Another chapter, yay!
Sherlock grimaced at the sight of the aliens heading for them on Christmas Day. "I hope they're wearing masks."
John shook his head. "Why would they be wearing masks?"
"I don't know. It's ceremonial and traditional? Space travel?" Sherlock asked and John shook his head.
Mickey asked if they had seen them before and Sherlock sighed. "It's not like we've seen every alien that's out there. I doubt even the Doctor has."
They couldn't understand what the aliens were saying, and Rose reasoned that something must be wrong with the Doctor's link to the TARDIS. "It'll be all right, Rose." John tried to reassure her, patting her shoulder.
"The TARDIS! John, we must pour a cup of tea for the TARDIS whenever we get the chance." Sherlock said.
"Are you feeling quite well, dear?" Ms. Hudson asked as practically everyone stared at Sherlock.
"What? It's a living thing, too, connected to the Doctor, and it might have been affected by his regeneration." Sherlock said.
"Well, how are we going to serve it? Pour it on the console?" John asked.
"No, don't be stupid, John. Pour it through the grille on the floor. Most of the TARDIS's circuits are down there anyway." Sherlock said.
"All right, fine, as soon as we get the chance." John said. "Anything that might help."
Meanwhile, they monitored the ongoing situation through their hack on the Mars transmission feed and direct line to Mycroft and, through him, Harriet Jones herself. However, when Harriet asked Mycroft about Torchwood, Sherlock's brother briefly hung up on her.
"What is it? What's going on with Torchwood?" Sherlock asked Mycroft, intrigued. The future Captain Jack had warned him about it and they had information about the Doctor, but other than that, he didn't know much about that agency's role.
"Nothing that need concern you, brother. And hopefully nothing that Harriet Jones will mess with either." Mycroft said. "Besides, we're at the shop right now. Call you back in a moment." Mycroft hung up on Sherlock.
Sherlock frowned at his phone. "He's hiding something from me."
"When isn't he?" John sighed.
Anthea, Lestrade, and Mycroft rushed into the 24-hour shop and quickly commandeered and purchased a full shelf worth of tea, in bags, bottled, canistered, brewed, loose, cold and hot, of all varieties and brands from around the world, not knowing what might work. Mycroft stepped off to the side for a moment to call Harriet Jones and privately talk to her, but then he shook his head and hung up on her.
"Any luck?" Lestrade asked his lover, aware something was going on, even if he didn't know what.
Mycroft sighed. "She went around behind my back. I think I trained that woman too well in how to be a politician."
"Sometimes you've got to let stuff like that go. If she fails or it blows up in her face, well, that's life and then you might have your laugh."
"While the world suffers for it." Mycroft said.
Suddenly, Mycroft's phone rang again and he answered. His eyes widened as he heard the news and he told Lestrade and Anthea, "They've gotten the translation from the Sycorax, the aliens, and it's not good."
"Sycorax rock?" Sherlock gaped as he heard the translation over the line. "They're rock-fans? That's barbaric."
"What's wrong with that? I like a bit of rock n'roll too. So does everyone." Ms. Hudson said.
"Not everyone." Sherlock corrected.
"That reference to cattle isn't exactly comforting." Molly said, grimacing.
"And who's going to die?" John asked, disturbed.
"Don't worry, we'll fix this, we'll figure something out." Sherlock tried to reassure his love.
"We're sending our reply back." Mickey said, listening to Harriet Jones's words along with everyone else.
"Not exactly the best, most diplomatic remarks we could have made to them." Sherlock said.
"You probably would have insulted them if you had to come up with a response." John said. "Besides, they threatened us, too."
"Maybe, but there's still a possibility that their words are an empty boast." Sherlock said.
Rose fretted over the Doctor in that moment, while still worried about everything else. Mickey hugged and comforted her then, though she wouldn't answer when he asked if she loved the Doctor.
Sherlock observed them from afar, quite aware of Rose's feelings for the Doctor. He knew that Mickey would never find the sort of love he wanted or needed from Rose, and he was glad that he had his John.
