Av des Champs Elysees, Paris, France_11th July, Saturday, 11:03 a.m.

The Doctor opened his eyes. A kid stood there looking down at him. His temple throbbed. He brought his hand to it, and felt a big bump just above it. Did it have to happen to him every time he was in a hurry to save the world? He should stop making his heroic scene.

'Just a tiny bump, see?'

The Doctor shook his head and looked around. He had heard a voice talking his language. He stared at Jack, who started to talk to the kid.

He must have just imagined it. Maybe just wishing he had really heard a voice, talking his own language. Because he knew there couldn't be anything, there wasn't anyone that could understand him. Because she was gone, and she would never come back.

'Are you alright?'

That voice again talking his language. He looked around, but there wasn't anything, just the kid above, smiling at him.

'Are you right there, mate?' the boy asked.

'Yeah…' the Doctor said, nodded. 'Just can't find that voice…' pause. 'Did you just say something?'

The kid stared at him mystified. 'Why wouldn't I say anything?' the kid said. 'You were just nearly been hit by a truck.'

The Doctor looked at him flabbergasted. He then looked round at Jack, who too was staring at the kid baffled.

'You can understand me?' the Doctor asked.

''Course I can!' the kid snorted. 'Why wouldn't I?'

'But – I mean – you couldn't really – I mean, really understand me?' the Doctor mumbled. 'The TAR… –' The Doctor hesitated. 'She's dead…'

The boy turned to Jack, in confusion. 'What's up with him?'

Jack replied something the Doctor didn't get and the boy glared at Jack. 'What do you mean what' up with him what? Didn't you say he was your friend? So how come you don't even care what's with him?'

The Doctor stood up, stumbling and falling to the ground again.

'See in what state he is? And you don't even care!' the kid exclaimed.

'Now, calm down, I'm alright,' the Doctor said, making another attempt to stand up. 'They do care. We're just boggled in your understanding.'

'What do you mean by 'we'?' asked the kid.

'Well, me and my... acquaintances here.' the Doctor pointed at Jack and the others. 'What did you say your name was?'

'I didn't say,' the boy said, looking at the Doctor worryingly.

'Well, then tell us!'

'Jaquolei,' the kid replied. 'Jaquolei Louq.'

'Well, Jaquolei Louq, you'll serve us for great help. First, you'll walk us somewhere more crowded and second you'll tell us a couple of things,' the Doctor responded enthusiastically, placing an arm around Jaquolei's shoulders and gesturing Jack and the others to follow them.

Jardin de Carousel, Paris, France_11th July, Saturday, 11:42 a.m.

'So you can understand both of us,' the man continued, as he and Jaquolei walked around the park, 'but why?'

'What do you mean by both of us?' Jaquolei asked. It was so weird how it had gone fast. He had just met these people – well, better said they just met him – and now the one who seemed their boss was dragging him around.

'Jack, Gwen and Ianto and me,' the man stopped walking nodding at the other people, who were enjoying themselves in the playground. 'You're not supposed to understand us both, did you know that? Who are you? Or I mean, what are you?'

'Don't ask it like that, it's rude,' Jaquolei complained.

'Sorry, didn't mean it like that,' the man apologised, scratching the back of his head. 'I meant to say that you can't be from around here, can you?'

That was wrong. Did the man suspect him to be from outer space? His parents said that they were sure that no one on Earth would think them aliens as they were just like them.

'You don't mean like out there, do you?' laughed Jaquolei pointing up to the sky. 'Why would you think that?'

'Well, despite that you understand both my friends and me,' the Doctor started, 'you don't have much knowledge as much as I do to tell me what this place is...'

'It's a park,' Jaquolei interrupted. 'Who wants to know about it?'

'I don't mean that,' the man said. 'I mean do you know in which city you are? Come on! Everyone knows this city like the palm of their hand. Well, I just mean the name, not the whole city, but that doesn't matter now. I just wanna know if you know this place.' There was a long pause, in which Jaquolei stared at the man with intimidation. 'Of course you don't, because you are not from here. You come from somewhere distant. You are from outer space!'

'You're mad, man!' Jaquolei exclaimed trying to sound human.

'I am not! And you know that! Come here.' The man dragged him closer to the playground. He stopped and searched in his pockets finding some kind of sunglasses, the glasses had different colours. 'Know what these are?' Jaquolei shook his head. 'These are 3D glasses. You use them to see pictures or movies or... whatever in 3D.'

