CHAPTER NINE
SPIDER TO THE FLY

"Before I get into that, I have something else to tell you," started Gwen. "All Torchwood locations were sent these memos last week. When we read them... well... it changes things."

Jack lifted a brow, and looked over at Ianto, who was carefully remaining out of sight. "Such as?"

"A Royal edict, so to speak." Gwen had this look on her face, almost as if she were too pleased with the fact that she had something to hold to over Jack in that she knew something he didn't. "Firstly, they have picked a new Torchwood One, a 'new head office'."

"Where?" asked Jack.

"Not here," she said, the relief evident. "Even if Ianto were to come back, hello you... I know you are there... even if he were we'd not be able to handle a semi-global organization in the Hub. So... they re-assigned the numbers. We're still Three, however, Five is now One."

"Toronto?" asked Jack.

"And our new Director is a man named Claude Vailleaux," she answered. "And his memo reads, 'It has come to my attention that there is a certain outdated and obsolete mission that has overshadowed Torchwood and the good it has done. In the interest of the updating, I now correct this oversight. A few years ago Her Royal Majesty rescinded the capture/kill on sight order as well as the exile of the alien being known only as 'Sir Doctor of TARDIS'. Unfortunately, due to the fall and destruction of both Torchwood Canary Wharf (the former TW-1) and Torchwood Cardiff (TW-3), as well as the attempted invasions in between, –thwarted most often, ironically enough, by said Doctor-, no one thought to check the memos and send an organization-wide order to update the mission. My first order of business as the new Director of Torchwood and the newly designated TW-1 in Toronto, Canada, -which is still a nominal part of the Empire under Her Royal Majesty, with her blessing and backing-, is to correct this oversight. Under no circumstances are any Torchwood agents or personnel to ever interfere or seek to capture or kill the Doctor, unless ordered otherwise. Instead, it would be in our best interests to aid him and his Companions in their mission. Perhaps, with this new era of cooperation this can forward our true mission which is to understand alien life and protect the Empire, -what remains of it-, as well as the Earth through punitive defence if necessary, but preferably, primarily, through diplomatic means. That is our mission and our calling. With the blessing of our Queen, let us walk forward...' anyway, it gets a bit political after that, but the gist is that the Doctor is no longer the enemy of Torchwood, Jack. You got your wish."

Jack leaned back, a relieved sigh escaping him. "About fucking time."

"Now, where is she?"

"The Doctor?"

"Unless there's another 'she' now on the TARDIS, then yes, I mean the Doctor," answered Gwen mildly sarcastic.

"Well, there is the TARDIS," supplied the Doctor as she came in, still towelling off her hair from her shower.

Ianto blinked in shock, but Jack never seemed surprised or shocked by her appearance in a dark red and expensive velvet dressing robe, cinched tight at the waist so that only a small V at her neck could be seen, only the small indent where collarbone met the neck was visible and the rest closed and hidden away. She also was wearing silk pyjama bottoms in a pearly white, and the same expensive dark red velvet on her ballet style slippers. In fact, the whole thing was too well pulled together, as if it was part of a set.

A silver chain dangled from her neck, over the robe. It was the first either of them had seen of it. On the chain were three rings, one a bridal set, with the matching men's piece. Ianto looked down, then over to the wall, anywhere to escape the evidence of her widowed status. Jack also saw the same thing, cleared his throat and turned his attention back to Gwen. "She's here."

"So I heard," came Gwen's voice, sensing the sudden uncomfortable silence.

The Doctor was quick to steer the conversation into whatever it had supposed to go. "So?"

"Right," said Gwen. "We got a distress signal from a satellite. Alien, but we're the closest evidently. I'm... uhm... wait, now there's an address of a sorts to send it to... how?... anyway... I'm sending you the transmission we got."

The Doctor smiled and looked up to the ceiling, knowing it was the TARDIS that had made the contact. There was a self-satisfied hum that, unless she strained to feel it, was nearly impossible to detect but she could feel clearly through the soles of her slippers. "Thanks, Gwen," said Jack. "I guess we're looking into it. Thanks for the news as well."

"I... I know it's a bit late for," Gwen trailed off, chewing her lip. "I'm sorry... Doctor."

"He would have been glad to know it." The Doctor smiled sadly. "He might not have changed his mind about Torchwood given the incident at Canary Wharf, but he would have been glad to know that it was a step in the right direction. I know I am."

"Anyway, I should get back to work," said Gwen. "Don't be a stranger since you're not an enemy."

With that the connection cut off. The Doctor sighed and then said, "Well, we have a bit of a misadventure. Interesting. Vinvocci. Haven't seen them in awhile. I'll finish up on the repairs and then we'll go see what's up there."


ACT ONE


The repairs took a week, but the Doctor was determined to finish them as soon as possible. Unfortunately, given that said repairs were on the console itself and meant it was literally in three million pieces, they wouldn't have been able to leave immediately until she put it all back together.

