A.N. Thank you, Jolly Baron! I appreciate the time you take to review my story! I actually had already decided what to do with Tori during the year that never was, but your comment actually gave me an even better idea. It won't be the run of the mill "fight or flight," but you'll see what I mean in the next chapter. ; ) As we get into the actual episodes, the chapters will get longer. I can't say they'll all be this long, but... definitely longer than my other chapters. Enjoy!
Chapter Three
A few days passed for the four refugees. They all took turns going into town to either get food or find out the latest news on the world. Tori was still uncomfortable around the Doctor—knowing what he was. Marth was like a ray of sunshine to Tori, on the other hand. The two women seemed to hit it off instantly. And Jack… well, Jack was Jack. He never passed up an opportunity to flirt with… all of them. Tori learned a long time ago to ignore the flirting as anything but fun.
Martha had just come back from her turn of surveillance. She also brought back some takeaway for them all. Tori helped her unload the bags as the other gathered near them.
"How was it?" Jack asked.
"I don't think anyone saw me. Anything new?" Martha asked in response.
"I've got this tuned to the government wavelengths so we can follow what Saxon's doing." Jack patted the radio he was fiddling with.
"Yeah, I meant about my family." Martha's tone was sarcastic, but firm.
"It still says the Jones family taken in for questioning." Tori answered sympathetically.
"Tell you what, though," The Doctor piped up. "No mention of Leo."
Martha smiled slightly and said, "He's not as daft as he looks." Then she frowned. "I'm talking about my brother on the run. How does this happen?"
Tori frowned and looked down at her meager meal of chips and some kind of protein she didn't much care for.
"Nice chips." Jack offered, trying to alleviate the tension.
"Actually, they're not bad." The Doctor muttered, examining one in his fingers.
Jack smirked and leaned forward. "So, Doctor, who is he? How come the ancient society of Time Lords created a psychopath?"
"And what is he to you?" Martha added. "Like a colleague, or…"
"A friend, at first." The Doctor sighed.
"I thought you were going to say he was your secret brother or something." Martha smirked.
Tori snorted slightly.
The Doctor gave Martha a look for her comment, "You've been watching too much TV."
Jack continued, "But all the legends of Gallifrey made it sound so perfect."
Tori scoffed, "I spent nearly 600 years and never saw something near perfect…"
The Doctor frowned at her, but agreed. "Perfect to look at, maybe." He started. "And it was. It was beautiful. They used to call it the Shining World of the Seven Systems. And on the Continent of Wild Endeavour, in the Mountains of Solace and Solitude, there stood the Citadel of the Time Lords; the oldest and most mighty race in the universe, looking down on the galaxies below. Sworn never to interfere, only to watch.
"Children of Gallifrey, taken from their families age of eight to enter the Academy. And some say that's when it all began. When he was a child. That's when the Master saw eternity. As a novice, he was taken for initiation. He stood in front of the Untempered Schism. It's a gap in the fabric of reality through which could be seen the whole of the vortex. You stand there, eight years old, staring at the raw power of time and space, just a child. Some would be inspired, some would run away, and some would go mad." The Doctor let out a rough sigh. "I don't know…"
Tori couldn't help but ask, "What about you?"
The Doctor gave a funny smirk and answered, "On, the ones that ran away. I never stopped."
The conversation was halted as Jack's wristband beeped.
"Encrypted channel with files attached." Jack informed the group. "Don't recognize it."
The Doctor nodded, "Patch it through to the laptop."
"Since we're telling stories, there's something I haven't told you." Jack muttered nervously. Tori knew what was coming and tried to lend him strength by placing her hand on his shoulder.
The Torchwood logo then appeared on the laptop screen.
The Doctor's head turned with a force to look at Jack. "You work for Torchwood."
"I swear to you, it's different. It's changed. There's only half a dozen of us now." Jack insisted.
"Everything Torchwood did, and you're part of it?"
"The old regime was destroyed at Canary Wharf. I rebuilt it, I changed it, and when I did that, I did it for you in your honour." Jack defended.
"It's true. He found me after the old team was destroyed. I had been in there for nearly half a century. I know how bad Torchwood was, Doctor. Jack really did have the best intentions and it truly has changed for the better." Tori added quietly. The Doctor looked at her in consideration, then hit play on the video.
A woman appeared on the screen. She began speaking after a second, "If I haven't returned to my desk by twenty two hundred, this file will be emailed to Torchwood. Which means… if you're watching this, then I'm… Anyway, the Saxon files are attached. But take a look at the Archangel document. That's when it all started. When Harry Saxon became Minister in charge of launching the Archangel Network."
"What's the Archangel Network?" The Doctor asked.
"I've got Archangel. Everyone's got it." Martha offered.
