Union of Souls
Chapter Four
The patterns in the sputtering wall of energy seemed to fluctuate as it converted the English language into electrical impulses and then assimilated them.
It was the nearest thing to thinking the Tau K'mon could do.
As it considered its next move, Martha was kept frozen in its grip and the Doctor was forced to witness the blind look of terror on her paralyzed features.
He didn't say anything more, allowing the 'Wall' to believe his words were empty, when in fact his mind was working overtime to find a solution before it was too late.
With every passing moment, he gave the creature time to use its technology to escape, just as it had with Donna. Why it hadn't chosen to do so already was a mystery.
Unless…
"Unless you've got to recharge those organic battery cells of yours before you can clear off!" The Doctor slapped a hand to his forehead and bounded back over the garden hedge as if the flowerbeds could somehow give him answers.
And this time, in a way, they actually could.
Retracing his fall, he rolled onto the lawn, looking around frantically for the hose he'd seen there. It had been feeding a small sprinkler system, but with one good yank, he had the attachment off and was holding a gushing pipe that bled water profusely.
"Molto Bene!"
Without actually checking how long the hose was, he was back over the hedge and pointing it at the 'Wall' like he'd had full fire service training.
The phenomenon seemed to back up just a touch, and the waves of power ebbing across its surface appeared to change colour like a chameleon trying to hide from a predator.
Amazingly, a sound began to emanate from creature. At first, it was nothing more than a garbled groan of badly constructed waveforms, but as the Doctor strained to listen, the audio patterns began to converge and take shape into something more recognizable.
"W…we are …not afraid…of w…ater…" A gurgling laugh followed the statement.
The Doctor pursed his lips. "Ooooh, silly me." He brought the sonic up in his left hand. "Forgot to add the magic ingredient!" Jabbing at the screwdriver's controls, he pointed it at the centre of the 'Wall' and hit the exact same spot with the jet of liquid from the hosepipe.
The creature screamed, not in pain, but in blind fury.
Having little choice, it retracted its electrical tentacles, allowing Martha to fall free onto the tarmac as it retreated behind the downed helicopter.
The Doctor heard Martha grunt as she tumbled into the middle of the road, but he didn't baulk, instead continuing forwards after his foe, water gushing everywhere.
Some of the U.N.I.T. soldiers appeared to have realized what was happening and joined in the chase, emptying clip after clip of ammunition into the heart of the writhing mass.
Now, though, the 'Wall' seemed suddenly impervious to the water, the sonic, and the troops' weapons. It hissed steam from its exterior and groaned out one last warning. "Die…with me…"
And then, in a flash of brilliant yellow light, it was gone.
"Alright, alright…you can stop now!" The Doctor waved his arms at one of the soldiers who appeared not to have realized he was now shooting at thin air.
Eventually, the black-clad trooper took his finger from the trigger, face reddening in embarrassment at his over-zealous behaviour. "Sorry, sir."
The Doctor turned on his heels, ignoring any further apologies. There was work to do, people to still save, and…where had he parked the TARDIS again?
Muttering about the quality of his short-term memory, he darted back around to the Lynx's cabin where Martha was already attempting to tend the injured crew.
"I'm um…sorry about what I said back there," she offered, the soft edge to her voice expressing more than simple words could ever say.
"Everyone's apologizing," The Doctor mumbled, one brow furrowing. "Isn't that usually my job?" He didn't wait for a response, but poked his head further into the crumpled aircraft.
The metal edges of the pilot's door were gnarled and crushed, but there was still enough room for him to lend a hand if Martha needed it. She'd apparently scrambled inside via the rear sliding door and was now perched behind a young lieutenant who was slipping in and out of consciousness.
"Put pressure here, yeah?"
The Doctor bobbed his head, holding a field dressing over a wound to the pilot's arm while Martha crawled further inside to tend to the co-pilot with the first aid kit she'd nabbed from the back of the Lynx.
"So how come that thing was so easy to defeat?" Martha asked as she checked the second man over. "I mean, if you can just spray it with water, how come your lot were so scared of it?"
"Well…it's not like you can just chuck a bucket of H2O at it." The Doctor squirmed, popping his head back outside the chopper. Something was making his Time Lord senses tingle, but he couldn't quite fathom what. "You see, the Tau K'mon have an energy matrix surrounding them that can adapt…I disrupted it with my sonic using a resonation pattern so the water would fry their synapses, but um…you really have to know the new frequency every time or its like shooting a water pistol at a Jeruvian Bull…and trust me, you don't want to do that. Tried it once at a stag party…"
Martha stopped prodding her patient, her eyes narrowing. "So you're saying the 'Wall' has a shield that changes every time anyone tries to harm it? Like a virus that alters to suit its environment?"
The Doctor sniffed. "Right…except this is more of an oscillating energy pattern with over two point seven million variations." He scratched his head. "Or is it seven point two…?"
Martha wasn't impressed. "So how did you know which setting to use to free me?" She began to gently take off the co-pilot's harness ready to move him, but her eyes remained on the Doctor. "You guessed, didn't you? I was hanging in some huge flippin' electrical webbing, and you guessed out of how many possibilities?"
"'Course I didn't guess! I made a logical assumption based on mathematical probabilities using the information collated by the Time Lords during various other encounters with the Tau K'mon!"
"You guessed!"
He grinned childishly. "Aww…well, who else do you know who could guess that brilliantly?"
