I just want to thank all of my reviewers, readers, and followers for sticking with me on this rewrite. I have had a lot of positive PMs and reviews for this rewrite. Before I had even begun to rewrite this series of stories, I was worried that a rewrite would be met with hostility. Once I had begun to post the rewrites, all of my worries disappeared with each review, new follower, and reader. So, thank you for your support.
Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who!
Upon reaching Earth, the Doctor and his family is shocked to learn that Torchwood Three had been destroyed. They were even surprised to learn about the events that took place, especially when they hear about the children. But this didn't stop the Doctor from leaving his family with Gwen and her family, and that was over twenty-four hours ago.
Rose and Jack had been left alone since Jenny had gone with Gwen, Rhys, and their little one had gone to the store. With the addition of three more people, one of them being heavily pregnant, Rhys and Gwen's food stock has been almost depleted.
Looking into the sitting room from the kitchen, Rose holds a cup of tea in her hands while watching her son. He is currently engrossed with a program on the telly and has made several snarky remarks about inaccurate information that was being given.
With her attention focused on Jack, Rose didn't notice that anything was off till it was too late. A sharp poke against the side of her neck causes Rose to drop her tea, and a thick arm wraps itself around shoulders. Still in shock from being snuck up on, Rose's vision begins to swim as the substance that was injected into her starts to take effect. The last thing Rose sees is her son screaming for her while fighting against his own captors, before her world goes dark.
Elsewhere…
Since leaving Rose and his family behind, the Doctor has begun his search for the Master. Having found the destroyed prison that had housed Lucy Saxon, the Doctor had looked for clues within the rubble under the cover of darkness. However, it wasn't physical evidence that the Doctor find, but that of the Master's scent. Even though the Doctor could use his telepathy to find the Master, he didn't want to risk his connection to Rose or their kids. It would be a very dark day if the Master were to learn of their existence.
Now, in the daylight hours, the Doctor has reached an abandoned, garbage filled, industrial beach where the Master's scent was the strongest. He isn't sure what he will find, but he needs to find the other Time Lord before he can cause any more damage.
Taking in a deep breath, while standing on top of a pile of dirt, stone, and trash, the Doctor takes in his surroundings. The air is thick with the Master's scent, but the Doctor can't pinpoint exactly where his nemesis is.
Suddenly, echoing from somewhere nearby, there is four loud metallic bangs coming from somewhere in this place. Then the four metallic bangs happen again, and this sends the Doctor into a full-blown run. He is so focused on his search for the Master, that he doesn't feel the sudden quietness of Rose's connection. Nor does he feel Jack's panic before going quiet as well. Running through the industrial waste yard, the Doctor hears the four bangs again and this spurns him into running even faster. As he runs past several industrial beams, the banging has stopped, but the Master's scent has become even stronger.
Finally, the Doctor comes to a stop as he sees the Master standing on top of a pile of dirt. While catching his breath, the Doctor hears the Master yell. Then the Master does something that surprises the Doctor; he jumps high into the air. With the Master out of view, the Doctor starts to run after him in a game of cat and mouse. He doesn't stop running till he can reaches a pile of industrial beams, which the Master is standing on, waiting for the Doctor.
"Please, let me help! You're burning up your own life force!" The Doctor shouts to the Master, after seeing the Master's body shift from solid to skeletal then back again to solid.
The only reply the Doctor gets from the Master is laughter before the Master runs off again. Yet as he goes off to chase after the Master, someone else crosses his path. A person who the Doctor hasn't seen for over a year.
"Oh my gosh, Doctor. You're a sight for sore eyes!" Wilfred Mott says while trying to stop the Doctor.
"Out of my way!" The Doctor yells as he moves around Wilf to try and leaps up at a pile of old industrial beams.
