May 1st 1888
They spent the last week of April in almost quiet solitude at home, enjoying the chance to train, waiting for the new chairs from George and his friend and generally idling. A knock on the door did not surprise them, a case was long overdue arrival. The person who was at the door however…
"Captain Jack?!" Jenny stared. Rose had said he was rebuilding an empire or something. What on earth was he doing here.
"Captain!" Vastra seemed less surprised and beckoned him in. "To what do we owe the pleasure?"
He moved into the kitchen. "I have a case for you two lovely ladies. I was rather hoping you could help us out."
"Us?" The plural did not escape Vastra.
"Torchwood." Jack grinned. Jenny and Vastra froze. "Uh. Perhaps, I'd better explain." He laughed awkwardly at their expressions. "Not the Torchwood from your era. Or even Rose's era. This is…my Torchwood. Sort of. I'm more a freelance agent. I should be around here somewhere. I won't have joined up with them yet though."
"How d'you mean?"
"Well I was trying to get back to the Doctor and ended up in 1869."
"That wasn't long after I was born." Jenny mused.
"Ahh, if I'd've known I'd've come to visit you! Alas, this was a long time ago now. For me anyway."
"So, you're visiting us from the future." Vastra surmised, spotting the small device on his wrist that he'd used to get them home from Japan as she ushered them all into the living room.
"Precisely." He gave her a dazzlingly toothy grin as he sat down in an arm chair. "Strange thing. A case came up and a name was mentioned, and one thing led to another and I found this small note tucked away in this absolutely ancient archive folder, that I should contact a certain Miss Jenny Flint," he nodded towards Jenny, "about it. Well, I couldn't resist! Perfect excuse to come see you again after all. So here I am." He leaned back with a creak of leather, sprawling slightly.
"Here you are." Vastra looked at Jenny, whose face was wooden. They both remembered what the Prime Minister had said. They had not thought it would return quite so soon to haunt them.
"Yes." Jack became serious for a moment. "Chap calling himself the Marquis de Carabas. Oh you know him!" he spotted Jenny's eyes going wide. "Very dapper, I must say. That coat! He went on about time differentiations in Below, meaning he could skip through time or something. Not much different from what my device used to be able to do. Anyway. How does a little trip to Cardiff sound?"
"Cardiff?"
"In Wales?" Jack grinned.
"Wales." Jenny repeatedly hollowly.
"In 1998."
"What?!"
"Hey look, you're both in unison." Jack laughed. "The Doctor was right. Well you've travelled with my little device before. It's not like you're new to time travel. Shouldn't be any worries. I can fix you up with appropriate costume once we're there."
"Appropriate costume?" Jenny glanced at Vastra.
"Oh, don't worry. Torchwood know you well after all." Captain Jack realised Jenny's concern. "So…" he stood up and clapped his hands together. "Will you come? Like I said, no need to worry about clothes." He winked and gave a laugh. "Oh! But you might want to bring those beautiful swords I got for you both."
Vastra nodded, seemingly perfectly content to travel a hundred years and more into the future.
"Well then. I'll go get the cases." Jenny sped down to the basement where they were kept. Her heart was thumping, not so much at the thought of another case, that was par for the course but…1998? More than a hundred years in the future. This wasn't just nipping backwards a couple of months. Her hands shook slightly as she placed the swords in their cases with reverent care. The haphazard training she'd received meant she still wasn't really trained enough to use them. But she'd been lucky and, as Vastra had pointed out, it had never stopped her before. Grabbing both cases by the handle, she took a deep steadying breath and then walked back up the cellar steps.
"Excellent!" Jack exclaimed when he saw them. "Have you been practicing hard? A pro already?"
"When I can." Jenny shrugged.
"I'm sure you'll be fine." He held out his arm to Vastra, who carefully put on her veil before taking it. He offered his other arm to Jenny but she was fully occupied carrying the swords. "Well, shall we?" He stepped towards the door.
"Wait, we're not using your wrist thing?" Jenny asked, confused.
"It shorted out. No, this fine gentleman is going to guide us." Jack's grin became a little fixed as he opened the door to reveal the Marquis de Carabas.
The Marquis made an ostentatious bow. "If you'd like to follow me?"
They followed him silently through the streets. There was an eerie quality with travelling with the Marquis. Jenny felt as if some invisible barrier had come up and now sound was muffled and people didn't notice them. They ducked down an alley and through a small wooden door, descending down steps into a basement. Dim light that didn't seem to come from anywhere in particular illuminated their path through a patch of darkness where a wall should've been. Jenny wished her sword was strapped to her hip rather than in a case. Vastra was still arm in arm with Captain Jack, the Marquis striding ahead. Jenny wanted to close her eyes but they were squelching through mud now, along a dried river bed. She saw strange spears and guns and a large threatening cylinder which Captain Jack warned her to stay away from.
"It's an unexploded bomb. From the Second World War."
Jenny stared at it. The fact that there had been a second world war scared her. She wondered what had happened with the first one, and how far in the future it was. Would she live to see it?
Time became impossible to measure, as it had when she'd walked the One Path. Odd cries and strange voices echoed occasionally.
"It's rare I travel so far outside London. Cardiff Below is very different to London." The Marquis mused, after a while. "Of course, I had to pull in a few favours to gain us safe passage. But I always make sure to keep a few spare." He gave a humourless laugh.
The mention of favours jolted Jenny's memory. "Do you know Albie?" She jogged forward, slipping in the mud. He steadied her, took one of the sword cases and gave her a very odd look. Was he…afraid? After a moment, he regained his composure and they continued. "Yes. I know the Lord Rat Speaker."
