Chapter 36
The cell door was banged shut and the occupants heard a key being turned and the bar door locked. The cell was a small room carved out of rock with a seat along one wall of the cell.
Donna pointed up at the plaque with a set of numbers on it and said, "More numbers. They've got to mean something."
"Makes as much sense as the breath of life story." the Doctor said, shrugging.
"You mean that's not true?" Jenny asked, confused. Her whole being was made with the knowledge that the Source was the goal, and to die fighting to get it.
"No, it's a myth." Donna said sympathetically. "Isn't it, Doctor?" she asked, just to double check she was right.
"Yes, but there could still be something real in that temple, something that's become a myth. A piece of technology, a weapon." the Doctor said, running a hand through his hair, making it stick up everywhere.
"So the Source could be a weapon and we just gave directions to Captain Nutjob?" Donna asked, just to clarify.
"Oh, yes." the Doctor said, wincing.
"Not good is it?" Donna muttered.
The Doctor sighed and fished through his pockets looking for his sonic screwdriver, "That's why we need to get out of here, find Martha and stop Cobb from slaughtering the Hath." the Doctor said, still looking through his pockets.
Rose was sitting in the corner, silently ringing Martha on her mobile. She smothered a laugh at Jenny's inquisitive look.
"What?" the Doctor asked, noticing Jenny's look too.
"You keep insisting you're not a soldier, but look at you! Drawing up strategies like a proper general." Jenny said, gesturing to his conversation with Donna.
"No, no. I'm trying to stop the fighting." the Doctor insisted.
"Isn't every soldier?" Jenny retorted back.
"I'm not a soldier." the Doctor said, his expression getting angry.
Rose slipped her phone away, Martha didn't pick up. She got up and placed a hand on the Doctor's chest. "Doctor calm down." Rose said, sending him a warning with a glare. She then turned to Jenny and told the girl, "Everyone listen to me. Donna, you need to accept the fact that Jenny is a real person, and is my kid. I look barely older than her, and I never gave birth to her but she sure as hell is mine. Jenny, you need to realise that fighting is never the answer and there are always other options, soldiers like Cobb never realise that. And Doctor," Rose said, turning on him, "You need to calm down!" Rose said exasperated. "You've been on edge since Jenny stepped out of that machine and I know why, but you need to open your eyes and see her for who she truly is!"
Whatever the Doctor was going to say after Rose was stopped by a ringing. Rose rolled her eyes and pulled her phone back out, "Martha, you have the worst timing some times." Rose said, answering the phone.
"That's a weapon, yet you keep saying you're not soldiers!" Jenny said, annoyed.
Rose ignored her. "Doctor, we'll finish talking later. Martha, are you OK?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Did the Doctor lick something or blow something up? And who was that talking?" Martha asked.
"Hold on, I'll put you on speaker phone." Rose said, pressing a button and holding the phone out. "There you go. Donna, Doctor, me and Jenny are here, we're locked up in a cell."
"Jenny?" Martha asked.
"My daughter. The girl that came out of the machine. Where are you?" Rose asked, wanting to know if her friend was okay.
"I'm in the Hath camp, I'm OK, but something is going on. The Hath were showing me a map then it turned off and came back on with extra tunnels and the Hath are now all marching off to some place all looking like they are heading to war." Martha explained, looking around at the Hath soldiers grabbing guns and preparing for a journey of some sorts.
"Yeah, that was mister pompous over here. Both armies are heading there." Rose said.
"There's going to be a bloodbath." Donna added.
"What do you want me to do?" Martha asked.
"Nothing, if you're safe then wait there." the Doctor butted in.
"But I can help!"
"Not if it is going to put you in danger." the Doctor said.
"Martha, listen if you can stop the Hath army, or slow them down then we can try and get to the temple before them and stop this war." Rose said, ignoring the Doctor. At the Doctor's look of hurt at not listening to him, Rose said to him, "You keep trying to protect your companions and they end up worse off. I nearly died, you did die, I got trapped in a parallel universe,"
"OK, I get it." The Doctor muttered.
"If I can't stop the army, I'll meet you at the temple. I'll call if - " Martha was cut off by a continuous beep.
"Her phone went flat." Rose groaned.
The soldiers from outside interrupted the prisoners conversation as they cheered and chanted. "They're getting ready to move out." Donna said.
"We have to get past that guard." the Doctor added.
"I can deal with him." Jenny said, moving to the door.
"No, no, no, no. You're not going anywhere."
"What?" Rose and Jenny said together.