Early morning light shone as Anthea, Mycroft, and Lestrade returned, tired and cold, but triumphant with their arms full of tea to Jackie's flat. Ms. Hudson and Molly quickly sorted through the bags and tried to pick out the best, most expedient options as Jackie picked out some cups.
The others stood off to the side, talking about the approaching alien invasion and Harriet's response while Mycroft's phone rang again and Mickey's computer had an alert. The Sycorax were responding.
The others rushed over to the computer, watching and listening in as Jackie ran down to the TARDIS to pour some tea on the grille floor and Molly went to serve a cup to the Doctor. Ms. Hudson manned the kitchen, ready to prepare more tea should any of those options fail.
On the computer, they saw the Sycorax wave their hands and blue energy appeared. Suddenly Sherlock, Mycroft, and Anthea stiffened as blue energy appeared over their heads, their expressions vacant and frozen. The others didn't notice at first, concentrated as they were on what was going on with the Sycorax, but then the trio turned and started walking out of the room without a word like robots.
"Sherlock?" John asked.
"Mycroft?" Lestrade added. However, they didn't respond or react, they just kept moving, staring ahead of them.
"What's going on?" Molly asked, sticking her head out from Jackie's room. She hadn't served the tea to the Doctor yet, but the cup waited on the bedside stand.
"I don't know, but something's affecting them and it might have something to do with the aliens!" John cried.
He and the others rushed out, following after the trio, and were soon joined by dozens of other people throughout the estate. They were begging and pleading with their loved ones and friends acting in such a bizarre state as the horde moved outside and started climbing stairs.
Lestrade, John, and others tried to stop the afflicted, especially Sherlock and Mycroft, but it had little effect on them as they kept going, no matter what. So John and the others let them go and kept behind them, worried.
Lestrade tried to call Donavan and get answers from her to find out what was going on throughout the rest of London. But Anderson answered her phone, as Sally Donavan was also acting like a zombie. Mycroft's phone was ringing nonstop and John managed to snatch it from him and answer.
"Don't tell me Mycroft's been affected, too?" Harriet Jones groaned.
"And Sherlock and Anthea as well! What's going on? What have the aliens done to them?" John asked, worried as he stared at his beloved, who didn't recognize or acknowledge him.
"We don't know, but it's happening everywhere it seems. All around the country, and maybe even worldwide." Harriet Jones said.
"They're climbing. Why are they climbing? Where are they going?" Ms. Hudson asked, tearful.
"They…the Sycorax wouldn't do such a thing. They couldn't, could they?" Molly asked John, a terrible realization coming to her mind.
"I don't know. I haven't the foggiest notion of what the Sycorax can or can't do to them, what they're capable of." John gasped, feeling helpless and angry.
"Sherlock might figure out something or Mycroft might come up with a plan with Anthea's help. And you know the Doctor would be on top of everything! But I'm not capable of coming up with an idea or solution here. Aside from…Molly, did you give the Doctor his tea?" John asked.
Molly hesitated, trying to remember, and shook her head. "Then that's what I'm going to do here and hope that saves everyone." John sighed, sad and resigned.
He glanced at his beloved, who didn't notice him as he continued to climb, and then John turned away, not wishing to see anymore. He raced downstairs through empty corridors as everyone had gone up to the roof, the afflicted and the onlookers alike.
He pushed open the door to Jackie's flat, and Jackie was standing there, staring around her empty flat as she held an empty teacup. "What's wrong? Where has everyone gone?" Jackie asked. "I did it like I was supposed to, poured the tea into the TARDIS and everything."
"To the roof, I think. The aliens are controlling a bunch of people worldwide, Mycroft, Sherlock, and Anthea amongst them. It's like they're possessed and if we don't do something…I think they might jump."
Jackie gasped in horror. "Is Rose okay?"
"She's fine, nothing wrong with her or Mickey. It's just those three amongst our group." John said before he walked into Jackie's bedroom toward the tea on the bedside stand.
