I think I promised this one a long time ago, lol, and had to move from where it had been to where it is now. Sorry about the delay, but you'll understand why when you read to the bottom. Enjoy the extremely rare double posting - considering it a "special" treat for Easter/Ostara and enjoy the premiere everyone! I know I'll be watching with baited breath.
And now for the beginning of this web series Season Finale!
CHAPTER ELEVEN
THE ELEVENTH HOUR REDUX (Part One)
Jack and Ianto stepped out of the TARDIS and looked around at their surroundings, relaxing as they heard the sound of birds singing and children playing in the park. It was still a crisp and cool morning, however, and so they rubbed their hands to warm them and huddled into their jackets. The Doctor came outside, dressed in her now usual black and grey clothing, and the black knee length collared button up sweater. The only break from her usual was a wide green scarf wrapped loosely around her neck. Their breath clouded in the air.
Come to think of it, Jack had not seen her in anything else but black or dark grey, or greens so dark they could be mistaken for black. "Doctor, thought you said it was spring..." said Jack.
"It is, likely early spring," Ianto answered for her before she had a chance to. "I hear birds. Usually they fly south for the winter, but seeing as they are here, then they must have come back for the spring. Or it's fall and they haven't gone south yet. Either way, this is a typical English morning."
"It's brisk, but I have to agree with Ianto. It's not winter." She took a deep breath. "Nice to breathe it again..." She patted the side of the TARDIS. "Nice to land as I intended too."
Jack grinned as Ianto walked over to a bench and picked up a recent, but still abandoned, newspaper. "You can say that again," agreed Jack. "Okay, it's nippy but I can live with nippy after that desert when you had the concussion."
They watched as Ianto walked back over to them. "So, where are we?" asked Ianto.
"Leadworth," she answered. "I'm was aiming for around New Year's or so, maybe into February, but not too much later than that."
"Not that far off," said Ianto with a shrug.
"So long as it is the fall of 2011 or the spring of 2012," she said with a smile. "And, if the old girl finally let me go where I wanted for once then we should be close to that. I like babies, but I've had my fill now that my youngest is oldest to graduate. I promised Amy and Rory I would visit, and so here we are."
Ianto looked at Jack, and Jack caught the look. Ianto was amused by something and he handed the paper to Jack with a bit of an amused smirk. Jack read the date on the paper and began to laugh wholeheartedly.
"What?" asked the Doctor.
From the two of them she got the answer. "You missed."
Jack handed her the paper, and she read the date. "Oh no. No, no, no... not again..."
Jack and Ianto looked at each other and it was Ianto who asked, "What? Don't tell me we crossed yet another time line? What is it lately and that? I thought it wasn't supposed to happen."
"Especially not this often," agreed Jack.
"This is worse. This just isn't a version of me, although when you think about it, if it's not me as in myself but my grandfather... again... yes, it's still a crossed time line but it's not as bad as say running into another me," she stressed the last bit. "But for some reason the Vortex and the TARDIS is not only allowing to happen, but with great regularity. I'm going to have to think about it another time because in a few minutes things are going to go to hell in a hand basket."
"Huh?" asked Jack, momentarily confused and then it dawned on him. "Oh, don't tell me... he's here."
"Yes, and freshly regenerated from ten into eleven. It is, of sorts, the first adventure with Amy and Rory. How they meet, actually... but why am I here too?"
"Can we leave?" asked Ianto but at that moment the sky turned pink and then blue, although the blue was a strange shade with a pink tone. "What the hell was that?"
"The Atraxi," answered the Doctor. "Interdiction field. We're stuck here."
ACT ONE
The Doctor ran into the open and stared up into the sky, gritting her teeth as she did so. Jack and Ianto, from cover did the same. "Who, or what, are the Atraxi?" asked Ianto.
"A race of jailers, as far as I know," answered Jack. "One small part of the Shadow Proclamation."
"Not part of it," corrected the Doctor. "Contracted jailers. Mercenaries, of a sort. Only instead of hunting down criminals they jail them. Atraxi prison worlds are infamous for being impossible to break out of. Only the most dangerous and wily of prisoners, outside of the Time Lord's Shada, are put in the care of the Atraxi."
"Oh great," said Jack brightly, but with a bite of sarcasm. "Who are they after on Earth... oh, don't tell me... you or your predecessor?"
"No, a being called Prisoner Zero."
"Oh, I remember this," said Jack, although he saw Ianto shaking his head confusion.
This incident was in between. After the 456 incident for Ianto, but before his return to Earth a few years later. Jack, however, remembered it from his wandering of Earth after the 456, when he had thought most of his team and Torchwood destroyed. Only he had been in China when the field had gone up. There were a lot of frightened people then, he remembered. The villagers of the small town he had been staying in had been panicked, thinking yet another invasion was incoming.
They were aimlessly wandering, although Jack could see a definite pattern to her wandering. Every so often she would stop as if thinking and then lead them off in another direction. Jack figured it out quickly. She was avoiding the areas she remembered, and therefore him. "Why don't you just ask him?" asked Jack.
She stopped and turned to face them. "Because I don't remember talking to me, or either of you, before you ask. I can't speak for Amy or Rory, but considering they didn't know who I was when I was first thrown in with you and them in that cage when we first met, I'm guessing I didn't meet them now either. However..." She turned to face Ianto and Jack. "... that doesn't mean Amy or Rory didn't meet either one of you..."
Jack thought for a moment, and then he and Ianto caught each other's glances, knowing where she was leading with this. "Oh boy," said Jack.
"Ianto, I want you to go to Amy's house, but, stay out of sight of a young man with brown hair... and likely the tattered remains of a pinstripe suit."
