Losing Hope

by LizzeXX

10/OC -Time Lady- The Doctor is not the only Time Lord to work for UNIT. When Martha decides the Sontarans are too much for even UNIT's resident Time Lady, Mackenzie, to handle, she calls in the Doctor...someone Mac hates for quite for quite a few reasons. Why is the Doctor hearts-broken to see her again? Is all hope lost in earning her forgiveness? First in the Time Lady Memoirs.

1. The Sontaran Stratagem

A/N: Hey there! This is Losing Hope, the first story in my fourth OC series for Doctor Who (1. The Academic Series (the Professor), 2. The Lunar Cycle (Evy Daniels), and 3. The Heart of Time Saga (the Angel), if you're interested ;)) and will involve a new OC/Time Lady, Mac. I decided to call the series the Time Lady Memoirs as it'll focus quite a bit on Mac's memories of the war and her account of events surrounding the Doctor. This story will largely follow the events that Mac is aware of, but will also include some scenes with the Doctor elsewhere or others when they talk about her. But it'll largely focus on the scenes Mac is a part of :)

This will essentially be a revision of Series 4 of Doctor who to incorporate an OC. This story will be updated every day and each episode will be one chapter, however the specials will be 2 chapters :) I'll also be doing the Sarah Jane Adventures (The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith and Death of the Doctor) along with a mini-sode or prequel here and there :) This will eventually be a Doctor/OC story, but it might take a while to get there, Mac and the Doctor have...quite a few issues to resolve ;)

~8~ is a scene break.

Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who...or 11 would have worn the fez nonstop :)

Enjoy!

~8~

The Sontaran Stratagem

In a rather large room of the UNIT headquarters, larger than most offices and labs that were given to their members, a woman stood. The room itself was filled with monitors, a few computers, all with wires hanging out and crisscrossed and modified, all courtesy of the woman. Humans, they were so slow, their technology not as advanced as UNIT would like them to believe despite adapting a few pieces of technology from aliens. She'd had to go through and tweak a handful of them to get them even a fraction close to the speed and efficiency she needed to be able to use them without ripping her hair out at how slow they were.

That was a similar story for many other objects and pieces of tech scattered through the room. All of it was customized, adapted using the PROPER pieces of alien tech. That was a bit of her job there in UNIT, besides helping them research and monitor and 'defend the Earth' she was tasked with helping to properly adapt the different things the other scientists made. It all went through her at one point or another. If a scientist was having trouble identifying things, it came to her. If one of the engineers couldn't quite get something to adapt correctly, couldn't make it compatible, it was brought to her. Even when the military section finished adapting some sort of weapon from the alien tech, it ALL came to her first…because she was the only alien there that might know if they were about to blow up the Earth accidently through their jiggery-pokery.

And she hated it.

She just wanted to be left alone in peace, doing what she was doing from the shadows, interacting only when she had to. She hated the weapons portions especially, it always reminded her FAR too much of her role in the war…the Last Great Time War to be exact. The Daleks vs. the Time Lords.

There was nothing 'great' about it, not at all.

She hated when they brought her weapons, so she took enormous pleasure when they'd ask her to test them or other inventions and she refused to return them because they were too far advanced for the human race to handle at the moment. She LOVED that moment, because if they so much as dared to try and argue with her or take the weapon back…she'd dismantle it before them and pocket an essential piece so it could not be rebuilt again. All the objects brought to her were prototypes, their core components, their alien components, hadn't been replicated yet. It wasn't like they could try and steal the piece off her again. They'd have to get to the pockets of her white lab coat, which she ALWAYS wore, and the pockets were bigger on the inside so unless they knew where she'd put it…there was no hope.

The woman in question, standing in the dark room with just the faint light of the monitors and a small lamp on the examination table before her, sighed, resting her hands on the edges of the table. She pulled her thin glasses up to rest on top of her head and rubbed her eyes. Well, this was another prototype she'd have to burn. What on earth possessed the science division to think creating an 'antivirus' of the common cold would be beneficial to the human race she had no idea. If they tried to use that, the cold itself would mutate and become that much worse. And it would only be destroying the immune systems of the humans in the long run anyway. They NEEDED to fall ill to the simple things to build up their immune systems.

Honestly, had the humans not seen 'War of the Worlds?' Their world, invaded by aliens, all trying to destroy the humans…and falling in the end due to the diseases of the humans? Why would they EVER give up that advantage? Not to mention, she recognized the components of the antivirus…it would mutate itself once in a warm, living host, and slowly liquidate their internal organs…so it would be a fairly short victory for the humans after a while.

She pulled the sample out from under her microscope and turned, dropping it in a waste bin with some tissues in it beside her before grabbing a handful of papers and tearing them up, dropping them into the bin as well…before she lit a match that she used for the Bunsen burners and tossed it in to finish. Luckily UNIT had gotten used to trusting her in the lab, especially when she'd experiment on her own and had disconnected the fire alarm system there, the smoke from it wouldn't bother or set them off. But…to be safe, she gently slid the bin with her foot to rest by the window and opened it to let the smoke out.

She paused, looking out at the sky. It was nighttime, the stars only barely visible from the ground with all the light on at the facility. She reached up and tucked a lock of her chestnut brown hair behind her ear, her hair, that fell straight a little past her shoulders, was often worn in a bun, it wouldn't do well for her hair to get caught in anything or fall in front of her face while she was examining something, so it was much easier to wear it pulled back like that. Her eyes were an odd hazel shade, more brown than anything, but in the right sort of light it had a slight green hue to it. The glasses upon her head were somewhat needed. She didn't need them much but at times, like when she was reading something or using a microscope or looking at something intently, they helped her focus.

She let out a heavy breath as she looked up at the stars, they were so…small from Earth, so unimpressive, at least compared to having actually BEEN in front of a star before. She hated that about Earth, how it made her feel so small, so trapped, but unless she found or grew a TARDIS…she was stuck. There was only one person who had a Vortex Manipulator on Earth and she was NOT going anywhere near them, so she was just...there. Oh she knew a TARDIS still existed, but she was not about to go to its pilot and ask for a way off Earth, no.

Anything she could do to never see the Doctor again, she would be more than happy to. It was why she'd taken this job with UNIT in the first place. She was well aware he technically worked for them, was all too aware he frequently came to Earth but…if she did her job properly then there would be no reason for him to ever go to UNIT and she'd be safe. She just had to…make sure that the larger threats against Earth were taken care of before the Doctor could be notified. And so far, barring the Cybermen invasion and the Master rising from the grave, she'd succeeded. If the Doctor only knew how many other enemies she'd stopped from harming Earth…

She shook her head, no, he'd never know, because she would do her damnedest to keep him from coming near UNIT ever again.

