Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who. I do, however, now own a full set of clone!chibi!Doctors and a clone!chibi!Jack, courtesy of The Chibi's Are Stalking Me. And of course, my very own chibi!Alli.

A/N: A bit of conflict here, and next chapter, all will be revealed about the Canary Wharf battle. Enjoy!

Telling Stories - Part One

When the night began to draw in, we went into hiding in a disused warehouse area. It was freezing, but Jack and the Doctor didn't seem to mind. Jack was pressing random buttons on his Vortex Manipulator, while the Doctor was using Martha' laptop, the only thing we'd salvaged from her house.

"How was it?" asked Jack, and I turned around to see Martha heading back to our small circle. She sat down beside me and the Doctor.

"I don't think anyone saw me." she replied, handing round bags of chips. "Anything new?"

"I've got this tuned into the government wavelength so we can follow what Saxon's doing." Jack offered, holding up his Vortex Manipulator to show it off.

"Yeah, I meant about my family." Martha snapped. I exchanged a glance with Jack - something that seemed to be becoming a regular occurrence - and Martha turned to the Doctor.

"It still says 'The Jones family, taken in for questioning'." he answered her. "Tell you what though, no mention of Leo."

"He's not as daft as he looks." she smiled, then faltered. "I'm talking about my brother on the run. How did this happen?" None of us could answer.

"Nice chips." Jack said casually to break the sudden silence. I almost smiled.

"Actually, they're not bad." the Doctor agreed, popping one into his mouth.

I exchanged looks with Jack and Martha, and Martha nodded towards the Doctor. I picked up a chip and began to chew on it slowly, excusing myself from the question she wanted to ask. Jack sighed to himself.

"So, Doctor, who is he?" Jack asked confidently. "How come the ancient society of Time Lords created a psychopath?"

"And what is he to you?" Martha added. "Like a colleague...?"

"A friend, at first." the Doctor answered. Why hadn't he answered me when I'd asked?

"I thought you were gonna say he was your secret brother or something." Martha joked, and I pulled a face, while the Doctor and Jack turned to stare at her.

"You've been watching too much TV." the Doctor said with raised eyebrows, and Martha chuckled. To be honest, I didn't understand what was so funny about an evil Time Lord.

"But all the legends of Gallifrey made it sound so perfect." Jack began, prompting the Doctor.

"Well, perfect to look at, maybe." he told us casually, leaning back on his 'seat'. "And it was, it was beautiful. They used to call it the Shining World of the Seven Systems." I leaned in closer, forgetting my chips. I'd only ever heard the Doctor talk about Gallifrey so freely once before, when he got so fed up with me pestering him about it, he eventually gave in. He had told Rose and I the most amazing stories. "And on the Continent of Wild Endeavour, in the Mountains of Solace and Solitude, there stood the Citadel of the Time Lords..." I could picture it my head, the image I had tried to capture for months after he'd first described it. I smiled at the memory of myself and Rose, sat on the edge of my bed as we listened to the Doctor's voice with closed eyes.

"The oldest and most mighty race in the Universe, looking down on the galaxies below... sworn never to interfere... only to watch..." He snapped out of his trance-like state and spoke more factually now. "Children of Gallifrey were taken from their families at the age of 8 to enter the Academy. And some say that's when it all began. When he was a child... that's when the Master saw eternity. As a novice, he was taken for initiation; it's a gap in fabric of of reality, through which could be seen the whole of the vortex. You stand there, 8 years old, staring at the raw power of Time and Space... just a child..." The memory seemed to pain him, but he continued. "Some would be inspired, some would run away... and some would go mad."

"What about you?" Martha asked.

"Oh, the ones that ran away." the Doctor said with a mouth full of chips. "I never stopped!" I smiled weakly at that.

A beep from my right alerted us to Jack's Vortex Manipulator. "Encrypted channel with files attached." he told us, studying the device. "Don't recognize it."

"Patch it through to the laptop." the Doctor suggested, and Jack stood up and moved over to him.

"Since we're telling stories... Uh, there's something I haven't told you." He glanced at me, and I swallowed nervously. He pressed a few buttons on his Manipulator and the laptop beeped.

"You work for Torchwood?" the Doctor said, disgusted, as the Torchwood logo appeared on the screen. Oh. I thought he was going to mention me. What was wrong with Torchwood?

"I swear to you, it's different. It's changed. There's only half a dozen of us." Jack insisted, failing, I noticed, to mention who was included in that 'us'.

"Everything Torchwood did, and you're part of it?" the Doctor spat.

"What?" I asked, confused. "What did we do?"

"The old regime was destroyed at Canary Wharf." Jack said quickly, not looking at me. "I rebuilt it, I changed it. And when I did that, I did it for you, in your honour."

