A/N: This one didn't take me nearly as long to edit as the previous chapters, which makes me suspicious that I've mist something... on the upside, I'll probably be able to get those three chapters edited and uploaded today as i'd planed and so I am not behind schedule.
Chapter Ten: Boom Town
Jack had been travelling with us for a little while. We had visited Abydos, where the Doctor got us lost in the jungle because he miss-placed the TARDIS (how he managed that when she's a bright blue police box and they parked in a jungle, I'll never figure out, but I assumed (despite his denial) he had accidently turned her invisible). Fortunately, the locals were friendly but they had been hit by a deadly virus. The Doctor stayed to help, my limited knowledge of Herbology and potions came in handy, since the cure was made up of various plants native to the planet. Then we visited, Akhaten, which was an experience in cultures vast and wide, although it wasn't as diverse as it would be during their festival which the Doctor promised to take me too one day. This time it was Jake who got us in trouble, by flirting with a married prince who had been visiting.
Then there was Alfava Metraxis, Eden, Exarius, Galsec Seven, Griophos, Heiradi, Iphitus, Freytus and Earth 1431, Earth 242A.D and 398 B.C. no matter where we landed, or when we landed, we always found some form of trouble. Sometimes that trouble was deadly, and sometimes it was just a matter harmless misplacement or confusion.
After so many adventures, the Doctor had landed in Cardiff to use the rift to refuel. Rose had taken the opportunity of landing in their own time to contact Mickey so that she could talk with him. I had finally convinced her to break it off with Mickey if she was going to be flirting with various aliens/humans that she found handsome during their travels. If she couldn't be faithful, then Mickey deserved to know. Rose had argued that they were both aware of their mutual decision to move on even if they hadn't said it aloud. But as far as I was concerned, unless they both agreed that their relationship was officially over, it wasn't at an end.
"Who the hell are you?" Jack demanded, answering the door when there was a knock.
"What do you mean, who the hell am I? Who the hell are you?" Mickey's voice sounded.
I shook my head. If Jack wasn't flirting, he was annoying people. The Doctor was up on a step ladder fixing one of the oval lights, while Jack had been fiddling with a leaver on the console that had gotten stuck the trip before. I was sat in the pilot's chair, reading a book I had taken from the library on the Shadow Proclamation, why it was set up and what it does.
"Captain Jack Harkness. Whatever you're selling, we're not buying."
"Get out of my way!" Mickey barged passed Jack and into the TARDIS.
"Don't tell me. This must be Mickey." Jack said, closing the door behind him.
"Here comes trouble! How're you doing, Ricky boy?" the Doctor asked from his ladder.
"It's Mickey!" Mickey snapped back completing their normal ritual greeting.
"Don't listen to him, he's winding you up." Rose told Mickey with a smile.
"You look fantastic." Mickey complimented before hugging Rose.
"Aw, sweet, look at these two. How come I never get any of that?" Jack asked, flirting with the Doctor.
"Buy me a drink first." The Doctor responded.
"You're such hard work." Jack complained.
"But worth it." the Doctor smiled, jumping down from the ladder.
"Can't argue with that." Jack and I responded together with a smile. The Doctor shook his head at the two of us. Jack flirted because it was part of his personality. While I only flirted with the Doctor because Jack had helped me realised that I liked him as more than as a friend. Even in my first life I hadn't ever been with anyone more than a single date so I was a bit unsure with how to approach the situation.
Jack had acted like an older brother to me, something which the Doctor knew since he had stopped acting jealous towards Jack after the third planet we had been too and I had called him brother. I knew that the Doctor liked me as more than just a friend, but he was afraid to admit it, scared that I would leave him – either by growing old long before him or by dying on one of their adventures.
"Did you manage to find it?" Rose asked Mickey. I rolled my eyes, she had insisted on a rouse to get Mickey to come out and see her, but I knew that Mickey would have come if she had just asked.
"There you go." Mickey handed Rose her passport.
"I can go anywhere now." Rose told the Doctor with a smile.
"I told you, you don't need a passport." The Doctor rolled his eyes.
"It's all very well going to Platform One and Justicia and the Glass Pyramid of San Kaloon, but what if we end up in Brazil? I might need it. You see, I'm prepared for anything." Rose slapped the passport against her thigh.
"Sounds like you're staying, then." Realising that his question had created an awkward silence since Rose didn't know how to respond, Mickey continued. "So, what're you doing in Cardiff? And who the hell's Jumping Jack Flash? I mean, I don't mind you hanging out with big-ears up there…" Mickey motioned to the Doctor who had returned to his ladder at some point during Rose's conversation.
"Oi!" the Doctor shouted, but he wasn't really offended. He knew his ears where a bit bigger than normal. He blamed the fact that he was thinking about his ears when he was regenerating.
"Look in the mirror. But this guy, I don't know, he's kind of…"
"Handsome?" Jack inserted.
"More like cheesy." Mickey responded.
"Early twenty first Century slang. Is cheesy good or bad?" Jack asked, moving around the console.
"It's bad." Mickey answered.
"But bad means good, isn't that right?" Jack questioned triumphantly.
"Are you saying I'm not handsome?" the Doctor questioned moving down the ladder.
