A/N: - OK, just an insignificant teeny-weeny that I thought I'd put in for the sake of it. I've changed all of my Chapter Titles and changed them into appropriate song titles that I know. Got bored with all the 'Hmm, what should I call this chapter?' fiasco! LOLz.
Un-Betaed. Will be soon. Thanks to sonicthecat7 for beta-ing my other chapters anyway!
So firstly, one-million-and-one cyber choccies/cookies to the people who correctly tell me the artist of the song title/chapter title!
Disclaimer: I DO (NOT) OWN DOCTOR WHO!!! :D
THANK YOU ALL CHUMETTES FOR THE FABULOUS GORGEY REVIEWS YOU'VE GIVEN ME!!!! CYBER-COOKIES AND CHOCOLATES TO ALL… =D
As always, read and review…
HAPPY READING!
I was going to add Donna in this story, but then it might trigger some alarms as a too much of a fix-it fic, so I've scrapped that idea. But, but, BUT, hear me out first: if I don't include her in this, then I will do a sequel solely dedicated to bringing the amazing wonderful Donna Noble back! Here is the catch: if you would like Donna to be part of this story, just tap me a review/PM. Love to know your opinions.
If anyone is wondering, I borrowedteeny-tiny aspect from Darren Shan's Demonata series concerning the lights part, to open windows into other Universes. If I did not, things would get complicated. Extra long chapter to make-up for the wait.
=D
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"Gwen?" Jack asked tentatively, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Are you OK? What happened?"
"Oh gawd, my head! What the hell happened to me?" Gwen swung her legs around to let them dangle over the edge of the bed and she cupped her head in her hands, shaking away the throbbing. She rocked her head back and forth a couple of times, before looking up. "I'm parched, d'you have any water, Jack?"
Ianto happened to be in the right place, at the right hand, carrying the right thing and Jack eased the polystyrene cup of water from his hands and pushed it into Gwen's.
"Thanks," she muttered gratefully, swigging down the contents in four big gulps, as Captain Jack, the Doctor, Mickey and Ianto eyed her with concern. Her head felt like it was on fire and blurry reminisces of what had just happened flickered vaguely through her head. A sudden cold, unwelcoming, silver image replayed in her head, followed by a series of gruesome scenes, and the girl jolted back in surprise, manically checking her hands – for blood.
"The knife!" she yelped, eyes skimming the room frantically. "Where's the knife?"
"It's downstairs, on the table, where you guys left it." Mickey replied.
"Why, is there something we need to know?" Jack asked her, stepping forward.
"No, I just… It's… I keep seeing visions in my head and… Hell, do I hate this job… I can't even go one bleeding week without somethin happ'ning to me."
Jack chuckled, "Aw, Gwen, you're hurting my feelings! You'd better not be meaning that. Surely, it can't be that bad," he winked cheekily at her. "Especially since you're dealing with the sexiest boss alive, I mean, how is that a bad thing?"
"Shut up!" grinned Gwen weakly.
"Not now, Captain," the Doctor warned and turned his back on Jack, eyes fixated on Gwen, as he said gently. "What did you see, Gwen? What did the Knife show you?"
"I can't remember," she replied truthfully, trying to capture the dream as snippets of it whirred through her head. "It's all blurs, like a dream I can't remember."
"So you can't remember anything at all?" the Doctor pressed, but was responded with a humble shake of head. "Nothing at all? Not even the slightest chance of a reminisce?"
"No…"
"Right, never mind. Now, about you, are you feeling OK? Any weird symptoms, visions, energy drainage?" the Doctor asked nonchalantly, producing his Sonic again.
"'Cept for this blooming hell of a headache, then no, I'm fine," Gwen said and allowed the Doctor to bleep her all over with his weird blue-torchlight gadget. She wouldn't even start to ask what it was. When he'd finally finished 'scanning' her, the Doctor ended with some geeky conclusion which translated as 'Gwen is alright.'
