Chapter Twenty
Jack tried to sleep, but he couldn't, his mind was full of thoughts of a man in a pinstriped suit, and his heart was full of pain at his loss.
But eventually tiredness overcame him and he drifted off to sleep. That was until he felt something warm against his chest...no not warm...hot...the TARDIS key!
He was suddenly very awake, and as he sat up, the familiar sound of an ancient engine started to fill the room, and the shape of a wooden box began to form.
His heart began to race, he knew the Doctor couldn't be dead, and he come back for him.
He was up and dressed in moments, and was waiting for the door to open and a certain Time Lord to appear at the door.
He frowned when nothing happened, so he stepped inside and found something wrong...so very wrong.
The interior was no longer the subtle shades of greens and golds, but a sickly mixture of oily black and red...and what was that noise?
It sounded like a bell.
Something was wrong, very wrong.
.
The Doctor opened his eyes, and a pain filled tear ran down his cheek.
"Find me please," he whispered.
The oily red light made the inside of the TARDIS look like a smaller version of hell, and the sound of that bell made it worse.
Jack had started at the hellish sight and was only distracted from it by the TARDIS door slamming shut.
"No, no, no!" he yelled. "You have to go back, the others!"
He tried to change the direction, but he was rewarded with a mild electric shock. He tried once more, only to be shocked again.
He was now watching text flow across the computer screen at a tremendous rate, too fast for him to read.
"I can't understand, it's too fast, slow down!" he yelled. "And what is it with the bell!"
Jack started when there was suddenly deafening silence, and the oily red light began to fade, until it was almost back to the gold and green.
The TARDIS let out a low groan and the screen in front of Jack went dark, the instruments on the console began flickering.
Jack stood back from the console, unsure of what was happening. Something must have happened to the Doctor for the TARDIS to be in such distress... but what?
He wasn't prepared for what came next and he staggered back.
Images flashed through his mind...water...steel...confinement...pain...dear god the pain!
He let out a cry and would have fallen to the grating if the pilot's seat hadn't magically appeared behind him.
He took a few breaths before speaking. "I'm sorry, I just don't understand."
The TARDIS gave what sounded like a huff of annoyance and once again images flashed through Jack's head.
This time Jack did understand as what looked like a submarine flashed like silver in his mind. He took in a sharp breath when he saw an image of the Doctor, curled up on the floor of what might have been a cell, and he physically recoiled when the image of White Coat flashed up.
"No, please, not again!" he cried.
He was off the pilot seat and grabbed hold of the console. "I have to save him... can you find him!"
The TARDIS let out another groan, and the image of the Doctor flashed through Jack's mind again, followed by what looked like a golden thread of energy that was fading in and out of existence.
Jack frowned...was that the telepathic link between the Doctor and the TARDIS?
A soft hum from the TARDIS told Jack his guess had been right.
Then it dawned on him. "You can't do it on your own, something's affecting the link."
The TARDIS hummed again, and this time a silver thread appeared in Jack's mind, strong and shining brightly.
"Is that me?" he asked, and was rewarded with a warm draught of air across his face.
"Can I reach him?"
The TARDIS let out a rumble, and Jack saw in his mind the silver thread start to mix with the golden thread.
He let out a sudden gasp as intense pain shot through him.
"Doctor!" he gasped.
The Doctor was curled up against the wall of his small cell, his whole body trembling with the misery of separation from the TARDIS.
He still hadn't truly recovered from the separation he had forced upon himself and the TARDIS all those months ago, and he'd clung to it like a telepathic life line ever since, and the TARDIS had reciprocated, even when he was lost to the dark side of himself, she had always been there, on the edges of his mind, waiting, waiting for him to come back.
Now the link had been too weak to sustain, weakened as he was by the thing that was growing inside and the fracture to his skull that he was too weak to heal.
He cursed Rassilon for giving Time Lords such a strong will to live, when all he wanted to do was die.
Another wave of pain sent fiery trails through his body, so painful that he almost missed something brushing his psychic self.
As the pain subsided he felt it...could it be?
No, it didn't feel like the TARDIS, nor was the colour right. It was silver not gold...what or who was it?
Then he heard a whispered name, and he recognised the silver thread...Jack!
Oh thank Rassilon...he wasn't alone.
Another wave of pain struck and the thing inside him suddenly moved and a crack appeared in the barrier he'd managed to throw up as the thing attacked his mind.
If Jack didn't find him soon, it would be too late...White Coat would have what he wanted and the Cynrog would have a world full of willing cannon fodder.
"Jack, help me... please," he whispered as the pain became too much and he fell into darkness.