Beta'd by the magnificent mcibb
"You didn't bring a jacket?" Rose asked as she noted the flimsy material of Amy's dress.
Amy looked down at her outfit. "Thought we'd be going somewhere warm." Amy replied.
It should be one of the rules, really, right up there with "don't wander off": Always bring a jacket.
Over the years, it became a lesson learned. The Doctor doesn't always get the flight right, so bring a jacket just in case. You can take off a layer if it's too warm, can't add one you don't have if it's cold.
Shucking her leather jacket, she handed it to Amy. "Just in case." She said.
"What about you?" Amy asked.
Rose smirked, heading for the jumpseat. Beneath her fingers a new jacket the color of espresso appeared. Leather like her last, it complemented her black boots and red top with the dark washed jeans. Rose slipped it on, adjusting it before pulling her long, straight hair out from beneath it. "Problem solved." She said with a shrug.
Amy smirked and shook her head just as the TARDIS landed smoothly.
"So where are we?" Amy asked as they all headed for the door.
"Earth, United States, 1870." The Doctor replied over his shoulder as he stepped out. Rose was next, and while the sun was high, and the air was a little dry, she was still thankful for the jacket as the breeze went over them. "Somewhere in the dessert." The Doctor added. He lifted his hand, shielding his eyes from the sun. "Looks like there's a town over there. Just have to follow the road to get there."
"Well, let's go." Rose said, kicking up a bit of dust before as she took her first few steps.
The Doctor quickly fell into step with her, and she peeked over her shoulder to ensure their friends were right behind them. The walk was quiet, and she wondered briefly why that was. It wasn't long before that Amy was thought to be missing, and she half expected to hear whispers of a conversation between the newlyweds based on that. But they stayed silent. Well, Rory was a pretty forgiving man, and if Amy had come across that woman again she likely didn't want to have to think about it too much. Especially if she wasn't really and truly Amy.
As the road wound to the small town, Rose could see a strange sort of borderline made up of various things from the dessert surrounding it. There was an entry way, a sign hanging above.
Mercy, Population 81. Crossed out was an 80.
They stopped at the entryway as if the Keep Out signs had actually meant something.
"Well, this is odd." The Doctor said.
"Mmm," Rose hummed in agreement, looking around, catching glimpses of people in their windows looking at them.
"Look at this. It's a load of stones and lumps of wood." Amy gestured to the borderline, giving a stone a little nudge with her shoe. The Doctor knelt down, pulled his sonic out, and scanned the border. "What is it?" Amy asked as he looked at the readings.
"A load of tones and lumps of wood." The Doctor said as he got back up. He took Rose's hand, and she and the Doctor headed into the town at a slow pace.
"Umm, the signs do say keep out." Rory pointed out, making them pause and look over their shoulders. Amy and Rory were both standing just at the entryway, not moving an inch over the line.
"We see keep out signs more as a suggestion than an actual order. Like dry clean only." He said with a grin.
"Which is why I don't have that red dress you loved so much anymore." Rose reminded him. She then looked back to Rory. "Keep out signs usually mean something's going on that shouldn't be. Least as far as our experience is concerned."
"Can't argue that," Amy smiled as she stepped over the line. She looked back at Rory. "Come on."
Rory looked at the sign, to them, and then seemed to decide he was out-voted and there really wasn't much point in arguing. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and followed.
"Where is everyone?" He asked as they had come a ways into town and hadn't seen anyone out in the streets. "It's the middle of the day. Should be some sort of something happening."
An explosion of sparks stopped them all, and Rose whipped her head around to a lamp post rigged up with wires. And light bulbs.
"Excuse me, 1870?" Rose said, looking up at her very confused husband. "Said the house was modern yet we had gas lights?"
"Was modern, is modern. Electric lights weren't used in houses for a few more years from where we are. As it is, this is wrong. It's too early. About ten years too early for street lamps."
"Keep out sign." Rose said. "Always a sign that something's not right."
"So how do we find out what that is?" Rory asked.
The Doctor beamed. "I know just the place." He said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a toothpick. He continued to smile around it as he headed for a particular building with an odd swagger to his step.
Rose glanced up, seeing Saloon over the door, and rushed to be as close to her husband as she could be. There was chatter within, and music that was nearly too stereotypical for words.
All of it silenced when they walked through the doors.
The Doctor's giddiness was uncontained, at least through their bond, and he sauntered over to the bar like all the heroes in the old Western movies they'd seen during quiet times in the Vortex. She followed, ignoring the looks some of the men gave her in passing.
"Tea," The Doctor ordered in a fake accent as he leaned on the bar top, looking at the pretty blonde saloon girl on the other side. "But the strong stuff, leave the bag in." He said, jaw widening, and a weird half-choking noise coming from him before he reached up and pulled the toothpick out of his mouth.
Well, that confirmed it: every blonde he'd ever met wouldn't be throwing themselves at him with this body. The girl looked him over like she could tell just how alien he was, and was hardly thinking him impressive in the least.
