* Okay, so here we are with that cliffhanger resolution. I'd be lying if I said I was completely happy with this chapter but I like to think I translated the way it meant in my head adequately. The Daleks have angered the Doctor. Prepare for the Oncoming Storm. Thanks to my readers, reviewers, followers and favouriters. Without you, it wouldn't be the story it is. Enjoy peeps. TPD *
Jack woke with a gasp and looked round. He could hear the TARDIS, see it materialising around them. Then, the Dalek shot Clara. He could see her flail and die, hear her final, agonised scream and as the TARDIS finished materialising and Jack was lying in the console room, he looked up and saw that the Doctor had both heard and seen exactly what he had seen. He looked broken. Utterly and completely broken. Like someone had stomped on both of his hearts. Jack scrambled to his feet, running towards Clara, desperate to see if he could still save her. For the Doctor.
"Don't touch her!" the Doctor yelled, in a voice Jack had never heard before from this incarnation. Anger. Beyond anger. And pain, broken and severe pain. And hatred, a hatred that the Doctor reserved for the Daleks. And now they had taken something else from him. As if they hadn't taken enough, they'd now taken the love of his life. Well, this life at any rate. But there was something else in the Doctor's voice. And that was what made Jack stop. If it had just been the anger, the hatred, the pain, he probably would have checked Clara's pulse and confirmed the Doctor's worst nightmare had in fact happened. But the Doctor sounded determined. There was a single-minded determination in his voice. And something else. Almost a confidence.
"Doctor," Jack implored him. "We might still be able to save her!"
"We can save her," the Doctor said, this time his voice level, but more dangerous than anything Jack had ever heard. "We will save her. As long as you don't check her pulse. Time is relative. But if you check her pulse and there isn't one, then time is fixed."
"Doctor, you can't cross your own timeline!" Jack told him, trying to careful about the way he said it.
"Not unless I've already done it," the Doctor told him. Jack looked confused. "You said that the shields were already down when you arrived?"
"Yes but…" Jack cottoned on. "You want me to go back in there?"
"Twenty minutes earlier than last time," the Doctor told him. "You've got ten minutes Jack. Save her. Save Clara. My Clara. Get. Those. Shields. Down."
"Yes sir!" Jack nodded and thumbed repeatedly at the manipulator, until he vanished. The Doctor dared not look at Clara. This was his only chance. He couldn't let her down.
Jack found himself in another corridor, with Daleks on all sides. With a single-minded determination, Jack blasted and blasted, whipping and weaving around the shots, managing to dodge getting hit as he finished off the half a dozen Daleks in the room. He had no idea where he was, so looked around for an access panel. Any access panel. There was none and only one door out the room. Jack examined the room quickly. There was a lot of machinery that he didn't understand and what looked like cloning tubes. He examined them more closely. This was some kind of Dalek laboratory, probably cooking up more Daleks. The door shot open and Jack fired on instinct, using what was left of the charred Dalek to keep the door open as he slipped through. Jack thought of the look on the Doctor's face when Clara had been shot. He could not let him down. Eight minutes and counting.
"Exterminate!" a Dalek screeched and Jack fired again, marvelling at the efficiency of the gun that the Doctor had produced from within the bowels of the TARDIS. He'd killed a good dozen Daleks including the ones he would kill in approximately fifteen minutes but had already killed with the gun. And it wasn't even flinching. Until it did. The next Dalek was its last, as it failed miserably and Jack was exterminated. That hurt every time. He liked to pretend he was fine, but death was a truly horrific experience. Death through extermination was his least favourite way to die. Probably because it was the first way he'd died, such a very long time ago. He'd probably forgotten half the times he'd died. But he'd never forget that first one. Before Rose brought him back. He could never repay her for that. But he could bring back Clara. Maybe that would pay back some of the debt he owed the Doctor. Owed the universe.
Jack awoke, surrounded by four Daleks, who were examining him. He pulled the pin of the EMP and rolled, letting the pulse do its work as it incapacitated them. It was remarkable how almost every weapon in the universe was ineffective against the Daleks and the Doctor seemingly had a treasure trove of Anti-Dalek weaponry. He's fought them a lot, Jack reminded himself. He doesn't like to admit it, but he has. Jack strolled past the Daleks, pulling out his side arm. It wouldn't be as effective, but there had to be an access panel nearby. Five minutes.
Two Daleks, two precious minutes and a few corners later, he found what he was after: an access panel. Jack bent down and plugged the vortex manipulator into it, desperately thumbing keys as he dismantled the security systems.
