Chapter 3
The Doctor's eyes snapped open, his breathing erratic, his eyes glazed over. While he knew the murder of Rose Tyler had been only in Glad's nightmare, he still felt the horror. So enraptured by the latent images that refused to leave him, he was unaware of the screaming and shouting around him. He felt hands on him that quickly left. Someone was shouting his name and then Glad's. He wasn't sure what it was about. At the moment, the only thing he knew was that he had just lost the woman who came closest to being a soul mate to him than he'd had for several lifetimes.
Glad, released from the Doctor's steady mental support, awoke as well. "They murdered her! How could you let them? It was as if a band of evil knights all brandished their swords and cut her to pieces." Tears fell from her eyes as she shook from the vision.
Sam had watched as the Doctor had put his hands onto either side of Glad's head and seemingly entered a trance. At first, he had watched unsure of what to do. He saw that both of his friends were distraught, tears running from their eyes, faces contorted in pain. At one point, he'd started to reach out to the Doctor to try to get his attention, but the TARDIS told him through his mind that he should simply wait until whatever was transpiring was complete. He had started to pace, his nervous energy spurring him to do something but knowing there was nothing, at present, he could do. When the situation broke, it was as if a logjam had been freed, a terrible release that was surreal in its nature. The Doctor still appeared to be separated from reality as Sam called his name and tried to shake him to bring him out of whatever had captured his attention. It was only the terrified screaming of Glad that turned him away from the Doctor. "Glad! It was just a dream. No one's been murdered." he said as he moved to her and tried to calm her fears, holding her in a brotherly embrace, his hand rubbing her back soothingly.
"I killed her," the Time Lord whispered shakily. "Oh, god... I killed her." He curled slightly into himself, wanting to deny the truth of what he'd seen. He loathed the depths that the Master had sunk to but equally loathed himself, feeling that, should Glad's prophetic dream come to pass, he would indeed choose to watch Rose murdered so brutally rather than submit to the demands of his nemesis and his wife. He was pulled back to reality as Glad's moans of horror continued. Forcing himself to focus, he stood shakily from where he had dropped to the floor, going to Glad who was still in Sam's arms. "Glad. It wasn't real. None of it was real," he stated as if trying to convince himself as well as her. "At least it's not real yet. It doesn't have to be."
Glad heard the Doctor's voice and pulled away from Sam. "But it felt real. Seeing all that death and horror and them taking you away. And I don't understand. You called her Rose... and somehow that man was Sam. Is that what they really look like? Without their pitchers?"
The Doctor just nodded at her question before slowly sitting on a nearby chair, rubbing his face with his hands. "It felt real for me too," he admitted to her. "But it hasn't happened. None of it. We're going to make sure that it doesn't."
"How?" she cried in anguish. "How can you stop someone like that? Why does he... do that and why does she?"
He shook his head slightly. "Her... I don't know. Him... Well... He always thought he should own the universe. But we'll stop him. Somehow."
"But it was so wrong!" She shook her head as if trying to remove the vision.
"I know," came the quiet reply.
"But I don't," Sam put in with a frown, still greatly confused over what he had just witnessed. "What happened?"
"I think Glad should try to get some sleep," the Time Lord put in, standing once again without answering Sam's question.
"But..." Sam stopped when he saw the look on the Gallifreyan's face. "You're right. Sleep will be good."
"But I don't want to go to sleep," she cried out in fear. "What if the dreams come back?"
The Gallifreyan gave her a gentle smile before opening his arms to her. "Come here," he beckoned. When she had obeyed, leaving Sam's arms for the Doctor's, he gently brushed her hair. "It's okay, my dear. They won't come back tonight. I promise. And you do need your sleep. I'll meet you in the console room, Sam. I'm just going to take Glad to her room." He helped her onto her feet and guided her out of the library, telling her simply, "Trust me."
"Okay," she answered, allowing him to escort to her bedroom.
Once there, he helped her into the bed. "Close your eyes," he whispered to her, "and have pleasant dreams tonight." Using his unique skills as a Time Lord, he found the receptors in her mind that would ensure that his wishes for her rest would become reality. When he was certain that she was asleep, he gently caressed her sleeping face before shakily standing. He left the room and found his way to the heart of the TARDIS. "She'll be fine for a few hours," he told the leaper. "Enough time to get a good rest."
"She looks like she needs it." He paused. "You look like you could use some rest as well. What happened?" the physicist repeated his question from earlier.
"A drink is what I could use," the alien corrected the physicist's words. He exhaled slowly. "I thought I'd lost her," he whispered. "I thought..." He looked at Sam for a long moment, his eyes showing that a part of him was still elsewhere. "Oh, Rose... Sam... I'm so sorry."
"I don't understand."
"The world is going to end..." the Gallifreyan told him softly. "And you are going to be the first casualty."
"What?" Sam responded, his eyes widening. "You're talking crazy."
"Oh, I wish I were. Believe me, I would rather I were completely nutters than for it to come. But it's coming. And..."
Sam took the Doctor by the shoulders, looking into his eyes to direct his focus. "What did you see?"
