The Doctor's Daughter
The small group clung to the console as the TARDIS soared through time and space, violently shaking them every which way as sparks flew.
"What the hell's it doing?" Donna demanded.
"Controls aren't working!" the Professor shouted to the Doctor as they tried to control the rampant machine.
The Doctor tried to pull a lever but ended up falling to the ground beside his hand in a jar, "I don't know where we're going but my old hand's very excited about it!"
"I thought that was just some freaky alien thing!" Donna called, "You telling me it's yours?"
"Well..."
"It got cut off," Martha explained quickly, "He grew a new one!"
"You are completely...impossible!" Donna shouted.
"Not impossible, just...a bit unlikely!" he replied.
The TARDIS made one final jolt and they all fell to the floor with the landing. The Doctor looked at the humans for a moment before catching the Professor's eye and running to the door, trying to beat her to it. But she was too fast, grabbing him and pulling him back, giving him a pointed look before peeking her head out quickly and then nodding, stepping out. They looked around to see they were in some sort of underground tunnel littered with junk and old equipment.
"Why would the TARDIS bring us here?" the Doctor wondered.
"Oh, I love this bit," Martha breathed.
"Thought you wanted to go home," Donna eyed her.
"I know, but all the same...it's that feeling you get..."
"Like you swallowed a hamster?"
A loud noise sounded behind them and they spun around to see soldiers running towards them with guns. The Professor moved to grab her blaster when the Doctor grabbed her hand and held them up with his own.
"Don't move, stay where you are!" one of the soldiers pointed his gun at them, "Drop your weapons."
"We're not armed!" the Doctor raised his hand higher, his body partially blocking the Professor's holster, these men would probably see past the perception filter if they were on the alert for weapons, "We're safe."
"Look at their hands," one of the other soldiers remarked, "They're clean."
"Alright, process them!" the first soldier ordered, "Him first."
Two soldiers darted towards the Doctor and grabbed him, pulling him towards a strange machine, "Oi, oi!" he struggled, "What's wrong with clean hands?"
"What's going on?" Martha asked.
"Leave him alone!" Donna shouted.
'Kata don't,' he called to her, seeing her reaching for her blaster. Her jaw tensed but she stopped.
His hand was forced into the machine, making him cry out in pain as it whirred, "Something tells me this isn't about to check my blood pressure…ARGH!"
"What're you doing to him?" Donna demanded.
"Everyone gets processed," the first solder replied.
"It's taken a tissue sample," the Doctor called, "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow! And extrapolated it! Some kind of accelerator?" he looked at the Professor as she eyed the machine.
"It's a progenation machine," she replied as the Doctor's eyes widened.
The machine let him go and he stumbled back, looking at his hand while the girls moved to his side.
"Are you alright?" Martha examined his hand, a large Y-shaped graze on it, as the Doctor and Professor eyed the machine.
"What on Earth?" he breathed as the doors opened, "That's just..."
A young woman with blond hair done up in a tight pony tail stepped out, garbed in a simple green shirt, black pants, and boots, looking around curiously.
"Arm yourself!" a soldier shouted, handing her a weapon which she adeptly assembled.
"Where did she come from?" Martha frowned.
"From me," the Doctor replied.
"From you?" Donna gaped, "How? Who is she?"
"Well...she's...well...she's my daughter…"
The woman looked over at him with a smile on her face, "Hello dad!"
Donna eyed the woman, as she naturally held the gun and stood in front of them, before frowning, "You sure she isn't the Professor's?"
"No…no," the Doctor shook his head, "She's mine."
"Well, it's just…similar, aren't they?"
The Doctor looked at Donna a moment before glancing at the young woman and then the Professor. They were both blond, blue eyed, dressed in clothes they could fight in, hair in a ponytail, both far too comfortable with a gun…
"You primed to take orders, ready to fight?" the first soldier asked the girl as she moved over to them.
"Instant mental download of all strategic and military protocols, sir," she nodded, "Generation 5,000 soldier primed and in peak physical health. Oh, I'm ready."
The Doctor blinked, hearing such military talk, and glanced at the Professor, "Your daughter…must have had some of your skin cells on me or something…she can't be mine…"
The Professor shook her head, "Progenation, reproduction from a single organism. One parent is biological mother and father. A sample of diploid cells are split into haploids, recombined in a different arrangement, and grown. The machine would have malfunctioned and shut down if there had been a different sequence of DNA introduced," and she just couldn't see it...if anything, the woman looked more like his fifth incarnation than her.
"Something's coming!" the young woman shouted.
Sounds of shooting came from down the tunnel as fish-like soldiers ran in.
"It's the Hath!" the first soldier shouted as the humans began to fire, the travelers seeking cover, the Doctor pulling the Professor with him, not about to let her get in the middle of that.
"Get down!" the woman shouted.
"We have to blow the tunnel! Get the detonator!"
"We're not detonating anything!" the Doctor shouted. A Hath grabbed Martha and pulled her away while the young woman kicked another Hath in defense, "Your daughter," he mumbled, watching her fight.
She turned and grabbed the detonator, "Blow that thing, blow the thing!" the soldier ordered her.
"Martha!" he shouted, just seeing her being pulled away, "No! Don't!" he ran forward to try and stop the young woman but she pushed the button, forcing them to all run for cover as the tunnel exploded. The Doctor looked back to see the tunnel blocked by rubble, Martha on the other side, "You've sealed off the tunnel. Why did you do that?"
"They were trying to kill us!" she defended.
"But they've got my friend!"
"Collateral damage. At least you've still got them, he lost both his men, I'd say you came out ahead."
The Doctor looked at the Professor, at the statistics, "Your daughter."