"Ianto, can you fetch the scanner. We can't be too careful; the Sonic might've missed something in the scan," Jack ignored the wail of protest from the Doctor. "We need to check if there have been any bodily malfunctions or an unusual energy transfer that's affected her," Jack ordered to Ianto.
"Yes, sir."
"Well, there musta bin somethin', 'cos you were all twitchy an' stuff. I remember you kept muttering about that knife thing an' you said somethin' 'bout Suzie, swaying mountains and summat 'bout a big black hole 'that shone like the sun but was as dark as night'. I mean how does that work? You were like some sorta robot, jerkin' around and stuff – you were talkin' as if it was you facing everythin'… It was really weird."
"Mickey, I appreciate your assistance, but I don't think that's helping," the Doctor put in simply, shooting Mickey a warning glare as if to say: I think its best you stay out of this for the moment, because it's not making Gwen feel any better by telling her that she went a bit… astray from the real world Mickey scowled inwardly.
In fact, the Doctor was wrong.
"Wait, I think Mickey's just jogged my memory again," Gwen said frowning, eyes widening as the memories played like a cartoon-strip in her ebony-black pupils. In the background, Mickey grinned and nodded smugly to the Doctor "I can remember everything; the swaying mountains, the Vortex, the twin-suns, the runaway Timelord, the Knife, the great War, Earth, Cardiff, the weevils, the Rift, Suzie and… me." Gwen laughed with disbelief. "Oh, you 'ave got to be kidding me!"
"What is it?"
"I think I must be going mad, 'cos I think I know who this Chosen One is."
"Who?"
"Jack, I am so gonna kill you for this! Thing is, I think it's me...."
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14:30pm
After they'd all tucked into a 'nutritious' lunch of cold chips and cheese sandwiches, they got back to work again.
Jack busied himself 'supervising' the Doctor and Gwen. Gwen had suddenly started to remember after Mickey had somehow done the trick and jogged her memory back. Ever since that moment in time, the Doctor and Gwen were like houses on fire – the Doctor firing geekier and geekier technobabble by the minute, while Gwen chivalrously nodded and added small snippets of her 'when the Knife possessed her' knowledge, that made the biggest difference to the Doctor's wild presumptions. The Captain was almost jealous at their newfound companionship!
The Doctor never treated him like that the first time he met him – well he was all Big Ears and moody with him first time round, because of ahem an uh certain… con… Let's not go into that. Yet.
According to Gwen, the Knife's knowledge was permanently implanted in her head and she could remember everything – most importantly, she thought she could remember how to cut windows into different Universe. When that new information was released, the Doctor went ecstatic and immediately jerked into technobabble-heaven mode and for just those shining moments, it looked as if…
"Everything's turning up Doctor!" the Time Lord exclaimed contentedly, a brief memory niggling his thoughts as he said it.
But as the afternoon wore onwards, things weren't going so well. Firstly, the Doctor had enthusiastically produced the Knife and checked some things over with Gwen, verifying repeatedly whether she was ready – for what, Captain Jack didn't know. After a whole load of insisting that she was going to be fine and would yell at the top of her lungs if something went wrong, they were finally ready. The Doctor somehow 'opened' Gwen's mind and unlocked some sort of hidden conscience, that supposedly exposed creativity and acceptance, of some sort. The Doctor claimed that every Human had this conscience in hiding, which apparently caused some disadvantage and made Humans refuse to believe in alien life and existences beyond the Solar System, closing their minds to what the Doctor called the 'greater good'. Despite his previous statements, the Doctor suddenly 'happened to remember' about learning about the Knife, when he studied in Universal Preparatory Academy and did a lesson of Powerful Inanimate Objects
"I thought you said you didn't know anything about the knife's powers, Doc?" Jack had queried curiously.
"It's Doctor," the Doctor replied, emphasising the latter. "I know, but as I said, I don't know its full properties and uses, but it was a basic fact to at least know the general infrastructure of the knife – enabling me to use the simple knowledge I already know to figure out how the knife works," He jabbed a finger to his head. "It's all in here. I just needed the nudge to get the ball rolling again Jack and as much as I hate to admit it, Ianto's coffee seemed to do the trick. After that time on Bloomex Red Delta Seven, I'd never have thought I'd enjoy a cup o' coffee again… Remind me to thank Ianto when I see him later."
