"Doctor!" The man said jovially. "I'd hoped you'd come." The newcomer rushed forward enveloping the Doctor in a warm hug.
Viola bit her tongue trying to prevent herself from giggling at the uncomfortable expression on the Doctor's face.
"Jack!" he said in a strained tone as the other man pulled away. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm looking for Donna?" Jack smiled at Viola. "Hey, who's the kid?"
Viola frowned. "You don't recognize me?" She asked, crest fallen. "We met on the street, my mum was bleeding, you helped us."
Jack furrowed his brow and shook his head. "Sorry, I don't recall."
emViola, that hasn't happened in his timeline yet./em the Doctor reminded her in her head.
emOh, right. /em she thought back before smiling up at Jack. "Never mind." She told him casually as she offered her hand. "I'm Viola."
Jack beamed and took her hand in his. "Beautiful name. Captain Jack Harkness."
"It's a pleasure to properly meet you. I've heard so much about you."
He raised his eyebrows. "You have?"
"Yup, my Daddy told me all about how you used to travel with him and Mummy... Only he had a different face then."
Jack blinked at her then shot a questioning glance at the Doctor. "She's your—?"
The Doctor shook his head vigorously. "Not exactly."
Jack frowned, studying him for a moment before it clicked. "Wait, you mean she's his..."
The Doctor nodded. "And Rose's daughter, yes."
Jack's coat flapped against his legs as he raced after the Doctor and Viola towards the location of the scream. His head swam with the new bits of information he'd just gained in the office. Rose and the other Doctor had a child, Donna and Rose were missing, there were cracks in the universe...
Actually when he really thought about it, it made sense. The cracks. Jack had noticed a serious increase in odd alien activity coming from the Rift in Cardiff in recent months. And just the other day, he and Gwen had returned a 13th century Shen warrior back to his correct timeline only to find an 18th century courtier and 3rd century priest wandering the streets. They'd figured at the time that it was just unusual Rift activity, but now Jack wasn't so sure. If there were cracks in the universe then it could be that time was no longer fixed - a very dangerous prospect.
His thoughts were interrupted as they rounded a corner to find three children, two boys and a girl, racing around a large room that contained a small selection of toys, books and board games in addition to three unmade beds. The smallest child, one of the girls, shrieked again as the boy darted toward her. She ran over and hid behind the older girl, giggling as the boy chased after her.
Jack looked toward the Doctor, amused yet unsurprised to see the expression of disappointment that was stamped across his face. Clearly he, like Jack, had been expecting to find something more than a child's chase game.
"I thought for sure it was him," the Doctor muttered.
"Who?" Jack asked.
"The Master."
Jack was sombre for a moment as he remembered the Master, recalled what it had been like to die repeatedly at his hand. Then he visualized how it had ended and he looked at the Doctor quizzically. "But he died. I saw it, we all did."
The Doctor met his gaze. "Jack, you know better than anyone that dying doesn't necessarily mean you stay dead."
Viola, who had been watching them curiously spoke up then. "Why would he know that? What do you mean?"
The Doctor shrugged. "Jack can't die." he looked a Viola carefully. "Don't you sense it? The wrongness of him? He shouldn't exist."
Viola shook her head. "No, there's too much wrongness in my head already today. I can't make sense of any of it." She shut her eyes and breathed deeply, rubbing at her temples with her fingers.
Jack watched as the Doctor studied the young girl carefully with that piercing gaze of his. "Are you all right?"
Viola huffed, stomping her foot once as she placed her hands on her hips. "Why does everyone keep asking me that today? I'm fine okay? I just wanna find my mum, is that so wrong?"
Taken aback by her outburst the Doctor crouched down to look at her directly. "No, it's not wrong," he finally said in a soft voice. "We will find her. I promise. But right now, I'm worried about you. That's all."
Viola's shoulders slumped and she looked at him sheepishly. "I'll be okay, I just want to finish this. You were talking about someone called the Master?"
The Doctor nodded. "Right. The Master." He fixed his gaze on Jack as he spoke and something about the look in his eyes told Jack that Viola wasn't fine and this worried the Doctor. It worried him very much.
It was Viola who noticed the oddity first. While the Doctor and Jack debated the plausibility of the Master being alive and somehow involved, she approached the centre of the room where the three children were still chasing each other. She frowned as she watched them, thinking it was strange that even though they were showing signs of being tired, they weren't slowing down.
The youngest child navigated her way through a maze of piled boxes that were covered with old paint sheets. She moved with an agility that was unusual for a child so young and Viola studied her carefully, noticing that she kept moving in the exact same pattern and at the exact same speed. Her cheeks were flushed with exertion and her brow dripped with sweat, yet she continued to move, her strides even and deliberate.
