Disclaimer: No Copyright infringement was intended. This is the work of a purely deranged mind who has a strong dislike for Moffat and seeks to correct the wrongs he committed against my favorite Doctor. I own nothing.
A/N: A warm thank you goes to LadyHopeOfGallifrey, and Shadow Eclipse for taking the time out to leave me encouraging reviews. Glad I am able to thrill you with my story. Another thank you and welcome goes to my newest followers and those who favored "Once More With Feeling".
Last but not least, much love to all of you who take the time out to read and enjoy this little story that is taking on a life of its own. I hope to continue to entertain and play with emotions.
Once More With Feeling
Chapter 38: The Deviant … what?
"You found the secret tunnel that leads to the spaceship from the institution?" the Doctor grinned cheekily at Jack and Rose, keeping the blonde tightly at his side. "Fantastic!"
"SECRET TUNNEL, SECRET TUNNEL," Thorn randomly started singing, gaining a more than a few odd looks. "WHAT?"
Shaking her head a little, Rose grinned a little before looking up at the Doctor, opting to ignore Thorn for the moment.
"That too," she nodded, "also learned that Sofia Barinska has a machine in her house that is drawing power off the ship to keep her young and healthy. Making her a lot older than she looks and she has a passage from her house to the ship as well. Oh, and she tried to kill me."
The Doctor blinked at the last part, "pardon?"
"I learned firsthand that there are these seaweed wrapped blob like things that bullets have no effect on are likely the thing that attacked Pavel and Valeria last night," Jack added on. "They don't seem to have eyes nor are sight oriented, but their hearing is top notch. Also, they use tendrils of seaweed as feelers to locate their targets."
"ONE OF THOSE ATTACKED ME ON THE WAY HERE," Thorn told Jack. "THEY ARE NOT IMMUNE TO MY LEVEL. MAYBE HIGH ITEM LEVEL IS NEEDED?"
"Thorn," the Doctor sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"YES, DOCTOR?"
"Shut it."
"BUGGER."
"Excuse me," Alex broke in, looking more than a little uneasy as well as confused. "What do you all mean 'spaceship'?"
"You know, space ship," the Doctor said like that explained anything. Seeing the look of confusion on Alex Minin's face, he mimicked a spaceship, including sounds, with his free hand. Poor Alex looked even more confused than before. "You know, like in Star Trek?"
Rolling her eyes, Rose tried. "What the Doctor is talking about is a ship that crashed here long before anyone came to live here. It's down in that cave and it came from space, piloted by a crew that is not of Earth. But the ship itself is still here."
"Complete with a murderous, zombie policewoman, free of charge," Jack grinned, leaning against the open door frame.
"Knife wielding, murderous, gun toting zombie policewoman," Rose corrected with a little smirk.
"Assuming you are talking about Barinska," the Doctor asked while Alex tried to process all this, "how is she a zombie exactly? I get the machine, I suspected as much, but…"
"Well when she was thrown off the hood of a Jeep, hit by said Jeep twice," Rose stated plainly, "managed to walk back to her house to heal herself, then came after me with a knife and was shot three times and still moved like it was nothing."
Alex blinked at the group, the color draining from his face.
"Oh and Jack," the Doctor looked over at the American accented time traveler, "that thing you saw? Those were the remotes sent out by the ship."
"Fantastic," Rose groaned. "I would ask could this get any worse, but I know, I know there is still more to come."
"AND YOU JINXED US, ROSE TYLER," Thorn groaned.
"That happen to you guys a lot?" Jack asked, curious.
"YOU HAVE NO IDEA," Thorn answered.
Clapping his hands loudly, the Doctor glared at Jack and Thorn before grinning wildly. The loud sound made everyone jump at the suddenness. Once that was done, the Doctor took Rose's hand again, internally sighing in pleasure. He was finally able to feel her in his mind again. The last few hours had been so quiet, so empty, it almost made him wonder what it would have been like if she wasn't as telepathic as she was. How maddening would the silence in his head become? Like a heavy weight to always remind him of his crime, his guilt, he thought.
"Okay, people," Jack pushed off the door frame, addressing the little group, "I suggest a three-pronged maneuver. Somehow we need to deal with the ship, the stone circle and those blobby remote things. Order is irrelevant at this point in time."
