Mackenzie's Son
The Doctor, Mac, and his companions held tight to different aspects of the console room as the TARDIS shook and jolted terribly, the railings, the Y-beams, the console itself, but it was difficult. The ship was bucking and jerking and spinning, rushing through the Vortex heading where they didn't know. The Doctor and Mac were trying frantically to get the box under control, to stop her from sending them somewhere…like the end of the Universe…again…but weren't quite managing it.
"What the hell did you do to the TARDIS this time Doctor?!" Mac shouted over the noise of the box straining, this HAD to be his fault. It was his box, he had to have done something to it that was making it go mad.
"What the hell's it doing?" Donna agreed.
"Controls aren't working!" the Doctor called, struggling to get a lever down, only to fall to the floor in the process, spotting his handy spare hand in the jar set down beside it, "I don't know where we're going but my old hand's very excited about it!"
"What hand?!" Mac shook her head at him, peering at him through her glasses, she'd heard of a hand lost in a sword fight with the Sycorax, but she'd thought Torchwood had it.
"I thought that was just some freaky alien thing!" Donna looked at him, "You telling me it's yours?"
"Well..." he began.
"It got cut off," Martha explained, gasping as the TARDIS shook again, "He grew a new one!"
"You are completely... impossible!"
"Not impossible, just... a bit unlikely!"
"Oh shut up!" Mac called, "And help me stop the TARDIS!"
"Right," the Doctor winced, moving to help…only for one giant explosion to send them back, the Doctor on the captain's chair, Martha and Donna on the ground, and Mac slamming her back into one of the Y-beams as the box landed. The Doctor took only a moment to breathe, before sprinting for the doors.
"Idiot," Mac muttered, panting, he was just going to blindly run out there without running the proper checks, well that was very him wasn't it. She moved to the console, to the monitor and started to check the environment as Martha and Donna helped each other up.
"Where…where are we?" Martha looked at Mac, not wanting this to be another Utopia experience.
"Messaline," Mac muttered, "It's a newly colonized planet," she glanced at them, "Only a few galaxies away."
"Right," Martha let out a breath as Mac turned and strode to the doors. This was NOT what she wanted, this was not what she wanted to be doing right now. She wanted to be back at UNIT with the Doctor off who knew where and far away from her. She had been telling the truth, she did NOT want to travel with him.
She could barely stand dealing with the Sontarans with him and he wanted her to STAY with him? In a TARDIS? For who knew how long? She'd kill him before an hour was out.
The three women stepped out of the box to see they were in a dark tunnel, likely underground given the architecture. It was dank and littered with trash and debris. Mac frowned at that, it looked like some sort of battle had gone on around the area and they were in the aftermath. She hated that.
"Why would the TARDIS bring us here?" the Doctor murmured, looking around.
"Maybe if you didn't break her half the time, she'd actually work properly and take you where you want to go," Mac mocked.
"Oh, I love this bit," Martha whispered to Donna.
"Thought you wanted to go home," Donna smirked at her.
"I know, but all the same," she linked her arm with the ginger woman's, watching as the Doctor looked around, licking his finger to get a sense of their bearings as Mac stood with her arms crossed, glaring at him as though this were his fault, business as normal it seemed, "It's that feeling you get."
"Like you swallowed a hamster?"
Mac spun around when a bang sounded from down the tunnel, the Doctor moving to her side as the two humans stepped closer to them, all of them squinting into the darkness, trying to find the sources of the noise...only for Martha and Donna to jump back when soldiers appeared running towards them.
"Mac," the Doctor tried to pull her behind him to protect her.
"Don't touch me," she pulled her arm from him and stepped away from him.
"Don't move!" one of the soldiers, a young man, shouted, aiming their guns at the quartet, "Stay where you are! Drop your weapons!"
"What weapons?" Mac gave him a look, holding up her hands like the others were.
"We're not armed!" the Doctor agreed, immediately going defensive, "Look, no weapons. Never any weapons. We're safe."
"Look at their hands," the second man nodded at them, "They're clean."
"Alright," the first soldier nodded, eyeing them, his gaze falling onto Mac as she was the only one glaring at them, he could see a fight in her, perfect, "Alright, process them! Four-eyes first," he nodded at Mac.
"Four-eyes?" she scoffed, "That's the best you can do?" she pushed her glasses onto the top of her head as the two other soldiers who had appeared with the man grabbed her, pulling her off.
"Oi! Hey!" the Doctor raced after them, "Let her go!"
"What's going on?" Martha rushed for them.
"Leave her alone!" Donna shouted, trying to pull one of the men away, but they'd already pulled Mac to a large machine and shoved her arm into it.
Mac winced but gave no other sign of pain even as she felt something being ripped off her hand, the machine humming as it powered up.
The Doctor rushed to the other side of it and soniced it, trying to turn it off, able to tell even though she wasn't saying it, that something was wrong and it was hurting her, "Something tells me this isn't about to check your blood pressure…" he murmured.
"No," she grunted outs sarcastically, "What was your first clue!" she winced, biting her lip to keep from crying out.
"What're you doing to her!?" Donna demanded.
"Everyone gets processed," the first soldier said matter-of-factly.
"It's taking a skin sample," Mac winced again, "For some sort of extrapolation…" she nearly fell back as the machine let her go, stumbling into the Doctor's arms as he rushed to catch her, her pulling herself away from him instantly, his expression deflating at the action. He refrained from reaching out to check her hand, seeing a Y-shaped cut on the back of it.
Mac shook her head and pulled a band-aid from her pocket, placing two of them across the back of her hand.
"Are you alright?" Martha asked.
"It's a scrape," she shrugged, though she glanced up at a rather large machine that was connected to the device her hand had just been trapped in. It was humming now too, lighting up. It looked like a pair of double doors that would slide apart…and so they did, smoke filling the small booth that composed it.
"What on earth…" the Doctor breathed as they stared in shock as the smoke cleared to reveal a vague image of someone standing within, "That's just..."
"Oh my god…" Mac blinked as the figure stepped out.
It was a young boy, in his late teens or early twenties. He had shaggy black hair, a hint of stubble to his chin, with light brown eyes, so light they were nearly amber in color, his skin was tanned, making his eye shine more. He was wearing a tight dark green shirt, black cargo pants and black boots. He looked at them a moment, before his eyes landed on Mac and he smirked.
Mac just…stared at him, letting out a shaky breath as she stared at him, shaking her head lightly in disbelief.
"Arm yourself!" the first soldier stepped up and handed him a gun.
The man looked at it a moment, before shrugging, making Mac wince, before he started to handle it, preparing it and checking it as though it were all so natural to him.
"Where did he come from?" Martha frowned at the man.
"From me," Mac whispered.
"From you?" Donna glanced at her, "How? Who is he?"
"He's my son," Mac murmured.
He had to be, she could tell he was. He looked…just like her first incarnation. She'd had shaggy black hair in her first body, though if she cared for it properly it ended up being more curly. Her eyes were the same shade, amber in color, and that smirk…it was the same smirk, even his shrug was hers. She'd always done that, when someone asked her if she could do something, she'd look at them, consider it, and just shrug before going to do it.
Oh god…he was her son…
She had a son…
She stepped away from the group, despite the Doctor reaching out to stop her, and up to the boy as he slung the gun onto his back, smiling at her more now. He was her height she could see as she moved right in front of him. She hesitated a moment, before reaching out to touch his cheek, shocking Martha and Donna with the tears in her eyes, it was…not something they expected to see from Mac given her previous actions and reception of them, her personality.
The boy reached up and touched her hand, "Hi mum."
She blinked, trying not to cry as the Doctor watched on solemnly. He was the only one there that understood how massive and impacting a moment this was for her. Mac, well…Naery…couldn't have children. At all. She just…couldn't conceive, even with the best Gallifreyan medicines, with the best medicines from throughout the galaxies, even with regeneration healing her…she couldn't have a child.
She'd only managed it once, at the very start of her marriage, she'd managed to conceive but…there had been a complication, it was ectopic and…it had just been bad. She'd lost the baby along with her ability to conceive other children. For centuries she just…couldn't have kids, and he knew it killed her. She'd always wanted a child, at least one, and the fates had been so cruel as to not allow it. There had always been an option, of doing something like this, of using science and cloning and other resources to help her have a child in some way.
She'd always refused, it when it was brought up to her. She wanted the experience of carrying a child, she wanted a child to be a random mix of her DNA and her husband's…well…not her husband's, she wasn't fond of him, but it was the principle of it, he WAS her husband and it was expected. She didn't want it to be cooked up in a lab and grown like an experiment, she'd wanted it to be natural. It never happened.
And though he knew this wasn't the way she wanted to have a child…the fact that it had happened, that the child was all her own…she was NOT going to look away from this or reject it. It hadn't been HER doing it, it had been forced upon her, she hadn't had to make the decision and go against her desires for it…it happened.
And now she had a son.
"You primed to take orders, ready to fight?" the first soldier called.
The boy nodded, gently taking his mother's hand off his cheek and heading over, "You were the ones who downloaded all the strategic and military protocols," he shrugged, "Sir," he added, recalling to be respectful, "I'm now a generation 5000 soldier, all primed and in top physical health," he smirked, "I was born ready."
"He's got your bad puns," the Doctor muttered to Mac as she slowly stepped back to them, her eyes locked on the boy.
"I wasn't that bad," she murmured, for once not snapping at him, too shocked by everything to really process that it was the Doctor talking to her.
"Did you say, son?" Donna had to repeat.
"Yeah."
"Technically," the Doctor corrected.
"YES," Mac shot him a glare, clearly saying that the boy WAS her son, no technicalities about it.
"How though?" Martha blinked, this was just…against everything she knew about biology…unless it was some freaky Time Lord thing…like growing back a hand.
"Progenation," the Doctor sighed, "Reproduction from a single organism. Means one parent is biological mother and father. You take a sample of diploid cells, split them into haploids, then recombine them in a different arrangement, and grow. Very quickly, apparently."
Mac was watching the boy intently as he looked down the side of the tunnels the opposite way, "Do you hear that?" he looked at the other soldier.
"Something's coming!" the first man shouted, giving them only a moment's warning before they were all ducking down as what looked like purple fish people with green liquid in tubes before their mouths ran in, firing their guns at them all, "It's the Hath!"
The three human soldiers ran for the Hath, but Mac's son turned to them, "Mum get back!" he quickly ushered her and (unfortunately) the Doctor back in one direction, Donna and Martha taking that as their cue to hide as well, behind another crate, all of them watching as the boy ran back to the soldiers once he was sure they were safe.
