clothing, instead he once again took his sonic from his coat and held it down by his side as he pressed the button. A whirring noise from the device told him that he was getting closer to discovering the portal.

Entering into the estate Alice and her family were greeted by Mr. and Mrs. Kingston, the ones who'd invited them. Mr. Kingston was a friend of her uncle Sam's, apparently the two knowing each other as children before he went on to study play-writing and Samuel went for teaching. While the two men caught up on things Mrs. Kingston escorted Alice and her aunt Emily through to where the rest of the guests were enjoying the party.

Tables were set to hold four each and a quick head count in her mind showed Alice at least a dozen people were present. Among them she could see an old army major, by the name of Patterson, all properly dressed in his uniform and telling his war stories to a few of the younger guests, those around Alice's age or so. Four people, two couples named the Horns and the Irvings, were enjoying a game of croquet; something Alice commented she'd never had a knack for. A few of the servants walked between each of the guests offering finger sandwiches and drinks, one of the latter Emily taking for herself and for Samuel. Then she could see two older gentlemen, Mr. Langdon and Neil,engaged in a deep game of chess, neither moving as one was obviously trying to figure the next move against the other. Alice chuckled at this especially when Mrs. Kingston had commented the two started when they first arrived almost two hours ago. The final members pointed out to Alice and Emily were the Dudley's, three rather obese looking people who were sitting among each other with their own servants and enjoying food and drink while laughing about whatever they conversed over.

Mrs. Kingston explained that they had just arrived before Alice and her family did, and acted as the more obnoxious of the guests. It wasn't just them joking at other people's expenses and acting as though everyone where friends when everyone else felt a little repulsed by them, but it was their constant passing of wind that made them rather vulgar. Still she went on to say they were a rather important family that Mr. Kingston had insisted on inviting on the grounds of having a higher social status for letting them come. Alice, however, commented in her head if they'd been at a party she was hosting then she'd personal escort them out via their ears.

After this Mr. Kingston and Samuel returned and joined everyone as they went about introducing themselves. Most gave simple hellos and a brief converse among Alice's aunt and uncle before moving on, none really speaking to her except to compliment her age and beauty. When they'd come to the two playing chess they gave quick little "Nice to meet you"s before engaging in their game again.

When they came to the major and those listening to his story they had stayed to speak a little longer. Everything was fine up until one of them mentioned Alice and how she seemed familiar. At first she tried deflecting it as just having that type of face before another pointed out that there was something else.

"Oh yeah!" she said. "You look like that girl. The Alice from that book. With the talking animals and the mad queen and all."

Immediately Alice's temper became more unsettled as they all started pointing out that she was probably the real Alice incarnate. While she was glad they didn't know the full truth it was still uncomfortable for her to hear all the comparisons, especially when she'd dealt with harsher experiences about it before. She merely asked to be excused before walking away from everyone to be one her own.

Alice found herself at the terrace looking out to the sea just behind the house. It calmed her a little while reminding her of how she still dreamed of traveling past the sea and to all the lands around the world. But then it also brought up the memory of the dream she had this morning, and she felt it odd that it had come up again.

Her attention was suddenly taken away with everyone else as the odd man approached and looked around everyone. At first Alice thought he as another servant who was just another guest who was under-dressed, but then he pulled out the odd buzzing device and Alice felt like she'd seen it before. But where?

One of the Dudley's saw him and called out "Oi! You there. You look a' bit under-dressed for the party, sir. You one of the servants who just forgot his collar and tray?" he and the others laughing at this.

As he pressed on to the center of the ballroom, the whirring noise from his sonic continued to get stronger, which indicated to him that he was going in the right direction, he was starting to get even more odd looks now but the Doctor was apparently oblivious to them, he was just here to find the portal before somebody fell into it. Glancing to his left, he saw a balcony and the sea which stretched out infront of it, also there was a girl who was looking straight at him, he caught eye contact with her for a moment, she looked familiar, once again he felt that scratching at the back of his mind.

The Doctor noticed when he turned his body to face her, that the whirring noise got stronger, that was strange, he hadn't quite worked out if it was good strange or bad strange yet. Turning his attention away from her, he saw the three people with their own servants, all three of them seemed to be looking at the Doctor and laughing.

