The Doctor peered out of the TARDIS, glancing onto the quiet city street with a suspicious frown. His attack eyebrows were bent downwards, watery blue eyes pulling in everything. Quiet and city were never in the same sentence unless something was wrong.
He had set the TARDIS on random, in hopes that she would set him down some place interesting, where he could test the new sonic. It appeared that once again, Earth had managed to get itself in some type of danger, if the alien blaster marks littering the street were any hint. He stepped out of his blue box cautiously, brand new sonic poised.
"Is anybody there?" The Doctor's voice echoed against the tall buildings. He waited, listening for an answer. The only reply he got was the very distant sound of a car horn.
"Hello?"
There was no answer.
"Look, I promise I won't hurt you. Just come out."
He cautiously began to explore, muscles tensed, senses on high alert. A few steps disturbed the dust beneath his feet. It covered his boots, turning them a light gray. His frown deepened. The Doctor was well acquainted with the effects of a high energy blast. Whatever alien had done this better have a good explanation for it.
There. He paused. Something was niggling his time sense, a feeling very few aliens could give. His inner compass pulled him towards an alley, right down the street...
The Doctor blinked rapidly as a pounding headache started behind his eyes, one that he had come to associate with a certain immortal. He spotted him almost immediately, in the face of an alleyway, five other people surrounding him.
"Well if it isn't Captain Jack Harkness," The Doctor drawled, Scottish accent overwhelmingly Scottish. He approached the group.
"Look at that. You've got a team! Hello team! He probably hasn't mentioned me. I'm the Do-"
He was cut off by the six serious faces turning to him, grief and anger written in their expressions. Jack stepped forward, his face that of a man that has lost everything time and time again, and can't do a thing about it. Desperation, fury, and hopelessness. The Doctor inwardly sighed. This was going to be a long day.
"Hello Doctor," Jack said with a snarl. "You, are late."
When Meg awoke, it was like trying to pull herself through a mountain of jello. Every thought was sluggish and every memory was slow to come to the surface. She blinked groggily at the bright lights above her head, her eyelids doing little to stop the fluorescent light from blinding her.
Where am I?
Meg had been about to die. There had been a high energy blast moving towards her face at light speed. She was supposed to be dead.
Unless heaven looked like a futuristic hospital room, she wasn't dead.
"Hello."
Her eyes directed towards the source of the voice. No, she most certainly wasn't in heaven. Jack grinned at her with his usual charm, some strange alien scanner in his hand.
"What happened?" Meg managed to croak.
"I don't know. Found you in a prison cell in the twenty first century. According to my computer, you're a bit unusual and have traveled quite a distance. I thought I'd give you a lift."
"...Okay."
She struggled to process his words, their meaning sinking in slowly.
"What do you mean I'm a bit unusual?"
"You're covered in void matter. You recently came from a parallel universe."
Parallel universe? Then why am I talking to Jack?
"If I'm in a parallel universe, then who are you?"
"Captain Jack Harkness. Hello!"
It was a flirt.
"One and the same," Meg muttered.
"What?"
"Nothing."
That was too strange to be true. She'd fallen into a parallel universe and was rescued by Jack Harkness? The chances of that were impossibly slim. Also, why was she in a parallel universe? Jack had given her brief knowledge on the topic at one point, explaining it was almost impossible to get into them and even more impossible to get out. She knew they were created when a person made a life-changing choice, one that reset the entire course of history. A strange type of energy was created from that choice, one that channeled itself into a new universe. That universe would be the exact same, up until the point where the choice was made. It would take its own path from there, the path the other choice led to.
If this was a parallel universe, then Jack might know who Meg was.
"Do you know who I am?"
"No. But I would love to know."
Okay then. He'd never met her. She didn't allow him to flirt with her. Maybe Jack not meeting her was the point where the two universes split? Or it could be earlier. Meg didn't know much about Jack's life before Torchwood, but she knew the Doctor had made a major impact, having something to do with Jack's immortality.
"How about the Doctor? Do you know who the Doctor is?"
That name only earned her strange glances.
A Jack before the Doctor? A Jack that had never met the Doctor? There would be a lot of changes. Not only would he not be immortal, his personality would be different. Before he met the Doctor, Jack, in his words, had been "less than pleasant". Meg wasn't sure what exactly he meant, but knowing his already low moral standards, it wouldn't be good.
Then why had he rescued her? It wouldn't be for some selfless reason, his kind act of the day. Rescuing her from the cell he'd briefly mentioned would be supporting him.
Also, why was she in a cell in the first place? Maybe she had a double here that was some kind of mastermind criminal?
There were too many questions. Was Jack telling the truth, or was this some Jack before the Doctor, from her own universe? If so, why hadn't Meg's Jack mentioned this to her? How had she arrived in a parallel universe in the first place?
With a groan, Meg sat up, her arms wobbly under the weight of her body. The room around her was small; there was barely enough space for the tiny cot, the cabinets, and parallel Jack's chair. The colour theme was white, though that seemed to be normal for any clinic, hospital, or medbay, future and twenty first century alike.
