Chapter LXXV

Mira's POV

She had went to bed and tried to sleep for several hours. Maybe she even fell asleep for one or two – she couldn't say. There was so much to think about. Like the problems the Doctor was obviously having. He was keeping from something from her, probably keeping it from everyone. She had no idea what it could be. Sure, what the Beast had said on Kroptor was pretty clear, but she refused to believe he was the killer of his own kind. That was an absolutely horrible accusation. His people had died in the war against the Daleks. At least the part about the war was true, that much she had figured out by now from her encounters with the Daleks. But who had really started it? It certainly hadn't been him. There was a lot a single man could do – good God, she of all people knew that. But murder his own kind? How?

No, it couldn't be true. He didn't seem like a cold blooded murderer. Even the short and rather superficial contacts she had had with his mind had shown her that this couldn't be true.

Well, but then again, no one would take her for a murderer – and yet, there was most likely quite a lot of blood on her own hands. Sure, she hadn't wanted that to happen - it all had gone horribly wrong, and it had started out in the very best intentions, to save her own galaxy, but that didn't make her any less responsible.

Then there was the Face of Boe. He had seemed to know him – and her, as for that – rather well. He hadn't said anything bad about him either. She only wished the Face of Boe would have told her more, apart from the fact that she was obviously doomed to stay here for quite some time. But for how long?

And what he had said about her relationship to the Doctor – how had he meant that? On what level? Friends, lovers? If he really had seen her future, then, whatever he had seen, was inevitable. That was the whole point in time travel. The future was written, more or less fixed, already existing.

He's here - you are here. Don't think so much of what could be, what must not be or what might come out of all this.

That was what the Face of Boe had said. If it only would be that easy. Well, essentially, it was. She knew pretty much exactly what she wanted. She wanted to get to know him better, in and out, quite literally in their case as both being psychic. She wanted to be there for him, even though she might not be able to help him with whatever was haunting him. She wanted to lay in his arms, feeling safe and secure and at peace with everything – most of all with her own racing mind. And yes, she had to admit, she wanted more than just laying in his arms. She had tried to forget, but she couldn't get out of her head how it had felt to ruffle his hair, how cool and soft his lips had been on hers, just as the strength of his body when he was hugging her. Even though she knew very well that his physical appearance was sort of temporary. But even his previous self had had that winning smile, that warm look in his eyes, that child-like enthusiasm that made her forget everything else when looking in his eyes.

And here we go again. Worrying about things to come.

But what was stopping her then? She tried listened to herself for a moment, but there seemed to be no answer. Had she really grown old and bitter by now? So much trying to protect herself that she just couldn't raze the walls she had built around her? Had she grown too reasonable? Reasonable to a level of self-denial?

Anyway, no matter where all this was leading, she realised they finally had to put their cards on the table. It had been nice, all this playing games and flirting, but she was now slowly but surly at a point where she couldn't bear it any longer. Even if it meant going back to where it all began, to "just friends and companions, nothing more", it was all better than this.

They had to talk, or at least renew the promise they had given to each other. She was in desperate need for some clarity, at least to some points in her life, the sooner the better.


Doctor's POV

He hadn't wanted to wake Mira up, so he had looked after Martha – finding her awake and so they had went for breakfast in the kitchen. She had, back to her usual self, drilled him with questions about all sorts of things, but thankfully, as he had went further into the mathematics of block transfer matrices, the principle the interior configuration of the TARDIS was based on, she had stopped asking any further questions.

She had also asked where they would go next, but he had only said that it would be a rather special and unique place.

Now they were standing in the console room and he reached out for the handbrake.

"There we go," he said and his eyes fell on Mira who was just walking up the stairs. "Perfect landing. Which isn't easy in such a tight spot."

"You should be used to tight spots by now," Martha replied. "Where are we?"

"The end of the line. No place like it," he said and followed Martha with his eyes as she opened the door.

"Home," he heard her from outside. "You took me home?"

He followed her, together with Mira. With the three of them and the TARDIS the small space was quite cramped.

"In fact, the morning after we left," he explained, "So you've only been gone about twelve hours. No time at all, really."