The Doctor asserted that once the repairs were done they could use the TARDIS go back in time to help the station, and Jack and Ianto had felt the TARDIS's own affirmative agreement to her statement. Jack also got the feeling that the TARDIS was moodily asserting that either the repairs were done or they were going no-where.

The week passed slowly, and Ianto would bring her tea, coffee and basically make sure she received necessary nourishment while they both would drag her to bed if she appeared to be pulling an all nighter.

It was then they realized that when she said a week, she meant the Gallifreyan equivalent, which was eight Gallifreyan days long... and a Gallifreyan day was nearly thirty-two hours long. Ianto had laughed at Jack's grieved look when the math was done and that meant nearly two weeks in the Earth equivalent once the differential in days was taken into account.


At the end of the first week, the Doctor came bounding into the galley, cleaned up and dressed for meeting new people, as Ianto called it. Jack called it her "the Doctor" look as it rarely varied and was especially worn when she left the TARDIS. All other times, she wore a varied outfit and would sometimes answer to her human given name of Susan.

"All right, the repairs to the TARDIS are finished," she announced with no preamble. "So, shall we?"

Jack grinned, as did Ianto.

Back to normal.

They followed her to the console room and Jack stopped in shock. Ianto seemed less impressed, or surprised. "It's how I remember it," he said simply as he walked up to the console.

Jack looked around in shock. It was still the smaller, secondary, library. And it was still the coral struts and alien technology.

It was the overall repaired state that took his breath away, the less hodge podge and more advanced alien. There were still some jury rigged bits, but they were less noticeable and seemed to make more sense. The room seemed more finished, and, he couldn't put his finger on it, but it also seemed to harness more power... and he could only stand there in awe.

"You said repairs," said Jack.

"Yes, well, my grandfather's jury rigged work was not holding up anymore - and it was getting to the point where it was done properly or not at all," she answered, and then she touched something on the console, and it responded with a gentle blue glow.

Jack had a chance of flying it before, now... the interface was sleek, touch controlled and perhaps telepathically as the screen he remembered that monitored the goings on and showed what was happening outside was gone. There was no visible interface from the TARDIS to the pilot, or pilots.

Two seconds later, suspended in the air, on three holographic screens the size and width of a wide screen for a computer, evenly spaced around the console, appeared the data he was looking for. The Doctor touched a few things on the screen, as the symbols were in her language, dragging with her fingers to the area where she needed the data and Jack stood there in awe again.

"Wow..." he breathed. "That's an update and a half, Doc."

"Actually, it's not, as I can't pilot the way I should be able to yet," she answered with a grimace. "But it's a major step forward to have these online again after literal centuries of them being offline... perhaps even longer. The telepathic interface is still... touch and go and not in the way it should be."

"How much more do you have to do?" asked Ianto.

"Uhm, well, I still haven't found the bug in the chameleon circuit, so for now we're always going to look like a blue Police Box," she answered. "If I could fix it so that I could switch between the default and the box, I'd live with that. Easier to pilot in the vortex, faster travel and more accurate and less energy use in the default. But, the box was his signature... for obvious reasons... and is a bit less noticeable than the default."

"What's the default?" asked Jack.

"When you see it, you'll know it. Think the coral, glass and bronze like in here, only a ship built to travel the vortex and you have a fairly accurate description." She took a breath and sighed. "Of course it's not really bronze but an alloy found only on Gallifrey and very few other planets, and the glass is a high integrity alloy made from a material similar to glass, but isn't in the Earth sense..."

On the console itself she took two fingers and slid them up from approximately midway up the console to another point. The grinding whoosh gained in volume and the time rotor moved up and down. The three screens showed mostly the same information, but on each side of the screen, overlaying the view of the vortex and other data, was a series of differing data. Jack realized that one screen was meant to be shared by two stations, and therefore two Time Lords. While one could theoretically straddle two stations, and in the Doctor's case, one on all six, it was clear it was meant for six pilots.

Which meant, while she was running around from station to station and back again to cover all six, the ride was far from comfortable or stable.

As promised, however, it was accurate. By the evidence they seen far more accurate than it had ever been.

The TARDIS came out of the vortex, and materialized in space, a large blue planet dominating the view on all three screens. There was no sign of a station, and the Doctor moved to a second station, touching the screen there and dragging a part of the picture to the side. With a bit of a wrist flick she moved it to a larger screen that neither Jack or Ianto had seen above the door that took up the entire wall. When the picture on the smaller screens were enlarged on the larger screen, it was Ianto who pointed out the tiny station in the field of blue. "There," he said, finger pointed about midway up and to the left.

"Good eye, Ianto," said the Doctor as she then zoomed in on the smaller screen, before the next wrist flick sent the zoomed in reading to the larger screen. "Now, what are we looking at?"

"How far are we out?" asked Jack.

"Far enough that their long range sensors shouldn't be picking us up... not that it matters. A TARDIS has perception filters, and those Grandfather always made sure worked... at maximum." She looked at the screen. "We are three thousand kilometres out."

"What is that reading?" asked Ianto.

