Part 1 - Fires of Revolution

Chapter 18 - To the End

The TARDIS rematerialized inside the hangar from which it had left. Edward had been sitting against the wall, thinking the mission wouldn't take very long. When he heard its signature grating sound, he looked up hopefully, praying that the trio would step out with his father and so many others in tow. The door opened, Edward stood up. Out came the Doctor, a grim look on his face.

"Has something happened?"

"Let's just say it didn't go to plan."

"Did you get the survivors?"

Gwen stepped out of the blue box.

"There were no survivors."

Edward sank back down to the floor, tears welling up in his eyes.

"There's more." The Doctor said quietly.

He looked up at him.

"What?"

The Doctor glanced at Gwen. She was desperately trying to wipe tears from her face.

"Conall took Miles. We don't know if he's alive or not."

The admiral stood up. He clenched his fists and let out a growl of rage. He punched the wall, then gripped his hand in pain.

"Miles can't be dead. Conall is too stuck up; he would taunt me with him." Said Gwen.

The admiral turned to her.

"Conall also murdered all the survivors. You have no guarantee of that."

"I would know if Miles was dead. He isn't. I have to go and rescue him."

"What? So Conall can take you as well?"

"I would die for Miles. I have to try."

Edward rolled his eyes.

"Let me quote something to you: 'No bastard won a war by dying for his country. He won the war by making the other bastard die for his country'."

"What has that got to do with anything?"

"I'm saying don't die for Miles. Make Conall die for whoever he loves."

"I don't think he's capable of love."

"Whatever. I've had enough of this. If you have as much determination as Miles you'll probably go and find him anyway, in which case, I wish you luck."

Edward turned and walked away leaving the Doctor, Gwen and the TARDIS. Gwen turned and slammed her fist into the TARDIS. It gave a series of angry beeps.

"Careful with the old girl! She's alive, you know."

She sat down and curled up into a ball, rocking backwards and forwards as the tears flowed freely.

"He's gonna kill him..." She whispered to herself. "First Peter, my dad, now Miles. And I have to sit around and wait for some stupid video of him getting murdered."

The Doctor watched her, unsure what to do. She was clearly in a lot of distress. He decided to ask a question that was burning in his mind.

"If you don't mind my asking, why didn't you use the Ethereal Plate?"

Gwen uncurled herself and stood up, looking down at the diamond gap.

"I...forgot about it. In the heat of the moment I..."

She turned away from the Doctor and clenched her fists. Staring up at the roof and screamed:

"He's gonna kill him!"

"Maybe not."

Gwen turned to him and drew a katana blade.

"You better not be talking crap."

"Provided you haven't upset her too much, the TARDIS can read your mind and find him."

She sheathed the blade again.

"I'm listening."

"If you really want to swing in to certain death then I can help you find him."

"What about Edward?"

"He never specifically said you couldn't. In fact, he's expecting you will. Besides, he has no jurisdiction over me."

"What do you want in return?"

"Nothing. I'm just doing it because that's what I do. I'm the Doctor: I save people."

"We have that in common, then. Can we go now?"

"Most certainly."

The Doctor clicked his fingers and the TARDIS door opened.

"After you."

A few moments later, Gwen had her hands in some sort of strange console. She closed her eyes.

"You need to think as hard as you can. Ask yourself, ask the TARDIS, where Miles is."

She took a deep breath, thinking hard about him.

"Don't think about where he could be. Just ask where he is."

Suddenly, there was a grating sound. Gwen opened her eyes as the TARDIS dematerialised. The Doctor gave her a nod.

The blue police box appeared on top of a skyscraper. Gwen stepped out, and the Doctor moved it to somewhere a little less obvious. She crouched down on the edge of the roof and looked down into the street below. It was quite the drop, but that wasn't an issue. She could see a crowd of people were standing taking photos of something. On closer inspection, she noticed a golden cape. Then she noticed someone wearing black and red on their knees, their hands cuffed behind their back. Miles didn't have his mask on.

"Oh...not good." She muttered to herself.

