yay next chapter, special points to DannyP for input into how this story played out, i'm assuming he if I'm wrong please tell me, i liked the idea for this chapter, i'm just not sure if I wrote it well, any feedback is appreciated, as for the title of this chapter, proof that I shouldn't be allowed to watch disney films while writing fanfiction, as usual i don't own the sarah-jane adventures or doctor who, but Marcus is my character. also i hate the letter i right now, the amount of times I had to capitalise that damn letter, but it feels better knowing they're gone
it was early I'm pretty certain, I could hear K-9 whirring somewhere near my head, Marcus was still staying with me, it was strange, mum told me the last time he used his abilities his emotions were all out of balance, but he got over it fairly quickly, but this time. I told him he could stay for as long as he needed, trying to help anyway I can, but i think if I'm going to help, i need to find out whats troubling him and help him deal with it. but before that i need to figure out why someones banging on my door this early in the morning.
"alright I'm coming"
I stepped my way carefully around Marcus's makeshift bed and opened the door.
"hey you're Luke smith yeah? good"
the woman outside the door pushed her way into my room, flaming red hair streaming out behind her
"Amy are you sure this is him?, I know you said third time lucky, but if we keep walking into student rooms uninvited we're going to get kicked out of the building"
a man was stopped in the doorway, he wasn't quite as flamboyant as amy but there was something about his eyes that caught my attention
"yes Rory I'm sure, look he's got the metal dog and everything"
all the noise had finally woken Marcus up
"hmm look if your going to have company Luke you may want to tell me to clear out first"
he had a dopey half asleep smile on his face I settled for rolling my eyes before turning to my two new guests
"OK who the hell are you two!"
this was way too early, Rory stepped forwards to take charge of the situation
"yes sorry, I'm Rory this is my wife Amy, we're travelling with the doctor, he sent us, because we need your help"
guess going back to sleep is out of the question
"the doctor, isn't he that alien friend of your mums Luke?"
Marcus looked a bit more awake
"yeah he is, what do you mean he needs our help?"
Amy had been examining K-9 but quickly turned to me
"we're not sure this days been a bit weird, well weirder than usual, basically he told us to come find you, round up any alien technology you might have and then bring you with us, so come on then you two get dressed, we've got a planet to save"
it took us about ten minutes to get ready, once ready all four of us gathered up any alien odds and ends we had picked up during the course of our adventures and ran down to my car
"so yeah we had just stopped in London, ok we were aiming for leadworth but we missed, anyway we decided to make the most of it next thing we know the tardis went crazy and abandoned the three of us took off to who knows where"
Amy had been explaining on the way out of the building, opening my car we all quickly piled in, it was a very tight squeeze K-9 ended up on top of Amy and Rory in the back seats
"OK but why does he need us?"
I had been trying to figure out why the doctor could need us, he's certainly capable on his own
"he's trying to track down the tardis right now, he told us to find you, said he might need help and you were the closest person we could call on"
made sense stuck in London me and mum were the best chance for help, before I could ask anymore questions my mobile started ringing in my pocket
"hold still Luke"
Marcus fished my phone out of my pocket and answered
"hello who is this"
he listened to the reply for a few seconds
"no this isn't a wrong number, yeah well Luke's driving, alright hang on I'll put the phone on speaker"
he quickly pressed the speaker button and the doctor's voice rang out through the car
"Luke smith is that you, oh hang on yes I'm sorry madam but this is an emergency, yes i will give you the phone back in a moment"
i couldn't help but laugh the doctor clearly hasn't changed that much
"yes its me doctor, we're in my car, now are you going to give us directions or am I just driving around London at random until I find you"
I waited for a moment I could hear the doctors argument on the other end of the phone bursting into fluent french
"sorry Luke I'm close to the tardis it should be materialising somewhere around here"
i heard a sound on the other side of the phone and then a massive burst of light off to our left
"ah yes Luke I suspect I found the tardis, just follow that light, I'll meet you there, and step on it"
I hit the accelerator and we turned off towards the light, it took about ten minutes for us to find the doctor, and the sight we saw when we arrived was unbelievable. the tardis was there and above it surrounded in a gentle blue field was something I would have thought was impossible, it looked like a star
"ah there you are Luke, Amy, Rory, K-9 and who are you, and why are you poking around in my head"
the doctor was looking straight at Marcus
"sorry I never properly learnt how to control my abilities doctor, but I think that's besides the point right now, what is that"
we all turned to look at the star suspended above the tardis
"that is a phoenix, I've encountered there like before, they look like stars and for all intents and purposes they are stars, except they are alive, and this one is just about to be born right above the earth"
as he spoke there was another surge of light from the phoenix and the temperature skyrocketed
"right that's enough talk we should never waste time talking, now what have you brought me Luke"
I quickly picked out all the technology I had brought with me
"ah excellent, good yes, now with a bit of improvisation, and a little bit of sonicking, aha here we have a gylflaxian cryo unit"
the device he was holding looked like an outer-space rubix cube, between the two of us it had taken about ten minutes to put together and the temperature was still rising
"ok thats great doctor now will you tell us what the hell is going on?"
