26 Responsibilities

"How was I supposed to know?" Jack pants out as they run for their lives back to the TARDIS. "Who worships a penguin God?"

"Well, apparently these people! Run faster, boys. Their militia's gaining on us," Rose hollers back at the two men as they near the TARDIS. Reaching for her key, Rose has the door open just as even more irate citizens trans-mat directly to the glade containing their Ship.

The Doctor flies past Rose and directly to the controls, putting them in flight as quickly as possible.

"No, no, no! Harkness, did you have any tech with you that shouldn't be on a 38th Century planet? The TARDIS isn't letting us leave."

"Like what, Doc? I packed clothes, shoes, cosmetics, toiletries…," he replies as he ticks items off on his fingers. He can't imagine anything that would be a problem; this isn't his first… "Oh, hell! I had a sonic shaver."

"Shit! Okaaay, think, think, think! I'll see if I can lock onto your residual bio-signature and materialise around or near your stuff, let's hope the shaver is still there. I will not be pleased if people get hurt over your stupidity, Jack Harkness." The Doctor quickly turns towards Jack and rakes him with his sonic and a look that says this discussion is not finished.

Planting the sonic into a slot on the Console, it only takes a few more moments for the TARDIS to have a lock. By this point there is much angry banging on the doors from the mob outside calling for justice against 'he that committed blasphemy against the sacred Holiness, Ozmit'….the Penguin deity of Relitarium V.

Rose is torn between finding the situation hysterical (penguin gods, really!), and distressed at how angry the Doctor is at Jack. Through their Bond, she can taste his anger and disappointment, also an interesting dash of fear. Wondering what that's about, she sends him soothing thoughts of her own, trying to calm him down.

-Doctor! He's sorry. He didn't do it on purpose. We'll get the sonic shaver back, and everything will be fine,- she thinks softly in his direction.

-No Rose, it isn't fine. Even something as small as this sonic shaver could have enormous effects on this planet's development. It was stupid and irresponsible.-

-You wouldn't be treating me this way if it was my mistake,- she points out.

-Rose, I could forgive you your ignorance, fix the situation, and move on. Jack was, and in a since still is, a Time Agent! He has had specialised training to prevent just these sorts of situations from happening. He was careless or just lazy.-

Burying her irritation at the ignorance comment she tries again to make sense of his feelings.

-Understood, but that doesn't explain why you're scared, and I think you're blowing this way out of proportion.- Rose is still confused at the vehemence of his response, though he does have a point.

"Blowing this out of proportion?!" he yells out loud, turning to Rose and Jack. "Later in this Century, a particularly unpleasant version of Cyberman starts up on this very planet. I never could figure out why. What if it's because of this, this little tiny mistake? I might be able to fix this. Then millions of people would survive; but Rose we may have caused this."

"Doc, I'm sorry. I just grabbed it on my way out. I never thought…," Jack is visibly upset. "I understand if you need to take me home. I can't be around you guys if what I do inadvertently gets millions killed."

Staring at Jack a moment, the Doctor's expression softens a touch. "No, Jack, I'm not going to get rid of you." Pushing his hands through his hair, he's just about to continue when the TARDIS indicates she has found a location to materialise. Pulling the levers and pressing the buttons to land, they come to a surprisingly gentle stop.

Stepping to the doors, the Doctor looks at Rose and Jack who are right behind him.

"No. Stay here. I am going to do this myself," he says, allowing no room for discussion.

"But…," Rose starts.

"Please, Rose. Just stay here. I'll be back shortly." With that he's out the door, which clicks shut behind him with finality.

"Well, so much for that vacation. I'm going to bed." Jack heads off toward his room with shoulders slumped forward and none of the previous bounce to his step.

Rose feels terrible about the entire situation. Frustrated, she flops into the jump seat; annoyed that she doesn't have an easy solution and being forced to stay behind. She can feel determination and a spark of hope in her Doctor as he's making his way towards Jack's belongings. He's still upset, but now she can tell that it is more with himself than at Jack. It's because too many times has something similar happened to him, when some small piece of tech fell from his pocket or was taken from him when captured. It is exactly the same feeling he has when thinking about Torchwood. Suddenly, his burst of temper makes complete sense to her.

-My darling man, I love you. Please be careful,- Rose sends him. Then she gets up and heads to the Library. She wants to know more about these unrelated strains of Cybermen. How could they just pop up? They had almost completely destroyed her life, and had destroyed many others between her Earth and Pete's World. She was wondering what made humans want to propagate such misguided ideas.

