Army of Ghosts
Knowing it was time to visit Jackie again, the Doctor materialized the TARDIS in a children's play ground. Both Clara and Rose had a bag over their shoulders, needing laundry done, and stepped out of the TARDIS with the Doctor right behind them.
They were outside Jackie's flat at Powell Estate when Rose cried out, "Mum, it's us! We're ba-ack!"
Jackie was rushing out of the kitchen when the Doctor, Rose, and Clara entered the flat.
"Oh, I don't know why you bother with that phone! You never use it!" Jackie said, exasperated and pleased at the same time.
"Shut up, come here!" Rose said, grinning. They threw their arms around each other.
"Oh, I love you!" Jackie exclaimed.
"I love you!" Rose said.
Jackie then grabbed Clara, squeezing her tightly.
"I love you both so MUCH!" Jackie exclaimed. The Doctor squeezed past them, trying to sneak off, but Jackie spotted him.
"Oh, no you don't," Jackie said, grabbing him. "Come here!"
Clara snorted and then burst out laughing as Jackie pulled him towards her and planted a big one on him, despite his protests.
"Oh, you lovely big fella! Oh, you're all mine!" Jackie said, hugging him.
"Just—just—just put me down!" the Doctor said.\
"Yes, you are!" Jackie said, kissing him again, then walked off. Clara was having a fit of giggles as the Doctor wiped off his mouth with the back of his hand, looking like a little boy who had an over-affectionate mother. Clara was still giggling like mad as they went into the sitting room with Rose. The Doctor just gave her a look.
"We've got LOADS of washing for ya!" Rose said, dumping her bag into Jackie's arms. "And—I got you this!"
She showed Jackie the tiny bottle she had picked up from a trip.
"It's from the market on this asteroid bazaar. It's made of, um...what's it called?"
"Bezoolium," the Doctor said, flicking through magazines from the coffee table.
"Bezoolium," Rose repeated. "When it gets cold, yeah, it means it's gonna rain—when it's hot, it's gonna be sunny! You can use it to tell the weather!"
"I've got a surprise for you all," Jackie said.
"Oh, I get her bezoolium—she doesn't even say 'thanks'," Rose said.
"Oh, stop your moaning," Clara said.
"Guess who's coming to visit? You're just in time—he'll be here at ten past! Who do you think it is?" Jackie said.
"I don't know," Rose said.
"Oh, go on, guess!" Jackie said.
"No, I hate guessing. Just tell me," Rose said.
"It's your grandad. Grandad Prentice," Jackie said, much to Clara's surprise. "He's on his way. Any minute! Right, cup of tea!"
"She's out of her mind!" Clara said, after Jackie went back into the kitchen.
"She's gone mad," Rose said.
"Tell me something new," the Doctor said, appearing over their shoulders and staring after Jackie.
"Grandad Prentice—that's her dad. But he died like, ten years ago. Oh, my gosh. She's lost it!" Rose said. "Mum?"
The three of them stood in the kitchen doorway.
"What you just said about grandad..." Rose said.
"It isn't possible," Clara said.
"Any second now," Jackie said.
"But...he passed away," Rose said gently. "His heart gave out. Do you remember that?"
"Course I do!" Jackie said.
"...Then how can he come back?" Rose asked.
"Why don't you ask him yourself?" Jackie said, checking her watch. "Ten past. Here he comes."
Right before their eyes, and much to Clara's disbelief, a figure stepped out of nowhere in the middle of the kitchen. It was like a shadow, with no features, but had a humanoid shape.
"Here we are, then!" Jackie said.
Clara stood there with her mouth hanging open.
"Dad...say hello to Rose and Clara," Jackie said. "Haven't they grown?"
The Doctor took off running with Clara and Rose, who were quite bewildered, chasing after him. The three of them burst through a side door at a run. Clara screeched to a stop, looking around.
"They're everywhere!" the Doctor said, also stopping, as did Rose.
There were shadowy ghosts everywhere they looked, standing around like they were ordinary people. None of the people going about their business seemed to be alarmed by the sight of them, but they all went about their lives as normal. Rose turned to look at the Doctor and Clara, then said, "Doctor, look out!"
