Chapter Text
Gwen checked her lipstick in the rear view mirror.
“Ready?” Asked Rhys. “I can’t remember the last time we had a proper date.”
She chuckled lightly. “Usually the world tries to end before we get the chance.”
“You look gorgeous love.”
“You clean up pretty well yourself.” She leaned over and gave him a quick kiss. “And the red looks nice on you.”
He laughed and wiped away the small amount of transferred lipstick before climbing out of the car. They made their way into the small restaurant. It wasn’t the flashiest place but it was warm and welcoming. A family run place that, it felt like, had been there forever. Melody waved to them from a table in the corner. She was dressed smartly, her makeup soft and natural, her hair pinned back in a short braid.
“Have you been waiting long?” Rhys asked, sitting in the chair closest to the wall.
She shook her head. “I only just got here myself. Heather says she’ll only be a couple of minutes. Thanks again for this.”
“Happy to help. We never get to go anywhere anyway. It’s a nice change.”
“I just… Really want this to go well. No, unforeseen work related stuff.”
Gwen couldn’t help but agree. She wanted a night off as much as anyone, and a nice meal with Rhys sounded like bliss. She glanced over to the door to see a woman in a black dress enter. Melody noticed and waved.
“Heather.” She beamed, cheeks flushing brightly.
The woman made her way over. “Sorry to make you wait.”
“We haven’t been here long. Heather, this is Gwen and Rhys. Guys, this is Heather.”
“It’s nice to meet you.” She said brightly, offering her hand to shake.
As the meal went on everyone relaxed and Gwen began to think, unless her instincts had failed her, that they’d misjudged this woman. She seemed like a decent person and didn’t show any sign of malicious intent at all. They were just considering dessert when the lights began to flicker. Murmurs swept around the room as confused patrons looked to the staff to tell them what was going on.
“Not the best time for a power cut, eh?” Said Rhys, not bothered in the slightest. Years of dealing with Torchwood level strangeness made a simple power outage seem innocent.
Heather smiled. “At least we have candles.” She gestured to the candles in the centre of the table. She glanced over at Melody who was staring out of the small window in the door. “What’s wrong?”
“Hmm?” Melody snapped from her trance. “Oh, yea, sorry. I’m off with the fairies.”
Gwen gave her a questioning look before hearing a soft voice in her mind.
“ There’s movement outside. A few people but I can only sense one consciousness .”
She slipped her phone in her pocket before excusing herself to the bathroom. There she could text Jack about what was going on without having to answer any questions. The lights flickered again, for longer this time. At least with the rest of the team looking into what was going on she could enjoy her night a little longer. She headed back to the table and gave Melody a comforting smile. The lights went out and the room fell silent. Rhys took an old lighter out of his pocket. He didn’t smoke but some of the lads at work did and they were always looking for a lighter. He lit the candles in the middle of the table.
“Um… Where did everyone go?” Asked Heather. They all looked around to see the room abandoned. Everything had been left as it was before the lights went out but noone sat in the seats. One of the waiters remained, looking as confused as the group were, as he held open the door to the kitchen.
“Hello?” He called. “Is anyone in here? Where did you go?”
Gwen stood and joined him. “The kitchen’s empty too?”
“Um… Sorry about this… I don’t know what’s going on.”
“I’ve got a few torches in my car. Why don’t you sit with us while we work it out?”
“Thanks, but I should call my manager or the owner. The phone’s just in the office.” He grabbed one of the unlit candles and lit it from the ones on the groups table. “I promise I’ll try and sort this out.”
Rhys spoke up. “You shouldn’t go on your own mate. Not if everyone else has just up and disappeared.”
“Here, you can use my phone.” Heather offered, holding out her phone.
The waiter took it. “Thanks. I’m Rocco, by the way.”
“I’m Heather, this is my girlfriend Melody and her friends Rhys and Gwen.”
He relaxed a little, knowing the people he had been left with were friendly. “I hope the power comes on soon. It’s so creepy in the dark.”
“It really is.”
Gwen gave Rhys a beckoning look. “Right. I’m going to get those torches from the car.” He stood and followed her.
“Be careful out there.” Melody called after them.
The evening air felt unusually still and there was a crushing silence that seemed to blanket the area. There should have been the rumble of traffic, some sign of life, but there was nothing.
“So, what’s really going on?” Asked Rhys, looking around at the empty cars.
Gwen shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t know. Melody said she saw people moving outside but only heard one mind, then the lights went out and I have no idea why. I don’t know where all those people went either.” She tucked her phone between her shoulder and ear, listening to it ring. It rang and rang, long past the point it should have gone to voicemail. She hung up and tried Iantos number. The same happened. “Looks like there’s no contacting the hub then.” She sighed, slipping her phone into her pocket.
“Never a good sign.” Rhys handed her one of the maglights. “Should we just wait?”
“We can have a look around the restaurant. If we don’t find anything there we can try and drive to the hub.” She looked into the darkness that seemed to have swallowed up the city feeling as if she was looking into the vast reaches of space. From the other end of the street a sound broke through the silence. Footsteps. Someone running. Gwen and Rhys moved to intercept them and came face to face with a blond woman in a long coat.
“Gwen.” She smiled brightly. “That is right, isn’t it?”
“Yes, I’m sorry, have we met?” Gwen asked, keeping a tight grip on the maglight.
“Oh right, different face. Very different face. I’m the Doctor.”
She laughed. “No you’re not… No… Are you?”
“I had a bit of an upgrade. We should get inside.” She pushed open the door to the restaurant and stepped inside.
Rhys looked to where this strange woman who called herself the Doctor had come from and saw hundreds of pairs of eyes staring back at him. “Bloody hell.” He rushed inside with Gwen and grabbed a chair to jam under the door handle to keep it closed.