-My darling man, I love you. Please be careful.-

The Doctor receives Rose's message with a small smile. Then he closes their link down some so she won't pick up too much from his surroundings. If she started to worry she would immediately leave the TARDIS and that would just distract him.

The TARDIS landed as close to Jack's things as She determined was safe; inside a facility that the Doctor assumes is scientific in nature. It has that ubiquitous look—all stark white walls, super minimalistic decor, and helpful stylised notations on walls and doors with titles like: Bio-rhythmic Display Forum and Nano-technologies. Finally locating the one he thinks may harbour Jack's futuristic/alien articles, Experimental and Alien Technologies. First, he enters the door next to the one he wants, finding exactly what he needs—lab coats and name tags.

Dressing the part should get him closer. It's not a good sign that anything of Jack's had ended up in this place. That means that someone has either already detected the higher tech or Jack had accidentally stumbled across the wrong person at the wrong time.

Wondering why the facility is so empty, the Doctor follows the sounds of murmuring voices to a room that is the viewing gallery for this wing of the building. There must be nearly a hundred lab-coated scientists filling the seats waiting for the main event to begin. Feeling a bit sick, he wonders how many aliens have been dissected to the perverse delight of these watching scientists. Hoping that that isn't on the agenda today, the Doctor politely finds a seat with a view of the forum below instead of immediately grabbing Jack's stuff and running.

Seated and surreptitiously checking his sonic, the Doctor is confused by the readings he's getting. It isn't showing Jack's tech anywhere near him, but off to the East more and several hundred meters away. About to follow-up on this new development, the Doctor is stopped from leaving his seat by the white curtain opening, and the contents of the exam forum open for display. What he sees there roots him to his seat in fascination, worry, and fear—they have a Dalek and a Cyberman laid out on especially designed tables.

Rose feels the mood change through their Bond. Reaching for the Doctor, she can sense that he is limiting the information she's getting. Pulling herself out of her research, she sets the book aside and concentrates on the Doctor.

-What the hell are you doing?- She sends to him forcefully.

With a wince at the strength of her connection, the Doctor clamps down a little more firmly on the emotional relay portion of their link.

-Oh no you don't! If you don't tell me what's going on, I will be out of this TARDIS faster than you can…-

Interrupting her, -Rose! Look for my memories of Villengard,/-the Doctor tells her, hoping that will make her understand.

Rose's eyes narrow at the interruption and the curtness of the reply, but she does as he asks. They now have a copy of the other's memories in their mind that they can each access, but it has to be done consciously. Rose is very thankful that all these memories do not live amongst her own. That would be terribly confusing.

Initially, she had received an entire river of impressions, but had promptly forgotten all of it. They weren't her memories, and she felt like it would be a violation of his trust to just go traipsing through them. But when he asks her specifically to explore a certain memory, she has no problem searching for it.

Turning inward and reaching for her Foyer, she arrives within the circular plaza at the centre. Intrigued, she realises that she hasn't been here since the Doctor taught her how to protect it. It was still hers, but now the vines that are a part of her shielded garden have grown up and around all the columns. They are blooming profusely, covered in gorgeous yellow flowers.

Turning full circle, she's amazed at the transformations that have occurred unconsciously. As she inspects her surroundings she sees a new wing added that must be the Doctor's memories. It's vines are blooming in blue, and his marble is a dark striated green compared to her silver veined white. Placing the word Villengard in her mind, she takes a step forward and finds herself at a door. Seeing the images carved on it, she starts laughing as she raises her hand to gain access to the memory. The circle with a line through it is over a fancy gun shaped somewhat like Jack's sonic blaster. Next to the 'no guns' symbol is an equals sign and then a banana. Rose is still laughing when she abruptly finds herself in a memory that has nothing in it to laugh about.

Listening to the attending researcher blither on about the metal man and the mechanised cephalopod's armour is enough to drive the Doctor barmy. The man is a complete idiot and has no idea what he's got in his custody, and just rattles on about where they were found. The Doctor can easily see that both 'specimens' are dead, thankfully. The amount of damage done to both of them would have rendered them inoperable. Wondering how the Dalek and Cyberman both ended up here , the Doctor is not surprised when another researcher enters at an introduction and to polite clapping from the other scientists.