The Doctor looked at it and then brought it up on the large screen, looking at the lines and the numbers on it. She whistled. "A decaying orbit and, from the looks of it, their power is gone. They have no way to re-adjust themselves out of it. The TARDIS is estimating that if it continues to decay, they'll enter the atmosphere in a week - an Earth week, that is. The Vinvocci have a similar time system to Earth."

"If they bail out, what are their chances of survival on the planet?" asked Jack.

"Nil - for a water planet it's extremely hostile." The Doctor sighed, then she went still, her eyes opening wide in shock. "Well... that's new."

"What is it?"

"There's another Time Lord on that station."


The TARDIS materialized in a store room, and while it was nearly immaculate and dust-free the wind kicked up by the re-materialization still found little bits of debris to throw around. Finally it groaned and blinked into solid reality. The Doctor was now dressed in blue jeans, a white cotton blouse and the olive blazer jacket. Over that she wore a similar brown over coat that was nearly identical to the one her grandfather had worn in his tenth incarnation; except that hers was black, brushed the ground, and had a hood, not that she;d use that much, The fabric of the coat was expensive pressed wool, which gave it a smooth and clean appearance. She wore her heeled black leather boots again, and they lent her some height.

Jack came out next, shrugging his coat over his shoulders and he clapped his hands in the sudden chill. "Damn, it's cold in here."

Ianto came out, also wearing a long coat. His was black and made from pressed wool, cut well and to fit. Their breaths clouded in the air. "Is the temp a Vinvocci thing?" asked Ianto.

"No, they like it warm, like humans. This is cold even for Time Lords, and Gallifrey was a cooler planet. Or, at least, the Citadel of the Time Lords was, as was the house I was raised," she said absently, then shook herself. "Anyway, let's find the people who sent that distress signal."

They pushed open the door and walked out onto a gantry above a busy central promenade where humans and the cactus-like Vinvocci scrambled around, packing, rushing - clearly preparing to evacuate. One Vinvocci woman was overseeing all this and yelling out orders every so often. When the Doctor walked up to her, she blinked, then saw Jack and Ianto, blinked again and asked, "Where the hell did you come from?"

"Uhm, just arrived. Saw you were in a pinch, thought I would come by and see if I could help," answered the Doctor. "We got your distress signal."

"But the nearest place that could have received it is a week away and they don't have the capability to help us... we just sent that signal an hour ago," retorted the Vinvocci. "The next place is months away... and they have limited capability... how did you know?"

"We weren't that far away," answered the Doctor. "And Earth - sorry, Sol Three -, relayed the message to us. There is an agency on the planet that is not so xeno-phobic and they picked up your signal and sent it to me."

"And who are you?" she asked.

"Forgive me! I thought I said, but I guess I didn't," the Doctor said, surprised, and then she held out her hand in greeting. "I'm the Doctor, and this is Jack and Ianto, my travel companions."

"That... wait... I know that name... my sister met a man on Earth by the name of the Doctor... but he was a man..." said the Vinvocci.

"Was she running around as a scientist, working for a millionaire with a device that supposedly could heal anything?" asked the Doctor, and at the Vinvocci's affirmative nod. "Oh good, how is she doing?"

"You're... you're the same one?" exclaimed the Vinvocci, and when the Doctor nodded she grasped the Doctor's hand and shook it. "Oh my word, Doctor, it's truly, truly an honour and thank the stars you're here. If you're anything like what my sister said you were, maybe you can help us. While that doesn't answer the question of how you got here, or why you're female all of a sudden, I'll live with that for now."

"Is your sister here?"

"No... she's on Vinvoccel, why?"

"Well, she was lovely to work with. Absolutely brilliant, actually."

"I'll let her know you said that, if we get out of this..." the Vinvocci woman slapped her forehead. "And I know who you are, but I haven't told you my name. I'm Kelin, the Director of this station."

"Pleased to meet you, Kelin." The Doctor leaned on the rail, and then she looked at Jack and Ianto. With an incline and motion of her head, she signalled to them to investigate on their own, which they did... heading for the nearest stairs down to the busy area below. "Why don't you fill me in?"

Kelin led her to a lift. "It's better if I show you."


ACT TWO


Jack and Ianto walked through the busy throngs of people. The packing was done at an orderly, if frantic, pace- and anyone old enough and strong enough to help, even children, was doing so. Those who weren't old enough were kept close and watched by older siblings. "What are we looking for?" asked Ianto after awhile.

"Probably that other Time Lord she sensed, or signs of someone who might have not had the station's best interests at heart." Jack looked around. So far everyone seemed to belong, except, of course Jack and Ianto themselves. "She will work on finding the technical fault and fixing it, if she can, and then probably help with the evac if she can't. We are her eyes on other things."

Ianto nodded. "That's what I thought."

Jack had no idea if it were true or not but it seemed a reasonable idea. After all, he and Ianto were investigators of a sort back on Earth. Torchwood certainly qualified in the investigation part. Ianto seemed on edge, and Jack supposed it had something to do with the field of blue that filled the windows of the station.

