Don't worry- the next chapter will be more action packed- this one is just an explanatory one to fill y'all in!

Chapter Four

Rose sat up with a moan, rubbing her head as Jack burst out onto the hard cobbles, face beaded with perspiration. "Guys, you won't like what just came up on the TV."

"Anymore then you won't like that someone knows about the TARDIS?" The Doctor turned to face him, showing off his burns.

Jack paled in the dim light. "What happened?"

"Let's just say that the TARDIS isn't in one of her most friendly moods right now. What came up?"

"Woah, slow down here. The TARDIS is never in an unfriendly mood, right?" Jack eyed them both. "Has someone-" he leaned forward until he was almost touching the walls of the TARDIS and waved his hand slowly across his face. "Nope, not low level-"

"Just drop it alright?" The Doctor said irritably. Grabbing both Rose and Jack he practically dragged them back in.

Rose and Jack shared a look. The Doctor was never touchy; even when he'd been suspended over the pit of lava with the mutant Xepoctl he'd still remained cool. But this was the TARDIS. This was personal.

"Now tell me what it was you saw on this…TV," he said, not being able to find a better word to describe a TV. "And can somebody turn off the radiator, it's flippin' high summer!"

"Erm," Jack coughed nervously. "Basically…" he reached into a pocket and whipped out a very complicated looking remote. Pressing a big red button, the TV flicked on.

"- where patients are being kept under close observation, having remained in a state of suspended animation for the past few hours. More reports are incoming, and medical experts appear to be baffled –"

"Freezes moving pictures," Jack winked in response to the thud of Rose's jaw on the carpet. Looking more serious, he turned to the Doctor. "They're gonna talk about the symptoms of every patient soon, how they're all the same as each other…sounds familiar?"

Everyone remembered that time in London during the Second World War.

"But…how?" The Doctor murmured.

Rose was looking confused. "Couldn't this just be an ordinary thing, you know, like the cold or AIDs or something?"

Jack raised an eyebrow. "Rose, m'dear, you know just as well as I do that the cold came from outer space."

"Why else do you think no one's found a cure for it yet?" The Doctor piped up, eyes still clouded in thought. "The knife…pieces of a puzzle that don't fit…"

There was a sudden wail from outside.

"Uh oh, ambulance," Rose muttered. Everyone gazed at the frozen picture of the lifeless bodies on screen, and coming to the same conclusion ran outside.

The commotion was near Mickey's house in fact. Everyone had gathered out to watch a middle aged woman being carried away, face contorted in agony. Though people were expressing deep sympathy, Rose couldn't help notice the fear in their eyes and how they regarded everyone around them with suspicion.

Jack shook his head. "Soon the government'll be issuing out quarantines."

"Honestly, if it were that easy to catch then surely all of us should be infected by now, eh?" The Doctor said brightly, turning to the crowd. His face turned darker. "No, there's something else at stake here, some sort of selection or predisposition that someone must have if they're gonna be at risk to this. It's not your cold anymore, it's war."

"Rose! Doctor!" It was the unmistakable sound of Mickey as he pounded round the corner. "Rose!" He embraced her in a hug, before turning to the Doctor with accusing eyes. "Alright, who is it now? I knew it was something to do with you. Whenever you're here something happens, something weird."

"What?" The Doctor asked innocently, eyes twinkling though his face remained grave.

"This! All these people turning into zombies, and the freaking weather! I mean, one's bad enough, but two at the same time!"

The Doctor's face twitched. "Of course…" Spinning a distraught Mickey around, the Doctor said, "Mickey, do you mind if we nip over to your house for a bit?"

Without waiting for a reply, he shoved Mickey down the road and beckoned for Rose and Jack to follow.

"What's gotten into the Doctor?" Jack asked Rose in an undertone.

"Well, for someone who's just lost their TARDIS, he's taking it pretty well," Rose replied. They sprinted down another street that was being illuminated in a warm orange street-lamp glow, though there was no need as the sun's rays showed little sign of disappearing along with the heat. There was no sign of life outside; it seemed everyone was too frightened of the new pandemic to come out.

"Makes a change," Rose muttered as they arrived at Mickey's porch. Mickey's house looked similar to Rose's- there was nothing special about it at all- rundown garden, worn out red paint on the door. The Doctor was already inside the living room and had already asserted himself as leader of the pack by issuing out instructions, as to what tea he liked and how he liked it.

"Remember, one sugar not two, and you have to stir it twice clockwise then once anti, then seventy five degrees in the direction of Saturn rising but remember, one sugar, definitely not two or was it three-"

Mickey poked his head round the door and threw a spoon at the Doctor's head. "Tell you what, why don't you make it yourself?"

