A/N: The response to the last interlude was awesome! You guys seemed to like them having a day off. And for those who didn't see, I posted a one-shot that is an alternate version of Reinette and the Wolf's last conversation. I had notes on what I was going to do, then completely forgot to use them. My helper/encourager, Angela, told me I should type it up anyway, so I did, so you get a little extra bonus. The rest of the episode is the same, just that conversation came out differently. It's titled Alternate: Live Your Life, and can be found on my profile.
Not Your World
John and the Wolf were sitting on the captain's bench, deep in discussion of where they should go on their next adventure. Or, the Wolf was monologue-ing about various planets and their assets while John just sat there, playing with her fingers and trying to keep up with her babbling. He wasn't really paying attention, though. He was more interested in listening to the excitement in the Wolf's voice as she talked about some of her favorite places to visit.
John was well aware that his feelings for the Wolf weren't strictly platonic any longer, and hadn't been for a while, but he tried to ignore that fact as much as possible. She was his best friend, and she didn't need a – significant other, or whatever someone in a relationship with a Time Lord would be called. Plus, she was at least – probably more – nine hundred years old. The Wold needed someone to talk to, to show off to, and to pull her back from the darkness she tried so hard to stay away from. John had no interest in losing his current relationship with her by making her uncomfortable with any doey-eyed feelings he might be having.
That said, he certainly didn't mind taking advantage of moments like this, where he could just be near her without making a fuss or being obvious about it. She was too distracted to notice what he was doing anyway.
The Wolf's excited voice drew his attention back to her. "Oh! Talaxia Prime, we should go there! Brilliant water festival once every ten years. You should see the things they can do with a sponge," she was saying.
"That's not anything like Talaxun Four, is it?" John asked uncertainly, focusing on the conversation once more.
"Talaxun Four is a marvelous place if you just mind your manners," she informed him haughtily.
"I sneezed!" John protested.
"On that weird munchkin lady with the big eyes? You remember?" the Wolf prompted. "The way she looked at you! And then she opens her mouth and fire comes out!"
"I thought I was going to get burnt to a crisp," John complained, pouting.
"One minute she's standing there, then you walk past her with the loudest sneeze I have ever heard, and the next minute: roar!" the Wolf chuckled. "But you have to admit, the rest of the trip was pretty good, though. Right?"
"Yes," John acknowledged reluctantly. "After you put out my shoes, the rest of the trip was fun. She almost burnt my jacket though –"
"My jacket," the Wolf interrupted to correct him.
John rolled his eyes. "Like it'd fit you," he told her.
The Wolf shrugged. "Who knows? Next time, I could regenerate into a man and it might fit me perfectly."
"You can do that?" he asked, wide eyed.
"Sure. One of my friends did it once. The Corsair. You would've liked him. Her," she hesitated. "It gets confusing when the different pronouns come in. But anyway, I like being a girl. More people simultaneously underestimate and are frightened of you."
John grinned. "That sounds like you."
The Wolf smiled back, her tongue just peeking out, before suddenly leaping off the chair. "But moving on! I just figured out where we should go. You're gonna love this one, John. It's –" She was interrupted when the TARDIS suddenly – squealed, almost – and jerked violently, knocking the Wolf off her feet.
John lunged off the bench and caught her just before she hit the ground, caging her body between his arms as the TARDIS shuddered and shook, rattling them both.
"The time vortex is gone!" the Wolf yelled over the sounds of the ship. "It's just gone! That can't be possible!" The time rotor blew, rocking them even more, and she tried to get off the floor, but John held her down, shielding her from anything that might fall over. "She's going to crash if I don't do something!" the Wolf protested, struggling, but not hard enough to push John away. The rattling of the TARDIS kept her just unbalanced enough so she was unable to get out from under him.
"She's already crashing," John told her, not knowing how he knew that, but he did.
After a few more seconds, the ship came to an abrupt standstill and went ominously silent. The Wolf shoved John off of her, leaping to her feet to run to the console as the lights went dark. She checked the monitors, flipped switches, pressed down buttons, but the ship didn't respond. "She's dead," the Wolf finally whispered. "The TARDIS is dead."
John got to his feet, rubbing his head where something must have hit him without him noticing. "Can you fix it?" he asked.
"There's nothing to fix. She's perished," the Wolf replied in a monotone, leaning against the console and away from him. The last TARDIS in the universe, extinct."
"But shouldn't we at least see where we are?"
"What's the point? We fell out of the vortex, through the void, into nothingness." John walked over to the doors while the Wolf kept rambling. "We're in some sort of no place. The silent realm. The lost dimension."
John opened the door, shook his head at the Wolf's dramatics, and smiled. "Otherwise known as London," he called over his shoulder.
The Wolf's brows furrowed in consternation as she joined him in the doorway. "What?"
John gestured out at Lambeth Pier, where people were bustling, going about their daily business. "London, England, Earth," he pointed out. "Hold on." He jogged over to grab a discarded newspaper lying on an abandoned bench. Going back, he flipped it around to show her the date. "First of February, 2006. Not exactly far flung, is it?"