It was an advanced station, of obvious alien make, but also had the same clunky modular design that was common throughout all space-faring planets, although, given that it was a station, it was far more open in feel, with open concept promenades that were multiple levels high and the sides made of plas-steel 'window's to the outside so that it didn't feel as cramped as a ship would. It had market spaces, and hydroponic garden spaces that likely helped in recycling air, water, and wastes in a more refreshing and natural manner than a recycling filter.

The lights dimmed, and the humans and Vinvocci alike looked around in alarm. When they came back up, Jack and Ianto found themselves face to face with a startled looking man.

Ianto stepped around him. "Pardon me, sir, didn't see you there," said Ianto, not even giving him a second thought, but he turned back around when he saw that Jack and the strange man were staring at each other in unabashed shock.

"Holy shit," said Jack, staring at the man who stared back in equal shock. "Of all the people we didn't expect to find."

Ianto looked at the stranger closer.

He wasn't unattractive, and Ianto, although there was a stirring of jealousy, appreciated the man. He was tall and whip thin, but not skinny. At least, not too skinny as to be unattractive. His hair was a shade of dark blonde bordering on brown, but still more blonde than brown, and he wore it short, spiky... sideburns.

He wore a blue pinstripe suit that was fitted to his body and... this made Ianto almost snort in derision at the fashion faux pas... Converse running shoes in red.

He also had a grin that could power the entire station, so broad and almost manic it was. "Captain Jack Harkness... didn't I leave you on Earth?" he asked, and the accent screamed Londoner.

Ianto couldn't make sense of it, and then it hit him. He had seen this man before. Twice. Once on a security screen in black and white at Canary Wharf, standing beside Director Yvonne Hartman, and then again on a computer screen when the Earth was stolen by the Daleks a few years ago. Being a time traveller himself twice over, he knew this man.

His lost Autumn's son.

The Doctor.


The Doctor followed Kelin onto the bridge of the space station. Only, she supposed, one could not call it the bridge as it was not a ship per se. Well, it fell into the in between area. She pushed those thoughts aside and focused on everything around her. As a Time Lord, she could multitask and, like others could keep track on one train of thought, she could follow far more than that easily. It was one of the reasons her grandfather, or her, had always seemed like they bounced around from topic to topic and back again without ever losing track while their human companions tried to just keep up.

While verbally it was hard to follow, as a telepathic race they could also hold multiple topics of conversation all at once. It was like the difference between broadband and dial up - not only could their minds keep pace but so could the connection between them.

It was only used when needed as doing so could still cause headaches, even in them. But, with practice entire conversations could be held without so much as a word being spoken. It was still so tiring though, and was why Time Lords still had vocal cords as talking in their equally, but necessarily, complex language was out of sheer necessity to keep up with the thread of conversation.

She missed the other Time Lords, even the ones she had not gotten on with very well. Their loss meant the mental and basic connection of even just the language was also lost. It would have been nice to still have her grandfather around just to talk to.

The Doctor could still sense the touch and feel of another Time Lord, but he - or she - were tamping down so much on their psychic signature that she could not tell who it was, or even their gender... but she kept trying... sending out gentle touches to lure the other into the open. She kept sending their word for please, as well as the sense of loneliness she felt, to them trying to get them to respond, but they refused. Surely they felt the same?

Or... perhaps because the range was so short now that for the communication to work - other than simply knowing there was another - that they had to be in the same room and the other was also screaming the same and wondering why she wasn't responding.

Arcanye hlarnyni...

There was a slight acknowledge to her call, almost a touch in return but no actual words, not even an impression of any feeling behind but it was better than nothing.

Kelin finished explaining. "We simply lost power, with no explanation or how or why."

"I'll need to see your power readings, maybe I can pick out something you missed."

"Of course." Kelin called another person, a human man. "This is Cole, he can show you what you need to see. Cole, this is the Doctor. Could you show her around? She's going to see if she can fix our problem."

"All right, Kelin," answered Cole, and he led the Doctor over to his station. "We noticed the power drain after the last cargo hauler came through."

"Anything unusual about the hauler?" asked the Doctor.

"No, the usual. Cargo and some new personnel, when the Vinvocci say cargo they mean passengers as much as actual cargo like we do," answered Cole. "There was the usual on the ship of both."

"And I imagine that they were checked out thoroughly?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'd imagine so. It's not really my department though. I'm engineering, not security or shipping/receiving," explained Cole, as the Doctor took out her sonic screwdriver and used to hack into the records and pull up the records. "Hmm, a whole lot of boring. The actual cargo is as ordered, no surprises there. People check out from both Vinvoccel and various worlds where humanity comes in. No other aliens."

The Doctor then watched the security feed of the passengers. All normal, so far as she... and then she saw him.

"No..." she breathed. "It can't be."


Ianto watched as Jack and the Doctor, this Doctor, caught up. "Jack, I could have sworn I just left you in Cardiff..."

