It's hard to believe that it has been 10 months since I last updated this story. So much has happened in the intervening months that I can't even begin to describe it. RT has not been kind to me in this last year but I feel that these voices are finally speaking to me again after a long and much enforced silence. Medical issues and other such things have stolen my voice but it broke with the help of reading the fanfic of my fave authors. I can only apologize for this delay, but I hope that it is over. I can't promise anything as these characters have proven they are my Master. At least with the end of this chapter I feel I can tell stories I have wanted to for a long time. As long as my health holds out, I will continue to tell these chraacters stories.
Thank you BMG and DM12 for always having faith in my storytelling abilities even when I didn't believe in myself. I guess I finally found myself again!
Alec and Jack worked side by side almost in perfect sync. Their hands were flying over different controls with a speed that was hard for the other technicians to follow even as orders were shouted and they were sent running to fine tune different settings on the Dimension Cannon.
"You're still going to need to use a dimension jumper, Alec. I don't think that your ship has the energy to initiate the jump and you don't know what you're going to find on the other side."
Alec looked up at Jack's words, his gaze travelling back to the ship and listening intently to her blaze of thought before he nodded slowly. "I think you're right, Jack. She's badly damaged as it is and I don't know what the crossing will do to her, or what condition she's going to be in when we finally do make it across." He chewed thoughtfully on his lip as the weakness that had been growing from his impending collapse into regeneration sickness had been shunted to the side by the onset of his hypervigilant state. However, he knew that he only had a very short window in this state before he crashed out of it. "I'm going to have to modify one of the jumpers to be able to be triggered on a delay, because I can't carry it inside the Tardis with me. Her temporal field would effectively shield and cancel out any effect otherwise."
Alec turned to hurry across the lab, his steps stumbling briefly before he caught himself and was able to reach the secured locker where the jumpers had been stored. He keyed in the security code and took all of the dimension jumpers out before he returned to Jack's side and reached for some tools that had been laying at the side of one of the work stations.
Jack glanced at the readings on a secondary display, his brows knitting in a frown of concentration before he turned back to Alec. "I think we're running out of time; whatever it is we're going to do, it had better be soon."
Alec nodded to one of the technicians who pointed to the modifications that he had just completed before he looked back to Jack. The voices in the back of his mind were almost completely silent now, though he thought that he could still hear Donna faintly weeping and he knew better than Jack that he was nearly out of time.
"I know, Jack. The Rift is stabilizing and whatever is happening is nearly over, I don't know what condition the primary universe is in, but if I can find the Doctor then maybe I can help him fix whatever happened."
Alec didn't even want to think about what would happen if he arrived to find the Doctor and Donna dead with the Master and Rassilon reigning in absolute terror, though truthfully he wouldn't have much time to contemplate the end of all existence as the Final Sanction was initiated.
He popped open the dimension jumper, his fingers deftly parting the complex circuitry and carefully rewiring it so that he could fire it on a remote delay before he looked back up into Jack's discerning gaze.
"I need you to destroy the Dimension Cannon and all the jumpers once I'm through the Rift, Jack. You can't run the risk of anyone being able to threaten the multiverse again."
Jack gasped softly when he heard Alec's ultimatum, his fingers tapping out a few final commands before he turned to face the young Time Lord. "Is that really such a good idea, Alec? What if we ever need to reach out to you again? How will we be able to find you?"
Alec sighed as he snapped the casing of the device closed, his fingers caressing its cool surface before he whispered, "You'll never be able to find me again, Jack. I wasn't joking when I said that this was really good-bye. This reality is going to become your charge now and I have every faith that you'll be able to help humanity take its first steps into the stars."
Jack glowered at Alec's words, feeling angry once again at the fate that was now unfairly to be his. "You're stranding me here for centuries, Alec. I know that it will be at least another hundred to one hundred and fifty years before there is any reliable spaceflight to anywhere in this solar system, and with the Cybermen Wars, I worry what those first contacts with other species with be like. Humanity is different than the past that I remember now, I'm not too sure what effect those wars had on the timelines."
Alec pushed himself to his feet, recognizing quickly the danger in staying still for too long as his body was struggling to crash out of his hypervigilant state, he leaned against the console and with the jumper in one hand he reached up to clap Jack on the shoulder with his free hand. "This is why I know you'll be brilliant, Jack. They will need someone to guide them through those tense and frightening first contacts. Someone who will be the calm voice of reason when humanity has only known the worst in alien species before now." His grip tightened momentarily before he continued, "You need to find a purpose, Jack or you really will go insane. It's the only way that my universe's Jack was able to survive for as long as he has in one relative piece. He fell to pieces for many decades before he finally concluded that he needed a focus for his long existence or else he would've been doomed for all eternity to wander aimless, mad and alone."
