A/N: Well I was sort of right... You had to wait a whole twelve hours more for this one! :o

I don't know what's happened to my brain that's making me type all these words so quickly, but don't speak too loud cos you might scare it away! :o

Chapter 21 - The Slave Trade

The Va'A'gnorn family had clearly decided that no one was going to escape from their prison, and as such there were no guards anywhere on the doors. They were also all old, key lock doors without any fingerprint locks or advanced technology. It was an all around safer system, but the key the Doctor had acquired from the female seemed to fit all the locks. So they made their way down the route the Doctor had memorised, and ended up in the slave processing area, where there was some kind of move going on with thirty or so slaves being forced at gunpoint down a corridor by several guards.

'Heading out?' Jack proposed. 'Ready for dispatch.'

The Doctor paused, thinking for a moment. His eyes flickered around, clearly processing all the options. 'Looks like it. We need to get in the crowd.' He closed his eyes, talking to Rose, 'yeah, I know.'

'What did she say?' Jack asked.

'My manacles will make too much noise.'

Jack nodded. 'I'll carry you,' he said. The Doctor nodded and they quickly moved back into the corridor, where Jack hauled him on his shoulders.

He then moved forward soundlessly to check for guards, the Doctor hanging over his shoulders. There was a small gap that Jack would probably just be able to slip through to join the crowd.

He waited until the nearest guard was turned away, and moved as fast as he could into the crowd of slaves. They all looked surprised but parted obediently.

'Please hide us!' he begged, lowering the Doctor who quickly got up, stooping slightly. The shuffling of unwilling feet, the coughing of the sick, the crying of the tormented and the constant sound of people being beaten by the guards in other areas was covering up the sound of his manacles chinking against the floor.

Whoever the slaves were, they seemed to just obey him. Many of them moved to walk closer to them as they kept low in amongst the throng of bloody, dirty bodies, their necks in strange collars. Jack kept his hand on the Doctor's shoulder to make sure he was close.

The crowd kept walking at gunpoint, through an entrance into a hangar, and then to another room beyond. As soon as they were all in, the door locked, sealing them all in.

'Four hours until transport docking for slave group 4,532,327,' an automated disembodied voice said from above them.

Jack and the Doctor quickly checked for cameras – there were none. The Doctor then stood up to full height, looking around. 'Thank you,' he said to them all. It was then several people stopped and properly looked at him, their eyes widening in recognition.

'I know you,' one of the women whispered, wide-eyed. 'You're the Doctor.'

The Doctor looked a bit worried. Jack was too. The last time a crowd had identified him he'd nearly been lynched. '... Yes,' the Doctor said.

'My sister. Do you remember?'

'What was her name?' the Doctor asked.

'Kezra. On Kimor Five.'

The Doctor's face suddenly lit up. 'Yes, I remember her. Brown hair?'

'Yes,' she replied, not moving her head to nod, Jack noticed. 'You took her hand and guided her out of the fire. She called you her guardian angel.'

He smiled at that. 'Did she take up her art in the end?'

'Yes,' the woman replied, still not nodding. 'She earns a good living out of it now.'

The Doctor beamed. 'Good. She's talented.'

Jack stared at him. Out of all of the people the Doctor had met in the universe, how exactly could he remember one on a minor planet with aspirations of being an artist?

'You saved me,' another voice said. They all looked to see a tadkedian sitting there, almost in tears.

'Chay'to,' the Doctor said, obviously recognising him. 'How are Kee and Muy'to? They'll be what… seventeen and twenty-six now wouldn't they?'

Children? He was even remembering the children?

'Yes,' Chay'to replied. Jack noticed that still, nobody had moved their head a single inch. 'Muy'to's a scientist and Kee wants to be a doctor.'

The Doctor beamed again. 'Good for them.'

'And my little brother. You saved my little brother.'

They all turned once more to a species that Jack didn't recognise, sitting there as upright as the rest of them. He looked horrifyingly young. He was almost crying.

'The earthquake on Neepa Major,' he said.

The Doctor nodded. 'I remember. I'm sorry, there was so many people, I'm not sure who he was.'

'He can't walk properly, he said you threw yourself over him to protect him, then once it was over you checked he was okay then went to help all the injured people.'

The Doctor, once again, nodded. 'I remember. I didn't get the time to ask his name.'

'Yeah, too busy saving lives,' the alien replied, and laughed. He jolted, which caused him to shriek in pain. Everyone else seemed to flinch in sympathy pain.

'Your chokers,' the Doctor said, gesturing at his neck. 'Is that why none of you are moving your heads?'