Martha gave in. "So the chances of you doing that again and it working are…?"
"About as good as avoiding Jeruvian bulls at stag parties," he admitted, rubbing the bottom of his back as a not-so-fun memory flashed through his mind. "Still…not to worry! There's always plan B…" He paused again, sniffing the air. "Something's still not right here…"
Martha leaned forward across the groaning co-pilot and was about to usher one of the U.N.I.T soldiers over to give her a hand when the Doctor stiffened, his head jerking to something along the fuselage of the Lynx.
"Martha, get them out! Get them out, NOW!"
Leaving the pilot to his friend, he sprang away from the cabin, bounding along the side of the chopper until he was level with the engine.
Several metal plates had burst from their positions on impact and were hanging limp, and inside some of the electrical components were sparking and hissing as something shorted out.
Directly below the loose panel work was the ever-growing pool of aviation fuel the Doctor had padded through earlier. His All Stars were soaked in it, but that was the least of his concerns.
Grabbing the bent panelling, he pulled himself up to look inside the compartment. There was nothing he could use his sonic on to stop the short. What he needed now was an extinguisher or Martha and the two airmen were going to burn.
Burn…
The deep scarlet flames of a world in chaos ripped through his psyche as he leapt back down, splashing into the puddle of fuel.
Burn like a sun…
The Doctor ignored the wetness of his feet and the niggling fact that he didn't have enough time to run to the TARDIS and back for an extinguisher. He ignored the memories of his friends, of his family, of his world as everything exploded and…
Burn like Gallifrey…
The Doctor reached the TARDIS and yanked open the door. He always kept an extinguisher in here because of his 'little console accidents' that tended to happen more often than not.
Diving to his left, he scooped up the extinguisher and turned tail. If he had ever sprinted faster, he couldn't remember when.
And all that he could think of as he ran was just how much he hated fire. Hated the fury of its destructive path, hated how it always took away the things he loved.
He skidded in the aviation fuel and almost fell flat on his face. Despite his sometimes clumsy approach, however, the Doctor was far more adroit than he appeared.
Reaffirming his footing, he dared to check on Martha's progress before attacking the still-hissing compartment.
The pilot was already out of the cockpit and had been carried to a safe distance by two soldiers. The co-pilot, though... well, he was a different story.
Martha and another U.N.I.T. operative were still trying to pry him from the wreckage, and from the angle at which his leg was bent it was surely broken.
"Right then!" The Doctor whirled. "Time for a bit of the old Pugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew…always liked a bit of Trumpton…or was it Camberwick Green? Hmmn, maybe I should just stick with Fireman Sam…" He pulled away the safety clip on the extinguisher and aimed the nozzle at the sparking avionics.
Dry powder burst from the tip, engulfing the compartment and surrounding area with expellant. The Doctor coughed and waved a hand in front of his face, eager to see if the risk of fire had been contained.
As he peered through the smog, though, it became clear the short was a tenacious devil that fully intended growing into an inferno of grand proportions if it got the chance.
He pressed the trigger again, emptying the cylinder into the engine bay. Not wanting to take any risks, he tossed down the expended extinguisher and yanked off his long brown jacket, stuffing it over the top of the sparking wiring to try and smother it further until he could remove its power source.
"Ha, human fire blanket!" He frowned at his own handiwork and then brought the sonic back out. Quickly tracing the route of the power fuelling the sparks, he dived inside the rear of the Lynx just as Martha and the soldier got the co-pilot free.
The Doctor internally sighed with relief as he stuck the sonic between his teeth and began tearing at the inner panels of the helicopter. If anyone burned now, then it would be him, and him alone.
"Doctor!"
He pretended not to hear Martha's pleas for him to join her. Yes, he could run now and let the stricken craft explode, but he couldn't say in all certainty what the radius of the blast would be. Could he take the risk of civilians being harmed?
The answer was a simple 'no'.
I'm that kind of man…
Even though he'd never actually said those words, they gave him reassurance that although he wasn't perfect, Martha was wrong about him.
And one day, he'd prove it to her.
Behind the panelling, the Doctor found what he was looking for: The electrical feed for the engine and avionics of the helicopter. Looking over his shoulder to see if the sparks had burned through his coat yet, he saw with alarm that they had and were getting dangerously close to the oozing fuel.
Pulling out a jumbled mass of wires, the Doctor realized he had just one split second to cut the right feed. No time to check each wire with the screwdriver, no time to even think.
All he had to go on was his Time Lord intuition.
The Doctor closed his eyes and tore the brown wire from its connector housing, waiting for the explosion that would shred his all-too-human body into unrecognizable pieces.
"Doctor!" The explosion didn't come, and he snapped open his eyes to see Martha racing towards him, relief spreading across her terrified features as she realized he'd neutralized the threat. "You did it! You stopped half of Chiswick going up in smoke!"
"Yes…well." The Doctor sighed deeply, his dark eyes saddening as he crawled free of the chopper. "It came at a terrible price…just terrible…never be the same again…"
"What?" Martha shook her head, not understanding how anything bad had come from saving the neighbourhood.
"My overcoat," he whimpered. "Ruined…burned…fried like a bag of soggy chips!" His shoulders slouched and he loosened his tie further. "Although…actually, I don't think I have the original. The other me nabbed that…" His face brightened at the thought. "Fancy a shopping trip when this is all over, Martha Jones? I know this great little tailor back in '47 who'd whip me up a new one, and you and Rose can take a gander at the scenery…"
"Yeah, well, can we find Rose first?"