"Her name's Martha," Donna glared at the woman, "And she's not collateral damage, not for anyone! Have you got that, GI Jane?"
"We're gonna find her," the Doctor turned to head back when the first soldier stepped towards them with a gun.
"You're going nowhere. You don't make sense. No guns, no marks, no fight in you…I'm taking you to General Cobb. Now, move."
The Professor simply reached out with her left hand, grabbing the gun and shoving it left while swinging her right fist down on the boy's arm, making him drop the gun. She then flipped it around and ended up aiming it back at him all rather quickly.
"You've got to teach me that," the young woman breathed, impressed.
"Professor…" the Doctor warned carefully.
She glanced at him and then at the boy, "No shoving a gun at us and I'll give this back," she told him, "Understood?"
He nodded, reaching out to take the gun, slinging it over his back, "Should have taken you instead of him," he remarked before turning and leading them through the tunnels, the woman following him before the trio.
"I'm Donna, what's your name?" Donna introduced after a few minutes of walking down the tunnels in silence.
"Don't know, it's not been assigned," the woman replied.
"Well, if you don't know that, what do you know?"
"How to fight."
"Your daughter," the Doctor mumbled to the Professor.
"Nothing else?" Donna frowned.
"The machine embeds military history and tactics," the Professor responded.
"But no name," the Doctor added, "She's a generated anomaly."
"Generated anomaly?" Donna tested out the words, "Jenny-rated. Well what about that? Jenny!"
"Jenny," Jenny smiled, "Yeah, I like that, Jenny."
"What do you think, 'dad?'" Donna joked.
"Good as anything, I suppose," he shrugged.
"Not what you'd call a natural parent, are you?"
"They stole a tissue sample at gunpoint and processed it. It's not what I call natural parentage."
"Rubbish! My friend Nerys fathered twins with a turkey baster, don't bother her."
"You can't extrapolate a relationship from a biological accident."
"Er, Child Support Agency can."
"Look, just 'cos I share certain physiological traits with simian primates doesn't make me a monkey's uncle, does it?"
"I'm not a monkey!" Jenny cut in, "Or a child."
They stepped through a door and entered an encampment, a huge underground room based in what seemed to be a theater.
"So, where are we?" the Doctor looked around, "What planet's this?"
"Messaline," the Professor replied.
"What's left of it," the boy nodded, heading off to get their captain.
"...663: 75 deceased," a loudspeaker announced, "Generation 6671: Extinct. Generation 6672: 46 deceased. Generation 6680: 14 deceased. Generation..."
"But, this is a theater!" Donna looked around.
"Maybe they're doing 'Miss Saigon,'" the Doctor suggested.
"It's like a town, or a city, underground. But why?"
An older soldier walked over with the boy, "General Cobb, I presume?" the Doctor eyed him.
"Found in the western tunnels, I'm told, with no marks," Cobb eyed them, "There was an outbreak of pacifism in the eastern zone, three generations back, before we lost contact, is that where you came from?"
"Eastern zone, that's us, yeah. Yeah. I'm The Doctor, this is the Professor, and this is Donna."
"And I'm Jenny," the girl added.
"Don't think you can infect us with your peacemaking," Cobb glared, "We're committed to the fight, to the very end."
"Well, that's alright, we can't stay anyway," the Doctor agreed, "We've gotta go and find our friend."
"That's not possible, all movement is regulated. We're at war."
"Yes, we noticed. With the Hath. But tell me, 'cos we got a bit out of circulation, eastern zone and all that, so, who exactly are the Hath?"
Cobb turned and led them over to a holographic map, explaining everything they knew, "Back at the dawn of this planet, these ancient halls were carved from the earth."
'Not as ancient as they think,' the Professor commentated, eyeing the room, 'It's not old enough to be ancient.'
The Doctor nodded, keeping that in mind as Cobb continued, "Our ancestors dreamt of a new beginning, a colony where human and Hath could work and live together."
"So what happened?"
"The dream died. Broken, along with Hath promises. They wanted it all for themselves. But those early pioneers, they fought back. They used the machines to produce soldiers instead of colonists and began this battle for survival."
"There's nothing but earth outside, why's that?" Donna asked, "Why build everything underground?"
"The surface is too dangerous," the boy replied.
"Well, then why build windows in the first place? And what does this mean?" she pointed to a series of number stamped on the wall.
"The rites and symbols of our ancestors," Cobb smiled, "The meanings...lost in time."
"How long has the war gone on for?" the Professor asked him.
"Longer than anyone can remember. Countless generations marked only by the dead."
"What, fighting all this time?" Donna frowned.
"Because we must," Jenny replied, "Every child of the machine is born with this knowledge. It's our inheritance, it's all we know. How to fight and how to die."
"Does this show the entire city, including the Hath zones?" the Doctor eyed the map as the Professor turned to it as well.
"Yes," Cobb nodded, "Why?"
"Well, it'll help us find Martha."
"We've more important things to do," the boy cut in, "The progenation machines are powered down for the night shift, but soon as they're active, we could breed a whole platoon from you two. An elite army out of her alone!" he nodded at the Professor.
"I'm not having sons and daughters by some great big flippin' machine!" Donna shouted before looking at Jenny apologetically, "Sorry, no offence but you're not...well, I mean, you're not real."
"You're no better than him!" Jenny glared, "I have a body, I have a mind, I have independent thought, how am I not real? What makes you better than me?"
And the logic.
"Your daughter," the Doctor muttered to the Professor.
"Well said, soldier," Cobb nodded, "We need more like you if ever we're to find the Source."
"Oh, the Source, what's that then, what's a Source? I like a Source, what is it?"
"The Breath of Life."
"And that would be..."
