You might think that it will follow The Lazarus Experiment completely, but you would be mostly wrong in assuming that. Nine and Jack will definitely change the dynamic and ending of the events to come, if not in this chapter than in the next ones.

Chapter 26 – The Special Guest

"Doctor, wake up!" Jack shook his friend, a worried look on his face. The Doctor slowly opened his eyes.

"What happened?" Jack asked him. The Doctor blinked twice and sat up.

"It was the Bad Wolf. She had a message."

No matter how much Jack inquired about what the Bad Wolf's message was, the Doctor only replied that it was a warning that they shouldn't dawdle if Rose was to survive. The Doctor didn't want to tell him about her real message until he was sure he understood it himself.

"I am sorry but, in order to save her, you will have to make a sacrifice, so great a sacrifice."

"How do I look?" Jack asked the Doctor, straightening his bow tie.

"Adequate." He replied, putting on his own suit jacket.

"Really?" Jack said, his face falling. "I feel so rejected." He hid a sarcastic smile but the Doctor ignored it.

"Let's get one thing straight, right now." The Doctor pointed at him. "You. Are not. My date. Merely my plus one." Jack chuckled.

"Don't worry." He said, opening the TARDIS doors. "I know who your real 'plus one' is."

"Food?" Jack pointed with his thumb to a tray passing them by.

"No thanks." The Doctor said, trying to loosen his tie without taking it off.

"Suit yourself." Jack replied, stuffing snacks into his mouth.

The Doctor took in their surroundings. The place was very posh, with rich people all around them. He automatically knew by her history that Rose would be uncomfortable here. If she ever got better, he planned to drill into her head that her humble beginnings had nothing to do with who she was now. In fact, she was worth more than all these fancy-dressed apes put together.

His thoughts were interrupted by a soft hand on his shoulder. He turned his head and was shocked by who it was.

It was the Bad Wolf Woman, not as Rose, but in her original form; the one that had appeared in his and Rose's minds. But now she looked anything but an all-powerful goddess. Instead, she looked and was dressed like a normal human being, her only giveaway was a slight gold shimmering on the edges of her brown eyes, barely noticeable to those who took hardly any interest in her. However it was hard not to take interest in her.

The Doctor's eyes widened at her appearance. Her sleeveless dress sparkled with crystals that shimmered with her every movement. A slit on the side exposed nearly half her thigh, and her golden heels seemed to defy all laws of support. The golden tendrils of her hair framed her face like an angel's halo, and she caught every eye in the room.

The Doctor was speechless for a moment, until the Bad Wolf motioned towards a dark-skinned woman standing a few feet away from them. The woman had her back towards them, clothed in a lovely purple dress.

"You see that woman over there?" Her voice was ethereal, silky and golden as she whispered in his ear. He merely nodded. "Martha Jones." She spoke in barely a whisper. "After you are separated from Rose in the battle of Canary Wharf, you find Martha and she becomes your next companion." The Doctor finally found his voice.

"In the other time line, the other Doctor you mean."

"Yes."

"Mm." He made a noncommittal sound, his mouth twitching in displeasure at the thought of a companion after Rose. Martha was pretty enough, but he could already tell his standards were set too high for her.

"Doctor," The Bad Wolf implored, as if she could hear his thoughts (which she probably could). "Martha is smart, curious and asks a lot of good questions. Might be handy using her on this mission."

"Wait, how did you get here?" He asked, turning to face her. "I didn't think you had enough power to give yourself a solid form." The Bad Wolf merely winked at him and waltzed away. The Doctor watched her go.

"Who was that?" Jack asked in a tone of awe, eying her back end hungrily.

"You don't want to mess with that one." The Doctor replied with a knowing smile. Just like Jack to hit on an almost all-powerful entity. He turned him away from the Bad Wolf and instead pulled him over to where Martha Jones was who was talking with what looked like to be her family.

"Hello, I'm Doctor Spock." The Doctor introduced himself, holding out a hand to her. Jack suppressed a snort of laughter and the Doctor glared at him.

"Oh, I'm a doctor too," Martha replied. "Well, almost, need to pass my exams but I'm almost there."

