A/N: Well, I haven't finished all my exams yet, but I finished the one I was crapping myself over, so with that stress elevated from my shoulders, I decided to cough up a chapter for those that demanded it.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT:

Okay guys, I've had this idea for some time, but I've only just decided to write it down. Basically, I've written a pilot chapter for a story I'm hoping to write after I've finished this one. It's called The Doctor's sort of Daughter and it's basically involving Rose and 10.5 having a daughter who becomes unstable in their Universe and starts jumping from theirs to the Doctor's 'origional' Universe. Because of this, Universes will collide but I'm making it abundantly clear that this will NOT be a Rose/11 fiction. If you guys want to check out my pilot chapter, it is up now, I'd love to hear what you think about it and see whether it's worth continuing after I finish The Doctor's Battle. Thank you so much!

Once again I don't own Doctor Who, I hope you enjoy this chapter, this is the beginning of the 'test,' revealing a few very dark things about the fate of the Doctor for the failiure of his companions. ENJOY. x

Chapter 10

Martha ran.

She didn't know where she was going and she really didn't care. She was only aware of one thing. The ever growing cackling of the manic Time Lord that had enslaved her entire family. His voice rang through her head like church bells; never pausing, never ending.

"You can't escape me, Martha Jones!"

Martha screamed in anger, turning around to fire two shots at nothing in particular. She didn't quite recall how she got the gun; she'd been in the console room and when the lights had gone up, she'd had it. And the Master had been there… waiting for her, laughing at her. She'd been too afraid to pull the trigger at first, but then he'd approached her, then he'd touched her. He grabbed her and tried to pull her away. In a mixture of fear and pure anguish she'd fired the gun for the first time, but had completely missed. After that she had run. And that was what she was still doing now, God knows how long after.

Jack sat up with a start.

One minute he'd been with everyone, face to face with the Dream Lord and the next…

Well, he was here. Wherever here was…

Captain Jack Harkness frowned as he looked about himself. The room was one he didn't recognize, but considering the entire TARDIS had changed since the last time he'd been there, he didn't think that too strange. What he did find strange was the fact that the room was entirely empty. The walls and floors held the same template as the main console room, but it was entirely bare. No furniture, no pictures… no door. Just a blank space, like the TARDIS had forgotten it was even there.

Well, there was no use standing there like an idiot; the best thing to do was to find some way out.

Jack paced from one side of the room to the other, smoothing his hands against the walls strategically in search of some kind of door, perhaps a hidden panel. He came back to the centre of the room empty handed. Well, he'd found himself in rougher situations… but he'd usually shared those experiences with others. This time he was alone.

"My Jack, you've certainly had a long, strained life haven't you?"

Jack stiffened towards the Dream Lord's bored tone. He turned around only to see the man in question leaning against the wall with a dark smile on his face; "Do you remember the moment the Bad Wolf brought you back to life, Jack?"

Jack nodded rigidly, not knowing what to say. He could've said something light and humorous and maybe he might have if he hadn't then known what the creature in front of him was capable of.

The Doctor's darkness.

Jack had seen the Doctor in three separate incarnations and in each one, he'd always held a darkness about him. No matter how cheeky or childish he aimed to be, there was always that shadow in the back of his eyes, that age that seemed all too clear now Jack was far past one hundred himself. The Dream Lord was a dangerous opponent, perhaps the most dangerous he had ever faced. Maybe he wasn't able to kill yet… but he had a much stronger power to play with.

The mind.

The Dream Lord pushed himself off against the wall and waltzed over to Jack, circling him mockingly as he whistled an alien tune, "How must it have felt, I wonder, to be faced with the Bad Wolf once more, just to be seen as inferior, a mistake." The Dream Lord spat out the last word, his eyes narrowing playfully as he crossed his arms behind his back. He paused directly in front of Jack, clicking his tongue against the back of his teeth.

Jack's stomach knotted as he recalled the event. The Bad Wolf had been so close to destroying him, yet he hadn't even flinched.