"In the beginning the great one breathed life into the Universe," the boy replied, "And then she looked at what she'd done, and she sighed."
"She?" Jenny grinned, "I like that."
"Right, so it's a creation myth," the Doctor nodded.
"It's not myth," Cobb glared, "It's real. That sigh…from the beginning of time it was caught and kept as the Source. It was lost when the war started. But it's here, somewhere. Whoever holds the Source controls the destiny of the planet."
"Ah!" the Doctor grinned, "I thought so! There's…"
"A suppressed layer of information on the map," the Professor nodded.
"If I can just…" he soniced it and more tunnels appeared.
"What is it, what's it mean?" Donna asked.
"See? A whole complex of tunnels, hidden from sight."
"That must be the lost temple," Cobb pointed to one area, "The source will be inside. You've shown us the way! And look, we're closer than the Hath! It's ours! Tell them to prepare to move out. We'll progenate new soldiers on the morning shift, then we march. Once we reach the Temple, peace will be restored at long last."
"Um, call me old fashioned, but if you really wanted peace couldn't you just stop fighting?" the Doctor eyed him.
"Only when we have the Source. It'll give us the power to erase every stinking Hath from the face of this planet!"
"Hang on, hang on, a second ago it was peace in our time, now you're talking about genocide!"
"For us, that means the same thing."
"Then you need to get yourself a better dictionary. When you do, look up genocide. You'll see a little picture of me and the Professor there and the caption will read 'Over our dead bodies!'"
"And you're the one who showed us the path to victory. But you can consider the irony from your prison cell. Cline, at arms!"
The young man, Cline, pointed his gun at the trio again, making sure to stay far enough away from the Professor that she would not be able to disarm him again.
"Oi, oi, oi!" Donna snapped, "Alright! Cool the beans Rambo!"
"Take them," Cobb ordered, "I won't have them spreading treason. And if you try anything, Doctor, I'll see that your woman," his head jerked at Donna, "Dies first."
"No, we're, we're not a couple," the Doctor sighed.
"I am not his woman!" Donna shouted.
"Come on," Cline gestured with his gun, "This way."
"We're going to stop you, Cobb, the Professor and I," the Doctor told him, "You need to know that."
"I have an army and the breath of god on my side, Doctor, what do you have?" Cobb glared.
"The Professor," he replied calmly, "And trust me, she's sent armies better than yours running at just the mention of her name."
"Lock them up and guard them," Cobb ordered.
"What about the new soldier?" Cline asked as Jenny stepped forward.
Cobb just pushed her towards the Doctor, "Can't trust her, she's from pacifist stock. Take them all!"
~8~
The Doctor, Donna, the Professor, and Jenny were shoved into their cell when Donna noticed numbers there too, "More numbers. They've gotta mean something."
"Makes as much sense as the breath of life story," the Doctor sighed, sitting down on a small cot.
"You mean that's not true?" Jenny frowned as the Professor stood off to the side, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed. The Doctor gave a little smile at that, it was the first time she'd not automatically gone into the 'at ease' position.
"No, it's a myth," Donna sat beside him, "Isn't it?"
"Yes," he replied, "But there could still be something real in that temple, something that's become a myth. A piece of technology, a weapon."
"So the Source could be a weapon and we've just given directions to Captain Nutjob?"
"Oh, yes."
"Not good, is it?"
"That's why we need to get out of here, find Martha, and stop Cobb from slaughtering the Hath," he nodded before noticing Jenny looking at him, "What, what are you...what are you…what are you staring at?"
"You keep insisting you're not a soldier," she smiled, "But look at you! Drawing up strategies like a proper general."
"No, no, I'm trying to stop the fighting."
"Isn't every soldier?"
"Well. I suppose. But that's…that's…technically...I haven't got time for this. Donna give me your phone! Time for an upgrade!"
Donna handed him her phone and he soniced it.
"And now you've got a weapon!" Jenny continued.
"It's not a weapon."
"But you're using it to fight back!" she laughed, "I'm gonna learn so much from you, you are such a soldier!"
"Donna, will you tell her?"
"Oh, you are speechless," Donna laughed, "I'm loving this! You keep on, Jenny!"
"Look…you want a soldier, you've got her," he nodded to the Professor, Jenny looked at her.
"Doctor?" Martha's voice called as she answered her phone.
"Martha!" he breathed, "You're alive!"
"Doctor! Oh, am I glad to hear your voice! Are you alright?"
"I'm with Donna and the Professor, we're fine, what about you?"
"And Jenny, she's fine too!" Donna added.
"Yes, alright," the Doctor sighed, taking a moment to look up to where the Professor was instructing Jenny step-by-step on how she disabled Cline. She'd opened up to the girl faster than he'd seen her new self open up to anyone new.
The Professor caught the stray thought and shook her head. She...couldn't help but open up to the girl, even if just a bit. It was far easier a thing to do, to look upon Jenny as his daughter than it was his son. With Jenny, there was no other woman. With Jenny...she was just...a part of the Doctor. And truly, by that logic, how could she not accept her? And really...she was the Doctor's daughter, but...looking and acting so much like HER...she could almost imagine, for a moment, Jenny was theirs. She shook her head, now was not the time.
"And...and Jenny..." the Doctor muttered, "That's the woman from the machine, the soldier, my daughter, except she isn't, she's...she's...anyway! Where are you?"
"I'm in the Hath camp," Martha replied, "I'm OK, but something's going on. The Hath are all marching off to some place that's appeared on this map thing."
"Oh...that was me. If both armies are heading that way, there's going to be a bloodbath."
"What do you want me to do?"
"Just stay where you are, if you're safe there then don't move, d'you hear?"
