A/N: So this just got dramatic.
Additionally, I don't know what laser bullets are, but they sound awesome.
Chapter 27 - Declaration of War
Braxiatel had tried to make himself useful to the future version of his brother, but it had quickly become apparent that he didn't need or want anyone but Leah. He kept telling him to get out of the way or go and make tea, so in the end Brax decided to just let him get on with it.
For the ensuing few days, Braxiatel had kept to himself. He'd gone to the library to read about human physiology in the hopes of not repeating what had happened. He had a lot of books to read, but at least he might have some notion of what to do if it ever happened again.
He emerged a few days later and went straight to the infirmary to check on his future brother's progress. He entered to find Alex in the bed beside his mother's, with the future Doctor sitting between them, chewing his thumb nail. The toddler looked a lot better, Brax noted, although he was still in a coma. More colour in his cheeks, and a normal heart rate. Whatever magic his brother had done had worked.
He walked up to Thete, still holding a book on human physiology.
'How is he?' Brax asked anxiously.
'He's fine,' the future Doctor replied, looking up. 'He'll need monitoring for a week or so but as long as he doesn't get an infection and you keep up his medications then he'll pull through.'
'Thank you,' Brax replied sincerely.
'No problem,' his future brother replied, before his eyes dropped to the book he was carrying. 'For the next time you nearly kill my kids?' he wondered.
Brax felt his ears burning. 'I'm sorry.'
The future Doctor waved a hand to brush it away. 'It's done,' he said.
There was an uncomfortable silence.
'Do you want me to drop you off at Anzen?' Braxiatel eventually asked.
The future Doctor nodded. 'Yes, please. Just let me say goodbye to Alex first.'
Brax nodded, fully understanding. The future Doctor moved forward to sit beside his son on the bed, reaching up to stroke back his fringe from his eyes. 'Ei'wi-joi. Tera eon'mifa'qe. Wi-arit aroinab qe kai'wi-mina'eon,' he muttered to the boy, kissing him on the forehead.
Brax stayed perfectly still as the future Doctor just sat there a while, gazing at the child, stroking back his unruly brown hair continuously. Then he seemed to steel himself, standing up and turning to Brax.
'I'm ready,' he said, though his voice trembled slightly.
Brax just nodded and led him in the direction of the console room. Unsurprisingly, halfway there Leah appeared out of nowhere and grabbed onto her future dad's coat in a very firm grip.
'And where are you going?' she demanded to know.
'Back to my own time,' the future Doctor replied, grinning a little, clearly at her assertive expression.
'But you can't go!' Leah told him in a tone of voice that almost sounded like an order. 'You've gotta stay, daddy!'
'Alex is going to be okay,' her future dad assured her. 'I've done what I was here to do.'
'But you gotta stay,' Leah begged him. 'Please.'
The future Doctor half-smiled, dropping down to her height. 'Hey, you know I can't. That's not fair on your real dad. Cos I remember being him, and I remember how much I was looking forward to seeing you again. Gonna be a bit of a letdown if I stay and you get bored of me, then ignore him when he comes back.'
'I won't ignore him!' she insisted.
The future Doctor laughed. 'Besides, I've got my own version of you to get back to. So would you rather wait now, or wait for me in the future?'
'Future! That's ages away,' Leah informed him.
He laughed again and hugged her tight before pulling back and cupping her face in both hands.. 'Don't grow up too fast, okay?'
'What kinda sentence is that?' Leah asked seriously.
The future Doctor laughed again. 'Yeah, you're right. But do me a favour? Go and look after Alex.'
Leah's face fell. 'You won't stay.'
He shook his head. She just gave him one final hug and stepped back. 'I'll look after Alex, don't worry about him.'
'I won't,' the future Doctor replied. She smiled, and ran off.
'Here you go, Doctor,' the ex-slave Kyeeta said, putting a plate of three or four thick, creamy urgalan pancakes in front of him topped with mindas fruit. The Doctor stared at it, bewildered, before looking around at everyone else's breakfast in the café. Jack and Seth both had the same, but everyone else seemed to have the set menu of porridge.
'Err…' the Doctor began, but Kyeeta smiled.
'This is for your journey,' she said. 'The last of the supplies.'
'But everyone…'
'Is absolutely fine with it,' she completed. 'This is the least we can do; to give you a good breakfast before you leave.'