The Doctor swallowed hard, knowing his next words would likely hurt Mac all the more, but needing to say it, "He's just like you," he murmured, thinking on her first incarnation.
She'd been…so sweet, motherly and maternal even then, always fretting about her siblings and all their friends that they shared. She was always the one who made sure they ate, went to visit them when they were ill, and just worried about them when they were away from their parents at the Academy. But beneath all that she could be like a bear, a mother bear, defending her cubs at times. She could fight back and snap and argue and shout till she was blue in the face and keep going. For the most part though she was always worrying, they'd actually called her Nellie instead of Naery at one point, Nervous Nellie because of how much she worried for them all, taking a leaf out of the humans' book for that one.
Over the years though, he'd gotten her to calm down, to worry less, reassured her. She'd once told him that she felt secure with him, that she didn't have to worry so much because, if he was there, he'd help her look out for the others too, it wouldn't be just her worrying, but him protecting them as well. He'd loved that, her trust in him, her faith in him, her belief in him…and he'd gone and thrown it all away, crushed it all along with her hearts.
"We have to blow the tunnel!" the first soldier shouted, pointing at what looked like a big red button on the ground by Mac's son's feet, pulling the Doctor's attention over, "Get the detonator!"
The Doctor shook his head at that, "I'm not detonating anything!"
"Oi, you!" the soldier pointed at Mac's son, "Do it!"
The boy glanced at the button and shrugged, heading for it…only to look up when he saw Martha and Donna scream, the Hath having snuck up behind them and pulled them off…if he hit the button now…they'd be trapped on the other side of the blast…
"Blow that thing!" the soldier was shouting at him, "Blow the thing!"
"Martha!" the Doctor seemed to notice them, "Donna!"
"No," Mac tried to run out to him, "Don't!"
But it was too late, he'd slammed his hand down on the button, setting off the explosion that forced them all to leap back, the 'humans' on one side, and the Hath on the other, dust and rock particles filling the air as the ceiling collapsed before them, creating a giant mound of broken pipe and rock and wood blocking their path.
"You've sealed off the tunnel!" the Doctor turned to see the boy helping Mac up, having pushed her to the side and covered her from the debris, "Why did you do that?!"
"They were going to kill us all!" the boy argued, "I'm not gonna let them hurt mum."
Mac let out a breath at that, he…he sounded so much like her little brother just then. The boy had always been fiercely loyal to their mother, a true 'mama's boy' if ever there were one. Her sister had been a 'daddy's girl' whereas she had loved them both equally, though that was more because she was their firstborn, she had gotten equal shares of their attention all to herself for centuries before her siblings had been born.
Still though…it touched her deeply to hear the boy's wish to defend her and protect her.
"But they've got my friends!" the Doctor shook his head.
"And it was YOUR job to keep them safe," Mac defended her son, moving to stand beside him, "YOU were the one who invited them to travel with you, Doctor, whatever happens to them is on your own head."
"Sorry sir," the boy gave him an apologetic wince, "But, in the grand scheme…at least you've still got mum," he trailed off a moment hearing his mother grumble under her breath at that, "He," he nodded at the first and only soldier left, "Lost both his men. Statistically, you came out on top."
"They aren't statistics!" the Doctor snapped, "Their names are Martha and Donna!"
"Oh, you actually remember their names?" Mac looked at him mocking surprise, "Surprise, surprise."
"Of course I remember their names!" he glared at her, "They're my companions!"
"And how many have you had in the past that you've forgotten the names of? Hmm?" she narrowed her own eyes at him, "How many have died with their names lost to the mercy of your memory."
"None," he nearly spat, "I remember all of them. My companions are precious to me and…"
"Your companions are," she nearly sneered, "But how many others have died for you and you couldn't be bothered to remember, or even learn their names?" she shook her head, seeing him freeze, "How many have died to help you Doctor, died with families still wondering where they are? Precious? Your companions may be, but you don't care about the others, you don't care about the 'little lives' of others do you?" she scoffed, seeing him actually fail to answer or have a comeback to that, "Otherwise you'd have had enough decency to tell their families what happened, how they died for you, instead of running off to your TARDIS and never looking back."
The Doctor swallowed hard, feeling his hearts twist painfully at that because, no matter how cruel her words were…they were right, he never ever did go back to the families of the ones who died just to help him, he hardly ever looked back even on his own companions, "I'm gonna find them…" he murmured, a crack in his voice.
"Finally done running away?" Mac crossed her arms, "Or are you just feeling guilty for once?"
The first soldier kept him from having to answer as he moved before the two of them, aiming his gun at them, noting the other both tensing at the gun aimed at his mother but knowing better than to raise his own against his commanding officer, "You're going nowhere. You don't make sense, you two," he looked between them, "No guns, no marks, no fight in you," he looked at the Doctor, "But twice as much in YOU," and then Mac before shaking his head, "I'm taking you to General Cobb. Now, move," he nudged at them with the gun, nodding towards a back tunnel, leaving them little other choice but to walk on, the man calling out some instructions as they went, guiding them through the tunnels.
"So…" the boy looked at Mac, "What exactly is your name mum?" he asked, "Not that I don't like calling you mum, just…curious."
She smiled at that, "The humans like to call me Mackenzie."
He nodded, giving her a look for a moment, all too aware she'd said 'the humans called her that' and not that SHE called herself that. He shrugged though, at ease with that, if she didn't give him her real name then there had to be a reason for it right?
Mac eyed him for that, for the easy acceptance and felt the smallest of pings in her heart for it. It was…something like the Doctor used to do when they were young. Contrary to his current and seemingly boundless curiosity, he hadn't been all that determined to know every little detail about everything when he'd been younger. He sort of just…skimmed through life, learned what he had to, had fun, but was never so interested in things that he questioned every little thing about it, he was rather…easy going when he'd been younger. It hadn't been till he'd fled Gallifrey that he'd started to observe and find wonder in the universe around him.
And, for one brief, flicker of a moment…the traitorous thought that this boy might have been what hers and the Doctor's son would have been like way back then hit her, and she immediately banished it from her head. The LAST thing she ever wanted now was to be a mother to the Doctor's children, she could hardly stand to be around him. The only reason she would have agreed to go with him to get Donna and Martha back was because the sooner they did, the sooner she could take Martha back home and never have to deal with the Doctor again.
"And I'm the Doctor," the Doctor introduced, reaching out to shake the boy's hand, "And you?"
The boy shrugged, "Haven't been assigned a name yet."
Mac frowned at that, "They assign you names?" that didn't sit right with her, she didn't want her son to be named by anyone other than herself.
"They give us fighting knowledge, combat, but that's all the machine."
"So the machine embeds military history and tactics but no name," the Doctor murmured, "He's a generated anomaly, hmm…" he paused, thinking on that, "Generated anomaly…gen-e-ray…how about Ray?"
Mac stopped short, her jaw tensing.
"I…don't think mum's a fan of that one," the boy frowned at her, seeing her looking for all the world as though she were trying not to hit something, "You ok mum?"
Mac swallowed, "Doctor…stop using your mouth, start using your brain, and think very hard about the name you just suggested."
The Doctor blinked at that, considering why she might not be so agreeable to the name 'Ray,' it couldn't be that it was a human name, SHE had a human name. So…aliens, aliens…he blinked, "Sorry," he whispered, feeling like a bloody idiot for having said that name now.
Ray, when roughly translated from Gallifreyan to English, was the nickname of Mac's husband, someone who she shared NO love with at all. She had been one of the Contracted after all, much like her brother had been, but where her brother had been lucky to marry a woman he had grown to love, Mac had been stuck in quite the opposite. Her husband…he was a good man in the sense that he didn't abuse her, verbally or physically, but that was all the good qualities he had.
Mac, because of her inability to have children, something that had happened during the marriage, had come home once to find her husband had taken a mistress. It was…unfortunately…a little common on Gallifrey. When those who were Contracted discovered something like infertility in their partner, they were…in a way…given permission to 'bed' another for the sake of the bloodline. With living such long lives, children were precious and every couple strove for at least one child in their multiple lifetimes. Because of her condition, her husband had settled for another woman, while still married to her, and had two sons by her, sons Mac had never been able to bond with or even really see, not that she had wanted to. She had hoped that her husband might respect her more than to take a mistress, but it had happened.
"How 'bout Ted?" the boy suggested instead, "Genera-TED?"
Mac offered HIM a smile for that, "I like that, it's like teddy bears."
"What are teddy bears?" Ted blinked at her.
"I'll show you one when this is over," she promised, making him beam at the prospect of a future adventure with his mother.
"When this is over?" the Doctor frowned, "Mackenzie…" he sighed, not wanting to bring it up but fearing he might have to, "They stole a tissue sample at gunpoint and processed it," he reminded her gently, not entirely sure if she was listening to him, "It's…it's not exactly natural parentage…"
"Well he's not YOUR son," she snapped back, "So you have nothing to worry about, do you?"
"You won't be able to extrapolate a relationship from a biological accident!" he argued.
He just…this was not going to turn out well, he could tell it wouldn't. He could see her getting so attached to the boy but…he was also a soldier, who was to say he wouldn't get harmed in the upcoming battle with the Hath…if there was a battle? He'd get hurt, he might even die, and then what would happen? Mac would be crushed, just…shattered, to have had a child and lost it so suddenly. And despite her harsh and terribly true words to him…he cared for her.
He hadn't stopped caring for her, not in all the time they'd been apart and he couldn't bear to think of her that broken by what would happen.
He had done…so many terrible things to her over the course of his considerably long life. He really had, he could admit it, he was not some hero in a fairytale, he was not some knight in shining armor to her, and he had no right to be. In the stories of their lives…he really was the villain and he had…so much, almost too much, to make up for with her, beyond just what he'd done to Gallifrey which he would never blame her for not forgiving him over. But he had to try, no matter what she said or did, he had to keep trying because…
He could live with it, the guilt of what he'd done, he could accept it if he was never forgiven by any other Time Lord for his actions in the past, especially with Gallifrey, but…he NEEDED her forgiveness, he needed hers the most. He could deal with others hating him, but it broke his hearts a million times over for HER to hate him.
He needed to fix this.
"Just watch me," Mac challenged.
"Look," he ran a hand through his hair, "Just cos we share certain physiological traits with simian primates doesn't make us a monkey's uncle, does it?"