The Doctor nodded, his mind working in the same direction as Jack's had suggested, the only problem he was noticing is this wasn't going to be as cut and dry and they would have liked. Someone has been messing about with the ship and the stones. Add to that the remotes were now killing people for the energy the ship was requiring which was off as well, leading to the conclusion that someone has been, and had been, mucking about with the system. "Monkey business," the Doctor muttered quietly.
"Oh, speaking of…" Rose started only to be cut off by the Doctor placing a finger against her lips and winking at her.
"Alex," the Time Lord turned to address the man, "I need you to go find Colonel Levin. Tell him that any men he had out in the field are likely dead, blobbed, by now. He should forget them for now. Then, bring him down to the ship. We will meet him there."
"Hold on," Alex held up his hand, looking like the world had fallen out from under his feet, "You are telling me there is a real space ship down that hall? And you want me to tell the Colonel there is a real space ship under the town? I don't think he will believe me. Hell, I barely believe all this."
"Trust me," Jack grinned, "when he sees this, he'll believe it."
"And this thing has been hidden behind this door the whole time?" Alex asked, trying to make sense of all this.
"Yep," Rose stated, popping the 'p' with a grin. "Likely crashed here over a millennia ago at the base of the cliff. Plates shift, land changes."
"Ends up underground," the Doctor finished with a grin. "Just get Levin. We'll work on getting answer."
Clapping Alex on the shoulder, the Doctor took Rose's hand and motioned his group, with Thorn out front and Jack behind, down the tunnel to the ship. While they walked, each person filled the group in on what they had learned, found, and/or encountered while they had been apart.
'This has to be the strangest trip we have been on yet,' Rose murmured to the Doctor's mind, just as happy as him to have the connection back.
'Stranger than when we were forced to marry because of some stupid fortune teller demanding it?' he asked back with a mental grin.
'Hm, well… that is a close for first.'
As the discussion came to a close, there were a few questions asked by someone of the teller, comments made, more than a few snarky ones thanks to Thorn. Standing now in the massive cavern that housed the quartz like ship, the tension started to rise again. Barinska was still down here and still had a knife, even if her gun was out of bullets. Somehow Rose doubted the Doctor would be so easy going about her using a gun as Jack had been about it.
Thorn shifted over the ground, looking about as he scanned the ship and their surroundings. Something was definitely off with the systems of the ship, crude as it was, he thought compared to the tech he was familiar with. As wondrous as this was, it was nothing compared to Dalek or Time Lord technology. Nice attempt but still.
"A FOR EFFORT," Thorn muttered out.
"What was that?" Jack asked, blinking in confusion.
"THE TECHNOLOGY," Thorn clarified. "THEY GET AN A FOR THE EFFORT BUT AS THE DESIGN AND ULTIMATELY THE TECHNOLOGY GO, IT IS A FAIL."
"As compared to who?" Rose asked, walking with the Doctor towards the hatch she and Jack had closed in a hurry to get away from the crazy, zombie policewoman.
"DALEKS, OF COURSE" Thorn replied. "AND I SUPPOSE TIME LORDS."
"Oi!" the Time Lord of the group snapped. "Sod off with ya, great space pepper pot, you are."
"NOT JUST SEXY, ME," Thorn responded without missing a beat. "UNLIKE YOU, BIG EARS."
"Can we focus here?" Rose broke in what was looking to be an insult contest between her lover and her protector. Honestly, every time they did that, she had to leave to keep them from hearing her laughter.
"Are we sure we want to go in there, Doc?" Jack had to ask. "I mean, Mrs. Knife-wielding Zombie could be waiting. She was shot three times but really wasn't terribly impressed."
As the Doctor opened the hatch, he explained that. "Not likely she would notice, being hopped up on mutagenic revivification enhancement energy for as long as she has. Not surprising."
Rose just arched a brow at the Doctor and said nothing. She was not going to be drawn in like that. Jack let out a groan, sounding almost like he was whining. Thorn looked at Jack before moving over to the hatch. With the plunger looking arm, the alien covered the lock and waited a moment. The hatch popped open with something ease, and Thorn just went in first. It wasn't like a knife from 21st century Earth could piece his armor.
"Effectively life force right?" Rose finally broke as she followed Thorn inside. "Why do other races have to make such complicated names for something so simple? Life Force. Not Mutagenic Revivification Enhancement."