She blinked, frowning, when she heard a small beep going off behind her. She turned, seeing one of the monitors flashing as well and moved over to it. She typed quickly, her eyes racing across the screen as one of her own little failsafes activated…giving her access to the email system of all the other UNIT members. It was something she'd felt necessary to do. The more she knew about potential dangerous situations being reported, the suspicious activity, the better she could get a head start on helping. And…she didn't trust them, the humans, from what she'd seen they were as liable to turn their back on someone and use them for their own gain as a Gelth was to use a child's voice to trick people.

She frowned, pulling her glasses down onto her nose again as she read through an email from a Jo Nakashima to Colonel Mace, detailing an investigation she was doing into the ATMOS system. She rolled her eyes at that though, it wasn't ATMOS system, that was a tautology, it was just ATMOS. But as she read on her frown deepened, apparently there were quite a few deaths related solely to ATMOS, nothing similar in the cars except that adaptation. She was recommending they check all those who died in ATMOS cars yesterday and…to look at the time.

She blinked, giving that a moment of thought, before she turned to a second computer and did just that, her fingers flying across the key as she put in the search…stepping back and staring down at the results in shock.

She must be getting old if she'd missed that, 52 people reported dead of mysterious circumstances in their cars in 11 different time zones all having died at the exact same time…

Oh she'd always known the 900s would be the end of her.

~8~

"Mackenzie will you tell him!"

Mackenzie, or 'Mac' as everyone had taken to calling her, looked up from where she was examining a sample of a biopsy UNIT had collected from the last known ATMOS death to see Martha Jones following Colonel Mace into her lab. She hated when people did that, interrupted her while she was doing research, 900 years later and that hadn't changed at all.

"Tell him what Martha?" she muttered, turning back to the sample and changing the settings on her scope.

"That the ATMOS system is alien," Martha Jones, former companion to the Doctor, spoke.

Mac took a deep breath, feeling a familiar irritation rising. It had…taken her longer than it probably should have for her to speak to Martha civilly. It wasn't even that Martha was the Doctor's companion that had dampened her like of the girl…though that was a LARGE part of it, it was more…how Martha, even after giving her word about things, often broke it. It was always for something Martha deemed as 'right' but it irritated Mac beyond belief when she put her trust in someone and they betrayed her.

She'd had ample experience with that in the past and she did not trust others as much as she should. She tried very, VERY hard to give them a chance at first, it had taken her longer to do that with Martha though. And if that person betrayed her trust after that…it took a doubley long time to earn it back. Martha had thought her former irritation with her had been the result of her having travelled with the Doctor, but after a small confrontation about it…Martha had learned that was actually the second reason for Mackenzie's lack of trust in her. She still didn't fully trust her and that broke Martha's heart because she knew what Mac was, she knew what alien the woman who looked so human was…and for one of her kind not to trust her after having known the Doctor…it hurt.

But even Martha could agree…Mac's reasons, her anger, her trust issues were actually justified. She never based her opinions of others on what she thought she knew of them, but rather tried to let their own actions speak for them. Martha's first impression…had left quite a lot to be desired for the woman and it had only gotten worse after learning of Martha's time with the Doctor. Slowly though, Martha had proven herself to Mac little by little and they had a…professional friendship, a mutual almost-respect. Mac was truly a hard one to get through to and prove one's self too after letting her down, but Martha kept trying.

"It's not alien," Mac stated bluntly, jotting down a note on a small pad of paper beside her.

"You joking," Martha blinked at her, "It's got to be though!"

"It's not," Mac repeated, "It's a just an ionising nano-membrane carbon dioxide converter. It's made of entirely average components, everything found on Earth…"

"Do you see Dr. Jones," Colonel Mace, an older member of UNIT, turned to her, "If Agent Mackenzie feels it is not a threat…"

"I never said it wasn't a threat," Mac sighed, turning from her research to face the two, "I said it wasn't made with alien components," she corrected, "It is most certainly a threat and this…" she gestured at one of the ATMOS systems sitting on her other side, "Is FAR beyond it's time. If it had been created in UNIT I'd have destroyed it."

"See!" Martha cheered as Mace stiffened at that. Mac only destroyed products that were beyond the scope of human ingenuity at the current moment, anything that would advance them too quickly she saw to it that it was removed.

"It's the same as finding a…digital camera in King Tut's tomb," Mac offered, "Luke Rattigan did NOT make this himself," she nodded, "He had help."

"Alien help?" Mace inquired.

Mac let out a breath and nodded, "It appears so. I'm working on the biopsy sample presently, but once I've determined HOW those 52 people died, I'll move onto the ATMOS itself," she looked at the man to see him eyeing the device warily, "Don't worry Colonel Mace, I WILL work this out and inform you the moment I have so we can neutralize the threat."

"I've checked the biopsy myself," Martha told Mac, "Whatever it was that killed those people…"

"Poison."

"Poison or anything," Martha shrugged, "It left the system Mac, there's not going to be any evidence of it."

"I'll find something," Mac insisted.

"But it might take too long," Martha shifted, looking at Mace, "Colonel, might I request some added consultation?"

Mac's jaw tensed, "We are NOT asking the Doctor for help."

"Mac, I just think…" Martha turned to her.

"Dr. Jones," Mac cut in, making Martha wince at the title, Mac tended to slip to formalities when she was angry, "You are NOT to contact the Doctor about this, are we clear?" she gave Martha a hard look, "That is an order."

Martha looked at Colonel Mace, who could only shake his head, UNIT, the higher-ups, had essentially given Mackenzie the freedom to do as she wished and the authority to, at times, give orders even to him. She didn't often order anyone about, in all actuality she tended to stay in her lab most of the time and let them take care of things, but…she DID have the authority to forbid any of them to do things when she ordered it so.

"Martha...please," Mac spoke, more softly this time, "Please, don't call him in on this."

Martha looked at Mac a long while before she nodded solemnly and turned to go…but she wasn't solemn about being requested not to call the Doctor. She was solemn because…she was about to lose even more of Mac's trust as she stepped outside and pulled out her phone, hitting a number and holding it to her ear.

"Hello?" she nearly smiled, hearing the Doctor's familiar voice, at least he hadn't regenerated since she'd left him.

"Doctor, it's Martha," she took a breath, "And I'm bringing you back to Earth."