"Call my son a monkey again, Doctor, and I swear to god…"
"Oi," Teddy cut in, looking between them, "Mum…calm down, please?" he turned to Mac, waiting till she took a breath, "Just 'cos you and dad are having a tiff…"
"He's NOT your father," Mac shook her head.
"Definitely not," the Doctor agreed.
"Never will be."
The Doctor swallowed hard at that, not sure if she meant because of her own condition or she just hated him that much that she couldn't bear the thought of them ever having a family like that (if she HAD been able to have children). He…he could remember a time where they'd imagined their children, when they'd been younger and had their lives ahead of them. But then their own Contracts had been activated and they're imaginary family disappeared into the dust of time.
"Either way," Teddy continued, "I'm not a monkey," he pointed at the Doctor, "And mum, despite having been 'born' minutes go," he gestured at himself, "I'm not exactly a child," he offered them a smile though, "But I'll tell you what, I'll always call you mum and I DO happen to really want a banana right now," he added, giving them a laugh, "Are bananas good?"
"Oh wait till you try one," the Doctor grinned widely.
Before Mac could even comment on that, they'd reached a large auditorium-like room, a small stage off to the side, a progenation chamber off in the back with lines of soldiers stepping up and out of it. There were tables and chairs everywhere, darkness behind the windows of the walls, and guns everywhere.
"So, where are we?" the Doctor wondered, seeing what he thought was night outside the window, "What planet's this?"
"If you had bothered to run an environment check," Mac nearly snapped, "You'd know it's Messaline."
"Well, what's left of it," the one soldier muttered, before heading off across the room towards an older man with a mustache.
"…663, 75 deceased," a report was playing over the PA system, "Generation 6671, Extinct. Generation 6672, 46 deceased. Generation 6680, 14 deceased. Generation ..."
Mac frowned and looked at the stage, why set up their base of operations HERE, it was just…a regular room, a theater if it had to be called something and those windows…the Doctor watched as she wandered over to one, looking at the 'night' on the other side only to realize it was dirt instead, "It's all underground," she murmured.
"General Cobb, I presume?" she heard the Doctor greet as she turned around to see Teddy standing beside the Doctor, facing the older man, and made her way back over, making sure to stand on Teddy's other side and not next to the Time Lord, something he seemed to notice.
"Found in the Western tunnels," the man, Cobb, eyed them intently, his gaze dropping down to their hands, lingering on Mac's Y-shaped graze, "I'm told, with no marks. There was an outbreak of pacifism in the Eastern Zone, three generations back, before we lost contact, is that where you came from?"
"Eastern Zone, that's us, yeah. Yeah. I'm the Doctor, this is Mackenzie."
"And Teddy," Mac added, gesturing to the boy, "My son."
"Don't think you can infect us with your peacemaking," Cobb took on a hard look as he frowned at them, "We're committed to the fight, to the very end."
"Oh look, a real soldier," she muttered just loud enough for the Doctor to hear, making Teddy frown in confusion and glance at his mother.
He could tell she was angry with the Doctor man, he didn't know why but she was really, really cross with him. He wondered briefly if the man might have hurt her somehow and swore to himself to find out why, to see if there was something he could do to help them patch up their issues…or work out if he needed to come up with a way to kill the man for hurting his mother. It was…weird…he could feel it inside him the parts of him that were from her and the other parts from the machine.
He knew he was supposed to be a soldier, committed to the fight, hit seemed his mother even had a respect for them, but…there was just something holding him back from becoming one. And he knew it was his mother, for all her words and suggestions, she wasn't a fighter, he could tell, not like a soldier. Oh he could tell she fought, she had a fighting spirit, he knew that, he felt it in him too, but it was a different fight than what Cobb likely wanted and hoped he'd feel. It was like the machine was powerful but there was something different about his mother that overpowered whatever the machine was trying to program into him.
Whatever it was, he was grateful, because he could tell that, despite her respect for soldiers, his mother probably DIDN'T like the idea of fighting, and he would hate to be someone that made her sad.
"Well, that's alright," the Doctor remarked, "We can't stay anyway. I've gotta go and find my friend and…" he sighed, "Mackenzie has to find her associate."
Mac nodded at that, pleased he'd put Martha and Donna on different levels, Martha was HER associate now, which meant that he was agreeing Martha would be leaving with her as soon as they got the two back.
But Cobb shook his head, "That's not possible, all movement is regulated. We're at war."
"Never would have guessed that," Mac mumbled, making Teddy laugh and put his arm around her shoulder. She glanced at him for the move…almost alarmed by it.
She wasn't used to people being 'touchy' with her, she was sure UNIT got the impression she was a very distant person, very cold and strict. They mostly left her alone for the most part, let her be in her lab with her tech and little creations. And they'd be right too, this version of her was the most cut off she'd ever been…expect perhaps for how she'd been after her marriage. That was just…a disaster that made her miserable for such a long time.
The Doctor especially had suffered when she'd been married, she'd cut him out of her life entirely. This…how they were, was actually a step up for them. She 'spoke' to him this time, she didn't ignore him, she didn't avoid him. The last time they'd been together she had been entirely hardened to him, beyond hurt, beyond unhappy, and it was his fault.
He was the reason her life had been the misery it was, HE had had the chance to change everything, much like he'd had the chance to stop the Daleks and prevent the war.
And she'd reacted in kind, she'd just…shut down. Cut him out of her life. If he didn't want to be a part of her life, if her life didn't mean anything to him, why should his? He tried to contact her, she refused him at every turn. She'd just been so hurt and unhappy, and she could admit though, that despite that, she was afraid. She was afraid that if she did see him she'd go off on him and everything would just be that much worse. If she said nothing…then he was still somehow a part of her life even if she didn't see him. And despite their last true talk ending on the worst note, one that had torn her hearts out, she wouldn't have inflicted the same pain on him by shouting at him and saying things she knew she'd regret.
She'd avoided him back then to protect him from the festering anger she felt inside her.
Now…with the war and all her regenerations…she was different. It was one thing that his actions had harmed HER…it was another that they'd wiped out their entire planet, her friends, her family, everyone she cared about that had lasted to the end of the war…that was something she couldn't stand by. This new her…she didn't care, if she hurt him, if she angered him, she was apathetic. He'd done too much and she'd suffered too much to care about how her words might affect him.
And she was sure to let it be known just how badly he had made everything, how bad he STILL made things.
She'd been so different than she was now, her first incarnation, motherly, fretting, concerned. And very touchy herself. She was always the one that people came to for comfort, for reassurance, for a hug or a pat on the back or anything. She'd been like the 'mother hen' of the group, something, it seemed, her son had picked up in his creation.
"Yeah," the Doctor eyed the action between the two a moment, just knowing that the closer they got, the more they bonded, the harder it would be for Mac to let go of the boy in the end.
He wanted it for her, so badly, he wanted her to have that child she'd always dreamed of, he wanted her to be able to bond with Teddy and get to know him and have the boy travel but…he couldn't help but worry that they'd bond too fast and, with the war going on around them, that if Teddy got hurt…Mac would be devastated and it would break his hearts, despite how bitter she was with him…he understood that he DID deserve it, he honestly deserved worse and he…he still cared about her.
He'd never STOPPED caring about her actually.
Ever.
"We noticed," he continued, "With the Hath. But tell me, cos we got a bit out of circulation, Eastern Zone and all that, so, who exactly are the Hath?"
Cobb sighed, "Back at the dawn of this planet, these ancient halls were carved from the earth. Our ancestors dreamt of a new beginning, a colony where human and Hath could work and live together."
"So what happened?"
"The dream died," Cobb stated, "Broken, along with Hath promises. They wanted it all for themselves. But those early pioneers, they fought back. They used the machines to produce soldiers instead of colonists, and began this battle for survival."
Mac glanced at the windows again, "You said it was carved from the earth yes?" she looked back at him, "Why build underground?"
"The surface is too dangerous," the young boy who had taken them to Cobb replied.
"Well it seems rather pointless to build windows then," she gestured at the walls, Teddy starting to smile as he watched his mother go, "How do you plan to get everything on the surface if it's so dangerous?"
"I've…got a question too," Teddy added, "Those numbers," he nodded his head at the wall where a set of numbers were stamped, Mac frowning at them as she pulled her glasses onto her nose to see them better, "Machine didn't exactly tell us much of anything besides fighting so…care to share?"
"The rites and symbols of our ancestors," Cobb sighed, "The meanings...lost in time."
"So you don't know then?" Mac gave him an unimpressed look.
"No one does," the boy remarked.
Mac looked at the boy and blinked, "Your colony's going to need quite a lot of luck isn't it?"
Teddy snorted at that, but quickly covered it with a cough, getting what his mother was implying, she'd worked out the numbers. He…sort of didn't want to ask her what they were, if they were some sort of code or a system to catalogue things…he wanted to work it out for himself. His mother…he could tell she was just brilliant and he…he wanted to make her proud and work it out himself.
He also wanted to work it out before the Doctor as the man looked as confused as Cobb did about the meaning of the stamps.
"Tell me though," Mac turned back to Cobb, "This war of yours, how long has it been going on?"
"Longer than anyone can remember," Cobb answered sadly, "Countless generations marked only by the dead."
"Why?" the Doctor shook his head, "Why keep fighting?"
"Because they're fighting for their homes," Mac shot back at him, "A foreign concept for you I'm sure. But not everyone is a spineless coward that can sit there and watch their family die."
"Mackenzie…" the Doctor looked at her, "That's not fair…"
"Well when it becomes 'not true' I'll stop," she fired at him, pushing her glasses on top of her head.
The Doctor could only swallow and look away, it would never not be true. The start of the war…he'd kept away. He'd refused to fight, even as his family did. He HAD essentially sat there and let them fight while he hid. He…he could still remember the reports he got about when a family member would fall…till they stopped, the High Council unable to keep up with alerting the family members of the losses anymore.
That was another thing he knew about her, one thing that never changed despite her regenerations, much like his handwriting, it was…the truth. Whenever she said something about another, it was never hearsay from someone else, it was always based on her own experience, her own opinion, and her own evidence. She was there during the war, she was there around her family, around his, she knew exactly what he'd done during the war…and what she said, was what really happened.
He might paint it in any sort of picture that he wanted, he could tell everyone he was being noble, that he refused to take part of bloodshed and war and fighting. And it might be true, in his mind, even in reality, it might be a true, noble cause. But that was only one part of the decision, another was…he was a coward. He had admitted it numerous times, he was always running, always fleeing, never looking back. A war like the Last Great Time War…was the most terrifying thing he'd ever experienced in his life. He was scared, he was a coward, and he had fled even then, he had stayed away and 'refused' to fight.