Maybe he would have if she had been the enemy, but to be completely honest, she wasn't. She was Rose. How could he have backed away from her?

"If you had successfully been destroyed, what then?" The Dream Lord shrugged to himself, "You see, one of the perks of being this faceless being is that I have the ability to get inside your heads, fish out your darkest fears and then use them against you." The Dream Lord leaned into Jack's ear, biting his lip before speaking in a sickly sweet tone; "Do you want to know what I saw in the Bad Wolf's head?"

Jack felt a wave of emotion claim him as he forced himself to stay upright.

The Dream Lord smiled, "She was going to kill you, Jack, but then what? What about the fates of Martha and Mickey?"

Jack fell to his knees as he cried out. Suddenly the empty room before him began to shift and change until he wasn't staring at the room any more, no, instead, he was back on the street, back in the heavy rain. Except this time he couldn't feel it.

This time, he was watching something new.

Martha screamed, Mickey held her in his arms as she wept, her body shaking with awful sobs. The Bad Wolf simply stood there, arm still outstretched as she looked down at the lifeless form that was Captain Jack Harkness.

"No!" Jack cried, taking a step forward only to be propelled back to where he originally stood.

Jack wasn't afraid of his death – no – that wasn't what the Dream Lord was using as fuel. Jack had always welcomed death with a warm embrace, what he was afraid of was dying for the last time, of dying amongst friends in mortal danger. If he died before he could save the ones he loved… there was no fear stronger within his soul.

The Bad Wolf's lifeless, cold eyes scanned the other two humans in front of her. For a long moment she simply stood there, but then she spoke with the voice of a God once more, "You are weak."

Martha had looked up from Mickey's arms, her expression as defeated as the way the Doctor had looked at him not minutes before hand. She'd given up.

But she couldn't.

She wouldn't.

The Bad Wolf turned her extended hand towards the couple and slowly but surely, fisted her fingers together. In a cry of pain, Martha fell to the ground, writhing for a few precious moments as Mickey fell with her.

"Fight it!" He begged, "Martha, no!" he looked towards the thing, jumping up, ready for attack…

…Only to be brought down by the God moments later.

"NO!" Jack felt himself yell. Tears were falling down his cheeks wildly as he once again tried to run out to the scene. But he couldn't. Because he was already dead… lying there, lifeless.

The unnatural way the two gurgled as the last of their breath was taken from them was enough for anyone to give in.

However, Jack wasn't anyone.

He'd seen his friends die before. He'd been with Ianto when they were gassed. He'd died with Ianto fully aware that he wouldn't be joining him in an eternal slumber. His death was uneasy and filled with more pain than any suffocation could ever do to him. Jack knew how a person died; he knew so many that had. All of them had fought for life. He'd found it funny at the time, how people clung to life, especially when death seemed to be the ultimate release. But what Owen had said about the afterlife still plagued him, and perhaps ever since he had always felt a little more grateful for his ability.

But then there was Martha.

Owen had told Martha what he had seen.

Nothing. He had seen nothing. Just darkness and the ever growing presence of a being that couldn't be seen. If that was truly Martha lying dead in front of him, she wouldn't have looked so defeated.

Then the Dream Lord's words came back to him; get into your head. Jack frowned, blinking away the tears, fish out your fears.

Of course! Oh, God! How could he have been so thick? The Dream Lord could only show you things from your deep subconscious, fears that were real to you. But in all of Jack's deepest fears, he'd always known better to ever consider his friends giving up, especially Martha Jones. So the Dream Lord had compensated. He'd used an expression that Jack had seen before. He used the Doctor's age-old eyes and placed them in Martha Jones. What a mistake to make.

"It's not real." Jack muttered to himself as he looked towards the space in front of him. He stood up defiantly as the images shifted and turned to static before reinforcing themselves. Jack had none of it, he repeated himself clearer this time, "It's not real!"

This time the image flickered so for a brief moment, Jack was faced with the empty room he had been in before the hallucinations had started.

"You better get your facts straight, Dream Lord!" Jack challenged as he looked into the darkening skies, raising his arms, "'Cause you made one big whopping mistake!"