"But all the stuff we've done," Martha said and turned around to him. "Shakespeare, New New York, old New York?"

"Welcome to time travel," Mira said quietly. "Better this way than the other way around."

"What?" he asked baffled. Well, he had gotten it wrong, spent somewhere thinking it had only been five minutes and came back much later, but she couldn't know that, could she? Or what else had she meant?

"Anyway," he continued as she didn't reply but just continued to look around in the room, "Yep, well, all in one night, relatively speaking. Everything should be just as it was. Books, CDs, laundry," he picked up one of the clothes hanging on the laundry rack. It happened to be one of her undies. She snatched it from his hand. "So, back were you were, as promised."

"This is it?"

"Yeah, I should probably er-" he started, but got interrupted by the phone.

The answering machine started up, "Hi, I'm out. Leave a message."

"I'm sorry," Martha said.

"Martha, are you there? Pick it up, will you?" a female voice was heard. He had heard it before, but-

"It's Mum. It'll wait," Martha explained.

"All right then, pretend that you're out if you like," her mum continued. "I was only calling to say that your sister's on TV. On the news of all things. Just thought you might be interested," and hung up.

Martha turned on the television, and they all turned around to listen.

"The details are top secret," an elderly man announced.

"How could Tish end up on the news?" Martha mumbled.

There was a young woman standing next to the man, obviously her sister then.

"Tonight, I will demonstrate a device which will redefine our world," the man continued.

"She's got a new job. PR for some research lab," Martha said quietly.

"With the push of a single button, I will change what it means to be human!"

He didn't really pay attention to it, instead he was more worried how Martha would take the goodbye now. It must be clear to her by know that that was it.

"Sorry. You were saying we should?" Martha turned to him, after she was done listening to the television.

"Yes, yes, we should," he said slowly. "One trip is what we said."

"Yeah. I suppose things just kind of escalated," Martha said and smiled sadly.

"Mmm. Seems to happen to me a lot," he said, trying not to think about the fact that he would actually miss her.

"Thank you. For everything," she said, looking quite sad now.

"Bye Martha," Mira said and waved at Martha. "Nice meeting you." Then she went back into the TARDIS.

"See you," Martha said to her.

"It was my pleasure," he replied to her thanking him and then went back inside as well, closing the door behind him.

Inside he went to the console, released the handbrake and was about to dematerialise the TARDIS. But just then, something popped up in his mind. He stopped in his tracks and looked at Mira.

"Wait," he said.

"What?" She looked at him, puzzled.

"What did he say?"

"Who?"

"The guy on TV."

"Don't know, something about some world changing device?" he heard her voice behind him.

He had pulled the handbrake again, rushed to the door, opened it and stuck his head out. Martha was still there, looking at him quite confused.

"No, I'm sorry," he said to her. "Did he say he was going to change what it means to be human?"


Martha's POV

There she had thought it was over. He would just take off and never come back. But no, he had heard what had been on television and came back. Well, probably only because he needed her to get to the presentation of that new, world-changing device, but still. At least she could spent a bit more time with him.

She was supposed to meet him outside of the Lazarus Laboratories, and he arrived just in time. Of course, Mira was with him. He looked really good in black tie, and Mira was wearing a black, flared dress with long and wide sleeves which were made out of black chiffon. The dress had a rather high neckline with pearls stitched around it like a necklace. It was rather short, a bit too short – just reaching to the middle of her thighs – for herself to consider wearing it to such an occasion, but it suited Mira rather well. Her hair was wound into some rather complicated looking updo, framing her face quite nicely. All in all maybe a tiny bit too sixties, but hey, this look was coming again, wasn't it? Yeah, well, she could see why the Doctor had fallen for her, but she herself didn't look to bad today either. Instead for mini-skirt she had gone for sleeveless.

"Oh, black tie," the Doctor said as they walked towards the entrance, "Whenever I wear this, something bad always happens."

"It's not the outfit, that's just you. Anyway, I think it suits you," she replied. "In a James Bond kind of way."

"James Bond?!" he said and looked at her aghast. Then he added, almost sounding a bit flattered, "Really?"