"You... what?" asked Jack surprised, before he grasped his shoulders. "Doctor... before I answer that answer me this... why did you just leave me in Cardiff?"

"Well, you and Martha just helped me with some repairs to the TARDIS after... ah... what happened on the Valiant... why?" asked the Doctor, puzzled. "How long has it been for you?"

"Significantly longer, but I can't tell you more than that."

"Nor would I want you to!" Then the Doctor looked over at Ianto. "Who is this?"

"This is Ianto Jones, he's also from Torchwood... the same Torchwood you took me back to," answered Jack. "Oh shit, sorry, forgot to introduce you two. Ianto, this is the Doctor, the one I travelled with first. Well, kind of. The second one I travelled with. Doctor, this is Ianto Jones, my right hand at Torchwood and... he is also very special to me personally."

"Oh," answered the Doctor, his eyebrows raised with sudden understanding. "Oh! A pleasure, Mr. Jones... an absolute pleasure. Any friend of Jack's is a friend of mine."

The Doctor shook Ianto's hand enthusiastically and Ianto found himself smiling and shaking back. "A pleasure to meet you sir."

"Oh please, don't call me that. Just Doctor will do," said the Doctor in response.

"Understood, s... I mean, Doctor," answered Ianto, appraising the man as he did so.

There was so much of Autumn in him that it was easy to see the relation between mother and son, although... quite frankly, Autumn had been far more reserved even with the same joy of life. But... wait... no... there was something off. The eyes were not the same. Even his Doctor's eyes were the same as Autumn's, but his were more flat, not as full of life. Something wasn't right.

But now Jack and the Doctor were moving off. Ianto followed for a time, observing as he did so. He remembered the Doctor from Canary Wharf... from that short conversation on the computers when the Daleks stole their planet.

This was not the same man.

He looked like the same man, had most of the same mannerisms and was next to impossible to tell the difference, but Ianto could feel his instincts screaming that it was not. But Jack, for some reason could not see this, or perhaps would not see it. The original Doctor was long dead and perhaps Jack was hoping this was his friend. Ianto could understand that but knew it was folly.

It took a split second, but when both their attention was elsewhere, Ianto slipped away and double backed to the lift that the Doctor had taken. There was a guard there and he said to him, "I need to see the Doctor... she went with Kelin."

He was allowed on the lift, and a guard pressed a button as they rode the lift up.


ACT THREE


Jack was normally the most suspicious and observant man in a group. But he had one huge, gaping, blind spot and that blind spot was the Doctor. He walked on with his friend, oblivious to the signs that Ianto had picked up on. Granted, Ianto had not picked up on them immediately either, but he had picked up on them and quickly moved back and to the nearest person that could tell him the next step.

The Valeyard wondered at that. How would a man who, as far as his memory as "the Doctor" served, would have only known him by stories only? Obviously, in their long history they had not actually met until today or Jack would not have felt the need to actually introduce them.

But yet Ianto picked up on the differences enough to go running to Susan and alert her of the deception.

The Valeyard pushed the how he could have known, far faster than Jack, and then knew enough to not take him on face to face.

They were moving into a more seldom used part of the station now, and... finally... Jack noticed something wasn't quite right with the situation. "Hey... I know I always wanted to get you alone but I can't help but notice we've lost Ianto and there's no one around here."

"Very true," answered the Valeyard.

"So, Doc, where's the TARDIS?" asked Jack. "I have a tale to tell you, but I can't... but I've missed the TARDIS..."

"The funny part about that Jack is that I don't have the TARDIS," answered the Valeyard.

"You what?" asked Jack, surprised, then the suspicion and instinct started to click on. "But... how did you get here?"

"Hopped a trip with some aliens off of Earth, then made my way here. Funny thing is about this place is that its months away from anywhere that help could reach before something disastrous happens. Or... within range of a planet that has the curious habit of being the haunt of a miracle worker... an alien with a ship that can travel through time and space..." said the Valeyard evenly, as he walked around to block Jack's only method of escape.

"You're not the Doctor, are you?" asked Jack.

"No... I'm the Valeyard."

Jack didn't even see the punch coming, nor the following strike from the butt of a bolt pistol that knocked him unconscious.


Ianto ran onto the bridge and looked around, before laying eyes on the Doctor and running over to her. She looked up at him at the same time. "I found that other Time Lord."

"His name is the Valeyard - he's my grandfather's... he's the meta-crisis," she answered.

"But he's dead, isn't he?" asked Ianto.

"I'm sorry, who is the Valeyard?" asked Kelin, walking over and catching the tone of the conversation.

"Trouble," answered the Doctor, turning to Ianto. "Where's Jack."

"I couldn't separate them without him figuring out that I already figured him out." Ianto looked down. "I'm sorry."

The Doctor patted his arm. "No, don't be. You did right. You confirmed what I thought when I saw him walk on from the cargo ship. Kelin, this Valeyard is your saboteur, I'm sure of it. Now, I don't know what he did or when he did it, but..." The Doctor faded off, her mind elsewhere.

