Village of Bretton, 957 AD
Jack pointed down the now empty street that he, Hermione, and the Doctor had been looking down. Lancelot's view had been blocked by one of the villager's huts. "What the hell was that ugly son-of-a-bitch?" he swore. He saw the look of amazement in the Doctor's eyes. Hermione was looking at him like he had gone crazy. "Come on, someone else had to have seen that thing," he insisted.
Hermione rolled her eyes at Jack. "Honestly Jack, this is no time to be playing jokes," she chided him. "I've been looking down that street since we got here. It's been empty the whole time," she informed him.
The Doctor looked down at the mark he had drawn on his hand and shook his head. "Things have just become very complicated," he muttered to no one in particular.
Hermione reached out and took the Doctor's hand. She could tell from his voice that he was very concerned. "I'm sure Jack is just playing with us. He really hasn't gone around bend," she tried to assure her boyfriend. She began to worry when she saw his face darken even more.
The Doctor's head snapped up suddenly and he looked Hermione in the eyes. "I don't have time to explain things. You have to get Lancelot out of here as fast as possible. Magically fast would be preferable," he stated. "Jack and I will be all right here. Just make sure Lancelot stays at Camelot. We'll meet up with you back at castle… I promise," he told her.
Hermione quickly leaned over and quickly kissed the Doctor before grabbing Lancelot's hand. She focused on where she wanted to be and performed a side-along apparition with Lancelot in tow. With a bright flash, she and the knight disappeared, leaving their horses riderless.
The Doctor picked up the reins to Hermione's horse and tied it to Lancelot's saddle. He smacked the knight's horse on the backside and the two horses trotted off in the direction they had come. "Most of the knights have trained their horses to return to Camelot if they lose their riders. Lancelot is the best horseman I know," he explained.
Jack was about to make a joke about bareback riding, but he forced it down. He looked at his friend and saw the slightly ashamed look in his eyes. "Why did you lie to Hermione?" Jack asked bluntly.
The Doctor shifted in his saddle so he wouldn't have to look Jack in the eyes. "Who says I lied to Hermione?" he replied, trying to dodge the question.
Jack maneuvered his horse so he was in front of the Doctor. "You might have a new face and a slightly different personality, by I still know when you're lying," Jack informed him. "Lance was never the problem, was he?" he asked rhetorically.
The Doctor sighed and looked back down the street where he assumed the Silence had been. "I can't let them get too close a look at Hermione," he admitted. "River told me they knew about her and Melody, but not Hermione," he tried to explain. Changing topics suddenly, he asked Jack, "What did the creature you saw look like?"
Jack held his hand out so it would be a little taller than a good sized human. "About this tall with a large, bulbous head," he replied. "It was completely hairless and its head tapered down to point starting at the jaw. No mouth that I could see," he said. "Now that I think about it, apart from the no mouth thing, the creature looked a lot like Edvard Munch's Scream paintings," he added.
The Doctor nodded his head. "What was it wearing?" he asked.
Jack frowned at the question. "That was the really odd part," he said. "It was wearing a black business suit that looked like it was modeled after ones wore in the 1960s. If it was wearing Earth clothes to try and blend in, it missed its mark by a thousand years," he explained.
The Doctor was moving his head constantly, trying to look everywhere at once to see if he could catch sight of a Silence. "They call themselves the 'Silence'. They're Time travelers and I doubt they have a really firm grasp on human fashion through the ages," the Doctor said. "It's one of the reasons why I think of the Silence as being male," he admitted.
Jack laughed at the Doctor's remark, easing the tension he felt slightly. "How come Hermione couldn't see him?" he asked. "She was looking the same way I was," he said.
"The Silence have an almost perfect defense mechanism," the Doctor replied. "They create a psionic field that interferes with any living thing being able to remember them. As soon you look away… poof, you're memory of them vanishes," he explained. "All visual memory is blocked, however, it would seem as though their mental scrubbing doesn't cover all auditory memories of the event. In fact, whatever mechanism they are using to block memories makes it so anything said when you are looking at them act like a post hypnotic suggestion," he said, letting Jack know what he had learned in the States. "The only hiccup in their defense is that as soon as you see a Silence, you can remember every time you have seen them in the past. But as soon as they are out of eyesight, all of your Silence memories are blocked out again," he stated.
