TITLE:-TORCHWOOD:-
IN THE BEGINNING WAS TORCHWOOD.
THE SAGA'S OF MAJOR LILITH LETHBRIDGE-STEWART.
(CHPT.1)
AUTHOR:- NEMOSANGEL
CHARACTERS:- TARDIS, 10th DOCTOR, 2 HIGH AMBASSADORS OF THE SHADOW PROCLAMATION, SARAH JANE SMITH, LUKE SMITH, MICKEY SMITH, MARTHA JONES, CAPTAIN JACK HARKNESS, ALONSO.
MENTIONED CHARACTERS:- IANTO JONES, GWEN WILLIAMS, CAPTAIN JOHN HART, THE MASTER, ROSE TYLER, DONNA NOBLE.
WARNINGS:- NONE RATING:- K WORD COUNT:- 4523
SUMMARY:- STARTS OFF AFTER JACK HAS LEFT EARTH AND IN THE LAST 15 MINUTES OF 'END OF TIME'... TIME CAN BE REWRITTEN... THE DOCTOR IS IN TROUBLE. JACK HAS LEFT EARTH AND IANTO IS DEAD. WHY? WHY, BECAUSE THE DOCTOR WAS NOT THERE. THE SHADOW PROCLAMATION STEP IN TO RIGHT THE WRONGS AS TIMELINES COLLAPSE.
DISCLAIMER:- I DON'T OWN TORCHWOOD OR DOCTOR WHO IT BELONGS TO R.T.D. & BBC. THIS IS JUST FOR FUN AND I HAVE HAD FUN PLAYING IN TORCHWOODS WORLD.
YOU KNOW THE DRILL... READ AND REVIEW... AND TELL YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT IT IF YOU LIKE IT.
CHAPTER 1.
The Doctor has just dropped Wilfred off home. He can feel the radiation travelling through his body, damaging his cells. As he closes the door behind himself, the first wave of pain hits him, the process of regeneration. He sets the Tardis into flight knowing his pain will be worse while in the time streams.
The Tardis tumbles through time, out of control like The Doctor it carries. He had messed up several times now. A sound vibrates out through time, calling out in the dark.
The Doctor can feel the radiation tearing through his body, he wants to... needs to say his good byes, even though he will see some again in the next regeneration, his wonderful human companions. His beautiful Children of Time. He will have to catch up with them or go back at different points on their timelines.
A bell tolls, the sound travels through the Tardis, the warning alarm. The vibration through time becomes clearer, a gong sounding out through time and space.
The Doctor seems oblivious to the alarms going off. He holds on to the central console as they tumble faster. "I know girl... Hold on a little longer." The Doctor whispers, his fingers gently caressing the panel in front of him. The Tardis is trying to tell him something but... "You will have to do this for me."
The Tardis bucks violently, it sounds distorted, pained. She is struggling, trying to pick up the threads of time... Why is he not listening? Why does he not hear? She needs to get through to him.
The Doctor clings on to the console. "Please I know, humour me. I know, you do not have to remind me... I know... I have gone off the rails and that is bad for a Time Lord... Yes... Yes I broke my own rules." The Doctor says tiredly as the Tardis lets him know of her displeasure. "Please, I don't have much strength left."
The Tardis spins as pain rips through The Doctor's body. Why does he not listen?
"Not yet!" The Doctor cries out to his own body. "Just a little more time." He falls to his knees. "I need to see them one more time... Perhaps my next regeneration will be more stable." He says as the Tardis makes it known he has done wrong.
The Tardis tumbles through time and space... Stopping at points in time, at first just observing older companions at a distance, clinging on to this pain racked regeneration, battling. Why had he become so unbalanced? Grief and loss, The Lonely Doctor... On he goes, pain eating away at his body, his mind so full of pain, of loneliness, of despair... No longer knowing where his thoughts end and the Tardis's thoughts begin. He can only hope by regenerating again his personality will smooth out... "Arrrg!" He cries out again. "No! No! I have not finished yet... Find them." What is wrong? Why?
The Tardis tumbles on trying to get a fix but this thread, this timeline is in flux, changing; fading... Time is wrong... She knows... She knows... She finds two for one but she... They must be quick... As something is so wrong... Must try to find... Calling out to her in the dark... 'Doctor please, there is a sound echoing out through the universe, through time... Something so wrong... Something is wrong!' She tries to tell him.
"Yes I feel it." The Doctor gasps... He feels but... "But so weak... I need to say good bye."
The Tardis comes to a sudden stop... Hurry!
