CHAPTER THREE
THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS (PART ONE)
"So... as we've seen... you have this tendency to, well, you know... not drop us off at all and, as such, completely miss your intended target in both time and space," began Amy. "Are we ever going home, Doctor... out of curiosity...?"
For a moment the Doctor stopped and looked over at Amy and Rory. "I'm sorry... I never thought about it. I just assumed..." she took a breath, and they could see the barely hidden horror in her eyes. "Did you want to?"
"It's not that we don't enjoy seeing you again," started Rory. "But we have little Vanessa to think about, and, well, Amy never did get to tell her father and mother that we're indeed okay."
"But Rory... time machine... I could have you both back not five minutes after that phone call and there would be worlds to see," the Doctor cried, then caught the sparkle and the teasing in their eyes. "Oh you rascals."
"Well, Doctor, you have to admit, you do have a tendency to miss," said Mickey. "I remember being a murder suspect simply because twelve hours later was actually..."
"Don't even go there," pointed the Doctor, straight at Mickey. "And that was a lifetime ago."
"For you maybe," muttered Mickey. Then, with a thumb on his chin, he grinned at her affronted look. "And what is up with actually being able to pull off a cheap trick for Martha to prove your oh-so-impressiveness and get that right when you couldn't even get..."
The lights suddenly went dark in the TARDIS, blinking and and going on and off. The Doctor ran down the halls, the three on her heels, just as Jack was coming out of his room. "Hey, Doc, you screw up the wiring of the lights again?" he asked as he was ran past by all three before joining them.
The Doctor ran into the console room, dancing around the console and flipping switches before she stared into the rigged up computer screen - that she had 'borrowed' from Mickey's laptop - and shouting, "No! It's... it's not possible."
"What?" asked Jack and before he had a chance to finish, he and everyone else had the gut wrenching sensation of the ground falling away underneath them.
There was a brief moment of weightlessness as the TARDIS itself moaned, and then with a groan it crashed and then they all fell to the floor. With a groan, Jack rolled over just as the Doctor was also pulling herself to her feet and looked into the monitor. Martha ran in, her hair still dripping wet, as did River Song and Jason, the male companion who had been tortured in the Doctor's stead before everyone had realized that she was the Doctor and not he.
Jason helped the others up and then they all looked at each other as River and the Doctor looked at each other in confusion. "What the hell was that?" asked River.
The lights were low, and the Doctor looked around. "We're on emergency power... we've crashed and I have no idea how it happened," she answered, clearly as lost as they were.
She walked to the doors and opened them, freezing in horror and shock as she did so. "It's impossible. This is... impossible..." she said.
Mickey walked up behind her and also looked out in shock. "It's Pete's World."
Jack pushed his way through them, and looked around, picking up a discarded paper as he did so. Martha looked around as did Amy and Rory. Then with a laugh, Amy said, "Look, Rory, it's the CN Tower... you always promised me you'd take me to Toronto."
With a tilted head, Amy laughed and raised her eyebrows at her favourite nurse as she was wont.
Mickey also looked around, with a laugh as he realized the differences. "Wow, talk about a missed target, Doc. Not only did you land us here again, but we're not even remotely close to England. We're in Canada."
"It's not as far off as you think," chuffed the Doctor. "Lots of similarities. English isn't that different... sure, they have a different accent, but parliament, they even still technically are under the Queen. Although I can't say for sure how it works in Pete's World. Canada might have the Queen... or King... and England a President. How funny would that be?"
Martha rolled her eyes, but saw that Jack was frozen in horror from the newspaper. "What is it, Jack?"
Jack held the paper up for all to see. The headline clearly stated in finality UNKNOWN VIRUS WIPES OUT UK AND MOST OF EUROPE. WORLD LEADERS FEAR ALIENS. He then whispered, "It's dated for 2043. When did you leave Rose here...?"
Mickey answered darkly, "It was 2023 when I left this world."
The Doctor was quiet as she walked back into the TARDIS. "That would mean they're dead..." said Martha before she chased after the Doctor. "Doctor... oh... I'm so sorry..."
