Shit just got real.
7
Your Move
Gabriel: Huh. Heh. Haha.
Doctor: What?
Gabriel: Here, Doctor. Another example of people dying because you refuse to compromise your beliefs.
Doctor: What's your point? You keep going on and on and on about nothing, trying so very hard to get inside my head, but why? Why do you care? What do you want?
Gabriel: Haven't you figured it out yet?
Doctor: Maybe I have. But I want to hear you say it.
Gabriel: Because now, Doctor, is you last chance. Would you let the only family you have die- because you went so far as to feel mercy for a psychopath?
Doctor: I don't know about mercy.
Gabriel: Shut up. You shut up. No more talking. No more games- the games are over. If you're so stupid as to continue with your damn questions, trying to talk your way out of things… you only have one option left. You have no choice!
Doctor: I always have a choice, Gabriel.
Gabriel: … hm. But what if all of your options end with death? What then?
Doctor: Don't do this, just-
Gabriel: No! no, it's far too late for that. I'm laying it on the line, plain and simple. There is no way out. One of us is going to have to die. And you are going to decide who it is. Will it be me? You? Or your daughter?
By nightfall the next day, things had finally degenerated into a staring contest.
Jenny gazed blankly at the closed-circuit television screen while, on the other end of it, Gabriel stared with equal persistence into the camera.
Neither of them had blinked in the last five minutes.
"What could be taking Jack and the Doctor so long?" Ianto wondered aloud. "Do you think something could have happened?"
"If something did, we'll find out soon enough," Jenny said tersely. She preferred to never voice the worst out loud, and something happening to her father certainly fit within those parameters.
Ianto tapped his fingers impatiently against his knee, eyes flicking over at Jenny and the closed circuit screen. She continued to stare, eyes glazed slightly, looking not at the screen, but past it.
"Something's wrong," she said finally.
"What's wrong?" Ianto leaned over to see for himself, but Gabriel was as still as ever. "I don't see anything."
She clenched her eyelids shut, hands grasping her temples. "There's something… something important… and I just can't figure it out." Her hands drummed against her head.
The object of the game is to obtain the name of your opponent.
Gabriel is clearly a false name… but then again, so is Doctor. What do they mean…?
Jenny's mind leapt from premise to theory to conclusion and back again, all at a speed faster than human comprehension. A sudden jolt of pain seared her vision-
"Ugh. Everything means something. What does it mean."
A Time Lord born of human technology- her mind simply wasn't biologically capable of sustaining the level of thought she needed.
Ianto lay a hand on her shoulder. "Jenny… are you okay?"
She swept her blond hair aside and looked up at him. "Don't worry about it. I'm fine."
"You sure?"
"Yeah," she nodded, "It's just… I can sense that there's still something we don't know… and that everything hinges on that."
He looked her in the eye. "You really think that it's that important?"
Jenny sighed. "I know it's hard to explain, but… I dunno. It's like I can see everything that's happened and there's still some key aspect missing."
Ianto smiled. "Well, if it's that important, then take all the time you want."
She rubbed her head and jabbed a thumb at the screen. "What about him?"
"You've been doing all the work so far. I'll take down some food for him, and then take over the watch for a bit." He pulled half of a cold pizza out of the fridge and turned to leave. "Jenny…"
"Yeah?"
"I can feel it, too. That there's still one bit of this whole mess that's a mystery. But I'm nowhere near smart enough to figure it out. You are. And you can do it."
She smiled too, genuinely. "Thanks, Ianto."
He left, carrying the cold pizza down to the holding cells.
Jenny got out of the stiff chair in front of the monitoring screen and settled into a beat-up couch in the corner to think.
He just appeared out of nowhere. An insane jumble of alien DNA melded into what was once a human being. What does he want?
And that damned game of his. All the planets and pieces renamed… predicting my father's moves…
…Malsangurians, werewolves, biological similarities…
And that strange… fit? Seizure? Gabriel seemed to be in actual, genuine pain, but just as quickly, it passed. What was that about?