"I'm so sorry. I hope they'll be okay." Jackie said, shaking her head. "What I don't understand is why those three? Sherlock, Mycroft, and Anthea. There's nothing that ties them together, right?"
"Well, Sherlock and Mycroft are brothers, Anthea's his assistant, but there's a bunch of others that have been affected worldwide. Not everyone, but enough people…" John sighed and shook his head as he grabbed the teacup. "We'll figure it out later. Right now, we need the Doctor."
As gently as he could, he managed to pour the tea down the Doctor's throat and the Time Lord unconsciously swallowed, but there was no response from the Doctor for a moment. Suddenly Mycroft's phone rang again, startling Jackie and John in that still, silent moment.
He quickly grabbed the phone and gruffly answered, "What is it?"
Harriet Jones explained a possible cause for the situation as a vial of A Positive blood had been included in Guinevere One's payload. John groaned to himself, feeling miserable and tired, drained after a terrible night and the day before they had been stuck on the Gamestation. He was just so weary and afraid and he wished that…suddenly Jackie was tapping him on the shoulder.
"What is it now?" John griped as he looked up and the Tenth Doctor was awake and solemnly staring at him.
"Hello, John." The Doctor said.
"Hello, Doctor." John said, barely able to breathe.
"So what's gone wrong now?" The Doctor asked.
Jackie and John quickly explained the situation as best they could to the Doctor, who started putting on his bathrobe, not having anything else to wear at the moment. The Doctor grabbed his sonic screwdriver, and John was glad for a moment that Sherlock had left it alone before he sobered up, thinking of Sherlock.
"Blood control." The Doctor said at one point when John told him what Harriet Jones's team had discovered. "That's brilliant. Don't have to worry about them jumping."
"What do you mean?" John asked, staring at him.
"Survival instinct's too strong. You can only control them so much to bring them to the edge, but you can't make them jump. It's a scare tactic." The Doctor said.
John breathed a heavy sigh of relief, sagging a little in exhaustion as the Doctor hugged him and patted him on the back, trying to relieve his tension. Harriet Jones was delivering a speech on TV, which had been left on, but no one paid any mind to that right now. Suddenly the windows shattered in the flat, throughout the estate, and across the city, causing them to duck down with the Doctor sheltering John and Jackie as much as he was able to.
"What was that?" Jackie cried.
"Sonic wave!" The Doctor cried. "They're here. The aliens are landing or they've arrived. Whichever works!"
"Let's go greet the neighbors and set everybody free." John said, causing the Doctor to laugh.
They quickly ran out of the flat and bumped into Rose and Mickey, who had been coming down to check on John and the Doctor. Everyone cried out in shock, laughed, and hugged each other, glad to see the Doctor well again.
"Where are the others?" John asked Rose.
"They stayed up on the roof to watch out for Mycroft, Sherlock, and Anthea. Lestrade said he would hold them back if he could." Rose grimaced.
"He won't have to. Come on, to the TARDIS!" The Doctor cried.
They rushed downstairs to the estate's courtyard where the Doctor paused a moment to look back and up at the people lining the estate's roofs, including Sherlock, Mycroft, and Anthea. The Doctor grimaced as he spotted them, privately vowing that no one would harm his friends, their family, or this planet. Then he turned back towards the TARDIS, rushing inside.
Rose urged her mother to stay behind and tell the others what was going on as the Doctor, John, and Mickey went around the console, checking the system and powering everything up. Rose closed the TARDIS doors and walked up to the console, staring at this new version of her Doctor.
"All set?" She asked.
The Doctor smiled. "Right as rain."
Suddenly a light flashed on the console and the Doctor checked it, laughing. "They're picking us up! We don't even have to ask them for a ride! We're going straight up to the spaceship!"
"That doesn't sound good. It means they're prepared for us." Mickey said.
"Oh, no one is prepared for me. Not even me." The Doctor said, smiling.
They nervously gathered at the TARDIS doors, which the Doctor flung open, and suddenly they were tangling with Sycorax guards. Harriet Jones and her translator looked up, deathly afraid with the ashes of two other humans next to them.