The Time Lord, while grateful for Sam's intervention, gently shrugged off Sam's grip. He needed to be able to pace to make sure that he could express his thoughts clearly. "Her dream had three parts, one after the other, all showing a progression of grim futures. In the first, the Master forcibly brought you back to your project, killing you in the process. He then set Jack up for an eternity of torture before killing Albert for protesting." He didn't tell Sam about how the Master was able to infiltrate PQL, thanks to his best friend's betrayal. Very few humans could resist the onslaught of the Master's telepathic abilities if they didn't have psychic training. Even in his current pain he, like his nemesis, was impressed that the Italian man had eventually fought off the mind control, albeit too late.
Sam had quietly listened to his and his friend's fates. What he heard naturally bothered him greatly and the pain in his eyes was deep. "Lothos hates me and my project. Since I found out about him, I've known that if he ever had the chance, he'd remove me from time itself. I guess with the Master and Lothos being partners, if this happens, it'll be the Master who will do that. I just wish Jack and Al wouldn't have to suffer because of me."
The Gallifreyan didn't respond to Sam's words, knowing that anything he said to reassure him of his lack of culpability wouldn't be taken well. Instead, he resumed his explanation of the dream. "In the second part, Glad and I were running from the Master's soldiers. Some time soon in the future, based on Glad's age. They were going to capture us and I made Glad hide to keep her safe. They captured me, however, and I was taken to the Master." He looked down. "At least I know that Glad will be safe." He took a deep breath and then pushed on. "The third part... I'm sorry, Sam, but as horrid as it was to see you and Al killed and Jack suffering... the third part was the worst for me..." He swallowed tightly, his hearts tightening as he recalled the horrific images. "The Master wanted me to help him build a Time Lord empire. I refused so he tried to use... leverage on me."
"Leverage? What could he use?"
"He... he used Rose." He knew there were others before since Tegan Jovanka had been spoken of in the nightmare but he wasn't witness to what happened to her.
"What happened? What did he do to her?"
"He actually had used a few others of my companions from what I could tell," the Time Lord said, avoiding answering the question even with the knowledge that Sam wasn't going to allow him to evade it for long. "We mentioned Tegan. I traveled with her... oh, a long time ago. My fifth life." Feeling Sam's eyes on him, he knew the leaper was silently pressing him to finish conveying what he'd seen. "The Master ordered someone he called HAL to kill her. She... There was a male disembodied voice. I think it was probably your Lothos. He..." The Gallifreyan swallowed and then sniffed before finishing. "I allowed him to slice her to pieces with a laser and I did nothing to stop it." He gave a small, mirthless laugh. "All I had to do was build the damn Senarkan stylecannons or hand over the TARDIS and she would have lived. The universe would have fallen to a madman, but she would have lived." For a moment, he couldn't help but think about the last time he was forced to make such a decision. He didn't like his decision then either, though. The universe was a little less beautiful without Gallifrey in the heavens.
Sam put his hand out and placed it on the Doctor's shoulder, his face mirroring the horror as he tried to empathize with the Time Lord. "No one should ever be forced to choose between such evils."
The Doctor again rejected the leaper's touch. "Sam, I know you want to help but right now I just need to find a way to... cope with all of this." He started for the exterior door. "I need some fresh air." Noting that Sam started to follow, he emphasized, "Alone."
Sam stopped. "Doctor... it was just a nightmare. It doesn't mean it will come true."
The Gallifreyan turned to look at him, sadness in his eyes. "Maybe. But I'll be damned if I know how to prevent it from happening." Then, without another word, he stepped out of the time ship, walking aimlessly under a blanket of stars as he thought intensely on what the dream was predicting.
He'd walked for a good five minutes when, from out of the shadows, Berega appeared. "You are troubled, Time Father."
The Gallifreyan jumped slightly at the voice, looking up abruptly. He calmed when he noticed the Aborigine walking towards him. "Oh. Berega. You startled me. Which is saying something."
"Your thoughts are far away, along a path that worries you."
He gave a weak smile of acknowledgement of the observation. "Possible futures are always worrisome, especially the one I saw." Finding a boulder, he rested himself on it.
"The dream times are only shadows to come. The Time Mother that gave the Joy child her eye knew that."
"Joy child?" the Time Lord questioned. His eyes widened slightly as he realized the reference. "Oh. Glad." He gave a smile. "Cute, that."
The Aborigine smiled. "She wears the key, but you mustn't allow the seeking mist to take it."
"Glad's necklace is the key," the Gallifreyan stated for clarification.
"Yes. The Time Mother created it to be used. But first the Eternal Man must set the journey along a different path."
"Merlin's grandmother created Glad's pendant to be used as a weapon," the Doctor concluded to himself. He frowned at the thought. "How do we set the journey along a different path?"
"The Eternal Man may reset the course of the dream time."
"Eternal Man..." the alien repeated, pondering on the words for a moment. "So you are saying that I can change what Glad and I just saw in the dreamtime but you don't know how."
