A/N: So I watched Series Five for a while, but after I totally forgot last week it was actually on (which is something that would've NEVER happened in Ten's era let me assure you :x) I've decided it's really not for me :O
Chapter 7 – Night Attack
It was hours later that Rose dared to enter the TARDIS Infirmary.
Jack and Jackie were sitting next to one of the beds, and as Rose peered over her mother's shoulder she could see the boy Doctor laying within, almost drowned by the covers. He was evidently unconscious with an oxygen mask secured on his face, a heart rate monitor beeping out periodically, perfectly still but for the rise and fall of his chest. Rose took a few hesitant steps forward, her breath caught in her throat. He looked so small and vulnerable in the huge adult-sized bed, covered in tubes and wires.
Silently she took a seat next to him, placing a teddy under the covers in the crook of his arm. For a moment she just watched him sleeping.
"How is he?" she finally asked after several minutes had passed.
"He'll be okay," Jack said, resting a supportive hand on her shoulder. "As long as we're on constant watch. He's strong."
Rose took the boy Doctor's hand in her own, marvelling at just how tiny he was. His hand was almost lost in her's.
"It'll come back, won't it?" Rose suddenly asked. "For him."
Jack nodded slowly. "Tonight."
"But he's safe in 'ere?" Jackie asked, glancing at Rose and Jack. "The Doctor's got defences, right?"
Rose nodded, if but a little distractedly. "He said... the hordes of Genghis Khan couldn't get in."
Jack cleared his throat, almost hesitant. Rose and Jackie were alert instantly, spinning around to stare at him. "What?"
"Well... the invisibility thing. I'm not sure, but I think this creature has the capability of shifting between matter and non-matter worlds... meaning it can easily get through a wall or a locked door. If the Doctor brought them to Earth with him then maybe when I opened the door for it it hadn't quite mastered the matter of Earth, not until it was done with de-aging him."
"How can you know that?" Rose asked. "Maybe you're wrong."
"If you go back to the flat and check the bricks in his room he was playing with this morning, they say 'shifting' 'matter' and 'lifeform'," Jack replied quietly.
"Then we need to get 'im out!" Jackie said instantly, rising to her feet quickly. "Take 'im, hide 'im somewhere for the night!"
"Nowhere's safe, Mum!" Rose almost snapped. "They've got his scent, they've marked him, they've done it before and they're tryin' again! Besides, he's not strong enough to move anywhere..." She looked back at the child Doctor, all her anger suddenly dissipated as she stared at his small, weak form. "We can't do anythin'," she finally finished weakly.
"We can protect him," Jack said, already in the process of reloading his gun. "The TARDIS is the best defence we've got and we can add to that."
"They've gotta have a weakness, we just need to work out what," Rose said, thinking hard. "Maybe he's already told us what we need to do? And we missed it?"
Jack sighed, head in his hands. "I don't know. I just don't know."
The hours ticked by, and it very quickly became obvious the child Doctor had slipped into a coma. His brainwaves were very low and his double tiny hearts were beating as though he'd just run a sprint. His chest rose and fell not at all smoothly, his entire body trembling despite the fact Jackie had piled him with blankets.
But at least he was still alive.
Day turned into night, but the three adults knew wouldn't be getting any sleep tonight as they waited for the inevitable attack.
It was 2am before something happened – the shrill beeping of something going off in Jack's pocket. Rose and Jackie were startled, jerking out of their half-sleep to stare at the man sitting at the end of the bed.
Jack's eyes widened as he realised what it was. "The device!" He started hunting around in his pockets for the metal contraption the little Doctor had given him, finally pulling it out and holding it out for them all to see. "He said tracking." The green dot in the centre was now slightly off to Jack's right. Jack looked to where the the dot indicated. It was the child Doctor. "Tracking..." Jack repeated slowly. "Tracking him and..."
His eyes drifted across the screen to a small red dot on the radar that definitely wasn't there before, moving towards the green dot extremely quickly...
He looked up at Jackie and Rose. "It's coming," he said simply. Jackie and Rose visibly went completely rigid, staring at him with wide eyes. It was starting.