For all he knew, it could also be seen by others as a sort of twisted revenge against his people, that they had exiled him and tested him and pushed him too much and he refused to fight because…why should he? Why should he fight for a people who were nothing but cruel to him?
THAT though, he knew, was NOT a part of his decision and he supposed he could only be grateful Mac didn't think it was that as well. It was bad enough that she'd lost all faith and care for him…to have her think him that sort of monster…he couldn't bear that.
"We sort of have to," Teddy shrugged, taking his arm away from his mother, "It's the machine, it tells us how to fight, every single one of us," he gestured around, "We share that knowledge, it's…" he hesitated, trying to think of a way to phrase it, "It's a shared knowledge, a shared code, a shared burden…"
The Doctor and even Mac looked at him sadly, though the Doctor more so because…he sounded so much like a Time Lord just then, talking about how they were all connected in some way by their knowledge of fighting. It was like the Time Lords, how they lived, what they were.
"We know how to fight…and we know how to die," Teddy finished.
"NO dying," Mac pointed at Teddy, "Or you're grounded Mister."
Teddy laughed at that, though he could see a true and genuine fear in his mother's eyes at what he'd said. He…could tell there was more to that fear than she was letting on. He kept…getting very odd senses off of her and the Doctor, their reactions to talk of soldiers and war that there was something else behind it, like they'd had more than enough experience with both. But he could also tell that it wasn't something they'd want to bring up, so he held back.
He held up his hands in surrender, "I'll try my level best," he winked at her.
The Doctor looked to the side, knowing he should really STOP saying things to Mac about her and her son, it…wasn't fair of him AT ALL to do it. HE had children, he'd gotten to experience it with his wife, and now Mac had a child, the only thing she'd ever wanted, and he had kept commenting on it like an insensitive prick. But it was just…hard, it was hard to not say it because he worried about her, so much. And he knew, he could feel it even now, the hearts-break and sorrow he felt in knowing his own children were dead, he wouldn't want that for anyone and, with Teddy being a soldier, he knew the likely outcome of it all.
"Does this show the entire city, including the Hath zones?" he asked, heading over to a small holographic map set up to the side, using that as a much needed distraction.
"Yes," Cobb nodded, "Why?"
"Well it'll help us find Martha…"
"Donna," Mac corrected as she and Teddy stepped over as well, her pulling her glasses on to examine the map as Teddy remained between her and the Doctor to try and prevent arguments, "YOU are looking for Donna."
"And Martha," the Doctor frowned.
"Martha is MY responsibility," Mac shot him a hard look, "Donna is YOUR companion. You worry about her and I'll worry about Martha. She's not your concern anymore."
"She's my friend," the Doctor argued, getting a bit of his fight back, "She was my companion and she's my friend now."
Mac scoffed, "What's her favorite color?"
"What's that got to do with anything?"
"You claim to be her friend, tell me, what's her favorite color?"
The Doctor was silent.
"Mr. Jones's first name? Where Martha lives?" Mac gave him another look, "Yes, you're some friend."
"Look," the boy of all people cut in, "We've more important things to do than listen to you two bicker," Mac and the Doctor rolled their eyes at that, 'bicker' right, "The Progenation Machines are powered down for the night shift, but soon as they're active, we could breed a whole platoon from you," he glanced at Mac.
"You're NOT touching her," the Doctor glared at her.
"I dunno," Mac shrugged, looking at Teddy, "Do you want any siblings?"
Teddy laughed, though he sort of agreed with the Doctor, "I think one of me is more than enough to keep you busy for a while. Why don't we wait till later to talk about giving me brothers and sisters."
"Yes thanks," the Doctor rolled his eyes, misinterpreting Teddy's agreement as also having an agreement with Mac in how he implied there might be more children later, "But if you don't mind, leave this to the people who are actually real."
"Doctor!" Mac snapped, completely furious with what he'd just said, something he seemed to realize as he winced…that…hadn't quite come out how he'd wanted it to.
"Like you can talk," Teddy scoffed back at him, "You're so far out there you might as well be someone's imaginary friend," he gave the Doctor a look from head to toe, "Look…I've got a mind of my own, opinions, arms and legs and a heart…" he added firmly, "I can think my own thoughts and argue and disagree…so how am I not real? What makes you so great?"
"He's not great," Mac told her son, "You wouldn't think it, looking at him with that stupid grin, but he's committed genocide."
The soldiers fell quiet and looked at him, the Doctor shifting at the awe in their eyes, before Cobb turned to the boy, "We should use HIM instead for the machines, we'll need more like him to find the Source."
"The, um, Source?" the Doctor asked weakly, shocked that Mac would bring up the destruction of their planet so openly, it wasn't something he ever went around broadcasting to others, and the Source…he was grasping at straws to find something to distract the soldiers from his own militant activities, "What's that?"
"The Breath of Life," Cobb smiled, but the Doctor just gave him a look to continue.
"In the beginning," the boy went on, "The Great One breathed life into the universe. And then she looked at what she'd done, and she sighed."
"She?" Teddy smiled, "Brilliant."
"Who else would be a 'Great One' and breathe life but a mother?" Mac shrugged, pushing her glasses up again, not at all surprised by that.
"Well," the Doctor just HAD to get in, "There are actually a few creation myths were men…"
"It's not myth," Cobb cut in with a frown, "It's real. That sigh, from the beginning of time, it was caught and kept as the Source. It was lost when the war started. But it's here, somewhere. Whoever holds the Source controls the destiny of the planet."
The Doctor glanced at the map and pulled out his sonic, poking around at the bottom of it, before grinning, "Ah! I thought so! There's a suppressed layer of information in this map, if I can just…" he flicked the sonic to a different setting and a new set of tunnels appeared.
Teddy blinked, "Is that…"
The Doctor nodded, "A whole complex of tunnels, hidden from sight."
Mac just closed her eyes at that, shaking her head, hidden for a REASON probably…and he'd just revealed it.
"That must be the lost temple!" Cobb pointed to one area, "The Source will be inside. You've shown us the way! And look, we're closer than the Hath! It's ours!" he turned to the men around him, "Tell them to prepare to move out. We'll progenate new soldiers on the morning shift, then we march. Once we reach the Temple, peace will be restored at long last!"
"Um," the Doctor shifted, "Call me old-fashioned, but if you really wanted peace couldn't you just stop fighting?"
"THAT sounds familiar," Mac muttered, "Just stop fighting and let others be slaughtered eh?"
Cobb pointed at her as though she had a point, "Only when we have the Source," he stated, " It'll give us the power to erase every stinking Hath from the face of this planet!"
"Hang on, hang on," the Doctor exclaimed, "A second ago it was peace in our time, now you're talking about genocide!?"
"For us, that means the same thing."
"Then you need to get yourself a better dictionary. When you do, look up genocide. You'll see a little picture of me and Macke…"
"DON'T drag me into this," Mac hissed at him.
"ME…there," the Doctor corrected quickly, wincing at her hiss, he was just…so used to her being there with him, that…even having her angry at him, just KNOWING she was there had made him think back to all those times, "And the caption will read 'Over my dead body!'"
"And mine," Teddy stepped up beside him, he'd seen it in the Doctor's eyes when his mother had brought up the genocide the man had apparently committed. The pain, horror, anguish…he could feel that part of him that was his mother and not the machine rising, not wanting genocide.
Stepping out of the machine, with all the military knowledge so fresh…he'd sort of just reacted, but, the more time he spent around his mother and the Doctor…the more he felt like them, whatever sort of aliens they were (why else would she have said humans before?) and less like what the machine was trying to make him.
Cobb just chuckled and looked at the Doctor, "You were the one who showed us the path to victory. But you can consider the irony from your prison cell. Cline, at arms!" he ordered and the young boy beside them lifted his gun, Teddy stepping in front of Mac instantly to protect her, "Take them, I won't have them spreading treason. And if you try anything, Doctor, I'll see that your woman dies first."
"I am NOT his woman," Mac snapped.
The Doctor was silent a moment, only Teddy noticing the brief flash of regret shine in the man's eyes at that, at the memory and the knowledge that…she could have been, once, a long time go, Mac COULD have been 'his woman' and then he'd gone and mucked it all up.
"Come on," Cline nudged them, "This way."
"I'm going to stop you, Cobb," the Doctor told the man as they passed, "You need to know that."
"I have an army and the breath of god on my side, Doctor," Cobb smirked, "What'll you have?"
"This," he tapped his head, "And…Mackenzie," he added, making Mac stiffen, "You have no idea the things she'll be able to build from all this junk," he looked around the room, seeing so many average, ordinary objects…but ones he knew she'd see different creations in. She was all about that, finding the simple tricks in objects, the small things that could be used to help instead of big complex creations.
"Lock them up, and guard them," Cobb turned to Cline who nodded and led the three on, all too aware that their latest soldier had betrayed them.
~8~
Teddy glared at Cline as they were shoved into a cell, Mac stumbling from the force of it and him rushing to steady her, shooting the man the look for it. Mac straightened herself and looked around, taking stock of the items in the room that might be useful. It was…something she was ashamed to say she'd been doing ever since the war. She'd look for anything that could make a useful weapon. The Daleks…well, a few had found other weapons factories and supplies houses and they all had to be prepared to fight back with whatever they could find. The room though was quite bare, a small cot with a blanket on it chained to the wall…the wall that had another set of numbers on it.
"We need to find that temple," the Doctor muttered as he moved to plop down on the cot, Mac moving to stand on the opposite end of the room from him, leaning on the bars of the cell, her arms draped through them, both to just put distance between them and also keep a look out that no one would hear him plotting away as she knew he'd be likely to do.
Teddy glanced between the two and moved to rest against the wall behind him, in between them so as not to take sides. He felt an instant loyalty and care for his mother, of course he did, she was the one who gave life to him like the Great One, but…at the same time that Doctor man was…interesting. He could tell the man has the best interests at heart and that he just wanted to help, to help rescue his friends and stop the war. He…liked the man, as well as he could with not knowing why his mother was cross with him.
"All myth is based in some sort of fact and if the temple is real, then the Source is too," the Doctor continued, running a hand through his hair, making it more stuck up, "It's got to be something. A piece of technology, a weapon…"
"Nice," Mac scoffed, "A weapon you just gave a genocidal maniac access to."
