Author's note: So here it is, the final chapter, and John and the Doctor offer a way out for the Sontarans. Will they take it?
A big thank you to Alpha007 for reminding me that there are still mysteries out there to be investigated.
A big thank you to everyone for reading the story. I hope you enjoyed it.

Chapter 11

The Ultimatum

In the Standby Room, the members of the Watch were sitting on the comfy sofas, guarding the UNIT patrol who were sitting cross legged on the floor, when Andy led everyone into the room, along with the rescued people wrapped in sheets. 'Numbers. Ace, see if you can rustle up some spare uniforms for these people.'

Craig Rimmer looked at the odd collection of people. He recognised the director of Torchwood, who seemed to be looking after another woman. 'Blimey. Is that . . ?'

'Hello. Harriet Jones, Prime Minister,' Harriet said, holding out her hand in greeting.

'Er, yeah. I know who you are,' Craig replied, shaking the offered hand. 'I'll . . . I'll just go and find you some clothes.'

'If you would. That would be most kind.'

John and Eight had moved to the group of soldiers sitting on the floor, and were scanning them with their sonic screwdrivers.

'I'm not getting a ping back from all of them,' Eight said. 'Just the Colonel and the two privates. I presume the others were just following orders.'

John checked the readout on his sonic. 'Yeah. How many times has that been used as a defence.

'I've managed to isolate the frequency of the command signal,' Eight informed him.

'If we invert the signal and feed it back, we should be able to cancel it out,' John suggested.

John and Eight adjusted their sonics and pointed them at the soldiers. They all cowered away, wondering what was going to happen to them.

'Don't worry, this won't hurt,' Eight reassured them.

'Much,' John added. They activated their sonics, and Mace, Gray, and Harris clutched their temples as they gasped and keeled over. No sooner had they rolled onto the floor, they lowered their hands and shook their heads.

'Wha . . . What's going on,' Mace asked as though he had just woken from a bad dream.

Andy held his hand out to him to help him to his feet. 'Welcome back Colonel.'

Mace took Andy's hand and climbed to his feet. 'Back from where?'

'From hell by the look of you,' Andy said with a grin.

'That worked well,' John said with a satisfied smile. 'Right, let's go through to the Communications Hub in the Despatch Office and make a phone call. Who's on Comms this evening?'

'Chrissie Anderson,' Andy informed him. 'She's our Senior Technical Operations Officer.'

The Comms Hub was a bank of keyboards, knobs, dials, multimedia sliders, buttons and switches, under a wall of media screens, satellite uplinks and downlinks.

'Chrissie!' Rose called out as she hurried over to her friend who had been her mentor when she first started at Torchwood.

'Yes. I'm Chrissie. Can I help you?' she said, but Rose had already grabbed her in a hug. 'Hang on . . . You're Rose Tyler off the telly.'

Rose released the hug and blushed with embarrassment. 'Ah, parallel worlds . . . Sorry.'

'Hello "Brains",' John said as he wandered in after his wife.

'Do I know you? Because you both act as though you know me,' Chrissie said with a frown.

'Parallel world,' Rose reminded him.

'Course it is,' John said. 'Doesn't stop us knowing them though, does it? Right "Brains", I've got a couple of questions. Firstly, does Torchwood still have that weapon you used on the Sycorax that Christmas?'

'How the hell did you know about that? Chrissie leaned past him to look to the Watch leader. 'Andy?'

Andy smiled at her. 'He's John. She's Rose. That's the Doctor. She's Lucie. That's River, and this is complicated. Together they are saving the world, so give them anything they need.' He turned to John. 'Yes. We've still got it. Will that destroy these Sontarans?'

'Well, yeah. But we're not going to,' John said cryptically. 'Chrissie. Do NASA track space junk in this universe?'

She was having trouble keeping up with John's thought processes. 'Er, yes. They do.'

'Good. Now, there's a great big alien ship a few thousand miles over our heads. Can you find me a hunk of junk near to it? Ooh, I like that. A hunk a junk.'

Chrissie searched the database and found some results. 'There's a decommissioned telecommunications satellite within five hundred miles.'

'Oh well done! Can you lock the weapon onto the satellite and have it ready to fire?'