another pulse of light and we all had to retreat even further away from the tardis, the doctor turned to Amy to answer her question
"yes right, the phoenix is about to be born, its hatched if you like and when it does that its going to release a massive wave of heat vaporising all the water close by turning it into hydrogen and oxygen everything a growing star needs, and when that happens the entire earth will be destroyed, this device I built with Luke's help will allow me to get close to the tardis so i can stabilise the time field that the tardis generated to keep the first blast of heat from destroying the earth, and then I have to find a way to get the phoenix out into space and locate a safe place for it to be born, thereby saving the earth and one of the most unique lifeforms I've ever encountered, anymore questions amy, no, good now shut up I have to get the settings right on this thing or I may end up freezing myself solid"
I took a few moments to process everything he just said, I turned to Marcus to ask him if he knew anything else about the phoenix, but he was just staring at the creature, I took a step towards him and touched his arm
"are you alright?"
he didn't really respond, he spoke but he wasn't really paying me any attention
"I'm OK Luke, its just, I don't know, its like I can sense something from the creature, even frozen in time I can still sense it"
the doctor was finished fiddling with the device he created and took off towards the tardis, even as the rest of us were forced to retreat further away, we waited a few minutes and then my phone rang again
"Luke this is very bad the time field won't stabilise, and I can't fly the tardis like this, its taking all the tardis's power just to hold this thing back"
he was right, my hair was damp with sweat and all the metal close by was burning red hot
"doctor what can we do, what do you need"
Amy gave a cry of surprise as the tires of my car burst and then melted, we moved even further away
"I can't stop it its going to burn the earth, if I just had, but there's nothing close, there isn't time"
Amy walked over and grabbed the phone
"doctor just tell us what you need"
"I need a second ship Amy, something to tow the tardis while it keeps the phoenix contained, but there's nothing nearby nothing i could use"
i turned to smile at Marcus he had the same grin on his face before he flipped open his scanner
"Aphelion this is Marcus, please tell me your close"
a reply came across and he smiled even wider
"excellent, don't wait for Mara to return just get down here, quick as you can"
it took about five minutes for aphelion to return, Luke and I quickly took the controls and Aphelion rose off the ground
"OK Aphelion gravity clamps, connect to the tardis"
"I'm trying Marcus but all this heat is causing havoc with my navigation systems"
i turned to Amy and Rory
"OK you two those controls back there you can use them to manually aim the clamps"
"oh excellent I've been dying to try some of these buttons"
Rory looked a bit worried at the idea of Amy being in charge but he stood back and let her aim, the clamp fired and she hit the tardis dead on
"oh yes"
Luke looked impressed, and the doctor quickly appeared on Aphelion's monitors
"OK excellent now hurry up, I've sent you some coordinates, a nearby comet, big ball of ice perfect for the phoenix, but hurry up the time field is destabilising
aphelions engines burst into life and we rocketed towards the sky
"coordinates confirmed aphelion full power as fast as you can"
we pulled away from the earth as fast as we could manage, but it was hard going, aphelion wasn't really built for this
"umm you two I'm getting some strange readings from the gravity clamp"
Luke turned to look at the readings Rory was talking about
"Marcus he's right the cable is weakenking its going to break soon, Marcus are you listening"
i could barely hear him, something was burning screaming in my head
"Luke its the creature its trying to break free of the time field, I'm trying to talk to it to communicate, the tardis should be able to help, but somethings wrong it can't hear me or it won't listen, please listen to me I'm the doctor I can help"
ah my head, Luke was talking to the doctor on aphelions screens but the words were gone, replaced by fire
"of course it can't understand you, doctor you idiot, its just been born its a child, it probably hasn't even learnt how to speak yet, even i couldn't speak right away when i was born"
my hands slipped from the controls and I fell to the floor, Luke turned from his argument with the doctor to look at me
"Amy, Rory take the controls help keep aphelion on course, Marcus can you hear me whats wrong"
I could feel Luke somewhere close by
"words can't get through but I think I can"
Luke crouched next to me and I felt his fingertips press against my head
"let me help"
wordlessly I let him slip into my mind and the landscape before me fell into focus, space with stars burning in the sky and one in particular right in front of us
"Marcus things are falling apart outside we need to hurry"
i nodded my head and took a breath before speaking
