The Dread of Tomorrow and Yesterday – Chapter 11
Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who, if I did, Rose and I would go out for chips every day.
A/N: Here's The Poison Sky, everyone! I wonder what's going to happen in this chapter. What will Rhea do when the Doctor tries to sacrifice himself?
Notes on Reviews:
IKhandoZatman: Yeah, definitely, he is Batman. That shot was too perfect!
Tooclosefortety: Thanks, I do like writing Rhea make the Doctor blush, I think she really does like doing it, she does it on purpose. The Ninth Doctor does have a strong personality and I'd think they'd have a very intense relationship. They won't fight much in the first episode I write with the two of them, because Rhea would just be getting used to the Doctor in that body, but later on, I think they'd fight heaps, they're both incredibly stubborn.
Littlebirdd: I do really like your idea, it's very original, unfortunately I've already kind of planned out what I think will happen in Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways, but it is sort of similar to your idea. I do really like the idea of a human becoming a Time Lord (especially like Melody/River).
Romanadvoratrelu: I hope you like this chapter. I can't wait to write The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances because I get to write a jealous Doctor, but it will be a while before I get to the chapter. I want Rhea to get used to the ninth Doctor first. River and Rhea will be very good friends, they're very similar, flirty and trigger-happy. But Rhea will be protective over the Doctor in the first couple of chapters with River because she won't trust River at the beginning. And I can't wait to write Let's Kill Hitler, for that reason, because it would have Rhea warring between the need to protect the Doctor but her affection for River as well.
Kristina'sMyName: I'm so glad you liked the chapters and don't worry, I can't forget Wilfred. I wonder how he's going to get out of the car in this chapter! I totally agree with you about Jack, he's absolutely gorgeous. I always wondered what happened between Martha and Mickey, but I felt like they were just pairing them off because there was no one else, I mean the Doctor had Rose (kind of) so Mickey and Martha were the ones left. My affection for Rose depends on the episode as well, I liked her in The Idiot's Lantern and The Satan Pit and that's pretty much the only ones where I liked her character the entire way through. Donna was amazing, she is definitely my favourite companion. I agree with you about Amy, she did make me angry (especially about her treatment of Rory) in the first couple of episodes in Season 5 and the again in The Impossible Astronaut when she shot the little girl in the space suit. River is freaking amazing. And so is Clara, definitely.
Italics – Rhea's thoughts/the Doctor's thoughts
The Poison Sky: Nuclear
"Get me out of here!" Wilf said, weakly, coughing loudly.
Mrs. Noble rushed into the house, just as Wilf collapsed inside the car. Rhea looked at the Doctor from her place at the car door, still trying to get it open by any means necessary, to see him standing in the middle of the street, powerless to stop the world from being consumed by the poisonous gas.
"He's gonna choke! Doctor! Rhea!" Donna screamed.
The Doctor was busy under the bumper of the car, trying to use his sonic screwdriver to stop the gas coming from the ATMOS device.
"It won't open!" The Doctor shouted.
"Wilf." Rhea said, drawing the old man's attention. "Duck." She ordered, before pulling out her blaster, pulling the trigger and shooting at the windshield, making sure that Wilf was out of her line of fire. The blast shot through the middle of the glass window and shattered the whole windshield, glass falling in and out of the car, while Wilf curled into a ball against the window that Donna was at. She looked at Donna and at the Doctor, who just stared at her in shock. "Don't just stand there! Get him out of the car!"
"Thanks!" Wilf said to Rhea, as Donna and Rhea helped him up the driveway and closer to the house.
"I can't believe you just did that." Donna said to Rhea. "I mean, I always thought you just got better with practice, but wow, that was bloody amazing." Donna crowed.
"I did get better with practice." Rhea replied. "My uncle taught me how to shoot when I was a kid." She fell quiet.
"Get inside the house. Just try and close off the doors and windows." The Doctor said from behind them.
There was the screeching of tyres and Rhea looked back to see Ross pulling up in a black taxi.
"Doctor! Dr. Adwani! This is all I could find that hasn't got ATMOS." Ross said, from inside the car.
