AN: I'm very excited to be to this section! The Doctor's Daughter has been split into three chapters-here's the first.

Chapter Fifteen: Just a Little Bit Unlikely

The TARDIS rattled and shook as she took them to her unknown destination. Rose, can you… the Doctor asked as he tried—unsuccessfully—to turn a wheel that would park them in the Vortex.

She seems pretty set on taking us someplace, but I'll try. Rose reached out for the ship, trying to persuade her to relinquish control back to them. In response, the TARDIS threw up a wall so fast it gave both Rose and the Doctor an instant headache.

"Ow!" they moaned in unison.

"What the hell's it doing?" Donna demanded. She clung to one of the coral parts of the console, trying not to get thrown to the ground.

"The control's not working."

The next bit of turbulence knocked the Doctor off his feet. He threw his hands out and grimaced when the hard metal grating bit into his palms. Better than my face, he thought as he jumped to his feet and shook them quickly.

"Rose, can you get her to stop?" Martha asked.

Rose shook her head. "Already tried. She was not impressed," she said drily. "I don't know where we're going, but she's pretty determined to take us there."

"You know," Donna grunted, "when you told me your ship was sentient, I didn't know it meant she could just decide to go off without asking." The TARDIS shifted, and Donna shrieked and dropped into a low crouch so she wouldn't fall. "You are completely impossible!" she yelled at the ceiling as the ship gyrated through the Vortex.

"Oi!" the Doctor protested. "She's not impossible. She's just… a bit unlikely."

The console sparked and the TARDIS spun through a horrible section of turbulence, then as suddenly as she'd started, she stopped. The Doctor lost his balance and fell back onto the jump seat. For a moment, he stared up at the time rotor as he got his breathing under control, trying to figure out what had just happened.

She wanted to take us here, Doctor, Rose said as she stood up and brushed her knees off.

He nodded and leapt to his feet. Donna and Martha were both sprawled out on the grating, staring up at the time rotor with wide eyes as they panted for breath. "Come on, you two!" he said, offering each of them a hand and pulling them up. "No time to waste!"

Rose was already waiting for him by the door when he grabbed his coat and shoved his arms into the sleeves. He laughed when he saw the excitement sparkling in her brown eyes, then jogged down the ramp and took her hand.

"Allons-y, Rose Tyler!" he chirped as they opened the door together.

He paused for just a second as he took in what looked like an abandoned railway service tunnel. He didn't know what he'd been expecting, but it certainly wasn't this. "Why would the TARDIS bring us here, then?" he muttered.

"Well, let's find out." Rose pulled away from him, and they both ran their hands over the crates that filled the tunnel, then sniffed at the dirt they collected.

"Oh, I love this bit," Martha breathed.

"I thought you wanted to go home," Donna countered.

"I know, but all the same, it's that feeling you get."

"Like you swallowed a hamster?"

Martha's confession had made the Doctor and Rose smile, but Donna's rejoinder made them laugh—laughter which stopped abruptly when a door banged open behind them.

"Don't move!" a male voice barked. "Stay where you are!"

The Doctor clenched his jaw when he heard the recognisable click of automatic rifles being cocked. He and Rose exchanged a quick glance before turning around.

Three men in their early twenties were pointing rifles at them. The man in the lead, whose shaggy hair made him look younger than the others, waved his gun at them. "Drop your weapons," he ordered.

The Doctor and Rose raised their hands, and Donna and Martha copied them. "We're unarmed," the Doctor assured the soldiers. "Look, no weapons. Never any weapons. We're safe," he said, turning his hands back and forth to prove they were empty.

The second soldier straightened slightly, surprise showing in his wide eyes. "Look at their hands. They're clean."

The leader blinked, then he nodded slightly. "All right, process them. Him first," he ordered, gesturing to the Doctor.

Rose grabbed onto the Doctor's hand as two of the soldiers rushed at them. They tried to pull her away from him, but she laced their fingers together tightly and glared at all three men. "Oh no," she told them. "If you want one of us, you get us both."

They shrugged. "That's not a problem." The leader came forward, and together, the three of them frog-marched the Doctor and Rosedown the tunnel.

"Oi, oi,"the Doctor squawked. "What's wrong with clean hands?"

Rose ground her teeth together when the soldiers shoved the Doctor's free hand into a cylinder. She was ready to turn on them and demand they set the Doctor free, but he shook his head.

Not while they're pointing guns at us—please, love, be careful.

She growled her displeasure, but stayed where she was, keeping his hand firmly in her own.

