Allergies Chapter 6: Soldiers, a Doctor Who + Torchwood Crossover fanfic

A/N: - OK, this is the sixth chapter. I've had trouble putting this chapter together so forgive me if it's not all that good. This explains part of Martha's absence. =D TTYL! KEEP ON READING! Please read and review! - Especially tap me a review, to point out any OOC...

Disclaimer: - I do not own Torchwood Doctor Who or the His Dark Materials Trilogy. They all belong to their rightful creators and producers and whatnot, therefore they're not mine. If they were, I wouldn't be here…

WARNING: LOTS OF SPOILERS FROM 'ADAM' and 'THEY KEEP KILLING SUZIE'. Slight reference to 'Sleeper'(Ooh and scroll down VERY VERY fast if you don't want to see any spoilers for the Resurrection Glove, the Life Knife or Suzie Costello)

UN-BETAED and oh, a special THANK YOU VERY VERY VERY MUCH to sonicthecat7 for Beta-ing chapter 5. Also, thanks for all your marvy reviews. They mean a lot to me... =D
HAPPY EASTER!!

PS:- The Resurrection Glove (for anyone that doesn't know) is a huge metal glove that's used to bring people back to life for a certain amount of time, but its properties are Alien and the Glove tried to murder somebody. They've all been destroyed.

Life Knife - If the victim is murdered with this particular knife, then it is easier to use the Glove to bring the person back from the dead becasue of a special connection between them. Suzie Costello (former Torchwood employee) used this knife to murder many, many people and was killed by Jack, when she tried to kill Gwen. She was brought back again, permanently and kept herself alive by draining the life out of Gwen Cooper.

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A/N: - OK, this is the sixth chapter. I've had trouble putting this chapter together so forgive me if it's not all that good. This explains part of Martha's absence. =D TTYL! KEEP ON READING! Please read and review! - Especially tap me a review, to point out any OOC. THANKS A MILLION TO sonicthecat7, who's wonderfully Beta-ed this chapter.

ALSO THANKS TO EVERYONE'S WHOSE BOTHERED TO PRESS THAT BUTTON AT THE END OF THE SCREEN…

WARNING: LOTS OF SPOILERS FROM 'ADAM' and 'THEY KEEP KILLING SUZIE'. Slight reference to 'Sleeper'

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"Are you sure we should use that thing again, Jack?" Ianto asked for the umpteenth time in twenty minutes; a concerned expression planted on his face. "You said we weren't allowed to touch it again. You even wrote 'not for use' on the not-for-use box, which meant you were serious." Ianto didn't get a reply so he added, "Remember what happened the last time?"

Jack ignored him and continued putting the coordinates into the safe, then cheered as it clicked open. The safe was a big green thing mounted into the wall and Jack used it to store any dangerous Alien artefacts away.

He only replied after finishing up with the safe. "Suzie's time was a mistake; Suzie was deluded. None of us knew about her... guilty conscience. We're not using the knife to kill or bring back the dead this time; we're going to save someone instead. That time, it was… different. To other matters, where's Mickey?" Jack gazed around expectantly for a moment, but when he found no Mickey he yelled downstairs for the man in question. "Mickey!"

Gwen rolled her eyes and strode over to Jack's current location, trying to get a better glimpse of the knife.

Ianto pondered something for a moment. "Different, right. Different as in when we used that mind probe and the alien's head exploded--" The Doctor shot an alarmed glare at Jack, but the Captain replied with a shrug and mouthed 'Long story,' "… or different as in good different?"

"The second one," Jack confirmed confidently, jabbing in yet another code into a small, black box that he'd retrieved from the safe. The box puffed affirmatively and snapped open, revealing the dusty but lethal weapon that glinted in the pallid light.

It was a large silver knife with three razor-sharp blades. It still had specks of blood smeared round the edges from its previous uses. It had a beautifully designed bluish-silver hilt, studded with miniature gleaming white diamonds. Gwen stepped back in impulsive recoil; she'd forgotten all about it until now. The memories came flooding back to her; filling her mind with trails of death and destruction.

