Chapter 29 - Recon Professionals

They ended up in some transmat room within the Va'A'gnorn mansion, which was lined with tens of transmats all active and ready for transportation. There were no guards; somewhat of an oversight, Jack mused.

He checked Seth, who seemed to have gained an air of confidence about him as he stepped out the transmat behind Jack, his eyes scouring their surroundings.

'Where is he?' the teenager grated.

'On his throne, I'll bet,' the Doctor muttered. He led the group out of the transmat room and into a corridor. It was very quiet.

'Where is everyone?' Jack wondered aloud.

'All out looking for us,' the Doctor supposed, checking each direction. 'We'd better split up.'

Jack raised an eyebrow. 'Really?'

'Didn't you notice? On that broadcast he only mentioned you being with Seth, not me. Maybe he thinks we've separated. He might not be expecting me.'

'Oh,' Jack realised. 'Okay. What's the plan?'

'Go to the cells and the slavery area. Get everyone out and find Elliott. I'll go and deal with the Va'A'gnorns,' the Doctor said, reaching into his jacket and giving Jack the key they'd taken from the female.

'But…' Seth began.

'Find Elliott,' the Doctor repeated, looking at Jack. Jack knew exactly what the Doctor was thinking. If Seth was allowed anywhere near the Va'A'gnorn father, there was a severe risk the boy would heavily consider killing him. The Doctor was trying to save the teenager's soul.

'Got it,' Jack replied, squeezing Seth's shoulder. 'We'll find him.'

'What are you gonna do to the Va'A'gnorns?' Seth asked eagerly.

'Dunno,' the Doctor admitted with a shrug. 'But I'll think of something. Go that way and head down. See you later.'

And with that, he walked off, hands in pockets.

'Wait!' Jack said, running to catch up with him. The Doctor turned, and Jack consequently grabbed his face in both hands and snogged him relentlessly for what felt like a small lifetime. He eventually pulled back, letting go of the Doctor's head. 'Been meaning to do that for weeks,' Jack told him, winking. 'I'll see you in a bit.'

The Doctor wiped his mouth, pulling a face. 'In a bit,' he confirmed, and walked off again.

Jack gazed after the departing Doctor for just a moment, before he looked back at Seth. 'Let's go.'

Rose was walking down a long, grand corridor, feeling very, very numb. Ever since she'd woken up in the lift, it had become apparent that it was important that everyone thought she was the Doctor – including Jack and Seth. So she had pretended to be him for their sakes. She'd somehow managed to get away with it.

However, now she was heading towards the tyrannical, insane fascist dictator without a plan, she was realising that maybe she should have come clean. She had no idea what to do. She had control of the Doctor's body, but that didn't make her him.

Never mind Seth and Jack. She needed the Doctor.

She'd figured that the Doctor must be unconscious, which was why she was awake. But he'd been unconscious for a very long time now. With every minute that trickled by, the increasing possibility that he was permanently gone was looming at the edge of her head. But she purposely kept pushing the thoughts away, and kept walking.

Can you hear me?

Rose stopped abruptly. 'Doctor?' she asked, her Time Lord hearts skipping a beat.

Hello. Stay calm, keep walking. Take the next left.

She obeyed him, moving again. 'Oh my God, am I glad to hear you. I thought you…'

She trailed off, not wanting to say the next words.

Don't think about it.

'What's happened? Why have we switched?'

I don't know, but it doesn't matter. Let's just deal with this first.

'Doctor, we're in the mansion. I told Jack and Seth to get the prisoners. They think I'm you.'

I know, I've been watching you. Well done.

'You've been watchin'? You didn't say anythin'.'

I couldn't get you to hear me.

She sighed. 'I'm walking in the front room of a completely crazy man and I dunno what to do.'

Me either.

She laughed at his tone. 'Recon professionals.'

Yep. Let's just get to the throne room to check he's there. Keep him distracted so Jack and Seth can get to the cells and slave area.

'Distracted,' Rose reiterated, deadpan. 'I can't distract him.'

Of course you can.

'I can't talk like you.'

You don't need to.

'What else am I gonna do?'

Whatever you think will work.

Rose thought about that. 'Maybe I can do the Macarena and he'll be so confused he'll forget to kill us?'

He laughed in her head.

'I'm serious,' she insisted. 'I need you.'

You don't need me.

'Yeah I do.'

Rose, you've saved my life sixty-eight times. I know, I've been counting. You don't need me. You were fine when you saved my regeneration, and you'll be fine now. Besides, I'm here, aren't I? Talking inside my own head. There's a sentence I never thought I'd never say. Or think. Hmm. Am I thinking or saying right now?