"Oi! You there. You look a' bit under-dressed for the party, sir. You one of the servants who just forgot his collar and tray?" he and the others laughing at this.

He decided to walk over to them, for whatever reason, and as he got closer he realised that the whirring noise from his sonic was getting quieter and quieter, stopping in his tracks, he held the device out in front of him and pointed it so it was once again facing the balcony, to his frustration he couldn't here if there was a difference in the sound from the Dudley's constant laughter. Turning around to face them, he furrowed his brows and glared at them. Without speaking, the Doctor removed his psychic paper from his pocket and held it out for them to read, suddenly, their faced turned from a look of enjoyment to one an apologetic one.

"As you can see, I'm a Royal Inspector for the Crown and you three, are directly interrupting my investigation, so I'm going to need you all to stop your incessant bantering and be quiet for a moment." The three Dudley's may have been shocked by his rudeness, but they didn't reply. The Doctor simply turned around on his heel, aimed his sonic screwdriver at the balcony and made his way to it as the whirring noise grew stronger. Standing at the entrance to the balcony, he put his sonic away and stood still, looking at the girl who was now his new point of intrigue.

"Chronal energy, you're covered in the stuff. Haven't happened to have stumbled through any inter-dimensional portals, have you?" He said sarcastically, he continued on sarcastically as he stepped out onto the marble which made up the balcony floor.

"Question, why would a nineteenth century girl, such as yourself, be literally beaming with time energy?" Suddenly, he stopped walking and turned to face her with a very serious look.

"Who are you?" He asked.

When the man approached them the Dudley's half expected him to get apprehensive with them. They were used to it and seemed the type to not care if someone talked back or even threatened them. But when he'd shown them his 'credentials', as it were, they all backed down and only indicated he could continue without them saying anymore; one of them passing wind again almost out of fear for having taunted a Royal official.

In her mind Alice wanted to shake the man's hand for putting the Dudleys in their place, but instead tensed a little when he approached her. She was worried he might start accusing her of some crime she didn't do, being that he seemed the type to jump off the rail to catch his man, but instead began asking her about 'chronal energy' and portals and other things she didn't understand.

"Sir, I'm afraid I haven't the faintest idea what you're speaking of." she said, taking a step back. When he asked and mentioned her being from the nineteenth century she looked curious at him and asked "What other century would you expected me from? The dawn of man?"

But then he asked the question "Who are you?" She gasped a little by how familiar it sounded. Not from his voice so much as the tone of it. That tone seemed to belong to another voices she'd heard before. But where? She even looked down at the device in his hand. She wasn't sure what it was but it looked like a magic wand..... She gasped again when she remembered the dream about that wand. Who was this man?

She began to stammer her answer with "I....I'm....

"Alice!" she heard her aunt say as she, uncle Samuel and the Kingstons approached.

Mr Kingston stood in front of the group as the others all moved around Alice, her aunt and uncle holding her shoulders in defense, before saying "Sir? You may be from her majesties court of invetigation or what have you, but I have a right to know what you're here for before you go harassing my guests. Especially family of friends!"

Alice, that was her name, for whatever reason he still couldn't quite piece together where he knew her from but he was sure it would come to him in time. The Doctor remained stoic as, what seemed to be Alice's family, rushed to protect her, although he wasn't quite sure what they were protecting her from, the most dangerous thing he had with him was his sonic screwdriver. Continuing to ignore the growing crowd as they made a fuss over the girl, the Doctor peered over the balcony and saw that there was a small ledge with access to a window.

Twisting his body around, he saw, what only he could presume, was the owner of the estate, demanding to know the reason for his visit, obviously he wasn't going to tell him the real reason he was here and so it required some quick thinking on his part to think of a fake one that was adequate enough to deceive them. If there was one thing he hated, it was having to explain himself, especially to people as self-entitled as the ones he was dealing with now.

"Pudding brains," The Doctor mumbled underneath his breath.

"You have the right, sir?" He repeated 'sir', in a sarcastic tone and kept going, "Excuse me, but the only things you have the right to know, is I am here on Her Majesties personal orders to investigate certain... matters, on her behalf. My codename is The Doctor and now, I would like to get on with that investigation, in peace." The Doctor stated, firmly.