He's orchestrating this whole series of events- murder in the middle of the night, public unrest, distrust amongst the authorities…
Ung.
My mind… why can't I think?
Gabriel… he can think. Like nobody else… maybe not even the Doctor. No. There are similarities between then two of them, yes… but this will be decided on their differences, that much is clear.
But how is he so damned smart? He used to be human, the DNA test made that much clear. And the mixture of alien DNA in him wouldn't account for that degree of intelligence. Nothing would.
OW.
And what about that psychic power? He's strong. Stronger than me, I guess. Down in the containing cell, he would have had me, easy, but only because he thought I was human…
Thought I was human.
Knows I'm different.
Psychic.
Ianto.
Ohgodmybrain.
Ianto!
Jenny sat bolt upright and stumbled of the couch, clutching her head. As soon as her vision was in focus, she looked at the screen showing Gabriel's cell.
Nothing but static.
Oh no oh no oh no…
She hurriedly flicked through the various security cameras throughout the institution. All of them were working, except for the four in the holding cell corridor.
I wasn't thinking. I made a mistake. I wasn't thinking straight.
She sprinted out of the room, hoping desperately that she hadn't wasted too much time trying to be clever. Hoping that things still hadn't gone too badly wrong.
He's the strongest psychic I've ever seen, including my dad, and Ianto's only human. Why didn't I think? Why was I so STUPID?
Jenny skidded to a stop at the end of the cell corridor, and immediately knew that things had gone horribly, wretchedly, damnedly wrong.
Oh God, this is all my fault- How could I DO this? I've killed us all.
Gabriel was standing calmly outside of his cell, his fingers casually looped through his belt loops. Ianto was slumped against the far wall of the corridor, his head bent at an odd angle and blood seeping slowly out of his ears.
In a sick sort of slow motion, Gabriel inclined his head so that his eyes locked onto hers, but forget his eyes- all the knowledge in the world was in that terrible smile of his, cheerful and boiling with rage and spread over half of his face.
Did he do this?
It was shortly after noon, and yet the streets of London were oddly silent. A great number of people had decided to simply stay in today, and the citizens that were outside were hushed, hurrying along and glancing suspiciously from side to side.
Oddly enough, the three people that were probably the most suspicious garnered next to no attention at all. This, of course, was because two of them were accomplished psychics, and their minds had long ago become used to constantly broadcasting that message; Nothing to see here. Just look somewhere else. Completely normal, nothing out of the ordinary. Hey look at that shiny thingy over there.
Lilith wove her way through the sparse crowds, gliding silently along with her long hair flowing behind her. Jack and the Doctor followed close behind in equal silence, unsure but knowing that this was their only option.
They eyed the surrounding buildings and people warily. The Doctor's eyes flicked over everybody he saw, looking for anything the least bit human. He saw nothing- which was both good and bad, depending on how one looked at it.
He resisted the urge to probe Lilith's mind. She was a naturally powerful psychic, true, but he was sure that he would be able to break those barriers if he tried. There was just no reason for him to do so- he could find out where she was taking them and what she would do, sure, but he would find out eventually anyways.
"Here," she said simply. The Doctor looked across the street and spotted the same restaurant where he and Jenny had met Asiman and Lilith to negotiate, so many days ago. The Talking Dog, named as a joke by the canine alien owner.
Lilith led them across the street and into the restaurant, which was scarcely populated. Today, only a few of the tables in the main dining room were occupied, and the establishment was filled with the same eerie silence as the streets outside.
They brushed through the dining room and into the kitchen, past the few chefs currently at work, down a staircase, past a pantry, a freezer, and a wine cellar, down another set of stairs, and through a locked door.
Behind this locked door was another door, this one locked with a technology that any of the world's governments would be glad to have. The mechanism behind the door scanned the brains of Jack, the Doctor, and Lilith, and processed the information to make sure they were who they claimed to be.
That, of course, wasn't the problem. The door just wasn't programmed to let them in. A light above it flashed red, and a harsh buzzer sounded- like the kind on game shows when you get a question wrong.