There was a soft whooshing sound as the machine activated, and Rose felt the Doctor wince in discomfort. "Something tells me this isn't about to check my blood pressure."

Rose relaxed just slightly with his sarcastic aside, but a moment later, she felt the stabbing pain in her own right hand and the Doctor grunted. Ignoring the Doctor's plea, she wheeled on the gun-toting soldiers.

A hint of gold flickered in her peripheral vision as she glared at the men. "What the hell are you doing to my husband?" she barked, her hands on her hips.

The man closest to her blinked, and his weapon wavered a bit. Then he shook his head and straightened his back. "Everyone gets processed," he said, sounding like he was explaining something to a small child.

"It's taken a tissue sample," the Doctor muttered.

Rose's stomach rolled at the idea of these strangers having a sample of the Doctor's DNA, but a moment later, that concern was overshadowed when the stinging in her hand increased to almost unbearable levels.

The Doctor hissed in pain and tried to flinch away from the machine, but it held him fast. "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow. And extrapolated it. Some kind of accelerator?" he guessed.

The machine let him go and he backed up several steps, staring down at his hand. Rose could hear his short, fast breaths as he tried to process what had just happened. She cozied up beside him and took his hand in her own.

What's wrong, Doctor? she asked as they looked down at the shallow cut.

I think… He swallowed hard, and she realised he was actually feeling a bit nauseated. I think they just…

A pair of metal and glass doors they hadn't noticed before slid open, and steam poured out into the tunnel. Rose could make out a figure standing on the other side, and as the steam cleared, she caught her first glimpse of a slim blonde woman, a little shorter than her, dressed in black trousers and combat boots with a khaki t-shirt.

The outfit was familiar, and she squinted at the woman for a moment before she gasped. If you gave her a jumper and a leather jacket, it was exactly what Rose's first Doctor had worn.

Plus, staring at her, Rose felt something, a tingling in the back of her head. Doctor, is she…

He looked away from the newcomer to meet Rose's gaze, and his pupils were completely blown in shock. His lips moved to form an answer, but before he had a chance, the first soldier stepped forward and handed the young woman a gun.

"Arm yourself," he said, like it was some kind of ceremony.

Rose kept a worried eye on the Doctor as he watched the woman expertly check over her weapon, removing the cartridge to check her ammunition, then replacing it with swift, economical movements. His eyes were wide, and he barely noticed Donna and Martha join them, until Martha put a hand on his shoulder.

"Where did she come from?" she asked, always needing to understand the science.

The Doctor didn't look away from the new soldier. "From me," he answered, sounding dazed.

"From you?" Donna asked, while Rose sucked in a sharp breath. "How? Who is she?"

The Doctor swallowed hard and turned his hand so he could hold one of Rose's. Understanding the truth was one thing; accepting it was quite another. "Well, she's… well, she's my daughter."

The young woman grinned up at him, dimples showing on both cheeks. "Hello, Dad."

For once, the Doctor was speechless. What was the appropriate response when you were greeted by the fully grown daughter who had just been extrapolated from your DNA? Zeus never had to deal with this, he thought, rubbing at his forehead.

His lack of response didn't faze his daughter. She hopped down off the dais and followed the soldier who seemed to be in charge of this little expeditionary group.

"You primed to take orders; ready to fight?" he asked her as they walked away from the progenation machine.

The two took up position behind what the Doctor suddenly realised looked an awful lot like a barricade. "Instant mental download of all strategic and military protocols, sir," she answered as the other two soldiers joined them. "Generation five thousand soldier primed and in peak physical health." A wide smile stretched across her face, displaying the dimples once more. "Oh, I'm ready."

The Doctor's queasiness doubled; not only did he now have a child he'd never asked for, she'd been bred to be a soldier. He should have known—that was the most common use of progenation.

He took a deep breath and hung back a bit, trying to put distance between himself and this woman. If she were truly his daughter, she wouldn't be a soldier.

After a moment, Donna turned to him and asked, "Did you say… daughter?"

Rose's eyes were on him, but he couldn't look at her right now. They'd never really talked about kids, since their genetics were just incompatible enough to make accidental pregnancies impossible. If either of them ever felt like they wanted children, they could discuss their options at that point. And here he suddenly had a daughter—though, a grown-up daughter was quite a different thing from raising a child together.

"Mmm." He nodded his head. "Technically."

"Technically how?" asked Martha.

"Progenation," Rose said suddenly. "Reproduction from a single organism." She looked at him, an eyebrow raised. "Right, Doctor? She's your daughter, but no one else's."

