At this point it's a marvel if I update once a year. (whoops) Unbeta'd, all mistakes mine.
I own neither Doctor Who nor Harry Potter, etc, etc.
With Jenny in the lead they made it out of the theatre-turned-barracks without too much trouble. Using a map lifted off one of the guards that they had (non-violently, mostly) taken care of, they took a few shortcuts, beating Cobb's people to a newly-revealed secret passageway. One that looked suspiciously like a wall.
"Is this it?" Jenny asked dubiously.
"Secret passageway," the Doctor mused. "Must be a control panel somewhere."
"Have you noticed these numbers everywhere?" Luna asked curiously. "There was one in the cell too. That one was sixteen. This one says fourteen."
"Some kind of cataloguing system, maybe?" the Doctor mused on the other side of the hall, skimming his sonic screwdriver along at chest height.
"Hmm," Luna agreed.
Jenny looked between them. "Are you two always like this?"
"Like what?" Luna asked, pulling out her wand to scan the opposite side of the hall.
"Thinking! Who are you?"
"I told you," the Doctor said crossly. "I'm the Doctor. That's Luna."
"Just the Doctor?"
"Well it's worked so far," the Doctor muttered testily.
"So you don't have a name either. Are you an anomaly too?"
Luna laughed lightly, and both Jenny and the Doctor scowled at her, which only made her laugh harder.
"Found it!" her dad crowed, interrupting the conversation.
"What are Time Lords for, anyways?" Jenny mused behind him.
"They're not–– they're not for anything," the Doctor spluttered, dropping the panel cover onto the floor with a clang.
"They were guardians, once," Luna answered. "Swore never to get involved with the universe. Wrapped themselves up in a bubble and just, watched."
"Why are you out here then?" Jenny asked.
"I wanted to travel," the Doctor said. "Got bored, hanging around home. So I ran away."
"What do you do now?"
"I ran away," the Doctor repeated. "I just never stopped."
"There's other stuff too," Luna offered. "Saving civilizations. Rescuing planets. Intergalactic and transtemporal tourism. We go where people need him."
"Need us," the Doctor corrected gently as the door slid open in front of him. "Aha. Shall we?"
In the distance Cobb's voice echoed, giving orders. Luna took her dad's hand and offered another hand to Jenny.
"Running, you said?"
"Oh yes," Luna smiled at her almost-sister. "An awful lot of running."
Unfortunately, they only made it around one corner before they ran (the irony did not escape Luna) into a lattice of lasers filling an entire length of tunnel.
"That's unfortunate," she murmured.
"I can disable the panel but it's not gonna hold for long," the Doctor muttered, already fiddling with the circuitry on the wall next to him. Behind them Cobb's voice ran out, closer than before. Jenny looked up sharply and turned back. The Doctor caught her arm.
"Where are you going?"
"I can slow them down."
"We don't need any more dead."
"But it's them or us," Jenny argued. The Doctor wasn't having it. Luna watched with her eyes glazed over, flicking through possible and probable outcomes, trying to see clearly through the tangled-too-close timelines. The argument in front of her sounded far away, like she was staring at it through water.
"It doesn't mean you have to kill them!"
"I'm trying to save you life!"
"Listen to me. Killing, after a while, it infects you. And once it does you can never get rid of it."
"We don't have a choice."
"We always have a choice."
"I'm sorry."
"Jenny!"
The lattice fell. The Doctor looked helplessly between the far end of the tunnel and the corner Jenny had just disappeared around.
"Go," Luna ordered. "I'll look out for her."
"Luna, you can't."
"Do you trust me?"
Her dad looked at her for a long moment, and she wondered what he saw. In all honesty she wasn't sure she trusted herself. But he was right, about killing, and if there was anything she could do it was make sure Jenny never had to experience what they had. Being a Time Lord didn't have to mean suffering. It just couldn't.
"Yes," her dad said finally, heavily.
"Then go," Luna ordered, and with a pained look, he went. Luna returned around the corner. Jenny was facing off against Cobb and his army. Luna stood by her.
"Get out of here," Jenny ordered. "You're a civilian."
"No, I'm not," Luna told her calmly. "I've seen far more battle than you have. Hopefully than you ever will."
"But you're still a child!"
Luna's smile was as alien as it could be, dangerous and unworldly. Jenny flinched, though she tried not to.