"So this is London," she observed, gazing around at all the landmarks.
"Yep," John replied easily.
"Your city."
"That's the one."
"Just as we left it?" the Wolf continued with a glance at the top of a skyscraper.
John looked up as well, his jaw dropping at the awesome sight above him. "Oh," he muttered, confused. "With Zeppelins? What the hell?"
"This is not your world," the Wolf said grimly.
"Well, it's a world. And it sure looks like Earth," he pointed out. "So, what is it, then? Parallel? Oh, it's parallel, isn't it?" he asked excitedly. "Just like in the movies."
"Must be," the Wolf said. "Not to be confused with alternate universes, though. Those branch off from your world due to specific choices being made."
"Those are where practically everything's the same, but certain things are just the tiniest bit different, and that changes the world, right?"
"Exactly," the Wolf nodded. "They bump right alongside the universe they bubbled off of. But parallel universes, they never touch. Are never supposed to touch. Time Lords used to be able to travel between them, but not anymore. In a parallel universe, you could meet your twin, who could be very similar but just the slightest bit different from you," she rambled, "Or maybe in this universe, you were never born at all. Theoretically, it's a world –"
"Where he's still alive," John interrupted, staring at an advertisement picturing a well-dressed man.
"Trust me," the man was saying, grinning at the camera. "Whether it's your personal, your professional, or your technological needs, Thomas Smythe has got your back." Thomas disappeared and was replaced by a banner, announcing that the Presidential election would be taking place a week from that day, finishing off with a 'Vote Smythe' in large print before replaying.
"A parallel world and my dad's still alive," John murmured. "President in Britain, that's weird, but still. He's real. And he's alive."
The Wolf stepped between John and the advertisement, tipping his head so he was looking into her eyes. "John, listen to me," she said quietly. "This is not your world, and he is not your father. He's merely a person that looks like him."
John tore his eyes away from her to stare at the advert once more. "He was just a low level politician before he died," he said, almost to himself. "We were all happy, but here, he's running for the largest office in the country. He always wanted to change the world, and here he's doing it."
"John, if you've ever trusted me, listen to me now. Look at me," she ordered, and John obeyed reluctantly. "Your parents are dead. They died when you were sixteen years old. That is not your Thomas. That is a Thomas, who might possibly still be married to your mother –"
"Emma," John supplied in a whisper, realizing he'd never told the Wolf his parents' names.
"With his own Emma," the Wolf continued. "Maybe even his own John, who is someone else, but not you. You can't see him John. You can't."
John was still for a long moment before heaving a deep sigh and nodding. "I know," he said reluctantly. "I understand, Wolf. No wandering off this time, I promise," he swore.
The Wolf breathed a quiet sigh of relief. "Okay. Okay. I'm just gonna go check the TARDIS. See if there's anything I can do to fix her. You can join me, or stay out here if you like." She disappeared back into the ship, giving John space if he needed it. He knew where to find her.
John sunk onto a nearby bench, rubbing his head absentmindedly as his headache built. He looked up, watching the Zeppelins float past him as the sound of their propellers filtered down to him. They were everywhere. The superphone in his jacket beeped, calling John's attention. He snagged it and pulled it out.
'Welcome! Free Trial Period' it read, immediately taking John to the news. He watched as the program discussed a certain John Lumic, who appeared to be some kind of inventor, and began a new story about some institute called Torchwood publishing some study before the rest of it was drowned out by a Zeppelin passing directly over his head. He did a quick Internet search.
Frowning, John got up several minutes later and went to go back to the TARDIS before the Wolf came out looking for him. As he walked through the doors, he heard her growling and looked up just in time to see her kick the console in a move reminiscent of when he'd been stuck back on Earth before returning to the Game Station. The sight made him chuckle, prompting the first smile from him since he'd seen his not-father. "Did that help?" he asked.
"Yes," the Wolf muttered in a frustrated tone.
"Did that hurt?"
"Yes." The Wolf groaned and sat down on the chair, holding her foot. "Ow."
Still smiling a bit, John went over and sat down next to her, pulling her hand away from her foot so he could hold it. After a moment, the Wolf squeezed it reassuringly. They were silent for a few minutes before the Wolf spoke again. "We're not meant to be here. The TARDIS draws its power from the universe, but this is the wrong universe. It's like putting diesel into a petrol engine."
"But, you said Time Lords used to do it all the time. You made it sound like it was easy."
"It used to be easy," the Wolf corrected. "When the Time Lords kept their eye on everything, you could hop between realities and be home in time for tea. Then they died, and took it all with them. The walls of reality closed, the worlds were sealed. My people may have been stiff, calm, and corrupt to their core, but they kept an eye on things, kept them running. Now, everything's just that much harder."
"Then how did we get here?" John asked.
The Wolf sighed. "I don't know," she admitted. "Accident? Should've been impossible. And now we're trapped, and she's gone." She leaned into John, and he put his arm around her shoulders as they sat quietly for a few moments.