"Oh I'm sure you'll pass." The Doctor expected Martha to thank him, but instead she raised a suspicious eyebrow. The Bad Wolf was right, she was curious. Turning her off the subject, Jack grabbed her hand and held to his lips, lingering for a bit too long.

"And a very beautiful doctor at that." Martha removed her hand from his lips, looking a bit uncomfortable. The Doctor jabbed him in the ribs with his elbow as Martha turned away. Jack scrunched up his face and scowled at him.

"We need to find out about Lazarus and his machine." The Doctor whispered loudly. The two followed Martha, seeing she was walking away from them. "Professor Lazarus, do you know him?" She turned around and frowned at them. Were they deliberately following her?

"Not personally, no, but here, my sister Tish does." As if to defend herself, she half threw her sister in front of Jack and the Doctor. Tish looked at Martha strangely, before answering the Doctor's question.

"Professor Lazarus, yes. I'm part of his executive staff."

"She's in the PR department," Martha spoke up from behind her sister.

"I'm head of the PR department, actually," she said indignantly, turning her head around to look at her. "I put this whole thing together."

"So," Jack said, turning them back to the matter at hand. "Do you know what Professor Lazarus is going to be doing tonight?" The Doctor turned and saw a large machine in the middle of the room.

"That looks like a sonic micro-field manipulator." He said.

"Look, why don't you ask him yourself, obviously you know him or at least have heard of his work, or you wouldn't have been invited, if you actually were." Tish said abruptly. "Excuse me, I've got to get back to work now."

Jack and the Doctor turned around as the lights faded and everyone's voices quieted. A spot light fell on an old man, standing by a machine, tapping on a glass. Jack and the Doctor recognized him from the television set earlier that morning.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I am Professor Richard Lazarus," he said. "And tonight I'm going to perform a miracle. It is, I believe, the most important advance since Rutherford split the atom. The biggest leap since Armstrong stood on the moon. Tonight you will watch and wonder. But tomorrow, you'll wake to a world which will be changed forever."

Jack shuffled nervously and the Doctor frowned as Lazarus stepped into his machine, closing the door behind him. A couple of technicians pressed buttons and prepared the machine. As soon as it was on, it emitted a high-pitched noise and all the guests were bathed in a blue glow as the machine grew stronger and stronger, so strong that many shielded their eyes from the light.

And then, an alarm went off. The looked over at the technicians to see them working on the machine, worry clear on their faces.

"That doesn't sound good." Jack shouted.

"It's overloading." The Doctor said. When he saw the controls spark and explode he ran and leapt over the desk, his boots thumping loudly as he hit the floor. He pulled the sonic from his pocket and aimed it at the controls.

"Somebody stop him!" One of the investors shouted. "Get him away from the controls!"

"He knows what he's doing," Jack shouted back at her. "If it explodes, we all die!" The Doctor ignored the woman as he leapt back over the desk and pulled out the main cable.

The spinning machine slowed down and came to a stop. The noises ceased and the light dissipated. Jack ran to the door.

"Open it!" he cried, running up behind Jack.

Jack pulled the door open and smoke piled out. Everyone stood in awe as a young man stumbled out, looking very different, but oh so familiar. He clutched the sides of the machine, panting heavily. The Doctor felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach as he gently touched his face.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he yelled. "I am Richard Lazarus. I am 76 years old and I am reborn!" He shouted in victory.

"He did it. He actually did it!" the same old woman said triumphantly, and the rest of the crowd broke into cheers. The only two not happy were Jack and the Doctor, who merely stood there in shock.

"It's not possible." Jack said, staring as Lazarus posed for pictures. "It's just not."

"It's not supposed to be, but he did it." The Doctor said.

"But what did he do?" The Doctor looked back at Lazarus and shook his head.

"He changed what it meant to be human." Jack stood quietly for a moment, still looking at Lazarus warily.

"Obviously something goes wrong if this point in time is in flux. So what do we do now?"

"We wait." As soon as the Doctor replied, Lazarus jerked and gasped in pain. The two of them suddenly sped forward as he began consuming food furiously.

"I'm famished!" he told Lady Thaw, whining like a child.

"Energy deficit," the Doctor stated behind him. Lazarus spun round and looked at him in surprise. "I'd expect it to happen with this kind of process."