The Doctor ran to the taxi and Rhea passed Wilf to Donna's mother, who was holding an axe with one hand and glaring at her. Rhea rush down the driveway down to the car. "Donna, you coming?" Rhea shouted, looking back mid-run.
Donna looked at them for a moment. "Yeah!"
"Donna! Don't go! Look what happens every time that Doctor and his girlfriend appear! Stay with us, please." Donna's mother begged.
"You go, my darling!" Wilf told Donna, pushing her towards the driveway.
"Dad!" Mrs Noble shouted.
"Don't listen to her! You go with the Doctor! That's my girl!" Wilf shouted as Donna ran down the driveway and got into the car with the Doctor and Rhea. "Bye!"
Rhea watched as Donna gave her grandfather, who waved her goodbye, a sad smile as they drove away, feeling a pang in her chest. She might die here, or a couple of days from now, if her previous trips with the Doctor were anything to go by, and her mother would never know. She counted the days in her head, it had been more than a week since she had talked to her mother, let alone seen her. She closed her eyes and leaned back in the seat, not noticing the worried look that the Doctor gave her after she shut her eyes.
The taxi pulled up to the ATMOS factory and the Doctor, Rhea and Donna exited the car.
"Ross, look after yourself, get inside the building." The Doctor told Ross, shutting the door.
"Will do." He picked up his radio. "Greyhound 40 to Trap 1, I have just returned the Doctor and Dr. Adwani to base safe and sound, over."
"Trap 1, received. Over." Colonel Mace said over the radio.
"The air is disgusting!" Donna said, coughing loudly.
"It's not so bad for me, go on, get inside the TARDIS." He turned to Rhea. "Go with her."
"No." Rhea said, folding her arms stubbornly.
"Rhea, you're human. The gas will affect you."
"I'm staying with you, you're the guy who keeps saving my life, I am so not letting you go anywhere without me. And I can deal with the gas until we get into the factory." Rhea retorted.
The Doctor gave an exasperated growl and turned to Donna. "Oh, never given you a key!" He pulled a key out of his coat pocket and handed it to her. "Keep that! Go on, that's yours! Quite a big moment really!" He said, grinning.
"Yeah, maybe we can get sentimental after the world's finished choking to death!" Donna said.
"Good idea!" Rhea agreed, grabbed the Doctor and started running towards the factory.
"Where are you going?" Donna shouted.
"To stop a war!" The Doctor shouted back while they rushed to the UNIT field base while Donna ran in the opposite direction to the TARDIS.
"Right then, here I am, good." The Doctor said, throwing open the doors and walking into the makeshift office. "Whatever you do, Colonel Mace, do not engage the Sontarans in battle, there is nothing they like better than a war. Just leave this to us." He said, looking at the monitor.
"And what are you going to do?" The colonel asked them.
"We've got the TARDIS, we're gonna get on board their ship." The Doctor said.
"I wish you'd stop saying 'we'." Rhea muttered and ran up to Martha. "Come on." She said, tapping her on the shoulder, pulling her along with them.
The Doctor ran down the alleyway to find the TARDIS gone.
"Where's the TARDIS?" Rhea asked, looking around. "This is the right alley, yeah?"
The Doctor looked thoughtful as he paced around the alley. "Taste that, in the air. Yecch. That sort of metal tang. Teleport exchange. It's the Sontarans, they've taken it. I'm stuck, on Earth like... like an ordinary person." He grimaced. "Like a human! How rubbish is that!" Rhea glared at him and he looked apologetic. "Sorry, no offence, but come on!"
Rhea walked up to him. "What about Donna? She was in the TARDIS." Rhea asked, worriedly, her eyebrows furrowing. He fixed her with her look.
"I'll get her back." He promised, clutching her shoulders.
"So, what do we do?" Martha asked him.
"Well... I mean it's shielded, they could never detect it." The Doctor said and then stopped. Rhea frowned as she looked at the Doctor, who was staring intently at Martha.
"What?" Martha asked him, noticing it as well.
"I'm just wondering, have you phoned your family and Tom?" The Doctor asked her, carefully.
"No, what for?" Martha asked, confused.
Rhea raised an eyebrow. "The gas. Tell them to stay inside." Rhea wondered why Martha was being so apathetic about this, especially considering it was about her family.