Looking around from his view point, the Doctor discovers that he has lost sight of the Master. Realizing that it is going to take him a while to find the Master again, the Doctor hops down from his view point. Since he hasn't a clue just how Wilf had found him, the Doctor decides to listen in to the conversation. Hearing how this group of people had found him, the Doctor decides to confront Wilfred about it.
"Wilfred, have you told them who I am? You promised me…" The Doctor says to Wilfred as he tries to contact his family to check on them. Seeing how easy it was for Wilfred and his friends to find him, the Doctor is now worried about Rose, Jenny, and Jack.
"No. I just said that you were a doctor, that's all." Wilfred says, trying to explain himself. "And might I say, sir, it is an honor to see you again."
"Oh but you never said he was a looker." An older woman wearing a red outfit says with a gleam in her eyes.
"I'm happily married, with children, thank you." The Doctor states firmly to the woman. He could already tell what the woman was thinking, and the Doctor is not about to cheat on Rose with this old woman.
Yet as the Doctor turns away from the group, the Doctor can already smell that the Master's scent has now disappeared. With the scent gone, the Doctor has no idea where to search for the Master next. Resigning himself to having to start a new search again, the Doctor decides to hitch a ride with Wilfred and his friends to return to the city, and hopefully the Tardis.
Reaching their stop, Wilfred and the Doctor exit the bus and make their way over to a certain café.
"What's so special about this café. We passed at least fifteen on the way here." The Doctor complains while trying not to panic about not being able to reach Rose or Jack through their link.
"Yeah." Wilfred says as he makes his way into the café, knowing that the Doctor is following him.
The pair sits down in a booth that Wilfred picks out, and Wilfred orders himself some coffee. He tries to have a conversation with the Doctor, but all the Doctor is doing is sitting there, staring at him.
"But we had some good times, didn't we, though?" Wilfred says to the Doctor. "I mean all those Atmos things and planets in the sky and me with that paint gun."
Seeing that he isn't getting anywhere with the Doctor, Wilf tries something else instead.
"I keep seeing things, Doctor, I… This face at night."
"Who are you?" The Doctor asks, wondering just how Wilf could find him.
"I'm Wilfred Mott."
"No. People have waited hundreds of years to find me, and then you manage it in a couple of hours."
"Guess I'm lucky, I suppose."
"No. We keep on meeting, Wilf. Over and over again, like something is connecting us."
"Well I did help Rose, your wife, find you. That led you to finding your son."
"No. It's has nothing to do with Rose or my children. It's something more."
"Yeah, but what's so important about me?"
"Exactly. Why you?" The Doctor says before looking out the window, debating on if he should tell Wilf a secret that he still hasn't fully told Rose about. Making up his mind, the Doctor turns to look at Wilf again. "I'm going to die."
"Well so am I, one day."
"Don't you dare."
"All right. I'll try not to."
"But I was told. He will knock four times. That was a prophecy. Knock four times and then…" The Doctor says, trying to be nonchalant about his impending death.
"Yeah, but I thought. When I last saw you before, you said that your people could change, like, your whole body."
"I can still die. If I'm killed before regeneration, then I'm dead. Even then… Even if I change, it still feels like dying. Everything I am dies. Some new man goes sauntering away. And I am dead."
"What about Rose and your son? What happens to them?" Wilfred asks, holding back his tears at hearing the Doctor's explanation of what happens during regeneration.
"Hopefully they will stay, but it's the thought that she will love the new man more than me that hurts. Rose has already seen me go through regeneration before and has stayed around. But after that regeneration, I was jealous of the previous me. That maybe she cared for him more than me."
"Yeah, but she gave this you a son." Wilfred says, giving the Doctor a cheeky smile.
"A son, and another on the way." The Doctor says with a grin on his face.
"Another son?" Wilfred asks, excited for the Doctor.
"Daughter this time. Three children, all in the same regeneration. New record for me."
Both males let out a chuckle at the Doctor's making fun of himself. Then an awkward silence fills the silence left by the quick laugh.
