Chapter Three
Harry woke suddenly feeling his mother urging him to wake up and looked around him, the memories of before he'd fallen asleep coming back suddenly and Harry sniffled a little as he clutched his blanket close to him. "Mama?"
"He's here, my baby. Our thief is here. He'll protect you while I can't, I promise. You know him. You know he won't hurt you. Will you promise me you'll go with him? Do as he says?"
"I don't want to," Harry said sulkily, bottom lip trembling slightly even as he tried to age a little but couldn't in his own state of fear and panic.
"I know you don't want to, my child, but I can't look after you and keep you hidden. He can do so. Give him your key. He'll know what to do and tell him who you are. Tell him you're my child. He'll protect you to the ends of the universe and beyond when he finds that out. Promise me you'll stay with him. Promise me, Harry.
"Okay. I promise, mama. I can come back? You won't leave me?"
"I'll never leave you if I have a choice, my Harry. Now, get ready. He's inside, now is the only chance we've got. I won't be able to do much more after I send you to him, so it'll be up to you, okay?"
"But I can't go big! I can't grow up! Why can't I grow bigger?"
"It's because you're scared, Harry. But when you calm down and feel slightly safer, you'll be able to grow to any age once again. Now you have to leave, Harry. No more stalling. You'll be safe, I promise," the Tardis told him before Harry was covered in the golden light of his mother's soul before he could possibly try to argue or stall any more. A second or so later and Harry was taken from his room and appeared in front of a three very shocked people.
"What? What?!"
"Doctor, who is he?"
"Is that a child, Doctor?" Harry glanced at the three people in front of him with wide, scared eyes before he locked eyes with the Doctor and ran towards him, wrapping his arms around the man's legs and clinging to him as tightly as he could.
"Doctor? Do you know who he is?" Jack asked again, staring at the Doctor and Harry in shocked confusion whilst Martha forcefully pushed her own confusion down and stepped over so she could crouch down to Harry's level.
"Hey, I'm Martha. Do you know where you are?"
Harry blinked at Martha before he looked up at the Doctor, who was just staring down at him in shocked silence, though when Harry made eye contact with him, the Doctor moved slightly to press a reassuring hand into Harry's riotous mess of curls on his head.
"I know who you are. You're our thief's friends. You and Jack. But Jack hurts us. He feels wrong. Time doesn't like him any more," Harry whispered, panicking a little when he felt the Doctor stiffen at his words, then gently detangle Harry from his legs so that he could crouch down as well. The Doctor them placed both hands on Harry's shoulders so that Harry would look at him.
"Who are you? How do you know us?"
"You're our thief. You stole my mummy hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years ago. She stole you too. And then she stole me. She said I'm not safe anymore. She can't hide me anymore! She told me you'd protect me! She told me to stay with our thief, that you'll make sure I'm safe! You will, won't you? Mama's hurt, mr thief! Will you help her? Mr Master hurt her!"
"How come you're the thief but the Master is just Mr Master?" Jack muttered, ignoring the glare that both Martha and the Doctor shot him, though Harry sniffled and just tried to step closer to the Doctor.
"Who's your mother?"
"We're in her. She's my Mama! The Tardis is my mama!"
"You're… how? What?"
"She took me when I was hurt! She made me hers. She's my mama."
"Who are you?"
"I'm Ponlannarhyraell but mama calls Harry! Will you help me and mama, Mr Thief?"
"Yes, Harry, I'll help you. I promise. I'll keep you safe. You'll have to come with us though, your mother is unwell right now. But I promise to try and help you both as much as I can. You can trust me," the Doctor told him, pulling Harry to him and hugging him tightly before standing up with Harry still in his arms. Harry stiffened for a second before he wrapped his arms around the Doctor's neck.
"I know. I trust you. I know you. I watched you."
"What do you mean?"
"I've been with you and mama for a long long time."
"How long?"
"You had hair like me!" Harry said with a giggle, reaching up to pull at the Doctor's decidedly straighter hair now.
"Hair like… That was before…"
"Doctor?" Martha asked, looking between the two in confusion, whilst Jack moved closer to the three, looking around him anxiously.
"We should be moving, Doctor."