"What are you doing here, son?" She asked him, her voice thick with a twain he didn't have in his faked voice.
"Son? You can stay." He said with a chuckle in his regular voice.
A chair scrapped behind them, and Rose turned to see a preacher getting to his feet and looking the Doctor over with suspicion. "Sir, might I inquire who you is?" He asked.
"Of course," The Doctor replied with a grin directed at the holy man. "I'm the Doctor, this is…." He didn't finish his sentence when he gestured to Rose as the whole population of the saloon were on their feet. Rose shifted back, placing herself as much between them and her husband as she could. She caught Rory's eye from where he and Amy lingered near the door, and he seemed to understand as he gripped Amy with both hands and moved her just outside the bat-wing doors where they could still see and hear but be out of danger.
One man stepped toward the Doctor, but Rose put a hand out toward him, stopping him the second he came in contact with her outstretched hand. He looked her in the eye, then slowly backed away.
"I gotta question." Someone on the opposite side of the room called out, but he was too far back for Rose to properly spot him. "Is you an alien?"
"Well, um," The Doctor stuttered, a wave of panic coming from him and into Rose's heart. "Bit personal. It's all relative, isn't it?" He tried to sooth. "I mean, I think you're the aliens. But in this context, yes, I suppose I am."
Rose didn't have time to chastise him, either out load or through their bond, as next she knew she was being shoved aside and her husband was being wrangled.
"Oi," Rose said, elbowing her way through the crowd to try and get to him.
"Stay back, Miss." One man said, and she didn't even get a good look at him before she punched him in the face.
Two more men tried to hold her, and she elbowed one before grabbing the other and flipping him over her head and tossing him to the ground. She swung kicked one she sensed coming up behind her, then dropped to the ground to remove a gun from two of the down men's holsters. She came up, guns drawn and aimed at the next pair of townsfolk who contemplated stopping her.
When they raised their hands, she turned and crossed the gap between her and the townsfolk who she could see were pointing weapons at him. Something in the distance shimmered into existence but it wasn't her primary concern.
She pointed one of the guns toward the sky and fired before leveling them at the townsfolk.
They turned around, gapped at her, some seeming surprised to see she made it to them.
"You let my husband back into this town right now, or you lot are going to regret it terribly."
"We can't." One said, as the preacher continued his prayer. "He said he was the Doctor."
"Did I stutter?" Rose asked. "Bunch a brutes back there bigger than me and they're bleeding on the ground. Didn't have a weapon then, so if you know what's best for the lot of ya, you'll let him back in."
"We could just toss you out there with him." Another added in.
"Touch her, and you spend a night in jail." Someone behind her said in a booming voice that had even the preacher man stop. "You, bow tie, get back across the line, now." He added, and Rose shifted her gaze from the men immediately nearby to her husband.
Over his shoulder, she caught a glimpse of something terribly out of place and highly weaponized. Something that looked dangerously human in his western attire. When the Doctor stepped over the line, it shimmered out of existence.
"Now you, little lady. Hand over those guns before you hurt someone." That voice said more gently.
"Was exactly my intent." She said as she turned around, spotting the badge pinned to the man's waist coat underneath his heavy brown jacket. She glanced at it before meeting his brown eyes. "No one touches my husband, tries to hurt him, without having to deal with me." She said as she handed the guns to the Marshall. "Don't need those to stop 'em either."
The Marshall smirked, "Could see that." He said with a gesture of his head back toward the men Rose took out.
"Isaac, him said he was a doctor. An alien doctor." The idiot who asked the question of the Doctor's species spoke up.
"That a reason to hand him to his death?" The Marshall, Isaac, asked as he put his hands against his hips.
"But Isaac, it could be him!" The idiot protested, and Rose took a deep breath before she turned and pummeled the man testing her patience.
"You know it ain't." Isaac said calmly, as an absolute fact, and turned to head back toward town. "Ma'am." He said to Amy with a tilt of his head. It was after Isaac passed that the townsfolk released her and Rory, and Rose moved toward them instantly.
"You alright?" She asked them, noting Amy putting her hand over her stomach.
"Yeah, we're fine." She said.
"You sure?" Rose asked, gesturing to Amy's oddly placed hand.
"Yeah," Amy said with a shake of her head. "Yeah, think it was just, you know, overwhelming." She looked past Rose. "Oi, Doctor!" She called, and Rose turned to see her husband following the Marshall to the police station.
"Come on." She said before chasing after him, hearing Rory and Amy following behind. They caught up to him quickly, and once she was again at his side, Rose laced her fingers with the Doctor's. "You alright?"
"Physically, yes." He said, hints of the storm in his voice. "But there's something going on, something that led to my wife holding a gun, and that needs clearing up now. They want something, and I'm going to get to the bottom of it."
He stepped up to the wrap around porch on the Marshall's building, stepped inside with Rose on his tail, Rory and and Amy close behind her.
"What was that outside?" The Doctor asked without preamble as they entered.