"Does he owe you a favour?"
"Quite a few of the rat speakers do." The Marquis's mouth curled into a smile. "But no. Not his Lordship directly."
"Do you know when he came to Below?"
The Marquis smiled. "What will you give me for such information?"
"I wouldn't give him anything. He tried to trick me the same way." Captain Jack called out, causing the Marquis to scowl at him. "Luckily I know a few tricks of my own."
The Marquis hmphed. "We're nearly there. Then you're on your own."
"Hey, I negotiated for safe passage to AND from Cardiff Below."
"Indeed. And once your business is finished, I will be there to escort whatever pieces are left of you back home to your appropriate times."
Jenny wondered, watching this exchange, what Captain Jack had on the Marquis that he'd been able to negotiate this. She didn't have time to ponder long. A heavy looking steel door appeared in front of them.
With a flourish and a whirl of his coat, the Marquis disappeared.
"What did you give him?" Jenny asked, looking blankly at the door.
Jack coughed. "I promised him my coat, when I died." He laughed flatly. "Looks like this is our stop." He wrenched the wheel on the door round and it swung open to reveal what looked strangely reminiscent of the Torchwood vault Jenny had seen. Only, a lot brighter.
She winced at the buzzing overhead lights, the humming box in the corner, clicking and whirring to itself.
"Right then. First things first. Correct attire for 1998." Jack stepped through aisles of steel shelves to a small suitcase. Jenny looked scandalised at the blue trousers and gaudy jacket that Jack held up for her. "I think these should be your size." He took out a pair of bulky white shoes. "Trainers." He explained at Jenny's fixed expression.
"I coulda just brought my trousers." She said weakly.
"Yes. Not quite the style to fit in, alas." He turned to Vastra and handed her a pair of trousers and a long-sleeved roll neck jumper.
"At least it's purple." Vastra mused, holding up the long jacket that seemed part of the ensemble.
"C'mon. What's the point of time travel if you can't have a little fun with the clothing? Don't be like the Doctor where the man considers a change of colour of shirt a revolution in fashion."
The trousers seemed tough at least. Jenny ran her fingers over the strange material.
"Denim. You have to love it. They're from GAP." Jack laughed at her reaction. "I'll leave you two to get changed."
"And then you can tell us why we're here." Vastra said, a little sharply.
He smiled mysteriously. "Have you ever heard the phrase "Y ddraig goch ddyry cychwyn"?" They shook their heads. "It's the new motto. It pertains to the Red Dragon, which is the emblem of Wales."
Jenny felt dread spread through her.
"I take it," Vastra said, cottoning on as well, "this is a real dragon."
"You want us to kill a dragon?" Jenny whispered.
"Oh no. Nothing like that." Jack waved his hand. "It's gone missing from Below. We'd like you to help us find it."
He left and Jenny and Vastra looked at each other.
"Somehow," Jenny grumbled, "I don't think findin' a great big flyin' lizard is goin' to be the problem."
Vastra snorted, reluctantly beginning to remove her dress. "No."
"Catchin' it, without us getting' eaten or burnt to death…"
"Remind me, if we get home in one piece, to pay the Prime Minister a visit." Vastra smiled, showing all her teeth.
"No eatin' the Prime Minister!" Jenny struggled to get the denim trousers over her drawers and gave up. "Do they not wear underwear in the future?" she snapped.
Vastra held up a small pair of unembellished very short and very tight drawers for Jenny's inspection. "Try these."
Silently, Jenny took them. They fitted remarkably well, and she wondered how Jack had known what size of clothing to provide. Then again, she wasn't sure she absolutely wanted to know. Half her top seemed to be missing and she swiftly buttoned up the soft checked shirt to cover her stomach. She felt very exposed and awkward, tugging on the trainers. She looked at Vastra to see how the Silurian was getting on and flushed. Vastra always looked poised, no matter her clothing but she looked…sleek in the long high waisted trousers and roll neck. Vastra shrugged into the long jacket and raised her eye ridges at Jenny's attention.
Jenny hastily looked down under the guise of checking out her own gear. It didn't seem to be half so stylish as Vastra's clothing. She pulled on the denim jacket anyway, her hands disappearing inside the sleeves.
"We don't exactly look like dragon slayers." Jenny pointed out, looking back at Vastra.
"Just as well, as we're not here to slay it." Vastra shrugged, taking her broad leather strap from out the case, removing her jacket and buckling it round her, making sure she could still easily move and draw her swords in the strange outfit.
Jenny sighed and retrieved her own sword. It still rested easily at her hip. She felt it like an anchor, a piece of real and rightness and it settled her.
Jack knocked and Vastra called for him to come in.
"Perfect!" he declared upon seeing them. "You could be natives to the '90s. Well, apart from the swords. Bit of a give away."
"And the scales." Jenny was still confused how they could just walk around without Vastra's veil.
"No worries. I've got you covered." Jack removed the device from around his wrist. "May I?" he gestured to Vastra's arm. "It has a built-in cloaking device. If I press here…" he fiddled with a button. "Et voila. It's a little bit stronger than the perception filter. What do you think Jenny?"
Jenny just stared in mute shock. The eyes were the same, the same colour blue but it was now a human woman that stood in front of her. Short black hair framed a human face. The nose was the same she noticed. It was…Vastra. But it wasn't Vastra.
"Jenny?"
It was Vastra's voice. But it was a human hand that reached out towards her. It was still Vastra, Jenny told herself. She tensed but the hand that gently rested against her cheek was still cool and scaly and she relaxed.
"Think she prefers you looking like a Silurian." Jack winked at Vastra. "Shall we?" He added hastily, after receiving matching scowls.