The Doctor's jaw tensed at that dig about genocide again, "It's not like you stopped me."
She spun around, glaring at him, "As though anyone could EVER stop you talking once you start!"
"As I recall, YOU had quite an effective method!"
THAT did it, Teddy could see, as his mother flushed and spun around to look back out the cell. He would have smiled at the flash of embarrassment he'd seen in his mother's eyes if he weren't so confused about why she'd reacted like that, "What…what method was that?"
"You DON'T need to know," Mac muttered.
But the Doctor just turned to him, "She would k…"
"Doctor!" Mac huffed, not even turning around as she made the same 'stop talking' gesture that she had in UNIT, putting all her fingers on her one hand together and snapping them down at her thumb to mime someone shutting their mouth.
"Was that it?" Teddy pointed at her.
The Doctor just shook his head, not saying anything so that Mac wouldn't get started again, "We need to get out of here," the Doctor muttered, digging through his pockets for something, "Find Martha and stop Cobb from slaughtering the Hath…" he looked up when he heard Teddy give a soft chuckle to see the boy watching him with a smile, his arms crossed, "What, what are you, what are you…what are you staring at?"
"You," he shrugged, "You say you're not a soldier and mum insists you're not, but you're making plans and strategizing, like general in charge of a platoon!"
"No," the Doctor shook his head, "No, I'm trying to stop the fighting."
"So was I," Teddy countered, nodding to the cell door.
"Well…I suppose. But that's…that's…technically..." the Doctor floundered a moment before shaking his head, "I haven't got time for this! Ah ha!" he cheered, finally finding what he'd been searching his pockets for, Martha's mobile phone. He quickly pulled his sonic out to give it a little boost of connectivity…
"What sort of weapon's that?" Teddy inquired, pushing off the wall to go sit beside the Doctor, watching the sonic curiously.
"It's not a weapon," the Doctor insisted.
"Anything can be a weapon," Mac countered, turning to face them again, "A rubber band could be a weapon."
The Doctor scoffed at that, "I doubt that."
Mac raised an eyebrow at that and strode over to him, pulling a rubber band out of her pocket, grateful she was still wearing her white lab coat, and held it, stretched, between her thumb and index finger, pulling back one end of it with her other hand and letting it snap out at the Doctor's neck before he could react.
"Ow!" the Doctor jumped to his feet, backing away from her, rubbing his neck, her having moved too quickly for him to react, "What was THAT for?!"
"Have I proven my point?" she gave him a look, crouching down to pick up a pebble, "Or would you like another demonstration?" she moved to do the same as she'd done before, but pulling the band back with the pebble in it.
Teddy leapt up, his hands up, "Ok, ok, why don't we calm down," he looked between them, "Fighting among ourselves isn't going to stop the fighting out there."
"Who says I care if the fighting stops?" Mac huffed, putting the band back.
Teddy just looked at her softly, already able to hear the lie in her voice despite having only known her a short while, "Your eyes do," he told her, "You don't like the fighting anymore than he does," he nodded back at the Doctor, "So…" he clapped his hands, "How about we work together and try to end this war? Hmm?"
Before either of them could reply, Martha's voice shouted into the room, "Doctor?"
They looked down at the phone in the Doctor's hand when Donna's voice joined hers, "Spaceman?"
"Martha!" the Doctor lifted the phone, holding it on speaker as Mac returned to the door to keep watch, "Donna! You're alive!"
"Doctor!" Martha laughed, "Oh, am I glad to hear your voice! Are you all right?"
"I'm ok," he replied, "I'm with Mackenzie and we're fine, what about you?"
"What about that other bloke?" Donna cut in, "That boy…"
"Teddy," Teddy offered, "Hello!"
"Hello?" Martha took up this time, sounding confused.
"Where are you Dr. Jones?" Mac called, not wanting them to get on the topic of Teddy, not wanting the Doctor to go on another tangent about how he was the product of a machine and not her son and not real…he was flesh and blood and heart, how was that not real?
"We're with those fish things," Donna explained.
"We're ok," Martha agreed, "But something's going on. The Hath are all marching off to some place that's appeared on this map thing."
"Oh," the Doctor winced, "That was me."
"Doctor…" Teddy frowned, "If Cobb and the Hath are both going to the same place..." he shook his head, unwilling to say it.
"It'll be a massacre," Mac did it for them.
"What do you want us to do?" Martha asked.
"Just stay where you are," the Doctor looked at the phone, "If you're safe there then don't move, d'you hear?"
"But can't we help more if we…" Donna began, only for static to start playing up, "Doctor?"
"Doctor?" Martha tried, "Mac? Mac!"
But the call cut out.
"The humans are heading out," Mac called, glancing back at them, "I can hear them cheering," and indeed they could, all the way from the prison cell which meant that ALL the soldiers had to have gathered, "And Cline's heading back," she stepped away from the cell door, seeing the boy heading back.
"We have to get past that guard," the Doctor agreed.
Teddy nodded, "Leave it to me…"
The Doctor, though, reached out to stop him, only for Mac to stride over and slap his hands away, sending him a warning glare NOT to manhandle her son, "You're not going anywhere," he turned to the boy.
"And why not?" he scoffed.
"You belong here, with them."
"Like hell he does," Mac glared, "He's MY son, he belongs with ME."
"He's a soldier," the Doctor looked at her, pleading with her to understand, "He came out of that machine! He's not truly your son Mackenzie. He…" he took a breath, "He'll just break your hearts."
Mac's jaw tensed, "Well you'd be the expert on that wouldn't you?" she countered harshly, "Didn't stop you did it?"
"I said I was sorry a thousand times," the Doctor said softly.
"Sorry doesn't make anything better," she nearly spat, "It didn't then, it doesn't now. And if you keep saying my son isn't my son, so help me God Doctor, I will…"
"Mum," Teddy cut in, gently tugging her back, "It's ok…I get it," he told her, "I…I'm from that machine and, well, the settlers were human," he shrugged, "I get you're aliens and all, so…I'm probably human too, one that just looks like you mum and…"
"Do you still have that ridiculous stethoscope?" Mac turned to the Doctor, interrupting Teddy slightly. It was a joke gift that she and a few friends had given him when he'd picked his title. A stethoscope like a popper Earth Doctor.
"Yeah…" the Doctor frowned, but Mac just held out her hand for it and he pulled it out, handing it to her.
"Care to share mum?" Teddy asked her, amused, when she turned and put it on, holding the end up to him.
"I need to prove something to the both of you it seems," was all she said, placing the end on his left chest…then his right, smiling faintly, the first smile either of them had really seen, "Two hearts," she murmured, glancing at the Doctor, "He has TWO hearts."
The Doctor blinked at that, startled, and stepped over, taking the stethoscope from her and listening for himself, blinking and staring at Teddy in awe as he pulled away, "But that's…impossible."
Teddy just frowned, ever since he'd stepped out of the machine he'd felt them both beating. He'd thought the machine might have just glitched and given him an extra heart, he knew humans only had one, but…it seemed whatever aliens they were, they had two hearts too, "Is that important?"
"Yes," Mac nodded, turning back to him, "It means you're not a human, the machine replicated you perfectly in species. You're a Time Lord."
"Is that what you are?" he looked at her.
"Close," she gave a soft laugh, the Doctor closing his eyes at the familiar sound, her laugh hadn't changed either from what he remembered, it was…reassuring, if hearts-breaking to know that Teddy had gotten that from her and not HIM. He'd always been the one to make her laugh, the one to reassure her so much that she'd give him one, "I'm a Time Lady."
"So then the Doctor's a Time Lord?" Teddy guessed.
"Yeah."
Teddy started to smile at that, "I'm a Time Lord."
"You're an echo," the Doctor corrected.
"Doctor!" Mac snapped, returning to glaring at him, not understanding what his problem with Teddy was. He knew, he knew better than anyone what she'd gone through on Gallifrey, what she'd lost, what she could never have…and yet he kept fighting her against it, trying to convince her that Teddy wasn't real, that he wasn't really her son. Well bollocks to that!
"I'm sorry," the Doctor gave her a sorrowful look, "But…you KNOW that Mackenzie, Time Lords are…so much more. A sum of knowledge. A code. A shared history. A shared suffering…"
"Like those of us born from that machine," Teddy pointed out, "I may not be connected to you like that," he said, thoughtful, "But I do understand."
"You couldn't possibly," the Doctor shook his head, "And you'll never be able to. Cos it's gone now. All of it. Gone forever."
"…what happened?" Teddy asked cautiously, "And don't lie or try to not say," he added, "I can see it in the both of you. I can tell, you've seen a war, haven't you? Is that what happened to the Time Lords? A war?"
"Yeah," the Doctor let out a breath, nodding.
"Was it like this one?"
"This one would be a minor skirmish compared to the Last Great Time War," Mac murmured sadly, putting it in perspective for her son.
Teddy nodded, eyeing them, "You both fought in it, didn't you? Fought and killed?" they nodded, "So you're just like me then," he whispered, frowning, "I'm sorry."
The Doctor shook his at that, remembering Mac's first incarnation, how she was like, 'Just like you Nae,' he thought to himself, blinking and stiffening when she glanced over at him, giving him a look as though she'd heard him. But…that had to be impossible, their mental connection should have faded or at least been blocked on her part…
Mac shook her head, "We need to work out a way out of here…" she reached into her pocket and smiled, pulling out a small match box, glancing at Teddy as they started to grin.
~8~
Teddy smiled, whistling quietly as he and his mother walked through the halls with the Doctor. It had been…a little too easy to get out of that cell. Bundle the sheets on the bed into the corner, drop a lit match into the fabric and watch as Cline ran in with an extinguisher, one that looked quite a lot like the old Earth ones. Stick out a foot as the boy ran in so he fell down, dropping the extinguisher, and it was a simple case of grabbing the red canister and hitting the boy in the back of the head with it…before putting out the fire so that no alarms would go off. Cline had been in such a rush to get in there he hadn't thought to close the cell doors behind him and off they went.
The Doctor hadn't been a fan of knocking the boy out or of tying him up with the remaining sheets so he couldn't call for help, but Mac had just given him permission to do it so he'd listened to his mother as a good son did. And there they were, heading down the halls…only for the Doctor to stop and pull back, spotting another guard.
"That's the way out," the Doctor muttered.
Teddy glanced down at the extinguisher in his hand, having taken it just in case something like this came up, and turned to Mac, offering it to her, "You want the pleasure this time mum?"