Something clicked in my head as the Doctor glared at Jack. "Wait... Canary Wharf?" I asked slowly. "But that... Torchwood killed Rose?" I spat at Jack angrily, standing up.

He shook his head frantically. "No!" I frowned. "Well, yeah." he amended. "But that was Torchwood London. We're Torchwood Cardiff. Completely different."

"'We'?" the Doctor asked with a frown before I could reply to Jack. I froze. Jack didn't reply either. I turned to him, still angry.

"Didn't you think I should know what kind of a place I was joining?" I asked Jack loudly, clenching my fists.

"You got my daughter working for Torchwood?" the Doctor asked before Jack could answer, his fury plain in his expression. I looked across at him, startled. I couldn't remember the last time he'd been so protective of me. "Even after everything that happened, you got Alli involved?"

"It wasn't like that!" Jack defended himself. "We're different now, we help!"

"Well, that's what Torchwood London thought they were doing." the Doctor snarled.

Jack seemed to have no answer to that. Something seemed to occur to the Doctor. "Oh, so that's what the Master meant." he said bitterly. "Well your little team's been sent off the the Himalayas."

"What?" Jack frowned, but the Doctor didn't explain further.

"Why?" I prompted, confused.

"The Master sent them there." the Doctor answered, not even glancing at me. "Whether or not you were 'helping' the world, you still put Alli in danger."

"Wait, it's not... I mean, it's not completely Jack's fault." I stepped in guiltily. "I kind of... begged him to let me join. But you should've told me about Rose!" I added, shooting a glare at Jack. "And, Doctor, I wouldn't have had to join if you hadn't left me here!" I reminded him.

The Doctor sat back down and pulled the laptop onto his knees. I glared at Jack again before sitting back down in defeat, and Jack did the same seconds later. No one said a word.

"If I haven't returned to my desk by 2200 hours, this file will be emailed to Torchwood." a woman's voice sounded form the computer screen. We all gathered around the Doctor to watch it, avoiding each others' eyes. "Which means, if you're watching this, then I'm…" the woman broke off, but we all guessed what she meant. "Anyway, the Saxon files are attached. But take a look at the Archangel document. That's when it all started. When Harry Saxon became Minister in charge of launching the Archangel Network." the elderly woman explained to us from her desk somewhere, and the video ended. A picture of the Earth flashed up, surrounded by satellites.

"What's the Archangel Network?" the Doctor asked in a strained voice.

Martha pulled out her phone. "I've got Archangel. Everyone's got it."

"It's the mobile phone network." Jack explained, pointing at the image on the screen. "'Cause, look, it's gone worldwide. They've got 15 satellites in orbit. Even the other networks, they're all carried by Archangel."

The Doctor took Martha's mobile and held the sonic screwdriver against it. "It's in the phones!" he said as realisation hit him. "Oh, I said he was a hypnotist! Wait, wait, wait, hold on." We all watched as the Doctor set the phone down on the table and pressed a button. It began to beep a constant rhythm. 4 beats, then a pause. Beep beep beep beep. Beep beep beep beep. Beep beep beep beep.

"There it is. That rhythm, it's everywhere. Ticking away in the subconscious.

"What is it, mind control?" Martha asked.

"No, no, no, no." the Doctor said quietly. "Subtler than that. Any stronger and people would question it. But contained in that rhythm, in layers of code… 'Vote Saxon.' 'Believe in me.' Whispering to the world. Oh, yes! That's how he hid himself from me. 'Cause I should have sensed there was another Time Lord on Earth. I should have known way back. The signal cancelled him out." There he goes again, prattling on about his special Time Lord senses that I don't have.

"Any way you can stop it?" Jack asked.

"Not from down here. But now we know how he's doing it." the Doctor replied confidently.

"And we can fight back?" Martha asked him.

"Oh yes!" the Doctor cried ecstatically.

He took Martha's mobile phone apart and fiddled around with the pieces. Jack, Martha and I watched with interest as he disassembled the laptop too, and used the sonic screwdriver to fuse parts of each machine together.

The work continued for hours, and each one seemed to pass more slowly than the next. At some point, he took our keys to the TARDIS from us and began fusing different bits of metal and wiring to them. I was lost by then.

It was when he started humming a tune to himself absently that I decided it was time to talk. I took a deep breath, and while Jack and Martha were talking amongst themselves and the Doctor was staring into the sky with two keys in his hands, I wandered over to his 'workstation'.

"So…" I began awkwardly, edging over to him with my back to the other two. "You know... you still owe me an explanation."

The Doctor looked at me immediately. He frowned, then looked troubled. He didn't have to ask what I meant.

"Right." he said slowly, and set the keys down in front of him. He patted the seat by his side and I sat down nervously, not sure if I wanted to know that badly after all. With a deep breath, the Doctor turned to look at me and smiled sadly.

We had a long night ahead of ourselves.

A/N: Part Two will be up soon...