A/N: I am so, so, SO sorry! Life has a funny way of butting in at the most inopportune moments, and I'm sorry it's taken this long to get this chapter out...It's a month late, and that is pretty much unacceptable... But a combination of family stuff, school work, and a few other personal things, I've had no time at all for this story, which makes me so sad, but I'm back now...
I would first like to thank every single person who cast a vote, I got a much larger response then I thought I would! I expected a couple of votes, not twenty, so once more thank you.
The voting was so close I made an executive decision. While my original decision involved splintering off the story, and having two versions, one evil and one where he goes good again, that idea kind of fell out, so I came up with a new idea, which you will soon be reading.
I still have a couple more decisions to make towards this story, but don't worry, this is not the end. It will either continue on here, or have a sequel...
Once more though, I'd like to thank all of you for reading/reviewing, and just your overall support...It's due to all the positive response I've received that I've continued for this long, so once more, thanks all of you, for being amazing. Now on to the story!
The Doctor looked up and met her eyes, the warm, familiar Donna eyes that were now so full of pain that they were welling up with tears. His finger rested on the button that would activate his amazing machine, and he hesitated as he looked into those eyes that expressed so much with so little effort…
He turned away and made his decision.
The Doctor had to do this. He knew he had to. He pressed the button.
The gate flooded with light, and red silhouetted figures slowly started to appear. The light shone brighter, and five Time Lords were standing in front of them.
"My Lord Doctor, my Lord Master…we are gathered for the end," the one in front, Rassilon stated.
The Doctor looked up, at the five in front of him, and froze.
She was here…She couldn't be…Of course she was, he was bringing back Gallifrey! She could live again!
She lowered her hands from her face, and he met her eyes.
There was a reason she had been standing like that…She had gone against Rassilon… Which meant that she had voted against Gallifrey's return… She had decided that her own death was better than the death of millions…
What was he doing? How could he have…How did he let himself become…this?
He released the hold he had on his friends, and entered Rassilon's head, and used his glove to snap the biological template between himself, the Master, and the human race. The clones that had been in the room started shaking their heads, before snapping back into who they were supposed to be, and immediately fleeing the room.
"I'm sorry," he whispered to her.
She tilted her head at him, and that small gesture gave him the affirmation that he was doing the right thing.
"Jack, shoot the Master," he ordered, not turning away from the Gallifreyans.
"What?" both men exclaimed at once.
The Master leapt to his feet. "Don't listen to him!"
"Why?" Jack asked, but the Doctor didn't respond, too busy maintaining his hold on Rassilon's mind. The president was fighting back with everything he had.
"Oh," the Master gasped. "The link is in my head. Shoot me, and they go back."
Jack jumped up, snatching a gun from a holster at his ankle, and pointing it at the Master, but hesitated.
"Now, Jack," the Doctor gritted his teeth, his concentration slipping a fraction.
"You won't stop me, Doctor," Rassilon said, before the Doctor clamped back down.
The building began to shake as Gallifrey began to materialize in the Earth's atmosphere, and the remaining humans, excluding the Doctor's friends, fled the room. Wilfred looked behind him, and saw one of the scientists trapped in the glass booth. He leapt to his feet and entered the other side, pressing the button to release the man.
The Doctor gritted his teeth, and entered Jack's mind also, forcing him to squeeze down on the trigger, until last minute he altered the course and instead made Jack shoot the machine.
"Go back Rassilon. Back into the war; back into hell!"
"You'll die with me," the Time Lord said.
"No, I won't," the Doctor replied, forcing Rassilon to take a step backwards, and then another, until he was consumed by the light and sent back through the portal.
The quaking reached its peak, before stopping, along with the light, and the five Time Lords were gone, back inside the Time Lock.
The Doctor fell to his knees, and released every mental hold he had, before sinking the rest of the way to the floor.
In an instant, Jack was at his side. "You did the right thing," he whispered.
"I thought, before I mean, I thought this was going to be my end. There was a prophecy…four knocks and I'm dead, but here I am. It was part of the reason, in the beginning. I had so much more I could do…And changing meant I didn't have to die."
"You could always have regenerated," Jack said softly.
"But it still feels like dying. And then I wouldn't be me anymore, there'd be somebody else in a new body, sauntering off and calling himself the Doctor, and I'd be gone, just a memory."
"Well that's not going to happen. You're alive, nobody is knocking, and you're no longer acting all evil," Jack smiled at his own words.
The two men froze however, when a fist banging on glass was heard.
