Chapter 4: Now you see me, now you owe me

Playing entry 12/?.

LEAH: Uncle Jack, look!

JACK: Oh, wow.

DOCTOR: What is it?

JACK: What's the one thing you don't expect to see on the edges of a spaceship graveyard in broken space?

DOCTOR: Is it a very large whale?

JACK: … How the heck did you guess that?

The Doctor smirked. 'It's not a whale. It's a Laan.'

'It's beautiful,' Leah murmured.

'Not gonna try and kill us like everything else, is it?' Jack wondered.

'No. Very gentle. They're actually psychic. If we listen, we might be able to hear it singing.'

Leah fused her eyes shut to concentrate as they all listened intently. On the very edges of their minds, they heard distant, beautiful cries in random notes. Those with the sight to do so looked at the monitor to see the Laan majestically swimming through the fringes of the graveyard and the fractured space-time of Tuvala. As it moved further away, the song faded with it.

'Wow,' Leah breathed.

'They usually live in the vortex … that explains the Ravenous,' the Doctor mused.

'Oh!' Leah barked out as she realised, 'time's so broken here there's a bit of the vortex leaking out?'

'Looks like it,' the Doctor said, nodding. 'And with it, it's bringing a few of the occupants.'

'Cool!' Leah said happily.

'Careful what you wish for,' the Doctor told her seriously. 'There are some very, very weird, wonderful, and dangerous things in there.'

'Like what?'

'Err … giant squids, zombies, a couple of would-be gods, chronovites, chronovores, the Tar-Modowk, vortisaurs, parasites, a terrible hotel, and a bloke named Jake.'

Everyone stared at him.

'Among other things,' the Doctor added. 'Jack, can I have a biscuit?'

Jack rolled his eyes, picking up the packet and holding it to him. The Doctor reached out blindly. The pack of biscuits instantaneously morphed into a tiny yellow fluffy chick without any warning whatsoever.

'Whoa!' Jack cried, dropping the chick in astonishment.

'What?' the Doctor asked.

Everyone with vision stared at the chick, who was now stuck in the holes in the grating.

'Doc, the packet just turned into a little chick,' Jack informed him.

'Unreality pockets … Daddy, we've hit some unreality pockets,' Leah realised.

The Doctor nodded. 'Okay, stay calm. We were expecting this. Remember, whatever happens isn't real, so let's just enjoy it. Okay?'

'Okay,' Leah breathed.

'Okay,' Millennia echoed nervously.

'Baaa,' Jack said, sounding exactly like a sheep.

There was an ensuing brief silence as Jack looked astonished, checking himself. 'Baaa,' he tried again, grabbing his throat. 'Baaa!'

The Doctor laughed, and so did Jack, still bleating. The girls laughed too, relaxing a little. After a few moments, Jack's voice returned to normal, leaving him no worse for wear but still laughing. They all waited for another strange occurrence as they recovered, but nothing happened.

'Was that it?' Jack asked.

'For now,' the Doctor replied, doing a quick count of all the individual breaths he could hear in the room. Four, all present and correct, including himself. 'Leah, activate the reality field generator, see if we can keep the unreality out. Or at the very least, the more potent ones.'

She flicked the appropriate switch and then saw something else on the monitor. 'Eww. There's a floating rock with a big eye on it.'

'Unreality or vortex?' Millennia asked.

'Now there's a good game show premise,' Jack joked.

'Vortex. It's probably a curled up time squid,' the Doctor guessed.

'It can't be, it's not got any … oh wait, it just moved, yeah it is,' Leah conceded. 'Eww, it blinked.'

The Doctor internally sighed, feeling slightly miffed he couldn't see any of this. 'Any sign of the Tuvalan system yet?'

'Not yet,' Leah said.

'Keep going on autopilot,' the Doctor commanded. 'I'm hungry.'

Playing entry 13/?.

DOCTOR: Spaghetti. You made us … spaghetti.

JACK: What? I fancied it.

The Doctor pointed at his eyes. 'Jack, I can barely eat spaghetti with eyesight.'

'I do not understand human food,' Millennia said honestly, repeatedly digging her fork into the spaghetti and raising it only to watch it dribble through the prongs back onto the plate.

'Have I seriously gotta teach you two how to eat?' Jack said, rolling his eyes and demonstrating. 'Twist, twist, twist, in mouth … and …'

He sucked up the last of the strands like a vacuum cleaner.

'Oh, I see …' Millennia said, trying it with barely any success.

'Ugh,' the Doctor complained as he continued to struggle. 'Right, that's it.'

He put the fork down and proceeded to dig his fingers in and get it in his mouth by hand.

'Oh, let me try in that way,' Millennia said and copied him.