Five rambles and one Captain Jack's deep concern later, Gwen was made to hold the knife again and asked to shut her eyes.
"Doctor, are you sure this is safe?"
"Captain, if you'd think I'd really do anything to endanger the safety of a human being, then I ask you now, speak out" His voice was hard and serious, showing that he meant business. Jack didn't respond and the Doctor uttered a small: "Good."
"Gwen, I want you to imagine you're alone," the Doctor ordered quietly, fingers pressed to Gwen's temples as her eyes crashed shut. "I want you to pretend you're not in this room and I want you to go to the place you feel the most comfortable for you, the place where you feel relaxed…"
This was all new to her, but Gwen knew from the looks on their faces that this Rose, the same pretty blonde she'd spoke to over the web-cam she presumed, was someone important to Jack, Mickey and the Doctor. So, she decided to cooperate with them and try her best to help them, seeing as she withheld some special power, that evens he didn't know. It would be both good for her and for them – even though she was still very nervous about all of this and what was happening to her.
It scared her in a way, but she needed to find out why it was her and not anybody else – it could've been Mickey, Jack, Ianto, the Doctor even or somebody that more special than her in the world, but the knife, it chose her. Gwen was nothing special, yeah, she went around busting aliens and saving the world occasionally, but she was nothing extraordinary. Not like Jack, who couldn't die, not like Ianto who battled a Pterodactyl, Weevils and escaped the battle at Canary Wharf alive, not Mickey who once jumped to and lived in a different Universe and she certainly wasn't someone extraordinary called the Doctor, that saved the world in a blue box and had two hearts, because he was an alien. She wasn't really anyone important, so why her?
Gwen's inhaled a deep breath and calmly magicked herself to the one place, where she felt loved, comfortable and at peace – and it certainly wasn't Torchwood. It was at home, in her flat that she shared the best moments of her life. With Rhys.
"Gwen, are you ready?" she heard the gentle voice of the Doctor call. She nodded attentively and felt the pressure ion her temples release. "Now I want you to raise the Knife up at chest-height." Gwen obeyed willingly. "Gwen, do you remember before, when the Knife went into your head?" Another nod. "Great, do you know how that happened?" Gwen analysed the situation and dug deep into her head, before nodding unsurely and articulating a timid 'I think so.'
Gwen squeezed her eyes together tighter and focused on the cool metal pressed into her hands, waiting for the familiar sensation. And then it started. The colours whirled around in her head and Gwen's fingers prickled, as the tingling fuzzed at the tip of her fingertips and crept its way up Gwen's way – spreading throughout her body and finally swimming around in the girl's head.
"Doctor, it's starting…"
"Gwen, stay with me, now. Are you still in your comfort zone?"
"Yes, but the picture's fading, like a ruined water colour painting. I'm drifting away again…" she muttered, breaths growing ragged as her heart started thumping loudly. She swore loudly, as the images of Suzie's wrath splattered blood across her view and visions flooded through the barrier, condemning her to another bout of trampling through the past. "Doctor, I don't want to go through this again! HELP ME!"
"Gwen, Gwen, calm down. The Knife, it's trying to control you again, but you can overcome it. Just calm down and maintain your focus. Fight it," The Doctor said urgently, trying to suppress the adrenaline. "Where did you choose to be alone, Gwen? I can't help you unless you answer me. Gwen?"
The Welsh woman willed her eyes to stay shut and reluctantly tried to mollify the tension, forcing herself not to give into the flashing images.
"At home… In my flat," Gwen whispered, and then she raised her timbre a notch. "Help me! Jack, tell him…"
"Doctor, do something!"
"I'm trying, Captain," the Doctor exclaimed, before turning around to face Gwen again. "Gwen, your home, a lovely place, I'm sure. Now, don't let it get away from you. Imagine it Gwen, push all those other thoughts outta your head and concentrate on your flat, did you say it was?"
