Chapter 5

Messaline

Faith and Spike cautiously made their way through the tunnel systems towards General Cobb's encampment. Their encounters with the "contaminated ones" left them with useful tactical information. Faith found out that like in all good zombie flicks, if you mess with the brain's ability to control the body enough, the zombie ceases to function. Her short swords made quick work of slicing through their necks or piercing their brainstems. The second useful thing Faith and Spike learned was that the zombies seemed to completely ignore the vampire. At first this irritated Spike, but he quickly got over it. Spike's hands were starting to tire from all of the heads he had separated from the zombie bodies.

When they got to a bend in the tunnel they were in, Faith motioned that they should stop. "5 minute break?" she offered.

"Absolutely," Spike agreed and slid his back down the tunnel wall. He massaged the cramps out his hands. "How many zombies have we had to deal with so far?" Spike asked.

Faith closed her eyes as she tried to count how many of the walking dead she had dispatched since they left the Doctor in the garden. "I've taken out about 15 and I assume you took care of at least that many, if not more," she replied.

"Bugger, no wonder I'm start to feeling it," Spike said as he rolled his shoulders, trying to get them to relax.

"I think you're just getting soft now that you've been living with B," Faith teased him.

Spike chuckled. "Trust me, Faith. As far as Buffy and I are concerned, being soft isn't a problem," he said with a smirk.

"TMI, dude," Faith said. She cocked her head to the side when she heard footsteps coming from down a side tunnel a few meters ahead of them. She jerked her head in the direction of the sound. Spike had a curious look on his face when he held up one finger to indicate a solitary intruder. The two heroes quietly got up and took positions on tunnel opening.

After a few minutes, a blonde woman wearing a red, velvet coat that came down to her knees walked into view. Under the coat she was wearing a pair of black cargo pants and a white tee shirt. Bright pink sneakers finished off the ensemble. The woman was making her way down the tunnel like a trained commando. When the young woman exited into their tunnel, she was momentarily startled by Spike's sudden movements. The vampire tried to grab her, but failed.

The blonde woman ducked under Spike's arms and then slammed her foot down onto his instep. The sudden pain in his foot was eclipsed by the supernova in his groin when the blonde woman back fisted him in the Pratt family jewels. "Bitch!" Spike squeaked and fell over.

"Hey! Pick on someone with ovaries, why don't you?" Faith yelled. She threw a punch that the other woman blocked with her forearm. The blonde woman dropped and tried to do a spinning leg sweep. Faith was used to this kind of attack and easily jumped over the kick. She threw another right punch, but this time it was feint. The blonde woman went to block the punch that never came and was rewarded with a left jab to her stomach. As all the air went out of the blonde woman's lungs, Faith grabbed her by the shoulders and spun her into the wall. The two women crashed into the side of the tunnel directly under one of the few working lights. Faith wasn't prepared for what happened next.

When Faith pressed the other woman against the wall, her attacker got a good look at her face for the first time. "Mom?" the woman said in surprise. Faith let go in shock and took a step backwards. "Mom!" the young woman squealed in happiness. She launched herself from the wall and wrapped Faith up in a big hug.

Faith looked at Spike who was just now getting back up. "Don't look at me, I think the bint's gone mental," he said. The young woman let go of Faith and squinted at Spike in the dim light.

"Spike? What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at home with Buffy and the kids?" the young woman asked. It was Spike's turn to look shocked. The young woman looked at his face and then more closely at Faith's. "Oh bugger," the young woman swore. "When are you?" she asked the two friends.

"Huh?" Spike asked, not understanding the question.

Luckily, Faith had been warned by the Doctor to expect that type of question from other time travelers. "A year of travelling with the tenth Doctor," Faith told the younger woman.

The blonde woman bit her lip and stepped back from Faith. "Well…this is awkward," she said. "I'm not supposed to meet up with dad again until his next regeneration," the woman said absently. "Damned paradoxes," she muttered. She shook her head and then extended her hand to Faith. "Hi, I'm Jenny…the Doctor's daughter," Jenny said.