Isaac sat on the corner of his desk. "The Gunslinger," he replied without hesitation, the Doctor's surprise mixing with Rose. "Showed up three weeks back. We've been prisoners ever since. You see that borderline stretching 'round the town?"
"Hard to miss." Rose commented as she crossed her arms.
"Woke up one morning, there it was. Nothing gets past it, in or out. No supply wagons, no reinforcements. Pretty soon the whole town's going to starve to death."
"But he let us in," Rory pointed out, mimicking Rose's stance.
"You ain't carrying any food. Just four more mouths to feed. We'll all die even sooner now."
"What happens if someone crosses the line?" The Doctor asked curiously. "I was thrown over it for a reason, after all."
Isaac reached over for a Stetson that had an obvious bullet hole in it, and tossed it to the Doctor.
After a bit of a fumble, the Doctor caught and examined the hat. He stuck his finger in the bullet hole. "Ah, well, he's not a very good shot, then."
"He was aiming for the hat," Isaac corrected him.
Rose took the hat from the Doctor, then reached into his jacket for the sonic.
"What does this Gunslinger want?" Amy asked as Rose found the material repair setting on the screwdriver. "Has he issued some kind of demand?"
"He says he wants us to give him the 'alien doctor'." Isaac replied, and Rose stopped in her repairing of the hat.
"Have you been here before? Do something to the locals?" She asked the Doctor.
He looked at her indignantly. "No!" He replied, straightening his bow tie. "Not the only alien Doctor in the Universe, you know. Hardly would be the first time someone said they were 'the Doctor' when they weren't me, either."
Rose patched up the second hole on the hat before putting it on her head, smiling as it fell over her eyes. "Can never be too sure, you know."
The hat was lifted from her head, and the Doctor placed it on his own with a wink. "That's absolutely true, Sweetheart." He said as the lights flickered. "So I think it's about time I met him. Don't you, Isaac?" He asked as he looked toward the Marshall.
"Who?" Isaac asked nervously.
"The chap outside said I could be the alien doctor, but you said I wasn't." The Doctor said with a quick gesture toward the street. "So you already know who it is. Resident 81, I presume. So beloved by the townsfolk that he warranted an alteration to the sign. Probably because he rigged up these electrics."
"Beloved until something in the dessert wanted to kill him." Rose said with a shrug.
"Yes, which means he's not fully beloved. Can't be, only half the townsfolk were willing to toss me out over the line, and I suspect it's because they were hoping the Gunslinger wanted just any ol' alien doctor. Which, I presume, would actually not be the case. So, if half the town suddenly wanted to throw me to my death, if not the whole town, this is where I'd want to be." The Doctor said, whirling around and heading for the jail cells.
"I don't know what you're …." Isaac bolted up, trying to stop the Doctor.
"It's alright, Isaac." A voice stopped the Marshall stopped. In one of the cells, a lump covered by a blanket shifted, and as the cover was thrown back, Rose could see a man with half his face tattooed emerge from his hiding spot. "I think the time for subterfuge has passed." He stood, moved to the bars of the cell, and gripped them with a smile. "Good afternoon. My name is Kahler-Jex. I'm the doctor."
Isaac stepped forward, pulling a small ring of keys from his pant pocket and unlocked the cell containing Kahler-Jex.
"The Kahler, I love the Kahler!" The Doctor said, and the second the other alien was free from his cell he took his hand and shook it vigorously. "One of the most ingenious races in the galaxy. They could build a spaceship out of Tupperware and moss."
"Sounds like something you'd try to do," Rose said as she placed her hand on the Doctor's arm, forcing him to stop his friendly assault. "You'll have to forgive him, he gets a little excitable sometimes." She apologized for him.
"How did you get here?" Amy asked as Rose guided the Doctor away from the man so he could move to take a seat with Isaac at the Marshall's desk.
Rose listened as Jex, as he was apparently properly called, related the tale of how his ship crashed not far from the town. Isaac interjected here and there, speaking of the alien as he if he walked on water. He'd saved the townsfolk, he gave them the electricity from his ship, he was basically the best thing that had or could ever happen to a quaint, remote town that didn't have much of anything.
So it made Rose wonder …
"Why does the Gunslinger want you?" The Doctor asked the question on both their minds.
"It doesn't matter," Isaac said quickly.
"Ah, it sorta does." Rory reminded him. "You just said that you can't cross the town line, can't get food. Seems like it matters."
"America's a land of second chances," Isaac said firmly. "We called this town Mercy for a reason. Some 'round here don't feel that way."
"Now, Isaac, we've discussed this." Jex tried to sooth his friend, but it didn't seem to work.
"People whose lives you saved are suddenly saying we should hand you over." Isaac reminded him firmly.
"They're scared, that's all." Jex reasoned. "You can hardly blame them."
"Them being scared, scares me." Isaac admitted, and it was evident how true that was. He then looked to The Doctor, glancing at Rose, Rory, and Amy on occasion. "War only ended five years back. That old violence is still under the surface. We give up Doc Jex, then we're handing the keys of the town over to chaos."