"I am sure Rose and your kids will stay with you, Doctor. Even if you must regenerate to survive. I've seen how much she loves you, and I don't think she would ever leave you." Wilfred says before looking out the window.
The Doctor notices that Wilf is looking at something out the window and turns his head to look. On the other side of the road is Donna, who is talking on the phone while trying to put something in the boot of the lorry.
"I'm sorry, but I had to." Wilfred pleads to the Doctor. "Look, can't you make her better."
"Stop it." The Doctor says to Wilf before looking back at Donna.
"No, but you're so clever. Can't you bring her memory back? Look just go to her, now. Just run across the road. Go up to her and say, Hello."
"If she ever remembers me, her mind will burn and she will die." The Doctor tearfully growls out at Wilfred.
Then the two men start to laugh as Donna tells off a parking officer who was preparing to write a parking ticket violation for the car.
"She hasn't changed." The Doctor chuckles out.
"No." Wilfred agrees with his own chuckle. "Oh, there he is. Shawn Temple. They're engaged. Getting married in the spring."
The two men watch Shawn load the boot with bags, while Donna tries to help by directing her fiancé.
"Another wedding?"
"Yes."
"Hold on. She isn't going to be called Noble Temple? That sounds like a tourist spot."
"No, it's Temple Noble."
"Right."
"Is she happy? Is he nice?"
"Yeah, he is sweet enough. Bit of a dreamer. Mind you he's on minimum wage, and she's earning tuppence. So, all they can afford is a tiny, little flat. And then sometimes I see this look on her face. She looks so sad, but she can't remember why." Wilfred explains, trying hard not to let his words affect him.
"She's got him."
"She's making do."
"Aren't we all."
Out of the blue the Doctor feels a surge of fear through his link with Jenny, and his eyes go wide at the reason for her fear. Not hearing Wilfred's concern, the Doctor quickly throws on his long brown coat and rushes out of the café. Running as fast as he can, the Doctor makes his way back to the abandoned industrial yard, and to the Tardis. Moving as quickly as he can around the console, the Doctor sends the Tardis to where he had left his family.
Once the Tardis has landed, the Doctor rushes out to see Gwen looking at the almost destroyed sitting room.
"Dad!" Jenny calls out from the hallway of the small home. She runs towards the Doctor and wraps her arms around his neck once she reaches him. The Doctor holds his daughter close to him for a short time before releasing her from their embrace.
"What happened?" The Doctor asks, seeing Gwen making her way through the broken furniture towards them.
"Someone was able to bypass the security system, and I found no damage to any of the locks." Gwen explains to the Doctor. "Whoever they were, they must have been professional. Like M.I.6 professional. Not a single trace of evidence that I can find."
The Doctor nods to Gwen before bringing out his sonic screwdriver. Turning it to a certain setting, the Doctor begins scanning the sitting room for any kind of evidence that would lead him to who took Rose and Jack. With the scanning complete, the Doctor looks over the results and lets out a growl of frustration.
"It didn't find anything. Did it?" Jenny asks her father. She can feel his anger building through their link and knows that it is aimed at himself more than at Gwen's security system.
"Nothing. Not even a single trace of unknown DNA floating around in the air." The Doctor says before giving a torn up cushion a swift kick.
"Who would know that they were even here? You've landed that box of yours in entry hallway, not outside. And no one would have seen you entering or leaving the house." Gwen says, trying to verbally bounce ideas for the Doctor to think about.
"They would know if I was here if they were telepathic." The Doctor says with a heavy sigh. "Since leaving here, I have been ignoring, and in some instances blocking out, my telepathic link with my family."
Running his hands into his hair, he makes a fist with each hand holding onto his hair and lets out an angry, low-toned yell.
"I'm such an idiot!" The Doctor growls to himself as he releases his hair and wipes his hands down his face.
Seeing both Jenny and Gwen looking at him in confusion, the Doctor decides to tell them what he just now realized.
