The train from London arrived at Cardiff Central with a loud screech. Mickey, who'd been waiting by the doors, was one of the first people off. He quickly made his way out of the station and headed off towards where Rose was meant to be waiting with the TARDIS.
Truth be told, he'd been a little put out when Rose had called just to ask him to bring her passport. It sounded like she was staying with the Doctor, which made him feel like—
Mickey shook his head. He'd decided on the train that he wasn't going to let his feelings get in the way of spending time with Rose. He stopped in front of the TARDIS and rapped on the door.
A few seconds later, a man Mickey had never seen before opened it. "Who the hell are you?"
Mickey blinked. "What do you mean, who the hell am I?" he asked. "Who the hell are you?"
"Captain Jack Harkness." The Captain looked him over. "Whatever you're selling, we're not buying."
"Get out of my way!" Mickey pushed past the man. Rose was fiddling with something at the console. Jackie's old neighbor, Jane — no, it was the Emissary, he remembered Rose telling him that — stood across from her, staring at a screen. She looked up and waved when Mickey entered.
"Don't tell me," Jack said from behind him. "This must be Mickey."
"Here comes trouble!" the Doctor said. Mickey looked up to see him up on a ladder. surrounded by wires. The Doctor grinned down at him. "How're you doing, Ricky boy?"
"It's Mickey!" Mickey corrected. Rose abandoned her spot at the console to come up to him, smiling. Mickey couldn't deny how happy she looked, even though it made something break a little inside him.
"Don't listen to him," she said, "he's winding you up."
"You look fantastic," Mickey told her. Rose grinned widely and pulled him into a tight hug.
"Aw, sweet, look at these two," Jack said. He looked between the two Time Lords. "How come I never get any of that?"
"Buy me a drink first," the Doctor quipped. The Emissary laughed brightly as Jack adopted a pout.
"You're such hard work."
"But worth it," the Doctor threw back.
"Did you manage to find it?" Rose asked Mickey as she pulled away. He nodded and dug through his pocket.
"There you go," he said, handing her passport over.
Rose smiled as she waved it at the Doctor. "I can go anywhere now."
"I told you," the Doctor said, "you don't need a passport."
"And if we end up in America again?" the Emissary asked him. "What then?"
Rose snorted in agreement. "It's all very well going to Platform One and Justicia and the Glass Pyramid of San Kaloon, but what if we end up in Brazil?" She grinned, tongue in teeth, and held up the passport. "I might need it. You see, I'm prepared for anything."
Mickey frowned. "Sounds like you're staying, then." The words just slipped out. The mood in the TARDIS plummeted as the time travelers all paused awkwardly. Mickey shifted uncomfortably and wished he'd kept his mouth shut up. He changed the subject quickly. "So, what're you doing in Cardiff?" He pointed at the Captain. "And who the hell's Jumping Jack Flash? I mean, I don't mind you hanging out with big-ears up there—"
"Oi!" the Doctor protested, sending a mock glare at the Emissary when she laughed.
"Look in the mirror," Mickey told him. "But this guy, I don't know, he's kind of..."
"Handsome?" Jack grinned.
Mickey scoffed. "More like cheesy."
"Early twenty first Century slang," Jack mused, looking at Rose. "Is cheesy good or bad?"
Mickey answered before Rose could. "It's bad."
"But bad means good, isn't that right?" Jack grinned. He winked at Rose, who giggled, shaking her head.
"Are you saying I'm not handsome?" the Doctor asked as he joined the others on the floor.
"Mmm, we don't want it going to your head," the Emissary teased as she came around to stand next to Jack.
"Are you saying I am handsome?" the Doctor teased right back. The Emissary looked away from him, cheeks were a bit flushed. The Doctor smiled to himself, pleased. Rose and Jack, self appointed matchmakers, smirked.
"We're just stopping off," the Emissary said to Mickey, changing the subject.
"We need to refuel," Rose told him, grinning widely. "The thing is, Cardiff's got this rift running through the middle of the city. It's invisible, but it's like an earthquake fault between different dimensions."
"The rift was healed back in 1869," the Doctor put in.
"Thanks to a girl named Gwyneth," Rose continued. Mickey started to look a bit lost as she grew more animated. "Because these creatures called the Gelth, they were using the rift as a gateway but she saved the world and closed it."
"But closing a rift always leaves a scar," Jack picked up, "and that scar generates energy, harmless to the human race—"
"But it's perfect for the TARDIS," the Emissary said. "So we just park it here for a little while, right on top of the scar and—"
"Open up the engines, soak up the radiation," Jack continued.
"Like filling her up with petrol and off we go!" Rose said.
"Into time!"
"And space!" all four of them laughed, high giving each other. Mickey shook his head.
"My God, have you seen yourselves?" he asked. "You all think you're so clever, don't you?"
The Doctor, Rose and Jack all shared a look before shrugging.
"Yeah," the Doctor said simply.
"Yeah," Rose agreed.
"Yep!" Jack reached out and patted Mickey's cheek.
"Pretty much," the Emissary laughed. Something beeped on the console and she turned to look. "Engines are starting to fill up."
The Doctor nodded and looked around. "Who wants to go sightseeing?" he asked the group.
~~~
"Should take another twenty four hours," the Doctor said as they all left the TARDIS, "which means we've got time to kill."
"That old lady's staring," Mickey said.
"Probably wondering what four people could do inside a small wooden box," Jack joked. The Emissary swatted his arm and he dodged away, laughing.
"What are you captain of," Mickey asked him, "the Innuendo Squad?"
Jack turned around and made a whatever sign with his hands, then started to walk away. Mickey started to follow, then paused.
"Wait, the Tardis, we can't just leave it," he said. "Doesn't it get noticed?"
"Yeah, what's with the police box?" Jack agreed, turning around. "Why does it look like that?"
"It's a cloaking device," Rose informed them.
