Unto the Universe

Chapter Seventeen: Saving Hitler: Berlin 1938

By Lumendea

AN: So, by the name, you've probably deduced that this episode was inspired by the episode Let's Kill Hitler which was a horrible waste of an interesting set up. This is vaguely inspired by that episode, but is not a rewrite. I was very disappointed by the use of the episode's setting and decided to do it my way.

….

Rose laughed as the TARDIS spun through the Vortex and rolled a bit more than was probably necessary. Her hands moved across the console, adjusting the controls while the Doctor handled the other side. A bright and warm feeling filled up her chest as they flew together. Rose knew that she was handling the parts that had a larger margin of error, but she was still enjoying it. Every time they had one of these lessons, things made a bit more sense.

Jack was lounging in the pilot's seat, watching with an amused smile on his face while he toyed with his latest smartphone in his hand. Rose had the bad feeling he was texting Jo or someone equally gossipy.

"Wait," the Doctor suddenly called. "I'm picking up something." Rose adjusted their speed and then shifted back as the Doctor moved over to her side of the console. "Something else is in the vortex," the Doctor murmured.

Rose waited for a few long moments as the Doctor made more adjustments and turned the viewing screen towards. A date sprang up, and the Doctor's frown deepened.

"What's wrong?" Rose asked.

"Whatever it was just landed in Berlin in 1938," the Doctor said. "Controlled landing. Not the space junk trick Jack pulled."

"1938," Rose repeated softly. "How bad is that?"

"It's before World War II starts," the Doctor answered. "But a lot happens in this year."

"Yeah," Jack agreed. "It's a fragile year. In February, Hitler dismissed political and military leaders considered unsympathetic to his philosophy or policies. Right now, Europe is in crisis thanks to German demands for annexation of the Sudeten borderland of Czechoslovakia." He shook his head. "Like I said, fragile year. Laying the groundwork for the war."

"Which will start in one year," the Doctor finished. "So, we need to make sure that this time traveler isn't a danger to history and then leave. We need to be careful about making a mess here. Berlin during this crisis isn't a good place for anything unusual to happen."

"So, we need to blend in?" Rose said.

"Yes," the Doctor agreed. "Go and change. I'll try and narrow in on the visitor."

His terse response told Rose a lot about his concerns. Nodding, she kissed his cheek quickly before she and Jack headed for their rooms. Well, Rose headed for her room, and Jack went to the wardrobe. It wasn't often that the Doctor was so serious about them blending in. Usually, Rose enjoyed it just for the novelty, but they didn't always bother.

In her wardrobe, she found the stylish, but to her eyes, rather conservative-looking dress that she pulled on in quick order. The red dress hung past her knees and was flowy enough to provide freedom of movement. It had a simple folded collar that wasn't uncomfortable or confining, and Rose was certain that it was a reproduction given how comfortable the material was to the touch. There was a box at the bottom of the wardrobe with some jewelry that would fit the era and gloves. Shoes with a low heel were beside the box. Her hair was the biggest problem. Rose's long, slightly wavy locks were not the fashion of the time, and she wasn't sure what to do with it. Pulling on the shoes, she opened the door to her room and leaned out.

"Jack?" she called. Jack stepped out of his room at her call, buttoning up the cuff of a shirt sleeve with a coat hanging over his arm. "Hello, Captain," Rose said with a smile. She'd expected Jack to slip back into his World War II look, but instead, he was a wearing a dark grey suit and had a long coat over one arm and a hat in his other. "Expecting trouble?" She nodded at the sonic gun he was slipping into a holster.

"Maybe to the trouble," Jack admitted. "World War II is full of temporal events. It's one of those places where idiots with a time machine like to go and make a menace of themselves." His eyes glinted with amusement. "Myself included."

"It turned out alright," Rose reminded him.

"Yeah, doesn't mean that I want another such event." Jack shifted his coat to cover the sonic pistol. "Don't tell the Doctor."

"I won't have to," Rose reminded him. "He'll know."

"Yeah, he will." Jack smiled at Rose and looked her up and down. "You look lovely, by the way. Not as radiant as you did during the Blitz, but lovely."

