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The thunder roared above them, the dark grounds of the orphanage lit up by flashes of lightning as Amy, Canton and Danni drove up to the building that obviously had seen better days. Amy sat next to Canton in the passenger seat in a black suit, while Danni was sat in the back also dressed like an agent. They had been sat in silence for the entire journey, everyone too preoccupied with the task at hand to make small talk.
"In just a few days mankind will set foot on the moon for the first time. Today the President reaffirmed America's commitment..." Canton turned off the radio, interrupting the male reporters monologue on the impending moon landing and turned to Amy.
"Ready. Check?" \He asked. Amy looked at the palm of her right hand to see if she was carrying a message.
"Clear." She confirmed as her palm wasn't flashing red. Canton checked his own; his palm was also clear.
"Clear." He confirmed. He turned to Danni, who was staring out of the window at the orphanage, a thoughtfully sad look on her face.
"Anything?" He asked.
"Nope." She replied quietly and Amy climbed out of the car. Canton looked back down at his palm one last time, rubbing it as he thought back on the events leading up to this moment.
~0~0~0~
Canton held out his palm as the Doctor instructed, not expecting him to pull out what looked like a gun and inject something into his hand with a zap.
"Ow!" Canton protested and the Doctor skipped off around the console with a laugh.
"So, three months, what have we found out?" He asked the group around the console, rubbing Danni's arm gently as he went past her. He just needed to make sure she was there, that was all.
"Well, they are everywhere. Every state in Americ..." Rory started as the Doctor grabbed his hand and injected it with another zap, "ahh!"
"Not just America, the entire world." The Doctor corrected as he continued pacing, glancing at the monitor River was looking at.
"There's a greater concentration here though." River added, studying the results they had collected on the TARDIS monitor.
"Except in Florida, where I didn't come across a single one." Danni pointed out, "Which is strange, cause that's where you'd think they'd be given the poor little girl in the spacesuit."
"Exactly. It's like they're avoiding something." The Doctor said, placing a quick kiss on top of her head as he moved to Amy, injecting her next.
"Ow!" She complained loudly, rubbing her palm to ease the pain in her hand .
"You OK?" He asked, incredibly concerned for her. After finding out she thought she was pregnant, and then having them run around America he had only been able to worry about her from afar, never finding out if she was pregant or not.
"All better." She told him with a smile and a small nod.
"Better?" He whispered, surprised. That was not the answer he had been expecting.
"Turns out I was wrong. I'm not pregnant." She explained. Rory, sensing the tension that had just arisen between the pair, walked up.
"What's up?" He asked lightly and Amy turned to him with a smile.
"Nothing. Really, nothing, seriously."
"So you've seen them, but you don't remember them." Canton continued, pulling the trio out of their moment.
"You've seen them too. That night at the warehouse, remember? While you were pretending to hunt us down we saw hundreds of those things. We still don't know what they look like." River replied.
"It's like they edit themselves out of your memory as soon as you look away. The exact second you're not looking at them, you can't remember anything." Rory explained, trying to piece together what he could remember from his time on the run.
"Sometimes you feel a bit sick though, but not always." Amy was quick to add, anything to brush away the thought of pregnancy.
"So that's why you marked your skin?" Canton said, finally understanding what he had already been told three months previously.
"Only way we'd know if we'd had an encounter." Amy confirmed.
"How long have they been here?"
"That's what we've spent three months trying to find out."
"Not easy, if you can't remember anything you discover." Rory told him.
"But how long do you think?" The Doctor walked up to him, standing so close he towered down on him even though Canton was by no means small.
"As long as there's been something in the corner of your eye, or creaking in your house, or breathing under your bed, or voices through a wall. They've been running your lives for a very long time now, so keep this straight in your head." All five stared at him apprehensively, "We are not fighting an alien invasion, we're leading a revolution. And today the battle begins."
"How?"
"Like this." He spun and shot River in the hand with the injector gun, catching her unaware.
"Ow!" She cried.
"Ha-ha! Nano recorder. Fuses with the cartilage in your hand." He injected himself, "Ow! Then it tunes itself directly to the speech centres in your brain. It'll pick up your voice, no matter what. Telepathic connection. So the moment you see one of the creatures, you activate it." He demonstrated by pressing his palm with his middle finger, "And describe aloud exactly what you're seeing." He pressed it again.