Jack's jaw clenched when he heard Alec's words, the stark prophecy of the existence that awaited him, if he let himself drift as he was so tempted to do, jerked him back from the edge of that pit that he had been circling for years. "I don't really have a choice, do I?" he whispered brokenly.
"I'm afraid you don't, Jack."
Jack nodded before he grabbed Alec up in a strong hug, his eyes clenching shut against the burn of tears before he hastily stepped back. "You take care of yourself, Alec. And tell that Doctor if you see him again, thank you for lending you to us for the time that we had you. I'll do my best to make sure that humanity lives up to the promise that you see in it."
Alec smiled at Jack's words, already seeing the shift in his timelines as some of the despair seemed to have been lifted from the immortal's mind and he felt himself energized with a purpose for the first time since his strange rebirth. "I know you will, Jack. Thank you again for everything, and thank you for giving me the strength to do what also needed to be done."
He turned away from the control console and looked back to the Tardis, feeling her mind already preparing for the brutal journey through the Void and he knew that the worst was yet to come. She was bleeding energy from a hundred different parts as her matrix had been battered by the arrival of the energy wave, but he could tell that she was ready to carry him through the void and back to the primary universe. She tried to convey her gratitude to him for doing what he could to take her along, though she knew that it would be much easier if he were to just use the dimension jumper himself, but the thought of being ripped apart from him had set her young mind into a very unfamiliar state of panic.
Jack walked with Alec back to his ship, his eyes rising to the Rift at the end of the lab that was beginning to pulse and fade in and out of existence and he knew that now was the moment that he'd been dreading. "It's time for you to leave, Alec. I'll make sure to destroy the dimension cannon and any record of its schematics so that it can never be used to threaten the multiverse again."
Alec paused with one hand resting against the outside of the Tardis, his fingers caressing the warm metal surface before he fastened the device to the outside, smiling softly when he felt the magnetic click as the ship magnetized the portion of its hull to hold it steady in place. "That's all that I can hope for, Jack."
They both stood in a moment of awkward silence before he turned back to look into the dim interior of his ship. "I'll set the countdown for ninety seconds, Jack. You'll be able to monitor the countdown from your console, just make sure to synchronize the firing of the main cannon with the activation of the jumper and that should be enough to push her into the void. The rest will then be up to us."
Jack nodded at Alec's instructions, his eyes falling to watch Alec's fingers program the countdown into the device before he whispered, "Good-bye, Alec. Thanks for everything."
Alec looked back one more time at Jack before he nodded, and gripped his shoulder one final time. "Good-bye, Jack," He then turned and slipped into his strange ship, the door sealing closed around him for the final time.
Jack jumped when he saw the timer begin its countdown on the display, his conflicted emotions about this final good-bye shunted to the side as he rushed back to the control console and quickly synced the two countdowns. He watched the readings on the Rift begin to shift wildly out of control, the energy was starting to dissipate and it seemed that whatever crisis had happened, was finally beginning to pass.
Each second seemed to tick by like a mini eternity as the energy continued to fade from the monitors in front of him, the vortex at the end of the hall was shrinking and the blinding light was slowly fading away.
Fifteen seconds to go and Jack knew that it would only be moments before the vortex also closed and he found himself leaning forward as that countdown finally hit zero and the dimension cannon blazed to life.
He forced himself to watch as the ship seemed to shiver in place for a moment as the dimension jumper fired, before it looked to be wrenched backwards through the vortex that winked out of existence behind it.
Jack let out the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding as he had been watching Alec's countdown race against the collapsing of the Rift, his eyes finally drifting closed so that he whispered into the now silent lab, "Good-bye, Alec."
Jack cast one final glance at the wall at the end of the lab where his friend had vanished, his thoughts flying through that terrifying void for one final moment when he wished him as safe a journey as possible, before he then turned his attention to the Dimension Cannon and began the painstaking work of shutting it down for the final time.
His reality was now forever sealed away from the rest of the multiverse, just as Alec had wanted it to be.
Alec ducked into the Tardis with a final look back over his shoulder at Jack as he ran up to the control console, his time sense counting down the seconds to activation while he settled in at the controls of the Tardis and braced himself for the bumpy ride to come.
He could see where the damage from the impact of the energy wave had fried out some of the infant Tardis systems, and also where other areas of damage were bleeding energy in a concerning way. He worried that even with the boost from the Dimension Cannon, the Tardis wouldn't survive this crossing.