Parallel Jack's apparel was only slightly different from the outfit she was used to. His coat was a dark blue, and he wore some type of captain's hat on his head. His expression, however, was absolutely alien. It was boyish, mischievous, and young. The Jack she knew had a hardened look in his eyes, one that came with loss and experience. The parallel Jack still had an emotion she had never seen in the Jack she knew. Hope.
Yet the anger that accompanied the original Jack already was obvious. It saddened her to see how young he was. He couldn't be more than thirty, yet he was filled with a bitterness that accompanied him far into his future, the future she knew.
Jack spoke up, interrupting her sentimental thoughts. "So, how did you do it?"
Meg blinked, confused.
"How did I do what?"
"Enter another universe," he clarified. "I'd be interested to know why the Time Agency is experimenting with that type of technology."
"You think I'm with the Time Agency?" was her incredulous answer.
"Sure. You're covered with void particles and have on you technology only the Time Agency is capable of making. That or you're some rebel with excellent hiding skills. Not everyone can steal a bunch of technology from the Time Agency, experiment with multi-versal travel, and get away with it."
Meg stuttered, unable to fully process the ridiculousness in his statement. The Time Agency was a giant organisation full of people more corrupt than some American politicians. They were 'selfish, back-stabbing, money-thirsty pirates'. Jack's words, again. Calling her a Time Agent was a major insult to her ego.
She finally managed a coherent response.
"If you think I'm associated with the Time Agency, then why did you bother springing me from a twenty-first century jail cell? You hate the Time Agency."
"You know that how?"
Words once again evaded her. How was she supposed to explain the whole "I know your parallel counterpart and he's immortal and we save Cardiff from aliens" thing? It would sound ridiculous. It was ridiculous. Jack would never believe her, not in a million years.
Jack had assumed she knew who he was. Even though she'd asked for his name, she hadn't bothered to disguise it. There was probably some type of warrant out for Jack's arrest. He'd stolen technology and run off.
"I'm the second one, actually."
He looked at her with increased interest.
"No, really?"
"Yep. I joined it in the future, a bit after your time. There are still whispers about you running off, though."
"Ah. The rumours. You followed in my tracks, eh?"
Meg's mind was working at the speed of light, searching for every tiny bit of information she knew about past Jack. He'd been a con-man, after leaving the Time Agency. He'd met the Doctor, thinking he was a Time Agent, and he'd tried to rip him off. He hated the Time Agency for what they'd done to him, though their wrongs seemed insignificant after all he'd gone through over the centuries.
If he was a con-man, he probably would be open to receiving information that would harm the Time Agency. Jack had also shown interest in her supposed ability to travel from universe to universe. Maybe she could bribe him with that, get him to take her back home.
Parallel universes are impossible to get into and even more impossible to leave.
When Jack first explained the idea to her, he'd done it with a faraway look in his eyes, a sad little smile on his face. Meg had gotten the impression he was remembering something, one of those "I'm immortal and have infinite amounts of memories that I try to not think about" things. At the time, it had just been another fact to add to her bucket of information about alien things. She'd never imagined that particular piece coming to any use. It was fortunate Jack had prepared her with at least a little data on the subject. Meg knew what to expect, even if it was a little vague. Should she be unable to return to her home universe, she'd find a comfortable place in this universe, somewhere with a familiar face, somewhere...
Now that Meg thought about it, she realised she had no idea where she would go. She was in a parallel universe, where nobody knew her and she didn't exist. She wasn't sure if she could go back home. Even if she did find a familiar face, they wouldn't know anything about her. Nobody here knew anything about her.
Meg was alone.
The thought horrified her. Alone was not in her nature. Alone was worse than any torture Meg could receive. It was a threat that lingered in the back of her mind, propelled her to do everything in her power from being alone. She'd been alone once before, and she had sworn to herself she would do everything in her power to keep from being alone again.
That meant she would have to do the impossible. Meg would have to find a way back into her universe. Fortunately for her, fate seemed to be on her side. She had a time traveling best friend con man that had no idea who she was, just waiting to be conned into helping her succeed.
The plan formed in Meg's mind was hastily made, but it might just work. She would bribe Jack into taking her back to the scene, hopefully convince him to help her figure out how she got into this universe in the first place, and make it back home.
Details would be worked out as she went along, of course. Meg was well known for her procrastination.
Said person coughed, bringing her back to reality. Meg gave a winning smile.
"Yes and no, though I do prefer to add my own spice to things."
She leaned forward, ignoring the protest of her weakened muscles. It worried her that they were in the condition they were in. She'd felt the feeling before. It was caused when she broke a bone, and hadn't moved it for at least a month. It meant she'd been unconscious for a while. Anything could have happened. Usually, it took several weeks of physical therapy to get it back in shape, something Meg didn't have time for right now.
"I have a proposition."
"Oh?"
"You take me back to the location where I originally appeared, help me find the technology I stole from the Time Agency, and I will give you all the blueprints on this technology, which you may use however you wish."
"Mmm. No."
