"The Six" AU
'Journeys Converge'
Chapter Three
- Revealing Soul -

A/N: I don't own squat, except what I write.

Music: Muse - Undisclosed Black Hole (loofslaw Mash Up)

Sarah Jane followed Danielle through a network of small corridors. They seemed to be in a strange sort of ventilation system, and the only consolation was that it was too small for the Daleks to follow. Of course, that also meant that they had to crawl.

Danielle stopped and swung her left hand back and forth with that strange palmtop of hers. It looked like a cross between something Luke or Rani would fuss over, and something the Doctor would whip up. "Everything all right?" she asked her.

Huffing in aggravation, Danielle pivoted to sit. "Trying to get this thing to differentiate between the prisoners we came with, with the ones we're trying to locate."

Sitting next to her, Sarah Jane winced as she rubbed her aching knees. "Interference?"

"Something like that," she grumbled. "Thought that big shaft would clear things up," she waved absently to their right.

Sarah Jane looked to the rather large expanse not three feet away from them. Leaning over, she looked up and down. "Not a bad idea, there. Should be clear of too much structure that would bounce signals around. So," she looked up again, "what seems to be the trouble?"

As soon as she asked, a blue blur fell through the shaft. Wide eyed, Sarah Jane fell to her stomach in order to look down after it. "Was that the TARDIS?"

Danielle lay next to her to look down. "No idea, but whatever it was is headed straight for that huge power spike that's messing with this thing."

Sarah Jane looked at the palmtop in Danielle's hand. "So you're trying to pick up where the Doctor is? Remember he's not human."

"Oh, of course," Danielle said, feeling like a right idiot. "Okay, scanning for two people with two hearts with a body temp around seventy."

"Wait, what?" Sarah Jane blinked. "What do you mean two people? Is there another Time Lord here? The Doctor's the last one!"

"Oh, you think?" The smile on Danielle's face was smug. "Been living with two of them for most of my life, and neither of them are the Doctor."

"Stop being coy," Sarah Jane chastised. "The last Time Lord we ran into that wasn't the Doctor was a complete maniac!"

Danielle blinked, and her smile fell. "Sorry. You don't have to worry about Rose or Sarah trying to take over the world or anything, unless of course the world's holding the Doctor hostage or something."

Mouth dropping open, Sarah Jane put her hand on Danielle's shoulder. "What did you say?"

Rolling out from under a closing door, Jack hastily beat out the flames that were licking at his coat. "Stupid. Now I don't even have a gun." Hiding behind a pillar, he cracked and stretched his neck.

Flipping his strap open, he was pleased to see that the interference was broken and the manipulator was working again. "Okay, two with two hearts," he whispered with a grin. "That's them, and they're being moved." His strap squibbled. "Two got away. Better not be Gwen and Ianto," he grumbled as he headed in their direction.

The Doctor and Rose were separated in the vault, trapped in two different force cages. It was hard work to make themselves appear devastated by the loss of the TARDIS, and the Doctor emphatically stressed that they had to. While the screaming did stop, they both felt a strange echo and mental reassurances from the TARDIS as it disappeared from the zed neutrino core of the Crucible.

While they were left alone, Rose decided to tell the Doctor about their daughter via telepathy. Informative, the mental discussion was more of a distraction from their current situation. Sarah Anne Tyler was born nearly nineteen linear years ago. And, much to the surprise of the Doctor, she was born with two hearts. Normally, the second heart wouldn't develop until after the first regeneration.

Rose told him that Sarah got his gob, messy hair, physique, nose and chin; while she got Rose's hips, eyes, cheekbones and height (or lack thereof). Her smile was a direct mix of them both, though. While a snarky sense of humour got her in trouble more than once in school, she had already acquired three PhD's by the age of thirteen and was instrumental in helping her get the cannon functional again.

While the Doctor wanted to know what she looked like, he had asked Rose not to give him her image. Mostly, he didn't want to chance that it would break the mask of emotional pain on his face. That, and it would distract him from things far too much. As it was, the image she sent of their hands being tied together in a traditional handfasting had his lips twitching.

He said yes immediately.

Their mental conference was interrupted when Davros came to taunt them.

Crawling through the ductwork of ventilation, Jack was nearly to the two blips on his strap. Before he had a chance to turn right, a gun barrel touched his temple as soon as it cleared the corner. "Uhm, I come in peace?" he whispered rather lamely.

