IV
The man looked at her as if she was insane. Harkness raised his own weapon to cover him.
"You heard her, surrender!" he said. The man stared at them for another moment, then darted down another corridor. Harkness and Brown ran after him, keeping their weapons up.
"He look familiar to you?" Brown asked.
"Sort of, yeah…" Harkness replied.
"Same here," she said, nodding. "I'm beginning to think something's going on around here."
"But what?" asked Harkness, checking another corridor. Then they turned in unison down a third corridor –
And felt their weapons being yanked out of their hands. The man held up his hands to placate the two furious troopers.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa," he said, looking from one to the other. "Calm down there, troops. It's me."
"Who's you?" Brown sneered.
"I'm the Doctor," the man said, "you're Eilidh Brown, and you're," he said, turning to Harkness, "Captain Jack Harkness."
"Only a Lieutenant actually," Harkness replied. "So there."
The Doctor looked at him quizzically for a moment, and then he clicked his fingers.
"Ah ha!" he said. "Eureka! I have it! Shah Mat! Triumph! Victory! Success!"
He went through about two and a half minutes of exulting in his achievement, during which neither of the two soldiers dared to move. They had seen what he could do.
Finally, Brown's patience ran out.
"What?!" she yelled in the Doctor's face.
"I know why you don't know who I am," he said. "Tell me about your parents."
"They were killed when the enemy destroyed our home town," she responded instantly.
"And you, Jack," the Doctor continued. "Tell me about your family."
"Dead," he replied. "The enemy killed them, when they destroyed my home."
He blinked. He had the strangest feeling of deja-vu about what he had just said.
"What?" Brown said to him. "That's odd…"
The Doctor was grinning.
"You've both been brainwashed," he said, the grin never fading. "Not very well, I might add. It's like a factory process, churning out the same heart wrenching story to the masses."
"You lost me a while ago," Harkness said.
"Oh it's too complicated," the Doctor said, waving his arm dismissively. "The point is, I need your help."
"What?!" Brown yelled.
"If I'm going to find out whose behind all this," the Doctor continued, "I need you to help me."
"So let me get this straight," Harkness began. "You tell us we've been brainwashed, you escape from a maximum security prison, and you just expect us to buy all of that… why?"
"Because," the Doctor said, staring right into his eyes, "I believe in you."
Harkness stared back for a moment, then looked away. The Doctor stared at Eilidh. She looked back.
"Doctor…?" she whispered.
"Hello," he grinned. "You've remembered then."
She shook her head.
"It's more a feeling than anything else," she said. "Like I know you from somewhere, but I just don't know where."
"Yeah," Jack added. "But… I think I can trust you."
"So can I," Eilidh said.
The Doctor grinned at them.
"Brilliant," he said. "Now then, we need to get out of here."
"Easy as pie," Eilidh said. "Just get a uniform on and we can waltz out of here."
"No, I don't mean this building, I mean this planet," the Doctor said. "We need to get off this world, and get you two back to normal."
"Get… off… this… planet…?" Eilidh said. "That's impossible!"
The Doctor flashed her a grin, but it was tired. He looked tired.
"No it's not," he said. "All we need to do is… is find the TARDIS."
He staggered slightly. Jack held him up.
"Too weak…" the Doctor was murmuring. "Body… can't handle all this. Must rest…"
The Doctor was unconscious. Jack looked at Eilidh, who shrugged. It was at this point that the guards seemed to have come to, and they surrounded the trio.
"Is he… dead?" one of them asked.
"No," Jack replied. "He's unconscious."
"Put him back in the cells," the chief guard said. "You Lieutenant Harkness?"
"Yeah," Jack said, carefully letting the Doctor drop to the floor. "I am."
"Boss wants to see you," the Chief guard said. "Says it's pretty urgent."
"Right," Jack said. He picked up his gun, and motioned to Eilidh. "We'd better get going then."
--
When the Doctor woke up, he was back in his cell. He sat up, almost immediately.
"What?!" he yelled. It was about all he could do not to panic.
Ok think. You escaped, that's a fact, you remember that…
Or was it a dream?
Damn. Can't quite piece everything together. Must be something about this place.
He closed his eyes, and tried to remember.
Eureka! The brainwashing technique that these people had used on Jack and Eilidh! They must have tried it on me, only my mind reacted differently, and the technique wasn't refined enough to work on something different to the bog-oh-standard human cerebrum!
Not that this knowledge helps the situation any, but it's nice to get some perspective. So all these visions of my past coming to get me must be… phantoms of the past, affecting my mind. And as for the Times Champion…
The Doctor closed his eyes. There was something there. His true nature? An idealised version of him? Who knew?
Thank God for that escape attempt.
Now, how do I escape again? The same trick won't work twice, obviously.
Come to think of it, what the heck happened to Jack and Eilidh? They knew I was here, they believed me –
Oh. They were lying. Ah well, I'll find them and break the conditioning properly soon. Just as soon as I get out of here.
Whenever that happens.
--
"Ah, Lieutenant Harkness, Sergeant Brown, nice to finally meet you," the prison commander said. "How goes the war?"
"Well, sir," Harkness replied. "The enemy are being pushed back along the western front. I think it's safe to say we have them on the run there."
"What about the northern front?" the prison commander asked?
"Erm…" Harkness dallied, "our forces are locked in stalemate."
The commander grimaced.
"Damn," he muttered. "A thousand generations of warfare, and still we have never vanquished the enemy completely."
"It'll happen some day," Brown said. The commander nodded, then introduced him self properly.
"I'm Commander Jonah Larrison," he said. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you."
Harkness smiled.
"Same here, sir," he said. "I dare say though, that I'm quite confused as to why I and Sergeant Brown were assigned here."
Larrison smiled.
"Well, let's just say that we need some of our best people to help guard this new prisoner of ours…"
"The Doctor" Brown interrupted.
"Yes that's the one," Larrison said, looking at her quizzically. "How'd you know that?"
"He tried to talk us into helping him," Harkness said quickly. "We listened, but only to hold him up."
"Smart," Larrison said approvingly. "Well, he's a dangerous sort. He killed one guard trying to escape, and knocked almost twenty others clean out."
"He… killed a guard?" Brown said, eyes widening. "But he seemed pretty… well, nice to me."
Larrison gave her another strange look, then shrugged.
"Each to their own, I guess," he said. "He's normally quite polite, even to his interrogators. There is a possible multi personality thing going on though, some CCTV has him talking to himself. Quite strange."
"No way," Harkness said. "Multi personality disorder? He's way too logical for that to work."
"See for yourself," the Prison Commander sighed, before spinning his table display. He pushed a button, and a little image of the Doctor came up. He was shaking in a corner.
"Why? Why are you here? That… I… That's not fair, I…"
Harkness stared at the screen.
"Too weird," he said at last.
--
Plan, plan, plan… I've gotta have one somewhere.
I mean this place might be testing my mental stability, but I'm not a complete lunatic. At least, not yet. Chances are I might go that way before the end of this little adventure. All my past personalities are trying to get out…
Wait, wait, wait, wait! That might just be it! Let there be some free flow between personalities! Yes, that might just work…
Right. Well. Plan. Hm.
Ah. Now that is a plan. That is indeed. A. Plan.