A/N: Clocks went forward! The only way I'll experience time travel ... until the Doctor comes to pick me up of course.

If you need a reminder of who Zak is, drop by chapters 3 and 5! I know, it was a while ago now XD For a more extensive explanation if you'd like it, Echoes is the fic where he appears for the first time.

Chapter 30 - Showdown

'You tortured and humiliated an innocent man,' Rose said, staring at Pargeont Va'A'gnorn in horror. 'You didn't even check. You just saw my face and decided it was me. Never mind the different hair or clothes or personality.'

'Well, it just looks like I'll have to start all over again with you, doesn't it?' Pargeont Va'A'gnorn said, smiling.

'No, but really,' Rose continued, 'when his boyfriend finds his body, and he will, he's going to hunt you down and kill you, and I'm sorry, but I'm pretty sure there's nothing I can do to stop him.'

Pargeont Va'A'gnorn snorted with laughter. 'Why should I care about one man? He will be killed.'

'You should care, because he's the immortal.'

For once, Pargeont Va'A'gnorn seemed to still a little.

'Um, how do you kill a man who can't die?' Rose wondered.

Pargeont Va'A'gnorn shook his head. 'No matter.'

'If you say so,' Rose said, still gazing at him.

'Perhaps you should be far more concerned with what's going to happen to you,' Pargeont Va'A'gnorn suggested.

'Not really,' Rose said. 'Because now I know that Jack is coming to kill you, you've got far more pressing matters to deal with than torturing me.'

Pargeont Va'A'gnorn's eye twitched. 'I've had my fun with your lookalike. Now it's time to get rid of you.'

Jack and Seth had descended to the slave area, but it was absolutely full of guards patrolling with guns. They were drastically outnumbered.

'There's no way we can get past them,' Jack realised, still holding Zak, who passed out. His arms were aching from the weight, but he wasn't going to let him go for anything.

'But we've got to, Elliott might be in there,' Seth said.

'It's suicide,' Jack said seriously. 'We've gotta find the Doctor.'

Seth looked like he was about to protest, but clearly realised it wasn't possible to carry on, stopped himself and started again. 'Okay,' he said, glancing at Zak. 'The Doctor'll sort it out.'

Jack nodded, and began to head back up the flights of stairs. But they'd barely ascended two flights when an access door opened and Spleen step right in front of them.

He double-taked, and after a moment of the group staring at each other like deer in headlights he finally drew out a gun, his eyes narrowing.

'Fancy seeing you here,' he said, and his eyes dropped to the body in Jack's arm. 'I see you found your Time Lord. We did a good job on him, didn't we?'

Jack fumed. 'Shut the hell up.'

'For my brother and sister,' Spleen spat. 'I hope you know he screamed, cried and begged us to stop.'

'I said shut up.'

'Please stop! Please! It hurts!' Spleen micked in a high-pitched voice, before laughing uproariously.

Jack's inside burned with pure anger inside him. He gently lowered Zak's broken body to the floor, and stepped over him to stand in front of Spleen.

'Put the gun away,' Jack said calmly.

Spleen snorted. 'Oh, really? You expect me to?'

'Afraid of a fight?' Jack asked, raising his fists. 'No guns. Just fists. You and me.'

Spleen looked at Seth. 'This is handicapped.'

'Seth, stand back,' Jack said without moving his eyes from Spleen. 'Don't interrupt, no matter what. Got it?'

Seth paused.

'Seth,' Jack said again.

'Okay,' Seth said.

'Promise me. Even if I'm losing. Stay with Zak.'

Seth swallowed. 'Promise.'

'Even fight, one-on-one,' Jack stated to Spleen, his fists still raised. 'Winner is the last one breathing.'

Spleen gazed at him momentarily, and then threw the gun away. He took a fighting stance, a hungry look in his eyes. Then, he lashed out.

'If you kill me, I'll just regenerate, you know that,' Rose said quickly. 'I'll just keep coming back.'

To Rose's surprise, Pargeont Va'A'gnorn laughed. 'I have permanently killed your kind before.'

'Oh yeah? Who?' Rose asked, desperate to try and keep him talking; hoping and praying that the Doctor would speak in her head soon.

'A Time Lady who dared to enter Sirrus to belittle the empire,' he said. 'I captured her, tortured her. I tried to force a child – a glorious draconian-gallifreyan hybrid – but she would not produce one. So I hanged her from the ceiling by her neck. She suffocated, died, and regenerated over and over again, all the while begging me not to kill her. She cried, she tried to make deals with me. But I just watched her die. Seven regenerations it took until she finally stopped screaming.'

