Author's Note: Welcome to Season 4! Cover art created by me (I was trying to learn to use iDraw).

Forgive this author's note, I just finished doing a whole bunch of writing for a wine website (current job, in addition to hotel), which means this note keeps reading like a wine website! Oh well, just go with it.

So, yes, I delayed posting this season because I was hoping to finish it, first. But it looks like that's not going to happen. Mirror Vision wound up being a slightly more complicated story than I thought, with a lot of different psychologies and personas to juggle, different people who act differently depending on what point you find them, etc. So I'm still chugging away at it, but didn't manage to finish, yesterday.

Plus, one of the other stories has a first draft, but is not actually postable, yet. It's littered with comments and notes, which I still need to incorporate. And every so often, when I'm reading through a story I think is done, I'll find a little note saying, "Stuff happens here that I don't feel like writing." Hopefully, I'll write those before I post those stories! (How embarrassing would that be, if I missed one?)

Yep! Looks like two jobs means a lot less time to write stories. So I'm behind. Sorry, everyone.

Anyways, enjoy this story. I think it's one of my best ever. Sporting Doctor overtones, light humor, and a basic plot, it's all piled on top of a juicy core of emotional character development that lingers on the finish.

We start out, oddly enough, with the Ninth Doctor, Rose, and Jack. Then dive right into 11th Doctor.

I quite like how I wrote the Ninth Doctor, here.

Enjoy!


One Word


In the middle of a jubilant, mostly-drunk crowd of people, a blue box appeared as if out of nowhere, with a wheezing groan. A few onlookers turned and watched as the box materialized, clapping and cheering at the stage trick. Most just continued with their own festivities.

The door opened, and out stepped a man in a black leather jacket with close-cropped brown hair, and big ears. He stood in the doorway, a moment, grinning at the clapping crowd around him. Then took a little bow.

"Where…?" came Rose's voice, as she emerged behind him. She stopped, her hand still on the threshold, as she realized they'd materialized in plain sight. "Oh."

"Now, Rose," the Doctor chided, taking her by the hand, "only polite to bow to the people." He bowed again, then waved as the cheers grew. "Thank you! Thank you! Come again next Tuesday!"

"Well, talk about a man who can soak in an admiring public," said Jack Harkness, stepping out of the box and closing the door behind him. The crowd was already dispersing, and Jack winked at the Doctor. "When's my turn?"

"When you're half as impressive as me," the Doctor replied. He threaded his arm through Rose's, and led her off. "For now… better join in the festivities."


"So you're sayin' this festival is all to do with the fall of some evil empire or somethin'?" Rose asked, sipping something that looked like a milkshake, but didn't taste like it. "Like in Star Wars?"

"Star Wars?" The Doctor seemed affronted. He gestured at the crowds. "I show you actual other planets, with actual alien life and actual people celebrating actual hard-won freedom, and you're comparing it to some Hollywood movie?"

"The Irkoli Empire," Jack said. He whistled, leaning back in his chair. "Even I've heard of that one. Existed a million years before I was born. But still heartless and twisted enough that its legacy lives on long into the future, plaguing the nightmares of a hundred thousand school kids."

Rose looked around herself.

Confused.

For a group of people who were celebrating the fall of an evil empire that had liked to destroy entire planets at a whim, the whole celebration felt distinctly… odd. With people running around selling 'Empire Sweets' and tickets for 'Empire Exhibitions' and demonstrations of 'Unearthed Empire Technology'!

"It doesn't seem like they're celebrating their freedom," Rose remarked. "More like… they're celebrating the Empire itself."

"Well, it's been about…" the Doctor checked his watch, "…five thousand years since the Empire fell. Give or take. Meaning of the holiday's changed a bit since then." He glanced around himself. "First, they celebrated their freedom. Smashed up all the technology and anything that might have represented the Empire. Then, thousand years later, they started digging up all those smashed artifacts and trying to work them out." He waved his hand at the crowds. "Now? With Empire folk-stories the only common ground in a galaxy full of war and conflict? Empire Emancipation Day is more of… a coming together. Celebration of common culture, common heritage."

Jack nodded, as if he'd known this all to start with.

"Oh, yeah," Jack confirmed. "After all. By our time, this whole galaxy's called the Irkoli Galaxy, after the Empire. People are proud of it."