'Yes. I've got the tracking data from NASA. I can feed that into the targeting computer,' Chrissie told him.

'Brilliant! And finally, I need you to open up a carrier wave on this frequency.' He showed her the holographic display above the sonic screwdriver.

'Okay, if you're sure.' Chrissie's hands flew over the controls, and they heard white noise coming out of the speakers.

'Calling the Sontaran Command Ship under Jurisdiction Two of the Intergalactic Rules of Engagement. This is Doctor John Smith and the Doctor.'

On one of the screens, an angry looking potato appeared. ['The Doctor?! The loathsome, meddlesome Time Lord?'] the Sontaran growled.

'Ooh. He's got your number,' Lucie said cheekily.

Eight looked hurt by the Sontaran's words. 'I've been called "some" things in my time, but I take exception to loathsome.'

At that point, Yvonne Hartman walked in wearing a uniform that was too big for her. She had the sleeves and trousers rolled up to fit. 'That's better. Now, what's occurring?' She saw the Sontaran on the screen. 'Oh, I say. It looks like some kind of troll.'

John grimaced. 'Oof. Not really a helpful observation when the troll can destroy your planet. It's called a Sontaran. And his name is . . ? John said, inviting the Sontaran to give his name.

['General Staal, of the Tenth Sontaran Fleet,'] the Sontaran announced.

'Staal the Undefeated?' John asked, wondering just how parallel this parallel world was.

['No. Staal the Unstoppable.']

'The unstoppable, really?' John asked. 'Well, I'm John the Immovable. And I think by the end of the day, one of us is going to need a new nickname.'

'You know, I always wondered how that paradox would turn out,' Eight said.

['By the end of the day, you will be John the Deceased,'] Staal boasted.

'Deceased? Nah, don't like that nickname. John the Defeated? John the Conquered? John the Humbled?' He pulled a face. 'Not really doing it for me. All a bit negative.'

'How's the war with the Rutans going,' Eight asked whilst John thought about his nickname.

['That is not your concern,'] Staal told him. ['We will be victorious.']

'What war is that?' Andy asked.

'It's been raging, far out in the Mutter's Spiral, for fifty thousand years,' Eight told him.

'Fifty thousand years of bloodshed,' John added. 'And you want to invade the Earth. That doesn't sound like an impending victory to me. So what are you lot up to?'

['A general would be unwise to reveal his strategy to the opposing forces,'] Staal said.

'That's true,' Andy said, thinking from a military perspective.

'Yeah. So let's have a go at inductive reasoning. Fifty thousand years of warfare is going to mean trillions of dead soldiers,' John reasoned.

'Oh trillions,' Eight agreed. 'At a million clones every four minutes, that's a lot of bodies. And the fleets, millions of ships.'

'Yeah, millions. All needing to be replaced when they get destroyed,' John continued.

Lucie leaned in close to Rose. 'It's like they're talking to themselves.'

Rose gave her a lopsided smile. 'They are.'

Eight was carrying on the thought processes. 'Takes a lot of resources to build that many ships.'

'And people to build them,' John said. He turned to the screen. 'So you and the Rutans have decimated the Mutter's Spiral. Cleared out all the resources.'

'So you start looking elsewhere for raw materials and slaves, and "hey presto", there's the Earth,' Eight said.

'Lots of raw materials and potential slaves, and not a hope of putting up any resistance. Ripe for the picking. How are we doing so far?' John asked Staal.

['Your speculations are pure fantasy,'] Staal told them.

'Yeah. If you say so,' John said dismissively. 'So if we're wrong, leave.'

['The General of the Tenth Sontaran Fleet does not take instructions from an adversary.']

'What about advice?' Eight asked. 'Does the General of the Tenth Sontaran Fleet take advice? Because I'm going to give you some alternatives, and I advise you to choose one of them. One. Just leave. No retreat, no surrender, so no disgrace,' Eight suggested.

['You think that leaving because you have been told to is not disgraceful?]

'Not if it is a sensible suggestion, no.'

'Or number two. You can attack us, taking your chances that you will win,' John said.

['Your puny missiles and nuclear weapons are harmless to the Sontaran fleet,'] Staal boasted.

