a/n: EDIT: Hey everyone! This has now been beta'd by my friend Meg, who gave up part of her vacation looking at this. She will recieve cookies, oh yes! I would like to thank everyone who was so supportive with Darkness and now this. Y'all are great!
The cemetery was silent as Anita cautiously opened the gate, wincing as the rusty metal grated against the hinges. She switched on her flashlight and glanced around before nodding.
"No one's here," she called behind her. "Bradley, Eric. Let's go."
"I can't believe I let you talk me into this," Eric groaned, coming to stand beside her.
"Baby," Anita teased. "No one knows we're here, so we shouldn't have to worry."
"Exactly. If anything happens people won't know."
"No one will hear you scream," Bradley whispered in his ear, laughing when his friend jumped.
"It's fine, Eric," Anita said, turning to wander amongst the headstones. "This isn't even a haunted cemetery, it's just creepy."
"I'm sorry, what did you say?" Bradley asked. "I saw all kinds of weird lights here two days ago!"
"And we're investigating," Eric snapped. "Next time, keep it to yourself."
"You didn't have to come. You chose to."
"And yet we both know that when Anita wants us to do something, we do it."
"Then why are we friends with her?"
"I don't know. Why are we friends with you Anita?" Eric asked. There was no response. "Anita?"
A scream ripped through the cemetery.
"Anita!" the boys shouted, tearing off towards the sound. They found her crouching by the crypt, her back to them. "Are you okay?"
"Species identified. Human," Anita replied in a flat monotone. "Initial neural connection successful. Current operation at 43%. Integration tactic 2.73 recommended."
"Anita?" Eric asked again, bringing up the flashlight. He could see something dark on the back of her neck, wriggling like a worm. "What the hell is that?"
"Commander, Lieutenant," Anita whispered, emotionless. "Advance."
"This isn't funny," Eric said. "Stop it."
"We should get out of here," Bradley breathed, stepping backwards. "We should-"
Eric screamed and fell to the ground, his eyes rolling into the back of his head. Bradley could see something burrowing into the back of his friend's head before he felt a stabbing pain at the back of his neck. Bradley collapsed as his flashlight dropped out of his hand, rolling away to shift its beam of light on Anita's blank face.
"Vanilla ice cream floating in root beer," the Doctor said, lazily stirring his float. "Nothing better than that."
The Master tilted his head to the side, considering. "Real beer."
The Doctor wrinkled his nose. "What, real beer and ice cream?"
"You know what I meant," the Master said with a scowl.
"Well yes, course I do. But alcohol doesn't automatically make something better."
"Automatically, no. Most of the time, yes."
Jenny sat next to the Doctor in the booth, staring out the window as she ignored their bickering. After a year alone with the two of them, she had learned to tell which arguments were merely them being, well, them and which ones could turn ugly.
"I'm going for a walk," Jenny announced when the two of them paused for breath. The Doctor absentmindedly got up to let her out and continued on with the Master.
It had been almost a year since the Darkness, a year since they left Donna behind. It was surprising, really- they had gone to hundreds of planets and Jenny could remember each with perfect detail and yet it seemed as if the events were only days passed. The Doctor told her that each regeneration could potentially live for hundreds of years before it needed to regenerate.
"Assuming, of course, you don't die prematurely," he had said. "We seem to have problems with that bit."
Still, this was a bit baffling. Jenny still had the Messaline instructions in the back corner of her mind that, while she didn't pay any attention to them, still hummed that the average lifespan was 15.3 hours. The warring in her head could give her headaches if she didn't pay close enough attention.
A headache like the one she had now, actually; Jenny sat down on the nearest bench so she could massage her temples.
"Are you alright?" a woman's voice asked. Jenny looked up, squinting to keep the sun out of her eyes. A middle aged woman was standing, holding a bag of groceries in one arm and the hand of a little boy in the other.
"I'm fine, thanks," Jenny replied. "Just a headache."
"You're not from around here," the woman continued. "You're not alone, are you?"
Jenny frowned and pointed at the window of the little restaurant where the Doctor was attempting to steal the Master's chips. "I'm with them. We're just passing through and we stopped for lunch."
"Good," the woman said, relief replacing suspicion. "Wanted to make sure you weren't in any trouble."
"Not trying to be rude, really, I'm happy you're looking out for me, but why do you ask?"
"We've had two girls go missing in as many weeks," the woman replied, her grip on her son momentarily tightening. "Just wouldn't want you to end up in trouble. You don't know the strangers from the townsfolk."
"Two girls?" Jenny asked. "No suspects?"
"No," the woman shook her head. "It's shaken up everyone, especially the younger ones. Course 'round here, everyone's been together since the nursery. Best keeping close with your... family?"
"Dad and a friend," Jenny replied, seeing how the woman glanced at the Doctor and the Master again. She knew what the woman was thinking- how could they be related?
"I wanted to travel so it was a seventeenth birthday gift," Jenny explained, offering up her best innocent smile. It worked and the woman's face smoothed out once more.