"But I can help," the phone beeped, "Doctor? Doctor!" and then went to static as the connection was broken.
He sighed, rubbing his head when they heard cheers echo from the main room, "They're getting ready to move out. We have to get past that guard."
"I can deal with him," Jenny turned away from the demonstration to walk towards the cell door.
"No, no, no, no," the Doctor stood up and pulled her back, "You're not going anywhere."
"What?"
"You belong here, with them."
"She belongs with us," Donna argued, "With you. She's your daughter!"
"She's a soldier!"
"So am I," the Professor countered matter-of-factly.
He looked at her, knowing that argument had just gone out the window, he'd basically stated she was a soldier as well, "She…she came out of that machine!"
"Oh yes, I know that bit!" Donna rolled her eyes, "Listen, have you got that stethoscope? Give it to me. Come on!" he handed it over.
"What're you doing?" Jenny eyed her.
"It's alright," she put the scope over her ears, "Just hold still," and placed it on Jenny's chest, first her left side, then the right, before looking at the Doctor, "Come here. Listen. And then tell me where she belongs," she handed him the scope, waiting till he put it in his ears before placing it on her chest, allowing him to hear a heart beating on both sides.
He stepped back and stared at Jenny in shock, "Two hearts…"
The Professor could only watch on, she'd scanned the woman during the demonstration, she knew about the two hearts as well.
"Exactly," Donna nodded.
"What's going on?" Jenny frowned.
"Does that mean she's a...what do you call a female Time Lord?"
"Time Lady," the Professor replied.
"What's a Time Lord?" Jenny frowned.
"It's who I am," the Doctor said, "It's who we are," he took the Professor's hand, not even noticing how she let him, how she didn't even tense at the action, "It's where we're from."
"And I'm from you."
"You're an echo, that's all."
The Professor eyed Jenny a moment. The machine was encoded for human DNA, when the Doctor introduced his own, it created a hybrid of sorts. More like a human but with certain aspects of Time Lord biology. Two hearts, respiratory bypass system, higher tolerance for extremes and illness…but that was about it. She wouldn't regenerate. She truly was an echo.
And for some reason it...hurt...to know that.
"A Time Lord is so much more," the Doctor continued, "A sum of knowledge. A code. A shared history. A shared suffering," he paused, "Only it's gone now. All of it. Gone forever."
"What happened?" Jenny frowned.
"There was a war."
"Like this one?"
He scoffed, "Bigger. Much bigger."
"And you fought? And killed? The two of you?"
"Yes," he said darkly.
"So many," the Professor stated quietly.
"Then how are we different?" Jenny shook her head.
"We're not," the Professor cut in, "But you will be," she looked at Jenny, "Because I won't let it infect you too."
"Let what infect me?" she frowned.
The Professor didn't answer.
~8~
Jenny moved over to the cell door where Cline was guarding them, "Hey."
"I'm not supposed to talk to you, I'm on duty," he replied.
"I know. Guarding me. So does that mean I'm dangerous? Or that I need protecting?"
"Protecting from what?"
"Oh, I don't know. Men like you?" she pulled him closer for a kiss and grabbed the gun right off him, holding it to his gut, "Keep quiet and open the door."
"I'd like to see you try that," Donna joked at the Professor as they stood against the wall by the door.
"Don't get any ideas," the Doctor glared at her, mock warningly. She would not be kissing anyone else for any reason if he had anything to say about it.
"As a diversion tactic, it does work though," the Professor commented almost…lightly, nudging him slightly as she moved to help Jenny restrain the boy.
The Doctor had to blink after a moment...she'd just made a bit of a joke.
~8~
They walked down the stairs of a tunnel, but stopped when they spotted another guard.
"That's the way out," the Doctor muttered. Jenny cocked the gun she'd taken from Cline but the Doctor stopped her, "Don't you dare!" he turned to the Professor, "Your daughter."
"Let me distract this one," Donna stepped down, "I have picked up a few womanly wiles over the years."
"Let's...save your wiles for later. In case of emergency," he reached into his pocket and pulled out a windup mouse to distract the guard. He stepped past them, looking at the mouse, when Jenny moved behind him and chopped him between the shoulder and neck, "I was gonna distract him, not clobber him!"
"Well, it worked, didn't it?" she countered.
"Your daughter!" he pointed at the Professor, "She is just like you!"
The Professor just looked at Jenny, "You chop him ONCE and he'll never let you forget it."
Jenny smiled at that, inwardly very pleased to be constantly compared to the woman before her. She was strong, beautiful, brave…the perfect soldier if she ever saw one. To her, being seen as 'just like her' was an outstanding compliment.
"They must all have a copy of that new map," the Doctor knelt down to search the guard, "Just stay there, don't hurt anyone, either of you."
~8~
The Doctor looked at the map as they wandered through the tunnels, "Wait! This is it. The hidden tunnel. There must be a control panel…" he turned and soniced the wall beside the locked door, the Professor keeping a lookout down the tunnel.
"It's another one of those numbers," Donna frowned, spotting another stamp, "They're everywhere."
"The original builders must've left them. Some old cataloguing system."
"You got a pen? Bit of paper? 'Cos, d'you see, the numbers are counting down," Donna remarked, taking the paper from him and jotting them down, "This one ends in 1-4, the prison cell said 1-6."
"Always thinking, the lot of you," Jenny eyed them, "Who are you people?"
"I told you," the Doctor muttered, "I'm the Doctor, she's the Professor."
"The Doctor and Professor? That's it?"
"That's all they ever say," Donna sighed.
"So, you don't have names either?" Jenny eyed the two, "Are you anomalies too?"
"No," the Doctor replied.