Jack let out a low whistle. "Great, an enemy that you can't remember seeing, but can leave all sort of crap hidden in your brain," he complained. "Sounds like a few of my mother-in-laws throughout the years," he joked.
"It's probably why they – the aliens, not your mother-in-laws -refer to themselves as the Silence. Sort of a way to remind themselves to be as quiet as possible unless they want to leave a subliminal footprint," the Doctor guessed.
Jack held up his hand for the Doctor to stop. "Wait a minute. If they erase memories, how come you and I still remember what they look like?" he inquired.
The Doctor glanced back down the street. "In my case, I don't remember what they look like," he admitted. "I came up with the idea of using a marker on my hand when I see one to let myself know how many I had just encountered," he explained.
Jack nodded slowly. "OK, that makes sense in an only traveling with the Doctor could this crap actually happen kind of way," he deadpanned. "But what about me? How come I can remember them?" he wondered.
The Doctor shifted in his saddle so he could look directly at Jack. His mind raced through everything he knew about the Silence to come up with a theory. Unfortunately, the knowledge of the Silence he possessed amounted to very little. Suddenly, the Doctor smacked his forehead as an answer struck him. "Of course… why didn't I see that from the beginning!" he exclaimed. "It's so obvious!" he laughed, shaking his head in wonder.
Jack sighed and shook his head. He loved the Doctor dearly, but sometimes he could just throttle him. "What is so obvious?" he demanded.
"Don't you see, Jack?" he asked. "As far as the Universe is concerned, organic life exist in only two states – alive or dead," he explained. "The Silence's power only works on living minds, which is why an artificial mind like a computer chip can record them," he stated. "In most cases, you don't have to worry about altering the memories of dead things since they usually aren't an active threat anymore," he lectured. "It would have never occurred to whatever created the Silence that there could be a third state of existence," he pointed out.
Jack scratched his head. "Huh?" he asked.
"Life can now be broken into three states – alive, dead, or Jack," the Doctor said, trying to explain better.
"Neither alive nor dead," Jack muttered. "It makes sense, but what does any of this have to do with tricking Hermione into going back to Camelot?" he inquired, drawing the conversation back to where it had begun.
The Doctor looked at the road they had taken from Camelot. He turned to face Jack again, his eyes showing all 911 of his years. "The Silence are the primary members of the group that will eventually kill me," he said softly. "They kidnapped Hermione's mother so they could turn the child she was carrying into the perfect weapon against me," he told his friend. Jack ground his teeth in anger. "I did some research and figured out they somehow succeeded and it's River who kills me in the end," he whispered. "I think they're at this point in Earth history to try and wipeout the magical community. They threaten the technological path the Silence have laid out for the human race," he theorized.
Jack moved his hand to his shoulder holster and felt the comfort of the wooden handle on his favorite revolver. "OK, not really a problem. Since their power doesn't work on me, I'll just have myself a worldwide Silence hunting safari," he snarled.
The Doctor straightened in his saddle. "No you won't, Jack!" he ordered, laying a hand on Jack's arm. Looking around to make sure there was nothing in earshot, the Doctor leaned over and whispered something in Jack's ear.
When the Doctor was done whispering, Jack seemed to deflate in on himself. "Damn it!" he cursed. He couldn't fault his friend's logic and agreed there was a high possibility that he would help River when the time came to kill his best friend.
The Doctor gave Jack a weak smile. "Come on, I think I know where the Silence would be hiding in the village," he said. The Doctor pointed towards the only two story building in the village. "The village church, the center about which the rest of the village revolves," he stated. "Let's go and try to give the magic community some breathing room," he suggested. He nudged his horse and rode towards the whitewashed, stone church.
The village priest knelt at the small altar and prayed for guidance considering the magicians he knew still stained the countryside of his parish. He couldn't believe that at one time he had welcomed them into his church with open arms. Their kind needed to be wiped off the face of the Earth to make it safe for god-fearing people. It had only been in the past couple of months that his eyes had been truly opened. He said another prayer hoping that their King would see his mistake and join the church in condemning the wicked.
