The Goddess's Breath

Jenny gestured them onwards and the four made their way downstairs, Caroline managing to step away from Donna as they walked. However, there was a guard at the lower flight of the staircase.

"That's the way out," the Doctor mumbled. Jenny just raised the pistol, aiming. "Don't' you dare."

Donna stepped forwards, adjusting her shirt. "Let me distract this one. I have picked up a few womanly wiles over the years."

The Doctor was quick to hold her back. "Let's save your wiles for later. In case of emergency." Instead, he rummaged through his pockets until he found a clockwork mouse. He set it on the ground and set it walking so that it made the guard turn around to look at it, only for Jenny to hit him in the shoulder, effectively knocking him out.

"I was going to distract him, not clobber him," the Doctor scolded.

Jenny shrugged. "Well, it worked, didn't it?"

Sighing, he bent down and searched through the guards pocket. "They must all have a copy of that new map." When he stood, he frowned at Jenny, as though debating if he wanted her to come. "Don't hurt anyone." Then he turned and made his way down the hall, making the rest hurry to keep up.

A little ways down the hall, he paused, studying his map. "Wait. This is it. The hidden tunnel. There must be a control panel." The Doctor went to a side panel on the wall and began to sonic it.

"It's another one of those numbers," Donna nodded, spotting them on a plaque above the wall. "They're everywhere."

Caroline frowned at them. "Some cataloguing system left by the original builders."

"You got a pen?" Donna asked the Doctor. "Bit of paper? Because, do you see, the numbers are counting down." He rummaged through his pockets until he found it. "This one ends in 1-4. The prison cell said 1-6."

Jenny shook her head at them. "Always thinking, all three of you. Who are you people?"

"I told you. I'm the Doctor."

"The Doctor." She frowned. "That's it?"

Donna shrugged. "That's all he ever says."

"So, you don't have a name either? Are you an anomaly, too?"

"No."

"Oh, come off it," Donna turned to him again. "You're the most anomalous bloke I've ever met."

He finally managed to get into the control panel. "Here it is."

"And Time Lords, what are they for, exactly?"

"For? They're not…they're not for anything."

"So what do you do?"

The Doctor shrugged. "I travel through time and space."

"He saves planets, rescues civilizations, defeats terrible creatures," Caroline told her.

"And runs a lot," Donna added. "Seriously, there's an outrageous amount of running involved.

The door opened. "Got it!"

"Squad five, with me!" Cobb's voice came from a distance.

"Now," the Doctor grinned, "what were you saying about running?"

However, they didn't get too far before an array of red laser beams crisscrossed across the passage.

Donna eyed them. "That's not mood lighting, is it?" The Doctor threw the mouse into them, and it disintegrated instantly. "No, I didn't think so."

"Arming device," he mumbled, turning to a blue box of controls.

"There's more of these." Donna pointed at the new set of numbers. "Always eight numbers, counting down the closer we get."

"Right, here we go."

"You'd better be quick."

"Corridor," Cobb shouted from behind them.

"The general!" She turned to run, but the Doctor stopped her.

"Where are you going?"

"I can hold them up."

He shook his head. "No, we don't need any more dead."

"But it's them or us."

"It doesn't mean you have to kill them!"

"I'm trying to save your life!"

"Listen to me." He leaned closer to Jenny. "The killing. After a while, it infects you. And once it does, you're never rid of it."

Jenny shook her head. "We don't have a choice."

"We always have a choice."

She stepped back and ran off. "I'm sorry."

"Jenny!" the Doctor called after her, but Jenny didn't stop. Quickly, gunfire started. "I told you," he grumbled, turning back to the controls. "Nothing but a soldier."

"She's trying to help," Caroline reminded him.

"Jenny, come on!"

"I'm coming!" she called back, thankfully.

The Doctor managed to turn the lasers off. "That's it!" Donna shouted.

"Jenny, leave it! Let's go!" The three that were there ran down the corridor to safety. When they turned, they found Jenny running up. "Jenny, come on! That's it."

"Hurry up," Donna urged.

Then the lasers reappeared.

"No, no, no, no, no, no." His eyes widened. "The circuit's looped back."

"Zap it back again."

"The controls are back there!"

Jenny glanced behind her. "They're coming."

"Wait!" he frantically looked around them, searching for anything that would save Jenny. "Just…there isn't…Jenny, I can't…"

She just smirked. "I'll have to manage on my own. Watch and learn, father." Jenny then stepped back and somehow managed to, perfectly, somersault through all of the laser beams, and land right in front of the Doctor.

"No way." Donna's eyes widened. "But that was impossible."