Standing whilst resting both arms behind himself against the stone barrier which stopped people from falling into the sea, the Doctor awaited their response and peered over the stone barrier again at the small ledge which had access to the window, it was only way of escaping currently so he wanted to be as ready as he possibly could.

Mr. Kingston seemed aghast by the Doctor's response before saying "Doctor or no doctor, yo can't just barge in and..."

Alice had pushed her way through and stood in defense of the Doctor as she said "Now, now. Mr. Kingston, I do not think that is anyway to treat one of the Queen's own investigators." Her aunt began to say something but Alice cut her off with "Aunt Emily, please. I'm perfectly capable of handle this. If this Doctor fellow wishes to speak with me in any regards to his investigation, then by all means I insist to help." She turned to him and said "If you'd be so kind, sir, that we can take this somewhere more private."

She took him by the sleeve and began escorting him towards the door leading out to the terrace outside of the estate. Some of the guests, having heard the commotion earlier, watched as Alice walked him away from the group.

Aunt Emily began to speak up again before Alice said "I'll be fine, Emily. Please, everyone, do not let this little expense spoil the party. Especially not on my account."

The two eventually made it to the door wish she pushed through in order to bring herself and the Doctor outside all the faster. The Dudleys had watched with more a more inventive tone as the two left. When they'd head this man's name, the Doctor, they tensed greatly. But they made sure no one had seen their reaction, mainly because they were far too busy watching the Doctor himself. After the two left one of the Dudlys ordered for one of her servants to follow and be discreet. He nodded before walking off in an almost stiff manor.

Once out on the terrace, still looking out to the sea, Alice made sure the Doctor was in front of her before saying "Now that we may have some peace, I'm aware you have your questions. But I have a few of my own. One being this." She suddenly held up her hand and revealed she'd managed to pinch his sonic screwdriver from his coat at some point when they were close to each other. "Where did you get this?" she asked, making sure to keep it away from him if he tried to reach for it.

The Doctor decided to let Alice deal with guests and before he knew it, he was being taken by the sleeve and led away from the crowd, as he was being escorted back through the estate, he caught the eye of the Dudley's, the ones who were laughing at him earlier, who now seemed to be acting much more secretive, which peaked his interest. They looked to be panicking, albeit very quietly and if there was one thing the Doctor was good at spotting, it was odd behavior.

When they were out on the terrace, the Time Lord distanced himself from Alice and eyed her cautiously, he was still trying to piece together in his mind who she was and since he couldn't seem to, it was safe to say that he didn't trust her at this current moment. His eyebrows furrowed deeply as he showed him his own sonic screwdriver and in response, the Doctor put both of his hands in his pockets to confirm what he was seeing was true.

"That's mine." The Doctor said, pointing a finger at the same time.

Even though he didn't trust her, he definitely found her interesting, she obviously wasn't like the rest of the puddings brains attending this party. If only he could remember her, the fact he couldn't seem to work out she who was, was like nails on a chalkboard for him, he hated not knowing.

"Where did I get it?" He repeated her question, "I built it, that's where I got it, now I would appreciate it if you gave it back." The Doctor held out his hand in response.

Giving him a curious eye to his answer she repeated "Built it? I've seen a lot of skilled mechanics, but never one that could make something that lights up and makes noises like this." Instead of handing it back right away she looked at it closely, commenting "It...it doesn't look the same. But...it feels familiar."

Given how she was examining it she didn't realize she left herself open for the Doctor to just take it back himself. As the two conversed one of the Dudley's servants had been listening from the window, he hid to not to be seen by them , mainly staying behind the curtains, but kept a close ear to them.

"Yes I built it, I can't think of a simpler way to explain," The Doctor said in a sarcastic manner, he took a moment to look around the terrace and take in his surroundings before replying to what she said next, "Familiar, yes... familiar," He pressed his thumb and forefinger against his head in frustrated way and stared at her through his fingers, "Seems to be a recurring theme."

In a quick move, the Doctor snatched his sonic from Alice's hand and spun around on his feet, at the same time he checked the screwdriver to make sure that she hadn't done anything to damage it. After preforming a full three-sixty, he found himself once again facing Alice and held his sonic screwdriver down by his side.