There was a pause before the Doctor looked to Jex. "Did you try to repair your craft? Surely someone with your skills …."
"It really was very badly damaged," Jex was quick to explain.
"He's lying." The Doctor said even as he nodded with a smile. "Kahler could repair a ship reduced to scrap. There's something he's not telling us." The Doctor stood before Rose could reply. "We evacuate the town. Our ship's just over the hills. Room for everyone. Rose and I'll pop out, bring it back here, be back before you can say hallabaloo."
"Really? Simple as that?" Amy questioned, crossing her arms.
"Simple as that." He said with a confident nod.
"Son, how are you gonna get past the Gunslinger? Gonna shoot ya on sight." Isaac asked.
"What's he do with the bodies once he's killed?" Rose asked, straightening her shirt.
Isaac glanced to Jex who looked mildly nervous. "Never killed anyone from town before." Isaac admitted.
"Well then, just a bit risky then." She looked at her husband, eyeing him over. "Haven't had to properly run for a while. Sure this body can go as quick as before?"
"Hold on," Isaac said, getting to his feet. "What're you on about? You can't just out run 'im. He shot that hat from twenty yards. Took it clear off my head and was already reloaded to do it again. Ain't no way you can avoid 'im no matter how quick you are."
"I don't have to out run him, I just need to be between him and my Doctor." Rose countered.
"Isaac has a point, Rose." The Doctor said. "No matter how fast your bounce back, chances are the Gunslinger could still get to me. What we need is a distraction." He said, looking to the Marshall. "You say he's never shot anyone from town?"
Isaac shook his head.
"Then he doesn't want to hurt anyone he doesn't have to. Which, of course, gives me an idea."
~DWDWDW~
"You just got the time lines sorted out not that long ago, and now you've got Rory acting as bait for the Gunslinger?" Rose asked as she followed the Doctor toward the hitching post.
"No, Isaac is bait for the Gunslinger, Rory is the innocent civilian meant to deter the Gunslinger from slinging. And the time lines are fine, secure, we don't need to worry about them anymore. Whatever involved them, whatever was meant to happen with them together has happened." The Doctor rambled.
"So that's it? What's meant to be has come to be so he can die now?"
That stopped the Doctor, causing him to turn around and march toward her. "No," He said honestly. "But I couldn't very well let you go with Isaac. If you were shot, if you were killed, he would be beside himself. And when you would inevitably come back from the dead it would be alone and at the mercy of the Gunslinger. Bad enough you're coming with me as a precaution, but I'd at least know to pick up and carry you until you woke up."
"It's only a bit of pain." Rose reminded him gently, though wasn't exactly keen on feeling the intense ache of being shot. "Nothing like what Amy would feel if Rory didn't make it back."
"He'll be alright." He promised her. "They'll both be fine." He kissed her forehead before turning swiftly and approaching the hitching post. Rose jogged to catch up to him, doing so just as he smiled at the preacher. "Can we borrow your horse, please? It's official Marshall business."
The preacher looked nervous. "Not sure it'd be proper, the two of you riding."
"Oh, don't worry, Rose is my wife." The Doctor assured, noting he preacher glancing at his left hand. "Lost my ring chasing bandits." He said quickly with a cheerful grin. "But I promise, nothing funny going on."
The preacher eyed Rose, then unhitched the horse and handed the reins to the Doctor. "He's called Joshua. It's from the Bible. It means 'The Deliverer'."
"Good name for a horse," Rose commented as the Doctor mounted the horse. It neighed as he settled in the saddle.
"No, he isn't." The Doctor said confidently as he reached down to give Rose a hand in mounting behind him.
"What?" The preacher asked.
"I speak horse. He's called Susan, and he wants you to respect his life choices." The Doctor half scolded as he steered Susan away from the post and gave the reins a flick.
"How come I don't understand animals? Or babies, for that matter. You once said you could speak baby, too."
"Untranslatable language." He replied. "Though if you could talk to animals it would have made the thoughts I had of you while you were in a healing coma much more applicable."
Rose didn't ask for an explanation.
~DWDWDW~
He was a funny little alien, this Jex. He was all short and portly, and the tattoo on his face made him look a bit intimidating from this angle. And Amy felt bad for him. The story he weaved before, it didn't seem fair that he was being hunted by the Gunslinger. She thought that maybe Rose was suspicious of him, maybe the Doctor was too, but Amy couldn't really see why.
He stared out the window, hope in his eyes, posture straight, and she smiled.
"When this is all done, do you want us to take you home?" She asked.
"Thank you," Jex said, glancing at her over his shoulder with a smile. "But I have already given everything I have to the Kahler. My skills, my energy … all that was good in me." He said thoughtfully. "That's all I ever wanted to do. End suffering."
His gaze became distant.
Amy glanced around, finding the Marshell's discarded jacket. She grabbed it, bringing it over and draping it around Jex's shoulders. "Here." She said, giving his arms a little pat in the process.