The Doctor only grinned. "Not impossible. Just a bit unlikely." He hugged Jenny tightly. "Brilliant. You were brilliant. Brilliant."

Jenny matched his grin, and Caroline could see where their familial relations were present. "I didn't kill him. General Cobb, I could have killed him but I didn't. You were right. I had a choice."

Cobb and the rest of the soldiers appeared at the other side of the lasers. "At arms."

"I warned you, Cobb. If the Source is a weapon, I'm going to make sure you never use it."

Cobb shrugged. "One of us is going to die today and it won't be me." The soldiers opened fire, and Caroline pulled the Doctor away after Donna and Jenny. They stopped running quickly, the Doctor pulling out his map again.

Jenny eyed Donna and Caroline, actually taking a chance to look at the pair of them completely. "So, you travel together, but you're not together?"

"What?" Donna looked horrified by the concept. "No. No. No way. No, no, we're friends, that's all. I mean, we're not even the same species. There's probably laws against it."

Jenny smiled. "And what's it like, the travelling?"

"Oh, never a dull moment. It can be terrifying, brilliant and funny, sometimes all at the same time. We've seen some amazing things though."

Caroline nodded. "Whole new worlds."

"Oh, I'd love to see new worlds."

"You will," Donna smiled. "Won't she, Doctor?"

"Hmm?" he glanced up from the map.

"Do you think Jenny will see any new worlds?"

He shrugged. "I suppose so."

"You mean…" she gasped "you mean you'll take me with you?"

"Well, we can't leave you here, can we?"

"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you." She hugged him again, making him laugh. "Come on, let's get a move on."

"Careful," he called after her as she started running again, "there might be traps."

Donna shook her head. "Kids. They never listen." She eyed his expression. "Oh, I know that look. I see it a lot round our way. Bloke with pushchairs and frowns. You've got dad-shock."

"Dad-shock?"

She nodded. "Sudden unexpected fatherhood. Takes a bit of getting used to."

"No, it's not that."

"Well, what is it then? Having Jenny in the TARDIS, is that it? What's she going to do…cramp your style? Like you've got a sports car and she's going to turn it into a people-carrier?"

"Donna," he cut in, "I've been a father before."

"What?"

"I lost all that a long time ago, along with everything else."

"I'm sorry," Caroline whispered, and he managed to crack a small smile at her.

"I didn't know," Donna continued. "Why didn't you tell me, or us? You talk all the time, but you don't say anything."

He nodded and, without noticing, took Caroline's hand. "I know. I'm just…when I look at her now, I can see them. The hole they left, all the pain that filled it. I just don't know if I can face that every day."

"It won't stay like that. She'll help you. All of us will." Donna gestured to Caroline as well.

"But when they died, that part of me died with them. It'll never come back. Not now." His grip tightened on Caroline's hand.

Caroline made the Doctor stop for a second. "I think you're wrong, Doctor. The good in life doesn't always soften the bad, but the bad doesn't always spoil the good."

Before he could say something, Jenny ran back to them away from gunfire. "They've blasted through the beams. Time to run again. Love the running. Yeah?"

The Doctor smiled. "Love the running." With a squeeze of Caroline's hand, he pulled her off running.

Until they reached another dead end. The Doctor had been following their map, but it appeared there was some disparity between that and actuality. "We're trapped," Donna said.

"Can't be. This must be the Temple." His hand drifted out of Caroline's to touch the wall. "This is a door."

"And again," Donna pointed. "We're down to 1-2 now."

"I've got it!" the Doctor cheered, pulling the panel off the wall.

"I can hear them."

"Nearly done."

Donna frowned at the numbers, and Caroline looked over at her notes. "These can't be a cataloguing system."

"They're getting closer," Jenny urged.

"Then get back here!"

Caroline shook her head. "They're too similar."

"Too familiar," Donna agreed.

"Not yet," Jenny murmured.

"Now!" the Doctor ordered just as he got the door open. "Got it."

They rushed through into the temple. "They're coming! Close the door!" the Doctor pushed a few keys on another panel and the door closed again. "Oh, that was close."

The Doctor laughed. "No fun otherwise."

They all turned around to study the situation they'd found themselves in. "It's not what I'd call a temple," Donna commented.

"It looks more like…"

The Doctor nodded. "Fusion drive transport. It's a spaceship."

"The original one?" Caroline asked, studying the walls. "The one the first colonists arrived in?" She frowned. "But the power cells…"

He frowned, nodding. "The power cells would have run down after all that time. This one's still powered-up and functioning. Come on." They went up a set of stairs to find someone attempting to cut through another door.