"It's called a chameleon circuit," the Doctor said. He patted the side of the TARDIS. "The TARDIS is meant to disguise itself wherever it lands, like if this was Ancient Rome, it'd be a statue on a plinth or something." He smiled at the ship. "But I landed in the 1960s, it disguised itself as a police box, and the circuit got stuck."
"So it copied a real thing?" Mickey said, starting to smile. That was pretty cool, he had to admit. "There actually was police boxes?"
"On street corners," the Emissary confirmed. "People could call for help, back before radios and mobiles were invented."
"If they arrested someone," the Doctor added, "they could shove them inside till help came, like a little prison cell."
"Why don't you just fix the circuit?" Jack asked.
The Doctor shrugged. "I like it, don't you?"
Rose nodded. "I love it."
"It's very you," the Emissary told him. He smiled.
"But that's what I meant," Mickey said. "There's no police boxes anymore, so doesn't it get noticed?"
The Doctor sighed and put both hands on Mickey's shoulders. "Ricky, let me tell you something about the human race. You put a mysterious blue box slap bang in the middle of town, what do they do?" He didn't give Mickey a chance to answer. "Walk past it. Now, stop your nagging. Let's go and explore."
With that, he walked off, the other three time travelers right behind him. Mickey paused momentarily, looking around to see no one even noticing the TARDIS. He shook his head and caught up to the others.
"What's the plan?" Rose asked.
"I don't know," the Doctor shrugged. "Cardiff, early twenty first century, and the wind's coming from the east. Trust me. Safest place in the universe."
The Emissary sighed. "And you probably just jinxed it."
~~~
"I swear, six feet tall and with big tusks," Jack said animatedly, waving his hands around. The five of them had stopped for lunch on a small jetty. Rose and the Emissary were laughing together, the Emissary's head thrown back as Rose leaned into the table.
"You're lying through your teeth!" the Doctor interrupted from the Emissary's other side.
"I'd have gone bonkers!" Rose cried through her giggles. She smacked the table. "That's the word - bonkers!"
"I mean, it turns out the white things are tusks and I mean tusks!" Jack continued, grinning. "And it's woken, and it's not happy."
"How could you not know it was there?!" the Emissary asked him.
"And we're standing there, fifteen of us, naked—"
"Naked?!" Rose interrupted.
"And I'm like, oh, no, no, it's got nothing to do with me," Jack insisted, shaking his head. "And then it roars, and we are running. Oh my God, we are running! And Brakovitch falls, so I turn to him and I say—"
Mickey beat him to it. "I knew we should've turned left!"
"That's my line!" Jack cried as they all roared with laughter.
"I don't believe you." Rose shook her head at him. "I don't believe a word you say ever. That is so brilliant. Did you ever get your clothes back?"
The Emissary looked up, laughter fading as the Doctor left the table. She watched curiously as he approached a man before her attention was drawn back to Jack.
"No, I just picked him up, went right for the ship, full throttle," Jack was saying. "Didn't stop until I hit the spacelanes. I was shaking. It was unbelievable. It freaked me out, and by the time I got fifteen light years away, I realised I'm like this."
The Doctor came back over to their table, making them all look up at him.
"What's wrong?" the Emissary asked, seeing his solemn face.
He held up a paper. "And I was having such a nice day."
On the front page, Margaret the Slitheen stared back at them.
~~~
They gathered in the lobby of City Hall. Jack took charge. "According to intelligence, the target is the last surviving member of the Slitheen family, a criminal sect from the planet Raxacoricofallapatorious, masquerading as a human being, zipped inside a skin suit," he rattled off. The Emissary glanced at the Doctor, amused at his almost offended look as Jack gave them orders. She stifled a laugh. "Okay, plan of attack, we assume a basic 57-56 strategy, covering all available exits on the ground floor. Doctor, Em, you two go face to face. That'll designate Exit One, I'll cover Exit Two. Rose, you Exit Three. Mickey Smith, you take Exit Four." He looked around at them. "Have you got that?"
"Excuse me," the Doctor protested. "Who's in charge?"
The Emissary and Rose smirked at each other as Jack rolled his eyes, straightening up to an at-attention position. "Sorry. Awaiting orders, sir."
The Doctor nodded. "Right, here's the plan." He paused, then grinned. "Like he said. Nice plan. Anything else?"
"Present arms," Jack said. He pulled out a mobile phone.
"Ready," the Doctor said as the Emissary pulled out a mobile.
"Ready," Rose agreed, holding up her own phone.
Mickey nodded. "Ready."
"Ready," Jack finished. He pressed a button on his phone. "Speed dial?"
"Got it," the Emissary said.
"Ready," Rose replied.
"Check," Mickey finished.
Jack winked at them. "See you in hell."
~~~
The Doctor and Emissary stepped off the elevator in front of the Mayor's office.
"Hello," the Emissary said to the secretary. "We've come to see the Mayor."
The secretary raised an eyebrow, looking between them. "Have you got an appointment?"
"No, just some old friends passing by," the Doctor smiled. He rocked on his heels. "Bit of a surprise. Can't wait to see her face."
"Well, she's just having a cup of tea," the secretary said and looked away, clearly dismissing them. The Emissary leaned down and placed one hand on the desk. She waited until the secretary looked up at her, then smiled sweetly.
"Maybe," she said much less sweetly, "you could just let her know we're here." The secretary nodded quickly and she straightened back up. "Good. Just let her know that the Doctor and Emissary are here to see her."
"Nicely done," the Doctor said to her. She smiled back at him as the secretary stood and approached the office door.
"Doctor who?" the secretary asked.
"Just the Doctor," the Doctor told him. "Tell her exactly that. The Doctor."
"Hang on a tick." He entered the office. The Time Lords smirked as there was a shattering sound and the secretary came right back out, looking shaken. "The Lord Mayor says, uh, thank you for popping by. She'd love to have a chat, but, er, she's up to her eyes in paperwork. Perhaps if you could make an appointment for next week?"
"She's climbing out of the window, isn't she?" the Doctor asked.
The secretary nodded reluctantly. "Yes, she is."