"He's been here since before the war. You were there for the war?" the Doctor whispered in shock, Martha and Jack looking just as shocked as he felt.
"How? Doctor, how is he even possible?" Jack asked, stunned by what was happening in front of him.
"I don't know. You were there for the war?" The Doctor asked Harry again, Harry just shrugged and then nodded his head before resting it on the Doctor's shoulder. The Doctor held him closer and then froze once more before pulling back from Harry, who just blinked at him in confusion. "You've got two hearts."
"What?! Doctor, are you saying…"
"He's a Time Lord? He's like you?" Martha asked, whilst Harry just looked at the three in confusion before looking back to the Doctor who was staring at him like he was a miracle.
"You're a Time Lord?"
"No. Not really. I don't think. Mama says… she says I have um… time in my blood? She said when she adopted me, she changed my um… magic? She changed my magic into the time vor… thingy."
"Vortex?"
"Yeah! That word! She said she turned my magic into that! She said my magic was going to hurt me because I was scared of it! My aunty and uncle hurt me coz of it and so I tried to get rid of it! She helped me. She said she stopped it from hurting me by removing it. And now I'm me!"
"Doctor, do you know what he's talking about?" Martha asked, though to her surprise, it was a solemn Jack who answered her.
"There's a world of magic out there, Martha. And sometimes, luckily very very rarely something terrible can occur. In fact I thought they were just a myth now. But apparently not."
"What are a myth?"
"Obscurus. It happens when a child is made to fear their magic. Their magic fights back and well, let's just say that in the end it doesn't end well for the child. Ever. No child has ever survived becoming an obscurus. It sounds like the kid nearly turned into one before the Tardis saved him. I honestly thought they were a myth nowadays. That no magical child was ever hurt so much to become one. And he looks so young…" Jack trailed off and glanced at the child that the Doctor was now practically clinging to.
"Harry, how old are you?"
"Four!" Harry said, holding up four fingers as though to make sure they didn't understand him.
"How long have you been four?" the Doctor asked, ignoring the strange looks that Jack and Martha sent him.
"I don't know. I can change. Sometimes. I can't now though. I like being four. I've lived here with you for a long long time. But Mama made me sleep for most of the war. She said I was too young. She said it would hurt me. We wanted to help you but she said you were hurting too much and wouldn't be able to help me. Are you still hurting?" Harry asked with all the innocence of a child, pressing one of his tiny hands to the Doctor's face and smiling brightly at him when the Doctor looked at him sadly.
"Not so much anymore, Harry."
"Good! Mama said we can help you feel better! But… but mama's hurt now. Mr Master hurt her. She can't talk to me anymore. She's too tired! Mama's going to fall asleep like my other mummy, isn't she?" Harry asked, panicking once more, bottom lip starting to tremble as he tried not to cry. The Doctor shushed him and started to rock him slightly, humming an old Gallifreyan song under his breath that he vaguely remembered his own mother singing to him when he was about Harry's physical age - because right now, even the Doctor had no idea just how old Harry actually was. He was stunned though when Harry started to sleepily sing along. In Gallifreyan.
"He can speak Gallifreyan," the Doctor whispered, stunned.
"How is he even possible, Doctor?"
"I don't know. But I do know we have to protect him as best as we can. We cannot let the Master know about him. No matter what. Do you understand?"
"We understand, Doctor. But how are we going to hide him? We only had three keys," Jack pointed out, making the Doctor sigh and look at Harry who was dozing lightly in his arms. The Doctor shuffled Harry slightly so that he had an arm free and tugged the key from around his own neck and went to place it around Harry's, but was stopped by Harry himself.
"Harry? You need to wear this so the Master can't sense you."
"Mama gave me this just before Mr Master hurt her. She said it would protect me," Harry told him, pulling a necklace out of his pocket and handing it to the Doctor.
"What is it, Doctor?" Martha asked, leaning over to look at the necklace and frowning in confusion at the strange angular flat charm attached to it.
"It's the key."
"The key to what?" Jack asked, also looking over the Doctor's shoulder and pulling a face at the charm, making Harry giggle at him.
"A key to Mama."
"It's the original key to the Tardis. I thought I'd lost it."
"Mama hid it away. She said it'll hide me."