"Yeah…"
"I want you to describe your flat to me, Gwen. You can do it, ignore everything else and tell me everything; what colour your curtains are, where your telly is, anything Gwen. Pay attention to nothing, other than your home…"
Anxiously, Jack stood offset watching from above and Gwen speedily uttered words to the Doctor, who responded by asking even further questions. Exactly fifteen minutes and twenty-six seconds later, not that he was counting, the Torchwood officer appeared to have calmed down and wasn't in hysteria anymore. It looked like the Doctor's therapy worked. Bu then came the intriguing part where the Doctor instructed Gwen to picture lights in her mind Jack, himself, was clueless and watched in fascination as Gwen outstretched both arms and used the knife, to sort of piece-together something that only Gwen could see in her head.
17:30pm
A lot of patience was needed for this and Captain Jack was not the patient man, intolerantly meandered off, after three completely boring hour of watching Gwen hands-out-to- connect-pieces-of-light-that-only-Gwen-could-see. The Doctor insisted that things were progressing, but Jack suspected things weren't exactly going to plan.
"Right, Doc. I'm off; if you need me, I'll be in my office," Jack announced, yelling to apparently nobody as he walked off, as nobody acknowledged his presence. "There's something dodgy going on concerning the Pringles Manufacturer. If you need me, I'll be in my office, talking to the charming Charles Luton – if that's his real name."
He sighed to himself bluntly and trudged back to his office, muttering where he sat down, picked up the phone and stabbed in the numbers to contact Mr Charles Luton. Lips sinking into a small frown, Jack scanned the area and found no sign of Ianto, even though Jack had given direct orders to contact anybody he knew, that was related to UNIT or Martha's whereabouts. Strange. Jack shrugged and went for the option that Ianto was off guarding the Tourism Office again.
"This is the Pringles Manufacturing Company. Good morning, Maria King, personal advisor to Mr Luton speaking. How may I help you?"
"Well, hello Maria. Just a friend of Mr Luton calling… How are you darling?"
"I'm fine thank you sir, now please would you state the reason for your--"
"WHAT THE HELL?" interrupted Mickey loudly.
Jack slammed the phone down quickly and rushed out, grimacing at the cause of the noise.
An arch of blinding white light enveloped the Torchwood Hub, resonating a low-pitched howling type noise that reverberated around Torchwood. It was coming from Gwen and the Doctor.
"WHAT'S GOING ON?" Captain Jack shouted boldly over the noise, just able to catch a glimpse of Gwen surrounded serenely by the noisy blinding light. The Doctor wasn't far behind and Jack caught his eye.
"DOCTOR, what's happening?"
"SHE'S OPENING A WINDOW!" was the reply.
This was going to be hell. The Doctor somehow managed to control Gwen's 'power' and lessened the large affect, allowing time for Mickey to shriek (like a little girl) and announce that the Rift was sprouting readings that were off the scale.
Gwen seemed oblivious to all of this and the Doctor panicked – a distant memory of a young servant girl by the name of Gwyneth under an arch eating away at his conscience. She couldn't be.
Please no, please no, please no…
The Doctor edged forwards and rested two fingers to her neck, smiling relief to find that her pulse was as strong as ever. Following the alarmed shrieks from all three other co-workers, the Doctor proceeded to placing two fingers at each of her temples and crossing the threshold into her mind. He saw the unspeakable power that the Knife had given this girl and quietly wondered if Cross-dimensional Spatial Multiplicity and Gwyneth's life had something to do with it. He swiftly shrugged the thought away and spoke to her using low-level connected telepathy. The Doctor told Gwen to release the power and let go, adding a mental note that they needed some more practice, or otherwise the Earth might just feel the consequences of the Knife's power.