The Doctor nodded, becoming more serious again. Somewhere, Rose was out there waiting for him to come for her, and even though Donna didn't remember him now, she needed his help too.
The world did. He just hoped as a human Time Lord he was good enough to rise to the challenge.
"Excuse me, Dr Jones." It was the sergeant from earlier. He snapped off a salute. "Are you alright, ma'am?" He gave the Doctor a cursory nod too.
"Fine and dandy, aren't we, Martha?" The Doctor answered, looking longingly at his charred and blackened jacket. "More than I can say for my coat, though," he mumbled.
The sergeant didn't seem to hear, or if he did, he had the commonsense not to make further comment. Instead, he pulled a piece of paper from his breast pocket and handed it over. "Just before the EMP we received a communication from Colonel Mace, ma'am. Torchwood Three has just fallen into total blackout. HQ believes they're under attack from…from whatever this thing is."
"Greedy, that's what it is." The Doctor grabbed Martha's arm, tugging her towards the TARDIS. "Thanks for the info!" He waved to the soldier good-naturedly, but kept moving. "See you again soon…or…maybe not," he exclaimed, diving into the console room, tie swinging wildly.
Martha faced him off over the rotor as he tapped frenziedly on the ship's computer screen. "It's gone after Jack, yeah?"
The Doctor looked grim, his slender features and furrowed brow giving him the appearance of a judge about to serve up the death sentence. "Everyone I've ever been close to on Earth," he agreed, pushing more buttons. "And it gets worse. The Tau K'mon are using the Cardiff Rift to bring more of their kind through. Jack's been forced to initiate a Time Lock to try and isolate his team…"
"Some kind of temporal bubble sealing them into a different time, yeah? I didn't think anything could break through a Time Lock?"
"It can't." The Doctor started to power up the TARDIS anyway, dancing around each section of console until the rotor began to make the familiar vwoorping sound. Then he beamed. "'Cept for a Time Lord, of course!"
Roald Dahl Plass, Wales
Torchwood Hub
Gwen was shivering in the darkness, her body pressed tightly against Ianto as she watched Jack tumble lifelessly to the floor.
Ianto stiffened and she felt his fingers dig ever-so-slightly into her flesh without him realizing it. He was afraid for Jack, but then, they both were.
Gwen swallowed, feeling her throat bob and hoping the flashing creature couldn't hear the sound of her terrified gulp.
If it did, it didn't move.
In the darkened chamber, there was silence. All the sounds of modern machinery and hard drives buzzing deadened by the EMP.
Gwen had never heard the Hub this way before, even in lock downs the place had some source of light, some indication of life and the civilized world.
The 'Wall' sputtered, the glow from its surface shifting and changing until it gave off a brighter aura.
It was turning itself into a huge living torch in order to find them.
"Just stay still," Ianto advised. "No need to give it a target until we have to…"
Gwen felt herself nod, wondering if Rhys was safe in the outside world, or if this thing had already begun to assimilate Cardiff too. The idea angered her, made her want to pound at the creature with her bare fists, but she knew that any contact with it would only bring death, as it had, if only temporarily, for Jack.
Ianto moved again, this time surprising her by raising his arm to point at something within the gloom, thus making himself visible to the entity. She squinted, unsure what could possibly make him be so reckless.
It wasn't the materializing shape that first gave away what was happening, but the bizarre sound like metal being grated on metal.
Gwen opened her mouth, both amazed and thankful as the blue police box began to take solid form and shape in front of her. She had never met the Doctor in person, but they had shared a few brief words via a com link during the Dalek fiasco.
And he had saved the planet that time, maybe he could again.
As the TARDIS stopped its unhealthy wheeze, the isolated section of the 'Wall' ebbed backwards across the floor, positioning itself near the edge of the Time Lock. It remained there, its colour changing once again until it was the strangest of deep purple hues.
Gwen pulled away from Ianto and ran out into the radiance from the police box's light. She considered hammering on the door, or maybe forgetting the Doctor altogether in favour of her downed leader.
The door to the TARDIS swung open before she had chance to do either.
* * *
"Hello!" The Doctor bounded out in just his pale blue shirt and tie, hair slightly dishevelled, clothes smelling rather badly of aviation fuel. He took in the lack of lighting and rolled his eyes. "Jack been arguing with the National Grid again then?" He popped his head around the corner of the time machine and then grimaced as he spotted the writhing 'Wall.' "Ah, I see you've met my new friend already…"
"Friend, is it?" Gwen was more than puzzled. "That's not what I'd call it…"
The Doctor waved dismissively. "Well…you know what they say, keep your friends close and your enemies closer..." He pulled at his tie, obviously at a loss what to do with his hands without his jacket pockets to stuff them in. "Mind you…I'm not sure that was the best military advice I could have given old Sun Tzu given my track record with wars…"
Martha dodged past the blathering Time Lord and kneeled at Jack's side. "He's still breathing," she confirmed. "Not that I doubted that."