The Time Lords pushed past him into Margaret's office and ran to the balcony. As they watched, Margaret climbed over the side of the balcony and dropped onto a ladder.
The Emissary raised the phone to her ear. "Slitheen is heading north," she informed the others.
~~~
Rose turned around and ran back the way she came. "On my way."
She yelped as she ran full force into a clerk carrying a stack of papers.
"Sorry!" she called back to them and kept running.
~~~
Jack stopped in his tracks when the Emissary's call came through to answer. "Over and out."
He ran back down the hall, not even pausing when a tea trolley crossed his path. He simply leapt over it and kept going.
~~~
"Oh my God," Mickey breathed as he realized that he was the one on the north exit. "Oh my God."
He ran for the exit and promptly crashed into a cleaning lady's cart.
~~~
The Time Lords started down the balcony. The Emissary was almost to the ladder when the secretary suddenly jumped on the Doctor's back. "Leave the Mayor alone!"
The Emissary sighed and turned back to help pull the secretary off.
~~~
Margaret reached the ground and pulled off her brooch, then took off running. She stopped to take off an earring, when she saw Rose rounding the corner. Growling, she turned to run a different way, only to see Jack coming towards her. She turned and ran back the way she came.
She ran past the ladder just as the Time Lords reached it.
"Margaret!" the Doctor yelled as they climbed down. Margaret ignored him and kept running, pulling off her other earring.
The four time travelers caught up to each other in the alleyway behind City Hall.
"Who's on Exit Four??" Jack asked as the four time travelers caught up to each other in the alleyway behind City Hall.
"That was Mickey!" Rose said.
Right on cue, Mickey stumbled out of the building. There was a bucket on his foot and he was panting, but he raised a hand. "Here I am."
"Mickey the idiot," the Doctor grumbled. The Emissary smacked the back of his head.
"Be nice," she scolded.
"Oh, be fair," Rose agreed, watching Margaret run slowly. "She's not exactly going to outrun us, is she?"
Ahead of them, Margaret vanished.
"She's got a teleport!" Jack complained. "That's cheating! Now we're never going to get her."
Rose smirked, patting his shoulder. "Oh, the Doctor's very good at teleports."
"Cassandra?" the Emissary asked her, tilting her head. Rose nodded.
The Doctor held up his sonic and Margaret suddenly popped back in front of them. She stopped, confused, then turned and ran away again, vanishing when she was a good few feet away. The Doctor held up the sonic again and Margaret came back. She repeated the sequence one more time before stopping in front of them, bent over trying to catch her breath.
The Doctor smiled down at her. "I could do this all day."
"This is persecution," Margaret gasped as she straightened up. "Why can't you leave me alone? What did I ever do to you?"
"You tried to kill us," the Emissary rolled her eyes. "And then tried to destroy the planet."
Margaret hesitated, then shrugged. "Apart from that?"
~~~
"So, you're a Slitheen, you're on Earth, you're trapped," the Doctor said to Margaret as they entered a conference room and gathered around the lone table. "Your family get killed but you teleport out just in the nick of time. You have no means of escape. What do you do?" He gestured towards the table. A model of Cardiff and a nuclear power plant sat on top. "You build a nuclear power station. But what for?"
"A philanthropic gesture," Margaret sniffed. "I've learnt the error of my ways."
"Oh, that's likely," the Emissary muttered. Margaret glared at her.
"And it just so happens to be right on top of the rift," the Doctor continued.
Margaret hesitated. "What rift would that be?"
"A rift in space and time," Jack told her. "If this power station went into meltdown, the entire planet would go shh-BOOM!" He made an explosive motion with his hands.
"You designed this station to explode the second it reaches maximum capacity," the Emissary agreed from next to him, eyeing Margaret.
"Didn't anyone notice?" Rose asked incredulously. "Isn't there someone in London checking this sort of stuff?"
"We're in Cardiff," Margaret sniffed derisively. "London doesn't care. The South Wales coast could fall into the sea and they wouldn't notice." She paused, looking surprised at what she'd said. "Oh. I sound like a Welshman. God help me, I've gone native."
"But why would she do that?" Mickey asked, sounding confused. "A great big explosion, she'd only end up killing herself."
"She's got a name, you know," Margaret snapped.
Mickey rolled his eyes. "She's not even a she, she's a thing."
"Oh, but she's clever." The Doctor reached down to the middle of the nuclear plant and pulling the base free in one swift motion. He flipped the base in his hands, looking impressed. "Fantastic."
Jack gasped, looking like a kid in candy store. "Is that a tribophysical waveform macro-kinetic extrapolator?"
"Couldn't have put it better myself."
"Oo, genius!" He took it from the Doctor and looked up at Margaret. "You didn't build this?"
"I have my hobbies," Margaret smirked. "A little tinkering."
"No," the Emissary denied, shaking her head. "He really meant that you didn't build this. This is technology way beyond you."
"I bet she stole it," Mickey said.
Margaret shrugged. "It... fell into my hands."
"Is it a weapon?" Rose asked.
"It's a transport," Jack explained, setting the extrapolator on the floor. "You see, if the reactor blows, the rift opens. Phenomenal cosmic disaster. But this thing shrouds you in a forcefield. You have this energy bubble, so you're safe." He stepped on top of it. "Then you feed it coordinates, stand on top, and ride the concussion all the way out of the solar system."
Mickey nodded his understanding. "It's a surfboard."
"A pan-dimensional surfboard, yeah," Jack agreed.
"And it would've worked," Margaret sneered. "I'd have surfed away from this dead end dump and back to civilisation."
"You'd blow up a whole planet just to get a lift?" Mickey asked, disgusted.
"Like stepping on an anthill."
"How'd you think of the name?" the Doctor asked suddenly. They all looked up to see him standing in front of the sign, staring up at it.
"What, Blaidd Drwg?" Margaret shrugged. "It's Welsh."
"I know, but how did you think of it?"
"I chose it at random, that's all. I don't know." She rolled her eyes. "It just sounded good. Does it matter?"