"I hope you call your mother every day. It's bad world we're in now."
"Yeah," Jenny agreed, even though she knew better. Cybermen could pop up at any moment, same as they could 1800s and Daleks always seemed to be around the corner.
"Well, I've got to get this one home," the woman said with a long sigh as her son began to fidget. "Make this mother happy and stay safe."
"Course I will," Jenny replied. She watched the woman walk off and knew exactly why the Doctor loved humans so much. Even when they were capable of murder, they also looked after perfect strangers.
Jenny watched the woman walk down the street. She glanced behind her to look at the TARDIS, parked behind an old oak tree, before something caught her eye.
The Master found that things were just as complicated with drums as they were without. It was nice being able to think uninterrupted, and the Doctor and Jenny's presence kept his mind from being silent, but now he didn't know quite what to think. Honestly he enjoyed this running around with the Doctor, and Jenny wasn't nearly as bad as the Doctor's other children were. But there was something restless in the back of his mind, stirring darkly whenever the Doctor wasn't looking. The Master couldn't help but briefly coming up with some sort of plan every time they arrived at a new planet. Force of habit, he supposed. But the whole situation was becoming rather domestic and the Master didn't want to get used to it.
He knew there would be an after, there was always an after, and he didn't know if he'd be able to survive it things kept going at this rate.
"Where's the Doctor?" Jenny asked as she came back to the table.
"The milkshake machine broke and he's behind the counter flashing around his sonic to impress the natives," the Master replied.
"I think there's something going on," Jenny said.
The Master raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"
"Two girls have gone missing," Jenny whispered, leaning forward. "No suspects."
"Teenagers probably discovered a new game that turned out to be deadly. Not our business," the Master said, dismissing her with a wave of his hand.
"Oh," Jenny asked, raising her own eyebrow in a rather startling imitation of himself. "So they discovered the TARDIS while they were at it?"
That caught the Master's attention. "What?"
Jenny pointed out the window and the Master could see three teens standing a few yards from the TARDIS, staring at it. One of them had a mobile in their hands and it was aimed squarely at the TARDIS.
"They shouldn't be able to see that," the Master muttered. He turned back to Jenny. "Two girls missing and now the rest are studying alien technology."
"Something's going on," Jenny repeated.
"What is?" the Doctor asked, cheerily coming to the table. He had his milkshake after all. "Oh, and we don't have to pay for our meals. I did a few other things back there to work them off."
"Turning tricks when we have a crisis." The Master shook his head. "How very like you."
"Crisis? You mean the disappearances of Anita Brooks and Hannah Rude?" the Doctor asked with a smug grin. "If you want to find something out, always go to the kitchen."
"It's alien, then?" Jenny asked, giving the Master a satisfied glanced. He pointedly ignored her.
"Two weeks ago some kids saw lights in the cemetery. Few days later, Anita goes missing. Two days after that Hannah Rude is last seen walking to school. Yeah, I would say alien."
"Guess we're the best ones for the job then, aren't we?" Jenny asked. "We can move the TARDIS, then investigate."
"Move it," the Doctor repeated, staring out the window at the teens. "Right."
"You're thinking, I can tell," the Master drawled as Jenny bounced out of the little diner. "Your face looks pinched under the effort."
The Doctor only picked up his long brown coat off the back of the booth and gave the Master a fond smile. Finally the Doctor was beginning to feel a little less lonely and the TARDIS felt like home in a way it hadn't since Susan traveled with him.
"So where are we moving to?" Jenny asked, at her own un-official station. The Doctor set the coordinates, but the Master really was the better pilot. Jenny had found her own niche, keeping the TARDIS steady so they didn't bounce around like they used to.
"Right next to the cemetery," the Doctor replied, glancing at the screen. "There's a little shed, just here..."
"Yes, got that," the Master said, dropping the hammer and yanking on the parking brake. "Parked, rather ingeniously, in an empty horse stall."
"All the stalls are empty," Jenny called as she led them out of the TARDIS. "There's so much dust I doubt anyone's been in here for years."
"Best place to land when people are looking for us," the Doctor said as Jenny wrenched open the stable door. A boy fell into the room, kicking up a cloud of dust.
"Oh," the Doctor said after a moment's pause. "That's different."
"Sorry!" the boy said, jumping up. He glanced around nervously as the Master shut the door with a thud. "I just... well, I'm not spying or anything."
"Really?" the Master asked. "You make it a habit of listening through old doors?"
"No, I just heard a noise and I was curious and..." he trailed off, seeing the TARDIS. "What's that?"
"That," the Doctor said, wrapping an arm around the boy's shoulders while pushing the door open with his free hand. "Is a very good question. A very good question that has a very good answer. Now, if we had that answer we could tell you'd, we'd-"
"I'm not one of them!" the boy suddenly shouted, wrenching himself out of the Doctor's grip. They all stared at him and he continued, his face beginning to flush. "I mean, you're looking into what's been happening, right?" He glanced back and forth between them, his eyes growing suspicious. "You're not one of them, are you?"
