Author's Note: I'll admit that there's one detail in here that was added immediately after I'd watched Day One of Children of Earth, before I saw the rest of the series... y'know, back when we all expected the only three remaining main characters to all live through the week! Ahem, sorry. I'll not rant. Promise.
I apologise for the lateness of this chapter, but I am actually updating it from hospital, having only just figured out how to get Internet access here. Reviews will boost my morale and may help me recover (and therefore update) faster.
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2519-10-31; 1430 - Torchwood
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The cure had worked. Jack was able to think and feel again. Unfortunately, all the emotion he should have felt during the last twelve years had overwhelmed him as soon as he took the cure. The last thing he remembered was watching impassively as Simon had injected the pale blue liquid into his veins... then everything had become a blur of agonising pain, petrifying fear, and so much else that he couldn't even think clearly enough to recognise every emotion that flew through his mind. It dragged him down into a terrible nightmare, reliving the worst- and the best- of the last decade.
"Time to wake up, Captain." a soft lilting female voice called him out of the torment of his own mind, and he opened his eyes to see River Tam leaning over him, smiling, "Welcome back."
He sat up slowly, and she backed up a little, sitting down on a chair next to the bed he found himself on. They were in the Torchwood building on Londinium. Aesthetically, he had done his best to recreate the Cardiff Hub every time he had set up in a new location, and this was no different.
Now he glanced around to see Derrin talking to the Doctor, deep in conversation. A few words he caught from the Doctor included mention of 'alternate universes', 'parallel timelines', and 'paradox relativity'. Derrin looked like he was enjoying the conversation, whether he understood a word of it or not.
The building's resident medic was chatting with Simon Tam. Well, interrogating him on neuro-physical and relative psychological theory, by the sound of it, actually. She was also coming on to the younger doctor quite determinedly, but Simon's determination to ignore this was equal to the task. Doctors... all alike.
"Hey, Captain." Koschei's voice drew his attention. River stood and wandered off, allowing the young Time Lord to take her seat next to him. Koschei was smiling. Grinning so brightly it seemed to light up the whole room, "There was an anomaly in your DNA, didn't like the cure very much. Something on a high-end cognitive level, hereditary, not related to your curse. Could be due to your more advanced biology." that last implied it to mean 'because of the time you come from', but he seemed to know better than to talk about time travel in front of the others here, "You don't really want the technobabble, do you?" Jack slowly shook his head, and Koschei's smile widened even more, "You're fine now, though."
"Right." Jack looked around the rest of the room, "Mind not grinning too maniacally, please?"
Koschei's smile wavered, and then faded, "Why? I'm just happy that I'm able to be happy again." he laughed, "And that you're okay. It was a bit iffy for a while, if you weren't immortal we wouldn't be talking right now."
Jack smiled, kinda morbid, but a genuine smile all the same, "Just don't grin like a lunatic. It... bothers me."
Koschei nodded slowly, "If you say so, Captain." he turned around, and shouted, "Hey, Theta! Any word on that top-secret wake-up present for Captain Undead, that you mentioned?"
"They're late." the Doctor called back, before attempting to resume his discussion with Derrin, as if he hadn't been interrupted. River walked over to the Doctor, before he could do so, however, and handed him a very thoroughly dissected and poorly repaired book, black-bound, with bits of paper sticking out of it at odd angles, some of it looked like it used to be part of the book, but there were a fair few wads of note-paper folded in there, too. It had a cross on the front, like a bible.
The Doctor took it, with a frown, and glanced at the first page, raising a bemused eyebrow at what he read there. "Read the first part, chapter six. Edited, improved. You'll like." River suggested, before wandering off again, happily, "I'm gonna check on our pets." she added over her shoulder.
"Don't call them that, it's not nice, River." the Doctor chided, flicking through the pages to find what she had suggested he read.
"Animalistic, needed taming. House-training. Pets." River retorted bluntly, before disappearing from the room.
Koschei and Jack looked at each other, "Is she suggesting I'm a pet, too?" Jack asked warily.
"If you are, you're his." he pointed to the Doctor.
"I heard that, it's not funny, Koschei." the Doctor observed, before finding the chapter River had told him to read, and chuckling at whatever he found there, before pocketing the book to read in more detail later, "Now, what were we talking about again?"
"Parallel reality theory." Derrin answered brightly.
