Chapter Twelve
SOOOO SORRY THAT I'VE BEEN SO LONG I KNOW I KNOW KILL ME KILL ME. BUT IT'S HERE. SOME SWEARING IN THIS CHAPTER- BE WARNED.
The trio stepped outside of the TARDIS, The Doctor leading with Rose and Jack not far behind. They stepped into what simply looked like Cardiff, but with one specific difference. "No Torchwood." Jack said, sighing slightly as he looked over to where the fountain that would grant him entrance didn't stand.
"We made it then. Parallel universe," Rose said, looking around "Where are we going to find him? Cardiff is a big place."
"I'll know him as soon as I see him. Timelords always do." The Doctor said, his face straight as he peered around their surroundings, scanning the area for any possible lead.
"Can you feel him, in your mind?" Rose asked
"Sort of," he replied "I can feel something, something lightly tapping in. but it's not very strong."
"I guess we better start looking then," Jack said "Where should we start?"
"He could be anywhere." Rose said
The Doctor stood still for a while, sniffing around him. He knew his brothers scent, as all timelords did. He could smell something similar around him and as his only lead-he had to follow it. "This way," he said walking of northward. Rose and Jack just glanced at each other and shrugged, they were sure that The Doctor knew what he was doing.
And he did. This was his brother, and he had never been more serious about anything in his life. He had searched for his brother, long and far and he had never gotten anywhere. Not until today. There was just something about that tape, his voice, he just knew. Nobody else ever spoke Gallifreyan like that. Nobody except Drayschel.
It worried and excited him that he was closer than he had ever been before to locating his brother. He was excited of seeing him again, talking to him. Family was always important to him, and the loss of his brother was hard for him. But then there was that feeling, guilt sinking heavily in his gut. What would Drayschel say about Gallifrey? Would he forgive The Doctor? because that's all he wanted really, forgiveness. He wanted to know that what he did was okay. He knows that it was the right thing to do, and he probably saved a lot of planets from living hell- but he had never had anyone else there to confirm this for him. So he was always left with this sinking feeling that really there could have been something, anything else that he could've done.
But he pushed these feelings aside for a moment, and stalked off through the parallel Cardiff centre. He went quickly, and with purpose but slow enough so that Rose didn't get left behind. He knew that he wasn't really being fair to her and Jack, acting rash and being moody, but he just had so much on his mind that he really didn't know what to do. He sensed that Rose understood though, she didn't seem angry and she knew him better than everyone else so she would know how he felt.
oOo
They had been following the scent for around fifteen minuets, hurrying through Cardiff centre when suddenly The Doctor stopped abruptly in his tracks, outside an abandoned warehouse. The presence in his mind was stronger here than it had ever been, so he motioned for Jack and Rose to follow him inside. He gripped on tightly to Rose's hand, and made sure she was behind him slightly, as to protect her and Baby from any harm that could be on the other side, but when they opened the door- The Doctor was visibly shocked. Inside the warehouse seemed to be some sort of makeshift laboratory with many experiments dotted around that The Doctor could immediately tell were way too advanced for earth, albeit parallel, in this century.
The three of them cautiously stepped inside further, and scanned around the room with their eyes. The Doctor was about to give up, and tell Rose and Jack to turn back as he obviously wasn't here, when suddenly the old lift near the back of the room began to creak. The Doctor braced himself for who would possibly step out, and what his brother may look like now but was surprised greatly, when a young woman in her early twenties stepped out. She was wearing light grey skinny jeans, and a simple white t-shirt, with black combat boots and a black leather jacket. She was mixed race, with light hazel eyes and curly brown hair that fell just past her shoulders. She eyed The Doctor, Rose and Jack suspiciously.
"Erm, can I help you with something?" she said, in a soft London accent.
"Actually, you can-"The Doctor stuttered slightly, before stepping towards the woman and extending a hand, "I'm the doctor."
The woman took his hand, still eyeing him cautiously, before turning to Rose and Jack. "I'm Rose," Rose said, extending her own hand and shaking the woman's, whereas Jack took her hand gently and kissed it lightly, "Hi, I'm Captain Jack Harkness." He said, a playful grin sitting on his face.
"Jack," The Doctor warned sternly. Jack sighed and dropped the woman's hand
"I was only saying hello" he shrugged feigning innocence. The Doctor just rolled his eyes, and turned back to the woman, "I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name?"
"Tia, Tia Clarke," she said, looking at the three of them "But you guys still didn't answer my question, of what the hell you're doing here?" then from the back pocket of her jeans, Tia pulled out a small blaster.
"Oh I like her," Jack said, smirking before pulling out his own blaster and pointing it back. The Doctor shifted uncomfortably, and Rose clutched his hand lightly, she knew how felt about guns. "Well, before you two decide to shoot each other's brains out, we did come here for a specific reason." Rose piped up.
"And that would be?" Tia pressed, her eyes still firmly locked on Jack's.
"I'm looking for my brother," The Doctor said "You might know him as The Professor?" he asked.