"No," the Doctor said slowly. "But who is 'them', exactly?"
"I don't know," the boy admitted. "But they've been taking over kids at school. Only the... some of them, anyway."
"What's your name?" the Doctor asked, looking at the boy curiously.
"Isaac." He glanced around at them one more time. "I'm, uh, local. And you... aren't?"
"Not really," Jenny agreed. "But who are they taking over?"
"The athletes, the geniuses, the wealthy..." Isaac sighed. "Just who you'd think."
"And you're none of those people?" the Master asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Master, be nice," Jenny hissed before turning back to Isaac. "What's going on here?"
"How did you find us?" the Doctor added.
"Two weeks ago there were lights in the cemetery," Isaac explained, taking a second to wipe the dust off his own coke bottle glasses. "Anita went missing the day after that, and then people at school began acting differently. And everyone knows aliens are real now, so I came down to the cemetery to look and I heard this odd sound. I tracked it down to here and I found you," Isaac paused and glanced at the TARDIS. "Is that a space ship?"
"That would make us aliens," the Doctor replied.
Isaac shrugged. "You aren't the first."
"Good," the Doctor said in approval, the corners of his mouth quirking up. "Lights in the cemetery you said?"
"Lights in the cemetery everyone said," the Master pointed out. "He hasn't actually told us anything new."
"Whatever alien is here is targeting only teenagers, and only those with strength, high levels of intelligence, or resources," the Doctor replied. "That's more than we had before."
"So we investigate!" Jenny exclaimed. "That's my favorite part."
"The Master and I are going to the cemetery," the Doctor corrected. "You go with Isaac and see how many children seem to be affected."
"You're going to a cemetery!" Jenny protested. "You two look a bit too well dressed for that."
"We'll manage," the Master said dryly. "And no one will think twice about two kids watching those affected, but if two grown men start following them around after two girls have gone missing..."
"Do you have school tomorrow, Isaac?" the Doctor asked.
"Yes, tomorrow's a Friday," Isaac replied. "It starts at eight. Why?"
"Meet us here at seven thirty, tomorrow morning," the Doctor told him.
"Why?"
"Jenny's going to accompany you to school," the Doctor explained. "Go, go! We'll meet you."
Isaac hesitated but obeyed, giving them once last curious glance over his shoulder.
"This is why we travel in a time machine," the Doctor said, quickly unlocking the door. "Friday morning here we come."
"And while Jenny is playing school girl, I'm going with you to the graveyard," the Master said, leaning against the railing as he watched the Doctor nudge the TARDIS into the new day. "I'm not in the mood to be a schoolmarm."
"I don't think we'll unleash you around children just yet," the Doctor agreed. "Still, I think Jenny's about ready to go solo."
"You just want her to be a prodigy because she's yours," the Master huffed but nodded when Jenny turned her hopeful gaze to him.
"Thank you!" she said, bouncing several times before quickly hugging him.
"Yes, no personal contact, thank you," the Master snapped, pushing her away. He stormed out the door, leaving an amused Doctor behind.
"Ignore him," he assured Jenny as they followed him out. "He simply wasn't hugged enough as a child."
"You are here," Isaac said in amazement as they opened the door and stepped into the country air. "But it was empty in there a minute ago."
"Things to do, Isaac," the Doctor reminded him before shoving his hands into his pockets. "You two find out what you can."
"Will do!" Jenny called cheerfully. They turned towards town and she followed Isaac, practically skipping through green grass.
"Why are you so happy?"
"Because I nicked this off the Master," she said, holding up the laser screwdriver. "I don't think the space ship is still at the cemetery if everyone saw lights there. I want to go where it really is- where the aliens are, which happens to be where the school is."
"...and you don't want them there?" Isaac asked after a moments' pause. "You just want to go with me and a metal cylinder?"
"It's a laser screwdriver, and yes," Jenny said. "I'd like to solve something on my own for once. So. Who was infected first?"
"Anita's best friends," Isaac replied eventually. "Brad and Eric."
"Let's go meet Brad and Eric then."
Neither of them noticed the girl creeping around the side of the tiny building. She stared after them before quietly opening the door and slipping inside.
There, before the TARDIS, she stood completely still, her eyes far too wide as she whispered in a harsh voice that was not her own.
"Commander, we have been discovered. I have located the Outsider's vehicle. The elder Outsiders are moving towards the cemetery while local Isaac Jones and the younger Outsider are trying to locate your position."
She paused, listening to something in the silence of her mind, before nodding. "Order confirmed. New orders accepted. The young Outsider will be assimilated. Foot soldier acknowledged. Long live the Queen."
The Doctor glanced at the Master, thinking him unusually silent. "She'll be fine."