"I always forget how creepy that knife is. Still reminds me of that time with Suzie. She murdered so many innocent lives, just for the fun of it... I thought that was a long forgotten memory, but it still feels so… now." Goosebumps unexpectedly formed up and down her arms. "She tried to kill me, Jack. Twice! The first time round because she had a flaming guilty conscience and the second... just to keep herself alive. She tricked me into believing her; she told me that you, Jack, were trying to kill her when it was her all along. How could I have been so stupid?"

"She's gone now," Jack said quietly. "Forget it; it wasn't your fault in the first place. We've destroyed all of the Gloves. The ones we know of, anyway. Where is that kid? MICKEY!" Jack clicked a button on his broken Vortex Manipulator and yelled a command down it. "Mickey Smith, where the hell are you? What?!... No, I don't care even if the Martians have landed. Just get your cute but enormous backside up here, NOW!"

Jack leaned back onto his desk and rubbed his forehead, looking around the room in silence. Gwen tucked a strand of her jet-black hair out of her eyes, stared at the knife, before flinching and walking away, as if that would rid her of the bad memory. Even Ianto was deep in thought, and as a result it made the Doctor feel very left out.

"Would you mind telling me what this is about? Seeing as I'm standing right here," the Doctor piped up casually, and he waved cheerily to clarify that he was there.

"It's a long story."

"Then tell it."

"OK… There was this woman, Suzie Costello; she used to work for Torchwood. We trusted her, but she betrayed our trust and it turned out that all the recent murders were her dirty work; Suzie hired her own hitmen to help her kill people. But back then we didn't know that 'cause she hid it fairly well. It was all because she wanted to use the Resurrection Glove - it's a glove that can literally resurrect life for a certain amount of time. Anyway, we found out it was her in the end and that's where Gwen came in," Jack
explained.

"Never mind the fact that bringing the dead back should be impossible and breaks every time/space continuum law, because it weren't for the real reason I' here, I would be arguing with you tight this second, Harkness, but what happened?" the Doctor pressed for more information.

"She died," Jack continued and ignored Gwen's sceptic glare. "And then, a couple of months later, we had to revive her again because we suspected she was connected to another range of killings... Trust me, it's a very long story and I'll tell you the rest later. Carrying on, back then the Resurrection Glove was still a good use to us and as you know, we brought people back to life with it. The Life Knife just came along with it as a
freebie. Suzie used the power of the knife to drain all the energy out of Gwen, and it would've killed her." Jack saw Gwen's gulp, but chose to ignore it. "But we stopped her in the end."

"I'm sorry. What did happen to her? Oh Jack, tell me you didn't..."

"Sorry, there's nothing else you need to know, Doc. We stopped her; that's all you need to know." Jack swallowed a guilty lump in his throat and carefully lifted the stunning three-bladed knife out of its container, blowing the thin layer of dust off the top as he
did so. "Is this baby what you were looking for?"

"Now that is beautiful! Can I take a closer look?" The Doctor pushed his glasses up further and stuck his hands out in time for Jack to hand it over to him. "Now this, this is what you call genius. It a real work of art and trust me, I know good art when I see it – I did work with Michael Angelo!" Jack stared at him in bemusement, but the Doctor grinned wildly at him and defended himself. "Oi, don't look at me like that, I did! You can even ask Mickey, when he gets here. Anyway, just by looking at the polished metal and all the welding joints, you can see all the time and effort put into--"

"I'm 'ere Boss. What did you want?" Mickey shouted, jogging into view.

The Doctor lost his grip on the knife due to Mickey's sudden declaration. The cool blade slipped out of his hands and soared sharp-edge first for the floor, faintly grazing Gwen's and Ianto's hands on the way down. The Doctor swiftly jumped back in time for the knife to violently stab the floor and pierce it. Just in the spot where he'd been standing; that had been a close call.

They all looked up angrily at Mickey, who was oblivious to everyone and everything in the room but himself. "I was just looking through the files on Rift activity in the recent--" He stopped and looked up properly for the first time. "Oh, right…"

"MICKEY!"

*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*

Two and a half hours later.