'Doctor, please,' Rose begged. 'I'm gonna get you killed.'

Rose. You'll be fine and you'll do it in your own way. I believe in you.

She just sighed as she took the next left and emerged into a particularly large hall, extravagantly decorated with a grand staircase in the centre, leading up to set of delicately-carved wooden doors.

We've been here before.

'Have we?'

I recognise the acoustics. Those doors must be the throne room, where I met Spleen's brother. Wait, someone's talking.

She listened. He was right. Although muffled behind the doors, she could hear voices. The acuteness of her Time Lord hearing stunned her slightly, as she could hear the words quite clearly.

'Has the boy not turned up yet?' Pargeont Va'A'gnorn asked.

'No, sir.'

'He will come. Keep guards on the perimeter. As soon as he shows, kill him and bring the immortal to me.'

'Yessir.'

The door opened. Before Rose could even think about hiding, three guards stepped out of the doors and saw her.

'Escapee!' one of the guards shrieked.

Run!

Her dual hearts immediately dancing a double-step Charleston in her chest, Rose had only just turned when she heard the sound of a weapon discharging, and instantaneously her leg felt like it had just been detonated beneath her. She cried out and collapsed to the floor, but adrenaline was pumping through the Doctor's body at a rate she'd never felt in her human one, and every single cell in her brain was screaming at her to get the hell out. So she struggled up, desperate to get away, but she could barely move her leg for the agony...

The guards advanced, and she knew it was over.

'We need back up!' one of them yelled into a communicator. 'Get up here right now!'

Rose!

She desperately tried not to pass out, but the gaping void of blackness was too much to resist. She fell unconscious.

Jack and Seth followed the Doctor's instruction, heading down every set of stairs they could find until they found the cells. It was absolutely littered with guards.

'They're all down here,' Jack realised.

'Why?' Seth asked.

'No idea,' Jack confessed, but suddenly one of the guards said something and there was a wave of shouting through the crowd. Seconds later the guards were running back the way Seth and Jack were, and the immortal had to grab Seth and pull him into hiding. A tidal wave of guards ran past, until there were only a few left.

'Something just happened,' Jack muttered, and already knew what. He looked at Seth, who stared at him in silence. 'He'll be fine,' Jack eventually said. 'He can handle himself. Let's get Elliott.'

Jack slipped out of their hiding place first, leading the way. He noted the two guards remaining, standing by a cell that was obscured. It had to be Elliott's body inside.

Jack looked at Seth, signaling for the teenager to stay where he was. Then, with every ounce of assassin training he'd had as a Time Agent, the immortal crept up behind the two guards, mouthed an apology, and deliberately knocked their heads together. The two guards sank like stones to the floor, and before doing anything else, Jack gestured for Seth to grab a body and drag them into another cell, disarming them in the process.

Once the guards were secure, Jack then turned to the cell they had been guarding. He saw the person inside, and froze.

Seth followed his gaze and also stopped, wide-eyed. 'No. How can…?'

Jack just stared. The occupant was bloody, bruised and bound, their clothes ripped, clearly having been tortured by the Va'A'gnorns to within an inch of their life. And it wasn't Elliott.

Rose woke up slowly; dazed and confused. She found herself lying on the floor of the throne room. It took a few moments for her to raise her head to get a blurry view what seemed like every single guard in the Va'A'gnorn mansion enclosing her in a circle, with all of their guns pointing straight at her. None of the guards reacted to her waking up, staying completely silent.

She waited for the Doctor to tell her what to do, but he wasn't talking. Was he gone?

She tried to move, but the movement abruptly reminded her that the Doctor had been shot in the leg and she gasped, looking down. Her leg and the floor beneath it was bloody. Clearly she'd been unconscious for a while.

Then suddenly, footsteps. She looked up to the door to see Pargeont Va'A'gnorn stepping forward from his throne, down the steps to her level.

Rose watched him as he approached her, pulling out a gun. The look on his face meant Rose knew he was going to kill her. It was time to be the Doctor in order to save his life.

'Need a hundred men to pin me down?' Rose asked in her best Doctor voice. 'I'm flattered.'

Pargeont Va'A'gnorn ignored her. He finally reached her, and instinctively Rose tensed. But to her complete astonishment, he walked straight past her and continued. She watched as he stepped up to one of the guards, aimed and shot them straight through the head in one swift movement.

'No, stop!' Rose cried, but Pargeont Va'A'gnorn was only just getting started. He walked along the line briefly, before raising his gun and shooting another.