The Doctor turned to face the others. "Blaidd Drwg."
"What's it mean?" Rose asked.
"Bad Wolf." Rose's eyes widened in fear. Jack, Mickey and the Emissary all exchanged confused looks.
"But I've, I've heard that before," Rose stammered. "Bad Wolf. I've heard that lots of times."
"Everywhere we go," the Doctor nodded. "Two words following us. Bad Wolf." The Emissary raised both eyebrows at that. She had a vague recollection of hearing those words before, but only once, and from the look of it, Jack was as lost as she was. But if Rose and the Doctor were right...
"Doctor?" the Emissary asked silently. "I've only ever head those words once before."
He looked at her, brow furrowed. "Only once? When?"
"On Satellite Five. When we were all together..." she paused. "I don't think these words are following us, Doctor, I think they're following you."
He didn't have an answer to that.
"How can they be following us?" Rose asked, panic in her voice.
There was a long pause.
"Nah, just a coincidence," the Doctor said finally. He shook his head and smiled, a bit tensely. Rose rolled her eyes. She didn't buy that for one second!
"Like hearing a word on the radio then hearing it all day," the Doctor continued. "Never mind. Things to do." He turned and headed for the door. "Margaret, we're going to take you home."
"Hold on, isn't that the easy option?" Jack pointed out. "Like letting her go?"
"I don't believe it!" Rose grinned. "We actually get to go to Raxa-" She broke off, frowning. The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Wait a minute!" she told him, then tried again. "Raxacor-"
"Raxacoricofallapatorius," the Doctor rattled off quickly.
"Raxacorico-"
"—fallapatorius," the Emissary coached.
"Raxacoricofallapatorius." Rose's whole face lit up and she hugged the Doctor, laughing in delight. "That's it! I did it!"
"They have the death penalty," Margaret interrupted, killing the mood. "The family Slitheen was tried in its absence many years ago and found guilty with no chance of appeal. According to the statutes of government, the moment I return, I am to be executed. What do you make of that, Doctor?" She glared at him. "Take me home and you take me to my death."
His answer came quickly. "Not my problem."
~~~
It was dark out by the time they got back to the TARDIS. The Doctor unlocked the door quickly. The three humans followed him inside, then the Emissary pushed Margaret in.
"This ship is impossible," Margaret awed as she looked around. "It's superb. How do you get the outside around the inside?"
The Doctor snorted. "Like I'd give you the secret, yeah."
Margaret wasn't finished. "I almost feel better about being defeated. I never stood a chance. This is the technology of the gods."
"He wouldn't make a very good god," the Emissary told her. "You'd never get a day off."
The Doctor pointed to her in agreement.
Jack looked up from where he was examining the extrapolator. "This extrapolator's top of the range," he said to Margaret. "Where did you get it?"
"Oh, I don't know," Margaret brushed off. "Some airlock sale?"
"Must've been a great big heist," Jack decided. "It's stacked with power."
"But we can use it for fuel?" the Doctor checked.
"It's not compatible," Jack confirmed, "but it should knock off about twelve hours. We'll be ready to go by morning."
"Then we're stuck here overnight."
"I'm in no hurry," Margaret said.
"No one asked," the Emissary told her. "Be quiet."
"We've got a prisoner," Rose said excitedly. "The police box is really a police box."
"You're not just police, though," Margaret corrected her. Rose fell silent, smile slipping off her face. "Since you're taking me to my death, that makes you my executioners. Each and every one of you."
Mickey swallowed, but said, "Well, you deserve it."
"You're very quick to say so," Margaret countered. "You're very quick to soak your hands in my blood, which makes you better than me... how, exactly?" There was no answer. "Long night ahead," she said darkly. "Let's see who can look me in the eye." She looked around the console. Everyone looked away until Margaret squeaked in fear.
Rose looked up to see the Emissary holding Margaret's gaze. Bright blue energy was crackling in her eyes. She looked furious.
"You're in no position to be guilt tripping my friends, and I think it would be in your best interest to stop," she said slowly, her soft French accent thickening in anger. Rose froze in place, hairs standing on end.
"I'm sure you've heard of the Sentries of Gallifrey, Margaret," the Emissary continued, voice deadly calm. "Of the things we were known to do?" True fear entered Margaret's expression. "I'm the last of them. If anyone is going to be your executioner, it is me. Not my friends. And if you try to guilt them into letting you go again?" Her voice turned to a low hiss as she leaned forward. "I will not hesitate to kill you myself. Got that?" The blue faded from her eyes as Margaret nodded quickly. The Emissary leaned back, smiling pleasantly. "Glad we understand each other."
Rose shook herself out of her stupor. The Emissary's anger was terrifying, and it wasn't even directed at her. She looked around to see Mickey and Jack just as caught off guard as she'd been, though Jack looked more in awe than anything. The Doctor was staring at the Emissary with an odd expression, like he couldn't decide whether he wanted to disapprove or — Rose snorted quietly — be attracted to her.
"Like you said, Margaret," the Emissary finished, "long night ahead."
~~~
Mickey watched the water fall, not turning around when he heard the TARDIS door open. A few moments later, Rose joined him.
"It's freezing out here!" she said, tucking her hands in her pockets.
Mickey shrugged. "Better than in there," he countered, nodding back at the TARDIS. "She does deserve it. She's a Slitheen. I don't care. It's just... weird in that box."
Rose stared out at the water tower silently for a moment. "Yeah," she agreed finally. "I've never seen the Emissary that angry before."
"She was protecting us," Mickey reasoned. "And those Slitheen did try to kill us all not that long ago." Rose nodded, conceding the point. They stood in silence for a minute.
"I didn't really need my passport," Rose said, nudging Mickey's shoulder.
He smiled at her. "I've been thinking, you know, we could go have a drink," he said. "Have a pizza or something. Just you and me."
"That'd be nice," Rose agreed.
"And, I mean, if the Tardis can't leave until morning," Mickey continued hesitantly, "we could go to a hotel, spend the night. I mean, if you want to. I've got some money."