A ghost walked right through the Doctor. He had a look of discomfort on his face, but he appeared to be unharmed.
Jackie joined them and said, "They haven't got long. Midday shift only lasts a couple of minutes. They're about to fade."
"What do you mean, SHIFT?" the Doctor asked. "Since when did ghosts have shifts? Since when did shifts have ghosts. What's going on?"
"Oh, he's not happy when I know more than him, is he?" Jackie asked, clearly loving the fact.
"Nope," Clara said, still bewildered.
"But no one's running or screaming or freaking out or-" the Doctor said, turning about, baffled.
"Why should we?" Jackie asked, then checked her watch. "Here we go. Twelve minutes past."
The ghosts suddenly disappeared, much like they had appeared. Quickly.
"I don't get it," Clara said, her eyes wide, as the four of them headed back to Jackie's flat.
"I need to know more," the Doctor said, determined.
"Oh, there's this program on now," Jackie said. "Called 'Ghostwatch.' Gives us all the news we need about the ghosts."
"We'll start there," the Doctor said, then sat on the floor in front of the tellie.
Clara made herself comfortable on the sofa with Jackie, while Rose sat on the arm.
"On today's Ghostwatch, claims that some of the ghosts are starting to talk, and there seems to be a regular formation gathering around Westminster Bridge," the Presenter said.
It then showed footage of the ghosts wandering around Westminster Bridge.
"It's almost like a military display..." the Presenter said.
"What the hell's going on?" the Doctor asked, his eyebrows furrowed.
He then changed the channel to what looked like a weather report, but instead of weather symbols on screen, there were little pictures of ghosts of a map of the United Kingdom.
"And tonight, we're expecting very strong ghosts. From London, through the North and up into Scotland," the weatherman said.
The Doctor changed the channel again to the Trisha Goddard chat show, which Clara had watched before she met the Doctor. She snorted at the caption at the bottom of the screen, which read, "I married a dead man!'
"So, basically, Eileen, what you're telling me is, that you are in love with a ghost," Trisha said.
The other woman, Eileen, was sitting in the other chair with a ghost hovering by her.
"He's MY ghost, and I love him, 24/7!" she said tearfully. There was encouraging applause from the audience.
"Seriously?" Clara said, as the Doctor changed the channel yet again.
"Well, no one need me anymore!" a man was saying, as he changed it.
This time, it was one of those advertisements where you just wanted to say, "Really? They're really trying to sell that?"
A housewife in a flowery apron addressed the camera in her kitchen while a sad-looking animated ghost hovered by her.
"My ghost was pale and gray until I discovered...Ectoshine!" she said.
The Doctor had an expression of bewilderment on his face (not that he'd ever lost it) as he changed the channel again, this time to a French news channel.
"Et le President d'aujourd'hui, quelle est-" the newsreader said. It then went to footage of ghosts wandering around the Eiffel Tower. He changed the channel again to an Indian news channel with footage of ghosts around the Taj Mahal. Change channel to an over-enthusiastic Japanese newsreader. The Doctor put his head in his hands.
"Oh, yes!" Jackie said, as it cut to footage of three Japanese girls, all excited and screeching wildly and showing off their ghost t-shirts.
"It's all over the world," the Doctor said, changing the channel again to an episode of Eastenders. Clara's mouth dropped at the episode. It was the ONE soap opera show that both she and Jackie had watched together. Now, it was unrecognizable.
"Listen to me, Denn Watts," Peggy Mitchell said to a ghost. "I don't care if you HAVE come back from the grave. Get out of my pub! The only spirits I'm serving in this place are gin, whiskey, and vodka. So, you heard me—GET OUT!"
The Doctor finally switched off the tellie and Clara made a whimpering noise in disappointment.
The Doctor gave her a look, then said, "When did it start?"
"Well, first of all, Peggy heard this noise in the cellar, so she goes down-" Jackie said.
"No, I mean worldwide," the Doctor interrupted, much to Clara's disappointment. Rose smirked at her and Clara stuck her tongue out.
"Oh!" Jackie said. "That was about two months ago. Just happened. Woke up one morning and there they all were—ghosts, everywhere. We all ran round screaming and that, whole planet was panicking...no sign on YOU, thank you very much...then it sort of sank in. Took us time to realize that...we're lucky."