"Like I said, mine."

Even though he had tried to hide, the Doctor had noticed the servant watching them from the curtain but didn't pay any attention to him, he simply kept him in the corner of his eye as he had much more important matters to attend to, such as the randomly appearing inter-dimensional portals and the girl who was teeming with chronal energy. Suddenly, his attention was turned to his sonic screwdriver which had begun whirring once more, but this time the readings weren't coming from Alice but from somewhere else inside the estate.

Then, without a word, the Doctor set off away from the terrace to investigate the source of the time energy inside the building, not knowing whether Alice was going to follow him or not.

She gasped a little when he'd snatched his sonic screwdriver back before Alice gave a cross look at him when he'd insisted it was his like a child would. She was about to ask something before he started walking off, she calling for him to wait.

The servant had seen him approaching and immediately hurried back to his masters, the Dudley's in the middle of talking before he returned soon followed by the Doctor. They kept a weary eye on him as his odd little device buzzed, all of them looking a bit worried when they could see it again.

"I think it's time we left." one of them said before all started getting up and trying to hurry themselves out of the estate.

Alice had arrived just in time behind the Doctor to see him using his sonic again, wondering what it was going to do exactly. But then she'd seen how the Dudley's reacted and seemed a bit put off by it.

The Doctor stopped when Alice called, then jerked his head in the direction he was going, indicating for her to follow, she seemed competent and so he didn't mind if she tagged a long for a while. Eventually, he followed the servant all the way back to the corridor where the Dudley's were lurking and stood at the opposite end of the hall to them, he stayed in plain sight for a reason as he wanted to gauge their reaction to him. They had his curiosity now, even if they acted like it was the last thing they wanted.

He watched them as they whispered among themselves and shiftily looked back at the Doctor. Then, all of a sudden, the Dudley's and their servant turned on their heels and left the corridor, closing the door which accessed this part of the building behind them, the Doctor swore he heard a clicking sound coming from the door, the type of sound a door makes when its being locked, but he couldn't be sure without checking.

Holding his sonic screwdriver facing upwards, it was obvious that the whirring sound from his device had got much louder, which indicated to the Doctor, that the portal was behind one of the doors in the corridor. Looking around, he saw Alice stood behind him, then he held out his sonic screwdriver to her.

"Feel like doing a tad of breaking and entering? You just point and click, its very simple. I'm looking for a mirror, or a big reflective surface." He informed her, he was confident Alice could use the sonic and that it would work on the wooden doors, aslong as the locks were metal and they weren't deadlock sealed. Also, The Doctor wanted to get a closer look at the door the Dudley's just left through.

Alice had stopped right in her tracks once the Doctor had done so, seeing that he was watching where the Dudley's went like her. She looked oddly at this before he turned and told her to take his magic wand. Reluctantly she held it in her hands as he asked if there were any mirrors.

"Mirrors?" she asked, another little spark in her head going off. She ignored this before saying "There....there could be one in one of the bedrooms."

During this time the Dudley's had stopped in one of the rooms, one of them saying "How in god's name did he find us?"

"Maybe he wasn't looking." the girl among them suggested. "Maybe this is just a fluke."

"A fluke that's gone in the wrong direction for us!" the first stated. He stopped and thought to himself for a minute before saying "We'll need to take action." He then turned to one of the servants with him and said "Lock them inside. Everyone! Call for the others if you need to."

The servant bowed before walking out a separate door, followed by all but one servant left. Once they were outside two of the servants began going around and locking all doors and windows. The third stood were he was before an odd signal sound went out from his head, revealing he was some sort of disguised robot. Not too far away a dozen more robot servants, all disguised, heard the signal and began advancing towards the estate. Any guests still outside were pushed back in before being locked in.

The Dudley's than stood where they were in the room, looking towards the door where the Doctor would arrive.

One of them asked "What's the plan now?"

The lead Dudley answered "Now we do what any sensible person does: we wager."

Approaching the door that led out of the corridor, the Doctor pressed his ear against the wood, at the same time as he turned the handle, it was locked, just as he thought it would be. Whoever had locked him and Alice in, was the one responsible, or they were guilty of an entirely different matter and the Doctor arrived at a time of complete coincidence, although he rarely encountered any of that.

