As I am a professional writer and have work to do to get paid, I have decided to deal with these thudding plot bunnies in the traditional manner - I will inflict them on others. Please see my Profile for the Challenges of the Month. This month's October Challenges have been added to keep you amused, bemused, or just plain disconcerted. If you'd rather do September's, please feel free! The new challenges will run through the end of October. Please let me know when you respond to a Challenge so I can read and review.

Response to ZephyrFox's challenge for July II!

A/N: This is an extra long chapter to make up for all the delays with this thing. I would very much like to thank OlfactoryVentriloquism for helping (read: rescuing) this chapter. Updates SHOULD be more frequent now, as the presumptive plot is back on course.

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who. However, I do not guarantee this to be a permanent condition.


Double Crossing

Chapter 8: Of Storms and Champions

The Doctor woke in darkness to the screaming in the back of his skull. Something was wrong with Rose.

She was with the other him, though, so he had to put it aside for the moment, had to do, or he wouldn't be able to help her. If he couldn't concentrate, if he couldn't trust that his earlier incarnation would protect her, then he would never even get back to her, forget saving her. He was trapped and lifting his head was out of the question, obviously. He gingerly moved his arms. OK, they weren't bound. Brilliant. He could feel the sonic screwdriver pressing into his chest.

Careful, achingly slow maneuvering got the screwdriver into his hand where it belonged and he touched it without looking to the torch setting. He turned it on. Humph. Some kind of cell, not really the boot of a car, more like a coffin, really.

A few more twitches with the screwdriver and he had ascertained that there were no guards in the vicinity. Good. Another twitch and the door above him flew open abruptly. He wriggled around - he was in a smuggler's hole, how undignified was that - and stood like Death rising from his tomb.

They had harmed Rose. They were going to pay.


The Doctor turned to the burly green aliens, his eyes blazing, all his shields gone. Time's Champion had been invited to play their game, and he would. By his rules, though, because theirs no longer applied. They had forfeited by harming Rose.

He hardly dared think what he believed her to be.

"You have the weapons, then, don't you?" he intoned, dark power stirring within the words, a weapon he wielded by the blade. "You're in charge, aren't you?"

"That's right," the larger of the two remaining aliens said, uncertainly.

"You like being in control. You have the power, you can do harm. Harm to innocent girls, harm to children, harm to your friends. But that's all right, because you're in charge."

One of the two had already been reduced to tears, falling under the mesmeric power of cold words and blazing eyes. Ace was bending over Rose, not looking at him. Good, because he didn't like it when she saw this.

"You can even hurt me, can't you?" he mused, turning the full weight of his baleful attention on the smaller of the two, the one who wasn't already balled up on the floor, weeping. "I'm not armed, I'm just a man. I need to be put out of the way. You can do that. You're in charge."

The alien cringed and froze. The Doctor reached over and dropped him with a single touch.

Rose struggled to her feet, and smiled at him. He didn't bother to bank the fire, didn't even consider it. She could look into his baleful eyes, see the star fire, watch eternity dance. It would mean nothing to her. She saw only the Doctor, her Doctor, regardless of his appearance.

Ten was right. All Doctors were hers and always would be.

"Thank you," she whispered, and touched his face, her hot human hand a comforting fire against his skin.

He smiled at her and blinked as he replaced his shields, then returned the gesture. "My Rose," he said, softly. She nodded and grinned at him.

He hugged her tightly. "Ace," he announced, over Rose's shoulder, "we've got work to do."

Ace nodded. "Wicked," she proclaimed. Then, she reached down and grabbed the one alien who was still conscious - though gibbering - in a headlock. "C'mon, toad face, why don't you show us what you're up to? And if he's not scary enough, I've got a deodorant can that registers nine on the richter scale."

"What, seriously?" said Rose, detaching herself carefully from the Doctor's embrace.

"Oh, yes," said Ace, while her captive struggled.

"Fantastic!" Rose proclaimed.

The Doctor laughed.


The Doctor found himself on a spaceship. Every section of the lower decks - he'd scanned through twelve of them from the computer terminal he found - was taken completely with the small smugglers holes he'd been in. They were empty, though.

How very unusual.