At the door he showed his Psychic Paper, and, for she was on the list anyway, they were in. The atmosphere in the reception room was rather sober, maybe due to all the technical devices it was filled with. In the middle of the room, on a circular dais, was a chamber, made out of some frosted, white material, big enough for a man to fit into. It was surrounded by four upright posts.

Apart from that the room was filled with the guests, some musicians were playing and a waiter was passing by with a tray of food.

"Oh, look, they've got nibbles!" the Doctor exclaimed as he took some. "I love nibbles."

She looked around, but couldn't see Mira. Probably she was looking around on her own. Well, not that she would mind much. Then she spotted her sister.

"You look great," Tish said after they had greeted each other. "So, what do you think? Impressive, isn't it?"

"Very," she replied.

"And two nights out in a row for you. That's dangerously close to a social life," Tish said.

It took her a moment to grasp the meaning of it. Of course, it had only been two nights for Tish. Much more for herself though.

"If I keep this up, I'll end up in all the gossip columns," she tried to joke.

"You might, actually," Tish replied. "You should keep an eye out for photographers. And Mum, she's coming too. Even dragging Leo along with her."

"Leo in black tie? That I must see." Suddenly she realised, judging from Tish's look, that the Doctor was standing behind her, and she hadn't introduced him yet. "This is, er, the Doctor."

"Hello," he said and beamed at Tish.

"Is he with you?" Tish asked.

"Yeah," she replied.

Just then Mira came back and stopped next to the Doctor.

"But he's not on the list. How did he get in?" Tish wanted to know.

"He's my plus one," she said.

"And who's she?" Tish asked now, looking at Mira. "Your plus two?"

"I'm just a colleague of his. I got an invitation just shortly. I'm surprised I'm not on your list. Must be a mistake," Mira replied as if Tish had actually made an error. "Mira Rhodan, University of Warsaw, Department for Molecular-Physics."

"S- Sorry," Tish said, as if trying to remember what she had missed.

"So," the Doctor said, rescuing Tish from that awkward moment, "This Lazarus, he's your boss?"

"Professor Lazarus, yes. I'm part of his executive staff," Tish replied.

"She's in the PR department," she explained.

"I'm head of the PR department, actually," Tish protested.

"You're joking."

No way Tish was head of a whole department at her age.

"I put this whole thing together," Tish said indignantly.

"So do you know what the professor's going to be doing tonight?" the Doctor asked, saving the moment once again. "That looks like it might be a sonic microfield manipulator."

"He's a science geek," Tish replied and eyed him from the side. "I should have known. Got to get back to work now. I'll catch up with you later."

Martha watched as she walked away.

"Science geek? What does that mean?" the Doctor asked, his head over her shoulder.

"That your obsessively enthusiastic about it."

"Oh, nice," he replied and smiled as if she had made him the biggest of all compliments.


Doctor's POV

"Warsaw?" he asked Mira as they both stood in front of the white chamber. "Why Warsaw?"

"Why not? Just came to my mind," she replied without looking away from the machine. "Could have said Stockholm just as well."

"You don't sound Swedish."

"Neither do I sound Polish."

No, indeed, she didn't. He turned his head to her. He had to admit she was looking good tonight – for a human, that is. Well, he could see she had lost a bit of weight – she looked even more fragile than when he had met her – but she still had something about her that caused the people in here turn their heads and look at her. And certainly not in a shocked or negative way, that much he could read in their faces.

"So, what do you think that is?" he asked and nodded over to the machine.

"Don't know," she replied, grabbing some food as another waiter came by. "And I don't think anyone in here knows. They are all pretty much curious." She shrugged. "It's weird, but it does look slightly out of time. Not really like human technology. Maybe from the future, but not from this time."

"Hm," he said. "We'll see. Never heard of this Lazarus guy before."

"I guess it's safe to say he likes to surround himself with young, beautiful women."

"What?"

"Look around," she said.

And, indeed, there was Tish – and two young, attractive women in lab-coats looking over all the meters and devices.

"Maybe that's coincidence," he said, not totally convinced.

"Maybe."

He turned around and saw Martha talking to her family. He put one hand on Mira's shoulder and let her over to them.