"please, please just listen to me, i know whats its like, your alone abandoned, your mother brought you into this world, gave you life, but she isn't here, she's meant to protect you, meant to look after you, but she isn't there, i know what that's like, i know how it feels, we're alone and all you want to do is rage and be angry. the universe is unfair, so unfair, it deserves to hurt like you do, but you mustn't do that not now, we're friends, your only friends right now and we're trying to help, so please calm down give us time to find you somewhere safe"
the star in front of us seemed to shrink and the mental landscape dissolved around me, I woke up back inside aphelion
"I'm not sure what you two did but the time field is stabilised, the comet is close"
Luke left my side to help navigate
"right you lot, the phoenix is in position, now hold tight, cause there is going to be a bit of a bang"
I pulled myself up just in time to see the burst of light that signalled the birth of the phoenix, it was amazing, then we were all thrown to the floor as the shock wave hit us. after the it faded I took the controls again, the fire in my mind had faded
"excellent work, now Amy Rory, I'll meet you back on earth, I just have to set up a conservation beacon, it will attract the attention of the right people, they'll protect the phoenix"
I left the flying to aphelion, and let myself drift off to sleep
I let Marcus sleep on the way back, channeling the phoenix must have been exhausting, once we landed aphelion took off again to go find Mara, we waved her off before turning back to the tardis
"you two were brilliant, absolutely incredible, oh I knew I made the right choice calling on you Luke Smith, and you Marcus I have met so many aliens but you are one of the best"
Marcus gave a half-hearted smile at the compliment, before we left there was something I needed to talk to the doctor about, if i was going to help Marcus i needed to deal with my issues first
"doctor, can I talk to you for a moment, in private"
he motioned wordlessly and we entered the tardis together leaving everyone else outside, it was different inside, but just as beautiful as I remember
"now then Luke smith what was it you wanted to talk to me about"
I'm not sure if I can tell him, but if anyone will understand
"doctor a while ago, i was taken by UNIT they used me to power a weapon and I, it destroyed ships hundreds of ships, thousands of aliens...and its all my fault!"
I felt like crying, tears were welling in my eyes, it was all my fault, but the doctor just looked me straight in the eyes
"oh Luke Smith, there is only one thing I can say to that, don't blame yourself, take it from someone who has done terrible things, oh i have done some terrible things in my time Luke, things like that weigh on you, so heavy they could crush you, but you don't deserve to feel like that Luke, it wasn't your fault"
"that's a good argument doctor and in my mind i know you're right, but it doesn't feel right, i feel like I should be..."
he walked up and put a comforting hand on my shoulder
"Luke Smith, you know what aliens called the events above earth when unit used their weapon, they called them the merciful storm, all that destruction, and you know what Luke, not a single life lost"
i looked him right in the eyes, not a hint of a lie
"but all those ships, i saw them, they were ripped apart"
"indeed complete write off the lot of them, but survivors of the storm spoke of a presence, a presence that guided them through the ship whispered to them kept them safe until they reached the escape pods or the transport relays, Luke smith you may feel responsible for the destruction of hundreds of ships, which you aren't, but what you are directly responsible for is saving the lives of over one-thousand aliens, an act of mercy that was felt across the stars, you truly are amazing, even more impressive when you consider you did it all subconsciously"
I really couldn't believe it I felt like crying again, but this time because i was happy
"thank you doctor"
"I'm glad I could help Luke"
he let me out of the tardis and we walked back to my car, mum was going to kill me when she saw what had happened to it the paint was melted and the tires burst, I got a few questioning looks, but nobody said a word
"you two are both brilliant you really are, now I'll keep an eye on the phoenix until the the conservationists get here, for you two I recommend food and sleep"
i looked down at myself and then at Marcus, we were both pretty filthy, soaked in sweat, I think before sleep a shower is in order
"yeah you two are pretty good for amateurs, course your more professional than him" Amy gave a flick of her head towards the doctor"so, that makes you pretty good at this job"
the doctor was about to poke fun at Rory before he realised Amy was talking about him
"yes well you can do this job for hundreds of years like me and you can never be much more than an amateur, but Amy's right Luke you are pretty good at this, almost as good as your mother, so I have a gift for you"
the doctor reached into his coat pockets and after a few seconds of searching pulled out a small device
"this is for you Luke a sonic pen, your sonic pen, I gave a sonic device to your mother so it only seems fair that you get one too, after all your an alien fighter in your own right now"
I took it, not entirely sure what to say, i pressed the button experimentally and a nearby street lamp blew up, making us all jump
