Note: Merry Christmas, my fellow readers! This is my longest chapter yet, so satisfy your inner Whovian! :"D
Christmas 2012 will never come again (Unless your progression through time isn't linear) so enjoy it while you can! We're all stories in the end. Just make it a good one!
And one last thing, I won't be able to publish more chapters later on as I have 3 exams in January to worry about... Ah... 50 academics just punched the air (Not really, haha!)
No I shan't quit my rambling, it's Christmas! (I joke)
Enjoy! :"D
The TARDIS drifted in orbit around the planet Earth. The Doctor put on his glasses and glared at the monitor in hopes of tracking a signal, but sighed as nothing blipped. He paused for a moment, activated the TARDIS harmonic filters and let the sound of the universe envelope him into a piece of mind. He took off the spectacles and scrunched the bridge of his nose. He felt tired…
He jumped as the ringtone of his mobile phone came to life. Cautiously, he stared at the live appliance and hesitated before picking it up.
"Hello?"
The line was silent, but a loud static sound boomed to life. "Doctor! It's me, Martha! Merry Christmas!"
The Doctor smiled. "Martha Jones! What a surprise! Wait, Christmas? It's already Christmas back there? Brilliant! Anyway, how's thing's with UNIT?"
Martha faltered and mumbled. "Not that good actually…"
The Doctor frowned and was about to ask until Martha said something first.
"You technically still work for UNIT and well… Colonel Mace wants you to help patrol London during Christmas."
"What?" The Doctor blinked. "Why don't you ask Torchwood for help?"
"They are helping us… we're just very short on crew members."
The Doctor raised his eyebrows. "Why?"
"They're on a mission in Scotland. Something about a river monster…" She trailed off. "So what time are you coming?"
"Martha, I'm a Time Lord, I can get there before you tell me to get here…" Although The Doctor didn't feel in the zone for her request, he wanted to see Koschei's face when he realises The Doctor isn't chasing him after possibly countless trips around various places in the universe.
"Good! Because Jack's going to be on your squad and you're going to be patrolling the central areas of London." She hung up almost straight away and The Doctor stood, mouth gaped as he forgot about Jack.
"Oh no…"
~DW~
Martha smiled as she heard the winding and grinding noise of the TARDIS. It landed with a soft thud and at once, the doors opened and the skinny face of a man popped out.
"Am I glad to see you, Doctor!" Martha walked up to the Time Lord and hugged him.
The Doctor hugged her back and noticed Mickey behind Martha. "Rickey, my man!"
"It's Mickey." He said with a serious tone in his voice. "And I trust you won't go wondering off while we're working?" The Doctor sensed some professionalism in his voice.
"Nah… Why would I miss the chance to reunite with my friends?" At once The Doctor walked towards and gave him a handshake. "Great to see you again." Mickey smiled. The Doctor noticed a ring on his finger and gasped. "Don't tell me… No… You two aren't…" He turned to face Martha.
Martha smiled and lifted her hand; a ring in her finger. At once, The Doctor laughed and straightened his face the moment he saw a look of annoyance that flashed Mickey's face. He cleared his throat and proceeded to business. "So when do I get started?"
"Pretty much now since the rest of the teams split up about 15 minutes ago…" Mickey handed a large gun to Martha, but refused to wield it. The Doctor smiled at that. She learnt from the best.
"Jack should be here any second…" Martha reminded. The Doctor simply sighed. He already has Mickey, but Jack as well?
"No you hang up!" As if on cue, Jack approached the three, clearly talking on the phone. "Haha! Like that's gonna happen. No. You hang up! I gotta- …" He took the phone away from his ears and stared at it in surprise. "She hung up on me!" Jack spotted The Doctor and playfully smiled as he sauntered next to him. "I missed you…"
"Stop it." The Doctor rolled his eyes at Jack.
Jack groaned as he fumbled around in his pockets. He took out four ear communicators and put one on. He dispensed the other three to Mickey, Martha and The Doctor. "Always keep these on. I want us to keep in touch the whole time."
The Doctor frowned. "You make it seem like we're splitting up. We're supposed to go together."
Mickey came in and sided with Jack. "Yeah, but I picked up two alien readings within our radius. We might as well split up. That will save more time."
The Doctor nodded.
"Me and Martha will go together…" Mickey walked over to his wife. But before the Doctor tried to intervene, Mickey waved the two off as the couple sped towards a construction site.