Somewhere in time... The Doctor stumbles along the gantry... When is this? This is the place... The Tardis assures him... Gunfire rings out... Sontaran... He takes a deep breath. Out of the time stream, he is in less pain, at the moment. He creeps up behind the Sontaran... He sees below Mickey and Martha hiding behind some crates... Well he never saw this coming... How far in their future, is he? He sees a slight ripple in the scene before him... It is an unstable timeline... He hits the Sontaran in his weak spot with the mallet from the Tardis... How?
Mickey and Martha look up at him; he raises his hand to them in salute, in farewell... It can only be a few years ahead... They are still fighting... If he could smile, he would... Torch... The world ripples around him... What is happening? The timeline is collapsing... Freelance... Time is changing...
'You weren't there!'
What do you mean?
The Doctor is back in the Tardis finding... Hurry... Car... Sliding to a stop opposite 13 Bannerman Road, Ealing, London. Hurry... A dark haired teenager walking along the road, crossing while talking on his phone not looking where he is going... The car... The Doctor pushes himself and grabs the lad, Luke Smith, from the path of the car.
"Mum!" Luke calls out. "It's him."
Sarah Jane comes and stands by her son... She knows what this visit means, this will be the last time she will see The Doctor like this.
The Doctor gives them a slight smile and a slight wave of his hand then disappears again, back into the Tardis. Again, the Tardis collides with the timelines trying to find... The Tardis alarm seems to be increasing in urgency and the gong sounding out through time and space is getting deeper. 'You weren't there!'
What do you mean?
Next stop a bookshop, a book signing... The Journal of Impossible Things...
"Was she happy...? In the end?"
"Yes... Yes she was."
Back to the Tardis... He can do this, only a little longer... What do you mean I was not there? Back into the time streams, back to pain...
Tardis is getting exasperated with The Doctor... Why does he not hear the call... She pushes the words towards him... 'All was lost... Is lost because you were not there. It should not have happened... My poor favoured one...'
"No time..." Gasps The Doctor, still not hearing, not listening. "Need to see... Who is left? Who is next?"
The Tardis uses words again. 'My favoured one... Cannot find... Where? Not where he should be... Find...'
"What! What? Arrrrhh... Who? No time." Cries out The Doctor, he is not thinking, not understanding... 'The timelines are collapsing...' Yes, he gets that... Why? 'Not there...' There is something else... A sound calling out, an alarm!
'Found him, my beautiful... Need to be quick before we lose him... Need to be quick not on Earth... Hurry... Hurry... My poor sad one.'
"Oh... Jack, you are talking about... Earths his home." The Doctor says through gritted teeth... Tardis always did have a soft spot for Jack.
The Tardis spins wildly. The Doctor is thrown around like a rag doll... Raggedy man... Must hurry... Time is running out... Losing the battle... Desperate despair... Timelines collapsing... No! No, they cannot be... Following the fading threads... Cannot change yet.
Where are The Doctor's thoughts starting and where are the Tardis's thoughts finishing.
'You weren't there!'
"No more time... Changing."
'Changing... Timelines wrong... target getting faint... Moving.'
"Where are we?"
The Tardis hits something solid, an outer wall of a spaceship, a cruiser. The Tardis comes to a halt at an angle... Hurry... Hurry...
The Doctor stands at the entrance of the bar for a moment trying to keep control, the longer he fights the worse it will be for him. He just needs to hold it off awhile longer. Why is Jack here? Why has he deserted Earth? The Doctor looks around the bar, trying to see the man known as Captain Jack Harkness, he should be centre of attention, having males, females and others fauning over him. There should be laughter and flirting... but... but there is none... Where is he? You must be wrong.
'No. Look for the broken man.'
What! The Doctor moves farther into the bar... Suddenly the bar ripples around him... He gasps in pain... Then he sees... There at the end of the bar, Jack hunched over, looking into his drink, broken. The Doctor feels tears well up... The last time he saw Jack like this was... was during the year that never was when the Master... For one moment, the Doctor sees another familiar face next to Jack... Alonso! He might put a smile on Jack's face... 'But never in his eyes or his heart...' He is about to send a note over when... Another ripple spreads out from Jack... Sending more pain shooting through his failing body... The scene around Jack changes... No Alonso... His path has been changed... What is happening? Time is changing.
'You weren't there!'
Suddenly there is an even bigger ripple spreading out from Jack... What has he done...? Has Jack caused a paradox?
'Time is changing... The future is changing which is effecting the past...'
The Doctor looks confused... This is centred around Jack... You are just wrong Jack... The Doctor can almost feel the Tardis heave a big sigh; she is losing patience with him... The Doctor slowly backs away from Jack... What has he done? There is another ripple, even bigger still... Again, The Doctor notices several other differences within the bar... It is becoming rougher... Less civilised customers more violent, rougher clientele... This is not good...