"Don't mind if I do," she nodded, taking it.
"Don't you dare!" the Doctor hissed, reaching out to grab her arm.
Mac stiffened, "Take your hand off me Doctor or I will use this on you first."
He quickly snapped his hand back at that, not wanting to be knocked out, not when Martha and Donna were depending on him.
Mac continued on, sneaking up to the guard just as he passed and hitting him in the back of the head with the canister just as Teddy had done.
"Mum you're a star!" Teddy cheered, rushing out to hug her, spinning her around, though the Doctor was more solemn and reserved, looking at her sadly.
"What?" she snapped, seeing his gaze.
"Nothing, it's just…" the Doctor trailed off, "You've changed Mac."
Mac gave him a hard look, "War and betrayal does that to a person," before she continued on.
Teddy hesitated, glancing at the fallen soldier before moving to search him for a map of some sort, thinking Cobb might have provided his men with a new one as proof that the Hath's end was near, "What…what did you do to mum to make her so cross with you?" he had to ask.
The Doctor sighed and ran a hand down his face, "Too much."
Teddy frowned at that, watching the Doctor head after his mother, that was not a good answer. But he shook his head when he found the map and ran after them.
~8~
The Doctor had taken the lead, Teddy having given him the map to lead the way, allowing the boy and Mac to talk quietly behind him. He would have tried to stop it a little more than he had but…he could hear Mac talking a little about her life on Earth and…he was very curious to learn about it, about how she'd ended up with UNIT, the things they'd faced down while he'd been off elsewhere.
He frowned, though when he saw something on the map, "Hold on," he called to them, "This is it. The hidden tunnel. There must be a control panel," he turned around trying to find something and heading to a small box on the wall, sonicing it.
Mac glanced around, spotting another set of numbers, this one ending in 1-4 instead of 1-6 like in the prison cell. She had to frown, she'd glimpsed the map and if they were at the point she thought, the distance from the Source, and the numbers were an indication also of the distance between here and the cell…she could guess what the number would be inside the 'temple' and if it was as she thought and there wasn't some ridiculous gap between the numbers…this was even more of a mess than she'd first thought.
"Here it is," the Doctor grinned finding a control panel and getting to work on that.
"Hey mum," Teddy began, looking between her and the numbers, "I just wanted to ask, since I'm actually a proper Time Lord…what exactly is it that we do?"
"What do you mean?" Mac glanced at him.
"What do Time Lords do? What are they like?"
"We travel," the Doctor called, still working, "Through time and space."
Mac rolled his eyes, "HE does that," she countered, "AGAINST the laws," she had to add, "He gets involved, he alters history, he changes destinies that ought not be tampered with," she shot the Doctor a glare, seeing him stop working for a moment, "He steals and lies and cheats. The Doctor is a sorry excuse for a Time Lord."
"He…must have some redeeming qualities," Teddy tried to goad it out of her, he could tell that…everything his mother was saying…it was just angry words. It was just…words. He was more like her than she might realize and he could just tell it was her anger speaking and not what she truly thought of the Doctor.
Mac was silent, with her son looking at her…she couldn't exactly lie about the Doctor, "At times…he has been known to save a planet or two, rescue civilizations, defeat creatures, and…from time to time, save a life."
Teddy smiled at that, "And Time Lords don't usually do that?"
Mac glanced to the side, "No."
She hated being reminded of that. It was hard to be angry with the Doctor for breaking those laws of their people when she too disagreed with them. But, luckily for her and unluckily for him, that was only a tiny portion of her anger for him. She had plenty more where that came from.
"Got it!" the Doctor cheered, using the door sliding open as a distraction from Mac's biting words.
"Squad 5, with me!" they could hear Cobb order in the distance.
"Come on!" the Doctor shouted, leading them through the door, around a corner…and right to a hall that was blocked by crisscrossing red beams.
"No don't!" Teddy reached out to stop the Doctor getting too close to look at it, "It's an arming device," he warned, "Touch it and it'll obliterate you!"
Mac glanced to the side at another set of numbers as the Doctor ran to the controls, trying to shut the beams off, "Here we go!" he muttered.
Teddy spun around, hearing shouting getting nearer, "It's Cobb," he turned to run.
"What are you doing?" Mac called as he dashed off.
Teddy turned around, still moving backwards with a grin, "Cause a distraction," he winked at her, moving to head on.
"Think he'll try to kill them?" the Doctor glanced at her as he worked, "He IS a soldier…"
Mac shot him a glare, "He's not YOU, Doctor," she fired back, "He won't kill his own people," she could admit, as he'd implied himself, that Teddy felt a kinship to the others born of the machine despite being her son.
The Doctor gave her a sorrowful, and very hurt look, before he turned back to the controls, both of them trying to ignore the sounds of gunshots going off…
"Almost…" he began, working on the controls.
Mac looked back and forth between him and the door Teddy had run through, before huffing, "Enough of this," and striding to the edge of the beams, pulling a small compact mirror from her pocket and carefully, and quickly, sliding it under the one lasers, using a small pebble to get the angle right, sending the beam back at itself and shorting out the others, "Teddy!" she shouted back, "Come on!"
She pulled her arm away as the Doctor tried to grab it and get her running with him through the tunnel, waiting for her son first, the two of them dashing off after the Doctor.
"Wait!" Teddy pulled back as they reached the other side, looking around for a moment before finding a pebble, "Mum?" he held out a hand.
She smiled, knowing what he wanted, and handed him the rubber band.
He grinned and set the mini makeshift slingshot up, shooting the pebble at the mirror, not only cracking it but nudging it off to the side enough where the lasers turned back on, destroying the mirror in the process, trapping Cobb and the soldiers on the other side as they ran up.
Mac cheered and hugged her son, pressing a small kiss to his cheek.
"Oh mum," Teddy mock-groaned, wiping at the side of his face, making her laugh, her hearts warming so much at that.
"At arms!" Cobb shouted but the three remained firm even as the soldiers lifted their guns.
"I warned you, Cobb," the Doctor told him, "If the Source is a weapon, I'm…" Teddy cleared his throat, "We're gonna make sure you never use it."
"One of us is gonna die today and it won't be me," Cobb glared, opening fire as Teddy pushed the two Time Lords out.
~8~
Teddy walked beside his mother, glancing at her what he hoped was subtly as he tried to work out something, "What?" she asked, having caught him.
He gave her a small smile for it, "You and the Doctor…" he began, "You're…NOT together?"
"No," she said, so firmly that Teddy saw the Doctor wince, which made him suspicious.
"WERE you ever together?"
"No."
The Doctor actually stopped at that, "Mackenzie…" he looked at her.
"If we had been," Mac shot him a hard look, "If we truly had been together like that…we still would be."
The Doctor looked down as she pushed past him, Teddy glancing between the two of them in confusion and concern, he…got the feeling that they HAD actually been together at one point, but that something had happened between them. The Doctor's reaction made him feel like they had been something to each other, but his mother's reaction made him feel like it ended on a VERY bad note.
He cleared his throat, trying to change the topic to one less awkward, "Do you travel with him then?"
"No," Mac stated again.
"Will you travel with him?"
"No."
"Not even…not even if I wanted to?"
This time it was Mac who stopped and looked at HIM, "Do you?"
Teddy offered her an awkward, apologetic shrug, "Might be interesting to see those civilizations. New worlds, new skies…" he glanced at the small window in the hall, completely black from the earth behind it, "An actual sky…"
"Um…" the Doctor rubbed the back of his neck, sighing as he gave in just this little bit, "You're welcome to," he offered, "If you want."
Would it be entirely selfish of him to admit that a small part of him was hoping the boy would say yes because he KNEW Mac wouldn't give up the chance to know her son? That she'd come travelling with him too if it meant she could spend more time with Teddy? He'd spent all that time telling her the boy wasn't real, that she couldn't get attached to him…but now the tides had turned and…he almost needed the boy to get through to Mac.
He just…he wanted a chance to make it up to her, to make amends for all his crimes against her, earn penance for all the sins he committed.
"Really?" Teddy looked at him, starting to smile, before he saw the expression on his mother's face, "Could…could I?"
Mac swallowed hard, "You said it yourself, you're not a child," she whispered, her voice thick with emotion, "I can't stop you."
"Mum," Teddy reached out to take her hand, "I want YOU to be happy first, if you don't want me to…I won't go."
She offered him a smile, knowing she wouldn't be able to say no, not really, she already cared about the boy so much and the thought of seeing him unhappy because she'd refused him something…she didn't like that, "We'll talk later," she offered, "How's that?"
He grinned, seeing it wasn't an outright refusal, and nodded, "Sounds like a plan to me," he glanced over his shoulder, "I'm gonna go scout ahead, see if there are any more traps."
Mac watched him go, concerned, as he turned a corner, hoping that his knowledge of weapons and strategies would help him spot the traps first.
"You're um…doing well," the Doctor began as they slowly started walking, not at all sure what to say or what he could say that wouldn't start her glaring or yelling at him, "Being a mum and all."
"You're not exactly the best person to criticize me," she muttered, "How old was your granddaughter when you abandoned her on earth again?"
"She fell in love," he defended, "I was giving her a chance to live a happy life."
"To marry a human, who would wither, decay, and die before her eyes as she stayed looking just like the day he met her?" she gave him an incredulous look, "In a war-torn future, with a man she barely knew?" she scoffed, "Yes, that would be SUCH a happy life in the end."
He swallowed hard at that, recalling the tongue-lashing and threats he'd gotten from his wife and daughter from Gallifrey when they'd realized what he'd done for Susan. His daughter didn't speak to him again after learning what he'd done to her own daughter. He'd tried to explain Susan had fallen in love, but his daughter wouldn't hear of it. Susan was her youngest, her baby, and, to her, he'd left her on Earth with no one she knew, no family, no support. Clearly one of them had also informed Mac about it.
He had to look away though, her words…they were so similar to what he'd told Rose once about why he didn't look back on his old companions. He hadn't thought it through when he'd left Susan there…he really hadn't.
"And tell me," Mac continued, not at all finished with her tirade, "What did your children say when you decided to go gallivanting across the Universe in a TARDIS without them? Did you really wish to escape your wife THAT badly?"
He was silent. His children had been furious. It was meant to start off as a little trip with him and Susan, it had escalated as all things did when it came to him, according to Martha. One trip turned into two, to four, to eight and just kept going. He was sure if divorce were possible on Gallifrey, if a separation of any kind were possible besides for death of a spouse, that his wife would have divorced him in a hearts beat.