"You belong here, with them." the Doctor said, his voice and expression cold and cut off.
"She belongs with us!" Donna said.
"She's our daughter!" Rose added.
"She's a soldier, she came out of that machine." the Doctor said, emotionless.
"Doctor. She is ours. Can you not see that? Its in her face, her expression, her feelings. Her childish glee at knowing new things, her stubborn attitude about what she believes in. She came out of the machine, but she came from you and me. And I don't care if you don't want her with us, I do." Rose said, crossing her arms over her chest.
"She was born knowing how to kill and how to die. That's all. She had no problem blowing up that tunnel and losing Martha." the Doctor argued back.
"That wasn't because of the machine Doctor." Rose said quietly, accusingly. "She learnt how to fight from the machine, but our DNA is in her too. She has so much potential, and she puts it to use the only way she was ever told, doesn't mean we can't help her learn different. You're attitude towards her hasn't helped either. You've treated her with the cold shoulder. She can help you, she can help us."
The Doctor spoke in a cold voice, "She's no different to any of the humans out there. Ready to kill on an order."
"How is that any different to you in Henry Van Statten's vault?" Rose asked. The Doctor flinched at the memory and the guilt it caused but Rose kept going, "Give me your stethoscope."
"what?" the Doctor asked, confused at the change in topic.
Rose rolled her eyes and stepped forward, searching his pockets for him before pulling out the object and going to Jenny. Jenny backed away from Rose. "It's OK. Just hold still. Nothing will happen to you." Rose slipped the stethoscope into her ears then held it over Jenny's chest, on both sides.
Rose stepped away and pulled the object out of her ears. Gesturing for the Doctor to come forward, she placed the stethoscope in his ears, then held the object over Jenny's heart on the left side. He listened to it for a moment before Rose moved to the right side. A second heartbeat thumped in time with the first heart.
"Two hearts." the Doctor whispered, stepping back. He stared at Jenny with a pained look, remembering the past.
"What's going on?" Jenny asked.
"You have two hearts. Humans have one." Rose said. "Time Lords have two hearts."
"What's a Time Lord?"
"Its who I am. Its where I'm from." the Doctor said, pain in his voice.
"And I'm from you. So, I'm a Time Lord?" Jenny asked, turning to Rose for clarification.
"You're an echo. That's all." the Doctor corrected, bitterness in his voice. "A Time Lord is so much more. A sum of knowledge. A code. A shared history. A shared suffering." the Doctor let out a sigh and closed his eyes, hiding his pain. "Only it's gone now. All of it. Gone forever."
"What happened?" Jenny asked, enthralled by the information she was learning. Her yearning for more was from the Doctor, and she knew there was more to her than the normal child from the machine.
"There was a war." the Doctor told her, with battle-scarred eyes.
"Like this one?" Jenny asked, innocently.
The Doctor let out a bitter laugh and the absurdity of the comparison. "Bigger. Much bigger."
"And you fought? And killed?" Jenny asked.
"Yes."
"Then how are we different?" Jenny asked, wanting to make him see her point. "How are you not a soldier?"
"I am a soldier. But you don't have to be." the Doctor said, turning away from his daughter.
Rose stood next to him and held his hand. "Now, we've got a war to stop."
"Hey." Jenny said, walking up to the cell door where Cline was guarding the door.
"I'm not supposed to talk to you, I'm on duty."
"I know, guarding me." Jenny said in a playful voice, batting her eyelashes at him. "So does that mean I'm dangerous? Or that I need protecting?" Jenny asked, moving closer to him and smiling flirtatiously at him.
"Protecting from what?" Cline asked, turning to look at her and smiling back.
"Oh I don't know. Men like you?" Jenny asked, pulling him closer to kiss him. He pulled away a moment later, surprised to find the cold metal of his gun pressed against his stomach. "Keep quiet and open the door." Jenny said, still smiling playfully at him.
The Doctor, Donna and Rose stood out from around the corner as Jenny opened the door and tied Cline up, tying a gag around his mouth. "I'd like to see you try that." Rose muttered to the Doctor as they shut and lock the cell behind them and ran off.
They were walking down a set of stairs when they came across another guard.
"That's the way out." the Doctor whispered. Jenny cocked her gun that she took from Cline. The Doctor shook his head and pushed the gun down. "Don't you dare." he hissed.
Donna stepped up and whispered, "Let me distract this one. I have picked up a few womanly wiles over the years."
"Let's...save you womanly wiles for later. In case of emergency." the Doctor said, searching his pockets for something. "Any ideas, anyone?" he asked when he came up empty.
