2.03: The Midnight Bride

## Episode

On a dark moonlit night a mansion can be seen it seems to be in the middle of nowhere with only a massive garden and a nature reserve nearby, inside a bride and a groom can be seen trying on their wedding attire, the bride called Charly takes her husband Max over to the staircase and takes him down as if they were both walking down the aisle of the church, she sighs "Tomorrow is the big day" she seems excited she looks up at Max who just smiles "You do want this don't you?" she says questioning his silent behaviour, Max snaps out of his state "Oh yeah of course I do but why would you choose this place for a venue, its not exactly traditional." Charly scoffs "Sometimes its not about tradition, its about the happiness of the wedded couple."

A grandfather clock can be seen in the room behind them "Wow its already midnight were getting married in twelve hours" the two then begin to pretend to give their wedding speeches they seem very committed to being married the two seem to get over excited the lights then start to flicker "This is a problem with hiring out mansions...there too old" Charly laughs, obviously completely in love "Ill go find the power switch, wait here" she wanders off happily whilst she's away Max goes up to the staircase and reaches out to the flickering light which would start flickering more and more, he would decide to walk back down the stairs behind him a massive spike looking weapon can be seen being raised behind him, a hand would grab his mouth and the spike would stab him through the chest constantly, Max can be heard muffling "Why?" before falling to the floor we would then see the lights flicker out like a power cut.
A few hours later and daylight has ascended, a crime scene can be seen with police tape and a forensics team around the mansion a car then pulls up and Shane steps out he thanks the driver before saying to himself "Ive been dragged out 30 odd miles from the city...better be good" he jokes, he then heads over to the crime scene.

Shane shows his Torchwood institute ID to the investigators who shows him inside, inside the house Max can be seen dead with several chest wounds with Charly crying next to him makeup can be seen dripping down her face with blood on her wedding dress she has obviously tried to revive him multiple times "Oh Jesus Christ" Shane says looking at the scene, Charly looks over still crying "He's dead, Someone DO SOMETHING" Shane just looks at her and scans the body of Max "Not to kill the mood but his wounds are way to severe, especially this one through the heart" he points to one of the wounds "Dead as soon that happened I think" Charly looks disgusted at Shane "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" She even goes to punch him which lands on his cheek, Shane quickly goes back outside.

The investigator at the crime scene looks confused as Shane comes out holding his cheek and jaw "What happened to you?" he asks "Witness hit me, I tell you I've not been hit by a girl for a while" the investigator laughs again "So your used to it?" "No" Shane seems unimpressed at the investigator's remark "Its just not common" he then says "What do we know?" he asks curiously. The investigator shows him a report "The victim found her husband dead they were trying to get the power back to the house following some freak power outages, the kicker is they were supposed to get married today." Shane seems taken back by this "Wow...." he says not believing what he's hearing "That's a new one" he says to himself.

Back in the house a police officer is talking to Charly, the heartbroken bride, to try and get answers from her however she doesn't comply, the officer then gets pushy and Charly reluctantly accepts, she takes the officer upstairs. The shocked and scared voice of Charly can then be heard from upstairs "WHAT IS THAT?" then several screams can be heard as Charly runs back downstairs and out of the house through a back entrance fearing for her life.

The screams echo and can be heard from outside Shane then charges in with his gadgets in hands, he struggles to keep them in his hands up the stairs so he has to stall however after a few seconds he gets there to see the police officer mutilated "Ok then...now were in trouble" as he scans the body "Looking at the wounds he seems to have been struck with a sharp object" he scans the wound for DNA traces or weapon traces however nothing comes out as his scanner shows "No results found" Shane's gadgets then starts to go berserk as it continues to go on and off power "Not human then" Shane says referring to all the strange goings on.

As evening approaches, Charly can be seen walking down a country road with passers by in cars looking at her from the safety of their cars they seem disturbed by this as her wedding dress is bloody the makeup on her face has now dried and stained she then sees a girl parked up on the road side, she seems lost and is calling her parents. Charly looks at the girl for a few seconds and then she goes limp and starts having some kind of seizure, a strange implant can then be seen revealing itself in her right arm she seems absent minded and starts repeating words in a strange alien language.

Charly then starts walking blankly towards the girl, her right arm with the implant in it then becomes a spike like the one used to kill Max she continues to repeat the alien words, the girl screams as she is powerless to stop the rampaging Charly, Charly raises her arm to strike but is cut off by a line of fire, she looks at it and tilts her head without blinking, she would then put her weapon in the fire and would continue her advance across the road however before she gets to the layby an SUV rams into her, the SUV is seemingly possessed and on fire, Lamashtu steps out looking down at Charly who is getting up and now clearly isn't human "I cant stand weddings" Lamashtu says dryly "We....we....we" Charly says in a montone voice "Its called speaking English" Lamashtu says, Charly looks him up and down "We...I...I" Lamashtu gets impatient "Just say it its not hard otherwise ill run you over again" "I must fulfil my mission" Lamashtu gets back in the SUV "Good luck with that but I have a mansion to get to" Charly looks at him "Why?" she says with no emotion "To stop you" He laughs at her on purpose before flipping her the bird, in response Charly goes over to the girl in the layby and just hacks into her with her weapon.
Back at the mansion, Shane can be seen at a workstation "I hate overnight cases" he says to himself a bit bored, looking around all the investigators have left the crime scene leaving Shane alone with some Torchwood representatives, he looks on his laptop looking up the place "Belton House" Shane says looking at a webpage "Belton House was built between 1685 and 1688 by Sir John Brownlow, people that lived here usually ended up in financial problems and is also supposedly haunted." He looks at a link on one of the webpages "Oh...they have Twitter....Oh dear. Also no mentions of murders or anything, seems an innocent place...until a few hours ago" An SUV then pulls up and the Torchwood representatives draw their guns, Lamashtu steps out and Shane just looks horrified by this.