"It's the Hath. That door's not going to last much longer. And if General Cobb gets through down there, war's gonna break out."

The Doctor spotted a computer. "Look, look, look, look, look. Ship's log!" He pressed a key. "First wave of Human/Hath co-colonization of planet Messaline."

"So it is the original ship," Jenny nodded.

"What happened?"

"Phase one, construction," the Doctor read. "They used robot drones to build the city."

Caroline leaned forwards. "Does it mention the war?"

He scrolled through the words. "Final entry. Mission commander dead. Still no agreement on who should assume leadership. Hath and humans have divided into factions. That must be it! A power vacuum. The crew divided into two factions and turned on each other. Start using the progenation machines, suddenly you've got two armies fighting a never-ending war."

Jenny glanced behind them. "Two armies who are now both outside."

Donna pointed at something on the screen. "Look at that!" It was more of the numbers.

"It's like the numbers in the tunnels."

She shook her head. "No, no, no, no. But listen," she turned to the Doctor and Caroline, who had been standing next to each other, "I spent six months working as a temp in Hounslow Library, and I mastered the Dewey Decimal System in two days flat. I'm good with numbers. It's staring us in the face."

"What is?"

"It's the date. Assuming the first two numbers are some big old space date, then you've got year, month, day. It's the other way round, like it is in America!"

The Doctor's eyes widened. "Oh! It's the New Byzantine Calendar!"

"The codes are completion dates for each section. They finish it, they stamp the date on. So the numbers aren't counting down, they're going out from here, day by day, as the city got built."

"Yes!" the Doctor cheered. "Oh, good work, Donna."

"Yeah! But you're still not getting it. The first number I saw back there was 6012-07-17."

Caroline stared at the screen. "Look at the date," she whispered.

"07-24. No," the Doctor breathed.

"What does it mean?"

"Seven days."

Donna nodded. "That's it. Seven days."

Caroline shook her head. "Just seven days."

Jenny looked between all of them. "What do you mean, seven days?"

"Seven days since war broke out."

"This war started seven days ago," Donna explained. "Just a week. A week!"

Jenny shook her head. "They said years."

"They said generations," Caroline stared at Jenny. "And with the progenation machines, they could have twenty generations in one day."

The Doctor nodded. "Each generation gets killed in the war, passes on the legend. Oh, Donna, you're a genius!" he hugged Donna tightly.

"But all the buildings, the encampments. They're in ruins."

"They're not ruined," Caroline said. "They're just empty."

"Waiting to be populated. Oh, they've mythologized their entire history. The Source must be part of that too. Come on." The Doctor took Caroline's hand again as they started running again, only this time when they stopped it was because Martha rounded a corner at the exact same moment.

"Doctor!"

"Martha!" he pulled away from Caroline to hug her. "Oh, I should have known you wouldn't stay away from the excitement."

Martha stepped back to look at his companions. "Donna!" she hugged the woman. "Caroline!" and her as well.

"Oh, you're filthy," Donna laughed. "What happened?"

"I…er…took the surface route."

There was a voice down the hall. "That's the General," the Doctor said. "We haven't got much time."

"We don't even know what we're looking for."

Martha frowned. "Is it me, or can you smell flowers?"

"Yes! Bougainvillea! I say we follow our nose." They turned and walked into what Caroline swore was a greenhouse. It was filled with giant plants of all sorts, some Caroline recognized and some she had never seen before. The fact the Doctor had her hand was the only reason she didn't begin actually examining the different plants. Though it was difficult to contain herself. "Oh, yes! Isn't this brilliant?"

Caroline nodded. "It's wonderful." He laughed at her, leading the way to a pedestal at the center of the room. There was a glass sphere on top filled with a shining gas, with a control panel to the side.

"Is that the Source?"

"It's beautiful," Jenny breathed.

"What is it?"

Caroline reached a hand out to touch the air around it. "Terraforming."

"It's a third generation terraforming device," the Doctor clarified.

"So why are we suddenly in Kew Gardens?"

"Because that's what it does." The Doctor gestured around them. "All this, only bigger. Much bigger. It's in a transit state. Producing all this must help keep it stable before they finally…"

The Hath and soldiers swarmed in from opposite sides of the garden, cocking their guns the moment they saw each other. The Doctor held his arms out, trying to keep them still. "Stop! Hold your fire!"

"What is this?" Cobb demanded. "Some kind of trap?"

"You said you wanted this war over."

"I want this war won."