"Normally it's just called RME, Rosie," Jack offered helpfully.
"Still too long and stupid," she grumped.
"Oi, didn't write the manual, me," the Doctor protested while following inside. Quickly he looked around the area, taking everything in with a glance. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Thorn doing the same. He said nothing about the probability that Barinska was still around.
"Recognize the ship type?" Jack asked as the Doctor ventured further into the ship.
"Appears to be a general type ship of the Arcane Collegiate," the Time Lord mumbled.
Thorn called out his agreement after a scan of a control panel.
"They are pretty esoteric, aren't they?" Rose asked.
The Doctor nodded, looking serious which was a warning sign to Rose and Thorn. Things weren't so playful anymore. "Someone has been playing around with the receptors, mucking things up." He lifted one of the sheets off one of the six bodies and his lips pressed into a tight line.
Straightening up, he walked across the room to the area Rose and Jack were pretty sure was the control deck of the ship. Settling himself on the pilot seat, he reached out to Rose and settled her on his knee, very unwilling for the moment for her to be too far. He didn't also mind reminding Jack who Rose belonged to. With, he mentally corrected himself fast before she could detect that thought. Some times his possessive nature startled even him. Jack settled himself against one of the instrument panels, watching the pair with a little smirk. Thorn just parked himself not too far away.
"Best guess, the ship has entered auto-repair mode," the Doctor started to work out his thoughts. Rose taught him to do that forever ago. He learned she often saw things he missed. That, and he picked it up from her when she is troubled. "After the crash, pilots dead, so is the crew, ship auto sends out the distress signal to anyone who can receive it. Help me, please, and all that."
"With us picking up the tail end, I would say that signal was pretty strong when it started out," Jack added, thinking about what he noted of the signal originally.
"NOW IT NEEDS MORE POWER," Thorn carefully stated.
"Now, normally that would be activated by the captain," the Doctor continued. "However, he's dead. And someone has been tampering with the ship, changing it up. Normally in these situations, the ship would seek out any kind of energy it can get, thus the antenna."
"Antenna?" Rose blinked once before it dawned on her. "The stones! They are directly above us, aren't they? Made of the same material as the ship so that it can resonate and gather power as well."
"Correct in one, Rose Tyler," the Doctor praised, making her blush at the thoughts he sent her way. "Under normal circumstances, it would draw power from the wind and sun. The blobs you two encountered are the same material as the ship, but jellified instead of solid. Those are sent out only when the ship is in desperate need of more power."
"So the ship has been surviving on RME this whole time?" Jack asked, connecting the dots mentally.
"NO," Thorn stated. "THE REMOTES AND SHIP HAVE BEEN ALTERED TO ONLY ACCEPT RME. AND ONLY HUMAN RME. WHICH IS WHY THE REMOTES AND STONES WOULD REJECT ROSE TYLER, THE DOCTOR AND MYSELF. WE ARE NOT COMPATIBLE."
"Great, so Barinska messed with this thing to keep feeding it life energy to keep herself young and live forever, that about right?" Jack asked.
Frowning, Rose shook her head. "I don't think she acted alone, Jack. She kept repeating 'they will live forever' when she attacked me at the stones. And Thorn's right, when I touched the stone it started to pull from me but let go quick enough. After that I tossed Barinska into the stone and ran. She screamed."
"Then it's the RME that is making Barinska go all bananas, right?" Jack looked at the three for confirmation.
"NO," Thorn shook his head in a negative motion. "HER GOING COO-COO HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE RME SHE FEEDS ON. IT IS THE WORK OF SOMEONE ELSE. SOMEONE MORE BASE."
"Yeah well," Jack grumbled. "Wait til I get my hands on them. Have any of you ever had to crawl through a torpedo tube with ice cold water pouring in?" He paused a moment, looking at the Doctor, "okay, you likely have. Anyway, whose fault is this then, Doc?"
The Time Lord exchanged a look with Rose, who had already figured it out. She avoided making eye contact with Jack.
"YOURS," Thorn said plainly. "YOU ANSWERED THE CALL, MADE THE SYSTEM THINK RESCUE WAS COMING. AUTO-SYSTEM IS READYING FOR TAKE OFF."