ACT ONE
The console room was dark and silent, and it was the first time a few of them had seen it that way. It didn't stop the Doctor from running around the console trying to coax life back into the TARDIS. She pulled the grating up and slid into the deeper part of the engineering before calling up to them. "Unlike last time... you remember last time, Mickey? Well, unlike that time, there is still life and power down here."
Mickey remembered last time. "Yeah, I remember you coughing up ten years of your life to power a crystal enough to jump start this old ship."
Jack and River looked up sharply at this but the Doctor was already continuing with her own little rant. "That's besides the point. The point is that unlike last time I still have power. Not a lot, mind you, but enough that with a bit of rest and time, the old girl will be back up and running again and we can move on." There was a pause. "On that, everyone stays on the TARDIS until I find out if this little beastie of a virus has run its course or whether it is still active, and if so, how it passes..."
"That's reassuring," mused Jack with a look at Martha and Rory. "Unless it's already too late for us all considering we've breathed the air except for those with a natural immunity or alien immune systems..."
The Doctor came out from under the grating long enough to fix a very harsh glare at Jack. "Sorry, Doc..." realized Jack. "You knew that... you didn't want to alarm us."
"I already knew that as well," pointed out Martha quietly.
River stood up and took a deep breath. "In that case, I will take samples from everyone." She ignored the squawk of protest from the Doctor. "That includes you, sweetie. As well as Jack." She looked at Rory and Martha. "As the other scientific minds on this ship, and thankfully of the medical persuasion, I think you two should lead this investigation."
"Oi!"
"You, Doctor, will be aided by Mickey and Jack in getting this rig up to speed," finished River. "While Amy, Jason and I research the chronology of events from that terminal I know you have on here somewhere for research and such that connects to whatever internet or network there is in the area, so long as you are close enough for such a connection. Us three teams should not only figure out if we have to worry about this virus, but also when and where it came from... plus have the TARDIS up to fighting form should we have to face off with whatever comes... or make a speedy exit."
There was a grumble from below, but Martha and Rory grinned as they realized that the Doctor had been backed into a corner and couldn't figure a way out of it. Nor did she. She was likely grumbling over the fact that she hadn't thought of it herself and River had. Jack and Mickey each slid into the underneath of the TARDIS.
For a long moment, Mickey looked around the engineering part - a part he had never before seen, in wonder and for a long moment knew he was out of his element. Jack appeared only slightly lost, but, as usual, the Doctor was deep into the middle of it and not seeming lost at all. Mickey grinned, trying to knock the feeling of being a third wheel away and said, "So, you point and tell me what needs done and I'll be your reach, yeah?"
The Doctor looked over at him. "I think you'll be more useful than that."
"Really?" asked Mickey, surprised.
"Well, yes, the TARDIS isn't that much different than a computer... oh yes, infinitely more complex, yes, but she has a lot of similarities. The other thing is that she's sentient and can sometimes help you if you know what to ask for. That's the key - not the answer itself but knowing just what to ask and how to ask it," the Doctor answered, smiling.
"Just takes the right touch..." mused Jack.
"Jack, just no."
"But..."
"No, Jack!"
Jack sighed meaningfully and then he went silent. "Pete's World."
The Doctor looked up in surprise, but didn't answer. Mickey was also listening although he had a sneaking suspicion he knew exactly where Jack was leading with the statement. Moments later, Jack filled them in and gave voice to the elephant in the room. "Pete's World means the parallel universe. That means Rose, right? And the other you?"
With a nod, Jack received his answer, although the Doctor didn't actually say anything. Perhaps there was nothing to be said.
The building was tall enough, and still intact enough, to be in without worrying about falling through the floor to one's death. It overlooked London and the broken buildings and landmarks. The damage was horrific and she knew it would be far, far worse before it ever recovered. A sense she had gained from travelling with someone gave her the sickening sinking feeling that this world was falling away and dying.
She was a young woman, and likely doomed to remain so for the rest of her life. She didn't age like others and appeared to be in her mid twenties even if she was older. Her eyes gave her away - eyes that had seen so much and done so much, both bad and good. She wasn't short, more average. Due to lack of sustenance to maintain it, her body was thin. But, she had at least enough to support living so she wasn't rail thin. She was more lean, and the hallmark of her fighting and physical existence was that everything was pulled into supporting what was necessary to maintain that fight and energy.