And just like that, the hallucination vanished. Replaced with the Dream Lord still standing directly in front of him. However, he didn't look defeated. In fact, the very opposite.

"So I couldn't use your fears." The Dream Lord shrugged, unaffected, "No matter," he grinned towards Jack then and suddenly Jack felt as if he would have been safer trapped within his hallucination. "I can still use hers."

And just like that, the Dream Lord vanished.

And in his place stood Martha Jones, gun poised, a feral look in her eyes.

"Martha!" Jack barely choked out as his arms shot into a surrender position, "Martha, it's me, Jack… I'm not… I'm not."

But it didn't matter. In a scream of anguish, Martha pulled the trigger and a bullet was shot directly into Jack's chest, tearing into his flesh until it reached his heart. Jack let out a startled breath as he fell backwards and landed on the floor with a sickening thud.

"What do you mean he'll be able to kill?"

The Doctor looked up to Amy Pond tiredly. He really didn't have the energy to waste explaining things in great detail, "It means exactly that." The Doctor said, rather bitterly as he leaned back against the TARDIS walls, "He wasn't able to kill before and now he will."

Amy didn't really care for the Doctor's tone and was about to snap back at him when he suddenly let out a groan of pain and held his head in his hands.

"Doctor?" Amy asked unsurely as she held out a hand towards him.

The Doctor shrank away from her touch as he cradled his head, "S-something's not right." He barely managed before a wave of nausea crippled him and he fell to his knees. Amy let out a small gasp and instantly knelt down next to him, hesitantly placing her hands against his shoulders.

The Doctor swallowed hard and began to breathe in and out as calmly as he could possibly manage, closing his eyes hard as his headache increased exponentially.

"Doctor, tell me, what's wrong?" Amy demanded, afraid to do anything more than talk. The Time Lord had turned an almost sickly green and been on the floor in an instant. She didn't know what to do.

"Oh, is the Time Lord not feeling well?"

Amy looked up hatefully at the Dream Lord who had appeared above the two with a menacing smile, "What have you done to him?" She hissed as the Doctor let out another groan.

"Oh, this is just the first step, I'm afraid." The Dream Lord teased, "You see, the test your friends are taking isn't going so well, I've already had to fail one of them."

Amy's expression only darkened.

The Dream Lord smiled further, "When a student fails, I take their fears and use them to-"

"-Kill." Amy finished spitefully.

"My, my, let's not get too far ahead of ourselves," the Dream Lord said, raising his hands, "I like to take my time, I'll need a full house of fears to get to that point, which I guess is lucky for your Doctor here, he'll have more time."

"What do you mean?" Amy all but begged, trying in vain to keep the tears at bay.

"When I absorb your fears, I grow stronger, but you must remember, I am still part of the Doctor's mind." The Dream Lord's eyes glinted as he carried on, "Think about how it must feel to have a part of you torn out and then times it by ten. I'm surprised your Time Lord is still conscious." The Dream Lord looked down his nose at the Doctor before turning away, "I'd make your time last, Miss Pond, Heaven only knows how much you have left."

And with that, he disappeared.

The Doctor was on all fours now, breathing through his teeth in a last ditch effort to remain conscious. This was just the first stage after all, he had to fight it. The pain was almost unbearable, inching its way through to the very core of his body like a slowly building fire. But almost was the key word here. The Doctor could still function and he wasn't going to give up until that ability was – too – disabled.

"Amy," the Doctor all but rasped as he tried desperately to lift his head.

"Yes?" Amy managed in a shaky voice. The Doctor felt his hearts tighten. She was crying.

"Amy, y-you've got to help me up."

Amy only knelt there, staring at him in disbelief. She blinked as if coming out of a day dream, "B-but… what the Dream Lord said…"

"Forget what he said!" The Doctor snapped, groaning out loud as the pain increased and his arms shook with the bulk of his own weight, "Everyone is in danger i-if y-you don't help me up."