~8~

Martha stood at the end of an alley, staring out at a factory across the way. Mace had ordered the seizing of the ATMOS factory. Now that Mackenzie had confirmed that the ATMOS was the cause of death, that it was beyond its time and had an alien influence…he'd ordered them to take the factory and search for any evidence that might help them. She'd requested he put HER in charge of it, because she knew the Doctor would come running the second she called and she needed to be out of the base for that to happen. She HAD to get to him before he waltzed into UNIT…or they would have a dead Time Lord on their hands.

Mackenzie would kill him, and then kill her for bringing him.

She had to be there when he was introduced, she had to be there so that Mac would know it was HER getting him involved and not the Doctor just popping into things. She didn't understand why the girl was so adamant that the Doctor NOT come to UNIT or get involved in Earth's affairs. All the man did was try to help and protect them all and yet Mac refused to have even take that into consideration. Oh the girl admitted he'd helped Earth, but she just…didn't want to have anything to do with him. She could guess though that Mac probably knew the Doctor in the past, that something might have happened to sour her to him, to…disillusion her of the brilliance that seemed to blind everyone who met him.

She'd been the same, blinded by how remarkable he was. She could admit it. She'd been smitten by him and had stuck by him for longer than she should have, putting up with his constant comparisons of her and his beloved Rose, having him string her along the first half of their time together, and then…to see her family get hurt because he hadn't been able to stop the Master in time…that had been what had done it. She'd wanted out, because her family needed her more than he did, and they needed her because of him.

He tried to help, yes, but…what she could see now was that he didn't always succeed. She'd heard from UNIT, about Torchwood, about when there had been that giant spaceship in the sky and people on roofs, that the Doctor had slept through it all. Yes, he'd just regenerated and had fallen into a coma, but…it was true, he couldn't always be on Earth…and that seemed to be Mac's point, HE wasn't, but SHE was.

She took a breath when she heard the familiar wheezing of the TARDIS behind her and turned around to see it fading in and out of existence before it solidified. The doors opened and the Doctor, in all his brown-suited, long-jacketed, sticky uppy haired glory stepped out. She offered him a tense smile, just…looking at him, unsure if she should hug him or if she'd changed her mind and should warn him to run.

She felt so guilty though, it hitting her now that he was actually there that she was betraying Mackenzie. She'd already betrayed the woman once, and now there she was, doing it again. Both times had been for the Doctor as well which had NOT helped her case with the woman at all. Because the Doctor was there now, against Mackenzie's order, against her wishes, and this…was not going to end well for them.

"Martha Jones," the Doctor greeted with a smile.

"Doctor," she slowly moved towards him, her mind racing on whether she should tell him to go or give him a hug…

The Doctor settled that for her when he reached out and grabbed her in a great big hug, "Ah, yeah!" he laughed, setting her down and beaming at her, "You haven't changed a bit!"

"Neither have you," she countered, not sure if that was a good thing.

Mackenzie seemed to have quite an issue with nearly every incarnation of the Doctor. That had been interesting though, how she managed to get little pieces of information out of the woman about him in the form of her complaining about him. It was one of Mackenzie's worst faults, how much she let slip when she was angry. She'd rant and rave and through it all there would be little nuggets of information. It was like her mind didn't even register what she was saying and revealing just that she was angry about it.

Things always slipped out when you were angry, but Mac…she always felt sorry for the girl because it was like she was just perpetually angry. She was short and snippy when her temper started to be ticked, and when she was truly furious…she shouted, a lot. It was such a contrast to the Doctor's own fury, like when he'd dealt with the Family of Blood, Mac was far more vocal where the Doctor just shut down. Most of the time, Mac was fine, she was very…distant though, focused on her work within UNIT, very professional in a way.

Even her attire screamed professional. She couldn't think of a time she'd seen Mac in anything but a pencil skirt and a nice blouse, with her hair in a bun and her glasses on her head. She was older than Martha by well…centuries, but she appeared to be only about ten years older, around the age the Doctor looked really. She knew that the woman was only on her 7th self, unlike the Doctor who was on his 10th, but Mac was, from what Martha could gather, far more cautious than the Doctor. She'd asked about regenerations in the past.

Mac had gone very quiet about it, but she'd told her. It felt like a very glossed over version of it, but given the times and reasons she HAD regenerated, she could understand why. The last time, to get to the current Mackenzie, had been her trying to leave Gallifrey before the Doctor had done whatever it was he'd done to stop the war. Four other times had been during the War, and one time had been…well, she'd just said it was personal. She was sure that, if the war hadn't happened, Mac would probably still have been on her second self.

"How's the family?" the Doctor asked, cutting into her thoughts.

"You know," she shrugged, stepping back, "Not so bad. Recovering."

Mackenzie had never met the Jones family, claiming they'd be too traumatized by being tormented by a Time Lord for a year. And she had to agree, Mackenzie took a while to trust people. She cared about humans, in general, though Martha wasn't sure if it was from a genuine fondness or from a knowledge of how their future would affect the universe and needing it to happen for timelines and things. She was a bit…distant when she met new people and her family really needed warmth and acceptance at the moment. Mackenzie could be very protective when she wanted to be, but…it really was best for them to not meet at the moment.

"What about you?" the Doctor looked at her.

But Martha's attention was on someone else, "Right," she nodded, seeing a lovely ginger woman step out of the TARDIS behind him, "I should have known. Didn't take you long to replace me."

The Doctor glanced over to see what she was talking of and gave a small uncomfortable smile, "Now, don't start a fight. Martha, Do…"

"Donna Noble," Martha smiled, she knew who the woman was, of course she did.

Mackenzie…really was VERY determined to never encounter the Doctor again. She had monitoring systems running on two computers that scanned London (on one computer) and the whole of England (on the other) for spikes in Artron energy. Then the programs would hack into one of the UNIT satellites and she'd have an aerial view of the TARDIS, the Doctor, and whoever might be with him at the time. According to Mac it was so she knew where not to go and the men (since he changed his face at times) to avoid on the streets if she saw him. She'd picked up him and the ginger woman after the Adipose event.

Mac had been the one to contact the Adipose Royal family, ordering UNIT to stand down as Adipose were benign, gentle creatures…their nanny being the one to target…and had instructed the family that they would trade. The babies for the nanny. She knew that the Adipose, being such simple creatures, would not have thought to use the pills that Mrs. Foster was using, the science was beyond them, and had negotiated the safe return of the children for the true perpetrator. The Family had been all too willing to trade when they learned what she was as well.

