A/N: I KNEW I'd left an unfinished story around here somewhere. It was right under the star charts and the half-finished sonic/lightsaber.

Sixth Intermission

The glowing orange tracery of Reich World's tangled timelines flowed swiftly into existence alongside the others on the Dimension Cannon's large screens, and once again the four remaining watchers breathed a sigh of relief. One more world saved.

"She did it," Rose murmured. Her fingers danced swiftly over the controls, faster than even Jared could yet manage, zooming in on one particular nexus, and blinked back tears: Jackie's interrupted timeline had reappeared there, too, entangled with her husband's and daughter's. She zoomed it back out before she could indulge the impulse to peek at their respective lengths. She really didn't want to know.

Jared slid an arm around her shoulders, grinning, but then stopped at her misty, distant expression. "What is it?" he asked softly.

Rose shook her head. "I was just wondering what exactly she'd done. What they all did. It would be nice someday to find out."

"Getting used to the idea of other Rose Tylers finally?"

She laughed softly. "Yeah. Took me long enough, I know." She glanced fleetingly sideways at him, but didn't say anything, nor did she need to. The flickering shadow of the Doctor had never left the deep recesses of his eyes in the two years since they'd been kicked out of the TARDIS. Instead, she slipped her arms around his waist and gave him a fierce hug, then dropped them and stepped back with a dancing grin.

"OK, captain," she said. "It's our turn at last. What's our challenge?"

"I've been wondering about that myself," put in Jack, reminding them of his existence. "You don't have a lot of history left between the last mission and your own time period."

Jared gave him a lightning-fast double-take, momentarily caught by the idea that he had his own specific "home" period after centuries of time surfing, but two years of practice let him breeze past it immediately, filing it away with all the other thousands of similar data points to deal with later. (The fact that "later" never seemed to come he just never allowed to cross his consciousness at all.) "Actually, that's not quite correct. We're going back a little further than the last one. I wanted to get everybody else launched before we left on our own mission."

Jack suddenly laughed aloud at that, and the others looked at him curiously. He shook his head deprecatingly. "Just the image of you sending all those Roses out one by one on separate missions through time. Kind of like... 'Jared's Angels'."

Rose was the only one who caught that reference, and she laughed back at him. "Does that make you Bosley?"

He grinned widely at her. "I always thought he had the BEST job..."

Jared was looking back and forth between them, puzzled. Rose just shook her head at him. "So who is our target, then?"

Jared turned around and leaned his hips against the console, crossing his arms and letting a smirking, teasing grin claim his face, drawing out the suspense. He looked at Rose. "Who's the most famous person we ever met? From your history?"

She didn't have to stop and think. "Queen Victoria? Really? We're going back to see her again?"

"No, no, no, I was just reminding you. A little bit further back." He waited, but she just shrugged elaborately.

"Could be anybody..."

He waited another beat, enjoying it, but then movement from his other side caught all their attention. Joel, the techie, had reached for the last remaining paperback of the stack, looked at the title, and gasped. Seeing them all looking at him, he wordlessly turned the book so Rose and Jack could read it.

Napoleon Bonaparte.

"Napoleon?" Jack laughed. "What, do you have to help him win at Waterloo or something?"

"Actually, no," came Jared's reply. "Just the opposite. In Beta, he never even became Emperor. The Napoleonic wars, and everything bound up in that, the whole decade of war throughout Europe, never happened. France went through a couple more coups, then settled into a reasonably sane democratic republic even more quickly than in Alpha."

"What happened to Napoleon?" asked Rose. "And when?"

"Well, a lesser-known event in history, but absolutely fascinating, began in Seventeen Ninety-eight, six years before he became emperor. Napoleon led a campaign of forty thousand soldiers – and a hundred and seventy scientists and engineers – into Egypt. They routed the ruling Mameluks and took control of Egypt from the Ottoman Turks for a year or two before they themselves were booted back out of the country by the Turks and the English. But the scientists – known as the Institute of Egypt – put together the first rigorous descriptions of the country, its people, landscape, animals and insects, the ancient ruins, and much, much more. It was woefully incomplete and inaccurate, but it was a start. They founded the entire science of Egyptian archeology."

"Napoleon?" Rose brought him back to the subject.

"Well, in Alpha, he returned to France in Seventeen Ninety-nine, sneaking out, some say. He left behind the entire expedition, which held on for another two years before they were defeated and surrendered to the British. But in Beta..."

"Yes?"

"Napoleon Bonaparte mysteriously disappeared in the desert, along with a couple of thousand soldiers, in December, Seventeen Ninety-eight."

They waited, but he said nothing more.

"Just... disappeared?"

"As far as I could find out. Nobody ever figured out what happened."

"What happened to the expedition?" Joel asked, curious.

"It collapsed pretty quickly after his disappearance. Some of his generals tried to keep things going, but without Napoleon's personality cult, soldiers began deserting en masse, some disappearing, some straggling back to France over the next few years. The generals finally called it quits – they'd had no instructions from the Directory for months because the English fleet had cut off all communication – and surrendered to the British two years earlier than they would have otherwise."

Rose had turned and leaned against the console beside him, mirroring his pose. "So... we're going to Egypt?" she asked, excitement coloring her face in ways he hadn't seen in two years.

