Author's Note: The historical tidbits about the Howards should all be true (except where historical records were sparse, and I used artistic license). I did my best to research them accurately.
Hope you enjoy it!
One section left, after this one, and then we're at the end of the story. At that point, we'll be on to the next! "Saving Gray."
The Doctor knew this was all wrong the moment he stepped into the room and spotted the machine. Or rather — not the machine, but the possessed person floating above the ground, just beside it, glowing with a bright blue light. A person… the Doctor recognized.
(But she shouldn't be here. She couldn't be here! It's impossible!)
The Doctor paused. Fidgeting with his sonic.
Seo, meantime, skidded to a stop just in front of the machine. "Jane, or Voice, or whatever you want us to call you," she said, a little out of breath. "You're hooked up to a database that contains knowledge on basically everything, right?"
"That is correct," said Jane.
"And fell through a time rift?" Seo added. "Which means you were constructed in the future? With knowledge of Earth and its history?"
"That is correct," said Jane.
Seo grinned at Dawn. "You said she was famous, right? An ancestor of Anne Boleyn?" She turned back to Jane. "In that case, I'd like you to find everything about Lady Jane Howard in 1504, and download it into the body housing 'the Voice'!"
Jane absorbed this.
"Seo," said the Doctor, very softly. "It's not going to work."
"Of course it will work!" Seo snapped. "My plans are brilliant!" She turned back to Jane. "You can do that, right? Find information on a person and download their personality into an empty body?"
"Yes," said Jane. The blue light flashed, as she reported, "Complying with request…"
Seo grinned, even wider, as the machine whirred and churned to do what it was told. But the happiness fell away, as the light faded, and Jane looked just the way she'd been, before.
"Error," said Jane. "The Lady Jane Howard does not exist in 1504 on Earth."
"No, she doesn't," the Doctor admitted. He stepped forwards, peering at Jane, carefully. "I was there on the night she died. When she was only five years old. Poor little Jane Howard. Her parents told her brothers and sisters she went off to school. Couldn't face the truth." He shook his head, sadly. "There was nothing even I could do for her."
Seo and Dawn turned and stared at the Doctor.
"What?" Dawn cried.
"She's dead?!" Seo said.
"Always has been," said the Doctor. He stared at the floating Jane with sad eyes. "I don't who that person used to be… before she was possessed by the Voice. But she wasn't Jane Howard. Never was." He shook his head. "Must have shown up in court pretending to be someone she wasn't. Inveigled her way into the family under false pretenses. An impersonator."
"So… who was this not-actually-Jane person, really?" said Dawn. "What was her name? Where was she from? I mean, we need to know, or we can't download her back into her original body."
"No one you need to worry about," came the voice of John Hart. He was armed with a laser pistol, pointed directly at the group. "She's mine and so are the rest of you." His eyes fell on the Doctor. "Nice trick, there, Doctor Whoever-You-Are. But the Database knew who you were. A Time Lord. The last Time Lord." He gave a mirthless grin. "Trying to pass yourself off as STP! STP never had any interest in these two, did they? Just you. And you're worth a bundle."
"You wouldn't say that if you knew STP," the Doctor said. Adjusting his bow tie. "Which... come to think of it... you do. According to their leader. Interesting, isn't it, how they can name their group 'STOP', and the villains still never work out what to do?"
Hart just kept aiming the gun at their group.
The Doctor turned to Jane. "And as for you, 'Jane'… how is it that the Vrilnoir Database still knows who I am? No one else's database does. Ever since the Dalek Asylum, everyone's databases — past, present, and future — have been writing me out of the records."
"You are the Doctor," said Jane, turning to him, her blue eyes blazing with light. "You save people."
The Doctor felt something hard in the pit of his stomach.
He'd watched Rory taken by Weeping Angels. Seen Amy disappear forever, in front of him. Watched himself lose all his friends and all his hope and everything he'd ever believed in.
