AURORA, SITTING ON TOP OF THE CONSOLE, OBSERVES SILENTLY. Cleaves is trying to communicate with the mainland, which is hard, in the middle of a solar storm. The Doctors are pacing. Amy is next to her, holding her hand in support. Aurora herself has a ball of anxiety in her stomach, sinking lower and lower as it goes.

"Saint John's calling," Cleaves tries for at least the tenth time. "Emergency Alpha." She sighs. "We'll never get a signal through this storm." The screen goes red. "Saint John's calling the mainland. Come in, this is urgent."

And then, despite everything, a voice speaks. "We're just about reading you, Saint John's." They all let out sighs of relief. "How are you doing? We've had all kinds of trouble here."

Cleaves heaves out a sigh of relief, and they all jump to their feet. "Request immediate evacuation. We're under attack. The storm's affected our Gangers. They're running amok."

"Your Gangers?" he asks, confused.

"Yes, our Gangers are attacking us," she confirms, though it was the other way around earlier. "We need you to take us off the island immediately and wipe them out."

Aurora stiffens, glaring daggers at Cleaves. The two Doctors look at each other, tense. "Copy that, Saint John's. Shuttle's despatched. Hang on."

"You'll need to airlift us off the roof of the evac tower," she tells him. "And Captain, any further transmission sent by me must come with the following codeword. I'm typing it, in case they're listening in."

"Got it. We'll swing in, get you out and decommission the Flesh." Aurora has to bite her tongue to remain silent.

Some of the staff start to collect their things. "We've got to get out of here," Buzzer says. "We are, we're going to get out."

Amy immediately turns around, followed by Aurora. "We're not leaving without them."

Buzzer sighs. "I want them found too, but it's about casualties, innit? Can't be helped."

Aurora puts a hand in front of Amy to stop her, and steps forward. She puts a hand on Buzzer's shoulder.

"You're going to find my friend, or you'll have to deal with me," she tells him, voice firm. She squeezes his shoulder enough to hurt him. "Understood?" Leaving without Rory is out of the question, and if this guy doesn't help, they'll be leaving without him.

He carefully nods, and she lets him go. Amy sighs and turns to the Doctor. "What are you doing?"

He's typing things on the computer. "Making a phone call."

"Who to?" she asks.

"No one yet," he tells her. "It's on delay."

"Right. Not getting it." Well, to be fair, what he said makes no sense without context. "Why exactly are you making a phone call?"

He stops to look at her. "Because, Amy, I am and always will be the optimist." He turns in his chair. The hoper of far-flung hopes and the dreamer of improbable dreams." He makes Amy turn too and she giggles. Aurora looks away. "The wheels are in motion. Done."

She turns her chair to look at the Doctor's Ganger. She nudges Aurora. "You know really there can be only one."

Aurora shakes her head. "A person isn't determined by how they were born," she says, matter-of-factly. "It's... what they do. Why they do it, or who they do it for." Her eyes drift over to the Doctor. "It's the memories that make them."

He pretends he doesn't hear her. "Hmm?" But in reality, he does hear her, he's just not sure he'll be able to handle knowing what makes her the Hybrid just yet.

If it's bad, he won't cope. He just won't. She would have to be stopped, and he would be the only one able to, and he won't. If anyone wondered what the Doctor's limit was, it's name is Aurora Barnes and she has freckles and dimples.

Not facing Aurora and her reasons means not facing this reality, and pretending that he'd act like the Doctor, when the time comes.

Aurora shakes her head and walks away from him. "Oh, nothing. Carry on. Be amazing."

She turns her back on everyone, afraid that, at any time, she'll burst into tears. She's so tired. Maybe it's her fight with the Doctor, draining her. She feels barely awake at times lately anyway.

Amy stands up, to check on her, but freezes. Suddenly, she gasps, making Aurora turn around quickly.

"Amy?" the Doctor asks. "What happened?"

"It's her again," she says, white as a sheet.

Aurora blinks, getting closer to Amy, concern written all over her face. "It's who again?"

Amy panics, arm flailing around. "There's a woman I keep seeing. A woman with an eyepatch, and she has this habit of sliding walls open and staring at me." The Doctor looks in the distance, thinking. "Doctor?"

It feels like he won't answer at first, lost in thought, jaw clenched in concern. "It's nothing," he dismisses.

Come again? "Doesn't seem like nothing," Aurora barks out, a hand on Amy's arm.

And maybe it's her tone or the fact that he knows that, when it comes to Amy, she won't back down, but he looks at her and answers. "It's a time memory. Like a mirage. It's nothing to worry about."

She's a bit taken aback by the fact that he answers, and how he explained absolutely nothing and just made it worse. "What?"

"It's in my head," his voice says, but not coming from him.

She turns to her side, and watches the G-Doctor quickly walk past her, and go outside. "Hey, hold on," Buzzer tries.

"Don't let him go!" Cleaves lets out.

Aurora sighs, lets go of Amy, and runs after him. "No, leave it to me." She looks at the Doctor above her shoulder. "At least he's the one talking to me."