Amy shook her head unsteadily as she closed her eyes. She let out a deep breath and slowly but surely, she slid her arms around the Doctor's shoulders and with all the care she could possibly give, she slowly pulled the Doctor upwards. Amy felt her stomach twist as the Doctor's breathing hitched with the effort of being moved, but he managed well enough, leaning an arm heavily against the TARDIS walls as soon as he caught his bearings.

"We need to f-figure this out," the Doctor spoke seemingly to himself as he stared down at the floor with all his concentration, "The Dream Lord's still in the TARDIS, which means everyone else must still be in th-argh!"

Amy was about to move to the Time Lord who was now clutching his chest when the Doctor raised his hand weakly to ward her away, "I'm fine." He managed as he breathed hard through his teeth, "J-just give me a second to catch my breath."

"Oh, you'll need more than time to just catch your breath."

The Doctor rolled his eyes, "Oh, so you haven't left yet, have you?"

The Dream Lord shrugged, "Just watching the show, we can't let you get too far can we?"

Amy frowned, "What do you-" but she was unable to finish as the Dream Lord snapped his fingers and in that instant, the atmosphere changed around Amy. The lights dimmed, but she was still able to see. See the green light that was crawling across the floor and up the walls. See the smoke that was rising from an unknown source.

Hello Amy.

Amy froze.

That voice. That robotic, dark voice. Oh God… how could it be here?

Now, Amy, give me a reason why I shouldn't just kill you right now.

"House." It was all Amy needed to say. The Doctor grabbed onto Amy's hand, forcing himself to ignore the pain that was consuming him.

"It's not real." The Doctor said, "Amy, it's not real, how can it be? The TARDIS destroyed House, remember?"

It did no good; Amy acted as if she couldn't hear him. She simply stared into the darkness that only she could see, her eyes filling with tears that refused to shed.

The Dream Lord began to chuckle again, "Well, that'll keep you busy while I resume the test."

The Doctor could only scowl in the Dream Lord's direction as he disappeared. He carried on tugging on Amy's arm, trying as hard as he could to coax her back into reality, but things kept swerving around him and with one final tug, the pain in his chest shot up his arm and crippled it. He sucked in a breath as he fell against the wall, sliding down to the ground in agony.

Briefly in the back of his head, he became aware of the TARDIS groaning in protest. She felt his pain, but she still pushed at his mind, urging him to fight this. He groaned in response as the pain shot into his head again, drowning out the TARDIS' pleas. "Sorry Dear," the Doctor muttered as he closed his eyes, "Not right now…"

"Oh my God, Jack!" Martha screamed as the gun fell out of her hand. The constant presence of the Master left her as soon as Jack's blood splattered against the floor. She had been so sure of herself when she had pulled the trigger… so sure it had been the Master.

But there was no mistaking it. The man she had shot was Captain Jack Harkness.

No hallucination was strong enough to stop Martha Jones from seeing the truth. She had just shot and killed one of her closest friends point blank in the chest with absolutely no remorse. All because of a dirty mind trick, something she'd promised herself she was strong enough to beat.

But he couldn't be dead; not really. Jack was an immortal, she'd seen him come back plenty of times.

So why wasn't he?

Martha took a step forward, only to stumble and fall to her knees. The shock was kicking in.

Great, and now she was diagnosing herself? She had to get to Jack, even though she felt numb all over, she had to get to him.

Surely he was usually at the point of healing by now?

Carefully, Martha pulled herself to her feet once more. Her mind was fuzzy; she couldn't exactly remember half of the hallucination that had overwhelmed her. All she knew was that this was exactly what the Dream Lord had wanted, she just couldn't figure out why. Surely if he wanted her to shoot someone, it wouldn't have been someone who was immortal.

With one baby step at a time, Martha managed to fall in front of Jack, but he wasn't how she had imagined. The wound in his chest showed no sign of healing and his skin was as white as a sheet. Blood was literally pumping from the wound and as she knelt down next to him, she could feel the sticky liquid coat the bottom of her jeans. She shook her head slowly, this couldn't be happening. Jack couldn't die. He couldn't, it was impossible, the Doctor had said so.