"Oh, yes!" and he quickly turned and walked over to Jack, who still sat on the edge of the couch he had woken on. The Doctor leaned over and touched the side of his face, "You're probably going to want this back." he waited for Jack to acknowledge his request for a telepathic link.
Jack scowled, "What?"
"A memory."
He watched the Doctor with a calculating eye, but then nodded, "Yes. Especially if you took it. I'd like to know why not to hit you for that." he grinned brightly- too happy that he was back to his usual self to really be angry about this- and deliberately relaxed as he felt the Doctor apply more pressure to his temple. Before he knew what was happening, he found himself reliving the lost- stolen- memory.
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2011-06-07; 0215 - Cardiff
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"Jack, I'm getting some unusual readings in your vicinity." Ianto's voice came over the commlink, as he searched the streets of Cardiff for the latest rift spike.
"Unusual is so vague, Ianto." Jack retorted.
His unwilling accomplice in searching for this spike glanced at him, wondering exactly what Ianto must have said. John Hart had his uses, and Jack preferred to keep him within sight at all times. Ianto didn't like it, obviously, but it was better than letting his personal nemesis loose.
"Well, I've never seen it before. It didn't come through the Rift, but it definitely came from somewhere that's not here. Or now, come to think of it." was Ianto's answer.
"But it's not my primary alert?" Jack asked, then added slightly more nervously, "Or emergency code two?" Code two was a power surge recognition connected to Archangel... just because someone is supposed to be dead, Jack knew from personal experience, it did not necessarily mean they would stay that way... Jack Harkness was not the only one who could cheat death, and he was paranoid enough to have added that alert to the system, after reading Torchwood and UNIT's old files on the Master.
"Nope, neither of those. It seems out of phase, somehow." Ianto said, and Jack could just picture him shrugging as he said this.
"Where is it?"
"Headed towards the rift spike location, and quite fast too." Ianto answered, "I suggest you move faster."
"Was just thinking that." Jack said, before breaking into a run.
John kept up with him easily, "Any idea what the hell is going on?"
"Not a clue." Jack grinned at him, "Love it this way."
"You're insane!" John laughed.
They reached the rift spike location, and just as Jack turned a corner he collided with another man, who appeared to have also been running. Jack fell to the ground, but the other man kept his footing, glancing quickly at both of them, before offering his hand to Jack to help him up. "Sorry, was in a bit of a hurry." he tilted his head to one side as Jack accepted the offered hand. Who goes out in weather this cold without a coat? The man was freezing.
Jack checked him out very quickly- dangerous situation, better not to waste time, but he couldn't help himself- and saw that the other man was just a little shorter than him, long black hair in a ponytail, dark blue eyes that were almost entrancing, and what looked like the early stages of an attempt to grow a goatee.
He smiled when he noticed Jack's attention, but then a distinctly feminine scream came from a side-street, and both of them turned to run towards it at the same time. John followed, "Playtime later." he snapped at Jack, who spared just enough energy to make a very rude gesture at John in response.
The stranger ran on ahead, getting there a bit before Jack, and stopping in the end of the alleyway, "Hey, fang-face!" he shouted loudly. A growling sound seemed to answer him, "Pick on someone your own size. Don't know what you see in the anorexic little girl there."
"Weevil, maybe?" John muttered, but Jack shook his head. Weevils didn't growl that way, this sounded very different. Jack stepped forward so he could see what it was, just in time to see the creature lunge at the stranger.
The man side-stepped it easily, "Too slow." he jeered, holding up his hand in front of the creature as it turned to face him again, "Stop right there." he ordered. It obeyed, swaying slightly and growling low in its throat. It looked a bit like the Futurekind of Malcassairo... if someone had taken a butcher's knife to its face. "Good little monster. Now sit." it slowly crouched down on the ground, still growling at him, "Stay. Goooood." Without taking his gaze away from the monster, he continued to speak, "Girl, stand up. Walk over here. Slowly." he emphasised that last word very strongly.
The girl- she seemed unharmed, but the creature had clearly intended to attack her- stood and warily approached them. The man's assessment of her as anorexic might not have been wrong, she was a very skinny, but also quite pretty, Chinese girl. When she was standing next to the man, he touched her shoulder gently, still not looking away from the monster.