Two and a half hours later Mickey was busy hurrying away at the computer, searching for all the information he could find concerning the Life Knife and/or something-to-do-with-knives that-can-cut-windows-out-of-thin-air-to-other-universes. So far, he'd given up Googling it and was attempting to break into the Military files, but found no such luck - security had tightened greatly ever since the twenty-seven planets incident. Meanwhile, the Doctor, Jack and Gwen crowded over a table discussing the knife and other theories, whilst Ianto floated in and out of the Hub, each time carrying a tray of various sandwiches or a refill of milk or yet another cup of coffee.

"You still haven't told us whether this is the knife or not. Well, is it?" Jack enquired once again.

It had been pretty much more than two boring hours researching and trying to get a conclusion about their new found knife, but so far none of them had managed to twig whether it was the real knife or not. The Doctor was not helping one bit. He sustained ignoring Jack and used the sonic screwdriver to scan the knife further, muttering technobabble under his breath. Jack rolled his eyes and mimed strangling him, triggering a half-suppressed giggle from Gwen.

"What?" the Doctor said, looking up. The fact that the Doctor still looked particularly stupid, because of the fact that his glasses were dangling off the edge of his nose and a smudge of dirt lay there, didn't help Gwen at all. In actual fact, it made it worse and caused her to erupt into laughter, though she didn't have a clue as to why she was laughing so madly. "Hey! Come on, spill the beans. What's so funny about me scanning a knife?"

"Sorry, Doctor," Gwen stammered, grinning and just about managing to control her laughter.

"Actually, are you done with that thing? It's been at least half an hour since you started doing that. What's the sonic say?"

"It says nothing. It says absolutely, completely, nearly, nothing, whatsoever! Weeeell, nothing important, put it that way. The only thing the scan's told me is that there's a whole lot of proliferating residual energy from the last depleting of one life form transfer to another revived life form of the same value, implicating that this knife is still…" the
Doctor paused for a breath. "… active and discharging a strong amount of metal toxins, infiltrating the air you're breathing in."

"In English?" Gwen requested.

The Doctor tucked his sonic back into his pocket and swiped his glasses off, rubbing his eyelids. "Basically, the knife is still shooting out readings from the last energy transfer, something to do with that incident with you Gwen I take it. The knife is releasing non-toxic poison into the air we're breathing, 'cos apparently it's still radioactive."

"No, I mean real English," Gwen asked again, her strong Welsh accent becoming more dominant in her speech.

"We're breathing in the knife's fumes," the Doctor stated simply.

"Thank you."

"I still don't understand the logic of this. Back on Gallifrey, when the Time Lords were still around, I never came across one of these things. Only the Time Lords or Ladies with the higher authority had the chance to use them; let alone me, I dropped out of university when I was only three-hundred and stole a type-40 TARDIS, and ran off. I hardly got to see them, let alone touch and use 'em. The first real time I saw one was when one of the Time Lords used it to try and escape from looking into the vortex, it made me even more
nervous 'cos it was my turn straight after and I was only ooh, one hundred and something years old; long way back, it was over eight hundred years ago."

Gwen raised her eyebrows. She hated to admit it, but this man was fit and rop-dead gorgeous, but the Doctor was saying that, from what she'd managed to catch, he was over nine-hundred years old! That would seem impossible to a normal person, but she wasn't any normal person and what her years with Jack had taught her was just to smile and nod...

"Where on Earth did you find this thing?"

"It just came through the Rift, and we didn't know what to do with it at first." Jack drifted away in thought for a second and conjured up a memory, chuckling. "I still remember Tosh pouring hours into researching about it; hard worker. Not here anymore… Either way, I still don't get it. The metal is definitely alien; nothing we've ever heard of anyway. Can you recognise it?"

As soon as Jack had finished the last word, the Doctor had picked up the knife and licked it. Yes, he licked a very dangerous, sharp, valuable object without any hesitation. They all stared at him as if he was mad. Which of course, he was.

"AHA! I got you now," the Doctor exclaimed, dropping the knife back on the table with a loud clang. "I should've done that way earlier! 'Cos now I know what the metal is; Ukrabrapotolian metal. I could recognise this stuff anywhere! It's properties are one of the rarest and finest in the entire Universe; you couldn't get better quality stuff! Oh my head." The Doctor leapt up, clutching his head and babbling at 100 miles per hour. "This stuff originated from Ukrabrapota, in the Kasterborous Constellation, which meant that it was in the same galaxy as Gallifrey which gives it high possibility that, YES, it was a Window Knife! If I just analyse the data, and… Jack!"

