Hey there folks! I'm back as promised with a more elongated tale of John, the Doctor and Jenny! Hope you like it! It's the 10th part in the unexpected series and you may need to read the first parts otherwise it doesn't make complete sense!
Do tell me what you think! People have been calling for the face off and here it is!
Enjoy!
Allons-y!
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Part I - Something's a Bit Wrong
It was the appointed day. It had been decided about a month ago and, with a month's worth of planning they were finally ready. Beyond ready really. Jenny was going on seventeen and John was just past twelve. They were years behind compared to tradition even if they were up to speed intellectually and educationally. It was time.
It had been a joy to have Jenny back at last, a hole in the Doctor's heart had been filled and John had a sibling to share things with. The Doctor had been worried that this might ostracise John from human company but the affects seemed to have been minimal. The two were as close as could be expected and the Doctor had no desire to change it.
But it had all been a lead up to the next twenty minutes, the most important twenty minutes in John and Jenny's lives. It was, after all, time.
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The Torchwood team had been out for coffee, just the three of them. They'd decided to order out and wander back at a leisurely place – taking joy in a slow day at the office. It had been unusually quiet as of late but they put that down to the act of the Daleks showing up a few years ago. The big bads in the universe were still more than a little wary.
The day was clear and sunny, unusual for rainy Cardiff, though there was a slightly muggy texture. Perhaps a storm was rolling in? All of them hurried to the hub, eager for the shelter from the wind and possibly a nicer smell than car exhaust fumes.
What they didn't expect was to find someone already in the hub. Someone unexpected no less. It was Ianto who noticed first and, as the others followed his gaze, all of them just stopped to stare. Whoever it was they were very thin, able to twist themselves almost completely inside the Torchwood rift manipulator – so much so, in fact, that it obscured their entire upper body. There was a tool belt slung low their hips filled with instruments none of them had ever seen.
There was a loud clang and a muffled expletive as whoever it was hit their head on something. The lights on the manipulator flickered slightly. A hand re-emerged as the figure pulled themselves free to stand back and look thoughtfully at the machine. They were shocked to find it was a girl, she had long blonde hair tied in a pony tail, now streaked with the odd bit of grease, and pale skin. She undeniably pretty as well. Her brown eyes were slightly obscured by a pair of red and black glasses sitting on her lightly freckled nose.
She caught sight of them and froze. For a moment they just looked at each other.
Jack was the first to react, "I'm Captain Jack Harkness," he introduced holding out a hand.
The girl seized it immediately and enthusiastically, "oh hello! You must be the leader of Torchwood, I've heard all about you." She beamed at him with a friendly smile and absolutely no hostility. "I'm sorry I just barged in but I did knock and no one answered and well, we are in sort of a hurry." Her eyes turned back to the machine involuntarily.
"What are you doing to the manipulator?" Ianto asked, hurrying to examine it for damage.
"Oh, fixing it, you know. We need it to be working properly," the girl shrugged. "But I just can't get the thing to stabilise or sequence. Can't figure out why. Probably needs an internal catalyst. I guess I'll just have to wait to for Dad, hoped I could do it without him and make him proud you know?"
"You're alien I take it?" Gwen inquired, hand wandering to her gun cautiously.
"Of course," the girl said slowly, rolling her eyes. "Humans," she sighed to herself. "I don't have any weapons or anything, just engineering bits. You know, the odd sonic tool and so on."
"Who were you again?" Jack asked, he hadn't moved and his face had taken on a look of seriousness.
"I'm Jenny," the girl replied, bouncing lightly on her toes.
"Jenny?"
"Just Jenny, never had much need of anything else," she grinned up at him winningly.
"Well it's nice to meet you, Jenny," Jack replied flirtatiously, all caution gone.
"Don't start," called a familiar voice from the large door to the hub. They turned to see the Doctor standing there in his usual suit, a strange contraption under one arm. He had his glasses on but they did not disguise the frown on his face.
"I was only saying hello," Jack protested with a smile, this was clearly a very old joke between them.
Yet the Doctor's face was a bit serious for a joke, "of course you were. Jenny, take this," he held out the weird device.
"Sure thing, Dad," Jenny responded, skipping up and taking it off his easily. "What do you want doing with it?"