"You will walk away, slowly. If you run, it will chase you down. You will go home and forget this ever happened. Dohn ma?"
"Yes." she answered, her tone distant, as if hypnotised. It seemed strange to Jack that the man spoke Mandarin to her, even though it was obviously a language she understood... and according to Ianto, that was the dominant language on Earth at the moment. Stranger still to use it with English instead of just using it for the whole sentence.
"Go." the man commanded, and she turned and walked away.
Jack backed up, his gun- already drawn since he had heard the scream- now raised to the man who had just so calmly ordered the girl to leave, "Who are you?" he demanded.
Still not looking away from the monster, the stranger smiled faintly, "I believe you know me. Or... someone like me." he frowned, "I can't order it to sleep. Do you have any sedatives on you?"
"Yeah. Here." John stepped forward, pulling out a syringe, "This'll put a bull elephant out for a couple of hours." What John had intended to do with such drugs, Jack really didn't think he wanted to know. He would need to interrogate him about it later, but that didn't mean he wanted to know.
"Give it the full dose." the stranger answered, ignoring Jack's threatening stance.
John glanced at it, "I'm not gonna get rabies or anything, am I?"
"It's only infectious through direct blood-contact." the man answered, his tone casual, as if he'd dealt with this sort of monster before, "Even if it bites- and as long as I maintain eye-contact it shouldn't- you'll be fine." a cold smile crossed his face, "You would have right to worry if I weren't here to control it. Biting would be the least of your fears from it."
"What's that mean?" Jack demanded, "What is it?"
"It's called a Reaver." the stranger answered, still watching the creature.
It growled as if recognising that word, but remained still. John cautiously approached it, with the sedative. When it failed to attack once he was within arm's reach, he quickly injected it and backed away, watching with detached interest as it collapsed.
The stranger sighed, seeming to relax, "Don't point that at me." he added, still not looking at Jack.
"Why not? You've given me good reason not to trust you." Jack said coldly.
"Have I?" the stranger asked, turning to face Jack, now. He looked relaxed, as if he was certain Jack wouldn't really harm him. Or maybe, more worryingly, couldn't?
"I only know one man with the ability to directly control the minds of others like that." Jack growled, "And he's supposed to be dead."
"So are you." John noted brightly.
"Details." Jack muttered, before demanding, "Identify yourself."
"I'm not the same as him." the stranger said with a sigh, "It gets very complicated, and I'd rather wait so that I only need to explain it once."
"What do you mean?" Jack demanded, but before he could continue, Ianto's voice interrupted his train of thought.
"Jack, your primary alert signal went off... inside the Hub. There's a big... blue thing... looks like one of those old-time police phone boxes... and it's right in the middle of my workspace."
Jack laughed, "Perfect." he said, still pointing the gun at the stranger, "You, come with me. John, zap this thing into a vacant Weevil cage, will you?" He watched as John knelt next to the Reaver, grabbing its forearm with his left hand, and activating his Vortex manipulator. He disappeared in a flare of light, and Jack gestured with one hand for the stranger to walk ahead, still aiming the gun, "This way."
"Very trivial use of a temporal disalignment matrix." the stranger noted, as they walked.
"We didn't bring the SUV." Jack said, as if this was explanation enough, "And I do know who you are. He knows, too, otherwise he wouldn't be here."
"In the 'Hub'? That's what your contact called it."
"You heard that?"
"Good ears."
"Right. Keep moving." Jack prodded the man with the gun, encouraging him to walk faster.
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"Is it really that bad?" Martha's voice was the first thing Jack heard as he entered the Hub.
After Owen and Tosh had died, Martha and John had been recruited to replace them. Mickey helped out when he had the time, too, but wasn't here right now. Martha was sitting next to the Doctor, and both of them were drinking tea, which Ianto had made. There was coffee waiting, too. John was lurking behind the couch, doing his best to loom over the Doctor's shoulder, while Gwen was now stationed at the Rift monitor.
The stranger's face lit up when he saw the Doctor, "Hey, it's a party! Is that tea?" he swooped down and snatched a cup of tea before anyone could protest, then seated himself comfortably opposite the Doctor, who was now staring at him in silent shock.
John eyed the other man in a calculating way, then backed off a bit, before turning to whisper something to Ianto.
"If you're trying to come on to the Doctor, John, forget it. I already tried." Jack said bluntly, recognising his old partner's body-language.