'What are you … oh god, that's disgusting,' Jack moaned and looked at Leah, who was still eating contentedly. 'Leah, help me out here.'

The little girl looked up, saw her father and Millennia, and suddenly looked delighted. 'Oh, are we allowed to do that again, now?'

Jack watched her, dismayed, as she joined her father and Millennia in scooping up everything using her fingers. 'I feel so sorry for your mom.'

'She said she didn't mind,' the Doctor protested.

'Yeah, she just said we couldn't do it in company,' Leah added.

Jack sighed. 'I'm never making lunch for you again.'

Playing entry 14/?.

MILLENNIA: We hit barrier again soon, then we go into Tuvalan system.

DOCTOR: Okay, everyone, get ready. We're crossing from stretched space-time into non-spacetime. This'll be even worse than before.

JACK: Lie down, Doc.

'Probably a good idea,' the Doctor conceded and took position on the grating. Leah joined him, taking his hand.

'Daddyyy,' she began in a tone of voice designating she wanted something.

'Leahhhh?' he replied in exactly the same tone of voice.

'What do the Ravenous … do to Time Lords?'

He paused for a moment and then looked in her direction. 'They eat regeneration energy. I'm like a little lollipop it can feed on for months and months.'

'What about me?' she asked in a quiet voice.

'You? Less of a lollipop and more like a granary breadcrumb. Leah, don't worry. It can't chase us anyway, and even if it could, it's only interested in me.'

'But …'

'Leah. It can't follow us.'

'Promise?'

'Absolutely promise.'

'Okay,' she said, feeling a little better. 'I don't like clowns, Daddy.'

'I'm not convinced anyone actually likes clowns,' the Doctor mused, scratching his head. 'Except maybe other clowns. Else how would you get little baby clowns?'

Leah laughed. 'Daddy, don't be silly.'

'What?' he asked innocently, grinning.

'When you're quite done,' Jack interrupted, smirking, 'we're about to cross through the barrier.'

'Okay, brace yourselves,' the Doctor ordered.

They did, as suddenly the pitch of the TARDIS' engines began to change, becoming a little higher with every passing second. The Doctor closed his eyes, preparing himself for what he knew would be exceptionally painful.

'Whatever happens, it's temporary, okay?' he said to Leah. 'And not so bad for you as it will be for me.'

'Yeah,' she replied.

Then, like a switch being flicked, it started.

The Doctor breathed as best he could through a pain in his head that suddenly ignited, which rapidly became worse and worse until it was quickly unbearable. The noise of the TARDIS' struggling engines were increasing in volume and pitch, screaming in his ears, and he was aware of letting out a series of choking, desperate gasps while his brain seemed to boil over inside his skull …

Somehow, it instantaneously became much, much worse. It suddenly felt like his brain, eyes, and tongue were on fire with a white-hot flame, and his skin was melting from around his skull, before his skull started to melt in turn, and then his brain, and then his eyes …

Just as he thought he would pass out, the pain began to recede. Gasping with his eyelids fused shut and his head feeling like it was repeatedly being kicked by a horse, his instinct was to scramble his hands in front of him on the grating to see if he could find his own eyeballs, which he was 75 per cent sure had just melted out of his head.

He screamed and kicked his feet against the floor, his fingers clinging onto the grating to the point he thought he might be slicing the tips off. It felt like a small eternity before the pain finally ebbed away, and he was left on the floor in the foetal position feeling like he was about to throw up.

He took control of his breathing again and opened his eyes to see a very fuzzy Jack kneeling over him, concerned.

'Wait … what!?' the Doctor gasped, blinking erratically. He tried to stand up, but the sudden shock of visual input combined with movement caused him to stagger sideways and crash into the console like a drunk on a merry-go-round.

'Doc, what …' Jack began.

'I can see,' the Doctor panted, still blinking rapidly while holding onto the console on his knees. 'My sight's come back …'

'What?' Millennia said, moving to support him.

'How many fingers am I holding up?' Jack asked quickly.

The Doctor looked at Jack's hand in front of his face, the digits constantly moving in and out of focus … 'Three …' he wheezed. 'Leah? Where's … Leah?'

'Here,' the little girl said, running to him.

'You … ok-kay?'

'Yeah,' she confirmed. 'Can you see me now?'

For the first time in weeks, he looked up and saw his daughter. A tiny version of him and Rose, with his brown hair and his brown eyes set in Rose's beautiful face. He reached up to cup her cheek, suddenly feeling the urge to cry. He kissed her forehead and wrapped her up in a tight hug, forcing back the tears.

