Tiger Bay, Cardiff, Wales, Great Britain_10th July Friday, 00:51 am
The Doctor closed his eyes waiting for his sentence, but he still could see the green bolts that were about to kill him through his eyelids. He could feel the electric spark, just about to touch him when... Something pulled him and felt cold breeze embrace him.
He opened his eyes, revealing Jack closing the door of the TARDIS.
'Always keep a TARDIS key with you,' Jack said as he locked the doors. 'Never forgot the day you gave me and Martha one.'
But the Doctor was too tormented to care about Jack's talk.
All he had left of them, all he was – had been –, all he had been there for; it was gone, gone for good and forever. And there was no turning back. But there was something in the back of his mind, as if just a tiny spark of the TARDIS had lived in him. Or maybe he was just hoping.
'…Dctr, lt's g!' The Doctor didn't react to Jack's call. 'Dctr! Hv y nt bn lstnng.'
The Doctor turned to stare at Jack. He couldn't focus on what Jack was saying. There was something in the words that made his head feel fuzzy. But it wasn't the words. It was his head.
Jack pulled the Doctor away from the TARDIS, as the TARDIS blew up with green explosions and the ancient gold lights going off into the sky. But the Doctor's mind was too much disturbed to notice the shower of sparks and outbursts.
His heartbeats were echoing in his mind, gradually slowing down. No. It wasn't his. There were two beats. There was one slowing down… Was he dying? No, wait. It was slowing down and it faded. But two hearts were still there. There had been three hearts then. And Jack turned to speak to the Doctor, but somehow he couldn't make out the words Jack was saying.
She had died.
The Doctor's eyes widened. Jack had revealed his vortex manipulator and had started to press the 4 and 9 buttons on it. Jack shouted to Gwen and Ianto, who held onto him while running. Jack held the Doctor's arm and pressed one last button on his vortex manipulator.
'No!'
But the Doctor could not do anything and they were gone in a blink of an eye.
L'Arc de Triomphe, Paris, France_11th July Saturday, 9:26 am
Tourists, they always came here. And only because of some piece of junk that stood like an arc. And it was because of that they came? Just to see some stones cemented on each other forming a bow above them? Come on! If it had been him he would have decided to stay at home and live a normal life because it wasn't even worth it going. You just hurt your neck only to look at it. Then, why was he there in the first place?
Jaquolei [pronounced: Jake-oh-lee-ah] had had to come because his parents had thought the human culture was a 'fascinating background with ethnic and marvellous traditions'. Well, he thought the other way. He thought the humans were just the filthiest race in the whole universe. They left rubbish on their grounds, people graffiti on walls – on Church walls even! – teased and made fun of any other of their race that did something really silly.
He had loved going to travelling before. It had been so much fun and more delightful, when his mother used to be less historical and educational and only cared about travelling, and when his dad used to invent a new way to understand one's culture or created a new gizmo to download a map of the area and just pressed co-ordinates to a certain place and travel from point A to B.
He didn't remember when he stopped liking it, if it was because his parents had lost the sense of adventure he had or because they were getting so old that they didn't feel dangerous places were going to be as good anymore. But he was really hoping to get old enough to go travelling the universe by himself, to get a bit more of adrenalin to his journeys.
He turned around, looking through the sea of people. There was a gap between and it was visible. He twisted back to see his parents, still holding their necks to be able to see the arch. And he had seen it, just through the gap of people, someone walked through and four people appeared out of nowhere.
Oh, there is something exciting after all, Jaquolei thought and walked over to check out what had happened.
No one seemed to have noticed but him. Everyone just kept on looking at the arch. It was so stupid. There were three men and one woman. They seemed in a hurry as they pushed through the crowd. Jaquolei followed them and just focused on catching up with them that he didn't notice the sudden green light surrounding around the L'Arc de Triomphe.
Jack dragged the Doctor out of the sea of crowds, Gwen and Ianto following, making sure that the Doctor walked the same way as Jack. Gwen glanced sideways. No one had noticed as they were too busy looking up at the archway. But then she saw that fellow, pushing through the vast and making his way towards them. But then, she hadn't gotten a full frame of that, as Ianto pulled Gwen with him and together strode out of the way.
The Doctor fought Jack's hold, but Jack wouldn't let him go, and the Doctor's mind was a bit lost too, to Jack's luck. Gwen could see his devastation; that gaze when you lost everything you had and it was gone, just as Rhys had gone. Gwen shook the thought away and held her tears. She wouldn't cry. Rhys wouldn't want her to cry. Not when he had been a hero for once, saving someone else's life. She would go on, no matter what.
They kept running. Just running without turning around and see what was to happen next. Ianto didn't know how long they had been running. The only thing he knew was that they didn't get exhausted. Was it the need to get the Doctor as far away from Adam as possible? Was it because they wanted to get to one point straight, out of Adam's sight? Was it just that they wanted to show Adam how helpless they were? Or was it fear?