"Exterminate the intruder!" came another shrill cry and Jack turned, firing on instinct. He got off a handful of shots to the head before the Dalek fired. Luckily, it missed and Jack finished it off with a few more blasts. He dropped the now useless side arm. He'd run out of bullets, time and options. He pressed the last few keys and heard the TARDIS materialise around him. He breathed a sigh of relief and grinned at the Doctor, who was still looking deadly serious. He threw Jack another gun, which Jack caught gratefully. The Doctor had his sonic in one hand and a necklace in the other.
"What's that?" Jack asked curiously.
"Motivation," the Doctor replied in a steely voice. "Not that I need it."
They had exactly nine minutes and twelve seconds to reach the command room and find a way to save Clara. Jack had no idea what the Doctor was planning or how he was going to do it, but he was stunned by the ferocity of the Time Lord as they left the TARDIS, Jack shooting every Dalek in sight, the Doctor behind him sonicing various panels, slamming doors on Daleks, running electric currents through passages, sending sonic waves through the ship's corridors to stun them. He'd never seen the Doctor like this. Six minutes. They reached the command room. Sure enough, there were a good fifty Daleks in there. Jack started to fire but the Doctor jumped past him, ramming his sonic into the nearest console. The shockwaves flooded the room, knocking Jack of his feet. The Daleks screamed in pain and the Doctor laughed deliriously.
"Hello there Daleks," he crowed, as the shockwave abided. The Daleks couldn't move.
"Identify yourself!" screamed one, desperately moving its eyestalk, the only functioning part of it. "Identify."
"Doctor, that shockwave won't last more than thirty seconds," Jack yelled, as he raced over to the console, I hope you have a plan, because we have about five minutes."
"Five minutes, thirteen seconds. But we won't need them," the Doctor informed Jack. "I have a plan. You want an identification? I'm the Oncoming Storm. But, more significantly, I'm the Predator of the Daleks."
"We are the supreme beings!" a cluster of Daleks shrieked. "We have no Predator!"
"You do now," the Doctor said, sending a chill now Jack's spine. First things first, let's stop you transmitting. I mean I've been blocking your signals since before I landed, but let's just make sure I don't have to anymore. Now, in case your friends back at High Command get interested, I'll just give them some general bones to gnaw one. Let the Daleks on the ship know all is clear, so they'll not be aware when you and Clara land," he informed Jack. "Better keep the timelines in check. Now, Jack, if you shoot this area here," he indicated. "It's the door control." Jack obliged. "Oh yes, you lot are waking up," he muttered, as the Daleks started to move, the majority of them shrieking about extermination at this point. The Doctor nonchalantly soniced the console again and the resulting wave paralysed them all over again. "Four minutes forty seven," he muttered to himself. "I was rather hoping for a more impressive finish time, something like nine seconds, but it can't be helped. Ah well, let's meddle with those memory banks, shall we?"
"Doctor, how can you do that?" Jack asked him, as the Doctor fiddled about.
"Little trick I picked up in the Dalek Asylum, a lovely girl called Oswin showed me. Anyway, no mention of the Doctor. I might leave the Predator and Oncoming Storm bits in, weave them into the Dalek legends. Makes me seem all impressive. Now, this is a trick I picked up from Donna Noble," he looked sad all of a sudden. "It's amazing how dangerous and intelligent I am when someone I love is in danger," he yelled, more to himself than anyone else. Right Jack, I'm going to localise the power feeds to this room and set all the Daleks in it to self-destruct. Four minutes twenty two."
"I thought you locked the doors, how're we going to get out?" Jack yelled as the Doctor finished off playing and strolled over to him. The Doctor grabbed the vortex manipulator on Jack's wrist.
"Boom," the Doctor said, without a hint of a smile as they appeared on the other side of the blast doors and there was a huge explosion behind him, the shrieking of exploding Daleks the only sound they could hear. Jack was silent, in awe of the Doctor. "Shoot them would you?" the Doctor asked him and Jack nodded, blasting the two Daleks that were racing towards them. "Excellent, now we need to hook the TARDIS up to the Dalek data core before we leave. Not sure why we needed her in the first place anymore but never mind, it can't hurt. Luckily, they store their data core at the heart of the ship. You clear a path, I'll whirl behind you. Three minutes thirty nine."
Jack's jaw dropped but he obliged, firing hard at any Daleks that joined them as the Doctor guided him from the TARDIS. As Jack finished clearing the data core room, the Doctor rematerialized, a smile now on his face, grim but nevertheless a smile. He looked more menacing than ever. The Doctor ran out the TARDIS, cables in arms. "Forty five seconds," he yelled to Jack. "Get on-board. And don't touch Clara."