It had served the purpose of getting the 'alien threat' away, punishing the true criminal who, according to Mac, had been breaking intergalactic law and Shadow Proclamation statues and many other things in doing what she had, and also allowing UNIT to add another file for the Doctor's latest companion. Martha had been shocked to find that UNIT had been keeping tabs on her and a few other women that had travelled with the Doctor as well. They'd investigated the ginger woman, one Donna Noble, and made a small collection of the information for it.

"You…you know each other?" the Doctor looked between them.

"I don't think we do?" Donna looked at Martha, confused as to how she knew her.

"Sorry, Martha Jones," she held out a hand to Donna to shake.

"I've heard all about you," Donna smiled, "He talks about you all the time."

"I dread to think," Martha laughed.

"No, no, no. He says nice things. Good things. Nice things. Really good things."

Martha stared at her in horror, "Oh, my God, he's told you everything."

"Didn't take you long to get over it, though," Donna nodded at Martha's hand, "Who's the lucky man?"

"What man?" the Doctor looked at Martha, completely forgetting about how Martha had known who Donna was in hearing that, "Lucky what?"

"She's engaged, you prawn," Donna rolled her eyes, gesturing at Martha's left hand as she held it up, the woman smirking as she showed off the engagement ring on her finger.

"Really? Who to?"

"Tom," Martha beamed, "That Tom Milligan," one of the men she'd met on her trek across the world during the Year-That-Never-Was. He hadn't known who she was at all after time had reversed, but…their connection had been there still it seemed and they'd hit it off, "He's in pediatrics working out in Africa right now. And yes, I know," she rolled her eyes, "I've got a doctor who disappears off to distant places, I've heard enough about it from Mac."

"Who's Mac?" the Doctor blinked at that.

"Um," Martha swallowed, "One of my…friends," if she could call Mac that, she liked to think they were slowly working their way out of a professional friendship and into an actual one.

It had been…interesting, when Mac had met Tom. She'd sworn NOT to do what she had with her family ever again, keeping her life and what she got up to a secret. She'd told Tom, after he'd proposed to her, exactly what she did in UNIT. He knew she worked for them, everyone knew who UNIT was nowadays, but he didn't know she was a field agent at times, or her past with the Doctor. She'd told him everything, she'd always planned to, she'd just…hadn't been expecting him to propose when he had, it had thrown her and she wasn't prepared. She hadn't told him everything up to that point and had thought she'd have more time.

So she'd sat him down and explained it, what she did, who she'd met, things she'd done. And she'd taken him TO UNIT to see what they did and where she worked. Being engaged had given him clearance as well so that he could be shown around. He'd met Mac and…it had been surprisingly touching, that moment. Mac had been a bit hesitant at first, but she'd warmed up to Tom. She'd later found out because Mac was aware that Tom had died during the Year-That-Never-Was and to see him and Martha together now, when they couldn't be then, was…nice.

But she'd also threatened to release one of the viruses the scientific division was only just starting to experiment with on him if he hurt Martha…and emphasized that the 'just starting to experiment' meant that the division had NO idea how to cure it in the end (which was another reason she was there in UNIT, to keep them from wiping themselves out). SHE had told Tom that Mac was just joking later, but she was sure the man was still a little scared of her.

"Is he skinny?" Donna asked, getting back on the topic of Tom.

"No, he's sort of...strong."

"He is too skinny for words," Donna jerked a thumb at the Doctor, "You give him a hug, you get a paper cut!"

"I'd rather you were fighting," the Doctor grumbled as Martha laughed at that.

"Dr. Jones," a woman's voice called, one Martha recognized as Captain Price, "Report to base, please."

"Speaking of which," Martha sighed, knowing that it was all going to come to a head very, VERY soon now that the operation was about to start, "This is Dr. Jones," she lifted the radio, "Operation Blue Sky is go, go, go," she turned on her heel and marched away, "I repeat, this is a go."

She made it back to the end of the alley, watching, knowing the Doctor and Donna were stepping up behind her, to see soldiers, jeeps, and an oversized lorry coming down the road, heading for the factory she'd been staring at before.

"Unified Intelligence Taskforce, raise that barrier now!" one of the soldiers called as the others ran into the building, "Leave your safeties on, lads, it's non-hostiles!"

"All workers lay down your tools and surrender!" a second solder shouted on a megaphone.

Martha swallowed and lifted the radio again, "Greyhound Six to Trap One. B Section, go, go, go! Search the ground floor, grid pattern Delta."

"What are you searching for?" the Doctor questioned.

"Illegal aliens."

"This is a UNIT operation!" went over the megaphone again, "All workers lay down your tools and surrender immediately!"

Martha winced, seeing the soldiers forcing the factory workers to their knees, pulling their hands to the back of their heads in surrender, she'd hoped it wouldn't have been quite so forceful, "B Section mobilized," she shook herself out of her thoughts to give the order, "E Section, F Section, on my command!"

She turned to run off to lead them on, but not before she heard Donna asking the Doctor, "Is that what you did to her, turned her into a soldier?"

Martha had to shake her head at that, she was no soldier.

~8~

Martha stood by the factory's door as her team finished up, looking across the way where the Doctor and Donna were still standing by the alley she'd left them at. Things were ending here, the factory had been seized…there was nothing more she could use to delay, it was time…she had to bring them into UNIT now.

She took a breath and headed across the way, back to them, when the Doctor smiled, spotting something, "You're qualified now? You're a proper doctor."

Martha looked down at her name badge, listing her as a true doctor, and smiled, "UNIT rushed it through, given my experience in the field," she nodded to the side, gesturing for them to follow her, "Here we go," she led them back across the street, towards the oversized lorry, one that they had made their mobile base of operations, "We're establishing a field base on site. They're…dying to meet you."

It was true in more ways than one, Mace, she was sure…if he'd known what she'd done against orders…would be overexcited to actually meet the man that was infamous in UNIT, Mac, she knew…would literally die if she knew she was going to have to meet the man again.

"Wish I could say the same," the Doctor muttered.

"You just might," Martha murmured, she…honestly wasn't sure how the Doctor would react to Mac, to what she was, and what that meant for him. Because…if Mac knew him…chances were, he knew Mac as well.

She pulled open the door and allowed them into the small base, it was like a small room with a few computer stations and monitors on the wall, a small path from the door running along the back. There were two doors at the other end of the room, one to what looked like a small office, and another that was solid, that he couldn't see past, probably a lab though given the cautious sign on the door.