"I'm right here." Jack replied happily.

"The knife!"

"What about it?"

"Did it come in any sort of pouch? Casing. Wrapping. Whatever! Anything at all?"

"Not that I know of…"

"I'll go check," Ianto volunteered suddenly, walking out the room. "If I can't find it, I'll get my diary."

The Doctor stared after him in bemusement. How would his diary help him? "Don't look at me!" Jack explained, hands up in surrender, as an estranged
memory of a smirking curly-haired man flashed in his mind. "How should I know? Though, that diary has been damn useful over the years! Once it saved our lives and set us straight."

He couldn't remember how the diary had saved them, but he just knew the contents of it did. It was like a distant dream, just pressing the surface of his memory, so he couldn't quite remember. Gwen frowned at him, not sure what he was on about, but Gwen still remembered the time when Rhys, her husband, had decisively insisted that she'd gone nuts for a couple of days – not being able to recognise him at all. Of course, she didn't recollect that couple of days at all, nevertheless didn't compel her husband to give
any more information.

"Doctor!" Mickey chimed from the computers. "You might wanna 'ave a look at this."

The Doctor spun around and dashed to where Mickey was seated, Jack not far behind. Gwen sat staring at the knife, unable to erase the memory of Suzie and the Resurrection Glove. She picked it up in her hands, gently running the fingers along the edge of the knife so as not to cause any damage. Even after that incident, Gwen, in spite of everything, felt that she still had a special bonding with the knife; the same reaction she had with the Resurrection Glove.

She'd been the only one able to master and control its power so easily. Instinctively, she picked the knife up with her hands and gasped as dozens of voices whispered elaborate exotic words in her head… The room spun around her and she could see the entire history of the Life Knife; from the gruesome murders to Suzie to Owen and to the planet with two suns and to the widely unknown - they all flashed through her head like a strip of film. Gwen could see every single event, ranging from decent to horrific, that had involved this very knife. Gwen Cooper, an ordinary Welsh descendant could see the
entire bloody history of a knife, and Hell did it scare her…

***

In the intervening time, Jack and the Doctor stood behind Mickey who was typing furiously on the keyboard. A UNIT website popped up on the screen and a big sign in red read 'ACCESS DENIED', but with a couple more fiddles the message disappeared and Mickey had hacked into all the private files. But then the screen swiftly zipped back to its former layout (again) and the Doctor sighed and rolled his eyes. Humans.

"Mickey, this better not be a waste of time because I'm not exactly--" the Doctor started off, leaning on the back of Mickey's chair.

"Just shut up a minute will you," Mickey muttered. "If you'd got 'ere
quick enough, it wouldn't have locked me out; I just need to get back in
again… Gimme two secs." The two men rolled their eyes and a question
suddenly came to the Doctor.

"Where's Martha? Thought she came to work with you? Last time I checked
anyway."

"UNIT," was the only thing Jack could come up with. The Doctor just
looked at him as Jack clenched his fists in anger. "They called her out
again. UNIT said they needed her back for a one-time mission, because she was
one of their strongest. Martha, being the sweet person she is, accepted the
offer. I warned her not to, but she wouldn't listen to me. I tried Doctor, I
really did. But it's just a one off, so she'll be back in a couple of
weeks, maybe months."

"Months? What are you on about? Where is she right now?"

"That's the problem." Jack gritted his teeth. "They sent her up to space,
out of the Earth's atmosphere, completely unprotected. "

"SPACE! I doubt she even did any tests or training, it's been how many…
Two days since she came back and they sent her into space!" The Doctor
laughed at the stone hard irony.

"Yep, that's why I tried to stop her! And, before you ask, it wasn't a
spaceshuttle either; they've used stolen technology. The Sontaran
teleportation tech?"

"How do you know about that? Never mind, what about it?"

"They managed to salvage parts of it and fix it up, to work with human
machinery. According to UNIT, a part of the Crucible is still intact and
tagged along with Earth. They checked it for life forms; found nothing at all.
So what do they do? They go and send a teleportation lock up there, and then
they get Martha and a band of soldiers to transport there! UNIT wants them to
gather up everything they can find, to border Earth's defenses!" Jack
elucidated angrily, fists still clenched.