"I haven't been a child in a long time, I'm afraid."
In front of them Cobb took a few steps forward.
"Jenny!" he called. "You're a child of the machine. One of ours. Leave the pacifists, come fight! Fight for your people! It's in your blood, girl."
Jenny hesitated, and in the pause Luna stepped forward.
"You're a dangerous man, Cobb," she said, head cocked a little. She brushed her hair out of her eyes. "I should put you down. I could save everyone a world of trouble. I could do it with a wave of my hand. It would be like snuffing out a candle."
"Luna," Jenny whispered behind her. Luna could hear her, and tried to reign it in. She wanted to scare him, remind him that they were all tiny. Like ants, scuttling around, blind to the greater world around them.
"I could clean this planet just like that." She snapped and Cobb doubled over, choking. Luna eased back, and he gasped. She wanted to scare them. She didn't want to hurt them.
"Luna," Jenny said again, more urgently. Luna looked back around. The girl shone in her mind's eye, a river and an ocean all in one, brighter than almost anyone she had met. So much possibility. It was beautiful. Luna smiled again and stepped back.
"Soldiers, at arms," Cobb coughed, falling back into line.
"I have an idea," Jenny murmured to Luna. "On three, run." Luna nodded, still staring at Cobb. It would be so easy. Jenny wouldn't have to do a thing.
"Don't kill them," Luna said. "It sticks to you afterwards. It's hard to fight."
"Yeah," Jenny said, eyes darting warily to Luna and back. "Ready?"
"Of course."
"One. Two. Three!"
Jenny opened fire, not on the men standing with their guns cocked but at the vent above them. Compressed air came hissing out, blinding Cobb's army, and they opened fire wildly at targets that were no longer there. Jenny rounded the corner on Luna's heels, laughing. Luna herself was sporting a small smile, more relief than humor.
Both their faces fell at the lattice of lasers that had sprung back up before them. On the far side of the hall the Doctor was pulling at his hair.
"Luna, the panel, it's on your side!" Just as he said it, a shot ricocheted around the corner, frying the controls.
"It's fine," Luna said calmly. "We'll manage."
"I'm stuck," her dad said, and he looked more worried than she had seen him in some time. "Luna–– Jenny––"
"Go," Luna ordered Jenny, turning around and drawing her wand, already casting a shield spell. There was plenty of energy around her to draw from, and her body remembered how to strengthen spells beyond what was normal, what was considered safe. She felt uncomfortable doing it, a sticky-slick feeling like oil running through her, reminding her. She breathed deep and held steady. Jenny had to get to safety.
"Watch and learn, Father," Jenny said behind her. Luna couldn't see what she was doing, but she heard movement, and then her dad's laugh.
"Luna!" called her sort-of-sibling. "Your turn!"
Luna waved a hand at the army behind her and as one it collapsed, puppets with their strings cut. Her dad was staring at her half-hopeful and half-afraid. Luna hated seeing that look on his face. She closed her eyes against it. She reached out, aware of everything in space, this framed moment of time, dusted gold. She focused on one spot, where she wanted to be, and as she stepped forward she twisted––
A pair of large, steady hands caught her as she stumbled. She opened her eyes to see a familiar pinstripe suit.
"Oh good," she said. "It worked."
Behind them the army stirred as one, and the Doctor relaxed against her, tightening the hug.
"I remembered," Luna murmured to him. "I didn't do any lasting damage. I think."
"I trust you," her dad said. "You did good."
"How did you do that?" Jenny demanded as Luna regained her balance and extracted herself from her dad's embrace. "You were there and suddenly you were here."
"It's from the other side of the family," Luna said. "I'll explain later. I think we may want to go now."
Indeed, the army was climbing to its feet, guns pointed back at them. The three linked hands again and kept running.
"What's it like?" Jenny asked a few corridors later, when they had slowed back to a walk and Cobb's people were far behind them.
"Hmm?"
"Traveling," Jenny clarified for the Doctor.
"Never a dull moment," the Doctor said.
"You can go anywhere, see anything," said Luna. "It's beautiful. And dangerous. There's nothing else like it. New worlds always open at your feet."
"Oh, new worlds. I'd love to see new worlds," Jenny sighed.
"You will," Luna said with burning certainty.
"Really?" Jenny looked between them eagerly. "You mean you'll take me with you after this?"