John was just going to rub at his head again when the ache lessened, and the Wolf sat up straight at the same time. "What's that?" she wondered, looking at the grating below their feet.
"What?" John asked.
"That, there," she pointed. "Is that a reflection?" She pulled up a section of the grate and hopped down below the console. John stuck his head over the hole, watching her. "Is that a light? I think that's a light," she said excitedly as she grabbed a small, glowing green orb. "That's all we need! We've got power! John, we've got power!" the Wolf exclaimed with a grin. John helped her back up to his level as she carefully held onto the glowing object with one hand. "She's alive," she whispered reverently.
"What is it?" he asked, staring at it curiously.
"It's nothing. It's tiny," the Wolf dismissed. "One of those insignificant little power cells that no one ever bothers about, and it's clinging onto life, with one little ounce of reality, tucked away inside."
"Enough to get us home?"
"Not yet. I need to charge it up."
John shrugged. "We could go outside and hook it up to the National Grid," he suggested, not really meaning it.
The Wolf shot him an amused look. "Wrong sort of energy," she told him. "It's got to come from our universe."
"But we don't have anything," John pointed out.
"There's me," the Wolf said just before blowing gently on the green light cradled in her hands, a golden light coming out of her mouth and going into the bulb. It flared. "I just gave away ten years of my life. Worth every second," she said with a small smile.
John's eyes narrowed in concern before he let it go. If it was worth it to her, it didn't matter what he thought. Then he noticed the light dim. "It's going out. Is that okay?" he asked worriedly.
The Wolf nodded. "It's on a recharging cycle. It'll loop around, power back up, and be ready to take us home in, oh, twenty-four hours?"
"So that gives us twenty-four hours on a parallel world?" he confirmed, perking up.
She nodded again. "Shore leave. As long as we keep our heads down," she added with a warning tone. "Shouldn't be a problem. Come on, let's go back outside."
As soon as they left the ship, blinking at the contrast from the dark interior to the surprisingly sunny day outside, John turned to the Wolf. "Twenty-four hours, yeah?" he asked.
"Yeah."
"'Cause my phone connected. There's this Cybus Network. It finds your phone and gives it Internet access."
The Wolf sighed. "John, whatever it says, this is the wrong world," she said wearily.
"I don't exist," was his blunt answer.
The Wolf started. "What?"
"There's no John Smythe. I was never born. Turns out the Emma here had a miscarriage thirty-three years ago, so there's Thomas, my dad, and Emma, my mum, but no me."
"Give me that phone." The Wolf reached for it, but John pulled away.
"They have a daughter though." The Wolf stilled at his words. "Her name's Antonia – goes by Toni. They're rich. Obviously, him running for President and all. They've got everything they could want. I just want to see them," he pleaded.
The Wolf shook her head. "You can't John, it's too dangerous," she denied. "I'm sorry, but you just can't."
John stopped walking so he could look the Wolf dead on. "Wolf, when we went to the past, I watched my parents die because you told me I couldn't do anything to change events. I watched them die. Trust me when I say I can watch them live," he said urgently. The Wolf hesitated, and sensing her wavering thoughts, John held out the phone for her to see. "Look. February the first. It's my mum's birthday. They're throwing a party and everything. We can sneak in – we can even be staff if you want. I just need to see them."
She sighed. "Of course I trust you, John. Alright, we'll go."
They were walking along a busy street, the general public bustling around, all wearing strange earpieces with the Cybus Industries logo on them. They were either talking to other people or making notes with the pieces or they were tapping on the phones that also came from Cybus. There was a loud beep, and suddenly, everyone stood motionless, wherever they were. The middle of the crosswalk, in cars, on stairs, the whole city was still. Even the armed and uniformed men that seemed to be prevalent were stopped.
"What are they all doing?" John wondered, looking around in bewilderment.
"They've stopped." The Wolf went over and inspected one of the pedestrians. She jumped slightly when the woman's earpieces flashed. "It's the earpieces," she realized. "Like Bluetooth attachments, but everyone's connected together."
John pulled out his phone again. "It's on my phone. It's automatic, look." He held it out for the Wolf to see. "It's downloading. Is this what they're all getting?" He scrolled through. "News, international news, sports, weather," he recited.
"They get it direct. Downloaded right into their heads," the Wolf said.
"TV schedules, lottery numbers."
"Everyone shares the same information. A daily download published by Cybus Industries." All the people around them chuckled at the same time, then went about their business as though nothing had happened, leaving the pair staring. "You lot, you're obsessed," the Wolf muttered. "You'd do anything for the latest upgrade."
"Hey, not my lot," John protested. "Different world, remember."
"It's not so far off from your world," she countered. She took the phone and scanned through it. "Oh, look at that. Cybus Industries, owners of just about every company in Great Britain and financial backer of various political campaigns, including a certain Presidential candidate. Mister Thomas Smythe's very well connected." John shot her a knowing look, causing the Wolf to huff in annoyance. "Oh, okay, I give up. Yes, it's a good idea that you wanted to go see him. But that doesn't mean we don't still have to be very, very careful while we're there."