A/N: It's Friday, ya all! Which means that it's time to update me. We'll see where this mad ride will take us next…

First, though… THANK YOU, from the bottom of my heart for all your reviews and support! They really do mean a lot, ya know? (HUGS)

Awkay, because I've got a feeling that you want to go on with the story… Let's rock! I really hope that you'll have a good time with this one.

For the Past and Future

The silence in the car speeding towards the remaining Dansheés'base was nearly deafening. All the passengers were quiet and deep in thought, wondering just what they were headed towards. How it'd all end.

At some point the Doctor and Donna exchanged dark, pained looks, both of them knowing one detail more than they would've wanted to.

In the end they reached a school that'd been abandoned almost a year earlier. For some reason no one had bothered to transform it into anything new. Well, almost no one. They all saw security cameras. Several of them. Along with bars covering some windows.

It wasn't a school anymore, it was a fortress.

"So…", Donna breathed out. She seemed a little pale. "Any ideas?"

Both the Doctor and Sherlock opened their mouths but it was Mary who spoke. The look in her eyes was definitely that of an assassin. "We need to split up. Otherwise it's going to take too long to go through a building of that size. Sherlock, you're coming with me." Seeing the look in John's eyes she was quick to cut off the oncoming objection. "You'd want to come with me, I know. But right now I don't need a over-protective husband hovering around me. I need you to be a soldier. Understood, captain Watson?"

Despite the circumstances John smirked. "Yes, ma'am." And suddenly the rest of them felt like they'd been witnessing something unpleasantly private.

Just before they parted ways John and Sherlock shared a long, meaningful look. One that clearly said 'Don't you dare do anything stupid'. Mary, on the other hand, marched determinedly to John and sealed him into a long, searing kiss. The words she whispered upon leaning to his ear were meant for just the two of them. "Come back… or I'll name our daughter Hamish."

John emitted a quick, breathless chuckle.

Parting ways was far from painless. But in the end the Doctor, Donna and John were making their way towards the east entrance. Carefully avoiding all cameras and keeping an eye out on possible traps they sneaked in, taking a look around in the surprisingly shadowy, long hallway.

That was when they heard the sobs. Those of children. They exchanged looks and began to approach without a hint of hesitation. The classroom's door from behind which the noise came was locked but no challenge for the Sonic. They opened the door, and froze.

There, huddled together tightly, were children who couldn't be older than five or six. Nine of them, most likely Dansheés. They all appeared exhausted and terrified. There wasn't a single dry eye amongst them.

"Oh my…!" Donna breathed out, then stepped forward. Her feet didn't appear entirely steady. "It's… It's alright", she reassured the children. "We're not going to hurt you, we're here to help. I promise."

One of the children, a tiny redhead with the bluest eyes they'd ever seen, gulped. Then, finally, spoke up. "Are you… Are the new teachers?" Her speech was far from perfect but they understood, loud and clear. "Nia got missin'." They preferred not to guess what happened to the teacher.

Donna nodded shakily. "Yes, sweetie. We're… the new teachers."

"Get the children out of here", the Doctor whispered to Donna, so that only the two other adults heard. "It's… They don't need to see what's going to happen next. Make sure that they're safe."

Donna seemed fully ready to argue and she quite clearly wasn't pleased with his plan. But she was also forced to admit that the little ones had to be protected. Her eyes narrowed. "You'd better be careful, you hear? Both of you."

The Doctor tried to grin. He wasn't sure how convincing it was. "I wouldn't want to face your wrath, would I?"

Donna's tiny grin had no humor to it. Her facial muscles were too tight. "Maybe you are a genius, after all."

The men watched as Donna ushered the hesitant, terrified children out of the building. All the way she was trying to convince them that everything was going to be alright and that they'd be reunited with their parents soon. After their departure it became entirely too quiet.

"Will they be safe?" John half-whispered in the end.

The Doctor nodded. There wasn't a shadow of a doubt in his mind. "I've seen what that woman is capable of", he stated fondly. "Those children are most definitely going to be safe."

As they went through the massive building, their steps soundless and their eyes darting around to spot any threat, both John and the Doctor knew that staying quiet was quite essential. There was a pack of furious, wolf like aliens lurking nearby, after all. But it seemed that the time traveler wasn't very good at keeping his tongue in check.

"I'm sorry, about your sister."

John shivered and his jawline tightened. The relationship between him and Harry… was complicated, to say the least. He didn't feel comfortable with unfolding it to someone he just met. So he nodded curtly. Then, unexpectedly, unleashed a tiny, bitter chuckle. "I… used to fear that she'd drink herself to death one day. I never thought…" He shut his mouth painfully quickly, swallowing down the foul words.

Some quiet moments passed by before the Doctor spoke again. The alien's voice was a touch more tense than before. "When we find the Dansheés… What are you going to do?"