The Doctor thought about protesting, but as Jack and Seth tucked in he decided the allure of creamy urgalan pancakes was too much to resist and he started eating.
All of the rescued slaves with the exception of the badly-beaten Elso were now out of the clinic and integrated into the community. Most of them had taken up roles, and some of them were in talks to be evacuated from the planet. The underground community itself had over two thousand people, and there were plenty of roles to fill. Every species of every age mixing together to help each other all they could. The perfect society, the Doctor mused, just on the wrong side of the ground.
He kept checking Seth during the breakfast, and the teenager was clearly becoming increasingly nervous. When they had finished and Jack left to clear up, the Doctor pulled his chair closer to him.
'Scared?' the Doctor asked.
'A little,' the teenager confessed.
'You can still back out,' the Doctor told him. 'No one will think any less of you.'
'No, I wanna come,' Seth told him, nodding as if to convince himself.
'If you're sure,' the Doctor said, gazing at him.
Jack returned with Elliott in tow. Elliott looked at Seth, smiled, and then looked at the Time Lord.
'You're leaving now?'
The Doctor nodded.
After the Doctor had checked the patients and given Elliott some final pieces of advice, Seth packed a bag of necessities, they bid farewell, and left.
Seth led them through the underground and to an exit especially created for them. They clambered a ladder and emerged near the set of waterfalls that the Doctor had nearly died in. The Doctor looked up to check the weather – it was cold, and dark clouds were forming in the sure signs of an oncoming thunderstorm. The Doctor quickly motioned for them to move away from the hole to the underground, as twenty seconds later there was a detonation and the entrance disappeared in a tide of mud and rocks.
'No going back,' the Doctor mused, glancing at Seth.
The teenager readjusted his backpack, and looked at his two elders. 'West,' he said.
The Doctor nodded, and indicated with his finger. 'That way. Stay quiet.'
Brax and the future Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS onto Anzen. Brax walked his brother to the gate, where they stopped short of entering.
'Thank you,' Brax said again.
Thete gave a mock salute.
'When do I tell you about Anzen?' Brax wondered.
'When you feel I'm ready to hear it,' Thete replied.
'But it's going to destroy you.'
'Pretty much,' Thete answered, shrugging.
There was an awkward moment as they both just stood there, Brax not quite sure what to do next. Then he leant forward, and hugged his brother. Thete was clearly a little startled at the unusual display of affection from his brother, but hugged him back anyway.
Brax let go and stepped back. 'Getting used to this human affection,' he supposed upon seeing his brother's expression.
Thete grinned. 'Take care of yourself,' he said, turned, and walked through the gates to Anzen Palace.
Brax sighed, turned, and went back into the TARDIS.
The Doctor lead the party back via the forest that the slaves had escaped through straight towards the road, but it was thick with police. The Doctor moved carefully and quietly with Jack and Seth mimicking his every step, and they managed to make it to a spot beside the main road. It was full of security cars, flashing lights and people searching.
The Doctor ducked, pulling Jack and Seth down with him behind a fallen tree to observe what was going on. Some were in huddled in groups talking; some wandering around the perimeter of the road making notes. Others were in search groups, clearly looking for the slaves. There was a fleet of police cars and vans, most of them empty.
'We can't get across,' the Doctor was about to say, when suddenly a very loud and powerful engine started up from somewhere in the distance.
'What the hell's that?' Jack asked, wide-eyed.
'Sounds like a... ' The Doctor paused, looking back towards the direction of the underground. 'Oh no.'
'What? What is it?' Jack asked.
'I'm gonna look, stay here,' he told them, and darted off into the trees.
Seth made to follow, but Jack held him back.
'He's running straight towards them,' Seth said, clearly alarmed.
'He'll be fine,' Jack assured him. Twenty seconds later they heard a yell that sounded a lot like, 'there he is!' and weapons discharging. 'Okay,' Jack conceded. 'Not so fine.'
They both stood up as the Doctor returned, grabbed Jack's coat, yelled, 'sorry!' and threw him out into the open forest.
Jack yelped, catching a glimpse of a horde of policemen running straight towards him before the Doctor grabbed his arm and yanked him up again, dragging him behind him as he skipped over the fallen tree and straight towards an empty van.