Lilith cursed under her breath and pounded on the door with her fist.
There were muffled noises from behind it, and then a voice. "Who is it?"
"Goddamn it, you know who it is!"
There was a brief silence, and then the light flashed green, and the door slid open smoothly.
The distinctly dog-like owner of the restaurant ushered them inside, looking distinctly guilty when he saw the Doctor.
"Hello, Andrej."
He blinked meekly. "Hello, Doctor. I hope you will forgive me for all of this nonsense."
"Well, we'll see about that." The Doctor stepped passed Andrej and into the room beyond. It was, for all intents and purposes, a well-furnished apartment. "So what's all this about?"
Andrej looked at Lilith with his puppy-dog eyes (he knew how annoying it was). She sighed. "Bring them in, then."
He nodded, and left, bustling off to one of the other rooms in his underground home. Presently he came back, followed by Asiman and-
The Doctor launched himself at Sarah Jane and Martha, wrapping the two of them in a gangly laughing hug. They returned the hug warmly, laughing along with him, and to a lesser extent, at him.
Next to them a moment later, Jack embraced Mickey and Gwen, kissing the both of them in relief.
"I noticed that every time I say hello to you I always end up feeling strangely violated."
"I love you too, Mickey."
The Doctor looked all four of them over quickly. They seemed quite all right, uninjured and none the worse for wear. "So," he asked, "What happened?"
Sarah Jane shrugged apologetically. "They showed up outside my house one day, and demanded that I cooperate. Normally I wouldn't have, but… with Luke…"
"Don't worry. I understand. There was nothing you could have done." Dimly the Doctor thought of his daughter, and wondered to what lengths he was prepared to go for her. Hopefully he wouldn't have to find out.
'So then," Jack looked over the three aliens. "What was all this about?"
"Simple," said Asiman. "We have had enough."
"It is obvious that Gabriel is only using us to further his own goals… whatever those might be." Lilith paused for a moment, and then looked pleadingly at the Doctor. "This has gotten out of hand and it will only get worse. We need your help."
The Doctor nodded and made a big show out of thinking it over. "Well… I dunno. Everybody gets one chance… Haven't you already used yours?"
Asiman glared. "Stop with the games, Doctor. We get enough of that from him."
He smiled and gestured for them to sit. "Well I'm afraid that you've already agreed to play. And so I will keep with the games, because I'm beginning to think they're the only chance we've got."
Andrej inclined his furred head quizzically. "I do not understand what you mean, Doctor."
He wasn't so sure he understood himself. "I think that it can be said that Gabriel has a plan for almost every possible eventuality. That includes the possibility of you betraying him."
"But he's locked up," Jack interjected. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't that mean we shouldn't be acting as if we're on the defensive here?"
The Doctor turned to Asiman, Andrej, and Lilith. "How many of the aliens would back you in this decision?"
They exchanged glances between each other, mentally calculating. "I- I don't know," said Lilith finally. "You have to understand the hold that he has on them- on us. Nobody knows what he is, where he comes from, or what he wants, but… the whole act he puts on is so mesmerizing."
"He was able to sell us on his plan almost right away."
"That sounds like psychic persuasion to me," the Doctor noted. He thought back to his earlier conversations with Gabriel himself. It was true that he had sense a degree of power within his mind, but was it possible that the Doctor had underestimated him? "But you lot are a psychic race. He shouldn't have been able to get inside your heads that easily."
Asiman rubbed his head dolefully. "Now that I think about it… but I don't really remember…"
Martha leaned forward. "So you're saying that even if you lot betray him, he'll still have aliens on Earth who are loyal?"
Lilith nodded mutely. "That's not all."
The Doctor looked up. "What? What's not all? There's something else?"
"As time went on, we became more and more like accessories in his plan. Or, if you prefer- like pawns in his stupid chess game."
"You're worried that he's already figured out that you've betrayed him."
"Yes."
The Doctor stood and began pacing, occasionally running his hands through his hair and exhaling heavily. "What did he say to do if he was captured?"