'Stop!' Rose demanded, but he wasn't listening. He was counting, Rose realised. Counting, and shooting every tenth guard. He was decimating. None of the guards were reacting, although the closer she watched, the more she noticed their expressions. She could see corners of their lips twitching, beads of sweat on their brows, and in their eyes was fright, despair and anger.

'You're just going to take this, are you?' Rose asked the crowd. 'You're going to stand there?'

Silence.

'Would someone like to explain to me just why the Time Lord is out of the cells and sitting up here in my throne room, having just strolled casually through my house?' Pargeont Va'A'gnorn said, so calmly that it was threatening.

More silence.

'He escaped. Tens of you in that room, and he escaped from his cell. And he's not chained up. He's not hurt. How is he sitting in front of me with only a bullet in his leg that you put in there five seconds ago? He must have had help.'

More silence, as Rose frowned. He was talking like she'd been down in the cells. She shifted onto her hand, propping herself to sit up, still wincing and choking on her breath.

Pargeont Va'A'gnorn turned to her, fixing her with a glare. 'Don't move, you streak of shyn'tak. How did you escape? You should be down in cells. Did someone give you nanogenes?'

Rose couldn't be more confused. 'What are you talking about?'

'Do not play mind games with me, Time Lord, I know your kind. I captured you yesterday,' he said, his calm exterior quickly beginning to vanish as his eye began to twitch.

Rose blinked. 'Hey, I've been on the run for days.'

'You have been in the cells!' he shouted. Definitely angry now.

'I really haven't,' Rose replied.

'I tortured you for everything you'd done! I made you scream and cry and bleed!' he roared.

'Well, sorry,' she said, shrugging. 'Wasn't me.'

'But it was you! What scam are you playing, Time Lord? I will not be a fool to your Time Lord trickery! I know your kind! I've killed your kind!'

She was about to give a sarcastic reply about needing to get some glasses, when the dots instantaneously connected and a feeling of pure horror came over her.

He hadn't captured that Doctor, that was for sure. But he was insistent he had. He wasn't lying. Therefore, Pargeont Va'A'gnorn had captured and tortured a man who looked a lot like the Doctor.

And the only man who looked like the Doctor, was Zak.

'Zak,' Jack whispered.

'Who's Zak? That's not the Doctor, is it? It can't be,' Seth croaked.

Jack stared at the body curled up in the cell, unmoving. It was Zak without a doubt. Jack knew him so well.

Something deeply primal inside the immortal stirred.

'Jack?' Seth asked.

'This is Zak,' Jack finally managed. 'The Doctor's clone. And Pargeont Va'A'gnorn is fucking dead for this.'

Seth was kneeling to Zak, reaching through the bars to his wrist to check for a pulse. There was a brief pause, before Seth quickly looked up. 'He's still alive,' he said.

Jack dropped to his knees next to Seth, taking Zak's wrist from him. There, he found a distinct thudding against his fingers.

'Zak!' Jack cried, immediately attempting to break open the cage.

'Jack?'

The voice was so weak, Jack almost missed it. He dived to the bars, reaching out to touch his lover. 'Zak, I'm here,' he said, struggling not to cry.

'Don't… C-can't b-be here,' Zak whispered. He hadn't moved or opened his eyes.

'We're okay. We're safe. I'm getting you out. They're not gonna hurt you anymore,' Jack said smoothly. 'The Doctor's sorting 'em out.'

'N-no…'

'Trust me. Now don't move, okay? Just don't move.'

He tried the door again. It was completely locked, and it was only then he remembered the key the Doctor had given him. It really was one size fits all as the key slid in perfectly and turned, the lock clicking.

Jack took Zak's arm, making sure he wouldn't hurt him too much as he pulled him out into the open as slowly and as carefully as he could. As soon as he was out, it revealed just how badly he was hurt. The last time Jack had seen someone like this, he'd been on the frontline.

'Fuck, no,' Jack muttered, trying to straighten Zak out without harming him, but everything seemed to cause him pain. In the end Jack just leant forward and kissed him, brushing back his hair.

'S-sorry,' Zak whispered.

'Why did you try and land? You know you can't land without permission,' Jack said, trying to gauge all of Zak's injuries to judge how long they had to get him help. He couldn't even begin to estimate.

Zak still didn't open his eyes. 'S-saw you… in t-trouble. Hadda… hadda h-help.'

'You beautiful, stupid man,' Jack murmured, kissing him again. 'C'mon. We're escaping.'

He slid his arms under Zak, carefully lifting him. The noises he made broke Jack's heart.

One bullet, Jack realised. He had one bullet left, and it had Pargeont Va'A'gnorn's name chiseled into it.