"Can you not talk about them?" he whispered, his hearts breaking to remember that…there was a very BIG chance his children and wife had died being furious with him instead of loving him as he liked to remember them as.
"Why, don't want to remember that you killed them with the planet?" she scoffed.
"No, actually they died in a Dalek bombing, all of them gone before I joined the war," he countered harshly.
Mac was silent this time, wanting SO badly to remind him the war wouldn't have even started if he'd destroyed the Daleks when he'd had the chance. But…now that she had Teddy, children…they were a touchy subject, always had been, and…she couldn't bring that up again, not after learning THAT.
"Do you want to know why I keep trying to pull Teddy away from you?" he continued, feeling his own anger rise, "Because I know what it's like to lose your child and I wouldn't wish that feeling on anyone. I don't want you to look at a child and see him, to feel the hole he'll leave and all the pain that fills it. Because if he dies…which, to be honest, the three of us are likely to do with Cobb after us…if he dies, that part of you will die with him. And it won't ever come back."
"Then it'll be MY burden to bear," she countered after a moment, not snapping at him for once, "YOU got know your children, I want the same chance to know MY child."
"Mum!" they looked over, hearing gunshots a moment before Teddy ran back to them, "They got through the beams, we need to go!" he reached out and took her hand, pulling her on, the Doctor watching how protective the boy was for only a moment before running after them.
~8~
Mac, the Doctor, and Teddy came to a stop at a deadend, "Um…shouldn't there be a door?" Teddy frowned, looking over the Doctor's arm at the map in his hand.
"This HAS to be the temple," the Doctor agreed, reaching forward to touch the wall, "This is a door!" he realized, quickly getting to work with the sonic.
Mac glanced over at the wall, pulling her glasses down to see that 1-2 the number said now, and, if the temple was really on the other side of this door…the number on the other side, given how they'd counted down, was going to be something to wonder at.
"I've got it," the Doctor mumbled as Teddy glanced to the side, hearing Cobb getting nearer, "Nearly done…now! Got it!" he grinned, leaping away as the door opened, allowing them to the other side.
"I can see him!" Teddy called, "Get the door shut!"
The Doctor quickly pushed some keys on a control panel and the door shut, sealing Cobb and the others on the other side.
"Temple my ass," Mac muttered, looking around at the room, if anything it was an engine room of some sort of spaceship.
"What is this place?" Teddy frowned, able to tell it wasn't a temple either.
"Fusion-drive transport," the Doctor stated, "It's a spaceship!"
Teddy glanced at him, "Like the one the first colonists came in?"
"Well, it could be, but the power cells would have run down after all that time. This one's still powered-up and functioning."
"It IS," Mac shook her head, "It hasn't been that long at all," the two men looked at her and she rolled her eyes, "Where're those numbers?" she stepped further into the room, trying to find one of the stamped numbers to prove her point.
"Watch out!" Teddy called, pulling her back as a wall sparked, someone cutting through it from the other side, "It's got to be the Hath," he squinted at the door, "It won't hold too long and Cobb's right behind us…" he looked at the Doctor, "What do we do?"
The Doctor looked around for something to help and spotted a computer terminal, "Ship's log!" he pointed at it, rushing over and examining it as the others walked over, "'First wave of Human/Hath co-colonisation of planet Messaline,'" he blinked and looked at Mac, "How did you know it was the original ship?"
"First explain what happened between the humans and the Hath," she countered, they needed to know how to stop the war more than the date.
He frowned, but looked back at the screen, "'Phase one. Construction.' They used robot drones to build the city. Um…" he scrolled down it more, "Final entry...'Mission commander dead. Still no agreement on who should assume leadership. Hath and humans have divided into factions.' That must be it! A power vacuum. The crew divided into two factions and turned on each other. Start using the progenation machines and suddenly you've got two armies fighting a never-ending war!"
Teddy nodded and turned to Mac, "So how did you know?"
She merely pointed at the numbers that were appearing at the end of the entry, "That," she pointed, "It's not a catalogue, it's the date. The Intergalactic date, then their version of a year, month, and day in the New Byzantine Calendar format," she looked at them, "They marked their building with the date."
Teddy eyed the date a moment, "So when it says 6012-07-17 here and 07-24 in the theater…"
"Exactly," Mac nodded, "Seven days."
"Just seven days?" the Doctor blinked, unable to fathom that the war had only been going on 7 days and not 7 centuries or something.
"It's not like they kept track in years," Mac reminded him, "Just generations lost."
The Doctor nodded at that, they could make more and more soldiers instantly, generations after generation of one person at one machine and if they had more and more people…they certainly could have fought 7 days and lost countless generations. When one died, it just became a legacy to pass on to the next.
"And all the buildings, the encampments, they're just empty and waiting to be populated," the Doctor realized, "Oh, they've mythologised their entire history! The Source must be part of that too. Come on!" he turned and led them out of the room, into a hall and around a corner…only for them to crash into Martha and Donna!
…a rather dirty Martha and Donna.
"Mac!" Martha gasped at the same time Donna cheered, "Doctor!"
"Martha!" he jumped forward to hug them, "Donna."
"Ms. Noble," Mac gave them a small nod, making no move to hug them, seeing them again, seeing the state they were in…it was just reminding her of how much danger the Doctor brought to them, "Dr. Jones."
"Hello Mac," Martha repeated, "And…Mac's son?" she eyed Teddy.
"Teddy!" he grinned widely, reaching out to shake their hands enthusiastically, not even caring that they were dirty, "Pleasure."
"What happened to you two?" the Doctor eyed them, seeing a strain and a sorrow in their eyes as well.
"We um," Martha glanced at Donna, "Took the surface route."
"One of…" Donna swallowed, tears in her eyes, "One of the Hath was helping us…"
They didn't even need to ask what happened to the lone Hath if the two humans were in such a state, clearly the surface was more dangerous than they thought.
"It's Cobb!" Teddy shouted, looking back over his shoulder, hearing the shouting of the soldiers.
"We haven't got much time," the Doctor agreed.
"Well it would have helped if you'd let me find a map on that system," Mac shot a glare at him, "Instead of rushing about without a plan!" she'd been about to get out of the log and try to find a schematic of the ship to help them, maybe see if she could find where the Source was, but the Doctor ran out and Teddy went out after him and she refused to abandon her son or leave him alone with the man.
"Um, is it me, or can you smell flowers?" Martha glanced at Donna, knowing that if the scent was strong enough for even Donna to smell over the scent of their own odor from the surface, then it wasn't just her imagination.
"Yeah, I can," Donna nodded.
"Bougainvillea!" the Doctor cheered, "I say we follow our nose!"
"Yes, because THAT worked so well the last time you said that," Mac muttered, the Doctor flushing as he recalled a particular adventure from their past that hadn't ended on the best note and resulted in them both being unable to smell for two months.
"Blocks 7 to 10, advance!" they could hear Cobb behind them as they ran, following the scent to a large greenhouse-like room, "With me!"
They paused to look around, it was filled with palms and flowers and a plethora of other exotic and beautiful plants.
The Doctor had to smile at that and glance at Mac, seeing her actually…SMILING at the sight, "How's it compare?" he asked her. She'd always loved flowers and gardening. She'd taken it up, he knew, after she'd lost her baby, something about being able to grow and bring life from a tiny seed and see a beautiful flower speaking to her and comforting her. Like…she might not be able to create Time Lord life, but she could still nurture the life around her.
Mac's smile immediately fell to a line, "I can't quite remember what my garden looked like," she shot him a look, "Since it doesn't exist anymore."
The Doctor sighed and looked away, knowing she was referring to the time lock he'd put on the planet and not a Dalek bombing or something. A good move though as he spotted something across the room, "There it is," he muttered, walking over towards a sphere sitting on a pedestal, a rainbow of colored gasses shining inside it, "The Source."
Teddy smiled at it, "It's brilliant."
"What is the Source?" Martha glanced at them, both her and Donna feeling lost.
"It's a third generation terraforming device," Mac stated, "Crude, and ancient, but effective."
"So why are we suddenly in Kew Gardens?" Donna shook her head.
"Because that's what it does," the Doctor examined it, "All this, only bigger. Much bigger! It's in a transit state. Producing all this must help keep it stable before they finally..." he reached out to touch it, only for Mac to slap his hands.
"You'll break it," she hissed at him, "Like you do everything."
Before the Doctor could respond to that, the Hath and the humans ran in on either side of the small open area in the garden, both immediately lifting their guns at the other when they were in sight.
"No don't!" Teddy leapt forward, holding up both hands at either side.
"Stop!" Mac jumped over, no one really sure if she was talking to Teddy or the Hath/Humans.
"Hold your fire!" the Doctor joined them.
"What is this?" Cobb glared at them, "Some kind of trap?"
"If it was, you wouldn't be able to work it out," Mac told him.
"You said you wanted this war over," the Doctor cut in.
"I want this war won," Cobb corrected.
"That's not gonna happen," Teddy shook his head, "Can't you see? You're both fighting for the same thing and you don't even know what it is!"
The Doctor nodded and pointed to him, "Your whole history, it's just Chinese whispers. Getting more distorted the more it's passed on," he jerked a thumb back at the sphere, "This is the Source. This is what you're fighting over. A device to rejuvenate a planet's ecosystem. It's nothing mystical. It's from a laboratory, not some creator. It's a bubble of gases. A cocktail of stuff for accelerated evolution. Methane, hydrogen, ammonia, amino acids, proteins, nucleic acids. It's used to make barren planets habitable. Look around you! It's not for killing, it's bringing life. If you allow it, it can lift you out of these dark tunnels and into the bright, bright sunlight! No more fighting. No more killing," he turned and grabbed the sphere, ignoring Mac's hiss to leave it alone, "I'm the Doctor, and I declare this war is over!"
And with that, the threw the sphere at the ground, smashing it in the dirt and releasing the gasses that blazed above them in golds and greens, before it spread out, taking over the entire surface of the air above them. The humans and Hath looked on, slowly lowering their weapons as Mac watched them, their gazes fixed above. It seemed like maybe, just this once, one of those very rare times she'd mentioned to Teddy, the Doctor wasn't a complete ignoramus and might just get them all out of there alive.
Good, she wanted to go home and get back to work.
"What's it doing?" Teddy whispered to them, staring at the gas as well, having never seen anything like it.