"Oh, I wouldn't say that." I smiled, standing up and moving around the console to stand with the group.
"We just stopped off. We need to refuel. The thing is, Cardiff's got this rift running through the middle of the city. It's invisible, but it's like an earthquake fault between different dimensions…." Rose explained to Mickey who stared at her like she was trying to explain particle physics to him.
"The rift was healed back in 1869." The Doctor explained.
"Thanks to a girl named Gwyneth, because these creatures called the Gelth, they were using the rift as a gateway but she saved the world and closed it." I added, my voice slightly sad as I remembered that brave girl.
"But closing a rift always leaves a scar, and that scar generates energy, harmless to the human race…" Jack added as the Doctor placed a comforting hand on my shoulder.
"But perfect for the TARDIS, so just park it here for a couple of days right on top of the scar and…" the Doctor picked up.
"Open up the engines, soak up the radiation."
"Like filling her up with petrol and off we go!" Rose added with a smile.
"Into time!"
"And space!" the three of them finished together exchanging high fives as I rolled my eyes. Sometimes I felt like the oldest person in the room.
"My God, have you seen yourselves? You all think you're so clever, don't you?" Mickey asked looking between them.
"Yeah." The Doctor nodded.
"Yeah." Rose nodded.
"Yep!" Jack finished with a grin.
"Come on, Mickey, let's go explore Cardiff." I rolled my eyes and led Mickey out of the TARDIS.
"Should take another twenty-four hours, which means we've got time to kill." The Doctor said, following us out of the TARDIS.
"That old lady's staring." Mickey said, motioning to the only person who had noticed five people leave the box.
"Probably wondering what five people could do inside a small wooden box." Jack responded with a smirk.
"What are you captain of, the Innuendo Squad?" Mickey demanded. Jack made the 'whatever' sign at him and wonder away a bit.
"Wait, the TARDIS, we can't just leave it. Doesn't it get noticed?" Mickey asked.
"Yeah, what's with the police box? Why does it look like that?" Jack asked curiously.
"It's a cloaking device." Rose answered.
The Doctor rolled his eyes and expanded on her explanation. "It's called a chameleon circuit. The TARDIS is meant to disguise itself wherever it lands, like if this was Ancient Rome, it'd be a statue on a plinth or something. But I landed in the 1960s, it disguised itself as a police box, and the circuit got stuck."
"So it copied a real thing? There was actually police boxes?" Mickey asked shocked.
"Yeah, on most street corners. People phoned for help before they had wide access to radios and mobiles. If the police arrested someone, they could shove them inside till help came, like a little prison cell." I answered for the Doctor. History was my strong point, whether the Doctor regularly visited it or not.
"Why don't you just fix the circuit?" Mickey asked curiously.
"I like it, don't you?" The Doctor asked insulted. The Chameleon circuit had been stuck for nearly four hundred years.
"I think she looks beautiful." I agreed with the Doctor. I just couldn't imagine the TARDIS being anything but a blue police box. She was unique and had character.
"But that's what I meant. There's no police boxes anymore, so don't it get noticed?" Mickey asked, confused as the Doctor offered me his arm to lead the way to a restaurant.
"Ricky, let me tell you something about the human race. You put a mysterious blue box slap bang in the middle of town, what do they do?" The Doctor cut Mickey off before he could answer by patting him on the shoulder. "Walk past it. Now, stop your nagging. Let's go and explore."
"What's the plan?" Rose asked, falling into step next to Jack with Mickey on her other side.
"I don't know. Cardiff, early twenty first century and the wind's coming from the east. Trust me. Safest place in the universe." The Doctor answered, and I resisted the urge to groan.
"You know those sentences you should stay away from?" I asked the Doctor quietly under my breath. He just smiled back at me.
They ended up at a small café on a jetty. It was nice, being able to just sit together and relax. Jack was telling one of his stories and had the entire table laughing. I was sat next to the Doctor with Mickey on my other side. Jack and Rose were sat opposite us at the small table.
"I swear, six feet tall and with tusks." Jack said, using his hands to demonstrate the size of the beast's tusks. He was explaining one of the happier tails from his time as a Time Agent.
"You're lying through your teeth!" The Doctor accused with a laugh. I was smiling brightly as I listened, allowing the happiness from the group to flow into me. It was nice to have only good emotions instead of the panic, fear or anger that I normally feel during one of our adventures. Although when in the TARDIS, happiness was normally the brightest emotion.
"I'd have gone bonkers!" Rose knocked against Jack's shoulder as she laughed. "That's the word – bonkers!"
"I mean, it turns out the white things are tusks and I mean tusks! And it's woken, and it's not happy." Jack continued his story with a smile, pleased to have the entire table laughing.
"How could you not know it was there?" The Doctor asked shaking his head.
"And we're standing there, fifteen of us, naked"
"Naked?!" Rose asked shocked.
"And I'm like, oh, no, no, it's got nothing to do with me. And then it roars, and we are running. Oh my God, we are running! And Brakovitch falls, so I turn to him and I say…"
"I knew we should've turned left!" Mickey finished.