"Oh, come off it!" Donna laughed, "You're the most anomalous bloke I've ever met!"
He pulled off a cover of the control panel, "Here it is!"
"And Time Lords, what are they for exactly?" Jenny asked.
"'For?' They're not...they're not 'for' anything."
"So what do you do?"
"We travel. Through time and space."
"They save planets," Donna told her, "Rescue civilizations, defeat terrible creatures, and run…a lot. Seriously, there's an outrageous amount of running involved."
The door slid open, "Got it!" he cheered.
"Squad 5, with me!" Cobb called from down the hall.
"Doctor…" the Professor turned around and nodded.
"Now, what were you saying about running?" the Doctor grinned as they ran through the door, only to stop by a set of red, crisscrossing beams in the tunnel before them, blocking the way.
"That's not mood lighting, is it?" Donna frowned. The Doctor tossed the clockwork mouse into the lights and it disintegrated, "No, I didn't think so."
"Arming device," the Professor nodded. The Doctor turned to fiddle with the controls while she kept a lookout again.
"There's more of these!" Donna jotted down another set of numbers, "Always eight numbers, counting down, the closer we get..."
"Here we go!" the Doctor grinned.
"You better be quick!"
"The general!" Jenny gasped, hearing the soldiers approaching.
She moved to run back when the Doctor caught her, "Where are you going?"
"I can hold them up."
"No, we don't need any more dead."
"But it's them or us."
"It doesn't mean you have to kill them!"
"I'm trying to save your life! I'm sorry but we don't have a choice!"
"We always have a choice."
"She won't kill them," the Professor replied, "I'll make sure of that."
Jenny nodded at her and ran off, the Professor readying her blaster and running after her, ignoring the Doctor calling her.
"This door!" the soldiers shouted, "Now!" and then they caught sight of the two, "There she is! At arms!"
Jenny and the Professor opened fire on the soldiers.
~8~
The Doctor looked up, hearing the shots, "I told you."
"She's trying to help," Donna countered.
"She's nothing but a soldier."
Donna hesitated a moment, "So is the Professor."
He looked up at her, startled, but swallowed hard, conceding, "Jenny! Professor! Come on!"
~8~
Jenny looked back, hearing the Doctor call out, "Coming!"
"Cease fire!" Cobb ordered, "Cease fire!"
~8~
"That's it!" Donna cheered as the Doctor turned off the beams.
"Jenny! Professor!" he shouted, "Leave it! Let's go!"
They turned and ran through the corridor.
~8~
Cobb walked forward when the Professor aimed her blaster at him, making him stop, "You're a child of the machine," he began, looking at Jenny, "You're on my side. And you…" he glanced at the Professor, "You have the heart of a soldier. Join us! Join us in the war against the Hath. It's in your blood, don't deny it. Either of you."
Jenny took aim but glanced at the few men lying dead on the floor and then over at the hard, nearly haunted, look in the woman she was coming to see as a mother's eyes. She was right. She had made sure Jenny didn't kill anyone, by killing them herself first.
She blinked and shot at a pipeline above Cobb's head, creating a cloud of steam to block their view. She nodded at the woman and they ran back to the hall where the Doctor and Donna were at the other end.
"Professor!" the Doctor breathed in relief, "Jenny! Come on! That's it!"
"Hurry up!" Donna called.
But just as they reached the corridor the red beams appeared again.
"No, no, no, no! The circuit's looped back!"
"Zap it back again!"
"The controls are back there!"
"They're coming!" Jenny glanced back.
"It'll take too long to rewire them again," the Professor glanced at the device.
"Wait!" the Doctor called, "Just...there isn't...Jenny…Professor I can't!"
"We'll have to manage on our own," the Professor commented, looking at Jenny, "Remember my demonstration?" Jenny frowned, curious, but nodded, "Do as I do," and she stepped back before running at the beams and turning to back flip though them.
Jenny grinned, "Watch and learn, father!" she shouted, following in her mother's footsteps and flipping just as easily through the beams after her.
"No way!" Donna gaped, "But that's impossible!"
"Not impossible," the Doctor laughed, already knowing the Professor could do something like that, but to see Jenny pick it up so easily…"Just a bit unlikely!" he pulled the Professor into a hug, "Brilliant!" and then did the same to Jenny, "You were brilliant! Brilliant!" he looked back at the Professor, "Your daughter, completely yours."
"I didn't kill him," Jenny added, "General Cobb, I could have kill him, but I didn't. You were right. I had a choice."
The soldiers arrived at the other end of the corridor, taking aim. The Doctor ushered Jenny and Donna ahead as they turned to face Cobb.
"At arms!" Cobb ordered.
"We warned you, Cobb," the Doctor called, "If the Source is a weapon, we're gonna make sure you never use it."
"One of us is gonna die today and it won't be me," he opened fire but the two ran off.
~8~
"So, you travel together, but you're not...'together?'" Jenny asked Donna as they walked down the hallway. She really wanted to think of the Professor as her father's beloved, her mother, but she wanted to be sure.
"What?" Donna seemed to almost gag, "No, no! No way! No, no. We're friends. That's all. I mean, we're not even the same species, there's probably laws against it," Jenny laughed, "And anyway, he calls the Professor his wife, though I think they're still engaged so to speak."
"And what's it like, the travelling?"
"Ah, never a dull moment. Can be terrifying, brilliant, and funny, sometimes all at the same time. I've seen some amazing things though. Whole new worlds."
"Oh, I'd love to see new worlds."
"You will. Won't she?"
"Hm?" the Doctor looked back.
"D'you think Jenny will see any new worlds?"
The Doctor gave a small smile, "I suppose so."