"Ah, here he is," Martha said as they arrived. "This is a friend of mine. The Doctor."

"Doctor what?" her mother asked instead of greeting him.

It was not so much the question but the look she gave him, which made him alert.

"No, it's just the Doctor," Martha said, "We've been doing some work together. And with his colleague, Mira."

"It's lovely to meet you, Mrs Jones," he said, and let go of Mira's shoulder. "Heard a lot about you."

"Have you?" her mother replied. "What have you heard, then?"

"Oh, you know, that you're Martha's mother and..." he tried to make something up. Normally that was working. It was called small-talk, no questions, just babbling. "Er, no, actually, that's about it. We haven't had much time to chat. You know, been busy."

"Busy?" she asked now. "Doing what, exactly?"

Great, he wouldn't get off the hook that easy.

"Oh you know. Stuff," he replied, tugging at his earlobe.

But, thankfully, Professor Lazarus himself saved him.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I am Professor Richard Lazarus", he announced, and everyone turned their attention to him. One of the young ladies in a lab-coat was standing next to him. Maybe Mira was right, he liked to surround himself with youth. He listened as the Professor continued, "And tonight I am going to perform a miracle. It is, I believe, the most important advance since Rutherford split the atom, the biggest leap since Armstrong stood on the moon. Tonight, you will watch and wonder. Tomorrow, you will wake to a world which will be changed forever."

With that said, he went inside the chamber. The two women started the machine, and the columns around it started to rotate around the chamber. Faster and faster, seemingly drawing energy to it. The whole room was bathed in bright, blue light. Then, suddenly, an alarm sounded.

"Something's wrong. It's overloading!" he yelled and rushed over to the controls, jumping over the table they were sitting on.

They were smoking and sending sparks flying. He tried to fix it with his Sonic Screwdriver – but with little success. It should work with technology from this time, and yet-

"Somebody stop him!" an elderly woman yelled, "Get him away from those controls!"

"If this thing goes up, it'll take the whole building with it," he replied, "Is that what you want?"

He tried it again with the Sonic, but it didn't do anything. He jumped over the table again, but there was Mira, already pulling at a big cable and the machine finally stopped.

She swung the end of the cable with the plug and smiled at him.

"You're brilliant," he said and smiled back, then they both hurried over to the chamber.

Martha was there before them, opening the door. He braced himself for the worst, but the Professor seemed to be alive and well, as he stumbled out of the chamber. Well, at least he was alive. And he looked quite well. A lot younger, most of all.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I am Richard Lazarus," he said, "I am seventy six years old and I am reborn!"

The people started to applause. Then he got pushed away by photographers, and with Mira and Martha at his side, he went back some steps.

"It can't be the same guy," Martha said. "It's impossible. It must be a trick."

"I'm afraid it's not a trick, Martha. It's still him. I feel it," Mira said.

"What just happened then?" Martha asked.

"He just changed what it means to be human," he replied quietly.

"Changed? Rather eradicated it," Mira said gravely.

He shot her a quick look, before he went over to Lazarus, who was now clear of photographers and grabbing for some food. Actually, for all the food, he had taken the whole tablet.

"Energy deficit," he said to Lazarus as he approached him from behind. "Always happens with this kind of process."

"You speak as if you see this every day, Mister?" Lazarus said and turned to him.

"Doctor," he corrected him. "And well, no, not every day, but I have some experience of this kind of transformation."

"That's not possible," Lazarus replied, quite convinced by his own words.

Oh, if he only knew...

"Using hypersonic sound waves to create a state of resonance," he explained. "That's inspired."

"You understand the theory, then," Lazarus said.

"Enough to know that you couldn't possibly have allowed for all the variables."

"No experiment is entirely without risk," Lazarus said, almost stubborn.

Mira laughed dryly and he saw how she shook her head.

"That thing nearly exploded," he said. "You might as well have stepped into a blender!"

"You're not qualified to comment," the elderly woman interfered.

"It actually was about to explode," Mira said now to the woman. "If we wouldn't have stopped it-"

"Then I thank you, Doctor, and- I don't think I got your name," he turned to Mira.