Her hair, once a bleach blonde, now grew naturally into the deep brown it was naturally. She had pulled it back into a plain pony tail twisted and bound into a tight bun at the back of her neck, although the bun part constantly threatened to escape. Her face was free of make-up, even though she had always favoured it when younger.
Before, she had been Rose Tyler. Shop girl, then time traveller with the Doctor. Now she was like everyone else - a survivor and warrior against those the virus had ravaged and turned into something else as well as the man responsible.
And perhaps that was the true tragedy was what he had become in the end.
She stared at the display in disbelief. It wasn't why she had come here - she had come here to escape and see if any of the alien technology or even the experimental, the classified, had survived the dissolution of civilization. The blinking light on the display, which showed activity of a very specific kind in Toronto... not far from Torchwood Five actually... was thoroughly unexpected and she felt her spirit soar.
A noise behind her caused her to whirl, and the figure that walked calmly forwards and towards her caused her eyes to widen in fear and horror. How had he known to follow her here. She raised the gun, although it was an empty threat. She had nothing by way of ammunition, but perhaps the bluff would make him stop just long enough for her to run.
"Rose..." started the figure as he stepped into the light of the sun, his voice sad and quiet.
She made to pull the trigger in warning, but he moved so quickly... the Time Lord half of him fuelling the reflexes that she could barely track the movement... before he was there, and the gun was pointed to the ceiling. He was close enough that she could smell him. Unlike her he had showered and dressed in fresh clothing. Black jeans and jumper... so much like his last incarnation but yet nothing like him.
The half Time Lord, half human man looked up at the monitor and started to laugh. He looked so much like the Doctor that it made her heart hurt. And she had fallen for the meta-crisis just as hard. Like her, he didn't age like human anymore. Unlike her... "So, he came back," was all the meta-crisis Doctor said as he knocked the gun from her hands and grabbed her arm. "Come on, Rose, it looks like we are going to Toronto."
ACT TWO
It had been a long day in the fact that everyone had worked like mad to do their parts until finally, one by one, they had all retired from sheer exhaustion and gone to bed. Only Jack and the Doctor remained in the console room, although Jack was busily snoring in her chair by the fireplace of the secondary study that also served as the console room. The Doctor was the only one awake by virtue of biology although the maintained stress of concentration was beginning to make her go cross-eyed with eye strain.
Which was a feat in itself. Normally a Time Lord did not get eye strain but yet she was achieving it.
The other Time Lords, had there been other Time Lords, would be greatly amused if the stiff backed gits had a sense of humour. She had to agree with her grandfather there - they were all stuffy bastards and neither he nor she had ever really fit in.
Was a common issue in Lungbarrow. If memory served, her grandfather, the original Doctor's, mother had come back from a wander shortly before the Doctor had been born. It was a common rumour... again... for stiff necked prudes to gossip still took much and didn't fit with the Time Lord sensibility, but still... the timing of her return and then the subsequent birth of the Doctor was rather... interesting of note.
Strange.
Now where had that thought come from? Ah yes, her grandfather's memories of course. They were now hers. All that was in his head for memories now resided in hers and there was so much to remember she was amazed she balanced her own memories and his. It came down to simple association.
She snorted in amusement at that. She might not talk like him but it didn't stop the tendency of her mind to wander and chatter on like him like he was still there. The Doctor stopped what she was doing, turned around and leaned her back against the console trying to stop the sudden stinging of tears. Dammit but she missed him terribly. The Doctor would have given anything to go back and fight for him to live but she knew that her grandfather's time had come when it had supposed to.
All she could do was be thankful that she'd had the opportunity to run with him one last time...
... and to say good bye to him one last time.
The Doctor wiped her suddenly moist cheeks and fought back a sniffle that she knew would likely be loud enough to wake Jack and the last thing this Time Lord wanted was for him to see her cry. He'd want answers and the answers she knew she would give him in honesty would renew the first argument...
"You should tell them the truth."
"I can't."
The Doctor moved to the opposite side of the console and leaned into the open part, using the insides of the console to muffle the sound of her still quiet but soft and audible sobbing. The soothing hum of the TARDIS tried to console her as she also missed 'her' Time Lord. He wasn't the first one she had lost, but he had easily been her pilot the longest. This one, oh this precious one, was his granddaughter and his first Companion... the one responsible for his softening around the edges and his fondness for humanity.
