Unto the Universe
Chapter Twelve: The Hound of the Crack: The Crack in Time
By Lumendea
AN: Wow, this episode really got away from me. I think the stormy atmosphere sucked me in, but it is finally done! Just a heads up, I'll be taking next weekend off so I can focus on Mother's Day before starting the Doctor's Wife rewrite. Hope you and your families are safe.
…..
The rain stung Rose's cheeks, and she had to blink away droplets to see. The Doctor was scowling out into the night though relief flashed across his features as she rushed to join him and Jack. Emily and Charles were huddled together, watching the Doctor with more calculation than Rose liked. What was the truth? Were they researchers who bit off more than they could chew, or was something more sinister afoot?
"What now?" Jack asked. He glared at the Darsons. "You said that you needed us? What for?"
"We need your help," Charles said. "Obviously. If you came here, then you must have some technology at your disposal." He looked at the Doctor. "You're a Time Lord."
"How do you know what that even is?" Jack demanded. "Much less that he is one?"
"Our defense system includes scanners," Emily replied. "And while Time Lords were widely considered myths, we always believed there was something to the story."
"Yes," Charles pointed off to the side of the house where the stone wall outlined the edge of the property. "If we can repair the defenses, we may have a chance. I saw out one of the windows that you found part of the system."
"Which begs the question, why didn't you talk to us about this before?" Jack pressed.
"There are two people here who had no idea," Emily answered. "We did not anticipate the defenses falling. Our plan was to send them on their way in the morning and speak with you then."
"You have an answer for everything, don't you," Jack said.
The Doctor reached out and gripped Jack's shoulder, pulling him back gently. The loose gravel of the drive shifted beneath their feet as they all shifted further from the Darsons. Jack was glaring at them, and Rose was uneasy at the open hostility from Jack. Was it because of the neverwere? Or was it something else from his Time Agent days?
"I think you're still lying," Jack snapped. "I can see it in your eyes. I've seen a lot of time travelers in my time and met a few people who played with it too much, but I've never seen something as knotted as what you've got here."
"Jack," the Doctor cautioned. "They're dangerous."
"Dangerous?" Charles laughed, but the sound was wrong. "We aren't dangerous."
"Really not helping your case with the crazy eyes," Jack retorted.
"Time for us to leave," the Doctor said firmly.
"What?" Charles asked. "Doctor- the storm-"
"Now," the Doctor said firmly. He grabbed Rose's hand and gently tugged her. Rose didn't resist and turned to join the Doctor in running towards the front gates. "Move!"
The metal gate that led out of the property loomed ahead of them. Lightning flashed in the distance, illuminating the stone wall that outlined the land as they approached it. Rose glanced back to find Charles hurrying after them with Emily's shadowed figure standing in the doorway.
"They can't leave the house!" the Doctor shouted. He reached out and pulled Rose beyond the gate. "Whatever they did, it trapped them here!"
"Doctor!" Charles shouted. He didn't move beyond the gate. "Please, we must discuss this! Things are only going to get worse!"
Robinson had one lantern that cast a pale glow across their wet group. Rose regretted that they had only a light source other than phones. Jack was tense, and his eyes were dark. She reached over and touched his arm.
"What did you do?"
"Come back into the house, and we'll talk."
"Not happening."
"Fine," Charles said. "It's clear that I can't change your mind." He turned on his heel and strode back towards the house.
"What's the game now?" Jack asked. "No way they're just giving up?"
"Jack," the Doctor said firmly. "I need you to calm down."
"I am calm."
"No, you're not," the Doctor said. His tone softened. "I know that neverweres are a painful topic, but we have to stay focused and aware."
"It's not that," Jack said. Then he exhaled slowly. "Seen a lot of things as a Time Agent. People playing with time, usually trying to become immortal or something stupid like that."
"I'm not sure that's what they were going for," the Doctor said. He squeezed Jack's shoulders. "But it isn't too far off from where they ended up. As they said, they can't leave the house. It's a bubble of some sort. I've never seen anything like it, but they are frozen in their personal timelines while they stay inside of it. They can't leave the manor's lands."
"But they had servants," Rose reminded the Doctor. "At some time, they must have been able to leave."
"No, they did not," Conan Doyle said patiently. "Though, they must have arrangements with someone to bring supplies."
"With the help of some staff and modern post, they'd be able to get what they needed without leaving the boundaries of the house," the Doctor explained. "Not convenient, but possible." He glanced back at the house. "And this wouldn't have been the case at first. They would have had time to establish themselves. I think the house has been here for a long time. They've been here for longer than they're letting on."
"So, what now?" Jack asked. "I mean, I don't think I like them, but the hound is still out here, and it is what erased the servants."