He pointed to something above the throne. Rose followed his finger, and realised that above it was the naked body of a woman with blonde hair, hanging by her neck, still looking fairly fresh. She instantly wanted to throw up.

'I keep her preserved,' Pargeont Va'A'gnorn continued, smiling to himself. 'To remind people like you that the Va'A'gnorn empire shall never be messed with. We shall rule forever. It has already been foretold. I shall always win. And you, Time Lord, well, you've already lost, haven't you? You lost the Time War. Your entire race are dead.'

Rose's eyes narrowed, but she didn't say anything.

'I have just one question for you, Time Lord. The stories say Ka Faraq Gatri destroyed Gallifrey and Skaro simultaneously at the touch of a button. You slaughtered billions of people in one second. How did that feel, Time Lord? I bet it felt glorious.'

Rose still didn't answer. Pargeont Va'A'gnorn smiled.

'Now look at you, bleeding on my floor, unable to stand up or even say anything. Completely at my mercy. Your pathetic race has been wiped from the Universe, yet my dynasty goes on. My son will take my place, and you will die and make a nice ornament next to your fellow Gallifreyan.'

He gestured to the hanging body again. Rose didn't look.

'Now, there remains the small matter of how you die. I rather enjoyed the hanging last time. I think I will do it again.' He looked to his guards. 'Bring me a rope.'

The fight was the most brutal Jack had ever had. Punches and kicks were flying from all directions, Jack and Spleen ducking and diving and screaming obscenities at each other in the fury of the moment. Spleen was using his claws – trying to cut Jack's jugular – but the immortal sidestepped his slashes and managed to get a few sporadic punches in Spleen's stomach. Only a minute into the fight, both of them were bleeding.

Spleen tried another slash at Jack's jugular. This time, Jack didn't move quick enough and Spleen managed to catch him on the side of the neck; just missing the vital artery. Spleen screamed in delight as the immortal stumbled backward, hand cupping his bleeding neck. Spleen then launched forward and ploughed into him, sending him to the floor with a crack of limbs.

Spleen scrambled onto Jack, gripping his throat with his claws digging into the immortal's flesh, ready to slice through his jugular. Jack yelped, instinctively using his weight to roll the draconian onto his back and leap to his feet. Spleen did a sweeping kick which Jack had to stumble to avoid, and into the confusion Spleen threw himself at the immortal again.

This time, Jack was ready. He parried the draconian and threw him to the metal wall by his arm with as much force as he could muster. The draconian shrieked in pain as he hit the wall with a shower of cracks and slid to the floor. He tried to get up, but it quickly became apparent that he wasn't going to.

Jack stepped forward, looming over his ex-cellmate. He placed his foot firmly on the draconian's neck. Spleen looked up at him, his eyes wide and terrified.

'I win,' Jack grated, and tensed, ready to put the full force of his bodyweight on the draconian's neck. He was going to enjoy this. He could feel his heart pumping erratically in his chest as more anger surged through him at the thought of what Spleen had done to Zak flashed through his head, but he couldn't help but glance at his lover, lying there bloody and bruised beyond all measure. Jack then looked back at Spleen. The draconian was supine, staring up at him.

'Don't go,' Zak reinforced.

'What are you scared of?' Jack wondered seriously.

'You hang out with 'em, you become one of 'em,' Zak replied shortly. 'They'll turn you into them, you'll become part of their world.'

Silent seconds passed.

Finally, Jack lifted off his foot, and stood back from the draconian.

'I'm letting you live,' Jack grated.

'But … I lost…' Spleen moaned. 'You ... should kill ... me. The rules of … of combat … dictate it.'

'Consider yourself reborn, try to be less unpleasant this time,' Jack said, and looked at Seth. 'Come on.'

Seth nodded, staring at Spleen as Jack took hold of Zak again, and walked away from the defeated draconian. Suddenly Spleen moved, crying out as he lunged for his gun, still abandoned on the floor. He took it, and held it to Jack and Seth in shaking, bloody hands.

Jack gazed at him without a word. The draconian was crying now. He simply moved the gun to a point under his chin, and took a breath.

'No, wait …' Jack said quickly, but it was too late. Spleen pulled the trigger and shot himself. Jack looked away as the draconian's head hit the floor, leaving the smell of the discharged weapon hanging in the air.

Without looking at Spleen, Jack turned away. 'Seth,' he prompted the teenager.

After a moment of staring at the body Seth finally turned and followed Jack up the next set of stairs.

Jack and Seth arrived outside the throne room, where they could hear a man laughing beyond the doors, muffled. They crept closer, pressing their ears against the wood. The laughing was of the man they had both come to resent – Pargeont Va'A'gnorn. And there could only be one reason why he was laughing.