Meg inwardly groaned at Jack's answer. This complicated things.
"Why not?" She asked.
"It's too good to be true. Besides, the only alien tech you had on you when you arrived was that very fancy ear-piece. Custom made, according to my scanner. When did you get it? Twenty-sixth century? A bit old, for a Time Agent."
Note to self: Never try to con the con-man. Jack had told her more than once she was a terrible liar.
Why do I always have to complicate things for myself? The truth was probably believable enough.
"The question is, who are you?"
"Maybe I'm a twenty-first century girl from a parallel universe," Meg grumbled.
"Ah. In that case, we're done here. I'll send you back to your time, and you can adjust."
She stared at him in disbelief.
"What? No offers to help? No curious questions about how I knew you in the first place? Or how I ended up in a parallel universe? No attempts at flirting?"
"Sorry kiddo. You're not my type."
That had to be the worst insult ever to have left Jack's mouth. Everything was his type.
Jack reached for the door handle, grinning. Meg realised she had to stop him.
Fine. She would do this the hard way.
With a yell, she leapt in his direction, her hand closing around a familiar black item, sitting on a shelf next to Jack. The shelf crashed over, sending medical supplies to the ground with a loud bang. Parallel Jack reacted immediately, diving in her direction. Meg fell to the ground, the sharp edges of the shelf digging into her ribs.
Meg had noticed the device on the shelf the second she'd come to. At one point, her Jack had shown her one identical to it, attempting to convince her he was indeed a time traveler. He'd called it a vortex manipulator. She hadn't believed him, but she had gotten a good look at the complicated buttons covering the surface. Meg had a general idea on what they did. Hopefully it would get her out of here.
She pulled herself up, limbs shaking. Jack saw what she had in her hand. He jumped to his feet, pulling a gun out a gun. With a surge of adrenaline, Meg bumped open the door with her head and slid the manipulator across the floor into the hallway. She desperately crawled after it, slamming the door behind her. Sighing, her head fell back against the cold, metal surface, rather surprised that had worked.
It was hard to catch Jack by surprise. No matter the situation, he'd always been prepared to fight. Meg had seen it time and time again, as aliens planning your death didn't usually announce themselves.
Maybe his reactions just aren't as good in his younger age?
"Computer! Emergency protocols. There is an intruder in the ship! There is an intruder in the ship!"
Meg strapped the device on her wrist and stared at the buttons. There seemed to be two sections, a manual, and automatic. The automatic was set for Jack, his precise weight, height, speed preferences, and saved locations shown in tiny digit figures on one side of the device. The other side was full of complicated coordinates, personal information settings, and safety checks.
She didn't have time for the manual. Holding her breath, Meg pressed a few buttons, preparing the device to send her back to the device's last location. At the same time, Jack blasted a square hole in the wall next to her, his expression furious. She took one look at the giant gun in his hand, and pressed launch.
The following sensations were even worse than the travel through the golden tunnel. Meg felt a gut-wrenching feeling, before everything around her turned white. Her body was sent hurtling at painful speeds through the blinding whiteness, tearing at her skin, and reverberating through her very atoms. She couldn't move anything, not even the muscles required to breathe. Then it was all over. Solid ground returned under Meg's feet. She fell to the ground, gasping, her suddenly darkened settings swaying around her. Leaning over, her stomach emptied itself of its contents, the nausea too much for it to take.
All Meg could hear was a ringing in her ears, dark spots spinning in front of her eyes. Time passed, though she was unaware of how much. Her head was spinning, both from the torture her body had just endured, and the events that had taken place in just minutes.
After what felt like eternity, the spots cleared and the ringing faded. Meg studied the room. There was a red, faded carpet under her knees, now marred by her sick. A chair sat to her left, torn slightly on one edge. The window above her head leaked a little gray light through the closed curtains, shadows more prominent because of it.
Her lips twisted into a frown. The scene seemed awfully familiar, though she couldn't place it from her position on the floor. Carefully, she struggled to her feet, ignoring the wave of dizziness that accompanied the motion.
There was another person in the room.
Meg tensed. She was in no condition to fight off any scared civilian, nor did she feel like being questioned. The figure was seated, a humanoid shadow reflecting off the other chair.
"Hello?"
Her voice sounded helpless and tiny.
The person behind her did not respond. Cautiously, Meg turned around.
Every thought process ground to a halt. Her brain had reached its maximum limit of questions, and it would take no more.
There, in front of her, sat a face she was well acquainted with, wearing clothes and sitting in a room that were very deeply imbedded in the fiction section of reality. It was impossible, more impossible than a parallel universe and a parallel Jack happening upon her out of all of time and space.
"Ben?" Meg asked tentatively.
The figure's carefully blank features bended into a smirk, hands clasping under his chin.
"No."
It couldn't be. It wasn't possible. Not in a parallel universe, not even possible in a dream. Dreading the answer to her question, Meg forced it through her lips. "Sherlock?"
If possible, the smirk grew even wider, consuming his face, lighting up his eyes with curiosity and wonder.
"Yes?"