"That's my line!" Jack said, but he didn't sound disappointed since it was still funny. However, I had stopped focusing on what Jack was saying, and instead focused on the Doctor who had gone from amused to serious in a matter of seconds.
"I don't believe you. I don't believe a word you say ever. That is so brilliant. Did you ever get your clothes back?" Rose questioned as the Doctor snatched the newspaper from a guy next to them so that he could read the front cover.
"No, I just picked him up and went right for the ship, full throttle. Didn't stop until I hit the space-lanes. I was shaking. It was unbelievable. It freaked me out, and by the time I got fifteen light years away I realised I'm like this." Jack held out his hands to demonstrate how his hands had been shaking.
"And I was having such a nice day." The Doctor called the attention of the table as he held up the newspaper to show a picture of a women who had been killed a long time ago. The only way she could be in that picture was if a Slitheen survived the Ten Downing Street Explosion.
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"According to intelligence, the target is the last surviving member of the Slitheen family, a criminal sect from the planet Raxacoricofallapatorious, masquerading as a human being, zipped inside a skin suit. Okay, plan of attack, we assume a basic fifty-seven fifty-six strategy, covering all available exits on the ground floor. Doctor, Anna, you go face to face. That'll designate Exit One, I'll cover Exit Two. Rose, you Exit Three. Mickey Smith, you take Exit Four. Have you got that?" Jack rattled off as we entered city hall. He had been debriefed on the way over, since he was the only one of their group not involved in the original attack.
"Excuse me. Who's in charge?" The Doctor questioned with a raised eyebrow.
"Sorry. Awaiting orders, sir." Jack responded, straightening up like a soldier standing to attention.
"Right, here's the plan." The Doctor paused, realising he didn't have a plan. I rolled my eyes as he turned to Jack. "Like he said. Nice plan. Anything else?"
"Present arms." Jack responded.
Everyone pulled out a phone except me since the Doctor was using mine. He didn't have a phone outside the TARDIS because if he needed to contact me or Rose, he used someone else's phone or whichever of us was with him. Although we had first decided to get a third phone, we soon discovered that the Doctor just didn't bring the phone with him, or use it. He only used other people's phones. So, they just left the phone in the TARDIS so that he could be contacted if he was ever needed or if I ever went investigating while the Doctor was on the TARDIS.
"Ready."
"Ready."
"Ready.
"Ready. Speed dial?" Jack questioned next.
"Yup."
"Ready."
"Check."
"See you in hell." Jack offered a lazy salute and a grin before everyone split up.
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Following the signs along the wall, it didn't take long to find the Mayor's office, where there was a young man sitting at a desk by the door.
"Hello, we've come to see the Lord Mayor." The Doctor said, smiling away.
"Have you got an appointment?" The young man asked politely.
"No, just a couple of old friends passing by. Bit of a surprise. Can't wait to see her face." The Doctor said smiling.
"Well, she's just having a cup of tea." The young man said, hinting that we should come back another time with an appointment.
"Just go in there and tell her the Doctor would like to see her."
"Doctor who?"
"Just the Doctor. Tell her exactly that. The Doctor." I spoke up this time. I don't think the Slitheen ever learnt my name, so it was pointless using it now. But all of them would know the Doctor's name.
"Hang on a tick." The young man slipped into the office. A few moments later there was the sound of a tea cup smashing as it hit the floor. The Doctor continued smiling away as the young sectary stepped out of the office again.
"The Lord Mayor says thank you for popping by. She'd love to have a chat, but, er, she's up to her eyes in paperwork. Perhaps if you could make an appointment for next week?" the young man said nervously, his eyes flickering towards the door.
"She's climbing out of the window, isn't she?" The Doctor asked calmly.
"Yes, she is." The young man admitted as the Doctor barged past, raising the phone so he could alert the others.
"Slitheen heading north." The Doctor said, leaning over the balcony in the mayor's offices to see where the Slitheen was heading.
The secretary went to grab the Doctor, but I intercepted him. Grabbing the man's wrist's, I knocked them to the side, grabbing his left wrist as I did so, which allowed me to pivot around him and twist his arm behind his back. The Doctor took advantage of my distraction to follow Margaret down the ladder.
"I would appreciate it sir, if you would stand aside. We are part of an operation who has found the Lady Mayor guilty of a conspiracy to commit mass murder." Using the hand that wasn't holding the struggling sectary's arm, I pulled out the psychic paper I had nicked from the Doctor to show him. "If I release you, will you continue to interfere?"
"No." The secretary stuttered out.
"Good."
Releasing the man, I swiftly followed the Doctor down the ladder. He had made it to the ground by now and was running after Margaret. I caught up with him, and the others, in time to see Margaret disappear using a teleport.
"She's got a teleport! That's cheating! Now we're never going to get her." Jack shouted frustrated.
"Oh, the Doctor's very good at teleports." Rose said with a smile as the Doctor held up the sonic screwdriver and reversed the teleportation feed.
Margaret reappeared, running towards them. Realising what happened she vanished again, only for the Doctor to bring her back. This happened three more times, before Margaret stopped only a couple of meters in front of them, breathing heavily.
"I could do this all day." The Doctor said mildly with a smile.