Asiman waved a hand at the Doctor's companions. "He told us to kidnap as many of your friends as we could, and to kill them one by one until he was released. I… disagreed with this plan. It was too extreme. So Lilith and I decided to come to you."
The Doctor shot him a sceptic look. "Are my friends on a different standing than the rest of the human race?"
Mickey raised a hand. "I dunno. Are we?"
"No," said the Doctor.
"Yes," said Asiman.
"What," said the Doctor.
The Malsangurian shrugged. "A sentient being that has intelligence approximating that of races capable of interstellar travel is considered equal to us, in our view of things. That's why we choose to prey on lesser beings, such as the bulk of the human population."
The Doctor rubbed his temples and pointed his finger in Asiman's face. "There are so many things wrong with what you just said."
"Wait, wait, wait," Mickey held up a hand. "You're saying that we-" he gestured at himself, Martha, Gwen, and Sarah Jane- "Are smarter than the rest of the human population?"
"No," said the Doctor.
"Yes," said Asiman.
"No," said the Doctor
"Not sure who I'm rooting for here," said Gwen.
"Me," said the Doctor and Asiman.
Lilith stepped in between the two. "Listen, Doctor, do you accept that our species needs to prey on intelligent life forms to survive?"
After a long silence, the Doctor finally agreed: "Yes."
"Well, that's our condition for helping you." She folded her arms defiantly. "You will renegotiate the laws governing aliens on Earth- and they will be more tolerant of the fact that we must kill to survive."
The Doctor's fists clenched and unclenched. "Very well. First thing's first."
Asiman raised an eyebrow.
"We need to get back to Torchwood Three and imprison Gabriel in a more secure location." Although the truth was that the Doctor was beginning to think that there was no secure location for the madman.
"Very well," said Asiman. "I suppose that all of us should go? Trust me when I say that there is no such thing as overkill when dealing with Mr. Gabriel."
"I believe you." Jack stood purposefully and managed to elicit some menacing noises from his handgun. He looked pleased with himself. "Shall we then, Doctor?"
The entire group left the restaurant basement, Andrej donning a wide-brimmed hat and wrapping a scarf around his neck.
"I'm still not entirely sure what's going on," Sarah Jane said to nobody in particular.
"The TARDIS is outside the hotel, in an alley two blocks down. I'll explain on the way." The Doctor followed the aliens out to the parking lot, where several rather expensive cars were parked. "Do you think it likely that Gabriel knew you would do this?"
Asiman looked uneasy for a moment. "Well… I wouldn't put it past him…"
"Asiman."
The vampire looked him in the eyes. "I think we'd better drive fast."
"The Doctor may have several principles that I disagree with, but his core belief- well, no, his next-to-core belief is absolutely true."
Beads of sweat stung Jenny's eyes.
"It's all about how much you know."
She blinked, and suddenly he had moved.
"When you think about it… who really wins a fight? The person who knows the most about fighting, that's who."
Jenny blocked two of his blows and countered, aiming for his trachea and missing completely.
"For example, this fight won't be decided by who is physically stronger."
The sweat was in her eyes again, but she didn't dare break eye contact for the instant it would take to sweep it away.
"No. This fight depends entirely on which one of us is smarter. And that's the way it always is."
The style was shotokan karate. Techniques used are primarily open-handed strikes, knee and elbow blows, and the occasional grapples and throws. Jenny blocked several strikes and then launched her own retaliatory ones, all of which were effortlessly dodged or parried.
"The combatant who wins through brute force? Well, he knew enough to make himself strong. But the one who has a greater knowledge of combat, or of fighting styles- can he not take down the strongest of men, those who use nothing but their strength?"
Fluidly, the technique changed to bare-knuckle boxing, with both Jenny and Gabriel bouncing lightly on their feet and throwing rapid combinations of punches- alternating precision accuracy with overwhelming power.
Jenny jabbed twice with her right and uppercut with her left- all three strikes missed. She saw Gabriel throw a punch aimed for her temple and ducked, countering with a haymaker to his jaw. He rolled with the punch and spun with deceptive quickness, bringing a sharp right hook into her ribs.