"I'm not worried about Jenny," the Master said, shooting the Doctor a disgusted look. "I'm merely wondering if the ship really is at the cemetery. Why would they leave it there after a widely known sighting?"
"You're assuming they're able to move it," the Doctor said. "We don't even know how they're controlling the children yet. I'm wondering about hypnosis, but unless we can find the source it might take a bit more time to-"
"This is why I should've picked the planet," the Master grumbled as they came across the field. "It was my turn to choose anyway."
"You chose last time," the Doctor protested. "We went drinking, remember? Then you insisted on taking those white pills-"
"Which is probably why I don't remember anything like that at all," the Master interrupted. "Besides, you chose two times before that."
"Oi! We were following abnormal patterns and that doesn't count. Or maybe you've forgotten the worm hole? Flying buses ring any bells, or did the pills make you forget that as well?"
The Master's eyes narrowed. "The only thing I remember is Lady de Souza's lesson in you snogging any Earth girl who holds intelligent conversation."
"She snogged me!"
"You still got her out of jail."
"I got you out of jail last week!"
"Jenny was with me. That doesn't count."
The Doctor stared at the Master for a long time before smiling hopefully. "Would snogging you now help?"
"Now you're sounding like me," the Master muttered as they, coming to the iron gate of the cemetery. As soon as they stepped inside, they could smell the bitter, metallic tang in the air that could only come from an intergalactic transport.
"Well," the Master said eventually, "You were right."
"Seems so," the Doctor said, digging out his sonic screwdriver. "If I can just get a trace..."
"I'll check this half," the Master replied. He reached into his coat pocket before frowning. "It's not there."
"Hmm?" The Doctor turned to look at him. "How do you mean?"
"It's not in my..." the Master trailed off before looking furious. "She nicked it off me! That's why she tried to hug me!"
"You're the one who taught her," the Doctor replied, amusement curling the corners of his lips. "Think of it as a compliment towards your teaching abilities."
"She's just as slippery as you," the Master hissed, folding his arms across his chest as the Doctor continued to scan. "Well? Find anything?"
"No." The Doctor frowned. "There's no alien technology here."
"Told you they moved it," the Master said.
"How? A spaceship is massive, unless they managed to get a crane in here without anyone noticing I doubt they did."
"Or they used a truck with a flat bed," the Master said, pointing towards tire marks near the gate. "You win points for missing the obvious once more."
"If it's moved, where's it moved to?" the Doctor asked with a frown. "It could be anywhere. Including... we need to find Jenny."
"Now he gets nervous."
"I thought a little time not spent with us would do her some good. But if they needed a new base then a school would be the perfect place to hide it. They could come and go in mass numbers without attracting any notice."
"And you sent her into the middle of it," the Master said thoughtfully.
"Don't," the Doctor hissed. "Don't you dare start now."
"It was an innocent observation!" the Master snapped, throwing his hands in the air. "And if that's how you're going to act today I'll just stay in the TARDIS." He turned, fully intending to storm back, maybe dramatically slam the gate on his way out, when he saw a teenager girl watching them, her eyes unusually large.
"Hello," the Doctor said, cautiously coming to stand beside the Master. "What's your name?"
"Outsiders" located," the girl said. "Orders requested."
"Orders?" The Doctor asked.
"Orders confirmed." The girl reached into her pocket and retrieved a small metal box. She lobbed it towards them, ducking as it rolled to their feet. The Master only managed to take a step backwards before it exploded with blinding white light. He flew through the air and slammed into a brick wall. Distantly, he felt some blood trickle down his neck, but he was too far gone to do anything besides close his eyes.
"How did you manage to get in?" Isaac asked. "They don't normally let friends visit."
"I might have... tweaked the system a bit," Jenny admitted, patting her pocket. "I mean, I didn't take the Master's screwdriver for the sake of stealing it."
"Do you do this often?" Isaac asked. "You certainly seem to know what you're doing."
"Getting into things is genetic," Jenny assured him. Isaac only shook his head and led her to his first class. The first thing she did was study the students as they trickled in, giving the special attention to those Isaac said were taken over. Half way through the first lesson, though, one of them noticed. As one all their eyes turned to her, and she was forced to throw herself into the lecture. It was interesting, reading human books, but the same thing happened in the next class. By lunch, students were turning to look at her before she could look at them. It was all becoming unnerving.
"Told you," Isaac muttered into his food at the lunch table. "Half those kids don't even notice when someone's talking to them. None of them should have known you were studying them."
"Why didn't they notice you studying them?"
"I'm a perpetual weirdo here," Isaac replied. "I think they can tap into their memories, or their families and teachers would notice more."
"Good theory," Jenny agreed as a shadow fell over their table. She turned and saw a boy staring at her. "Can I help you?" she asked after a moment of tense silence.
"Maybe," he replied. Jenny glanced at his neck and saw his collar pulled up surprisingly high.
"Hello, Brad," Isaac said. Jenny's eyes sharpened- so this was one of the boys originally affected?
"You're new," Brad said.