Lamashtu says bluntly "Put down the guns im not here to harm you" Shane responds "I don't believe you" Lamashtu responds back "Listen, you moron, I've learnt the error of my ways" Shane looks at him "Erm...ok...but if you try anything ill KILL YOU" Lamashtu laughs "But I know you wont" Shane looks at him with a somewhat death stare "Don't push me" he heads back to his workstation "Keep him under surveillance" Shane says to the representatives now on edge following Lamashtu's arrival.

Charly can then be seen back in Belton House however she has no memory of her being on the country road so she looks down at her dress that's now all muddy she looks scared, she then starts crying on the stairs, outside - Shane hears the crying and heads back inside but Lamashtu stops him "Don't go in, let me go" Shane looks confused "She's just a girl...a traumatised one but a girl none the less" Lamashtu shakes his head "According to your gadgets over there your after some kind of killer...Well lets just say I had an encounter with it earlier....Its her." Shane looks shocked at this.

Both Shane and Lamashtu then enter the house together "What did you find?" Charly asks clearly shaken, Shane scans her only to find nothing he then says "This man here thinks your responsible for all these deaths." Lamashtu responds bluntly "I know what I saw" Charly looks at Lamashtu "How do you mean?" she looks scared and shaken, Lamashtu begins talking but is cut off by Shane "He saw someone like you on a country road" Charly looks horrified by this as the lights once again flicker, Lamashtu then begins to lose his patience and also starts to get cross at Shane's lenience "Stop wasting our time I know your an alien" he demands at her, Charly looks at him "Theres no such things as aliens" she then exclaims "My head" she starts seemingly going into a seizure, Shane goes towards her and tries to help him but Lamashtu pulls him back "Do you want to die?" he asks Shane as Charly stands up as the arm implant opens, she starts to talk in an alien language again.

"Oh my god.....you were right" Shane exclaims, Lamashtu nods cockily, Shane then goes to look at the prone Charly who just stands there, Shane scans her again and tells Lamashtu: "That's impossible...." Lamashtu looks over and Shane continues with a panicked expression "She shouldn't exist, the species were destroyed by the original Torchwood" Lamashtu says with a sarcastic tone "Obviously they didn't do a good job of it, anyways what is she?" Shane responds "No one knows, people call them Cell 114, there an alien race who infiltrate planets with sleeper agents they gather intel and then they invade...that's all ive got on them on here." Charly then starts to talk "We know all about you....and Torchwood....and this planet, this isn't our first time coming here, she presses on her implant which causes Shane's iPad to show a montage of Cell 114 agents in Cardiff (a flashback from the original Torchwood show) "So your here to pick up the pieces and finish off?" Shane asks "No, Torchwood wiped out our species...we found a place on Earth where we could operate from...and then two of your higher ups came along and killed all of us." Lamashtu rubs his hands together "Can I kill her now?" "Wait" Shane says to Lamashtu clearly not liking this remark "So...you must be the last of your kind then?" he asks Charly "Classified information...however if that's what you want to believe than I have nothing to lose, after all I can KILL ALL OF YOU AND THE REST OF YOUR MISERABLE SPECIES" Shane looks over at Lamashtu "Good luck with that." Lamashtu advances and the two start struggling with each other.

Torchwood representatives quickly arrive inside as Lamashtu is pushed away by Charly, her arm becomes a blade and begins killing off all the representatives, Shane then gets to square off with the agent and gets some solid punches in however this doesn't effect her for long as she tries to stab him, Lamashtu however launches a fireball at her causing her to be knocked back into a cupboard which she crawls away from. "Open the cupboard" Lamashtu orders Shane to do, Shane complies and finds the master console for all the lights/electronics in the house he says to himself "She has an electro magnetic field so maybe I can overload it" he starts charging up his fist with a lot of lightning however this is wasted when Charly attacks Shane again causing him to punch her instead.

Lamashtu and Shane continue to fight the agent however Charly deactivates her blade and puts her hands in there "Stop trying to trick us you psychotic cow" Lamashtu says, he is unimpressed "You are guilty for all you have caused, in fact your whole race is guilty...and theres one place for you....HELL" Lamashtu growls a bit, whats left of his demon side shows for a second or two.

Charly tilts her head motionlessly again "Is that so?" she presses on her implant again and reveals a shell looking device which starts beeping "Shit" Shane says not liking the look of their current situation, Lamashtu tilts his head towards the door and the two leg it out the house however before Shane leaves he throws a small oyster looking object into the house, the shell object held by Charly then beeps faster but doesn't detonate, she looks confused and then picks up Shane's device he left in there it says "Electromagnetic stabiliser" on one side and then "Bye" on the other side just then the stabiliser lights up and fires electric currents into Charly constantly, Shane says from the door "That's the power from your own bomb, Does everything you have have to be electromagnetic?" He asks sarcastically as he joins Lamashtu outside.

Belton House then lights up as the current gets stronger, the dark windows become filled with a white light which gets brighter for a minute but then stops, Shane looks back inside to see Charly has been overwhelmed with all the energy and is now dead. "I don't like killing, but it had to be done...I want you to know, I tried talking but at the end of the day you believed your own disguise too much." he says before taking his device and leaving only to notice Lamashtu and the SUV he arrived in have disappeared, Shane shrugs saying "Its not the first time hes done that." he yawns and then orders a taxi back to Lincoln claiming afterwards tiredly "I've had a very long day."

## Characters

* Shane
* Lamashtu
* Charly
* Max

## Trivia

* Torchwood TV Series enemies Cell 114 return and it also technically counts as a follow on from the audio story "Serenity" produced by Big Finish which also featured Cell 114.