Ianto joined her, looking from Jack and back to the now static creature. "He let it take him to buy us time," he explained. "I think he thought maybe trying to kill him would drain the thing…"
The Doctor stuffed his hands in his trouser pockets and sniffed, leaning against the TARDIS's side as he scrutinized the unmoving 'Wall'. "He certainly confused it. Look at it…cowering in the corner like a caged animal. Anyway…knowing Jack, he probably asked it out on a date or worse. No wonder it's befuddled…"
As if his unconscious mind had somehow perceived the jibe, Jack groaned, his eyes flicking open to focus on a very relieved Ianto standing over him. "Hey, I heard that," he groused, rolling onto his side to see the Doctor grinning at him. "And besides, I draw the line at anything that isn't a biped…mostly, anyway…"
"See, we have this bloody great big blob takin' over half of Cardiff, and all you men can think about is sex!" Gwen huffed but gave Ianto a hand to pull Jack back to his feet. He teetered a little then shot the Doctor a huge grin and a salute.
The Doctor actually acknowledged the gesture with a bob of his head, but never really took his attention from the 'Wall'. What was it doing? Why was it here? Why kill humans indiscriminately except all his friends?
None of it made sense, and he had to know.
"So, what do we do now?" Jack asked, stepping up to stand at the Doctor's side. "Apart from sinking half a bottle of Aspirin and getting the hell outta here." He rubbed absently at his temple, indicating the creature's attack had left him with more than just a little headache.
"Get everyone into the TARDIS, and if I'm not back in half an hour, initiate the emergency protocols. She'll take you back to her last set of coordinates in Chiswick…"
"While you do what exactly?" Martha chimed in, a tinge or anger in her tone.
"Oh, I thought I'd have a little chat with our sulking Duracell here!" The Doctor pushed away from the TARDIS and took several tentative steps towards the creature, his face changing subtly from mirth to uncompromising conviction as he moved.
"But you can't! You know what that thing did to you last time." Martha snatched at his arm, almost snapping him back around, but he used just enough strength to pull free.
"I have to know what it wants…"
"And if all it wants is you? Dead? You said yourself you might not stand another attack…"
His voice was low, grim, unemotional. "Then everybody wins…"
Jack hesitated, looking at Martha as if he didn't know which side to choose. "We have to trust him, Martha." He held out a hand, as if begging her to believe in their friend one more time.
"You're all mad, the lot of you!" Gwen shook her head. "All those good looks, and not one sensible brain cell to show for it between you, see!"
Martha sucked down a breath, evidently trying to compose herself. Then her eyes bored into the Doctor. "Thirty minutes," she confirmed. "And then if you're not in the TARDIS, to hell with the emergency protocol. So help me, I'm coming out here and…"
The Doctor held up a hand. "I believe you," he almost smiled. "Now just GO!"
Ianto grabbed the open TARDIS door and wiggled his eyebrows at Jack, suggesting they not argue with the Time Lord. Jack smirked back, ushering Martha and Gwen in ahead of him. "Ladies first," he winked.
Gwen groaned but hopped inside the blue box, immediately choking at the interior's unusual size. "It's bigger on the…"
"Inside," Martha finished.
Jack looked down at his trousers and obviously considered making a similar comment, but a decidedly dirty look from Martha stopped him in his tracks.
* * * *
The Doctor waited until he heard the TARDIS door slam closed before he moved. He didn't want any of the others to see this, because it wasn't going to be pretty.
Funny really, because poor old Jack didn't even have a clue he wasn't talking to the Doctor. What would he have to say when he knew he was stuck with the boring old human version of the Time Lord?
The Doctor glanced back at the time ship as it sat patiently waiting for him. If he misjudged his next moves one tiny bit, then the whole planet, maybe the whole universe, would suffer by his death.
Maybe it was easy for his real self to make this kind of decision, but for him, it was nigh on impossible.
The real Doctor could regenerate to fight another day, to put right any wrong he might cause. But he only had one life to give, one chance to save humanity, and that made it an even larger weight to bear.
Rubbing at his brow absently, he moved forwards until he was close enough to touch the pulsing mass. It was still recovering from trying to harm Jack – not exactly injured, but dazed.
If there was any chance of joining with it, reading its mind, then this was his only shot.
But this wouldn't be like looking into Madame De Pompadour's memories. No, this would be like searching the databases of a trillion computers that were all hotwired together.
It had almost killed him the first time, was he really as ready to try this as he'd let the others believe?
The Doctor took the last step, reaching out with both palms until they made contact with the 'Wall'. In an instant, he was glued to the thing by a current of energy that held him fast, as it had all its victims.
He didn't fight the effect, instead probing the creature with his own psyche.
Somewhere inside the jumbled mass of electricity there had to be some kind of sentience, something he could communicate with, reason with.
The 'Wall' seemed to sense his actions and fought back, sending lacing tendrils of fiery pain into his brain. If he was trying to interrogate it on some mental level, then it was returning the favour twofold.
"Who are you..?" The Doctor's mind screamed. "Why are you taking my friends…?"
It refused to respond, and all that the Doctor could discern were skittering patterns of colour that sometimes almost formed pictures.
He concentrated more, focusing his invasion on the images. If the thing wouldn't talk to him directly, perhaps he could detect other clues about its motives.
The pain in his head intensified, and he was reminded of collapsing in the London alleyway. He was pushing his body and mind to the edge of its limitations, and still he needed more.
He felt muscles tense until he thought sinew and bone would snap, but finally the cloudy patterns inside the 'Wall' were becoming clearer.
