Of Time, Space and Beyond Humanity Volume 2

by RYNOman78

After gaining my new "ability", my life has changed in ways I thought were impossible. Little did I realise that immortality was the first of my problems, and that I'd become more than just a man...

1. Ch-ch-changes

Of Time, Space and Beyond Humanity Volume 2

When the deadly world of Doctor Who merges with mine, nothing is safe. To end this nightmare, I am sent back through time to find the one person capable of doing so. But what if my actions cause the very future I am trying to save? Well, as a wise man once said: "The future is whatever you make it! So make it a good one!"

Chapter 1- Ch-ch-Changes

A/N - Hi. Really sorry it took a long time to make this chapter. The irony's not lost on me that I'm putting out the Christmas episode in the middle of Summer. But, despite that, I have been busy trying to make this one of my great "works", with a lot of it still dependant on the vanilla episode with just as much interaction from Marty and Jack, to bump up their relationship.

Also, starting from this chapter, I will be sprinkling in as much of the music title as I can, to essentially enhance the mood. Since this is David Bowie, expect either parts of the song, or emphasis on parts. Either way, enjoy.

Immediately, he leapt to the controls like nothing had happened while Rose tried to recover from the shock.

I, however, was a little more forgiving, and asked "How do you feel?"

"Me? Never felt better!" he replied, going to plot the course. "6pm. Tuesday. October. 5006 on the way to Barcelona!"

"Now then" he said, turning to face us. "What do I look like?"

Before we had a chance to answer, he continued "No. No, no, no, no, no. No. don't tell me" before he conducted his own "investigation."

"Let's see. 2 legs. 2 arms. 2 hands. Ooh" the new Doctor muttered, rotating his right wrist. "Slight weakness in the dorsal tubrical."

He then ran his hands through his hair. "Hair!" he exclaimed. "I'm not bald. Oh. Big hair. Sideburns! I've got sideburns! Ooh. Really bad skin."

The Doctor then turned his attention to his torso, saying "Little bit thinner. That's weird. Give me time, I'll get used to it."

Pausing for a moment as I still let him have his "time", the Doctor then murmured "I have got a mole. I can feel it. Right between my shoulder blades. There's a mole. That's alright. Love the mole" he grinned again, before remembering we were with him.

"So, what do you think?" he asked the two of us.

"Who are you?" Rose asked, as the Doctor and I exchanged a look of confusion.

"He's the Doctor" I answered, as she still looked on in shock.

"It can't be" she muttered. "Where's the Doctor? What have you done to him?"

"Nothing" the Doctor replied, still looking at me in confirmation. "You just saw me change, right in front of you."

"It's her first time seeing you regenerate" I added helpfully. "That's bound to put anyone off."

"True" the Doctor nodded. "At least you're taking this well. I think the last person who'd been through the ringer regarding regeneration was..."

He tried to recall the name, but threw out tidbits instead while smacking his head. "Girl. Loud."

"You'll have to be more specific" I laughed. "There's been many like that."

"Short. American" he said, and I finally knew who he meant.

"Peri?" I asked.

"That's her! Shame what happened to her, though."

"A-Am I missing something?" Rose asked, who'd almost been ignored at this point.

"Yes. Sorry" I replied, as we tried to get back on track. "Long story. He's the Doctor in a new body. You heard him say about the process before he changed. What more do you need to know?"

"He-he sort of exploded" Rose reasoned, not believing us, "And then was replaced, like-like a teleport, or a transporter or a bodyswap or something. You two may have been in this together, but you're not fooling me. I've seen all sorts of things. Nanogenes, Gelth, Slitheen. Oh, my God" she wondered. "You're not a Slitheen, are you?"

"I'm not a Slitheen" he replied, as I lifted my hair up to show her a lack of a zip as proof.

Still not convinced, Rose said "Send him back. I'm warning you. Send the Doctor back right now!"

"Rose" the Doctor replied. "It's me. Honestly, it's me. I was dying. To save my own life, I changed my body. Every single cell, but still me" he smiled.

"But you can't be" she said again.

"Then, how could I remember this?" he asked, stepping towards Rose and whispering "First word I ever said to you. Trapped in that cellar. Surrounded by shop window dummies. Ooh, such a long time ago. I took your hand" he did the same here, "I said one word. Just one word. I said "run"."

"Doctor?" Rose whispered back.

"Hello" he answered, smiling once more, before running around the controls, yelling "And we never stopped, did we?"

"Penny finally dropped?" I asked Rose with a smile, as she stood back against one of the supports. "Yeah. That happens with most new-comers."

"How-how are you ok with this?" she asked, noticing the obvious.

"Hate to repeat myself" I replied, "but, long story."

"Is there a short version?"

"I may have watched this in the future" I said. "And through that, I became ok with him changing."

"You watched this? How?"

Quoting the Doctor, and trying to think of the least complicated reason, I replied "Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey."

"You'll find out later" I said to the man in question, who gazed over with a puzzled look on his face. "Or sooner. Time travel's confusing enough as it is. All the pens in the world would dry out before I even wrote you one page on the subject."

"Just stop before you ramble on" the Doctor replied with a laugh. "That's usually my job."

"It's nice to have you back, though" I said, going in to give him a hug.

Accepting it, the Doctor replied "I never went anywhere. Well, maybe I did, or at least that previous version of me, but it's still me. Albeit in a new body, but still same old Doctor."

"Can you change back?" Rose asked, breaking the mood as our hug ended.

"Do you want me to?"

"Yeah."

"Oh" the Doctor considered, before replying "No" to answer Rose's question of "Can you?"

"Do you want to leave?" I asked, knowing how tough this would be for her.

"Do you want me to leave?"

"No" the Doctor insisted. "Your choice, if you want to go home."

"Better cancel the Barcelona trip" I said, turning that navigation off. I still didn't want to activate the Tardis' voice, not until the Doctor was ok with it. And, given how new this regeneration was, I didn't want to ask until he'd "grown" into it, so to speak.

"Change to" the Doctor continued, taking over "The Powell Estate. Let's say 24th of December. What do you say?" he asked Rose, who was still timid. "Call it an early Christmas present."

"There you go" I said, as the Doctor's hands left the controls.

"We're going home?" Rose asked.

"Up to you" I replied. "Back to your mum. It's all waiting. Sausage and mash. Beans on toast."

"No" the Doctor realised, recalling the date. "Christmas. Turkey. Although, having met your mother, a nut loaf would be more appropriate."

As Rose let out the faint hint of a smile, the two of us noticed at once.

"Was that a smile?" I teased.

"No."

"That was a smile" the Doctor joined in.

"No, it wasn't."

"You smiled" I smirked again.

"No, I didn't" Rose insisted.

"Oh, come on" the Doctor protested. "I just changed. I didn't..."

He then recoiled as his face contorted slightly in pain.

"Doctor, are you alright?" I asked, afraid of what was happening.

He tried to respond, but it just happened again.

"Uh-oh" he said at last.

"Uh-oh, what?" I asked, before Rose and I were treated to the reason.

The Doctor breathed out a piece of regeneration energy, making me wonder.

"This isn't supposed to happen, is it?" I asked him.

"The change went a bit wrong" he replied, before nearly choking and collapsing.

"Look" Rose said, as I tried to help the Doctor up. "Maybe we can go back. Let's go and find Captain Jack. He'll know what to do."

"Rose, trust me" I grunted, heaving the Doctor up. "You don't want to do that."

"He's got plenty to do" the Doctor added, staggering slightly. "Rebuilding the Earth."

He then noticed a switch at the bottom of the console and muttered "I haven't touched this one in years."

"Doctor, don't!" I shouted, knowing what it did.

Too late, and he'd pressed it, making the Tardis accelerate more towards our destination.

"What are you doing?" Rose asked, clutching the console for dear life.

"Just putting on a little more speed" came the energetic response as the Doctor dashed to the controls again. "Beautiful ship. Come on. Faster! Thata girl!"

I shared a look with Rose that just said "I'm sorry about this" as the Doctor asked us "What do you think? Faster? Do you want to break the time limit?"

"Doctor, stop it!" we both yelled out in frustration, which was immediately ignored by his efforts to keep our momentum going.

"Don't be so daft. How about a bit of fun?" he shouted, punching the air. "Let's rip through that vortex."

As soon as he said that, he knew something was wrong and said so, before moaning "Ohh, my head" and going back into his "new" persona.

"Faster! Let's open all those engines all the way!"

The second he finished that sentence, an alarm bell rang out. Recognising it from the schematics, I said out loud "Oh, that's not good. That's not good at all."

"Why? What is it?" Rose asked in fear.

"We're crash-landing" the Doctor replied happily.

"Well, do something!" she ordered.

"I would" I replied, struggling to make my way around the controls, "If it wasn't for Mr. Hyperactive over here!"

"You're gonna kill us!" Rose told the Doctor.

"Hold on tight!" the Doctor told us, as I just about found the flight controls. "Here we go. Christmas Eve."

We didn't even offer a reply as we were unfortunately taken for the rest of the ride until we'd "arrived" at our destination.

Or, rather Rose was taken for a ride. I however didn't even get that luxury. The Doctor's "driving" had been so bad for me that I'd literally just touched my fingertips against the flight controls before I was flown against the wall like a rag doll, hitting one of the supports and breaking my back, and then fell to the floor, "apparently" dead. I lay there in my state until I'd heard Mickey come back to check up on me, where he was the one with the rude awakening.

"Oh, my God" he exclaimed in shock as I woke back up, gasping for breath again. "A-are you ok?"

"I could ask you the same thing" I replied, groaning and finding my voice. "Not every day you see two people come back from the dead."

"Three" Mickey clarified. "Rose might as well have been dead thanks to the Doctor."

"If it wasn't for her, she wouldn't be here right now" I said, as Mickey pulled me up.

"It's complicated" I laughed, reading his face. "Time travel does that to you."

"Speaking of which..." I said, noticing the now comatose Tardis, "Where are they?"

"Rose and the Doctor?"

"Yeah."

"They're in Rose's flat" Mickey said. "Jackie and I lifted him into there and they've been looking after him for a bit. I came back here because Rose didn't know about you. Can't wait to tell her, though."

"It-it's best I tell her" I replied. "Or, at least some of it."

"What do you mean?" Mickey asked, as he helped me out of the Tardis and he locked the door behind us.

"I mean, there are some things left unsaid" I told him, then noticed the key in the lock. "Rose give you hers?"

"Well, you weren't exactly around to ask."

"Touche" I smiled, as Mickey put the key back in his pocket. "Although, if it'll make you feel a bit better, I'll tell you what I know about the Doctor."

"Oh, really?" Mickey scoffed. "Go on."

"He's 900 years old, this is his 10th regeneration and, as you've probably seen, he tends to be a bit… "out of character", shall we say."

"That's putting it lightly" Mickey muttered, as we neared Rose's flat. "Why is that, anyway?"

"He's trying to get accustomed to his new body" I answered, before chuckling at Mickey's raised eyebrows. "Not like that" I said, before thinking "Then again, it's been 900 years. There's bound to be some form of a Jackson Pollock in there."

"What I mean is that it's like buying a new computer" I explained to Mickey. "You need to test everything out and leave it for a while, just to see if it's running properly. Then, after a while, you use it as much as you can, until the next "model" arrives. That's what the Doctor's going through. Not "performance issues", but just the start-up installation."

"Thanks for the heads-up" he replied, before we finally arrived at Rose's door.

"No problem" I told him, as we both knocked and waited for an answer.

"Is that Mickey?" I heard Jackie call out from the other side.

"Probably" Rose replied. "I'll go and check. You stay here."

We heard the footsteps approaching, the lock being undone and finally the door opening, to reveal Rose, whose mouth was now agape in shock at the fact that I was still in front of her.

"M-Marty?" she asked, probably wondering if she was dreaming or not.

"Surprise" I said sheepishly, as Mickey let himself in with us. "Before you say anything, I can explain."

"You'd better" Rose said, recovering and making sure no-one else was with us before closing the door.

Once closed, she gave me a hug and said "I thought you were dead."

"Well, you're not wrong" I replied, as she took me into where the Doctor was so I could see him.

"If you want to know about me, you need to shut the door" I told her.

After Rose had done that, I asked "Do you know what happened when you went back to the Game Station?"

"Bits and pieces" she answered, honestly. "It's like a bunch of fuzzy pictures that don't make sense. The last thing I remember is looking into the Tardis, then..."

"Then it's a massive blank" I finished. I then took a deep breath. "Before I tell you, are you sure you want to know what happened?"

