Jack had struggled right up until the guard had threatened to snap Ianto's neck. Now they were sitting on the floor of a very small cell unsure of what their fate would be.
Ianto voiced what they were both thinking. "Do you think he's dead?"
Jack looked at Ianto, but didn't answer.
"Perhaps it's better if he is."
Jack glowered at Ianto. "No, no matter what he'd done, he's not well. If he was human we'd be thinking about treating him, not killing him."
"Jack, you're blinded by your feeling for him. He's tried to kill me twice, and then he went after Martha. You've killed people for less."
"He's not just people Ianto, he's the Doctor and I am not going to kill him."
"Then you have to take the consequences if he isn't dead," Ianto said and they lapsed into silence.
The Doctor looked on in horror as his other self walked slowly off the small rise he'd been on.
Below him thousands of people were running...but not fast enough.
The Chaos slowly and inexorably descended.
The Doctor looked away as the screams of thousands were cut off as they were devoured...but he knew their torment wouldn't end there...oh no, that wasn't how the Chaos worked.
"No, no, no!" he cried and fell to his knees. A dull steady pain echoed through his head.
"No, I can't...won't!" he screamed.
That wasn't a dream...it was his future. He felt the other him laugh at the prospect of the destruction he could reap upon not just the Earth, but the whole of existence.
"No!" he cried and tried to block out the laughter.
He couldn't allow this...why would he.
'Why!' he cried out, not expecting an answer.
He did get an answer in a flash of golden light and a voice echoed round his mind...the TARDIS.
'See what you have allowed,' the TARDIS said.
He recoiled in his mind as images flashed by, the pain... the heartache...the deaths caused by allowing the madness to overtake him.
'What have I done...I have to...that's not my future!'
'Then change it, stop it before it consumes you. You know how it works, you know what must be done.'
'Sacrifice.'
'Yes, sacrifice,' the TARDIS said a sad tone to her voice. 'Sacrifice.'
He opened his eyes then and gone was the insane darkness, replaced by sad resigned tears...sacrifice.
The medic that had been attending to White Coat's property looked up as he heard a banging on the glass wall.
He was surprised to see the patient standing at the glass, grinning at him inanely, blood running freely down the side of his face with what looked like the dressing from his head in his hand.
Thinking only about what White Coat would do to him, he rushed into the cell...which proved to be a mistake.
"I'm sorry...well actually, no I'm not," the Doctor said and dropped the bloody dressing next to the unconscious medic.
He wiped away the smear of blood and stepped out of the cell, locking it behind him.
He had things to do, people to rescue, weapons to destroy...and time was short.
Gwen thought she heard a voice, somewhere in the distance. She struggled through the fog of pain killers and sedatives and turned her head to see where the voice was coming from.
Hers eyes widened in fear when she saw a tall figure in a pinstriped suit bent over a computer terminal.
"That isn't right, not right at all. Why did he do that...why her!" the figure said, then hit the keyboard in frustration.
Gwen tried to move and let out a gasp of pain, which caused the figure to turn and move over to her.
"Gwen Cooper," the Doctor said. "I'm sorry, so sorry."
Gwen let out a weak cry of panic and fear when the Doctor produced a scalpel and passed out when he sank it into her arm.
The Doctor smiled as he'd broken through White Coat's supposedly hacker proof firewalls. He now knew the exact location of every piece of weaponry that he had, plus the one that he really wanted to destroy...and he knew exactly how he was going to do that.
What horrified him was the locking device on the weapon's system...the use of human DNA, a specific person's DNA. That saddened him and made him angry at the same time, yet another person who was going to suffer because of him.
Yet another sin to atone for...but if he did this right then he wouldn't be the only one seeking forgiveness for past sins.
He blinked away the thought as he put pressure on the wound he'd inflicted on Gwen. He carefully dressed the open wound and looked at the phial of blood.
"Let's hope this works," he said.
White Coat had finally decided what he was going to do with his property. It wasn't an ideal solution, but if he couldn't control it, then he couldn't allow it freedom.
He didn't notice anything particularly wrong when he stepped into the med-bay, except for the absence of the medic.
He let an annoyed breath, discipline had fallen alarmingly in his absence. Then he noticed that the Cooper woman was missing.
Then he noticed a discarded used phial and syringe and his heart began to race slightly. Then he saw the lit up terminal. He hurried over to it and stared incredulously at the screen.
"Not possible, no-one can ...unless..."
He hurried over to the cell at the end of the room and yanked open the door, finding not his property but a still unconscious medic.
"No," he growled and hit the red button on the wall.
The wailing of an alarm alerted Jack and Ianto to the fact that something was not right and they both scrambled up and pressed against the cell's small window...someone was coming.
They both jumped back when the Doctor's face appeared at the cell window, eyes wide and face flushed.
"Jack, Ianto," he said and they could hear the sound of a sonic screwdriver being used.
Jack pushed Ianto behind him as the Doctor stepped into the cell.
"Stay away or I'll..." Jack began.
"Really Jack, there's no need for violence, it's me...the real me I mean...no, wait, the sane me," he frowned, unsure if he'd said the right thing.
Jack narrowed his eyes and moved tentatively forward.
"Jack don't," Ianto warned, but he was ignored.
"Doctor?" Jack said and moved as close as he dare, looking into the Doctor's eyes. His heart soared when he saw nothing but chocolate brown soulful orbs looking back at him.
The Doctor looked away and bowed his head. "I'm sorry, I hurt you...I never would have..." he trailed off.
Jack smiled, his heart now flying, his Doctor was back. "It's him Ianto, it's him," he grinned and engulfed the Doctor in a hug.
There was groan from behind the Doctor and the Doctor disentangled himself from Jack.
"Ah yes...there's something I have to do and there's something I have to ask you to do."
Jack stepped back and looked at Ianto, then back at the Doctor and his heart sank again and as the Doctor began to speak the wailing of the alarm faded into the distance.