"Wait here. Be ready to knock him out." Rose whispered to Jenny before shoving the trio against the wall and walking out in front of the guard.
"Hey, who are you and what are you doing?" the guard demanded, aiming his gun at her.
"I don't know." Rose whispered, keeping her eyes on the floor, and holding herself slouched over, like she was scared. "I was taken away from the rest of the group and a guard, he, he, attacked me!" Rose wailed, bursting into tears. She sobbed into her hands. "I wanted to do what General Cobb said, but I couldn't stay and let him...he was going to...i couldn't..." whatever she was saying became unintelligible through her sobs. The guard (being male) had no idea what to do about the sudden appearance of the hysterical girl and lowered his gun to pat her awkwardly on the arm. Jenny jumped forward then, and hit him over the head with her gun. He fell to the ground unconscious.
"Well done mum." Jenny said, grinning at the other blonde.
"Thanks." Rose said, wiping her face clean of tears.
The Doctor walked up to Rose and frowned at her, "He could've hurt you."
"Stop being over protective. If it had been Jack, you would have no problem with it, and it worked. I'm fine." Rose scoffed, squeezing his hand before turning to the soldier. "All of them must have a copy of the new map." she muttered before rifling through his pockets.
Donna stared at Rose in shock. "I would never have thought you were conning him then."
"Thanks, Jack taught me." Rose told Donna with a cheeky grin.
"Jack?" Donna asked.
"An old friend of ours." Rose said gesturing with her head to the Doctor and herself.
Earlier
Martha was so absorbed by the map that she missed the silent vibrations of her phone ringing. But the Hath that she had saved must've felt it through the ground or something for he tapped her on the arm and pointed to her pocket.
"What?" Martha asked, confused. He gurgled for a moment before Martha realised she had her phone, and Rose would have hers. She opened her phone and saw the missed call. She dialed through her contacts, picked Rose's number and waited as it rang.
"Martha, you have the worst timing some times." Rose told her over the phone.
Martha went to talk, but paused as she heard an unfamiliar voice say, ""That's a weapon, yet you keep saying you're not soldiers!"
Rose didn't respond, but just said, "Doctor, we'll finish talking later. Martha, are you OK?"
Martha blinked at the change of topics so many times and asked "Yeah, I'm fine. Did the Doctor lick something or blow something up? And who was that talking?"
"Hold on, I'll put you on speaker phone." Rose's voice said before there was a pause and then Rose spoke again, sounding further away, "There you go. Donna, Doctor, me and Jenny are here, we're locked up in a cell."
"Jenny?" Martha asked, she didn't know who that was.
"My daughter. The girl that came out of the machine. Where are you?" Rose asked. Martha could hear her friend's worry in her voice.
"I'm in the Hath camp, I'm OK, but something is going on. The Hath were showing me a map then it turned off and came back on with extra tunnels and the Hath are now all marching off to some place all looking like they are heading to war." Martha explained, looking around at the Hath soldiers grabbing guns and preparing for a journey of some sorts.
"Yeah, that was mister pompous over here. Both armies are heading there." Rose informed her.
"There's going to be a bloodbath." Donna's voice chimed in.
"What do you want me to do?" Martha asked, sighing at the Doctor's lack of tact sometimes.
"Nothing, if you're safe then wait there." the Doctor butted in.
"But I can help!" Martha protested at being kept safe like a child.
"Not if it is going to put you in danger." the Doctor argued.
"Martha, listen if you can stop the Hath army, or slow them down then we can try and get to the temple before them and stop this war." Rose said, before saying to the Doctor, "You keep trying to protect your companions and they end up worse off. I nearly died, you did die, I got trapped in a parallel universe,"
"OK, I get it." The Doctor said, interrupting Rose. Martha grinned, she could imagine the pair arguing with the same stubborn pouting face.
"If I can't stop the army, I'll meet you at the temple. I'll call if something goes wrong." Martha said. There was no response. She looked at her phone and saw it was off. "Great, my battery went flat. She turned to the Hath next to her, the same one that had the dislocated shoulder and asked, "I need to charge it up. I need power, d'you understand?"
The Hath either didn't hear, or didn't understand as he kept fiddling with the controls of the map, turning the map on it's side and turning it into a 3D version.
"There's even more! In 3D! Oh, you're a clever Hath! So this is where everybody's going? But look, those tunnels they zig-zag all over the place, if I went up and over the surface in a straight line, I'd get there first.