"Perhaps you can, but I am speaking of another," Berega responded with a wise smile.
"Really? Huh. That's the problem with interpreting the words of a clairvoyant. Sometimes there are more questions than answers." He sighed. "The vision certainly turned everything upside down for me. I suppose it has for Sam as well. I know from experience that it's never easy to hear you and the people close to you will die if you can't fix the situation."
The native Australian smiled. "The man-woman walks a path that could lead to his last dream. Yet he ignores that truth so he can to take away the sting that would have been. He wants you to find your sure footing again."
"Yeah, I know. Doesn't make ignoring his pain right."
"The Time Father's hearts are torn by the loss of the flower in the dream time. I cry sad songs for you."
The Gallifreyan stared into the moonlit sky, his brown eyes suddenly seeming so lost. "They're going to be... if we don't stop him. I'm going to lose everyone I've ever cared for. He'll scavenge all of eternity for my friends just to break me. I just know it." He could still see his Rose - his "flower" as Berega put it - in his mind. Brave Rose, knowing that she was going to die at the Master's hands if the Doctor submitted to him... and being so willing to give her life for the sake of the universe. He couldn't let it happen.
"The evil ones may be stopped. You must think as they would to do so. It will be hard for you to let your mind go to such an outcropping but you must." The sound of a didgeridoo wafted through the night. "I must go. It is time for you to do what you shall do."
"Already? But we only just met," the Doctor told him, standing up. "Hate for you to just leave. Besides, Glad would be so disappointed if you left without a goodbye. She really took a fancy to you. Clairvoyants unite, or something like that."
"The child needs you now, not me," the Aborigine told him. "But you know time goes in circles, touching on the string many times. Our times will touch again. I wish you good journeys with your companions." With his words said, he turned and went back into the bush from whence he came.
"Good journeys to you, Berega," the Gallifreyan replied gently, giving a slight smile. He waited until he was out of sight before turning towards the TARDIS. He gazed at his long-time friend with affection before walking towards her and entering, his mind thinking about all that had happened in the last few hours but he felt renewed hope after the strange conversation.
DWQLTWDWQLTW
Somewhere in eastern New Mexico
April 3, 2010
The group of travelers had made it though the heartland of America as much as possible keeping to the side roads and avoiding crowds. The few times they heard anything from the world at large, it appeared that life as they'd known it was quickly shifting toward a worldwide lovefest with Harold Saxon as its focus. As they drew ever closer to their destination, Jack had grown introspective and quiet. Paul, Grace, and Rose had been trading tales of lives, the people that meant the most to them and what this change was likely to do to that world.
Naturally that conversation had led to Grace and Rose sharing their stories about a certain time traveler. Paul was interested and peppered the two women with questions about the differences in their "Doctors." As it became obvious from Rose's side of the story that Jack had also been involved, Paul casually tried to bring the man next to him into the conversation. "You going to sleep all day or are you going to add your two cents?" the Iowan asked.
"They're doing just fine without me," Jack told him with disinterest. "And I'm not sleeping. I'm thinking."
"You better spill those thoughts then, Harkness," Grace added. "Seems to me when you get quiet like this, it means there's something brewing." When he gave her a look that indicated that the entire trip was pointing to that inevitability, she continued, "...more than what you've told us so far. Tell us, how do know what's going to go down at this project?"
Jack took a deep breath before exhaling slowly. "In June of last year, I received a coded email from a former high-ranking member of UNIT. He said he'd been kidnapped by order of someone who was likely associated with an organization he'd been researching. This organization, based in Australia, appeared to have ties with some rather questionable investments and technologies that might have alien connections."
"So, why send this information to you?" Rose questioned. "If he used to work for UNIT, why didn't he just send it to them? I'm sure they could have investigated it."
"Because he wasn't sure that he could trust his contacts in UNIT. Something to do with having his loyalties questioned after helping some civilians onto a base. And he needed someone that could actually look into this situation without bringing on the Charge of the Light Brigade. UNIT's good at a lot of things but being subtle isn't exactly their strong suit."
"No," Grace agreed. "We do seem to enjoy our pomp and circumstance."
"Coincidentally," Jack continued, "some of our records indicate that Torchwood's missing branch was very likely located in Australia. So, I figured that I would kill two birds with one stone and not only check on this organization for my friend but also see if I could find some evidence on the possible location of the missing base."
"Torchwood has more than two bases?" Rose questioned with a frown. "I thought the one in London was enough."
"The one in London was overzealous in their application, Rose. There were some good people who worked there that found out the hard way that overzealousness can be a recipe for disaster."
"I know. Just makes me wonder how many more Torchwoods there are out there other than yours."
Paul frowned at the diverted explanation. "What's Torchwood?"
"Depends on who you ask," Jack stated. "But that's not really important at the moment. What is important is what I learned when I got to Australia."
"Okay. Australia then. Tell us about that," the driver encouraged.
"Well, like I said, it was about six months ago. The jet lag was brutal and I was glad when we finally touched down in Melbourne..." The story continued, keeping the group in rapt attentiveness to the Captain's words.