Amy's first thought upon waking was of just how tired she was of waking up naked in her cell. Her second thought was of just how tired she was in general. She felt as though her skin was paper thin, and that any strenuous movement would tear her open.
When she tried to lift her head, she found that moving at all made her shake and tremble in a rather disconcerting way, and she laid back down quickly to stop the feeling. In the brief glimpse of the cell she had seen, Sander featured prominently. He was sitting down at the foot of the bed, back leaning heavily against the wall, head tilted up towards the ceiling. He didn't look great; his eyes were darkly ringed in a way that offset the otherwise sickly pallor of his skin. He turned wearily to look at her.
'Well, well... You're back among the living,' he said weakly. 'That's good.'
Amy's eyes narrowed as the hazy recollections of her last conscious experience drifted through her mind, as substantial as fog. Even so, certain things stood out; Shimizu turning the Arclight up to eleven. Sander stepping in to stop it. The actual tactile sensation of the Arclight when it was fully unleashed. None of it was entirely pleasant.
'You?' She said in a quiet, weak voice. 'You saved me?'
Sander nodded, 'Yes. I'm sorry. Shimizu's gone. I sort of banished her. I guess she was more unstable than we realized. She would have killed you, if we... if we had been delayed a second more.' Sander lowered his head into the palm of one hand. 'I'm sorry.'
'You're SORRY? Why? I thought you wanted me hurt?'
'I never wanted you dead, Amy,' Sander sighed. 'That'd be just as bad as what... It'd be bad. I've dismantled the Arclight system and collapsed the signal field that targets you. I shouldn't have put you through that. I'm sorry.'
There was silence, as Sander closed his eyes and swayed in his seat, clearly at the mercy of some kind of internal conflict. Amy regarded him expectantly; it was clear that she had missed a huge chunk of information while she had been out, and she wasn't about to say anything to Sander right now to assuage any guilt he may have been feeling over what had happened to her. Suddenly, he raised his head again and stood up.
'You've been sleeping for two straight days. Well, for a forty-eight hour period, there's no day/night cycle here. You're likely to be very weak, but that's natural, given what you went through. You'll probably want to keep sleeping, but you need to resist that urge, for now. You need to eat something, and get some clothes on. We'll be leaving soon.'
'Leaving? Where?' Amy felt a familiar dread growing within her, the same dread she had felt every day of her captivity. Whatever Sander was planning would undoubtedly be unpleasant.
'We're going on vacation, Amy,' Sander clapped his hands together, attempting to muster some form of energy. 'The Doctor's coming here, he's pissed that Shimizu tried to kill you. We're running away. Just temporarily. Mara's gone on ahead, she's setting up some new relays to misdirect him. Anyway, if we're not here when he gets here we doubt he'll come back later. The plan should be back on course in a few days, a week on the outside, but until then we can have some fun while we flee.'
'Where are we going?' Amy quavered.
'Sorry, Amy. Can't tell you, but we need to leave in an hour. You know where everything is, but if you need any help, then please-' His dark eyes captured her own, and there was genuine concern there, '-call out. I'll help you.'
Sander left the room before Amy could say anything else. She sighed, and swept her legs off the bed. So, they were running away? That was interesting. Finally, a real hope of rescue.
Of course, before all that Amy still had to contend with her recalcitrant body. She had felt strange while keeping still, but when she tried to walk Amy realized exactly what Sander had meant by "very weak."
Her legs simply wouldn't support her. At least, not on their own. She found that if she leaned most of her weight against any available sturdy surface, she could drag herself along. Her muscles felt as thought they had liquefied, and she wondered what kind of damage Shimizu's torture had done to her, and whether it would be permanent. Either way, she knew she couldn't continue like this. Swallowing nervously, she called out for Sander.
The door slid open almost immediately. It seemed that he had been waiting outside. Someone was feeling guilty...
'What's up?'
'I need your help...' Amy mumbled. 'I can barely move on my own.'
'Of course,' Sander moved, putting an arm over her bare shoulder and guiding her gently back to a seated position. 'You should be back to normal by tomorrow at the latest. If you take care of yourself, that is. We'll have about a day in transit, so you can relax for a while.'
'Thank Christ...' Amy exhaled. Her greatest fear was that Shimizu had done something to her brain that couldn't be reversed. She didn't know how the Arclight system worked, but nothing in her experience with it so far had been incredibly pleasant.
'Here,' Sander tossed a bundle of clothes onto the bed. 'These seemed a little easier to get into than... Uh, all the other stuff...' He gestured at the offending closet. It was odd; now, all the slick confidence and happy energy had flowed out of him, leaving an exhausted-looking awkward person in his place. Amy wondered exactly how bad he felt about the other day. He helped her to put on the loose-fitting clothes, but every time he touched her he sort of flinched, as though she might shatter like glass.
'So...' Amy began as Sander slid a large, billowy shirt over her head. 'You said you switched off the Arclight?' She couldn't help but sound hopeful.
Sander shook his head, 'Not just switched off. I broke down the field. It's gone for good.'
'How can I trust you?' Amy pouted.
'You can't usually, but you can on this. There's no way for me to restart the Arclight. I'd need to reformat the system, take a completely new template of your brain, code an entirely new strike program and put the signal field back up. I should never have used it in the first place. You could have been killed.' He looked away.