'Things that were meant to be are changing, never to occur... So much pain, so much loss.'
The Doctor stumbles back to the Tardis, unsure... Should he take Jack with him? Or would that cause more damage?
The Tardis door slams shut... 'This is your fault!' She is sad for her favoured one; he is hurting when he should not be. In addition, her Doctor is blaming her favoured one. She takes flight again... There is no time if he will not answer the call then she will... They hit the turbulent time corridors, all fighting for existence, all failing.
The Doctor cries out as pain rips through him again.
The Tardis falls and twists... Homing in on the call. As they get closer to its source the louder it gets.
"Why is the Shadow Proclamation alarm sounding out? And how long has it been sounding?" The Doctor asks.
'Now you hear it... I have been trying to tell you.'
"Can't it wait until after I have finished saying good bye?" The Doctor says holding on to the console again. "Why is the alarm aimed at me?"
'No it can't wait... And you weren't there!'
Through time and space, the Tardis falls following the alarm. Every so often being hit by another ripple as more things change.
Somewhere out of time the Tardis slides across the black polished floor of the arrive hall in the citadel of the Shadow Proclamation. The Tardis misses the grand glass and metal staircase, hits one wall, bounces off, sends the greeting committee, made up of twelve Jadoon and two High Ambassadors of the Shadow Proclamation, scattering. The main race that makes up the Shadow Proclamation are usually calm and dignified (when it suits them). They have all seeing pink eyes, very pale complexion and silver white hair.
The female High Ambassador mutters. "Time Lord arrogance." She remembers the last time the last Time Lord crossed her path... He refused her command to obey her... But she does admit that in the end he and his Children of Time came through, they saved all those planets, the universe from the Daleks but now... Again, by his arrogance, his playing god, of running away, of not being... Any farther thought is cut short as the Tardis slides back across the arrival hall, coming to a sudden stop.
The alarm gong sounds through out the Citadel, which is being echoed in the Tardis.
"Ok... Ok! I hear you." Mumbles The Doctor on his hand and knees. He tries to stand using the console but another spasm travels through him, he is battling with himself, trying to hold on, he needs to find out what is wrong... Something is happening that should not be happening or is it something has not happened that should have happened, certain things have to happen or certain events collapse. "Oh Jack." He gasps, as he realises that the disruption is centred around Jack... He knew he was wrong and now it seems the universe, time is trying to correct it... Snort... Time is collapsing... "What have you done Jack?" He wonders again if Jack has caused a paradox on a massive scale... 'NO!...' Well either way the Shadow Proclamation's alarm is calling out through time, it has summoned the Tardis, him but right at a critical point for him, he is dying, starting to regenerate... Another painful spasm goes through him, throwing him backwards... He needs to go outside to see what the Shadow Proclamation want... He remembers the last time he was here with Donna...
Outside in the arrival hall the Jadoon stand in a semicircle behind the two High Ambassadors in front of the Tardis, waiting.
"Just like a Time Lord to keep us waiting." Says the female High Ambassador.
"I sense he is on the verge of regeneration." Says the male.
"That is no excuse to keep us waiting." Says the female. "He has been a law unto himself since the very beginning and now because of him..."
The door to the Tardis slowly opens. The Doctor staggers out; he bashes into the door and slides down the door to sit on the floor. "You don't mind if I sit, do you? Good!" He says. "In the middle of something here."
The female High Ambassador steps forward. "Again, Time Lord, your arrogance shines through." She hisses.
"Nice to see you again too." Says The Doctor.
"Did you not hear the alarm calling?" Asks the male High Ambassador.
"Well let me see..." Starts The Doctor with a slight gasp of pain. "I have been busy dying, starting regeneration process, saying good bye to friends and not being able to hear myself think over the Tardis's alarm system blaring out as well."
"Arrogance." Snorts the female. "Did it not occur to you, your own Tardis was trying to tell you something."
"Important timelines are collapsing, timelines that affect us all." Says the male.
"Look can't you let me regenerate in peace?" Says The Doctor, his very fibre is being pulled apart on a cellular level and as usual the Shadow Proclamation are talking. "Then take this up with my next regeneration."
"No Time Lord! It is you, which you are now that has cause this." Says the male.
"Look if this is about Jack... I am sorry but it really was not my fault... An Earth girl named Rose; well she looked into the Time Vortex at the heart of the Tardis while we were battling against the Daleks again, on the Games Station or Satellite 5. She did not know what she was doing... She..." The Doctor gasps as another painful spasm hits him.