"And describe aloud exactly what you're seeing." The recording repeated. He turned to Danni, who held her hand out willingly with a smile and only winced when he injected the last one into her hand. He grabbed her hand before she could pull it back, rubbing his thumb over the middle of her palm before placing a kiss on the nano recorder. She blushed happily at the action, he had been doing anything just to touch her since they'd been reunited and she wanted it to last as long as possible. How she hadn't jumped away was beyond her, but she was so grateful she hadn't.
"Because the moment you break contact, you're going to forget it happened. The light will flash if you've left yourself a message. You keep checking your hand. If you've had an encounter that's the first you'll know about it."
"Why didn't you tell me this before we started?" Canton asked.
"I did. But even information about these creatures erases itself over time." He walked up to the console and pressed a few buttons, "I couldn't refresh it, cause I couldn't talk to you." He looked over Canton's shoulder, who followed his gaze then when he turned back straightened the Doctor's tie. The others stared at him, amazed at how quickly he had forgotten, considering they could still see the creature.
"What? What are you staring at?" He asked.
"Look at your hand." River told him and he did, seeing the flashing red light indicating a message.
"Why's it doing that?"
"What does it mean if the light's flashing? What did I just tell you?" The Doctor asked
"I haven't..." He started, confused.
"Play it." The Doctor commanded and he did.
"My God, how did it get in here?" The recorded Canton exclaimed.
"Keep eye contact with the creature and when I say, turn back, and when you do, straighten my bow tie." The Doctor's voice told him calmly.
"What? What are you staring at?" The recording repeated.
"Look at your hand." Canton slowly turned around and saw one of the creatures stood stoically by the doors.
"It's a hologram, extrapolated from a photo on Amy's phone. Take a good long look." He gently pulled a lever and the hologram slowly faded from view, "You just saw an image of one of the creatures we're fighting. Describe it to me." He snapped his fingers as Canton shook his head, desperately trying to recall the image.
"I can't."
"No. Neither can I." The Doctor replied worriedly, "You straightened my bow tie because I planted the idea in your head while you were looking at the creature."He moved around the console and pulled the monitor to him, typing on the keyboard underneath it.
"So they could do that to people. You could be doing stuff and not really knowing why you're doing it." Amy inquired.
"Like post hypnotic suggestion." Rory stated.
"Ruling the world with post hypnotic suggestion." She continued, slightly horrified.
"They're big, taller than any of you." Danni started slowly and everyone spun to face her as she stared where the alien once stood, "Gray with tiny eyes but huge sockets, and wear black three piece suits like office men." The Doctor walked up to her, looking between her and the spot. She had turned very pale, almost sickly looking.
"You remember?" He asked her and she nodded before turning to look at him.
"I..." she stuttered, "I don't feel very well." Her legs gave way and he caught her as she stumbled, her vision swimming and her head suddenly pounding.
"It's all right, I've got you." he told her soothingly as he helped her to the seat, settling her in it gently.
"My head hurts. It feels like something's poking the inside of my brain." She told him quietly. He took her head in his hands, trying to be as gentle as possible as he placed his fingers on her temple.
"I'm just going to check, okay?" He asked for her permission. She nodded slightly, the headache was rapidly fading but it still jiggled her brain. He closed his eyes and reached into her mind, searching for the image of the alien from moments ago.
"It's like the image is trying to wipe itself, but it's being overridden by a previous memory. The wipe is fighting back, trying to overwrite the original memory but your mind is stopping it. That would explain why you're feeling ill." He explained as he tried to find the memory in question. Her eyes snapped open in panic when she realised what he was doing and the Doctor suddenly pulled away.
"You shoved me out of your head!" He shouted, almost outraged.
"Sorry, spoilers and all that. So, I can remember because I've seen them before and it hasn't wiped?" She prompted, stopping him asking why she had shoved him out.
"The question is why isn't the previous memory being erased?" He mused, studying her closely.
"Because the image I saw wasn't supposed to be forgotten." She replied slowly, thinking back to the fact she had seen them on a television show and that alien was never supposed to be forgotten by the audience, just the characters in the show. At the confused look on the Doctor's face she smiled sadly.
"I think it's still spoilers, sorry." He nodded in understanding, "It might explain why I never saw any in Florida though." She pointed out.
"How?" Amy asked, drawing their attention to her.
"If they know that I can remember them, they may hide from me so I can't scream their location to whoever's listening. I'm probably quite the threat to them." This didn't seem to pacify the Doctor, in fact it seemed to make him more anxious and he stood up, clapping his hands together to distract himself.