"What makes you think it's grandad?" Rose asked and Clara nodded.
"Just feels like him," Jackie said. "There's that smell, those old cigarettes. Can't you smell it?"
Clara sniffed the air, then shook her head.
"I wish I could, mum, but I can't," Rose said gently.
"You've got to make an effort," Jackie told both Rose and Clara. "You've got to WANT it, sweethearts."
"The more you want it, the stronger it gets?" the Doctor asked.
"Sort of, yeah," Jackie said.
"Like a psychic link," the Doctor said. "Course you want your old dad to be alive, but you're wishing him into existence. The ghosts are using that to pull themselves in."
"You're spoiling it," Jackie said.
"I'm sorry, Jackie, but there's no smell, there's no cigarettes. Just a memory," the Doctor said.
"But if they're not ghosts, what are they, then?" Rose asked.
"Yeah, but they're human! You can see them—they LOOK human!" Jackie said.
"She's got a point," Rose said. "I mean, they're all sort of blurred, but they're definitely people."
"Maybe not," the Doctor said thoughtfully. "They're pressing themselves into the surface of the world. But a footprint doesn't look like a boot."
"So maybe it's an alien that has a human form," Clara said and the Doctor nodded and stood up.
Clara went with the Doctor into the TARDIS where the Doctor immediately wedged himself underneath the console. Bored, Clara sat on the pilot's chair, painting her nails, which she never did. A while later, Rose came in holding a newspaper.
"According to the paper, they've elected a ghost as MP for Leads," she said, looking at Clara, and then peering at the Doctor. "Now don't tell me you're gonna sit back and do nothing."
Clara rolled her eyes and grinning as the Doctor hopped up from underneath the console with the song Ghostbusters playing. He was holding an odd looking device in one hand and was wearing a rucksack.
"Who're you gonna call?" the Doctor asked.
"Ghostbusters!" Rose and Clara both said.
"I ain't afraid of no ghost," the Doctor said, leaving the TARDIS. Rose and Clara followed after him, giggling.
Jackie was standing outside, waiting for them. The Doctor arranged three cone-shaped devices in a triangle shape.
"When's the next shift?" the Doctor asked Jackie.
"Quarter to," Jackie said, checking her watch. "But don't go causing trouble. What's that lot do?"
"Triangulates their point to origin," the Doctor said.
"I don't suppose it's the Gelth?" Rose asked.
"Nah," the Doctor said. "They were just coming through one little rift. This lot are transposing themselves over the whole planet. Like tracing paper."
"You're always doing this," Jackie said crossly. "Reducing it to science. Why can't it be real? Just think of it, though...all the people we've lost—our families coming back home. Don't you think it's beautiful?"
The Doctor paused in what he was doing, looking at her and said, "I think it's horrific."
Jackie looked shocked.
"Rose, Clara, give us a hand," the Doctor said. He started unwinding a cable, leading it to the TARDIS with Rose and Clara following him. He plugged it into the console as Jackie stepped inside and closed the door behind her.
The Doctor started explaining everything to Rose and Clara at such a speed, they had trouble keeping up.
"As soon as it becomes activated, if that line goes into the red, press that button there. If it doesn't stop...setting 15B, hold it against the port, eight seconds and stop," he said, holding the sonic screwdriver underneath Clara's nose.
"Right, then," Clara said, taking the screwdriver.
"15B, eight seconds," Rose said.
"If it goes into the blue, activate the deep scan on the left," the Doctor said.
"Hang on a minute, I know..." Rose said. She leaned against over the console and pointed at a button. "It's that one."
"Mm, close," the Doctor said.
"That one?" Rose said, pointing to another button.
"Nnnnow you've just killed us," the Doctor said.
"Such children," Clara teased at them as Rose giggled.
"Eh...that one," Rose said.
"Yeah! Now, what've we got? Two minutes to go?" the Doctor asked, looking at Jackie, who checked her watch.
Clara put the sonic screwdriver into a port on the console as Rose stood by the doors to talk to the Doctor, who was outside with his devices.
"What's the line doing?" Rose asked Clara, passing the message from the Doctor.