Gwen obeyed and the Doctor relieved his grasp, as he acknowledged the energy flow leave her and depart her human body. The Doctor sighed a little, realising that this mission would take a while… A long while…
19:45pm
Fatigued, Jack leaned tiredly on his desk, yawning. It had been a very long day, it was a tiresome day and all four Torchwood officers – and the Doctor, were exhausted. They'd spent the day, working their heads off. Firstly, the day had started with the Doctor paying an unexpected visit to them which then turned into apprehension, as Mickey (eventually) decided to speak out and explain one of his real reasons as to why he was here. This news was soon joined by the fact that good-old Donna had been, in a Time Lord fashion, retconned of all of her memories with the Doctor; because of the terrible fate, that Donna would die if that didn't happen.
If that wasn't bad enough they learned that Rose was about to die, due to the mistake of not-naming-no-names one idiotic Doctor and one silent Mickey, and was united by the bemusing truth that Gwen Cooper was allegedly the Chosen One and possessed a special connection with Ianto's so-amusingly dubbed 'Life Knife'. Thinking of Ianto, he hadn't spoken to the Welsh lad in a while, and he had yet to fix that in the night to come…
Anyway, Mickey had sat at the computer for five hours straight, furiously hacking into protected sites and finding out as much as he could. In the meanwhile, during the whole afternoon, Ianto had been sent to contact anyone in relation with UNIT that knew about Martha's whereabouts and find out what was going on, because Martha's well-being was also an important priority as well as saving Rose from her crisis.
A series of crazy manic events followed, as Gwen felt the true power of the Knife but as she was unable to control it, was forced to let go, for the sake of the human race's safety. The Doctor turned out to be quite right after all, things were progressing after all, but a lot of hard work had to be done. But the most important issue that they all (the Doctor especially) necessitated to remember that Gwen was doing this out of her own will and they couldn't push her too far, into anything she wasn't comfortable with or was dangerous. The blinding-light fiasco had already sent Gwen into a two-hour bout of extreme tiredness and left her limbs quite frail.
"Poor girl," Jack chuckled and thought to himself. "Can't even go a day without something happening…"
Jack had the feeling that he would need to remind the Doctor of Gwen's safety, because knowing the Doctor as well as he did, he'd have some problems with that…
Then another consideration entered his mind. Now, as he sat in his cosy office, the saddening but plausible fear that perhaps they wouldn't be in time to save the lovely blonde-haired Rose Tyler nudged his conscience and caught him unawares. Because Time wasn't on their side this time.
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Exactly six days had passed and things were moving along… slowly, to say the most. The Doctor had stayed with them for the last few days – only retreating back to the TARDIS every night when everybody went home, to do some more tinkering and do whatever a Time Lord did, which naturally didn't involve sleep.
The Doctor sighed, as he removed himself from underneath the grating and leaned back against the console chair – a bizarre toaster-like object, jammed with geeky bits and bobs, held in his right hand Six days – six days had passed since he first found out the news and things weren't going as he thought they'd be.
Yeah, Gwen had improved her control over the Knife and managed to open the smallest but most brilliant, fantastic and amazing of Time windows to modern day Tokyo, but that was just the one time… All Gwen had managed to do since then was create massive explosions of white light and cause another easy-to-fix crack to tip some more weevils into the system. Not saying that Gwen wasn't doing well or to take the blame, of course – she was doing brilliantly for a human in the 21st century and seemed to be getting the hang of things, improving each time they tried. She had a bubbly positive attitude which made things all the while easier, but the nine-hundred year old Time Lord still felt guilty for putting the Welsh woman through all this. All because he wanted to save the woman, he lo… trusted and saved him from his misery. Why his heart thudded every time he was with him and why he fell for a normal human female, out of his nine-hundred years of living, he didn't know. But he all knew was that this once, just this once, he wanted to be this little bit selfish and save a life, that he thought didn't deserve to be snuffed out so easily. A life that was in terrible danger because of him.
Yet, the Doctor wished that he had the power to do this because, he didn't want to sound arrogant, but he'd be able to get things done far quicker and he'd have probably cracked it by now, with or without Torchwood's help. But there was the catch – he didn't have the power.