'Or three,' Eight said in a cold, deliberate voice. 'Torchwood launch a pre-emptive strike and destroy you before you can attack.'

['Hah! As I have already mentioned, your weapons cannot harm us.']

'Y'reckon?' John said. 'I'm sending you a set of coordinates. I suggest you look in that direction.'

John nodded to Chrissie, and she activated the energy weapon. From various locations around London, five beams of green energy converged above the Thames, forming a single beam that shot out into space. A large telecommunications satellite that was no longer used, flashed in a brilliant ball of intense white light as it was atomised.

Yvonne turned on Andy. 'Captain! Why has a sworn enemy of the Crown and his associates been given access to one of our most powerful weapons?'

Before Andy could answer, John spun around and replied. 'Because that sworn enemy and his associates are trying to save the planet and every stupid person on it, including you. Now if you don't mind?' He turned back to the screen. 'Now General, I know that wasn't a missile.'

'And I know it wasn't nuclear,' Eight said.

'And we KNOW it wasn't puny. Any comment?' John asked.

['This primitive planet does not have the technology to build such a weapon,'] Staal announced.

'Oh, well that's all right then,' John said flippantly. 'So if we target your ship with this non existent weapon next, and fire in what . . ?' He looked at Eight.

'Thirty seconds?' Eight suggested.

John nodded thoughtfully. 'Say thirty seconds. Then nothing will happen.'

['But this is not possible.']

'You have twenty five seconds to get out of here General,' John said menacingly.

['We are not leaving. We will die in battle with honour,'] Staal announced.

'What?' John said incredulously. 'It won't be a battle, it will be a slaughter.'

['Then we shall make it a battle. Skree, train all weapons on the city below.'] Staal commanded.

'Staal. You only have fifteen seconds left! You can stop this,' John pleaded.

['Weapons primed and ready to fire General.']

['For the glory of Sontar. Fire in five.']

They could hear a chant in the background. ['Sontar-ha!']

'Staal. Please,' Eight pleaded. 'Think of your men. You don't have to do this.'

['Four. I am thinking of my men. The stories that will be told about them. They will be remembered as heroes.']

['Sontar-ha!']

'But you don't stand a chance. You'll be vaporised!' John told him desperately.

['Three . . . Sontar-ha. Two . . . Sonta . . .']

The screen suddenly went blank, with static coming from the speakers. Through the glass doors of the Despatch Office, a faint green glow lit the Standby Room from the windows that overlooked the Thames.

'What's happened?' Rose asked.

John and Eight looked along the control desk to the big red button which operated the energy weapon. River took her hand off the button and looked at them with a sad, but defiant expression. 'What . . ? Someone had to do it, and I knew you two never would.'

'But they didn't stand a chance,' John said.

'And neither would we if we'd have let them fire their weapons.'


'So, these are called TARDISes then?' Andy asked as he escorted the group of time travellers through the warehouse towards the blue wooden boxes.

'Shouldn't that be TARDI?' Rose asked with her teasing smile.

Eight frowned. 'But that would make them Time And Relative Dimensions In.'

'In what?' Andy asked.

'Space,' John told him. 'It's Time And Relative Dimensions In

Space.'

Andy faced the Eighth Doctor. 'And who are you Doctor? Really? The Torchwood Foundation Charter of 1879 names you as an enemy of the Crown, but you don't act like one.'

'He's not,' Lucie said with pride. 'He's a hero. Go on tell him. Tell him the things that we've done to save the world.'

Eight cleared his throat in a hesitant, embarrassed fashion. 'Well. The Nesteen consciousness animated those shop window dummies a few years back. Lucie and me took care of it.' He reluctantly continued as he wasn't sure how Andy would react. 'I did have to blow up that department store . . . sorry about that.'

'That was you two?' Andy asked.

'On the positive side though. He didn't have to blow up the London Eye, which was being used as a transmitter,' Lucie added helpfully.

'Hey! That was us,' Rose whispered to John.

'So, things that we've done in your lifetime,' Eight continued. There was the Slitheen. A family of skin wearing aliens who crashed that ship into the Thames . . .' Eight decided not to continue that story for obvious reasons.