"Thank you," Rose replied. "That outfit was more comfortable, but I'll make this work." She gestured to her hair. "Thoughts on what to do with my hair?"

"We don't have time to worry about a full curled style," Jack said. He stepped into her room, all business. "You should have a coat and a hat. We'll work around that. Maybe a braid over the top of her head. This is Germany that could be seen as charming."

Jack went back to her wardrobe and closed it, only to open it and smile when a long red coat and matching hat were now in place. Returning to Rose, he grabbed a brush and a small box of Bobbie pins off her vanity.

"Do you trust me?"

"Yes," Rose replied seriously. "Just hurry it up."

"Such rudeness to your hairdresser," Jack scolded. "I'm hurt, Rose."

She rolled her eyes and sat down, letting Jack get to work.

….

The Doctor had paused when they returned to the console room just long enough to smile at Rose and tell her she looked lovely, without any conditionals, before hurrying them outside. The TARDIS was tucked away in the shadow of a stone and brick building in a small alleyway. Rose sniffed at the air. It carried the smell of cigarette smoke and the grime of a city, but it wasn't too bad. Her eyes checked the nearby alley walls for anything telling, but there wasn't any graffiti in sight.

"We're in Germany," the Doctor explained. "1938, September 17. Berlin, to be exact."

"I really don't like this," Jack muttered, adjusting his coat and hate. "Just the right era for someone with a stupid idea in their head."

"Agreed," the Doctor said. "But someone or something came here. A controlled landing too. At least we got here the same day, but we're probably a couple of hours behind them."

The Doctor frowned at the Nazi party flag hanging overhead. Rose glanced back at the TARDIS, hoping that she'd be alright. A British Phone box was the sort of thing that might actually be noticed at this time and place. Searching her memory, she tried to place the event of pre World War II Germany but immediately gave up. History was never her subject, and her vague knowledge from her other lives only made a mess of things.

"Do you think it might have been a time agent?" the Doctor asked Jack.

"Maybe," Jack allowed. He was looking around carefully. "It wasn't a capsule, so vortex manipulator is definitely a possibility. But they weren't following protocol and making a real mess on their way in."

"So could be another conman," the Doctor said.

"I doubt it," Jack said. "War hasn't started yet. There aren't any good events for destroying something, at least not if they are trying to use a similar con." He shuddered. "And conmen playing in time usually try to stay on the fringes of major events. Middle of Berlin, this close to the government center, is asking for trouble."

The tension hanging around the two men made Rose uneasy. She knew in part what they were worried about, but it was clear the depth and scope of the danger were lost on her. Rose was used to them nudging history. Right now, Jack and the Doctor were truly worried. Their small group headed out into the sunlit streets and towards a large palace-like building that stood several stories tall and dominated the city block.

Rose found herself looking around curiously. The streets around them were tidy and showed signs of recent renovation and construction. People were dressed in elegant fashions to her eyes or for labor jobs. Flags and other Nazi signage hung here and there, but it wasn't as overwhelming as she'd expected.

That was the problem, Rose realized as she tried to spot anything out of place. She had so much baggage about what Nazi Germany was supposed to look like, so much knowledge of what it would devolve into that right now; it didn't meet any of her expectations. It looked like a city street on a cool afternoon day with a bit more political propaganda than normal, but still less than election season in her own time and place. Rose knew intellectually that Germany wouldn't look different, and yet… it felt like it should. Like there should be some obvious warning sign. But that was how evil crept up on people, on societies, wasn't it? Rose shivered, disliking the direction of her own thoughts.

No one was paying them much mind, and Rose did her best not to be obvious in her looking around. The Doctor and Jack were doing much the same thing with Jack buying a newspaper from a man on the corner and glancing through it. They wandered to a little plaza with benches to sit on.

"Anything in the paper?" the Doctor asked Jack.

"Nothing unexpected," Jack said. "And the TARDIS is a real champion at translation. Remind me to compliment her when we get home." Jack glanced around again. "I hate to say it, but without any information on what this time traveler may be up to, we should probably head towards the government center."

"We'll have to be careful, though," the Doctor said. "This is a fragile era. I won't want to cause damage."

"I'm a bit thrown by you two being so careful," Rose said uneasily. "It's unusual."

