Weaver's Sons
Chapter 2: Bloodlines
"I knew you were going to be trouble!" Mickey yelled at the Doctor, forcing him up by his shirt.
"What is this?" Max asked.
Two more men entered the hall.
"What are you doing?" Rose asked, running up to the Doctor and Mickey.
"She's with him, too," Mickey said. "They told me about a place to start over in America, but I could tell they were hiding something. Then, I overheard them whispering about the basement."
"Mickey," Rose said, confused.
"And who are you?" Neil asked.
Mickey looked at Rose. "My name's Mickey. Her mother looked after me after my parents died, but Rose never liked me."
"Take them to subfloor 1," Max ordered.
Neil, Leah, and the two men took the Doctor and Rose away. Rose attempted to protest until the Doctor took her hand and mouthed 'No.'
Max looked at Mickey. "Come with me."
The Doctor and Rose sat on a futon in a den with no windows. They knew that someone was watching the door on the other side.
Rose slid close to the Doctor. "When did you think of this plan?" she whispered.
"It was a contingency I prepared when Mickey and I were getting bags. It was just a precaution in case something went wrong, though I didn't think he'd do it this early after I got caught."
"There was a boy we saw," Rose said. "Mickey was sure that he was one of my neighbors, but the boy told me that he was someone else."
"They're under mind control," the Doctor concluded. "That's why no one here cares about their lives outside of Empire Eternal. He's manipulated their memories and thoughts."
"But Doctor, won't they still be suspicious of Mickey?"
"Probably, but at least he's not here with us. Plus, they'll probably control his mind enough to make him forget his past, but not enough to get him to reveal everything."
In another part of the building, Max interrogated Mickey.
"So why have you come to us?" Max asked after Mickey denounced the Doctor and Rose.
"Like I said, I wanted a new life, a fresh start. The way the Doctor and Rose were talking about this place, I thought I'd like it here."
"As I've said, this can be your new life, your fresh start."
"I know that now."
"Will you join us?"
"I'd love to."
"Then close your eyes think about your parents for me. Now, think about your friends," Max said as he grabbed a small mechanical device with a screen. "Open your eyes, and look at this."
Later in subfloor 1, the Doctor and could hear heavy footsteps approaching.
Max opened the door. "What are you doing here?" Max asked.
"You put us in this room," the Doctor answered.
"You know that's not what I mean."
"I detected life signs that were inconsistent with the readings of a normal human being."
"And how did you know that?"
A look of surprise quickly swept through the Doctor's face before he covered it. However, Max still noticed.
"You didn't know that," Max realized. "What are you really doing here?"
Rose and Max's eyes were fixed on the Doctor's face, waiting for a response.
"You obviously haven't clued your friend on this," Max said.
"No, so perhaps you should leave us so I can consider all the implications of being unhelpful and then discuss my plans with Rose."
Max looked at the Doctor and Rose before leaving.
"He's listening in somehow," Rose whispered.
"That's all right. I don't have a plan, anyway," the Doctor said, smiling.
Rose smiled back.
"So, Rose, tell me about everyone you've ever met in your life."
The Doctor and Rose spent the next few hours detailing Rose's background until it was clear that night had fallen.
"Now what?" Rose asked.
The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver from a sock. "We find Mickey." The Doctor broke out of the room with Rose and eventually found Mickey with the sonic screwdriver after sneaking around the halls.
They found Mickey asleep in a private room. Mickey began to stir, but the Doctor used his sonic screwdriver to slow him down. He pulled out a vial. "Pour this into his mouth slowly," he told Rose.
Rose obliged and the two waited for Mickey to wake up.
"How are you feeling?" the Doctor asked.
"I'm fine, Doctor," Mickey answered.
"How strong was the mind control?"
"It was strong. I don't think I could have fought it if I tried. The thing is, I didn't want to. Anyway, I'm fine now."
"Good," the Doctor responded. "Do you know if everyone is asleep?"
"They should be."
"Come on, then. I want to take a closer look at subfloor 2."
The Doctor, Rose, and Mickey quietly and quickly snuck to subfloor 2, cautious of anyone who could be awake and present.
"We still don't know what they're doing with that biological regulator," Rose said.
"No, but I'm equally concerned about meeting the older Max and watching him die," the Doctor said. "I don't know if I will need to preserve the web of time and take the living Max into the past at some point."
"That's one way to rid his influence here," Mickey suggested.
The three arrived in the room where the Doctor saw the older Max die. Mickey went to a computer nearby the bed while the Doctor and Rose looked around.
"His medical charts are here," Mickey said. "There are also records of treatment with youth restoration."
The last part caught the Doctor's attention. He ran to the computer.
"Is that what they call the regulator?" Rose asked.
The Doctor perused through the medical charts on the computer. "They were absorbing life energy from the cult members and transferring it to Max."
The Doctor began scanning the area with his sonic screwdriver. Upon picking up a reading, he walked to another room to a large freezer. He opened it and saw the old Max's body.
Rose gasped and Mickey frowned at the sight.
"How could they do that to a body?" Rose asked as the Doctor continued scanning.
"The transfer only helped a little," the Doctor said. "Hold on, there's no evidence of temporal markers in him. He's never travelled in time."
Mickey looked around another freezer-like apparatus, one that looked more technologically complex.
"Then there are two Max Weavers," Rose realized.