The sound of the church doors being violently thrown open made the priest spin around. Two men dressed in odd clothing stood in the open doorway, the light from the outside making them look like they were glowing. The "otherness" he sensed from them made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. The one wearing a dark blue coat of some kind glared at the priest and uttered only one word, "Leave!" The priest swallowed hard at the coldness in the man's voice. Deciding that he had other tasks to attend to, such as keeping himself alive, the priest ran out a side door that led to his hut.
Once the priest had left, the Doctor strode into the church with all of the authority that was granted him as a Time Lord. "You know who I am, and I know you're here, so come and out where I can see you!" he shouted.
Three Silence dropped from the rafters of the bell tower to land crouched in front of the altar. They straightened up and glared at the intruders. "Doctor! We did not expect to see you so soon," the Silence in the middle hissed. "Why are you here?" it demanded.
"I came to ask you to leave the magical community alone," the Doctor replied, refusing to be intimidated. He pretended to scratch his arm and put three tally marks on the inside of his wrist.
The Silence on the left cocked its head to the side and pointed a flipper like hand at the Doctor. "The magical humans are an obstacle to our plan and must be eliminated," it explained calmly.
The Doctor stood his ground. "The damage you have done already will be enough to keep them from delaying your plan," he argued.
The middle silence laughed at the Doctor. "Even if that were true, it would be much simpler to just destroy all of them rather than worry about them hampering things," it countered. "Again I ask, why are you here? There is nothing you can do to stop us," it pointed out.
The Doctor reached into his jacket and slowly pulled out a red and green handkerchief. "You're right. At this point in the game, there is nothing I can do about it, however…" he stated and handed the handkerchief to Jack.
Jack took the handkerchief and folded it into a blindfold. He tied the blindfold around his head and turned to face away from the Silence. "There are three of you standing in front of the altar. You are about 2 meters tall, wearing black suits, and have no visible mouths," he told them. Jack paused before adding, "Also the one on my right has sheep dung stuck on his pant leg." All three Silence looked down at the indicated pant leg as Jack taunted in a sing-song voice, "Made you look!" He tore off the blindfold and stared at the Silence.
The Silence on the right gave out a guttural growl and pointed his hand at Jack. Lightning like energies leapt from his hand to strike Jack in the chest. The energy played over Jack's body, knocking him to the ground. He died yet again, but the energy charge failed to disintegrate him.
After a moment, Jack drew in a deep breath and stood up. "That kind of tickled," he whispered to the Doctor. Jack faced the Silence. "My turn," he snarled and drew his revolver. He fired once, shooting the Silence that had attacked him. The bullet struck his enemy right between its huge eyes. The Silence was dead before it hit the hard packed dirt of the church floor.
The Doctor inwardly cringed at the death of even this creature but kept his distaste to himself. "As you can see, it happens that I do have something to bargain with," he told the Silence. "Quit putting ideas in the villager's heads about killing anything magical, or I'll leave Jack here to wage a one man war on you lot," he warned. "I know he will never be able to kill all of you, but he will definitely slow down your plans for me and Lake Silencio," he said evenly. He watched as the two remaining Silence looked at each other, shock in their eyes. "Yes, I know about Lake Silencio," he told them slowly. The Doctor knew he had the Silence where he wanted them. He only needed to add one little bit to make sure things happened like he knew they needed to. "One more thing to sweeten the pot, as they say. If you leave the magical community alone, I promise that when the time comes, I will go to Lake Silencio without a fight," he assured them. "Now, do we have a deal or not?" he demanded.
The middle Silence nodded its enormous head once. "Yes, that offer is acceptable. However, we will not use our influence to change how the church leaders already feel," it stated.
The Doctor waved his hand in the air dismissively. "Fine, fine… I knew better than to expect anything like compassion from you lot," he scoffed. He turned and started to walk out of the church.
Jack was about to follow the Doctor, but he stopped after only one step. He turned back around and looked the Silence over from top to bottom. "One last thing," he began. "I know you guys are trying to rock the whole 'Men in Black' vibe - what with the black suits and the erasing memories thing," he pointed out. "I just don't think you guys have what it takes to pull that look off. I think it's because of the main difference between you and the real Men in Black," he added.
The Silence on the left took the bait and asked, "What difference?"
Jack reached into his coat and pulled out a set of sunglasses he kept for just such an occasion. While putting the sunglasses on his face, he informed the Silence, "Agent J makes that suit look gooood."