The gun came away from his head, and he heard Sarah Jane hissing. "I told you to drop your weapons! If the Daleks found out you were armed, we would have been killed on the spot!"

"Sorry," an unfamiliar female voice said. "Hunting for the Doctor, are we?" she asked him.

Turning his head, he saw Sarah Jane and a rather attractive young black woman. Grinning, he turned up the charm. "Captain Jack Harkness, and who are you?"

"Not now, Captain," Sarah Jane chastised.

The girl smirked at him. "You have got to be Captain Cheesecake. Danielle Smith. Dad says hi, and you lost your chance with Rose – so no pining away for my Godmother, you."

"I never have any fun," he mock pouted. "And that's Beefcake."

"And yet, still cheesy," Danielle snarked with a grin.

Jack looked at her and tried to stifle his chuckles.

Rose was completely astonished, and yet not that surprised. The so called 'test' that they were shown, along with the Doctor's and Davros' explanations of what occurred, proved that she was exactly where she needed to be. Not that she doubted that for a minute.

Yet another thing to be blamed on the Daleks. Just how insane was Davros anyway? Destroying everything throughout the multiverse? Put pyromania to shame.

'Some people just want to watch the world burn,' the Doctor said in her head.

Rose glanced at him with her eyes. 'Yeah, and people like that need to be permanently contained or put down.'

'Containment didn't work,' the Doctor quietly commented. 'He just got worse.'

They looked at each other again with pensive expressions. They didn't need to point out the other option, as it was as obvious as it was painful.

Their musings were interrupted when a holographic screen appeared in the air. The woman on the screen shocked both of them for different reasons.

'Adeola?' Rose wondered. She didn't mean to think that to the Doctor, but speaking to each other with their minds seemed more natural than breathing.

The Doctor glanced at her. 'No, that's Dr. Martha Jones. Kept me from completely losing it after you fell.'

'She didn't replace you,' he added rather quickly, and sent Rose a feather touch of affection.

Rose smirked at how defensive that sounded, but Martha spoke before she had a chance to tease him.

~"Repeat, this message is for the Dalek Crucible, can you hear me?"~

"Put me through," the Doctor said.

Davros smiled maliciously. "It begins, just as Caan foretold."

The gibbering giggling of Caan to their left started babbling again. "The Children of Time will gather, and one of them will die," he giggled.

The Doctor glared at him. "Stop saying that! Put me through!" He looked up to the screen, "Martha! Where are you?"

Martha reacted as her screen showed the interior of the vault, and her face cracked with worry. ~"Doctor! I'm sorry. I had to."~

Head tilted back, Davros rolled forward. "The Doctor is powerless. State your intent."

They saw her hold up something that looked like a large memory card. ~"I've got the Osterhagen Key. Leave this planet and its people alone, or I'll use it."~

The Doctor's face screwed up in confusion. "Osterhagen what? What's an Osterhagen Key?"

Martha was grim faced. ~"There's a chain of twenty five nuclear warheads, placed at strategic points beneath the Earth's crust. If I use this key, they detonate, and the Earth gets ripped apart."~

"What?" the Doctor baulked in a high pitch. "Who invented that? Well, someone called Osterhagen, I suppose. Martha, are you insane?"

~"The Osterhagen Key is to be used if the suffering of the Human Race is so great, so without hope, that this becomes the final option,"~ Martha intoned.

The Doctor was astonished. "That's never an option."

~"Don't argue with me, Doctor!"~ Martha shouted. ~"'Cause it's more than that! Now, I reckon the Daleks need these twenty seven planets for something, so what if it becomes twenty six? What happens then? Daleks? Would you risk it?"~

"Oh, she's good," Rose said.

~"Who's that?"~

"My name's Rose. Rose Tyler."

~"Oh my God, he found you!"~

Rose couldn't hold her smile back, and she glanced at the Doctor. 'Never talk about anyone in your past, yeah?'

'You're special,' the Doctor thought back, amused.

A second screen appeared next to the other one. Jack, Danielle, and Sarah Jane could be seen, and Jack held something up that was trailing wires. ~"Captain Jack Harkness, calling all the Dalek boys and girls, are you receiving me? Don't send in your goons, or I'll set this thing off!"~

"Danielle?" Rose breathed. 'Oh, I'm so tanning your hide when this is over.'