"Rose and Jack don't know when they are projecting loudly unless I tell them. Rose, since the whole Bad Wolf incident, has been slowly gaining the telepathic ability. However, she has yet to learn to tone down her telepathy. And since Jack is still a young Time Tot, and Rose is his major filtering parent, he hasn't even begun to learn to harness his telepathic abilities."
"What about me though? Am I projecting loudly too?" Jenny asks, suddenly concerned for the safety of Gwen's family.
"You already had the ability when you were created. Remember. When you came out of that machine, you already had everything you needed to know in here." The Doctor says to Jenny before tapping a finger against the side of his head.
"So I already know how to keep myself from projecting?"
"Yeah. Though there are times where you do bleed through, but for the most part you are an adult and mature enough to filter your own telepathic abilities." The Doctor says to Jenny as he puts his sonic screwdriver back into his coat pocket.
"But we still don't know who took Rose and Jack." Gwen says to the Doctor just as the sound of her own crying baby daughter echoes down from the upstairs.
"I know who has her." The Doctor says as he begins to walk back towards the Tardis.
"Who?"
"The Master." The Doctor says as he opens the Tardis's doors. "He has to have someone working with him. So, if I find the Master, I find Rose and Jack."
Closing the doors of the Tardis behind him, the Doctor sends his ship back to the industrial yard; leaving Jenny all alone with Gwen and her family. It doesn't take long for the Tardis to return to same industrial yard that she was parked in earlier that day.
Leaving the Tardis behind, the Doctor begins his search for the Master as day turns into night. The Doctor wonders through roughly three-quarters of the place before picking up the Master's scent again. It has taken him nearly four hours of searching to find the scent, and the Doctor refuses to allow himself to lose it. Finding the Master is the key to finding Rose and their son, and the Doctor isn't going to let anything, or anyone, to get in his way.
The scent leads him to one of the old, decrepit buildings and the Doctor slowly makes his way inside. He eventually stops several feet away from the Master, who hasn't noticed the Doctor's presence. Yet.
It only takes a few minutes, and the Doctor watches as the Master finally notices him. Keeping a close eye on his oldest of adversaries, the Doctor stays silent as the Master rises to his feet and turns around to face him. Then the Doctor does something that Rose would called foolish; he begins to make his way towards the Master just as the Master begins to walk towards him.
Without fear, the Doctor keeps walking towards the Master, even though the Master has stopped and is now hurling electricity at him. Knowing that Rose and Jack need him, the Doctor keeps that in the forefront of his mind as he keeps walking towards the Master.
Only a few feet away from the Master, the Doctor finds himself on the receiving blow of electricity that the Master is manipulating. He lets the electric currents flow through his body, and sends a mental thank you to the universe that he is a Time Lord and not a human. For no human could have survived the amount of electricity that the Master had sent. Once the Master ends the electrical stream, the Doctor stumbles forwards a few steps before falling to his knees.
What the Master does next takes the Doctor by surprise. For the Master rushes forwards and holds the Doctor up to keep him from hitting the ground face first. The two of them look at each other for a couple of seconds, then the Master lets go of the Doctor which causes the Doctor to fall to the ground.
As the Doctor tries to control the pain that the electricity has caused in his body while lying on the ground. Yet he keeps his head up so that he can watch the Master, who had started to walk away but is now crouched on the ground in front of him.
"I had estates." The Master tells the Doctor. "Do you remember my father's land back home? Pastures of red grass stretching far across the slopes of Mount Perdition. We used to run across those fields all day, calling up to the sky. Look at us now."
"All that eloquence. But how many people have you killed?" The Doctor huffs out through the excruciating pain.
"I am so hungry."
"Your resurrection went wrong. That energy… Your body's ripped open. Now you're killing yourself."
"And that's human Christmas out there." The Master says, almost as if he is ignoring the Doctor's words. "They eat so much. All that roasting meat, cakes, and red wine. Hot, fat, blood food. Pots, plates of meat and flesh and grease and juice. And baking, burnt, sticky, hot skin. Hot. It's so hot!"