'I never watch movies, my parents never let me.'

'Well, we don't care about that, do we?' the man put the so called '3D glasses' on and pointed towards the playground. 'Can you tell me what you see there?'

'The playground,' Jaquolei answered, and the man gestured him to continue. 'What else is there to see? It's just the playground, your friends, the grenach particles in the opaque air and nothing but rubbish around the ground...'

'Aha!' the man exclaimed. 'See! You see every detail! Every single detail.'

'Yeah, so what?'

'You can see more than a playground in front of you, don't you?' the man asked. 'You can see things in the air, more in the air. You are disturbed by the rubbish left behind. That's because where you come from is less like this. The air is clearer; the ground is cleaner and tidier.'

'I thought you wanted me to see something else other than that.'

'No, I just wanted you to say whatever.'

'I can be not from outer space, you know.'

'Yeah, you could,' the man agreed. 'But you are. You can have a humanoid look and seem a human. But I don't know if you noticed, but I did.' The man leaned over Jaquolei, making him feel nervous. The man pulled him and sat on a bench near them, looking up at him. 'I can see through you.' Jaquolei frowned. 'Literally, I can see through you.'

Jaquolei's eyes couldn't leave the man's. He knew. The man knew he was not from there. How could he know? And what did he mean he could see through him?

'Don't get what I mean?' the man stood up again and held Jaquolei's hand up in front of the sun. 'Look through it.'

And Jaquolei could see the sun through it. The man shifted Jaquolei's hand in the direction of the playground. He could see the outline of the playground just about. Jaquolei looked at the man mesmerized.

'Just as baffled as I am, are you?' the man said, leaving his hand. 'Bet you don't really see this where you come from. This air is not clean. You can see it in your skin.' Jaquolei stared at the man, not leaving his eyes. The man raised his eyebrows. 'Klenngasse. Isn't that what you're called?'

Jaquolei stepped back from the man, but it didn't make his intense stare get away from his.

'Oh, come on. Don't make such a great drama about how a genius I am,' the Doctor said.

'Who are you?' Jaquolei finally asked.

'I'm the Doctor,' he said. 'And the only man you can trust here if you want to survive this and live to tell the story.'

'What do you mean survive?'

'Listen,' the Doctor stepped in front Jaquolei, their noses touching, 'it doesn't seem as this, but right now you're in danger staying here on Earth. You should go back to your spaceship and fly away, half a universe if it's possible, and breach the Earth until it's at peace.'

'But this place is already peaceful,' Jaquolei complained. 'It's not like its soil is poisonous…'

The Doctor grabbed Jaquolei by the shoulders and shook him, 'I tell you to forget about this place and never come back.'

Jaquolei nodded, not wanting to disagree with him anymore. The man left him and walked in circles, brushing his hair with his fingers. He looked kind of thinking, but he kept looking back at Jaquolei. The Doctor suddenly stopped walking towards him again making him startle and walk back away from him. The Doctor stopped, noticing Jaquolei's fright.

'OK. Sorry for that, a moment ago,' the Doctor told Jaquolei. 'But I need to ask you, did you come alone?'

'Of course not,' Jaquolei uttered. 'I'm only fifteen years old. I can't fly around the universe by myself.'

'Who's with you?'

'My parents, of course,' he said. 'I've been travelling for almost my whole life.'

'Where are they now?'

'They should be at the Arch of Triumph.'

He stopped. 'That's where we came from.'

The Doctor's eyes widened with fear and ran a hand through his hair, nervously. He walked in circles, seeming angry, and after a few moments he came back to his senses.

'Well,' he said. 'We better get going before something happens to them. Come on. Allons-y!'

The Doctor ran, grabbing Jaquolei's arm. They both stopped by the road, the Doctor waving his hand high, as a car drove towards them.

'Taxi!'

But the car passed them by with the sound of the horn. The Doctor frowned and then remembered. They couldn't understand him.

'Jaquolei, call a taxi! And anyway can I call you Jaqui?'

'Call a "Tack-see"? What the hell is that?' Jaquolei asked.

'Oh, just do it!'

Jaquolei gave an irritated sigh and copied the Doctor, waving his hand high at an oncoming yellow car. 'Tack-see!'