"This is persecution. Why can't you leave me alone? What did I ever do to you?" Margaret demanded with a whine.
"You tried to kill me and destroy this entire planet." The Doctor responded seriously.
"Apart from that." Margaret waved it off like it was nothing.
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"So, you're a Slitheen, you're on Earth, you're trapped. Your family get killed but you teleport out just in the nick of time. You have no means of escape. What do you do? You build a nuclear power station. But what for?" The Doctor asked as they re-entered the main office of city hall.
"A philanthropic gesture. I've learnt the error of my ways." Margaret responded sardonically.
"Nuclear power stations aren't a philanthropic gesture, especially this close to homes and businesses. They are dangerous, and without input of experts liable to melt down causing catastrophe." I told her absently as I took in the room.
"And it just so happens to be right on top of the rift." The Doctor said, staring at the model of the power station in the middle of the room.
"What rift would that be?" Margaret asked, trying to sound innocent and doing a terrible job.
"A rift in space and time. If this power station went into meltdown, the entire planet would go…" Jack made the sound of an implosion, extenuating the implied destruction with his hands.
"This station is designed to explode the minute it reaches capacity." The Doctor explained with his arms crossed.
But I had noticed something else, while they were talking, I had been looking around the room and my eyes fell on the name of the project. Blaidd Drwg, meaning bad wolf. But this wasn't the first time I had seen those words. I had seen them on the side of the bomb which Jack had stopped from killing us, on satellite five where the channel the Face of Boe had been on was called bad wolf, in Van Stattens museum, Gwyneth's warning, on the side of the Doctor's TARDIS, and times before I had met the Doctor as well. What was so important about those two words, that they were spread so far across time and space – where I would be?
"Didn't anyone notice? Isn't there someone in London checking this sort of stuff?" Rose asked, confused.
"We're in Cardiff. London doesn't care. The South Wales coast could fall into the sea and they wouldn't notice. Oh. I sound like a Welshman. God help me, I've gone native." Margaret complained.
"But why would she do that? A great big explosion, she'd only end up killing herself." Mickey asked, talking as through Margaret wasn't in the room.
"She's got a name, you know." Margaret glared at Mickey, insulted by the way he was talking.
"She's not even a she, she's a thing." Mickey snapped back.
"Oh, but she's clever." The Doctor complemented as he pulled the middle section out of the factory model to reveal a board wired up with electronics. "Fantastic." The Doctor said, marvelling over the design.
"Is that a tribophysical waveform macro-kinetic extrapolator?" Jack asked, jumping forward to take the device from the Doctor.
"Couldn't have put it better myself." The Doctor said, raising an eyebrow at Jack who was examining the extrapolator like a kid in a candy store.
"Oo, genius! You didn't build this?" Jack said, looking to Margaret seriously.
"I have my hobbies. A little tinkering." Margaret said, trying to act like she really did build it and was being modest.
"No, no, no. I mean, you really didn't build this. Way beyond you." Jack shook his head.
"I bet she stole it." Mickey accused with a glare.
"It fell into my hands." Was all she said in reply.
"Is it a weapon?" Rose asked hesitantly.
"It's transport. You see, if the reactor blows, the rift opens. Phenomenal cosmic disaster. But this thing shrouds you in a force-field. You have this energy bubble, so you're safe. Then you feed it coordinates, stand on top, and ride the concussion all the way out of the solar system." Jack explained, but the Doctor had stopped focusing his attention on them. He had grown concerned at my silence and turned to speak with me, only to notice what I had been staring at and fall silent as well.
"It's a surfboard." Mickey realised in disbelief.
"A pan-dimensional surfboard, yeah." Jack agreed, correcting Mickey's terminology.
"And it would've worked. I'd have surfed away from this dead-end dump and back to civilisation."
"You'd blow up a whole planet just to get a lift?" Mickey demanded.
"Like stepping on an anthill." Margaret answered easily.
"How'd you think of the name?" the Doctor suddenly asked, making the others turn to him in confusion.
"What, Blaidd Drwg? It's Welsh." Margaret answered.
"We know." I responded.
"But how did you think of it?" the Doctor questioned again.
"I chose it at random, that's all. I don't know. It just sounded good. Does it matter?"
"Blaidd Drwg." The Doctor repeated the words.
"What's it mean?" Rose asked. Although the TARDIS translation matrix worked on written words, Rose wasn't used to trying to read alien/foreign languages like I was so it didn't translate for her right away.
"Bad Wolf." The Doctor answered, turning to face the group with a frown.
"But I've heard that before. Bad Wolf. I've heard that lots of times." Rose said, stepping forward worried.
"Everywhere we go. Two words following us. Bad Wolf." The Doctor agreed.
"How can they be following us?"
"Nah, just a coincidence." The Doctor waved off, shaking off the seriousness of the matter to put Rose at ease. Realising what he was doing, I also turned to face the group and relaxed my stance. We would discuss what had happened later, and what those words could mean, but right now we had another problem to focus on. "Like hearing a word on the radio then hearing it all day. Never mind. Things to do. Margaret, we're going to take you home."
"Hold on, isn't that the easy option, like letting her go?" Jack questioned confused.