"Unhn." She stepped back and clutched her side- the wound wasn't bad. Regenerative energy soon took care of it, but she was getting tired far too quickly.
Gabriel chuckled darkly. "Unusual that one of the Doctor's companions would know how to fight so well."
"Oh, I'm just full of surprises." Jenny leapt forward, and then stopped, staggering suddenly. Gabriel overcompensated for the movement that had suddenly been halted, and Jenny used the distraction to deliver a devastating kick to his knees.
Gabriel crashed to the ground and rolled past Jenny's next kick, which would have broken his neck. They stood and, for a brief while, the two of them feinted and staggered and careened about in the unconventional zui quan combat style.
This evolved smoothly into the full-out sprint of the Lothar monk's running combat technique. The two of them dashed headlong through the Torchwood Institute, crashing together and apart in a blindingly fast series of blows.
Gabriel came to a sharp stop ahead of her and threw an elbow at Jenny's face. She dropped and slid underneath the blow, spinning around to aim a high kick at his spine. He whirled and caught the blow, tossing her leg back and flipping her over as he leapt and brought his own foot down towards Jenny's face.
She continued with the momentum lent to her and flipped again, and Gabriel's foot snapped down on the floor with a menacing thud. The two began alternating fluid blows in the artistic Do-An-Shu-Pex method preferred along the Outer Rim of the Andromeda Galaxy.
"Definitely not human, then."
"Look who's talking."
Stylized postmodern Ninjutsu. Popularized by martial artists in the thirty-second century, it focused more on creative, distracting, and occasionally offensive fighting techniques. Gabriel caught two of Jenny's blows in succession, and then clenched her hands in his, forcibly waltzing her around the room. When she attempted to bring her knee up into his crotch, he spun aside, darted forwards, and kissed her on the lips. In that brief moment where she was paralyzed by pure shock, he headbutted her in the face.
!shyxza 53. An anarchic, disjointed combat technique based primarily on focused emotions, it remained unpopular due to its unpronounceable name. Jenny rolled backwards and then catapulted forwards, focusing her sudden rage on a series of quick, savage blows that Gabriel barely managed to shrug off. When two punches caught him in the stomach, he tackled her headlong and threw them both into the floor.
Close-quarters overkill. Simply named, the rather brutal technique speaks for itself. Often, two fighters will find themselves literally on top of each other, and in that case the only usable tactics are quick, powerful jabs and elbows. Both Jenny and Gabriel threw as many punches as possible, hoping to inflict as much damage as they could. Eventually, they staggered to their feet and threw themselves at each other again.
Good old-fashioned hockey fights. With one hand clutching the other's collar and the other hand throwing wild haymakers, the two spun back and forth, pummelling each other brutally. Had either of them been human, the sheer amount of blunt trauma would have long ago resulted in massive internal bleeding- but they are not human, and they fight on.
Jenny landed a punch on Gabriel's jaw. He reeled, and then threw an elbow into her stomach, propelling her backwards. When he followed through, she brought her leg up into his chest and knocked him over. The two parted for a moment, eyeing each other warily and struggling to regain their breath.
"You fight like you enjoy it." Gabriel laughed hoarsely and wiped spittle and blood from his chin. "Who or what are you, that the Doctor would consent to have someone so violent travel with him?"
They began to circle each other. "You tell me your secret, I'll tell you mine."
Jenny felt a psychic push on her mind, almost like her thoughts were a book with the pages stuck together. She repelled the advance, and caught a glimpse of Gabriel's own mind as she did so. It was an impenetrable mass of twisted perceptions and incomprehensible plans.
"You're psychic, too… powerful. More powerful than that vampire lot. And believe it or not, that's something." Gabriel stopped, and then darted forward. Jenny was barely able to block his strange style of lightning-fast jabs and kicks, narrowly avoiding a horizontal chop aimed at her throat. "You are something. You're something very, very special."