"I know who you mean..." began Ianto. "Tall man, mid thirties, dark blonde to brown hair."
"No," came her quiet answer, as she wrote down the address and directions to Amy's house. "A young man, looking to be in his twenties, with brown hair and the remains of the suit that other liked. There might be no jacket, but you'll be able to tell who he is by listening to him. It's usually painfully obvious in the first few seconds of his opening his mouth."
Ianto nodded and then ran off in the direction indicated.
Jack looked down and then away. "How long in this body is he?"
"Hours, maybe not even," she answered. "He'll still be experiencing regeneration sickness, although he won't be as useless as he usually is, he'll be unbalanced but up and around."
Jack closed his eyes and she walked over and put a hand on his shoulder. "It's still that same man. Different, but the same. Everything that was him is still him. Only minor things change. You know that."
"Still feels like you lose them," he answered thickly.
"It's worse when they don't regenerate - because they are literally gone," she answered back, quietly. "Are you all right with this?"
"Yeah, I will be," he answered.
"His song finally ended. As all must. But, if it's any consolation I still miss him dearly and wish I could bend to the temptation of seeing him one more time but I can't risk it," she said, as she turned, indicated to him to follow and started running off in another direction. "Let's keep this one's song from ending too soon."
Ianto checked the paper again and then ran to the house. He had his hand on the knob of the front door when he swore at himself silently. Rookie error. He pressed himself against the wall and drew his gun before moving silently, stealthily to the back of the house. Never go straight in the front door. Most people expect the front to be stormed.
In the event of an alien incursion it wasn't too unusual to expect traps and other unpleasantness.
He turned around the corner and found himself quite puzzled at the sight in the garden.
Sitting beside a run down shed, and in the middle of the garden, was the TARDIS. For a long moment he stood there dumbfounded but realized that if there were two Doctors then it was obviously logical for there to be two TARDIS's. And this one had a few differences. The shade of blue was far brighter, far fresher. As if the police box was brand new, not the slightly aged look of the one they currently traveled in, where the shade of blue was faded to a still royal, if dark, blue bordering on midnight. Fifteen's TARDIS also seemed far more likely to fade into the background, all subtle hues and dark. Eleven's was, while still a police call box, brighter. A bit less less likely to mix in. It was simply too perfect. Ianto walked up to it and laid a hand on the shell and was surprised by the purred greeting in response. He grinned. It was still, in many ways, Autumn's TARDIS before it was ever the Doctor's.
He had felt that straight away upon walking onto it with Fifteen and Jack. That same caress on his mind and jubiliant greeting that gave him the feeling that, while it had only been a few years for him, it had been far, far long on the TARDIS itself. How many years had passed between Autumn being the pilot before it passed to her son? And then, after her son, to the granddaughter that now carried his name and his legacy? He didn't want to hazard a guess but knew that by Time Lord standards, it was literally lifetimes ago. To a human's standpoint it was so incredibly long that literally generations upon generations could have passed to the single Time Lord's. And here it was that in Time Lord standards that four generations had stepped on the TARDIS and walked its corridors.
The TARDIS sensed his sorrow and sent him reassurance. Yes, it had been perhaps millenia since she last saw him, and he had been missed, but it was okay. She knew that one day he would return. His being here was proof of that. But now wasn't that time.
He dropped his hand and turned to the house. "I understand, old girl," he murmured. "I'll do what I can."
Ianto ran over to the back door, and saw that it was open. He pushed it open more with his foot, staying to the side. He could hear indistinct voices upstairs, and he slipped inside, his gun at the ready.
Jack looked at the stately building, puzzled, but he still followed the Doctor in as she came to a stop. For all intents and purposes the hospital looked as it should and he was confused. "Jack, you think you can hide yourself here?" she asked as she turned to face him.
"Yeah, I suppose so," he answered, still confused.
"Good. Stay out of sight of Rory or Amy, because invariably if you see either one, or worse both that means..."
"That he's here too," Jack finished as he caught up with the thread of the conversation.
He had a feeling she was setting something up, but as of yet he wasn't sure what. "Rory works here," she added as explanation. "I want you to keep an eye out for them or anything else out of the ordinary. The minute anything looks like it's about to go down..."
"... Call you?" he asked.
"No, get the hell out of here and call me. Get out of sight," she ordered. "This is one fixed point that cannot ever, under any circumstances, be broken. The world could very well end if it does. And there are so many ways for it to break..."
"Right, okay," Jack drawled out. "So avoid the other you, Amy and Rory at all costs. On pain of Earth's destruction. Got it. Where will you be?"
He didn't get an answer as she rushed off. Jack let out a breath in a whoosh and looked around the store room in confusion. Finally he spotted a set of scrubs, the kind orderlies, or rather Personal Support Workers, as they had come to be known, wore. They weren't much different than nurses scrubs. Actually they weren't any different. Jack got out of his clothes and put the scrubs on.
If he had to be invisible, the best way to do it, outside of impersonating a patient or checking in and actually being a patient, would be to pass as someone who worked there. With a sigh, he left the closet and stashed his clothes in an empty locker, locking it with lock that likely, if the Doctor spotted it, would know it didn't belong by sheer fact that it was obviously from the 51st century and therefore DNA locked. He still kept his guns underneath his scrubs, and was thankful that they were thick, and loose enough, that their presence was well hidden.
Stay out of sight and keep watch. Jack grinned. That he could do...
Ianto crept silently to the bottom of the stairs and listened. He could hear a man's voice, and, much to his non-surprise, Fifteen had been right. Two seconds into hearing him and Ianto knew it had to be the Doctor. There was no mistaking the cross of arrogance intersparsed with techno-speak that he seemed to only understand. There was another person there... and he recognized Amy's voice.