"Why?" Rose asked, a little scared. "Nothing bad happened there, right?"

"Quite the opposite in fact" I smiled. "In fact, you saved a lot of people."

I then gave her my version of events from what I'd watched on TV, but also omitted Jack's "contribution", because I felt Rose would be feel better if she just made me alive.

"Because I was already dead, I didn't see the immediate effects; only the aftermath, but what had happened was something amazing" I started.

"You see, the Daleks had completely surrounded the Doctor and myself, only they took me out first because I was the last one with a weapon, aside from him with the Delta Wave.

Then, about 20 seconds later, you show up in the Tardis and spill her energy out like it's the light at the end of the tunnel. The Dalek Emperor, who wants to watch the Doctor fall is now terrified of you because you are like a goddess. And you prove this by stopping the blast of a Dalek and sending it right back into the gun.

Second, you create the Bad Wolf message as yourself to send yourself there by scattering the words throughout time and space, all so both you and I will know their meaning.

Then, you look at what the Emperor's presence has been through time and space and deem him tiny, before reducing him and the rest of the Dalek army in that year to ash.

But, after that..." I said, noticing how Rose was still enthralled in this. "Then, the Doctor pleaded with you, telling you that you couldn't control everything like a god. Saying that you couldn't control life and death. You disagreed with him, and then ended up bringing me back to life. Permanently.

After that, I woke back up in my new life, to watch the Doctor absorb the time energy from you and expel as much of it as he could back into the Tardis. The tail end of it you know."

"So, you're immortal?" Rose asked, as I finished my story.

"Pretty much" I nodded sadly. "I mean, I knew straight away, but I didn't have a proper chance to get to grips with it, until the Doctor showed me otherwise."

"I am sorry, by the way" Rose said, as we both looked over the sleeping man in question. "I mean, he just staggered out of the Tardis after we'd crash-landed in front of mum and Mickey, and I tried to explain to them who he was. I didn't know if you were still alive because of the Tardis getting banged-up and the Doctor's condition, and in the end, I asked Mickey to go down and check your body, to see if you were alive."

"And here I am, almost as fit as a fiddle" I replied, moving my arm about slowly. "Sorry if I'm a bit jerky. It's just… "healing" might take a while. I mean, I can still feel my spine slowly move back into shape. Not sure how long it'll be before I'm back to basics."

"Well, if you want to be healing, why not stay here with the Doctor?" Rose asked. "You both look like you could use the rest."

"What about you?" I asked. "Are you alright?"

"Not really, but I'll manage. That, and I want to get to the shops with Mickey before they close."

"Oh, alright then" I laughed. "Just make sure to phone if anything happens, ok?"

"You think something's gonna happen?" Rose asked, as I gave her my number.

"Rose, it's the Doctor" I said. "Wherever he is, trouble is always 2 steps behind him."

"Fair enough" she reasoned, before closing the door behind her.

She opened it a few seconds later and added "Oh yeah. I forgot to tell you. Harriet Jones is Prime Minister."

"Who would have thought it?" I asked rhetorically as Rose closed the door behind her for a second time.

I then sat down in a nearby chair, worn out from getting battered against the Tardis and then plunged back into life.

Knowing there was only one person who shared my "symptoms" I called Jack, making sure it was the "new" one, and not the one I'd called on the Game Station.

"Hello" he said at once, and I at once felt at ease talking to him again.

"Hi, buddy" I said, doing my best to not reveal his name in case the Doctor was somehow listening. "Merry Christmas."

"You too, Marty. You too."

I heard Jack then take a pause and then say "I don't know why you'd be calling me at this time of year, aside from the obvious. Something happen to you?"

"Something like that" I replied. "Let's just say we're now… "equal" in our line of work."

"Equal in what way?"

"When you got your new life, I also got the same treatment."

"Oh, God" I heard Jack mutter to himself, before asking "And, how was it?"

"Physically, painful" I said. "I only just told Rose, and she seems to be taking it pretty well."

"How is she?" Jack asked. "I mean, I only saw her a few times growing up, but..."

"Timelines" I summarised. "Yeah. I know."

Jack then asked "When did you know about it?"

"Right away" I replied. "If it wasn't for the Doctor, I would be getting a test done later, just to be sure it was correct."

"What happened?"

"You know the way he's not a good driver?"

"...Yeah?"

"Tossed against the wall, flung into a support where I broke my back, and hit the floor" I listed. "It wasn't until we'd crashed that I woke back up."

"Ooh" Jack winced. "Oh, yeah. As first, or in your case second deaths go, that's a bad way to go out."

"You still haven't told me about your first time" I said, realising. "Aside from the obvious."

"Statten Island, 1892. Man shot me through the heart. Woke up later, completely healed. Well, not completely, but you get the idea."

"Yeah. I do" I said. "My spine's still in the process of reforming even as we speak."

"So, is that why you called me?" Jack asked. "Sympathy card?"

"Who else am I gonna talk to about this type of thing?" I asked. "Wolverine? Deadpool?"

"Smart-ass" Jack chuckled, before saying "But really. Why'd you call?"

"Because our "employers" are about to make a big impact very soon" I said, hoping he got the message. "But before that, I'm going to give you a hand in where to start."

"Tell me where" Jack replied, as I heard him rustle for a pen and paper.

"River Thames" I told him. "Just look for the Hand of Sauron. You'll know when."

"I'll come right away" Jack said. "Give me a few hours and I'll be there for Christmas."

"What about where you are?" I asked, cautiously. "Any more… runaways we need to watch out for?"

"Thankfully, no. I think they're hibernating for the season. That won't stop them come the new year, but for now, they're good. If I need your help again, I'll call."

"Good speaking to you again" I said, before we ended. "Goodnight, and take care."

"Goodbye, Marty. Merry Christmas."

With that, Jack hung up the phone in a slightly happier way than the last time.

I took a look at the Doctor to make sure he was still sleeping and that no regeneration energy was breathing out of him.

Thankfully, there wasn't, and so, being as weary as I was, rested my eyes and let time be my healer as my injuries slowly faded away.

To say I got a wake-up call would be an understatement.

My phone vibrated in my pocket which woke me up.

Focusing on the blurry screen, I read one 4 letter word that ended with E and answered.

"Hello?" I asked, as Rose's panicked voice came from the other end.

"Marty, you need to get out of there" she told me. "Some others have found the Doctor."

That woke me up fully, making me jump out of my seat.

"Who did?" I asked, running towards the front door. "And where are you?"

"I don't know who" she replied. "Robot Santas, if that rings a bell."

I unlocked the door as Rose continued "We're right under you. Get the Doctor ready to move."

"Will do" I said, hanging up and then turning to Jackie, who was still on the phone as if nothing had changed.

"Get off the phone" I mouthed to her, which, with Jackie being Jackie, did fuck all.

"I'm busy" she mouthed back, making me run back into the Doctor's room and search for the sonic screwdriver as well as his key. I didn't have mine on me as it was still in my Tardis bedroom, where I'd neglected to lift it.

"Come on, where are you?" I whispered, feeling around in the infinite depths of his coat.

At last I found them, just as Rose and Mickey burst into the flat, yelling at Jackie to get off the phone.

Mickey yelled out to me to check if I was still here.

"With the Doctor" I answered, making my appearance known.

I then placed the sonic screwdriver in his hand to save us the time and bother, then put the key in his dressing gown for an emergency.

"He's still out" I said to Rose and Mickey as I joined the three of them in the living room, then Rose noticed something that had apparently slipped all 3 of our minds, but not Jackie's.

"Mum" Rose said, looking at the tree that was now in the corner of the living room. "Where'd you get that tree? That's a new tree."

"I thought it was you" Jackie replied.

"How can it be me?"

"You went shopping. There was a ring at the door, and there it was."

"No, that wasn't me."

"Then who was it?"

"Whoever was after you" I said, realising in shock as the lights started to come on the tree by themselves.

"Oh, you're kidding me" Rose muttered, summing up all of our thoughts.

The tree began rotating, until it was like an upright spinning top, where it was moving at almost super-human speed, and most certainly capable of ending our lives. Or, at least 3 out of the 4 of us.

It broke through the table as it came towards us, then Mickey told Rose and Jackie to get out.

"Don't leave the Doctor!" I shouted, as he and I held up chairs to protect ourselves.

"Mickey, go!" I yelled to him, noticing that his chair was almost completely in pieces. "I can handle it."

He did that, as my chair fell apart a few seconds later.

"Here we go again" I muttered, closing my eyes and taking the brunt of the tree as it tore through me and my clothes. At least if it went through me, it would buy them more time.

I was gone in just a few seconds, eviscerated by the branches and leaving blood on the walls. Not to say that wasn't the only mess made by that thing, but, in a somewhat morbid way, it made it a bit more festive.

---

It's at this point I should say what being immortal, or at least this kind of immortal feels like.

To me, it's one long loading screen in a video game. You die, wait to respawn at a nearest checkpoint, and then you're forced back out, with only the physical and mental presence to guide you.

However, this also means that waiting in that dark, agonising, wretched place makes you feel every second of your body being re-attached the way it left, only in reverse.

In my case, bone reconnected to bone, one piece at a time. Muscles and nerves came next, and this is the part that made it the most painful of all. Being naked and feeling everything all at once in a physical sense, with nothing to cover you up until the skin regrew, inch by inch, until you're "a new man" so to speak.

The amount of time taken to conduct this Frankenstein process dictates how long it'll be before you fully awaken.

Jack said the quickest it had taken him to heal fully without me there was 10 minutes, and that was just from a bullet to the head. At least he didn't get ripped to pieces by a moving tree.

He'd also said that to him, it felt like being dragged over broken glass whenever he was brought back. I just felt like I was getting stitched up by a drunk surgeon who was somehow able to to conduct his job.

Either way, dying is another part of life for me. As is constant revival.

"Still don't know what I was waiting for. And my time running wild. A million dead-end streets. And every time I thought I'd got it made, it seemed the taste was not so sweet."

---

I woke up, gasping for breath again what must have been hours later, lying in the Doctor's bedroom, thankfully wearing another pair of pajamas with another dressing gown Jackie had found. I guess Rose must have told Jackie about me, or she thought it was best to do this to me.

"Oh, my God" Rose said, jumping up as she heard me.

"Hi again" I smiled, holding her hand. "So, what did I miss?"

Rose then filled me in after calming down, saying that thanks to my efforts of putting the sonic screwdriver in the Doctor's hand, he'd stopped the tree quicker and told the 3 of them what had been after them.

"Pilot fish" Rose said "That's what he called those Santa robots. They then teleported away before the Doctor collapsed. He said we'd woken him up too soon, and that before he fell back asleep, the pilot fish meant that something was coming."

"With the Doctor, that could be anything" I said. "Slitheen, Gelth, Judoon. You name it."

Noticing the confusion on her face I explained "Space rhinos. Think of them as intergalactic police."

"I'll take your word for it" Rose replied as she turned to walk away.

"How?" I asked, taking a deep breath. "How did your mum take… me?"

"Given that this is all new to everyone here, she took it as well as you'd think" Rose said, looking back at me. "The tree was one thing, but seeing someone brought back to life like that is something else. I think Christmas is the last thing on her mind now."

"So, you're the one who got me these?" I asked, changing the subject and looking down at my attire. "What, were they a present for Mickey?"

I laughed, but Rose was cold.

"Oh, they were" I said. "Ah."

"How long have I been out?" I asked her, trying to change the subject. "Hard to keep track of time when you're "undead"."

"It's been about 3 hours" Rose said. "Most of that time was spent cleaning up both you and the flat."

"I'm sorry" I replied. "If I had known how visceral it was, I would have gone with Mickey too. I didn't mean to put you through that."

"Hopefully, it won't happen again" added Rose. "Even though you said trouble is 2 steps behind the Doctor."

"And it doesn't ever stop" I said, finishing the conversation and handing Rose the glass back. "I'll stay with him again. You go on and enjoy yourself."

Before she closed the door behind her, Rose whispered "Merry Christmas, Marty."

"You too, Rose" I said. "You too."

Not even 5 minutes later, after I'd made myself more comfortable, I got a call from Jack.

It seemed like my phone had survived the ordeal, being near the Doctor during that assault.

"What is it?" I asked, trying to stay awake.

"Catch you at a bad time?" Jack inquired.

"More or less" I said. "I've just woken up again, and I've a feeling that even for you, a bucket is required."

"That bad, huh?"