"Will it work, Doctor?"
"It'll work better than what you have. Your keys are human made. His key is the original. He's actually safer than we are when wearing it and I have a feeling that is part of the reason I never knew he was here. Here for centuries."
"What now, Doctor?"
"Now? Now we stop the Master. But before we do, Harry, you said you can age. Do you think you can now? Can you make yourself eight?"
"Why?"
"As a precaution. A back up plan, let's say. Just in case this doesn't work. Do you think you can do that?"
Harry nibbled his lip before giving a small nod and then wriggling to be put down. The Doctor did so and Harry took a step away.
"We can't touch you, can we, Harry?"
"No. It… hurts sometimes."
"No one go near him. Even if it looks like he's in pain, understand me?" The Doctor told Jack and Martha, getting nods of agreement from the two before he turned back to Harry and grabbed his hands, squeezing them both gently. "Do you change appearance?"
"No. I'm only probably half time lord. I'm more Time itself than Time Lord. I don't change person like you. I just change age. But I like being four. It's more fun. Do I have to be older?"
"Only to eight, Harry. And I promise you, when this is over you can be any age you want. This is only temporary, Harry," the Doctor promised, getting a sigh and then a nod from Harry. The Doctor squeezed his hands once more and then stepped back to stand with Jack and Martha.
All three watched in stunned silence when Harry flung his arms out to the side and was suddenly covered in a golden light, which seemed concentrated around his arms and face. Harry screamed out, face scrunched up in pain, even as he aged slightly right before their eyes. Moments later it was over and Harry was standing in front of them, panting slightly and now looking older, though not quite eight. But then again, when he claimed he was four, Martha would have put him more at two and a half, maybe three.
"Are you okay, Harry?" the Doctor asked him, walking forward and placing a hand on Harry's forehead as though checking his temperature. A temperature, he noted, that was more normal for a time lord than a human.
"I'm fine. I don't like being this age though. You promise I can go back?"
"I promise. Now, Harry, one more question and this one might be a little odd. But do you have another name? Does your mother call you anything else? Like I'm your thief but I'm also the Doctor."
"Mum called me The Traveller a couple of times once I'd reached this age naturally. She asked me what I'd call myself if I had to choose a name like yours. She said to look into myself and choose. So I looked. I chose The Traveller."
"You looked inside yourself? What does that mean, Harry?"
"My… my head. No, more like my mind. Because of what I am, she said I have um… a schism? One of them in my head. I looked into it when she said I should. She said I should never look into it again. She created a wall around it."
"What did you do when you looked?" Jack asked curiously, like he couldn't help himself, though Martha also looked like she wanted to know whereas the Doctor just looked at him with sympathy.
"I wanted to run. Run far far away. But it's in my head. You can't run from something in your head. Mum said I could run anyway. She said the best people run. She said you ran," Harry said with a grin, looking at the Doctor. "We should get going. We need to help mum."
"He's right. Come on. Let's go stop the Master."
Harry watched as the Doctor ran forward to try and put the key around the Master's neck but was stopped, making Harry move closer to Martha, he really didn't want to be any closer to the Master than he already was.
"We meet at last, Doctor! Oh, I love saying that," the Master said with his usual manic grin and Harry honestly didn't know whether to try to hide or giggle. Sometimes the Master had his moments of being amusing but he normally ruined it by doing something psychotic seconds later.
"Stop it! Stop it now!" The Doctor yelled, and Harry just stepped even closer to Martha. That man really didn't like to be told to stop. Or told no in way at all.
"As if a perception filter's going to work on me! And look, it's the girlie and the freak. And a child? Well that's new. Is it possible that Martha Jones actually has a child?" The Master asked, staring at Harry but looking as though he was trying harder to look at him. "The perception filter on the child is much stronger than the other three you rigged together. Not strong enough though."
Jack suddenly ran forward when it looked like the Master was going to move to get even closer to Harry, but the Master shot him with his screwdriver. Harry flinched when Jack's body hit the floor and Martha ran to him to kneel by Jack's body. Seeing no other choice, as he certainly didn't want to pass the Master to get to the Doctor, Harry quickly made his way back to Martha's side.