"But… isn't that dangerous?" said Rose. "Lettin' them be proud of something that was evil? They could want to bring it back." She gave a small grin, and leaned in. "Is that why we're really here? To stop them?"

"Nah," said the Doctor, pushing out his chair from the table. "Empire wasn't as bad as the stories make out. You've seen too many movies."

Jack crossed his arms. "Not that bad?" he challenged, nodding at one of the local storytellers, who was explaining to a group of kids all about the great hero who'd shown up and saved them from the evil Irkoli Empire. "So why does everyone I've ever met from this galaxy think otherwise?"

The Doctor shrugged, getting up from the table. "You know how it is," he said. "Hard to weave a great story of a great hero, if you don't invent the big bad wolf to go along with it."

"A great hero who freed everyone in the Empire?" Rose said. She smiled, her tongue poking between her teeth. "What, like you, you mean?"

"No comment," said the Doctor. He slipped a little gizmo out of his pocket, tossed it in his hands, as he turned away. "Back in two shakes. You two have fun."

Rose leapt to her feet. "You're leaving us behind?! You can't just—"

"Time Lord stuff," the Doctor replied. He purposely refused to look back at her, eyes locked on the device, as he started to walk away. "Don't wander off, and keep out of trouble. I'm talking to you, Rose."

Then, in an instant, he vanished into the crowds.


The next time they saw the Doctor, he was hurrying and pushing through the crowds of people, fast as he could go without breaking into a run. His face looked extremely grave.

"All right, 'nough lolly gagging, you two, time to go," the Doctor said, grabbing them both up by the arms and nearly dragging them off behind him.

"What?" asked Rose, stumbling to catch her footing. "What did you find? Something Time Lord?"

"Don't know, don't want to know, not interested," the Doctor replied, opening up the TARDIS door and darting inside fast as he could manage.

Rose and Jack exchanged an odd look.

But followed him in.

It wasn't until long after everyone else was asleep that Jack crept back down to the console room. And checked to see what the Doctor had been looking for, when they'd landed.

The trace of a TARDIS. A small bit of TARDIS coral, discarded and abandoned for centuries.

"Another TARDIS?" Jack mused.

"Not another," said the Doctor, entering the console room and flipping off the display. He shot Jack a dark stare. "Don't want to pry into my own future, Jack. Never know what you'll wind up findin' out."


Victorian London


"Excuse me!" cried a voice. "You two!"

Madam Vastra and Jenny Flint both looked up, a bit alarmed, from the evidence they'd been examining. A small human blond girl stood at the other end of the alley, looking on at them, curiously.

"Who are…?" said Jenny Flint.

"No one important," the girl said, trying to rush over but hobbling a little on her left foot. She steadied herself, planted a forced smile on her face. "This is normally the part where I'd be bubbly and excited and offer you chocolate, but I don't really feel like…"

Vastra lifted her veil.

Revealing her lizard face to the girl. In plain sight.

The girl paused. Her breath catching in her throat, her eyes going very wide, her face very pale.

"Did… you lose someone?" the girl whispered.

Vastra and Jenny exchanged a confused look.

"The black veil," the girl explained, pointing to it. "And the black dress. I just… thought…" She frowned. Then sighed, shook her head. "Never mind."

"Do you want something?" Madam Vastra demanded.

The girl tilted her head to the side. "I'm familiar with aliens, and I'm wearing anachronistic clothing," she replied, her voice level and even. "It's obvious who I'm looking for. Just tell me where he is, and I'll leave you two alone."

Jenny Flint winced. "You don't mean the—?"

"Of course she does," Vastra cut in. Stepped towards the girl, addressing her. "He's not exactly welcoming visitors with open arms right now, you know."

"So I've gathered," the girl replied. "But I'm not just any visitor. I'm Seo." She crossed her arms, slowly. "And I'm very stubborn."

Vastra looked Seo up and down. Then gave a mumbling grunt, and turned away. "All right, we'll give you the test," she said. Gesturing for Seo to follow. "But whoever you are… just know that the Doctor isn't the person he once was."

Seo followed them, at a distance. Her walk slow and deliberate, a little wobbly.

"Who still is?" she muttered.