"Right," Rose said. Jack was right. While she was angry with the Darsons and more than a little freaked out, she knew they couldn't just abandon them. "Doctor, we can't leave things like this. That hound is still dangerous."
"You're right." The Doctor was looking at the house again. "But where is the epicenter?"
"What are you looking for?" Conan Doyle asked. When they looked at him, he huffed. "Robinson and I may not understand everything happening here, but the lady is correct. That hound is dangerous, and it clearly has something to do with his house. We won't make it to the town on foot in this weather, so we are trapped. We need a plan."
The air shimmered, and Rose shivered as the temperature dropped. In a flicker of shadow and light, the hound appeared in front of him. Shifting in front of the Doctor and Jack, Rose raised her sword. The hound's ears bent back, and it growled but didn't approach them. Then it slowly turned and began to walk away. It paused and looked back at Rose.
"What the hell?" Jack whispered.
"I think it wants us to follow it," Rose said. The hound was staying just beyond her reach. "Doctor, this creature led me to the lab."
"It's a neverwere," Jack reminded her darkly.
"I know." Rose shivered. "I know, but we need to know what is going on."
"It erased the servants," the Doctor pointed out. "Rose, it isn't a good being."
"I know, but it's trapped, isn't it? It may be trying to survive or trying to end its torment." Rose wasn't sure, and her headache was getting worse. "I have the sword."
"Fascinating," Conan Doyle murmured. "You believe that the creature is driven by some sort of intelligence."
"At this point, I'm not sure what to think," Rose sighed. "The Darsons… this place. My brain is tied up in knots. But the creature showed me the lab." She didn't want the Doctor to agree and stepped forward to follow the hound as the ground squished wetly under her shoes.
The hound ran along the long fence. Rose wasn't sure how large the manor house grounds were, but it was larger in total than the estate she'd grown upon. She feet tried to sink into the ground as the moor soaked up the water. Lightning flashed again, providing a moment of more light that let Rose see the shadows that made up the hound more clearly. It was a sharp reminder of what this thing was and sent her mind back to India. Why was this so different? What was happening here?
That was when she saw it. Right at the edge of the property, partially pushing against the stone wall, was an old thick tree with twisting branches that reached over into the manor grounds. At the center of the trunk was a strange jagged mark that was glowing faintly. In the darkness of the night, it was all too easy to see. The hound flickered and vanished.
"What is that?" Jack asked. "It looks a bit like a rift, but… it's not right."
"It's a crack," Rose heard herself say. She stepped closer and eyed the crack track in the tree trunk. Before the Doctor could stop her, Rose placed a hand near it. Her headache increased. "This is a still point in time. Their attempts to create and study a rift cause this instead."
"Yes," the Doctor agreed. He reached forward and pulled Rose's hand away. She felt his eyes on her but kept staring at the crack. She hated it; Rose felt sick just being near it. "More stable in a way, but still very dangerous."
"Fine, but what is with that hound?" Jack demanded. He gestured at Rose and then out into the darkness around them. "It's a neverwere, should it be that intelligent?"
"Depending on how it was made, what experiments they performed, then yes, it could be. Neverweres aren't always mindless beasts," the Doctor said darkly. "They can organize and think. I've seen them topple whole planets in strategic attacks."
"What about its thing with Rose?" Jack asked. "She has the only weapon that can hurt it, but it keeps appearing to her. Is this about Bad Wolf?"
They were both looking at her now, and Rose could only shrug. Her gaze shifted back to the crack, and her head throbbed. She hissed and touched her head. The Doctor was immediately beside her, touching her arm gently.
"Rose?"
"Headache. I think it's the rift or crack or whatever; how do we close it?"
"This thing is too stable to just snap shut," the Doctor admitted. He peered into the crack, and Rose watched him swallow. "But it's going to slowly consume everything around it." He gripped Jack's shoulder and pulled him back too.
"How do we seal it?" Rose asked. "I've seen you close up time rifts before. How do we stop this one?"
"Something like this can be healed up by giving it time," the Doctor said. "Restoring balance can create a patch."
"Giving it time," Jack repeated. "Like throwing a Time Lord and a pair of time travelers in?"
"I'm afraid that seems likely," the Doctor said. "It's part of the wall of their house, right up against their defenses. They may have planned on forcing us inside it. Sealing the crack without ever leaving their defensives."
"But the defenses are down."
"Weakened," the Doctor corrected. "Weakened enough for the hound to enter, but they are still there, holding back the effect of time." He frowned at the crack. "But growing weaker and as they do, this thing is going to get stronger." He shook his head. "I've seen rifts, both natural and unnatural, and they do a lot of damage. But this is two parts of space and time that should never have touched, pressed together. How they bugled things up enough to achieve this is beyond me. Space-time energy is spilling out and pulling anything it can into the crack in an attempt to repair it. The universe is trying to heal itself, but…" Shaking his head, he moved back. "The energy level here is too high for me to fix it with the sonic screwdriver."