Harry absently heard the Master gloating about his laser screwdriver, which Harry heard far too many times by this point. The man really did have an unhealthy relationship with his screwdriver. Almost as bad as the Doctor with his. Instead, Harry paid more attention to Martha and Jack, watching in slight fascination as the man gulped in a huge breath of air and was alive once more. Really though, Harry wondered if the gasp of air was entirely necessary. Bit over dramatic if you ask him.
"He's going to hurt our thief," Harry whispered to them, getting startled looks from Jack and Martha, which made him a little uncomfortable. He wasn't really used to attention. "We watched him. For eighteen months, we watched him, hoping we could find out enough of what he was doing to help our thief when he got back to us."
"You know all his plans?!" Jack asked him as he slowly tried to sit up from the floor, Martha helping him to do so.
"No. Not all of them. The Master is aware of the connection the Doctor has with his Tardis, so he never really spoke about his plans out loud whenever in hearing distance of us," Harry admitted quietly, keeping an eye on the two Time Lords in front of them. "I know what he's going to do with the Doctor's biological code though."
"What? Can we stop him?!" Martha hissed, alos glancing at what Harry was watching, the Master gleefully boasting about having the Doctor's hand.
"You don't know the Master. He's gone insane. He's not the same as he was when he and the Doctor were best friends. No one can stop him from torturing the Doctor. If he had a choice between that and world domination, he'd always choose the Doctor. He's obsessed. Sadly, right now he doesn't have to choose," Harry told them sadly, before wincing as he saw what was about to happen.
They all watched in horror as the Master started to age the Doctor with his screwdriver, Harry shut so that he didn't have to watch what he knew was happening and wishing that he could go back to hiding inside the Tardis.
"Teleport," Jack whispered to Martha as he passed her his vortex manipulator, glancing at Harry as he said this before looking back at her.
"I can't."
"We can't stop him. You and Harry need to get out of here. He can't be allowed to discover what Harry really is! Harry's safer with the Master thinking he's your son. Get out of here, both of you," Jack hissed at them, all three trying not to watch the pain the Doctor is going through as he is rapidly aged. When it finally stopped, Martha ran forwards to kneel next to the Doctor, grasping his hand and letting him lean against her.
"Go to them, Harry. You need to get out of here with Martha. Okay? You need to stay safe. I'll be fine, go to Martha," Jack told him, grabbing his hand and giving it a squeeze before he let go. Harry looked at them and then back to Jack, unsure whether to stay with the man that physically hurts him, or to go to Martha and the Doctor like Jack told him but it would take him closer to the Master as well. Though when the Master then interrupted them and brought in Martha's family, wrists tied together to prevent them from doing anything, Harry nodded to Jack and ran over to Martha and the Doctor.
"Harry can help you, Martha. Protect him and don't let anyone touch him. Pass on the message and let Harry help you," the Doctor whispered, barely making a sound and Harry had to strain to actually hear what he was saying, and wondered just what the Doctor had told Martha before he got to them.
"Mum?"
"I'm sorry," Martha's mum told her with a guilty look on her face, glancing at Harry as she did and looking slightly scared for the young child next to her daughter. Though Harry figured she was probably also wondering just who he was, along with Martha's father and sister. Luckily they didn't actually say anything, as that would totally ruin the ruse that he was Martha's son. It was also lucky that the Master didn't actually understand (or more likely care) how humans aged, so he didn't wonder just how Martha had a child his age, as that would have made her very young when she had him.
"The Toclafane. What are they? Who are they?" Harry winced, knowing exactly who they were, but thankfully no one caught it and so no one thought to ask him.
"Doctor, if I told you the truth, your hearts would break," the Master told him condescendingly, though Harry was very aware that the Master was telling you the truth. Harry winced once more when the murderous little spheres started asking when it would be ready, recalling having seen when they were made and wishing he hadn't had the knowledge of just what they were.
"Two minutes past. So, Earthlings. Basically, er, end of the world. Here come the drums!" The Master shouted joyfully, spreading his arms wide as music started to play, music that Harry knew would haunt him forever, just as Harry felt his mother cry out in pain and a large rip tore across the sky and millions of Toclafane started to pour out the rip. Harry found he couldn't take his eyes off the sight of all the spheres, absently noting the Master telling Lucy that there were billions of them. He managed to drag his eyes away from the sight when he noticed the Doctor whispering to Martha, and he leant closer to them so he could try and hear what he was saying.