He nodded, then turned to Donna, who still looked a little baffled by the concept. "Progenation means one parent is biological mother and father," he explained, keeping an eye on the soldiers as he talked. They seemed to be setting mines around the tunnel, and that was rarely a good idea. "You take a sample of diploid cells, split them into haploids, then recombine them in a different arrangement and grow. Very quickly, apparently."

The loud crash of a door being forced open sounded from the other end of the tunnel. "Something's coming," the young woman said, and a moment later, shadows appeared on the tunnel wall.

The Doctor shifted to stand partially in front of Rose and put an arm up in front of Donna and Martha. The guns, the explosion they'd just heard… he didn't think the newcomers were just coming to greet the neighbours.

Amphibious creatures came into view, with their heads in tanks so they could still breathe in the open air. Despite himself, the Doctor took half a step towards this new species before the gunfire drove him back.

"It's the Hath!" one of the soldiers yelled.

"Get down!" the Doctor's daughter yelled back at them.

Machine gun fire filled the tunnel. The Doctor eyed the brick walls, then nodded quickly. Even though they were well out of the line of fire, the thought of ricocheting bullets had him dragging Rose and Donna behind some crates.

Martha found her own hiding place, and the Doctor made eye contact with her to make sure she was all right. She nodded quickly, but he barely had time to feel relieved before one of the soldiers ruined it all.

"We have to blow the tunnel," he shouted. "Get the detonator."

One of the other two soldiers had fallen just the other side of their hiding place, and the Doctor darted out to care for him. "I'm not detonating anything," he snarled as he cradled the man's head in his hands, trying to find a pulse.

The leader ignored him. "Blow the thing! Blow the thing!" he ordered, and out of the corner of his eyes, the Doctor saw the young woman dart out from cover and grab something off the ground.

The Doctor stood up when it was clear that the fallen soldier was dead, but a much bigger problem presented itself. High-pitched squeals reached his ear, and when he scanned the tunnel quickly, he spotted one of the Hath dragging Martha away, behind the TARDIS.

"Martha!" he yelled, then he saw the detonator in the young woman's hands. "No. Don't."

He lunged for her, but before he could yank the detonator out of her hands, she tilted her chin back and smacked the button. The Doctor growled low in his throat, but an alarm blaring through the tunnel told him that he didn't have time to yell at her before the explosion went off. Instead, he wheeled around and raced around the corner, scanning the tunnel to make sure Rose and Donna were getting to safety, too.

A moment later, a flash of heat filled the tunnel, followed by a blinding white light, and the explosion nearly knocked them to the ground. Smoke billowed around them, taking the Doctor back to the Titanic when he lost sight of Rose. But this time, he was rational enough for the bond to keep him calm. She wasn't injured; there was no reason to be upset.

When the light faded and the smoke cleared, Rose was at his side. Together, they walked around the corner, hoping to find Martha. Instead, they came face-to-face with a pile of debris, blocking them off from the TARDIS—and from their friend.

Rose stared at the pile and took in the vaguely apologetic hum from the ship. The TARDIS knew this would happen, she realised. She took a deep breath and nodded once. In that case, all of this was why they were on this planet in the first place. No point getting riled by it.

The Doctor hadn't yet come to that realisation. He'd wheeled on his daughter and was yelling at her, gesturing wildly at the debris separating them from Martha and the TARDIS as he did. "You've sealed off the tunnel. Why did you do that?"

Her mouth dropped open slightly. "They were trying to kill us."

The Doctor glared at her, and her eyes glittered rebelliously. Watching the two of them, Rose wondered if the Doctor could see how much like him his daughter was.

"But they've got my friend," he countered.

"Collateral damage," she said, and Rose winced at her cool tone. That would not win the Doctor over. "At least you've still got them," she added, nodding to Donna and Rose before pointing to the one remaining soldier. "He lost both his men. I'd say you came out ahead."

"Her name's Martha," Donna spat out. "And she's not collateral damage, not for anyone. Have you got that, GI Jane?"

The Doctor tapped his fingers against his legs. "I'm going to find her," he muttered. Rose nodded, and they started in the direction of the TARDIS, intent on moving the bricks and broken concrete out of the way.

But they'd only gone two steps before the young soldier pumped his rifle and pointed it at them. "You're going nowhere. You don't make sense, any of you. No guns, no marks, no fight in you. I'm taking you to General Cobb. Now, move."

oOoOoOoOo

The explosion had caught Martha by surprise, and as she slowly came to, feeling the ache in her bones from being knocked to the ground by the blast, she remembered why she didn't actually miss travelling with the Doctor and Rose. Smoke tickled her nose and throat, and she coughed a few times before opening her eyes and carefully sitting up.