This man is the brains of the operation. The Doctor can see that Dr. Coriolanus knows exactly the potential at his fingertips. He is the real danger here. Becoming more and more agitated at the man's descriptions of what he found inside the specimens, and what it would mean for his world and their bid to control their local region of space, the Doctor finally has to leave. Something must be done, and he's going to do it. With all the scientists and this madman busy, maybe he can find a computer terminal, insert a virus, or blow the place up—something that would keep this upcoming massacre from occurring.

Feigning a desperate need for the loo, the Doctor makes a hasty exit in the right direction before he turns back to the main research labs. On his way, he feels Rose come back to him. The strain in her mental voice from experiencing his memory is evident.

-Is this that bad, Doctor?- She asks.

-This has the potential to be that bad or maybe worse. They have Cyberman and Dalek corpses with their armour more or less intact.- His dread over the possibilities is clear through their link.

-So that virulent strain of Cybermen maybe wasn't Jack's fault after all?- Rose asks tentatively.

-Probably not. We're lucky this isn't a fixed point. I may be able to avert some or all of this, but I might need to blow up the building. The scientist in charge, Dr. Coriolanus, is a genius, and I was in the room, so I know. He's made some brilliant discoveries from his specimens, and his designs are specifically engineered to kill as many as possible in his goal to take over this sector of space. He's just started to explore the biomechanical possibilities. I have to stop him, Rose.- The Doctor is emphatic, but Rose can sense his caution as well. He knows the danger he's in. Not ending up on that dissection table is a new goal of his.

-Alright, what do you need me to do? I want to help. We can't let him develop anything like what they had at Villengard. That place was horrible. All those people used in experiments and as targets…guhhhh; makes me sick.- Rose feels ill over what she had just witnessed. She was very happy indeed that it was now a banana grove. It seemed like a strange memorial to place at the site of so much destructive potential; but it was a gentle one, and the people who had died there deserved that.

-I need you to stay safe, Rose.- The Doctor aims her way as he's opening doors, looking for a computer.

-Doctor, I was a Torchwood operative. I have handled many desperate situations and saved lives, and that was while I was human! Do not try and keep me locked away in your pretty box. I am your partner, not your treasure to horde away.- Rose was already headed to the wardrobe. She knew Darling would have some tactical gear set out for her. Rose was going to help, and make sure this didn't kill her or her stubborn man.

-Rose! I…fine. Refine the location of Jack's things with the TARDIS and retrieve them. They are no where near the research forum with the specimens in it, and that seems to be where the majority of the population in this building is located. You should have plenty of time. They wear the long white lab coats, grab one of those, too. And Rose, please be careful.- He can tell she's already getting dressed to head out of the TARDIS.

-On it!- she replies briskly, very glad that he had relented. Rose much preferred a task to waiting.

It frustrates him that she won't just listen. What will he do if something happens to her? But she's right; she knows what she's doing.

Raised in an ancient telepathic society, the Doctor's mind naturally categorised Rose's memories for him, and he has glanced through at least a portion of all her memories. He is amazed at her resilience and her tenacity. Though she appears to be at times, she isn't a hot head, and had a track record with her team at Torchwood of being very methodical. He didn't like how often she'd resorted to guns in dire situations, but even he had to admit that with the resources available, he isn't sure what other options there would have been. He might as well acquiesce now and give her a task. He didn't fancy being on the receiving end of the Tyler slap if he continued to deny her. And it is important to her—to be his partner.

He has spent his entire life making decisions for others. It is entirely new for him to make decisions with another. It will take some getting used to, but he has to acknowledge that Rose feels the same way about him being lost or hurt. Her feelings are just as valid as his.

Sighing to himself, the Doctor continues searching for a computer. Where do they keep the damn things around here? He would expect every desk would… /Moron,/ he thinks to himself. /You're in the 38th Century. The desks are the computers./

Stepping into the next office, he slides in behind the desk and glides his palms over the surface. Instantly an interface activates and hovers over the desktop. Thankfully the interface isn't isometric, or hacking it would be a bit more difficult. Taking out his sonic, he begins carefully accessing files and data on the project—Revelations. /Humans, so dramatic,/ the Doctor thinks as he delves deeper and deeper inside the information, looking for a way to stop them and determining how far the cancer goes.

"Jack! Get up! We're going to help," Rose yells through his door. She knocks a couple of times, but gets no answer. Checking the door, it opens easily under her hands. Stepping cautiously into the room, she's amazed to see what the TARDIS had done for Jack. It looks like a lodge in the woods. All wood and stone for the walls with a gorgeous and huge fireplace, all decorated in colours of green and brown. The tree trunks at the corners of the room appear to be living, and there is a light dusting of leaves against the palely lit ceiling above her.