"Take Harry with you, protect him for me. He'll be able to help you. Just don't let anyone touch him and he'll be able to help you pass on the word. Protect him for me, Martha." Martha nodded and then stood up, helping Harry stand with her and stepped away from the Doctor, holding the vortex manipulator that Jack had given her, and placing Harry's hand that with her own as she looked around them.
"We'll do this, right Harry?" Martha whispered as she looked over to her family and gave them a watery smile. They stared back at her before her father nodded and Martha pressed the button to teleport them away.
They both stumbled as they landed just outside of London and they stood watching as people screamed in terror and London burnt, destroyed by the Toclafane.
"We need to get out of here. Where do we go?" Martha asked, tears running down her face as she stared our at the massacre happening in front of them.
"The mainland of Europe. I'll age up as we travel, but it would be better if I stayed young when we're around people," Harry told her quietly, recalling one of the plans that he and his mother had made. Though admittedly they hadn't thought they'd actually need it. Nor in the circumstances that he's now finding himself in.
"Doesn't it hurt you to change your age?"
"I don't think a little pain is really a problem in the grand scheme of things. I won't be able to keep up at the pace we need if I stay a child. The real question is deciding if I should de-age to this age each time or younger," Harry told her even as he stepped back, glancing over at London before closing his eyes and throwing his arms out as he aged himself to look the same age as Martha.
"Why should you go younger?" Martha asked him once he'd finished ageing and giving him a small smile, though neither of them were convinced that she meant it.
"Because it's very doubtful that you had a child at fifteen," Harry told her with a grin, before coughing and rubbing at his throat. "Always a bit weird talking in a voice of a body that's gone through puberty when moments before you hadn't. Feels a bit like swallowing sand for a moment."
"This is a bit weird for me. But travelling with the Doctor really sort of gets you used to the weirdness, doesn't it?" Martha said with a wry grin, even as they both slowly turned their backs to the horror they'd witnessed and slowly made their way in what was mostly a random direction.
"You should try being raised by a time travelling space ship."
"You've been with the Doctor for a while, haven't you? Did you watch him? Watch us?" Martha asked him, even as they both ducked into a hedge slightly when a Toclafane flew by them.
"Yeah. I watched you all. I like you a lot more than I liked Rose. She was a bit too… clingy? And she treated Mickey like crap. I liked Mickey," Harry told her with a grin, both carefully extracting themselves from the bush they'd hidden themselves in and helping her stand. "We should go this way."
"How do you know? Where are we going? And who's Mickey?" Martha added as an after thought, following behind Harry as they stumbled their way across the field and down the hill.
"Mickey was Rose's boyfriend. Well, sort of. Actually, I have no idea what he was to Rose. A puppy? That's kind of how she treated him sometimes. I don't think it was deliberate though," Harry said with a shrug. "And we're heading to Dover. We can somehow get to france from there. I don't know how though. As for how I know, I'm part Tardis. Don't you think that includes an excellent sense of direction."
"Yeah, I guess you're right."
"Well. Actually, I still don't quite get spacial cartography, and besides, who needs to draw maps when they have one of all of time and space in their head anyway? But my earth geography is fine! Pretty much, again I kind of can't do maps. They don't make sense to me. Still, it's good enough for us. Hopefully," Harry added quietly, ignoring the incredulous look that Martha shot him.
"Oh you have definitely been watching the Doctor. You're almost exactly like him sometimes."
"Well, he's practically my father. I've been watching him for years. Longer than you could comprehend. Even when I was sleeping through the war. Occasionally I had to be woken up so that I wasn't trapped asleep forever, and when I did, I saw what the Doctor was doing," Harry told her with a quiet voice.
"You witnessed the war you were talking about?" Martha asked him quietly, jogging slightly so that she could catch up with him and walk along beside him.
"Yeah, I witnessed some of it. It was…" Harry trailed off, eyes glazed as he stared at something only he could see. He flinched slightly when Martha put a hand on his shoulder, then shook his head, getting rid of the images he was seeing. "It was war."