Jack just groaned and covered his face. He was currently two for two on the Volcano Day scenarios with this group. Mercifully, no one said anything about it, no taunting which he expected at least from the Doctor, definitely from the mouth alien living armor case. Yet, neither said anything. Unfortunately, Jack never saw the death glare and the golden flash of Rose's eyes as she warned them both to behave themselves silently.
Well, in the Doctor's case, she was threatening him mentally but showing him all the things she would not be doing for him again if he snarked at Jack right now.
"Okay, then how do we stop it? Is there a way to turn the ship off?" the former Time Agent sighed, letting him hands drop. "You said that someone messed with the feed."
"IF WE TURN THE SHIP OFF, WE RELEASE ALL THE STORED UP ENERGY," Thorn sighed himself, making it clear his preference. "RELEASE THE ENERGY, BOOM! NO MORE VILLAGE OR PENINSULA. NOT GOOD WAY TO DO BUSINESS. THIS IS NOT WORLD WAR II. GOOD JOB, HARKNESS."
And there was the snarky comment.
"Best that can be done," the Doctor interrupted, shifting Rose off his lap now, "we need to someone siphon off the stored energy and the emergency back up. Otherwise this will never end. The ship can't take off, too damaged."
"But the system thinks it can so it will keep searching out energy sources in human lives," Rose hummed. "Any ideas on how to release the stores safely?"
"Not a clue," the Doctor grinned up at the blonde.
"Some help you are," she grinned down at him, the tip of her tongue peeking between her teeth.
"You two really are just adorable, you know that?" Jack chuckled, standing up himself. "What happens now?"
"Now," the voice of Sofia Barinska answered, "you die."
Jack and Rose spun around just as the bloodied figure of Barinska rose from behind the panel Jack had parked himself. She grinned at them like something from a horror film.
"We will take your energy," she told them gleefully. "Then we shall live. For ever."
And she attacked, leaping towards Jack with the knife in hand. Jack fell backwards with a cry, the mad policewoman sailing over him. He scrambled to his feet, eyes on the blade as the woman got to her feet faster than someone with two bullet wounds in their legs should be able to move. Rose was a golden blur as she darted in close to his attacker, eyes flashing Jack thought for a moment, as the blonde grabbed Barinska's arm as the policewoman slashed down at Rose. In one smooth move, Jack watched Rose turn and lifted the woman over her shoulder, pulling the held arm down at the same time. Barinska flipped over Rose and landed with a thud and the sound of bones snapping.
Rose was on Barinska instantly, a booted foot at the base of the other woman's neck, the broken arm held unnaturally straight up behind her, wrist clasped firmly in Rose's hand. "Tart," Rose growled, voice like ice.
"NICE ONE," Thorn praised, moving over to hold his blaster on the struggling then limp woman.
"Ta, Thorn," Rose nodded. "Doctor?"
The Doctor looked at Rose with something like fascinations mixed with interest before nodding. He had not reacted at all to the woman's attack on Jack, and frankly, Rose's reaction was normal, even if a bit more brutal than normal. The Time Lord had not missed the fact neither Jack nor Rose ever actually said who shot the crazy woman, judging from the wounds he saw, he knew it was Rose. Ever since 10 Downing Street, Rose had fought to either not use a gun at all, or if she did, to hit points that were not vital and resulted in minimal damage. If it had been Jack shooting, the Doctor held no illusion that a bullet would have landed between the policewoman's eyes.
"How old are you? Really?" The Doctor asked as if he was telling off a small disobedient child. "Levin said he recognized you from when he was here before. So that tells me something. But really, how old are you?"
Barinska did not answer.
"If I had to guess, I would say you've been here a long time," the Doctor continued. "Before the navy came, before the scientists."
"One of the original whaler community," Rose offered in a deadly soft voice.
Everything ends, everything dies.
Those words echoed in the minds of Rose and the Doctor for a second.
Barinska continued to be silent, laying limp as death under Rose's foot as the Doctor squatted down on his hunched closer to watch the woman's face. "You can feel him, can't you? In your mind, instructing you, instinctively, to repair the ship? The captain instruction you in your head still, after all these years."
"Wait," Jack looked confused now. "I thought you said the captain and the crew were, like, dead dead?"