"Now then, a little girl in a space suit. They got the suit from NASA, but where did they get the girl?"
"Could be anywhere." Canton replied.
"Except they probably stayed close to that warehouse, cos why bother doing anything else? And they take her from somewhere to cause the least amount of attention." He zoomed into a map of Florida and into a small area showing three possible coordinates, "But you'll have to find her. I'm off to NASA."
"Find her? Where do we look?" The Doctor looked at Canton.
"Children's homes."
~0~0~0~
Amy knocked on the door three times as the trio huddled underneath the porch out of the rain. The door opened shortly afterwards, revealing a very confused looking man peaking around the edge of the door.
"Hello?" He asked as he looked between the three. Canton held up his ID, getting right to business.
"FBI. You must be Dr Renfrew. Can we come in?" The man looked behind him, then turned back.
"The children are asleep." He replied, not wanting to let the three people in, but at the same time really, really wanting them to come in.
"We'll be very quiet." Amy promised with a gentle smile to reassure him.
"Is there a problem?" He asked, still reluctant to let them in.
"It's about a missing child." Canton told him.
"What are you...?" When he realised that it was important he stepped back and left the door to swing half-open, "Yes, yes, come in, please." Amy shot Danni a look, who motioned for her to go first. She pushed the door and the three followed Renfrew inside. The inside of the house matched the disrepair the outside had suffered, paint peeling off the walls and rain running in from outside. The walls were covered in red paint reading warnings to the man.
"This way." Renfrew called behind him, stopping at one of the messages with a cloth in hand, "Please excuse the writing. It keeps happening. I try to clean it up." He leant forward and absent-mindedly rubbed it, as if he was trying to remember how it got there.
"I'm guessing it's the kids that do that?" Danni asked.
"Yes. The children. It must be, yes." As he reached higher to wipe he turned his wrist revealing 'Get Out' written there. They all shared a look as it confirmed that it had to have been the man, and not the children that wrote the terrifying warnings on the wall. He stopped mid step and looked upwards.
"Anyway, my office is this way." He walked off and the three followed.
"We nearly didn't come to this place." Canton told the man, "I understood Graystark Hall was closed in '67."
"That's the plan, yes." Renfrew replied.
"The plan?" Amy asked.
"Not long now." He told them with a sad smile.
"It's 1969." Canton informed the man. Renfrew stopped and turned to face them.
"No, no. We close in '67. That's the plan, yes."
"You misunderstood me, sir. It's 1969 now." He motioned with his hand to illustrate the point.
"Why are you saying that? Of course, it isn't." Renfrew replied, obviously distressed. Danni tapped Canton.
"Don't, he's genuinely confused." She whispered but Canton ignored her.
"July." He told him. Renfrew stared at him, obviously not being able to compute this new piece of information.
"My office is this way, this way." He ran up to the top of the stairs then turned right, disappearing from view. The three followed him at a slower pace, stopping just before the turn.
"We'll check upstairs." Danni told Canton, who nodded.
"Be careful." He warned them before following Renfrew. Amy and Danni shared another, slightly scared look, turned on their flash lights and continued up another staircase. They reached a line of doors and Amy stopped outside one.
"Let's start looking." She murmured, more to herself than Danni, and pushed the door opened. It was a dorm room, with lines of metal bed frames all with little if any bedding on. Buckets were dotted along the floor catching raindrops from the leaking roof. Amy shined her torch along the wall, illuminating the message 'Leave Me Alone' as Danni pulled out Amy's phone from her pocket and dialled the Doctor, who answered quickly.
"Danni?" He asked.
"We've found the place." She replied as she stood next to Amy so they both could hear him.
"How do you know?"
"Cause those things have been here. But the whole place is deserted." Amy told him, "There's just one guy here and I think he's lost it."
"Repeated memory wipes will fry your head eventually." Danni told her sadly. This thought had been worrying her for a while now, ever since she had seen the Silent in the Oval Office and remembered it. She had felt ill then too, but had been too busy to think about it at the time.
"They must have been there a long time." The Doctor emphasised, trying to reassure her that she would be fine, "Find out what you can, but don't hang around."
"Where are you?" Amy asked.
"Gotta go! Got company!" He hung up and Amy rolled her eyes as Danni put her phone away. Amy stepped towards the window when the door slammed shut and she spun around, seeing Danni shaking and looking deathly ill.