"We're gonna stop this, Harry. We're gonna do what the Doctor asked us and then we'll be back. We'll come back. I promise," Martha told him and Harry turned to look at her, giving her a weak smile.
"Yeah. We'll come back. In the mean time, we'll do what we can to stop this. Starting with France. Allons y, right?"
"Did you have a favourite companion?" Martha asked him as they slowly made their way along the ancient Silk Road, towards Iran. They'd been travelling like this for months, both sharing stories, occasionally about the Doctor but mostly about things they'd done when they were younger. Admittedly Harry's were somewhat more elaborate than Martha's.
"Not really. If I'm honest, I was jealous of you all."
"Jealous? How come?"
"You got the Doctor but he didn't even know I existed. It was silly, I mean it was my choice not to show myself. I don't think I'd have shown myself now if I had a choice, to be honest," Harry admitted with a shrug and a grin.
"Why not? You've said yourself that you saw him as a father figure. Why didn't you want him to know about you?"
"I didn't trust adults. Even as I got older, I've always been wary of adults. I never have been. I guess the experiences I had as a child, even though my mum took me away when I was four, left their mark on me."
"It's said that the first eight or so years of a child's life are the most the most important in terms of development. It doesn't surprise me that what happened to you in your first four years left a deep impression on you. Did you ever consider showing yourself to him?"
"Not before he met Rose. After the war, he wasn't the man you know. He was bitter and I guess you could say he was cruel. He'd lost everything important to him. Everyone he knew. I think a little part of him wondered why everyone else survived when our people didn't. My mum wouldn't have let me reveal myself even if I had wanted to."
"How come?"
"She said he'd have ruined any hope of me ever trusting adults ever again. You have to understand, Martha, the Last Great Time War, that's what the planets that knew of it called it, that war lasted four hundred years. Millions died. No one survived it in the end. Only the Doctor. And apparently the Master," Harry added with a bitter grin.
"You know who he was to the Doctor, don't you?" Martha asked him, both of them deciding to take a rest and sitting on a set of rocks that was slightly hidden away from the view of anything that might also come along the ancient trail.
"I know who he is. He was part of the same chapter - which I guess in simple human terms would be a family or maybe more a house? Clan? - that the Doctor came from. That I adopted as my own. He called himself Koschei. He would have been my uncle, if he'd been sane. In fact, before this all happened I used to refer to him as Uncle Koschei. He was part of this sort of club, I guess, with the Doctor and three others. That's where he called himself Koschei. He was, I guess not sane but stable at least back then. But I don't think, from what I was told, that he was ever the same after he looked into the Untempered Schism. Then again, I don't think anyone was. But it seemed to affect the Master more than most. I think that's when his insanity started," Harry told her as they both rummaged through their bags and grabbed a breakfast bar which was pretty much all they could get these days. Not the most nourishing but it was better than starving.
"You've mentioned that before. That Schism thing. You mentioned it when you first met us. What is it? I mean, the Doctor told us a little about it, but he wasn't really that clear."
"No, he wouldn't have been. To be honest, I don't really understand what it is either. It's like looking into the void. It tells you what you could become, basically makes you a Time Lord," Harry told her as he finished his bar and placed the wrapper into his bag. "Come on, we'd better get going. Got a bit of a walk ahead of us."
Harry and Martha huddled together under a plastic sheet, trying to keep as warm as they could, waiting out the downpour that had suddenly come out of nowhere as they were travelling towards Jodhpur.
"You wouldn't think it'd rain in a desert, would you? Also, there's an awful lot of them on this planet. Why do you need so many?" Harry asked, shifting slightly so that he wouldn't make Martha colder than they already were and then placing his spare jacket over her shoulders.
"I don't really think we have much of a choice as to how many there are on earth. And they're aiding us in this journey, the less people around, the less chance of being caught too soon," Martha pointed out, breathing on her hands to try and keep them warm. "I think the nights are the worst, aren't they? The silence just makes me think of what my family are going through, hoping that Leo is still safe."
"Want me to tell you about the time a woman's mind was swapped with the Doctors?"
"What?"