"It's all right, it's holding," Clara said, and Rose passed it on to the Doctor.
"You both even look like him," Jackie said to Rose and Clara, after contemplating them.
"How d'you mean?" Rose asked, then smiled. "I s'pose we do, yeah."
"You've both changed so much," Jackie said.
"For the better..." Rose said.
"I s'pose," Jackie said.
"Mum, I used to work in a SHOP," Rose said.
"And I had no job at all," Clara said.
"I've worked in shops and had no jobs. What's wrong with that?" Jackie asked.
"No, I didn't mean that," Rose said.
"I didn't, either," Clara said, feeling bad.
"I know what you both meant," Jackie said. "What happens when I'm gone?"
"Don't talk like that!" Rose said, shocked. Clara was just as shocked. After losing her parents, she couldn't even think of something like that.
"No, but really," Jackie said seriously. "When I'm dead and buried, you both won't have any reason to come back home. What happens then?"
"I don't know," Rose said quietly.
"Don't know," Clara mumbled.
"Do you think either of you will ever settle down?" Jackie asked.
"The Doctor never will, so Clara can't," Rose said. "We'll just keep on traveling."
"And you'll both keep on changing," Jackie said. "And in forty years time, fifty, there'll be this woman—this strange woman...walking through the marketplace on some planet a billion miles from Earth. She's not Rose Tyler. Or Clara Tyler. Not anymore. She's not even human..."
The Doctor broke her rant and Rose relayed the message to Clara.
"The scanner's working—it says 'delta one six'," Rose yelled back to the Doctor from Clara.
Clara adjusted the knob on the monitor, bringing up an image of the Doctor and the triangle device from outside. A moment later, a ghost materialized in the center of the triangles. Rose and Jackie joined her, watching in amazement. The cones around the ghost connected with blue electricity, which connected over the top of the ghost, making a pyramid over the ghost.
"Whoa," Clara said.
She looked confused as the Doctor put on a pair of what looked like 3D glasses looking at the ghost. Then, he bent down and adjusted something on the device.
Clara sighed and looked away from the monitor. A moment later, the Doctor came waltzing into the TARDIS, throwing his coat over the railing.
"I said so!" the Doctor said excitedly. "Those ghosts have been FORCED into existence for one specific point! And I can track down the source. Allons—Y!"
He pulled a lever and he and Rose flew into the chair, while Clara flew into his lap.
"Ah!" she cried out in surprise.
The Doctor practically pushed her off his lap as he got back up and went to the console.
"Hey!" she exclaimed.
"I like that. 'Allons-y.' I should say 'allons-y' more often. 'Allons-y.' Watch out, Rose and Clara Tyler! Allons-y! And THEN, it would be really brilliant if I met someone called Allonzo. Because then I could say, 'allons-y, Allonzo! Every time! You're both staring at me," he said.
Clara had been staring at the Doctor, smiling at him, while Rose said quietly, "My mum's still on board."
Clara whipped around, and sure enough, there was Jackie, sitting up in the gantries, her legs dangling.
"If we end up on Mars, I'm gonna kill you," she said, folding her arms. The Doctor looked at her, horrified, while Clara and Rose both smirked. The Doctor switched on the monitor when they materialized for them all to see soldiers circling the TARDIS with guns out.
"Oh, well, there goes the advantage of surprise," the Doctor said. "Still! Cuts to the chase. Stay in here, look after Jackie," he said to Rose and Clara, making for the door.
"I'm not looking after my mum!" Rose said, trailing after him.
"Well, you brought her!" the Doctor said.
"I was kidnapped!" Jackie said indignantly.
"I'm not letting you go alone!" Clara said, pushing past the Doctor, blocking his way. Rose pushed past and joined her.
"Doctor, they've got guns," Rose said warningly.
"And I haven't," the Doctor reminded them. "Which makes me the better person, don't you think?"
He grabbed Clara around the waist, much to her surprise, and moved her out of the way. Rose stepped off to the side.
"They can shoot me dead, but the moral high-ground in mine," he said. With that, he opened the doors and left the TARDIS. Rose, Clara, and Jackie all peeked through a crack in the doors, unseen by anyone outside of the TARDIS.