Martha's eyes widened as if she had just realised something. "Course I will, yeah," She said, laughing a bit, just like someone did when they were trying to cover something up. "But, what about Donna? I mean, where is she?"
"Oh, she's gone home." Rhea's eyes snapped to the Doctor. She wondered why he was lying to Martha. "She's not like you, she's not a soldier. Right. So, avanti!"
They returned to the UNIT base.
"Change of plan!" The Doctor said, taking off his trench coat and throwing it somewhere in the office.
"Good to have you fighting alongside us, Doctor and Dr. Adwani." The colonel said, pleased.
"We're not fighting, we're not-fighting, as in not hyphen fighting, got it? Now, does anyone know what this gas is yet?" The Doctor asked, looking around at the other soldiers.
"We're working on it." Martha said, looking at something on her monitor.
"It's harmful, but not lethal until it reaches 80% density. We're having the first reports of deaths from the centre of Tokyo City." A woman at a computer told them.
"And who are you?" The Doctor said, going over to that computer.
The woman stood up and saluted. "Captain Marion Prince, sir, ma'am."
"Oh, put your hand down. Don't salute." The Doctor said, exasperated with the number of people who had saluted him the past couple of hours, going back over to Colonel Mace.
"Jodrell Bank's traced a signal, Doctor, Dr Adwani, coming from 5000 miles above the Earth. We're guessing that's what triggered the cars." Colonel Mace informed them.
The Doctor pressed a button on the control panel and they could see the signal beaming out of Earth into space on the monitor.
"The Sontaran ship." Rhea murmured.
"NATO has gone to Defcon One, we're preparing a strike." The colonel told them.
"You can't do that, nuclear missiles won't even scratch the surface. Let me talk to the Sontarans." The Doctor said to the colonel.
The colonel shook his head. "You're not authorised to speak on behalf of the Earth."
"I've got that authority; I earned that a long time ago." The Doctor used the sonic screwdriver to patch the UNIT systems to the Sontaran ship by sticking it into a panel. "Calling the Sontaran Command Ship under Jurisdiction Two of the Intergalactic Rules of Engagement. This is the Doctor."
"Doctor, breathing your last?" General Staal asked when his face appeared on the monitor.
"My God, they're like trolls." The colonel breathed, his mouth open.
"Yeah, loving the diplomacy, thanks." The Doctor said, sarcastically, to the Colonel. "So, tell me, General Staal, since when did you lot become cowards?" The Doctor said, loudly, to the Sontarans.
"How dare you!" General Staal blustered.
"Oh, that's diplomacy!" Colonel Mace scoffed.
"Doctor, you impugn my honour!" General Staal shouted.
"Yeah, I'm really glad you didn't say belittle 'cause then I'd have a field day." The Doctor commented. "But poison gas?"
"Since when do warriors resort to biological warfare? That's the weapon of a coward and you know it." Rhea told the general, standing behind the doctor and placing her hands on his shoulders.
"Staal, you could blast this planet out of the sky, and yet you're sitting up above watching it die. Where's the fight in that? Where's the honour?" The Doctor mocked, and then his voice lowered. "Or, are you lot planning something else? Cause this isn't normal Sontaran warfare. What are you lot up to?"
"A general would be unwise to reveal his strategy to the opposing forces." General Staal said.
"Aaah…" The Doctor made a sound of realisation. "The war's not going so well, then? Losing, are we?"
"Such a suggestion is impossible."
"What war?" Rhea asked, looking down at him.
"The war between the Sontarans and the Rutans." The Doctor explained. "It's been raging, far out in the stars for 50,000 years. 50,000 years of bloodshed, and for what?" The Doctor growled.
"For victory. Sontar-ha!" General Staal chanted, his staff striking his palm repeatedly.
"Sontar-ha! Sontar-ha! Sontar-ha!" The other Sontarans in the vicinity began to chant, one fist continuously pounding their palm.
The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Give me a break." He muttered. He pulled out the sonic screwdriver and changed the channel to the cartoon, Tommy Zoom.
"Well, that was a 'burn' if I ever saw one." Rhea commented, smirking down at the Doctor.