"Starting to terraform the planet," Mac glanced at him, smiling at his awed look, and looking at the gasses too.
"And terraforming means…"
The Doctor chuckled, that was something Mac used to do when he'd first met her, never ask question just…leave open ended sentences, "It means a new world."
Teddy smiled at it before glancing at his mother and then to the Doctor…only for his eyes to widen as he saw Cobb lifting his gun at the man, "No!" he cried, pushing the Doctor out of the way…and getting hit with the bullet instead.
"Teddy!" Mac gasped, leaping forward as her son crumbled to his knees before her eyes, the Humans rushing to restrain Cobb, seizing his gun as she gathered her son in her arms, "Teddy? You're ok…you're ok…" she murmured, more emotion in her voice than anyone in the room had heard from her in ages.
And it broke their hearts that the emotion was fear and pain and sorrow as her son bled in her arms.
Martha immediately rushed to her side, trying to check the room, check the boy's pulse, "Is he gonna be alright?" Donna whispered, moving to kneel beside the Doctor as he crouched across from Mac. But the solemnly look from Martha was all anyone needed to realize no…he wouldn't be.
"Teddy…" Mac breathed, tears in her eyes, "Why would you do that?"
Teddy looked at her, trying to keep the pain out of his eyes, "You need him mum," he whispered.
"No, I don't," she said firmly.
"Your eyes say different," he tried to smile at her, "Your eyes are my eyes, I'm you," he nearly shrugged, but only winced, "We're the same and…I need him too. I…" he swallowed hard, feeling it get harder to breath, "I need a dad, and you…you need a Doctor mum."
"I don't need anyone," she argued, "Just…just you."
"You're as hurt as I am," he remarked, though they knew he was speaking figuratively for Mac's own pain, "He can help you," he weakly reached out for Mac's hand, "Please mum…let him."
Mac swallowed hard, "You're certainly my son," she murmured, not making any sort of promise, not even now, "And you're brilliant," she sniffled, not even feeling when Martha put a hand on her back in comfort.
"Course I am," his words started to slur, "I'm YOUR son."
"I love you Teddy," she breathed, squeezing him tighter.
"Love you…too mum," he smiled up at her one more time before his eyes drifted closed and he breathed out one last time.
"He's got two hearts," the Doctor tried to comfort her, his hearts breaking at how her face crumbled into one of absolute pain, this…THIS was what he was trying to avoid, "If we just wait..."
But Mac shook her head, "He won't regenerate," she let out a sob, he would have already if he could. Maybe the machine had more of a say in his DNA than they'd hoped.
"I'm sorry," he whispered.
"Why do all my family die because of you?" she looked up at him, tears streaming down her face that she couldn't stop. It was…Teddy was her son, her child, the ONE child she'd ever had…likely the only child she'd ever get to have and now…he was gone, having stepped in a bullet's path for the Doctor.
The Doctor watched as she gathered Teddy more in her arms and hugged him tightly, crying, something he was sure this new her was loath to do in front of others and felt a boiling rage fill him…for one man. He pushed himself to his feet and turned to Cobb, being held down by the men, and stormed over to him, grabbing his fallen gun.
He crouched before the man and held the weapon up to him, "With this, I could end your life just as easily as you did his," he spat, "But you know what? I never would. And Teddy…Teddy wouldn't want me to. Have you got that? You killed him, and he wouldn't want you dead," he stood up and looked between the men and Hath, determined to NOT have Teddy's death be in vain, "When you start this new world. This world of Human and Hath... remember that! Make the foundation of this society. A man who wouldn't want death and fighting!"
He threw the gun down and looked over at Mac, sitting between Martha and Donna, still holding her son, and felt his hearts break even more to realize…there was nothing he could do to make it all better.
Teddy was wrong.
Some Doctor he was.
~8~
Mac had been loathe to let the Hath or humans take her son but…only the thought that the humans and Hat before her were also products of the machine allowed it. They were like her son, he'd felt a kinship to them and…she couldn't keep him from 'his people' anymore than she felt at ease being without her own. That was why her anger kept festering, because the Doctor had made it impossible to be with her people again…he'd left her with only HIM as an option for empathetic companionship and that was something that she DIDN'T want.
That she hadn't wanted.
And so she'd let them take him back to the theater, lay him out on a small table in a side room, the light of the sun starting to stream through the windows as the earth was stripped away, the terraforming in full swing.
"It's happening," Martha murmured, "The terraforming."
Donna glanced at Mac and then down to Teddy, "And what about Teddy?"
Mac closed her eyes, out of all of them…Donna seemed to take to Teddy the most in the short time she'd known the boy.
"Let us give her a proper ceremony," Cline requested as he and a Hath stood across from Mac and the girls, Mac with her glasses on her head, "I think it'd help us. Please."
Mac swallowed hard and looked at her son, moving to lean down and kiss his forehead, "I won't take you away from your people," she whispered to him, casting a tired and bitter glance at the Doctor before looking at Cline, "Just…take care of him?"
Cline nodded, "On my life," he swore.
Mac looked back down at her son and swallowed hard, her only child…dead.
~8~
It had been a quiet affair getting back to the TARDIS and heading to Earth. The Doctor hadn't even spoken the entire time though Mac knew he wanted to ramble, as was his custom when he was in a situation where he didn't know what to say or felt like he had to say something because the silence was too much. She could guess what it would be though.
The TARDIS had sensed something in her, a deep desire for a child that she knew couldn't happen for biological reasons or because of the planet being gone with all the other Time Children she could have possibly adopted. The TARDIS had concern for her pilot, had wanted to help him make amends with her, had taken them to Messaline because the box knew that was where Mac would get her long-desired child. Only they got there too early, and Teddy was created as a result. It was a paradox of sorts, and it had blown up fantastically in the box's face that her child had STILL died and died because of the box's pilot.
The Doctor and Mac were walking in silence a little ways behind Martha and Donna as they headed for Martha's house. The Doctor was shocked Mac could stand to be beside him, but…looking at her expression, her thoughtful, vague one, he knew she wasn't really aware of it, that she was so close to him, she was too deep in thought and staring at Donna as she spoke to Martha.
Mac came to a stop as the two women did and just...stared at Donna, "This is going to keep happening, isn't it?" she wondered.
"What?" the Doctor glanced at her.
"You, putting your companions in danger," she let out a breath, "All those adventures Martha told me about, she saved you so many times…but Donna's not her," she looked at the Doctor in true horror, "You're going to get her killed one day."
"I won't," he swore, "I swear, not her…"
"So SHE'S special, among all the others you've had?" she scoffed, her son was special and she could see how well THAT worked out, "Just like Rose was the one you'd never leave behind, she was SO special compared to all the others?" she frowned at him, "You don't get to decide if one companion is worth more than another, they should all be the same."
"They are," he insisted, "I care about all of them and…"
"And yet you wouldn't have ever seen Martha again if not for her calling you back," she cut in, "You send them away, or they see you for who you really are and leave, or you get them killed, THAT'S how it goes," she swallowed hard, "And because of that, my son died in my arms," she glanced back at Donna, the Doctor falling silent, her words about how many had died for him echoing back to him, "I won't let that happen to her," she murmured, swallowing hard, "I will travel with you," she decided, not even looking at the Time Lord beside her, not caring if this wasn't keeping true to her son's last request that she go with the Doctor to 'let him heal her,' "But only to protect Donna, from you."
The Doctor watched solemnly as Mac turned and strode back to the TARDIS, stepping inside without a backwards glance and rubbed a hand down his face, finally allowing the tears to appear in them as the terrible truth hit him.
She was right.
A/N: I'm so sorry this is late, I had a note on my tumblr about it, I went to check this chapter before posting it and my Merlin story 'Burning' only to find that ALL my editing hadn't saved :( I had to do it all again and I've pretty much been up since 6:30am doing just that. But I got the chapter up! :)
Speaking of the chapter...poor Mac :( I thought it would be an interesting twist as I know some readers had issues with Time Babies appearing in my last three OC series, to know that there is NO chance of that in this story. Mac cannot and will never conceive a baby :'( Which is terrible given how motherly her first incarnation appreantly was :(
I hope you liked the twist for this chapter wtih it not being Jenny but Teddy :) I picture him something like Jason Behr with shaggy hair ;)
Some notes on reviews...
We'll find out about the Doctor/Mac history in the River episodes ;) And yup, I pronounce it Nay-ree in my head too :)
True, but UNIT hasn't seen hide nor hair of the Doctor in nearly 40 years, even still technically working for them, they don't know the sort of person he is anymore :( Mac has the authority because she's been with them for years now, she's worked for them, they know her, and she's current with them. They know what she's like where they don't know the Doctor anymore :) Lol, I'm not quite sure how it's a strange episode to introduce a new OC in though, I can think of a way for literally every single episode of New Who ;)
We'll find out what the Doctor did to hurt her after River ;) Yup, her name is based off of Nerys for Donna ;)
I hope you enjoyed Sherlock and Merlin! Arthur does get a little better over time ;) And thanks! I'd be lost without my readers ;)
Oh I've still got 4 more Time Ladies to come, 2 this year beside Mac ;)
Nope, Mac didn't go with Martha but 'Jenny' did come from Mac :)
I don't think hearts will break as much as with Angel nope, that story killed me to write and I don't think I have it in me to write that angsty again ;)
I'm sort of glad you hate Mac a little :) She was actually VERY open minded at first and we'll see some of the Doctor's thoughts on how different she is to her first self through the story, sort of highlighting what war does to a person :)
Oh Mac isn't just angry at him for the war, and there WERE other options he could have done beyond the Time Lock, so he did actually have other choices ;) John Watson was a doctor too though, he fought in a war ;) And Mac is WELL aware he fought in the war, yup, she knows, but to her he came in too late and did too little :( I don't think she literally wants to kill him, she'd have done it by now if she did, she just doesn't want anything to do with him, but doesn't want to be alone at the same time, like there's a comfort in knowing she's not the last Time Lord even if it's the Doctor. The same as the Doctor found comfort in the Master being there even though he was psychotic :) I got your PM yup, I've just been really swamped with real life problems (and funerals and exams and things) I'm hoping to get to all my PMs this week though :) The End of time will be 2 chapters for each episode, so 4 total :)
I'm not sure if I'll do WWTW with Mac :) I've got a semi-sequel planned for October with all of the TLs in their 11th selves, I might see if I can work introducing Mac into it. But by then we might also have at least 1 (maybe 2) more TLs to add ;)