There was a hillside of unmarked green, and in the distance, a small row of cottages that could easily have belonged in the past. Cottages that he was sure belonged here on Earth, not on some alien planet on which the Tau K'mon might dwell.
Some appeared in disrepair, as if they were no longer inhabited.
The Doctor couldn't help but be transfixed by the end abode, even though there was nothing to distinguish it from the others. He didn't know how or why, but something within the 'Wall' was drawing him to it.
More specifically – to the cottage's roof.
The little house looked like it should have a traditional thatched top, but instead, it had been redone in slate.
Slate…
No matter how much he tried to look elsewhere in the image, his mind always returned to the roof.
To the slate…
And now, somewhere behind the disjointed image was a voice. No, not one voice, but many, some talking, others screaming, but all unintelligible.
"Oy! Slow down…one at a time," The Doctor tried to calm the thing, or rather the many things that made up the whole, but as his mind began to explode with the pressure, the voices grew more convoluted.
He felt the familiar trickle of blood on his face and realized his nose was bleeding. He was running out of time, and still there were no answers.
Cottage…slate…
A new voice emerged from the throng – a deep controlling grumble that silenced the weaker consciousnesses.
"Die…with me…"
It was the same voice from before, and all it wanted to do was kill.
Kill…
The Doctor tried to pull away, to use the thing's weakness to escape, but it was stronger than he had anticipated. It was draining him as it had before, sucking at every cell of his body like a gigantic leech.
The other voices returned, pathetic souls that cried out to him even though he couldn't understand their pleas.
He scrunched his eyes closed, retreating inside his own mind so far that he reached the blank spots caused by the first attack: Portions of his psyche that had been reduced to huge black voids where segments of his memory, his very essence should have been.
Somehow, the darkness instantly provided comfort, like the sanctuary of a church.
The Doctor revelled in the nothingness, sensing his body at last pull away from the 'Wall'.
And then, he was tumbling, falling backwards until he felt his back hit the solid shape of the TARDIS. He grunted with the impact, and then he was falling again, this time slithering down the time ship to rest at its base.
His chest heaved and he tasted the iron tang of his own blood on his lips, but he was alive, and he had to now make sense of what he'd learned.
Eyes flicking open, the Doctor shakily pushed up on his elbows and was about to try and stand when a firm hand gripped him, pulling him to his feet.
It was Jack, and at Jack's side, Gwen, Ianto and Martha waited patiently, their worried glances now turning into thin smiles.
The Doctor guessed they had exited the TARDIS the minute he'd joined with the 'Wall', intent on trying to save him should the unthinkable happen. Little did they know how close it had been.
He gave himself the once over, tutting at the state of his shirt before taking the time to look back at the 'Wall'.
It was where he'd left it, but it had changed colour once again. Now, the thing was one massive splodge of red glowing energy.
"Well fancy that!" The Doctor exclaimed, genuinely surprised at the new shade. "You look just like The Blob! Ever seen that film? No? You really should…it's a classic…"
"I doubt it has very good taste in movies," Jack offered, jerking a thumb back towards the TARDIS. "C'mon, Doc, don't you think we've had enough fun with that thing for one day?"
"Not to mention we can't defend ourselves if it wants to attack again," Ianto added helpfully. "And let's not forget that its 'other half' might be oozing through half of Cardiff while we're chatting…"
The Doctor rocked on the balls of his feet for a moment as if he was deliberating, and then darted to the TARDIS like a sprinter. Dashing inside, he realized the others hadn't quite followed, and so bobbed his head back out around the door. "Well come on then!"
Jack shook his head, grabbed his blue overcoat from where it hung and joined the Doctor, with Martha and the others bringing up the rear.
"Sometimes, I wonder if I even know you at all," Jack pondered as he watched the Time Lord tango around various controls, every now and again wiping a blob of blood from under his nose.
"Well…actually," Martha began. "That's a good point. You don't know this Doctor very well …"
The Doctor stopped fiddling with a ridiculously large button on the console and grinned, offering up his hand like an overactive kid. "Slightly damaged, human Meta-Crisis Time Lord minus an overcoat and several memories, at your service!"
Jack looked taken aback but took the Doctor's hand and shook it. "You're…you're him?"
"I'm him!" The Doctor nodded jovially, returning to punch in a set of co-ordinates before realizing he actually didn't have any. "Now then…where were we…?"
Gwen banged her knuckles against her forehead. "Can someone explain all that to me in English?"
Martha rolled her eyes at the idea, but tried anyway. "Something happened during the Dalek attack last year, yeah? I guess Jack never told you, but…well…we ended up with two Doctors…"
"To keep things simple…and because well…I fancied Rose something rotten anyway…I stayed in the alternate reality, and we were supposed to live there happily ever after." The Doctor's eyes turned glassy. "Except, that didn't quite go to plan."
"Two of him?" Gwen looked almost scared.
"Yeah, I know," Jack agreed with a small laugh. "Hard to imagine the Universe is big enough." He looked back to the Doctor. "Seriously, though. If you were stuck in the alternate Universe, I thought that was it, closed off forever, no coming back…"
"Should have been," The Doctor agreed, watching the green rotor rise and fall slowly. "But something tore it open again. An experiment created by a rogue Time Lord trapped in the 1970s…I suppose that's how the Tau K'mon got through too…"
"Look, it doesn't matter how all this happened," Martha butted in. "What we all have to do is stop these things and get Rose and Donna back!"