Now he'd feel the need to push at her mind and test the connection. Recognition snapped through the mutual connection. While she couldn't tell where he was, and vice versa, she now had his psychic identifying mark. Now, if they were to encounter each other the minute they sensed the other they'd know it was them. There was no words, no feelings, just the missing link of a presence and she nearly wept with the relief of having that part of her mind sing with the feel of another of her own kind.

And she could tell his mind was doing the same even as he struggled to shut it down, and to regain control.

Finally, there was a sense of resignation, and then, And so we meet again, Doctor.

The feel and sound of her language, and of another Time Lord, in her mind was like a thirsty man in a desert denied too long and then suddenly given water. She latched onto it with relief and joy, but still a healthy dose of wariness. We do, Valeyard. I must admit I am feeling mixed feelings on your survival.

Mixed? Truly? There was an amused not and... was that... regret or relief? I will admit the same. Let's drop the titles and pretences, Arkytior, you know what I want.

And you know I can't let you have it.

Do you really think you can stop me? I may be the, well, now I am a Time Lord. Interesting genes we have, very dominant... all it took was the burn of regeneration to recreate me fully. I have all his memories, his feelings... his skills and now his abilities. Who am I if not the Doctor? And now there was a definite note of amusement, but she could sense the other behind it.

You are not him. You have not only his memories, but also Donna's. And your own. You diverged from him and became your own person, now live with the consequences! She gritted her teeth. And I will stop you and this. I will honour him. And, as his 'son', if you want to honour him as well stop being such a selfish git and live up to the legacy he gave you... Uncle...

The contact was broken, even though she could still feel his presence like she would have another Time Lord before they had been lost.

She looked at Ianto and held his shoulder. "He wants the TARDIS."

"What?" asked Ianto. "How'd he know that we'd be here?"

"Think about it... who else could answer a distress call from here in time, given the closest place to hear it?"

Ianto did, and the minute it connected in his mind his expression darkened. Kelin also figured it out. "This whole thing is a trap for you?" she asked, almost but not quite disbelieving. "So what now?"

"We defuse his trap, and defeat the ambush," answered the Doctor. "But... we've already walked into it.


Jack woke and found himself lying on the floor, steel cargo crates like those used on Earth surrounding him in a square large enough to allow him to lay flat, and perhaps pace, but not much more than that. They were stacked neatly three or four high, and of course they were stacked so that the supports were on the vertical so that they could not be used to climb up and out.

He blinked and looked up to the familiar form of who he thought had been his friend but he now knew, belatedly, that he wasn't.

But at least he knew who it was. "The Valeyard, right?" asked Jack.

The Valeyard quirked an eyebrow. "You remember me."

"Oh yeah, I remember you." Jack looked around, but was disappointed to note that there wasn't any way out. "Aren't you dead?"

"I regenerated. Funny that. He told me I couldn't. Granted, I kept my appearance although I have to wonder if my next will look different. Probably..." He grinned, but, although Jack expected it to look the same it wasn't. It was far colder, not nearly as manic or wide, and it didn't quite reach his eyes. "... Especially now that I have two hearts and I can feel that I am a full Time Lord now. Separate. Different. My own man, Jack. But, I still have his memories even if now they feel more like I watch through another's eyes."

"Maybe because you're not him?" asked Jack.

"Hmm, perhaps," the Valeyard answered, then he sat down, letting one leg hang tantalizing out of reach but yet over the edge. "It wasn't hard to get you here, although I admit that Ianto was an unexpected third wheel in my plans. Didn't expect him to see through me faster than you, either. Just who is he?"

Jack latched onto that piece of information, but didn't answer. Ianto had been acting more and more like someone he didn't know. Granted, the Welshman had always played it close to the vest, and it was still Ianto, but since knowing he too had travelled in time and space with a Time Lord by the name of Autumn... Ianto had started showing signs of knowing far more than a plain human ought.

And the Valeyard had picked up on it minutes into knowing him.

Not that Jack was going to enlighten him on why that would be. "I don't know. I'm as surprised as you."

"Don't lie to me Jack."

"What would make you think I was?" asked Jack.

"Because, while you don't know me, I do have his memories and so I know you. I know your tells. You're lying to me."

"And, even if I knew I wouldn't tell you." Jack paced. "Not my place."

"And that I believe." The Valeyard stood. "Fine then, play it your way."

"So... what are you up to?" asked Jack.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" asked the Valeyard, rhetorically. "And I'm not going to tell you of course. Rule number one - never tell a prisoner your plan or gloat over their predicament. They invariably escape to tell their friends and therefore your enemy can counter you the more efficiently."

Dammit, swore Jack inwardly. It would figure that when the Doctor went evil and changed his name to the Valeyard that he'd know better than to make the typical mistakes. "No offense, but I don't appear to be in a position to escape."

"None taken," answered the Valeyard. "I won't be a cruel prison master, however, I must take my leave. There are details that need ironing out. Later Jack."