"Well, if we go, then at least we're going to go together, Girl!"
He felt the tired acknowledgement from the battered ship, her consciousness had finally settled when she had realized that he had no intention of leaving her behind in this reality to die a slow, wasting death because she had been forcibly separated from him. She tried to convey all that she felt to her pilot, but she was still too young to do any more than shower him with warmth and half formed images that cause him to smile in response.
"I know, Girl. I never would've left you behind, you're a part of me just as I'm a part of you and we're in this wild ride together."
His hands were flying over the controls with a manic air as he felt the timer outside counting inexorably down to zero. The Rift was fluctuating wildly now and was definitely smaller than it had been even a few minutes earlier, and he realized that it was fast approaching the point of collapse. Was ninety seconds too long? Had he waiting too long in a last attempt to hold on to his barest sentimentality for a few precious moments more before he had finally worked up the courage to set the countdown in motion?
What a fool he would look if the countdown hit zero and nothing happened because he had mistimed the closure of the Rift and he would have to live a shadowy life in Pete's world, forever haunted by the results of his actions with Rose and the rest of the world.
The Tardis tried to reassure him as best she could, but she was too focused on the impending trip and trying to follow the timelines back to the universe from which she and her pilot had come. The energy wave was dissipating, but its disastrous passage through the Void was easy to track and she felt that once they were actually in the Void then she would be able to follow it back to its point of origin.
Alec looked up as the counter struck zero, his eyes fixed on the monitors when he saw the Dimension Cannon blaze to life outside and the corresponding tug against the outer hull of the Tardis before she was violently wrenched back through the collapsing vortex.
He cried out as he flew against the railing that surrounded the control console, his hands madly scrabbling for purchase around the slick metal before he catapulted over it to the ground below.
He could feel that frantic cries from the Tardis as she tried to navigate the strange eddies in which she found herself, the energy that had bled from the destroyed realities had filled the Void with currents that he hadn't seen the last time he had crossed over.
He clawed his way back to the control console, trying desperately to regain his balance as the ship was tossed through the Void like a piece of flotsam in a hurricane. He managed to regain his feet and looked down at the readings with dismay as he worried that this crossing would bring about the end that he had worried awaited him and his young Tardis.
He hadn't had the time to effect even the most basic repairs before he had basically had her hurled into the Void, trusting his own instincts and the force from the Dimension Cannon would be enough to see them through the crossing. He hadn't realized the damage that had been done to the overall coherent structure of the Void with the passage of that energy wave and as the ship continued to travel deeper into the space, he caught faint glimpses of creatures that came sailing close to the flailing ship.
"I need you to try to narrow down the field, Girl, there's only Time Lord energy in one reality that we know of. I need you to use that as a beacon to pull us through, because I don't know how much longer we can survive here or even if whatever is out there will let us survive."
The Doctor had heard many tales of the monsters that lived in the Void, terrible creatures that would devour any being foolish enough to attempt the crossing and Alec, or rather the Doctor, had always laughed thinking that the stories were nothing more than cautionary tales to frighten unsuspecting Time Lords away from the folly of ever attempting to breach the barriers between universes.
The Tardis was drawing on his impressions more and more as her consciousness was beginning to fade, her own perceptions were still so new that she was floundering in the dangerous currents of time that were eddying around her. She felt fear as those strange creatures swam alongside her hull; their strange, haunting cry echoing to her as she struggled to focus on the origins of her own reality.
Alec paused when he heard the strange singing echoing through the hull of the ship, his own fatigue was beating at him like with an unrelenting force as he allowed the Tardis to take as much of his energy that she needed in order to find the tiny thread that would guide the both of them home. He could barely make out the creatures on the readings of the Tardis, and he cried out when he felt them bump the ship gently away from one of the stronger eddies before turning her back into her original course.
"They're guiding us through, Girl! They're not here to destroy us, they're here to help us! We don't belong in their world and they know it! Follow them!"
He held tightly to the railing, grunting against the vertigo that was beginning to lurk at the edge of his vision before he felt the triumph in the Tardis' failing thoughts. She had finally found the thread, and with the help of the creatures, she put on a final burst of speed and pulled away just as the walls of reality snapped closed around her and spit her out into the heart of the Medusa Cascade.
Alec sagged against the console as his knees finally gave out, his energy reserves dangerously depleted as his body crashed out of its hypervigilant state. He reached out to pat the console lovingly, his heart breaking as he felt the stutter in the ship's thoughts before he whispered, "We're almost there, Girl, I just need you to do one more thing and then we can both rest." He was going to be completely useless to the Doctor and Donna, but the fact that he was even still breathing and floating quietly in the Medusa Cascade led him to believe that the Doctor had somehow, against all odds, managed to defeat the Master and Rassilon.