"Is that the Doctor?" Harriet Jones asked as they now understood what the Sycorax were saying without their translation device.
"Oh, they really were wearing masks." John remarked, seeing the true faces of the Sycorax.
He ought to tell Sherlock that, whenever he might or if he could see and talk to him again. Rose urged the Sycorax to leave in peace, mustering all of the words of authority she had learned in her year of traveling with the Doctor.
"I don't think that's working." John said as the Sycorax laughed.
The Sycorax leader attempted to crack a deadly whip at the Doctor and the others. But the Doctor blocked and disabled the whip, pulling it away from the Sycorax. He broke a staff and then took a moment to greet Harriet Jones and convince her who he was before he addressed the Sycorax.
John and his friends watched everything, marveling over this new Doctor, who listed all the possibilities of his new personality and persona. He literally could talk a mile a minute, quite a feat, but it was also a feint and distraction of sorts as the Doctor edged towards the great, big, red button that controlled the zombie humans.
Harriet Jones and her translator cried out in alarm, afraid the Doctor was killing them when he pressed the button. However, down below on Earth, as Jackie was telling Lestrade, Ms. Hudson, and Molly about everything that happened with the Doctor, the zombified humans suddenly revived, the blue energy disappearing.
Sherlock blinked a moment, feeling dizzy and disoriented as he suddenly found himself standing on the edge of the estate's roof next to his brother and Anthea, looking down at the courtyard below. He could have sworn they were just staring at the Sycorax on Mickey's computer screen a second ago and here they were.
Sherlock gasped and staggered back from the edge, his mind palace reeling and trying to re-engage with everything that was going on around him. He looked around at all of the people, also standing on the edge of the roof in shock, and their friends and relatives standing nearby. Then he glanced up and saw the alien spaceship right above their heads, marveling at it.
Lestrade hugged and kissed a visibly shaken-up Mycroft and Anthea tried to act as nonplussed as she could despite the situation. Molly, Jackie, and Ms. Hudson, meanwhile, were clutching at each other tightly, smiling and laughing. Visibly absent, though, were John, Rose, and Mickey.
"What happened here? Where are the others? What did they try…" Sherlock asked, trying to cope with his situation.
The others quickly explained what was going on and Sherlock frowned to himself. "They left without me? That's bollocks. Well, at least they've gotten a hold on the situation." He glanced up at the spaceship. "Good luck, Doctor, John, Rose and Mickey." He murmured.
Suddenly Sherlock's phone rang and he answered. "Hello?"
"What am I doing standing on this roof?" Captain Jack Harkness asked.
Sherlock laughed and explained the situation as best he could. Meanwhile, the Doctor argued his case to the Sycorax, though he wound up quoting lines from the Lion King.
And then he challenged the Sycorax leader to a duel for the planet's fate. The others watched, horrified and spellbound as the Sycorax and the Doctor actually dueled with real swords outside the spaceship to a balcony area. They followed after the fight, watching intently, though John wondered how they managed to preserve grass out here.
They nearly tried to help out with how badly the Doctor fought, and then the Doctor lost his sword and a hand in the process, falling off of the spaceship. "Oh, this is a nightmare," John said, shaking his head as the Sycorax cheered.
However, the Doctor managed to regrow his hand, just because he was still in the middle of his regeneration cycle. "You have got to be kidding me," John said, saying what most of them probably felt like at that point.
Still, Rose tossed the Doctor a new sword and he renewed his fight with vigor, disarming and defeating his opponent before sparing him. John laughed and clapped along with the rest as the Doctor returned to them, triumphant with the promise that the Sycorax would leave.
"Arthur Dent? Why does that name sound so familiar?" John asked, puzzled as the Doctor talked about his wearing a bathrobe.
Then the Doctor talked about the satsuma he found in his bathrobe just as the Sycorax leader got up and started running towards the Doctor, waving his sword. However, before John or the others could react, the Doctor tossed the satsuma at a control button for the ship, and the Sycorax leader wound up falling to his death.