"It's a mobile phone network. Because look, it's gone worldwide. They've got fifteen satellites in orbit. Even other networks, they're all carried by Archangel." Jack said as he looked at the document.
"It's in the phones!" The Doctor crowed. "Oh, I said he was a hypnotist. Wait, wait, wait. Hold on." He did something with Martha's phone and it started to create a steady, four-beat rhythm. "There it is. That rhythm, it's everywhere, ticking away in the subconscious."
"What is it, mind control?" Martha asked in a panicked tone.
The Doctor shook his head, "No, no, no, no, no. It's subtler than that. Any stronger and people would question it. But contained to that rhythm, in layers of code, Vote Saxon. Believe in me. Whispering to the world. Oh, yes! That's how he hid himself from me, because I should have sensed there was another Time Lord on Earth. I should have known way back. The signal canceled him out." The Doctor sounded both annoyed in impressed. Tori found it irritating that he was so astounded by the Master's "genius" instead of focusing on the problem.
"Any way you can stop it?" Jack asked.
"Not from down here. But now we know how he's doing it."
"And we can fight back." Martha smiled.
"Oh, yes!" The Doctor beamed and then started taking apart Martha's phone and their laptop. He took out a cylindrical tool from his coat and somehow fused the pieces together with what looked like house keys.
"What's he doing?" Tori whispered to Jack.
"Four TARDIS keys." The Doctor announced. Four pieces of the TARDIS, all with low level perception properties because the TARDIS is designed to blend in. Well, sort of. But now, the Archangel Network's got a second low level signal. Weld the key to the network and Martha, look at me. You can see me, yes?"
Martha nodded with a small smile, "Yes."
The Doctor placed the chain with the key around his neck. Tori couldn't look at him long enough to focus on his fuzzy figure. It was strange.
"What about now?" The Doctor asked. Martha looked to be having as hard a time as Tori. "No, I'm here. Look at me." The Doctor smirked, waving his hand.
"It's like I know you're there, but I don't want to know." Tori nodded in silence at the good explanation.
The Doctor took off the chain. "And back again. See? It just shifts your perception a tiny little bit. Doesn't make us invisible, just unnoticed. Oh, I know what it's like," The Doctor handed the others their own chain necklaces. "It's like, it's like when you fancy someone and they don't even know you exist. That's what it's like. Come on." The Doctor started for the door.
Tori looked over as Jack spoke quietly to Martha, then followed the Doctor from a distance. She placed the chain around her neck. For some reason, she expected to feel something different after putting it on, but there wasn't some strange sensation.
"This is nothing like what I thought the disillusion spell from Harry Potter would be like…" She muttered to herself.
The Doctor must have been closer than she thought as he let out a bark of laughter. She was startled by the noise and looked up to see him grinning at her. She gave a small, tentative smile in return.
His smile seemed to melt away the more he looked at her. He turned to face the direction they were headed before speaking softly for her ears only, "I am truly sorry for what my people did to you."
Tori was startled again. This time it was more from the true regret and sorrow in the Doctor's voice. "It wasn't like you did anything… but thank you." She whispered back.
"I wish I had known they were up to something… they were always up to something, though."
Tori shrugged. "It's done. Can't be changed. After all these years, I've come to accept it."
"How many years has it been?" The Doctor asked, looking over at her again.
Tori remained silent and the Doctor didn't push. Soon, the four of them arrived on a pathway that would lead them to an airport.
"Don't run, don't shout." The Doctor instructed. "Just keep your voice down. Draw attention to yourself and the spell is broken. Just keep to the shadows."
"Like ghosts." Jack murmured.
"Yeah, that's what we are. Ghosts."
Tori watched as a newscaster narrated the landing of a plane. A man stepped out—the president of the United States. She could see the Master salute the man, but even from their distance she could see it was sarcastic. Tori watched as the two men conversed. She didn't much pay attention to the conversation itself. She was too busy looking around. She noticed that there were others there—seeming to be some of the Master's people. Tori came back into focus when the president walked away.
The Master looked on. "The last President of America. We have a private plane ready and waiting. We should reach the Valiant within an hour. My darling." The Master ushered his wife, Lucy, to go with her security guard. As they walked away, the Master turned in their direction and Tori thought her heart would stop as it seemed he was looking right at them. He turned back around when a police van pulled up and two people are forced out. They had dark skin, matching Martha. Tori assumed it was her mum and dad.
"Ha ha ha! Hi, guys!" The Master chirped.
"You can't just do this!" Martha's dad insisted.
"All will be revealed." The Master said in a fake calming voice.
"Oh my god." Martha muttered in shock, moving to take a step.
"Don't move." The Doctor warned.
"But the—"
"Don't."
Martha's parents were forced into a large SUV.
"I'm going to kill him." Martha growled.
"What say I use this perception filter to walk up behind him and break his neck?" Jack offered in agreement.
"Jack." Tori scolded.