"You mean...you mean, you'll take me with you?" Jenny's eyes widened.
He gave a pause, considering if it was the right thing to do, but when he glanced at the Professor, seeing an actual small smile on her face and not just a twitch of the mouth, he knew it was right, "We can't leave you here, can we?"
Jenny hugged him tightly, "Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you! Come on! Let's get a move on!" she ran ahead.
"Careful, there might be traps!"
"Kids!" Donna laughed as they walked on, "They never listen!" she looked over to see the Doctor looking a bit troubled, "Oh, I know that look. See it a lot round our way. Blokes with pushchairs and frowns. You've got dad-shock."
"Dad-shock?"
"Sudden, unexpected fatherhood. Take a bit of getting used to."
"No, it's not that."
"Well, what is it then? Having Jenny in the TARDIS is that it? What's she gonna do, cramp your style? Like you've got a sports car and she's gonna turn it into a people-carrier?"
"Donna, I've been a father before."
"What? You and the Professor have had…"
"No," the Professor cut in quickly, tensing.
The Doctor winced. He loved his son dearly…the granddaughter he had given him even more (she had, thankfully, been nothing like her father or grandmother)…but the boy's mother though…well, he'd already admitted to himself that it was a rather large mistake on his part.
"I lost all that a long time ago," he continued, "Along with everything else."
"I'm sorry," Donna said quietly, "I didn't know. Why didn't you tell me? You talk all the time, but you don't say anything."
"I know. I'm just...when I look at her now I can see them. The hole they left, all the pain that filled it," he swallowed hard, recalling how Susan had sensed the call the Time Lords had put out for their people to return for the war. She'd come back...he'd felt her return on the planet, but...he'd also felt her die, felt his son die, "I just don't know if I can face that every day."
"It won't stay like that. She'll help you. We both will."
"But when they died, that part of me died with them. It'll never come back. Not now."
"I tell you something, Doctor, something I've never told you before. I think you're wrong."
"You damn well will face her everyday," the Professor said, particularly vehement, actually shocking the Doctor with the force and emotion of it, "I had to face you and Mayra more than 200 years. You can face her however long she wants to stay."
The Doctor blinked, that was the most emotion he'd heard from this version of her, ever. It was surprising to hear so much revealed in so few words from someone normally so closed off. It appeared Jenny had struck a nerve within her.
He nodded, understanding her pain, "I'll try."
She nodded stiffly and turned back around to continue when gunshots reached them.
"They've blasted through the beams mum," Jenny called to the Professor, whose eyes widened at the word, jogging over to them and looking at the Doctor, "Time to run again. Love the running! Yeah?"
He smiled a bit, "Love the running."
And then they were off again, only to come upon a dead end, "We're trapped," Donna frowned.
"Can't be," the Doctor looked at the map, "This must be the temple," he touched a panel of the wall, "This is a door."
"And again!" Donna noticed yet another set of numbers, "We're down to 1-2 now..."
"I've got it!"
"We can hear them!" Jenny called from where she and the Professor were keeping watch.
"Nearly done."
"These can't be a cataloguing system…" Donna muttered.
"They're getting closer!" Jenny added.
"Then get back here!" the Doctor replied.
"They're too similar," Donna frowned, "Too familiar."
"Not yet," Jenny called.
"Now!" he shouted as the door opened, "Got it!"
They ran through and into the 'temple,' which looked oddly like some sort of engine room.
"They're coming!" Jenny called, "Close the door!" the Doctor pushed some keys and the door slid shut, "Oh, that was close!"
"No fun otherwise!" he grinned.
"It's not what I'd call a temple..." Donna looked around.
"It looks more like..." Jenny trailed.
"Fusion-drive transport," the Professor replied.
"It's a spaceship!" the Doctor realized.
"What, the original one?" Donna asked, "The one the first colonists arrived in?"
"Well, it could be, but the power cells would have run down after all that time. This one's still powered up and functioning. Come on!"
They ran down the hall to see someone cutting through another door, "It's the Hath!" Jenny said, "That door's not gonna last much longer. And if General Cobb gets through down there, war's gonna break out."
"Look, look, look, look, look!" the Doctor ran over to a terminal, "Ship's log! 'First wave of Human/Hath co-colonization of planet Messaline.'"
"So it is the original ship?"
"What happened?" Donna asked.
"'Phase one, construction,'" he read from the screen, "They used robot drones to build the city."
"But, does it mention the war?"
The Doctor scrolled down, "Final entry...'Mission commander dead. Still no agreement on who should assume leadership. Hath and humans have divided into factions.' That must be it! A power vacuum. The crew divided into two factions and turned on each other. Start using the progenation machines and suddenly you've got two armies fighting a never ending war!"
"Two armies who are now both outside," Jenny reminded them.
"Look at that," Donna pointed to the screen, displaying a set of numbers like the ones on the walls.
"It's like the numbers in the tunnels," the Doctor nodded.
"No, no, no, no, but listen...I spent six months working as a temp in Hounslow Library and I mastered the Dewey Decimal System in two days flat. I'm good with numbers! It's staring us in the face!"
"What is?" Jenny shook her head.
"It's the date! Assuming the first two numbers are some big old space date, then you've got year, month, day. It's the other way round, like it is in America!"
"The New Byzantine Calendar," the Professor nodded.
"The codes are completion dates for each section. They finish it, they stamp the date on! So the numbers aren't counting down, they're going out, from here, day by day, as the city got built."
"Yes!" the Doctor cheered, "Oh, good work, Donna!"
"Yeah! But you're…you're still not getting it. The first number I saw back there, was 6012-07-17. Well, look at the date today!"
"07-24," the Professor stated.
"No!" the Doctor gasped.