'It hurts too much, Doctor,' a woman replied.

'What's your name?'

'Gnola.'

'Can I take a look?' the Doctor asked gently.

She moved her ponytail, wincing as she did so. He carefully leaned in, examining the device.

'What is it?' Jack asked.

'In structure it's a ring of metal, adjustable for neck width.' The Doctor ran a finger carefully around its edge. 'Skin adhesive's been used around the neck to fuse it to the skin.' He moved to the back next. 'No skin adhesive here, but… There's something penetrating the neck. Two blades of some kind, sharp...' The Doctor paused, looking at the crowd. 'That's why none of you are moving your heads,' he realised. 'So you don't shift what's cutting into your necks.'

Jack felt a little sick. They had to be in constant, horrific pain.

The Doctor just nodded, sitting back and pushing Gnola's hair back for her. 'Sorry if I hurt you,' he said sincerely.

'You can't hurt me anymore than it does already,' Gnola gasped.

'I will get it off of you, okay?' he told her, and then looked around at the rest of them. 'I'll get them off of all of you.'

'Why are you here?' one of the slaves asked, tears in their eyes. 'You can't be.'

'Let us help you escape,' Chay'to said urgently. 'You are too precious to be here.'

The Doctor offered a half-smile. 'Precious?' he queried, shooting a grin at Jack. Jack found himself rolling his eyes, exasperated. 'I'm here to find someone who might be able to help me, and I'm also here to help you escape.'

'Escape?' one of the slaves asked, bewildered.

'Yep,' the Doctor affirmed, nodding. 'We're going to escape and I'm going get those collars off of you. Then you won't be slaves anymore.'

'Really?' another slave asked.

'Really,' the Doctor confirmed. They all looked at him, so hopeful.

This was how it really was, Jack realised. It wasn't about the man he'd seen, broken after Rose's apparent death, clinging to every pore of her body. It wasn't about the man who'd been so badly abused in New Shada that Jack had had to dress him. It wasn't about the man who'd pleaded with Jack to punch him and tie him up. It wasn't about the man who'd closed his eyes as he'd slit Jack's throat. It wasn't about the man who had given Jack a loaded gun. This was the man the Doctor was. The one who gave people such unconditional hope. The one who cared about and remembered everything about every person he'd ever met. The one who grinned at Jack when his ego had just been petted. The one who always seemed to convince everyone that everything was going to work out absolutely fine, despite massive evidence to the contrary.

The Doctor; resented by the bad, loved by the good. It had been so long since Jack had seen him he'd almost forgotten him. He wanted to kiss him, but quickly decided that was probably a little inappropriate right now, what with the Doctor doing his whole saving-everybody-in-here-whether-you-like-it-or-not thing. He'd do it later.

'Once we escape we need somewhere to go,' the Doctor told them all. 'Somewhere I can get all of your collars off.'

'My brother runs a clinic in the underground,' one of the slaves suddenly said. Jack looked over to see a fairly young-looking humanoid boy with messy black hair.

The Doctor nodded. 'It is close?'

'It's the underground entrance five miles east,' the boy replied.

'What's your name?'

'Seth.'

'Seth, if we can get us all out of transit and get us five miles east, would you know the way to go?'

'Yeah, I grew up around there.'

The Doctor nodded. 'Okay. So we get put into transit, me and Jack will break out us, and Seth, you can lead us to the underground. I'll then remove all your collars.'

'Okay,' all the slaves affirmed.

The Doctor then turned to Jack. 'Sorry,' he suddenly said.

Jack was confused. 'For what?'

'Because you need to take mine off now. Just pull on the bracket and do the catch on the VitChip.'

Jack stared at him, alarmed. 'I can't. We don't have the tools. I'd… rip your skin off.'

'It's fairly fresh, it won't have completely bonded yet,' the Doctor told him. 'It'll take some skin off but it'll be okay.'

Jack was panicking. 'I can't… because…' He paused, desperately trying to think of a reason not to. 'Because… Because your screams will alert the guards.'

In reply to that, the Doctor simply reached into Jack's inner pocket and pulled out the needle gun. He'd forgotten he had that.

'Good luck,' the Doctor told him, and shot himself with the barbiturate.

'No, wait…'

It was too late. The Doctor let it take him as he sagged, and fell forward straight onto Jack.

The crowd gasped a little, and Jack shared their feeling. The Doctor, their only hope, was now utterly helpless and completely in Jack's hands. And the Doctor was right of course. Dawn would break, and the family would realise he'd escaped, then they'd use the VitChip to locate him. It had to be completely destroyed.