Rose nodded slowly. "Okay, yeah."
"Is that all right?" Mickey asked, seeing her hesitance.
Rose nodded more firmly. "Yeah."
"Cool," Mickey grinned and started to walk away. "There's a couple of bars around here. We should give them a go." He turned to see Rose trailing a few steps behind. He stopped. "Do you have to go and tell them?"
Rose hesitated, then shook her head, jogging a bit to catch up to him. "It's none of their business."
~~~
"It really isn't," the Emissary quipped as she came up behind the Doctor. "She's a big girl, Doctor, she can go with Mickey if she wants." He sighed and shoved the screen away from him.
"I gather it's not always like this, having to wait," Margaret spoke up from her seat on the stairs. "I bet you're always the first to leave, Doctor. Never mind the consequences, off you go."
The Emissary glared at the back of her head. She opened her mouth to say something, but stopped when the Doctor's hand landed on her shoulder.
"Let it go," he said. She sighed angrily, but did what he asked and went over to where Jack was sitting.
"You butchered my family and then ran for the stars, am I right?" Margaret continued, oblivious to what was happening behind her. "But not this time. At last you have consequences. How does it feel?"
"I didn't butcher them," the Doctor said lowly.
"Don't answer back," Jack told him. "That's what she wants."
"I didn't," the Doctor ignored him. "What about you? You had an emergency teleport. You didn't zap them to safety, did you?"
"It only carries one," Margaret defended. "I had to fly without coordinates. I ended up on a skip in the Isle of Dogs." They all snickered at that and Margaret turned around to glare at them. "It wasn't funny."
"Sorry," the Emissary said, schooling her features. She didn't sound very sorry. "It is a little funny."
"Do I get a last request?" Margaret asked, turning to ask the Doctor, figuring she had a better chance asking him.
The Doctor faced her fully, crossing his arms. "Depends what it is."
"I grew quite fond of my little human life," Margaret began to explain. "All those rituals. The brushing of the teeth, and the complicated way they cook things." The Doctor quirked an eyebrow. "There's a little restaurant just round the Bay. It became quite a favourite of mine."
"Is that what you want, a last meal?"
"Don't I have rights?" Margaret asked. The Doctor hummed, considering.
"Oh, like she's not going to try to escape," Jack protested.
"Except I can never escape the Doctor, let alone his pet Sentry," Margaret sneered, waving her hand at the Emissary, who was glaring fiercely at her at that. "So where's the danger?" She turned narrowed eyes on the Doctor. "I wonder if you could do it? To sit with a creature you're about to kill and take supper. How strong is your stomach?"
"Strong enough," the Doctor shot back.
"I wonder," Margaret said. "I've seen you fight your enemies, now dine with them."
"You won't change my mind," the Doctor told her. He gestured at the Emissary. "And you're certainly not changing hers."
"Prove it," Margaret dared him. He paused, then shook his head and turned away from Margaret.
"There are people out there," he said. "If you slip away just for one second, they'll be in danger."
"Except I've got these," Jack countered. From his pocket, he pulled out two bangles. "You both wear one. If she moves more than ten feet away, she gets zapped by ten thousand volts." The Emissary gave him a weird look.
"Do I even want to know why you just have those in your pocket?" she asked. Jack just winked at her.
"Only have two, though," he continued. "You and Margaret can go to dinner, and Em and I can stay with the TARDIS. If she somehow manages to get away, we'll be here to go after her."
The Doctor turned to Margaret, grinning. "Margaret, would you like to come out to dinner? My treat."
"Dinner in bondage," Margaret sneered. "Works for me."
~~~
Margaret was silent as they left the TARDIS, all the way until they reached the restaurant.
"Here we are, out on a date, and you haven't even asked my proper name," she said as they were seated.
"It's not a date," the Doctor shot back immediately. He looked over the menu in silence for a second before sighing and looking up at Margaret. He was taking her to her execution, the least he could do is learn her name. "What's your name?"
"Blon," she said. "I am Blon Fel Fotch Passameer-Day Slitheen. That's what it'll say on my death certificate."
Oh, look at that, he already regretted asking. "Nice to meet you, Blon."
"I'm sure," she answered. They sat in silence for a minute before she pointed out the window. "Look, that's where I was living as Margaret. Nice little flat, over there, on the top. Next to the one with the light on."
The Doctor turned to look. Behind him, he heard a click and rolled his eyes to himself, guessing what had happened.
"Two bedrooms, bayside view," Margaret continued as he turned back around. "I was rather content. Don't suppose I'll see it again."
"Suppose not," he said, and switched the glasses around, handing Margaret the poisoned one. She smiled angrily at him.
"Thank you," she said tightly.
The Doctor smiled. "Pleasure."
"Tell me then, Doctor," she said. "What do you know of our species?"
"Only what I've seen." He picked up the menu and began looking through the options.
"Did you know, for example, in extreme cases, when her life is in danger, a female Raxacoricofallapatorian can manufacture a poison dart within her own finger?"
She pointed at him. The tip of her finger opened and a dart flew at his face.
Without looking up, he caught it. "Yes, I did."
"Just checking," she smiled. "And one more thing, between you and me." She looked around to make sure no one was watching, then leaned in close. Sighing, the Doctor leaned in as well. "As a final resort, the excess poison can be exhaled through the lungs."
She started to exhale, then choked as the Doctor sprayed breath freshener directly in her mouth.
"That's better," he said happily. Margaret glared at him as she coughed. "Now then, what do you think? Mmm, steak looks nice. Steak and chips."
~~~
"The Doctor took me to this planet a while back," Rose told Mickey as they walked. "It was much colder than this. They called it Woman Wept. The planet was actually called Woman Wept, because if you looked at it, right, from above, there's like this huge continent, like all curved round. It sort of looked like a woman, you know, lamenting. Oh my God, and we went to this beach, right. No people, no buildings, just this beach like a thousand miles across. And something had happened, something to do with the sun, I don't know, but the sea had just frozen. In a split second, in the middle of a storm, right, waves and foam, just frozen, all the way out to the horizon." She tried to illustrate with her hands, not noticing Mickey's disinterest. "Midnight, right, we walk underneath these waves a hundred feet tall, made of ice."