'He's got him,' Jack muttered to Seth. 'We've gotta get in there.'

'Is there another way in?' Seth asked.

'Don't know …'

Jack placed Zak down on the floor gently before grasping the handle and edging the door slightly open. He peeked through the gap, and immediately froze, his eyes wide in horror. The Doctor was hanging by a rope around his neck, unable to breath, his legs kicking out, and Pargeont Va'A'gnorn was sat in his throne, laughing and watching him.

'What?' Seth asked, struggling to see.

Jack pulled out his gun, his blood boiling. 'Stay with Zak,' he said, pushing the teenager to the side before he pulled open the door and dived through.

He emerged into the throne room with his gun aloft, pointing straight at Pargeont Va'A'gnorn. Immediately every guard turned to aim at him as the dictator looked up at the immortal, and smiled.

'Come to enjoy the show, Immortal?' he asked.

Jack maintained his aim. 'Let him go!' he shouted, the sound of his best friend choking filling the tense silence.

'Take aim…' Pargeont Va'A'gnorn said to his guards.

'Shoot me if you like, I'm still gonna kill you before I hit the ground!' Jack yelled. 'Then I'm gonna come back and you'll still be dead!'

Pargeont Va'A'gnorn's smile broadened. 'Then it seems we have a stalemate.'

'Let him down!' Jack almost roared.

Pargeont Va'A'gnorn just stared at him, persisting with that horrific smile.

Jack's mind raced as a blistering fast pace. Silent, anxious seconds ticked by as the Doctor stopped struggling and his breath rattled away to nothing.

He already knew what he was going to do. Jack turned his gun and shot straight through the rope holding the Time Lord. His best friend dropped to the floor like a sack of bricks, coughing and gasping for air.

'Doctor!?' Jack shouted, but that was all he got to say before he was shot through the head by one of the guards, and died instantly.

'J-Jack!' Rose coughed out, unable to see him through her blurred vision.

'Don't worry, he'll wake up momentarily,' Pargeont Va'A'gnorn said. 'Guards, make them secure.'

'Stop!' a new voice shouted. It was Seth. Rose looked up, her vision slowly clearing to see him standing next to Jack's dead body, holding Jack's gun. She tried to get up, but her leg and neck quickly reminded her that was a silly idea. She could see blood on the floor, and she already knew it was another nosebleed, and quite a bad one.

'No, S-Seth,' Rose moaned, trying to wipe her face free of blood.

Pargeont Va'A'gnorn laughed at Seth. 'Shoot me then, human.'

Seth's eyes narrowed. 'Where's my brother? I'll kill you, I swear!'

Pargeont Va'A'gnorn raised an eyebrow. 'Who?'

'Elliott! Where is he?'

Pargeont Va'A'gnorn laughed boisterously. 'I burnt his body this afternoon.'

Seth stiffened, his finger still on the trigger. 'You said I could see him!'

'Rule one, human child, people lie. Your brother died screaming in the fire with all your other underground friends.'

A look appeared on Seth's face that Rose knew well. The face of a person about to kill the one in front of them.

'You … You ...' Seth stammered, his brow furrowing, the gun trembling in his hands. 'You burnt him alive …'

'Seth!' Rose cried out again, still gasping. The teenager was shaking violently now. There was only anger left. 'Don't! Be better than … than him!'

'He burnt him alive!' Seth almost shrieked.

'I know, I'm sorry! But killing him … won't bring Elliott back! Elliott was a doctor, he … he cured people … would he want you to kill in his name!?'

Seth hesitated, glancing at Rose. After a few, tense seconds, he lowered the gun.

Pargeont Va'A'gnorn laughed once more. 'Pathetic. Weak, stupid humanoids. Bring me his gun.'

The guards obligingly swarmed Seth, restraining him just as Jack gasped, reviving, and he was restrained too. One of them took his gun and delivered it to Pargeont Va'A'gnorn, who took it, smiling. He then aimed it at Rose's head. 'I suppose i'll have to settle with a bullet through the brain. Less entertaining, but at least it's efficient.'

Rose's mind raced, desperate for a delay. 'I saw Geranda,' she burst out, her hearts racing. 'She told me my fortune.'

Pargeont Va'A'gnorn laughed, but said nothing as he refined his aim at her skull.

'Don't you wanna know what I saw?' Rose persisted, trying not to sound too desperate.

'I know what you saw. You saw your own death!' Pargeont Va'A'gnorn declared, laughing.

'No. I saw you.'

Pargeont Va'A'gnorn was still laughing. 'Yes, you saw me, killing you!'