"You tell me" I said, feeling the Doctor's forehead. "You ever been ripped apart by a tree before?"

"Once or twice during WW2."

"What about one spinning at 1000Rpm? That happen to you?"

"Oh, no. That's a new one" I heard Jack wince again. "So, how bad was it?"

"Which bit? Death, reconstruction, or the aftermath?"

"All of the above."

"A few seconds and it was over at the start" I said. "The second bit took the longest, because every piece was stitched back together, one seam at a time. As for the aftermath, I've only just woke up, so I haven't seen it. But from what Rose told me, it's certainly making it a red Christmas, rather than a white one."

"Gotcha" Jack replied. "I was gonna say something, but it slipped my mind. What was it…?"

It took him a few seconds to recall. "Oh, yeah. That's right. I've set up in London in a nearby hotel, about 5 minutes away. Got some of the gear sorted out. Watching the news right now. Are you?"

"Not really" I replied. "Been kind of busy lately."

"Sorry. Force of habit. But, you really should watch the news. That Martian probe they're talking about? It's about to be famous for the wrong reasons."

"How much do you know about it?"

"Only what I've heard from stories. It was nearly at Mars, then hitched a ride on an alien ship. After that" Jack broke off. "That's where the stories split."

"So, what's your take on it?"

"My guess? They're either scavengers, or war-lovers. If they see something like a trophy, they'll take it, then tell the "owner" how much it means to them."

"And how much of this ends peacefully?" I asked, rhetorically.

"We've both been there, Marty. Peace is once in a blue moon compared to these folks. Just watch your back, even though you're like me now."

"No-one else talked to you?" I wondered. "Anyone "outside" of us two?"

"If you mean the big bosses, no" Jack said. "When I took over Cardiff, I made sure to wipe that slate clean. Torchwood hasn't said anything since I've been in office. Even though we both know that's gonna bite us both in the ass later."

"Keep your head down" I replied. "We both know them, all too well. And you know I'm not lying about that "big" impact part, even with the tech we have."

"No arguments there. If there are updates to this, I'll keep you posted. And, if you want a drink, I'll meet you outside my place. Talk to you later, Marty."

"Goodnight" I said, before I hung up the phone again and put it in my pocket.

"Either I go back to sleep and heal up, or stay awake and be engrossed in this" I muttered, before looking at the Doctor, who was close to shaking at this point.

Instantly, I grabbed the stethoscope Rose had left by the bed and listened for his heartbeats.

"Okay, that's one working" I said, then tried to hear the other one.

Nothing happened. Not a sound from his other heart.

I tried again. Still nothing from him.

"Third time lucky?" I asked, hoping it would work.

Nope. Nada. Not a peep.

I then got anxious, and hammered the door.

"Rose!" I shouted. "You need to come here!"

"What is it?" she asked, as I opened the door for her.

"I was about to go to sleep, but I wanted to check on how he was holding up" I said, giving her the stethoscope. "Listen to him."

So she did, listening to his good heart first then the bad heart.

"Oh, my God" Rose said, as we came to the same conclusion.

"He's not going to last long with this regeneration if this keeps up" I replied. "We have to do something."

"We can't do anything at the moment" Rose said. "We have to stay here."

"In case more killer trees show up again?" I asked. "Great plan."

"Well, then, what do you suggest? Dying and causing my mum more worry?" Rose fumed. "The only reason you're here is because we feel sorry for you. If you don't want to help, then just go."

"Fine" I said angrily, knowing I couldn't do anything at the moment. I got what I could from the room and opened the door. "I'm keeping these, by the way. I'm not going out naked" I pointed at my pajamas and the dressing gown. "Give me the Tardis key. It's in his dressing gown pocket."

"I thought you had one" Rose said, lifting it out.

"I did, but it's inside my Tardis bedroom. I need that key to get my key. Besides, you have one, right?" I asked.

"Yes, ok" Rose replied, grumpily. "I do have one, in my pocket."

"Then, hold onto yours" I said. "If I'm leaving and locking the Tardis after me, you need to have a way of making sure it's just us who have access to it. Alright?"

"Alright" Rose sighed, as I walked out from the flat, trying not to slip on the stairs.

As I touched the ground, I called Jack again.

"Didn't think I'd hear from you again so soon" he said. "What happened?"

"Meet me outside the Tardis and I'll tell you" I replied. "You probably passed it on the way here. And bring a few torches. We'll need them."

"Yeah. It's not that hard for people like us to notice her" Jack said. "Ok. See you soon. Bye."

"Bye" I finished, making my way around to the Tardis.

I got there about a minute before Jack showed up, dressed in his signature coat, a scarf around his neck, and a cap that made him look like he was still a paperboy.

"Oh, this is rich" he laughed as he approached me. "Didn't think I'd see you dressed like this on Christmas."

"I've seen you in worse" I replied, with a smile. "Christmas or otherwise."

"True" Jack said, handing me his other torch. "So, what's the story with the Tardis?"

"Not here" I answered, putting the key in the lock. "You never know who's listening. We need to get inside and talk."

"You sound even more like a conspiracy theorist than I do" Jack chuckled, as I let him in first, while I pocketed the key and closed the door behind us.

"What happened to the lights?" Jack asked, turning on his torch and looking around the dark emptiness of the Tardis.

"The Tardis is inoperable because of the Doctor" I said, doing the same. "That's why I needed the torches."

"What, is there a power cut here or something?"

"Not exactly" I replied, thinking how much I could tell him. "The Doctor's going through a bit of a… hibernation, and until he wakes up, the Tardis is… not exactly dead, just on sleep mode."

"So, why did you need me?" Jack wondered, as we progressed to my bedroom.

"Aside from the company?" I asked, turning back to him. "The truth is, Rose was fed up with me staying with her and the Doctor while he was sleeping, and the fact that I'd be dying a lot to protect him, which isn't the best thing for anyone right now. So, I decided to come to the one place I'd feel somewhat at home with a person I was familiar with. And to get that drink you offered me."

"That was only if you came to my place" Jack pointed out with a smile. "Not sure if anywhere is gonna be open at..."

He glanced at his watch.

"God. Is it 11.30 already?"

"Really?" I asked. "I guess time flies when you're supposed to be dead."

"Early deaths still bothering you?" Jack asked, concerned.

"A little" I sighed, looking down. "I don't know how you manage it."

"I don't think I do" Jack replied, doing the same. "Or ever will. I just try to survive every day as best as I can. Which, given our lifespan, is one hell of a time. Sorry I couldn't be of more help."

"It's ok" I said, reaching my door. "At least you're not alone here, and that you can teach me more things from experience."

"Marty, trust me. Second-hand experience is nothing. To know exactly what to do in those situations, it needs to be first-hand. I can show you what I did, but I don't know if that's going to help you."

"I'll take something over nothing" I told him. "You mind staying outside while I get changed?"

"Sure, no problem" Jack said, as I opened the door to my room, torch still in hand.

I found my bed and placed the torch on it, pointing it at the wardrobe. A thin streak of light shone towards it, which meant that I'd have to find something else to hold the torch in place to fully show my options.

After a few minutes, I managed to rig up a stack of books and boxes I'd been using to improve my weapons, and balanced the torch on it. This gave me just the right amount of space and height to sort exactly through my clothes.

In the end, I changed into jeans, green and red trainers, and, because I was feeling "festive", a Die Hard t-shirt, which was of John and his catchphrase. What can I say? It was either that, or one from Elf with Will Ferrell yelling his head off, and I chose the better option.

"Marty? Are you nearly done in there?" Jack asked, as I put on a thick, brown overcoat and lifted my torch, after folding both the pajamas and the dressing gown onto the bed and then lifted my key so I could lock the Tardis behind us.

"Yeah. That's me now" I said, walking out. "Why? You worried?"

"No. I just wanted to tell you something that I'd forgot to earlier."

"Ok" I replied, finding Jack's face with my torch. "What is it?"

"You know the way you wanted me to look into Tosh and that descendant of Gwyneth?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I've thought about what you said, and combined with our experiences, we needed a new team."

"You've recruited?"

"Yep."

"When?"

"After I dropped you off. In between sorting our our two hotheads and the other problem, I was able to get others involved in our cause."

"Nice" I replied, as we neared the console. "What are they like?"

"They're good people" Jack replied. "I mean, I still feel bad about getting them involved in our lives, but the more the merrier."

"And how much have you told them about us?" I asked, cautiously.

"If by "us" you mean how we know each other, I said that you joined up after your parents died" Jack answered. "I mean, the bare minimum of details, but a good story none the less."

"Do they know about… the rebirth?"

"No. God no. They only know about my name and where/how we both operate. That's enough on their plates for now. If I told them, or even worse, showed them what both of us are like, they'd panic and tell others. And I don't want that to happen again."

"I'm sorry" I told him. "Your history aside, I don't think anyone would take that lightly, especially not the people at the heart of it."

"Tell me about it" Jack murmured, before looking up at the console pillar.

"You managed to get the program running yet?" he wondered, "Or have you not got around to it yet?"

"I was going to" I said. "Then, the whole… immortality thing happened, and then this. It's only been private to, well, the three of us, and I didn't want anyone else to notice until the Doctor recovered."

Jack said nothing for a few seconds, as he pondered what to do. He then spoke, saying "Come on, then, Marty. We both need that drink."

We then walked out of the Tardis, making sure no-one else was around to watch us, locking the door and then made our way to Jack's hotel.

"You shouldn't be out this late" the old woman at the reception said to Jack as he flashed her a grin. "It's not right for a man of your age."

"Don't worry, honey" he replied, leading us up to his room. "I'm careful, when I need to be."

He unlocked the door with a key and let me in first. It was what you'd expect out of a hotel, and Jack's "requirements". A single bed with a sofa, a table for guests, a TV with a desk, and of course, a bathroom.

Laying there on the table was what Jack had brought with him for aliens.

A rack of surgical equipment, 5 types of pistols, both ballistic and energy, and on its own type of plinth, a jar with a handle attached to it. Plus, he'd brought along a laptop to keep track of any Internet activity.

"I see you've been busy" I laughed, noticing how he'd placed the items out. "I haven't seen this much structure since Silence of the Lambs."

"What can I say? I like to be organised" Jack smiled, closing the door.

He went over to the desk and opened a drawer underneath, revealing a mini-bar.

"Help yourself" he announced, as I picked my poison, so to speak.

Before we tried to gain any intel, I took the time to go into the bathroom and properly look in the mirror at myself, to make sure that what was reflected was the true version of my life.

I still couldn't believe after all this time how much I'd forgotten to actually "remember" who I was, and how much I'd changed in so much time.

To start, before I even met Jack, and before my world became the wasteland it turned out to be, I was a skinny little bastard of 5'8, who could barely do an arm wrestle without complaining about it. After I started my "survival" journey, I became more aggressive and built, though still retaining my wiry frame.

That all changed when Jack took me in, and he helped to change my body into something that actually could fight back against aliens. I was now full of enough muscle to both take a fair amount of hits, as well as inflict them.

My hair was the next issue that was changed drastically. Due to a lack of cleanliness, it went from a short length to elbow-length in a quick span, and I was only able to get it cut a few days after I got set up in Torchwood. I still kept it as best as I could, but a guy with black stringy hair doesn't really have a lot of choices.

The same could be said for the beard I'd kept as a reminder of how tough it had been to keep going in the face of death prior to the Doctor. Firm but intimidating. Guess that shows you how much 5 years of Jack and God knows how long I thought it felt back in my time could change my understanding of life.

Lastly were my eyes, that had changed the most out of all of my appearance in terms of tone. Once a vibrant blue – my dad's – they were now on their way to joining me in death, gray encapsulating them like a cage.

I cupped water and splashed my face repeatedly, focusing on who I was looking at in the mirror, still not believing I had made it this far, even if death had already claimed me 3 times.

"So I turned myself to face me, but I've never caught a glimpse. Of how the others must see the faker. I'm much too fast to take that test."

At last, I got out of the bathroom and silently looked at Jack, as we both recognised how familiar my look now was to him when he'd first found out about his new "path".

We then turned on the TV to see if there'd been any news about the Martian space probe.

"Anything?" Jack asked, as he'd done the same thing with the laptop.

"Nope" I said, still watching the screen. "You?"

"Just give me a second..." Jack muttered, as he finally said "Gotcha!"

"What is it?" I asked, as he gestured me over and pulled out a pair of earphones.

"Thanks to a few contacts in UNIT and a good memory for passwords, I was able to get into their systems and find out what they know about this."