"I'm going out with Trisha Delaney," Mickey interrupted. Rose faltered.
"Right," she said after a second, not sure how that made her feel. "That's nice. Trisha from the shop?"
Mickey nodded. "Yeah, Rob Delaney's sister."
"Well, she's nice," Rose said, nodding. She tilted her head. "She's not really your type."
"She changed," Mickey told her. "You've been away."
"Well, good for you," Rose said awkwardly. "She's nice."
They walked in awkward silence for a moment.
"So, tell us more about this planet, then," Mickey finally said, trying to fix the tension.
Rose shrugged. "That was it, really."
~~~
Jack watched the Emissary work from the corner of his eye. She stood at the console, helping him try to connect the extrapolator.
"You're a Sentry?" he asked her. She looked up and smiled, nodding. "I had no idea."
"Yeah," she said, then shrugged sheepishly. "I don't usually broadcast it. We weren't exactly well-liked by the time the War ended, and the humans we meet wouldn't know what that means anyway."
Jack nodded. He'd only learned about the Sentries once he'd started traveling in time and space, after all. He grinned up at the Emissary.
"So Margaret must've really pissed you off, then," he said.
She just nodded. "She tried to kill Rose, the Doctor and I only..." she tilted her head, thinking. "Oh, six months ago?" She nodded. "Yeah, six months ago."
"The Downing Street thing?" Jack clarified. Rose had told him about it. The Emissary nodded.
"And then her trying to make you and Rose feel guilty, I don't know." She shrugged. "Just kind of snapped."
"I thought it was awesome," Jack told her. He thought of the look he'd caught on the Doctor's face and smirked. "The Doctor liked it, too." He caught the reddening of her cheeks as she looked back at her work, and smirked. "You like him, don't you?"
"How did we get here from me being a Sentry?" the Emissary complained.
"You and Rose are like my little sisters," Jack told her. "It's my job to tease you about these things." She looked startled by his declaration, but smiled.
"Doesn't really matter if I like him or not," she said finally, tone dismissive of the idea. "We have too much history."
Jack didn't really believe that, but he let it go. "If you say so."
~~~
The Doctor was beginning to wish he'd brought the Emissary with them. At the very least, he wouldn't be listening to Margaret alone.
"Public execution's a slow death," she was saying. "They prepare a thin acetic acid, lower me into the cauldron and boil me. The acidity is perfectly gauged to strip away the skin. Internal organs fall out into the liquid, and I become soup. And still alive, still screaming." She stopped as the waiter came over with their food.
"I don't make the law," the Doctor reminded her, looking down at his plate. He took a bite before looking back up.
"But you deliver it," she said flatly. She tilted her head at him. "Will you stay to watch?"
"What else can I do?"
"The Slitheen family's huge," Margaret told him. "There's a lot more of us, all scattered off-world. Take me to them. Take me somewhere safe."
"But then you'll just start again," the Doctor pointed out. Maybe it was a good thing the Emissary wasn't here after all, he mused. He doubted she'd take kindly to Margaret trying to get let go.
"I promise I won't," Margaret was saying when he brought his attention back to the conversation.
"You've been in that skin suit too long," the Doctor told her flatly. "You've forgotten. There used to be a real Margaret Blaine. You killed her and stripped her and used the skin." He shook his head. "You're pleading for mercy out of a dead woman's lips."
Margaret shrugged, unaffected. "Perhaps I have got used to it. A human life, an ordinary life." She leaned forward, an earnest look on her face. "That's all I'm asking. Give me a chance, Doctor. I can change."
"I don't believe you."
~~~
"So, what do you want to do now?" Mickey asked.
Rose shrugged. "Don't mind."
"We could ask about hotels," Mickey said.
Rose shook her head. "What would Trisha Delaney say?"
"Suppose." He thought for a minute, trying to come up with something else. "There's a bar down there with a Spanish name or something—"
"You don't even like Trisha Delaney!" Rose suddenly burst out.
"Oh, is that right?" Mickey asked angrily. "What the hell do you know?"
"I know you, and I know her," Rose bit out. "And I know that's never going to happen! So who do you think you're kidding?"
"At least I know where she is!" Mickey shouted.
"There we are, then," Rose scoffed. "It's got nothing to do with Trisha. This is all about me, isn't it?"
"You left me!" Mickey cried, letting out all the things he'd decided on the train not to say. "We were nice, we were happy. And then what? You give me a kiss and you run off with him, and you make me feel like nothing, Rose. I was nothing." He shook his head angrily. "I can't even go out with a stupid girl from a shop because you pick up the phone and I come running. I mean, is that what I am, Rose, standby? Am I just supposed to sit here for the rest of my life, waiting for you? Because I will." He stared at her when he finished. She looked shocked at his outburst.
"I'm sorry," she said quietly.
~~~
Margaret was still pleading her case as they finished up their meal, though she'd changed tactics. Instead of trying to guilt him into letting her go, she'd apparently decided convincing him she'd changed would work better. The Doctor say back, listening silently.
"I promise you I've changed since we last met, Doctor," she was saying. "There was this girl, just today. A young thing, something of a danger. She was getting too close. I felt the blood lust rising, just as the family taught me, I was going to kill her without a thought. And then I stopped. She's alive somewhere right now. She's walking around this city because I can change. I did change. I know I can't prove it—"
The Doctor cut her off. "I believe you."
"Then you know I'm capable of better."
The Doctor shook his head. "It doesn't mean anything."
"I spared her life," Margaret protested.
"You let one of them go, but that's nothing new," he countered. "Every now and then, a little victim's spared because she smiled, because he's got freckles, because they begged." His voice went flat. "And that's how you live with yourself. That's how you slaughter millions. Because once in a while, on a whim, if the wind's in the right direction, you happen to be kind."