"What does it mean?" Jenny looked between the three of them.
"Seven days."
"That's it!" Donna nodded, "Seven days!"
"Just seven days?"
"What d'you mean, 'seven days?'" Jenny asked.
"Seven days since war broke out," the Professor told her.
"This war started seven days ago!" Donna agreed, "Just a week! A week!"
"They said years!" Jenny argued.
"No. They said generations. And if they're all like you, and they're products of those machines…"
"They could have 20 generations in a day!" the Doctor replied, "Each generation gets killed in the war, passes on the legend! Oh! Donna, you're a genius!"
"But all the buildings, the encampments, they're in ruins," Jenny shook her head.
"No, they're not ruined, they're just empty! Waiting to be populated! Oh, they've mythologized their entire history! The Source must be part of that too. Come on!"
They ran down another corridor and around a corner, running straight into Martha.
"Doctor!" she gasped, "Professor!"
"Martha!" he hugged her, "I should've known you wouldn't stay away from the excitement!" she quickly hugged the Professor too, not even minding that she didn't receive a hug back she was so relieved to see them again.
"Donna!" she ran over and hugged Donna as well.
"Oh, you're filthy, what happened?" Donna eyed her.
"I, er, took the surface route."
Voices of soldiers drifted down to them.
"That's the general!" the Doctor looked around, "We haven't got much time."
"We don't even know what we're looking for!" Donna replied.
"Is it me, or can you smell flowers?" Martha scrunched her nose.
"Yes!" the Doctor shouted.
"Bougainvillea," the Professor confirmed.
"I say we follow our nose!" the Doctor grinned, leading them down the hall and into what looked like a large greenhouse, filled with palms and exotic plants and flowers, "Oh, yes! Yes! Isn't this brilliant?"
In the middle of it all was a small orb on a pedestal, shining gasses swirling inside it.
"Is that the Source?" Donna pointed.
"It's beautiful," Jenny breathed.
"What is it?" Martha eyed it.
"Terra-forming," the Professor identified, "It's a third generation terra-forming device."
"So why are we suddenly in Kew Gardens?" Donna asked.
"Because that's what it does," the Doctor explained, "All this, only bigger. Much bigger! It's in a transit state. Producing all this must help keep it stable before they finally..." he was cut off as the Hath and humans appeared on opposite sides of them, cocking their guns as soon as they spotted the other, "Stop! Hold your fire!"
"What is this?" Cobb glared, "Some kind of trap?"
"You said you wanted this war over."
"I want this war won."
"You can't win. No one can. You don't even know why you're here. Your whole history, it's just Chinese whispers. Getting more distorted the more it's passed on," he pointed at the sphere, "This is the Source. This is what you're fighting over. A device to rejuvenate a planet's ecosystem. It's nothing mystical. It's from a laboratory, not some creator. It's a bubble of gases. A cocktail of stuff for accelerated evolution."
"Methane, hydrogen, ammonia, amino acids, proteins, nucleic acids," the Professor listed, "Used to make barren planets habitable."
"Look around you!" the Doctor continued, "It's not for killing, it's for bringing life. If you allow it, it can lift you out of these dark tunnels and into the bright, bright sunlight! No more fighting. No more killing," he lifted up the sphere, "I'm the Doctor and I declare this war is over!" and threw it on the ground, shattering it. The gasses escaped and flew into the air, shining gold and green as it spread out. The human and Hath slowly lowered their guns, in awe.
"What's happening?" Jenny asked.
"The gases will escape and trigger the terra-forming process," the Professor replied.
"What does that mean?"
"It means a new world," the Doctor smiled at her.
Jenny laughed with delight and looked at her father, only to spot Cobb behind him, lifting his gun to shoot…
"No!" she cried, stepping in front of him. The bullet meant for the Doctor hit her instead. She fell back, into his arms, as the humans grabbed Cobb and shoved him down, taking his gun.
"Jenny?" the Doctor gasped, "Jenny! Talk to me, Jenny!" he sat down, holding Jenny in his lap as Martha rushed over to check her pulse and wound. Donna knelt down beside her.
The Professor stood, watching, her face warring with repressing her shock as she shook with growing anger. She had been shot in the chest before, she knew the pain Jenny was in at that very moment. Her head turned to the side, eyes narrowing at Cobb.
"Is she gonna be alright?" Donna asked softly. Martha could only shake her head.
"A new world," Jenny whispered, watching the gasses, "It's beautiful…"
"Jenny?" he smiled at her, "Be strong, now. You need to hold on. D'you hear me? We've got things to do, you and me and the Professor. Hey? Hey? We can go anywhere. Everywhere. You choose."
"That sounds good," she smiled.
"Come on Jenny, we've only just got started. You're gonna be great. You're gonna be more than great. You're gonna be amazing! Just like your mum."
The Professor closed her eyes a moment, Jenny was as much a soldier as her, as willing to step in the path of danger to protect those she loved, and now the girl was dying just like her as well. She hadn't been able to protect her...
"You hear me?" the Doctor continued, "Jenny?" Jenny could only close her eyes, a soft smile on her face as she died.
The Doctor kissed her forehead in despair before looking up at Martha, "Two hearts! Two hearts, she's like me. If we wait...if we just wait..."
"There's no sign, Doctor," Martha said softly, "There is no regeneration. She's like you, but...maybe not enough."
The Professor's eyes snapped open.
"No. Too much. That's the truth of it. She was too much like…" he looked down at the girl in his arms, remembering how the Professor had faced the Sontarans to save him, when he heard a whirring sound of a blaster charging to full power.
He looked over to see the Professor storm towards Cobb, aiming her blaster at him. Everyone tensed, waiting to see what she would do, all knowing she was more than capable of firing without so much as a thought.
