IDChapter20

Jon and Arianna screamed.

"NOOO!"

They both clutched Rose. Her eyes were rolled back in her head. Jon checked for a pulse and found none. Due to his repressed memories, he didn't remember that she would regenerate. He and Arianna simply clung to her and wept. After a few moments they were forciby pulled off by the Judoon guards. The guards turned Jon to face the Architect. His eyes were dark with rage and grief as he held Arianna.

"You did NOT have to do that!" He spat. The Architect held up her hand to silence him.

"We will take your wife's body and examine it. We will determine where that power of hers came from, and how to identify others who possess it. You and your daughter, meanwhile, are free to go, but you may never return to Earth, nor communicate with them. It will be as if you simply disappeared. Otherwise, you will share her fate. Be gone, and do not return here, ever."

With that the guards seized Jon and escorted them back to their quarters. "You may take a short time to grieve, then you must leave," one of the guards curtly instructed them, "we will be just outside your door."

Jon sat with Arianna and they wept.

The tall, dark stranger with the piercing blue eyes could not believe what he had just witnessed in the Gallery. The Doctor and Rose were here, but they weren't human? If they weren't human, what were they?

Captain Jack Harkness had been wandering this universe for quite a while now. After the tragedy with the 456, he had wandered his own universe, trying to drink the pain away. It didn't work. Even his tryst with Alonso only brought very temporary relief. Once he and Alonso had agreed to part ways, Jack tried to find ways to keep a low profile, but his reputation always seemed to catch up with him sooner or later. He had aquired a small Krillitane shuttle, and another vortex manipulator, which he wired into the ship. He then went back in time to just after the Doctor towed the Earth home, and he and his ship slipped through a crack in the wall between the universes and into the parallel universe. He quickly discovered that no version of himself had ever existed here, and he was estatic. Finally, he could make a fresh start.

He became an interstellar Robin Hood of sorts. He hadn't meant to, but while exploring the region of space where Gallifrey would have been in the other universe (he could never get over his obsession with the Doctor, even here), he had visited the planet Karn, and accidentally stumbled upon a young hybrid woman trying to escape from her Usurian captors, who were going to sell her as a mining slave. Being able to travel in time certainly helped with rescuing the damsel in distress. They spent several weeks together, and she told him the history of Karn, and its neighbor which had mysteriously disappeared. The natives of that planet were technophobes and Isolationists. Essentially, they were polar opposites of Time Lords, although they shared mostly the same biology. Apparently they did not regenerate, however, at least not according to Isanatrubella, or as he called her, just "Isana". Isana was the result of a renegade daughter of the missing planet who ran off with a boy from Karn. Her parents had disowned her, of course, and so she lived on Karn the rest of her life, with her husband's family and Isana.

Isana inherited some of her mother's biology, specifically the respiratory bypass. People like her were valued for working in the mining industry, and often disappeared without a trace, having been kidnaped and sold into slavery. Karn would not join the Shadow Proclamation, and so its inhabitants were not protected by it. Only recently had Karn's incredible wealth of minerals been discovered, and a major black market was developing for miners whose physiology enabled them to withstand the sometimes poisonous situations necessary for mining some of the ores. There was now an 'underground railroad' of sorts for the hunted to find protection in, and Jack had unwittingly been drawn into it.

So, with his ability to travel in time, Jack became a critical partner in hiding people and in smuggling supplies to them. He was careful to never 'procure' supplies from the same source twice, and thanks to him the 'railroad' was growing more and more successful.

Now, apparently, his friends needed his help as well.

Jack discreetly tailed the Ood who had placed Rose's body on the Coroner's cart and was wheeling it back to the Coroner's Lab. Once he saw the Ood leave the Lab, he ducked in and started opening vaults until he found her. He was not going to leave her body there for the Shadows to experiment on, not his lovely Rose!

"You are a friend of the Doctor's," a voice said from behind him. Jack froze. Drat, he'd been caught! Slowly he turned around while concocting an unlikely story regarding what he was doing and why. He came face to face with an Ood with oddly glowing red eyes. The Ood was unarmed.

"I will give the Doctor a message. Where should he meet you?" The Ood asked. Jack's jaw nearly hit the floor. "Karn," he said, "tell him not to worry, I have Rose and I'll find him. Tell him to leave now, before they discover she's gone!"

With that, he picked her up, using the vortex manipulator on his wrist to jump to his ship, where he placed her body on a bunk before running back to the cabin and taking off. As soon as he got a discreet distance away, he jumped the ship a week into the future and landed on Karn.