Still, he was alive and that was the main thing, even though his identity was revealed to the entirety of New York...his New York. The TARDIS had said it was his dimension. Gwen saw her plan of action. She stood up and walked backwards, double tapping the side of her head. Her mask and hood morphed into position. At the same time, she double tapped the hourglass. The Infinity Stones raced up into position, forming the plate. Slightly less stealthy, but powerful. What did it matter if Conall fought her? It would be his undoing. Gwen's back came to a wall. She took a deep breath and began to run forwards, ready to fight to the end. As she reached the edge, she pushed herself off and arced herself backwards into a backflip. Time almost seemed to slow down for her. She flipped a couple more times then fired a web at a building. She drew one of her katanas as she fell lower and lower. At the last second, she released the web and drew her second katana. She brought them into a grip that meant their tips pointed behind her. Conall was facing her, but his reactions were nowhere near fast enough. She felt the satisfying feeling of the blades' razor sharp edges strike Conall and tear up him. She pushed off his head as he stumbled, then somersaulted and landed in a ready position facing him. The immortal turned to face her. Gwen admired her handiwork: two enormous gashes were clearly visible running from just below his chest, up his shoulders and across the sides of his face. He growled and drew a longsword, his golden armour appearing around him. Gwen took the initiative, sprinting forwards and leaping up on the side of a building before jumping down and slamming her katanas into his blocking blade. He clenched his teeth, bracing against the pain she had inflicted.

"I like...the..."

Gwen didn't let him finish. In a split second she threw one of her katanas away as magenta bolts of energy blitzed from her hand. She brought it into Conall's chest. Just as it hit, she saw a look of horror appear on his face. He was hurled backwards and crashed through the front of a building. Gwen's hand continued to crackle. She raised and tensed it. A beam of energy burst from her palm. Conall just had time to create an X with his arms to block it. The beam was deflected into the buildings above the civilians, dropping debris on them. Gwen saw and ceased her beam. She sheathed her remaining blade and looked around for something to use. An empty semi-truck with no trailer was all she could see. She jumped onto a wall and fired her webs at it, hurling it over the heads of the civilians, catching most of the debris. A few bits still fell, but nobody was hurt badly. Gwen redirected her make-shift shield towards Conall. Conall dropped his sword and raised his hand. A shockwave struck the truck, causing it to hit the ground. It was useless without the momentum, so she cut the webs. She pulled her discarded katana blade up to her and sheathed it with its partner. Conall limped out of the building's ruins. Gwen jumped down from her side.

"Not so tough now, goldy."

"This isn't over."

A golden gateway appeared behind Conall. He took a step backwards and disappeared through, shutting it behind him. Gwen looked around but couldn't see anything. The small crowd that remained erupted in cheers and applause. She knelt down next to Miles. A metal clamp held his mouth shut. She ripped it off and pulled him into a hug, untying his hands as she did so.

"Are you OK?" She whispered.

"Battered, mostly. And exposed."

"Your life is more important than your identity being secret. Can you walk?"

"I think...Gwen!"

Gwen turned just as a blaze of green energy filled the street. Miles dropped on his stomach as she jumped into the sky. She webbed two of the Borg together and dived on another, drawing her katanas once more and decapitating the machine. Only four remained. She hurled her two blades at two of them then leapt at the others and kicked them both in the chest. As she flew backward again, she webbed their heads together and looked at the two she had thrown her katanas at. They lay on the ground with the blades through where their hearts could have been. She approached cautiously and pulled them free. Suddenly, her spidey sense lit up. She swung her arm behind her and felt it embed itself in something. Turning round, she found it was another Borg.

"Where do these things come from?" She wondered, pulling the katana out again and letting the body fall to the ground.

A quick scan of the area showed that was the last of them. She returned to Miles who was sitting up again.

"If that's all Conall has then he'll be dead by dinner time." He commented.

Gwen grinned, although it wasn't visible through her mask. She looked at the spectators, just to make sure no Borg were going to town with their assimilation nodes. Nothing.

"I don't think that's all he has. But it's all he's sending..." Her eyes came to rest on a face in the crowd. "...for now..."

"What? What is it?"

The person stepped out in front of the civilians. Miles recognised him instantly.

"Solus. I thought we got all the Inheritors."

"I guess we missed one."

"You can't take him on your own."

"I have an Ethereal Plate."

"What use is that against a guy you can't even hit?"

"I'll figure it out."

"I have to help!"

"You can't."