Now she was the pilot and the TARDIS tried so hard to fill in that gaping hole she could sense in this one as well.
Soon the younger Time Lord's cries quieted and her breathing deepened. The TARDIS continued her mental caresses until she was sure the Doctor was sleeping, and even then continued to soothe like a mother to a fussing child.
But, much to her annoyance, that peace wasn't to last as a sharp knock was heard at the doors of the TARDIS. The Doctor woke with a gasp and wiped the dried tears from her eyes and smoothed out the signs of sleep as she stood up and looked at the monitor to the outside. Jack stood up, stretched and walked over as the knocking only grew more insistent. "Sounds like who ever it is knows we're in here... and knows what it is, Doc," said Jack quietly.
"They do," answered the Doctor as she walked to the doors and opened them.
For a long moment she stared at the trio and took swift note of who wasn't there with them. Jackie hadn't changed much except for the fact that she had let her bleach blonde hair go naturally to silver. Pete was older, thinner, but still hadn't changed much either. There was a young man with them that the Doctor guessed to be Tony, which was Pete and Jackie's son. Jackie was looking the Doctor up and down. Finally the Doctor stepped aside and Jackie led the other two in as the Doctor closed and locked the doors behind them. "So where is he?" asked Jackie when she saw Jack. "And who is this, and new Companion?"
"Not quite," answered Jack, scratching his neck. "Doctor... are you going to tell them or am I?"
With a sigh as Jackie turned to her in shock, the Doctor said, "Hello Jackie... Pete... and this must be your son Tony. It's been years and this is a long story."
"I'd say so," said Pete, his eyebrows lifting.
"Bloody hell... you're a woman!" exclaimed Jackie. "I knew you could change your face but this?"
"As I said, long story," the Doctor held up her hands, placating, and actually quite terrified. She had no idea how Jackie would react and as she remembered Jackie was quite reactive.
"Wait a bloody minute here," started Jackie. "You can't be him. Somehow..."
"When I first brought back Rose, I had originally thought we were gone for twelve hours but it was twelve months and you thought Mickey had murdered her. That was when the Slitheen invaded by taking the forms of people. You remember that?" asked the Doctor. "And then, when I regenerated into a new man, the Sycorax invaded during Christmas and you had to take care of me because I couldn't help but just sleep off the regeneration. Do you remember what I said to you that night after the Sycorax were destroyed by the Prime Minister?"
Jackie stood silently, shocked into silence. "Oh bloody hell, c'mere you!" Jackie pulled the Doctor into a tight hug. "I'm shocked again, I can tell you that."
The ruckus had attracted attention and the first to come out were Mickey and Martha. "Jacks!' exclaimed Mickey as he ran over and they hugged. "Meet my wife... Dr. Martha Jones... well, now Smith..."
Jackie's jaw dropped. "That Osterhagen key girl? Oh, and she's a Doctor too?"
"Yeah, a proper one with a degree and schooling," said Martha, looking at the Doctor. "Not like someone else I know."
"Oi! I'll have you know that a Time Lord has to pass their own battery of tests before being allowed to call one self a Time Lord... otherwise I'm just Gallifreyan... not that there has been a whole lot of 'just Gallifreyan' in millenia even before the Time War," she retorted. "So, I am a Doctor... with an actual education, thank you very much!"
Pete chortled in amusement as did Jackie as she hugged her again. "Oh God, how I've missed you."
"What about the other me?" asked the Doctor when she pulled back.
She caught the darkening looks from Pete and Jackie as they exchanged a look. The Doctor's smile dropped off her face. "Tell me what happened."
Rose watched the meta-crisis Doctor, who she had called John Smith. Or rather, he had called himself John Smith for simplicity sake. "Whenever I needed a human name, I always used that one... well, usually," he had explained with a smile when things had seemed like they might actually work.
John now wandered the lab, running a hand along the edge of the tables, almost aimlessly and without focus. It was like he was still looking for a brain flash or an idea. Something. It was painful to watch as the thoughtful expression was so much like his old self that she had hopes that maybe, just maybe, he wasn't as far gone as she feared he truly was.