Hearing a quiet sniff, Rose comes back to her purpose and looks around the room for Jack. "Jack? We have a mission. I was hoping you'd want to come with me," she says as she goes deeper into the room, looking for her hurting friend.

Finally finding him, curled up in a chair in front of the fireplace, Rose goes to him.

"Jack, it isn't your fault," she begins but Jack cuts her off.

"Yes, it is. You heard the Doctor. My mistake kills those people, and they're going to be cyberised, ugh!" Still upset, she watches as he takes a swallow of amber liquid from a glass she didn't notice before.

"No, you idiot, listen to me. It isn't your fault. The Doctor just discovered they have a dead Dalek and Cyberman that they've been reverse-engineering. Your little sonic shaver is no where near them. And you had better not be drunk, because we're going to retrieve your stuff while the Doctor finds a way to stop this. Then we're going to go help." Removing the glass from his unresisting hand, Rose takes it to the sink of his en suite and pours it out. Returning to the main room, she sees he's still in the same position, hand slightly raised, but no longer holding a cup and blinking owlishly up at her.

"It wasn't me? We have a mission? Rosie! That's the best news I've had all day. The way things change around here; it's amazing you don't go mad!" And with a whoop, he leaps up from the chair where Rose now realises he was sitting completely naked, wrapped in a blanket. As he rushes around the room getting dressed, Rose moves toward the doorway to avoid seeing more of Jack Harkness than she already has.

"Who says we aren't mad, Jack?" Rose quips. "I'll see you in the Console Room when you're ready."

Jack is only a few more minutes, which gives Rose enough time to find another lab coat and a set of brainy specs for Jack. Covering their kits with the lab coats, they head out in the direction given them by the TARDIS, who also helpfully provides them a rough map. Putting on the brainy-specs, Jack hunches his shoulders and shrinks into his coat a bit, ruffling his hair is the last touch to making him look positively nerdy. Rose presses her lips together hard to keep from laughing as they head off in the indicated direction.

"Ah-ha! Gotchya!" The Doctor exclaims quietly as he finds access to a secondary mainframe off site that backs up everything for this facility. Tinkering with his sonic a moment, he removes the end from it and plugs it into the terminal. The screen shows a status bar as the system unsuspectingly downloads a terminal and very thorough virus from the Doctor's sonic. He grins at his cleverness, just as the door next to him opens and Dr. Coriolanus steps in.

"Ahhh….I see we have an intruder," he says quietly, closing and locking the door behind him. Turning slowly, to look at the Doctor as if he is examining a new specimen, Dr. Coriolanus begins speaking again, "I was told someone had left the forum. Attendance is mandatory, and you were gone too long to have only needed a restroom break. Security cameras showed me exactly where you were, and isolating this office was really quite simple. Too bad your destructive efforts will go for naught. I locked that computer into a loop. Nothing you put in will get out."

Dr. Coriolanus's face transforms into a rictus, the Doctor assumes qualifies as a smile for this man. The Doctor needs to keep him talking. There's only another minute or so for the download to complete, and he'll be in business.

He'd noticed the security measures that were attempted, but he had easily turned them back onto the sending unit, and it was actually that computer that was looped. That was okay though; it was still included in the systems to be devoured.

"Oh, hello. Nice place you have here. Such interesting…research. Do you have any idea how those incredible creatures arrived here? I thought we were so safe. My lab partner just the other day was saying…"

"Stop your prattling. I know you aren't one of my researchers. They're all chipped. You're something else entirely, and if the scans can be believed, alien as well," he says as he takes a step toward the Doctor. "I am so interested in aliens. Their technology, their outsides, their insides—I find them…fascinating. So, what should I call you? A name would be nice since this is going to be your new home for a very long time. I'm Revelations Project Director Dr. Coriolanus, by the way," he almost purrs. His confident and calculated assurance disturbs the Doctor. It reminds him too much of the Rani. She too, was perfectly able to sound rational and even sometimes sympathetic to the creatures she was dissecting alive. He has a very hard time suppressing the shudder at the memories of what she'd been capable of during the Time War.

"I'm the Doctor, and now that the pretending is finished, I'll give you your one chance," he states flatly. His confident smirk and eyebrow are fully in play. Which he can see annoys the Director…even better.