Now Jack was getting confused. "They have Rose and Donna too?"
"We think so, that's why the Doctor tried to communicate with that thing. We don't know where to even begin to look…"
"Okay…so did you find out anything?" Jack eyed the Time Lord expectantly.
"Oh yesss! Well…kind of, except, it didn't really make much sense." The Doctor shook his head, spiky hair flopping as he leaned against a support beam in defeat. "I saw a cottage, and all I could seem to focus on was the roof!"
"What kind of roof? Why was it special?" Gwen pushed.
"That's just it! It wasn't special, it was just an ordinary boring old slate roof." His brow furrowed. "Four cottages in a row, all with slate roofs. There was a hillside in the backdrop." He paused, remembering something he hadn't even consciously been aware of before. "There was a big, clumsy building in the distance! Might have been a fort, or a castle, or…wait…no…I think it was a country house! Yes, country house with a fancy carriage in the driveway…"
"Carriage, as in horse-drawn?" Martha questioned. "Were you even seeing this day, date, and time?"
Jack bounded over to the Doctor's side. "Yes he was!" He looked at the TARDIS's view screen. "I think I know the place you saw. Can you bring a map of South Wales up?"
The Doctor nodded, fingers urgently gliding over keys until a schematic appeared.
Jack tapped the lower portion of the screen, and the map zoomed in to focus on the outskirts of a tiny village. "There, that's the place," Jack explained. "They're filming a new BBC drama there, complete with horse-drawn carriages, extras, and lots of fake wigs…I met one of the actors in a bar in Butetown. Guy had the most amazing…"
The comment earned a jealous scowl from Ianto that everyone pretended not to notice.
The Doctor hit more keys, hijacking a UN satellite to get an aerial image of the hillside. Just visible beyond a small hillock were four cottages, all with seemingly out of place slate roofs. "Brilliant! Jack, you're just brilliant!"
Ianto sighed. "Please don't tell him that…"
The Doctor thought about it. "Well, just somewhat clever then…" He stuck his glasses on the end of his nose and then looked over the top of them. "Right, so why would I see an image of a Welsh village in the positively titanic brain of an ancient and very evil alien creature hell-bent on taking over the planet?"
""Maybe we should go there and find out?" Martha suggested a little curtly. "Rose, Donna, remember? Not to mention we have to stop the rest of the country, maybe even the rest of the planet, being zapped, yeah?"
The Doctor glowered. "I bet she didn't pick on the other me this much!"
Jack nodded, smiling wryly. "Wanna bet?"
"No thanks, not a gambling man, not after that roulette wheel fiasco in the Urellian Belt. Almost got nabbed by a very angry Judoon…" The Doctor sighed, checking the readouts on his console as he scanned Torchwood and the nearby Rift. "It's growing," he said absently, pushing his glasses further onto the brow of his nose. "More and more Tau K'mon are coming through, forcing the mouth of the wormhole wider…"
"Isn't there anything we can do to try and stop it?" Gwen looked grim. "Or at least get the people away…"
"We can't stop it. Even I don't know how yet," the Doctor clarified sadly, then turned to Jack. "I'm going to the village with Martha. Take your people and contact Colonel Mace at U.N.I.T. Tell him I said to start evacuating Cardiff and the surrounding areas."
"Good enough." Jack nodded. "But with one small change. That thing can't kill me, it can you two. I'm coming with you. Ianto and Gwen can take care of the evacuation along with Mace's people."
The Doctor opened his mouth to argue, but seemingly changed his mind, smiling cheekily instead. "You just want a hug off Donna when we find her, don't you?"
Jack grimaced, but for one small moment, everyone else in the TARDIS forgot their woes and chuckled at his expense.
Then the human Time Lord slipped off the handbrake and the ship lurched into the time stream, spinning wildly as it gyrated its way towards the unknown.
Deserted Cottage
Somewhere in South Wales…
Rose wasn't sure how long she'd been out of it, but it felt like days. She remembered exiting the TARDIS in a London alleyway, but very little else until she'd arrived here.
There had been a strange blackness for a while, like she'd been locked away in a cave with not one single light source, but she supposed that was simply the effect of the 'Wall' transporting her.
And then, there was 'him'.
The man that was no longer a man.
The man that watched over them, his eyes glowing with the same electrical vibrancy that emanated from the 'Wall'.
He wasn't here right now, but she suspected he would be back later, staring at them like they were fish in a tiny glass bowl.
Rose looked around the place, realizing for the first time that she was in a disused house or maybe cottage. Mould grew on the walls, and the glass in the far window was pockmarked with cracks.
It was cold too, but not unbearably so – at least, not yet. How long it would stay that way was a mystery, given that she could see thick flurries of snow falling through the fractures in the window.
Her wrists had been bound behind her back to a section of radiator piping that protruded from the wall, and she had very little room to move her arms or legs, but so far, she still had feeling in them, despite the fact the pipes gave off no heat.
Rose made a face, wondering where the Doctor was right now.
Was he safe?
The 'Wall' may have taken her prisoner, but she couldn't escape the feeling that it wouldn't be so kind to a Time Lord should it get the chance.
Donna Noble groaned, catching Rose's attention. The temp had also been tied to the house's heating pipes after being transported here, but until now she'd remained unconscious.