"And?"

"The race that took the probe look something like… this" Jack replied, as we both took a bud and watched the video.

"Fuck" I shuddered as the one we thought was the leader growled loudly.

For some reason, neither one of us could hear the translation, until I brought it up.

"Ok, that's weird" I started. "The Tardis should be able to translate any alien language whenever and wherever we are."

"But with the Doctor out of commission" Jack added, "The Tardis isn't functioning right."

"Is there anything there that might help?" I asked him, while his eyes glanced over the screen.

"As a matter of fact, there is" he slowly grinned, pointing to an audio recording of the events. "Shall we?"

"Might as well" I replied, as we listened to the UNIT side of the affair.

It was a bunch of people in a room discussing the translation of the message. And one voice was very familiar, but we didn't hear it until later in the recording.

"People" a young, male voice said, beginning it, ""You belong to us, to the Sycorax." So, they seem to be called Sycorax, not Martians." "We own you. We now possess your land, your minerals, your precious stones. You will surrender, or they will die. Sycorax strong. Sycorax mighty. Sycorax rock." "As in the modern sense "They rock"".

"They will die" a second, older male voice added, pointing it out. "Not you will die. They will die. Who's they?"

"I don't know" the first voice added, "but it is the right personal pronoun. It is "they".

"Send them a reply" a woman's voice ordered, and both Jack and I looked at each other in fear as we recognised the voice:

Harriet Jones. Now, the Prime Minister.

"Tell them this is a day of peace on Planet Earth" she continued, as we tried to listen in. "Tell them "We extend that peace to the Sycorax". "And then, tell them… this planet is armed, and we do not surrender."

"Oh, sweet Jesus" I muttered, as the recording finished. "What the hell is she doing?"

"Trying to do the best thing, I guess" Jack offered up. "I mean, if you were in her shoes, what would you be doing?"

"Fair point" I said, remembering that Harriet was now a different person thanks to our efforts. "But even so, she's dealt with aliens once and thinks that's all you need to know to send them a message."

"I don't like this any more than you do, Marty, but what can we do? We need to be cautious and stay under the radar, at least until this is blown over."

"Alright" I reluctantly replied. "Does it say how far off the ship is?"

"About 5 hours, give or take" Jack said. "Look, if you want to stay here for the night with Rose and everything happening, go ahead. I wasn't planning on any "company" this Christmas, so count yourself lucky."

"You sure?" I asked. "I mean, I'm grateful, but I still feel like you're doing it for your benefit as much as mine."

"Marty, you're now the same as me" Jack said, putting his hands on my shoulders. "I want you to try and come to terms with it as much as I did, even if it takes a literal lifetime to achieve."

"I think I'm starting to feel that already" I replied, lying down on the sofa. "I mean, ever since I woke up both times, I haven't felt as hungry as I usually do. Is that normal?"

"No, Marty, it isn't" Jack said, looking at me truthfully. "You see, when we now die and come back, the second you're completely healed, it's like your body processes have reset in a way. You don't feel hungry immediately, but it'll slowly return to you in time. I found that out the hard way during my early Torchwood days."

"When did it happen?" I inquired.

"A few years after Statten Island. I was sent to negotiate a deal with a trader who'd give me info about a missing person in exchange for me providing him. We'd sat down for a meal to discuss it, and the talk and food went on for what felt like hours.

Then, as we're nearly done, he tries to demand more money for the information and of course, me being me, I say no, pulling my gun out.

He smiles at me, asking me if I enjoyed my meal. And that's when it hit me. Turns out through the whole meal, he's been going Temple of Doom on me with a poison that'll kill me unless I give him what he wants. I didn't notice it affecting me at the start because it had been mixed in so well with the food.

I persevere and take him out before he can do any more damage. But by now, the poison is starting to infect me and I know there probably wasn't an antidote, so I let it take me out. Woke up hours later, about to be nailed in a coffin, and they got me out just in time.

It was after that that I realised about how this affects the body, and I didn't feel as hungry as I did before. Maybe it was just that poison. Who knows?"

"Who knows indeed?" I asked, before I used my coat as a duvet and rested my head on the sofa. "I'm gonna go to sleep here. Wake me up when you've got something."

"Will do. Merry Christmas, Marty" Jack replied, as my eyes shut again, and I managed to get more than one hour of sleep.

---

However, I was still woken just as suddenly by Jack grabbing me awake.

"Marty, you need to see this" were his first words to me, as I finally rose from my stupor.

"Why, what's the matter?" I asked, getting up to join Jack at the door.

"A lot of people just started walking about and making their way to the roof, like they were controlled."

"Shit. When did this happen?"

"About 5 minutes ago" Jack replied. "The Sycorax replied to UNIT's message with just a simple hand-wave, like they were using the Force. The same time that happened, they all ended up that way."

"Fuck" I muttered, before both of us went up there to see how many were on the roof.

When we got through the exit door at the top, we saw we hadn't been the only people who'd witnessed this.

Mothers going to their daughters, fathers going to their sons, all of them trying to get them away from the edge to no avail.

Throughout all of this, a blue light continually shone around them and Jack pointed it out.

"That's the same light the Sycorax were using on their new message" he whispered. "Come on. We need to get back to the room."

"Right behind you" I said, as we re-entered the room and Jack showed me the video of the Sycorax leader doing that.

"So, this is what they did as a response to Harriet?" I asked.

"Yeah. Don't know how many are affected, but I'm guessing it's not just London that has this problem."

"You do that, and I'm gonna find Rose" I told him, making for the door. "I have her number, but I want to know in person. Knowing our lifestyle, she's probably going through the same thing as us."

"Good thinking" Jack replied. "I'll phone you with an update, so watch yourself."

"You too, Jack" I said, closing the door behind me.

I raced back over to where Rose's flat, to find almost all of her estate doing the same thing as the others who'd been on the roof.

Looking around for the faces on the rooftops, I hoped that neither Rose or Mickey were among those affected by this.

"ROSE!" I yelled upwards. "MICKEY!"

A few seconds later, I heard Rose faintly calling back to me "Marty? Oh, thank God."

"Thank God is right" I said to myself, as Rose and Mickey ran back down the stairs towards me.

Hugging me, Rose said "You're alright."

"Couldn't get rid of me" I smiled, as all 3 of us looked around in confusion and shock at the others who weren't so lucky.

I then told the pair "We need to go back inside. I know a few things about this that might help."

"Alright" Rose replied, as Mickey and I followed her back to her flat.

I closed the door behind me, and finally realised the damage that the tree and I had caused before. In my earlier anger, I had failed to see what she'd meant by my involvement, but now I saw just how much of it had been my fault.

The glass and the furniture, for the most part were cleaned up as best as they could, but on the walls there were still flecks and spots of my blood that had dried up pretty quickly, and stuck there as reminders about how messy my life now was, and I knew that it was still early days for coming to terms with it.

I wanted to avoid Jackie as much as I could, so I gestured to Rose if I could see the Doctor again.

"Sure. He's still out of it" she replied, "But that's probably the safest place for you right now."

Rose blocked off what had previously been the door-frame, thanks to the tree, only Mickey was with us this time as more company.

I then filled them in on what Jack and I had learned from this, but when Rose asked me what I'd done after the Tardis, I didn't completely lie to her, but I just said that a friend of mine had been staying at a nearby hotel and I'd slept there for the night.

"So, I take it you saw the video of them communicating with Earth?" I asked, to which they nodded in unison.

"Well, my friend and I managed to get a translation of what the message was" I replied, and told them word for word of what the translation meant.

"So, when it says "Surrender or they will die" Rose gulped.

"It's referring to the people on the roof" I answered, pointing up. "No idea how many are like this, but we all know it's not good. I left before my friend could gleam any more details out of it, but they'll get back to me with an update."

It was at that moment, my phone started ringing, and I picked it up instantly.

"Speak of the Devil" I muttered ironically, before I answered.

Knowing my company, I cut off Jack by saying "I'm with Rose and Mickey. Just tell me what you've found" so he wouldn't get angry.

"You're not gonna like it" he replied, as Rose and Mickey looked on in worry.

"How many?" I asked, all of us dreading the answer.

"2 billion people" Jack said, then elaborated. "That's about a third of the global population."

"Oh, my God" I whispered, sitting down on the bed beside the Doctor.

"It gets worse, Marty" Jack replied. "I've seen the types of people affected by this, and I know just how it's being done."

"How?"

"You remember the probe that got picked up?"

"Yeah."

"Well, there were samples on it identifying the human race to others in the universe."

"And?"

"There was water, and seeds, and..."

Jack gulped. "And blood. A Positive. The Sycorax have themselves a vial of A Positive, and they're controlling 2 billion people with it."

"And unless we surrender, they're gonna off them" I finished, in fear.

"Bingo."

"Ok" I replied, as we tried to maintain composure. "Just see if you can find out any way of stopping it. And, also, keep your eyes peeled later. You may find a new trophy to add to your collection."

"Will do. Take care, Marty" Jack replied, before he hung up again.

I then looked up at Rose and Mickey who had been staring in both silence and fear as I had talked to Jack.

"Well?" Mickey asked, breaking the silence. "What did your friend say about this?"

"They said that it's not just London" I replied. "Right now, there are 2 billion people ready to jump because of the Sycorax."

"Oh, God" Rose exclaimed. "How?"

"They're using some form of blood control" I answered. "A Positive to be exact. And through that, they made those people go up to the roof of tall buildings, ready to act as a mass hostage situation."

"And we can't do anything" Rose replied, trying not to cry.

"I'm sorry" I replied. "I really am. If I'd have known this might have happened, I would have done anything to prevent it. But, thanks to these events actually happening, we can't do anything, full stop."

As Rose and Mickey went to the TV to try and gain some reasoning from it, I stayed behind with the Doctor, just to give him some comfort.

"Of all the times when you regenerate, it's when the world needs you the most" I told him, doing my best to contain my anger. "I just hope you realise just how much you mean to Earth and the universe. Without you, we have to rely on ourselves to defend the Earth, and not wait for you to act as negotiator. You've been around so much longer than we have, you know just how capable we are of fucking over external relations. And that is something you need to come to terms with. You won't always be there to save us, so we have to do what we must to survive, even if it tests our limits.

I don't even know if you'll hear it, but I wanted you to know why I chose to go with you on this adventure. It's not just my journey anymore. It's knowing that others will get dragged down with you, no matter how hard you try."

"And these children, that you spit on, as they try to change their worlds are immune to your consultations. They're quite aware of what they're going through."

I finished by getting up and walking to the door-frame, only to find Rose and Jackie, who had been listening in the whole time, the former in tears and sobbed "He's left me, mum" over and over while Jackie tried to comfort her.

This moment didn't last long, though, as a massive shockwave split through the sky and broke all of the glass in most of the windows around us, also giving a massive tremor in the immediate area.

"Oh, Jesus" I said, as Mickey and I raced out to see what had happened.

Rose and Jackie joined us a few seconds later as we all gazed up in fear to witness what new hell the universe was bringing to us next.

This turned out to be the Sycorax's ship, which was shaped not unlike a giant rock, that slowly made its way towards central London and hovered above the Houses of Parliament, before stopping there completely.

All the while the rest of London stared slack-jawed in awe, not realising the gravity of the situation.

I turned to Rose, a panicked look on my face to see what she had to say on it.

However, she was defiant, and instead ran back to the flat, all of us following her in confusion.

"Marty, Mickey, carry him" she ordered, pointing at the Doctor. "Mum, get your stuff, and get some food, we're going."

"Where?" I asked reluctantly. "The only places we can be are either here or the Tardis."

I saw that same defiant look again, and I realised it instantly.

"No" I protested. "We can't."

"It's the safest place on Earth" Rose argued.

"And what are we gonna do in there?" Jackie asked, supporting me.

"Hide" Rose put simply.

"Is that it?" Jackie and I said together.

"Mum, Marty. Look in the sky" Rose said, pointing to where the window had previously been. "There's a great big alien invasion, and I don't know what to do, okay? I've traveled with him, and I've seen all that stuff, but when I'm stuck at home, I'm useless. Now, all we can do is run and hide, and I'm sorry. Now, move!" she urged us.

"Story of my life" I muttered, as all 3 of us heaved him out of the bed and to a good carrying position.

While we were doing our own heavy lifting, Jackie had planned to bring every thing but the kitchen sink.

"Mum, just leave it" Rose pleaded, as she struggled to take all of her food with us.