"Mirrors?" she asked, another little spark in her head going off. She ignored this before saying "There....there could be one in one of the bedrooms

"That would be a good place to start then." He stated plainly, then he made a point-and-click gesture with his hand, as an indication for Alice to start looking around, after which he immediately went back to pressing his ear against the door. He could hear chatter, although he couldn't make out any of it, he definitely heard some people leaving the room.

The Doctor had a feeling he knew what was going on and walked with a faced-pace back down to the door they had originally come from and grasped the door handle, twisting it around... locked. The Time Lord made his way back to where Alice was, but before he got there he stopped to look out of one of the windows on the left side of the corridor, outside he saw the servants, walking rather strangely around the estate, rather robotically, he thought.

Eventually, he returned to Alice with a very annoyed look on his face, "Just to let you know, we're locked in and I think the servants are robots. How's the mirror search going?"

Nodding when she watched the Doctor demonstrate how to work the sonic, Alice began working on one door after another. Each time she managed to open a door she found a bedroom with a mirror, but nothing out of the ordinary about them. All of this was reminding her of the dreams she had. But, the more she looked and more she held the odd device in her hand, the more she began to question if it was actually a dream or not.

There came a point where she stopped and stared at the device in her hand, the magic wand as she recalled thinking of it. Had she seen this before? Possibly and yet not, at least not the same design. But it was all just a dream she could barley recall half the time. And this man, this Doctor, wasn't part of that dream, Yet why was there something familiar about him.

She gasped when the Doctor had approached from behind and told her about the servants and asked about the mirror search. Her first reaction was "The servants are what? Does that mean they're foreign of something?" After the Doctor responded to that in whatever fashion she shook her head before saying "I've found a number of mirrors. But there doesn't appear to be anything wrong with them." She then looked to the last doorway and pointed out "However...."

She walked to the door and used the sonic as before, only she was a little more cautious. Once opened the Dudley's were there, sitting and waiting for them with one robot servant on stand-by. While two looked a bit nervous the leader sat with a more confident look.

"Ah, Doctor. Come in, please." he said. "Enjoying the party as much as we are?" he asked with a chuckle.

"Well, that's disappointing" The Doctor stated, watching her as she made her way toward the door where he saw the Dudley's and their, now robot, servants had scarpered out of. He began walking as the door opened and was soon standing by the side of Alice by the time the door had opened fully.

"Ah, Doctor. Come in, please." he said. "Enjoying the party as much as we are?" he asked with a chuckle.

He stepped into the room with a false smile on his face, but after taking a quick look around, the smile disappeared and his usual stoic facial expression appeared again. In his mind, he was slowly beginning to piece together who these 'Dudley's' were and decided to share his opinions with the room.

"Not particularly, what's Raxacoricofallapatorius like these days?" The Doctor asked, continuing on, "Overweight meat-suits, added combination of seemingly loose bowels... Oh and the Robot Servants... The Slitheen." Knocking the end of his sonic screwdriver from Alice's hand, so it fell out the front, the Doctor caught his device and aimed it at the robot servant, then pressed the button. In response, the robot leaned forward like it had been powered down and it's arms dangled loosely, it was only disabled for around ten minutes, but ten minutes was better than nothing.

"Time for a chat." The Doctor said, while putting his sonic screwdriver back into his coat, at the same time taking a few steps forward before stopping once more.

After being figured out the Dudley's or rather the Slitheen, gave dirty looks to the Doctor. The leader however still had a more confident, coy look on his face. Even when the robot servant was shutdown for the moment even he knew it would be able to reboot within 10 minutes.

"So glad we can dispense with any introductions, Doctor." he said. "You might as well stay too, Ms. Carrington. No point in keeping secrets anymore."

"Secrets? What secrets?" She demanded. "Just who in the hell are you people? And what are these....things?" she asked pointing at the robotic servant.