"Whatever I have to", John replied without a beat of hesitation. A jolt of something painfully sharp went through him. "I'm… I'm a husband. And in a few weeks I'll be a father." His eyes hardened. "I'm not… I can't let them harm my family. I won't." He took a deep breath. "It's my job to protect them. So I will." He didn't like it, not one bit. It was against his very nature. But from the moment he proposed to Mary he'd given himself the promise that he wouldn't let harm come her way. And he wasn't the kind of a man who took promises lightly.

After that the talking finally stopped. The quiet that fell was crushingly heavy, loaded with emotions that John couldn't quite grasp. "John… I've seen the outcome of this day, once", the Doctor whispered eventually. Sounding very frustrated, tired, old, angry and determined all at once. "I'm not sure if I can stop it, but… I need you to know that I tried."

John frowned. All of a sudden dread filled his whole body. "What… are you talking about?"

There was a brief moment of heavy silence before the Doctor answered. "I've allowed too many inevitable things to come to pass. Too many good people to die." The alien gritted his teeth, hard. "The universe owes me one."

John never got the chance to demand further explanations. Because in the very next second there was a small, metallic sound. And he felt a brush of alarm.

"I'm sorry, John."

Something hard collided with his head and all lights went out.

Elsewhere in the building Sherlock and Mary froze, both of them feeling cold chills running down their skin. They exchanged a look, their faces unreadable and saying everything necessary at the same time. It was a mystery how they both knew but it hit them with absolute certainty.

Something was wrong with John.

They didn't have a lot of time to dwell on that worry, though. Because a few moments later they came to a realization that they weren't alone anymore. Steps were heard and only a few moments later they were surrounded. It didn't take a genius IQ or an assassin's experience to realize that their companions were hostile.

"Put… down… the guns", a female voice commanded in a growl. There was no mistaking the strength behind that threat. "There are several firearms aimed at you. And believe me, we're not too shy to use them."

One… Two… Three… Sherlock counted six figures in the shadows. A couple of them had attempted to hide themselves quite successfully but not well enough. Not that knowing the number would've done a lot of good.

Sherlock measured up his options, all too soon coming to a conclusion that he didn't have but one. They were outgunned, outnumbered. The moment they'd make a move…

Mary stiffened beside him, clearly coming to the same sombre conclusion.

Sherlock's mind was rattling on at a impossible speed, trying to form a plan F, when all of a sudden it became clear that he wouldn't need one. He saw one Dansheé's eyes widen and that was all the warning he got. In a flash a sharp series of six taps came while bullets flew through a gun's silencer, each of them sinking to a lethal spot. Some of the aliens stood frozen still for a moment, looks of dazed disbelief flashing on their faces. But in the end they were all down.

Sherlock turned around slowly, not fully believing that the threat was over yet, and wasn't quite able to keep a tiny trace of his surprise from showing.

Irene stood only steps away, slowly lowering a recently fired gun. There was a entirely too familiar smirk on her lips. "Did you really think that I'd let you have all the fun?"

The Doctor wasn't proud of what he did but he also knew that he didn't really have a choice. And so he hid John's unconscious form carefully, making sure that the other man was as comfortable and safe as possible. After checking that John's breathing and pulse were even, and taking a close look around in case of any potential threats, he continued on his way. It was harder than it should've been to not look back.

The Doctor counted that he'd been walking on for about five minutes until he sensed that he'd been granted his wish. He tensed up and froze, his two hearts jumping a little. He wasn't alone.

"Well, well, well… Look what the cat brought in", a male voice stated in a biting tone. "If it isn't the mighty Doctor? The last time I saw you was a little before my home planet was destroyed, taking most of my kind along."

That definitely hurt. The Doctor breathed through it, turning slowly to meet a group of five men. His attention focused on the one up front. In his mid-forties, tall and definitely attention catching with his elegant posture, dressed in a expensive looking suit. Shortcut, well groomed brown hair. A pair of piercing, grey eyes.

Those eyes were the last thing he saw before leaving the doomed planet of the Dansheés. Those eyes were pleading him to do something, anything, along with the heated words. While he knew full well that there was nothing he could do.

"I'm sorry that I couldn't help you back then." And he really was. He'd felt the destruction of the planet, of all those at the time relatively innocent lives, although he'd been far away. Some failures were unacceptable. "But now… I'm trying to keep you from being destroyed again."

One of the taller man's eyebrows rose. "How about that. Are you offering to help us?" It sounded deeply venomous.

"Help you?" The Doctor gave a brief chuckle that was a mixture of disbelief, amusement and bitterness. "Help you, destroy another species? Help you dig your own grave?"

The man's eyebrow arched. A rebellious chin was lifted although a hint of fear could almost be smelled. "Digging our own grave?" A pair of dangerous eyes flashed. "You do realize that you're threatening us, don't you? And that, Doctor, was a very stupid thing to do."

The Doctor refused to let himself be intimitated. Stopping this… It was far too important. "The humans are already on to you. And you've all seen how they react to being threatened. They attack and destroy."