"Well we can't leave you here, can we?" the Doctor replied, sharing a look with Luna.
"Oh, thank you! Thank you! C'mon, let's go!" The girl ran ahead, heedless of the Doctor's warnings to slow down, that there might be a trap.
"She's so young," Luna said.
"She looks a good deal older than you."
"But you and I know that looks are deceiving."
They were both silent for a while, walking shoulder to shoulder. "Do you think it's the right choice?" the Doctor asked suddenly.
"I think her choice is the right choice. All we do is offer her opportunities."
"She's so young," her dad echoed.
"I was too."
"You were old before I met you," the Doctor disagreed.
"Do you ever regret it?" Luna asked softly.
"Regret you, Lunette? Never. I never have and I never will, not in this life or the next."
"Even after everything I've done?"
The Doctor stopped moving. Luna stilled beside him.
"You know as well as I do that I am the last one to judge you for your past actions."
"And Jenny?" Luna asked wryly.
"I was wrong to judge her too. She just reminds me of me, I suppose."
"And I don't?"
"Luna," the Doctor shook his head fondly. "You have always been your own person. And I will always be proud of you."
"Thanks, Dad."
Jenny returned, and behind them something exploded.
"They've blasted through the beams," she reported with a bounce. "Time to run again?"
"Love the running," the Doctor smiled at her.
The last two hundred yards or so were a race, Cobb's people running behind them. On the walls plaques counted down, plaques that matched the ones in the theatre. Luna had an idea forming in the back of her mind, but there was no time to contemplate it. Then they were at a dead end, hastily hacking a door open and closed behind them just as Cobb rounded the corner.
"This is the Temple?" Jenny asked dubiously, looking around. There was steam, and grating, and it looked more like an abandoned mechanics from the fifty fourth century than any sort of temple, all grime and humming engines.
"It's a spaceship," Luna said.
"Fusion-drive transport," the Doctor agreed, poking around. "But it can't be the original ship?"
"There's a log," Jenny pointed out, and they gathered around it.
"'First wave of Human/Hath co-colonisation of planet Messaline,'" the Doctor read. "Phase One: Construction.' They used robots to build the city."
"So it is the original ship," Jenny said. "What does it say about the war?"
"The numbers are counting down," Luna said to herself.
The Doctor scrolled through the log. "Final entry... "Mission commander dead. Still no agreement on who should assume leadership. Hath and humans have divided into factions."
"A power vacuum," Jenny said slowly. The Doctor nodded along.
"The crew divided into two factions and turned on each other. Started using the progenation machines and suddenly you've got two armies fighting a never-ending war."
"Dad," Luna interrupted. "What's today's date?"
"6012-07-24, according to the log," Jenny answered for him.
"It's the New Byzantine Calendar," Luna said. "Of course. Stupid."
"What do you mean?" asked Jenny.
"The numbers on the wall." She pointed at a date above them, reading 60120710. "They're counting out from here. The largest one, where we landed, that was 60120717. Today is the 24th."
"A week," the Doctor realized. "This war's been going on for a week."
"But that's not possible," Jenny protested. "Cobb said years."
"No," Luna corrected. "He said generations. Generations of clones, who are created and fight and die. All in a week."
"And they pass on the legend of the Source to each generation," Jenny extrapolated. "But then why are the buildings all in ruins?"
"Not ruins," the Doctor said, a grin blooming across his face. "Just empty. Waiting to be filled. Oh, you two are brilliant."
"So if this is real, the Source must be something real too, just mythologized," Jenny nodded along, a similar smile stretching across her face. "We've got to find it! Come on!"
She turned around, and promptly ran into a trio of muck-covered figures.
"Next time I get to pick the planet, spaceman," the leading figure said with a hand on a hip.
"Donna!" the Doctor grinned, wrapping her up in a hug, mindless of the dirt. "And Martha! And, oh, I'm sorry I'm afraid I don't know your name."
"Martha!" Luna exclaimed, and with a wave of her wand the three were mostly clean, revealing their two missing traveling companions and a Hath, whom her father was already in deep conversation with.
"Luna!" Martha returned, and then Donna wrapped her in a hug as well and shared a few choice words about her father's driving.
"Oh, that wasn't his fault," Luna said, dusting herself off. "That was the TARDIS. She does that sometimes. I imagine it was Jenny's fault anyways."