"You speak as if you see this every day Mr…"

"Spock." he told them. "Doctor Spock. And I have experience in this kind of transformation."

"That's not possible," Lazarus said.

"Using hypersonic sound waves to create a state of resonance," he said, trying not to sound annoyed. "Not that hard to figure out then?" Jack nodded behind him.

"You understand the theory."

"Enough to know that you couldn't possibly have allowed for all the variables," he responded seriously.

"No experiment is without risk," Lazarus said flippantly.

"That thing nearly exploded," Jack said incredulously. "We all saw it!" He stepped forward. "You, and all these people here are in danger." He quivered in anger but the Doctor gripped his shoulder in an attempt to get him to calm down.

"You're not qualified to comment," Lady Thaw spoke up.

"If the Doctor hadn't stopped it, we all would have died," Jack turned to her.

"Then thank you, Doctor Spock," Lazarus said calmly, ignoring Jack. "But that's a simple engineering issue. What happened inside the capsule was exactly what was meant to happen. No more, no less."

"But you have no way of knowing that until you run proper tests, correct?" Jack and the Doctor turned around to see Martha standing behind them. She had that same look of curiosity and wariness on her face.

"Look at me girl!" Lazarus laughed. "You can see what happened. I'm all the proof you need."

"This device will be properly certified before we start to operate commercially." Lady Thaw spoke proudly.

"Commercially?" Jack cried. "You're not serious! That'll cause unspeakable damage!"

"No." Lazarus said. "It won't. What it will bring is change. A chance for humanity to evolve, to improve."

"This isn't about improving. It's about you and your customers living a little longer." The Doctor felt his blood rising as he spat his words.

"Not a little longer, Doctor." Lazarus replied softly. "A lot longer. Perhaps indefinitely." The Doctor had just formulated a reply when Lady Thaw interrupted him.

"Richard, we have things to discuss, upstairs." She walked away and Lazarus followed her, waving back at them.

"Goodbye, Doctor." He turned back with a grin on his face. "In a few years, you'll look back and laugh at how wrong you were." He held out his hand for Martha. When she placed her hand in his, he bought it to his mouth and kissed it. Martha got a slight look of disgust on her face. Then finally, he left.

"He doesn't know what he's doing," Jack spoke quietly so Martha couldn't hear. "He's no idea of the damage he might have done to his body."

"We need to do our own tests." The Doctor replied. "This building must be full of laboratories."

"Good thing I collected a DNA sample then isn't it?" Jack said, holding up a piece of Lazarus' hair that he had obtained. The Doctor grinned at him and the two of them took off.

Martha looked at them strangely as they left, before wiping the back of her hand on her dress in revulsion and returning to her family.

"Look at it." The Doctor pointed to the screen where Lazarus' DNA was displayed.

"I can't see anything different." Jack said, leaning over him.

"Right there!" The DNA strand seemed to change right before their eyes. Jack started in shock.

"Did that just change?" He slammed his fist down. "We were right!"

"Yes, we were. Lazarus has changed his own molecular patterns," The Doctor explained. "He hacked into his own genes and made them rejuvenate." His voice tinged with anger at the man's stupidity.

"They're still mutating. What did he do wrong?"

"He missed something. Something in his DNA has been activated and won't let him stabilize. Something that's trying to change him…"

"Into what?" Jack asked warily.

"I don't know." he replied, rubbing the short hair on his head in thought. "But we need to find out. And quickly, the guests' lives are in danger as we speak. We have to stop him before we can get the energy converter for Rose."

"Hold on, that woman went upstairs with him." Jack said suddenly.

"Come on!" he cried. They sprinted out of the room, knowing that everyone's lives were now in grave danger.

You might be wondering why Martha is even at the party, because Tish got her high-powered job because the Master promoted her. Well all I have to say is that time is always in flux, who knows, they could still go to the end of the universe and find Yana there ;)

Next: With time in constant flux, anything could happen. The Doctor and Jack might need some help with this one...

A reminder, the Bad Wolf woman is played by Amanda Righetti, I have a manip I made on my DA profile, just google RoseBadWolfTyler DeviantArt (it's the first link to come up) and it's the first manip featured on my gallery. The next two after that are SLY promos, so check those out too ^^