"DEAD AS A DODO, HARKNESS," Thorn explained as the Doctor nudged the still form of Barinska with his boot. "BUT THE SYSTEM THAT SUSTAINS THE ZOMBIE WOMAN HOUSED THE MOSTLY DEAD CAPTAIN'S MIND. IT IS PROBABLE THAT SHE STUMBLED ON THE SHIP AGES AGO AND SOMEHOW CONNECTED WITH THE SYSTEM ON A PSYCHIC LEVEL, RESULTING IN THE MOSTLY DEAD CREW SPEAKING TO HER."
"That would explain how she was able to manipulate the system," Jack nodded before frowning, looking at Thorn. "Okay, what is with this 'mostly dead' and 'all dead'?"
"PRINCESS BRIDE, YOU PEASANT," Thorn sniffed. "LOOK IT UP."
"Bit of hush outta you two," the Doctor huffed, never looking away from Barinska's prone form. "But, yes, Jack. It told her and her mates how to work the system and adapt it. The whole idea of living forever is because the system wants them too. Funny that. It's the system that is keeping them alive to fix it, but that is the exact thing that crippled the whole thing in the first place."
Rose nudged the woman under her foot a little, "We know you aren't dead, yeah? I can feel the life energy about you. So might as well tell us who else is in on this? Who else thinks they still are in control of their life?"
Whatever answer they were expecting was not the one they got. With a sudden surge of strength, Barinska rolled over, a sickening sound of her arm ripping out of socket, throwing Rose off her. The blonde hybrid slammed into the Doctor hard enough to force the two of them back a few steps. As Barinska sprang to her feet, Jack launched at her in hopes of catching her. It still freaked him out how the woman seemed to ignore all injuries, moving like she was perfectly fine. The crazed woman sprinted towards the main hatch only to be confronted by Levin and his men.
Levin stared at the bloody figure that was Sofia Barinska a second before Jack shouted out orders for them to stop her. Acting on instinct, Levin and his men leveled their guns at the charging woman, shouting warnings for her to halt or they would shoot her. She never stopped.
"Fire!" Jack ordered in a hard tone.
One soldier reacted instinctively, years of service making the act of taking orders second nature. The shot rang out and caught the policewoman in the chest. She grunted as the force of the assault weapon's bullet slammed into her chest, sending her backwards onto the ground with a thud. For one tense second, everyone waited, hoping she didn't get back up.
That hope was dashed as Barinska flipped herself onto her feet and charged again towards the Russian soldiers. This time, however, they did not hesitate to open fire. They didn't ask a single question this time, they did not warn her to stop or they would fire. They just started firing on their target. Bullets tore through flesh and bone, and still Barinska kept coming like she was being hit with water and not speeding pieces of metal. One of the bullets ripped through her jaw, nearly removing it and successfully removing most of her cheek.
"Colonel!" Rose's scream echoed through the cavernous room.
The warning was lost in the hail of bullets as Barinska made her way towards the soldier who shot her first. The poor man was so shocked that his shot has been useless that when she started moving again, he froze. By the time he was able to react, Barinska was behind him. With simple, yet well practiced move, the soldier's head was twisted around sharply, his neck snapped before he knew what was happening to him. Before the man's limp body hit the ground, she had his gun in hand and was firing at the Doctor and Rose.
The Doctor grabbed Rose and let his body fall backwards, taking them behind the instrument panel they has been standing behind. Jack dove for cover as well as he pulled his gun from his waist band. Rose had returned it earlier, not willing to carry it longer than she needed it. A quick check told him the pair had hit safety and Levin and his men were moving for cover as well as Barinska fired at him in three shot bursts, walking towards the panel hiding Rose and the Doctor.
'Ow,' Rose groaned mentally as she laid on top of the Doctor, his arms wrapped protectively around her.
Sitting up, his nose picked up the smell of fresh blood. Looking over Rose he saw quickly the hole in her winter jacket and panic began to fill him.
'It's okay, Doctor,' Rose whispers to his mind. 'Missed mostly. Just a graze and hurts like the dickens, is all. Tougher than that, remember?'
The sight of her little pink tongue peeking out from between her lips relaxed him and he nodded, lips pressing in a tight line and his jaw clenching. The swell of darkness within his eyes worried Rose as did the primal rage that surged in his mind at the idea she had been harmed by an enemy. Before she could say anything, the situation ended so suddenly, she had to double check what she was seeing.