"Wire it into the central control circuit, it'll add an extra line to the sequence," the Doctor told her, following as she returned to the manipulator. A boy followed behind him in close step, he was also wearing a suit though he couldn't be much more than just into his teens. He too wore the same glasses and had the Doctor's messy hair and freckles. It took them a second to recognise him as John, the six year old that had broken in and shut them down in one fell swoop. In his arms he carried twelve little discs and a serious amount of cabling.
"You're her dad?" Jack asked slowly, eyes moving to follow Jenny.
"Yes," the Doctor growled, glaring at him. "And that's quite enough of that, thank you."
"I thought you only had John?"
"It's difficult to explain," the Doctor shrugged as he watched his children work on the manipulator. They were really rather good at mechanics by now.
"So, why are you tinkering with our rift manipulator?" Jack folded his arms, also turning to watch the two alien children.
"It's time for their Rite of Initiation – overdue actually," the Doctor replied shortly.
Jack's eyes widened, he recalled the Doctor's words from so long ago and suddenly became wary. "You're going to open up the rift to create a gap in the fabric of reality?"
"That's the idea," John piped up from where his upper half was concealed under a series of panels.
"Isn't that dangerous? The rift's been open before and it wasn't good for anyone," Gwen said, coming forward worriedly.
"Nah," the Doctor replied, scratching the back of his head. "That's what we're here for. We know what we're doing, well most of the time. John's setting up a containment field and Jenny's rigging my catalyst. It'll all be fine." He rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "although humans aren't meant to look on the whole of the Vortex, so I guess we'll have to build optical shields for you lot."
"Why's that?" Ianto asked not taking his eyes off the pair.
"It would burn us up from the inside," Jack replied looking grimly at the manipulator. "The human mind is too simple to comprehend that kind of eternity, so are Time Lords if the truth is completely told."
The Doctor snorted and waved a hand.
"Well how do you explain the Master's insanity?" Jack asked with a raised eyebrow.
"An unfortunate side affect that's all," the Doctor retorted.
"Wait a minute," Gwen interrupted, "you're going to open up a gap in space right? What exactly for?"
"I told you, it's the Rite of Initiation. When a Time Lord comes of age they're taken for Initiation, they gaze into the Untempered Schism – that was a similar rift on our home planet – and see the glory of time and space. From it we gain better control of our Time Sense and an understanding of time that you could never ever comprehend," the Doctor told her in a rush. "The idea is to open the rift up so they can take a look and then close it. Easy peasy."
"Time Sense?" asked Ianto, looking away for the first time.
"Time Lords can see all that is, was and wasn't. Also some of what will be but that's so much in flux that it's a tad dodgy. They also see what could not be, what should not be. That sort of thing," Jack replied, sipping his long forgotten coffee.
"You see all that? What's it like?"
"Can't explain it really, too hard. It's just a knowing, a feeling in the gut and the eyes. Pompeii's a real field day," the Doctor explained.
"Why's that?" Gwen asked.
"I can see the deaths of twenty thousand people," the Doctor said shortly. "John and Jenny can't see nearly so much but they're getting there."
There was a very distinct silence.
"They also need to choose their names, that comes after Initiation after all," the Doctor continued.
"Names?" Jack offered the Doctor some coffee as he spoke. The Doctor of course declined.
"Well I wasn't always called the Doctor, I chose the name after my Initiation to symbolise what I wanted to do. Our true names are kept to ourselves and close kin, there's power in a name after all. John's true name is the same as mine, we use 'John' because we can't just go around telling people now can we?" he replied.
There was more silence as they all considered this. "Are they going to react like you said before?" Jack asked thoughtfully.
The Doctor cocked his head and mused, "well, they will react in one of the three ways; run, inspire or madness. No way to tell which. We'd just best get ready to catch them if we've got a runner," he shrugged again.
"Shouldn't you be checking their work?" Ianto asked worriedly.
"I am, they're doing fine. Finished in fact. Is that right?" he called over to his children.
Both swivelled to look at him as the twelve silver discs John had been carrying hovered into the air to form a circle. Lightning crackled between them and held strong. "Containment field ready," John confirmed.
"Rift catalyst active," Jenny told them, slinging a spanner back into her tool belt.