Just then he heard barking. What was that? he wondered. A dog?
"What? I'm sorry, but what?" came Amy's confused voice, as if she was surprised to hear the dog.
Ianto had a moment of confusion. Wouldn't the woman know she owned a dog or was she confused, like everyone else, by the Doctor? "It's all one creature, one creature disguised as two. Clever, old, multi-form. A bit of a rushed job, though... got the voices muddled, did you?" There was silence for a moment and Ianto imagined that everyone was as confused as he was, including likely that blasted dog. "Mind you, where did you get that pattern from? You'd need a psychic link, life feed, how'd you fix that?"
What the hell is he on about? mused Ianto. He was about to take a step up the stairs when he heard the dog growling. "Stay away!"
Ianto stopped. Apparently so did the dog. "Apparently we're safe, wanna know why? She sent for backup."
Oh crap. Police. Ianto took a silent step back down to the bottom of the stairs and then sidestepped into the other room, into the shadows. He had his Torchwood identification. Good thing too, because if this went sideways he'd need it.
"I didn't send for backup," came Amy's voice.
Ianto had to stifle a bark of laughter, because the thought... wait, what? "...I know, that was a clever line to save our lives. Okay, yeah, no back up!" The growling stopped. "And that's why we're safe. Alone we're not a threat to you. If we had back up you'd have to kill us."
Ianto found himself suddenly not feeling as safe as he had. Not that he was safe before, hence the gun drawn and hiding at the bottom of the stairs. "Attention Prisoner Zero. The human residence is surrounded. Attention Prisoner Zero. The human residence is surrounded."
Amy asked, "What's that?"
"Well, that would be backup," answered the Doctor, and again Ianto had to stifle a chortle at the slightly peeved and startled tone to his voice. "Okay, one more time. We do have backup, and that's definitely why we're safe."
"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence, or the human residence will be incinerated."
There was the sound of movement upstairs and Ianto used that opportunity to hide himself a bit better. Not to well or he'd never escape himself, should it come to it. The Doctor continued through the sound of the Atraxi outside, but Ianto couldn't hear what was said. Moments later, he could hear the muffled sound of the Doctor yelling at something to work and then, plain as day, Ianto heard, "Run!"
His eyes opened wide and he ducked into a closet. Barely in the nick of time, too, as Eleven and Amy ran past him, not even taking notice of the other person in her home as they ran out the front door. A man and a dog ran past him as well and stood at the door barking. Wait a minute. The dog wasn't barking, it was the man. Suddenly the Doctor's previous statement of it being one being in a multi-form disguise made sense.
Suddenly Prisoner Zero realized it wasn't alone and turned slowly to face Ianto and the fact that Ianto had his gun trained on him. The man growled, but was surprised and stopped when he realized that Ianto wasn't in the least intimidated. "Torchwood," said Ianto and the alien stopped dead in its tracks, alarmed, it appeared. "I'm guessing you're Prisoner Zero. Well, Prisoner Zero..."
He hardly had enough time to react and get one shot off when the creature attacked and blackness swept over him. Before he passed out completely he heard the unmistakable whine of something in pain as it retreated itself.
ACT TWO
Ianto groaned as he came to and opened his eyes. For a long moment he was confused. The ceiling was a house... an older house in the country, if he wasn't mistaken. He focussed on the face of the woman in front of him, but couldn't quite. "Autumn?" he asked, confused, hope surging.
He blinked and the face came into sharp focus. The woman looked much like Autumn, as he remembered her, but was not. He felt his heart plummet as he looked at the woman, who like Autumn, had two hearts but was not the woman he had thought. "Doctor," he said simply, trying and failing, to keep the disappointment out of his voice.
"Indeed," she answered as she helped him to his feet. "You just had to, didn't you?"
"I heard the conversation between your eleventh and Amy," he said. "I know what Prisoner Zero is... or at least I have an idea of what they're looking for."
"So do I," she smiled, amused by this for some reason he couldn't figure out. "I remember this as well... just likely not your side of this, or this current side as I am living now. Now I know it wasn't blind luck... it was us. All of us... the six of us working together without knowing it that recaptured Prisoner Zero."
"Not another predestined Paradox," groaned Ianto. "You seem to collect these."
"Hmm," the Doctor was thoughtful for a second. "The downside of being a time traveler... and in particular a Time Lord."
Everything seemed to be normal. Jack sighed. He managed to keep out of the way of the nursing staff and actually was quite useful. Sure, he'd flirted with a few. Some had coldly rebuffed his advances. Others had shyly giggled. He'd even flirted with a few of the patients, but only in a professional and distant manner. So far no one had questioned his presence.
He grinned inwardly.
This was taking a page from the Doctor's book. Walk in and act like you own the place and everyone will naturally assume that you belong there. Only those who know implicitly that you don't will suspect. So far he had not run into human resources, assuming there was such a thing, and anyone in charge of the entire hospital appeared too busy with whatever they did in administration to deign to come out of their offices to notice.
Jack simply slipped into place and his fellow staff assumed he was new to the job. Maybe not the career, but definitely the place. And he rolled with it.
Granted, that meant actually working instead of slipping around trying not to be noticed. Now that he'd been seen and he had interacted, he had no choice but live up to the part.