"And you're observant," Jenny replied. She turned back to her food, her eyes scanning the cafeteria. She saw a student leading a teacher away and the rest of them staring at her glassily, ignoring their food.
"Can I show you something?" Brad asked, his eyes glinting as he leaned over the table.
"No," Jenny answered quickly. This was getting dangerous- besides Isaac, she didn't know if there was anyone else here who wasn't playing at being an alien host.
"I think I should," Brad insisted. He grabbed her wrist and Jenny bristled. Her hand groped the table for something relatively harmless that she could use. Her hand closed around a shaker and she shoved it forward, her eyes widening in shock as Brad jumped back. His eyes never left the shaker as he nodded.
"Right then," he said, slowly backing away. "See you later."
"What was that?" Isaac asked, slowly releasing the fork he had clenched in his fist.
"I don't know," Jenny admitted, tipping the shaker. Small white granules fell out. "It's just salt."
"Aliens afraid of salt?" Isaac whispered.
"Very odd," Jenny agreed. They quickly finished their respective lunches and Isaac led her back to class. The first ones in the classroom, Jenny had them sit in the back, perfect for observing everyone around them. Isaac pulled out some of his homework and started away at some problems and Jenny stared out the window, trying to piece together the puzzle. Suddenly she sat up straight, a flash of blue catching her eye.
Some students had been unloading a box out of the back of a truck, but the canvas covering it had slipped. It was just a second, but Jenny swore it was the same color as the TARDIS. The students covered it back up and moved out of sight.
"We need to go," Jenny said, standing up. "Right now."
Isaac stared at her. "I can't just walk out of school. The day's only half over."
"Alien invasion justifies skipping," Jenny assured him. "They have the TARDIS. If they have the TARDIS they might have the Doctor and the Master and if they take over them, then things will get very, very bad."
"Can aliens take over other aliens?"
"If they could only take over their own species we wouldn't be in this mess would we?" Jenny replied.
"Right," Isaac said slowly. They looked through the door, checking that the hallway was clear before continuing on. Silently they crept down the halls, ducking into empty classrooms if they saw any movement. "Where is everyone?"
"Maybe they've taken complete control?" Jenny asked. "But how? The screwdriver isn't picking up any signals so it can't be mind control. Unless it's a mental connection, but to hypnotize this many people..."
"How do you know all this?" Isaac blurted out. "I mean, how old are you?"
"Almost two years," Jenny replied. "I'm just clever."
"The only things I did when I was two involved eating and drooling," muttered Isaac. "You'd think-"
"Outsider and Resident located," a chorus of voices said as four students came around the corner, briefly stopping to close their eyes and still, listening to something. "Orders accepted. Long live the Queen."
"Run!" Jenny shouted, grabbing Isaac's hand. She dragged him down the corridor, only to be cut off from another hallway by two more kids. "Great," she grumbled, stumbling towards the stairs. Isaac yanked open the door only to be met by Brad's smiling face.
"Found you," he said before looking at the reinforcements. "Bring them to the base."
"What base?" Jenny asked. "Is that where your ship is? Where you took the TARDIS?"
"Noticed that?" Brad asked, looking amused. "You're a clever one."
"How are you controlling him?" Jenny asked. "Why are you only going after teenagers?"
"I'll be asking the questions," Brad said before turning and marching down the stairs. The students pushed Jenny and Isaac forward, forcing them to follow.
"Why do they always say that?" Jenny sulked. "If I don't get any answers why should they?"
"You have experience in hostage situations?" Isaac asked. "I need to stop being surprised around you."
"Quiet!" Brad barked. Jenny closed her mouth but winked at Isaac anyway. They were led into the gym where the TARDIS sat, shifting nervously in the back of Jenny's mind.
"How'd you get that?" Jenny asked, her eyes narrowing. "What did you do to the Master and the Doctor?"
"Knocked them out with a flash device," Brad replied. "They were investigating the cemetery just like you're doing here."
"Then why not knock me out as well? Why bring me here?"
"Adults are not suitable for neural connections. The teenage brain pushes thought through the aggression center allowing their impulses to be manipulated easily."
"And I'm a teenager," Jenny realized. "But you're not going to go about assimilating me."
"I'm the Commander," Brad said, smiling darkly. "You are of above average intelligence. Our scans have shown us you are not human and have a binary cardiovascular system. A brief scan of your two adults makes me theorize you possess a remarkable healing ability. I get my choice of hosts. You should feel honored."
"And yet I don't," Jenny said. "Just, there's one thing I'm not clear on."
"What?" Brad asked, smiling indulgently.
"When you captured us, you said 'Long Live the Queen', I heard you. Is your queen on Earth?"
Brad studied her for another moment. "I knew you were clever."
"That's a yes then," Jenny said. "But I'll bet that even though you're the Commander, you have to clear switching bodies. She already gave you first choice, didn't she? You chose Bradley and she got Anita. Isn't that right?"