"That's who I was," the Doctor muttered. Then, composing himself, added, "And who were you? Who'd you used to be, before you showed up at court claiming to be Jane Howard?"
"You are the Doctor," said Jane. "People love you. Remember that."
"I'm sorry?" said the Doctor.
"People love you," said Jane. "Jane loved you. Before she pretended to be Jane Howard. She wanted to tell you that. In case this didn't work. She wanted to say… goodbye."
The Doctor stared at her.
His mind pouring through possibilities, but none of them fit.
"Oh, my heart bleeds for you," Hart groaned. "Look. I don't really care if you're the actual Jane Howard or not. Only thing I care about is my profits. And those are about to go way up." He winked at Seo. "Sorry, sweet-cheeks. Nothing personal."
Seo blushed.
The Doctor just spun around. "Oh, quit waving that gun about!" he snapped. "You're not going to shoot us. We're worth more alive."
"You think I don't know the legends?" said Hart. "I kill you and you regenerate."
"Unless I'm on my last life," the Doctor countered. His voice dropping. "And can you really afford to take that risk?"
Hart faltered.
The Doctor turned to Seo and Dawn. Gestured at them, with a happy beam. "Right! Come along, then. You, too, Jane. He can chase us, lock us up, threaten us with guns and pointy sticks and all sorts of nastiness, but he won't kill us!" He spun around, raced towards the door. "So, really, there's nothing to worry about."
"One of you isn't worth a dime, though," said Hart. Gun shifting to Dawn. "The lover."
And squeezed the trigger.
Seo darted forwards to shove Dawn out of the way, but she was too far apart, and so was the Doctor, and neither of them would ever make it in time…
A blur of blue light flashed before them.
And Jane, having used the Database to flash-appear in front of Dawn at the last possible moment, slumped in place. Clutching her chest, her breath turning raspy, her flesh singed and burning where Hart's gunshot had impacted.
Then she collapsed to the floor.
Seo ran forwards, knelt down by Jane, who held Seo's hand. Looked up into Seo's eyes, and… using the last of her strength… whispered something into Seo's ear.
Then died.
The machine went still. The blue energy crackling out and dying away forever.
The Doctor turned on Hart. An iciness flooding through him. "That," the Doctor hissed, "wasn't necessary."
Hart seemed as taken aback as everyone else. Although, very clearly, he was more upset about his inability to sell the now-broken database than the loss of life.
"Worthless," Hart muttered, irritated.
The Doctor advanced on Hart, eyes bitter and angry. "Worthless?!" He ducked a blow, then twisted around and grabbed the gun out of Hart's hands before the man could register what was happening, and tossed it over his shoulder. "A human life?! Worthless?!"
Hart tried to grab at the Doctor, but the Doctor ducked and launched himself forwards, catching Hart off-balance and aiming his sonic at the Vortex Manipulator around Hart's wrist.
Hart toppled, his wrist-strap humming…
As he was swallowed up by the time vortex.
The Doctor slumped in place. He didn't know who the Jane-imposter had been. Or why she'd given him that message. But here was yet another brilliant person he couldn't save. Like that poor Oswin, in the Dalek Asylum, who'd died before he'd ever had a chance to save her.
Whomever Jane was, whatever she'd be to him, in his own future, he'd just lost her.
Same way he'd lost Amy and Rory.
Same way he lost everyone.
The Doctor turned back to the two girls. Ignoring Dawn's questions about where Hart went and what the Doctor had done to him. Not even Hart's removal was permanent. Hart would fix the damage the Doctor had done to his vortex manipulator, eventually — history dictated that, and the Doctor couldn't change it.
Some days, it made the Doctor want to just give up. Pack it all in.
And spend the rest of his lives in Victorian London, with friends. Not saving the universe or the world, just… existing.
The Doctor turned back to the Database, wearily. Better break that. Get these two back to their ship — back to 21st century Earth, Torchwood, and their homes and families.
Then… back to his TARDIS.
To decide what to do and where to go next.
Or if he'd finally had enough. And it was finally time to stop.