And he could see why people hated it, or, loved it. It was definitely a job that if someone wasn't there to do it the hospital would grind to a screeching halt. He'd always assumed, thanks to Martha and Owen, that it was the doctors and nurses that made the place run. Working as a personal support worker proved otherwise. It was the least glamorous job, hell, even being a janitor in the place would have been less messy or less work. He should know... he'd been a janitor to mix in to other places before... but this was ridiculous. He had to be one part nurse - with that knowledge - and one part the former career path that used to be an orderly with the muscle, and the remaining part assistant nurse which only meant more nursing. The only thing he didn't do with the patients was anything to do with medication unless it was oral, and then only to make sure they took it. All else was his job. From lifting to bed pans - and he shuddered with that memory of the morning - to helping the patients be up and around to simply being company and reading to ones who couldn't hold the books themselves.
Jack moved to the side and stretched his back, massaging a crick out of it. A nurse came up and handed him an unopened bottle of pop. "Thanks," he said.
"You looked like you needed it. You know, I get that it's your first day and all, Jack, but you don't have to throw yourself into it quite so much," she smiled. "It wouldn't hurt to take a break."
"Noticed that, did you?"
"Yeah, don't worry. We all learn to take a break when we can in the first week or so. It's the first day we're a little nutter. Take care of yourself or you won't be able to take care of others. First rule."
"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind."
And he would. She wouldn't know it but that little piece of advice would stick with him, even after he stopped traveling with this Doctor and went back to Torchwood. It would also be one he passed on to anyone he worked with. That much he had decided arbitrarily. In particular, he knew one Time Lord or two that needed to learn it. He grinned. He'd have fun trying to teach that concept to the Doctor with how stubborn she could be.
He almost missed the out of place person. He blinked and turned back and the man and the dog blinked and then looked back at him. They took two steps towards Jack as one.
There was something off about the pair, something he couldn't put his finger on. "Hey, you shouldn't bring a dog in here," chided Jack as he walked up to them, and the man looked puzzled, as did the dog. "Hospital, in case you missed it. No pets. You'll have to come back without him."
Then the man spoke, only it wasn't the man. Jack understood immediately. This was no man, and no dog, but a single alien creature. He wasn't familiar with them all, but he knew to take a step back. He feigned puzzlement and wonder. "Oh wow, how'd you do that? That must have taken a whole lot of training... ventriloquism and training the dog, I mean... you entertainment for the kids?"
Again the man and dog blinked in confusion, but advanced on Jack. "Look, um, don't know who you are, or what you are, but you clearly don't belong. I have a friend that can help, she does that kind of thing..."
"I am not going back - they will kill me instead of take me back," growled the dog side of things.
"Yeah, neat trick. Bit messed up though. Should have gone with my suggestion, buddy," said Jack as he backed up. "Now seriously, back the hell off. I'm not unarmed."
"Oh really, I see a scared orderly, or whatever they call you now," answered the creature.
"Nah, that's a disguise... better than yours, mind you, but..." Jack grinned. "... I'm no personal support worker. It's a cover. Torchwood."
The creature reared back in surprise and he noticed the wound on its side as it took its real, and nasty looking, form. "Someone already wing you?"
"Yeah, another one said he was from Torchwood. I would have had him too, knocked him down, but for that nasty gun and his interfering partner," said the creature.
"Let me guess, you're Prisoner Zero!" Jack pulled out his gun and aimed it level at the creature, his other hand placed his headset in his ear where it belonged and he touched it to call the Doctor. "Now, you are coming with me and we are going to sort this out. Got it?"
The creature laughed. "Oh, I don't think so."
It lunged and Jack pulled the trigger. The gun went off, but also went wide and he missed. It appeared the creature had not expected him to fire at all and so it retreated. Jack gave chase, and he was suddenly aware of the screams. Both from the sight of the creature that was now madly careening through the hospital, and him waving the gun.
He shoved a nurse out of the way and took aim at the fish thing again, but the creature used another patient to block his shot. Jack grimaced, but kept running after it. "Get everyone out! Stop staring!" he shouted at the shocked nurse.
A few seconds later, Jack turned to see the same nurse who had talked to him earlier. "Just get everyone out here, okay? Torchwood business, if anyone asks."
She nodded, and then started doing what he told her to do. Jack ran after the creature, determined not to lose sight of it. Unfortunately, he did. "We have a situation..." he said as she picked up. "The alien is loose in the hospital. I'm guessing you were half expecting this?"
"I was, but... hell... it's right on time."
"Yeah, well, I told everyone to evacuate and I know for sure that the alien is still in the hospital," said Jack as he listened for disturbances. "I can't contain this on my own, where the hell are you and Ianto?"
"Jack?" came a voice behind him.
Uh oh.
"Jack, you idiot," came Fifteen's voice, only there was no anger or bite to it. "I told you not to get spotted by him."
He turned around to look at the young man. If he hadn't known that this was Eleven, Jack would not have recognized him. Okay, maybe after a few minutes he might have, as there were quite a few clues, especially right now being so close to after a recent regeneration. He didn't look anything like Ten, actually was shorter by a few inches and while not a big man, seemed less skinny. Not muscular like Nine, though. He was young, with a disportionate chin that did nothing for his face. His brown hair was a few shades darker than Ten's which had skirted the border between blonde and brown. It was also longer and had this tendency to fall into his eyes. He was younger looking by a decade in human standards, easily mistaken for mid-twenties.
Jack noticed what was left of a blue pinstripe suit. No jacket, no brown overcoat. Pale blue shirt, tie that was loose on his neck. Both looked like they seen better days. Pinstripe trousers and converses. Jack felt his heart plummet.
Very recent regeneration.
Was still likely trying to figure himself out and maybe never had the chance to look at himself. "Hi..." started Jack awkwardly, looking from the Doctor to Amy and Rory, trying to mask both his worry and his recognition. "Captain Jack Harkness, at your service. Now, if you don't mind... Torchwood business and all... it'd be best if you left now like everyone else." He turned his attention to the other. "Ianto, any time now would be good for that back up... we have civvies on site..."