"Mira. Physicist. And I'm really... I really was into experimenting myself, some time ago, but that-" she said, but Lazarus interrupted her.

"That's a simple engineering issue. What happened inside the capsule was exactly what was supposed to happen. No more, no less."

"Is that so?" Mira asked. "You seem quite certain about that. Wonder why we then need any proper equipment at all to do tests or-"

"Look at me," Lazarus said. "You can see what happened. I'm all the proof you need."

"This device will be properly certified before we start to operate commercially," the elderly woman said now. Was it his wife?

"Commercially? You are joking. That'll cause chaos," Martha said now.

"Not chaos, change," Lazarus said. "A chance for humanity to evolve, to improve."

"Improve?" Mira said now, and he could hear how hard she tried to hold herself back.

"This isn't about improving," he hurried to say, "This is about you and your customers living a little longer."

"Not a little longer, Doctor. A lot longer. Perhaps indefinitely," Lazarus replied.

"Indefinitely?" Mira said, now a hold lot calmer, almost dangerously calm "Oh. You know what? You have no idea what you've got yourself into now. You didn't change what it means to be human, you're about to eradicate everything that makes one human."

"Richard, we have things to discuss, upstairs," the old lady said to him before he could reply.

He himself was a little surprised by Mira's fierce reaction. Well, she was right, in one way, but then again he had only reached for what she already had. Immortality. Was she really thinking it would take away everything that defined humanity? What did she consider herself then?

"Goodbye, Doctor, Mira." Lazarus said. "In a few years, you'll look back and laugh at how wrong you were."

He kissed Martha's hand and then left with his wife.

"Oh, he's out of his depth," he murmured. "No idea of the damage he might have done."

"So what do we do now?" Martha asked.

"Now? Well, this building must be full of laboratories. I say we do our own tests."

"Lucky I've just collected a DNA sample then, isn't it?" Martha said and hold up the hand Lazarus had just kissed.

"Oh, Martha Jones, you're a star," he said and beamed at her.


Mira's POV

They were in the laboratory, analysing Lazarus's DNA. He had really done it. Well, certainly not without help, but here it was. The dream of immortality, came true. But she had no doubt he would realise, sooner or later, that in truth it had every potential for becoming his very own, personal nightmare. Even more so if he would unleash this technology. Humanity would rage wars because of it.

"Amazing," the Doctor said to the image on the screen.

She had seen it as well, but Martha obviously not.

"What?" Martha asked.

"Lazarus's DNA," the Doctor said as if that would explain it.

"I can't see anything different," Martha replied.

"Look at it."

And then it happened again. It flickered, changed, mutated, but only for the glimpse of an eye. Then it was all quiet again.

"Oh, my God. Did that just change? But it can't have," Martha said now.

"But it did."

"It's impossible."

"And that's two impossible things we've seen so far tonight," the Doctor said and smiled. "Don't you love it when that happens?"

"That means Lazarus has changed his own molecular patterns," Martha replied.

"Hypersonic sound waves to destabilise the cell structure, then a metagenic programme to manipulate the coding in the protein strands," he explained. Basically, he hacked into his own genes and instructed them to rejuvenate."

"But he failed at stabilising it," she added.

"Yeah, he missed something," the Doctor confirmed. "Something in his DNA has been activated and won't let him stabilise. Something that's trying to change him."

"Now the question is, into what?" she asked and their eyes met. "There's all sort of stuff, laying dormant, in a human DNA. Ages of evolutionary inheritance. It doesn't even need to mutate into something completely new."

"Well, lets find out then," he said quietly, his eyes still locked with hers.

"That woman said they were going upstairs," Martha finally said, breaking the moment.

"Let's go then!" the Doctor said and ran off, she and Martha following him.

Little later they arrived in his office. It was empty. Or at least, that was what it looked like. But then Martha pointed to the desk.

"Is that the old lady?"

"Used to be," the Doctor said and they hurried over to her dried out corpse. "Now it's just a shell. Had all the life energy drained out, like squeezing the juice out of an orange."

Orange? What in hell?