"The Outsider is correct," a student said. "We need to confirm orders."
"We'll confirm orders then," Bradley said, before turning to the guards by the door. "Lock them."
"What are you doing?" Isaac whispered as people milled around them. "Do you want to get taken over?"
"When they caught us they closed their eyes and froze while they were listening to orders," Jenny hissed back. "Now shh!"
"Request host change," Bradley said, closing his eyes. All around the gym, everyone stilled.
"Right, take the screwdriver to use on the lock," Jenny turned to Isaac. "And listen to me carefully. When they try to switch me with Brad, I'm going to fight. If Brad isn't unconscious, try to get him out of here. Either way, run and find the Doctor and the Master. Tell them everything that we've seen."
"You can't fight all these people!" Isaac exclaimed.
"I could. The trick is fighting without actually hurting anyone." Jenny frowned, looking around. "If they can get their bodies back, then I don't want anyone waking up to a cracked rib."
"But-" Isaac was cut off amidst a chorus of "Orders accepted."
"Well then," Brad said, turning to them. Suddenly his eyes rolled back and he crumpled. Something thick and black oozed away from his neck. A girl picked it up and advanced on Jenny as two boys closed in on each side.
"Now!" Jenny shouted as she tore across the gym, dodging as everyone ran after her. Everyone including the door guards.
"What the hell?" Brad groaned from the ground. "Harris? What are you doing here."
"Shut up and run," Isaac hissed, dragging him upright. Shakily, Isaac aimed the screwdriver at the door, almost dropping it in surprise at the sudden orange pulse that made the door fall open. Finally Brad seemed to gain the full use of his legs and Isaac took the opportunity to glance over his shoulder just as someone tackled Jenny to the ground.
The first thing the Doctor was aware of was something tickling his neck, slowly moving upwards. He slowly sat up and brushed it away, sending a small ant through the air. Blinking, he looked around, his vision clearing.
"Master!" he shouted, seeing the other Time Lord's prone body slumped against the cemetery wall. He crawled over in time to see the Master's eyes blink open.
"You don't have to shriek," the Master growled. "There's no reason to suspect hearing loss."
"Concussion?"
"I'm fine," the Master assured him, slowly sitting upright. "Why aren't you obsessing over Jenny?"
"Jenny!" the Doctor exclaimed. "I nearly forgot!"
"Doctor!"
"What?" The Doctor and the Master staggered upright to stare over the wall as Isaac and other boy bolted across the field towards them.
"Doctor! They've got Jenny!" Isaac shouted again. "The- whatever's, they're on the backs of the neck."
"What do you mean they have her?" the Doctor asked, staring at Brad. "Who's this?"
"The Commander was using his body until he decided he wanted Jenny," Isaac explained, leaning against the wall to catch his breath.
"And you let him?" the Master demanded.
"Jenny wanted to," Isaac snapped. "I tried to talk her out of it. She told me to find two of you. They have your blue box."
"There might've been something we could've used in there," the Doctor muttered before looking towards the two boys. "What happened?"
Isaac related the morning's events, Brad chiming in a few times once he realized the Doctor and the Master could be trusted.
"Salt, really?" the Doctor mused.
"You didn't see a ship at the school?" the Master asked. "Where could they be hiding it?"
"Brad, you've seen it," the Doctor realized suddenly.
"No I haven't. When that... monster was on the back of my neck I lost control."
The Doctor waved the protest away. "Yeah, but it's still processed. It's a memory you don't remember you have."
"Hold still," the Master said, bringing his fingertips to Brad's temples. Brad's eyes became glassy as the Master delicately glided through his memories.
"And you're physic as well," Isaac observed. "Really glad you're on the Earth's side."
"Every time," the Doctor replied. Suddenly the Master straightened and pulled his hands away from Brad's head.
"The Queen and the ship are in the school," the Master announced. "The ship is in the rugby field and the Queen is resting in the nurse's office."
"We need to get back to the school before the Commander uses Jenny's key to get into the TARDIS," the Doctor said. "It can use her memories to pilot the children away."
"Hopefully your ship is smart enough to change the locks before she tries to," the Master replied. "She's fond enough of Jenny; she should sense she's being controlled."
"Depends on how good the Commander is," the Doctor said. He straightened his coat and turned toward the gate. "Right then. Let's go visit the Queen."
Getting to the school was rather straight forward, even though the Doctor insisted that they split up. The Doctor and Isaac went to find the TARDIS and Jenny while the Master had Brad show him to the nurse's office.
"So the Queen is inside Anita?" Brad asked as they slipped through an unguarded side door.
"The Queen is attached to the back on her neck and is intercepting the neural impulses as they run down the brain stem," the Master whispered. "It's not deadly, obviously, or you wouldn't be here right now."
"Right," Brad replied before looking puzzled. "But what are they?"
"Don't know the species," the Master admitted. "But they seem to be a neural leech of sorts."
"Why are they going after us?"