"There are only two Time Lords in the universe and they're both likely to be in the same spot, so I need you to scan the timelines for Time Lord energy signatures and use that to take us home."
He felt the exhaustion and confusion in the Tardis' mind as she tried to implement the scans that he had requested, but she was too damaged from her own crossing of the Void that she couldn't quite get her consciousness to grasp the proper threads in the chaos that surrounded her.
Alec smiled softly and hauled himself back to his feet, his legs were wobbly and were refusing to hold him steady so he leaned against the console as he quickly began to program the controls for the proper scan. He was asking too much of her too soon and he knew that if they both didn't set down quickly, then neither of them would survive for much longer.
There was a beeping from the console and Alec laughed in delight when the ship already began to dematerialize to follow the thread that was burning so brightly from across the universe. The ship shuddered when she raced through the Vortex, her systems were cascading through failure after failure and she knew that her pilot was fast approaching collapse as well and wouldn't be able to help her much longer.
She tore through the Vortex, desperately holding to that thread of energy that was leading both her and her pilot home. She lost all control of her landing as the last of her systems failed and so she was unable to protect her pilot from the violent crash landing as she materialized on a strange planet that lay dying beneath a blazing sun.
Alec went flying over the railing when the Tardis crash landed on whatever planet she had followed the Doctor's energy signature to, his body twisting violently through the air before he landed on his back while his lower body twisted painfully in a different direction from his torso. He screamed as he felt the snap of one of his legs breaking in the landing, his back arching against the pain that quickly brought all his exhaustion crashing down around him and sent him tumbling through the darkness into a blissful silence.
The Tardis reached out into the world around her with the last of her strength, She knew that her pilot was in real danger and that there was nothing she could do to help him even though she had followed that thread of energy to this strange world that even now seemed to be burning with time's merciless energy.
She connected with the mind that had pulled them both here, her delight at finding the being that had been their beacon turned to dismay when she felt the confusion and fear in that thought before the being resolutely turned towards the damaged ship.
She let the portal appear in her side in the hope that the being would be able to find its way inside before she allowed herself to drift away and regain what little strength she could.
Alec had no idea how long he had been unconscious, He blinked tired eyes up at the faintly glowing coral over his head, the lights dimming fitfully as the Tardis seemed to be bleeding energy even more quickly than he had feared.
He couldn't move as he felt pain shoot through his leg, the sharp stab of agony reminding him of the terrible snap he had felt before he had mercifully lost consciousness. He knew that he would be able to heal the injury pretty quickly once he allowed himself to fall into a healing trance and that it was in that state that he could best handle the regeneration sickness that was even now rolling over him in endless waves.
His impossible regeneration was finally exacting its toll on his body, and he found that he could no longer fight the pull down into oblivion, but it was the faint sound of footsteps that snapped him back to a bleary consciousness while he tried to look around for the source of that noise.
"Who's there?"
There was no answer but a startled inhalation of breath before the footsteps hurried closer to his side. He blinked away the hazy afterimages that continued to chase themselves across his vision, a sure sign that he had also suffered a pretty significant concussion as well as other injuries that he couldn't even begin to catalogue in his distressed state. He tried to turn his head but cried out when he felt the bite of a piece of metal lodged firmly against his cheek that prevented him from turning to see who had entered the Tardis.
"I can hear you in here, you may as well speak up now." Alec tried to inject as much authority into his voice as he could whilst lying pinned to the floor by several pieces of equipment and debris but his words had the effect of causing a shadow to lean across him and a face to swim into his view.
He felt his breath catch in his throat as he saw a woman lean into his field of vision, her eyes swam into focus, framed by the most gorgeous shock of brunette hair that he found his injured mind swimming from detail to detail before he fell into their dark depths. He belatedly noticed the timelines swimming off her form and dancing into the air around her. His eyes widened when he saw that smile, and he found himself whispering in wonder, "You can't be a Time Lord, who are you?"
The strange woman smiled and reached up to stroke his cheek in a comforting gesture, before she turned to look down at his body where it lay pinned beneath the Tardis' equipment. "My name is Jenny, and I heard your cry for help. Just rest while I try to get you out from under this mess, we can deal with the questions later."
Alec frowned as her name tickled something in the back of his mind, but he quickly lost the train of his thought when she shifted the console fragment that was laying on his leg. He screamed at the pain that ripped through him before he mercifully blacked out.