"Fuck it" I said, lifting the Doctor over my shoulders like a hunting trophy, leaving Mickey and Rose stunned at how I was able to do it without worry.

"Marty, what are you doing?" demanded Rose.

"Saving you time" I replied, gesturing to the Tardis key in my pocket. "I'll take him in, you two keep a look out for anything."

Lifting the key out of my pocket, Mickey raced forwards to the Tardis and opened the door, while Rose and I followed suit behind him, only I was much faster with the Doctor on my back.

"How-the-hell-are-you-so-fast?" Rose panted behind me, as we approached the Tardis door.

"I used to help rescue people from situations like this when I was younger" I replied, backing into it, remembering how many people I'd saved from being in the line of enemy fire with Jack. "Of course, not this situation, but more small-scale."

We then heard Jackie who was still struggling with the shopping, which shattered with a loud crash.

"Jesus" I murmured, finally setting the Doctor on the Tardis floor as Jackie now entered the Tardis with us.

"No chance either of you can fly this thing?" Mickey asked, who was now looking around the console.

"Not anymore" Rose replied, before I could speak.

"Well, you did it before."

"I know, but it's been wiped from my head, like it's forbidden" Rose argued. "If I try it again, the universe might rip in half."

"Ok, then" Mickey said, turning to me. "What about you, Mr. Alien Expert? You must know something."

"As a matter of fact, yes, I do" I replied. "Unfortunately, it requires the Tardis to be in a more… active state than it is now."

"What does that mean?" Rose and Mickey asked.

"It means that I have a program in the Tardis that allows me, or would allow me, to control it" I explained. "Or, at least I would use it, but thanks to this happening, I can't use it at all. The Doctor needs to be as stable as the Tardis for it to work, and since neither of them are co-operating at the moment, the only thing we can do is wait."

"That's the idea?" Mickey asked, walking over to me. "Waiting?"

"It seemed to work last time" I replied, "Besides, I don't see the cavalry showing up to save us any time soon."

"Well, that's as good as it gets, then" Rose finished, as Jackie started the "party" by opening up a flash of tea.

"Here we go" she told us, pouring it out. "Nice cup of tea."

"The solution to everything" Rose and I said sarcastically.

"Oh, stop your moaning. I'll get the rest of the food" Jackie replied, before leaving to pick up what she'd dropped on the ground.

The doors of the Tardis closed behind her, then Mickey tried to liven it up a bit.

"Tea" he smiled, as I looked at him. "It's like we're having a picnic while the world comes to an end. Very British."

His smile soon faded while he walked around to the monitor of the Tardis.

"How does this thing work?" he asked me, noticing how close I was to it. "If it picks up TV, maybe we can see what's going on out there. Maybe we've surrendered."

"I know about it from reading the instructions" I replied, as they both looked at me in confusion. "Yes, there are instructions for this, but they are a slog to get through. However..." I muttered, as Mickey let me access it. "It just requires the right tuning to get her started."

"I thought you said you had a program for this" he replied, while I entered in the codes I had remembered from reading it.

"Yeah, well, I managed to skim through the basics and I kept a few details in there" I said, pointing to my head. "Here we go. That should do it."

I entered in the final commands for the Tardis, and she started giving off a signal, one that I'd never heard before.

"Do you know what that is?" Mickey asked, as I started to look panicked.

"No" I replied, "But I'm betting it's not good. Here, let me get back onto it."

At that moment, the monitor denied me entry for using those commands, and would only operate with the appropriate controller, meaning the Doctor's hand-print.

"Shit" I replied. "Now, she's not letting me erase that until he wakes up."

"She?" Mickey asked. "Who's she?"

"The Tardis" I replied. "Who'd you think I meant?"

"Was it a distress signal?" Rose asked, steering the conversation away.

"No. That would sound different and give out a higher frequency" I told her. "This, I don't know. All we can do is stay here until your mum gets back here with the food."

"Where is she, anyway?" Rose asked, walking to the door. "I'd better give her a hand. It might start raining missiles out there."

"Tell her anything from a tin, that's fine" Mickey replied, as I gave up trying to use the console.

"Tell her yourself" Rose smiled.

"I'm not that brave."

"Oh, I don't know" Rose smiled again, before walking out the door.

Mickey and I grinned like, well, idiots at that comment.

That was quickly changed when we heard Rose scream 10 seconds later and looked at each other in fear.

"Rose!" Mickey yelled, running after her, dropping the tea in front of the Doctor's face.

"Shit" I realised, knowing that I could either leave the Tardis and the Doctor alone, or stay with them, and risk the lives of Mickey and Rose.

In the end, I made my choice, running after the pair and closing the door behind me.

"Where's your shame? You've left us up to our necks in it."

The second I did that, I was instantly grabbed by one of the Sycorax and marched to join the others who were still recovering from the ordeal.

"Alright, I'm going" I grumbled, arms raised above my head in surrender.

As it turned out, it wasn't just the 3 of us who were here.

Harriet Jones was also with us, as well as a man who looked like he was her translator for the Sycorax.

She had grabbed Rose in an embrace, and asked her if the Doctor was with us.

"No" Rose replied. "We're on our own."

I then noticed the one who appeared to be the leader of the Sycorax, who grunted in their native language to us, which was thankfully translated by Harriet's assistant. It sounded like his voice was the first Jack and I had heard on the recording.

"The yellow girl. She has the clever blue box. Therefore, she speaks for your planet."

"But you can't" Harriet and I protested, before I was knocked down by the staff of the one who had grabbed me.

"Someone's gotta be the Doctor" she replied.

"Then, let it be me" I said to Rose, getting up as slowly as I could, trying to make sure I didn't get hit again, or even worse, killed. "I know more about the Doctor than you do. I can handle it. Trust me."

"They'll kill you" Harriet replied, trying to hold me back.

"Yeah?" I muttered, stepping forward. "What else is new?"

"Marty, you can't" Rose begged, as she turned me around to her, fear written all over her face.

"I know" I whispered to her, giving her a big hug. "I can't. But what I can try to do is buy you time. Hopefully, I can keep their leader talking so that the Doctor wakes up. If I can't, I'm sorry."

"So am I" Rose replied, as she told the Sycorax "My companion here speaks for planet Earth instead. Hear him out before passing judgment."

"Good luck" she told me as we broke apart again, and I walked towards the leader.

I hoped the translator would work in reverse as I spoke to the Sycorax.

"I address the Sycorax race according to Convention 15 of the Shadow Proclamation" I started, hoping I was remembering and structuring the speech right. I don't know. The Doctor wasn't exactly sharing with intergalactic laws, rather avoiding them as best he could.

"Do I have your attention?" I asked, hoping for at least some response.

When none came, I went on.

"As the representative of Planet Earth, I demand that you send these people home, release those from your control, and leave this planet for good. If not, there will not be a second chance. Take this one and use it wisely. Now, be gone!"

A few seconds passed, then the leader started laughing, which threw all of us off our guard.

This in turn caused a whole chorus of his fellow race echoing through the rest of the ship.

He was translated again, saying "You are very, very funny. The Shadow Proclamation is nothing to the Sycorax. Do you think yourself clever with your stolen words, and offering of a chance of peace? For your actions against the Sycorax, you must be brought to death."

"Why?" I demanded to know, as two more approached and tried to restrain me, by holding my arms behind my back. "Your empire is filled with warriors, yes? You consider yourselves champions of your species?"

"That is correct" came the reply as the leader leant down towards me. "However, next to us, you are but a wailing child."

"A wailing child, yes" I replied, desperately buying time. "But, for this world, I offer up myself as their champion. My life for 2 billion people, and those you see before you. Do we have a deal?"

The leader then laughed out loud again, prompting the rest to follow him.

"A true warrior, regardless of species, does not make deals with their enemy" the leader replied. "They stand tall in the face of death. If you are the best your planet can offer as a champion, then your world will be gutted, and your people enslaved."

From "then" onwards, all 6 of us pieced it together at once, with the translator being the first to realise.

"Hold on. That's English" he said, surprised.

"That's English" Rose repeated.

I laughed right in the leader's face, even as it turned more enraged. "You're talking English right now."

"I would never dirty my tongue with your primitive bile!" the leader roared, further cementing the point.

"But that's English" Rose argued, asking the others if they could hear it too.

"I speak only Sycoraxic!" the leader yelled out loud.

"Well, let me help you out with that" I smiled, as the leader readied his staff to hit me. "See, if we're hearing English, the blue box is translating it, which means..."

At that moment, all our heads looked around at the doors of the Tardis, which opened to reveal the Doctor smiling in his dressing gown and pajamas, asking only one question:

"Did you miss me?"

As if in response, the leader, who had just been about to kill me, pulled out his whip from his belt, which glowed an electric blue and uncoiled it at the Doctor, who simply grabbed the end of it like it was nothing and yanked it out of the leader's grip.

"You'll take someone's eye out with that" he remarked, stepping towards the rest of us.

"How dare..." the leader managed to growl, lifting his staff to attack him, only to have it broken in 2 pieces by the Doctor wrestling it from his hands.

"You just can't get the staff" the Doctor muttered, before turning back to the Sycorax leader. "Now you just wait. I'm busy" he ordered, like a petulant child.

That gruff look was quickly broken by the Doctor facing the rest of us.

"Mickey, hello!" he said, joyously, then looked around him. "And Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North. Blimey, it's like "This Is Your Life"."

"Tea!" he exclaimed, turning back to Rose, Mickey and myself, who, still had my arms behind me, although not as tight as before. I guess seeing your leader's spirit literally be broken will do that to you. It meant the Sycorax weren't going to be as "difficult" to work with, but still just as insane.

"That's all I needed, good cup of tea, a superheated infusion of free radicals and tannin. Just the thing to heal the synapses" he finished, pointing to his head, then turned to Rose and the other 2 of us. "Now… first things first. Be honest. How do I look?"

"You look… different" I understated, with a slight laugh.

"Good different or bad different?"

"Just… different" Rose replied.

"Am I… ginger?"

"No, you're just sort of brown" Rose said, looking up at his hair.

Then, the Doctor went into a somewhat strop, saying "Aww, I wanted to be ginger. I've never been ginger. And you two," he pointed at Rose and myself, "Fat lot of good you were. You gave up on me. Ooh, that's rude. Is that the sort of man I am now? Am I rude? Rude and not ginger?"

"I'm sorry, who is this?" Harriet demanded to know, not grasping who exactly was in front of her.

"I'm the Doctor" he replied.

He's the Doctor" I confirmed, still in my personal hold.

"But what happened to my Doctor? Or is it a title that's just passed on?"

"I'm him. I'm literally him. Same man, new face. Well, new everything."

"But you can't be…" Harriet muttered, trying to reason with him.

"Harriet Jones. We we trapped in Downing Street, and the one thing that scared you wasn't the aliens, wasn't the war, it was the thought of your mother being all alone."

"Oh, my God!" she exclaimed, knowing it was the truth.

"Did you win the election?" he asked with a grin.

"Landslide majority" came her reply, before another familiar voice said "If I might interrupt..."

"Yes, sorry" the Doctor replied, almost forgetting why he was here in the first place. "Hello, big fella."

"Who exactly are you?"

"Well, see, that's the question."

"I demand to know who you are!" the Sycorax leader growled in an even more enraged tone than before.

However, that was nothing compared to the Doctor echoing that same tone with his reply of "I DON'T KNOW!"

"See, that's the thing. I'm the Doctor, but beyond that, I just don't know. I literally do not know who I am. It's all untested. Am I funny? Am I sarcastic? Sexy?"

"Oh, Jesus" Ithought, arms still in the hold of the two Sycorax behind me. I thought I might have been able to get out of the lock, but given what weapons I'd just seen used by the leader I didn't do anything, in case Bill and Ben the Sycorax men were a little "trigger happy".

In the midst of concentrating on my own problem, I'd forgot to pay attention to the Doctor's ramblings, until he pointed to what Jack had figured out earlier and told me about.

"And how am I going to react when I see this?" he asked the Sycorax leader, as we all walked over to see it.

Well, I say "walked". Shunted would be a more fitting word. After all, I was the one nearly getting the Hannibal Lecter treatment.

"A great big threatening button. A great big threatening button which must not be pressed under any circumstances, am I right?" he asked with a smile still on his face, like he'd just found a secret Christmas present that no-one had told him about.

"Let me guess, it's some form of control matrix. Hold on, what's feeding it?" the Doctor wondered, as he leant down under the button and accessed a patch which he uncovered to reveal what looked like a Petri dish with red stuff on it. 3 guesses as to what it was.