Jack nodded and ran into the TARDIS, where Clara was still lying, motionless. It took everything Jack had not to rush to her side but he trusted the Doctor, who followed Jack a few seconds later, slamming a few levers on the console and sonicing the cables. He then ran back out and grabbed the cables, throwing them back into the TARDIS.
"Five," he counted. "Four. Three. Two…" The TARDIS dematerialised. "One," the Doctor finished. "Right, I've just picked you guys up, which means the Dalek ship will explode in ten seconds. And Clara will wake up in fifteen."
Jack shot the Doctor a look of pure amazement. What the Time Lord had achieved was unbelievable, he couldn't quite believe what he was hearing.
"The cables sent a stream of data into the data core. It overloaded, the entire ship went caput. Bang, explodey-wodey. I decided the stealth approach wasn't what I wanted. I left the Daleks a message. The Predator is coming for them. Dalek High Command will be losing their eyestalks over this. And, I displaced the source of the message, so they'll think the ship was in the deep space when it exploded, not near this Solar System. And Clara! There you are!"
And Jack turned, following the Doctor as he bounded over to the dead girl lying on his TARDIS floor as if only just remembering she was there, despite the fact that he had clearly been avoiding looking in her general direction. Jack' eyes bulged as Clara Oswald, who he had watched be exterminated, woke up.
Clara's head was splitting. She glanced at her surroundings and saw that was she was on-board the TARDIS. She had died. She was convinced she had died. She caught sight of Jack and sent him a weak smile and then she felt a kiss on her forehead. Her Doctor. He had never looked more relieved to see her in all the time she'd known him, except perhaps possibly in Trenzalore. But she sensed their bond was deeper now. He held her, his face bright and tears of his splashed onto her.
"Doctor," she wheezed, finding her voice weak. "You're crying on me." She looked up at him, shock coming to her as she thought more about her final moments. "Was I an echo?" she asked, a horrible thought entering her mind. "I mean, I was exterminated. Was that not me?"
"No," the Doctor reassured her with a warm smile. "No that was you. You were exterminated." His voice sounded light and cheerful, like being exterminated was no big deal. "And then I un-exterminated you."
"How?" Clara choked, her own tears welling up now.
"Because you're my impossible girl," he informed her, as if this explained everything. "And I love you more than anything. So I saved you. And such love makes men do terrible things. Like kill a lot of Daleks. And sort of cross his own timeline. Just a little bit. Because time is relative," he reassured her as her eyes widened. "I wasn't going to let them kill my Clara now, was I? I just popped back twenty minutes, with a bit of help from Jack and hacked into the Dalek weapons systems and set them to stun rather than kill. You're welcome by the way. I didn't have to kill them all. I just did that because I lost my temper," he added, a foul note entering his voice.
Clara threw herself into him, filling every inch of him she could find with her own body. Her lips enveloped his fiercely and he responded, his tongue dancing with hers, his hands turning her body to jelly. Jack cleared his throat and the Doctor dropped Clara. Literally. She hit the floor with a crash and growled at him as Jack spluttered with laughter and the Doctor raced to pick Clara up. She was too weak to stand, so he scooped her up into his arms.
"Take this," he told her, turning to the console and fumbling for a moment before handing her a pill. "Go to sleep. And when you wake, everything will be okay."
Clara nodded and swallowed the pill. She had just enough time to thank him and hear him wish her a goodnight, and then she slipped peacefully into the darkness.
Clara found herself waking in her own bed. The soft duvet around her was comforting, but not half as comforting as the hot breath on her neck, the arm wrapped around her waist lovingly, and the other wrapped in her hair. She could feel his hearts beat against her back, something she had gotten so used to, and she almost found herself surprised when her only heart only beat in one place. He nuzzled her in his sleep; he did that sometimes, plunging his nose onto the back of her neck and she moaned despite herself. She could lay there forever, with him, her Doctor beside her. She'd never have to do anything else for the rest of her life. Except she needed to pee. Badly. So badly she thought her bladder would explode. Cursing, she extracted herself from the Doctor's grasp and went to pee. When she returned, he had rolled over and was hogging the duvet. She snorted with laughter. He always did this. Whenever he wasn't fondling her, it was the duvet that got his attention. She shook him awake and he leapt up, hands raring for battle. He grinned sheepishly at Clara and pulled her into a long hug.
"How're you feeling?" he asked her nervously.
"Honestly Doctor," she replied. "I've never been happier."