Rose and Jack stared on, dumbstruck. "Well don't just stand there staring at me dumbstruck, someone switch the telly on there's a good man Jack, and Rose, if there are any biscuits-"

"Alright!" Rose's interjection sliced through the air like a knife through butter. Standing up, she practically screamed at the Doctor- "We know someone's done something to your bloody TARDIS! People are dying out there and all you can do is worry about whether your tea is being stirred fifty degrees to the north or not!"

"Actually they're not technically dying seeing as they are in a state of suspended animation-"

Rose fumed.

There was silence for a few seconds broken only by the news reporter showing a map of the world with the areas not to go on holiday to in red.

" Ethiopia , Tibet , Washington , Cape Town , Perth , England …" Jack recited quietly. He suddenly turned pale and his hands looked a hell of a lot clammier than they did a second ago. "Dammit Doc, I can feel thePsychic Knife nearby."

"What's going on?" Mickey asked.

"What connects all those people, what connects all those places?" The Doctor muttered. He did a double take. "Knife? Here?"

"N-not here," Jack's teeth were chattering, despite the oppressive heat. "Nearby. I think the guy that owns it must live close."

"How do you know?" Rose asked curiously; Mickey had just switched off, apparently deciding it would be best to find out what was going on later. Plus, he wasn't going to let his pride be dented just because Rose's new man had just ignored him.

"Psychic bond, I was the last target. Once the knife has established connection, you can feel it's cold tang inside your head…knowing that it will never rest until it has found you…" his voice dropped to a whisper, and Rose could see the shadows under his eyes. "Unless it's reissued with new instructions or has a new owner, which is really difficult as it has to be subject to all sorts of weird alien rites…"

"So basically you're a marked man unless we can gain possession of the knife," Rose said, feeling Jack's morale droop.

"Well, I'm gonna go check my email before I go to bed," Mickey said brightly, making a move as if to stand up when suddenly he was stopped by the Doctor.

"This is just a wild stab but…DON'T open any more emails!"

"Why?" Mickey asked, alarmed.

"Can't you see? That's how it's happening!" It was as if someone had flicked a light switch on in the Doctor. He even forgot about his surreptitious rubbing of the burns on his jacket as he launched into his explanation. "We've been going about this the wrong way, we've been looking at it biologically, but there are so many other ways that it could spread, ways that you humans haven't developed yet- no offence to the human race, oh almighty everything that is god and good, but…"

"Apart from biological? What do mean, other ways of spreading disease? Psychological?" Rose frowned, eyebrow raised.

"Off to a start, is our Rose." The more he got into his explanation, the more animated his actions became. "So you see, it's essentially like that film The Matrix, though they stuck in too many special fx and completely missed the point but never mind how the world was created I could take you to see that anytime you want-"

"Slow down Doc!" Both Jack and Rose grabbed hold of an arm.

"Alright." The Doctor stopped, a grin spreading across his face. "What is it that connects a lonely farmer in…say Zimbabwe to a merchant on the Pacific Ocean or even a businessman in London ?"

"Erm…the fact that they're all people?" Rose ventured.

"The fact that they're not aliens?" Jack quipped.

The Doctor gave them both a 'har har' look. "Very funny. If you were anywhere in the world and you needed-"

"Wait!" Rose interrupted. "I think I've got it. Communications. Emails. Computer viruses."

"That's right, bang on." The Doctor beamed.

"Technology, why didn't I think of that?" Jack banged his fist on the TV. "Too advanced, definitely alien…"

The Doctor waited for everyone's reaction.

"Why couldn't you just tell us?" Both Rose and Mickey burst out, annoyed.

"Oh, why can't anybody be happy?" The Doctor said in a way that reminded Rose of a pouting child.

The blood suddenly drained out of Jack's face. "I just remembered something," he said in a hushed whisper. "The Psy-chic Kn-nife. Originated from the Striker Empire on Asinistra Four…"

"Asinistra Four?" The Doctor murmured. "Doesn't ring a bell."

"It shouldn't," Jack gulped. "It doesn't exist anymore."

xXx

Somewhere, sometime away, a shadowy figure reclined in a plush armchair, made by the best upholsters in all the seven empires. The figure inspected blood red nails that were oddly reminiscent of poison and picked up a tall crystal flute that was standing on a table nearby. Taking a sip of the contents, the figure sighed contentedly and watched the proceedings that were taking place on a distant planet a million miles away from home.


Sorry if this sucks- I was in such a hurry to update, that I probably missed out loads of plot. Anyway, hope it keeps you interested and don't forget to check this space for the next installment of the Spider's Web!