"We know all that, he who now calls himself Captain Jack Harkness is meant to be." Says the male a little angry. "As is!"
"You, as a Time Lord, should know the greatest archives and libraries in the universe all hold stories, myths and legends about Immortals." Says the female High Ambassador. "Mind, because of what is happening we and many others are or will be losing their archives and libraries. Soon chaos will ensue because of you Time Lord."
"What!" Says The Doctor. "But the time distortion ripples, I saw it was centred around Jack." He tries to stand but fails.
"Time Lords and their arrogance." Says the female.
"I get it. I'm arrogant." Snaps The Doctor. "Look I'm in pain... I'm barely hanging on."
"Time Lord, we should ban you from ever having contact with Earth again... Technically it is a closed level 5 developing planet; you should not have contact with it anyway." Says the male High Ambassador.
"I have friends there, I protect Earth." Says The Doctor.
"At the rate the timelines are collapsing you will not have any friends on Earth. In fact because of you, friends that should be on Earth, who have helped to save it and should help to save it will never be or will never meet or all of the other variations there are or could be." Says the female.
"And as for you protecting it... Well, you have let Earth down and not for the first time in this regeneration." Says the males.
"What!" Exclaims The Doctor, they have his failing attention but his thought processes are slowing. "Explain."
"Well, in your next regeneration you will find out about one occurrence so we will not spoil that reunion... Well that is if this event ever happens as at this rate we have beings out of their place, off planet or dead or never going to meet all because of you." Explains the male. "You did not protect Earth when it really needed it. When its children were being threatened."
"When did this happen?" Asks The Doctor, trying to concentrate.
"When you were wallowing in self pity, playing god on Mars, which, may we remind you, was a fixed event you meddled with and then... then in your arrogance you went on something called a holiday!" Says the female.
"You don't like me much, do you?" Says The Doctor, he needs extra time to process what is being said.
Suddenly the whole of the Citadel lurches. Another alarm goes off over the ever-present gong.
"This is your fault Time Lord. Even we are being affected as those few are so entwined with events in the future." Says the female.
Then The Doctor realises what had been said... He is slow. "What children?"
"The Children of Earth." Says the female High Ambassador.
"Did you not stop to think why Captain Harkness was not on Earth? Why he is drinking himself to death most cycles? Why he is a broken man? He sacrificed so much to protect Earth, he lost everything!" Says the male.
"He and his small team, Torchwood 3... Perhaps you have heard of them?" Says the female with a hint of sarcasm. "They tried to protect Earth from what they called the 4.5.6, named after the radio frequency they use to communicate. They craved the essence of the Earth children, its like a drug to them." She carries on explaining. "He and his brave team also had to do battle with their own government who tried to cover it up, save themselves. Well Captain Harkness and the one known as Ianto Jones entered into a place known as Thames House were the 4.5.6 were being housed, with security staff in there. That day the one being that gave Captain Harkness everything, gave his life, died in his arms... Ianto Jones." There is pride in the female Ambassadors voice as she says HIS name. "That young human was Captain Harkness's greatest love, his soul mate, the one that brought him out of the darkness, the one that was there for him, the one that still had so much to give, to do and because of you he died when he should not have. Because of that, one human male all else is collapsing, things that were meant to be will not because Captain Harkness lost his love. Then to twist the knife in farther, Captain Harkness, in his misery, could only see one way to save thirty five million children and that was to sacrifice one... One child for all those millions... He sacrificed his own grandson, Time Lord... His own grandson."
The Doctor slumps farther down on the floor, his mouth opening and closing. "But... But... Oh Jack... I'm sorry." He breathes.
"Captain Harkness should still be on Earth as he is a fixed point... It is not time for him to return to the stars. Torchwood 3 should be still going, improving, changing becoming more, developing into what it will become when it goes to the stars... We need it to still be going because what it becomes is linked to us." Says the male High Ambassador. "Has it never occurred to you why, for all his crimes, we have never removed Captain Harkness from Earth? Why we don't have him down to be arrested? Why... and this really chokes us up the most, why we have never arrested his ex-psychotic murderous partner from the Time Agency... Yet? Why did the Time Agency never issue a termination notice on them? We all know how ruthless The Time Agency can be. It is because they have their parts to play in the grand scheme of the universe and time. However, at this rate there will be no Time Agency, you will never meet Captain Jack Harkness because he would still be on his planet, there will be time criminals running wild in the universe because we have no Time Agency to do what is needed. We will have chaos in the universe, Time Lord. Time will be unmanageable hence what is happening." There is sadness in the voice of the Ambassador. "We should have you arrested for what you have done, but Time Lord you still have your part to play, that is if we can sort this mess out."