With that he left and Jack slid down the side of a crate to sit on the cold floor.


ACT FOUR


"So what are we going to do?" asked Kelin. "Are you giving up?"

The Doctor shook her head. "By far not, I just have to change up my plan a bit. First, we have find Jack. Maybe the Valeyard might have slipped an idea of how he plans to get the TARDIS from me, and maybe what he did..." she trailed off. "No, the Valeyard was never like that. He always played it close to the vest."

"You've encountered him before?" asked Ianto.

"Yes, and no," answered the Doctor, remembering through her grandfather's memories.

Her grandfather's murder trial - which thankfully had been trumped up and false charges - back on Gallifrey pushed itself to the forefront, including when he had tried to convince her grandfather to abandon his own principles. No one could have expected finding out that the Valeyard was a future incarnation of the Doctor, but yet not. A possible future... only more complicated... as it would seem as the truth became obvious with the meta-crisis' fall.

Rassilon only knew what he had up his damn sleeve now.

"First, let's fix the damage and stop that part of his plan. Lives first." She decided as she ran around the bridge with her sonic out.

"Use the security cameras to track his movements," suggested Ianto. "Surely you have CCTV?"

The Doctor looked at Ianto, then back at Kelin and the engineer. "Uh, yeah," answered Cole.

"Ianto, that was brilliant," said the Doctor.

"Thanks... it's just standard operation procedure at Torchwood," he responded.

"Now let's see where he's been..."

The video was surprisingly accurate, following him from the ship to his quarters. The Doctor stood up straighter as Ianto pulled out his gun and checked it. "Careful." She said coolly. "One shot into a bulkhead you'll be out in space with him."

"I'll keep that in mind," said Ianto as he pushed the clip into his gun and slid the first round into the chamber. "Kelin, have security back me up."

The Doctor continued to watch him and then the video screens started going out, static filling them. There was an amused chortle in her mind. "Naturally," she mused, "…he cut off the security feed and wiped the memory."

With a sigh she joined Ianto in the lift.


"You realize this is a trap," said Ianto. "There is no way he would let us see where his 'nest' is and then, conveniently, cut off the feed history at that point."

"I know, that's why I'm coming with you. It's only a trap-"

"- If we're not expecting it," he finished. "I don't have a spare."

"It's fine. My grandfather hated guns, and as such the whole universe expects me, as the Doctor, to not approve of their use." She sighed. "Personally... I don't like them either but sometimes I can see their purpose. I'm unusual, even in regards to my own people, in that way. I have this memory, of a school on Earth, where a Krillitane told my grandfather - taunted him - that he knew my grandfather wouldn't resort to violence because he was a Time Lord, and the Time Lords were so pacifist that they were almost indolent in their complacency."

"What happened?" asked Ianto.

"My grandfather engineered it so that the school was blown up with the Krillitane threat inside. He might not have pulled the trigger himself but he made it so it would happen that way." The Doctor looked at Ianto. "We have to entertain the thought that if the Valeyard has Jack, then he also has a key to the TARDIS. I'll have to move it and when I do, we'll be separated for a few minutes at most. Unless..."

"He won't know where it is."

"But he could have found it," the Doctor sighed again, then she thought of something. "Cole, show me that video feed of his quarters again."


The Valeyard had not found it. In fact, while he had hacked the security feed and tracked their movements, the TARDIS eluded him. She couldn't be avoiding him, could she? He truly wondered at that while he wandered around. By all rights she should be overjoyed to see him and he felt the burn of his anger in the pit of his stomach again.

She couldn't have been expecting him... could she? No. Jack was genuinely surprised to see him and she herself had been reaching out, calling for a connection without knowing that it was him... only knowing that she was sensing another Time Lord...

The Valeyard swore.

She had known there was another Time Lord, but she had been smart enough to not assume that he was an ally. She had remembered the Year That Never Was, which coincidentally, was how he had tricked Jack into thinking he was the Doctor by pretending it was right after Martha left him.

They both had used the memories of the original Doctor to trick each other.

With a smile, he wondered whose trap the other was walking into. Was she walking into his... all the while, he was sure, knowing it was a trap? Or was she using herself as bait to lure him to her trap. "And so it is to be a Time Lord game, is it?" he mused aloud, chiding himself at underestimating her when he really should not have.

Arkytior had been brilliant in the Academy and had graduated with top honours, and she had lived among the imaginative humans long enough to pick up their cunning. Combined with Time Lord strategy she was nearly unstoppable... like him with Donna's own human creative imagination.

He paced just on the other side of Jack's impromptu prison. There was only one way out of this and that would be to force each other into the open.

They had so neatly forced each other into such an impasse. In fact, it was only a matter of time before she used her considerable resources to solve the sabotage of the station.

A thrum under his feet told him she already had.


The Doctor grinned as she and Cole reconnected the broken connections on the complete opposite side of the station from the quarters that the Valeyard had been given. She had to admit that it was cunning game of shells. Appear to go to one place, alter the records to make it look like he had entered his quarters at one time... but be in a whole other at the same time.