Martha nearly let out a breath of relief when she didn't see Mackenzie there, though she knew it meant the woman was right in the lab, on the other side of the door. She looked over at Mace and headed up to him, "Operation Blue Sky complete, sir," she spoke slightly lower than she would have, but with Mac being so near…she didn't want her voice to carry, "Thanks for letting me take the lead. And this..." she glanced at the Doctor, "This is the Doctor," Mace looked at her sharply, seeing her wince at the firm look he'd given her for that, both of them all too aware she'd just broken Mac's order, "Doctor…Colonel Mace."

Mace gave Martha one more look before he turned to the Doctor, saluting, "Sir."

It was too late now to ask the man to leave.

"Oh, don't salute," the Doctor rolled his eyes at that, making Martha smile slightly.

"But it's an honor, sir," Mace stated, and it really was, no matter the reason or method the Doctor was here…the Doctor was there, it was best to just go with it then and hope for the best, "I've read all the files on you. Technically speaking, you're still on staff. You never resigned."

"What, you used to work for them?" Donna glanced at him.

"Yeah," the Doctor let out a mock-hiss at that, "A long time ago, back in the 70s…or was it the 80s? It was all a bit more homespun back then."

"Times have changed, sir," Mace agreed.

"That's enough of the 'sir.'"

"Come on though, Doctor," Martha looked at him, "You've seen it. You've been onboard the Valiant. We've got massive funding from the United Nations, all in the name of Homeworld Security."

"A modern UNIT for the modern world," Mace said proudly.

"What," Donna scoffed, not at all impressed and not afraid to show it, "And that means arresting ordinary workers? In the streets? In broad daylight? It's more like Guantanamo Bay out there. Donna, by the way. Donna Noble, since you didn't ask. I'll have a salute."

Martha had to smile wider at that, she got the feeling that, if it came to it and Mac ever set foot out of the lab, she'd rather like Donna. They were quite the same, speaking their mind, not easily impressed. Mace though, just looked at the Doctor inquiringly but the Doctor gave him an amused nod.

"Ma'am!" Mace saluted Donna firmly, making the woman nod, pleased.

"Thank you."

"Tell me what's going on in that factory," the Doctor cut in, getting down to business. He knew that Martha wouldn't call him down to the middle of a factory seize just for giggles, there had to be something more going on.

"Yesterday," Mace began, turning to a larger screen in the middle of the other monitors, "52 people died in identical circumstances right across the world, in 11 different time zones. 5am in the UK, 6am in France, 8am in Moscow, 1pm in China…"

"You mean they died simultaneously?" the Doctor cut in, not wanting to hear the other 7 times if they were all the same.

"Exactly. 52 deaths at the exact same moment worldwide."

"How did they die?"

"They were all inside their cars."

"They were poisoned," Martha insisted, "I checked the biopsies…no toxins. Whatever it is, left the system immediately."

"No, it didn't," another voice spoke from behind Martha, they looked up to see a woman stepping out of the lab and walking towards them, her head down as she flipped through papers in her hand, going through reports, "I've told you already Martha, that I was able to extract a sample of the…" she trailed off, more like stopped abruptly, both in speaking and moving when she saw the two people before her.

"Hello!" the Doctor cheered, "I'm the…"

"Don't say it," the woman nearly hissed at him.

"…Doc…tor?" he finished, his grin falling at her narrow-eyed gaze.

The woman's jaw tensed, "Martha?" she looked at the UNIT member for explanation.

Martha winced at her tone, knowing it wasn't a good one, "Mac, I just…"

"You called HIM in?" the woman, 'Mac,' turned to Martha, the Doctor frowning even more when he saw she seemed to be shaking in, what he would guess was, anger, "Martha…the ONE thing that I have ever asked of you…and you had to call HIM?!"

"Mac I'm sorry, but I just thought we could use some help."

"Oh did you?" Mac scoffed, a bit of…snark coming to her words, "Because from where I'm standing, it sounds to me more like you disregarded the orders of a superior officer. Which, I might add, can have you stripped of your position and removed from UNIT!"

"Come on now," the Doctor tried to intervene, "Isn't that a bit harsh?"

"Isn't genocide 'a bit harsh?'" Mac spat right back at him instantly, making him stiffen, his eyes widening as his mouth dropped open at the sheer amount of…loathing that filled her words, but it wasn't just loathing, no…it was disgust, it was…pure anger…

Who WAS this woman?!

But the woman just shook her head and turned to Martha, "What possessed you to call HIM, Dr. Jones?"

Martha swallowed at the use of her title, Mac did that, she used full names, titles, when she was very, VERY angry, "You were working on the biopsy," she began, "I just though…while you did that, the Doctor could look at the devices and…"

"And even though I told you I was more than capable of handling both, you clearly did not have any faith in me at all."

"What…what devices are these?" the Doctor tried to cut in again, more so to pull the woman's ire away from Martha and to him, even though Martha had called him in, he didn't want her to be the target.

But Mac, without looking, just lifted her hand to the Doctor's face and made a motion with her hand, bringing her fingers, stuck together, to her thumb, like when someone would make a 'talkative' sign with their hand, but more to silence someone else. The Doctor went slightly cross-eyed looking at her hand, a frown coming to his face…he'd…actually had someone do that to him in the past, quite a lot, to symbolize him to 'shut it' without having to say it.

"You were warned once before, Dr. Jones," Mac continued, "When you disobeyed an order…"

"I wasn't a member of UNIT then," Martha reminded her.

But Mac went on as though she hadn't been interrupted, "You are suspended from the field agent position and are confined to the Base or the Factory until the end of this mission, at which point your actions will be submitted for review by the heads of UNIT and your status with the organization will be determined."

"Mackenzie that's not fair!" Martha frowned, not seeing the Doctor's own frown deepen at how she'd used the woman's first name instead of a title or a last name, given the formality of the situation, the Doctor had no idea it was because she DIDN'T have a last name, "All I did was bring in more help!"

Mac just shook her head and turned, shooting the Doctor a scathing look before she stormed back to the lab, the entire base wincing as she slammed the door behind her.

"Um…what devices?" the Doctor asked tentatively, not quite sure if that was a normal reaction or behavior for the woman or if something was genuinely wrong.

He was…shocked, to say the least, by the woman. He'd though she would just be another scientists, she looked the part. With her hair tied back and her white coat and classes, her professional outfit of a charcoal grey pencil skirt and a deep red blouse with a sort of draping neckline. And then she'd looked up and…it was like she'd been confronted with her greatest enemy. And it made no sense to him, he'd never met the woman before!