"Now that sounds like Torchwood." The Doctor said in disapproval.
Jack shrugged, "Still a good plan." He murmured petulantly.
"He's a Time Lord, which makes him my responsibility. I'm not here to kill him, I'm here to save him." Tori looked at the Doctor in confusion, but not revulsion.
"Why?" she asked. The Doctor looked at her, ready to reply when Jack interrupted.
"Aircraft carrier Valiant. It's a UNIT ship at 58.2 north, 10 point oh two east." He supplied, looking at his watch.
"How do we get on board?" Martha asked.
"Does that thing work as a teleport?" The Doctor asked, nodding to Jack's watch.
"Since you revamped it, year. Coordinates set."
They all grabbed Jack's wrist and were teleported right into the engine room of the Valiant. Tori felt like she was going to lose the takeaway from dinner, but held it down. The others seemed to be in similar positions.
"Oh, that thing is rough." Martha moaned.
"I've had worse nights." Jack tried to joke. "Welcome to the Valiant."
Martha looked out a window nearby. "It's dawn? Hold on, I thought this was a ship. Where's the sea?"
"A ship for the twenty first century, protecting the skies of planet Earth." Jack filled in.
Tori looked out the window after Marth and looked at the clouds around the ship. She'd never been this far up before. Had never even been on a plane. She was a little awestruck as she looked down at the earth so far below them.
"If you think that's something, you should see it from space." Jack joked from his position a few feet away. The three of them were waiting on Tori. She blushed as she noticed how stunned and childish she must seem to these time and space travelers.
"When this is all over, I think the Doctor owes you a trip." Martha put her arm around Tori's shoulders and gave her a joking smirk as she nodded her head to the Time Lord.
Tori tried to smile back, but just the thought of being in a TARDIS again sent a shiver of fear down her spine. The Doctor made eye contact with her and the sadness and understanding that shown on his face nearly broke her own heart. She had to make him feel better.
"Maybe once this is over." She offered in a neutral tone. The Doctor nodded in understanding, but offered her a kind, albeit slightly sad, smile in return.
"Come on, let's go." Jack pulled the attention back to the task at hand.
~~.~~~
The four of them were running through the lower decks of the Valiant, when the Doctor suddenly stopped.
"We've no time for sightseeing." Jack scolded.
"No, wait. Shush, shush, shush, shush. Can't you hear it?" The Doctor insisted.
"Hear what?"
"Doctor, my family's on board!" Martha cried.
"Brilliant. This way." The Doctor took off in another direction, leaving the others no choice but to follow him.
The Doctor burst through a door and exclaimed, "Oh, at last!" the others followed him in the room. Tori saw a blue police box standing on a platform. She hadn't seen one of those in… a very long time. Granted, the last time was when she escaped, but the trauma from being taken was still as fresh as the day it happened. Needless to say, Tori stayed in the doorway of the room the TARDIS was held while the others went closer and inspected the ship.
"What's wrong?" She called from her spot outside the TARDIS.
"The TARDIS has been turned into a paradox machine." Jack answered.
"…That a bad thing, then?" she asked hesitantly.
"Yeah, just a bit."
"As soon as this hits red, it activates." She heard the Doctor say. "At this speed, it'll trigger at two minutes past eight."
"First contact is at eight, then two minutes later." Jack commented.
"What's it for? What does a paradox machine do?" Tori asked as she stepped closer.
"More important, can you stop it?" Jack added.
"Not till I know what it's doing. Touch the wrong bit, blow up the solar system." The Doctor stated.
"Then we've got to get to the Master." Martha determined.
"Yeah, how are we going to stop him?" Jack asked.
"Oh, I've got a way." The Doctor chirped. "Sorry, didn't I mention it?" Tori could practically hear the grin.
They made their way to the flight deck just as the president was making his speech. Tori observed the room at large. She noticed how the Master was sitting at the conference table looking far too calm that the president stole his thunder.
"This plan, you going to tell us?" Jack barely whispered to the Doctor.
"If I can get this around the Master's neck, cancel out his perception, they'll see him for real." The Doctor answered before frowning. "It's just hard to go unnoticed with everyone on red alert. If they stop me, you've got a key."
"Yes, sir." Jack nodded.
"I'll get him." Martha sneered.
The president was still talking, but Tori was watching the spheres that had appeared. The president spoke to them as they started complaining that he wasn't the Master. The president misunderstood…
"You're not the Master." One sphere spoke.
"We like the Mister Master." Another said.
"We don't like you." A third said.
The president stuttered briefly. "I can be master, if you so wish. I will accept mastery over you, if that is God's will."
"Man is stupid." The third sphere said.
"Master is our friend." The second one insisted.
"Where's my Master, pretty please?" The first sphere asked.