Without a word, Thorn has shifted to be positioned between the trigger happy zombie woman and the Time Lord and Rose. She had turned her attention to the Dalek, not knowing what he was or what he could do, firing burst after burst at him. Jack watched in horrified fascination as the bullets seem to hit a wall of water, dissolving before they ever reached the armor. Levin and his men were equally stunned at the sight.
Then, Thorn just fired once. Only once.
Sofia Barinska jerked and shook a moment, her skeleton with all its breaks and shatters visible. Then she hit the ground hard. Unmoving.
She was dead.
Rose blinked a few times as she looked at the other woman's prone form then at Thorn.
"BOOM," Thorn started dispassionately before turning towards the Doctor. "SHE WAS LIKE A REMOTE, THEREFORE SHE DID NOT QUALIFY AS LIVING. SHE WAS AN EXCEPTION TO THE RULE. HER TIME WAS OVER LONG TIME AGO."
The Doctor helped Rose to her feet, staring at the body as well. After a moment, he nodded once, barely.
"BESIDES," Thorn continued, "SHE HURT ROSE TYLER. MUST NOT HURT ROSE TYLER. NEVER HURT ROSE TYLER. EXTERMINATION IS TOO KIND THEN."
"Someone want to explain what this all is to me?" Levin asked, his voice steady, his eyes shaken by all that just happened in the span of a few moments.
Another nod from the Doctor as he exhaled, "Yeah, let's talk in town. I'm sure you could use a drink, Colonel."
"D'you believe me?" the Doctor asked, leaning back against the bar in the inn.
Levin, his men, Rose, Jack, Thorn and a scatter of villagers that had still been up drinking when they came in, surrounded him at the tables and bar stools around him. He told them the whole of the story, all of them. At this point in time there was no use in pulling the 'need to know' routine. Not if any of them wanted to live to see the dawn come. Right now, it was safe enough, but he had no idea for how much longer. Unlike Rose, his Time sense had been down since the end of the War. Or it could have happened what he became… nevermind. Fact of the matter was he had no way to see the possibilities right now. And something told him, neither could Rose.
"I don't have a better explanation for now," Levin conceded with a nod. "Let's call this a working hypothesis for now."
"Sounds fair," Rose sighed, her head leaning against the Doctor's shoulder.
"So what now? What do you suggest we do?" Levin asked the Time Lord. If the situation wasn't so dire, the TARDIS group might have found the man's turn of behavior from this afternoon amusing. Now, they were with him. What now?
"What about just blowing this ship up?" one of the villagers suggested, looking remarkably more sober than when the group arrived.
Jack was the one who answered that one with a shake of his head. "No, do that and you will release all the pent up energy stored inside. It will make a nuke look like a cherry bomb."
"SAYS SO IN THE MANUAL," Thorn tossed out.
The looks around the room ranged from disbelief to fear to straight up confused as this was the first time the blue armored thing spoke.
"What we need to do," Rose offered to the gathering in a tired voice, "is figure out a way to siphon and release the energy safely without feedback. Only this way can we be sure that the system won't try to auto fix itself again. And we need to know who else was working with Sofia and stop them. Did I miss anything?"
The Doctor nodded a little but was cut off by shouting outside. Frowning he pushed away from the bar as the villages rushed towards the front door. A little old man with wide, milky eyes came bursting in. He looked around wildly for a moment, breathing heavily. His sightless eyes settled on Rose as he stumbled forward, pointing at her. She jumped from her chair and rushed to the man, gathering him in her arms as he collapsed.
"They… they are coming!" he wheezed, 'looking' up into her brown eyes. "I see them! Blue, burning, hungry and hunting. They are coming! Coming to kill us all."
"Slow down, Georgi," Rose soothed, looking back at the Doctor and Levin with a nod. Jack and the soldiers eased towards the windows, peering out into the foggy night. "Who is coming?"
"The hunters, they come," he rasped, clinging to Rose like a lifeline.
"Who exactly is that?" Jack asked from his spot.
"His name is Georgi," Rose answered as the man trembled in her arms, sightless eyes staring in Jack's direction. "He's the one that warned me about Nikalos death and the generator. He can see it in his mind."