"Doctor. I would seriously recommend that this dialogue is handled by official Earth representation."
Rhea snorted. "Can you honestly find an 'official Earth representative' who wouldn't manage to screw this entire thing up?" The colonel tried to answer her but she continued, holding a finger up. "An Earth representative who knows just as much about the Sontarans as the Doctor does?" Rhea asked the colonel, fixing him with a stare. The colonel didn't say a word. Rhea smiled in satisfaction. She looked down at the Doctor to see him giving her a grin and she copied him, squeezing his shoulders.
The Doctor used his sonic screwdriver to change the channel back to the Sontaran ship frequency.
"Finished?" The Doctor asked, raising an eyebrow.
"You will not be so quick to ridicule when you'll see our prize. Behold!" The general gestured to a familiar blue police box behind him. "We are the first Sontarans in history to capture a TARDIS." He said, proudly.
"Well. As prizes go, that's... noble." The tone of his voice changed. " As they say in Latin, Donna nobis pacem. Did you never wonder about its design? It's phone box. It contains a phone. A telephonic device for communication. Sort of symbolic. Like if only we could communicate. You and I." He pointed at himself, then at the monitor. To anyone else, it would seem as though he was just randomly babbling, but when Rhea heard the word 'noble' and then 'Donna', she realised that he was trying to send a message to Donna, who was still stuck in the TARDIS. Hopefully she would be able to pick up the message on the TARDIS scanner.
"All you have communicated is your distress, Doctor." The general gloated.
"Big mistake though. Showing it to me." The Doctor remarked, leaning back in his seat, looking incredibly casual. He lifted up his sonic screwdriver, twirling it in his fingers. "Cause I've got a remote control."
"Cease transmission!" The general shouted and the screen went black.
"Oh well." The Doctor said, getting up.
"That's achieved nothing." The colonel argued.
"Oh, you'd be surprised." The Doctor said, going around the control panel.
Donna was sitting in the TARDIS, completely lost, when she decided to phone home.
"Mum? You all right?" She asked her mother when the woman answered the phone.
"Donna! Where are you, sweetheart?" Sylvia asked, worriedly.
"Is that her?" Wilf asked from his place at the curtains.
"Oh, just finish the job." Sylvia told her father. "Your granddad's sealing us in. He's sealing the windows. Our own house, and we're sealed in! All those things they said about pollution and ozone and carbon, they're really happening aren't they?" Sylvia asked her daughter.
"There's people working on it, Mum. They're gonna fix it, I promise." Donna said, thinking of the Doctor and Rhea and wondering how she could possibly help them from inside the TARDIS, trapped on a Sontaran ship. What did they want her to do?
"Oh, like you'd know, you're so clever." Sylvia snorted.
Donna just rubbed her forehead. "Oh don't start. Please, don't." Donna said, really fed up with those little snide comments her mother made.
"I'm sorry. I wish you were here." Sylvia murmured, starting to cry.
"Now, come on Sylvia, look. That doesn't help." Wilf took the phone from his daughter. "Donna? Where are you?"
Donna looked around the TARDIS. "It's sort of hard to say. You all right?"
"Yeah, fighting fit, yeah. Are they with you, the Doctor and Rhea?" Wilf asked Donna.
"Oh, those two!" Sylvia spat.
"No, I'm all on my own."
"Look, you promised they were gonna look after you." Wilf said to Donna.
"They will, Gramps." Donna reassured her grandfather. "There's…something they need me to do. I just don't know what." Donna said, tears in her eyes.
"Well, I mean, the whole place is covered, the whole of London they're saying and the whole, the whole world. It's the scale of it, Donna. I mean, how can two people stop all that?" Wilf asked, incredulously.
"Trust me. They can do it."
"Yeah, well if they don't, you tell them they'll have to answer to me."
"I will." Donna murmured into the phone, letting one tear fall. "Just as soon as I see them, I'll tell them."
"Huh." Wilf put the phone down and Donna ended the call and started to cry silently, while Sylvia looked outside the window to the fog covered streets.
The Doctor rushed to Martha, who was standing at the corner of the UNIT base and snatched the clipboard she was holding.