As every minute ticked by, he worried more and more about Rose. He couldn't even begin to name the countless conclusions his head jumped to every waking second of the day. He just hoped she wasn't dead by now… If she was…
Throwing the device onto the TARDIS console, the Doctor leapt out of the TARDIS and into the purple darkness and serenity of the evening, making his way to the Perception Filtered paving stone and into the mysterious depths of Torchwood Three.
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"Yep, that's two large pizzas," Ianto said, portable phone pressed to his ear. "Mmhmm. Ye… No, actually. Could you make that two large pizzas and a tub of coleslaw? My boss keeps insisting that I eat more vegetables. Thanks, OK, bye then."
"What d'you get?" Mickey asked, stretching on his seat.
"The usual. A Meat feast… and I wasn't sure so I got a four cheese, just to be on the safe side," Ianto replied.
Mickey gave him a confused look and Gwen joined in the conversation. "Of what?"
"Time Lords could be vegetarians."
"Right…" Gwen replied, containing a laugh.
"You 'ave got to be joking!" laughed Mickey heartily. "The Doctor, a vegetarian? You're 'aving a laugh, Ianto. He once stuffed three helpings of chops, when we went to this flying-restaurant place! You shoulda seen the look on Rose's face when…" he trailed off, as soon as he'd realised whom he'd just mentioned. The Hub suddenly produced a deathly silence, as they all exchanged shy looks and looked thoughtlessly at random objects in the room.
"Mickey-boy!" the Doctor yelled joyously, as he bounded down the stairs with enthusiasm. The recognisable heavy thumps of Jack's boots followed close behind.
The Hub buzzed with life again, as they all suddenly started shuffling about precariously, muttering the inaudible under their breaths.
"Yeah, wha' is it boss?" Mickey replied, automatically stabbing away at the keyboard
Jack supplied Mickey with an equation-filled sheet of A4 paper, "I just received it on my fax machine. It's co-ordinates to a television signal, but I'm not sure what. Could you track it down somehow?"
"Sure, just give me a minute," Mickey said, obtaining the paper and skimming through it. "Easy."
Dozens of keyboard jabs later, a blank black screen popped up on the screen and with a couple more adjustments, a colourful high-definition picture appeared.
"But this is just the BBC news. You sure these are the right co-ordinates, Jack?" Mickey enquired, brow furrowing as the remaining two Torchwood members crowded around the computer screen.
"Yeah, this is exactly what I got. Maybe there's some sort of code hidden in it?" Jack suggested.
"Oh, I'm sure alright." The Doctor muttered through gritted teeth, as he stared intently at the computer screen. "Look."
They all gasped as they saw the clip on the screen. It was of a pitch-black sky, surrounded by millions of twinkling stars with the pallid light of the sun lighting up the beautiful blue and green atmosphere of the earth underneath. However, as they examined the clip, a further ray of purple light zipped across the sky and an ugly ebony black and gold entered the vista. The remaining parts of the Dalek Crucible.
Precisely three seconds later, the ray of purple light enlarged and exploded up to the screen. The entire image quaked and quivered, as the remains of the Crucible exploded in a large BANG, sending chunks of metal and debris flying into the satellite video. The image faded to black…
And then rolled down more information at the bottom of the screen and the camera zapped back to the BBC studio, to the current news reporter who then introduced the interview of Sir Alan Akimbo – the UNIT chief advisor, in a conference room with lots of photographers and flashing lights.
"I represent the entire UNIT base today and I am here to apologise to you for the unexpected outcome of our mission. We had great expectations and only wanted the best for the human race, by exploring the alien craftsmanship that remained hovering over our beloved planet.