"Sure he did, Rosie," Jack grinned at her, looking back outside.
Rose just growled at Jack, reminding the now former con-man of an alpha she-wolf protecting a weak member of the pack for a second.
"It is possible," the Doctor stated quietly as he moved over to Rose and Geogri.
"You're not serious, are you?" Levin snapped back. He was a soldier, hardened in the heat of battle, war born and breed, and this was a situation outside his control or knowledge. He wasn't sure he could handle many more surprises.
"Completely," the Doctor called out. "The ship communicates with the drones on a certain frequency. It is possible that his brain is wired to accept those signals, enabling him to see as the remote drones do. If that is the case, then it is likely he could also alter the frequency and potentially gain control of the remotes for a time as well."
"Early warning system," Jack grinned. "I like it."
Geogri was tugging on Rose's jacket, looking at her now. Someone had handed him a shot of vodka which he took in one hit before turning his attention to the blonde girl. She was listening to him intently. A part of him knew who she was and what she was, he could see her in his mind's eye, glowing brilliantly in the darkness. This mysterious British girl with wisdom beyond her years never laughed at him, never question why or how, she just accepted. In her, he saw his salvation.
"Jack!" she called out over the chatter of the inn, "Geogri says they are coming now. What's outside?"
"Ma'am," the soldier that had gone with Jack to look outside sounded nervous, "there is something in the misty, large… and some kind of glowing blue light."
"Doctor, Colonel," Rose spoke with an authority in her tone that amazed and impressed Levin, "it's time we go. Get the people out of here, now!"
Jack looked like he was about to disagree with seaweed tentacles slammed into the front Inn windows, breaking them out. Both Jack and the soldier backed up instantly. Rose gripped Geogri in her arms protectively as she tried to wrap her mind around what in the buggering hell was happening now. The remotes pressed their jelly like bodies against the front wall, trying to pull themselves through the windows, lashing at anything it could get. The villagers all started shouting out. A dull buzzing started to fill Rose's ears as she dragged the blind old man backwards. Someone was shouting orders, but over the buzzing, she couldn't tell who.
Then her vision darkened.
All she saw now was the village in an odd blue light before her eyes. Scans were being done, she knew that much, as red forms lit up the landscape. It took her a half a second to register what they were. People. Humans in their homes. Other blue forms moved into view, heading towards the red energy signatures.
"They are attacking the village," she breathed out in horror, eyes wide and staring ahead.
The colonel changed a glance over at the blonde woman and nearly froze. Her eyes were a brilliant glowing gold. The Doctor called out orders to get everyone out the back and head to the institution. The walls there may give them some safety, he reasoned was the Doctor's thoughts. But the blonde, Rose, was standing in the middle of the Inn motionless. The armored thing Levin once thought was a robot moved to settled in front of her before starting to fire a weapon he had never seen before at the remotes. The ones hit seemed to melt. Others were pulling away in defense. Some just kept coming, lashing towards the distracted blonde.
One of the soldiers remained at her side, another had taken the old man from her and ushered him outside with the villagers. And still she remained, locked in place like she was in a trace. He could see her lips moving, speaking but over the shouts, the sounds of the building giving way under the pressure of the attack by the drones, he couldn't hear her.
"Doctor!" Levin called out as he helped a man out the back door. "Rose!"
The Doctor's head popped up from behind the bar instantly, eyes widening seeing his lover and partner frozen in dangers path. Leaping easily over the bar top, his long legs took him to her side in seconds. Wrapping his arms around her, he was momentarily blinded as she was projecting hard. Blocking it out, he called to Thorn to cover them as he retreated back behind the bar again. With an apology to Rose, he forced himself into her mind and cut the connection she created when she touched Geogri.
Blinking she looked at him with wide eyes. He just grinned at her.
"Do I want to know?" Rose asked as she watched him stuffing cloth into bottles of vodka.
"They don't like fire," the Doctor grinned as he handed her a bottle, lighting the ends of the rags. "Thorn, cover us then get outside."
"Molotov cocktails?" Rose asked with an answering grin. "Well, we are in the right place for it."
Together the two stood and threw their surprises at the drones before turning and running from the building, Thorn right behind them. The pair turned to watch as the Inn caught fire must faster than anticipated.