"whoops yes you should have read the manual, there was a manual I'm sure I know its around here somewhere, oh unless I gave it to, ah yes never mind, you'll figure it out on your own soon enough, but if you meet a woman called Esmeralda ask her to summarise it for you"
I slipped it into my coat pocket, I couldn't keep myself from smiling
"ah yes as for your car, well I imagine you both have a lot to talk about, the walk back should give you the time you need to talk it out"
I crossed my arms, typical melts my car and then runs away and leaves us stuck
"alright doctor, I'm glad we could help"
I heard the gentle sound of the tardis engines before the doctors head popped out one more time
"oh and if Sarah-Jane calls, this was nothing to do with me"
he disappeared into the tardis Amy and Rory behind him, they both waved goodbye, I could still see something in Rory's eyes, like he'd seen more than he should of almost like the doctor, his eyes revealing his age, turning my back to the disappearing tardis I started the long walk home
"alright Marcus time to talk both of us" we had been walking in silence both of us for about ten minutes now he wasn't going to talk so I had to "so come on talk"
he looked aggravated I knew he didn't want to talk about his mother for the same reason i hadn't talked to him about UNIT and the weapon
"what do you want me to say Luke she's gone there's no point in me being angry at the world, it won't bring her back"
he almost looked like he was hoping I would prove him wrong
"I want you to talk that's all, it won't bring her back, but I got a chance to see inside your head again today and its a mess, you have all these emotions knotted up inside but you refuse to talk about them, and I think you need to"
he turned in a circle before rounding on me finger pointing straight at my face like he was getting angry, but before he could manage a word he let his arm drop to my shoulder and started crying
"she should be here, she's my mum, she should be here, just like the phoenix, I didn't have enough time with her, she didn't have time to explain the world to me, i'm lost in this big old universe and I still don't understand how it all works, what I'm supposed to do where I should go, i just don't know, I just don't know"
I pulled him close and let him cry into my shoulder, i'm not sure why I did it, it just felt like the right thing to do
"I think you already know the answer to that question, like you said to the phoenix, you have friends we might be your only friends in the universe but that doesn't matter, you just need to trust me let me help, i started off lost as well, but sarah-jane helped me, now I can help you"
he took a step backwards looked me in the eyes
"when did you get so wise Luke Smith"
I blushed a little it at that, i'd never really thought of myself as wise, after all I don't understand the world either
"i'm not sure but right now my wisdom is telling me I need a shower, and then food, and thenIi have to find someone who can fix my car"
he let a burst of laughter escape and we both started walking again
"thanks Luke, hey you know what would help cheer me up even more?"
I shot him a puzzled look
"if I could try out your sonic pen"
I couldn't stop myself laughing at that, he had the same child-like grin he wore whenever he was planning something mischevious, it made me laugh how he could be so mature and so childish at the same time, having no doubt in my mind that this was a bad idea i handed him the pen
"oh this is cool"
I let myself get a few steps ahead K-9 close behind me
"Master are you sure it is a good idea"
I heard a small bang behind me
"no K-9 i'm not, but he needs cheering up"
"Marcus's emotional state seems to have improved"
"affirmative K-9 sometimes, you just need to talk, best thing in the world"
another bang and Marcus fell into step next to us
"ok this thing is going to save a lot of time next time I lose my keys"
he handed me back my sonic pen and we kept walking in comfortable silence
"so then Luke what is it you need to talk about"
I shot him another puzzled look
"oh come off it, your hiding something at the back of your mind I can sense it"
I hadn't even noticed him brush past my mind
"i'm ok honest I talked to the doctor about it, about the weapon and Cutter, i'm fine honest"
he looked thoroughly unconvinced
"you, luke smith should know better than to try and lie to an empath"
"OK the weapon isn't the only thing on my mind OK, but the rest can wait for a while longer"
he took a few teasing pokes at the barriers in my mind
"alright but like you said, you need to talk about these things"
"and i will OK promise but not right now"
a shrug of his shoulder and we slipped back into silence, i want to tell him, but how, how would he react, what would he say, before I could worry anymore I felt a positive buzz of emotions from him, guess we're both still growing up, but at least everythings OK for now.
no mention of the mysterious mistress don't worry she hasn't been forgotten about, i hope you like this chapter, it definitely brings to light some of the issues Marcus has been dealing with, the next chapter is going to take an interesting turn, but its something i have been wanting to do with this story for a while now. so next chapter should be interesting
hint for the chapter: runs but never walks and has a mouth that never talks?