"You're a mother, aren't you?" He asked her curiously.
"No," She said, shaking her head. "Thought I might've been, thought I was gonna be, but … I was wrong."
Jex smiled sadly. "You seem to have the instinct." He reasoned. "Maybe it wasn't meant to be just yet. But soon."
Amy nodded. "Are you a father?" She asked him.
He smirked. "Yes. In a way, I suppose I am." The lights flickered inside the office, and all good humor left Jex's face. He looked firs to the ceiling through is monocle, then to the window.
An alarm very much not belonging to this time period echoed from the hills, and Amy stepped outside to see if she could find any evidence that something was going terribly wrong. She heard Jex's feet as he joined her on the porch.
"That's the alarm on my ship!" He exclaimed with disbelief.
"Maybe the Doctor wants to get it working again," She suggested.
"But that wasn't the plan! He's not following the plan!" Jex chewed out.
Amy snorted. "From the stories I heard, experience I've had, that's expected."
Jex huffed before retreating back inside.
Amy waited, watching the hills and the horizon until the alarm stopped. She sighed, shook her head, and went back. She closed the doors, turned to say something to Jex and was greeted with the barrel of a gun.
"I'm sorry, Amy." Jex said rather unapologetically, and her mouth went dry. "He really should have followed the plan." He took a couple steps back, and Amy raised her hands.
She watched him as he kept the gun pointed on her, not taking his eyes away from her for more than a second at a time as he went about the office and about stuffing things in his pockets.
"What are you doing? What are you planning?" She asked him.
"Isaac says he doesn't care about my past, but things may have been uncovered that even he might struggle to forgive." Jex explained as he moved to her and grabbed her arm in a surprisingly tight hold. "So it's best we beat a hasty retreat."
"We?" Amy choked out. "I'm coming with you?"
"It's like your friend the Doctor figured out: the Gunslinger is programmed to avoid taking innocent lives unless it is necessary. So it's unlikely he'll shoot so long as you're with me."
"Well, color me reassured," Amy said as Jex dragged her out the door.
They only made it as far as the porch step before he stopped them.
Amy caught Rory's eye, and relief crashed over her.
Jex let her go as the Isaac drew his weapon, and she ran to her husband. He clutched her to him tightly as they followed the Marshall back inside.
"Doc, what are you doing?" Isaac asked, pain in his eyes and voice as he looked upon the man he called friend. He gently took Jex's weapon, keeping it in hand.
Jex swallowed, and at least had the good sense to seem contrite as he was backed against a wall.
"It was stupid of me." He said, and Amy couldn't disagree. "I realize that now. I just thought I'd put you all in enough danger. I'm not sure why it wants me so badly, what I have done to make it want me dead, but I thought if I left …"
"He's lying." The Doctor's voice came from the door way, his tone cold, even. Amy watched as he and Rose pinned Jex where he was with their eyes. Rose stalked him with elegance, a wolf moving for the best position to strike her prey. The Doctor moved fluidly, power in his muscles giving him a balance and presence he only had when facing the worst of foes. "Every word." He continued. "Everything he says, it's all lies. This man is a murder."
~DWDWDW~
"Oh, hello, what do we have here?" The Doctor said as he slowed down Susan.
Rose eased her grip on him as he shifted to dismount.
Susan neighed.
"Yeah, I know we're in a hurry." He said, waving at the horse as if telling it to calm down. "I just want to check it out."
Susan snorted.
"Yes, it could be important."
Susan whinnied.
"Oi, don't swear!" He chided, turning to stare at the brown steed with a glare.
"'S alright," Rose said as she reached forward and gave Susan a pat. "Used to this. Distracted by shiny and suspicious things alike." Susan neighed, and Rose thought it sounded sort of affectionate. "What did he say?"
"He said you were too good for me, and you should be in charge." The Doctor replied, sounding distracted as he lifted a hose off the ground and sniffed it. And wasn't Rose thankful the licking thing had stopped.
The Doctor gave the hose a little tug, and Rose heard the mild crackle of electricity.
"We didn't come out for the TARDIS, did we?" Rose finally asked what she'd been wondering for a little bit.
The Doctor turned to Rose, dropping the hose and stepping over it as he returned to her and Susan.
"No," He said as he stroked Susan's mane. "As I said, Jex is lying. And while I could get our ship, and I could evacuate the town, that wouldn't really solve anything."
"We could have at least gone back to get food." She said as he remounted, leaning back out of the way as his long leg nearly clipped her in the head.
"Yes, I suppose we could've." The Doctor said, looking thoughtfully at her over his shoulder. "If we're here more than a day or two, we'll go back and load up a couple bags to be safe." He assured her. "But first, let's see where this leads us." He said, encouraging Susan to carry on.
Rose followed the hose with her eyes as best she could as the Doctor guided the horse up the hills. She heard the sparks, the flashes of electricity brighter than that of the sunlight.