A small fire burned on her right, but that was forgotten when she glanced over her shoulder and spotted the Hath who had dragged her away from the TARDIS, sitting on the ground with his arm hanging limply at his side. He made a little bubbly-groan noise, and Martha crawled over to his side.

"Hold on, I've got you." She put her hands on his shoulder and looked him in the face. "Is it your arm, yeah?" The Hath bubbled again, but that wasn't enough of an answer for Martha. "Is that a yes?" He nodded his head, and she took a deep breath and shifted closer to him. "Let me examine it. Keep still." The Hath cradled his arm close to his body and rocked back and forth, and Martha held up her hands, gesturing for him to stop moving. "Still, yeah? No move."

The Hath nodded again, which given the language barrier was all the patient consent Martha was going to get today.

She put her hands back on his shoulder and tried to find the bone. "Half fish, half human?" she muttered. "How am I supposed to know?" She found a bony protrusion and ran her hand along the ridge. "Is that a shoulder? Feels like a shoulder." What felt like a bone seemed to be sticking out of the socket at an odd angle. "I think it's dislocated."

A door clanked open, and a group of armed Hath joined them, brandishing their weapons at Martha. She held up her hands, but she refused to move away from the injured alien.

"I'm trying to help him. I am a doctor and he is my patient, and I'm not leaving him."

The leader of the new arrivals tilted his head slightly and bubbled at her, leaving Martha wondering exactly how much the Hath could understand of human speech. That could be investigated later, though; first she needed to take care of her patient.

She turned back to the Hath sitting beside her and grasped his shoulder in the proper procedure. "Now, this is going to hurt. One, two, three." She rotated the bone sharply, and it clicked loudly as it slotted back into place.

The sound alarmed the other Hath, and they cocked their weapons again. Martha quickly held her hands up, not wanting to get shot. But the one she'd helped raised his own hands, and the entire group relaxed, lowering their weapons.

Martha got to her feet and brushed the dirt off her hands. "Now, then. I'm Doctor Martha Jones. Who the hell are you?"

oOoOoOoOo

The Doctor stared at the automatic rifle pointing at him and Rose, then forced his body to relax. "General Cobb, eh?" he said. "What about you? What's your name then?"

The young man tilted his head and a furrow appeared between his brows. "I'm Cline."

"Hello, Cline. I'm the Doctor, this is Rose, and that's Donna. You really don't need to take us to see General Cobb—we just want to get our friend Martha, and then the four of us will be out of your way, permanently. I promise."

He held his breath, but Cline shook his head. "See, that's what I mean. You don't make sense. Why would you want to disappear instead of staying to fight?" He straightened, and a glint entered his eyes. "No, you're going to talk to General Cobb, and he can decide what to do with you." Cline spun around and charged down the tunnel, leaving the rest of them to follow after him.

The young woman was the first to follow, then Donna shrugged and walked alongside her. The Doctor hung back, casting sideways glances at Rose as they walked. He had no idea how to even begin a conversation about what had happened, but he wasn't foolish enough to think gaining a child could go without some discussion. Just… hopefully later. On the TARDIS. Alone.

Donna stared at the new member of their party as she and the soldier led them to this General Cobb bloke, whoever he was. When she'd left home to travel with the Doctor and Rose, it hadn't occurred to her that she'd be part of an entourage. Working with Martha had been fun, and now she was trying to work out how things would change when this girl came with them.

Neither the Doctor nor Rose were talking to her though, so Donna moved up to walk beside her. "I'm Donna. What's your name?"

The girl shrugged. "Don't know. It's not been assigned."

Donna blinked. Not knowing your own name? Being full-grown and not even having a name, perhaps? "Well, if you don't know that, what do you know?" she asked as they turned a corner into another tunnel.

"How to fight," she said succinctly.

"Nothing else?" Rose asked.

Donna glanced over her shoulder and winced when she saw the inscrutable expression on the Doctor's face.

"The machine must embed military history and tactics, but no name," he said, his voice flat. "She's a generated anomaly."

Donna heard a noise from Rose at that proclamation, and she decided to let the Doctor's wife lay into him for that particular bit of insensitivity.

"Generated anomaly," Donna repeated, trying to find a name in the sound. "Generated." Gen… Gen… She brightened. "Well, what about that? Jenny."