Tia raised an eyebrow, and turned her gaze to The Doctor "Funny that, how The Professor often mentions that he is the only one of his kind in this universe, and he's never mentioned a pretty boy brother to me before."
Rose smirked slightly at the pretty boy remark, but quickly felt protective over The Doctor. "Listen okay Tia," she said "Something bad happened, a long, long time ago and The Professor and The Doctor were separated but now, we've gone through a hell of a lot to get here to reunite them, so if it's not too much trouble, do you think you could point him out to us?"
Tia was about to come back with a sharp remark when suddenly the four of them heard a familiar sound of the lift churning down and then coming to a stop with a jolt. Slowly the rickety wooden doors opened, and out stepped a man. He was about The Doctor's height, but was more muscly than lanky. He had dark brown hair that looked soft and gentle, but was gelled up at the top so a strand of two hung down over his face. He had piercing blue eyes and light stubble; he looked hard and tough but sad at the same time. He wore a black simple smart suit, with a white shirt and plain black tie, but the blazer was quite long and hung just above his knees.
"I hear somebody's come to visit me Tia." He said quietly, as he stepped out of the lift and locked eyes with The Doctor, who was stunned into silence. And then without any more words needed to be said, The Doctor and The Professor ran towards each other. Rose, Jack and Tia all stepped outside, prepared to see some kind of reunion, but suddenly as the two time lord's met in the middle The Professor's gaze turned angry. "WHERE THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN?!" he shouted, before punching The Doctor hard across the face. Rose screamed, and tried to run towards him, but Jack quickly held her back. This was something inevitable that he knew the brothers would have to get out of their system.
The Doctor clutched his face in shock, before swinging at his brother and connecting with his jaw. "WHAT THE HELL?" he shouted.
"EIGHT HUNDRED YEARS I'VE BEEN HERE THETA!" he shouted "EIGHT HUNDRED FUCKING YEARS I'VE BEEN HERE, NO TARDIS, HARDLY ANY TECHNOLOGY- THROWN INTO THIS UNIVERSE BY SOME KIND OF DEFORMED WEEPING ANGEL BUT I THOUGHT "OH NO, MY BROTHER HE'LL COME FOR ME" BUT YOU NEVER FUCKING DID!"
The men continued to shove and swing at each other rapidly, fists connecting to faces and guts with sharp accuracy. Rose watched, shocked, as he never usually resorted to violence she had never seen him fight like this.
"I'M HERE NOW AREN'T I?!"
"CUTTING IT A BIT FINE THETA! I'VE BEEN HERE, UNABLE TO DO FUCK ALL WAITING FOR SOMEONE TO RESCUE ME, AND AFTER THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES I DECIDED TO TRY AND HELP MYSELF. I CALLED FOR HELP THROUGH THE VOID BUT NOBODY ANSWERED, AND THEN WHEN I FINALLY HAD ENOUGH KIT TO CREATE A WORMHOLE TO GALLIFREY- IT'S GONE!"
"THERE WAS A WAR, DRAYSCHEL. A WAR THAT I HAD TO FIGHT IT, THAT I HAD TO END ALL ON MY OWN. I HAD TO DESTROY OUR WHOLE RACE, ALONE LEAVING ME AS THE LAST, AND YOU'RE STANDING HERE UPSET THAT YOU SPENT A FEW HUNDRED YEARS ALONE ON EARTH?" then the doctor looked at Tia "Although, I guess you weren't alone" he smirked, lowering his voice.
"And what the hell do you mean by that?" Drayschel said eyes hard.
"Oh you think I didn't notice you're little girlfriend? Very pretty, you always had distinct taste. And even better she's a Time Angel?" he saw the anger build onto his brother's face "Or did you think I didn't notice the timelines radiating off her, she reeks of time distortion!"
"You take that back! At least I didn't knock up mine!"
"Now you take that back. Rose is my everything and I'll die before you even say her name."
oOo
Rose, Jack and Tia had wandered off inside the warehouse, leaving the brothers alone to hopefully either knock each other out or settle the argument. Tia led them up to the top of the warehouse, where the skylight showed the now night sky with the stars twinkling.
"So you're a time angel then?" Jack said, and Tia nodded sheepishly "I thought they were just a myth"
"We try to keep it that way. I'm from your universe, but let's just say I went bit rouge and got kicked into this one. I met The Professor about three hundred years ago."
"I'm sorry, but what exactly is a time angel?" Rose asked, as she sat down on one of the chairs.
"Basically, I help control time; I can distort it and change things. All time angels answer to superior time guardians, and we have our orders of what we have to change or have to make happen, but I disobeyed and changed someone's time stream when I shouldn't. So I got booted here, and it was horrible, but then I met The Professor." And suddenly Rose saw a look in Tia's eyes, the same look that she got when she spoke of The Doctor. A look of love.
"And you fell in love with him?" Rose asked
"Yeah, but I don't think he loves me. I mean he likes me, and we have a good time together but, I don't think we'd ever get serious."