He shook his head. "You can't win. No one can. You don't even know why you're here. Your whole history, it's just Chinese whispers, getting more distorted the more it's passed on." He stepped back, revealing the Source in it's entirely. "That is what you're fighting over. A device to rejuvenate a planet's ecosystem. It's nothing mystical. It's from a laboratory, not some creator. It's a bubble of gases. A cocktail of stuff for accelerated evolution. Methane, hydrogen, ammonia, amino acids, proteins, nucleic acids. It's used to make barren planets habitable. Look around you." A few soldiers and Hath did actually look at the room they found themselves in. "It's not for killing, it's bringing life. If you allow it, it can lift you out of these dark tunnels and into the bright, bright sunlight. No more fighting, no more killing."

The Doctor lifted the globe. "I'm the Doctor, and I declare this war is over." He threw the globe onto the floor and it smashed, releasing all of the gas and energy that had been swarming inside. As they watched it swarm into the ecosystem, most everyone put down their weapons. Except for Cobb.

"What's happening?" Jenny asked.

"The gases will escape and trigger the terraforming process."

"What does that mean?"

"It means a new world."

Suddenly, before anyone could do anything, Jenny shouted "No!" and stepped in front of the Doctor as a shot rang out. Cobb had fired at him and ended up hitting Jenny in the chest. She fell backwards into the Doctor's arms, and he laid her on the ground.

"Jenny?" the Doctor cradled her in his arms. "Jenny. Talk to me, Jenny."

Donna kneeled down. "Is she going to be all right."

Martha just looked at her and shook her head, making Caroline kneel down as well. She trusted Martha's opinion, as a doctor, and knew that it was unlikely that someone could survive a bullet to the chest.

Jenny smiled, watching the gases at work. "A new world. It's beautiful."

"Jenny, be strong now," he clutched her even tighter. "You need to hold on, do you hear me? We've got things to do, you and me, hey? Hey? We can go anywhere. Everywhere. You choose."

She laughed. "That sounds good."

He shook his head. "You're my daughter, and we've only just got started. You're going to be great. You're going to be more than great. You're going to be amazing. You hear me? Jenny?"

But she was gone. Her head lulled on the Doctor's arm and he started to cry. "Two hearts. Two hearts. She's like me. If we wait…if we just wait…" he looked up at Martha, but she shook her head again.

"There's no sign, Doctor. There is no regeneration. She's like you, but maybe not enough."

"No," he whispered. "Too much. That's the truth of it. She was too much like me." Slowly, he laid Jenny down and kissed her forehead. Donna and Caroline pulled away while he walked over to Cobb, who was being forced to kneel by other soldiers. The Doctor picked up a pistol and pointed it at Cobb's head.

Caroline didn't know what he would do. Because this was the Doctor, who didn't want to harm, who wanted to save anyone he could, but this was a Doctor who'd just lost his daughter.

And he lowered the gun. "I never would. Have you got that? I never would." He looked out at the soldiers and Hath. "When you start this new world, this world of Human and Hath, remember that. Make the foundation of this society a man who never would." He threw away the gun.

|C-S|

Jenny's body was brought back to the theater and placed on a table. The four time travelers stood around her. The Doctor at the foot, Donna, Martha, and Caroline at a side with Cline and a Hath on the other.

A light shone through the stained glass windows, landing on Jenny's face.

"It's happening," Martha said. "The terraforming."

Donna nodded. "Build a city, nice and safe underground, strip away the top soil, and there it is." She looked down. "And what about Jenny?"

Cline looked towards the Doctor, who was staring down at his daughter. "Let us give her a proper ceremony. I think it'd help us. Please."

He nodded.

|C-S|

Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor sat in the captain's chair while his companions stood around the console. "Jenny was the reason for the TARDIS bringing us here," he explained. "It just got here too soon, which then created Jenny in the first place. Paradox. An endless paradox." He sighed, looking to Martha. "Time to go home?"

She nodded. "Yeah. Home."

The Doctor stood and began to pilot the TARDIS back to Earth, though he moved slower than he normally did.

When they landed, Donna and Martha walked out first. Caroline and the Doctor paused. "Are you alright?" she asked him.

It took him a moment to answer. "Thank you." She smiled, and that time she noticed when he took her hand.

They walked out together as Martha said "good luck," to Donna, while watching the pair of them.

"And you," Donna nodded.

The Doctor pulled his hand from Caroline's to walk a little with Martha. "Do you think you'll leave?" Donna asked Caroline.

"Will you?"

Donna laughed. "I'm going to travel with him forever."

But somewhere, deep in their souls, they knew that what they wished was impossible, that they'd be forced to leave the Doctor eventually, because he was an immortal Time Lord with two hearts and they were only humans.

A/N: Caroline made quite an interesting comment here. Anyone recognize it? :)