Margaret's face dropped. "Only a killer would know that," she spat. "Is that right? From what I've seen, your funny little happy go lucky little life leaves devastation in its wake. Always moving on because you dare not look back. Playing with so many peoples lives, you might as well be a god." He looked away at that. "And you're right, Doctor. You're absolutely right." She leaned forward, eyes watering. "Sometimes you let one go. Let me go."
~~~
"Okay," the Emissary said as she backed away from the console. "We did it!"
Jack gave her a high five as he stood. It'd taken a while, but they'd gotten the extrapolator hooked into the TARDIS and the engines were filling up. They'd be ready to first thing in the morning.
"I don't know about you," she said to Jack as they started to pick up their mess. "But I'm starving. I can go grab something from the kitchens? I don't want to leave the TARDIS in case we're needed."
Jack nodded. "Sounds good," he said, and waved her off. "I'll finish up here." He looked up when she stopped abruptly in the hallway entrance and turned around. "What is it?"
She tilted her head slowly, a weird expression on her face. "I don't know," she said. She stood there for a minute before she shook her head and smiled. "Must be the Rift," she quipped. "Just a weird feeling."
She disappeared down the hall.
~~~
"I'm not asking you to leave them," Mickey told Rose, "because I know that's not fair. But I just need something, yeah? Some sort of promise that when you do come back, you're coming back for me." There was a deep rumbling noise somewhere, but Mickey paid no attention. He was watching Rose for an answer.
"Is that thunder?" she asked, completely brushing off what he'd said.
Mickey frowned, irritated. "Does it matter?"
Rose's eyes widened as she listened to the noise. "That's not thunder."
~~~
"In the family Slitheen, we had no choice," Margaret told the Doctor. "I was made to carry out my first kill at thirteen. If I'd refused, my father would have fed me to the Venom Grubs."
The Doctor looked around, frowning, when he picked up on a rumbling noise. Was that thunder he was hearing? He tuned out Margaret to listen closer.
"If I'm a killer," Margaret was still saying. "it's because I was born to kill. It's all I know." She frowned, noticing the Doctor's distraction. "Doctor, are you even listening to me?"
"Can you hear that?" he answered.
Margaret huffed. "I'm begging for my life."
"No, listen, shush." She paused, listening, as the rumbling got louder. Their glasses started to vibrate.
As they both looked down at the table, confused, the window shattered.
~~~
The Emissary dropped what she was doing as the TARDIS shook and ran back into the console room. She stopped briefly in shock. The extrapolator was lit up and Jack was working frantically at the console, trying to disconnect it.
"What's going on?" she asked as she ran over to help.
"I don't know!" Jack told her. "Everything was fine and then it just, it just turned on!"
There was a loud beep from the console screen and the Emissary looked over to check it. She cursed loudly in Gallifreyan, making Jack look up at her confused.
"It's the Rift," she told him. His eyes widened and he started working faster. "It's trying to open the Rift!"
~~~
The second the ground started to shake, Rose knew something was terribly wrong. All around them, she and Mickey watched as streetlights exploded and windows shattered. Rose took off for the TARDIS.
"Oh, go on then, run!" Mickey shouted after her. "It's him again, isn't it? It's the Doctor! It's always the Doctor! It's always going to be the Doctor. It's never me!" He shook his head.
Rose was gone.
~~~
The Doctor ran down a set of stairs towards the TARDIS, leaving Margaret to struggle to keep up.
"The handcuffs!" she yelled after him. He stopped at the bottom and waited. When she reached him, he quickly took her cuff off.
"Don't think you're running away," he said, grabbing her wrist and pulling her along.
"Oh, I'm sticking with you," Margaret told him. They ran for the Plass, dodging the fleeing humans. "Some date this turned out to be!"
They stopped at the edge of the Plass as the Doctor stared up in horror. A bright beam of light and energy was shooting up from the TARDIS.
"It's the rift," he realized, horrified. "The rift's opening."
~~~
The Doctor and Margaret entered the TARDIS to see Jack and the Emissary working frantically at the console as the lights flickered.
"What the hell are you doing??" the Doctor asked, running up to join them.
"It just went crazy!" Jack said. The Emissary nodded, flinching away from sparks as something exploded on the console.
"He's right," she agreed. "Everything was fine and then it all went haywire out of nowhere!"
"It's the rift," the Doctor told them. "Time and space are ripping apart. The whole city's going to disappear!"
"Yeah, we got that!" the Emissary said. She stepped away from the console to let the Doctor work. It was his ship, after all. He knew it better than she did and would be more help. She stopped next to Margaret, who looked supremely unhappy at the arrangements.
"It's the extrapolator," Jack told the Doctor. "We've disconnected it, but it's still feeding off the engine! It's using the TARDIS. We can't stop it!"
"Never mind Cardiff," the Doctor said grimly, "it's going to rip open the planet."
"What is it?" Rose asked as she ran in. "What's happening?!" The Emissary narrowed her eyes when she caught the expression on Margaret's face.
"Oh, just little me," Margaret sneered. As Margaret ripped an arm off of her Margaret-suit, the Emissary moved and pushed Rose out of the way. Margaret's claw wrapped around her throat and pulled her up. Rose shrieked and scrambled away, over to Jack. He helped her up and pushed her behind him.
Margaret looked surprised that she got the Emissary instead of Rose, but she recovered quickly and held tightly, cutting off the Emissary's breath. "One wrong move and she snaps like a promise."
The Doctor's eyes were darker and more furious than Rose had ever seen. When he spoke, his voice was tight with anger. "I might've known."
"I've had you bleating all night, poor baby, now shut it," Margaret snapped. She nodded at Jack. "You, fly boy, put the extrapolator at my feet."
As Rose watched, the Emissary's hands lit up with that blue energy. With Margaret choking her, though, the energy was weak and didn't seem to affect Margaret at all other than pissing her off. The Doctor motioned for Jack to give her the extrapolator.