"Looks like it's just you and me…" Jack grinned. "In Trafalgar Square…" The Doctor wasn't amused. He thought he heard the sound of a gun click and turned around. Jack waved his gun around and The Doctor scowled.
"You know, guns don't solve anything…" He wondered around the square and stopped by a fountain, peering over the water to stare at his reflection.
Jack laughed and holstered the gun. He rocked on his heels and proceeded to sit down by the fountain The Doctor was by. "You know, I haven't forgotten…" The Doctor looked up, confused.
"What?"
"About that Koschei guy. Who exactly is he? Well, I know he was The Master and all-Martha told me. I just wanna know why he became…" Jack figured for a suitable word to describe Koschei, "goody... all of a sudden."
The Doctor took a moment before he spoke. "Actually… He was good. Even since the beginning. Used to come over to his place when we were kids and play around in his back yard… Back home…" The Doctor drifted off, sadness and sorrow in his eyes.
Jack noticed this and hesitated, "you don't have to tell me if it gets to you, Doc…"
"No." The Doctor said with steel in his words. "You might as well know since you happened to be one of his victims before…" Jack nodded, remembering the year that never was. "My people, no. The High Council of the Time Lords, they implanted a signal into his head-you know, the drumming noise he used to go on about." Jack nodded. "Drove him insane and he became bad. After that, he seemed to forget we were even best friends…" The Doctor gave a sad smile. "The drumming, or rather the signal to bring back the Time Lords stopped minutes after he sent them back into the Time Lock again. He did it, Jack. He saved Earth." Jack took this opportunity to acknowledge The Master, or rather Koschei.
"I'm sorry…" Jack said.
"For what?"
"For doubting Koschei…" The Doctor nodded at Jack's remark. Jack cleared his throat in attempt to quickly change the subject. "So what do you think it is?"
"What?"
"The aliens… What do you reckon we're facing?"
The Doctor's eyes widened and halted as he simply said "Sontarans."
"That's a bit precise…" Jack's voice faltered as he noticed a blue armoured humanoid figure standing not too far from the two men. It held a gun pointing towards them and Jack heaved a sigh. "Why can't I use my gun in front of you?" Immediately, he yelled as he ran towards The Doctor and pushed him out of the way into the fountain, arms spread out as he took the shot.
The Sontaran ran away.
~DW~
Jack gasped as he thrust himself forward. He studied himself and moaned when he noticed his blood stained shirt. He looked up and The Doctor stood there, soaking wet and certainly not happy. He clambered to his feet. "You're wet," he feebly smiled.
"I gathered…" The Doctor ruffled his flattened hair and it became the usual spiky. "Thanks," he discretely said. "For saving me I mean…" He frowned at the heaviness of his wet clothes.
"What happened while I was out?" Jack asked, still dazed from his resurrection.
"The Sontaran ran away." He simply replied. "It went in Martha and Mickey's direction… We better get there now."
And with that, The Doctor and Jack trudged towards the construction site.
~DW~
Martha sprinted away from gunshots. She ran through scaffolds attempting to make it harder for the enemy and spotted Mickey.
"I told you to stay behind," Mickey said rather annoyed.
"Said the one who told me to go freelance," Martha fought back, panting.
"Yeah, well… we're being fired at by a Sontaran…" Mickey panted. "They dumped me with a gun! This is no place for a mad woman." He teased.
"Well then…" Martha turned to Mickey. "You shouldn't have married me."
The couple laughed as Mickey beckoned her to come to him. Martha ran to him and they huddled behind the wall.
~DW~
Thanks to The Doctor, his sonic screwdriver picked up the Sontaran's signal. They followed it to a construction site only to find it aiming it's gun. Jack peered and noticed Martha and Mickey was in the direction of the gun about 20 meters away from the Sontaran's position. He looked desperately at The Doctor and mimed a gun to his head with his hands. The Doctor frowned and shook his head. He whispered for Jack to stay there as he neared the Sontaran.
"Have you got something to hit with?" The Time Lord mouthed. Jack pointed at his gun but to his annoyance, The Doctor frowned, yet again. The Sontaran licked his lips as he aimed for Martha's head. Jack saw this and mouthed "Do something, idiot!" The Doctor was utterly clueless and since improvising was what he did best, he took off his still wet shoe and walloped the back of the Sontaran's neck. It collapsed as The Doctor let out a manic laugh. "I didn't get to say, "shoo"," he panted. "You know, shoe, shoo, play on words. D'you think I should've said "shoo"?"