The car stopped and the Doctor and Jaquolei got in.

'Tell him to go to the Arch of Triumph,' the Doctor said.

And Jaquolei did as he was told.

And the taxi drove away, leaving a Jack Harkness running after it and giving up afterwards. He turned around, shrugging at his friends waiting for him back at the asphalt.

The Doctor tapped his fingers on the windowpane impatient watching the city go by in front of him. Jaqui watched him for an instant, noticing a glint of seriousness he hadn't seen in the man a while back.

Jaqui took his gaze back at the man driving the box they had gotten in. It was quite amazing this box, actually. The man just sat there in the seats in front of them and made the thing move. They hadn't seen anything quite like it in his planet.

Actually, when he came to think of it... he had never been in his own planet.

He was born in the middle of his parents travels. He had grown up there since he was just a tadpole and... All he could remember was... their ship caravan, family and... Nothing more but images passing through his mind of all the places he'd been.

'Ah!'

Jaqui's thoughts flicked off as he Doctor's voice cracked out of silence.

'What is it?' Jaqui asked in sudden alarm.

'I missed it. Did I miss it?' the Doctor rubbed his temples and suddenly just stared into nothingness.

Jaqui just shook his head and turned his head back to the window.

'Ah!'

Jaqui just turned slowly in annoyance.

'What am I talking about?' the Doctor stared into nothingness again and suddenly slapped himself and snapped out of it. 'Ah! He's trying to get into me again.'

'Who is?' Jaqui frowned.

'I can't let him get to me again!' the Doctor looked straight ahead.

Jaqui turned that way too and saw it too. A green light struck not far from there. The man in front of them saw this too, and watched in awe.

The Doctor, eyes shining, leaned over near the man's ear and shouted 'Go towards that strike!'

The man just looked at him weirdly. The Doctor just brushed his hair and turned to Jaqui. He leaned over like the Doctor.

'Please, towards that strike,' he said.

The man nodded.

'Faster.'

The man yanked himself forwards and made the box swifter.

Jack, Gwen and Ianto saw it too. It was very far away, but visible. A strike of green light hitting the middle of Paris, he was sure it was the same man that had destroyed Cardiff. Their home.

Jack stared hard at the lightning, without flinching, fury going through his veins, heating him up. He knew the Doctor was going towards that place, and he knew that if he got there before he did, the Doctor would be in big trouble.

He had to save the Doctor before he did something silly, though Jack was the one who usually did the silly thing. But Adam was playing out the Doctor's mind. He could see it in the Doctor's eyes, sometimes a gleam of green, in his eyes, and it wouldn't go for a long time.

The Doctor was giving in.

And Jack had to do something.

He sat in silence beside his friends as the taxi driver promptly drove them towards the green light.

He was scared. There was no doubt about that. But he didn't want to show it. He knew Adam was watching him. And he didn't want to give him the liberties to have another laugh at him.

The Doctor couldn't focus himself. He constantly kept seeing the green beam, through his eyes. And then he'd snap out of it.

As they came closer to the striking green light he felt Adam more and more. And it felt so dangerous. He felt unsafe. Especially without his TARDIS.

The Doctor slapped himself. Adam was trying to get into him. He was trying to infiltrate his mind, get his knowledge, see his memories. He couldn't let him. He wouldn't let him. And to do so, he had to show courage and go towards the green light.

The taxi stopped.

'What is he doing?' the Doctor outraged.

Jaqui leaned to the driver. 'What's happening?'

The driver replied to him.

The Doctor was starting to get even more irritated. 'What's wrong? Why did he stop?'

'There's some traffic,' Jaqui responded. 'I think they closed off the tracks.'

'Wha—No!' The Doctor banged his head against the roof, as he tried to get up. He opened the door and got out. 'Come on!'

'What? Are we going through the tracks? Aren't we gonna fall into space?'

The Doctor crouched a bit to the height of the door. 'We're not in the middle of space, Jaqui.'

'Well, how do the space-boxes move here?'

'Welcome to Earth, Jaqui!' And with that, the Doctor grabbed Jaqui and they both ran through the traffic. With an infuriated driver calling after them.

But as they got to the Arch of Triumph, they couldn't – wouldn't – believe what they saw in front of them.

The Doctor felt that feeling of hopelessness again.