The three jumped inside, the Doctor quickly diving down below the dashboard and hotwiring it. As the policemen drew nearer, the van splurged into life, the Doctor grabbed the wheel and they accelerated at breakneck speed down the road, the Doctor at the helm. The radio exploded into life, playing a dramatic classical music-type track.
'Jesus Christ!' Jack cried as the Doctor drove like a madman, slaloming through the parked vehicles in a hiss of smoke and tyre screech as the music became even more dramatic. But in front of them the police had already been alerted to their presence, jumping into their cars to form a roadblock.
'Hold on tight!' the Doctor cried, as Jack realised that the Doctor was speeding up at the sight of the roadblock – not slowing down. The immortal hugged the back of his seat, checking Seth in the back who was doing the same…
The Doctor drove at a perfect angle in-between two of the cars, clipping their bonnets and sending them flying across the road. The van slowed only slightly, but the Doctor quickly sped up again and left the policemen in the dust.
Jack was about to slightly relax, when suddenly he heard the sound of something overhead. It was an alien version, but it was quite clear what it was. Helicopter.
'Get under cover!' Jack yelled at the Doctor, knowing full well that there was nowhere to go just as the helicopter loomed into view. The back door opened, and there he was. Spleen's brother, holding a gun.
Then he started shooting.
'Get down!' Jack shouted and ducked behind the dashboard, but the Doctor could hardly do that. So Jack quickly changed his mind and dived over the Doctor instead, attempting to cover him from any laser bullets, which were now pummelling into the windscreen threatening to break the glass.
The Doctor swerved and turned all he could to try and stop the onslaught of gunfire, but Spleen's brother had too much of advantage point. He was going to break the glass and they'd be massacred. They couldn't slow down as they were being chased, they couldn't go any faster as they were on top speed, and they had nowhere to turn off...
Jack made a decision. 'Seth! Stay down!' he shouted, and pulled out the gun he'd acquired from the female draconian. He clambered over the Time Lord to his window, lowered it and stuck his gun out.
'Jack! Don't!' the Doctor shouted, but Jack ignored him as he began to shoot. The first shot missed the helicopter. The second deflected off the shell. The third however, screamed straight through the pilot's window and hit the control console, which consequently exploded in the pilot's face. Almost immediately the laser bullets stopped coming as the helicopter lost control, and began to fall directly downwards like some some of cartoon character falling down a cliff. Jack only just caught Spleen's brother's shocked expression as the van slipped underneath the helicopter just seconds before it hit the ground and exploded.
The explosion nearly threw the van out of control, but somehow the Doctor managed to wrestle it back, Jack climbing back off of him and grabbing back onto the seat. He checked behind them, but the pursuing police cars were no longer chasing them.
'Go!' Jack shouted as finally they reached a junction. The Doctor took the right road, the immortal continuously checking behind them, still but no one was pursuing.
'Seth, are you okay?' the Doctor asked quickly.
'Yes!' the teenager squeaked.
'Sorry,' the Doctor said, turning right down into a tunnel. 'They were drilling down into the underground, I had to let them know that we weren't in there anymore.'
'Where the hell did you learn to drive like that?' Jack wanted to know.
'Michael Schumacher,' the Doctor replied.
Jack sighed, just accepting that. 'We've gotta ditch this van, they'll be able to trace it…'
Suddenly the classical music on the radio stopped mid-track.
'This is an announcement from the great and glorious leader, Pargeont Va'A'gnorn. Listen attentively.'
The Doctor slowed a little, turning up the radio.
'This is an address to the Doctor,' the voice of Pargeont Va'A'gnorn, the father of the family said, his voice full of anger and hatred. 'You have killed the first heir to the Va'A'gnorn Empire. This continent declares war against you and all who associate with you. You will be found and made a severe example of. If you surrender yourself now, I will consider saving your toes. Any citizen with information as to the Doctor's whereabouts will be rewarded greatly.'
'That was an announcement from the great and glorious leader, Pargeont Va'A'gnorn. Praise him, citizens,' the first voice said, and then the music resumed.
Jack looked at the Doctor, who was looking at him.
'Well,' Jack muttered, glancing back at Seth, who was finally sat up and staring at them both, utterly petrified. 'Things just got a lot more complicated.'
A/N: Translation
Ei'wi-joi. Tera eon'mifa'qe. Wi-arit aroinab qe kai'wi-mina'eon. - I'm so sorry. But you know that. Never forget that we love you.