He checked the ship's schematics and found it was decidedly odd. If he didn't know better - and he didn't - he would swear it had been designed to look like the ship on the television show. The problem was, the thing really wasn't suited for hyper-space. If it had a quantum drive, maybe - something neither he nor Seven had mentioned last night - or, if it had temporal engines that allowed it to behave more like the TARDIS than the Enterprise, then maybe, just maybe, it might almost work.

He'd thought they were here to pick up a badly behaved prince and stop a small-time arms deal. This ship, though, put the lie to what their mission really was. Something was going on, something major, and he had only one way to be sure. It was time to find the Prince and get some answers. He checked the map of this thing and headed up to the bridge, scanning constantly to have some warning if any aliens approached.

He reached a lift and couldn't help the grin. They'd even painted the doors red like on the show. What was going on here?


"The green devices are for those we wish to destroy," the green alien confessed grimly.

The Doctor, Ace, and Rose had him tied up in the drapes from their suite. Ace looked at the Doctor in horror, then down at the alien draped over the sofa, her eyes furious and frightened. The Doctor laid a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Did I...?" she whispered.

"The poison doesn't really harm us," the alien said, flippantly. He sounded like he was rolling his eyes.

"How many of the green devices have you distributed?" Rose demanded.

"Just the one," the alien said, grimly. "And she turned it on Kalpor. I told them this wouldn't work." He sounded exasperated. Rose was angry, but glad they'd caught the right one, the one who was obviously in it for a quick buck and would roll if he thought himself in danger.

"And what have you done to Rose?" the Doctor demanded.

"Wasn't me. Prince Mevlin did that, didn't he? No idea what the little weasel's really up to. He hired us, and I just do what I'm paid to do."

"And what was that?" demanded Rose, coldly, trying to sound like she wasn't the weakest link in this group.

"Recruit an army," the alien said, and he laughed like this was some kind of game.

Rose glowered. "How are you recruiting this army, then? Selling toys to sci-fi fanatic kids, doesn't seem like you're being too careful in your selection."

"Oh, but we are," denied the alien, still finding humor in a suggestion that horrified Rose. "Kalpor and Dervis were picking them out. My job was just to man the booth."

"Mind control," Rose decided. She looked at the Doctor for confirmation and he smiled and nodded at her.

"Some kind of hypnotic or telepathic field in the device," he agreed. "We'll need one of the devices to study so that we can disable them."

"Sorry," the alien jeered, "we're fresh out. Just like I told your pretty little friend."

"Why you little scum bag!" Ace shouted. She dove for him, and it was only the Doctor's restraining hand on her shoulder that prevented her from completing the gesture and probably pounding their captive to a pulp.

Rose thought she would have let her.


The lift opened up on a strange version of the Star Trek set. The Doctor sighed, absolutely, one hundred percent convinced now that something utterly insane was happening. On the view screen, opposite the lift, the Earth turned, merrily oblivious, as it so often was, to the death of the day hanging in the sky.

Back on Earth, other him had discovered that this whole incident seemed to involve some sort of mind control, apparently meant to recruit an army somehow. It explained, really, why he was remembering everything live action. He had to know what was going on for the other group, without having to break his concentration to delve in the vaults of his memory, and this was almost as good as having an active telepathic link.

If only he did, though, he could communicate back to them what he had discovered. He could keep a mental hand in Rose's. He could let them all know that this place was obviously madness.

"How the hell did you get loose?" demanded a cold voice from across the bridge.

"There you are," the Doctor answered flippantly. "I've been looking for you, and it isn't polite to hide from me when I'm looking for you. Honestly, what would your father say?"

"What do I care what that passive old idiot has to say about anything?" asked the Prince, stepping into the light. The Doctor noted, with interest, that he was kitted out to look rather like a young version of Mr. Spock.

"Come on, Prince Mevlin," the Doctor said, "the game's over, your ride's here, and it's time to get you back to Mdrestry. Your father's been worried about your safety."

"Don't be stupid," answered the Prince. "He just wants to brainwash me into the same old mould he's in. The Mdrestry are a powerful race, and all they want to do is sit around and count passing space ships."

"I would sympathize, but this ship is armed to the teeth. And recruiting an army, Prince? What are you going to do with them?"