'Yeah. We blew up number ten to stop them,' Lucie announced proudly.

'Yes. Sorry about that,' Eight said, giving his companion an annoyed look. 'But they were going to turn the Earth into radioactive slag. One of them escaped though and tried to melt Cardiff. Once again, Lucie and me stopped her.'

'Melt Cardiff?' McNab said with raised eyebrows. 'I know some people who would call that a public service.'

Rose tried unsuccessfully to stifle a laugh.

'Then there were the Sycorax hovering over London that Christmas,' Lucie reminded them.

'Ah, now I know that was us,' Andy said.

Eight gave him a disapproving look. 'Only after I'd negotiated a withdrawal and convinced them to leave.'

'Oh. Sorry about that,' Andy said with a shrug.

'And we stopped the Krillitane from cracking the Skasis Paradigm and controlling the whole of time and space,' Eight said. 'Er, had to blow up a school for that one . . . Sorry.'

'Okay. I get the picture,' Andy said. 'You're this planet's guardian angel . . . albeit a slightly destructive one.'

'Guardian alien more like,' John said.

'So why do you do it, when everyone here thinks you're the enemy?' Andy asked.

'I often ask myself that one,' Eight said with a sigh. 'At the present time, the human race is in its infancy. On the whole, you act like spoilt, spiteful children. But there are a rare few who have developed the neural pathways that raise them above the rest. Gandhi, Einstein, Mother Theresa, Hawking. Eventually, all the human race will develop these neural pathways and you will become magnificent, founding bountiful empires across the stars.'

'I look forward to it,' Andy said. 'I'll try and deflect the heat away from you.'

'That would help,' Eight said with a smile.

John held out his hand towards Andy. 'They might be different universes, but they're the same man. Thank you.'

Andy nodded and shook his hand. Rose leaned forward and kissed his cheek. 'Thanks Andy.'

'Yeah. Don't get all soppy on me. You're supposed to be a Special Operations Agent,' he said with pretend grumpiness.

Rose laughed. 'Our Andy never felt comfortable with the old regime either.' She saw Andy raise his eyebrows. 'Oh, he did his job and defended the Earth, but he never agreed with "if it's alien it's ours".'

'Who says I don't?' Andy asked defiantly.

'You do,' Rose told him. 'I can see it in your eyes. You can change it if you want to you know.'

'No. I'm just one man. It would take an army to change this organisation.'

John smiled. 'And yet here you are, one man helping an alien and his companion leave so that they can go on saving the world alongside you. I'd say that was progress.'

'Well, I suppose I could see if we can get your name taken off the charter.'

Eight held out his hand. 'Thank you captain. I hope we can meet in the future in more amicable circumstances.'

Andy shook his hand. 'Yeah . . . I'd like that.'

They looked at the TARDISes, or TARDI. (The jury was still out on that one.) Eight stroked the wooden panelling of John and Rose's TARDIS.

'So other universes have Time Lords and TARDISes then?' Eight said.

'Yeah, some of them,' John said. 'The one we live in doesn't. I grew our TARDIS from a coral fragment from our old universe.'

'Was that when you were formerly the Tenth Doctor?' Eight asked.

John gave a single laugh. 'Yeah.'

'Well, we'd better get out of here before Yvonne decides to evoke the Torchwood Charter . . . Thank you, for everything.'

John shook Eight's hand, and then the ladies kissed and hugged before they entered their TARDISes (TARDI), and disappeared from Canary Wharf.

In their TARDIS, John and Rose orbited the console, readying it for a trip through the Void. River sat on the jump seat, silently watching them.

'You all right?' Rose asked her as she looked up from the console.

'Oh, yes. I'm fine,' she lied. She was remembering how John and Eight had looked at her when she had pressed the button. She looked up at John. 'I'm sorry. But I know you have made decisions like that before. I know about Pompeii.'

John looked at the Time Rotor pumping up and down. She was right. Some days, it wasn't possible to get it right. 'Well, we'd better drop you off in the old universe before "other me" plugs the hole,' he said, drawing a line under the subject. He gave Rose an enthusiastic grin. 'Ready?'

Rose nodded, and John pulled the lever with a flourish. 'Allons-yyyyy'

'So. Where can we drop you?' John asked as the TARDIS stabilised.