"Am I? How flattering." Jenny took quick stock of the situation. For the first time in her life, she was in very serious danger of losing a fight. Normally, her soldier's instinct, comprehensive knowledge of combat, and advanced Time Lord biology ensured that she far outclassed any competition. However, it now seemed that she had lost all of these advantages. "You definitely know how to make a girl feel appreciated."
Gabriel shook the sweat out of his tangled dark hair. "You know far too much… Jenny, was it? Yes. I'd say that you're clearly beyond the level of the rest of the Doctor's gang."
"This going somewhere? 'Cause if not, I'd really like to get back to kicking your ass."
He smiled. "Well now, I didn't say you were that smart." His gaze turned cold. "But you're close. Right now, if you asked me to ballpark it… it's likely there are only two people in the entire Universe who are smarter than you are."
Jenny rolled her eyes. "Lemme guess. The Doctor, and-"
"Myself. In that order." Jenny dimly saw Gabriel shift his footing to a stance she had never seen before, and he lowered his hands to his sides.
"Right, then. Listen. If you still think that-"
Gabriel hooked his foot around the back of her calf, tripped her, and then kneed her in the back of the head as she fell. The maneuver had been executed with impossible speed and was deceptively casual.
She vaulted to her feet and tried to defend herself, but Gabriel fought with a technique that was not only completely unknown to her, but was also like anything she had ever seen before.
Blinding speed alternated with misleading slowness. Gabriel stood stock still, and was suddenly behind her, motionless again until she turned and then bursting into movement to catch her off balance and strike at her abdomen.
Gabriel bent and grabbed a fistful of her hair, hauling her head up so that she faced him. "You have principles. The Doctor has principles. I have none."
She jerked her head forward and out of his grasp, but in a flash he had flipped her over and smashed her face into the floor. Blood ran from her nose and mouth and, for the first time, she found that the ever-present regeneration energy was overwhelming, and painful. She struggled to suppress it.
"There are always boundaries, Jenny. There are always limits. And I will find yours. And I will find his."
The kick to her ribs was sharp enough that she was actually lifted off the ground for a moment.
"How far? How much does he need to hate me before he is willing to violate his most deeply held belief?"
Jenny tried to get up, and fell. The power within her surged, and then subsided, leaving her filled with the strangest sort of pain.
"Because killing him isn't enough. It's not even an option. No. I'm sure you understand why, because, after all… you're brilliant."
The next strike was the last one, she knew, because it was a pinpoint blow. Right where the base of her skull met the spine. Unconsciousness was immediate, and Jenny's head hit the floor dully.
"And there really is no greater pleasure than in proving your point."
Gabriel began whistling a jaunty tune and sifted through the jumbled mess that was now Torchwood Three. He found his confiscated collection of weapons, which he took, and some energy drinks in the fridge.
Cracking one of the Red Bulls open, he collapsed in a chair set in front of one of the computer panels. Within a few minutes he had wiped all the security footage of the past two days.
He then went back down to the holding cells and stuck a Post-It to the forehead of Ianto Jones. On it was a note for the Doctor.
Finally, he hauled up Jenny's unconscious form and slung her unceremoniously over his shoulder. He left Torchwood Three through the invisible elevator and walked across Roald Dahl Plass in broad daylight. Nobody saw him, not really, and a woman who later reported her car stolen had absolutely no recollection of handing the keys to an oddly hypnotic man stained with blood, dressed in black, and carrying an unconscious young woman slung over his back.
The TARDIS materialized directly inside Torchwood, this time. The door flew open and the Doctor and Jack sprinted out.
"Jenny! Ianto!" Nobody answered. The Doctor could smell sweat and blood in the air. "They're gone." He kicked a wastepaper basket across the room. "They're gone!"
"All of the surveillance records have been wiped." Jack smacked the computer in frustration. "Damn it! What happened?"
Asiman stepped out of the TARDIS after them. Lilith, Mickey, Gwen, Andrej and Martha were at the hotel, just in case Gabriel had left a trap for the Doctor to walk into.