Well, she…she did seem familiar to him, a little, slightly so. It was…how she'd tried to quiet him, even how she spoke when she was angry, so formal…it was all familiar to him, but he just…he'd met so many people that it was hard to pinpoint where he remembered those gestures from. He'd met people who had had their own ways of shutting him up, he'd heard people who spoke so formally before, but the two…

"The ATMOS systems," Martha swallowed and turned to the Doctor, grateful for him bringing them back to point, she…was hurt, and alarmed at Mac's reaction. Whatever reaction she'd imagined from the girl…even the one where she lunged at the Doctor and strangled him…the one she'd given hadn't been what she'd expected at all.

"What's ATMOS?" the Doctor frowned, glancing at the lab door a moment when they heard some sort of glass shatter, but it sounded more like a purposeful sound, like Mac had thrown something at the wall. Even THAT was familiar to him, but…lots of women threw things when they were angry, right?

"Even I know that," Donna cut in, nudging him, trying to lighten the situation, she had no idea how that woman was, but…she could see her reaction to the Doctor was really affecting Martha and the Doctor, "Everyone's got ATMOS."

~8~

Martha led the Doctor, Donna, and Mace into the back room of the ATMOS factory. They'd explained that the ATMOS was the 'Atmospheric Emission System' that was supposed to reduce the CO2 emissions to 0, something that had shocked the Doctor. The factory they were in was the central depot for the system though there were 7 others throughout the globe.

"And here it is," Mace sighed as they entered the room, moving to a small counter in the middle of the room on which the ATMOS was sitting, "Laid bare. ATMOS can be threaded through any and every make of car."

"You've must've checked it before it went on sale," the Doctor murmured as he moved to peer at it, thinking about how they'd mentioned they feared the ATMOS was alien, apparently that Mac person thought it had alien influence to it, how SHE would know was beyond him though.

"We did," Martha nodded, "We found nothing. That's why I thought we needed an expert."

"Really?" he murmured, distracted, as he slipped on his black rimmed glasses, "Who did you get?" he paused when he heard silence and turned to see the three of them staring right at him, "Oh, right! Me! Yes! Good…" he trailed off a moment, before glancing at them again, "Didn't that…Mac, was it?"

"Mackenzie," Martha nodded, "Yeah."

"Mackenzie what?"

"Just…Mackenzie," she offered, till the Doctor gave him a questioning look and Donna's eyes widened, glancing between the Doctor and Martha at that very familiar response, "She's um…a deep operative," Martha shifted slightly, "We don't know her name so we call her Mac."

"Any reason for that?" he blinked.

"MacGyver," Mace stated.

"Who?" Donna frowned.

"Um…it was a television show," Mace stumbled, feeling dated that they were staring at HIM now for it, "MacGyver had a tendency to create tools and other useful objects out of some ordinary ones…Mackenzie has a knack for the same."

The Doctor nodded at that, "You…didn't have HER look at this?" Mac had mentioned that she was going to look at the device after she'd finished her examination of the biopsy…so clearly she was aware something was wrong with the device as well.

"No," Mace remarked, "Our team saw no signs of alien technology at play and it was determined not to have her examine it further."

The Doctor gave another nod at that, turning back to the ATMOS, but Donna frowned, eyeing Martha and Mace suspiciously as they glanced at each other. She could tell, even if the Doctor was an oblivious Martian, that there was something else going on here.

"I should um…go check on her," Martha added, "See if I can't argue my case or apologize."

"Martha," the Doctor called as she turned to go, Mace already stepping out of the room, "I'm sorry…if my being here caused trouble for you…"

Martha offered him a smile, "I knew I'd be in it when I called you," she waved him off, "And I did it anyway," she chuckled, "Learned that from the best," she winked at him, making him smile as she headed out.

~8~

Mackenzie was sitting in her lab, typing on one of the computers as she set up a program to scan the space around the Earth, if the ATMOS were starting to be activated…then it wasn't hard to work out that the aliens that influenced its design were watching, and likely close by. She had to keep stopping and backspacing her programs though, her hands were shaking so badly that she could hardly get the proper formulas and commands in.

She sighed, pulling her hands away from the keyboards and rubbed them, taking a deep breath to try and calm down. She could understand why Martha had called the Doctor in. In the grand scope of her time in UNIT, Martha had spent more time with the Doctor, knew what he was like and what he was capable of more than with her. She would trust the Doctor to get this sorted more so than she'd trust HER to do it. She understood that part…she was disappointed and angry that she'd disobeyed her order NOT to call him, hurt that she'd disregarded her request not to call him in, and just…frustrated that Martha hadn't warned her first.

She'd walked out of the lab, expecting that she'd just have to tell Martha her findings, tell her that she'd managed to identify the poison's components to within only 10% being unidentified, and that she could start to examine the ATMOS…only to see the one person in all the Universe she did NOT want to see standing right there.

A little warning would have been all she'd need. She'd have stayed IN the lab and not stepped out if that were the case.

She moved her right hand to her left wrist, her dominant hand being her left in this time, where she was wearing a small bracelet, a suppressant, one that was meant to block numerous things about a person when encountering others. It canceled out scent, it canceled out brainwaves, it canceled out any psychic residue on her that other telepaths might pick up on. It was needed when working with UNIT, with the various aliens they encountered she couldn't risk them seeing her as anything but human. They needed to underestimate her so that, if it came to it, her trump card of her biology and species could be used to fight them back.

She paused though, when she heard a soft knock on the lab door before it opened and Martha walked in. She didn't even look over, just went right back to her work.

"Mac?" Martha called, stepping into the room and closing the door behind her, "Look, I'm sorry I called the Doctor but…we needed the ATMOS looked at and I didn't want to interrupt your research on the biopsy…"

"Martha," she cut in, "I told you," she looked at her, "I told you before UNIT cleared the ATMOS, that you should have let me look at it first. I know weapons when I see them, I've built them in the past, I CAN recognize them," she frowned, "Or have you forgotten?"

Martha closed her eyes, letting out a breath, recalling when Mac had made a weapon for her once before, "No, I haven't."

"You betrayed my trust then too."

"That was different!" Martha insisted.

"I only gave you that gun when you SWORE to me you'd use it," Mac shot her a glare, "And what did you do? You let the Master destroy it!"

"I needed to get back to the Valiant! The Doctor had a plan and…"

Mac scoffed, "'The Doctor had a plan' should be the WORST reason to do anything! He never has one Martha, NEVER, he has a vague hope, a 'thing,' he makes it up as he goes. That should hardly ever be used to instill that much blind faith in him!"

"Is that why you don't trust him?" she crossed her arms.