"So do we."

"You? A handful of a nearly extinct species against the dominant species of this planet?" Sadness gripped the Doctor's heart. "It's hopeless! They'll wipe you away!" Couldn't they see? This path… It'd only lead to death and destruction.

The Dansheé arched an eyebrow. "Why, exactly, would you care? What does it matter to you what happens to us?"

The Doctor sighed heavily. "I've seen too many races disappearing, becoming destroyed entirely. Including my own." It was almost impossible to even voice, and borderline unbearable to remember, but if it'd save what little was left of a species he'd already let down once… "And… I'd much rather not see it happen, ever again."

This time a woman emerged from the shadows. She was very young, only somewhere around her mid-twenties, and beautiful. She had long blonde hair and large hazel eyes that had a flame of fury in them. Her expression didn't carry any less fury. "So you're telling us to just walk away?" Her Welsh accent was thick, deepened by the array of emotions. "After everything they've put us through… What they've put this entire, amazing planet through… We should just let it go and walk away? Let them get away with it? Humans and Kial´ais?"

It was the first time the Doctor heard the name of John's kind. But he couldn't let the surprise slow him down. Not with how much there was at stake. "Yes", he confirmed, as calmly and evenly as he could. "For the sake of you all. Especially your children." It wrenched his heart. But… He'd seen what humans were capable of if they were scared. The was no guarantee that they wouldn't do even the unthinkable.

Apparently he hadn't chosen the correct thing to say. Because if anything the woman's eyes became even more furious, even more dangerously determined. "For the sake of our children…", she hissed, as though every word burned her tongue. "For the sake of our children… I'll make sure that we'll never, ever end up to the way were when…" Her eyes watered when pain came surging through but the fury didn't lessen at all. "Do you know when I would've needed you? When you would've been able to help me? It was when we lost our planet and ended up here, into this hell! Before those monsters got a hold of us!" She gritted her teeth painfully. "If I ever question whether we should do this or not… I have a map of scars all over my body to prove it! I have several lifetimes' worth of memories of watching everyone I cared about being buthered and worse!" A single tear rolled down her cheek and she was trembling, hard. "I… I was only seven, and I had to watch them kill my entire family!"

"Cadi…", the man who spoke to him first murmured in a warning tone, casting a very sharp look towards her.

She shook her head, none of the resolve fading. "How many times do I have to tell you? If you speak to me, use my real name, not the one they gave me!" she growled. She only managed to relax marginally. "You deserve to know why. So, here it is." Her nose wrinkled while a flood of memories surged on. "I… I thought that I'd die, too. I'm not sure if I would've even preferred it. But… Then the government caught a hold of what was happening. Shut down the entire place. Wiped it away, as though nothing ever happened. Tried to offer everyone… a fresh start, I suppose, to cleanse their own conscience. I was an orphan. All alone, homeless. So I was eventually given to a Welsh couple. I heard them complaining that they would've wanted a baby, but… A man in a suit spent two hours with them behind locked doors, and they took me to their house. They gave me a new life, a new name. A new… me."

Deep sorrow filled the Doctor. Finally, finally he began to understand. "They tried to erase your whole past, your whole identity, from your memories", he murdered sadly. It took a while before he managed to pry further. "You didn't settle in very well, did you?"

Cadi scoffed. "How well would you imagine that a traumatized Dansheé would adjust with parents who enjoy watching cricket and theater, and who dislike strong displays of emotions? I was grieving my family, terrified that I'd end up back into that place, still recovering from the torture. And… I barely undestood their language. I learned a bit of English from those who captured me, but…" She swallowed loudly. "I had no love or support, no family, no friends. Everyone at school looked at me like I was a monster, even the teachers. I hated every second of it. And when I was fourteen I finally ran away. That's when I met James Moriarty. He helped my find some purpose to my life."

The Doctor felt disgust swirling in the pit of his stomach. He shook his head. "Killing people isn't a purpose", he pointed out hotly.

Cadi sneered, her former smooth accent mixing with a sound that had to come from her original form. "Oh? And does your life have a any better purpose? I remember your stories, even though I was only a little girl back then." Her eyes darkened. "Floating around in your silly blue box for all eternity… The last of your kind, all alone although a lot of people try to travel with you… Waiting for the day when you finally run out of new faces…" Something unnamable could be seen on her angel's face. "At least I'm still fighting for what I believe in."

The Doctor felt his own resolve rising and gaining strength. His hand twitched barely visibly as it grabbed on a device. "So am I."

He moved faster than any of the aliens around him could react. With a determined hand he grabbed Cadi's wrist. A bright flash swallowed them.

The rest of the beings in the room were left to stare at the empty spot where they stood only a second earlier.

TBC

A/N: Oh boy…! That was sort of action packed. (grins)

But, the real question goes… Was that any good at all? It's time to give your vote.

I've reeeally gotta dash right now. So, folks, until next time! I REALLY hope that I'll see you all then.

Take care!