The Hath gurgled and protested.
Martha guessed what he meant and responded accordingly, "Why not?"
A diagram appeared on the screen and he pointed to it.
"Are these the readings to the surface?" Martha asked. The Hath nodded so Martha kept reading. "Well, it doesn't look too bad. Nitrogen and oxygen is about 80:20, that's fine. Ozone levels are high. And some big radiation spikes, but as along as I'm not out there long."
The Hath gurgled, asking a question.
"I have to help my friends. There's no way I can stop the Hath army, or the Human army. But I can make it to this spot first." Martha said, before running off. She stopped however, when the Hath gurgled again. His body language suggested he was asking if he could come too. "Well come on then!" Martha said, leading the way.
Martha finally found some stairs and headed up them. Her friend though protested.
"Look, you can stay down here and live your whole life in the shadows or come with me and stand in the open air. Feel the wind on your face. What's it gonna be?" Martha asked, standing at the door that led outside. He didn't answer. "It's up to you, but nothing's going to stop me." with that, she climbed out and stood in the wind and gazed around the muddy, wet, deserted, barren hills and shivered in the blizzard-like winds. She zipped her jacket up and laughed as her friend appeared through the doorway onto the surface. "I knew you couldn't resist." Martha laughed. The Hath gurgled, and Martha giggled, and said, "Language! Come on. This way."
The Doctor was leading the women through the tunnels, following the map that Rose found on the guard. "Wait!" the Doctor said, spinning on his heels and going back around a corner. "This is it! The hidden tunnel. There must be a control panel." the Doctor said, pulling his sonic screwdriver and sonicking the wall.
Donna looked around as Rose pointed out, "Look, another set of numbers."
"The original builders left them. Some sort of cataloging system." the Doctor guessed.
"You got a pen, and a bit of paper?" Donna asked, the Doctor handed them to her then went back to sonicking the wall. "Cos, d'you see? The numbers are counting down. This one ends in 1-4."
"The prison cell was 1-6." Rose added.
"Who are you people? You're always thinking."
"We're travelers." Rose said.
"But who are you?" Jenny asked again.
"We told you, I'm the Doctor -" the Doctor started to say.
"The Doctor? That's it?" Jenny interrupted.
"That's all he ever says." Donna said.
"So, you don't have a name either? Are you an anomaly too?"
"No, he's not. He has a name. He uses the Doctor though, cause that's his name too." Rose answered for him.
"Oh come on, he's the most anomalous bloke I've every met." Donna laughed.
The Doctor got the cover off the door controls off and let out a victorious laugh. "Here it is. I nearly got it."
"And Time Lord's, what are they for exactly?"
"'For'? They're not, they're not for anything." the Doctor said, reaching into the controls and fiddling with the wires. He put the sonic screwdriver in his mouth as he used both his hands to re-wire the door.
"So what do you do?" Jenny asked, curious.
"We travel. Through space and time." Rose said, grinning at Jenny. "He saves planets, rescues civilizations, defeats terrible creatures, leaves his laundry all over the floor and never does the dishes." Rose added.
"And runs. Runs a lot. Seriously, there is an outrageous amount of running involved." Donna added her two cents in.
The Doctor let out a triumphant yell and said, "Got it!"
Off in the distance, the group heard Cobb's voice giving out orders, "Squad 5, you're with me."
The Doctor grabbed Rose's hand and turned to Jenny "Now, what were you saying about running?"
They ran down the corridor, Rose and the Doctor laughing their heads of as they went.
Jenny panted to Donna, "They're crazy!"
"Hey, they're your parents!" Donna puffed back.
They ran around the corner and skidded to a halt. There were red laser beams criss-crossing over the path.
"That's not mood lighting, is it?" Donna commented dryly.
The Doctor pulled a ball from his pocket and threw it into the lights. The ball burst into sparks as soon as it touched the first beam.
"Nah, I didn't think so." Donna answered herself.
"Arming device." the Doctor said, fiddling with the controls next to the lasers.
Donna noticed another set of numbers. "Here's another set. Always eight numbers, counting down, the closer we get."
"Here we go!" the Doctor said. Nothing happened. "Damn." the Doctor muttered, before diving back into the control box.
"Hurry up!" Rose said as they heard the footsteps and voices of the soldiers growing louder.
Jenny started to run off back the way they came. "Where are you going?" Rose asked, grabbing her arm to stop her.
"I can hold them up." Jenny explained, gesturing to the gun she had with her.
"No, we don't need any more dead," the Doctor said, stopping in his work.
