The day the world ends starts out like any other.
Harold Saxon is elected as Prime Minister, and the end of the world as they know it begins.
The TV in the common room is playing the news. The new PM is doing some sort of showing of the first contact with aliens.
Yeah, right, Maria thinks.
She smirks at the thought of the young, confident PM coming into contact with some of the aliens she and her friends have encountered and wants to laugh. She's a little curious about the aliens he wants to introduce- where does a politician even find time to encounter aliens, anyway? Besides, even in the past couple of months theres been all sorts of alien incidents on the news. Just recently there were all those ghosts everywhere. Mr Smith had analysed one and told them not to interact with it, sounding as panicky as his computer voice ever could. Clyde was pretty excited about the whole aliens are real thing, but he's still a bit on the fence about it. After all, he's never personally seen any extraterrestrial life. Maria thinks thats hilarious; Clyde never found out about the Helmacrons that tried to invade the planet from the vantage point of Clyde's pencil sharpener.
Still. Mr Saxon's a pretty sensible guy, for a politician; surely these new aliens will be fine. And if not, Sarah Jane, Mr Smith, Luke, and Maria herself will be there to help. Just like they always are. She taps her pen absentmindedly as she considers her main priority for the night; her English homework. She hadn't been able to start on it as early as she should have, because they'd had to fight off a race of fesity but tiny aliens called Helmacrons. Before that, it had been the rogue blowfish alien, and before that it had been the Gorgons.
This alien fighting thing is, she hates to admit, really starting to take a toll on her school work. She managed to muscle her way through the French vocab sheet she has due tomorrow (with a not insignificant amount of help from Sarah Jane), but now she has a whole essay draft due for English that she's barely started.
She's consulting her notes, the news all but forgotten, when she hears Sarah Jane gasp. She looks over to her friend, whose gaze is fixed on the TV. Maria follows her gaze and sees what she's so concerned about- a tall thin man in a pinstriped suit. But its a man Maria recognises- somehow, for some reason, the Doctor is on the news. Right next to the new PM, on the day he's supposed to introduce aliens to the world. This cannot be a good sign.
"Seriously? Is the Prime Minister an alien or something?"
She turns back to Sarah Jane, waiting for her to share the joke, but her friend is white knuckled and pale, staring at the TV. She looks like she's seen a ghost.
"The Master." Sarah Jane's voice trails, and she's white as a sheet.
Maria exchanges a concerned look with Rani, who's been watching the TV but is now looking at Sarah Jane, worry lines crinkling around her eyes. But Maria is having an internal crisis of her own. She vaguely remembers Sarah Jane mentioning the Master once. Apparently he's the same species as the Doctor. A Time Lord. She shivers a little, remembering the clammy feeling of shaking hands with the Doctor. She's no stranger at this point to meeting aliens, but Time Lords give her the creeps. And now there's another one! One who, if she remembers correctly, Sarah Jane is scared of. Sarah Jane, who's faced down just about every type of creature there is, is scared of this Time Lord called the Master. And, with a sinking feeling, Maria realises that this... evil Time Lord... is now Prime Minister of the UK.
She suspects her face may be almost as pale as Sarah Jane's by now, going by Rani's reaction.
"This Master person. Do you know who he is? What's going on with the Prime Minister?"
Rani is too bright for her own good, Maria reflects, and not for the first time. Keeping the existence of aliens from Rani has been something of a challenge.
She looks helplessly at Rani, but no words seem to come out. It feels like her throat is closing up as her eyes dart back and forth to the screen. The other students in the common room are paying attention to the TV as well now, and it's clear that something is deeply wrong. The aliens- the Toclafane- chill Maria to her bones even through the TV screen. And then- the President! The US President is dead. And Harold Saxon- the Master- is behind it.
Maria watches in silence as the situation derails further. The room is silent; everyone is watching with her. Everyone knows something is up, even the skeptics. There's a mutter of 'CGI-' which is quickly shushed.
Suddenly, Sarah Jane turns to Maria.
"We have to get Luke."
As she says it, the Toclafane descend on the planet by the millions.
They hold out for a few days, trying to pretend that life can go on as normal. Classes are cancelled, of course; several students and teachers were killed in the first wave. The remaining teachers rally, and declare the school a safe point for refugees to come to. The large fences around the school provide some security from the desperate looters. No one says anything about the fact that the school couldn't protect them against the Toclafane.
They need to go underground. They save a backup copy of Mr Smith, pack the things they can't do without, and leave.
Friends of the Doctor can't afford to be visible under the Master's regime. Sarah Jane explains her history with the Master, and everything she knows of the Doctor's history with him. Maria thinks that the Doctor should have done something about his old friend before the man could take over Earth. The safety of Earth clearly isn't high on his priority list.
She keeps that thought to herself.
The three of them- Sarah Jane, Maria and Luke- bunker down in their rooms. They spend most of their time in the secret second room, only leaving it to sleep or go to the bathroom. The student population dwindles by the day- mostly runaways, but some more suspicious disappearances as well. Clyde and Rani are across the hall, sharing Kealie's room. There's a few other people scattered throughout the hallway. Mr Smith is projecting a Someone Else's Problem filter over the whole school, but it's strongest in their corridor.