She responded, hugging him in return. When he pulled back and opened his eyes, he was expecting darkness again. But it wasn't. She was still there and becoming increasingly clearer with every blink. He looked around the console room to Jack and Millennia standing by the chair.

'How's this happened?' Jack asked, looking at Millennia. 'Is it temporary or permanent?'

She frowned. 'I do not know.'

The Doctor blinked a few final times to regain the last of his focus before finally standing up, using the console to support himself as twinges of pain continued to shoot through his head. 'I th-think I'll assume it can go at any m-minute, so we'd better make the m-most of it,' he said, leaning to the console monitor. 'Okay, Tardis is f-fine, she's …'

As soon as he'd said it, suddenly the monitor began to beep in a frenzied alert. The Doctor checked the readout and bit his lip. 'Right, actually T-Tardis isn't fine - she's f-forcing a landing.'

'Not again,' Jack moaned, grabbing onto the Doctor again to support him. In a stroke of much needed luck, the landing wasn't too rough - just a customary jolt where everyone managed to stay on their feet.

They all just took a moment to catch their breaths and reorientate themselves in the ensuing silence before the Doctor checked the monitor.

'Okay, we're in the Tuvala system,' he announced. 'Five planets, only two are still partially intact and … oh. That can't be right,' he murmured, tapping a few buttons.

'What?' Leah asked.

'It's saying there are 7,862,098 lifeforms here. Just doing a species scan … Uh oh.'

'Problem?' Jack said.

'Yes. A very large one. Well, actually, a normal-sized one with two sharp teeth. Vampires.'

'Uh oh,' Millennia echoed, her hand over her mouth.

'You can't be serious,' Jack said, on the verge of laughing. 'You mean sparkly pretty Twilight vampires?'

'No, I mean descendants and offshoot species of the world-eating Great Vampires with an insatiable appetite for blood and psychic energy, whether that food source be alive or dead.'

'Oh. Right,' Jack muttered, glancing at Leah, who was looking a little nervous.

'But they were in Dark Times, not now, Rassilon beat them,' Millennia stated.

'They were never defeated; the King was pushed back to another universe,' the Doctor corrected.

'Um, what are you talking about?' Leah asked, confused.

He looked at her, frowning. 'Oh, we haven't done the Eternal War yet, have we?'

She shook her head silently.

He scratched his head and then conceded. 'Okay, abridged version - back in the ancient beginnings of the universe, there was utter chaos, and within that chaos were many powerful races we call the Old Ones. One of these was the Yssgaroth, also known as the Great Vampires. They were world-devourers. Our people fought to stop them, and Rassilon led a war known as the Eternal War. He did a pretty good job, too - the Time Lords killed all but one of the Great Vampires. These ones must be descendants lost in the vortex, and now they're scavenging here. After all, plenty of food to be had.'

'Right, so killer clowns and angry vampires, what's next, zombies?' Jack said facetiously.

'Possibly, I know there's a few of those in the vortex,' the Doctor replied nonchalantly. Everyone else stared at him. 'But as intrigued as I am, I think we should leave.'

'Good idea,' Jack agreed, but before the Doctor and Leah could commence programming, the monitor began to beep again.

'What now?' the Doctor moaned before a man dressed in some incredibly lavish regalia suddenly appeared in a hologram form by the TARDIS doors, taking everyone by surprise.

'Who …' the Doctor began but then realised who it was with a pang of horror, confusion, and intrigue. 'Rassilon!?'

'Haloh'ei, Timegri. Qe'afa eon'wi-fofa-gea,' Rassilon said in a deep, resounding voice.

'What's he saying?' Jack asked Leah.

'Um, listen to me, Time Lord, this is your command …' Leah quickly translated for him.

'Eon'afa'ei'krael-n, icile'ei'wi-akci-gea …'

'You will be my agent, to continue my honourable work …'

'Krask'ce'wi-aohilk ye jajaeagri …'

'To kill the greatest enemy of the people of the universe …'

'... Karhees-ia.'

'Vampires.'

'Eon'aloxot-o'ei-n …'

'You will not displease me …'

'Lie eon'afa'xoxe-n …'

'Or you will be blamed …'

'Ara eon'afa'wi-plak-n.'

'And you will be, um …'

'Incinerated,' the Doctor completed for her, wincing a little.

The hologram disappeared, and for a moment, they all just exchanged looks.

'Life and soul of the party, ain't he,' Jack joked, trying to break the stunned silence. 'What was that about?'

'Well, I think he wants me to kill 7,862,098 vampires to advance his glorious cause,' the Doctor said, a little facetiously.

'Where he come from?' Millennia asked.

'Maybe there's some kind of permanent subroutine in the Tardis to run that program if vampires are detected,' the Doctor reasoned. 'But that's never happened before, so I'm not sure why it would now.'