"Whoa," The Doctor said, repeating it until Susan slowed his trot and then finally stopping. The Doctor dismounted, reaching up a hand to help Rose down. Susan snorted. "Oi, am so polite."
Rose chuckled, and as the Doctor moved toward a tarp hidden in the sand. She leaned toward Susan. "Rude and not ginger, he is. Most of the time, anyway."
Susan whinnied.
"Must you gang up with me with animals, too?" He said as he stepped up and over the mound the tarp covered. "Don't even speak the language." He added on a grumble. He reached down, pulled back the tarp, and revealed what looked a lot like a giant egg.
"That his ship?" Rose asked, moving toward it.
"Yes," He said, his voice growing dark.
"Where's the damage?" Rose asked, chewing her lip. Didn't matter how long she'd been doing this, the only ship she really knew properly was the TARDIS. Jex's ship looked intact to her, but it hardly meant that was actually the case.
"Non-existent." The Doctor replied with a firm stomp with his foot. The reverberations echoed, signifying its hollowness.
The Doctor reached in his jacket and pulled out his sonic, pointed it at the ship. A door slid open, but alarms went off.
"Not very stealthy of you," Rose yelled as she covered her ears at the same time as the Doctor.
He didn't reply, dropping down into the ship where the door opened. Rose could hear the faint sound of a computerized voice, but couldn't hear the words through the blaring of the alarms. She felt a spike of panic that wasn't hers, a sense of franticness, and then the alarms stopped.
"You alright?" She called, heading toward the ship, peering down inside. The Doctor was looking at something on a screen, his anger mounting and pouring into her. Rose began to breath heavily, fists balling, and she wasn't even sure why.
She closed off her bond so she could gain some control, and the moment she did she heard the hum of a weapon powering up.
Now her heart was pounding for a different reason, her breathing not getting a moment to calm. She lifted her hands, turned slowly to face the Gunslinger she knew was behind her.
He was a mess. It was the only thing that came to mind as she took in the man melded with machine, the skin he still had looking as if he'd been severely burned. There was a tattoo similar to Jex's just under his remaining eye, and he seemed to look at her with great consideration instead of the malice she expected.
Rose did not say a word, waited with resignation for the shot that would be fired and send her into a few hours of agony.
"Don't shoot!" Her husband panicked behind her. "Please, don't shoot. We know who you are," He said, nudging her mind for her to reopen the bond. She did, and was flooded with what he just learned about Jex, about this poor man in front of them, and what Jex did to him and so many others. "We know who Jex is too." He added, and the Gunslinger lowered his gun. Rose kept her hands raised.
"You know what he did?" The Gunslinger asked, his voice overly deep and a touch robotic.
The Doctor nodded as he came to stand in front of her. "I do."
"Then you know why he has to die." Gunslinger stated.
"You want justice." The Doctor said with another nod. "You deserve justice, but this isn't the way. I can call the Shadow Proclamation, they'll arrest him, put him on trial."
Gunslinger raised his weapon, and Rose grabbed the Doctor's jacket and pulled him back and put herself between him and the weapon.
"When he starts killing your people, you can use your justice." Gunslinger said.
"Believe me, if Jex laid a finger on one of my people with intention to harm, I wouldn't be above returning the favor. But all that's left of my people are my family, and that is only by chance."
"I have no family left." Gunslinger said. After a beat, he lowered his weapon. "No more warning shots. I'll kill the next person to step over that line. Make sure it's Jex." Gunslinger warned before turning around and walking away. Before he came to the edge of the hill, he shimmered out of sight.
"Jex tortured and maimed that poor man, he was never even told what he was volunteering for." Rose said as she stared at the spot where Gunslinger vanished. "He deserves what waits for him."
"Do you really believe that?" The Doctor asked.
She looked him in the eye. "I remember the first time Jenny regenerated clear as if it just happened. How it was forced because someone wanted to … experiment on her. I'd have killed Gridin, almost did. Jenny was forced to endure pain she didn't ask for, and that man has been through the same thing. Jex … Gunslinger may be his creation, but the Jex's the real monster."
"We should hear the reason Jex has for his crimes. Gunslinger may feel wronged, but he may not have been the only one."
~DWDWDW~
"It was stupid of me." Rose heard Jex's plea as she and the Doctor came back to the Marshall's office. They stopped in the doorway, observed how they had Jex backed against a wall, Isaac with a gun in hand still partially pointed at Jex. There was also a gun in Isaac's other hand, which looked as though it was taken from someone. Amy was clutching to Rory a bit more than normal, her knuckles white where she grabbed his jacket while he had his arms protectively around her.
Something happened.
From what Rose could gather, it was Jex threatening Amy.
And didn't that just stir the wolf inside? She and Amy may not have been the best of mates, but she was a companion, she cared for the Doctor, and she was Rory's wife. Those were all the reasons Rose needed to be properly ready to throttle Jex with one wrong move.