"I don't trust him because he betrayed my trust too," Mac frowned at her, "He betrayed my trust and faith in him, he abandoned me, and then…he destroyed my entire planet," she watched as Martha shifted, "Or did that just slip your mind that that man YOU decided to look to for help murdered an entire planet, my FAMILY among them?"

"Mac…"

But Mac shook her head, "You let your affection for the Doctor influence you to bring him into a situation that he didn't need to be a part of Dr. Jones. I have been with UNIT for years…I've done more than enough to have earned your trust and yet you still don't give it…"

"You don't trust ME," Martha countered.

"I did, once," Mac reminded her, "YOU were the one who threw it away."

And with that, she turned back to the program, typing away as Martha sighed and stepped out of the room, Mac continuing her work only until she'd input the last command. She took just a moment to watch the program running, before she got up and moved to her examination table, picking up the ATMOS and beginning her examination of it. She'd given it a brief look before, but now…now she needed to dismantle it and really see how it worked.

For one brief moment, she considered how much easier it would be to take it apart if she'd had a sonic screwdriver with her, before she pushed the thought out of her mind, she was NOT the Doctor, she didn't need a sonic to do everything for her. Instead, she pulled a drawer open beside her and grabbed a handful of the odds and ends she'd tossed there, pulling out a paperclip and a thumb tack and getting to work, the creases and screws were too small to be taken out with actual tools, improvisation was needed.

~8~

The Doctor followed Mace through the factory floors as Martha and Donna headed out to investigate the workforce. While he'd been examining the ATMOS, Donna had found the personnel files, found a binder reserved for sick days and learned that there were NONE, at all. There was clearly something very wrong with the men and women working for the ATMOS team and Mace had ordered Martha, who had returned rather downtrodden from speaking to Mac, to examine them, the woman having asked Donna to help her. That left him and Mace alone to talk more about the system itself.

"So, this…this ATMOS thing, where'd it come from?" the Doctor asked the man.

"Luke Rattigan himself," Mace answered.

"And himself would be…"

Mace crooked a finger and led the Doctor out of the factory and back to the mobile base, though the Time Lord noted that Mace hesitated before allowing him in, as though checking for Mac before stepping aside. They walked over to a computer, one of the smaller ones, Mace bringing up the profile that had been collected for Luke.

"Child genius," Mace explained, "Invented the Fountain 6 search engine when he was 12 years old. Millionaire overnight. Now runs the Rattigan Academy. A private school educating students handpicked from all over the world."

"A hothouse for geniuses," the Doctor nodded at that, starting to smile, "Wouldn't mind going there," he glanced at Mace to see him frowning at him, confused, "I get lonely."

"Ah," Mace nodded, "I'm afraid we've been unable to provide Mackenzie sufficient stimulation as well," he agreed, and now it was the Doctor's turn to frown at him confused, "She's…rather brilliant."

"She's rather angry isn't she?" the Doctor countered, glancing at the closed lab door.

"Yes, she…" Mace took a breath, "She's been through quite a lot Doctor. I don't even know most of it, but what I DO know…she's lost quite a lot quite suddenly and she hasn't been able to find closure from it."

"That's no reason to take it out on everyone else. Martha was only trying to help."

"It wasn't that. It was…" he hesitated, "It was WHO she asked for help."

"Right," the Doctor sighed, "This Mac…she doesn't particularly like me, does she?"

"Not at all, sir."

"No more 'sir,'" the Doctor rolled his eyes at that, "But, um…listen…is there a reason WHY she doesn't like me?"

"I…believe it stems quite a bit from what you…were forced to do to Gallifrey," Mace offered.

The Doctor looked away at that, "I thought as much," he murmured, recalling her snap of 'genocide' before, but…why should it bother HER what he'd done? It wasn't like it was her planet, her family he'd destroyed. She was human, as far as he could tell, maybe she was just one of those people who were pro-life in every single sense, anti-war, anti-death sentence, that sort. To her…it probably seemed like he'd taken the 'easy' way out, even though there was nothing at all that was easy about it.

"Well then, time to get out of here and meet this Luke Rattigan for myself," he nodded, straightening as Mace turned to lead him out.

~8~

"So this Mackenzie," Donna began as she puttered around one of the offices in the ATMOS factory, "This…'Just Mackenzie,'" she gave Martha a pointed look.

"What about her?" Martha asked, calm, not letting anything on.

"Martha," she straightened, "'JUST Mackenzie?' Isn't that like 'JUST the Doctor?'"

"No," Martha shrugged, "Lots of people have just one name."

"We'll it's not like she's Cher or Madonna," Donna rolled her eyes.

Martha sighed, it was hard, not to tell Donna about Mac, especially not to tell the Doctor about it, given what Mac was. It was just…Mac had put so much effort into keeping others from finding out what she was, because of how useful it was to reveal it for shock and threat to others, she'd spent months apparently, working on that bracelet of hers. Mac did NOT want anyone to know she was a Time Lady.

Not even the last Time Lord.

"Well she's just Mac," Martha defended, she'd already betrayed her 'friend' enough in calling the Doctor, she wasn't going to reveal this until Mac was ready to.

Donna sighed, seeming to sense that, "Do you think I should call my mum? About the ATMOS in her car?"

"Better safe than sorry," Martha agreed.

"I'll give her a call," Donna started to go, when Martha called out to stop her.

"Donna…do they know where you are? Your family, I mean, that you're travelling with the Doctor?"

"Not really. Although...my granddad sorta waved us off. I didn't have time to explain."

"You just left him behind?"

"Yeah," Donna breathed, as though seeming to just realize how it sounded, what she'd done.

"I didn't tell my family," Martha confided in her, "Kept it all so secret and it almost destroyed them."

"In what way?"

"They ended up imprisoned," Martha swallowed, "They were tortured…my mum, my dad, my sister. It wasn't the Doctor's fault, but you need to be careful. Cos you know the Doctor, he's wonderful, he's brilliant, but he's like fire…stand to close and people get burned."

She hesitated in adding more, "Mac…she's got this thing against him…"

"You're tellin' me," Donna rolled her eyes.

"Thing is…she's got a good reason to," Martha added, "The Doctor, Mac DOES know him, she knows what he's like. And…she was hurt too, badly, in…far more ways than one. She hasn't told me all of them but…" she bit her lip a moment, "I can tell that the ones she hasn't said really, deeply hurt her. That was why she was so angry about seeing him again."

"She's scared," Donna realized.

"Mac?" Martha laughed, "She's only scared of Daleks and spiders," she shook her head.

"Dolls?" Donna blinked at that, not quite sure why the woman would be afraid of them…unless it was those sort of china doll ones, those could be rather terrifying in the wrong light.