"Torchwood... right," said Eleven and he dragged the last part out. "It would figure you'd have your fingers in it. Got here really quickly too, didn't you."
"Well, you know us..." said Jack, grinning. "Wait, how...?"
Please don't call me out on it, he inwardly begged. Please don't ask how... take this for what it looks like...
"So, I'm guessing that's Gwen and Ianto on the other end?" he asked.
"Absolutely," answered Jack, then, to his own credit and acting skills. "Wait, how do you know us?"
"Never mind that, where is Prisoner Zero?" asked Eleven.
"Jack, goddamit... walk away... all Time Lords are extremely telepathic..." whispered Fifteen in his ear. "Give him any more time to puzzle it out and he will."
"That's not Gwen on the other end," said Eleven suddenly, puzzled himself.
"Had to round out our team - had a few openings - used to operating with at least five, you know. We were down to three..."
"Ah." Eleven suddenly seemed to accept this.
Jack suppressed a sigh of relief. "So... how'd you get here first?" asked Eleven suddenly. "I didn't see any vehicles from Torchwood." Jack held up his Vortex Manipulator. "Ah, I see. Wait, how did you know to show me that. How did you know I would know what it was when you already told me to evacuate."
"You know who I am, so it made sense, now didn't it?" countered Jack. "So I could ask you the same. However, I recognize the suit... or what's left of it. Nice of you to show up, Doctor."
"Oh Jack," came Fifteen's voice, and then there was a crash on the other end.
"Uh, D... er... Ianto... what was that?" asked Jack, seeing Eleven catch on the almost slip.
Uh oh. Not good.
"But now... hang on... I think I found out why we're here... gotta go... keep an eye on me, will you?"
Suddenly there was only empty air on the headset and Eleven had this look on his face. Almost disbelief crossed with amusement.
ACT THREE
Ianto, now that the Doctor had found him, had little choice but to follow after her. He could have decided to wander on his own, but he felt that it was far better to work as part of a team unless it was more strategic to be alone.
The Doctor had them pressed into the wall as an Atraxi floated by, scanning the area. Ianto's hand twitched to draw his gun. The instinct was all but screaming at him to do as his training at Torchwood demanded he should. But the Doctor clearlly had other ideas. Some of them possibly better than his, but that still remained to be seen. "I don't get the hiding," he said once it had passed.
"If I get seen, and scanned, by them they will naturally assume I am Prisoner Zero because I am not human. Erronous assumption to be sure, but to them logical. A non human on a class five planet full of humans. Ergo - I must be the one they're looking for," answered the Doctor as she shook her head. "They wouldn't be convinced of otherwise, either, before you ask. No, best to avoid them. Besides, when the time is right they need to be attracted to where Jack currently is... where the Doctor, my Eleventh incarnation, will handle them. I am not supposed to be here. I'm out of time, as are you and Jack. Sometimes I wonder just what goes through the TARDIS's mind when this happens..."
"It's been happening alot."
"So I've noticed. I have not crossed my own timeline, before all these recent affairs, for over a century, and then it only happened once... and before that I might have jumped a time track but I didn't cross my own time line, and again, it was a one off and didn't happen again. I have not had such... issues... since my eighth and possibly my seventh. Although the worst was my eighth. I lost track so many times of when I was or what order that I literally forgot and lost track of my age. But it was necessary..."
She trailed off. "It's strange. I know those events happened but yet I can't remember them with any great clarity. Before then I could remember my past and those in it clearly. But my time in my eighth incarnation turned everything into a muddle of confusion and half-remembered dreams. I still remember everything before but I can't quite remember when or how long ago it was. At least those memories are much clearer than the eighth's." She made a face then, one that spoke of confusion and frustration. "Things snapped into place far too much during the Time War and then after it. It was as if... as if... something on Gallifrey confused things. Like I was more than one person at the same time, but not. I'm not making any sense, am I?"
"Sounds like amnesia to me," answered Ianto. "Any chances of that?"
"Well, yes, my eighth was plagued with it upon waking up in my new body. I couldn't remember who or what I was or why I could sense time and other things. I was sleepy, and I remember sleeping after finding clothing. Stolen clothing, stolen bed..." she smiled sadly. "I was lost, in pain, sick from regeneration, and alone even though there were people around me... all strangers... even if I had my memory then they would have been strangers. I found myself in the back of a car, still in pain, and the memory is fuzzy on how I got there. I woke some time later in the same car with Grace shaking me awake and helping me into her house. I slept more, in her bed... how rude of me to put her out like that. Then had to wake up and save the world while trying to get my memory back."
He looked at her, clearly not knowing what to say. "Why am I telling you this?" she asked herself.
Ianto shook his head. "Because I'm listening?" he offered. "And because I won't tell anyone else. Maybe because if you tell someone, even if they can't help, the listening ear will help you puzzle it out."
She laughed. "There it's gone. We can move now."
The mini raced by them as they stepped out from the shadow of the tree and the building. She froze and put a hand on Ianto's chest. "Were we seen?" she asked suddenly.
"I don't know!"
"I don't remember being seen... we're fine... come on."
They walked in another direction. It was at this point he got the feeling that she was looking for something in specific, but just hadn't told him yet. "It's peaceful here," he said suddenly.
"Yeah. For all its drowsy feel for some reason something was special about Amy... but that is another story for another time." She smiled sadly. "And I'm done talking about my past."