"Doctor? That isn't a name, it's an earned title. And, one chance for what, dear boy? Surrendering quietly would be your best option. I would hate to…damage you." The quiet menace in his tone sounds just like the one John Hart had used on the Doctor, before he became too delirious. As that hated memory creeps up on him, it seems he can do nothing to hold it at bay.

/"That's good; an obedient response. I like it, except…you forgot the Master," he says almost intimately. At the first licks of fire in his mind, the Doctor's knees give out and he slams to the floor panting. Not fully in control of himself, part of his mind sickeningly hears himself begging for it to stop, "Gah….sorry…sorry…sorry…please...no not again, no never, of course Master, whatever you want, no never again…please."/

Feeling the edges of his vision tunnel in and panic rise in his mind during the flashback, the Doctor is mercifully distracted by both the ding of the download being complete, and Rose's mental acknowledgement that Jack's things have been retrieved. Also that Jack accidentally dropped the shaver into the ocean at one point, and all the electronic and sonic parts are corroded. They were headed to the TARDIS, full speed.

Cheeky grin back in full force with this bit of extremely good news, the Doctor sloppily pushes all the other feelings down and is more or less feeling in control of the situation again…sort of. Turning his thousand watt smile onto his supposed adversary, he decides to taunt him a bit, "The self destruct should start in three…Two…One…"

ALERT! ALERT! FACILITY ONE HAS BEEN COMPROMISED! SELF-DESTRUCT SEQUENCE INITIATED! EFFECT EVACUATION IMMEDIATELY! TIME REMAINING 15 MINUTES AND 49 SECONDS! ALERT! ALERT! …

"Actually, my dear Dr. Coriolanus, my name is a promise-one you have obviously failed to keep," the Doctor says condescendingly, scorn evident in his tone. "This is your only chance to give up and stop this madness. Your specimens are known as extremely violent and hated enemies across the entire Universe. Nothing good will come of your need for dominance. Let your people develop naturally. Knowledge is beautiful, it doesn't have to be destructive." As he is giving his ultimatum to Dr. Coriolanus, the Doctor is slowly edging his way around the desk, hoping to get closer to the door when the scientist had rushed to the computer and madly began typing, trying to avert the self-destruct sequence the Doctor had begun.

"Stop!" Dr. Coriolanus shouts at the Doctor. Looking back toward the scientist, the Doctor sees a blaster in his hand pointed none too steadily at his head. "You cannot just waltz in here and destroy my life's work! I have been working for the glory of my people and Ozmit-the Holy Penguin my entire life. Our ascendence to the stars is assured by my research. One chance to stop? Save your pleas for your guards as I strap you…"

Moving faster than Coriolanus would have thought possible, the Doctor has the gun in his hand now and crushes it; causing sparks and blue goo to run from it. Throwing it aside, he grabs the scientist by the shoulder. The Doctor shakes him a bit, his eyes black and filled with rage. The Doctor may not be as recovered from his ordeal as he likes to pretend he is. Too much of this rage is left over from his treatment by John Hart-who this man has made the mistake of reminding him of.

"Do you want to know what your 'ascendency' means? Do you want to see it? I can show you. I'm not just an alien, I'm a Time Lord. Do you know what that means?" At a nervous head shake from the wide-eyed Dr. Coriolanus, the Doctor continues, "No? It means that I can see Time, I can feel Time, and I protect Time...from madmen like you."

With no thought for consequences, he slaps his goo covered hand against the side of the scientist's skull, pressing his fingers to his temples. The Doctor opens wide the door to his memories of the Cybermen's destructive actions. Their march across whole systems and galaxies before finally being stopped. Of the slaughtered multitudes that were cyberised in their wake. Then the Doctor shows him just a little of the terrible power the Daleks have and their reign of terror across whole swathes of time and space, leaving broken planets and extinction in their wake.

Dr. Coriolanus is struggling and crying out, trying to get away from the onslaught in his mind. The fire, the pain, the screams! It was one thing to inflict them on others, but to feel it oneself was a whole other matter.

Rose bursts through the door just as the scientist's struggles begin to weaken. His body unable to maintain consciousness against the mental barrage it is currently fighting against.

"Doctor!" Getting no response, Rose reaches out and touches him.

-DOCTOR!-she screams into his mind. Because they are touching, it blasts everything else away. Releasing Dr. Coriolanus, who slumps to the ground unconscious, the Doctor blinks around at his surroundings as he stumbles back, seeming unsure of where he is.

"Rose? What happened? I … Oh," is all he says, gaze alighting on Dr. Coriolanus slumped on the floor.