"I need to take a closer look here," the Doctor said. He handed his sonic screwdriver to Rose. "Would you mind pointing that where I ask?"
"Isaac thought he saw twins, but how do you explain the age difference, Doctor?" asked Mickey. "Who is he?" He then opened the second chamber and saw the body of another man in stasis.
"A clone," a voice said, drawing the attention of the Doctor, Rose, and Mickey.
"Max . . . 1?" the Doctor asked.
"Yeah, I'm the first, the original."
"Are you pioneering human cloning?" the Doctor asked. "With the resources that humanity has, it won't work well. Then again, you do have technology that no one else."
"No, you're right. Clones age too quickly, and that makes them perfect subjects for my work. Now, Mickey, please step away from that chamber."
"Why? What's in it? Another clone?" Rose asked.
"No, it's someone else," Mickey said.
"What are you doing here?" the Doctor asked. "What experiments are you running?"
"That's my father," Max answered. "Fred."
The Doctor approached Max's father. "You're trying to restore his life," the Doctor concluded.
"Yes, do you find fault with my goal? Either of you?"
"You're taking the lives of other people," the Doctor stated. "Innocent people."
"Only minimally," Max replied. "I take the little extra energy they produce when they are physically active. I am giving them good lives here and they aren't harmed by what I do."
"You've taken over their minds," Mickey said.
"Only until I fix my father. After that, I will give their lives back to them."
"So you're just borrowing them, is that it?" Rose questioned from behind Mickey and the chamber. "I know how you feel, but you can't do this. My neighbor doesn't even know who he is anymore." While gesturing with an arm, Rose pushed a button on the sonic screwdriver, activating a system within the chamber holding Fred.
"No! You've cut the feed!" Max took out the biological flux regulator. "I could set this to be harmful. I could use it and suck all the life energies out of the three of you now."
The Doctor quickly took back the sonic screwdriver and pointed it at the regulator, which began to vibrate.
"Or," the Doctor began, "I could realign the conversion parameters to make it more efficient, let you require a lot less energy."
"You're doing this? Stop messing with it or I will use it on you!"
"Then use it," the Doctor said, approaching Max.
"Are you insane?"
"No, and neither are you," the Doctor said. "On some level, you know this is wrong." The Doctor put a hand on the regulator and pressed it.
"Doctor! What are you doing?" Rose cried.
The Doctor was engulfed in a field of light. "What do your readings tell you, Max?"
"That it's approaching capacity," Max answered.
The Doctor switched off the regulator.
"How did you do that?"
"Call it a combination of a different life force and some work I did to that."
"If my previous efforts were not completely successful on the clones, I will not risk a chance with my father."
"I reckon you don't have much time," the Doctor responded.
"There's one way to find out," Rose said.
"Where did you get all this technology, anyway?" the Doctor asked.
"There was a battle about a dozen years ago in eastern London. One of my brothers scavenged some of the remains before authorities got there." Max opened a piece of the regulator and stuck one end of a needle into it. He proceeded to stick the other end of the needle into his father's neck.
Max watched with the Doctor, Rose, and Mickey as Fred started looking younger. Max smiled as decades seemed to vanish from Fred's face, but then a look of concern appeared as Fred took the form of a smaller teenager. He didn't notice a glowing silhouette of Fred's former form, though the Doctor, Mickey, and Rose did. They started to back away.
"He's not stopping," Max realized.
A burst of energy knocked Max to the ground.
"What was that?" Rose asked.
"All that mass had to go somewhere," the Doctor said. He approached Max and saw that Max was dead, his face was burned beyond recognition.
"Did you know this was going to happen?" Mickey asked the Doctor.
"No, I thought I recognized this regulator model, but I could have been wrong. Max mentioned a battle in London. Maybe the regulator was damaged."
"Doctor?" Rose asked. "Max's father stopped changing."
The three saw that Fred had become an infant.
"What do we do with him?" Rose asked.
"Hold him for now," the Doctor said. He went behind the chamber and grabbed a small box, the same one that Max held to Mickey's face. He rearranged some of the settings on the box and put it in his pocket. He then entered a few rooms, apparently searching for something and ultimately reappeared, rolling a tank filled with a clear liquid. "Mickey, take that chamber. We need to take everything back to the TARDIS now. I've disabled the mind control. Everyone here will wake up in the morning back to normal again. We don't want to be here, and we don't want the technology here."
The Doctor made their way back to the TARDIS and then to the planet Embulecma.
"This is a human colony in the year 6427," the Doctor explained as he guided his companions to a hospital. "They'll be able to take care of Fred."
Rose handed Fred over to a pediatrician that the Doctor personally knew and the three waited until he reappeared.
"I've examined Fred completely," Logue Nakano said. "I am confident that he will grow up normally and be fine."
"Thank you, doctor."
"Anytime, Doctor."
"Come on," the Doctor told Rose and Mickey. "Back to the TARDIS."
"Max got what he wanted after all," Rose commented.
"Yeah," the Doctor simply stated.
"What are you going to do with all the tech?" Mickey asked.
"The regulator is useless now. I've broken the mind control cube. I'll dump the clone tank, shouldn't leave that lying around. Maybe I'll find a use for the stasis chamber some day. If I can recalibrate it sufficiently well, it could be used for healing."
"Always trying to make things better, aren't you?" Rose asked.
The Doctor smiled. "So, where do you want to go next?"
...
The end. Thank you for reading.