"Bite me." John sniped.
"Don't say that, please." the other man said, before turning his full attention to the Doctor, "Now that I have a proper audience, let's start at the beginning, shall we?"
"That'll take a while." the Doctor pointed out, his tone cold, showing that he was in complete agreement with Jack's assessment of this man.
The man smiled, "Alright, short version. Big damn paradox." he announced dramatically.
"Again?!" Martha whined. So obviously the Doctor had told her who this was, too.
"I'm sorry, do I know you?" the man asked, turning to face her with curiosity. Martha opened her mouth to answer, but he shook his head, "On second thoughts, I'm not sure I want to hear the answer to that." he said, grimacing, before beginning to explain his 'short version' of the story, "Alternate realities. Parallel worlds. Multiple universes."
"We get the concept." the Doctor said pointedly, as the man looked like he was going to continue in this way unless interrupted.
He smiled, and nodded, seeming to concede that point to the Doctor, "I'm from one. One that you will, in your relative future, create."
"How's that work?" Martha asked.
"A major universe-altering choice." he said, shrugging, "This reality is locked by a circular temporal loop, you will always have made the wrong choice here, it can't be changed. If it did change, the opportunity to make the choice would never come to pass. My reality is brought into existence as a divergent alternate, caused by making the right choice. And it's your choice to make, Doctor."
"So why are you here?" Jack demanded coldly.
The Doctor held his hand up, "Jack, if he really is from an alternate reality, could you turn the hostility down a bit. I want to know the whole story before making any rash decisions."
"But Doctor!" Jack complained, "This is the Master!"
The man looked up at him, startled, "Wow." he said flatly, "The Pax did terrible things to my ego."
Jack blinked. Twice. Then asked, "What?"
"I do not call myself the Master." he answered, still looking slightly stunned, and the tone in which he said the title was derogatory, "I never took a title." he glanced to the Doctor now, "I still use my chosen name."
The Doctor smiled at that, "This is encouraging." he pointed out.
The man sighed, leaning back in the chair and closing his eyes, "Tell me what I did to upset you so." he said quietly.
Jack scowled, shifting uncomfortably on his feet, before walking over to stand behind the couch that the Doctor and Martha sat on, not wanting to talk about his year on the Valiant. In the end, Martha answered, "You took over and virtually destroyed the Earth."
He opened his eyes to stare at her, "It looks to be in good shape at the moment." he pointed out.
"It was a fractal paradox." the Doctor said, "I broke it."
He nodded slowly, "Are we still friends?" he asked, his tone hopeful, but still sounding like he seriously doubted it.
The Doctor half-smiled, but shook his head, "You didn't want that. You did once use the phrase 'best enemies', though."
A faint smile crossed his face, but then he straightened up, "I came here for one important reason, Doctor." The Doctor also sat up straighter, seeming more attentive now. "This choice you will make. In order for me, as I am now, to exist, you have to choose to help me."
"With what?" the Doctor asked, warily.
"It was a very long time ago, for me." he said with a sad smile, "Something terrible happened, ruined an entire world. Most of the human population died as a result. It was a dangerous chemical that had been introduced into the air. I was there when it happened, I was... affected."
"The Pax?" the Doctor asked, receiving a nod as an answer.
"In this reality, you chose not to believe that I could commit such atrocities without its influence-" he held his hand up to stop the Doctor from speaking, "-in order to allow my reality to exist, you must choose to cure me."
"What's to be gained from the paradox?" the Doctor asked, frowning, "It won't change what you've already done here."
"But it will change what I have done in my reality." he really smiled, now, "I don't know how you stand the silence, here. I can tell that Gallifrey is gone. Every reality I phased through-" he paused, glancing at Jack to add, "-and I had to use the Pax as a tracer reference, that's why I arrived right after the Reaver-" back to the Doctor as if he hadn't interrupted himself at all, "-searching for the version of you that could make this choice, they were all dead or had never existed. You're still there in some. A particularly bad one had an entire span of six galaxies overrun by Reavers, and that reality's version of me ruled them. That was... ah... unpleasant." he frowned at an obviously disturbing memory, "The point is, only in my reality does our world still thrive."
The Doctor stared at him in shock, "You mean...?"