It was then Ianto realized that she had fallen into "the Doctor" again. She had been talking as if the memories she held that were not really hers, but her grandfather's, had been hers. As if she'd lived them. As if... he took an inward gasp. He wondered what device on the TARDIS could cause so complete an overwrite or if it was a defense mechanism. Or, in the face of danger when she truly had to be the Doctor she simply was on and there was just no Susan, no granddaughter or former companion - she became the Doctor so completely that there was no border between the two anymore. What the world perceived became the truth while she was on, while she was the Doctor.
Because she had to.
He felt the same sweep of protectiveness that Jack had described when he also noticed it when he had started traveling with her. Jack had said once she was "the Doctor" he felt as if he needed to be that wingman, that aide. Companion. Only, unlike with the grandfather, Jack had described it not as the desire to aid but as the desire to protect the secret, protect the legacy, and the new Doctor.
Ianto felt it now. He understood Jack's feelings. She simply drew you into her gravity well and didn't let go once you fell into orbit.
Her phone rang and she put it to her ear. "Jack?"
"We have a situation..." he answered immediately. "The alien is loose in the hospital. I'm guessing you were half expecting this?"
"I was, but... hell... it's right on time."
"Yeah, well, I told everyone to evacuate and I know for sure that the alien is still in the hospital," said Jack, and there was a significant pause. "I can't contain this on my own, where the hell are you and Ianto?"
"Jack?" she heard a too familiar voice in the background that had barely been picked up by Jack's microphone, but she heard it all the same.
"Jack, you idiot," she said, but she found she couldn't be angry. Not now. "I told you not to get spotted by him."
"Hi..." started Jack awkwardly, and she stifled a snort, but it was clear he heard it anyway. "Captain Jack Harkness, at your service. Now, if you don't mind... Torchwood business and all... it'd be best if you left now like everyone else." He returned to her. "Ianto, any time now would be good for that back up... we have civvies on site..."
She grinned and caught on to his very quick thinking.
"Torchwood... right," she could hear Eleven's voice more clearly now, as if he had stepped closer to Jack. "It would figure you'd have your fingers in it. Got here really quickly too, didn't you."
"Well, you know us..." said Jack, and she could hear the grin in his voice, then the feigned confusion. "Wait, how...?"
"So, I'm guessing that's Gwen and Ianto on the other end?" he asked.
"Absolutely," answered Jack, then, to his own credit and acting skills. "Wait, how do you know us?"
"Never mind that, where is Prisoner Zero?" came her grandfather's voice again, and she held her breath.
"Jack, goddamit... walk away... all Time Lords are extremely telepathic..." she whispered over the phone to Jack. "Give him any more time to puzzle it out and he will."
"That's not Gwen on the other end," said Eleven suddenly, puzzled himself.
"Had to round out our team - had a few openings - used to operating with at least five, you know. We were down to three..."
"Ah." Eleven suddenly seemed to accept this, and she breathed a sigh of relief.
"So... how'd you get here first?" asked Eleven suddenly. "I didn't see any vehicles from Torchwood." There was a another pause. "Ah, I see. Wait, how did you know to show me that. How did you know I would know what it was when you already told me to evacuate."
"You know who I am, so it made sense, now didn't it?" countered Jack. "So I could ask you the same. However, I recognize the suit... or what's left of it. Nice of you to show up, Doctor."
"Oh Jack," she said, then she turned as another Atraxi flew by.
She pushed both her and Ianto back up to the wall and out of sight, sending a garbage bin crashing to the ground at the same time. They stilled as the Atraxi paused in the sky, visually scanning the area where they had been. She could feel Ianto twitching beside her. Likely wanting to go for his gun again. Torchwood. Sugar coat it all they want, it still was a bunch of trigger happy military types. Worse than UNIT.
"Uh, D... er... Ianto... what was that?" asked Jack, and she took a breath because she knew her grandfather would catch that almost slip.
The Atraxi hovered, then began to move... towards them. She looked around but found no other way to escape but out into the open again. The Doctor knew that there was no outrunning the Atraxi. She held the phone up again, and quietly said, "But now... hang on... I think I found out why we're here... gotta go... keep an eye on me, will you?"
At this point she hung up before her grandfather could get any closer to the phone. She swallowed and looked at Ianto, then back to the approaching Atraxi. "Jack's been compromised, and so have we."
For a long second Jack was surprised at the sudden silence on the other end, but he hid it well. Eleven was still giving him this look that looked both confused and unconvinced. "Who are you talking to, Jack?" asked Eleven.
Jack stared at him, the look on his face clearly alarmed at being caught out. And he knew it.
"You still with Torchwood, then?" asked Eleven.
"Yeah," answered Jack, shakily.
"For some reason seeing me is not filling you with your usual. So... that leads me to believe... you're crossing time lines." Jack schooled his expression into utter neutrality, but knew it wasn't going to help him. It didn't. "A ha! A later one! Tell me... am I ginger?"
Jack looked at him incredulously, then grinned. Moments later he was laughing hysterically. The Doctor was also grinning, while Amy and Rory looked on in confusion. "No, Doctor, not that I know of between this and..." He stopped, and he saw the Doctor catch his words and the meaning behind them.
"Oh really now?" asked the Doctor, and then he held up his hand as Jack chewed his lip.
"I am going to be so dead for this, but who knows, maybe you knowing now will lead to later. She told me to keep out of sight of you and she is Fifteen. The Doctor, I mean. You. And she is so going to kill me for that," Jack sighed, running a hand through his hair.
Eleven was speechless. Considering Jack had never seen a Doctor struck speechless in the now four incarnations he had run across, he knew that was quite a feat. He swallowed and seemed to stumble a bit backwards. Amy steadied him, and Jack guided him to a chair. "She? Fifteen? What? How?" he said once he was able to speak again.