"There's carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides but 10% unidentified. Some sort of artificial heavy element we can't trace. You ever seen anything like it?" Martha asked, looking up at the Doctor, who was staring at the scanner.
"Must be something the Sontarans invented." The Doctor said.
"If it's not just poison, maybe they need the gas for something else. If they're a warrior race, there's gotta be a reason why they haven't just attacked and subjugated everyone yet." Rhea told the Doctor, looking at the clipboard.
"What could that be?" The Doctor asked, frustrated.
"Launch grid online and active." They heard Captain Price say loudly.
"Positions ladies and gentlemen, Defcon One initiatives in progress." Colonel Mace ordered.
Rhea's eyes widened as she realised what they were preparing to do. "Fuck."
"What?! I told you not to launch!" The Doctor shouted at the colonel.
"The gas is at 60% density, 80% and people start dying, Doctor. We've got no choice." The colonel defended.
"Launching in 60, 59, 58, 57, 56…" The Doctor stepped back until he was against the wall and ran his hands roughly through his hair, mussing it up even more than it usually was, his eyes wide as he stared helplessly at the monitor. "Worldwide nuclear grid now co-ordinating. 54, 53..." Rhea turned to look at Martha, who had her eye on her phone, and frowned. Why would Martha be looking at her phone in a time like this? Something isn't right with her. She didn't seem too concerned about her parents earlier in the alley, either.
"You're making a mistake, Colonel! For once, I hope the Sontarans are ahead of you." The Doctor growled.
"North America, online. United Kingdom, online. France, online. India, online. Pakistan, online. China, online. North Korea, online. All systems locked and co-ordinated. Launching in 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5..."
Rhea stood next to the Doctor, her hands cupping her mouth as she exhaled. She shut her eyes waiting for the inevitable consequence of UNIT's actions.
"God save us." She heard the colonel murmur. It was a bit late for prayer, wasn't it.
"…4, 3, 2, 1…" The countdown continued.
She saw Martha make just the slightest movement out of the corner of her eye. So slight that had she been facing just a few inches to the right, she never would have seen it.
"0."
The screen went black.
"What is it? What happened? Did we launch? Well, did we?" The colonel asked Captain Price.
Rhea saw the Doctor looking at Martha, suspiciously.
"What is it? What's wrong with her?" Rhea said, under her breath, making sure that Martha couldn't hear her.
"It's not her. It's a clone." The Doctor muttered.
Rhea stared at him for a second and he nodded. She exhaled and turned back to the monitor.
"Negative, sir. The launch codes have been wiped, sir. It must be the Sontarans." Captain Price told the colonel.
"Can we override it?" The colonel asked.
"Missiles wouldn't even dent that ship, so why are the Sontarans so keen to stop you?" The Doctor growled.
Rhea turned to the Martha clone. "Got any clue?"
The clone frowned. "How should I know?"
Suddenly, there was a crackling heard from the Colonel's radio, and Ross' voice came in. "Enemy within! At arms! Greyhound 40 declaring absolute emergency. Sontarans within factory grounds, east corridor grid six."
"Absolute emergency, declaring Code Red. All troops, Code Red!" Colonel Mace ordered over the radio.
"Get them out of there!" The Doctor hissed.
"All troops, open fire!" The colonel ignored them and gave the order.
The Doctor and Rhea froze.
Rhea held her breath.
"The guns aren't working. Inform all troops, standard weapons do not work." Ross informed them over the radio.
"Oh my god." Rhea moaned. "They're completely defenceless."
"Tell the Doctor and Dr. Adwani it's that Cordolaine signal. They're the only ones who can stop them." Ross said and then there was only static.
Rhea shook.
"Greyhound 40, report. Over. Greyhound 40, report. Greyhound 40, report!" The colonel repeated.
"He wasn't Greyhound 40, his name was Ross Jenkins." Rhea said, quietly.
"Now, listen to me, and GET THEM OUT OF THERE!" The Doctor roared at the colonel.
"Trap One to all stations. Retreat. Order imperative, immediate retreat!"
"They've taken the factory." The colonel informed them.