"Jenny? The clone?"
Jenny stepped forward at her name with a sheepish smile. "Hello. Sorry about earlier. Very glad to see you're not dead."
"We are too, trust me," Martha grinned. Then she wrinkled her nose. "Does anyone else smell flowers?"
"Now that you mention it, yeah," Donna echoed.
"Bougainvillea!" the Doctor grinned, bouncing around with excitement. "I say follow our noses!"
"How did you get here?" Martha asked, following along in the Doctor's wake.
"It was a bit of a trip," Luna said. "But I think yours was probably more interesting."
"Oh, you know how it goes," Martha shrugged. "Nearly drowning is nothing compared to some of our outings."
"True, yes," Luna agreed, but before she could respond further they stepped into what looked like a multi-story botanical garden in the middle of a spaceship. Probably because it was, in fact, a multi-story botanical garden in the middle of a spaceship. In the middle a transparent sphere filled with gas sat on a pedestal.
"Is that it?" Jenny breathed. "Is that the Source?"
"That's what they've been fighting over?" Donna asked, unimpressed. "A glass ball?"
"It's beautiful," said Luna.
"Terraforming," the Doctor grinned. "It's a third generation terraforming device."
"Okay, so why are we in a garden?" asked Donna.
"That's what it does. Only bigger. They probably put it here for transit––"
He was interrupted by a resounding crash, and from either side of the room the Hath and human armies poured in, facing each other, guns drawn. The Doctor stepped between them immediately, hands raised.
"Stop! Hold your fire!" he ordered, and soldier was painted across his face as bright as day. Luna glanced at Jenny in front of her and wondered if she was seeing it too, and if she found it just as ironic as Luna did.
"What's this?" Cobb demanded. "Some sort of a trap?"
"You said you wanted this war over," the Doctor reminded him.
"I said I wanted this war won," Cobb corrected. The Doctor shook his head.
"You can't win," he told the general. "No one can. You don't even know why you're here. Your entire history is like a game of Telephone, more distorted as you pass it down to each generation." The Doctor pointed at the clear sphere between them. "This is the Source. This is what you're fighting over, a device to rejuvenate a planet's ecosystem. It's nothing mystical. It's from a laboratory, not some creator. It's a bubble of gases for accelerated evolution. Methane, hydrogen, ammonia, amino acids, proteins, nucleic acids, all that good stuff. It's used to make barren planets habitable. Look around you! It's not for killing, it's bringing life. If you allow it, it can lift you out of these dark tunnels and into the bright, bright sunlight! No more fighting. No more killing."
With an almost careless hand he knocked it off the pedestal. The ball broke with a crunch, and gases escaped in a whisper, slipping out into the world around them, going to work, years of change happening in minutes. As if in a dream the armies put down their guns, staring in awe at the gold and green around them.
"What's happening?" Jenny asked, stepping forward next to their dad, ever curious. Luna smiled at the pair. She rather liked being the big sister.
"The gases will escape and trigger the terraforming process," the Doctor said.
"What does that mean?"
"It means a new world."
Jenny laughed with delight. And then she turned slightly, and her face fell, and Luna could see it suddenly clear as day but she was too far, too slow––
The sound of the gunshot shocked everyone into silence, everyone except Jenny, who cried out, "No!" and shoved the Doctor out of the way, body curving around the impact and falling, falling, falling.
Strong hands caught her, lowering her gently to the ground. Luna was already moving forwards, kneeling next to her. Their dad knelt on her other side.
"Jenny? Jenny! Talk to me, Jenny!"
"A new world," the girl said, looking around her. "It's beautiful."
"Is she gonna be alright?" Luna heard Donna ask above them. The Doctor brushed hair out of Jenny's eyes. Luna realized with sudden clarity how alike they must look, blonde and bright-eyed and ever curious. Everything fell out of focus as she reached out and out and out, seeing the golden nexus that was Jenny fade away to nothing.
Above them the Doctor was babbling. "Jenny? Be strong, now. You need to hold on. D'you hear me? We've got things to do, you and me. Hey? Hey? We can go anywhere. Everywhere. You choose."
No, not nothing. Not quite.
"That sounds good," Jenny whispered.
Almost nothing.
"We've only just got started. You're gonna be great. You're gonna be more than great. You're gonna be amazing! You hear me? You me and Luna, we'll go anywhere. Jenny?"