"Are they INSANE?! That's highly dangerous! Anything could happen, they
could die on the teleportation upwards and if it's mixed with half-formed
human machinery… What have they done?! They're sending them to their deaths!
Have you tried to get in touch with Martha? You have to tell her to get back
here, immediately!" the Doctor stated, absolutely furious. Oh Martha,
Martha, Martha! What on Earth was she thinking? Brave and compassionate
warrior, Martha was, but just a little bit too human sometimes. If his
calculations were right the UNIT scientists would get the equations wrong;
meaning that something would go terribly, terribly wrong! Yep, incredible
people UNIT were, but still very thick when it came to common sense. How could
they do that? They just send up a bunch of untrained humans to go and explore
something lethal, without a thought and especially with human technology,
nowadays...

The 21st century was about to be hit full-on by a major Recession, and the
more advanced technology wouldn't be developed for another... Ooh, couple of
decades, to say the least. A corner of his brain panicked for Martha's
safety, but he kept it at bay. For now.

"Already tried, Doc. I haven't heard from Martha since yesterday, I've
tried and tried but no response. I've contacted UNIT, but they're refusing
to tell Torchwood any further – according to their sources, we are their
vowed enemies. They don't know what they're doing. All we can do is hope
that she, and all those soldiers with her, are alive and well. I'm sorry,
there's nothing Torchwood can do."

The Doctor was about to start off another long debate or something geeky, but
before he could do so Mickey made himself known. He wasn't in tune with their
conversation about Martha, so decided to interrupt at any moment spare.

"... And, there! Not so clever now, are ya UNIT?" Mickey exclaimed
eventually. He clicked the mouse and reclined back into the swivel chair
smugly. "Have a look at this." The screen presented a page of military
Myths and Legends, and it was precisely showing a link named 'The Universe
Reaper'.

The Doctor's eyes swam across the page as he raced through the information.
"Legend says this knife slipped through a crack in the Rift in space and
time… Windows to new dimension… Only the chosen people of time are able to
use this extraordinary blade… Power to hop from one Universe to the other…
Three bladed… Acclaimed to have originated from the Kasterborous
Constellation… myth tells that the frightened Time Lord escape…Lost…
Claimed to be buried in Cardiff… Sighted in the heart of Cardiff…
Weevils…" The Doctor sprung back from the screen in excitement with Martha
all but forgotten.

"So, is this the knife? All the information on the screen matches our one,
and why did you want to know if that knife had a casing? What's so important
about that?" Jack asked, arms folded.

"You see, every Time Lord's possession had to have his or her name
engraved on it, for protection." The Doctor spotted Jack's and Mickey's
amused expressions. "Oh come on! It's like micro-chipping your dog or that
human electronic tagging system for you… I do have to admit, it was a bit
brash but it was a time of conflict… Any-way, if I remember correctly, which
I do, then I know that particular Time Lord's name and I just thought if I
could check the casing itself for any Gallifreyan symbols then I'd know
whether it was the real knife. But now Mickey boy's found this information,
we don't really need to--"

"JACK!" Gwen shouted with a tone of heavy apprehension. The three men
rushed back to where Gwen was, only to find her shaking with fear; the Life
Knife glowing a bright blue in her hands. Mickey yelped, the Doctor stared and
Jack laughed. Then as if by magic, there was a small poof and exquisite
complex symbols suddenly appeared on the knife's smooth surface. The Doctor
recognised it immediately as Gallifreyan.

"I think this is the knife we've been looking for," Gwen whispered.

Completely uninformed and oblivious, Ianto wandered into the room, eyes
deeply submerged in the small but chunky leather-bound book opened in his
hands. He looked up.

"Woah. What have I missed?"

TBC…

TBC! REVIEW! REVIEW! REVIEW! Please... and have a nice easter! *cheesy grins* lol =D =D Reviews keep updates running on schedule and faster than you can say... 'molto-bene' and get chased by a Cannibal squirrel. lol! loL! I even daresay flame me if you've got the guts...