The Master grinned as he held up the laser screwdriver Isaac had returned to him. "Let's find out."
The Doctor and Isaac ended up peeking in from the second story windows to confirm that the Commander was not in the gym.
"Where is he?" Isaac whispered as they climbed down from the tree. "Or she, or whatever we're calling the Commander-as-Jenny thing."
"I don't know," the Doctor admitted, holding his sonic screwdriver to the nearest outside door and slipping inside. They found themselves in the cafeteria, quietly moving through the shadows in the dark room.
"Grab the salt," the Doctor whispered, handing Isaac a shaker from one of the tables. "Check the kitchen. Don't use it- just use it as a protective threat."
Isaac silently slipped through another set of doors, leaving the Doctor alone in the room. The Doctor scanned the room again, turning towards a large set of doors as the sonic picked up the signal of the alien ship. Running to the door, he was only a few steps away when they flew open and Jenny stumbled into the room.
"Doctor!" she gasped, her eyes wide. "You're here! They've taken the TARDIS to the gym!"
"Have they broken inside yet?" the Doctor asked, coming to stand by the edge of the closest table.
"No, they're all looking for you. We can sneak inside and pilot away."
"We could," the Doctor agreed. "But if I said yes, you'd have to let Jenny go."
"What are you talking about, Doctor?" Jenny asked, but her eyes were a little too sharp, her voice too innocent.
"I mean that Jenny's hair is long enough to hide the fact you've attached yourself to her brainstem, but it doesn't hide your smell. You don't smell Time Lord."
"Clever man to go with a clever girl," the Commander agreed. "Too bad this means you know too much."
"The TARDIS wouldn't let you in, would she?" the Doctor asked, grinning when the Commander scowled.
"I don't need your ship. I'm beginning to build an empire here on Earth."
"The Earth is defended," the Doctor replied. "I can take you home, but you can't build a new one here."
"Defended by you?" The Commander laughed. "You won't hurt me. I'm still in your daughter's body. Would you kill your children twice?"
"Reading Jenny's memories are we?" the Doctor asked. "Then you aren't paying attention. Don't try and make me angry."
"You make mistakes when you're angry," the Commander hissed. "It's always up to someone else to stop you. But when you're alone? You act on emotions. And your emotion is telling you that you can't burn your children alive again."
"You're trying to tell me I won't kill you by pointing out all the others I've killed?" the Doctor asked. His voice sounded amused but his eyes were hard.
"Aren't you tired of death, Doctor?" the Commander asked. "Maybe your life would be easier if you left Earth and let it defend itself."
"I don't live my life to what's easiest," the Doctor snapped. "I live to try and help the Universe."
"Help the Universe to what?" The Commander laughed. "This girl you call Jenny has been burned her entire life. She had a mother who she can never see again without burning. She has a father who has burned entire planets over and over again. And she has her father's lover, a man who danced fire across earth and sky and yet still earns your pardon. Who exactly are you helping?"
"I am not a good man," the Doctor admitted, keeping his gaze dark and level. "But I still save lives wherever I can."
"There are legends of you, Doctor," the Commander agreed. "You'll go too far."
"What legends?" the Doctor asked, but the Commander merely laughed and withdrew something from Jenny's pocket.
"I've always wanted to kill a legend," the Commander said before lobbing a hard black ball threw the air. The Doctor dived sideways, bracing himself behind a table as it exploded. His hands scrabbled in the rubble for a salt shaker, dismayed to find it gone. He closed his eyes briefly and hoped the Master's plan would work.
The Master stunned the guards before they even realized they were there. Careful to keep Brad behind him, he opened the door to the nurse's office and stepped inside.
"Anita!' Brad called running over to his friend. Slowly she opened her eyes, her expression never changing. Her eyes remained unfocused, but her head turned towards the Master.
"You are an Outsider."
"And you are the Queen, isn't that right?" the Master asked, grabbing a rolling stool and pulling it over. "I'm afraid we have to dethrone you."
"You cannot dethrone a born Queen," she replied, before glancing at Brad. "You were once a soldier of mine."
"Yes, but your Commander went after one of mine," the Master said. "You might be able to see why I want her back."
The Queen tipped her head. "We require bodies of this planet's natural inhabitants so that we may collect supplies to repair our ship."
"You just want a ride home?" the Master sighed. "It couldn't be anything good, could it? This means we have to give you a lift instead of doing something exciting."
"What, you're going to help them?" Brad asked.
"Would you rather have them ooze around here?"
The Queen looked surprised. "You will help us."
"If you release your hosts and return to your ship, we'll give you a tow," the Master agreed. "You're not the first race to ever crash to Earth."
"That is kind," the Queen agreed before closing her eyes. "I accept your offer. All Units withdraw. Demobilization tactic Mark 9."
"Which is what?" Brad asked. "What does that mean for my friends?"
"They will sleep for three hours after my people leave their bodies," the Queen explained. "We have no wish to stay here, so far from home and our natural hosts."