"Why? They don't need it. Why attack now? What are they up to?" The Doctor paced around the office. "Times like this, I could do with the Brigadier." He turned back to the colonel. "No offense."
"None taken. Sir Alistair's a fine man, if not the best. Unfortunately he's stranded in Peru."
"Launch grid back online." Captain Price said and the computer screen turned on to show a map of the world. Then, the screen went black again.
"They're inside the system, sir. It's coming from within UNIT itself." Captain Price informed the colonel, flicking a switch.
"Trace it. Find out where it's coming from, and quickly. Gas levels?"
"66% in major population areas. And rising."
"Why are they defending the factory only after we were inside?" The colonel asked the Doctor.
"Because they wanted UNIT here. You gave them something they needed. Something now hidden inside the factory. Something precious." The Doctor muttered.
"Then we've got to recover it." He looked at the Doctor. "This Cordolaine signal thing, how does it work?"
"The bullets. It causes expansion of the copper shell."
"Excellent. I'm on it." The colonel said, getting up and leaving the mini-office.
The Doctor threw himself at the doorway. "For the billionth time, you can't fight Sontarans!" He shouted after the colonel.
The Doctor turned to her quickly, looking back every few seconds, just to make sure that the Martha clone wasn't looking their way.
"Phone. Have you got a phone? I need your mobile, quickly, hurry up!" The Doctor hissed quickly.
Rhea quickly reached into her blazer pocket and pulled out her mobile, which she had barely used since she had started travelling with the Doctor. She threw the phone at him and he caught it with both his hands, rushing into the furthermost corner of the office.
"Keep an eye on the clone." The Doctor muttered to her as he dialed a number.
"What's happened, where are you?" Donna's voice was heard on the mobile.
"Still on Earth. But don't worry, we've got our secret weapon." The Doctor said.
"What's that?" Donna asked, confused.
"You." The Doctor said.
"Oh. Somehow that's not making me happy. Can't you just zap us down to Earth with that remote thing?"
"Yeah, I haven't got a remote, though I really should. But I need you on that ship. That's why I made them move the TARDIS. I'm sorry, but you've got to go outside."
"But there's Sonterruns out there."
"Sontarans, but they'll all be on battle stations right now. They don't walk around having coffee. I can talk you through it."
"But what if they find me?" Donna asked, quietly.
The Doctor exhaled. "I know, and I wouldn't ask, but there's nothing else I can do. The whole planet is choking, Donna."
Donna started to walk to the TARDIS doors. "What d'you need me to do?"
"The Sontarans are inside the factory which means they've got a teleport link with the ship, but they'll have deadlocked it. I need you to reopen the link."
"But, I can't even mend a fuse." Rhea frowned as she heard the lack of self-esteem in Donna's voice.
"Donna!" The Doctor growled. "Stop talking about yourself like that. You can do this. I promise."
Donna opened the TARDIS door to see a Sontaran a few feet away with his back to the TARDIS. She closed the door silently, resting against the back.
"There's a Sonterrun... Sontaran."
"Did he see you?" The Doctor asked, slowly, fear rising in him.
"No, he's got his back to me."
"Right, Donna, listen, on the back of his neck on his collar there's a sort of plug, like a hole. The Probic Vent. One blow to the Probic Vent knocks 'em out."
"But he's gonna kill me." Donna murmured, unable to believe that he was putting her through this.
"I'm sorry. I swear, I'm so sorry. But you've got to try." The Doctor whispered into the phone, rubbing his eyes in frustration.
There was no answer from Donna.
Rhea decided it was her time to cut in. She snatched the phone away from the Doctor, despite his protests, and held it to her ear. "Now, Donna, Donna, I want you to listen to me very carefully. I want you to go over to the TARDIS console. Remember that mallet that the Doctor was using on the TARDIS? The one I told him not to use? It's hanging underneath the console. Grab it." Donna picked up the mallet. "Now, that's going to be your weapon. I want you to go over to the doors and tip-toe out, as quietly as possible, and give one hard and fast strike to the notch-thingy on the back of the Sontaran's neck." Rhea waved her hand at the Doctor's correction of 'probic vent', ignoring him. "You get one hit, Donna. Make it quick and make it count. If you miss, well, drop yourself to the floor, avoid beams of light for as long as you possibly can, and see if you can get as many hits to the head with the mallet before he lasers you to death."