"But it's them or us!" Jenny said, confused.
"It doesn't mean you have to kill them." Rose added.
"I'm trying to save our lives?" Jenny argued, shocked they didn't want to survive.
"What about their lives?" Rose asked her.
The Doctor then added, "Listen to me, the killing, after a while it infects you. And once it does, you're never rid of it."
"We don't have a choice!" Jenny said, walking backwards.
"There's always a choice." the Doctor said softly, wanting her to realise that.
"I'm sorry." Jenny said, "I'm not ready to let them kill you guys." she ran off.
"Jenny!" Rose yelled after her. "Get those lasers off!" Rose said, "I'll go get her."
"Wait Rose!" the Doctor said.
"You heard them, get the lasers off!" Donna ordered, shoving back to the controls.
Jenny ran around the corner to where the soldiers were. "There she is!" a soldier pointed out.
Cobb snarled, "At arms!"
Jenny fired on the soldiers just as they did the same. None of the bullets seemed to hit.
Donna and the Doctor heard the shooting and Donna looked worried. The Doctor, however was trying not to care. "I told you, nothing but a soldier."
"She's trying to help!" Donna snapped back.
"Jenny come on!" Rose yelled, running after her.
"I'm coming." Jenny yelled back.
Cobb ordered, "Cease fire, cease fire!" The soldiers stopped, at the same time, the Doctor managed to get the lasers off.
"That's it!"
"Jenny! Rose! Leave it, let's go!" the Doctor yelled.
"Go, we'll catch up." Rose yelled back, nearly up to where Jenny was. Donna dragged the Doctor through and they waited at the end of the corridor, waited for Jenny and Rose.
Cobb watched Jenny for a moment, then said, "You're a child of the machine. You're on my side. Join us! Join the war against the Hath. It's in your blood girl, don't deny it!"
Rose heard the man talk and managed to get to where Jenny was just as she shot at him. "Jenny!" she yelled, shock that the girl would kill someone like that in her eyes.
"Let's go mum!" Jenny said, running off, grabbing Rose's hand and dragging her with her.
"Jenny, how could you shot him?" Rose asked, running along with her.
"I didn't I just shot a pipe to stop them!" Jenny said, grinning at Rose and letting out a laugh. They turned around the corner to where the Doctor and Donna were waiting at the end of the corridor.
"Good, hurry up!" the Doctor said, wanting to be going further away from the guns and soldiers.
Just before Rose and Jenny got to the offline laser field, they flicked back on. Rose and Jenny skidded to a stop. "No, the circuit looped back!" the Doctor groaned.
"Zap it back!" Donna said.
"I can't the controls are there and you need the sonic." the Doctor said, gripping his hair with his hands and trying to figure out a solution.
"They're coming!" Rose said, glancing back around the corner.
"Wait! J-Just...! There isn't...! Rose, Jenny, I can't!" the Doctor said, clearly unable to do anything and panicking because of it.
Rose and Jenny shared a look and Jenny threw the gun off to the side. "We'll have to manage on our own. Watch and learn, Father!" she said cheekily.
Rose bent forward and stretched her back then grinned at Jenny. The two ran forward and began flipping at the same time, somersaulting all the way through the minefields at the same time, without touching the lasers at all. They got out of the lasers paths and Jenny recovered gracefully, grinning at the gob-smacked pair on the other side. Rose didn't recover as gracefully, standing up straight with a groan and rubbing her back.
"I haven't done that in years." Rose groaned.
"Impossible!" Donna muttered.
"Not impossible, just a little bit unlikely!" The Doctor uttered gleefully. He hugged Jenny and spun her around grinning proudly. He then hugged Rose the same way, except at the end of Rose's hug, the Doctor pressed a quick kiss against her lips.
"Dad, I didn't kill him, General Cobb. I could've killed him, but I didn't. You were right. I had a choice!" Jenny told him, grinning widely at him.
He smiled proudly back. The Doctor hugged her again and kissed the top of her head in a fatherly gesture.
The soldiers appeared on the other side of the lasers and Jenny, Donna and Rose ran on ahead. The Doctor stayed behind to talk to Cobb. "I warned you Cobb. If the Source is a weapon, I'm gonna make sure you never use it!"
"At arms!" Cobb yelled, the soldiers aimed and prepared to fire on the Doctor. "One of us is going to die today, and it won't be me!" Cobb spat, before opening fire on the Doctor. The Doctor ran around the corner before any bullets could hit him, and ran off with the others, towards the source.
To Be Continued
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