Fear for their lives. Fear for weakness. Fear from Adam. He was so great in power, with the massive energy he had taken from the Rift Manipulator, and took the life out of the Doctor's TARDIS. Little he knew about the Doctor's spaceship, but from the Doctor's face it must have contained immense power. And by his face, if Adam had gotten to the TARDIS, it meant no good.
They had been running.
She was gone.
They had got away from everything.
She was gone.
And they ran away from the danger, from the harm, but then…
She is gone.
They had teleported, and were brought to an area full of people, just enough to cover their arrival. But the Doctor had tried to stop them, he didn't know why. He couldn't think. He couldn't get himself back into senses. His mind had locked itself from danger, from harm, from everyone else, even from himself. He commanded it to respond to his orders, but it wouldn't let him. It would just strangle and try to go back. Go behind where the past lay because it couldn't let go. And he was so weak. He couldn't control even himself.
A cry, a scream, a yell and they had been gone. And he couldn't turn back. Because if he looked behind, he knew there wouldn't be any hope. He just looked forward and didn't dare to think of what just had happened. And he had to get him away. If he didn't get him as far as possible from their landing spot, everything, his world, his friends, his life, they would be gone. No. He wouldn't let it happen.
He heaved the Doctor, who was trying to get away from Jack and go back to his beloved TARDIS. But it was dead. And he couldn't do anything but pull the Doctor and get him away from any harm. It was hard, but he had to help the Doctor, because the Doctor was the only person who could help them all to escape their dreadful end.
They hadn't noticed him. It was better like that. Jaquolei ran as the group got further away from him. He could have run faster, but he didn't want to really seem to be following them, so he kept a fair distance.
This was so thrilling. He could feel the excitement run up his throat and the enthusiasm filling his mind. But his conscience told him that, even though it was that stimulating, there was something that wasn't right. And he could smell it from the wind. He couldn't really tell what it was, but in the scent there was a hint of… fear? Melancholy? Devastation?
He could hear all voices around him, all speaking at once and couldn't understand anything. For Harko's sake! Did the LC interpreter brake again? He stopped for a moment and reached into his backpack. Jaquolei produced a little round piece of metal and tapped on it several times, making the item whirr and blip and beep. And he could understand the voices. He looked up and continued running. But he had lost track of the troupe.
They had stopped. The Doctor looked around. They were in a normal desolate alley between two buildings. It was a bit smelly and it stank like hell, but at least there wasn't anyone around. He heard voices speaking in another language. He turned, alarmed. But it turned out to be Jack, talking to Gwen and Ianto. They nodded, a bit upset, as Jack spoke. The Doctor still couldn't understand. Then Jack spoke to him, but he couldn't do anything. He couldn't understand because she had died.
Nine hundred and three years of travelling and befriending the TARDIS. And he had thought this day would never come. But now there wasn't anything. She was gone. He had thought she would never… But there wasn't anything else he could do.
Rage and wrath burnt in his hearts. It was his entire fault for pulling that lever down. And he had created a monster that was now loose, roaming somewhere in the world. He could even be in the past, or the future, or at the opposite side of the universe. Because he had taken the power the TARDIS once contained. Adam had killed her.
The Doctor couldn't contain himself.
'You shouldn't have!' he yelled at Jack. 'We – you shouldn't have teleported us! We could have helped her! We could have done something! But then you had to bring us here and leave the TARDIS to die! I'm not like that and you know that, Jack Harkness! I would never leave anyone behind if it wasn't to let them die! But of course, you're not me! So you can do whatever you want with me and my miserable life! Don't you?'
Jack, Gwen and Ianto just stared at the Doctor with blank faces. The Doctor just stared back and then suddenly realized. She was dead. No TARDIS. That meant no translator. He couldn't understand them. They couldn't understand him.
The Doctor's eyes widened. 'The TARDIS is dead. Without her to bring me around the place, without her to translate everything to me, there's no way I can help Earth this time. Not even the universe.' He leaned on the wall of one of the buildings and gazed down, shocked. 'It's impossible. I can't do anything. I'm hopeless.' He looked back up at his companions, who stared at the Doctor, not understanding a word he was saying. Why was he even talking? They wouldn't understand anything even if he tried hard. He had to give up.
They had been there for hours, talking to themselves. Well, mostly because they couldn't understand each other. But the Doctor just couldn't hope anymore. There wasn't a way he could help them anymore.
They had left the alley an hour ago and swept into a group of tourists. He wasn't sure where they were headed, but Jack had decided to follow them, gesturing Gwen, Ianto and him to go after him.
The Doctor devoted the time while they walked into thinking. Thinking about anything there was to think. He had to clear his mind. He really needed to get away from reality. He was lost. He had lost. He lost. For once, the hero had lost. Not that he called himself a hero, but he was the only salvation humanity, maybe even the universe had left to survive the end that was about to come. And he couldn't do anything anymore. Adam had taken her life. Even if there was a trace of her somewhere inside Adam, he wouldn't be able to get Adam to change. He only wanted his revenge by taking humanity first. And then the whole universe, tearing apart the world Jack, Gwen and Ianto had known, had loved. And he couldn't do anything to help them save their world.