Knock, knock, knock, knock.
The Doctor turned around slowly, and saw Wilfred banging on the glass of the booth he was trapped in.
"This thing seems to be making a bit of a noise," he called out.
"No. No! NO! I refuse! I'm not going to die today, and certainly not for you!" The Doctor shouted, leaping to his feet.
"What are you talking about, Doctor?" Donna looked at him.
"The nuclear bolt was left running," the Master said.
"And that's bad, is it?" Wilfred asked.
"No… Because all the excess radiation gets vented inside there. Vinvocci glass contains it. All 500,000 rads, about to flood that thing," the Doctor offered.
"Oh…Well you better let me out then!" he chuckled.
"Except it's gone critical. Touch one control and it floods. Even my sonic screwdriver would set it off."
There was silence for a moment.
"I'm sorry."
"So am I. The universe might intend for me to die in your place, but I won't. It's my decision! Look at you! You're old, going to die soon anyways! You're not even remotely important, but me? I could do so much more! So no, I don't think I'm going to enter that booth. Goodbye Wilfred."
"Doctor!" Donna gasped at him, moving to stand next to him. "How dare you?" She raised her hand up to slap him, but he caught it at the wrist, tightening his grip until she winced in pain.
"I will not die today."
While this was happening, neither noticed Jack edging his way around them to the booth, until they heard the sound of the door release as Wilfred's snapped open and Jack was trapped with the radiation.
"Well there you go, a solution!" the Doctor ground out, releasing Donna and pushing her away from him.
"He's going to die!" Donna shouted.
"He's immortal. He'll come back," he replied calmly, over the sound of Jack's screams.
The others watched in horror as Jack collapsed to the floor of the booth, his screams continuing until the system cut out, and went dark. His body lay there for a moment, until he gasped back to life. He calmly stood, before pushing the door open and stepping out.
"Problem solved," he said softly, his voice hoarse.
"What now?" Donna asked. "We can't let him," she motioned to the Doctor, "go."
"I reckon the TARDIS will be here in a moment…she isn't very happy with me," the Doctor said, and true to his words, the ship materialized in the room only moments later, an angry humming sound coming from within her doors.
"Why is she angry?" Jack asked.
A hologram appeared in the shape of Rose, and said, "He entered my control circuits and forced me to bend to his will." The hologram crossed its arms.
Jack and Donna both gasped, while the Master looked on in shock.
"Are we sure this is even the Doctor?" the Master asked. "Maybe it's an imposter."
The Doctor scoffed.
"It is him," the TARDIS confirmed.
"Even I wouldn't be so cruel as to have done that to my ship."
"If I wanted your opinion I would have asked for it."
"Doctor, you really shouldn't say anything more at this point…We still have to decide what to do with you, and you aren't helping your case very much," Jack interrupted.
"We have to put him somewhere he won't cause any more trouble," Donna contributed.
"What so you're just going to forget the Master is standing over there?" the Doctor scowled.
"We'll deal with him too, but right now you're the greater threat. If we let you go, released you for one second, you could cause innumerable amounts of pain once more," Jack said.
"Could you keep him at Torchwood? Your facilities would probably have the best security, in order to keep him locked up."
"But he could still get into any of our minds and make us release him."
"I could help with that," the TARDIS interjected. "As long as you move me into your base, I can make sure he stays locked up until he is better," she said.
"Okay. But my team is… mostly gone," Jack avoided the word he didn't want to admit as true.
"I can take you back to years before their deaths occurred. It would not cause a paradox because you are impossible Jack. It is possible for you to exist more than once in the same time stream without catastrophic results."
"That's good to know…I've always wanted to meet myself," he smiled lightly.
"But after, I will need to wipe that version's memory. If you remember what the Doctor turns into, you will try to intervene, probability 100%, with terrible consequences," the TARDIS said.
"Okay. Now what do we do with the Master?"
"Just to make it clear, I have no intention of harming or killing any of you…the Drums are gone. I had forgotten what I was without them…" the Master offered.
"Is he telling the truth?" Donna asked the TARDIS.
"Yes."
"I understand that you don't trust me. I'm willing to remain locked up until I can prove to you that I'm different," he said.
"I can watch over him also, but I trust the TARDIS' judgment," Jack said.
"What about me?" Donna demanded.