"I realize that now." The pathetic excuse for a man reasoned. "I just thought I'd put you all in enough danger. I'm not sure why it wants me so badly, what I have done to make it want me dead, but I thought if I left …."
"He's lying." The Doctor said, the storm raging in his voice. Whether it was Rose's growing ire against him, or the Doctor's own that started the storm, she wasn't sure.
Jex looked up, caught their eye, and paled. As one, she and the Doctor moved toward Jex, passing the other three to properly fence him in.
"Every word." The Doctor continued. "Everything he says, it's all lies. This man is a murder."
"I am a scientist." Jex countered indignantly.
"No, you're a horrible man, who's done horrible things and doesn't want to face the people he's hurt along the way." Rose countered, stepping up to him and grabbing his arm. Jex looked down where she held him, eyes going wide with surprise. "Move," She ordered, pulling firmly and nearly tossing him across the room and into a chair. She could see he was calculating her strength, a glint of wonder and intrigue that she wanted to slap off of him.
"Tell them what you are." The Doctor asked him, coming to stand at the corner of the desk near Jex's chair.
"What I am is a war hero." He had the nerve to state.
"Okay," Isaac said, trying to keep everyone calm. "Somebody want to tell me what's going on?"
"The Gunslinger's a cyborg." The Doctor said, glancing up to meet Isaac's eye.
"A what?" The baffled Marshall stated.
Jex smirked as Rose stared him down again, taking off his monocle and polishing it with a cloth from his pocket.
"Half man, half machine," The Doctor explained. "A weapon. Jex built it."
"Mutilated him." Rose corrected as she held the cocky scientist's eye. "Took a man who only wanted to help protect his family and destroyed his body and his life."
"Yes," The Doctor conceded regretfully. "Jex and his team took volunteers, told them they'd been selected for special training, then experimented on them. Fused their bodies with weaponry, programmed them to kill."
"Okay," Isaac said as if he was trying to get an understanding and was failing. "Why? Why would you do that, doc?"
Jex finally tore his eyes away from Rose to look at the man he'd called friend. "We'd been at war for nine years. A war that had already decimated half our planet. Our task was to bring peace. And we did." He said with his head held high. "We built an army that routed the enemy and ended the war in less than a week! Do you want me to repent? To beg forgiveness for saving millions of lives?"
"And how many died screaming on the operating table before you had found your advantage?" The Doctor pressed, his green eyes and set jaw hardly masking the storm inside.
"War is another world." Jex tried to reason. "You cannot apply the politics of peace to what I did. To what any of us did."
"Oh I'm very well aware what lengths people will go to to end a war. I've been there. For ages I thought I was guilty for the genocide of two races. Came to discover that's not entirely the case, but I still carry the guilt. I still repent. I'm reminded when I look into my daughter's eyes how she will never properly know of her people. I relive the horrors every time I come across a ramification of the war I ended."
Jex had the nerve to snicker. "I see it. There, in your eyes. Looking at you, Doctor, is almost like looking in a mirror. There's rage there, like me. Guilt, like me."
At that, Rose scoffed. "You have no guilt. No remorse. Weren't for Gunslinger, you'd likely have carried on without a care in the universe."
"Which makes me wonder what brought you here in the first place." Rory asked, and Rose could hear that whatever Jex tried to pull before, Rory wasn't letting it go.
"When the war ended, we had the cyborgs decommissioned." Jex replied.
"Yeah, see how that worked." Amy growled.
"It must have got its circuitry damaged in battle."
"He." Rose growled.
"It went offline and began hunting down the team that created it." He replied, a bit of menace with every emphasis. "There were just two of us left. We fled and our ships crashed."
"He!" Rose snapped. "Not it. That is a man out there. A man you brutally, mercilessly ripped apart and patched together with tech to fight the war. How many of you lot sat back and him…."
"It." Jex said firmly.
The rage bubbled high unlike it had in a very long time. Not even the Doctor's calm would sooth her as she leaned forward, supporting her weight with her hands on the arm of the chair as she stared into Jex's beady eyes. "Say 'it' instead of him one more time …."
"It." Jex said, excitement in his eyes as he waited for her reaction.
Everything from then felt like an out of body experience. Rose grabbed Jex's throat, wrenching him out of the chair and shoved him through the door. He stumbled and she didn't care, giving him a hard shove whenever he needed one to keep going. People from town began to come out of the various buildings, some of them shouting encouragements as she marched Jex to the town line.
He stopped at the borderline, turning to face her, and Rose took a handful of his shirt and waist coat, lifted him and tossed him over the line. Jex scrambled, got to his feet, tried to actually shove her away but did little more than nudge her in comparison. She grabbed his shoulders, turned him around, held his neck and forced him to watch as the air on the distance shimmered and the Gunslinger appeared on the distance.
"That's a man." She said to him. "He has a name. Not Gunslinger. Do you remember it, doctor Jex? Do you remember the name he had before you destroyed him?"
"Rose." She heard her husband say a few feet behind him. "Rose, please, we need to discuss this. Need to discuss with Isaac the best way to handle this."