"God, that was close," John murmured as they went back inside and wrung another promise out of the Sycorax to leave the planet alone. Then the TARDIS, its crew, and Harriet Jones and her translator were beamed away, back to Earth.
Meanwhile, Sherlock and the others had gotten down off of the roof and walked out into the courtyard, staring up at the spaceship. Mycroft and Lestrade were on the phone, trying to talk with anyone they could get ahold of as to what was going on.
"Satellite imagery picked up some activity going on outside of the spaceship. Almost looked like a sword fight happening between the Sycorax and someone that matches the new Doctor's appearance." Anthea said as she got off of the phone.
"Oh dear, that sounds dangerously gallant." Ms. Hudson said.
Sherlock laughed to himself and shook his head. "That would be just like him in a strange way."
Suddenly he spotted a beam of light coming down from the spaceship to an area a short distance away and he started running towards it with the rest of the group following after him. At that point, the Doctor, John, Rose, Mickey, Harriet Jones, her translator and the TARDIS materialized on the street and watched, excited and cheering, as the spaceship started to depart.
"John! Doctor! Rose!" Sherlock shouted, running towards them.
"Sherlock!" John cried, running to embrace and kiss his lover.
The others met and reunited, talking and chattering excitedly with each other, when suddenly Harriet Jones and her assistant went off to the side, talking privately with each other. At first Mycroft didn't notice, caught up with the excitement as well, but then he saw Harriet Jones mouth a command to her assistant.
"No, wait, stop!" Mycroft cried out, striding over to his protégé.
"It's too late," Harriet Jones said, looking down as her assistant gave the command.
Suddenly laser beams shot up into the sky and struck down the Sycorax warship. The Doctor angrily turned against Harriet Jones as the others stood off to the side, shocked and numbed by what was happening. Mycroft clenched his fist, not willing to say anything as the Doctor and Harriet Jones argued over the validity of the threat.
"And what about you, Iceman?" The Doctor suddenly said, turning on Mycroft Holmes as well.
"Oi, leave him alone." Lestrade said, getting huffy in defense of his beloved.
"You trained her how to be prime minister, too. You must have had a hand in or some knowledge as well of this defense network that she's built." The Doctor said.
"It's out of my hands." Mycroft Holmes said, staring at the Doctor as Sherlock watched him closely. "I couldn't do anything at this point or stop her from using such a network. I don't have control here."
"What, you? The British government?" John asked, scoffing.
"It's out of my hands." Mycroft said as the Doctor frowned.
"He's telling the truth." Sherlock said, watching his brother as the others looked to him now. "Mycroft has no control of this situation. It's outside of his jurisdiction, isn't it?"
"Like I said, it's out of my hands." Mycroft lowered his head, ashamed.
"Who is responsible here, then?" Sherlock asked, curious. "Who created that laser defense network?"
"Torchwood." Harriet Jones simply said without further explanation.
"What is Torchwood?" Sherlock asked, but no one responded.
Harriet Jones and the Doctor threatened each other, and then the Doctor whispered six words into the translator's ear before walking off with the others following in his wake. Sherlock scoffed and shook his head.
"I could do it in three." He turned around and told his brother, "Mycroft, burn her."
"With pleasure." Mycroft grimaced, disappointed in Harriet Jones and what she had come to.
He would not have condoned her actions, especially after the Sycorax had apparently surrendered and departed and the Doctor was currently present. Yet he was also unnerved as part of him wondered what he would have done if placed in her situation with so much at stake and so very little to be done.
Would he have given the go-ahead to Torchwood if the Doctor, his brother, and John, had not been present? Mycroft shuddered, glad that he didn't have to make such choices publicly, with the eyes of his friends, family, and important allies on him. But he could at least privately remain in the shadows, and deal with his own affairs without such scrutiny and judgment.
I know it's so close to the end of the episode, but I decided to stop here for now. Conclusion and interlude for The Christmas Invasion coming up.