"What have we got here?" he muttered, dropping a finger in it and pulling it out. "Blood? Yep, Definitely blood, human blood, A Positive, with just a dash of iron."

"But that means… Blood control. Blood control! Oh, I haven't seen blood control for years! You're controlling all the A Positives. Which leaves us with a great big, stinking problem. 'Cos, I really don't know who I am. I don't know when to stop. So if I see a great big threatening button, which should never, ever, ever be pressed, then I just want to do this."

And with that, the Doctor slammed his hand down upon the button causing everyone but me and him to recoil in horror.

"You've killed them!" the translator yelled.

"What do you think, big fella?" the Doctor asked the Sycorax leader. "Are they dead?"

"We allow them to live."

"Allow?" the Doctor clarified. "You've no choice. That's all blood control is. Cheap bit of voodoo. Scares the pants off you, but that's all it does. It's like hypnosis" he explained. "You can hypnotise someone to walk like a chicken or sing like Elvis, but you can't hypnotise them to death. Survival instinct is too strong."

"Blood control was just one form of conquest" retorted the Sycorax leader. "I can summon the Armada and take this world by force."

"Well, yeah, you could" the Doctor reasoned, sitting down in front of us. "You could do that, of course you could. But why? Look at these people. These human beings. Consider their potential. From the day they arrive on the planet, and blinking step into the sun, there is more to see than can ever be seen, more to do than… No, hold on" he realised, knowing what he had just quoted. "Sorry, that's the Lion King. But the point still stands. Leave them alone."

"Or what?" the leader asked.

"Or" the Doctor replied, pulling out the sword from one of the two who were holding me, making them lose their grip for a moment.

He then ran back to the Tardis and yelled "I challenge you", which distracted the Sycorax for a few seconds as they laughed out loud while I escaped their grasp.

"Ooh, that struck a chord" he replied, before asking the leader "Am I right that the sanctified rules of combat still apply?"

"You stand as this world's champion?" the leader asked the Doctor in response and drawing his own sword, oblivious to my escape and instead focusing on what he perceived as the main problem.

"Thank you" the Doctor replied, taking off the dressing gown as he held his sword aloft. "I've no idea who I am, but you've just summed me up. So, do you accept my challenge or are you just a cranak pel casackre salvak?" he asked. That insult, surprisingly, was one the Tardis I guess refused to translate. Who'd have thought she'd have a censor on board?

With a hiss, the Sycorax leader replied as both held their swords up by their blades, which, even though it looked cool, was still dangerous, and that was before combat started. I mean, did they care about injuries like that?

Still, I couldn't say anything about handling swords like that. Jack and I had once drunkenly re-enacted the duel from The Princess Bride, with him as Inigo Montoya and myself as Wesley. Long story short, I got too into character and Jack had to feel his hand re-growing back. After that, we both agreed not to do that any more without doing safety procedures first.

Before the contenders fought each other, they knelt down and exchanged a brave gaze.

"For the planet?" the Sycorax leader asked the Doctor.

"For the planet" he confirmed, as they both held their swords, ready to clash.

And clash, they did, for the Sycorax leader got the upper hand on the Doctor very quickly, who'd swung first, but got blocked and parried twice, and knocked down on the floor within 30 seconds.

After he got back up, the Doctor tried to fight back, but got the brunt of his hilt to his stomach.

Knowing he couldn't win indoors, the Doctor ran back through the Sycorax near the Tardis and asked "Want some fresh air?" as we all joined him; the two guards who had taken me had given up at this point.

The two kept striking as best as they could manage, the Sycorax leader still a formidable opponent, until he'd caught the Doctor off guard and tried to blind-side him with a hit to his nose.

Rose tried to step in to help, but I held her back as the Doctor yelled "Stay back! Invalidate the challenge and he wins the planet."

"Trust me" I whispered to her. "He's got this. I'm sure of it."

"I hope so" Rose muttered, as the fighting started to reach its climax.

The Sycorax leader and the Doctor ran at each other, determined to finish this now.

The Doctor did his best to block the leader's blows, but got knocked onto his back by a sneaky move, and with a smile, the leader sliced off his hand like it was made of butter, the sword following with it as they descended towards the streets of London.

"Hopefully Jack's on the ground, now" I thought, as the leader stood up in apparent triumph. "The only thing is, will he stay long enough for the encore?"

"You cut my hand off" The Doctor muttered, as the Sycorax leader yelled in joy, returning to his people.

Standing back up and looking the leader straight on, the Doctor said "And now I know what kind of man I am. I'm lucky. 'Cause quite by chance, I'm within the first 15 hours of my regeneration cycle. Which means I've just enough residual cellular energy to do this..."

Like Deadpool, only a whole lot quicker, his hand grew back, until it was exactly the same as the one that had previously been there.

"Witchcraft" the leader guessed.

"Time Lord" came the Doctor's sincere reply.

"Strange fascinations, fascinating me. Oh, changes are taking the pace I'm going through."

As the Sycorax leader stared in disbelief, I took another sword that was from a guard beside us, smiled at Rose, who shared the same look, and yelled "Doctor!" as we tossed it towards him.

"So, I'm still the Doctor, then?" he asked, as he caught it and prepared for round two of his fight like nothing had changed.

"No arguments from us!" I shouted back.

"Wanna know the best bit?" he asked everyone. "This new hand, it's a fightin' hand!"

I still couldn't believe he'd said that last bit in a mock Texan accent, but that was nothing compared to how quickly the Sycorax leader was getting his ass kicked by Doctor 2.0.

The Doctor fought harder and faster than the first fight, but even with a few more parries from the leader against him, he managed to knock him onto his back and almost pin him with his sword.

"I win" the Doctor told him simply, the tip of the blade almost piercing the Sycorax leader's shoulders.

"Then kill me."

"I'll spare your life if you'll take this champion's command. Leave this world and never return. What do you say?"

"Yes" the leader rasped.

"Swear on the blood of your species" the Doctor insisted, again, almost being close to the leader's neck.

"I swear."

"There we are, then. Cheers, big fella" the Doctor happily replied, as he came back to join us, placing his sword down.

"Bravo!" Harriet and Rose congratulated the Doctor, while I clapped and went to retrieve the Doctor's sword.

"Not bad for a man in his jim-jams" the Doctor said as he put back his dressing gown on. "Very Arthur Dent. Now, there was a good man."

He turned back to me and asked "You coming, Marty?"

"Yep" I replied. "Just wanted to get a souvenir."

I knelt down and picked up the Doctor's sword while extending my arm towards the Sycorax leader.

However, what happened next was my own undoing, due to being distracted.

"What was that about not making deals with the enemy?" I asked him, still holding the sword in my other hand. This caused me to take my eyes off my enemy and instead admire how the blade and hilt looked of the great-sword.

"For a race of warriors, your craftsmanship is amazing" I muttered, looking at the amount of detail.

"Then, perhaps you'd like to see a closer look" the leader hissed, as he grabbed my hand to pull himself back up… and promptly stabbed me in the heart with a hidden dagger he'd had in his robes, leaving it still in there.

As I struggled for breath and looked down at the blood that was slowly pooling over John McClane's face, I knew I had to do something before the leader, who had taken back the sword from me, attacked the Doctor.

With what strength I had left, I pulled the dagger out from me, gasping when it finally exited, and threw it at the leader's back, where it stuck in his spine like a bullseye.

The dagger, combined with the Doctor knowing he'd turn on us and throwing a satsuma at a button on the ship, causing the platform beneath the leader to disappear, was enough for him to be sent off towards the ground.

However, he, like me, had enough strength to try to take the other down, and pulled me with him as we fell to the streets, about to join both the Doctor's hand and his sword.

As the Sycorax leader flew by me and I attempted to slow my speed, I knew there wasn't much time left before one or both of us was dead again, so I looked him in the eyes and with sadistic glee in my voice said "Welcome to Earth, motherfucker."

As I said that, I could feel my eyes closing, and I didn't know if I'd be dead before or after I hit the ground. I sighed, and let fate decide what would happen to me...

---

As I took in air again, I could feel movement beneath me, and wondered if I was being taken somewhere. That was quickly made easier when a familiar voice said "Welcome back to the world of the living, Marty."

"Jack" I said in relief, knowing I was strapped into his car. "Oh, thank God."

"I wouldn't thank him, or her just yet" Jack smiled, looking back in the mirror. "I don't judge."

"How did you find me?" I asked, looking at the smear that had now covered the majority of my clothes. Weirdly, it didn't feel like a long time when I'd came back this time. It only felt like a few minutes before my heart and skin regrew and I got my breath back.

"It wasn't hard to" Jack began. "After I hung up on you, I tried to find out more information about the Sycorax. But a few minutes later, their spaceship appeared and all communications were cut off. Cell, Internet, you name it. None were operating. So, I went back to the Tardis to see if you guys are doing ok, but by the time I get there, it's only Rose's mom with her shopping and you lot are teleported away, most likely onto the ship.

After that, I got in the car and drove around the Thames, hoping to find what you'd told me about and get there before any other Torchwood operators start work.

10 minutes later, fate drops it right in front of me like a ton of bricks, literally. I'm at this construction site, and I look up and see a hand and a sword coming down fast, so I make as much of a landing zone as I can before they impact it, which they did a few seconds later.

You weren't kidding when you said it was like the Hand of Sauron" he joked, as I looked on in amazement. "However, right then and there, it was like King Arthur, rising from the grave."

"You knew it was the Doctor's, didn't you?" I asked, as we drove slowly through the traffic that had been blocking the roads when the spaceship appeared.

"At first, I didn't know whose it was" Jack replied, "Then, the second glowing energy burst out of it, I knew right away."

"That's something I'll talk about in a bit" I told him. "So, how did you find me?"

"More like you found me. A minute after I'd got the hand sorted, I see two people falling to Earth, both in pretty bad shape. I knew it was you because of, well, your hair. And I saw that you'd been about to fall and end up like the other guy, so I made a makeshift safe spot where you wouldn't fall and break anything when you "recovered". The other one, not so much. He's got other Torchwood guys looking after him. I put you in the car along with the equipment and here we are. Your turn" Jack finished, again smiling.

I was about to reply, when we both saw green arcs of energy spill out from buildings around the Thames and become a pentagon, before converging in the central point and firing upwards in a mighty blast, which penetrated the Sycorax ship – still in orbit and about to leave Earth - and caused it to explode, sending debris around the Earth and the inner space.

"No… No.." Jack muttered, stopping the car immediately, before honking the horn in anger. "Goddamnit!"

"What's wrong?" I asked, even though fear was clearly in his eyes as well as the obvious anger thanks to the mirror.

"Torchwood." he said simply.

"Are you…?" I started to ask, before he quickly interjected "No. I'm not. They told me that technology wasn't going to be used, and this is what happens."

"You think they had a reason?" I asked, worriedly.

"Kill or be killed, I'm guessing. Either that, or send a message to the rest of the universe."

"Which is?"

"Don't fuck with the people of Earth" Jack answered, venom pure in his voice, "Or the people of Earth will fuck with you."

After a long pause he said, "This is what you meant earlier when you said they'd leave a big impact."

"I'm sorry" I replied. "But even if I'd gone into specifics, what were the odds they'd actually care? They would have shot it down regardless of us saying anything."

Trying to steer the conversation away, I asked Jack "You still want to hear my side of the story? It might make you feel better."

"As long as it doesn't end in genocide, go for it" Jack replied a few seconds later, restarting the engine as we set off again.

"In reverse" I started, "The "other guy" was, and I mean was the Sycorax leader. He stabbed me in the heart, but I threw his dagger right at his back. He fell and tried to take me with him, but thanks to the both of us, there's one less "ugly motherfucker" in the universe." I tried to do my best Arnie impression when describing it, but Jack got the reference.

"You thought he was ugly before..." Jack trailed off with a grim smile.

"Let me guess? Gravity disagreed with him?" I asked.

"Gravity, his dagger in his back, and the surface of planet Earth" Jack responded, sharing my dark humour. "Not a good combo."

"Anything else?" he asked.

"Yeah" I replied. "Plenty. For one, when you were describing how the Doctor's hand glowed, that might be because there was still some regeneration energy attached to it, like when you'd see a body respond to an autopsy. When it glowed, that must have been because his new hand drained off the energy from his old one."

"Could be" Jack murmured, before saying "Hold on. Back up. Did you say "regeneration"?"

"Shit" I said. "I shouldn't have said anything."