"You've got a family here, Donna. Your mum and grandfather, your fiancé. You need to spend as much time with them as you can. Remember, you're a Time Lady now. You're going to outlive all of them. I promise to send updates to you, and I'm sure if you wanted to visit then the TARDIS could get you, but for now, stay where you are," Jack said. He pulled her into a hug, before nudging her gently towards Wilfred. "That being said, we best be getting going. Goodbye Donna."
"Goodbye Jack. Doctor, I hope you can get better soon, and I'll look forwards to seeing you again once Jack has deemed you healthy enough. Just remember if you ever think you can go off like this again, the consequences will be a lot worse," she said, but pulled him into a hug anyways. "Be good, Spaceman."
With those final words, Donna spun around, dragging Wilfred with her, and exited the mansion, returning to her mother and her panicking fiancé.
Jack entered the TARDIS, ushering the two Time Lords in with him, and waited patiently while she flew herself into the Torchwood base, preparing himself for what he'd see there.
Jack sat at his desk, a pen in his hand, as he attempted to do paperwork. Rubbing his face, he pushed the stacks of paper away from him, unable to handle it right now. Suzie's betrayal still weighed heavily on his mind, along with the new addition of Gwen on the team.
With a sigh, he stood from his desk, but froze when he heard a sound he never thought he'd hear again. The TARDIS.
He sprinted into the hub where the wind was whipping around, and found the rest of his team pointing guns at the blue shape that slowly materialized in the middle of the room.
"Stand down," he called out, rushing down to where the police box now stood. "It's a friend."
"Please, I'm a bit closer than a friend," a familiar voice laughed, and his jaw dropped as…he stepped out of the TARDIS.
"Why hello there…" Jack smiled at the other version of him.
"No time for that right now," the other him said gravely.
"Why? Is something wrong with the Doctor? Why do you—me—we have it?"
"You're not going to like this. It took me a while, when I was you, to accept it as the truth, but please trust me…you…trust what I'm about to tell you. The Doctor…he did some bad things. Well…a lot of bad things. I brought him here to hold him in a cell."
"What? That's impossible!" Jack exclaimed, as his team wearily raised their guns again.
"A lot has happened since I was last you…Last time I checked I was in the thousands for my age. A lot has happened for the Doctor also, but I'm trying to make him better. Will you help? There is no better place for him than here…Anywhere else he could just escape," the other him said.
Examining this older version of himself, he could now see the slight differences. The way he held himself for one, as if he was forcing himself to be strong. He also had more wrinkles, and seemed to have been through much, much more. The most noticeable difference however, was his eyes. The blue was duller, and they held an undying look of utter defeat.
"I believe you," Jack told the him that was still standing in the doorway of the TARDIS.
"That's impossible," Owen chose that moment to break his silence. "Nobody can be a thousand years old."
"This is before you guys found out…When are we right now?" the TARDIS Jack asked him.
"Just after Suzie," he said sadly.
"Oh… I don't know why we hid it from them…It just led to future problems," the other Jack replied. "I'm immortal. Can't die. Well—I can, but I always come back afterwards."
"What?" Owen demanded.
"It's true," he reassured his teammate. "I'll explain more later, but for now, could you guys leave me to talk to…myself."
They nodded, and returned to their desks, but he knew they were still casting curious looks in their direction.
"How are we talking right now? Shouldn't we be causing a paradox?" he asked.
"Ah…Well you wouldn't know yet… It was Rose, that's why we're like this. She absorbed the Time Vortex, and brought us back to life, but she couldn't control it, and she brought us back forever. The Doctor took it out of her, causing him to regenerate. But we're an impossible thing…the laws of time don't really apply to us. And as much as I love this distraction, we really should get the Doctor into a cell before he overpowers the TARDIS."
He gave the other version of him an odd look, before nodding, and stepping inside to help himself get the Doctor to a cell.
His jaw dropped slightly at the sight of this new Doctor. He'd told him that the Doctor had regenerated, but not that he'd regenerated into this. He'd enjoyed the Doctor he had met, but this younger version…
"Jack," the Doctor acknowledged him coldly. "Made peace with your dead teammates yet?"
"Doc?" he said softly. He couldn't believe this was the Doctor…He'd sounded so…he couldn't even put it into words.
"Oh great. You're the other him. Two Jacks, that's just what I need."
"Come on," he turned as a hand rested on his shoulder. He nodded to the other version of himself, and grabbed one of the Doctor's arms, the other arm secured in the elder's grasp, and they marched him down to a row of cells built specifically for hostile telepathic beings.
The Doctor knew where he was going, but he didn't fight. Now was not the time for fighting, but for healing.