A woman rushed into the room and said excitedly, "Oh! Oh, how marvelous! Oh, very good. Superb. Happy day!"
The soldiers followed her lead, clapping for the Doctor.
"Um. Thanks. Nice to meet you. I'm...the Doctor," he said.
"What is he doing?" Clara muttered.
What the Doctor had said had set them off clapping again.
"Oh, I should say!" the woman said. "Hurray!"
"You...you've heard of me, then?" the Doctor asked.
"Well, of course we have," the woman said. "And I have to say, if it wasn't for you, none of us would BE here. The Doctor AND the TARDIS...!"
She started the applause again. The Doctor, who was clearly enjoying this, gestured for silence.
"And...and...and you are?"
"Oh, plenty of time for that," the woman said. "But according to the records, you're not one for traveling alone. The Doctor and his companion. That's a pattern, isn't it, right? There's no point hiding anymore. Not from us. So, where is she?"
"...Yes! Sorry. Good point. She's just a bit shy, that's all," the Doctor said. His hand entered the TARDIS door and grabbed Jackie and pulled her out, leaving Rose and Clara standing there, confused.
"But here she is: Rose Tyler," the Doctor continued. "Hmm. She's NOT the best I've ever had. Bit too blonde. Not to steady on her pins. A lot of that."
He mimed chatting with his hand and Jackie glared at him while the woman laughed.
"And just last week, she stared into the heart of the Time Vortex and aged fifty-seven years. But she'll do," the Doctor said.
"I'm 40!" Jackie said.
"Deluded," the Doctor said. "Bless. I'll have to trade her in. Do you need anyone? She's very good at tea. Well, I say very good, I mean not bad. Well. I say not bad...anyway! Lead on. But not too fast. Her ankle's going."
The woman turned and left and the Doctor and Jackie followed after her. Unable to see anymore, Rose and Clara watched on the monitor.
"What do we do now?" Clara asked.
"Look for something useful?" Rose said, like it was a question.
"I'm pretty sure he had his screwdriver with him," Clara thought out loud.
"What 'bout the psychic paper?" Rose asked.
"Psychic paper! Ooh, you're brilliant!" Clara said, sounding just like the Doctor. Both the girls laughed at that, then got to work searching for the psychic paper.
Rose went to the Doctor's coat and started going through the pockets.
"Psychic paper...psychic paper...Got it!" she said, pulling it out of one of the pockets.
"I think it's safe to go out, now," Clara said, peeking out of the doors of the TARDIS. Both she and Rose stepped out of the time machine with caution and found themselves in a corner of a factory floor.
"Move!" Rose hissed, as they dodged out of the way of two men talking. Rose tried to go the other way, but two soldiers approached, so Clara pulled her back, out of the way. The two of them waited until the soldiers were gone, then Rose quickly grabbed two discarded white lab coats and tossed one to Clara. Clara put it on, then the two of them walked out into the open.
"Act confident," Rose hissed.
"Obviously," Clara hissed back.
No one gave them a second look as they followed a man that went through a door.
"Keep a distance," Clara whispered out of the corner of her mouth as they still followed the man down a corridor. As the man rounded a corner, Rose and Clara jogged to catch up. He had gone through a door, which had closed.
"It's locked," Clara said.
Rose looked at the lock, then kissed the psychic paper before pressing it against the lock. The door slide open and Clara grinned. The two of them walked into a room that had a strange sphere in it. Clara stared at it, like she was completely unable to look away.
"Can I help you?" a man asked, approaching them.
"We were just..." Rose said, still looking at the sphere.
"Try not to look," the man said. "It does that to everyone. What do you want?"
"Sorry," Rose said. "Um...they sent us from personnel. They said some man had been taken prisoner. Some sort of Doctor? We're just...checking the lines of communication, did they tell you anything?"
"Can I see your authorization?" the man asked.
"Sure," Rose said, handing over the psychic paper.
"That's lucky," the man said.
Both Rose and Clara smiled at each other.
"You see, everyone at Torchwood has at least a basic level of psychic training," the man said. Both the girls' smiles faded. "This paper is blank. And you're both fake. Seal the room. Call security."
The doors closed.
"Bugger," Clara hissed.