"Come on." Jack insisted. "What do you mean by it?"

"If I tell you, you have to promise you won't say anything about this to him when he meets you again" I replied, looking up with dread and worry in my eyes.

"I can't promise I'll stay completely quiet about it" Jack said, "But I'll do my best."

"Fair enough" I began. "The whole reason this thing ended up this way was back on the Game Station. After we both woke up, the Doctor absorbed the Time Vortex, and gave as much of it back into the Tardis as he could. Unfortunately, the energy he'd taken was too much for him, and that caused him to regenerate. He caused the Tardis to crash-land here because his new self disagreed with him, and up until about - what, 20 minutes ago? - couldn't get an understanding on who he was. That's why both he and the Tardis were unresponsive. They were both linked together and couldn't work due to one of them failing."

"Wow" Jack could only say in response. "That's actually a good reason to keep me in the dark. Is that why you couldn't let me see him?"

"Yeah. Speaking of the Tardis..." I said.

"What?"

"I sort of told Rose and Mickey about the program" I answered, as Jack was about to give a look of "You what?".

Before he could get angry, I quickly said "The bare details. Only a tiny sliver of what actually is within it. I was hoping to tell them later, after this had blown over, but..."

"But it forced your hand" Jack muttered.

He thought for a moment, then asked "So what happened on the ship, then? Before the "deliveries"?

"Well, we got up to the ship and Rose walked out first, then Mickey then myself. Well, I say "walked" out. I really mean the two of us ran out after her, after we heard her screaming. Mickey dropped his tea, which I'll get back to in a bit.

We were marched in front of the Sycorax and their leader, who – like I said before – was one ugly motherfucker, though I didn't want to say it to his face.

Also among them were Harriet Jones and her assistant, who was also the translator. He was the first one we'd heard on that recording, Jack. The one who'd cracked their message."

"Go on."

"Rose tried to stand up for everyone, but I insisted that she let me speak instead, due to how much I knew about the Doctor. That, and I'd hope to filibuster long enough so the Doctor would wake up."

"And how did that go?" Jack asked, as we still made our way through London.

"I got a laugh out of the audience, if that helps. Did nothing, so they nearly gave me a "splitting" headache" I mimed.

I started laughing. "But then his speech turned into English without a translator from Earth..."

"And the Tardis translated it for you" Jack chuckled.

"Bingo" I said, joining in. "You should have seen the look on his face when the Tardis doors opened and the Doctor's smiling like it's his birthday. Turns out all we had to do was give the Doctor the smell of tea to wake him up.

"After that, the Doctor tried to figure out who he was, got rid of the blood control, and engaged in a sword-fight with the Sycorax leader. Got his ass kicked in the first bit, but… we both know what happened after that. The end" I finished, with a smile.

Jack's face said it all. He was speechless.

"I've never heard a story that great since, honestly I don't know when" he replied, after 30 seconds of silence. "Now I wish I had been there."

"Well, the timelines would disagree with you, but yeah. We both missed some good stuff" I summed up.

At this point, Jack was now approaching Rose's flat, although it was far enough away so I'd be within walking distance.

"I'm leaving you off here and then going back to the Hub" Jack told me, as we came to a stop. "I still want to go back and spend Christmas with the new team, even if it might be brief."

"You're not going any closer?"

"Nah. If I do, the Doctor might get suspicious and get the timelines muddled up" Jack replied with a frown. "Besides, I wanted to give you your present before I forgot."

"What present?" I asked, as Jack leant down towards the passenger seat and pulled out a wrapped box, about 60cm³.

"Go on. Open it" he said, as I took it from him.

I took apart the paper, opened the lid, and within it was… a gun case.

Curiously, I opened it up to find out why this case was here. As it happened, it was a case for a pistol, with indents for both the gun itself and 4 magazines of ammunition, all of which were full.

Then, I picked the gun up to examine it and understood. Jack hadn't gave me just any pistol.

This was the pistol I'd had on me when I'd died on the Game Station. The one I'd used to take down a lot of Daleks and the one I'd found myself grown attached to since I'd "obtained" it. I could tell because it had a navy stripe running across the barrel on both sides and the sights were a glowing red, which gave it a more ominous presence.

"I-I-I" I stuttered.

"I believe you're meaning "thank you"" Jack replied.

"How?" I began. "How did you find it?"

"It was the one I'd seen you use a lot" Jack answered, "Not to mention, when I tried to use it, I found out about the "safety" features the hard way."

"Sorry" I said, looking down. "I should have told you."

"Don't get upset" Jack laughed. "If anything, it helped whenever I ran into trouble. Let's just say my hands weren't the only ones getting burned."

"I'm amazed you managed to hold on to it all this time" I muttered. "I mean, the cleaning alone must have been a problem."

"I had to wear gloves to do that" came Jack's response. "But yeah. She's saved my ass on a lot of occasions because of your dedication. So, I thought, since we're both the same now and you're gonna be running into danger a lot more, you're gonna need protection. Hence the gift. Merry Christmas."

"Thanks" I said, feeling the grip before putting it back in the case. I was about to get out of the car, before I smelled my clothes by mistake and got a whiff of the stale blood. "Oh, boy. I'm gonna need to change clothes when I get back to the Tardis."

Then, remembering the first time I'd got blood elsewhere, I recalled the tree. "God. I still feel bad for Rose during this. I mean, her home did almost end up like an alien version of Lethal Weapon."

"At least it wasn't Die Hard" Jack pointed out, acknowledging my t-shirt as I got out of the car. "What, with a lot of thieves and such. Still, Lethal Weapon does make sense in a way. You're Riggs and I'm Murtaugh, only with less… tendencies. Guess we will be getting too old for this shit" he laughed, as the two of us finished the quote in an intentional jinx.

"Oh, one last thing" Jack said, looking around in case anyone else was here, before rummaging in the glove box. "You might want to have this as well."

Handing to me a familiar looking wallet, I asked "Psychic paper?"

"Yep. Thought you deserved your own now, given that we've had to… "adapt to our surroundings" for better or worse. And, what better time to do it than now?"

"But I thought you only had one" I said, putting it in my pocket.

"You really think I didn't have multiples of this?" Jack smirked. "5 years later, and you still don't know me all that well."

"Thanks for these" I said to Jack as he prepared to reverse "I'll come see you when I can."

"I don't doubt that in the slightest" Jack grinned, as he put the radio on and waved.

Before we said goodbye, the radio started playing and the music that came out wasn't anything Christmas related.

It was "We'll Meet Again" by Vera Lyn, which made both of us laugh and simultaneously be scared of how accurate it was.

"You ever think God's playing a joke on us?" I asked Jack, who was still reversing.

"Honestly, I hope it's a good one" he called out. "I'll see you when I see you."

"Bye" I replied, before I made my way back to the Tardis and hoped I still had my key from falling that great height.

Thankfully I did, before I opened the door, and the warmth of the Tardis was felt once more.

This time, the Tardis was in a more welcoming mood than before. Hell, the last time I'd talked to her was before I tried to defend my "resting place" so to speak, if you didn't count the decision I'd made in the afterlife.

"Tardis?" I asked the empty space. "You there?"

After a few seconds of silence, she finally replied "Yes, Marty. I'm still here", indicated by the pillar pulsing in sequence with her voice.

"How are you feeling?" I wondered, hoping the regeneration hadn't messed her up.

"I've had better days, but I'm recovering just fine. Wish I could say the same for the Doctor" she mused. "He's spent ages in his wardrobe before finally picking out his clothes."

"Well, I'm sure they'll do the job just fine" I smiled, before she asked me "And how are you feeling?"

"Likewise" I answered. "You weren't lying when you told me this would come back to me in a bad way."

"If you're referring to your new "life-style", this is only the beginning. However, in time, you will find a way to control and eventually overcome it. It may cost those you do not want to lose, but know that you will still be a better person out of it."

"You really believe that?"

"I do. I may have been a burden in the past, but due to this new Doctor's attitude, I will seek to move away from the horrors of the past, and move towards the light of the future, as I'm sure you will do the same.

This universe is still yours to explore, Mr. Smith. The only way you will find your self is to engage in what it has to offer, good and bad. Through that, you will reach your destination and find your peace at the end."

"Thanks" I replied, trying not to cry. "I'm glad I have someone like you to talk to. It makes the adventures more uplifting, no matter the situation."

"I am glad to have helped. However..." the Tardis began.

"What?"

"When you are done here and have enjoyed the festivities, you will need to tell the Doctor about me. About this part of me."

"Are you sure?" I asked, worried. "So soon after he's regenerated?"

"It will be a bit of a process to justify, but I am certain that he will acknowledge how much this means to me, and how heavily you helped to ensure it."

"I hope you're right" I said, unsure. "I just don't want this to have been a big waste of time."

"Me neither. That is why I'm optimistic. Go on, now" the Tardis urged, in a motherly tone. "Get changed and this will be sorted out soon."

"Ok" I replied, smiling now as I ran towards my room. "Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas, Marty" the Tardis echoed before her voice disappeared.

Back in my room I changed out of my dirty clothes and put them in a wash basket, then selected my evening wear.

In the end, I went for a navy suit and red jacket with brown shoes, which I thought summed me up pretty well. Elements of the future and past, but still grounded on planet Earth.

After this, I placed my gun case in a drawer in my desk along with the psychic paper and said "Don't worry. You'll be used a lot in the future. I guarantee it" before closing it shut.

Exiting both the bedroom and Tardis, I walked back to Rose's flat and took a deep breath before knocking on the door.

"Who's that at the door?" I heard Jackie ask them through the open window. "If it's carollers, they're getting a kick."

"If they were, they wouldn't have knocked" Rose replied, her voice and footsteps getting louder as they approached me. "I'm just worried about..."

Her speech got cut off as I heard the door open and she saw my face again.

"Hi" I said, hoping she wouldn't faint at seeing me again.

"Marty" she muttered, before she gave me a hug and then tried to recover. "You're back."

"Ooh, look out you rock'n rollers."

"Can't get rid of me" I smiled back, noticing everyone else's faces around her table, namely Jackie's, whose was both a shock and bordering on fear. "Sorry I'm late. You wouldn't believe the day I've had."

"Is that all?" Jackie started to ask, before the Doctor cut her off with a look and exchanged a glance with me as if to say "Well, you took your time."

"If you're angry at me, I'm ok with that" I said, closing the door behind me as Rose walked back to her seat. "Besides, I've dealt with worse. I can handle an angry mother on Christmas. Nothing to worry about here."

"If you say so" Jackie murmured, as she reluctantly pulled up a chair for me. I didn't get as much food as everyone else, but Rose and Mickey, and even the Doctor to an extent felt sorry for me, and gave me what they couldn't eat. This actually turned out to be in my favour as I suddenly realised what Jack had meant by the hunger being affected by us coming back. All of a sudden, my appetite was boosted, and I cleared out the food in hardly any time at all.

The second I'd finished my meals, Rose got distracted by the TV and said "Look. It's Harriet Jones."

As I turned around to see it, it was indeed Harriet, although there was something different about her, judging by the amount of people trying to interview her and ask about her health.

"Look at me" she insisted. "I look fine. I feel fine. I'm fine."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the Doctor had stood up and glared at the TV, eyeing up Harriet as if to say "I told you so."

"What did you do?" I asked him, to no avail.

Distracting us a little, Jackie answered the phone and said "It's Bev. She says go outside and look."

"Look at what?" Rose asked, as I turned around, not bothering now with what the Doctor had done.

"I don't know. Just shift" came the urgent reply, as Jackie forced us all out the door.

Outside, the weather had changed from its normal British-ness to a more white environment, which Rose had started to be invested in, until the Doctor and I looked up and noticed what looked like meteors falling to Earth.

Rose even asked that question, until the Doctor replied "No, it's parts of the Sycorax ship breaking up in the atmosphere."

Confirming, I added "It's ash on the ground, not snow. Trust me. I know from experience."

"Plus" the Doctor continued. "This is a brand new planet Earth. No denying the existence of aliens now. You all saw it. Everything's new."

"So, what about you?" Rose asked us, looking first at me, then the Doctor. "What are you gonna do?"

"Back to the Tardis" the Doctor said. "Same old life."

"On your own?"

"No" I replied, walking towards the door. "There's still more to see in the universe. Besides, someone's got to keep him in check."

As we both laughed, the Doctor asked Rose "Do you want to come?"

"Yeah."

"Do you really?" he asked. "I just thought cause I'd changed."

"No, I do" Rose replied, almost jumping for joy.