The Prince fidgeted toward a control panel that was just out of his reach. The Doctor moved between him and it, letting time dilate as necessary to put him there faster than an eye blink. "Forget it," he said. "The only thing you're going to do is deactivate whatever you've put on Rose and anyone else you've tagged with your devices. You're very, very lucky, right now, that I'm in a forgiving mood. There are rules about people like you, you know, and if I weren't a born rule-breaker, I'd be dealing with you by the customs of my people."

"Your people," the Prince sneered. "Ancient, decrepit, and dead long before they ever disappeared from existence. They had the power to rule the entire multi-verse, and what did they do? Nothing."

Rage was building inside the Doctor's skull, an ancient, titanic rage that carried the Storm and was, in turn, carried by it. "You know nothing about my people," the Doctor replied, and it was all he could do not to reach for the Prince and wring his thin neck.

"Oh, but I do," the Prince said with a cold, bitter laugh. "I know who you are, Doctor. The Last of the Time Lords, all alone, because your wonderful people wouldn't even fight to save their own lives. Too caught up in their apathy and their superiority to even notice as the Universe was torn to shreds around them. My people remember the Time War, the War that never happened. And we remember the evil that ended it."

"Then you know better, I should think, than to challenge me. I'm not the sort of man who deals lightly with destroyers, and I will not see you play games with the Earth. It is mine to do with as I please, and I will protect it."

The Prince laughed. "There's no one left to defend you, Doctor, nothing for you to fall back on. You're all alone and the Universe will do very well without you. I will take Mdrestry and destroy you, and my people will replace yours just fine."

The Doctor jumped toward him, infuriated. The Prince jumped out of the way and caromed off the console the Doctor had been defending. His fingers touched one big blue button and there was a sudden, clawing ache inside the Doctor's head, something like a pivotal thread being wrenched sideways, wrecking the whole tapestry as it went. The rage was blasted away by enormous, towering fear.

"What have you done?!" the Doctor demanded, even as his mind searched, frantically, futilely, for Rose.


The Doctor led his companions back into the Conference Hall, determined to find the first person with one of the blue devices and snatch it away. He let Ace go in first, keeping a hand on Rose, not even sure why, now. He was worried for her, there was nothing else for it. Until they got the devices disabled, he was absolutely convinced that she was in terrible danger.

Ace snagged the nearest blue-painted kid the second she walked through the door. "She's got one," she said, holding the kid firmly by the back of her odd tunic.

Rose sighed. "Let her go, Ace, this isn't her fault. We need to see that blue device you're carrying," she added to the blue painted girl, kindly.

The girl stared at them and, with trembling hands, gave the bright, sparkling device over to Ace. "They said it was for an RPG," she said softly. "Told us that everyone who had one would be eligible to play. Me and my friends all got one."

"I don't blame you," Rose said gently. "Unfortunately, we think there may be something wrong with them." She trailed off and looked around. "Doctor?" she asked.

"Yes Rose?" he said.

"He's... there's something wrong, I'm sure of it, this time," she said.

The Doctor frowned. Definitely a link, then, and he wasn't even a little surprised, not any more. "What do you feel, Rose?" he asked.

She turned and looked at him, while Ace toyed with the little machine, trying to figure out what made it work. Her dark eyes were huge and blazing. "Rage," she said, softly. "There's a Storm coming."

The Doctor shivered.

Ace pushed one more button and then, suddenly and completely unexpectedly, something very, very strange happened.

A vivid blue beam exploded from the end of the device. It hit Ace in the face, and then caromed off her in waves, washing over several people who were standing nearby.

All the other devices in the room also seemed to light up, their beams having the exact same effect. The Doctor glanced at Rose in concern, and was nearly floored by what he saw. Her eyes had gone distant, misty, and he could feel abject terror clamoring for his attention inside his skull. What was happening?

Rose looked around her, seeming puzzled and confused. Then, her eyes fell on Ace with the blue device. "Right," she said, firmly, an odd tone in her voice like she'd had yesterday when she began telling them what to do, only... more so.

"We need to get back to the ship," she said, decisively. Then, she reached and touched the fake little gold device on her chest. "Transporter room?" she said. "We need to beam up."

The Doctor gaped at her in astonishment, then stared at Ace in horror as the girl took a position at Rose's side.

A massive teleport washed over the room and suddenly, everyone in it was gone.

The Doctor was left standing there alone, gaping in anguish, confusion, and rage, at the kidnapping of an entire Star Trek convention.