Wake up, Doctor. It's time to wake up. They need you now more than ever.
The Doctor groaned as he felt himself rising through the layers of unconsciousness that had shielded his mind from the pain of multiple stun blasts. He tried desperately to hold on to Donna in his mind, his thoughts reaching out to her but already the dream of a quiet, simple time was fading away.
The voice continued to whisper quietly in his mind, urging him to wake up though it was slightly slurred and felt like it was a great distance away. His eyes blinked open and he threw up his arm to protect his sensitive eyes from the glaring white lights overhead. He was laying on the ground of a sterile cell, his body tossed casually in without a care of how he landed before it looked like the door had been slammed shut.
He shook his head while he struggled to sit up, riding the waves of nausea that such motion inevitably triggered before he was finally able to lift his head and take a better look around his cell.
A large portion of the wall directly opposite where he was laying looked to be some type of clear material through which he could see a series of other cells and a control desk of some kind where several officers were lounging around some sort of display. There were two hard cots on either side of the cell and on one of those lay Jenny.
His pain forgotten, the Doctor pushed himself to his feet and hurried to her side. His mind automatically reached out to her despite the ice pick that stabbed through his temple at the attempt, he felt a brief flicker before she groaned and moved slightly.
"Come on, Jenny. You're all right, I just need to see your eyes for a moment and then you can close them again." Her lashes fluttered against her cheeks, a soft groan of discomfort slipped from parted lips before she tried to roll away from the Doctor.
"Not yet, Jenny. Just open them for a minute and let me make sure you're okay."
She huffed again, her hand rising to shield her eyes from what she knew to be blinding light before she managed to pry her left eye open. She looked blearily up at her father and then let her eye drift closed again.
"Where are we, Dad?"
The Doctor let out a relieved breath when he heard her whispered question, the panic that he had felt when he saw her still unconscious had left his head spinning. He sat down at the end of the shelf that served as a bed in the cell, letting his eyes drift closed for a minute before they popped back open and he looked around the cell to see if he could find Donna on the other cot.
There was no one else in the cell and the Doctor felt his hearts slam in panic before he took a deep breath and tried to reach deep within himself to that place that Donna had occupied for so long. There was a faint stir of energy but nothing more and he once more collapsed against the wall in relief.
Donna was alive, unconscious still, but alive. "I don't know where we are, Jenny. It looks like we've been separated from Donna, but I can still feel her so at least she's still alive wherever she is."
Jenny struggled to sit up, wincing when the movement set off a cascade of pain through her entire body. She took in their surroundings and tried to breathe through the panic that suddenly seemed to overwhelm her, her mind flashing back to the last time she'd been in a cell that was eerily similar to this one. "We have to get out of here, Dad. Bad things are going to happen to us if we stay here for too long."
Surprised by the panic that he heard in her voice, the Doctor looked down at his daughter and saw her eyes were wide open and she was staring at the walls and glass with a look of stark terror in her eyes. He reached out to her, his mind trying to brush gently against her to calm the panic that was growing out of a dark place that she hadn't let him completely explore when they'd first come back together.
"Can you talk to me, Jenny. What's wrong and how can I help?"
Jenny's hearts accelerated and she felt a tingling wave of awareness crawl up the back of her spine and over her skull as her wide eyes darted around the cell. Her breathing shortened into panting gasps and she quickly wrapped her arms around her legs to try to further protect herself. "I can't stand it, Dad. I can't stand to be trapped again."
The Doctor's mind went mercifully blank for a split second when he heard those frightened words, his thoughts stilling before he reached out and wrapped his arms around his daughter's shaking body. "You're not alone, Jenny. You've found all of us. We're here on this planet with you and we won't let anything happen to you again."
Jenny reached up to hold her father's arms close as he enfolded her cowering body, his mind trying to calm the waves of terror that welled up from that dark place that she had never allowed herself to return to. She closed her eyes and struggled to focus on her breathing while he rocked her gently back and forth, the soothing feel of his mind brushing against hers reminded her that she wasn't alone and that the cell in which she had been trapped for years was in the distant past.
The Doctor simply sat with Jenny, whispering soothing nonsense and opening his mind to hers so that she could see and feel his care for her and his happiness that they were finally reunited. He didn't try to hide his feeling of regret that she'd suffered so much after they had left her behind on Messaline, but that he also resolved to be a part of her life from now on.
Jenny just sat in silence with her father, letting the soothing motion of his rocking help her rise above the mindless waves of panic that had nearly overwhelmed her. She had closed her eyes as soon as she'd felt the panic begin to rise and slowly, she opened them again to take a look around the cell that she and her father were currently trapped in. She took a deep breath when she felt the flutters of panic try to claw their way back into her mind and forced herself to take a good hard look to notice the differences from her previous prison.
She felt the Doctor loosen his embrace and sit back up, his concerned gaze following her every move to make sure that she was alright. She smiled somewhat abashedly at him, her head ducking away from his intense gaze as she muttered, "I'm sorry, Dad. I wasn't expecting that at all. I haven't had any issues like that in years."
Jenny didn't see the softening in his gaze at her words, she was too busy inspecting their cell looking for any way to escape. "It's quite alright, Jenny. You went through a terribly traumatic experience, I'm just happy that I was able to be here this time to help you."
She smiled at him, the fog from the stun blasts and her panic attack were starting to clear away though she still felt little fingers of unease try to grab hold of her if she let her guard down. "We've got to figure out how to get out of this cell and then try to find Donna."
The Doctor grinned when he heard some of the spark return to his daughter's voice, though he wasn't fooled by the brave show she put on. He was proud of her for acknowledging her fears but then rising above them when they were faced with a more pressing situation. He expected that he would be spending a lot of time with both her and Alec, helping them to overcome the traumas of their pasts and hopefully learn how best to cope with what had happened to them.