Faith shook Jenny's hand numbly. "He thinks you're dead," Faith managed to say. After a moment, Faith's eyebrows shot up. "Hey wait…what the fuck did you mean by calling me 'mom'?" she demanded.

"Sorry, Faith, I can't explain. You know…spoilers," Jenny said lamely. "All though this explains a lot about how you acted when I met you for the first time from my perspective," she said. Jenny reached up and tapped a silver earpiece she was wearing in her right ear. "Hey Jack, you'll never guess who I ran into in the tunnels down here," she said. Jenny paused for a moment and then said, "Faith and Spike."

"Who's do you think she's talking to?" Spike asked Faith. Faith in return shrugged her shoulders.

Jenny got a weird look on her face and then turned to face Spike. "My companion wants to know if you're still dead?" she asked.

"Uh…yeah," Spike replied, mystified.

"Yeah, Jack, Spike's still a vamp which matches what Mo…I mean Faith said. They're travelling with ten," Jenny said into her communicator. "Yeah I'm glad, too," she said. "Otherwise they could be infected by the Tyrant Virus as well," Jenny said. There was another pause as Jenny listened to her companion. "No, Jack. Stay at the TARDIS and make sure that Chloe and Ianto are safe and stay inside. The biological scrubbers will keep them safe as long as they stay inside," she reminded him. "Ok…ok…I'll keep you updated," Jenny said and then signed off.

"Um…pardon me for asking, but what the hell is going on here?" Spike asked.

Jenny smiled at him and Spike thought he could see a trace of the Doctor's mischievous nature in her face. "I'm from further up the time line than you are. Your future is already my past," she explained.

"Thanks that clears everything up" Spike said sarcastically.

Faith shook her head and said, "Damn, the Doc's going to freak when he see you."

"He can't…at least not yet," Jenny said. "Like I said, the first time the Doctor saw me after my delayed regeneration doesn't happen until after he regenerates. We don't want any Belgium sized black holes to suddenly pop up, do we?" she warned.

"Belgium?" Spike asked, confused.

"Don't ask," Faith and Jenny said together.

"So let me get this straight," Faith said. "You're alive, but we can't tell the Doctor because it would cause a terrible paradox, right?" she asked.

"That's right," Jenny said.

"Fuck an A!" Faith swore. "Finally I get to hang one of those damn 'spoilers' over his head like he always does to me," she said while rubbing her hands together.

Jenny laughed and hugged Faith. "The first of many," she said cryptically.

"All right we can't ask too many questions because of a French speaking singularity," Spike said, showing he had paid attention while watching Nova. "Can we at least ask what you're doing here?" he asked.

Jenny's smile faltered. "My companions and I are tracking a temporal arms smuggler and we think he dropped off a version of the Tyrant Virus on Messaline," she explained.

"Yep, he did," Spike assured her. "Bastard must have sold it too Cobb who turned around and infected those who wanted to keep on fighting their stupid civil war," he said.

Jenny started cursing in a language Spike had never heard. Once again, the TARDIS failed to translate it for him. Faith on the other hand nodded and filed a few of the words away for future use. Jenny was swearing in High Gallifreyan. When Jenny finished, Faith corrected her grammar. "That last verb is temporal and plural sensitive," she reminded the Doctor's daughter.

Jenny cocked her head to the side. "Oh yeah, you're right," she said. Jenny repeated her cursing in High Gallifreyan, but with the proper verb inserted.

"Can someone translate for me?" Spike requested.

"Sorry, Spike, but part of that doesn't make sense in English. Basically, Jenny likes the shirt bird General as much as we do," Faith said.

"Probably even less," Jenny suggested. "He shot me, remember?" she asked.

"There is that," Spike conceded.