He only chuckled again before saying "I forget how primitive humans are in this time. Just know it's a complicated machine, my dear. One I don't feel we have the time, nor the patience, to explain." He then turned his attention and said "Now then, Doctor, I supposed you'd like to know how we got here and what were doing. But then I can already guess your first question: where's the time portal we came through?" He waited for the Doctor's response before explaining "It was actually quite the grand mistake to stumble upon. There we were, the few remaining members of the Slitheen family, living out our days in exile after what happened on Earth those few years ago, before we found it. It lead out to the Dudley's little garden, right through a pond they had. First thing they thought, we were water demons." They all laughed at this before he explained "Once we knew when and where we were we decided to 'set-up shop'. However we didn't know how long we had before the portal closed two days later. And we were only able to bring a handful of these with us." he pointed at the robot.

The entire time he talked Alice just looked more and more confused. She didn't understand half of what he was saying and yet kept looking back to the Doctor, feeling he was the only one who actually did know what was going on. And yet all of this still seemed familiar in some way.

"Secrets? What secrets?" She demanded. "Just who in the hell are you people? And what are these....things?" she asked pointing at the robotic servant.

"Ignoring his unbearable gigantic ego, I have to agree it would take too long to explain." The Doctor said, looking back to the leader of the Slitheen, although he was also keeping his eye on the robot servant which could reboot itself at any moment, he had his hand grasped tightly around his sonic screwdriver and was prepared to disable to the robot a second time, but he wasn't sure if he'd be able too.

It came as a shock to him when the Slitheen said that they didn't open the portals themselves and merely stumbled onto one, the Doctor didn't show this surprise in his facial expressions. When they all laughed, the Doctor glared at them angrily, if there was one thing he hated it was pointless laughter.

"Why are you laughing? That wasn't even amusing..." Realizing he was getting distracted, the Doctor got back on track, "Anyway, your plan. I hope you're not planning to blow up the Earth and sell it off as scrap, again. I mean, I know you don't have a massive brain capacity, but surely you're not going with the same plan?"

The Slitheen still didn't seem to want to answer his questions and that frustrated the Doctor even more. Raising his sonic screwdriver up into the air, he held down the button and suddenly the room began to get gradually hotter and hotter, as all the candles and even the fire, lit up and began burning.

"Now, it's going to get very hot in here unless you start answering me seriously and I imagine, with you being stuffed inside those bodies so tightly, it's going to get very uncomfortable too."

"Nothing like that at all, Doctor." the lady Dudley/ Slitheen answered when he asked what they were doing. "We've other ideas in mind for this planet."

"Not that we feel like sharing, mind you." the leader Dudley said before all laughed again.

Alice only watched with annoyance like the Doctor when they laughed yet again. Obviously they were so confident with whatever the plan was that to them it seemed they already won. However she watched with confusion before he used his screwdriver to start making the room hotter.

At first she thought it was just herself, but Alice could then see the flames of the candles in the room growing and the Dudley's actually start to react as well. They began to sweat, as did she, but they seemed far more uncomfortable about it than she did. But then she remembered what he'd just said about 'inside those bodies' and realized whatever creatures they really were actually wore human skin like a suit. The idea of it almost made her sick.

Instead of answering the lead Dudley stood and said "Sorry, Doctor. We're not playing this game anymore." He then pulled off the wig he was wearing to reveal a zipper on his forehead. Just as he started to unzip the robot servant began to stir, he looking to the Doctor and saying "Times up!"

Alice then watched in shock at the other Dudely's revealed their zippers before starting to pull them back. She could see the glowing light coming from the gaping holes they created before cringing towards the Doctor's side in defense.

"What do we do?" she asked with a scared tone, still watching at the Slitheen "undressed".

The Doctor watched as the Slitheen began to 'undress' themselves and began backing up slowly. He looked slightly alarmed and put his arm out infront of Alice and backed the both of them up until they were entirely out of the room. The Doctor had to think quickly, he was more than confident he could out-match the Slitheen in terms on intelligence, but when it came to physical prowess, it more than likely take less than a minute for him to be left in bits.

"What do we do?" she asked with a scared tone, still watching at the Slitheen "undressed".

"You don't happen to have any vinegar on you, do you? No, guess not.  I suppose I'll do this." The Doctor then closed the doors to the room they were just in and used his sonic to seal it shut, it wouldn't give them long, but some time was better than none. Staring at the door, the Doctor tried to come up with some kind of escape plan in his mind.