'No,' Rose said. 'I saw you falling off of the clouds.'

That made Pargeont Va'A'gnorn stop. 'No.'

'Then I took your place.'

'You're lying.'

'No,' Rose said, staring unblinkingly at the dictator.

Pargeont Va'A'gnorn paused. '... No,' he finally said, reaffirming his grip on his gun. 'Today you die! My son shall take my place, and the empire will stand forever! It has been foretold!'

'Spleen's dead.'

Both Rose and Pargeont Va'A'gnorn looked up at Seth's voice. The teenager was just standing there in the grip of the guards, staring at them. Murmurs washed through the crowd of guards.

'How?' Rose asked quickly.

'He and Jack had a fight,' Seth muttered.

'Yeah, Spleen shot himself,' the newly-revived Jack completed, struggling against the guards. 'He's dead!'

'You will not trick me!' Pargeont Va'A'gnorn yelled.

'Check in with him,' Rose said quickly. 'Check if he's still alive.'

Pargeont Va'A'gnorn's eyes flamed. 'I will not be deceived! You will die now, Time Lord, and become another relic of the great Va'A'gnorn Empire!'

'Why won't you check?' Rose persisted. 'Scared?'

Pargeont Va'A'gnorn eyes narrowed, before he reached down to his pocket to pull out a communicator. 'Spleen, come in,' he said into the box.

Silence.

'Spleen. Come in.'

Silence.

'This is urgent, son.'

Silence.

'Spleehaen!'

Silence.

Pargeont Va'A'gnorn just stared at the communicator, his eyes wide. More murmurs washed through the guards.

'Your heir's dead,' Rose told him. 'There's no one to take over your empire. The Va'A'gnorn Empire is finished whether you shoot me or not.'

'No. No. The Va'A'gnorn dynasty will rule forever! This is a Time Lord trick!' Pargeont Va'A'gnorn raged.

'Face the facts!' Rose shouted, frustrated. 'All your children are dead! It's over! Bye bye!'

'I can still kill you!' he screamed, aiming the gun.

'There's no bullets left,' Jack suddenly said. Rose looked at him. He was grinning.

Pargeont Va'A'gnorn laughed. 'I will not fool for that one!' he shouted, and pulled the trigger.

Rose gasped, tensing. But the gun just clicked.

Confused, Pargeont Va'A'gnorn tried to fire again. Once more, the gun only clicked.

'Told you,' Jack said, laughing.

Rose didn't have time to comment as suddenly someone grabbed her from behind and threw her to the ground as another person yelled. Almost instantaneously a deafening hail of bullets whipped over her head and she unintentionally yelped, covering her head. Seconds later, it stopped, and she dared to look up just in time to see Pargeont Va'A'gnorn's bullet-ridden body hit the ground. All of the guards in the room lowered their guns, and stood down. One of them stooped to her, resting a hand on her shoulder.

'Are you okay?' he asked.

She looked at him, confused, and then noticed the guards were also helping up Jack and Seth.

'You killed your leader,' Rose realised, looking at the man.

'He's no leader of us. He's had it coming for a while,' the man told her. 'Just needed that squirmy little son of his dead.'

'Doctor!' Jack shouted, running to her. 'Has anyone got a medical kit?'

'I'll get one!' one of the guards said, disappearing. The rest of the guards were pulling off their helmets and armour, placing their guns on the floor as Rose just laid there, and found herself beginning to laugh.

'What's so funny?' Jack asked, checking her nose, which was still bleeding. 'Doctor, your nose…'

'It's not the Doctor,' Rose replied, beaming. 'It's me, Rose.'

Jack paused, frowning. 'Um, what? Since when?'

'Since the lift,' Rose replied, still laughing. 'I woke up there.'

'After the seizure?'

'Yeah.'

'Why didn't you tell me?'

Rose looked at him. 'Oh c'mon, Jack, you needed the Doctor. So I pretended.'

Jack stared at her momentarily, before he grinned. 'Looks like we didn't need him then. Hey, that was impressive.'

Rose laughed again, but the laugh seemed to propel more blood out of her nose. She finally stopped laughing and looked up at Jack, wide-eyed. She opened her mouth, about to speak, when suddenly she felt cold. A strange feeling rose up in her stomach, like butterflies with razor wings, and she realised she could smell metal. She tried to tell Jack, but for some reason her mouth wasn't working. Then something seemed to flash inside her brain, and a feeling of utter terror swept up through her body from her toes to her head, like some kind of impending doom …

Rose!

Doctor! Help!

But that was all she managed to think as her grip on reality fell away to nothing.