"Oh yeah, a few years ago, when the Doctor took Rose to New New York, there was a this insane woman called Cassandra. She claimed she was the last pure human. Though she was actually just a sheet of skin stretched out on a frame and connected to her brain. Was a bit weird, actually."
"No way. How did she survive?"
"With lots of moisture. To be honest, I have no idea. Human biology has always baffled me. Back to the story though, when Cassandra's mind was transferred with the Doctors, obviously her first reaction was to the fact that he had two hearts. She claimed it was like it was beating a samba in her chest, if I remember right."
"You're making this up."
"I'm really not! My mum shows me videos of his adventures. Sometimes they're from her point of view, but other times she takes them from the Doctor's mind whenever he would sleep. I enjoyed watching them between lessons," Harry told her with a small grin. He was hoping that if he took her mind off of what was happening, then she'd be able to find a least a little bit of sleep.
"I never imagined things like this when I was a kid. If I'm honest, before the battle at Canary Wharf, I didn't even consider that there was such things as aliens. It still baffles my mind that I've seen different worlds and times. Sometimes I wonder if it's all a dream and I'll wake up to being just Martha Jones, student doctor," Martha told him in a quiet voice, Harry could tell she was very near sleep, though he wasn't surprised, she'd had barely any sleep over the last week that they'd been travelling through the desert.
"I've grown up around this and it still surprises me at times. I think it does the Doctor as well," Harry admitted, knowing for a fact that the Doctor was surprised often, most of the time by humans.
"Sometimes I also wish this was a dream. That none of this ever happened." Harry sighed sadly and knew what she meant. Though he would never wish he hadn't found his mother. He knew exactly what would have happened to him if he'd stayed where he was left. He could have done without an insane Time Lord destroying the earth though. He was about to reply to tell Martha this when he realised that she'd finally fell asleep. Though he didn't think it would last long. It never did nowadays.
"What are you doing?" Martha asked him when he stopped as they made their way towards a boat they'd been told could get them to Japan. Harry had de-aged to eight an hour or so before, so they were taking a bit longer than they would have otherwise, so they didn't really have time for Harry to stop. She wondered why he had though, as he didn't normally delay their journey.
"We shouldn't stay too long in Japan. We can't linger for longer than a week at the most," Harry told her once he opened his eyes and focused back on her, both of them starting to walk towards the boat once again.
"Why not?"
"It's not safe. We have an important mission and if we stay there we won't be able to complete it."
"What are you saying? What's going to happen in Japan?" Martha asked him quietly, starting to wonder if they should even go there in the first place, but they still had a story to pass on and they couldn't afford to skip anywhere.
"I can see what could happen, what has happened and what should never come to pass if I concentrate. There is no stopping what is about to happen to Japan, but we can get out in time. The Master needs to show his power in order to stop any resistance groups surfacing. I don't know why he's chosen Japan though."
"We'd better get there soon then, hadn't we? Come on, it's going to take a while for us to get there by boat. Hopefully we won't be spotted before we finish crossing." With that, Harry hurried to catch up with her, giving a small noise of surprise when she picked him up to carry him the last bit before they reached the shore.
"I can't help but ask why we're going in such a convoluted path. Wouldn't it be better for us to stay in a sort of straight line as opposed to taking such random diversions?" Martha asked as they slowly trekked their way across the North Island of New Zealand and not having made their way there from Australia as would be expected. In fact, they'd been to Australia almost two weeks before.
"That would be the logical and the Master loves logic, so that is also the route he'd expect us to take. Going in such a round about way saves us being caught. Plus, it is what I can decipher as the safest route for us to take. Think we'll meet a hobbit?"
"Definitely the Doctor's son."
"You know what the Toclafane actually are, don't you?" Martha asked him as they travelled through France once more, making the final leg of their journey and completing the circle as they finally prepared to return to England almost exactly one year since they left.
"Yeah, I do. I was there when he created them. It was horrible, Martha and I wish I'd never had to see it. I can still hear the screams when I go to sleep," Harry admitted, holding on to Martha's hand and stubbling as they crossed the beach to where a small boat was waiting for them. "I really hope this boat lasts the journey across the channel."
"We've crossed worse in smaller. Will you tell me what they are?"