"No." Jack sighed.
The Doctor peered over to where Martha and Mickey was and shouted. "Martha! Mickey! It's me! I'm still alive! Can you see me from there?!"
Martha looked up. She pulled a face and squinted at a jumping, yelling figure in the distance. She sighed and pointed. "Is that? What's he saying?!"
Mickey was too occupied with something else, but the noise emanating from the distance was putting him off. "I dunno… He's like really up there. He's giving away our position. We should move."
They scuttled away and The Doctor moaned in disappointment. Jack went over to The Doctor and tugged his wet sleeve. "We better follow them…"
~DW~
Martha and Mickey entered the building and cautiously scanned the area.
"I'm picking up a strong but unknown alien signal here… be careful Martha," he carried his gun higher and steadily walked around the building with Martha in tow. Martha peered into a room and gasped. Immediately, Mickey turned to Martha, released the safety catch on the gun and swivelled into the room, gun pointing to a blonde haired man… eating a McDonalds meal. "Is this some kind of joke?!" Mickey exclaimed. The man looked up in surprise, took a nervous last bite of his Big Mac burger, scrunched up a paper bag and tossed it to his side. He stood up and noticed the gun Mickey wielded and put his hands up.
"Hello!" The man said.
"Oh my God, it's you!" Martha gasped. "You're-"
Martha was cut off as there was a sound of cracking behind the wall on her left. Followed by a high-pitched sound and the wall exploded as the silhouette of a tall lanky man appeared in the debris. "Now that is what I call 'Resonating concrete'!"
"Doctor?!" Martha squealed.
The Doctor stood among the rubble brushing off dirt from his suit and laughed with the air of a man who couldn't quite believe what he had just done.
"What the hell was that?!" Jack burst into the room and his eyes widened at the sight of The Doctor. "Oh my God, Doctor. "Discrete"! I told you to be discreet!" He face palmed as Martha stepped forward.
"You're wet, Doctor… What were you two doing while me and Mickey was here?"
The Doctor nervously smiled, "long story's short, we saw a Sontaran, Sontaran had a gun, Jack shielded me from a shot and I was pushed into a fountain…"
Mickey frowned and rambled endlessly. The Doctor, obviously not listening, scratched the back of his head. His eyes widened when he spotted a blonde haired man in a grey long coat. Likewise, the man came to an abrupt halt and stared back at The Doctor.
"Doctor, are you listening to me?" Martha, Jack and Mickey looked at The Doctor, Mickey in particular looking rather annoyed.
Within a split second, the two Time Lords legged it out of the building through the hole where The Doctor made his 'dynamic entry'. The Doctor focused on Koschei and shook his head as he thought he heard someone shout his name.
Koschei was surprisingly fast and The Doctor knew he wouldn't be able to keep up any longer. Damn! Time Lords and their superhuman stamina!
"You know…" The Doctor began panting, "we could stop for a bit… and…" The Doctor felt his legs starting to fail, "bring this little game of ours to an end…" The Doctor stopped, unable to match his superhuman stamina to Koschei's.
Koschei laughed and slowed down, leaving a safe distance between him and his friend. "You just don't wanna accept defeat!" Koschei teased. He searched his pockets for the Vortex Manipulator, but didn't notice The Doctor lunging at him.
"Too late!" The Doctor yelled, knowing he would tag Koschei.
Koschei smirked and swiftly side stepped. The Doctor stumbled and fell well past Koschei.
"Losers will always be losers. That will never change." Koschei mocked. The Doctor frowned. "Let me just ask you this… why do you try so hard to fight against your fate?" Koschei laughed at The Doctor, who stood up and raised his chest with pride.
"Because I was called a loser." He said with weight in his tone, then smiled.
In one swift motion, The Doctor dived at Koschei and slapped his back as he swiped the Vortex Manipulator from his back pocket.
"Tag! You're it! Ha!" The Doctor laughed in victory. "Oh, and never leave things in your back pocket." Waggling the Vortex Manipulator in front of Koschei. "Especially when Jack is near us… Ah! I almost forgot! Merry Christmas, Shay!"
And within a split second, The Doctor disappeared with a zap.