"He didn't discuss it with the man coming for him right now."
"You turned Jack immortal without asking him." The Doctor tried to reason.
"I never hurt him." She countered. "What I did, I did out of love. Blind love. And I've already righted it. Did what I could, apologized every chance I've gotten over the last hundred years, and will do so until we take our last breath." She took a breath then, watching Gunslinger come closer. "'Bout time a lesser man did the same, yeah?"
"And what of what I did? How am I forgivable when Jex is not?" The Doctor tried to sooth. "War brings out the worst in people, you know that more than anyone else here."
"Step aside, Doctor." Isaac said behind her as Gunslinger got closer.
"No, Isaac, she just needs …." The Doctor snapped but silenced with the cocking of a gun.
"Let him back in." Isaac demanded.
"No." Rose said firmly.
"Woman, I do not mess around. He is the man that saved this town from Cholera, gave us a good life."
Rose turned to look Isaac in the eye despite the gun now pointed between her eyes. "He's the man who reduced one of his own kind to a living hell, and refused to face the consequences when he couldn't kill him with a flick of a switch."
"Rose." The Doctor pleaded. "Please." He took a breath. "Let him go, and we can all figure his out."
A collective startle and gasp went through the townsfolk as the air crackled so close, Rose could feel it on her fingers. With Gunslinger there, and Jex forced to face him, she let go of his neck. She took two steps away, turning to watch how it would all play out.
"Make peace with your gods." Gunslinger said as he leveled his gun arm at Jex.
Jex studied his face. "Kahler-Tek, isn't it?" He asked, and Gunslinger didn't respond. "I remember all your names, even now." He said a bit loud, and Rose was certain if he had the nerve to look at her, he would have. "I'm helping people here."
The weapon charged. "Last chance. Make peace with your gods."
"No!" Isaac protested, and to Rose's, to many people's disbelief, the Marshall pushed Jex to the ground just in time to save the alien's life only to get shot himself.
Rose stiffened, her mind clearing as she realized what came to pass.
The Doctor dropped to the Marshall's side, cradled his head, fumbling in his pocket for the screwdriver.
There was an exchange that Rose couldn't hear through the blood rushing through her ears, but she knew the moment Isaac was gone.
The Doctor bowed his head, looked at something in his hand. Slowly he got up, and then turned to the townsfolk. On his jacket was pinned the Marshall's badge.
"Take Jex to his cell. If anything happens to him, you'll have me to answer to." He said to the townsfolk.
"Let me," Rose said, head bowed as she moved toward Jex. She held out her hand, and he took it to pull himself up. She dragged him back across the line, still holding his hand as she wrenched it behind his back. She paused, looked over her shoulder and met the eye of the Gunslinger. Tek. Every ounce of regret, of pain, of sympathy she felt for him she broadcasted as much as she could. If he had anyway of picking it up, she wanted him to. She heard the Doctor's intake of breath, but didn't dare look at him. Instead, she turned back to Jex and gave him a shove.
"An innocent man just died for your judgment call." He said despite the mob of people following close behind. "How does the weight of his death feel on your soul?"
"Isaac isn't the first to die because of me." She said as she pushed him up on the porch and through the doors.
"So how can you stand there like you're better than me?" Jex asked with taunting curiosity.
Rose gave him a shove in to the cell, slamming the door on him. "Never said I was." She replied, voice steady despite her remorse. "I just wouldn't rip a man apart then call him 'it', nor would I put an entire town at risk to prove a point."
Someone tapped her on the shoulder, and she stuck her hand out to have the cold key placed in her palm. She locked the cell, then turned away, the crowd clearing out as the Doctor, Amy, and Rory returned.
Their companions looked nervous, not wanting to make eye contact with either her or the Doctor.
"We have … a problem." The Doctor said, voice lacking the anger she was expecting.
"What's that?"
"We have until noon tomorrow to hand Jex over to Gunslinger, or he will cross the line he imposed on the town and kill everyone in it."
A/N: So ... totally out of order, right?
Thanks to the favoriters, followers, readers, and reviewers. You are all great.
DuShuZhi, debygobel, Guest, Cupcakeflake, BadWolfGirl (Don't be sorry, it happens), Eagle Hawke (We'll find out), Chasing-Impossibilities-4ever, annabethfan15, greeneyescutie, DemigodDaughterOfTheTARDIS (I'm still not promising either a Donna cameo or a 12/Rose, but I am keeping both in mind), hotsasukefan (hey, binge reading, right?) and Shadow Eclipse.
Thanks, as always, for leaving word.
So, Laptop is still a sad, broken thing. Managed to snag some more time on Hubby's to post this. I was given an ETA of about a week for my replacement piece to come in. So, expect another update probably Sunday or Monday. Hopefully by then we're back to regular posts.
And yes, I'm mixing things up a bit. Some episodes will disappear entirely, others will be rearranged. Have to keep you all on your toes.
Until next post.