"I don't believe it! We actually get to go to Raxa. Wait a minute! Raxacor…" Rose tried, stuttering over the name.
"Raxacoricofallapatorius." The Doctor repeated back, sounding unimpressed.
"Raxacorico…"
"fallapatorius."
"Raxacoricofallapatorius. That's it! I did it!" Rose cheered and the Doctor smiled pleased.
"They have the death penalty." Margaret interrupted the happy moment with her dark comment. "The family Slitheen was tried in its absence many years ago and found guilty with no chance of appeal. According to the statutes of government, the moment I return, I am to be executed. What do you make of that, Doctor? Take me home and you take me to my death."
The Doctor's smile faded as he stared at Margaret. I frowned, if we were truly taking Margaret to her death I would have been alerted by now since the series of events leading to it were in play.
"Not my problem."
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It was odd, I decided, taking someone in to custody. I had briefly worked as an Auror in my first life, and I had been crucial to several arrests in this life, but I had never taken someone into custody without the fall backing of the law and/or a police officer or equivalent at my side. The fact that Margaret would be staying with us a short while, before facing trial before her own people, was the only thing that stayed my mind. The Doctor had also been given some power in protecting lower species and truth by the Shadow Proclamation, so he did technically have the right to bring Margret to justice following her crimes and plans against humanity.
Upon entering the TARDIS Margaret looked around in awe. "This ship is impossible. It's superb. How do you get the outside around the inside?"
"Like I'd give you the secret, yeah." The Doctor said sarcastically as he went to check how much longer the TARDIS needed to charge up for. Depending on the results, depended on whether he was willing to risk Jack hooking the TARDIS up to the extrapolator and using it for fuel.
"I almost feel better about being defeated. I never stood a chance. This is the technology of the gods." Margaret continued unperturbed by what the Doctor had said.
"Don't worship me - I'd make a very bad god. You wouldn't get a day off, for starters. Jack, how we doing, big fella?" The Doctor responded, turning to Jack who was looking more closely at the inner workings of the extrapolator, and letting him know that it was going to take a while to recharge and he needed to know if Jack could make it compatible with the TARDIS.
"This extrapolator's top of the range. Where did you get it?" Jack asked Margaret with narrowed eyes.
"Oh, I don't know. Some airlock sale?"
"Must've been a great big heist. It's stacked with power."
"But we can use it for fuel?" the Doctor queried. It was obvious that although the Doctor knew more about the TARDIS, Jack knew more about the extrapolator and enough about the TARDIS that the Doctor was happy enough to let him work on that while he fiddled with other things that are 'broken'.
"It's not compatible, but it should knock off about twelve hours. We'll be ready to go by morning." Jack answered confidently.
"Then we're stuck here overnight." The Doctor frowned. He hated staying in one place when there was someplace else that he could be. It was why we never stayed in the Vortex for more than two 'normal' days, because despite distracting him, the Doctor still got bored.
"I'm in no hurry." Margaret responded crossing her arms.
"We've got a prisoner. The police box is really a police box." Rose said excitedly. I short her a short look out the corner of my eye, but didn't say anything because Margaret spoke.
"You're not just police, though. Since you're taking me to my death that makes you my executioners. Each and every one of you."
"Well, you deserve it." Mickey snapped back.
"You're very quick to say so. You're very quick to soak your hands in my blood, which makes you better than me, how, exactly? Long night ahead, let's see who can look me in the eye."
Rose looked away pretty quickly, as did Mickey. Jack and the Doctor lasted the longest, but also looked away back to their tasks. Finally, she turned to me, and I didn't look away. I still hadn't been alerted to her death, something was going to happen and Margaret the Slitheen wasn't going to die. I didn't have anything to be morally ashamed off. Even if Margaret was to die, she had committed great crimes and been sent to trial. The fact that she had then gone on to plan, and attempt to commit more crimes, would be added to her sentence in a retrial. The culture of her people sends her to death for her crimes, and I would respect her culture even if she did not respect my own.
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Rose had left to talk with Mickey at my prompting. I couldn't interfere in their lives too much since it was Rose's mistakes to make, but I didn't like the fact that it was hurting Mickey in the process because I viewed him like a little brother to me. The Doctor was fiddling with some wires, Jack was working on the extrapolator and I was reading on the jump seat, ready to interfere if the Doctor needed me.
"I gather it's not always like this, having to wait. I bet you're always the first to leave, Doctor. Never mind the consequences, off you go. You butchered my family and then ran for the stars, am I right? But not this time. At last, you have consequences. How does it feel?" Margaret asked, drawing me out of my book.
"I didn't butcher them." The Doctor answered back with a frown.
"Don't answer back. That's what she wants." Jack told the Doctor.
"You are aware, Margaret that you were planning on killing my entire planet? You have killed or been complicit in the killing of twelve people at a minimum. The fact that we were in Ten Downing Street and that you had brought your entire family there just meant we were trapped and had to think of another way of stopping you. We couldn't contact any outside help, because they wouldn't believe us, but we could blow up ten Downing Street. We gave you a fair warning that we would stop you, and we did." I told her calmly, not letting her words get to me. As much as I didn't like killing, I would do everything in my power to protect Earth and the people I cared for.