"He was going to kill so many, Rose. He didn't understand. He wanted to keep me and experiment on me. He…" Not able or wanting to continue, he leans against her, burying his face in her hair. Rose folds him into her embrace murmuring to him, that he's safe. He nods but clings to her like he's hanging on for dear life.

Rose can feel that he'd been on the verge of having a panic attack for a while. When he threatened the scientist, he had lost all control over their link, so focused was he on the resurgence of all the feelings John Hart had left him with. Rose had felt the irrational terror and rage overwhelm the Doctor's mind through the restored link, and she'd left the TARDIS at a full out run, looking for the Doctor.

She had mistakenly thought he was past the trauma, he'd been so normal once he'd recovered physically. Well, as normal for the Doctor goes, but he had repressed those feelings instead. Now, she could see that Dr. Coriolanus had triggered all the memories from that time and was unprepared for the tidal wave of fury he had received. She almost felt bad for the doomed researcher.

How does one go about treating PTSD in a Time Lord? Probably just with time, and getting him to talk about it with her. They each had the memories, but hadn't explored the emotional trauma of their time apart. They hadn't made the time.

Jack bursts through the door just a few minutes behind Rose, and assesses the situation rapidly. Having dealt with his own share of PTSD at times, Jack recognises the signs in the Doctor's glazed, shocky look as he and Rose turn to face him. Slapping a cheerful expression of 'Wow! Here my friends are. Let's go!' on his face, Jack herds them all toward the door.

"Alright kids, let's blow this joint. All personnel has been evacuated, including the nearby town. Apparently there was an explosion in the hills to the South of here, so all the emergency vehicles were headed that way when this started. We only have 5 minutes to get back to the TARDIS. You go ahead, I'll get the brainac here." Stooping to pick up Dr Coriolanus, Jack is surprised to hear Rose's voice tell him not to.

"No, Jack. Leave him." Without an explanation, Rose turns away and supporting the Doctor through the door, heads down the hallway toward the TARDIS.

Jack takes one more look back at Dr. Coriolanus. "I don't know what exactly you did mister, but you pissed off the wrong people," he says to the comatose man at his feet The empty look in the Doctor's eyes hurt Jack's heart, and to think this man had caused that. Jack had thought the Doctor past the worst of his experience, but whatever had transpired here had brought it all back full force, and he had acted out.

Knowing his new friends well enough, Jack stoops and throws the scientist over his shoulder. Running as fast as he can, he comes to the trans-mat with 3 minutes to spare. It's still set for the coordinates that the remaining staff had been relocated to. Setting Dr. Coriolanus on the transport pad, Jack scribbles a quick note and stuffs it in the scientist's pocket. Slapping the button for transportation, Jack is off like a shot. Reaching the TARDIS with 35 seconds to spare, he's met by a glare from Rose, but no yelling. Looking around as she sends them into Vortex, Jack spots the Doctor sitting in the jumpseat staring off into space. With a sigh, Jack walks up the ramp and starts seeing what he can do to help.

On the other side of Relitarium V a group of scientists and other building staff are conversing in groups, waiting to be picked up and flown somewhere safe. They're all glad to have been evacuated, but didn't understand why the coordinates sent them here.

Suddenly the trans-mat hums again and in a flash of blue, Dr. Coriolanus is laying on the transport pad.

"Dr. Coriolanus! We were so worried. Help me! He's unconscious."

"How did he get here unconscious?"

"What are the burns on his face?"

"Dr. Coriolanus?"

"Hmmm…too bad."

Surrounded by mostly concerned though wary colleagues, the director finally starts to awaken. As he does, though, his eyes go wide and he begins screaming incoherently as he tries to get all of the helping hands away from him. Restraining him, they finally get him sedated to the stunned silence of the crowd. The madness in his eyes was plain for all to see. What no one knew was whether or not the mad genius would recover. Not all of the scientists were in a hurry for that to happen.

One of them found the note that had been dislodged from his pocket. Straightening, she reads it aloud:

"-Everyone deserves a choice and a chance to live.- What does that mean?"

One of the more rational scientists knows exactly what it means, and he intends to follow through with the second chance they've been given.

With Dr. Coriolanus incapacitated, they never learned why they were transported so far from civilisation onto a lonely hillside on the Western continent. No one would ever learn of the second hidden research base that had been Dr. Coriolanus's private playground.

A/N: Hello! Second to last chapter, my friends. The ride is almost complete. I hope you've enjoyed it. :-)