"Hitler is always a big target," Jack said. "And I'm suspicious that someone is making a move on him."

"Maybe," the Doctor said. "But Hitler isn't the start and finish of World War II or the Holocaust. He was a symptom that guided rage and frustration." The Doctor scoffed a bit. "At least he was a horrible military mind."

"True," Jack agreed with a nod.

Rose was a bit lost and sighed. "Explanation?"

"Hitler went against the advice of his generals on several occasions," the Doctor explained. "Made some very foolish choices that his absolute power meant no one could correct. Overstretched. Had he held off and been more patient, he might have been able to keep Germany in a stronger position. Which wouldn't have been good for the Allies and the populations he made his victims." The last part was said in a near growl. "The man was a nightmare, and yet had he been militarily gifted and understood that you can't fight everyone at once, things could have gone worse for the world."

That statement made Rose shiver, and she said nothing. Worse was hard to imagine, but she did remember enough to know that the man had invaded Russia, opening the eastern front. Rule one was never to get involved in a land war in Asia. Oddly though, there were a few wisps of memory poking at Rose that she was certain were from her other lives and weren't going to help. She didn't need to know the potential worse scenarios.

"I'm not seeing anyone out of place," Jack said softly. "Did the TARDIS pick up anything?"

The Doctor pulled out the sonic screwdriver and discreetly activated it. "I'm picking up temporal energy," the Doctor murmured. He studied the sonic screwdriver for a moment. "There are time travelers nearby. Other than us."

"Can you tell how many?" Jack asked.

"Four or five, but we're a bit beyond range for a clear reading." Jack frowned and made a thoughtful noise. "Jack?"

"I have a theory, but it would only account for three."

"Oh."

"The Hitler Division," Jack whispered. "I heard rumors about them, but didn't know if they were real."

"The what?" the Doctor asked, actually looking confused.

Jack's face lit up at the chance to explain something. "One of the branches of the Time Agency was the Protection Division. They are essentially bodyguards for important figures who were most likely to be targets of time travelers. Hitler was a big one. Agents were assigned as bodyguards to make sure that the historical figures weren't killed before they were supposed to be. Usually, they'd pick agents who were descended from people whose lives were directly impacted by that person's actions so that the threat of a paradox would keep them focused on keeping whatever monster they were assigned to alive. But the agency never truly confirmed that they existed. They work in teams of three, from what I heard. Always at least two on-duty usually slipped into the official protection detail of the time and one resting at a safe house nearby to monitor time travel."

"That's…" Rose trailed off. "That's a horrible job."

"Yeah, like I said, never officially confirmed and in theory only a rumor, but I remember enough about my service at the Time Agency to think it's possible."

"Still, four time travelers including us means that there's an extra one here, and that's if Jack is correct." He glanced at Jack. "And I do not doubt it. I've come across the Time Agency in the past before I met you, and there are a few people in history that I now have to wonder about."

"So, follow the signal?" Rose asked. "Or should we leave it to the bodyguards?"

"We don't know for certain that they're real," the Doctor pointed out with a smile that promised trouble. "We'd better make sure that there isn't trouble." He pulled out the psychic paper with a grin. "After all, we have a way in."

"I think it's a good thing that I can't die," Jack sighed. He looked around and shook his head. "There's a reason I was on the Allied side, you get that right."

Rose patted his arm, trying to hide her own nerves at the situation. The Doctor gave them soft smiles. "If you want to wait in the TARDIS-"

"No," Rose and Jack both said at once.

"We know you," Jack pointed out. "You're likely to punch a Nazi official if they open their mouths and cause a mess in history yourself."

"As a Time Lord, I am offended by that accusation," the Doctor huffed.

"And as the Doctor, you know that we are absolutely correct," Rose finished.

The Doctor wasn't able to stop his smile and offered Rose his arm while Jack walked along beside them. With a glanced around, Jack pulled back his sleeve to reveal his Vortex Manipulator and adjusted the controls slightly.

"Dead ahead," Jack said. "Four people with traces of Artron energy are in that building," he nodded.

"The Reich Chancellery," the Doctor said solemnly. "Fantastic," he growled.