"Never mind," Martha waved her off, realizing what she'd just given away in what she'd said, "The point is…she's proof that the Doctor can hurt people and not just the events that happen around him. From what I can gather…Mac was hurt BY him, not by his enemies. So please, Donna, just…be careful."

Donna nodded and turned to go and call her mother.

~8~

Mac looked up as a beep sounded on her monitoring program. She set her small soldering device down and carefully placed the exposed ATMOS to the side, pulling up her glasses as she went to the computer. She leaned over, looking at it and frowned, a teleport had just gone off…inside the Factory.

"Just bloody brilliant," she muttered, before taking a seat before the monitor, typing in codes to try and track the teleport.

She'd been working on the ATMOS for quite a while, had actually managed to find a small temporal pocket in the device, one that kept a mechanism hidden a single second out of sync with time. The humans really should have let her look at the device properly before they'd given clearance. She'd managed to find the pocket, it had taken her a few hours, longer than she knew it would if she'd had a sonic, but she didn't need it. She'd found it eventually though.

Now she knew how the ATMOS worked, she knew there was a poison and the majority of what made it, and now…she knew the enemy was watching. She just had to work out which enemy it was and she'd be able to negotiate with them like with the Adipose. She just had to hope her tracks and traces were up to par as they reverse tracked the signal from the teleport to the factory back to its origin and…

She grinned as the computer flashed, a box popping up with a satellite image of the Earth, a small blip going off just a few miles above it. She tapped away, zooming in on the image more and more, using the satellite to track it.

She let out a breath and rubbed her eyes, "Never would have guessed Sontarans," she murmured.

This was not the way they fought, they were more 'face the enemy for the glory of Sontar!' and fighting in actual wars than doing this. ATMOS? Poison gas? It had to be gas, how else would the victims have died within their cars with nothing in sight and no hint of any other sort of struggle. They'd breathed in the poison, they hadn't drank it, or eaten it, all their stomach contents were different according to autopsy reports. The only thing the same was the ATMOS, and if the poison was breathable, then it had to be a gas.

Doing this and fighting from the sidelines, from the shadows…it wasn't glorious or honorable or anything the Sontarans upheld, so why attack like this?

She looked at the computer when another beep sounded, seeing dotted lines appear from the ship to Earth. She frowned and typed in another command, trying to see what that was…to see it was a transmission of sorts, like…a control…

She sat closer as she moved to track the transmission, seeing what they were doing. She could guess that they were trying to activate another ATMOS device…she just needed to find out who it was…and nearly groaned when she found it.

A UNIT jeep, the only one that had been deployed was the one to take the Doctor to visit Luke Rattigan. Mace had come to tell her that earlier and to apologize for Martha, he had, apparently, no idea that she had called the Doctor in, but there was little he could do with the man already there.

For one single second, she was tempted to let the Sontarans do whatever they wanted to that jeep…but she had to remind herself, it wasn't just the Doctor there (the man could still regenerate) but another UNIT soldier as well. She couldn't let the human die just because she was cross with the Doctor.

So she got to work, trying to block the signal. Knowing that it was Sontaran origin now, she had a better idea of how to cancel the signal out. She kept track of the jeep's progress in the process, the jeep kept veering left, heading for a river, as she typed faster needing it to stop. She had tried to open the doors remotely, but they were deadlocked by the ATMOS so she really needed to get that signal to be disrupted.

She let out a small cheer as she saw the dots disappear, the connection broken, and, what's more, the signal had been so damaged in her efforts that the ATMOS itself was so confused by the different signals that it was short-circuiting.

Which was perfect as in that it wouldn't take the jeep over again, but not quite good in that it meant the Jeep wouldn't run at all and the Doctor and the private would need to find another way to UNIT.

She bit her lip a moment, trying to think of anything at all she could do besides the thought in her head. She could send someone else after them, tell them the path to take but…she couldn't risk the Sontarans trying to activate that Jeep again. The fact that they had first teleported into the factory made her think they were either there, or that they had some way of watching them. If she alerted anyone to what she wanted the jeep for…the Sontarans would attack. Being who she was, what she was, she had access to the jeeps, she could just go take one…

But that would mean having to be in a car with the Doctor for…longer than a second, and that was too long. She was sorely tempted to just…leave the Doctor out there, if he was trapped out on the streets…he wouldn't be there for the negotiations she would have to set up. He really was the most rubbish negotiator in the universe, he tended to just insult people all the time and that was not what they needed for this.

She got up and headed out of the lab, being sure to lock the door behind her, UNIT, last time she'd left it unlocked, had mucked up all her work. She let out a breath and headed out of the base and out to the open air, taking a breath of it…only to see Martha striding across the plant floor…with two soldiers on either side of her, two rather blank-faced soldiers. She frowned and made her way over to the woman…

Only to stop short, nearly gagging as the worst smell she'd ever gotten a whiff of hit her. Clone. That was the only thing going through her head at the moment, Martha…it wasn't Martha, it was a clone.

The clone looked down as Martha's mobile rang and picked it up, "Don't tell me…" she answered, even her voice sounded off, almost flat, "Donna Noble."

"Martha, hold on, he's here," Mac could hear Donna speak as she walked close to Martha but behind her.

"Martha!" the Doctor was on as well, "Tell Colonel Mace it's the Sontarans. They're in the file, Code Red Sontarans. But if they're inside the factory, tell him not to start shooting, UNIT will get massacred. I'll get back as soon as I can. You got that?"

"Code Red Sontarans. Gotcha," she closed the mobile and turned around, "Oh, Mac!" she blinked, "Did you need something?"

But before Mac could answer, Mace walked over, "Dr. Jones, found anything yet?"

"No, sir, nothing to report," Martha stated, turning to walk off as Mace turned to Mac, distracting her.

"And you?" he inquired.

"More than I wish I had," she muttered, before striding away. She moved quickly through the factory, heading to the docking bay, to where they'd put some of the jeeps and got in one, "You owe me so much Martha," she muttered, before racing off.

She turned a corner and raced away, needing to get to the Noble house, if Donna was there and, according to Mace, she'd been brought home, then the Doctor had to be with her at her home instead. But, just as she'd reached the open roads to town…she jammed on the brakes, staring in horror as all the cars with ATMOS stickers, practically all of them, went off, spewing gas out of them, filling the streets and the sky with the poisoned yellow gas…

To be continued...

A/N: And there we have the first chapter :) I hope you enjoyed it and Mac :) We'll learn much more about her as we go :) For a reference, to help picture her, I see her looking something like Jennifer Garner ;)