"He was in the holding cells down below. Let's check there first." The Doctor beckoned, and Jack and Asiman followed. They walked carefully throughout the errily silent facility- drops of blood stained the floor in several places, and there were signs of a physical struggle everywhere.
"You haven't seen him fight, Doctor." Asiman shook his head. "And he was up against two humans. I'm sorry- they didn't stand a chance."
"Oh, I don't know about that." The Doctor smiled humourlessly. "I think that Jenny probably gave him a bit of a surprise."
"Nonetheless," Asiman said. "They are both dead."
Jack looked like he was about to retort, but then they rounded the corner and saw what was at the end of the cell corridor. His eyes widened, and for a moment he didn't move. "Ianto."
"Jack. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
At first glance, it looked like he was resting against the concrete wall. His eyes were closed and he was leaning back with his arms at his sides.
Jack solemnly bent down and wrapped his arms around Ianto's pale form. The hair at the back of his head was matted and red, and dried blood streamed down his back and shoulders.
"Ianto…" Jack struggled for words but found none.
The Doctor lay a hand on his shoulder. "This is my fault."
"No. It's not."
For a moment all three of them stood there, frozen in time. Jack clutching Ianto to his chest, the Doctor with a hand on his shoulder, and Asiman watching the two of them, unsure of what to do or how to feel.
Then Jack silently picked up Ianto, and carried him out of the quiet hallway spattered with blood. As he did so, the Doctor noticed a yellow piece of paper on the ground.
He picked it up. It said simply: I MOVE THE DALEK ON MALCASSARIO TO TAKE LOGOPOLIS. YOUR MOVE, DOCTOR.
Of course. The last move in the game had been the Doctor's, and now Gabriel had made his. And the last statement- "Your move." Gabriel held the advantage, and it was now the Doctor's turn to act. Only he didn't have the faintest idea what to do.
Jack brought Ianto back to the TARDIS, where they lay him on a bed and the Doctor did his best to clean him up. He scrubbed the blood and sweat from the cold face, sweeping the tangled hair back and switching his wrinkled and bloodstained shirt for a fresh one.
Jack broke the quiet, finally. "Doctor."
"Yes."
"In all your travels, have you ever met a person who honestly deserved to die?"
He thought about his answer for a long while. "I don't know."
"What do you mean by that?"
And it came to him so very easily now, the answer to that question that he had never spoken aloud and had agonized over for so many centuries. "I have met people who I personally felt deserved death, and who I believed the universe would be a better place without, but… no. No, I do not think that anybody I have met deserves death."
It was Asiman who questioned him next. "But if you could save lives by ending one…? Why, Doctor, do you say that when even your friends die around you because of this belief?"
Tears were wending their way down his face now, and he desperately hoped that they would understand. "Because it's not our place to decide who deserves to live and who deserves to die. And if I killed somebody based on my own judgment that their death would be a good thing… well… that would be the same as claiming to be God."
"Well, aren't you closer than any one of us? If no God will judge the wicked, then why can't you, Doctor, the most Godlike out of all of us, make that judgment for him?" Asiman's eyes shone with a wretched sort of earnestness. "Think of the good you could do, Doctor… you could take God's place."
Jack echoed Asiman with almost a longing cynicism. "You could do it, Doctor. You could become a God… a vengeful God… and none of this would ever have to happen again."
The Doctor was weeping now because he knew that more people would die because of him, and of the responsibility that he could take but refused to. "Please. Can't you understand? I don't want to."
Killing off a canon character is always a tough thing to do. You can go ahead and create as many of your own characters as you want, and drop bridges as many of them as you want- but people read fan works because they like the source material, and killing a character from the source material can have a far greater impact on readers (and other characters!) than having one of your own characters killed.
This is one of the most important chapters in the story, because it represents a climax of sorts for many of the characters. Also, it is at this point that several events are put in motion, and several wheels begin turning that bring this story to its now-inevitable end.
If you have any thoughts, comments or criticisms, I'd love to hear them in a review.