He paused when he felt her squeeze his hand, her eyes shining as she gazed at him. "I think we'll be able to help you too, Dad."
The Doctor laughed softly, his hand rising up to brush a lock of hair from her cheek when he nodded. "It works both ways, Jenny."
He looked away when he noticed movement outside in the main area of the holding facility. Men were rising up from the chairs that they'd been occupying and nodding towards their cell as a new group of men came in to take their place. It looked like some sort of shift change and the Doctor figured there was no time like the present to try to find out a little bit more from their captors. He squeezed Jenny's hand tight before he rose to his feet in order to make his way to the glass. "Where are we? Why are we being detained and where's my wife?"
One of the men swaggered over to the glass and tapped it with what looked to be the butt end of his weapon, the dull thunk of the metal told the Doctor that the material was obviously something a lot stronger than glass and not easily breached. "Making demands, are we? You're in no position to demand anything from us. We've got her in a safe place because it seems she couldn't handle a brick to the head. Unlike you and that little demon girl you've got in there with you." The man barked an ugly laugh when he saw the frosty look that had crossed the alien's face. "Oh, you don't like that very much, do you? Well, it took 6 stun blasts to put her down and another 4 to finish you off. Our scientists are very keen to find out just what the two of you are, but it's your…" He paused with a vicious grin before continuing, "wife that has them really excited. Something about triple stranded hybrid DNA or some nonsense. They were very excited when they discovered that. Maybe you weren't lying when you said you could help us. But I don't think it'll be in the way that you think."
The Doctor threw himself at the glass, his hands beating against the clear barrier as he yelled, "You leave her alone! If you want triple stranded DNA, then take mine!"
The man opened his mouth to taunt the Doctor further but a shout from his superior officer pulled him away from the cell and his fun. The man was about to throw a smirk back at the prisoner but stopped short when he saw the fury in the alien's gaze. The alien's eyes blazed at him with an intensity he'd never seen, and in those depths, he swore he could see the end of time. He shook his head and turned back toward his superior officer, knowing he was taking the coward's way out but unable to hold the alien's gaze for a single moment longer.
The Doctor pulled himself away from the barrier, taking a moment to try to pull himself back from the brink of insanity when he'd heard the officer's taunting words. He took several deep calming breaths, his eyes sliding closed so that he could reach along his bond with Donna to try to gently urge her closer to consciousness. He could still hear the voice whispering softly in his mind, pleading for some answers. He realized that Alex must have felt what happened to them and was desperate to try to reach any of them.
We're alright, Alec, but we've been separated from Donna for the moment.
He felt the quiver of fear in Alec's mind before he replied. I felt her black out and now I can't find her. Are you sure she's alright?
Yes, Alec. I can feel her, though she's still unconscious. Please keep Wilf with you in the Tardis, we'll come back to you as soon as we're able to get out of here.
He jumped when he felt Jenny's hand slide into his, his eyes opening to look down into her fearful gaze. "This is how it started, Dad. This is exactly how it started."
He squeezed her hand tight, trying not to let her words trigger the panic and rage that would do nothing to help them at this time. He needed to be calm and brilliant in order to get them all out of this mess and then he needed to do some digging to find out exactly what was going on with this planet and why it seemed to be having such an eerie similarity to what had happened to his daughter so many decades before. "We'll find her, Jenny, don't you worry. I won't let them hurt her anymore than I would you. Trust me."
She looked deep into his eyes for a moment before she took a breath and nodded. "Okay, Dad. What do we need to do next?"
The Doctor smiled in relief when he heard her words, "Alec was trying to make sure we're alright, and I think I've reassured him that we're both okay for the moment but it might help if he could hear from you as well. Do you think you can reach him from this distance?"
Jenny frowned softly before shaking her head. "I don't think so, Dad. I've never really practiced speaking with anyone in my mind."
"It's alright, Jenny. He and Wilf are safe in the Tardis for the time being. I need you to keep watch and let me know the minute any of them approach the cell. I have to get Donna to wake up in order to try to see if she can figure out where she's being held."
Jenny nodded and took a deep calming breath, "Alright, I can do that."
The Doctor flashed a blinding smile at her, inordinately proud of how she was focusing on something positive to keep her mind from swirling down into the chaos of panic that he could feel clawing at the edges of her mind, "That's my girl! We'll be out of here soon enough!"
He then sat down on the slab with his back braced against the wall and turned away from the clear barrier so that the officers outside couldn't see what he was doing. Taking a deep breath, the Doctor closed his eyes in order to send himself seeking along the different telepathic threads in his mind. He could feel Alec's concern like a far-off beacon, but thankfully his son didn't try to reach out to him again. It still amazed him to think about the Metacrisis Doctor as his son, but nothing had felt more right then when he'd admitted that both he and Donna had had a child. He took a deep breath and focused his energy on following the faint thread that led him home.
Come back to me, Donna. I need you to wake up and come back to me. We've been separated and Jenny is very frightened. I need you to try to tell me where you are. I'll come for you, but first I need you to wake up for me.
The Doctor reached further into his mind, his body sagging slightly as all his energy was focused inward to try to get Donna to return to him. He knew that his thoughts sounded a little desperate, but he was feeling the worry claw at the back of his mind that she had been unconscious for too long and that her injuries were more severe than these people had let on.
Please, Donna, I need you. Come back to me and let me know you're alright. The Doctor let his body fade further into the distance, his mind feeling shredded by the energy that swirled endlessly around the planet but he didn't give up and continued to push further in the search of her unconscious mind. The faint warmth of her presence continued to beckon him further from his body and into the void beyond.