Jack ran out of the Infirmary, down the hall, through the console room until he burst out of the doors onto the Powell Estate, all the while clutching the tracker to watch the red dot. It was gaining... It was almost on top of him...
He looked up at the sky, scanning the horizon on all sides for any hint of the creature, but if it was around it had shifted to be invisible. Keeping his eye on the tracker he pointed his gun up into the sky, bracing himself...
There was a loud screech and suddenly the creature shimmered into existence before him, baring its fangs and screaming at him...
Despite he knew how useless it would be he fired off a few shots, which only ricocheted off of the creature's hard exterior as it screeched once more and disappeared again. Panicked, Jack spun around on the spot to check the skies, but it had gone.
He looked at the tracker in his hand. The red dot was going straight for the green dot...
It was inside the TARDIS.
Jack began to run.
The Infirmary doors practically flew across the room as the creature burst in, screeching and baring its fangs to Jackie and Rose stood by the boy Doctor's bed. Jackie instantly screamed, her hand over her mouth as Rose stared, transfixed, unsure of what to do...
It lunged forward for the child. Rose sprang into instant action, diving to the little Doctor and throwing herself over him in a futile attempt to protect him. Her body went rigid and she buried her head into the pillow, waiting for the sure pain that would follow...
"Get back!" Jack's voice yelled and Rose looked up to find him warding off the creature with a metal chair, swinging it up threateningly towards the creature. It didn't seem to care, staring hungrily in Rose's direction...
Then she saw something lying on the bedside table.
Whether it was sensible or not she didn't have time to decide. She lunged for the sonic screwdriver and fumbled clumsily for a moment before turning over and pointing it directly at the creature, praying to god it was on a good setting... then pressed the button.
The effect was instantaneous. The creature screeched again, this time in pain as it backed off and flew, disorientated into the Infirmary wall where it impacted with amazing force. Growing in confidence Rose got up to kneeling position and kept the sonic pointed at the creature. It flailed and spun around in what Rose could only deem to be torturous pain until it instantaneously disappeared, and Rose let go of the button.
"Where'd it go?" Jackie shrieked, panicking with her hand on her chest, spinning around. Jack looked down to check the tracker...
Suddenly it appeared over the bed, screeching its blood-chilling cry. Jackie commenced screaming again as Rose jolted in shock at the thing right above her and the little Doctor, for a moment stunned as it quickly thrust its fangs into the boy Doctor's chest, beginning to feed off of the child Doctor...
"NO!" Rose yelled, pressing down the button again. The creature was cut off in mid-feed as it was practically thrown backwards again into a trolley of medical instruments which scattered all over the floor with a deafening crash. She kept it held down this time even as it disappeared.
"It's gone!" Jack said with a gasp, checking the tracker. The red dot was moving away from the green dot extremely fast, moving across the radar at incredible pace until it disappeared off of the side. "It's off the radar!"
Rose turned over instantly to check the boy. He didn't seem to have declined in age. The heart rate monitor was still ringing out and his breathing seemed to have levelled out. Jack was already checking the monitors beside her.
"His brainwaves have increased," he said with a note of relief in his voice.
"He's okay, he's fine..." Rose breathed, holding the unconscious boy Doctor tightly. "You're okay."
"What the 'ell was that?" Jackie demanded to know, still trying to recover her wits and her dignity.
"That was the 'volcanic gases'," Rose muttered, still holding the boy tightly. "The thing we've gotta beat."
"How the 'ell are we gonna kill that thing?" Jackie wondered, slightly calmer now. Rose looked at Jack, who pulled a face. Jackie looked between them both.
No one had any idea. And the only one who did was a five-year-old boy lying unconscious in Rose's arms.
A/N: Chapter 8 - Kai'af'ce
"Okay," he said into her shoulder. "What happened to me?"
Rose didn't want to lie. She drew back from him and cupped his cheek with her hand carefully. "You've been very sick. An evil monster attacked you and hurt you."
"The Saeculornex."
"The what?"
"Saeculornex."
Rose stared at the child for a moment. He was vacant...
"Doctor, how do we get rid of them?" she asked quickly, knowing she only had seconds before the Doctor disappeared again...