"We have allowed you free rein over this developing planet for to long... If this mess can be sorted we will be investing some time into Captain Harkness, his lover and the other Child of Time, another you have let down who will be great, who will be the first for Earth." Says the female Ambassador.
"So you are saying that Jack, Ianto Jones and another..." Starts The Doctor.
"Who you know, who lost a lot because of you and again, you let them down on another occasion. They cleared your mess up on Earth Time Lord... Well yours, UNIT and Torchwood 1." Says the female High Ambassador
The Doctor puzzles, he does not know whom they mean. "So these three have a large part to play in the future but because I messed up..?"
The two High Ambassadors nods.
"Now you are getting it Time Lord." Says the Female Ambassador.
"We only hope your next regeneration will be more humble, more level." Says the male. "Less arrogant."
"Well we suppose we could not expect anything else considering he was born in conflict." Says the female.
"Yes, you regenerated during the Sycorax attack on Earth." Says the male Ambassador.
"Arrhhh!" Cries out The Doctor, as pain rips through him. His eyes shine gold for a moment. "I need to go." He breathes.
"We are charging you with delegation of your duty to your friends and the planet Earth. This is your only and final warning. If you let these humans and the planet down again a universal warrant will be put into place Time Lord." Says the female.
"If we can't put this mess right a universal warrant for your execution will be served for destroying vital timelines and instigating chaos, the downfall of the civilised universe. Do we make ourselves clear Time Lord?" Says the male High Ambassador.
"And your death will be ad infinitum, no regeneration." Warns the female High Ambassador.
"Jadoon, we charge you with the interception of the creatures known by the Earth name of 4.5.6. Intercept them before they enter the spiral galaxy of Earth. Because of their crimes upon a level 5 planet, our judgement is summary execution. Now go!" Orders the male High Ambassador.
The twelve Jadoon stand to attention, turn and head for a transmat station to take them to their ship.
"Time Lord, you better hope we can put this to rights." Warns the female High Ambassador. "Now go and remember we will be watching!"
The Doctor struggles to stand, now dismissed by the Shadow Proclamation, if he is quick enough he will be able to see Donna then go back in time to see Rose... That is if their timelines have not changed. As he remembers Rose he is hit by a devastating sadness, sadness at the loss of Rose, he remembers her cry as she fell in the dark, in the middle of a blackout, an air raid. She could not hold on to the barrage balloon and he could not get to her in time... No! That was not how it was... Jack saved her but... but Jack was not there... He can remember both timelines because he was outside that time corridor when it changed... He shakes his head... It is so confusing... As soon as he returns to the time streams, he will gradually forget as the new timeline comes into play... He does not want to forget... More pain tears through him he falls back against the Tardis... He needs to go, before the Shadow Proclamation change their mind about him going... He must remember... He must hold on. He staggers back into the Tardis and even before he has got to the console, the Tardis is in flight... Where is he going? Falling through time trying to connect...
Far off in another time, an earlier time, far off in deep space, far away from the Sols planetary system, far from the spiral galaxy known as the Milky Way, the creatures that feed off the essence of the children from an insignificant little level 5 backward planet called Earth suddenly find themselves surrounded, with no where to run. There is no ultimatum for them, no bargaining, they are executed for the crimes that they are about to commit. This is the power of the Shadow Proclamation, the Jadoon and the Time Agency... There is a blinding flash of pure white light, they could not escape... Their Stardrive explodes sending the light out across the Cosmos... Expanding then there is the sound of a loud clap, so loud that there is no sound... Then like the effect before a huge Tsunami, time like the sea sucks to that point in space, wiping time from the universe... It seems to drag out to that point, that it happens so fast that it is indefinable. Then like a Tsunami, the wave of time spreads out across the universe from that point, getting faster, bigger and covering farther distances. The wave washes over The Tardis bouncing it farther back in time until the wave hits Earth... Time running backwards... Stars turning... Sunrise, sunset, moon waning... Jack leaving... Jack wandering Earth lost... The one life for many... Day five... The one he will never forget, his love... Day four... Hiding and the betrayal of the government... Day three... Dying and being saved by the One, his One... Day two... Being torn apart by a bomb... Day one... Watching Ianto move around the Hub... Gwen coming into work... Spending the night at Ianto's... UNIT giving Jack a hard time over three reports... Ianto and Gwen chasing a Weevil... Lunch... Gwen writing a report about an artefact... Ianto coming in and making coffee... Night, time laps at the night... Silence and still... Jack, his feet up on his desk, asleep... Time resumes in the right directions, all in place.