She still kept her distance.
What he had become broke her heart and repulsed her. She had no name for what he became but, if he had hopes of her ever calling him the Doctor again he was sorely mistaken. Not that he claimed it. He seemed as puzzled as she, and as alarmed. Even repulsed as if he didn't like what he had become either.
Good.
"Why?" she asked finally, breaking the silence that had grown oppressive in the lab.
He looked up, vaguely annoyed at her interruption and her question. "What do you mean?"
"What happened to us?" she clarified.
"You chose your side, and it wasn't mine," he snarled in response, then took a breath to calm himself. "Oh Rose, why couldn't you see what I was trying to do? Had a little patience?"
"Because what you were doing was... was... it was wrong," she answered. "You weren't trying to help. You were trying to use it."
"Hardly," he answered back, calmly, tipping his hand in an off handed and dismissive gesture.
"The Doctor never..."
"I'm not the Doctor am I?" he turned on her suddenly, shouting, and she fell silent and wide-eyed in shock. "The Doctor left us here, Rose. He left us behind. Discarded!" He took another calming breath and gained control over his anger, and when he could talk calmly again he continued. "Now I know what that feels like. Oh, I understand now. What he put you through and what he put the others through. But I'll make it right again, Rose. I can prove that I'm as good as he is to you."
Rose swallowed her tears although she could hear the tremble in her voice, and she shook her head. "You never had to prove yourself to me. You were always enough. Why can't you see that?"
ACT THREE
"At first everything was going so well," began Jackie. "They, I mean Rose and the meta-crisis you, were so very happy. We were happy for them and even happier when he asked her to marry him and she accepted. Pete got his identity in order and even worked for Torchwood while Rose decided to go back to school and do what she wanted... which... thankfully wasn't anything so dangerous as that although still involved I suppose. He was over the moon in joy when she graduated from university, but then again, so were we all."
"What did she take?" asked the Doctor, enthralled by the thought.
"Oh, she went into history and archaeology. Adventurous enough, if you ask me," answered Jackie.
"And quite right too," answered the Doctor with a sad smile.
Pete and Jackie fell silent and the Doctor picked up on it, but didn't ask. It would be better to get an idea of what had happened in chronological order for once. And then figure something out. "I'm sorry, continue," said the Doctor.
"Well, he worked for Torchwood in one part the field and one part their research. She came on board and worked in the field but only in areas where she was required as per the archaeological aspect. Very little combat," answered Pete, and then he let Jackie fill in the rest.
"For years it seemed to go well," said Jackie. "And then Rose got pregnant."
The Doctor leaned back in shock. "His?"
"We thought so," answered Pete. "But..."
"Oh my God," said Mickey, saying what was running through the Doctor's mind.
"I take it he did not take that well?" asked the Doctor quietly.
"No. He didn't," answered Jackie. "Then again neither did any of us. We were disappointed in her. After all of that chasing after you and she goes off and does something stupid like that."
"People make mistakes," said the Doctor quietly. "We would have worked it out... we did... right?"
Pete and Jackie looked at other. "I see," answered the Doctor. "He didn't want to work it out. He was angry, I take it. As in beyond reason. Dammit. This is my fault, I should have known..."
"That she'd cheat on you?" asked Pete. "I'm sorry, not even you could have foreseen that. Especially after all that chasing after you in the first place."
"What happened after?"
"Well, in a personal stand point he fell of the Tyler radar," answered Pete. "Professionally, I'd see him at work and doing his job but it was like he was going through the motions but not actually really all there. Then he started having anger management issues and go off on people with little to no provocation. And then... he simply disappeared for a few months and came back. He seemed a bit more at peace, if a bit older than he should."
"He left on the TARDIS," said the Doctor.
"What TARDIS?" asked Jackie and Pete.
"I gave them a piece of this TARDIS, a piece of the coral strut. A TARDIS is grown, and I assume they were doing so in your world. Given a few years, which by the sounds of things they had, it probably grew enough to fly. Maybe not travel in time quite yet, but enough to fly," explained the Doctor. "Then again, he might have got it to the point where it could travel in time."