Perhaps that was a good thing, because Rose had no idea how to handle her. If Donna remembered Rose at all, it could kill her. And yet, Rose could barely resist the urge to talk to this woman about the Doctor, about how he was probably out there in the heavens right this minute trying to save them.
"That's it," Donna groused. "I'm never drinking again…" She pushed herself upright, eyes blearily opening to realize she was not in her bed after all. Her pupils widened as she scanned the room, finally locking onto Rose and the fact that they were both tied up. "I don't mean to be rude," she said quite calmly. "But who are you, and why am I trussed up like last Christmas's turkey?"
Rose smiled meekly. This was just going to be SO awkward. "I think, um, we might have been kidnapped." Well it wasn't a lie, just not entirely all of the truth, either.
"You're havin' me on!" Donna was wriggling now, testing her bonds as she grew steadily angrier. "Who would want to kidnap me, I ask you? Better not be some kind of pervert or I'll…" She squirmed some more, until she realized her efforts were futile. "Just you wait, if this is some kind of sick joke…I bet it's Nerys, she's always been wanting to get me back…as if that Christmas wasn't enough…"
"No wonder he liked traveling with you. You ramble almost as much as him!" Rose shook her head. This was going to be hard work. Really hard work.
"Travelled with who?" Donna was staring at Rose. "And I so do not ramble! I think out loud. A lot…"
"The Doct…" Rose caught herself. "A friend of mine. You remind me of a friend of mine…"
"Got a name has he? This friend?"
"John Smith…he's probably looking for us already."
Donna huffed "Sounds like a pint of bitter." She gave the room another once over. "Pint of bitter probably be of more use," she muttered. "So how did we get here? I was in bed. How did I get out of my bed and into this house? I'm sure I didn't just magically move in my sleep. I'm not a sleepwalker." She took a breath, her voice getting higher. "Where am I? And don't tell me you don't know, 'cause I bet you're in on this with Nerys!"
"I don't know any Nerys, and I don't know where we are." Rose hunched forward as best she could. "Look, I think we gotta be careful, yeah? There's a man in this house, maybe downstairs, and he isn't what he seems…"
"Isn't what he seems? I'll give 'im isn't what he seems if he comes near me!" Donna craned her neck to look at the room's door. When it appeared to be securely locked, her voice grew to a crescendo pitch. "Oy, Sunshine! Be a man! Come up 'ere and show yourself! Frightened of little old me, are ya?"
"You might not wanna do that," Rose warned, keeping her own voice much quieter. "Look, I think he's sorta possessed, yeah?"
Now this was going to be the hard part. From what the Doctor had told her, Donna was always shout first, listen later. She was never going to hear what Rose had to say about their captor and the thing controlling him. She'd be too busy shouting.
Rose sighed.
Their captor had once been human, just like them. He was probably the owner of the cottage, or at least someone from the local village. The problem was, he hadn't been that man in hours.
The 'Wall' had somehow taken over his mind, his soul. In a way, it really was like a possession, and Rose had no clue whether it was temporary, or if the poor man was now literally a brain dead walking husk.
Even more frightening was the fact that the 'Wall' had never shown signs of being able to 'possess' someone before. If it had ever been possible, the Doctor would have known about it. So why was it happening here, now?
"Possessed?" Donna's incredulous voice brought Rose back from her thoughts. "You've been watching too much of The Exorcist, my girl. It's not real!" She huffed, flicking her ginger hair back with a temper that matched the colour of her vibrant locks. "Have you been takin' something? You have, haven't you? Is that what it's all about? One of your mates slipped me a Mickey down at my local, did he?"
Donna wasn't the only one losing her patience. Rose's voice was clearly showing signs of agitation as she replied. "Look, not that kind of possession…more like, I dunno…alien control…"
The second the words were out of her mouth, Rose realized she'd made matters worse. Not only did Donna think she was some kind of smack head, she now thought she was a crazy smack head.
"Alien control?" Donna wasn't having any of it. "Now I know you ain't right in the head. Why didn't you just say Invasion of the Bodysnatchers?' What do you take me for? Some kind of DUMBO?"
Rose didn't answer straight away.
Donna was right not to believe her. Any normal human being wouldn't believe what was going on.
Eventually, she decided the best course of action was to escape first, and explain later – or better still, escape first, let 'Mr. Smith' explain later. "Maybe we should start at the beginning," she offered. "My name's Rose, Rose Tyler…" She looked warily for any signs of recognition, but thankfully, there weren't any.
"Donna, Donna Noble…abducted temp from Chiswick." She glanced down, wiggling her wrists to try and loosen her bonds before abruptly shouting at the top of her voice. "And I'm NOT a celebrity, so…"
Rose cocked her head in anticipation of the rest of the sentence.
It came in something of a primal scream.
"Get. Me. Out. Of .'ERE!"
Something on the landing moved before Rose could give any other kind of response. Both women became silent, ears attuned to the new sound.
It was the regular creak of floorboards as someone approached.
"I told ya not to make so much noise!" Rose warned. "It's him…"
Donna huffed again, but her tone had at least dropped an octave or two. "Who? Bodysnatcher boy? The man with an alien brain," she mocked. "No wait, possessed alien brain, was it?" She paused, seeing Rose scowling at her as if their lives depended on silence. "Wot?" Her head moved from side to side like an Egyptian dancer gone wrong, but she at least didn't rant on any further.
A bolt slid back and the door swung laboriously slowly inwards.