"Well, that settles that then," the Master said before frowning. "You ordered your troops to withdraw?" The Queen nodded. "Then why can't I sense Jenny."
The Queen frowned before closing her eyes. "Commander, withdraw. Commander, we have secured a means of returning home. Abandon your host with Demobliza-"
"He's not giving her up, is he?" the Master asked. "He's gotten a bit too used to being in a higher life form."
"Will this affect our bargain?" the Queen asked. "Do not condemn my people for the Commander's actions- it is high treason to disobey the Queen."
"There's always one bad one," the Master agreed, sighing. "Granted, it's usually me, but I can always appreciate that there are more."
"Don't you have anything better to do than lob explosives at me?" the Doctor asked, when he hadn't heard an explosion for a few moments. "Or have you run out?"
"Doctor, if I am to kill you, Time Lord, let it be by Jenny's hands," the Commander spat, upturning tables in an attempt to find him. The Doctor dove out of the way, only to be cornered with his back against the trashcan.
"Stand back!" the Doctor warned, drawing a shaker out of his pocket and holding it out in front of him.
The Commander smiled and pulled out a single black ball. "I had one left. Toss it to the ground or burn with the garbage."
"You don't give me very many options, do you?" the Doctor mumbled, hesitantly dropping the shaker to floor. The Commander grinned once more and threw the ball at it, laughing with the shaker exploded in a dark cloud.
"And now the Trickster is out of tricks," the Commander crowed. "How does that feel?"
The Doctor sneezed. "Hold on," he said, pulling out a tissue. The Doctor continued to sneeze, the Commander's glee fading with each sniffle.
"You have no dignity in your final moments. This gives me no pleasure," the Commander sneered.
"Sorry, pepper does that to me. Well, not all the time, but then you had to blow it up, and now it's in the air and-"
"Pepper?" the Commander interrupted. "That was only pepper?"
"Course," the Doctor replied, smiling tightly. "I gave the salt to the bloke behind you."
The Commander didn't have enough time to turn as Isaac leapt from the kitchen and threw the salt, letting it arch through the air. Jenny screamed as the Commander detached from her body, steaming and shriveling until it dropped to the ground, dead. The Doctor caught Jenny as she fell, hefting her into his arms so he could carry her.
"Do all the evil aliens you fight do evil speeches?" Isaac asked. "I mean, is it really just a simple matter of distracting them until you can throw a little salt and save the world?"
"You can save anything with a little bit of salt," the Doctor said with a wink before they carefully stepped over the ruins of the cafeteria.
While the Doctor took Jenny to the sick bay and did a quick scan, the Master towed the Queen's ship home, allowing Isaac and Brad one last look at something alien as they shot up into the sky, a blue box followed by a long, silver ship. Jenny slept off most of her ordeal as the Doctor sat silently in the sick bay with her.
"She's not going to heal any faster with you staring at her," the Master said, leaning against the door way.
"She's my daughter," the Doctor said quietly.
"Very clever observation," the Master replied.
"I didn't want children, but here she is, living on the TARDIS, sacrificing herself for a bunch of school boys."
The Master warily eyed the Doctor. "She doesn't have to stay here."
"She does. I promised her." The Doctor rubbed his eyes. "But it's... I can't lose her. I've lost my family once, Master. I can't loose this, not again."
"Are you calling us a family?" the Master demanded, his voice a little too loud.
"I didn't mean it that way," the Doctor began, but the Master was already shaking his head.
"You meant it just as you said it. I don't want a family, Doctor, not with you, not with Jenny, and not on this TARDIS."
"No one's asking you to," the Doctor shouted. "I asked you to travel with me, not be domestic."
"Because we don't do domestic," the Master hissed. "And yet we're in the same bed every night and somehow raising your daughter."
"We're not raising Jenny. She's fully grown," the Doctor protested.
The Master gave a short bark of laughter. "Oh, even you're not that stupid. She's just as young as any Time Lord teenager would be, no matter how accelerated."
"Master-," the Doctor began, feeling as if they were running from Cobb on Messaline once more, but the Master stormed out of the room. The Doctor ran after him, not even bothering to shut the door behind him. Jenny was left alone, slowly and uneasily blinking away in the empty sick bay, the Doctor's shouts fading down the corridor. The TARDIS shifted around her, trying to give her some sense of comfort as she quickly pieced together where she was before she realized what must have happened.
"Are they fighting again?" Jenny asked, sighing when the TARDIS confirmed it. Jenny slowly and carefully walked herself back to her own room on shaky legs and collapsed onto her bed. She had heard part of the Doctor and the Master's latest argument and she knew they were both wrong. She traveled with the Doctor and called him her father, but she felt more like a Companion than what she suspected a daughter would feel like.
Jenny's last thought before she fell asleep was that no one had tried to be her parent since Donna left. And as long as Jenny didn't try to think too much about it, Donna was enough. Being an accident was ok.
Really.