Jenny was still. Martha and the Doctor were talking, and Luna could feel their heartache like waves, but there was something more important. There was a spark, a nugget of gold, a hope. Luna reached out and cradled it, fed it until it was an ember, blew until it was hot and ready to be lit.
A possibility.
A hand on her shoulder startled her out of her trance, and she blinked back to herself, wondering if something, anything––
Jenny was still. Martha squeezed her shoulder in apology.
"There's nothing you can do," the medic said. "She's gone."
Luna stood slowly, knees aching where the grate had dug into them.
"She was too much like me," the Doctor said, and he brushed a kiss against Jenny's forehead and laid her back down. When he stood it was with single-minded purpose, and he strode to Cobb like a storm. Luna watched blankly as her dad picked up a gun and pointed it at Cobb's head. Next to her Donna and Martha gaped.
For a moment everything was utterly silent, tension balancing on a knife's point. Luna cocked her head a little, curious.
The Doctor broke the silence, crouching down in front of Cobb where he kneeled, held back by his own men.
"I never would," he swore. "Have you got that? I never would!"
Luna would. She knew as true as she knew anything. She still would. She held her hands together to stop them from shaking.
Her dad stood, and breathed out a long, heavy breath. "When you start this new world, remember that. Make that the foundation of this society. A man who never would."
No one said anything as he crossed back to Jenny and sat next to her. Luna turned away, slipping back to the warren of tunnels that was their underground city. Or not so underground. The terraforming device had done its work, and light poured through windows that had once been blocked.
Her dad found her in the theatre much later, sitting up in the catwalk.
"Well?" Luna asked.
"They'll hold a ceremony. There's talk about naming the colony after her."
"She'd probably enjoy that. Generated anomaly and everything."
"Probably."
They were silent, sitting shoulder-to-shoulder as people scurried around beneath them, paying no attention to the aliens above.
"I would have," Luna said softly. "I thought I was getting better, but–– I would have."
"I would have too," her dad said just as softly. "But I don't think Jenny would have liked that much."
"I suppose not."
For a brief moment Luna contemplated telling him what she saw, the spark-possibility. But she decided better. She well knew his tendency to fixate on certain things. Far better for him to move on now and rediscover later than grant him false hope. So instead she leaned into him and let the silence linger.
The TARDIS sat on the street corner, innocuous as a police box can be in early twenty-first century London. Luna trailed behind Martha and Donna as they said their goodbyes. Then it was Luna's turn.
"Seems like we're always doing this," Martha joked.
"Oh, this isn't the last of us. You'll see us at least once more, I promise."
"Well I'm looking forward to that," Martha laughed. "But I'm also not sure I want to. Might not be able to let go."
I'm not sure you'll want to either, Luna wanted to say when she took a closer look at the tangled, dark mess of the near future, but instead she offered a hug.
"I hope to be one of your flower girls."
"A bridesmaid, I should think," Martha laughed. "Keep that phone nearby."
"Yes ma'am," Luna said, stepping back to join Donna and let her father say goodbye in private.
"How could anyone give this up?" Donna asked incredulously.
"People change," Luna said.
"How long have you been with him?"
"Since I was eight, or there about."
"How old are you now?"
"I'm not sure."
"How can you not be sure how old you are?"
"Time isn't the same for everyone, Donna. How old do I look to you? Sixteen? Seventeen? As the Time Lords would see it I'm the same as a human ten-year-old. On Malina XII I'm an adult, an old one at that. On Exapeli II I'm a child. There are cultures where I'm a god. Everything is relative."
"You could have just said alien-stuff, you know."
Luna shrugged. "You asked."
They watched in silence as Martha and the Doctor hugged in front of Martha's house, and then the Doctor joined them.
"Well," he said with fake cheer. "Where to next?"
"Somewhere clean and dry," Donna said. "And maybe no warring factions. Are there any sort of, I dunno, beach planets? One without tropical monsters?"
"Space Florida!" the Doctor decided, holding the door open for the other two. "Grab your swimsuit, it's a wonderful place."
The door swung shut behind them, and the blue box disappeared from the corner.
I'm seeing Star Wars this afternoon and I'm so flipping excited, y'all, so here's the chapter that's been sitting half finished on my hard drive for months. Merry Christmas!
Reviews are, as always, welcome.