'Can you do Easter Island, around ten eighty?' River asked and saw the questioning look on John's face. 'I have a date with a deity, and I don't want to be late.'

Rose laughed as John raised his eyebrows and pulled a disbelieving face. 'Easter Island it is then.'

The Time Rotor changed pitch and the TARDIS swayed through the Vortex to take them to Easter Island where it landed with a gentle "clomp".

'I think this is your stop,' John said with a smile. 'I'll just check the meter . . . That'll be one million, two hundred pounds, and fifty six pence please. Thank you for choosing TARDIS taxis.'

Rose snorted a laugh, and River smiled. 'Don't I get mates rates?'

John scratched the back of his neck. 'Welllll . . . Tell you what. Give me that Dimensional Manipulator and we'll call it quits.'

River rolled her eyes and took the tennis ball sized icosahedron out of her pocket. She threw it into the air a couple of times, contemplating whether to part with it, when John caught it on it's final descent.

'It's for the best,' John said. 'Don't want you calling us from another universe again, do we.'

'Oh I don't know. It might be fun,' River said with a saucy smile.

John put the ball in his pocket and strolled down the ramp to the doors. 'It sounds to me as though you've got plenty of fun ahead of you in this universe.' He opened the doors on an island paradise.

'Oh this is gorgeous,' Rose said as she stepped out and looked around. As she continued to search the terrain, she frowned. 'Hang on. Easter Island. Shouldn't there be stone heads?'

'Not yet sweetie. Their deity hasn't arrived yet,' River told her.

'Wha? You don't mean? No way!'

River waggled her eyebrows. 'Spoilers.'

'Well River. We'd better be going,' John said as he kissed her on the cheek. 'Look after yourself. Look after "other me". Have fun, and stay out of trouble.' He pointed a finger at her like a school teacher telling off a pupil.

'Well, three out of four ain't bad,' she replied with a cheeky grin.

John laughed. 'That'll have to do. Bye River.' He turned around and went back into the TARDIS.

River turned to Rose, who was waiting to say her own goodbye. 'It's been a pleasure to meet you River. I'd even say an education.'

'And it's been a pleasure to meet you too Rose. He talks about you a lot.'

'Really?'

'Yes. You made a big impression on him. You saved him, made him better,' River told her, holding her hands. 'And for that, I thank you.'

'Y'know, I wasn't sure I wanted to meet ya when I first heard about ya. But havin' met ya, I know the Doctor is in good hands.' Rose pulled her into a hug and kissed her cheek. 'Bye River, and keep a handle on him, won'tcha.'

'Oh I will. Even when he doesn't want me to. Bye Rose.'

Rose rubbed River's upper arm, turned, and stepped into the TARDIS. She walked up the ramp as John activated the Time Rotor, and she started to set the controls to get them home. She was mulling something over in her mind.

'Won't this meetin' change how River reacts when she sees ya in The Library?' she asked.

John stopped what he was doing and looked up, thinking about that encounter.

"Thanks."

"For what?"

"The usual. For coming when I call."

"Oh, that was you?"

"You're doing a very good job, acting like you don't know me. I'm assuming there's a reason."

'She thought I should know her. Thought that was a bit odd at the time. But now, that kinda makes sense.' He thought further through that conversation.

"Okay, shall we do diaries, then? Where are we this time? Er, going by your face, I'd say it's early days for you, yeah? So, er, crash of the Byzantium. Have we done that yet? Obviously ringing no bells. Right. Oh, picnic at Asgard. Have we done Asgard yet? Obviously not. Blimey, very early days, then. Whoo, life with a time traveller. Never knew it could be such hard work. Look at you. Oh, you're young."

"I'm really not, you know."

"No, but you are. Your eyes. You're younger than I've ever seen you."

"You've seen me before, then?"

"Doctor, please tell me you know who I am."

'Actually, when I think about it. It was this meeting she was talking about when we met in The Library,' John realised. 'Whoo, life with a time traveller. Who'd have thought it could be such fun.'

'Me for one,' Rose said with a cheeky grin.

He gave his wife a warm smile. 'Ready to go home?'

'Always,' Rose replied.

The End