Title: Timey-Wimey and some more.
Characters /pairings: Twelve alternate versions of Captain Jack Harkness: Jay, Jill, John, Jethro, Jeff, Jeffrey, Joey, Jed, Jo, Jared, Jake and Jinn.
Prompt: Major Historical Event Changed
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: not that I can think of.
Summary: Twelve versions of Jack are stranded in the past of a thirteenth dimension which is not ours or Jack's as they believe.
Author's note: written for au_bingo as a standalone, but there will be sequels.
Word count: 1385, more or less.
Beta: czarina_kitty
...
Caerdydd, Year of our Lord 1148.
It was the first days of spring and the newly self-promoted angels were finding their places among the Abbey's community. The monks were under the spell thanking the Lord all day long for having trusted them in looking over his 12 soldiers.
"It's a pity the winter slowed down the building of our new Abbey so much," Father Gabriel was telling Jill. "But, let's focus on the good, Jethro's drawings and Jeff's knowledge have greatly improved our original project."
"I hope you understand, we need a place for ourselves, Father," Jill said. "We cannot go on spending all our nights in the scriptorium, it's not meant for that."
What Jill wasn't going to say is that they were not real angels and didn't take a vow of chastity; they needed a bit of comfortable privacy where they could take care of each other.
"Of course we understand. You and your fellow angels deserve better than what you're asking for-"
"Just a place where we can rest when we need to, that's all we ask for, Father," Jill cut the priest short in his now familiar rant. "We are just God's soldiers and don't want to be treated better than any of you. If we prefer a separate dormitory it's only because we don't need much sleep and don't want to disturb your well deserved rest."
As if admonition for his own rant, a loud shriek, followed by the sound of falling pans and porcelain broke the peaceful rest the two men shared over hot wine in the Abbey's huge kitchen. Jay, who was helping with the cooking across the room, had fallen from the stool he stood on to grab a new pot of herbs from the upper shelf.
"Sorry," he apologized. "Nobody got hurt?"
"Not this time," Jill admonished him. "I thought we agreed you won't do anything to endanger our hosts?"
"Hey, I was just giving them cooking directions."
"Standing on a stool?"
"I just wanted to get some ingredients, nothing threatening," Jay pleaded. "Better me falling than any one of them any way."
"Except they wouldn't fall because of a stupid tiny spider," Jill pointed out. "I bet your attacker has never considered scaring the hell out of an angel!"
"Sorry," Jay replied, watching uncomfortably around him.
"Got it!" Dewydd grinned triumphantly pointing at what must have been the smallest spider they had killed over the last six months.
"That was undoubtedly a monster," Jill sighed. At least the monks were taking Jay's phobia as entertaining.
"Give me any monster, I'll take it," Jay replied.
...
They were twelve versions of the same man, but even if they looked alike they were all different other than being immortal. All of them were born on Boeshane, had met the Doctor and Rose and had died while travelling with them. They also all came from the future, fifty-first century, except for Jill who was from the fifty-third. Apart from these points, their personal history and their knowledge were variations on the same theme, as were their respective universes' histories.
Sometimes, however, minor divergences had brought major changes to the way Earth society would evolve.
In Jill's universe, for instance, Human history would take a major turn when it reached the Industrial revolution. Instead of just colonizing less developed countries to plunder their wealth, European kingdoms would annex and rule them. The twenty-first century Earth he'd been abducted from was parted between a dozen huge united or unified states, Commonwealth being but one.
Because of that, Jill couldn't understand how a planet divided into an incredible number of tiny, independent states would one day be able to organise the evacuation of Earth.
In Jinn's dimension, the twist had happen earlier, and the Christian influence had always been very limited. Rome never over ruled the Greek Empire built by the Great Alexander and, during the Middle-Ages, North Europe was still a druidic community. Jinn was a historian, and this period was supposed to be his area of expertise, except that in his world Amseer Gaulo was nothing like the Dark Ages some of his fellow doubles told him about and nothing like what was surrounding him. Jinn felt most out of place in this Abbey.
But for most of the other supposed angels, the divergences were pretty insignificant. And, as they were all historical experts– although not always of the same historic periods, they could spend nights talking about it, discussing the timing of significant events.
...
"Hey guys," John called out entering the kitchen. "I'm not an expert on that matter, but isn't it a bit late for a first crusade to be called?"
"What are you talking about?" Jill asked.
"Some horsemen accompanied by a priest I've never seen are trying to sell the villagers on the necessity of freeing Jerusalem."
"Jerusalem is in the Muslins' hands and they don't always grant Christian pilgrim access to the Holy Sepulchre," Father Gabriel tried to explain. "It has been a source of tension between the three communities for decades."
"Three communities?" Jinn who had joined them asked. "What did I miss this time?"
"Jewish," Jay supplied him. "1148? That might be the second one," he told John.
"Second what?" Father Gabriel asked.
"Second Crusade: the one leaded by Philippe II and King Richard... no wait that's the third; the second was just a big waste of men and a political and tactical mess."
"Because the others weren't?" John bantered.
"This one was the worst, trust me."
"But what's a crusade?" Dewydd, who a young novice, dared ask what the monks were only wondering.
"Crusade; from the word cross. It's what holy wars are going to be called," Jill told the monks. "And if they don't already know the name, I believe it's because it hasn't been used yet," he then told his fellow doubles as a warning.
"Currently the kingdom of Jerusalem should be under the rule of Franks..." Jay said, but stopped mid historical spoiler as the monks were staring at him in confusion.
"Why would the Franks rule the kingdom of Jerusalem?" the young novice asked for the monks.
"As the result of the crusade instigate by Urban II at Clermont council?" Jay suggested, displaying a wide grin.
Jill flashed him dark eyes speaking volumes.
"Who's that Urban II? And what council are you talking about?" Father Gabriel asked.
"Just leave it, Father," John replied dragging Jay out of the kitchen. They were soon followed by the other pseudo angels. "Told you they were calling for a first crusade."
"That's too bad, but it doesn't concern us, and we can't get involved in that kind of major events," Jill pointed out. "And when I say we can't in any way, I mean not even by telling them how it could have happen in other circumstances."
"If we're going to spend seven centuries in this world, I'm bound to get my head completely messed up," Jay complained.
"Welcome to my life," Jinn replied.
"Sorry, that might be very confusing for you," Jay admitted.
"I don't know which is the most confusing; being stranded in the past of another dimension, sharing your thoughts with eleven versions of yourself, or pretending to be angels while organizing orgies in the scriptorium of an Abbey?" John asked.
"Having a double yelling like a damsel in distress every time he runs into a spider?"
"Spending two hours a day singing chorus in order to avoid mass?"
"So what are we going to do about the local lord asking for the Abbey's twelve angels to accompany his son on his holy war?" Jinn asked out of the blue.
"Err, that might be an issue!"
...
Author's note: The Franks were the Germanics people who over ruled a big part of Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire, among the most charismatic leader was Charlemagne. Link for Wikipedia on the Kingdom of Jerusalem