"Killing…" she began, a soft almost unnoticeable tremble in her voice that spoke of her fury, her finger shaking over the trigger, "It infects you. And once it does you're never rid of it, and it will spread to the point where you're desensitized to the idea and the sight of it..." she aimed at Cobb's forehead, "Like me…" the man closed his eyes, awaiting his fate.
But then…
She lowered her weapon.
She crouched before Cobb, looking him dead in the eye, "I will not. Have you got that? I have a choice and I will not."
She could have. It would have been so easy. She wouldn't have cared one way or the other if the man drew his last breath at her hand, she wouldn't have lost sleep over it.
But…that was just it, wasn't it? Jenny had reminded her, she did have a choice. She had gone from being so scared to so unfeeling that it had almost been a relief, to not be scared, to not be weak, to be strong and brave and…feared. To be the one that others feared instead.
She didn't want to be that though. She didn't want to be the warrior the Sontarans half-worshipped. She didn't want to be the dark monster that gave nightmares to the children of the higher species…she had spent so much of her life feeling like she wasn't worthy of anything, that she wasn't good enough. She'd striven so hard to be good enough for the Doctor, to be deserving of the love he felt for her. If she killed Cobb now…she would never be. She wanted vengeance for Jenny, but she was the Doctor's daughter, she wouldn't have wanted that any more than the Doctor would.
She stood up and looked at the two warring sides, "When you start this new world. This world of Human and Hath...remember that! Make the foundation of this society a choice. Make it the right one!"
And with that she turned and strode off, unable to comfort the Doctor because…deep down…she was breaking as well.
~8~
Jenny was laid on a table in the theater of what had been the human encampment, the Doctor, Professor, and Donna on one side, Martha, Cline, and a Hath on the other. Suddenly beams of light shown through the window and onto Jenny's face.
"It's happening," Martha commented, "The terra-forming."
"Build a city nice and safe underground," Donna sighed, "Strip away the top soil. And there it is," she looked down, "And what about Jenny?"
"Let us give her a proper ceremony," Cline looked at the Doctor and Professor, "I think it'd help us. Please."
The Doctor could only nod his approval, his hand nearly white as it clutched the Professor's.
~8~
The small group stood in the TARDIS, "Jenny was the reason for the TARDIS bringing us here," the Doctor explained, "It just got here too soon, which then created Jenny in the first place. Paradox. An endless paradox," he looked at them, "Time to go home?"
"Yeah," Martha nodded, "Home."
He nodded, pulling controls with the Professor, lacking his usual enthusiasm, but casting concerned glances as the Professor, who seemed even more closed off. She had become just that bit more open during their last adventure with the Sontarans and Jenny…but now…he feared she had been set back once more…
~8~
Donna and Martha walked down the road towards Martha's house, the Professor and Doctor behind them, "You sure about this?" Donna asked her.
"Yeah, positive. I can't do this any more. You'll be the same one day."
"Not me. Never! How could I ever go back to normal life after seeing all this?" she looked back at them, "I'm gonna travel with them forever," she hugged Martha tightly.
"Good luck."
"And you," she turned and walked back to the TARDIS, leaving the three with a bit of privacy.
"We're making a habit of this," the Doctor remarked.
"Yeah, and you'd think it'd get easier," she looked at he Doctor, "All those things you've been ready to die for. I thought for a moment there you'd finally found something else worth living for. The both of you."
"Oh...there's always something worth living for Martha," he replied, hugging her.
"Bye, Doctor."
"Goodbye. Dr. Jones."
She turned to the Professor, hesitating a moment before hugging the girl, "Bye Professor."
While the Professor still didn't hug her back, she did offer her one comfort, "Goodbye Martha."
Martha smiled.
~8~
The Doctor stopped short in the console room that night, stunned, as he saw the Professor sitting in the doorway of the TARDIS, looking out at the stars.
"You haven't done this in a while," he commented, sitting beside her, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," she replied.
"You're lying."
"Am I?"
He nodded, "No matter what regeneration two things have always stuck. Your fear of heights and this, looking at the stars when you're upset."
He kept quiet after that, knowing to wait for her to open up first, especially with something big enough to have her looking at the stars once more.
Quite a few minutes had gone by before she spoke, "I always wanted to be a mother," she admitted, something he admittedly already knew, "What's more, I always wanted to be the mother of your children," he blinked, true to her new persona, it was a very blunt statement. He hadn't quiet known that, though he realized, he should have guessed it with how long they had both apparently loved each other, "Seeing Jenny…your daughter…having her treat me like a mother…me…feeling for her as though she were my daughter as well…" she swallowed, struggling with expressing herself, "Losing her…"
He pulled her into a tight hug. She didn't have to say any more than that. He felt a small stirring of guilt in his hearts for her pain. He had pushed Jenny away intentionally, pushed her towards the Professor in the hopes the girl could help her open up just a bit more. He hadn't thought for a moment that Jenny wouldn't survive and be travelling around with them in the end...
But, despite the tragedy, it seemed Jenny had managed to help the Professor, because, a moment later...
She hugged him back.
A/N: And we have a breakthrough! YES!
I know there was some debate after the episode aired about whether Jenny semi-regenerated or if it was an aftereffect of the terra-forming, for this story, unfortunately, it's the second theory :(
And here we see one of two reasons why I made the Professor blonde for this story. I was thinking of another 'soldier' in the Doctor's life (Jenny) when I was wondering what would happen to the Professor during Last of the Time Lords. I thought it would be funny to have Donna commenting on how similar they are that Jenny should be the Professor's daughter and not the Doctor's. It also created a way/reason for her to open up more.