"What about you? You had an emergency teleport. You didn't zap them to safety, did you?" The Doctor tagged on, relaxing slightly at my words. He knew I was right, and understood what I was trying to say. We didn't have any other choice. We had waited to the very last moment before killing them.
"It only carries one. I had to fly without coordinates. I ended up on a skip in the Isle of Dogs. It wasn't funny." Margaret snapped as the Doctor smiled slightly at the image his mind conjured up, Jack doing the same even if he didn't know what Margaret looked like outside of her skin suit. He could take a guess based on the description they had given him.
"Do I get a last request?" Margaret asked suddenly.
"Depends what it is." The Doctor answered guardedly.
"I grew quite fond of my little human life. All those rituals. The brushing of the teeth, and the complicated way they cook things. There's a little restaurant just round the Bay. It became quite a favourite of mine."
"Is that what you want, a last meal?" The Doctor questioned sceptically with a raised eyebrow.
"Don't I have rights?" She snapped back.
"Oh, like she's not going to try to escape." Jack rolled his eyes.
"Except I can never escape the Doctor, so where's the danger? I wonder if you could do it? To sit with a creature you're about to kill and take supper. How strong is your stomach?
I placed a comforting hand on the Doctor's arm which was enough for him to meet Margaret's eyes and answer. "Strong enough."
"I wonder. I've seen you fight your enemies, now dine with them."
"You won't change my mind." The Doctor warned.
"Prove it."
"Jack, you still got those handcuffs you were telling me about? The ones you got from the market. I don't want Margaret to slip away and endanger anyone." I asked, turning to Jack.
"I've still got them." Jack nodded holding up two bangles that weren't joined together. "You both wear one. If she moves more than ten feet away, she gets zapped by ten thousand volts." Jack explained to the Doctor.
"Margaret, would you like to come out to dinner? My treat." The Doctor asked Margaret with a smile.
Margaret's own smile had faltered at the threat but she still answered. "Dinner in bondage. Works for me."
With the Doctor and Margaret gone, I helped Jack with some of the TARDIS circuitry. My connection to her helped, since she could let me know what to do without hurting her.
"You're quite good at this." Jack commented as I effectively stripped wires, twisted thin pieces of metals and attached them to the circuit board where Jack directed me before attaching it to the TARDIS control matrix.
"Thanks, I've dappled with engineering before, but the TARDIS is helping." I smiled, gently stroking the closest panel.
"Sometimes, I wonder about you and the Doctor. You both speak about the TARDIS like she's a real, breathing person." Jack shook his head with a smile.
"She's alive, so I suppose in a way, she is." I told Jack.
"How come you have such a close connection with her? The Doctor I can understand, but you're human." Jack inquired curiously.
"I have stronger empathy and telepathy compared to a normal human. I connected with the TARDIS the moment I first stepped foot in her, and it's gotten stronger since. I'm just… different." I told him with a small smile.
"Different?" Jack asked raising an eyebrow, noticing the sadness I was trying to hide with that term and the hesitance I had used.
"When I was younger, I used to be called a freak." I explained, staring off to the distance, my hand's stilling as my mind wandered. "I understood the world and people in a way that children just shouldn't be able to do. I acted older than my physical age, and the children picked on me because of it. And my eyes always weirded people out, so they called me freak, demon, satin's child... Anything they could think of to try and hurt me. I knew I was different, and I accepted that, but sometimes it hurts to think that people would see me as a freak. So I try and remind myself that I'm not a freak, I'm different and just like everyone else, I'm special. And that's not a bad thing." I expanded, understanding what it was that Jack was asking to know.
"Well, I think your special, little sister." Jack teased, pulling me into a light hug. I laughed against his shoulder.
"I still think you're the little brother, troublemaker." I told him.
"I'm older, pipsqueak." Jack retaught.
"And I can still beat you in a fight." I responded easily. "You know the Doctor once told me that my mind was more developed than someone from the 52nd century because of my telepathy and empathy." I confessed quietly.
"There's nothing wrong with that. I love my brain." Jack winked flirtatiously.
"I bet you do." I snorted, appreciating his light humour in response to my emotion filled confession.
"Well… it was my mind which…" Jack started saying in his most seducing manner but cut off when I gasped in pain as the TARDIS suddenly screamed in my mind.
"Disconnect the Extrapolator." I grunted through the pain.
Jack hurried to do as I asked, as the console started sparking. "What's happening?" he asked, when disconnecting the extrapolator didn't do anything and the TARDIS continued sparking. There was a large surge of power from the ship and up into the rift.
"The extrapolator, it's opened the rift." I answered, using the railing to climb to my feet as the Doctor ran into the TARDIS.
"What the hell are you doing?" The Doctor shouted as he ran in and started checking various things around the console and on the screen.
"It just went crazy!" Jack shouted back, trying to help where he could but he was out of his depth now.
"It's the rift. Time and space are ripping apart. The whole city's going to disappear!" The Doctor diagnosed as Rose ran into the TARDIS.
"It's the extrapolator. I've disconnected it but it's still feeding off the engine! It's using the TARDIS. I can't stop it!" Jack told the Doctor what he could, as I started moving to Margaret who was removing the skin suit from her arm.