"So what do we do?" Jack asked darkly.
"Give it the house," the Doctor said. "Jack, Rose, we need to fix the defenses and reverse them. If that crack can get at the house, that will be enough energy for it to mend itself. At least in theory."
"What about the Darsons?" Rose asked.
The Doctor hesitated. "We'll try to free them, but we don't have much time. Our arrival here aggravated things. That crack is trying to widen."
"What are you talking about?" Conan Doyle asked. He shook his head and gripped his umbrella with white knuckles. "What is going on?"
"We don't have time to explain," the Doctor said. He sighed when Conan Doyle glared at him. "Consider it like a bomb that is now primed and ready to go off. Only it won't be a small explosion."
"What is to done?"
"Look around; that stone we found before is one of several. The more of them that I can find, the better."
"That will require us returning to the manor's property," Conan Doyle said. His hand twitched, and Rose was sure that the man would be pulling out his firearm soon. "Perhaps two teams. Myself and Robinson searching one side."
A sound ground drew their attention back to the tree. Pulling back, Rose watched as the crack widened and more light spilled out. The Doctor pulled her further back and held her hand tightly.
"Doctor, what is your plan?" Conan Doyle asked.
The Doctor's features were dark. Whatever was coming, he didn't like it. "There is a hole in the world, Conan Doyle. A hole that anything that stays here too long is falling into. That hound is only part of it. That hound is an echo of what used to be here and is destroying what is in its path regardless of it wants to. I'm going to plug that hole."
"You speak in riddles, man," Conan Doyle said, but he was looking out into the moor. "But a hole in the world… here I would believe it. These moors feel too wide and too empty. Haunted by what should be there."
He turned and gestured to Robinson. The other man seemed stunned but nodded, and the pairs hurried back towards the gate. Jack and the Doctor shared a look that Rose had trouble understanding before Jack began to climb over the stone wall. Thanks to the weight of the tree, the nearby section was lower than the rest, though Jack gave a cautious look at the crack. Rose didn't wait for instructions and vaulted after him with the Doctor behind.
"Find anymore stones you can," the Doctor instructed. He pulled out the sonic screwdriver and changed the setting with a quick turn. It began to hum. "Stay together. I don't trust the Darsons not to try something."
The three of them stayed close, but Rose pulled out her phone and was once more thankful for a properly waterproof case. Using the torch, she searched around the crumbling wall and other trees that surrounded the house. The storm continued to rage around them, with lightning occasionally brightening her path. Still, Rose moved slowly, too aware of the danger of falling or missing anything. Scenes from horror movies or zombie video games that Mickey had talked her into watching over the years replayed in her head.
A blast from inside the house made Rose jump and look up at the building. Light flashed in one of the windows of the ground floor, but it was too bright. A howl a moment later and a scream told Rose why the Darsons hadn't come to stop whatever they were doing. Swallowing, she glanced at the Doctor. She couldn't see his expression, but the light from the house and her phone at least let her see an outline of him.
Jack shouted for the Doctor, and Rose heard the pair talking quickly but didn't return to them. Distantly, Conan Doyle shouted, and Rose turned to see the Doctor vanishing around the house. Still, no sign of the Darsons, and Rose felt sick. She didn't trust this.
Rose peered around a tree and grinned as she caught sight of a smooth stone half-hidden under moss. Summoning her sword, Rose cut away the moss and a tree root that was beginning to grow over the stone. The Doctor's words about the Darsons being here longer than they were letting on echoed in her head. Now she could understand how he knew that.
Another blast in the house-made Rose flinch. Energy weapon of some kind. The Darsons had more technology than just their temporal device. Another howl and shouting from inside.
"Doctor!" Rose shouted into the rain. "Found one."
A few years away, Jack looked towards her and shouted for the Doctor, adding his voice to hers. For a moment, there was no response. Rose had just enough time to become worried when the Doctor returned to her view with Conan Doyle and Robinson. He hurried over to her while Conan Doyle and Robinson joined Jack in searching around a cluster of rocks.
"Found one!"
"Good," the Doctor said. He was already kneeling down beside it with the sonic screwdriver. "This is the fifth. That should be enough to make this work."
Rose wanted to ask, but the wind was stinging her face, and she just wanted to fix this. With the sonic screwdriver in hand, the Doctor began to trace the lines of circuitry in the stone. They began to hum in time with the whirling sonic screwdriver, and the Doctor chuckled.
"Been a while since I reversed the polarity," he murmured. "But it is a classic."
"Jo mentioned something about it being an old favorite."
The Doctor offered her a smile. "You alright?"
"Headache and cold." Rose kept her sword hand ready but rubbed her other hand on the fabric of her wet coat. "Dressed for a cool day on the moors, not a storm in the cold of night." She managed a weak smile.