"Breathe, Doc," said Jack, kneeling so that he was eye level.
"Time Lord?" he asked quietly.
Jack nodded after a moment. "She took your name and the TARDIS after... after you died. Was fitting, all considering." Jack winced at the way that sounded and at the fact that the Doctor was paler. "She said her name, before, was Susan."
Eleven leaned back, his eyes wide. "She lived." He smiled then, one that reached his eyes for once. "I'm not alone. Oh, knowing that makes me feel... much better I think. Not being the last and knowing she still lives."
Jack finished, "Alex too."
"Oh, now that just makes me feel old," chided the Doctor, and he stood up again, screwing up his face in a wry expression. "Knowing my granddaughter takes my place after I'm... after I'm gone and that my great-grandson is old enough to take care of himself without her. Rassilon..."
They turned to the stunned Amy and Rory who was looking at the Doctor with the most confused looks on their faces. "My race lives for a long time," explained the Doctor. "Right then. Now is not the time for a family reunion, let alone one that is clearly off its time track completely."
ACT FOUR
Ianto stood just beside the Doctor at her left side. The alien floated before them and it paused. "You are a non-human life form. Prisoner Zero will surrender."
"It might," she answered. "But I'm not Prisoner Zero."
"Sol Three is the planet of humanity - its homeland - your presence here is illegal."
"Check your logs again, Atraxi. I'm not just any life form. Scan me," she said scornfully, stepping forward and holding up her arms. "My grandfather negotiated the treaty with the Shadow Proclamation and the United Nations here on Earth. UNIT was then formed to administer and watch over alien life. I now carry his legacy. As such I am a member of UNIT itself. Officially as the scientific advisor. Unofficially as their attache, their ambassador, and as a strategic and tactical advisor, as necessary. I am the Doctor, my planet of origin is Gallifrey in the constellation of Kasterborous."
The eye moved back a bit. "You are not Prisoner Zero."
"No, I am not."
"You are a Time Lord."
"How observant of you."
"Gallifrey is gone... most of the Time Lords are dead," said the Atraxi. "You are an endangered species. Part of our mission is to protect species on the brink of extinction. You will surrender yourself to our protection."
"I will not... wait a minute, what do you mean endangered? Not extinct?" she asked as she picked up on what it had said. "Are there others? Others who survived the fall of Gallifrey? Where?"
"That information is classified. Our mission is to gather those we find."
Ianto put a hand on her shoulder to calm her. "How many of them are there? Have you seen personally?" he asked.
"I myself have taken five others to the client for preservation."
"What client?" she cried. "Who hired you to 'preserve' our kind?"
"Our commander would know where the meetings take place. It is not for this drone to know."
She closed her eyes and sent her senses out. She could feel her grandfather and pulled back. It wouldn't do to alert him too soon to her existence. Until she was elsewhere, elsewhen, she would not be able to stretch out her senses to attempt to find others. The Doctor swallowed. "Who else did you find?"
"Their names are unimportant."
"The hell they are!" she exclaimed. "What were their names... or do you know?"
A holograph appeared and a series of faces were shown to her. The Doctor felt her mouth go dry as she saw the face of someone she never thought she would see again when she found out that Gallifrey had been destroyed in a war.
Hawke.
Her father and the younger of the Doctor's two children, outside of Jenny which techically now made Hawke the middle of three children, although Hawke was the last child from Patience and the Doctor. It flipped to another face and she felt another shock as she also seen the face of Autumn. Ianto stepped forward to the Atraxi as he felt a rush of blood to his face. "Where did you take her?" he demanded.
The Atraxi regarded the two of them. "The Time Lord will surrender herself and I promise I will give the information to her human companion."
The Doctor turned to Ianto, a sad look in her eyes. He shook his head. "You can't."
"Can't I?" she asked quietly.
"You do this, Jack and are stuck here."
She took out her sonic screwdriver. "Tell Jack that I have set this to fix the Vortex Manipulator. It will get the two of you back to where you should be. Use the TARDIS, emergency program one. It will take you both back to Cardiff, two years after the 456 incident... and when you are supposed to return."
"And what about you?" he asked quietly.
"Find Al..." she stopped, looked over at the Atraxi, then leaned over and whispered in Ianto's ear. "April twenty-first, twenty-two forty-seven, set the location to Torchwood in Vancouver. Tell them... tell them... code ultraviolet four." She looked at him. "Can you remember that?"
He nodded, worriedly, but understood. "What then?"
"Help will arrive," she explained, then she turned back to the Atraxi. "All right, you have a deal. I surrender. Tell Ianto who your client is."
"The client's name is Professor Irving of the Horwegian Library Archive."
She turned to Ianto, and then nodded. Ianto nodded back once. "You had better know what you're doing."
"Don't worr..."
The Doctor was cut off as the Atraxi flooded her with a blue light and then she was gone. The Atraxi left, flying back into the sky a few minutes later. Ianto watched as her instructions ran through his head.
Moments later he started running for the hospital to where he knew Jack had been. They met in the middle as they watched a large Atraxi sweep down on the hospital. Jack looked around in confusion. "Where's the Doctor?"
"She's gone!"
"What do you mean, gone?"
"The Atraxi took her. Listen, she told me to tell you something," said Ianto.
Jack was furious. "What the hell happened?"
"We were spotted by an Atraxi while she was on the phone with you," answered Ianto. "Evidently, the Atraxi were contracted by some professor somewhere to gather up them... as in their species... as endangered for their protection. She was scanned, because they first thought her to be Prisoner Zero. Then they discovered she was a Time Lord. Well, fuck, then they demanded her to surrender herself for protection. She wasn't going to, but then they cut a deal."