She carefully steps out, and the cold of the night bites her cheeks and her nose. She can almost sense the shift in the atmosphere, so much different from outside. Here, staring at the G-Doctor's back turned to her, she can almost see all the secrets and all her fears displayed.

She can almost see why the silent treatment he's giving her affects her so much. She swallows thickly. "I'm sorry," she calls out. "About Amy. What she said about you being almost the Doctor, it's just really hard, because she's been through so much with him." She inhales deeply through her nose. "I guess she's just not used to it yet, but she will be." She feels her eyes watering. She knows she shouldn't go on, she shouldn't speak about it with him, but she can't help herself. She just feels too much right now. She feels so, so much "But, Doctor, I can't have you mad at me right now," she says, but it's almost a plea. "I'm... I'm sorry for what I've done, back on Gallifrey, and I'm sorry it hurts you. I'm sorry you feel... betrayed, because trust me, it wasn't my intention." She sees his shoulders tense up, and takes a deep breath to keep her voice from wavering. "But doing this, acting like a child and not talking it out with me, when I could explain everything, is hurting me too. And we can't... We can't be on bad terms. Not with what's going to happen, I can't. You don't understand."

Aurora struck her own nerve, and tears started to spill on her cheeks. It was never about the feelings she has for him. She's not this hopeless and devastated just because she's in love with him.

She just fears that these may very well be their last moments together, and she can't bear the thought of spending them angry at each other. She won't. And if she has to ram it through his head for him to see this, then so be it. It's not the one that's going to die anyway.

"I've seen... I've even seen the moment of his... of your..." She licks her lips, sniffling almost ironically. "Well, whatever, you can't do anything about it, right? It's not your version that will die." Saying it out loud, to him, whatever version of him, makes her hearts break a little more. "And you will," she squeaks out. "I saw it." She shakes her head, trying to contain her sobs, her chin trembling. "So we can't be mad at each other, not when everything is about to fall apart."

She can see him breathing heavily, before he sighs out; "Why?"

Aurora blinks, confused. "Why?" she repeats, sarcastically. "Because you were twisted enough to invite us to see it. Your death. No wonder I was so pissed after."

She expected many reactions, coming from him. Anger, maybe sadness. But she definitely didn't expect him to push her up against the wall. Her eyes blow wide as his face inches closer to her, his nose almost touching her and God help her if her eyes drift down to his mouth—

Her red leather jacket is caught in his two fists as he keeps her against the brick wall, her heart hammering in her chest. "Why?" he cries out.

"Doctor?" she yells at the same time, stunned

She searches his eyes for anything to calm her down, but she only finds despair, and a simmering rage. Her bones almost liquefy with fear. She's never been scared of him, not like this. He'd never hurt her, right? This is the Doctor without any restraints or self-control, hit by something that doesn't seem to come from him at all, controlled by whatever's happening. It's not him.

"It's all the eyes say," he rambles, voice growing, to the point where he's screaming. "'Why?' I can feel them as they work each day, knowing the time was coming for them to be thrown away again. Not again, please. And then they are destroyed and they feel death, and all they can say is, 'why'?"

Aurora grips his arms tightly, nails digging in the fabric of his tweed jacket. It's the Flesh, she realizes. He's connected to it, he can't help it. "I don't know!" she cries out, trying to calm him down. "I'm not going to have an answer, I'm not connected to the Flesh!"

He falters a bit, before tightening his grip on her. "Here's something you connected yourself to. A Dalek." He lets her go, settling for grabbing her wrist with urgency. "Why would you betray Gallifrey?" She stares at him, breath caught in her chest, tears flowing freely down her cheeks. "Why?"

"I just wanted to help," she lets out, voice high-pitched. "I was an idiot, and easily-manipulated by someone like my brother." She licks her lips, breath heavy. "He wanted me to be like him, to live for chaos."

This makes no sense to the Doctor, because he doesn't understand the nature of the siblings' relationship. "Why!?"

Her eyes search for him, and she can read the absolute despair and the gut-wrenching sadness he feels at the thought of her ever wanting to betray him and what he stands for.

The Doctor squeezes a little tighter and she stares at him, hard. "You're hurting me," she says, voice clear and loud, slashing like a whip against the wind.

He immediately steps back, letting her go, and she storms back inside.

He doesn't understand the urge and need of the Master to have his little sister just... get him. She always had, up until something snapped in his mind. And when she didn't, he felt lost, so alone, and did the only thing crazy enough that came to his mind.

He made her the Hybrid. Took hope and tried to turn it into chaos. Except it didn't work, and he was definitely lost and alone when the Time Lords casted her out. She was only a could-be Hybrid. An almost Hybrid.

To be fair, Aurora doesn't understand it half of the time either. How can something coming from a place of love be so twisted? Maybe it was his pain that made it so. Aurora fears that it's in her blood now, running in the family. She knows her own pain makes her consider sacrificing the universe to save the Doctor, but entertains the idea that she wouldn't do it. She wouldn't, would she?

Careful what pain can do to you, dearest.