"I think you'd rather never know. But I also think you suspect already. I won't tell you, but I also won't stop you from trying to find out," Harry admitted quietly, trying to block out the sounds he could remember of the last humans destroying themselves.
"Is it weird that I'm glad this is nearly all over? I just want to get this all over and done with," Martha said with a weary sigh, pausing for a second before she helped Harry get onto the boat and giving a small nod in greeting to the boatman.
"I want to get back to my mum and our thief. I want to finally go home. Do you think he'll like me? The Doctor, I mean. Mum says he would but she's biased. What do you think?" Harry asked her in a quiet small voice, Martha had to lean down slightly to hear him and knew the boatman had no chance of hearing them.
"He'll love you, Harry. You'll never get rid of him. He's been alone for so long that I don't think he'll ever what to let you out of his sight. And you're amazing, so he'll be so proud of you."
"I hope so. He's the only adult I've ever wanted to meet."
It took them almost six hours to cross the channel, and by the end of it, both Harry and Martha were exhausted and very eager to get off the boat and onto solid land. They both perked up when they saw someone standing on the shore, signalling them in the dark. Finally they were able to stumble off the boat, the man who greeted them helping Martha out but looking surprised when she stopped him from picking Harry up, doing so herself.
"What's your name then?" Martha asked as she placed Harry on the floor next to her and glanced over her shoulder to see the boat leaving and fading into the darkness.
"Tom Milligan. No need to ask who you are. The famous Martha and Harry Jones. How long since you two were last in Britain?" He asked, smiling kindly when Harry stared up at him before inching behind Martha. The whole journey hadn't exactly made him like adults any more, though Martha was an adult he could trust.
"Three hundred and sixty five days. It's been a long year," Martha told him, the exhaustion she felt in her very bones quite evident in her voice.
"So what's the plan?" Tom asked her, leading them away from the shore, helping them climb over the rocks as they did, though Martha still wouldn't let him touch Harry. Harry still was none the wiser as to why she'd never let anyone touch him, other than the Doctor having told her. He hadn't actually thought he was being literal though, but apparently Martha was taking no chances. Not that he was complaining.
"This Professor Docherty. I need to see her. Can you get me there?" Martha asked him, glancing down at Harry when she said the name and grimacing when Harry wrinkled his nose. This was a part of the plan that they knew they needed to do but neither one actually liked.
"She works in a repair shed, Nuclear Plant Seven. I can get you inside. What's all this for? What's so important about her?" Tom asked them as they trekked across the beach towards the grass they could see ahead of them.
"Sorry, the more you know, the more you're at risk."
"There's a lot of people depending on you two. You're a bit of a legend."
"What does the legend say?" Martha asked him, by this point in their journey she was well aware that Harry wouldn't talk unless he absolutely had to.
"That you sailed the Atlantic, walked across America. That you were the only people to get out of Japan alive. Martha and Harry Jones, they say, they're going to save the world. Bit late for that," Tom added in a quiet, bitter tone and shote them a wry smile as they walked up to a van parked at the side.
"How come you can drive? Don't you get stopped?" Martha asked him as they stood by the car, watching Tom unlock it and open the door for them.
"Medical staff. Used to be in paediatrics back in the old days. But that gives me a licence to travel so I can help out the other labour camps."
"Great. We're travelling with a doctor," Martha muttered, getting a giggle from Harry and a strange look from Tom before he started the van and they drove away, hopefully towards the professor.
"Story goes that you're the only people on Earth who can kill him. That you two and only you two can kill the Master stone dead."
Martha and Harry shared an uncomfortable look and Harry shifted even closer to Martha as she looked over at Tom with a blank look. "Let's just drive."
A/N - If anyone's wondering just how they managed to pass Harry off as Martha's child, I would like to point out that I never actually fully describe Harry, but I'm fairly certain I never said he was white. In my head, I've always liked the thought that the Potter's originated from India but again I never outright stated that as so in this. So feel free to imagine him however you like. Besides which, the key of the Tardis helped to make the humans ignore any oddities that so very obviously pointed to Harry and Martha not being related (including partially the fact that Martha had to have been about fifteen when she had Harry).
Also, this is the last chapter I'm going to post tonight as I really need to go to sleep. I'll post the final chapter tomorrow though. Just need to fine tune it a little first.