"That's not really comforting, Rhea." Donna hissed as she approached the doors. She snuck behind the Sontaran and hit its probic vent, knocking him out instantly.
"Back of the neck!" Donna whispered, triumphantly, a proud smirk plastered across her face.
Rhea relaxed just a bit, a similar smirk on her face as well. "Oh, you are awesome, Red, I'm gonna give the phone back to the Doctor, okay, good luck." She whispered into the phone, simultaneously keeping an eye on the Martha clone. She handed the phone back to the Doctor, who kissed her hard on the forehead in a show of thanks. Rhea flushed at the gesture of affection and smiled slowly up at him, beaming when he returned it with a grin of his own. She turned her attention back to the Martha clone, who was still staring intently at her computer.
"Now then you gotta find the external junction feed to the teleport."
"What... what's it look like?" Donna asked.
"A circular panel on the wall. Big symbol on the front, like a, like a letter T with a horizontal line through it. Or, or two Fs back to back."
"Well, there's a door."
"Should be a switch by the side."
"Yeah there is. But it's Sontaran-shaped, you need three fingers."
Rhea snorted and the Doctor paused, as though he couldn't believe what she had just said. "You've got three fingers." He said, slowly.
"Oh, yeah!"
Donna put her hand into the groove and the door slid open.
"I am through."
Rhea exhaled in relief. She hadn't even realised how tense her body had been, and she relaxed a bit more, letting her shoulders descend and unclenching her fists.
"Oh, you are brilliant, you are." The Doctor said, proudly, kissing the phone.
"Shut up. Right. T with a line through it."
Rhea smacked the Doctor's arm when she saw Colonel Mace enter the office through the door, since his back was turned to the window. He turned around and saw Colonel Mace.
"Got to go. Keep the line open!" He hissed to Donna.
"Counter-attack." The colonel ordered the soldiers.
The Doctor ran out of the mini-office, Rhea close behind him. "I said you don't stand a chance!"
The colonel ignored the Doctor. "Positions." He turned to them. "That means everyone!" He threw them both a gas mask each.
The Martha clone came up behind them. "You're not going without me." She said, strongly.
The Doctor eyed her. "Wouldn't dream of it." He said, blandly, the double meaning only evident to Rhea as she looked between the two of them.
On the Sontaran spaceship, Donna hid in a shadowy corner as a troop of Sontarans marched past.
The UNIT soldiers gathered outside the ATMOS factory, their vision obscured by the fog. Everyone had gas masks on, including the Doctor and Rhea. Colonel Mace showed them a gun.
"Oh my god, it's like a parody of Insidious." Rhea muttered, referring to the gas masks.
"Latest firing stock, what do you think, Doctor?" The colonel asked.
"Are you my mummy?" The Doctor asked.
Rhea snickered when she heard the absolutely random question from the Doctor. She realised that there was something behind the question. She would just have to wait and find out.
"If you could concentrate." The colonel demanded. "Bullets with a rad-steel coating, no copper surface. Should overcome the Cordolaine signal."
"But the Sontarans have got lasers! You can't even see in this fog, the night-vision doesn't work." Rhea retorted, turning around in a full circle.
"Thank you, Dr. Adwani, thank you for your lack of faith. But this time, I'm not listening." The colonel said, turning away from them. He pulled off his gas mask and addressed the soldiers. "Attention, all troops! Sontarans might think of us as primitive. As does every passing species with an axe to grind. They make a mockery of our weapons, our soldiers, our ideals. But no more! From this point on, it stops. From this point on, the people of Earth fight back and we show them! We show the warriors of Sontar what the human race can do! Trap One to Hawk Major! Go, go, go!"
Everyone looked up as a loud sound came from the air above them and Rhea stumbled from the force of the entrance. The fog started to clear and a massive ship with engines running at full speed appeared above them.
"It's working! The area's clearing. Engines to maximum!" The colonel ordered.
"It's the Valiant!" The Doctor cried, staring up in amazement.
"What's the Valiant?" Rhea shouted at the Doctor over the noise of the engines.