"Never mind Cardiff, it's going to rip open the planet." The Doctor said in worry.
"What is it? What's happening?!" Rose asked confused and out of breath.
"Oh, just little me." Margaret answered, going to grab Rose with her clawed arm but I pushed Rose out of the way and towards Jack and ended up grabbed instead. "One wrong move and she snaps like a promise."
"I might've known." The Doctor said, eyes narrowing in anger as Jack pulled Rose behind him. I had made it clear in the past that I didn't want my little sister hurt, and by pushing her towards Jack, I expected him to protect her while I couldn't.
"I've had you bleating all night, poor baby, now shut it. You, fly boy, put the extrapolator at my feet." Margaret tightened her grip around my neck, making Jack look to the Doctor hesitantly. Only at his nod did Jack agree and place the Extrapolator on the floor of the TARDIS.
"Thank you. Just as I planned."
"I thought you needed to blow up the nuclear power station." Rose asked with a frown, her eyes flicking to me in worry several times.
"Failing that, if I were to be arrested, then anyone capable of tracking me down would have considerable technology of their own. Therefore, they would be captivated by the extrapolator. Especially a magpie mind like yours, Doctor. So the extrapolator was programmed to go to plan B. To lock onto the nearest alien power source and open the rift. And what a power source it found. I'm back on schedule, thanks to you."
"The rift's going to convulse. You'll destroy the whole planet." I gasped out, trying to loosen Margaret's grip so I could breathe properly.
"And you with it!" Margaret agreed, tightening her grip on my neck slightly so as to stop my struggles, and stepped onto the extrapolator. "While I ride this board over the crest of the inferno all the way to freedom. Stand back, boys. Surf's up."
The TARDIS console suddenly opened, and through the pain of suffocation and the TARDIS being torn apart (and the resulting headache from my close mental link with her), I felt something else. Something far older, and far more powerful than anything else I had ever felt beside the earth's magic. It was old and kind, and waiting.
"Of course, opening the rift means you'll pull this ship apart." The Doctor said calmly, standing next to the part of the console that had just opened.
"So sue me." Margaret snapped back.
"It's not just any old power source. It's the TARDIS. My TARDIS. The best ship in the universe." The Doctor continued like Margaret hadn't interrupted.
"It'll make wonderful scrap."
"What's that light?" Rose asked, unable to get any closer with Jack stood in her away.
I could barely focus on what was going on around me. The TARDIS was still crying out for help, and the light was reaching out for me, crying to be held and used. But it felt wrong, like it was trying to join with me to soon, so I did what I could to gently block out that power that wanted to be with me.
"The heart of the TARDIS. This ship is alive. You've opened its soul."
"It's so bright." Margaret breathed, having foolishly looked directly at the light that I was desperately trying to avoid looking at because to do so would be to lower my shields and I couldn't afford to do that right now.
"Look at it, Margaret." The Doctor encouraged.
"Beautiful."
"Look inside, Blon Fel Fotch. Look at the light." As the Doctor spoke, Margaret's grip loosed and my leg's gave out, sending me to the floor. I stayed down, not willing to move until the Doctor closed the console and stopped the ship from tearing the rift apart. I focused on breathing and maintaining my shields as I waited.
"Thank you." Margaret breathed, and I took in a sharp intake of breath as I felt her life be erased and a new potential life take its place.
Suddenly the Doctor stared moving, bouncing around the console and closing the heart of the TARDIS. "Now, Jack, come on, shut it all down. Shut down! Rose, that panel over there, turn all the switches to the right." When the Doctor had stopped the rift from being torn part, I breathed a sigh of relief.
"Annamae." The Doctor's gentle hands rolled me over onto my back.
"I'm okay." I told him, opening my eyes as the headache faded. Unfortunately, my voiced croaked slightly as I spoke.
"No you're not, your throat's bruised and don't think I didn't notice the pain the TARDIS was causing you." The Doctor scolded.
"It was just a headache; it's gone now that the TARDIS is better. She's rather apologetic, actually." I smiled slightly. "My throat will be fine in a bit." I continued, already feeling it healing as I spoke.
"That doesn't mean you're fine now." The Doctor answered, helping me sit up properly.
"What happened to Margaret?" Rose asked hesitantly, when she saw that I was okay.
"Must've got burnt up. Carried out her own death sentence." Jack answered, kneeling on my other side.
"No, I don't think she's dead." The Doctor shook his head, allowing me to support my own weight as he turned to the pile of smocking cloths that used to be Margaret the Slitheen.
"Then where'd she go?"
"She looked into the heart of the TARDIS. Even I don't know how strong that is. And the ship's telepathic, like I told you, Rose. Gets inside your head. Translates alien languages. Maybe the raw energy can translate all sorts of thoughts." the Doctor pulled a large egg from the cloths and held it up gentle. "Here she is."
"She's an egg?" Rose asked shocked.
"Regressed to her childhood." The Doctor agreed.
"She's an egg?" Jack repeated the shocked statement.
"She can start again. Live her life from scratch. If we take her home, give her to a different family, tell them to bring her up properly, she might be all right!"