The mood was quickly brought down by Mickey asking "You're never gonna stay, are you?"

I thought he meant the Doctor, when really he meant Rose.

"Like Marty said, Mickey. There's so much more to see in the universe. I've got to."

"You're mad, you lot" Jackie said, lighting the mood a bit. "You three, it's like you go looking for trouble."

"Trouble's just the bits in between" the Doctor told her, putting his arm around her and getting her to look up. "It's all out there, Jackie. Everything's brand-new to me, all those planets, creatures and horizons. Haven't seen them yet. Not with these eyes."

With that, he walked back to the Tardis and said out loud "And it is gonna be… fantastic."

He offered his hand to Rose, the same hand that had been cut off, to which she responded "That hand still gives me the creeps."

She took it anyway, while I made my way back into the Tardis, hanging around the console until the Doctor would appear.

"Tardis?" I asked after a few minutes.

"Yes, Marty?" she asked back.

"I think it's time" I said, both of us knowing what I meant. "If I don't tell him now, he's going to find out sooner or later."

"I think it would be best" she replied. "Just remember. I'll be here to help you out."

"Thanks" I said, trying to figure out what I was going to say to the Doctor.

Half an hour later, when I thought I'd finalised my thoughts of how to phrase my explanation, the Doctor walked in alone, his face still carrying a somewhat happy look.

"Marty, what are you still doing here?" he asked. "We missed you at the presents. You wouldn't guess what Rose and Jackie got me."

"Doctor" I said, taking a deep breath. "I haven't been honest with you. I was hoping to say this a bit later than now, but we both knew that it couldn't wait any longer."

"We? Who's we?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.

"The Tardis" I replied, then said "Tell him. He needs to hear it from you."

"Hello, old friend" the Tardis said to the Doctor for the first time out loud in a soft tone. "It's been a long time coming."

"Wh-What?" the Doctor asked in surprise, falling to his knees. "She-She can speak?"

"Yep" I replied, looking down. "Ever since Cardiff and the Slitheen."

"And you knew about it all this time?" he asked me, directly this time.

"She's the one who told me to do it in the first place" I answered, looking for confirmation.

"It's true" the Tardis continued. "I've been silent all these years, but now I finally have a voice all to my own."

"But how?" the Doctor demanded, desperately. "I threw away your instructions!"

"I kept backups in the event of an emergency" the Tardis told him plainly. "I told Marty that it was a request I would like to be carried out by him. I knew if I'd asked you, you'd never do it, due to your numerous adventures. Hence why I needed someone who was willing to do the job regardless of what they were asked to do."

The Doctor was now in shock as a result of this, and neither the Tardis nor myself knew if he would recover from it.

After some time, he slowly regained motion and speech, getting up slowly as he looked at me, wondering what to say.

Finally, he spoke.

"Tell me what happened from the start" he said, gesturing to the seats. "I want to know how this happened."

"You're not mad?" I asked as we both sat down.

"Maybe. I don't know yet. But I'll let you explain yourself first before anything happens."

"Fair enough" I replied, before beginning. "It started when we first saw the Slitheen and their ship landed. When I came back here to find out about it, she made me a deal where in exchange for her showing me the footage, I'd help her get a proper voice."

"It's true" the Tardis added. "After this, I made it one of my missions to help him out by giving my files to him, which I did on the occasion."

"When was this?" the Doctor asked me.

"When I went to help my partner with the case while you and Rose went to see her dad, which is true, by the way" I said, clarifying while the memories were brought back somewhat for the both of us. "They were needing my help with that case, but before that happened and I left the Tardis, she gave me a flash drive of her files which I took with me and showed them, after explaining what they were. We got the case over and done with pretty quickly, but the rest of the time was spent with trying to sort her out.

I then figured out that they could just wait a few months until we were in Cardiff to send it to me because I'd told them where I'd be in advance. That's why when I left that time, I went to collect the flash drive and also a weapon they'd hid for dealing with Margaret. After that, while you and her were "dining", I installed it during Jack's inspection of the extrapolator. I didn't know until after her plan that it had worked.

I spoke with her to hope that it had worked and it did. Then, the events of the Game Station happened, and..." I trailed off, as we both knew what occurred. "And I didn't have enough time to spend with her as I'd hoped, or to tell you about it until now. I just hope you can forgive me for not saying anything until now."

The Doctor had stood in silence listening to all of my explanation, until at last he asked "Is that all?"

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Is that all of the story, or is there anything you're not telling me?"

Sighing, I said "There is one other thing my partner added to the flash drive before they gave me it."

"Which is?"

"A list of commands that they knew I'd probably use if we were cut off from the Tardis and couldn't access the controls directly. It's better if I show you" I said, leading him over to the monitor, which was asleep.

Turning it on to show the hand scanner graphics, along with a scanner to act as the identifier, I said "You need to scan your hand so you have control over the Tardis, or at the very least, the program."

Begrudgingly, the Doctor did so, and we both waited as the Tardis acknowledged him.

"There. Now what?" he asked, as I looked around for the document Jack had provided.

Finally looking in the recycling bin, I opened it up and let the Doctor read what was in it.

Knowing him, he got it read within 30 seconds until he finally said "Ok. Couple of questions."

"Shoot."

"1. Why ANDROS? 2. Who is Jason Myers? And 3, and most importantly, Why did you have to go behind my back to do this?"

"I-what?" I asked, taken aback at how kind the Doctor's tone had been in the last question.

"Yep. I would have let you do this anyway" the Doctor replied, pacing back and forth. "I know you think it would have been a bad thing, but the truth is…" he said, looking up and addressing the Tardis directly. "If I wasn't this adventurous, I would have done it in a heartbeat."

"Or 2 in your case" I joked, before asking "So, you really don't mind?"

"Oh, I mind, alright. I just wish you hadn't been in the dark about it. You can still do this, but just… tell me next time. I don't want to find out secrets the hard way."

"Alright" I agreed, nodding. "I promise I'll not do anything this insane behind your back again."

"Good we agreed upon something. Now, about my other questions."

"Yes?"

"You going to answer them?"

"Yep" I said, still uneasy about this. "Sorry. I'm just weirded out that you're not pissed, or at the very least annoyed at me."

"I am annoyed, Marty. I think it's just because it's early days for this regeneration. Although, I have a feeling this one will have more issues than most to overcome."

"Like what?"

"Anger. Sadness. Grief. The usual for me."

"But that's not the end of it, is it?" I asked, cautiously.

"Not even close. As long as I have people with me like you and Rose, those may either escalate or go a complete 180. I don't know yet. But when the time comes, we'll all know."

"I'm sorry" I said, frowning.

"Not your fault" the Doctor said, before getting back on track. "Now. Your answers this time. I want to hear them."

"Alright" I replied, before answering "ANDROS is an acronym for the program my partner set up. It stands for Artificial Navigator for a Dimensional Relative Operating System, hence the shortcut. The way I read it was that whenever we got separated from the Tardis and needed help or a way to get back to her, all I had to do was call the Tardis directly, then give the commands and it would carry them out. Never got it to work in practice yet."

"Why not?" The Doctor interrupted.

"I'm looking right at it" I said, pointing at him, to which he responded "Oi!"

"Sorry" I replied, "But if your regeneration had went off without a hitch, I would have done it sooner. I mean, I could do it now if you want."

"I'd rather wait until we're done here" the Doctor said. "Which brings me to my other question, being "Who is Jason Myers?""

"That would be my partner" I replied, still not wanting to say Jack's name right there and then. "Or, at the very least, their pseudonym. That's all the information they could tell me so I had someone to report to and work with. I wish there were more, but that's all I know about them."

"I see" the Doctor murmured, seemingly satisfied with what he had heard. I just hoped that was the end of the questions for now.

"So, does this mean you trust me fully now?" I wondered, praying the Doctor didn't go to any specifics.

"Trust, no. Respect on the other hand, that I do. I know how hard it is to keep secrets from people, none the least being me and my… biology."

"I gathered" I said. "Still, at least you were protected with this change, being in a friend's home, and you weren't in hospital again."

"Don't remind me" the Doctor muttered, as we both knew I meant his 7th to 8th regeneration, before the Time War. "That's a bag of worms in of itself. One of which I don't want reopened, under any circumstances. Is that clear?" The last part, he stared at me in a "keep this between us" way.

"Crystal" I replied, figuring that he didn't want Rose to know about it. "Like I said. I kept this one safe from you. I'll do the same for Rose as well."

"Thank you" The Doctor nodded, before he made his way around the controls, remembering how to operate them, then finally made his way back to the doors.

"You're leaving?" I asked.

"Only for a bit. Tell you what. Once the New Year sets in, we'll go off together. The three of us."

"Ahem" the Tardis coughed, prompting him to change his tune.

"Four of us" he clarified, then turned back to me. "I'll try and tell Rose about the program, but keep the voice between us for now. Who knows how bad it might end up if she knew?"

"Yeah..." I said, tugging at my collar. "That would be a problem. Well, goodnight, I guess."

"Goodnight, Marty" the Doctor replied, as he closed the door behind him and walked away from the both of us.

I waited a few minutes before I began talking to the Tardis, just to make sure the Doctor wasn't still out in the "snow", listening to what I would say next.

"He seemed to take that rather well" I finally said, as the Tardis – who had still been listening in silence until now – replied "I know. It seems a little strange for him to adapt so quickly. Maybe this wasn't the best solution after all."

"Even though he said he would have done it in a heartbeat" I pointed out, sitting down. "I just hope it is something he's comfortable with, and not something that gets on his nerves. Otherwise, why even do this in the first place?"

"It's like we said before, Marty. We are friends, doing each other a favour. I'll continue to help out as best as I can, but if he doesn't like it..."

"He'll get rid of it" I nodded. "I understand."

"Thank you. Now, enough feeling sorry for ourselves. How about you take some time off from worrying about this, and take a well-deserved shower? After all, this is a new beginning for everyone."

"I will" I said, smiling at the offer. "Thanks for everything."

"Do not mention it. Go on and enjoy yourself."

And I did, as soon as I got to the showers that led to the swimming pool. Stripping and letting my body feel the warm water again for the first time in ages, I smiled at how safe I now felt as a result of this escapade.

However, like the Tardis said, it was time for a new beginning.

After doing a few laps in the pool for a while and having another shower, I stood in front of the sinks within the bathroom, looking at my face in the mirror and holding an electric razor I'd found and promptly cleaned before now.

"Well, no time like the present" I said to my reflection, before grabbing what hair I could and cut it down to a short enough size so I'd still be intimidating, but it wouldn't be a massive hindrance to my sight.

I did the same to my beard, so it wasn't as thick, but gave off a "don't fuck with me" look which I intended to keep.

"Pretty soon now, you're gonna get older."

After this, I made my way back to my bedroom, changed into suitable pyjamas and pulled out the gun case that had my pistol in it, along with the psychic paper.

I tested out the paper by thinking of a new identity with a picture to match. The first name that popped into my head was ironically Martin Riggs, only it was my head instead of Mel Gibson's. I held the name in my mind, before I opened up the paper and looked at the writing that had appeared.

It looked as legitimate as it could before I kept switching names while still having the image in the same place at the top right.

Eventually, I finished the testing by thinking of my own name, just to make it complete, before I put it away and swapped it for my pistol.

True to his word, Jack had cleaned it as best as he could without "incidents", but there were still a few flakes of skin left on the grip, which I scratched off to make it feel complete.

After that, I loaded a magazine into it and just held it, making sure the safety was turned on before turning it in a more combat position in case of any invisible threat.

Satisfied, I placed it into my holster which was draped over another chair and was somehow still holding up despite recent events.

"I'll make good use of you soon" I muttered, putting the holster in the same drawer, then finally going back over to the bed, finding both my phone and iPod to charge them, and fell asleep afterwards, ready for the next adventure...

"Time may change me, but you can't trace time..."

A/N 2 - Thanks for reading this. I promise I'll get back onto regular updates with this story, but there will be a few changes (no pun intended) from this chapter forwards.

For one, like I said, I'm going to make the song title echo events within the chapter, so it's a bit more lively.

Another thing, and most importantly, the rating on this will change from a T to an M. No romance as such yet, because I don't plan on one at this point in time. However, since this is literally a new chapter in Marty's life, it will be more violent as he will be put into more action-orientated situations he will have to fight through. So, expect a lot of swearing and probably as much blood throughout. You have been warned.

Aside from that, I'll see you all next time, when we discover that New Earth has more than one secret to be uncovered...