"Thank you," Margaret said as he laid it hesitantly at her feet. "Just as I planned."
"I thought you needed to blow up the nuclear power station," Rose said.
Margaret nodded to her. "Failing that, if I were to be arrested, then anyone capable of tracking me down would have considerable technology of their own. Therefore, they would be captivated by the extrapolator." She sneered at the Doctor. "Especially a magpie mind like yours, Doctor. So the extrapolator was programmed to go to plan B. To lock onto the nearest alien power source and open the rift. And what a power source it found. I'm back on schedule, thanks to you."
"The rift's going to convulse," Jack said darkly. "You'll destroy the whole planet."
"And you with it!" Margaret stepped up on the extrapolator. "While I ride this board over the crest of the inferno all the way to freedom. Stand back, boys. Surf's up."
The Doctor took one step forward, suddenly calm. Rose and Jack shared bewildered looks. He laid a hand on the console. "Of course, opening the rift means you'll pull this ship apart."
"So sue me," Margaret snapped. She was clearly confused by his sudden change of attitude, and Rose could relate. Even the Emissary had suddenly gone lax in Margaret's hold, and Rose would be worried, but she could see the Time Lady was still conscious. Rose's only conclusion was that the Time Lords knew something the others didn't.
"It's not just any old power source," the Doctor continued. "It's the Tardis. My Tardis. The best ship in the universe."
"It'll make wonderful scrap," Margaret sneered, much less confidently than before.
The section of the console under the Doctor's hand began to lift open. Rose watched, awed despite the situation, as a beautiful light began to filter out.
"What's that light?" she asked softly.
"The heart of the TARDIS," the Doctor said. "This ship's alive. You've opened its soul."
"It's so bright," Margaret whispered. The Emissary shut her eyes and turned her head as much as she could.
"Look at it, Margaret," the Doctor coaxed.
"Beautiful."
"Look inside, Blon Fel Fotch," the Doctor instructed. "Look at the light."
Margaret looked, relaxing, as the light reached out to her. The Emissary took the opportunity to break free and stumble over to Jack and Rose, gasping and rubbing her neck.
"Thank you," Margaret whispered, smiling at the Doctor. The light fully enveloped her. Rose covered her eyes as it grew brighter and brighter until it suddenly drew back. When Rose looked again, Margaret was just a pile of empty skin on the floor.
"Don't look," the Doctor instructed quickly as he ran around the console. "Stay there. Close your eyes!" He closed the console. "Now, Jack, come on, shut it all down." Jack was ran to do as asked. "Shut it down! Ali, that panel over there, turn all the switches to the right." Rose tilted her head at the name, but the Emissary was already moving. The ground stopped shaking and the extrapolator went dark. The Doctor sighed in relief. "Nicely done. Thank you, all."
"What happened to Margaret?" Rose asked.
"Must've got burnt up," Jack guessed. "Carried out her own death sentence."
"No, I don't think she's dead," the Emissary denied, voice still a little hoarse. She sat down on the captain's chair.
"Then where'd she go?" Rose asked.
"She looked into the heart of the TARDIS," the Doctor shrugged. "Even I don't know how strong that is. And the ship's telepathic, like I told you, Rose. Gets inside your head. Translates alien languages. Maybe the raw energy can translate all sorts of thoughts." He crouched down next to the pile of skin and dug through it. "Here she is." He held up an egg with little tentacles.
"She's an egg?" Rose gaped.
"Regressed to her childhood."
"She's an egg?" Jack repeated.
"She can start again," the Doctor said and set the egg down on the console. "Live her life from scratch. If we take her home, give her to a different family, tell them to bring her up properly, she might be all right!"
"Or she might be worse," Jack pointed out.
"That's her choice."
"She's an egg," Rose said in disbelief.
"She's an egg," the Emissary confirmed.
Rose looked at her. "Ali?" she asked, remembering the name the Doctor had called her. Both Time Lords looked up sharply.
"Nickname from our Academy days," the Emissary said after a moment, holding the Doctor's gaze. Rose nodded slowly, sensing that there was probably more to that story that she'd never get. She darted around the console to hug the Emissary tightly.
"Thank you," she said when she released the Time Lady. "That would've been me she grabbed and I don't think I could've lasted as long as you."
"You don't have to thank me, Rose," the Emissary told her, but she was smiling brightly now. She turned a teasing glare on the Doctor. "Could've been faster, though."
The Doctor said something back, but Rose missed it as she suddenly remembered someone was missing. "Oh, my God. Mickey."
She ran out of the TARDIS.
~~~
They watched Rose run out, then the Doctor turned back to the Emissary.
"You are alright, though?" he asked, trying to keep the worry from his voice.
"Yes," the Emissary replied. She tilted her head back. "Look, it's already fading."
Sure enough, the red welt left by Margaret's claw was almost gone. The Doctor nodded and turned back to fixing up the console.
"How is that possible?" Jack asked.
"Artron energy is meant to be restorative," the Emissary explained as she stood and went to help the Doctor. "Sentries have a higher concentration of it in our bodies, so it helps us heal a little faster."
Just then, Rose came back inside. She was alone.
"We're all powered up," the Doctor told her. "We can leave. Opening the rift filled us up with energy. We can go, if that's all right."
"Yeah, fine," Rose said listlessly.
"How's Mickey?" the Emissary asked.
"He's okay." Rose shrugged. "He's gone."
The Time Lords shared a look before the Doctor looked back at Rose. "Do you want to go and find him?" he asked. "We'll wait."
"No need," Rose shook her head. "He deserves better."
"Off we go, then," the Doctor said after a moment. He and the Emissary moved around the console, setting the engines going. "Always moving on."
"Next stop, Raxacoricofallapatorius," Jack cheered. "Now you don't often get to say that."
"We'll just stop quickly and put her back in the nursery," the Emissary explained to Rose. "Margaret can have a second chance. Live her life better."
Rose smiled. "That'd be nice."
The Doctor flipped a final switch and they were off, into the Vortex, with no idea of what was waiting for them.