Miles tried to grab Gwen's hand as she walked between him and Solus, but didn't manage. Both her hands began to crackle with magenta energy again. Solus said nothing. He simply stood and watched her. Gwen didn't dare make the first move. It was tempting to fire her beams at him, but if she missed she would kill civilians. A small grin appeared on the Inheritor's face before he became little more than a blur that shot towards her. Gwen narrowly avoided a fist. She swung her own up at him but with a blur he dodged the charged punch. At the same time, he grabbed Gwen's arm. Gwen grinned and sent a massive discharge of Ethereal energy down it. Solus couldn't let go in time. He was blasted backwards, but recovered for the landing. Her arm felt like it was on fire. She raised it and fired a magenta beam, discharging the excess. It slowly returned to normal. The beam itself did nothing, although a taxi exploded in a ball of flames. Gwen fired webs at it and pulled it towards Solus. Solus did a backflip over the flaming projectile. Miles noticed he tapped something on his wrist. Almost instantly, a line of Borg teleported in behind Gwen. She turned to look. Solus took his chance and streaked at her. His hand grabbed her by the throat. Gwen swung her charged fist at him, this time scoring a hit. He was thrown backwards, just as Conall had been. The Borg opened fire. One struck Gwen; it left a scorch mark on her new suit, but she seemed unharmed. She cartwheeled backwards and launched herself into the air. As she landed, she used her two katanas to slice a couple of Borg in half. She recoiled at the sight of their internals, but kept swinging the blades, dissecting one Borg at a time. It reminded Miles of Gandalf's spinning attack when fighting Conall. First one blade struck, then the other, in a perfect pattern. However, the Borg quickly adapted. One ducked her swing and grabbed her arm. Gwen drove her free sword through its head, but not in time to stop a pair of metal tubes stab into her arm. They were pulled out as the Borg collapsed. It hurt a lot, but she turned and cut another drone's head off. Two drones left. But her vision was getting blurry. Her legs felt weak and she collapsed to her knees as the nanoprobes did their work turning her into a Borg. Miles raised his hand and fired two web shots at the two drones. A grating noise made him turn. A blue police box appeared. The Doctor stepped out, his sonic screwdriver raised. It glowed blue. A Borg had been sneaking up behind Gwen who was now lying on her back, clutching her arm. A few sparks burst from it and it began to twitch as it collapsed. The Doctor turned his screwdriver to Gwen. It lit up blue again. To Miles, nothing seemed to happen. The Doctor walked over to her and picked her up. Miles got to his feet unsteadily and stumbled into the TARDIS after him. The Time Lord had placed her on the ground. He clicked his fingers and the doors shut. A moment later, there was the signature grating noise. Miles knelt down next to Gwen. He double tapped the side of her head, but nothing happened. He gently took Gwen's hand and used it to double tap. The mask and hood morphed away. It must have touch ID. She was breathing in sharp and sudden breaths. Miles slipped his hand into hers.

"Thank you." He said quietly.

There was a thump as the TARDIS landed back at the resistance headquarters.

"She has to be taken to a medical room immediately." Said the Doctor.

"What did you do to her?" Miles asked.

"I froze the nanoprobes so they couldn't continue to multiply and assimilate her. The damage should be reversible."

He picked her up again.

"You need a doctor to check you over as well. A real doctor, not me."

"I'll be fine if she will."

The doors opened. A pair of security personnel were waiting, their pistols drawn. They saw the Doctor holding Gwen. One tapped their com badge.

"Medical emergency, inbound twenty-four."

A few minutes later, two medics burst through the door with a stretcher. The Doctor lay her down on it and they rushed her away. He turned to Miles.

"Go see a doctor."

Miles nodded reluctantly and began to stumble down the corridor in the same direction as the medics. The Doctor sighed and leaned against the wall, throwing his sonic screwdriver into the air and catching it again.

"You kept your promise, Doctor."

Edward was standing in a corner.

"I failed the first time. I guess I redeemed myself the second."

"That sonic screwdriver could be deadly to the Borg."

"You aren't weaponizing it. You weaponised the ability to jump between dimensions and look how it turned out."

"I wasn't going to. Just keep it away from R those missiles were their idea. I was merely stating a fact."

The hangar fell into silence again, before Edward spoke again nearly half a minute later.

"Thank you, Doctor. And I'm sorry about your old friends Conall killed."

"I'm sorry about your parents."

"Thanks. I was going for a drink with a couple of old friends from R&D, the ones that made Gwen's suit, not the missiles. Care to join us?"

"Maybe not for the drinking, but I'll pop along for a chat."

Crossovers in this Chapter

- Star Trek
- Doctor Who