"Stop it!"
"Slice!"
"Stop it!"
"It's mine. It's mine. It's mine. It's mine. Eat it! Eat it! Eat it! Eat it!"
"Stop it!"
The Doctor watches as the Master clutches at his blond hair, as if he is in agony over what is going on in his head. This causes the Doctor to realize that perhaps the Master wasn't involved with Rose and Jack's abduction.
"What if I ask you for help?" the Doctor says softly.
At the Doctor's words, the Master scoffs before snickering to himself over the very idea.
"There are more at work tonight than you and me."
"Oh yeah?" The Master asks, wondering just what the Doctor might be on about.
"I've been told something is returning."
"And here I am."
"No, something more."
"But it hurts…"
"I was told the end of time…"
"It hurts… Doctor. The noise. The noise in my head, Doctor. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. Stronger than ever before. Can't you hear it? Listen. Listen. Listen. Listen."
The Doctor tries to listen to whatever the Master is hearing, but doesn't hear anything but silence.
"Every minute. Every second. Every beat of my hearts. There it is, calling to me." The Master says to the Doctor, pleading with his eyes. Hoping that the Doctor can hear the beating. "Please listen."
"I can't hear it." The Doctor says softly to the Master. He is starting to wonder if his old friend really is lost forever within the madness.
"Listen!" The Master says harshly before taking hold the Doctor's head. Pressing his own forehead against the Doctor's the Master telepathically pushes the beating into the Doctor's mind, but not before sensing four others within the Doctor's mind.
The Doctor, who has finally heard what the Master has been complaining about hearing for centuries, is taken by surprised by being able to hear it. Yet he doesn't pull back from the Master's hands until it is too late. The Master has found his connection to his family, and that was the last thing that the Doctor wanted the Master to find out.
"So, you have a family now, Doctor. How interesting." The Master gleefully says as he backs away from his old friend.
"I heard it." The Doctor says quickly to try and change the subject so that the Master will not focus on this new knowledge about the Doctor having a family.
"What?" The Master says, surprised that the Doctor is pleading with him over leaving his family alone.
"I heard it. But that is no noise. There never has been, it's just your own insanity. What is it? What's inside your head?" The Doctor asks while getting up to his knees.
"It's real." The Master laughs out at the Doctor. "It's real. It's real!"
Then the Master decides to leave, using the electricity within his body to send himself up into the sky.
Getting up off the ground, the Doctor tries to run after the Master. Even if it hurts him to move or run after the Master. Yet, now that the Master knows about Rose and their kids, the Doctor cannot allow them to come to harm. Following the Master's laughter, the Doctor tries to find the resurrected Time Lord. Running out of the vacant building, the Doctor only has to run so far before he sees the Master standing on top of a pile of stone and dirt.
"All these years you thought I was mad." The Master shouts in glee at the Doctor. "King of the wasteland. But something is calling me, Doctor. What is it? What is it? I wonder if your mongrel of a child knows, or even better, your Bad Wolf!"
Suddenly the Master has a bright light shined on him from up above. The source of the light is coming from a helicopter and it keeps that light on the Master. Then another light is shining from a second helicopter, this time on the Doctor. This is all followed by the dropping of rope from the helicopter that is above where the Master is, which two people dressed all in black slide down. They take hold of the Master and knock him out with an injectable serum before taking him up.
The Doctor tries to head towards where the Master is being raised up, but has to dodge the bullets that are flying at him. Eventually, the Doctor makes it partially up the pile before being hit in the back of the head. The force of the hit causes the Doctor to lose consciousness and his body rolls down the side of the pile.
So this looks like a good place to stop this chapter. I am almost done with the rewrite for this story. Only two more chapters to go till the end. Then you can move on to the third story in this series.
Reviews are welcomed, cherished, and loved.
Selene