Quickly shifting her attention to the older children, Viola saw that they too were moving in a very deliberate pattern. Curious to see what would happen, Viola approached the boy and started to introduce herself, but he merely shoved her out of his way and continued running.
emThere's definitely something unnatural going on here,/emViola thought to herself.
"Doctor?" she called, keeping her eyes fixed on the three children. She wasn't sure why, but she felt it was important not to stop watching them.
He looked up, pausing in his conversation with Jack. "Yeah?"
"There's something strange about the way these children are playing." She risked a quick glance his way.
His eyes lit with interest. "Is there?"
He and Jack came to join her and together they watched.
"Hmmm." The Doctor studied the three children meticulously for a moment before pulling out the sonic screwdriver again. He scanned them each in turn, his frown increasing with each reading. "What?" he said finally. He shook the device as though it were at fault and scanned them again.
"It's not normal, is it?" Viola asked him.
He was still glaring at the screwdriver. "No, it's not." He fiddled with a setting, his tongue between his teeth as he concentrated. "I wonder..."
Viola and Jack watched as he pointed it at the oddly shaped piles of boxes. A second later the piles emitted sparks and all three children collapsed to the floor. Jack ran over to them, taking their pulse and checking them over. He nodded to the Doctor indicating that they were okay while Viola and the Doctor approached the piles.
The Doctor pulled the sheet off and tore several boxes away revealing an oddly shaped metal pillar.
"What is it?" Viola asked, reaching out to touch it.
"No, don't touch it." The Doctor pulled her hand away. "If I'm not mistaken, it's a turboplexihexitron converter."
Viola gasped and leapt away. "From Tritriplehexalon?"
"I'm afraid so." The Doctor pulled the sheets off of three more piles, revealing more of the metal pillars.
"Who would be crazy enough to bring one of those to Earth? The atmospheric pressure here would make it highly unstable."
The Doctor winked at her appreciatively. "That's what I love about you, Viola. You're always asking the right questions."
She beamed. "I learned from the best." She glanced over at Jack who was slowly rousing the three children. They looked a bit dazed but otherwise unharmed. "Okay, so who was it? This "Master" of yours?"
The Doctor stared into space pensively. "That seems the most likely explanation." He circled the converter. "Just what are you up to?" he muttered under his breath, just loud enough that Viola could still hear him.
"Wait." Viola frowned again as her thoughts whirred. "Aren't these machines powered by Garlixitronic gas? You can't get that on Earth, so how can it be working?"
The Doctor tilted his head, considering her question before bounding over to her and planting a wet, sloppy kiss on her forehead. "Yes! That's it!" he exclaimed. "You're brilliant, you are!"
"Care to share with the rest of the class?" Jack asked as he rejoined them.
The Doctor snapped his fingers excitedly. "It's the children!"
"The children?" Viola and Jack cried in unison.
"Yes! He's somehow managed to tap into their biometric energy. They weren't playing a game before, they were following a preset program that created enough electrical charge to stimulate the energy given by Garlixitronic gasses."
A series of loud, exaggerated claps from behind them caused them all to turn in surprise.
"Bravo," said a main with shortly clipped dark hair and a grin more manic than the Doctor's. "You always were good at making deductions, Doctor."
He nodded his head and three guards dressed in black materialized from nowhere to flank them.
The Doctor attempted to pull out the sonic screwdriver but the man merely laughed and zapped it with a metal object that he held loosely in his hand. "Ah, ah, ah," he said gleefully. "None of that. Can't have you ruining my show, after all."
The guards moved in and Viola soon found her arms bound behind her back as she was tied to one of the metal rods from the turboplexihexitron convertor. Jack and the Doctor were tied to two of the other rods and another person, whom Viola couldn't see, had been tied to the fourth.
"Now do you believe me that he's alive?" the Doctor was asking Jack, through gritted teeth.
Jack grimaced as the guard tightened the ropes on his wrists. "Now? You're asking for validation now?" Jack shook his head in disbelief. "Yes, Doctor, I believe you. The Master is alive. Now can we please concentrate on how to get out of here?"
The Master approached Jack and raised his chin so that the captain was looking him directly in the eye. "Tsk, tsk, tsk, and spoil my fun?"
He stepped away and Viola gasped as shots were fired and Jack's head fell forward limply. She knew from the earlier conversation that he wouldn't stay dead, but still the sight made her feel sick to her stomach.
The Master was grinning and had his hands clasped in front of him. His finger tips tapped together as he sneered at the Doctor. "But yes, please tell me Doctor, how emwill/emyou get out of this one? Have you got some other poor soul out there trying to rile the spirits of the human populace?" He threw back his head and laughed, a sound so mad and cruel it sent shivers down Viola's spine. Whoever this man was, Viola didn't like him. Not one little bit.
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