The Doctor heard a shriek that made him come back to life. He saw Gwen. He looked her direction. It was a TV window shop and he could see people screaming, crying in agony. Fear strangling their hearts. Gwen cried and shoved herself into Jack's arms, who watched the hole that was planted where Cardiff used to be. Ianto didn't dare to watch, he just looked down at Gwen, patting her back. The Doctor stared at them with torment.
'I'm sorry,' he simply said. 'I really am.'
Jack stared back at the Doctor. He didn't know what the Doctor had said, but he understood, nodding at him and then watching back at the TV's.
And the Doctor just couldn't do anything. He watched the people of Cardiff suffer. He watched the people crying over the hole that was supposed to be Cardiff. He watched the newsreader, without understanding a word, though he knew. Watching Jack, Gwen and Ianto cry over their home.
And he couldn't do anything but watch. He had to give up.
He was lost. He had been running for a long time now, trying to find them again. But there was nothing. Not a trace from them. There was just the normal crowd of tourists wondering through the city. He had looked everywhere and had found nothing. And, to cap it all, he didn't know the way back to the 'Arch of Triumph', as the humans called it. His dad had created a Portable Area Finder, but it was only to be used by himself and nobody else. So, he was lost.
His attention turned to something else when he heard great screams and gasps. He turned around and saw a café. Something was happening there. He walked into it, and appeared from a clean sunny day into a cold and dark and depressive coffee bar. Not literally though. The people in there made it look like that because of what they were seeing. Jaquolei looked the same direction as everyone else. A TV sticking out of the ceiling showed frames of a great hole in the middle of nowhere.
Jaquolei realized that his mouth was open and immediately closed it, biting his lip. It was horrible and unnatural. His parents had told him in this planet nothing like this happened, that it had no knowledge of outer life, just them and their little world and no one to bother them. It seemed it was until now.
He heard from the reporter that that hole used to be a city called Cardiff, situated in Wales, Great Britain. Then the hole must have been fifty times bigger than it looked. He couldn't believe that such thing could happen. What was the most powerful thing that could make a gap that great? He couldn't think of anything then. But the destroyed metropolis, and remember the ruined planet he once loved. Was it happening here too?
He couldn't resist a tear rolling down his cheek.
Grief, Gloom and Gall, they were words that described this event, all starting with 'g', like the word green. Green like the grass growing on the ground, green like envy and greed, green like those two eyes watching it all happen.
A smile upon a nasty face, making fun of the sorrow felt by the people, laughing at the pitiful scene they were making down there. And he could feel another kind of grief. It wasn't situated around there, but he could feel it, even though he didn't know where it came from. He snorted at the feeling. He knew whose distress he could feel, and it was funny to him.
He had killed her.
Now he was useless.
He was hopeless.
He couldn't do anything but give up.
Adam gave a laugh of triumph, an echoing sound that got to everyone's ears, as a warning.
The Doctor could feel Adam watching him. No, not watching him, feeling him, tickling his brain getting into his mind and trying to read it, forcing his way into his feelings and thoughts. And he had won.
The Doctor knew Adam could get into him more easily now that he had killed the TARDIS and taken her entire energy. All for Adam's own benefit. And he had shattered the whole of Cardiff. About a million dead and Adam hadn't cared because all he wanted was his revenge on the Torchwood team. And it had made the Doctor infuriated.
But he couldn't do anything without the TARDIS…
The TARDIS was dead…
Without her he wouldn't be able to help the Earth this time…
He didn't have anything…
He couldn't do anything…
Nothing but watch as the planet decayed…
And let that flash of green cross through his mind…
No!
The Doctor felt stronger. He felt braver. He felt angrier. Adam was just trying to influence his mind like he had tried before. And the Doctor wouldn't let him again. He had to do something instead of standing there and watch humanity undergo the start of their end. And he wouldn't let it be the end.
The Doctor turned to Jack, Gwen and Ianto. 'Right!' he exclaimed. Jack, Gwen and Ianto gaped at him, astonished by his sudden eagerness in his tone. 'Let's get going!'
And the Doctor started to walk away from the TV shop, from the group of tourists, from what was turning him down, from Adam's staring gaze, trying to get into his mind and try to get his thoughts into the wrong direction. But the Doctor would not let him. He would keep on and run forward because this planet needed his help right that moment. Because the galaxy had just had one warning from Adam, and now it was time for the Doctor to act. Because the whole universe was at stake and he had to assist it. Because he had to do this for the TARDIS… wait a moment… was that his language?
'Hey, you!'
The Doctor turned. He was in the middle of the road. A truck was closing in. He stood there petrified. Someone appointed him as 'you'. And he was pushed aside.
He hit his head with the ground and then…