The Master stood animatedly and declared, "Oh, all right then. It's me. Ta da! Sorry, sorry, I have this effect. People just get obsessed. Is it the smile?" The Master grinned. "Is it the aftershave? Is it the capacity to laugh at myself? I don't know. It's crazy." The Master was mocking everyone in the room and Tori could tell he loved every minute of it.
"Saxon, what are you talking about?" The president barked.
"I'm taking control, Uncle Sam. Starting with you. Kill him." the Master ordered. The spheres blasted at the president and blew him from existence. The American guard raised their guns immediately.
"Guards."
"Nobody move! Nobody move!" A guard shouted.
The Master sighed. "Now then, peoples of Earth. Please attend carefully." He started.
Tori watched as the Doctor stripped off his perception filter and started to run towards the Master. But he wasn't quick enough. Before he could get more than a few feet, the Master spun to look at him as a guard shouted the order to stop him. Several guards grabbed the Doctor's arms and held him down on his knees. Jack and Martha prepared themselves, but Tori could only watch in fear. She hated herself in that moment. She hated being so useless.
"We meet at last, Doctor." The Master then grinned. "Oh, ho. I love saying that."
The Doctor struggled in the grasps of his captors. "Stop it! Stop it now!" He shouted.
"As if a perception filter's going to work on me." the Master then looked at the rest of them. "And look, it's the girlie and the freak. Although, I'm not sure which is which."
Jack ran forward at the moment, only to be shot down without mercy by some kind of cylindrical weapon. Tori gasped and she and Martha ran to Jack's side.
"Ah yes… and the Guardian herself." The Master purred. "Can't forget you, now can we?" He aimed the weapon at Tori. She stopped before she made it to Jack, frozen. The Master smirked. "Oh you're trained, too. That's good. Sit, stay."
The Master turned to the Doctor and smirked wider. "Laser screwdriver. Who'd have sonic? And the good thing is, he's not dead for long. I get to kill him again!" The Master let out a maniacal giggle. "It's even a twofer deal!"
The Doctor was struggling hard against the guards who still held him. He glanced over at Tori who remained still and her eyes wide. "Master, just calm down. Just look at what you're doing. Just stop. If you could see yourself!"
The Master ignored him and turned back to the camera that was still filming. "Oh, do excuse me. Little bit of personal business. Back in a minute." The Master went down a few of the steps and ordered the guards to release the Doctor. Tori took a few steps towards Jack while the Master's back was turned.
"It's that sound. The sound in your head. What if I could help?" The Doctor bartered.
"Oh, how to shut him up?" The Master asked sarcastically. "I know. Memory lane. Professor Lazarus. Remember him and his genetic manipulation device? What, did you think that little Tish got that job merely by coincidence?" The Master scoffed. "I've been laying traps for you all this time. And if I can concentrate all that Lazarus technology into one little screwdriver? But, ooo… if I only had the Doctor's biological code." The Master pouted. "Oh, wait a minute, I do!"
The Master opened a briefcase Tori hadn't noticed. There was a… a hand. In a jar. A live hand, in a jar.
"I've got his hand. And if Lazarus made himself younger, what if I reverse it? Another hundred years?" The Master aimed and shot the Doctor.
Tori stumbled to Jack and Marth as the Doctor spasmed and shook from the power of the sonic laser. Jack revived next to the two women, but Tori couldn't tear her eyes from the Doctor. She may not have trusted him fully, but no one deserved that.
"Teleport." She heard Jack whisper to Martha.
"I can't." Martha said weakly.
"We can't stop him. Get out of here. Get Tori and get out."
Finally, the laser stopped and Tori looked at the Doctor… he looked old. So very old. And frail. Martha ran to the Doctor's side and held him up.
"Doctor? I've got you." She muttered.
The Master laughed mockingly. "Ah, she's a would be doctor. But tonight, Martha Jones, we've flown them in all the way from prison!" He gestures widely to a side door where guards were escorting three people through.
"Mum!" Martha cried. Tori leapt to her feet and held Martha back from running and getting herself killed.
Martha's mum muttered an apology. Tori held Martha closer as she slowly dropped back to the Doctor. She whispered to Marth soothing words that she didn't even believe in hopes of calming the young doctor in training. She could hear the Doctor and the Master talking, but didn't pay an ounce of attention as she tried to calm her friend.
A song began to play on the speakers and the Master's attention was pulled elsewhere. The Doctor drew the two women closer to himself and whispered into Martha's ear. She nodded and pulled Tori a few paces from the fallen Doctor. Martha pulled Tori's wrist to cover her own that was sporting Jack's device. As Martha activated the machine, Tori sent one final look at the Doctor and Jack, vowing that the next time she saw them, she would be able to help.
Ignoring the way their heads spun and their stomachs churned, Martha and Tori stared up at the sky… they felt the pressure of saving the world… they knew their duty.