'Can I call: "unreality pocket"?' Jack wondered.

'I mean, maybe,' the Doctor admitted, frowning.

'What do we do?' Millennia asked.

'Well, it's the duty of every Time Lord to eradicate vampires wherever they may be …' the Doctor pointed out, staring blankly across the console room to where Rassilon's image had been.

'I'm sensing a "but",' Jack said.

'But …' The Time Lord's eyes snapped to them. 'I'm a bit busy. He'll have to find another apostle,' the Doctor finished. 'Leah, run a diagnostics check for the Tardis to make sure she's okay, then we'll leave.'

'Nei'Veeto, I think you should be, err, careful,' Millennia cautioned.

The Doctor looked at her. 'Why?'

She paused before taking a nervous breath, 'he did not like people ignoring him.'

'I know, but he's gone,' he replied.

'Who was he, I mean, to you guys?' Jack asked.

'Founder of gallifreyan society,' Leah told him off-handedly as she tapped buttons.

'Part-time politician, part-time demi-god,' the Doctor added.

'Aren't they all?' Jack joked.

'All systems are working; we can go,' Leah announced.

'Onwards and upwards!' the Doctor chimed and jumped to the console.

Then, Jack and Millennia watched, mesmerised, as father and daughter sprang into action, leaping around the console in tandem like an extremely well-rehearsed dance. As he pulled a lever, she twisted a dial, and without even speaking or even making eye contact, they seemed to instinctually work in harmony together, programming the time machine to the finest degree of accuracy towards their next destination. Tuvala. Once the programming dance was done, the Doctor pulled the handbrake, and the TARDIS began to soar through broken space-time to the one place they had been looking for for so long.

'Mummy, we're coming,' Leah muttered.

Her father looked at her briefly before embracing her into a one-armed hug. She held him back. He reached out to cling onto the console with his other hand before pulling her closer to steady them both through the usual rough ride. The TARDIS churned, and they started on their flight.

Suddenly, the Doctor realised the feeling of his daughter was disappearing from in the crook of his arm. He panicked, looking at her. To his absolute horror, he realised she seemed to be fading in and out with the pulse of the TARDIS in front of his eyes.

'Leah!?' he gasped.

'Daddy!' she cried in a distant tone before she disappeared completely, along with Jack and the entire TARDIS, leaving him and Millennia standing in a wreck of a metal building.

'Leah!' he cried, grasping at air. 'LEAH!'

'What happened!?' Millennia cried.

He briefly ignored her, raising his communicator as his hearts raced ten to the dozen, 'Leah? Answer me! Jack!'

Silence.

'SOMEONE!' he screamed.

'Daddy!?'

He took a breath, relief flooding through him at the sound of his six-year-old's voice. 'Leah, are you okay?'

'Yeah, the Tardis took off, but you disappeared! Where are you?'

'Doc? Doctor, what the hell's going on?' Jack's voice came through the communicator.

'Okay,' the Doctor breathed, dropping weakly to sit down in a nearby rusty metal chair. 'Okay … the Tardis left Millennia and me behind.'

'But why … oh!'

'Oh?' the Doctor echoed as Millennia stepped up next to him.

'Rassilon's back,' Jack told them.

'What's he saying?' the Doctor asked, unable to hear anything through the channel.

'Um, your resistance won't be tolerated …' Leah said, 'you will carry out my instruction …'

'Oh no,' the Doctor moaned, head in hand.

'Your honour and duty is to kill the vampires, and you shall comply … If you do not succeed, your punishment shall be … um … err … yeah, I don't know what that word meant, but I think it's bad.'

The Doctor groaned, head in hand. 'Right. Rassilon really wants us to kill these vampires.'

'But we can't,' Millennia said in gallifreyan. 'There's eight million of them.'

'I know,' he murmured, biting his lip as he closed his eyes, thinking a million mad thoughts before they opened again, and refocused on her. 'Okay. Can you fly back here, Leah?'

'We'd honestly love to, Doc, but I think we've hit an unreality pocket,' Jack said.

'What kind?'

'Well, the kind that's just turned the entire console into fruit.'

'That's not good,' the Doctor mused.

'You think?' Jack asked sarcastically.

'What do we do?' Millennia asked anxiously.

'Yeah, what, Doctor?' Jack wondered.

'Daddy?' Leah added.

He paused, gazing up at Millennia with the communicator still held to his lips. He opened his mouth to speak but was briefly interrupted by the sound of something maliciously screaming in the distance. It quickly stopped, and then there was silence once more.

'What was that?' Millennia whispered.

The Doctor swallowed and then said something he never, ever thought he would. 'I think … we need to hide.'