"Right then" the Doctor said as he handed each of the Torchwood team a pair of 3D glasses with red and blue lenses. "Put these on, they'll filter out the Vortex, you'll just see blank space," he told them.
They did as he said and, once the Doctor was satisfied, he moved to the manipulator. "Jenny, take your position," he said as he began to fiddle with the controls. Jenny moved to stand before the controls and they could see her hands shake with nerves. She smoothed her green t-shirt and gazed into the centre of the containment field. John moved off to the side so he couldn't see at all. "Ready?" the Doctor asked gently, smiling softly at his daughter.
Jenny nodded slowly, smiling nervously.
"You're going to be fine, Jen," the Doctor told her as he flipped the switch, well leaver. There was a clunk and whir, several sparks flew, and then the centre of the field began to shimmer.
The Torchwood team couldn't see anything, of course, but Jenny certainly could. Her eyes unfocused and widened as she gazed, gradually her nervous shaking stopped. She tentatively backed up a pace. Then she stepped closer, brow furrowing as she examined whatever she saw. Then a slow smile spread across her face.
"It's beautiful," she told her father and the Doctor smiled.
"What do you feel?" he asked her as he fingered the off leaver.
"I feel," Jenny paused thoughtfully, "I feel like I could know everything and see everything. There is so very much to see! So much to do!"
The Doctor grinned and yanked the leaver down, the rift closed and the shimmering stopped. "Your turn, John," he said.
John moved to the spot Jenny had vacated, just as nervous. He swallowed and looked his father who smiled. "Ready?" he asked.
John nodded and the leaver flipped once more.
John's reaction was starkly different from his sister's. His eyes grew very wide and his breathing became harsh. He moved back a step, his eyes darting around the field. One step became two and then suddenly he spun on his heel and fled, sprinted for the door.
"Catch him," the Doctor called as he switched the rift back off. He immediately went to his son, who'd been caught by Jack, and looked deep into his eyes, murmuring quietly in a tongue that none of them understood. Well none except Jenny.
"What's going on?" Ianto asked her.
"John has a sharper Time Sense than me, like dad. When he saw the rift he saw too much and it terrified him, he'll be fine though. It's a standard reaction, dad did the same thing," she explained easily.
"What about you?"
"Oh, I'm one of the inspired, we're a bit different," she said simply. She was about to say more when a disturbing sound filled the air. The rift manipulator was clanking, louder and louder and louder.
They all turned slowly to see the hovering discs shaking and shuddering. "Glasses on," the Doctor shouted to them as the Vortex ripped back into existence. They were lucky they hadn't taken them off. The Doctor sprinted to the controls while alarms went off left right and centre, filling the hub with sirens. Jenny and John quickly moved to help him, twiddling dials and examining readings.
"What's going on?" Jack bellowed over the din.
"The rift's opening back up because of the recent activity," the Doctor hollered back, not looking up. "It's just about being held by the containment field but something's wrong."
Papers began to fly off desks and the room was literally beginning to shake.
"What do you mean?" Jack shouted as he grabbed a nearby beam for support.
"The tear is oscillating, like it's resonating," the Doctor replied shaking his head. "The only reason that should happen is if the TARDIS was nearby but we left her more than a mile away, too far to affect the rift really."
"Dad," John called.
"What we need to do is amplify the field," the Doctor continued, handing a series of cables to his son.
"Dad," John repeated, more insistent.
"Maybe a retro-alconversion and neostabilisers?" the Doctor mused.
"Dad!" John all but shouted, that certainly got everyone's attention.
They turned to see that John was looking a bit insubstantial, he was also floating. There was a mild look of panic in his eyes and he turned slowly. "I think something's a bit wrong," he said after a moment.
"John," the Doctor said slowly, "don't move at all."
John nodded, "I think it's a resonation funnel field," he told them. "I can feel the pull in my stomach."
"How does he know that?" Jenny asked quietly.
"Probably something to do with his Initiation, his Sense is more acute than yours," the Doctor replied as he desperately fought with the controls to try and find out what was happening.
"Oh," was all John said as he vanished completely with a violent bang.
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Well? What did you think? Not-for-lack-of-trying requested some Jack flirting with Jenny action and I was worried there was mind reading going on becuase I had just written that section!
Please review! It'll help the floundering ego!
Love ya all!
- D