"Samuel? Can you check the door locks? They just walked right in," the man said.
The man named Samuel turned, only it wasn't Samuel. It was Mickey.
"Doing it now, sir," he said.
Clara felt like her eyes were going to bug out of her head, she was stunned. Mickey just put a finger to his lips and gave the two of them a thumbs up, grinning.
"Well," the man said. "If you'd like to take a seat."
Rose nodded and the two of them sat down in extra chairs in the room. The man got on his laptop and turned on the webcam.
"Yvonne? I think you should see this. We've got visitors. We don't know who they are, but funnily enough, they arrived at the same time as the Doctor," the man said.
Clara wiggled her fingers at the Doctor, while Rose peered into the camera.
"Are they yours?" Yvonne asked the Doctor.
"Never seen them before in my life," the Doctor said, shaking his head.
Clara rolled her eyes.
"Good!" Yvonne said. "Then we can have them shot."
"Oh, all right then, it'll be worth a try," the Doctor said, sitting up. "That's...that's Rose Tyler and Clara Tyler."
"Sorry," Rose waved. "Hello!"
"Hi, Doctor," Clara said, guilty at being caught. The Doctor waved back at them.
"Well, if that's Rose Tyler, who's SHE?" Yvonne asked, pointing at Jackie.
"I'm their mother," Jackie said.
"Well, really my aunt, but like my mother," Clara said.
"Oh, you both travel with their mother?" Yvonne asked the Doctor.
"He kidnapped me," Jackie said.
"Please, when Torchwood comes to write my complete history, don't tell people I traveled through time and space with their mother..." the Doctor said.
"Charming," Jackie said.
"I've got a reputation to uphold!" the Doctor said, then the man shut off the webcam.
Clara leaned back in her seat and sighed, bored. A minute later, the man, who's name was Rajesh, said into the comm, "Yvonne, I thought you said the next Ghost Shift was canceled. What's going on? Yvonne?"
The whole room suddenly shook. Clara whipped around in her chair to look at the sphere, where the tremor had come from.
"It can't be," Rajesh said. The four of them hurried over to the sphere. There was another crash from within the sphere. "It's active! We've got a problem down here. Yvonne, can you hear me?"
The sphere started vibrating and Clara took a slight step back.
"Yvonne, for goodness sake—the sphere is active!" Rajesh said. "The readings are going wild! It's got weight, it's got mass, an electromagnetic field—it exists!"
There was a crash behind them, which was the door closing and sealing.
"The door's sealed," Rajesh said. "Automatic quarantine—we can't get out!"
He rushed off, but Rose, Clara, and Mickey were left looking up at the sphere.
"It's all right, babe," Mickey said. "We beat them before, we can beat them again. That's why I'm here. The fight goes on."
"The fight against what?" Rose asked, as the sphere continued to vibrate.
"What d'you think?" Mickey asked.
"Dunno what to think," Clara said.
They all stumbled then as two violent crashes came from the sphere. The sphere finally stopped vibrating as Rajesh joined Mickey, Rose, and Clara again. Mickey removed his lab coat and pulled out his ear piece.
"Here we go," he said.
Smooth cracks started to appear in the sphere as it opened. Light spilled from the gaps.
"I've got a bad feeling about this," Clara said, as light continued to spill from the sphere.
"I know what's in there," Mickey said. "And I'm ready for them. I've got just the thing."
He pulled out a weapon that he had hidden underneath a counter, then positioned himself in front of the sphere.
"This is gonna blast them to hell," Mickey said.
"Samuel, what are you doing?!" Rajesh said.
"The name's Mickey. Mickey Smith. Defending the Earth," he said.
"Look at you, all tough," Clara said, trying not to be scared. Mickey cocked his gun as the sphere continued to part further. Something started to emerge from the sphere then. It was a familiar-looking alien that made Clara start to shake with fear.
"That's not Cybermen..." Mickey said, thrown.
Four Daleks glided out of the sphere.
"Oh, my gosh," Rose said.
"It can't be," Clara said.
"Location: Earth. Life forms detected. Exterminate!" the Dalek said. Mickey aimed his gun at them. "Exterminate! Exterminate! EXTERMINATE!"
TO BE CONTINUED...