"I used to think that about The Doctor," Rose comforted "But look at me now," she chuckled softly, glancing down at her bump.
"You guys do seem pretty good together. But what are you? If you don't mind me asking that is, because no human would be able to carry a Gallifreyan child."
"I'm a sort of mix up of human, Gallifreyan and TARDIS DNA, it's all very complicated."
"And you," Tia turned to Jack "I get odd vibes from you; something is definitely not right with you."
Jack just laughed, "yeah I get that a lot, long story short, Rose here absorbed the time vortex for a little while, and used the power to bring me back from the dead but she did it a little too well."
"You're immortal?"
"That's the one."
"That's crazy"
"Tell me about it, I tend to die a lot"
And then the three of them sat and laughed about it, and Rose instantly thought that they would all get on, as soon as The Doctor and The Professor sorted out their issues.
Meanwhile downstairs, the two men continued to swing at each other, until mere exhaustion took them over. They were both breathing heavily, wiping the blood off their faces.
"You know," Drayschel said, leaning against a wall trying to catch his breath "I never gave up hope that you would find me."
The Doctor looked up at him from where he was sitting on the floor "I never gave up looking for you. It's been about nine hundred years for me, and I kept looking." He sighed.
"I would've done the same thing. I wouldn't have left you."
"I didn't leave you."
"I know."
They were both silent, for a little while before Drayschel looked down at his brother and saw the soldier inside him that had started to bubble towards the surface. "What happened to Gallifrey Theta?" he said softly. The Doctor sniffed, and rubbed his hand through his hair.
"There was a war, against the daleks and we lost. Everyone lost, including the daleks. I had to end it, by locking the war in a time lock. Nothing gets in, or out, and Gallifrey fell. It burnt. There was nobody left, just me."
"I would've done the same thing, for the record."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
"so do you think maybe we could stop all of this pointless fighting, get back in my TARDIS and head back to our original universe?" The Doctor chuckled and was relieved to see his brother smile back at him. "Sure," he said, helping his brother up "How did you get a TARDIS then?"
"I nicked her, back in my first incarnation. I was old though, and me and my granddaughter Susan took it and fled to earth when they started chasing us."
"You had a granddaughter?"
"Yeah I did, she's happy now though."
"Good," Drayschel smiled, as they headed upstairs. "They're probably in the observatory, Tia's probably entertaining them, she's a nice girl."
"She did point a gun at us?" The Doctor smirked
"Well, she likes guns, but she's nice. You're girl seems nice too, what was her name again?"
"Rose, her name's Rose."
"And you're having a baby together? I assume she's not human"
"Yeah she's a bit of a mix really. Human, Gallifreyan and TARDIS- long story. But yeah, we're having a baby, a little boy."
"Congratulations," Drayschel said patting his brother on the back.
"Thanks." The Doctor smiled.
oOo
After they all sat down and had a cup of tea in the warehouse, they all sat and talked for what felt like hours, until The Doctor's sonic beeped, reminding him that they needed to head back to the TARDIS.
"Well, if we want to actually make it back to our universe, we better head out now. Grab anything you need, and get it as quickly as you can." The Doctor said. They quickly headed downstairs, and The Professor started gathering up his equipment. Everyone was busy, apart from Tia, who clutched her jacket around her and stood in the corner. They started heading towards the door, and The Professor called her over.
"Come on Tia, it's time to go home."
"I can't" Tia said softly, running a hand through her hair.
"What do you mean you can't?" The Professor asked, concerned handing his equipment to The Doctor and walking over to her. "The other time angels, the guardians. They'll know, and they'll hunt me down Professor, I can't go back."
"Yes you can, nobody is ever going to get to you because I'm going to be there Tia. I would never let anyone hurt you."
Tia looked up at the man she had just spent the last three hundred years with, with tears building in her eyes, "Do you promise?" she asked.
"Cross my hearts," he said with a smile, before kissing her lightly on the lips, and taking her hand. "Now come on, run."
And with that the two of them ran off into the night. "Do they even know where the TARDIS is?" Jack asked, with a smile on his face.
"Nope, but I don't think they care." The Doctor said.
"I'll head off after them," Jack said, taking The Professor's equipment off of the doctor and running off after them leaving The Doctor and Rose walking through the cool night together.
"They remind me of us, The Professor and Tia." Rose mused aloud.
"How so?" The Doctor asked
"They both love each other so much, but neither can see the other's feelings. We didn't even cross that territory until baby came along, so I hope they realise it soon, before they have a drunken night together like we did."
"Yeah," The Doctor agreed, taking Rose's hand "But still, that drunken night? I wouldn't have missed it for the world."
"Me neither."
Ta dahhhhhhhh. Extra long chapter to make up for the stupidly long wait. Double sorry for that with knobs on okay! In the meantime the next chapter shouldn't take too long like the last one, especially considering I'm on my summer holidays! Love to all readers and please please please review wth any constructive critism or whatever, also you can PM me any questions you may have