A/N: I cannot possibly thank you all enough for your thoughtful and beautiful reviews. I think I may be becoming a review junkie because of how happy they make me. =)

General story update: It looks like it will end up being at least 11 chapters.....so this may possibly be the halfway point. Possibly.

Hope you (continue to) enjoy this story as much as I have loved writing it.

And so the saga continues.....(sorry, I just always wanted to say that)

Chapter 6: The Lever Room

Jack had the picture of what was outside the TARDIS up and running by the time his friends returned, Rose smiling with relief and the Doctor almost bouncing, beaming like all the good in the universe was being showered on him all at once. They were holding hands, Jack noted. That wasn't unusual, but something was…different between the two of them. He grinned to himself, wondering if the Doctor had finally admitted it before or after he'd regenerated. If it was before, it would explain why he'd gone from big ears to pretty boy....

"You alright?" he asked, noting that the Doctor's color was returning, "You said it'd take awhile for you to heal."

"Oh, it will to heal completely, but most of it's patched up now," said the Doctor, letting go of Rose's hand to begin pushing buttons. The TARDIS began to dematerialize. "I can breathe at least."

"No running," ordered Rose, stifling her smile.

"Pfft," scoffed the Doctor, applying the mallet to the TARDIS' controls, "Like that's likely. I'll have run a marathon by the time the day's over. Ooh, you got the outside viewer up and running!" He turned his attention to it as the TARDIS rematerialized. The screen showed a wide room empty of people, but filled with an enormous bronze sphere.

"Don't usually have that thing on, sort of takes the fun out of visiting a random place if you know what it looks like before you go out." He plucked his overcoat off the support strut and put it on, and Rose and Jack followed him as he stepped outside the TARDIS and up to the large bronze sphere in the middle.

"What is that?" said Jack. Rose stared up at it, not even blinking, completely entranced.

"That's from the void. Messes with my head almost as much as you do, Jack," explained the Doctor, yanking wires out of a panel on the wall.

"Void?" questioned Rose, managing to tear her gaze away from the bronze sphere.

"The void's supposed to be another dimension," explained Jack, awestruck. Without noticing what he was doing, he slowly climbed the ladder leading up to the platform to get closer.

"Don't touch it!" ordered the Doctor, stopping his sonic-ing for a brief moment to glare at Jack, who backed away from the ladder. "The void isn't just another dimension," explained the Doctor, resuming his work with the wires, "It's the space between dimensions. It's empty and lifeless and....well, void of everything."

"Like a black hole?" asked Rose.

"Sort of, yeah….Well, not really. Torchwood apparently has been fishing things out from a crack between reality and the void. These cracks pop up all over the universe on occasion, but they usually heal themselves fairly quickly. Torchwood discovered this one and they've been poking at it, making it larger. It's a wound in reality that's been inflamed. If they keep at it, they could eventually rip the universe apart. This thing," he waved his screwdriver-free hand towards the sphere, "Is a void ship. Traveling outside time and space."

"What's inside?" asked Jack, trying to keep his gaze from sliding back to the sphere.

"I don't know," said the Doctor darkly, splicing another wire, "But nothing good. And it doesn't belong here."

"So this thing just fell through the crack?"

"Or created it," the Doctor mused. Extracting two last wires from the tangle, he held them out to Rose. "But," he said cheerfully, "It hasn't been here long, and the breach is still open, so all I have to do is revert it back to its source – slip it back in through the crack, so to speak – and I can send this thing back to the void! Hold this, will you, Rose?"

Rose took the wires and the Doctor flicked a setting on the sonic screwdriver and fused the wires together. With a sound like it was being sucked through a straw, the sphere vanished. A gloom seemed to lift from the room as soon as it was gone.

"There we go! I love reversing polarities, haven't gotten to do that in ages! Now I just need to find the crack and seal it up before it opens again and the ship or anything else leaks over."

"Uh, Doc, I think we've got company," said Jack, pointing at the computer screen on a nearby table, which displayed the hallway directly outside the door. A hallway which was currently now filled with a swarm of men with guns, led by a very angry-looking Yvonne Hartman.

"TARDIS, now!" yelled the Doctor, but the door swooshed open. Instantly all three found guns – lots of guns – trained on them.

"Doctor," said Hartman coolly before noticing the sphere's absence. Her eyes bulged out of their sockets. "Where is it?" she shrieked. "What have you done to it?!"

"I sent it back," said the Doctor, "I sent it back and I'm closing up the void. And you, Yvonne Hartman, you get one last warning, one last chance. Stop experimenting with the void. Stop trying to rip the universe to shreds, or I will stop you."