You're an impossible thing, Jack.

"Well, yes, he is that and much, much more, but what if I were to disable this ability of his?" The Dream Lord appeared, kneeling next to Martha, he tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear and breathed quietly into it, "This is my reality, remember?"

"No." Martha shook her head, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, "He's not dead." Even as she said the words, she couldn't believe them. She'd seen her fair share of dead bodies before, and Jack was a prime example. He was dead.

"No!" Martha suddenly felt her hands pressing against Jack's chest; she shuddered as the warm blood ran over her fingers, but carried on. She pumped his chest over and over, pressing the bridge of his nose with her fingertips as she gently breathed into his mouth. He couldn't be dead. It was impossible. He couldn't be dead. He just…

She felt tears flowing down her cheeks as they dripped down onto her hands, mingling with the blood, "Oh God…" she said, her voice shaking, "Oh God, Oh God, Oh God."

Jack took a sharp intake of breath as life once more flooded into him. It had become almost second nature to feel his body reviving itself, but every time he still felt the ache of whatever had killed him. He groaned as he felt the slowly abating pain that claimed his chest.

"Jeez Martha, I know you were under the Dream Lord's spell, but the heart? A little cliché don't you think?" Jack fully expected Martha to slap him silly or maybe hug him out of pure exhaustion. Maybe she was still under the Dream Lord's spell and she'd just shoot him again.

He waited patiently for any form of rebuttal, but when none were forthcoming, he dared to open his eyes.

Martha was sat above him, pure fear in her eyes. "He's not dead." She said, staring right into Jack's concerned gaze.

Jack rose an eyebrow, feeling a strange wave of concern flood him, "Damn right I'm not dead." Jack said, but once more, there was no reaction from Martha. It was as if he hadn't spoken at all.

"I told her I'd suspended your ability to come back," The Dream Lord's voice suddenly came from his right where he was sitting expectantly next to Martha, looking from one to the other, "It's fun because she can't hear what I'm saying to you and vice versa."

Jack growled lowly with full intentions of getting up and punching the apparition square in the face. Instead, he didn't move. He couldn't. His body was locked in place.

The Dream Lord rolled his eyes, "You have to be stationary for the hallucination to work, death is a hard card to play."

"But you can't kill. You even said that to us!" Jack spat, "How stupid do you think she is?"

The Dream Lord smiled softly and poked Jack gently on the forehead, "I believe your friend was too busy defending herself from hallucinations to catch that memo."

"She's smart, she'll figure it out." Jack said defiantly, "Give her time."

"Sorry, it doesn't really matter anymore," The Dream Lord pulled a face as he scooted back from Jack's body, "She's already failed the test and I'm afraid if you don't pull yourself out of this, so will you." The Dream Lord looked up at the ceiling thoughtfully, "Think of the pain you're putting your precious Doctor through… in fact, I don't need to let you think, much too much hassle." The Dream Lord picked himself up and winked at Jack, "Tell you what, usually a Time Lord could only truly hear this… but considering I can do whatever I please, I'll let you listen in on how the TARDIS truly feels right now."

Jack was about to bite out a few truly nasty words about the Dream Lord when suddenly a painful high pitched shriek overwhelmed him. It sounded as if a dying animal had gotten itself caught inside a powerful machine and was screaming. Screaming for had to stop himself from crying out as the noise only strengthened.

This was how the TARDIS felt? How was it even possible? The Doctor couldn't have been that bad, anyone channelling that kind of pain to a living time machine shouldn't have been alive.

Unless…

Jack's eyes widened in revelation. The Doctor… Oh God, what the Hell? Failing the test did this to him? What the Hell was the Dream Lord playing at?

"Martha, you have to fight this!" Jack begged as panic overcame him, "Martha!" He tried to scream over the noise, but it only intensified. Jack yelled out as Martha bent down over him and began to perform CPR.

"M-Martha!" Jack begged, tears in his eyes, "Y-You've gotta-" but his words were lost as Martha held his nose and began to breathe useless air into his lungs.