"What kind of deal?" asked Jack, feeling as if the world had suddenly spiraled out from under him.
"They would share who had called for their collection and she would go with the Atraxi. She took the deal and went with them," answered Ianto. "But she left instructions."
"Is there something I can help you with?" came a voice behind them.
Jack and Ianto turned to face the Doctor, only it wasn't their Doctor. It was the eleventh, now dressed in tweed and a bow tie. He was alone, and appeared to a bit winded. Jack chewed his lip. "I wish I could say yes, Doctor," answered Jack. "But this would be crossing time lines. Majorly. Knowledge you likely shouldn't have and all that."
"I get it," said Eleven, exasperated. "Where is my successor?"
Jack and Ianto looked at each other. "We were just discussing that. She's gone," answered Ianto, and then he caught Jack's alarmed look. "Don't give me that look. Maybe he can help us."
"Maybe I can and maybe you should stick to the instructions she gave you," answered the Doctor. "What were they?"
"First, go back to the TARDIS and engage emergency program one," answered Ianto, and he was relieved to see this Doctor nodding in agreement. "Then use this to fix Jack's Vortex Manipulator and go to a date and place she specified and tell them Code Ultraviolet Four. They'd help us."
He glared at the sonic screwdriver in Ianto's hand and then put his hand out. Ianto handed it over and the Doctor inspected it. "Nice work. Elegant, understated... not as many settings as mine but most of these are multi-purpose. How like her, all simplicity over complexity. Meant to be used quickly with the exact setting easily accessed," he said, then tossed it back to Ianto. "Now, show me your Vortex Manipulator... and I can't believe I'm about to do this... but... if you need to get to another place and time it is the only way."
The Doctor ran the sonic over Jack's Vortex Manipulator, poked at a few settings on it, and then sighed. "There, it's fixed." He looked at Jack, an unreadable expression on his face. "Go get her back. I'd hate to learn to I have family only to lose it again."
"Yeah," answered Jack heavily. "You got it."
With a final two finger half salute, the Doctor ran off in the direction of Amy's house and his own TARDIS. "So, I take it those were her instructions?" Jack asked and Ianto nodded. "Let's skip a step and go straight to..."
"... no, she was quite clear on using the TARDIS first," answered Ianto.
"All right then, must have her reasons..."
They walked back to the TARDIS in silence. Both were brooding and neither knew what to expect or how to get her back. "So... where?"
"Torchwood Vancouver, April twenty-first, twenty-two forty-seven," answered Ianto. "Find someone named Al."
"Think she meant Alex?" asked Jack.
"Could be," said Ianto, brightening, as they stepped into the TARDIS.
Jack spoke, "Initiate emergency program one. The Doctor has been lost."
For a long moment the TARDIS was silent. Ianto took a breath. "TARDIS, initiate emergency program one. She's been taken by the Atraxi. We need you someplace safe and then we're going after her."
The lights dimmed and then turned red. Somewhere in the depths of the TARDIS a bell tolled, but the time rotor started to move. Jack looked at Ianto as he walked up to the console, running a hand along it. "The TARDIS and I have a longer history than you and the Doctor do," answered Ianto. "Autumn still lives, as does Hawke. The name of the professor was Irving. That name meant something to both her and I."
"Oh really?" asked Jack as the bell tolled one loud, frightened, chime.
"On Gallifrey there were two brothers. One would bend time to his own ends. Mostly harmless, but still, selfish. Another would dedicate his life to helping others, although mostly he would wander. At first, he limited this to Gallifrey and with other Time Lords," explained Ianto. "This same wanderer would also, for a time, settle long enough to have a family because he wanted to. And he loved it. But something would happen and he would go back to wandering, only... he would take his granddaughter away with him. This time he would go renegade and steal a time ship, his mother's to be exact. This granddaughter would, on that same trip, name that ship the TARDIS. And that wanderer was the Doctor. This time ship, this TARDIS, used to belong to Autumn, and with Autumn I traveled. So you see, the TARDIS has known me for longer... but that's a side story. The real issue is how I know of Irving. Or I should say Braxiatel."
"Who?" asked Jack, confused.
"Autumn's elder son, and the Doctor's brother."
Jack froze in shock. "Are you saying that this Irving is Braxiatel?"
"Professor Irving Braxiatel, the librarian, the collector, and who knows what else?" explained Ianto. "I think so. Granted, it could be a coincidence and another Irving, one that is just interested in the Time Lords." The cloister bell continued to ring. "But the TARDIS, I think, agrees with my suspicion that it's the same one."
"But the Time Lords are dead," said Jack. "He said so..."
"There's a range limit on their senses, Jack," said Ianto. "There was no way to know they were all dead - not even he could be everywhere and everywhen, at once, to be sure. And... Braxiatel was always clever. As clever as his brother - clever is hard wired into a Time Lord."
"Jesus fuck," murmured Jack. "We've got our work cut out for us."
TO BE CONTINUED IN
ALL IS NOT FAIR (Part Two)
After being reunited with her great-uncle Braxiatel and her father, Hawke, the Doctor has to come to terms with the loss of Gallifrey all over again as the real threat comes to light. Braxatiel, in his usual neutral self, is only in it to preserve his lost culture, but her father is in it to end the Time War once and for all by using the Library as a training ground for humans by pitting them against the Vashta Nerada in preparation for the war against the Daleks. Can she save the humans in the Library while saving herself and convincing her father that the war is over... but is the war truly over? And who is the mysterious figure that keeps helping her?