Jenny hopped up and down like an excited teenager. "So what's the plan? Something with lots of running and an unpleasant end for Cobb I hope," she asked.

Faith unfolded the map she was carrying and showed it to Jenny. Jenny turned the map around and the handed it back to Faith. She pulled back the red velvet sleeve of her jacket to show a leather armband. Jenny lifted a flap in the middle and revealed a complex looking instrument. She tapped on it a few times and a hologram representing the tunnel system appeared in front of them. "The map doesn't show the maintenance tunnels. Which are here," Jenny said and tapped a button. A second series of tunnels appeared overlaid on the first set. "If we take this next junction, we should be able to make it to Cobb's compound in less than fifteen minutes," she told.

"Rock on, Jenny," Faith said in appreciation. "Lead the way," she suggested.

As Jenny went ahead, Spike stopped Faith. "Buffy and the kids?" he asked. Faith shrugged her shoulders and jogged after the Doctor's daughter. Spike just stood there and tried to cope with the implications of what she had said. With a grin, Spike ran to catch up with the women.

DrW

The Doctors sat outside of a holding area made of transparent steal. Tegan had been given her own room and was resting fitfully. Her complexion had become pale and ashen and her eyes had become painfully red. Tegan woke with a jerk and looked around the room, confused. "Doctor?" she called out. The airlock into the hospice ward cycled and the fifth Doctor made his way to Tegan.

"I'm here now, Tegan," the fifth Doctor said softly. He handed Tegan a cup of water.

"Where are we, Doctor? What's wrong with me?" Tegan pleaded. She had asked the same question every time she woke up.

"We are on the planet Messaline and you have come down with a virus," the fifth Doctor explained again. "I'm working with another Doctor to come up with a cure," he reassured her.

"Ok," Tegan said sleepily. The fifth Doctor grabbed the cup before Tegan could drop it. The sedative and pain blocker he had slipped into her water had taken affect.

"Sleep now, dear Tegan," the fifth Doctor said as he covered her up with a blanket. "With two of me on the case, we will find a way to save you," he promised.

The tenth Doctor waited outside of the airlock for his younger self to emerge. "You need to take a break," he said when the fifth Doctor emerged from hospice center.

"I suppose you would know, wouldn't you?" the fifth Doctor asked. "Maybe a short break with prompt our minds into coming up with a new solution," he admitted.

"Let's take a quick look for the segment," the tenth Doctor suggested.

The fifth Doctor nodded and pulled out the tracer and held it level on his palm. The blue end glowed brightly and pointed towards the center of the garden. "This way I suppose," the fifth Doctor said.

The two Doctors walked along the path in silence. When they reached the center of the garden, the tenth Doctor closed his eyes in remembered anguish. "This is where she died," he told his younger self.

"Over there, I take it," the fifth Doctor said.

The tenth Doctor looked to wear the fifth Doctor was pointing. Off to one side of the cleared grove was a lifelike statue of him and Jenny standing next to each other. On the base of the statue were the words, "The man who never would and his daughter. May we all remember his deeds and her sacrifice."

"She was quite lovely," the fifth Doctor said. "She reminds me a little of Susan's mother," he said absently. The fifth Doctor looked down at the tracer and saw it was pointing directly at the statue. He nudged his older self and indicated the tracer.

"Of course," the tenth Doctor said sullenly. "I have to erase the last monument these people have of my daughter," he said. The tenth Doctor put his hand on the tracer and gently pushed it towards the fifth Doctor's jacket. "We'll activate the segment once Faith and Spike get back with the cure," he said.

"As you wish," the fifth Doctor said. "Let's get back to the lab and see if we can come up with something new," he said and walked back towards the lab they were sharing with Cline. The fifth Doctor wasn't surprised when he noticed that he was walking back alone. He still remembered the loss he felt when Susan's mother was killed. The fifth Doctor knew that his older self would come back to the lab when he was ready.