There was a brief pause as Hartman quickly smothered her fury. Then in an icy voice she ordered, "Shoot the traitor Harkness."

And for the second time that day, Jack Harkness died. He fell to the ground with a cry, six bullets embedded in his chest less than a second after Hartman gave the order. Rose screamed.

"You didn't have to do that!" yelled the Doctor furiously, looking at his fallen friend.

"He's released an alien prisoner, betrayed his country. A lot like another someone in this room."

The Doctor stepped in front of Rose just as every gun swiveled to exactly where she was now standing.

The Doctor spread his arms out protectively. "But you're not going to shoot me, are you? You still want me alive."

"Oh, but alive is relative, isn't it? I've read the files, I know the routine. We shoot you, you die, you get a new face. And I'm willing to do that all day until you'll listen to orders. Aim."

The gunmen aimed.

"You mean until I run out," said the Doctor quietly, eying the guns.

"What?" This came from two voices, Hartman's disbelievingly, Rose's in a horrified whisper.

"I'm on my last regeneration. You kill me now, I stay dead. Fine by me if you'd like to send 900 plus years of alien knowledge and experience, not to mention sheer genius, down the drain."

Hartman hesitated, unsure of whether to believe him or not. Meanwhile, the Doctor gently took Rose's hand behind him, nudging them both closer to the TARDIS, careful to completely shield her body with his own.

"Oh, come on, how many of me have you met, honestly?"

"Just you," said Hartman reluctantly, "But we have pictures of four possible others."

"Really! Only four?" said the Doctor, still inching himself and Rose ever closer to the TARDIS. "Wonder which ones? Was he wearing a scarf? Or were any of them ginger? Ooh! Or did one of them dress in a ridiculous cricket outfit? I rather liked being him, although he was a bit overly obsessed with the sport, bless him. And I don't know what he was thinking with that celery. The chances he'd need it were very slim. I mean, it's high in fiber, which is a very important nutrient for anyone, even Time Lords, but still…." Behind him, he nudged Rose ever closer to the TARDIS.

"If you attempt to enter the box I will have you shot," said Hartman. The Doctor froze.

Hand gripping Rose's tighter, he said, "Well, yeah, you could. But what's the point of that? You're still missing the big picture."

"And what's that?"

"I'm trying to save the universe. Since you happen to live there, it stands to reason you might consider helping me fix your mess instead of trying to kill me."

"Doctor, Jack," whispered Rose from behind him. Jack's eyes had flown open, but Hartman and the gunmen were too focused on the Doctor to notice.

The Doctor squeezed her hand in acknowledgment and continued, "So how about pointing me in the direction of this disturbance, so I can close it?"

"Don't think so," said Hartman, "In fact, I have a whole department working on opening it again. We should see something in about…" she glanced at her watch, "Two minutes."

The Doctor's eyes almost bulged out of their sockets. "You can't! Don't you realize what you're doing? You're taking a hole in the universe and making it bigger! It needs to heal before more things start bleeding through! Bad things! Bad world-destroying things! Oh, look at that human, that looks tasty, mmm yes it is, let's have another things!"

Hartman scoffed. "I've heard the legends of the Doctor, lording his alien authority over the rights of man. You just want to stunt humanity's growth, keep your own superiority! You can't stand the thought of us knowing more than you."

"Oh, yeah, it has nothing to do with preserving timelines, or that you're on the brink of blowing up all of reality, or that you're only interested in what you can use for a weapon!" The Doctor suddenly switched to an eerie calm. "Oh, by the way, speaking of weapons, I believe my friend is holding one pointed at your head."

Hartman and the gunmen whirled around. Jack Harkness, still covered in blood, stood over an unconscious gunman and was holding the man's rather large gun aimed at Hartman's head.

"You're dead!" said Hartman in disbelief.

"If I had a quid for every time I heard that…" sighed Jack.

Rose opened the TARDIS and stepped inside.

"Stop him!" yelled Hartman as the Doctor cheekily waved at her before climbing in after Rose and shutting the door securely behind them.

"Do and I'll blow your head off," said Jack cheerfully. But as the TARDIS dematerialized, his face fell.

"How are you even alive?" demanded Hartman, eyes flitting between the gun and the spot where the TARDIS had sat.

"Like I'd tell you. Hands up." Jack couldn't believe it – he'd rescued the Doctor from torture, died twice for him in one day, reunited him with a gorgeous blonde, and granted them safe passage to the TARDIS, and the guy still had the nerve to leave him behind? Again?