"Did Rose know?" asked Jackie quietly.
"She would have had to. She was right there when Donna gave him the coral in the first place," the Doctor smiled. "So full of surprises that one was. What happened to cause all of this?"
Jackie took a breath and walked around the now unfamiliar TARDIS console room. "There was a crash, like the time the Slitheen tried to invade, only there was this virus on board," she explained.
"We had no choice really, he was the most knowledgeable person on staff," mused Pete. "He worked himself night and day, but then it got airborne. He blamed himself for the failure, naturally. I had to pick up the pieces of that. The virus caused mutations, and drastically shortened lifespans, as well as violent insanity. People became feral, and then the animal life became feral or more so. It was like a horror movie only real. Just so real. We watched our world end - there are so few of us now and that is because those few have a natural immunity." Pete took a breath and motioned to everything. "His efforts seemed to slow it, and then he found a vaccine. It was no cure - there didn't seem to be an answer for that - but at least what was left could survive. Those who survived fell into the Dark Ages all over again. We live in walled cities and tribes. We scavenge the dregs of civilization for the basics of survival. But the vaccine had a terrible cost."
"And that was?" asked the Doctor.
"Sterility. So even those who survive can never continue humanity. And so the end of the world came," said Jackie.
"What?" asked the Doctor in shock. "Did he not see that coming...?"
Pete's gaze darkened. "He knew."
Everyone froze in shock at that dark pronouncement. "What?" asked the Doctor, breathless and in shock.
"He knew," answered Jackie. "And, when we asked him, when our new President confronted the former 'saviour' of humanity, he laughed. Not only did he know it could happen, he chose to let it. He said that he saw the flaw in his love for humans and that he intended to fix it."
The Doctor sat down in her chair, hard, and tried to catch her breath as the dizzying reality slammed into her. "What?" she asked again, the tremulous quality making her voice rise. "No... he... no... no... no..."
Jackie knelt down and finished her tale. "Rose went after him. She never came back. That was five years ago. Jake went after her, and we haven't heard from him either. Thankfully, as our scientists have found, the virus ran its course and doesn't spread anymore. The damage has been done. This world is now dying or already dead and gone."
River Song walked forwards and put a hand on her shoulder. "You couldn't foresee this happening."
"Oh, but I did," said the Doctor. "Not like this and not now... not here... but I knew there was a possibility that I could fall. That it would happen. Oh God, Rose... Jackie..." The Doctor grasped her shoulders suddenly. "I'm so sorry. So very sorry."
Jackie smiled sadly and shook her head. "She's right, you know. He's not you. Even you said that he was born in anger and war. You believed Rose could heal him, and for awhile she did. But, as he said, a very human mistake re-opened that wound and it festered and then killed the Doctor that you left with us. But we prayed and hoped that somehow a miracle would happen... and now you're here, honey. We got our answer."
ACT FOUR
Rose was led with an iron grip on her elbow to the partially grown TARDIS. The console room of the meta-crisis was finished, as was a few other rooms but this TARDIS was still growing and getting her legs. He pushed her in and then closed the doors behind him as he stepped up to the console. "You have a TARDIS," she mused.
"A bit more patience and you would have had me as the Doctor, Rose," he answered sadly. "Here we are. Just in time for a reunion."
He opened the door and Rose saw the painfully familiar form of the blue police box from memory that was now nearly twenty years old. The meta-crisis led her outside, almost as if using her as a shield as the doors opened. Out of the box came a woman and Jack and Mickey, but no one else. For a moment the meta-crisis was surprised but he sensed that it was the woman that was the Time Lord, now that he saw her. He tried to figure that one out and had a mildly amused thought that he had regenerated into a woman.
The other three stared at the two and the Doctor felt her hearts seize. Rose was still alive and she appeared fine although the look in her counterpart was one that made them freeze.
"But where is the Doctor?" asked Rose in confusion.
"She is the Doctor," answered the meta-crisis
The Doctor nodded her head. "Hello Rose," she greeted quietly. Then looked at the meta-crisis. "What have you done?"
"Oh, now she shows concern over this world. Before you never could wait to leave it, as well as the people in it, behind," the meta-crisis answered. "I tried to save it, you know."