The man standing at the threshold held a large kitchen carver in one hand, and the other flexed as if he was unsure what move to make next. He looked insecure, trance-like, almost.
He was about six feet tall, short brown hair and a thin growth of stubble adorning his features.
Rose guessed he was probably in his early forties, but it was so hard to tell, because the only thing she kept gravitating towards were his eyes.
They sparked and flashed a kaleidoscope of colours, bursts of energy washing over them like someone had hooked him up to an electrical transformer.
"Great contacts," Donna observed, oozing snark. "Had a pair just like 'em last Halloween. Look, you're not foolin' anyone Mr. Spock. Now get over here and cut me free, before your girlfriend here starts getting jealous…" She batted her eyelids at the newcomer suggestively as if he was her type.
"But…he's not my boyfriend…" Rose stammered, realizing Donna still thought the situation was some kind of huge joke. "And that knife ain't for cutting us free…"
The man took a step into the room, his breathing heavy, his features contorting as some inner voice directed him. His swirling eyes locked on Donna and his mouth opened just enough for him to whisper.
"Die…with me…"
TARDIS
South Wales…somewhere…
Martha waited for the TARDIS rotor to calm, her heart throbbing almost in time to its rhythmic pulsing. It had taken only seconds to drop Gwen and Ianto off at a rendezvous point with Mace's people, and not much longer to materialize here.
Wherever 'here' actually was.
The arrival, though, wasn't the important part of the mission. What lay beyond the innocent little police box, well, that was the key to stopping the 'Wall'. At least, they hoped it was.
As the Doctor slipped the handbrake back on, Jack took a tentative look outside the door, his hand sliding to the holster on his belt. Unconsciously, he gripped the six-shooter, bringing it up to waist height as he stepped out.
The Doctor looked up from his console and sighed. "Here we go again," he muttered derisively, jumping down from his perch to follow the Torchwood leader into the Welsh countryside.
Martha followed them both out, quietly closing the door behind her. "It's snowing," she puckered her nose a little. "If I'd known, I'd have brought a better jacket…"
"Don't get me started on overcoats," the Doctor groaned. "I miss my overcoat. Second friend to me that…well, not exactly friend, more of an inanimate object, really, but…"
Jack held up a hand to silence them. "We get it," he whispered. "You miss your damn coat." He pointed to the row of cottages beyond the stone wall now hiding them. "But can we just focus on the mission here for a second?"
"Right…yes." The Doctor swallowed. "But do you really have to have a gun? I mean, it's very macho and all that, but well…I hate guns… dangerous things if you point them in the wrong direction…I know a Chula who almost had a toe off …"
"Yeah, I need my gun," Jack snapped. "And I'm going in first too. You two stay back until I'm sure the coast is clear, you got that? You're mortal, remember?"
Martha smirked as the Doctor gave Jack a dirty look that screamed 'so you keep reminding me!' The Time Lord didn't voice his opinions, however, and Jack appeared to take that as the matter being settled.
Scooting around the ancient wall, he jogged up to the last cottage door, gun held in a defensive position as he waded through the settling snow. When he reached the entrance, he paused, attempting to take a peek inside the grimy windows for any signs of Rose's or Donna's kidnapper.
He brushed at the glass several times with his hands, but there was just too much dirt and too many crazy cracks to allow much scrutiny.
Apparently unhappy with the disjointed view, he edged to the door again and took a long breath. Instinctively counting to three, Jack lunged at the entrance with his right boot, splintering the doorframe enough so that the hinges tore free and the door collapsed inwards.
The ex-Time Agent grinned as his handiwork crashed to the threadbare carpet beyond and then cautiously moved forwards, his eyes darting down the short hallway, watchful for signs of any enemy activity.
There was nothing, but that didn't mean he could or would drop his guard.
Satisfied so far, he turned and ushered the Doctor and Martha to join him.
"About time!" Martha grumbled as they jogged across a short expanse of grass to the shattered entrance. "Anyone would think we were novices at this…"
"Well…he always has been a show off. What did you expect?" The Doctor's eyes twinkled and he darted inside the cottage, obviously eager to begin searching for his missing friends. He pulled the sonic from his trouser pocket and scowled as he realized it was damp from where the snow had melted through his clothes. He brushed away the moisture and then whirled it around in a one hundred and eighty degree arc, its tip glowing vibrantly.
"You getting any readings on that thing?" Jack asked, lowering his handgun to his side as he eyed the two doors that led off into other parts of the house, along with the steep stairway up to the bedrooms.
"Just one," the Doctor admitted slowly. "And it's upstairs…"
Martha frowned. The Doctor wasn't pushing Jack out of the way and springing up the staircase. He'd lost the boundless trademark energy that constantly drove him.
Neither was he crying out Rose's name, wanting to rush into her arms like some scene out of Romeo and Juliet.
And he should be, shouldn't he, if the news was good?
Instead, he looked like a man who had just realized he'd lost everything.
And that scared her more than the threat of the 'Wall'.
"There's something wrong, yeah?" She put a hand on his forearm as Jack took point, carefully taking a step at a time up the stairs.
The Doctor bobbed his head, his voice low and his eyes as sad as a man in mourning. "There's nothing here," he explained with a gulp. "Nothing except a very dead body." He looked up, his face a mask of insecurity. "What if I've lost her, Martha…? What if I've lost Rose?"
TBC…