Then it had been simple math to figure out how long he had truly taken to make it to his quarters, and then where he had been.

The station righted itself and began to pull itself out of the atmosphere. It would take hours to fully put itself into the proper orbit but already the air of panic was dissipating as everyone realized that they were moving farther away from the less than friendly planet. The Doctor nodded to Ianto as she walked above the promenade.

It was then she saw them.

The Valeyard and Jack at the other end of the bridge like walkway. The Valeyard held a gun, and she still felt that same chill as it was such an odd thing to see in his hands, especially with that same cool, detached look on his face. Jack was cuffed with his hands to the front, and, except for a spectacular bruise on his face, was otherwise unharmed.

"I'm sure we both know that you holding him hostage is kind of useless," she said as she motioned the security team back. "We both know that he's the man that can't die."

"I know that," answered the Valeyard. "I was bringing him back to you. He serves no purpose to me, and, unfortunately, you fixed what did serve a purpose for me."

"What was that?" asked the Doctor.

"You win, Arkytior," he said, a bit sadly. "Admittedly, I have to wonder, though... what if I could use him after all?"

Ianto stepped forward, but the Doctor held him back. "Valeyard..."

"I could always take him with me, keep you running after me, but then you'd have to know where... and when... I was..." the Valeyard smiled as he held up the key, Jack's key, to the TARDIS. "And if you don't have her, how will you follow?"

"You don't have her either, I think we both know that, or we wouldn't be having this conversation. Get to the point, although I already know what it is," said the Doctor sharply.

"Where's my TARDIS, Arkytior?"

"And that's why you haven't left yet." She shook her head. "She isn't your TARDIS. Technically, she never was. And the person who could have given her to you is dead, Valeyard. Dead. I miss him terribly and while you look like him you keep proving to me that you aren't him."

"Indeed, and unlike him, I have no problem with saying this - you managed to fix this bucket of bolts because I let you... but there is a secondary relay that if I push this..." He took out a remote with his other hand from a pocket inside his suit jacket. "... it causes all the power to fail. We fall out of the sky and we all die, right here, right now. Unless you not only show me where the TARDIS is, but everyone on here to evacuate them because only you can at that point."

Jack looked at the Doctor, gripping the rail and then looking out at the massive windows overlooking the already deserted, and evacuated, promenade. Station security had already made sure all civilians were safely out of firing range. She followed his glance with the corner of her eye, keeping both eyes squarely on the Valeyard.

The idea of Jack's connected in her mind, and it did in Ianto's as Ianto turned, hooked his knee on the opposite rail, bracing with the other leg as he pulled out his gun, remembering her former warning...

"One shot into a bulkhead you'll be out in space with him."

... Ianto never wasted his breath on words, that would have given him too much warning, he simply pulled the trigger and emptied his clip into the window. He focused all his fire into one area, weakening it and then, finally, the pressure on the window did the rest as the cracks snaked out in all directions.

The Valeyard realized what happened all too slowly, dropped his own gun and the remote device in order to grab a hold of something, anything, to stop what was coming.

The glass shattered and the vacuum of space sucked everything not secured down out. The Doctor grasped the rail as hard as she could, as did Cole and Kelin, their legs stretched out as the pull of space sucked the air out of their lungs and the heat out, as well.

There was a scream, and the Doctor watched in horror as the Valeyard tried to grasp the rail, but he was seconds too slow. He was too far away for her to grab his hand, but she reached for him, shouting her grandfather's name in Gallifreyan as the Valeyard was sucked outside into the space... his body slowly cartwheeling and free falling outside in the field of blue.

The station's safeties kicked in, and everything fell to the floor as humans and Vinvocci, and the lone Time Lord, sucked in breath in relief. The Doctor, Ianto and Jack looked in horror as the figure faded into the distance, lost in the endless blue.

Then there was a flash of light and the shadow was gone.

Jack blinked, then checked his wrist. "Fuck me... he's got my Vortex Manipulator."

They looked outside. "He could be anywhere now," said Ianto.

"Thankfully, not any when," said Jack. "Never did get that part up and running. Just the teleportation."

The Doctor closed her eyes, then looked back outside. Her expression was far away, as were her senses. She couldn't sense him anymore. That didn't mean he was dead.

It just meant he was too far out of her range.


NEXT CHAPTER
10 - HOTEL CALIFORNIA

A semi-song fic episode based on the famous Eagles song of the same name. The TARDIS team ends up in California during the 1960's. They learn of a hotel that people check into, and then mysteriously disappear from. Are they next?

PLUS, in time for May...

The special at the end of this (after the "13" chapters/episodes of the regular fan season are done) will be;

MAY DAY

The Doctor is called to a factory where something "strange" is suspected by both Torchwood & UNIT. It becomes obvious that she cannot send her usual help in as another, former, companion already works there as a temp - no other than Donna Noble. Can the Doctor deal with the alien threat while keeping Donna from remembering her life in the TARDIS?