Jack grunted, maneuvered the Doctor to lie on his front and looked at the VitChip. It was secured underneath a small metal bracket fixed with skin adhesive. He got his fingers just under the bracket, and tentatively pulled, but it was going to take more force than that. He pulled again with slightly more force. Then more. Then more. Soon he was using all of his strength in desperation to get the bracket off. It was peeling, millimetre by millimetre as the Doctor began to bleed.

Then it came off, making a terrible sound as it did so. Jack quickly moved forward, placing his cuffs over the bleeding points. The cloth turned red immediately.

Then it was the VitChip. It would have latched onto the Time Lord's spinal column, and removing it was going to be even harder than the bracket. He reached forward and took the VitChip between his now bloody thumb and fingers, pulling just a little. It was definitely fixed into the Doctor quite well, but if he could give it the right sort of pressure it would automatically retract. He took the bloody metal bracket he'd pulled off, scraping it against the concrete to get rid of what he'd pulled off with it and wedged it under the VitChip, attempting to find the sweet spot.

It seemed to take forever, as all of the slaves surrounding them watched in tense silence. It had to be a good five minutes before he finally managed to hit the release, and the pins automatically retracted. More blood. Jack covered it again, and waited for the bleeding to stop.

He felt absolutely sick that Brax had wanted him to put one of these VitChips on his brother.

It eventually stopped bleeding, but when Jack pulled away he saw the Doctor's neck and shirt collar were coated in blood, and his skin was stripped where the metal bracket had rested. Internally Jack cursed the Va'A'gnorns, not just for this, but for all of the poor people in the room who had it far worse than him.

He pulled the Doctor back up, the Time Lord still utterly limp. He placed him carefully in one of the slave's laps, who obediently held him as though they were being asked to hold the son of God. Then Jack scooped up the VitChip, placed it under his foot and stamped it repeatedly, trying to make it turn to dust.

Its light went out. Broken. They were safe – for now, at least.

He turned back to the slaves and checked the Doctor. He was okay, still asleep from the barbiturate.

'We need to keep him hidden,' Jack said. 'If they find him, this is all over.'

Brax had remained by his nephew's side for the entire twenty-four hour period he'd given the boy to recover. He then, under Jackie's watchful eye, carefully took him from the bed to the scanner. He put the little boy inside and sealed it.

He and Jackie watched, waiting for the scanner to finish. It finally beeped, and delivered a printout. Nervously, Brax took it.

'What does it say?' Jackie asked, her voice barely audible.

'The poison is gone, but…' He paused, double-checking the readout to make sure he hadn't misread it. 'But his… his internal system is failing. He's dying.'

'This can't be happenin',' Jackie muttered, in tears as she gazed at her tiny grandson still in the scanner, pale and comatose. Brax moved forward, opening the lid of the scanner and taking his nephew back out. He was so limp.

He placed Alex gently back on the bed in amongst all the toys Leah had got him, reattaching him to many intravenous lines including a few new ones. He now had to concentrate on extending Alex's life for as long as possible. As he worked, Jackie moved over to the bed, hugging Alex and kissing him, crying. When Brax was finished he retook his seat and for a moment they both just sat there, staring at the dying child.

'Granny? Uncle Brax?' It was Leah, walking into the infirmary.

Jackie offered her a watery smile. 'Hello, sweetheart.'

Leah stared between them in turn. Her face fell. 'He's gonna die, isn't he?' she asked, her voice trembling.

There was a brief silence.

'No,' Brax suddenly decided, standing up. 'He's not dying.'

Jackie and Leah looked at him. 'We're gonna save him?' Leah asked quietly.

Brax nodded, decision made. 'Yes.' He moved to Leah. 'I need your help.'

'What for?' Leah asked, looking up at him with wide eyes.

'I'm going to need to use your timeline.'

'What?' Leah asked, confused.

'Your father is the only one who can save Alex, so we need to find him. We can only find him using your timeline.'

Leah suddenly looked incredibly relieved. 'We're gonna find Daddy?'

Brax nodded. 'Somewhere in the future. But I need you.'

Leah looked at her gran, who was just sitting there holding Alex's hand. Then she looked back at Brax.

'Okay,' Leah said firmly, and immediately ran off.

Brax looked back at Jackie. 'Any problems, tell the Tardis. No one can come into the console room while we're travelling across Thete's timeline. It's too risky.'

Jackie nodded. 'Thank you,' was all she said, and turned back to Alex.

Brax exited, leaving the beep of his nephew's life support machines behind him.