"Spoilers!"
"UNIT Carrier Ship Valiant reporting for duty, Doctor and Dr. Adwani! With engines strong enough to clear away the fog." The colonel informed the two of them.
They took off the gas masks as the smog was cleansed from the air around them.
"Woah, that's brilliant!" The Doctor exclaimed, grinning, pulling off the gas mask and ruffling his hair.
"Getting a taste for it, Doctor?" The colonel asked, a knowing smile on his face.
The Doctor grimaced. "No, not at all. Not me." He said, walking away.
"Valiant, fire at will!" The colonel ordered.
A bunch of green beams shot out of the Valiant from different places and united as one blast, firing at the ATMOS factory. At the same time, the UNIT soldiers started an attack on the ground too.
"East and north secure. Doctor?" The colonel rushed away with the soldiers as they ambushed the factory.
The Doctor pulled the phone back to his ear. "Donna, hold on. We're coming." The Doctor whispered before putting the phone back in his pocket.
The Martha clone appeared and approached them in a rush.
"Shouldn't we follow the colonel?" The Martha clone asked them both.
"Nah, you, me and Rhea, Martha Jones. Just like old times!" The Doctor said, pulling out his sonic screwdriver and pointed it in the air, trying to find the Sontaran signal. He pointed the screwdriver to his left and kept it close to his ear, following the signal. "Alien technology, this way!"
The Doctor, Rhea and the Martha clone headed down to the basement, where the signal was originating from.
"No Sontarans down here. They can't resist a battle. Here we go." The Doctor said.
When they entered the room, the entire place was deserted, except for Martha, dressed in a white hospital gown, in some sort of chamber, with electrodes attached to her head, in some sort of hypnotic sleep. The Doctor and Rhea ran to her.
"Ooh, Martha, I'm so sorry." The Doctor murmured, looking down at her.
Rhea placed two fingers underneath her jaw and checked her pulse. "She's still alive." Rhea let out a breath she hadn't realised she was holding. She looked out of the corner of her eye and saw the Martha clone, pointing a gun at them. She turned around to face the clone, but the Doctor didn't stop observing the real Martha.
"Wish you carried a gun now?" The clone asked.
"Not at all." The Doctor said.
"I've been stopping the nuclear launch all this time." The clone said, smugly.
Rhea shrugged. She lashed out with her leg and struck the bottom clone's wrist with the front of her heels in a crescent kick. The clone threw and dropped the gun with a shriek of pain, clutching her wrist, and Rhea kicked the gun away, sending it into the darkness.
"Not so smug now, are you?" Rhea asked, smirking.
"You were doing exactly what I wanted. I needed to stop the missiles, just as much as the Sontarans. I'm not having Earth start an interstellar war. You're a triple agent!" The Doctor paced around.
"When did you know?" The clone asked, still clutching her wrist, which Rhea looked upon with pride.
"What, you? Oh, right from the start. Reduced iris contraction, slight thinning of the hair follicles on the left temple." He touched his finger to his hairline. "And, frankly, you smell. You might as well have worn a T-shirt saying 'clone'." He commented, walking back over to Rhea, who still hadn't left Martha's side. "Although, maybe not in front of Captain Jack. You remember him, don't you? Cause you've got all her memories. That's why the Sontarans had to protect her," He looked down at Martha. "To keep you inside UNIT. Martha Jones is keeping you alive." He growled and reached down, pulling the device off of Martha's head.
Martha arose with a scream, her eyes shooting open. At the same time, the clone fell to the ground in agony with the exact same scream.
A/N: Well, a cliffhanger, I suppose. And Rhea finally got to use her gun in this chapter. And it was a good shot too! And Rhea got a chance to showcase her fighting talents in this chapter as well, and instruct Donna on the Sontaran ship. Rhea managed to tell of Colonel Mace and use her fighting knowledge to banter against the Sontarans as well. I did love writing this chapter, but I think I loved writing the next one just as much. Next one's going to be a doozy. What will Rhea do when she finds out the Doctor plans on sacrificing himself to save the Earth? Will she go with him on the Sontaran ship? Instead of him? How will she react?
Anyway, Read and Review!