The stone brightened and began to whine. With a laugh of victory, the Doctor leapt up and grabbed Rose's left hand. "Now we're in trouble." His grin was infectious, and Rose returned it as they rushed over to the others.
"Doctor, we haven't found any others," Jack said. "Likely underground."
"We have five; we're good," the Doctor said. He turned to Robinson. "Get your horse hitched up," the Doctor ordered. "Time to go."
Robinson nodded, his eyes wide with fear, but he hurried out the main door. The rumble of the storm was further off now, but rain was still pouring down on the house. Rose's headache was building as the whine echoed across the moor, even overcoming the sound of the downpour. Robinson and Conan Doyle ran out of view, and moments later, Charles and Emily came running into view. But this time, both were carrying firearms that did not belong to this time.
"No!" Charles shouted. "No, we won't allow this!"
"You've lived longer than you should have," the Doctor called back. "You've lingered here for too long. Leave and let time take its toll or vanish into the crack. This can't go on!"
"We can stabilize the crack," Emily insisted. "We just need more time."
"And we both know how you plan to get it," the Doctor snapped. "You aren't throwing my companions into that crack. It leads into the heart of the Neverwere army in the Time War!"
"What?" Rose whispered. But the Doctor wasn't interested in answering her. "If it grows much larger than its influence will change history. You'll be erased as paradoxes."
Charles raised the weapon. A snarl behind Emily made her spin around and fire on the hound as it came rushing out of the house. It dodged, and Charles started to turn to join Emily in the attack.
"Run!" The Doctor shouted.
Rose hesitated to turn her back on the Darsons and the hound, but blue light began to flash around the property. The whining sound grew louder, and Charles demanded to know what they had done. Turning on her heel, Rose took the Doctor's hand and ran for the gate once again. Robinson came charging out of the carriage house with the horse pulling the carriage behind him. Jumping to the side, Rose and the Doctor cleared the road for the frantic horse as it charged at the gate, tossing its head.
Jack was ahead of them with Conan Doyle. His eyes were wide, and the world was brightening as the blue glow grew. Beneath Rose's feet, lines of blue were beginning to appear, their light so bright that it showed through the soil. With a burst of speed, Rose and the Doctor ran through the gateway and spun around as a howl split the air.
The whining echoed in the night, filling the air and ringing in Rose's ears. The Darsons were still firing at the hound, which was jumping around to avoid their attacks. All around the house, lines of blue were glowing brightly. Then the light vanished, and the whining stopped.
The house was gone. The last echo of the howl faded, and a soft sigh of relief escaped Rose. Her knees quaked, and she backed away from the empty patch of the moor that had been the foundation of a house only moments before. The carriage and horse were standing nearby on the road, but there was no drive to a building. Rose looked around, searching the dark for any sign of the Darsons, the hound, or any sign of the house or the lost village. Nothing. Everything had been swallowed.
Releasing a breath, Rose shifted closer to the Doctor. He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her close. Warm lips pressed a kiss to Rose's forehead, and she exhaled gratefully as the headache eased.
"I say," Conan Doyle said. He was looking into the dark sky and using the umbrella to keep himself a little dry. The man seemed completely calm. "The horse seems rested enough. We best keep moving." He gestured them into the carriage. "There's no shelter to be had here, and this storm doesn't seem to be letting up."
"Of course," the Doctor said. He released Rose and held out a hand to her. Grinning at Jack, he replied, "We'll be right there."
"They don't remember, do they?" Rose asked.
"No," the Doctor answered. He carefully pulled out the sonic screwdriver and studied it for a moment. "Crack is resealed. Temporal event sorted out. When that thing closed, what went into it was forgotten, except by us." Touching Rose's lower back, he gently pushed her towards the carriage. "Time to get somewhere dry."
They climbed into the carriage, Rose noting that it was already very damp despite having been a carriage house until only a few minutes ago. Robinson and Conan Doyle both had a slightly confused air to them. She looked back towards the empty moor that had once held the house and fought back a shiver. The Doctor leaned closer to her, pressing their shoulders together, and took her hand. Due to Conan Doyle and Robinson, there was no opportunity to talk about the Darsons.
"I must say, though, this storm has been very inspiring," Conan Doyle said. "That local legend of the hound, well, I think I have an idea of how to work it into a book. A mystery with a touch of horror."
"Sounds like a grand idea," the Doctor agreed. "What is the setting you're thinking of?"
"A house on the moor, surrounded by empty land that the hound will prowl. I won't tell you the ending, but I think that it will make for an excellent story."
Jack chuckled, and Rose smiled. She imagined that it would. His memory might be gone, but it seemed that were was still something of the truth in Arthur Conan Doyle's mind.