"Doctor," Rose tugged at his jacket and pointed. "They are hunting down the villagers. They can 'see' people via their heat signatures now. Someone changed the coding again. And I doubt it was Ms. Zombie."
Turning to follow where she was pointing, the Doctor's eyes widened as he saw dozens more of the remotes and their blue lights coming from the sub dock. They were moving towards the main bulk of the village, going house to house. Looking over for Levin, he was beaten in anything he was going to say as the colonel boomed out orders to his men. These people, their people, needed help and needed it now.
The soldiers divided themselves into two groups. One group moved the group they already gathered from the Inn outside of town and headed towards the road that lead to the Institution. The second group moved quickly into the village, banging on doors, sending the frightened people into the night to meet up with the others waiting.
"Thorn," Rose ordered with a nod. The eye stalk bobbed once, a nod, before he turned and headed into the village. She could hear him grumbling about Hydras. Only she wasn't sure if he was talking about the organization he was rambling about a few days ago, or the legendary dragon.
'You know,' the Doctor's voice startled her in her mind, 'I almost want to take him to meet a real one.'
'He will try to kill it, you know that right?' Rose chuckled as she watched Jack move to assist the group helping with the village.
"You stay here with the Colonel," the Doctor spoke out loud to her now. "I'm going ahead to the institution. Go with your idea, Rose Tyler, while you can."
The blonde hybrid nodded once before turning and sprinting after Thorn and Jack.
"Are you sure about that, Doctor?" Levin asked softly, watching the young woman break into an impressive pace. He wasn't stupid or blind, he could tell there was something more between the two than either would admit to.
"She'll be fine," the Doctor grinned widely. "After all, she doesn't have what they want. Add to the fact she is more dangerous than they are, easily."
Levin stared at the Doctor in disbelief for a few seconds longer before he mentally shrugged it off and started shouting out orders to his men to start leading the villagers to the institution. The Doctor clasped the colonel on the shoulder before turned and heading off with the frightened humans.
The Doctor dearly hoped he would not find what he knew was at the institution.
Rose raced down the road towards the village, directing people as she came across them. The soldiers called out to her with updates as she ran. She had no idea the figure she cut in the night, racing swiftly from house to house, her voice never showing panic or fear as she directed the frightened people to join the soldiers waiting for them on the hill near the burning inn. She couldn't know that her presence, the calm determination she seemed to radiate filled the men around her with the same determination. She caught up to Jack in time to see the set of his jaw as a man hurried away from him. She couldn't remember a time she ever saw this Jack have that look on his face.
She had known a Jack Harkness in the other universe, and he would often get this look. It was a look of determination, of fire and brimstone, of the promise of violence and potential death to others. Normally bright, alive blue eyes of deep cerulean were flat, hard chips of dark ice. If she hadn't seen it before, it would have scared the blonde.
Unfortunately, that was a look she was all too familiar with.
"What's going on?" she asked as she slowed to a jog.
"He left her," Jack's voice trembled. "He fucking left her to die. He fucking left his daughter to be finished off by the things that attacked her in the first place!"
Thorn arrived, having been waylaid in stopping to shoot a few remotes that got too close to the humans. He hovered close by, listening to Rose and Jack talk, keeping up a vigil. The remotes from the ship were gathering and multiplying it seemed faster than the Dalek would have cared for. It was like someone had flipped the manual override for the remotes on. Like the Doctor, Thorn had a strong suspicion on who was truly behind all this. Idly, as Thorn turned to shoot down three more remotes that got close, he wondered if the Doctor and Rose Tyler would allow him to just kill the villain first, or if questions were to be asked first.
Rose didn't wait for any more answers. She turned and ran for the house she was told belonged to the girl, Valerie. The nineteen year old girl who had snuck out to see her boyfriend, Pavel, on the last night of his life. Valerie, the nineteen year old girl who was attacked and drained of her life until she was a shell of her former self. Jack was in fast pursuit behind Rose, neither saying a word to one another as they ran. Rose took point so that if any of the remotes got in their way, they were latched pointlessly onto her, allowing Jack time to get around until Thorn could get rid of them. It was a nearly flawless plan, if the remotes had decided to play along.
The sound of someone colliding with Jack behind her, made Rose skid to a stop and turn.
"Jack!"