Jon and Arianna had cried through their first round of tears. When Ood Sigma entered the room with another tray of food and drink, they were simply holding each other. Jon didn't even acknowledge the Ood's presence, he just stared into space. The servant stood silently with his head bowed for a moment, then his eyes glowed as he gently reached into Jon's mind.

Doctor, you are not alone, he thought. You have help, and it is waiting for you on Karn. Your wife will be there as well.

Jon looked up dully, uncomprehending. Rose was dead, the Shadows were going to dissect her, and there was nothing he could do about it. What was the Ood talking about?

You must leave now. Sigma sent a picture of Jack holding Rose and jumping away. Jon gasped, jumped up and grabbing the startled Ood in a bear hug, "Thank you!" he blurted, then grabbed Arianna and bolted out the door, down the white block hallway, and to Voyager. The Judoon guards followed at a respectful distance, but kept them in sight while they boarded the ship and took off.

The guards reported their departure to the Chief of Security. He noted with satisfaction their haste in leaving, concluding that they were sufficiantly frightened and would be no further trouble. Scans indicated that they took nothing with them. Good riddance, he thought.

After the excitement of leaving, the grief set in again, and Jon held his daughter tightly once they were under way.

"What am I going to tell your GrandMama?" He sobbed.

"We can't tell her, they said we couldn't!" Arianna cried.

"We'll find a way," Jon promised her.

He rocked her gently as she wept, then got up and tucked her into her bunk after she'd cried herself to sleep. Once back in the pilot's seat, he allowed himself to feel the anger he had kept from his daughter. She had enough to deal with, losing her mother like that, but now he could finally give in to the anger. His eyes blackened as he felt the rage and the helplessness. The Shadow Proclamation had grown paranoid, manipulative, and incredibly narcistic. There were no beings who could keep them in check. Something had to be done, and he knew what that something was. He was going to find a way to re-create the Time Lord society in this universe. While he knew there was a risk that the new Time Lords could eventually become just as bad as the ones that were time-locked in the other universe, he also knew first-hand that the Shadows needed to be taught that they could not continue playing God.

With a start he realised - his memories! He had locked that knowledge away, but now that they were away from the Shadow Proclamation it was back! Rose could regenerate! But did Jack know? The implications of everything hit him like a tonne of bricks. It took his breath away. Rose really would be waiting for them at Karn! New tears - this time of relief - flooded his eyes. He was also a bit worried. Rose had never regenerated before. He hoped it would go well. He wished he could be there.

After Jack landed his ship, he walked back to the berths and sat on the bunk opposite where he'd placed Rose's body and allowed himself to weep. He knew there was nothing he could have done to prevent this, yet he felt guilty. He considered jumping back in time and warning them, but he had stolen Rose's body, and if he did go back he'd risk a paradox. He assumed Reapers existed in this universe as well as his former one. Not good. So he held his face in his hands and wept. Then he felt an odd warmth coming from Rose's direction. He looked up in time to see a golden glow spreading over her. He immediately jumped up and moved a safe distance away.

Rose opened her eyes, felt the energy building, and stood up. It was better to stand, wasn't it? She looked at her hands, marveling at the golden energy radiating from them. She heard her name spoken in a strangled sob. She looked up, where was she? The structure looked Krillitane. She heard her name again, and looked about, and saw Jack. Jack Harkness. Peering around a bulkhead. How could he be here? Before she could say a word, the energy burst forth and consumed her. Oh, the agony! She felt as if every atom of her being was exploding, then contracting in on itself. She screamed. She cried. She regenerated.

When the blessed end came, she sat heavily down on the bunk. She felt pressure in her stomach, and burped. Golden strands of energy wafted through the air. She quickly pulled a strand of hair in front of her face. Good, still blond. She felt herself. Breasts. Good. Still female. She felt the gaping hole in her shirt where the blast from the Chief's weapon had hit her. The skin under it was flawless and pink.

She heard a low whistle, and looked back over to see Jack's tear-streaked smile.

"Someday, Beautiful, you have to tell me how you do that."

"I'm still me?"

"You're still you."

"Good, it worked!"

They ran to each other and she jumped into his arms. He swung her around the narrow space between the bunks, holding her close. They snogged passionately, drinking in each other, then separated, laughing, as he put her down.

"Kisses like that can turn a guy's head, you know," he teased. "What would your husband think?"

"I think he'd forgive me this once, all things considered." She smiled, showing her tongue. "Where are we?"

"We're on a nice little planet called Karn, where hopefully we'll find your family already here."

"Jack, you're the best!"

"Glad you finally figured that out."