"Nevertheless, unfortunately, to our great dismay and sorrow, we lost twenty-eight faithful soldiers today and I am here to tell you that they were brilliant, strong fighters that brought pride to the British nation. We shall bow our heads in respect and pride for these courageous soldiers that went up to the skies bravely, hoping to bring something back from their explorations but didn't come back, as a result of an unexpected and shocking explosion, that traumatised us all on this tragic day…
" However, I tell you now, fellow people of the Earth, these soldiers chose to do this mission themselves and no pressure was put on them, so UNIT takes no responsibility. However, as UNIT knows the pain of death, forms of compensation shall be paid to the members of those families. We are truly sorry and now we pay respect to the deceased soldiers: Cho Kang Wong, Tiffany Blake, Harry Outmen, Jane Goodman, Omar Lattuca, Martha Jones, Peter…"
At this point, nobody seemed to notice the rest of the names being read out, because they all looked at each with pain, sorrow and shock in their eyes. Martha Jones was dead…
All was sombrely silent, as nobody really knew what to say. Mickey stared up at the rest of them, aghast at the news, even though he hadn't really known Martha, but even he knew that this woman didn't deserve this sudden death. Ianto bowed his head down in respect, assimilatingthe new information and remembering Martha Jones, who had skilfully worked at Torchwood before. Gwen had admired Martha, because she coped with all the events so well and she seemed such a great person, that she was shocked out of her skins and a sudden stabbing of grief struck her. Jack fisted his fingers together in a tight ball and gulped, squeezing his eyes shut and opening them to reveal outraged and sorrowful tears that swiftly vanished with a blink of the eyes... The Doctor's soft chocolate brown eyes had turned a steely cold black, to represent the absolute anger, grief and surprise that was rushing through his head right this moment.
So many innocent people dead, including the one woman who had helped save the world. Another brave fighterdown, just how many more lives needed to be taken until Death was happy?
"I'm sorry, Jack," Gwen said finally, breaking the uncomfortable silence.
"They wrecked twenty-eight lives, just for the sake of it. I bet they didn't stop to think about their soldiers' welfare. Couldn't care less, seeing as how that spokesperson reacted to the situation," Jack whispered darkly, eyes slowly tracing the man on the television screen. "He didn't feel sorry for those men and women; he just wanted to save his own skin."
"That speech was done out of fear, not grief," The Doctor concluded forbiddingly, the darkness and anger in his eyes as prominent as ever. The Time Lord fought the urge to break down and carried on, "Twenty-eight soldiers, as UNIT called them, risked their lives and left their families, just to fulfil some stupid mission to salvage parts of an alien ship – which they don't even know about. UNIT risked their reputation, but who paid the price? Martha Jones and all those other twenty-seven soldiers, who died because of it. This is what the Universe is turning to, Jack. The bountiful human race…"
They all stared at each other in mournful silence.
"Your pizza!" called a bold female voice that originated from the Hub's main entrance. "Hello, anybody in?"
"Just leave it on the table," Ianto said bluntly, completely not recognising the obvious fact that somebody had just suddenly got through all the security locks and got into the Hub.
"Err, money?" the voice cooed again happily, this time sounding… teasing and chatty, even.
Without looking back, Jack handed a wad of cash to Ianto and said, "Ianto will pay you the money and then you can just go."
Money gripped tightly in his hands, Ianto walked onwards, staring and the floor but when he looked up at the delivery girl…
"Jack…" he called loudly, eyes widening in shock.
"Hold on, I need to get in touch with UNIT base so…"
"Jack, you won't believe whose---" Ianto started off.
A sudden thought pelted the Captain full in the head and he spun round with a cold steely glare.
"Hang on, how did you get through the security locks? There are over twenty-five million different combinations to all five security locks, so how did you get in here?" Jack shouted at the currently anonymous pizza delivery girl. He thundered towards her, mind running over the theory that they'd just had a break in by perhaps an alien, but when he reached the entrance to the Hub, he looked up with wide stunned eyes.
"Hello, Jack!" the pizza-delivery girl exclaimed happily.
Jack's jaw dropped wide open and he enveloped the newcomer in a huge bear-hug,.
"Martha Jones, you're supposed to be dead." Jack muttered joyously, squeezing the woman even tighter.
To Be Continued…
A/N:- Hope you liked it! Please review! All flames, constructive criticism, advice, praise and everything-you-can-think-of WELCOMED happily!! =D =D =D =D