"That's not what I heard," said the Doctor taking a step forward. "You can't have fallen this far. Think for a moment and look at Rose. Look at me. Remember who you are."
"Who I am?" he asked, all to calmly.
Near hysterically emotional she could have understood. That kind of emotion she could have understood. It meant he still felt. The stone cold lack of feeling she wasn't sure how to handle. "Very well," he said, his hand and grip causing pain to Rose, and the Doctor took another step forward and then he did something she never thought she'd see.
The meta-crisis took a gun from inside the suit jacket he wore over the plain collarless dress shirt and dark jeans and pointed it at the Doctor. "I'm willing to guess that I don't have many regenerations left."
"Actually, I have eleven left," she answered evenly.
For a moment he was a bit surprised and he faltered. "What?" was his answer, and out of the corner of her eye she saw Rose's eyebrows lift.
"Hello grandfather," she finished. "This isn't you. Put it down."
The shock on his face was plain. Clearly, not only had he not expected to find them here but he had not expected to see her in specific. She heard the shocked gasp from behind her. "Grandfather?" said Mickey. "But she said... you said..."
"Now now, Mickey," said Jack, putting a hand on the other man's shoulder.
"When did I die, Susan?" asked the meta-crisis quietly, but without lowering the gun.
That worried her. She knew in her hearts that her grandfather would never, ever, hurt her. Even when she had been younger he had never raised a hand after her father had enlisted in the military when her mother had chosen to pass instead of regenerate. This meta-crisis wasn't lowering the gun which meant some part of him considered shooting her if he was pushed. She closed her eyes and then opened them again. "A long time ago in my time line," she answered. "I took your name. The universe still needs a Doctor... you could..."
"No."
"But..." she looked up at him in hope.
He laughed, and it was a dark laugh. One that wasn't actually seeing the humour in the situation but because he didn't seem to know what else to do. Or perhaps he did and it was just lost on the rest of them. At first, she worried that he was insane... but, no. She could see that he was still very sane.
Just... fallen.
She felt her hearts skip, not in hope but in the realization of what he'd become.
"No, you're the Doctor," he said. "And, honestly, and I speak from the bottom of my hearts. Oh, I'm sorry, I mean heart since I've only got the one. But still... honestly... couldn't think of a better person to carry that legacy."
She smiled slightly as she looked at Rose. "Let her go, grandfather."
"I'm not your grandfather. I'm just a cheap copy!"
"No you're not!" yelled the Doctor. "Don't you ever think that."
"But I am. I'm born to war and born to hatred. And then, when my purpose was up I was discarded. I was even born from being used as a receptacle so he wouldn't have to change for her," he grasped Rose's arm again causing the woman to gasp in sudden shock and pain. "I'm not the Doctor. I never was the Doctor - that was an illusion that was to placate me and her - and even she wasn't fooled by it... not for long."
The Doctor swallowed, but he wasn't finished yet. "No, I know who I am; what I am. I am the Valeyard."
"So be it," said the Doctor. "I had hoped it wouldn't be me to witness it."
He smiled. It wasn't a sneer. He was too cold for that. He backed into his TARDIS and pulled Rose with him, and Jack and Mickey took aim. As his TARDIS dematerialized she watched it from the outside. It reminded her of the first time her Doctor had left her with David. She closed her eyes putting her hand where it had been before turning around to face them, tears in her eyes.
Jack run over and hugged her as he stared at where the other TARDIS had been. "What's the Valeyard? I got the feeling you knew what it meant."
"The Valeyard is an enemy that the Doctor hoped to never become but knew one day, somehow, he would," she answered, staring into nothing, like he would have. "The Metacrisis has become the Doctor's worst enemy. His own shadow."
NEXT CHAPTER:
4 - THE SHATTERED MIRROR (Part Two)
Leaving the dying Pete's World behind, the Doctor and her Companions must chase the Valeyard through time to retrieve Rose Tyler as well as stop the virus that he has brought into their world.
A/N: A review or two would be nice, lol... I know people are reading this... are they liking it? Have any ideas of their own? I get the feeling I can expect to be drawn and quartered for turning the David Tennant 10.5 into a bad guy, lol, but that's okay... at least... had this become a real episode... we'd get to at least see him again!