The Doctor's eye twitched when he saw Sarah Jane. "Captain, what are you doing?"

Jack's grin was smug. ~"I've got a Warp Star wired into the mainframe. I break this shell, the entire Crucible goes up."~

"What?" the Doctor half shrieked. "Where did you get a Warp Star?"

~"From me,"~ Sarah Jane said, stepping next to Jack. ~"We had no choice. We saw what happened to the prisoners, and if that was just a test..."~

"Impossible," Davros said, wheeling forward. "That face... After all these years, can it be?"

~"Davros?"~ she said, appalled, then her face set itself in stone. ~"It's been quite a while. Sarah Jane Smith. Remember?"~

His smile was disgusting. "Oh, but this was meant to be! The circle of time is closing. You were there on Skaro at the very beginning."

~"And I've learned how to fight since then. Let the Doctor go, or this Warp Star gets opened,"~ she demanded.

Jack wrapped a finger around the chain holding the diamond appearing device. ~"I'll do it! Don't imagine I wouldn't. I'm ready."~

~"It's the Crucible or the Earth,"~ Martha said. ~"Daleks?"~

"Now that's what I call a ransom," Rose smirked. She looked to the Doctor and saw pain on his face. "Doctor?"

"And the prophecy unfolds," Davros said, delighted.

"The Doctor's soul is revealed!" Caan said, still giggling. "See him! See the heart of him!"

Davros turned his chair around and smiled. "The man who abhors violence. Never carrying a gun. But this is the truth, Doctor! You take ordinary people and fashion them into weapons. Behold your Children of Time, transformed into murderers. I made the Daleks, Doctor. You made this."

"They're trying to help," the Doctor said quietly.

"Already, I have seen them sacrifice today, for their beloved Doctor," Davros taunted. "The Earth woman who fell, opening the Subwave Network."

"Who was that?" the Doctor asked.

"Harriet Jones," Rose said quietly. "They killed her when they found the control to the Subwave Network."

'It's not your fault,' she added.

"How many more?" Davros droned. "Just think. How many have died in your name?"

'How many more lived because of you?' Rose asked him. 'How many lived because you stood up and said no?'

Davros continued on, unknowing of what Rose was saying. "The Doctor. The man who keeps running, never looking back. Because he dare not, out of shame. This is my final victory, Doctor. I have shown you yourself."

Faces of the fallen flashed through his mind, and the Doctor felt what Rose was telling him deeply. Different faces appeared in his memory, smiling ones who thanked him, and he shared them with her. In response, she showed him what their daughter looked like.

His scowling frown faded as a large smile appeared. Davros was confused. Looking to the ceiling briefly, the Doctor started laughing. Long loud guffaws echoed throughout the room. Rose was smiling wide, and she glanced to the screens to see the others with similar expressions on their faces.

"Oh yes!" The Doctor shouted. "How hard it must be for you," he said, looking back to stare at Davros. "Living in the dark places of the mind for so long, you've forgotten the Kaled creed: Defence of House and Home, so that Our Children will be Safe!

"You idiot. I taught them to stand up for themselves, to fight the darkness and people like you, who simply cannot do anything except kill, just for the sake of it. Psychologists would have a field day trying to discover what twists and turns you have in your foul mind."

Growling, Davros turned to stare at Caan. Surprisingly, Caan was quiet.

~"Enough,"~ a deep Dalek voice came from the speakers. ~"Engage defence zero-five."~

A simultaneous bluish white radiance came from the holographic screens and the space to the far left of Rose and the Doctor. Jack, Danielle, and Sarah Jane stumbled as they appeared. Martha fell backwards, as she was sitting when she was transmatted.

Jack sped over and helped Martha to her feet. "I've got you. It's all right."

The Doctor reached out just enough to show them the sparking force field he was standing in. "Don't move! All of you stay still."

"Guard them!" Davros shouted angrily. "On your knees, all of you! Surrender!"

The three Daleks that were around the centre console came out and aimed their guns at the new arrivals.

Rose glared at Danielle. "I told you to stay put!" she hissed.

"Dad overruled you!" Danielle retorted, just as angry.

Incensed, Davros turned to face them. "And the final prophecy is in place. The Doctor and his Children, all gathered, as witnesses! Supreme Dalek! The time has come! Now detonate the Reality Bomb!"