Walking over to one of the windows on the left side of the corridor,  the Time Lord pushed it open and climbed up onto the window ledge. "Let's try this way, Alice." Alice, where had he gotten that name from? The fog in his mind was starting to clear and some things were starting to come back to him but he couldn't be sure. The Doctor saw there was no ledge leading off to the left, but there was a ledge big enough for them to shuffle along to the right, although it would lead them directly past the window where the Slitheen currently were.

Alice was watching with shock as the Dudley's began to un-zipper themselves before the Doctor had lead her to out through the window. She didn't see as they had fully unclothed themselves and revealed their true alien forms, the large green obese creatures with powerful arms that they were.

When they noticed both were gone one of them looked to the robot servant and said "Surround the place. Nothing comes in or out!"

The robot sent a signal out to the others to spread this order. All began to patrol the estate while keeping the other guests contained within the main ballroom. Even blow where Alice and the Doctor began to shuffle from the window they robots were below keeping an eye out.

Alice, looking down to see this, asked the Doctor "I hope you have a plan for getting us out of this. Otherwise we'll need some sort of improvising."

Shuffling across the small ledge, the Doctor hoped that the Slitheen didn't see them and if they did, well, they probably wouldn't be on the ledge much longer. As they passed by the window where Slitheen were, the Doctor managed to peer inside just enough time to see them banging against the door, thankfully it seemed to be holding which gave him and Alice enough time.

"I hope you have a plan for getting us out of this. Otherwise we'll need some sort of improvising."

"Of course I've got a plan," he replied, "I'll assess the situation and then I'll do a thing, probably as a result of a thing having happened." Continuing across the ledge, they eventually arrived at a window to what seemed to be a bedroom, the room was far enough away from the Slitheen where they would be safe for a while.

Crouching down with his back against the building, the Doctor managed to slide the window up just enough so he could climb inside, once he was in the bedroom he pushed the window all the way up, so Alice could climb in.

"Question, how well do you know this estate?"

Alice followed the Doctor across towards the other window while managing to see inside the room herself. Once she'd seen what the Dudley's really were she gasped but had to remain steady while on the ledge. Once they'd reached the bedroom she held her hands out so the Doctor could pull her in.

In answer to his question she gave a small "Not really." still a little frazzled by what she was seeing and what was going on. "But...don't you think we should leave here? We should try and bring the authorities. You're one of the queen's men after all, yes? Bring the entire regiment if it means dealing with these...these monsters!"

In the bedroom, the Doctor stood still on the spot and tried to come up with a plan, he quickly gave up, deciding to focus more on what was happening now, he usually thought of something just in the nick of time anyway. For a moment he mused on the question of why he had decided to let Alice come with him, but just like the previous thought, he pushed it to the back of his mind.

The Doctor then walked over to the open window and peered down at the robots below, "There must be a control node, a robot that controls all the robots" He said, thinking out loud.

The Time Lord sighed at Alice's answer to his question, "Well, neither do I" In all the commotion, he had somehow managed to forget about the time portals and the interesting fact that Alice was covered in time energy. "We can't leave and I'm not one of the Queen's men," he explained, "And there is no back-up, just me and this." He removed his sonic screwdriver and waved it at her.

Alice, fed-up with his lies, snatched the sonic away from him when he waved it at her. She looked like she was ready to slap him as she held the sonic in her hand.

"Now you listen to me, Doctor or whoever you are." she said, her voice starting to show an angered tone. "I've had just about enough of all these lies and whatever madness is going on. If you're not one of the queen's men, and the Dudely's aren't human, and those servants of there are machines, then just what in the name of queen in country is all of this?" She then looked back to the sonic screwdriver before saying "And why, oh why, do I think I know this? Why?.....why do I keep thinking I know this...THING? It's like.....from a dream or...or something but...."

She collapsed to her knees and began to weep, trying to hold back tears as she leaned against the wall. She held her head as she felt it ache, as if all of this was almost too much for her. She shook her head a little as well as her sad eyes looked up to the Doctor, a sight he may or may not remember.

"Am....am I going mad, Doctor?" she asked him, not sure if any of this was real or not.