“Good idea. We should lock the doors before they get here.”
“Who are they ?”
“They didn’t really give me their names but they were very angry. That or hungry.” She took her sonic screwdriver from her pocket and pointed it at the door, the lock clicking into place. She stepped back, seeing eyes staring in through the small window in the door.
“What is that?!” Rocco gasped.
Melody frowned. “Whatever it is it’s working on a hive mind.”
“A what?”
“All of those eyes belong to separate beings but they all run on one mind.”
“Oh, this one’s clever.” The Doctor said, more than a little surprised. “Is she Torchwood too?”
Gwen froze. Mel froze. Rhys internally facepalmed, and Heather looked between each of them for an answer.
The telepath sighed deeply. “There’s going to need to be retcon all round after this anyway. So yes.”
“Woah, woah, woah, wait. You both work for Torchwood? The Torchwood.” Heather said excitedly, almost bouncing. “No wonder you’ve been so secretive about your friends.”
“I can explain later.”
“Does that mean what’s out there is alien?”
“Probably.”
The Doctor looked to Gwen. “And she’s not Torchwood.”
“No.” Gwen shook her head.
“And she didn’t know.”
“Nope.”
“Ah… Well then. Sorry about that. Bit awkward, but anyway, how did you know it was a hive mind if you don’t know what it is?”
“Melody’s a telepath. I suppose I should introduce you to everyone. Everyone, this is the Doctor. Doctor, this is Melody, her girlfriend Heather, Rocco and my boyfriend Rhys.”
“Hello.”
There were small murmurs of greeting in reply, but the situation didn’t really allow for enthusiasm, those eyes still staring into the room.
“So, how did you get here? And how did we get here?” Gwen continued.
“All I know is they were chasing me down this street when the lights went out. I kept running and I realised I was looping. Lost track of how many loops I did before this place appeared and I saw you. Now we’re here. So, we can assume whatever’s out there trapped us here.”
Rocco stepped forward nervously. “But why us? This place was full of people. Guests, chefs, the managers, what about them?”
“I think they might have been left behind. If this is a trap then it’s meant to be temporary, but you’re right, why you? Why all of you specifically?”
Mel kicked off her high heels. “I’d say it was because of Torchwood, but knowing my luck, it’ll be because of me.”
“Why? Have you been making random calls into space for hive minds?”
“No, but trouble loves to follow me.”
“Me too.”
“Any idea why?”
“Well, for me it’s because I’ve been everywhere. You pick up some… Interesting connections.”
“So not that then.” She placed her shoes with her bag on her chair. “So, we can’t contact the outside world. We’re trapped in here, hiding from whatever is swarming out there in a maybe pocket dimension, with no idea why, no long range weapons and no idea of how to even begin getting out.”
“That’s about it, yes. But we can still find out.”
“That’s why she took her shoes off I think.” Gwen laughed softly. “We should check around the building for anything that feels out of place. Heather, why don’t you and Rocco check on the kitchen. Me and Rhys can check upstairs and Mel, you and the Doctor can check the cellar.”
“Splitting up. Why not?” It was hard to tell if she was being sarcastic or not but everyone else seemed happy with the plan so the groups split off. Heather was happy to use the flashlight on her phone so Mel took the second maglight.
“So, how’s Jack?” The Doctor asked, glancing around the old cellar.
Melody shivered slightly, the feeling of the cold floor under her feet drawing the warmth out of her though it was better than a broken ankle from tipping over on heels. “He’s fine as far as I know. Sorry, but I was wondering if there was a way of you quieting your mind a little? I don’t mean to be rude but it’s very chaotic and it’s hard to concentrate.” She asked nervously.
The Doctor stopped in her tracks. “You can hear my thoughts from there?”
“Yes. I’m sorry. I can’t really control it.”
“Humans can’t do that.”
Mel sighed to herself internally. “So many people have told me that, but here I am… Sorry, I don’t mean to be snappy. This was meant to be a date and I really wanted it to go well.”
“You were being snappy?”
“I… Um… Yes.”
She looked around the dark cellar, the wall lined with wine bottles. It all looked pretty normal. “I don’t think we’re in a complete pocket dimension.”
“Oh?”
“If it was then I would have just reached the end of the road and stopped but instead I ended up at the start. It’s more like space has been stretched so it doesn’t fit exactly. We’re still where we were, but we can’t effect that side and that side can’t effect this side.”
“That makes sense, so how do we unfold it?” We need to find out what did it in the first place.
A crash and a scream from above sent both women sprinting back up the stairs, finding Heather and Rocco holding the kitchen doors closed, beady eyes looking through the small windows in the wooden doors. One of the creatures hands reached through the gap in between both and clawed at the air.
“Help!” Cried Heather, her feet not holding traction on the smooth wooden floor. The Doctor braced her back against the same door as Heather and they collectively pushed them back and Mel slid the bolt on the bottom of the doors into place. It wasn’t much but it was better than nothing.
The telepath picked up one of the chairs and tipped it over. “Doctor. You have a sonic screwdriver, right?”
“Yes.” The Doctor nodded, not quite sure what this girl was getting at.
“We can take the screws out of the chair and use them to secure the door with the pieces of wood.”
“It’s been so long since I actually used this as a screwdriver. Swap places with me.”
She did as she was told, her back aching as she braced against the rattling door. Her back was still healing from being thrown around by Apep, much like her shoulder, and holding back a hoard wasn’t helping. Rhys thundered in and ran over to help, taking Melodys place as he knew she wasn’t exactly doing much to keep those doors from being caved in. Instead she began helping the doctor gather the wood and screws to barricade the door. Three chairs later the doors were solid enough to let them go, the mass of beings locked out.