"Or she might be worse." Jack pointed out, ever the pessimist.
"That's her choice." The Doctor pointed out.
"She's an egg." Rose it seemed hadn't gotten around that fact yet.
"She's an egg." The Doctor agreed with a laugh.
"Oh, my God. Mickey." Rose suddenly shouted, leaving the TARDIS at a run.
"Right, Jack, help me get Annamae to the medical room. I want to check her over." The Doctor ordered, climbing to his feet and gently placing the egg on the console. Jack gentle wrapped his arms around my shoulders and helped me to my feet since he knew I would fight back if he tried to carry me without me being unconscious or on the very edge of unconsciousness. It was something he had learnt not that long after joining the group since I had flipped him and pinned him to the floor for trying.
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By the time we had made it to the medical room, I had almost completely healed, and was walking without any aid from Jack who still kept the supporting hand on my arm just encase. For a similar reason the Doctor ran a cursory scan, determining that the bruising was nearly completely gone.
"How are you feeling?" he asked serious.
"Fine, tired, but fine." I assured him with a smile.
"Alright," the Doctor sigh. "Once we've drop Margaret off, I want you resting."
"Of course, Doctor," I answered back teasingly making Jack laugh. "Now come on, the TARDIS is a mess, and you need to figure out what damage was done before we can leave."
"There wasn't much structural damage, we should be ready to go in a few hours depending on how long she has left to refuel but I imagine opening the rift would have sped the re-fuelling process up." The Doctor answered as they made their way back down the hallway to the main console room.
With the three of them working together to sort through, and correct, the damage done to the TARDIS console and store the extrapolator for later exploration when it wouldn't cause danger to themselves or planet Earth, it only took them half an hour to have everything back in place. By which point Rose had finished looking for Mickey and returned to the TARDIS.
"We're all powered up. We can leave. Opening the rift filled us up with energy. We can go, if that's all right?" The Doctor asked, looking to Rose and noticing how close to tears she was. I frowned as well, but didn't move forward to comfort Rose just yet.
"Yeah, fine." Rose answered thickly.
"How's Mickey?" the Doctor asked cautiously, hoping that Rose wasn't upset because Mickey had been hurt.
"He's okay. He's gone."
"Do you want to go and find him? We'll wait."
"No need. He deserves better."
"I'll go and say good bye." I stepped forward and pulled Rose into a quick hug. "You go take a shower, get yourself cleared up." I told her gentle.
"Okay. And thanks." Rose muttered, glade that I wasn't scolding her or anything, knowing that she had been the one in the wrong during her and Mickey's relationship and she didn't really have a reason to be so upset by the break up when she had been flirting and cheating on Mickey almost from the moment she left Earth.
Stepping out of the TARDIS it took me seconds to spot Mickey loitering and watching the TARDIS sadly. I approached him with sure and steady strides, Mickey looked like he wanted to turn and run, but when I raised an eyebrow at him, he sighed and stayed where he was.
"Anna." He greeted when I stopped next to him.
"Little brother." I responded easily.
"How can you say that? Me and Rose aren't together anymore and I don't think she'll ever want to try again." Mickey said sadly.
"Just because you aren't dating my little sister anymore doesn't make you any less my little brother." I caught his chin and made Mickey look at me so he could see the seriousness in my eyes. "Ever since your mother passed, I have been looking after you. I filled the older sister role to you because I cared about you. I care for how you were feeling, I care for how you were coping and I care for what you were going to do in the future. You are a bright kid, Mickey which you have proven with your apprenticeship at the garage. You are maturing, growing and becoming an adult. And now, so is Rose. Just because you are both coming to the realisation that although you care deeply for each other, you don't think you can sustain a romantic relation, doesn't mean you can't still be friends; you can't still watch each other's back and be the best friends you have been for far longer than you have been boyfriend and girlfriend."
"Sometimes, you act more like my mother than my older sister." Mickey muttered, hugging me so as to hide the fact that he was blinking back tears.
"And I'll gladly be whoever you want me to be, whoever you need me to be." I answered, returning his hug and allowing him to hide his face from me. After a moment I pulled back and gripped his shoulders firmly. "Are you going to be alright?" I asked him seriously.
"Yeah, I think I'm going to be just fine." Mickey answered after a moment, straightening himself out.
"Good, go back to London and let mum know that you're okay. She'll be pulling her hair out by now if she knows that you've come to Cardiff." Mickey winced at what I had said, but hugged me one last time before heading off to the train station at a fast march as he pulled his phone from his pocket.
I returned to the TARDIS to find the Doctor and Jack talking softly, but Rose had yet to appear in the console room.
"Okay?" The Doctor asked when he noticed me.
"Yes." I answered, smiling back at him happily.
"Then off we go. Always moving on." the Doctor said, moving over to set the co-ordinates.
"Next stop, Raxacoricofallapatorius. Now you don't often get to say that." Jack smirked as Rose joined them, looking a little better but her eyes were still red from where she had been crying.
"We'll just stop by and pop her in the hatchery. Margaret the Slitheen can live her life again. A second chance."
"That'd be nice." Rose mutter as I pulled her into my side for a hug, offering silent sisterly support.