"Really?" she said, in a voice that made the Doctor look up at her. "She might have been old already, and yes, she's dried out now. But do you really think your comparison with an juicing an orange is appropriate in any way? She just died a moment ago!"

He looked at her for a moment, as if caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

"Sorry," he finally said, looking down at the dead body.

"So, Lazarus then?" Martha said quietly.

"Could be," the Doctor replied.

"So he's changed already?"

"Not necessarily," he replied. "You saw the DNA. It was fluctuating. The process must demand energy. This might not have been enough."

"So he might do this again?"

They had to find him, before he could kill again. But he wasn't in the reception room. But Martha's mother was, with the Doctor spilling her drink whilst running past her. She yelled after him, but they couldn't stop now. She couldn't help it, but something was telling her that there was more trouble to be expected from Martha's mother.

At least her brother could tell them that he had seen Lazarus not too long ago – together with Tish. They had gone upstairs. So upstairs the ran again.

"Where are they?" Martha asked as they had reached Lazarus's office.

"Fluctuating DNA will give off an energy signature," the Doctor replied as he was scanning with his Sonic. "I might be able to pick it up. Got him!"

"Where?" she asked.

If he was with Tish, then she was in trouble. And if he had been down with her, after murdering his wife, he probably wasn't even aware of what was going on with him.

The Doctor pointed upwards.

"But this is the top floor,"Martha said. "The roof."

And on the roof they found them, not five minutes later.

"And is it like you expected?" Tish just asked Lazarus as the Doctor threw open the door that was leading to the roof.

"I find that nothing's ever exactly like you expect," Lazarus replied. "There's always something to surprise you. Between the idea and the reality, between the motion and the act-"

"Falls the Shadow," the Doctor completed.

"So the mysterious Doctor knows his Eliot. I'm impressed," Lazarus replied.

"Martha, what are you doing here?" Tish asked, seemingly not very pleased by their appearance.

"Tish, get away from him!" Martha tried to warn her.

"What? Don't tell me what to do."

"I wouldn't have thought you had time for poetry, Lazarus," the Doctor said now, "What with you being busy defying the laws of nature and all."

"You're right, Doctor," Lazarus said, "One lifetime's been too short for me to do everything I'd like. How much more I'll get done in two or three or four."

"You think so?" she asked before the Doctor could say anything. "One lifetime may be short. But it helps you to stay focused. To get things done, because you exactly know that, at some point, it will be too late to do them. You'll be too old. I strongly believe that's what drives humanity. As well as every other intelligent species."

"You should listen to her," the Doctor fell in as Lazarus remained silent. "In the end it's not about time anyway. Some people live more in twenty years than others do in eighty. It's not the time that matters, it's the person."

"What do you know?" he said to her, "Look at you. You're still in your early twenties, aren't you?" Then he turned to the Doctor. "I think it only has to be the right person. What a gift it would be then."

"Or what a curse," the Doctor replied. "Look at what you've done to yourself."

"Who are you to judge me?" Lazarus asked.

Right. Who are we – am I – to judge him. I of all people.

But it wasn't that simple. For a start, she wasn't mutating, at least not any more. And what had happened to her genes had happened before she was born.

"Over here, Tish," Martha tried again to get Tish away from Lazarus.

"You have to spoil everything, don't you?" Tish replied. "Every time I find someone nice, you have to go and find fault."

Tish had turned to them, so she couldn't see what happened to Lazarus behind her back. And it didn't look particularly healthy.

"Tish, he's a monster!" Martha yelled now.

"I know the age thing's a bit freaky, but it works for Catherine Zeta-Jones."

Then she turned around and saw what had happened. Lazarus had turned into something like a giant scorpion, the only human thing left about him was his face.

"What's that?" she yelled, utter terror in her voice.

"Run!" she heard the Doctor's voice, and now even Tish didn't object.


OneWhoReadsToMuch, heroherondaletotherescue, bored411, NeoMulder, InfinityMars, MiaEther, djmegamouth, Julia N SnowMiko, Type40TARDIS: Thanks for reading and reviewing :-)

And thanks to everyone who was reading, liking and following this story so far. A happy new year in advance! :-)