"Yup..." he grinned, ignoring the concommitant twinge without even putting a name on it. He swiveled suddenly around to flash his infectious grin at Joel. "Want to come along?"

The tech was startled, to say the least. "Me?" he squeaked. Gaping, he looked back and forth at the rest of them, then shut his mouth and began shaking his head. "No... no. I'm a geek. I work with computers. I like air conditioning and microwave pizzas, and I sunburn horribly. Thanks, but... no. I'll stay."

"OK," Jared smiled kindly at him, letting him off the hook. He turned to look at Jack, waited a beat, then shook his head. "I'm sorry, buddy, but you need to stay here and monitor things, and then shut it all down again."

"I figured as much," Jack replied. "Don't worry. Destruction is one of my specialties. As soon as Beta reappears on the monitors, I'll dismantle the cannon and scatter the pieces on a couple of garbage dump worlds I know of, and then flash back home. If Corvantes ever does make it back, he won't have anything left to work with and rebuild."

"Take care of the rest of those goons, too, would you?"

"Sure thing. I see an unexpected trip to someplace exotic in their near future. One way," he added unnecessarily. "Call me on the superphone when you guys get back and we'll compare notes." He paused, as Jared nodded agreement. "So what are you going to do, exactly?"

"Well, I don't think I'd be a good soldier, and there were no female soldiers at the time. The obvious thing would be to become one of the scientists in the Institute." Jared's face twisted in apprehension. "That's not going to be so easy this time, though. Wish I still had that slightly-psychic paper."

"Do you still have yours?" Rose asked Jack.

"Sure thing," he replied, pulling it out of a pocket and handing it to her.

"I didn't know you had some," Jared pounced.

"That's how we first met," Jack laughed, motioning to Rose. He turned to her, "Are you still available?" he leered, reminding her of how the paper had betrayed both their thoughts to the other that first time as they'd handed it back and forth over WWII London.

"No," she enunciated firmly, putting her hand through Jared's arm, but letting her eyes twinkle at the handsome captain, their best friend.

"I was just kidding!" said friend protested laughingly to Jared, who was looking slightly murderous. "By the way, you two manage to tie the knot yet?"

The couple glanced at each other and sputtered a rueful puff. "Not quite," Jared replied. "We were supposed to be doing so today – er, the day this started. About two hours later." He turned back to Rose, suddenly sincerely intense. "But we WILL make it back. I promise. That very day. Not twelve months later."

"Speaking of which..." Jack's grin dribbled away, under a thoughtful expression. "Seventeen ninety-eight, eh?" Another beat, then he nodded decisively. "In that case..."

He walked over to where he'd dropped his greatcoat on the floor on his return a few minutes earlier. As he picked it up again now, the others noticed what they'd missed the first time: something was wrapped up inside of it. Something long and skinny. "One of the reasons I was late is because I wanted to retrieve this. Had to go forward about sixty-two centuries and break into an uncrackable vault to do it. But I wanted to give it to you two, as a wedding present. Seeing where and when you're heading, though... It might just come in handy." Unwrapping the coat, he dropped it on the floor again and held the object inside out to Jared and Rose on both hands: a brilliantly flashing filigreed silver sword.

Both of them gasped, eyes flaring wide. "Where did that come from?" Jared breathed.

"I honestly have no idea where it was from originally – or when. But I have the distinct feeling that it's traveled through time more than once."

"Through space, as well," Jared replied, at last reaching out to reverently take the sword from Jack's hands. He peered closely at the hilt and the giant ruby set within it, sniffing. "It wasn't made on Earth. I can't place where it's from, though. But it's not silver..." At last, he did what Rose was expecting, and took a swift lick of the silver hilt as she winced, startling both Jack and Joel. "That's... durantium! With a few other things, as well. Definitely un-Earth."

Jack's mouth twisted into a satisfied half-grin. "Then it's with the right owner now."

Jared caught his eyes, and they shared a look of understanding. "Thank you," he said quietly, reaching to shake Jack's hand.

Rose was thinking of wedding presents, too. As long as this had been in the making, she'd still never come up with an appropriate gift for her intended. And then she realized: it was right there on her wrist. She unbuckled the time jumper, placed there while Jared had been teaching her and the others how to use it, and silently fastened it around his wrist, instead. At his startled look, she said quietly, "I can't give you a TARDIS. But at least I can give you this." Deliberately breaking the moment, she reached across him and motioned to Joel to give her the paperback, which she stuffed into the waistband of her shorts at her back.

"Come here, Tock," she called to the dog, and he obediently went and sat beside his mistress, tongue lolling happily.

"We're taking him?" Jared asked amusedly. She'd fussed at him for bringing the dog, after all – even though he hadn't even realized the pooch had tagged along at first.

Rose nodded. "I don't want to leave him behind. Besides, I just have a feeling that he's along for a reason."

"Hey, one more thing," Jack interrupted. He reached into a pocket and pulled out a half a dozen coins glinting gold, and poured them into Rose's hand. "Money frequently comes in handy, and they don't exactly have cash machines back where you're going. Courtesy of the Byzantine Emperor," he added.

"Was the sword his, too?" Jared asked, curious.

"No, it became a church relic after we used it symbolically. The Orthodox church, that is. It was known as the Sword of Justice."

"Well," Rose said thoughtfully. "Let's hope it lives up to its name again."