One day, a month and a half after the end of the world, there's a knock on their door.
"Sorry- are you Sarah Jane Smith?"
Sarah Jane crosses her arms. "What does Torchwood want with me?"
"My name is Ianto Jones, uhh, ma'am. My boss..." For a moment he looks sad, and much younger than the suit and attitude would have had them believe. "Captain Jack Harkness, I don't know if you've heard of him?"
Sarah Jane relaxes imperceptibly next to Maria. Ianto doesn't seem to notice, because he keeps talking. Almost rambling.
"He left notes... the end of the world protocol, he called it. I didn't expect to ever have to... anyway. He left a list of people to contact. UNIT was on the list but they're... Gone now. I guess the Master knew who they were. I've read up on the old files on him- seems he's had interactions with them before. He made himself a politician; he infiltrated and disbanded UNIT. We can't contact any of them."
The three of them talk late into the night, making plans. At some point, it just turns into conversation. Maria is not as shocked as she should be that Ianto hardly knows who the Doctor is. Wasn't Jack Harkness one of the 'criminals' wanted by Harold Saxon? Still, it makes sense.
Sarah Jane explains who the Doctor is, and Maria tries to ignore the hero worship that's still in her voice when she talks about him.
She goes to bed early and doesn't see Ianto leave.
The next day she talks to Sarah Jane about it.
"I just... violence shouldn't be our only option. Torchwood and UNIT goes in all guns blazing and asks questions later, but am I any better?" "At least we talk to them and try and figure out what we want." "Yes, but it still turns out the same way in the end. They threaten us, and we end up covered in alien guts."
Sarah Jane looks frustrated and defeated, and and Maria immediately feels bad.
"Okay, so it's not always true. There's been some nice aliens." Sarah Jane shakes her head, morose expression on her face vanishing- though her brow is still furrowed in obvious concern.
"You're right though. We don't have any other options."
Sarah Jane goes down. She isn't fighting (still a pacifist, even now), but trying to help. Always trying to save one more person. One moment she's there, the next there's nothing left of her.
Their little group of survivors dwindles quickly after that.
Eventually Maria is the last one standing, and she can't help but hate the Doctor. He should have stopped this. He was the only one that could have. But he didn't.
Martha Jones looks at her with sad eyes. "You shouldn't have had to become a soldier. You're barely an adult."
Maria looks back at her with steady eyes that haven't belonged to a child in a long time. She tucks Luke under her arm. She's all he has, now.
Martha Jones comes the next day, and it's all Maria can do not to yell. The last thing she wants is to hear more about how wonderful the Doctor is. But she sits, and listens, and nods in agreement when Martha is finished. Martha pretends not to see her anger, and politely comforts her about Sarah Jane. She has a good bedside manner, but then Maria has heard she'll be a doctor one day. A proper doctor; one who actually helps people.
She's lost all hope, but when the day comes she says his name anyway. Sarah Jane would have wanted her to. She holds Luke's hand, and they say it together. As they repeat it, she can almost hear the rest of the world. The few remaining humans, clinging to a last desperate hope.
"Doctor."
"Doctor."
The Year is over. It never happened. And Martha Jones is so, so tired. But she still knocks on the dorm room shared by Maria Jackson and Sarah Jane Smith. She checked with UNIT for a time when only Maria is home.
Maria knows who she is, in a vague sense that she was another companion of the Doctor. Sarah Jane tries to keep tabs, as well as she can.
The older woman stares at her, and Maria forces herself to hold her gaze.
"So. You're not too fond of the doctor, huh?" How did she know? Maria ducks her head.
"Well..." she isn't, but she doesn't want to tell this woman that. She has a vague recollection, almost like a bad dream, of seeing Martha and the Doctor together. Maybe on TV? But why would the Doctor be on TV? The recollection slips away as she tries to grab at it.
"It's hard for you, isn't it? Not liking him, when you're surrounded by people who do."
Maria takes a step back from the whiplash that gives her. Martha keeps talking, seeming not to notice.
"I was in love with him, at one point. I'm sure your Sarah Jane felt the same way. My mum warned me against him and, much as I hate to admit it, she may have been right. He's not... human. He could never feel that way about me. And he wouldn't, even if he could. It took me a long time to figure that out. He uses everyone; he can't help it, that's just how he is." They sit in the silence created by those words, dropping with all the force of bombs.
"He's an alien, Maria, but you aren't. You can keep your friends grounded, even as you all run from aliens. Because I know you won't stop." She gives Maria a wry look that she can't help but smile in response to. They both know it's true.
"But you can look after each other, and that's all I could ever ask."
Maria can't help but like her, this Martha Jones.
She doesn't tell Sarah Jane about the visit.
Author Note: This is part of the Partners in Crime universe, but as per Doctor Who canon it will have little to no effect on the overall story. This also has a slightly darker overall tone than the rest of this story. Next chapter will be January sometime, and will be a return to our (ir)regularly scheduled programming.