And then the screeching sound of the TARDIS returned. The console room flashed before Jack's eyes, then disappeared, revealing Hartman's shocked face. The TARDIS reappeared, and then disappeared once more around him. He heard Hartman cry, "Fire!" just as the console finally solidified around him one last time.

Jack immediately found himself enveloped by Rose.

"Rose, wait until he drops the gun before you hug him, will you?" called the Doctor from the other side of the console. Wearing his glasses, he studied a computer screen intently.

Jack tossed the gun aside and hugged Rose back. "Thought you were leaving me behind again."

"If he did, I'd kill him. And the TARDIS seems okay with you now." Rose broke the hug and studied the fresh bloodstain on his shirt. "You really are immortal."

"Yep, no tricks. Did he…?"

"Yeah, he told me, when we were fixing him up." She bit her lip. "I'm not sorry you didn't die today, but I'm sorry for…overdoing it, I suppose."

Jack took a deep breath. "I know you didn't mean to. I mean, it absolutely repulses Pretty Boy over there," he jerked a thumb in the Doctor's direction, "But I'm making the most of it. It's come in handy a couple times, and it makes a great conversation starter at parties. I don't blame you."

"Ha! Found it!" proclaimed the Doctor, dashing to flick switches.

"Found what?"

"The breach! If we're lucky, we might be able to stop them!" With another pull of a lever, the TARDIS rematerialized in a room which, according to the outer view screen, contained two large levers by a blank stretch of blindingly white wall. Before it sat a group of scientists at computers, all of whom sat frozen at their terminals, mouths open as they gawked at the TARDIS in wonder.

The Doctor tossed his coat over a coral strut before stepping from his ship, Rose and Jack on his heels. "Right, hello, I'm the Doctor, and I'm here to tell you that if you turn on that program the universe may very well implode, explode, or other frightening –ode words. Do not, under any circumstances, activate that program. The void, or disturbance, or breach, or whatever you want to call it, stays closed."

"Who are you again?" demanded a woman whom the Doctor vaguely remembered seeing in the hallway earlier.

"The Doctor. And you are?"

"Adeola Oshodi. What do you mean, the universe will explode?"

Before the Doctor could say another word, Adeola's computer flashed to a video of Hartman's face. "Lever Room, finish implementing the program immediately. Is the Doctor there?"

"Don't!" Jack shook his head frantically.

"Er, yeah, he's here," said Adeola, perturbed.

"Quick, activate it now! Don't let him stop you. We'll be there shortly." Glancing to each other in alarm, the frantic scientists quickly began typing on their computers.

"Do we look armed and dangerous to you?" Rose protested.

"Listen to me, you have to stop!" pleaded the Doctor. The furious typing continued. "You, Adeola, tell them to stop!"

"Can't," she replied, not even glancing from her screen, "I'm sorry, but we've been working too long on this to give up now."

"Humans!" the Doctor cried in frustration. "Stop it! Stop it, now!" Taking out the sonic, he pointed it at the nearest computer, which fizzled and died. The dark-haired man who had been working on it backed away, eyes wide. This only encouraged the others to type faster, determined to finish their commands.

"Get the levers!" the Doctor yelled, aiming his screwdriver at the next computer. Rose and Jack rushed to the levers, which were pulling themselves, on either side of the room.

"Doctor, it's not working!" yelled Rose as she and Jack struggled to push the levers back to their original position.

Two of the scientists sprung from their fried computers and tackled the Doctor, wrestling him to the ground. The sonic screwdriver clattered to the floor and rolled away as Rose and Jack released their unyielding levers.

Hartman, flanked by armed soldiers, burst into the room just as a female intercom voice said, "Online." Rose and Jack rushed over to help the Doctor, who was pinned to the floor by the two scientists. A brilliant white light flooded the room.

"It's working!" exclaimed Hartman, as she covered her eyes to keep from being blinded. "It's working!"

That was when the two blue, blurry figures appeared next to her. She screamed, and the guards around her fired several rounds into the new arrivals. The bullets passed straight through, almost hitting the two scientists Rose and Jack had pried off the Doctor.

"What have you done?" thundered the Doctor. A third figure materialized next to the other two, joining them in synchronized marching in place. "What the blazes have you stupid apes done?!"

A/N: Yes, that was Adeola in the last chapter as well. For those of you who don't know, Adeola Oshodi was Martha Jones' cousin. In fact, the same actress (Freema Agyeman) played them both.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this!