"They're here." She whispered. Amy grabbed her hand and dragged her to the door, fighting with knob. She froze as she saw three marks on her hand and turned her palm up, seeing the red flash of the light.
"I can see them, but I think they're asleep. Get out! Just get out!" Recorded Amy urged and she tried the door again. Still unable to get out she held Danni's hand in a tight grip and took her to the window to try that. Her reflection showed all the marks on her face and why Danni was looking like she was about the faint; there were so many she didn't know how they were going to get out.
"Up, look up." Danni whispered and Amy did as she said, seeing the mass of creatures hanging upside down from the ceiling, sleeping like bats. Danni pushed her flash light down from the ceiling.
"Don't look down, I'll walk us to the door." Danni told her and she slowly led Amy away from the window, trying to keep her balance as the mere presence of the aliens continued to try and wipe their image from her mind now she wasn't looking at them. Amy stumbled over a bucket and one of the creatures hissed, then suddenly the door opened. Amy looked at the now open way out then up again as she tried to remember why she was so scared.
"Come on, let's keep looking." She told Danni, who nodded with a sigh. As they left, Danni looked behind her and saw one of the aliens stood in the room staring back at her.
~0~0~0~
"What do you think the Doctor's doing?" Amy asked Danni, trying to distract herself from the fact that if Danni looked so ill it was because they had come in contact with the aliens, and she couldn't remember when.
"He's attaching something to Apollo 11. I couldn't tell you what though, but I can tell you that he gets caught." Danni replied.
"Doesn't he always?" Amy replied and the pair giggled slightly. Amy suddenly looked forward, shining her torch on a door a couple of rooms ahead.
"Hello. Who are you?" Danni frowned as she looked at the door then looked uneasily at Amy as she realised this was Ganger Amy. She had forgotten about the woman with the eye patch... oh what was her name?
"Amy, are you okay?" She asked, trying to bring Amy back to the here and now. Amy was safe and they had bigger things to worry about. Amy didn't reply, just headed to the door and opened it to reveal a small nursery that was in much better condition than the rest of the building, although that wasn't really saying much.
"Hello? I saw you, looking through the hatch..." Amy turned to examine the back of the door, not seeing anything. She ran her hand across it, trying to feel for a seam or a hole but obviously found none. She walked around the room, heading towards an old chest of drawers with various pictures of a little girl on it, some in black and white and some colour. She smiled slightly at the sight of the little girl, she was very cute when one caught her eye. She picked it up, shaking as she saw herself holding a newborn baby, smiling at the camera. She showed it to Danni, eyes wide.
"How? How can that be me?" She whispered.
"We'll find out soon. Just don't be scared, okay?" Danni tried to reassure her. Amy placed the picture down and turned back to see the astronaut standing next to her friend.
"Who are you? I don't understand, so just tell me who you are!" The astronaut lifted the visor and revealed the little girl Amy had shot at, the same little girl from all the pictures, the glass still cracked from the bullet, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to shoot you. I'm glad I missed. But you killed The Doctor. You're going to kill him. But who are you? Just please tell me, because I don't understand!"
"Please help me. Help me, please." The girl pleaded, not answering. Two of the Silents entered the room and Amy screamed as the door shut. Danni backed away as the Ganger Amy was deactivated, dissolving into nothing. The girl in the astronaut began crying, terrified and Danni turned to her fighting the nausea that came from the image trying to wipe itself from her memory. She began unzipping the front of the suit.
"Come on, little Melody." She told her as calmly as she could, "You can do it. I'll help, but you have to force your way out."
"They're going to get me." She sobbed as they approached.
"Not while I can stop them." She promised, turning around and standing defensively in front of the little girl.
"You stay away from her." She warned the two aliens.
"You are Danielle Fielding." One breathed and she nodded.
"And you're the Silents." She replied, "Leave her alone. She's only a little girl."
"We do not want the child." The other replied in the same breathless tone. Danni frowned.
"What? You want me?" One held it's huge hand towards her just as the little girl burst out of the suit. Danni spun and helped her out, kissing the top of her head.
"Run, little Melody." She kissed the top of her head, "I'll protect you always." The little girl made no move to run and Danni pushed her towards the door, "Run!" The girl sped out and she turned back to face the aliens. She grinned at them and then screamed at the top of her lungs.
"Help us! Canton, please will you help us?!" She shouted, knowing the agent would hear her as the creature touched her and she collapsed.