"If you save me, we can bring you home." a brief hesitation to let those words sink in, then he added, "At least to visit. This reality may still need you. Especially if I'm not dead in this one." he glanced at Jack, who had previously told him that he was supposed to be dead.
"How is that possible?" Martha asked, stunned.
"The Eye of Harmony- the primary power source of Gallifrey- can facilitate inter-dimensional travel." the Doctor whispered, stunned, "But how... what changed in your reality?"
"I changed. Because of your future choice." he said calmly, "I'm not sure what happened in this reality, but I have heard rumours from other realities of a time war involving the Daleks. That never happened for me. We isolate the Daleks, preventing them from ever leaving their home-world, when they were only just learning to kill things."
"We?" the Doctor asked.
"You and I." he smiled faintly, "In my reality, we're very close friends."
"Exactly how close?" John asked impudently, from where he and Ianto had been listening, next to the coffee machine.
Jack shot him a glare, but the Master- except not the Master- just looked up at him calmly, "You wouldn't understand, human."
John scowled, "I understand a lot of things. I'm not from this century, y'know."
"Yes, I do know. I've met both of you before." he indicated John and Jack, "I also know that you really did not understand when he-" he indicated the Doctor, "-tried to explain it to you."
The Doctor was trying to fight the urge to laugh, and gradually losing, now. "Did I understand?" Jack asked, glancing from one Time Lord to another, and wondering what they were talking about.
"Yes, but I don't think you need to know right now." the not-Master laughed. It was a sound of genuine humour, rather than the cruel laughter Jack remembered from his experience of the Master. Whatever the joke was, Jack did not get it.
The Doctor smiled distantly, "It's been a very long time since I've seen you laugh... really laugh and mean it."
"I'm not surprised in the slightest." he said, ceasing to laugh quite abruptly, "That would be a side-effect of the Pax. Best not to talk about the details. You'll learn them all eventually."
"One question, though." the Doctor added, curiously. When the other Time Lord nodded, he continued, "Why didn't your reality's version of me come with you, to tell me this? It would be a lot easier to believe if I had his word for it as well as yours."
"Because he's a stubborn ass, just like you."
"Now that sounds like the Master talking." Jack pointed out.
"He was optimistic enough to believe it would happen, without our help. But, well, I know you." he smiled brightly, "You'll get all sentimental about what great friends we were at that age, and wonder how I could become such a monster without the Pax, so you'll assume you have to complete the temporal circle, and not give me the cure."
"Guess I haven't changed much, in your reality, then?" the Doctor asked, grinning.
"Well, you do look different." he said, eyeing the Doctor critically, "And have a better dress-sense."
"Which one had the better dress sense? Yours or ours?" Martha asked, seeming to be warming to the subject far more than Jack was comfortable with.
"Mine."
"You think of him in the possessive sense?" Jack asked edgily.
"Not often." he said, with a slightly feral grin that wouldn't have looked at all out of place on Harold Saxon's face.
John laughed, "Can we keep you?" he asked the not-Master.
"Not likely." the Time Lord retorted, still smiling, "I need to be going, soon, anyway. I was given a three hour window, this trip." Both he and the Doctor stood at the same time, but then the Doctor hesitated, unsure of what to say or do. That choice was taken out of his hands when the other Time Lord hugged him, adding as he stepped back, "I'll see you when- if- you help me."
The Doctor nodded, clearly taking what Jack still viewed as a potential threat at face value, "Alright, then."
"Oh, and this-" he pulled out a vial of pale blue liquid, "Is for that thing you've got caged up somewhere around here." he walked over and handed it to John, whispering something to him that Jack couldn't hear. John nodded, eyes lighting up with what could only be described as unholy glee at whatever the Time Lord had told him.
"Why is everyone trusting you?" Jack demanded, as the Time Lord turned to face him directly.
"Because the Doctor can tell when I lie."
"You do it so often in this reality, it was a surprise to hear you tell the truth." the Doctor added brightly. The other Time Lord quickly whispered something to the Doctor, now, "Oh, do I have to?"
"Yes."
The Doctor shrugged, "Makes sense, I suppose." he turned to Jack, now, "I'm sorry, Jack." and with that he reached up to touch the side of Jack's face.
Jack knew what he was about to do, and didn't try to stop him, "I really hope you know what you're doing, Doctor." he warned, before everything faded to black as the Doctor took away his memory of this night.
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