"Jenny." The girl tilted her head, and a smile crossed her face. "Yeah, I like that. Jenny."

Donna fell back a few steps and nudged the Doctor in the side. "What do you think, Dad?"

He ran his hand over the back of his neck and glanced over at Rose, who was purposely not looking at them. "Good as anything, I suppose."

A muscle flexed in Rose's jaw, and Donna could see the family spat coming from a mile away. She jogged back up to walk beside Jenny again, then leaned down and whispered in the younger woman's ear.

"Don't look now, but your parents are about to have what's commonly referred to as a domestic."

Jenny glanced over her shoulder, then looked up at Donna, a confused frown furrowing her brow. "Is Rose my mum then? I thought I didn't have a mum."

Donna shrugged. "She's your dad's wife. Up to you what you want to call her. I mean, you're a grown woman, so you don't really need parents."

The Doctor was torn between relief when Donna stopped nagging at him and the uncomfortable realisation that there wasn't a buffer to keep the brewing argument with Rose at bay any longer.

He lagged back enough to take her hand. I'm sorry.

What for?

He shot her a glance. Sudden, spontaneous procreation? Without discussing it with you? I was under the impression that children were one of those topics human couples talked about before springing on their partner.

Rose snorted and dropped his hand. Do you actually think I'd be upset about that? They took a tissue sample at gunpoint. You didn't have a choice.

The Doctor shoved his hands into his pockets. Then what are you upset about?

She stopped in the middle of the tunnel and glared at him. Are you actually serious right now?

Yes! The Doctor threw up his hands. I know you're angry with me, but I have no idea why.

"Rose?"

Jenny's tentative use of her name drew Rose's attention, and she looked over at the young woman—the Doctor's daughter.

"Yes, Jenny?"

"Donna just told me… Are you my mum?"

"Yes."

"No."

Rose and the Doctor answered simultaneously, then glared at each other again. Rose ground her teeth together and tried to smile at Jenny. "Apparently, we still need to talk about that."

The Doctor glanced down at her, then moved up to walk with Cline. "So, where are we? What planet's this?" he asked as they climbed a flight of stairs that led to a large, open room.

"Messaline," Cline said. "Well, what's left of it."

Rose crossed her arms over her chest and stared straight ahead as they climbed a flight of stairs and entered a large room with a domed roof. More progenation machines lined the room, and new soldiers were being generated in each one as they walked by.

Cline disappeared for a moment, then Rose caught sight of him talking to an older man on the edge of the room. All around them, people were preparing for war, handling ammunition and weapons and instructing the newest soldiers in where to go.

"But this is a theatre," Donna said, and Rose looked around at the structure with new eyes, seeing the gallery at one end and the stage at the other, and the long, narrow shape of the room.

"Maybe they're doing Miss Saigon," the Doctor muttered caustically as he took a seat.

Rose pressed her lips together to keep from snapping at him. She knew the Doctor didn't handle surprises well, and Jenny was certainly a big one. But Rose had caught the way Jenny's shoulders had slumped when he'd said she wasn't her mum, even if the Doctor hadn't.

She still remembered how it had felt when the parallel version of her dad rejected her—and she'd had the slight comfort of knowing he wasn't really her dad. The Doctor was Jenny's father, and he was treating Jenny worse than Pete had treated her.

Donna kept looking around, and Rose focused on her. At least she was still being rational.

"It's like a town or a city underground. But why?"

"Buried to keep it safe when the fighting broke out?" Rose guessed. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Cline leading an older man over to them. "Come on, Donna. Let's look around while the Doctor talks to the general."

The Doctor sighed when Rose walked away, but he didn't have time to argue with her, or try to suss out why she was so upset with him. Cline and Cobb were almost in front of him, and he pasted on a fake smile.

"General Cobb, I presume."

The man's bushy eyebrows drew together. "Found in the western tunnels, I'm told, with no marks. There was an outbreak of pacifism in the eastern zone three generations back, before we lost contact. Is that where you came from?"

The Doctor nodded quickly. "Eastern zone, that's us, yeah. Yeah. I'm the Doctor, and that's Rose Tyler and Donna," he said, pointing at them as he introduced them.

"And I'm Jenny," his daughter spoke up quickly, just as unwilling to be ignored as her father.

The man scowled at Jenny, and despite himself, the Doctor felt just a bit protective of his daughter.

"Don't think you can infect us with your peacemaking," Cobb warned darkly. "We're committed to the fight, to the very end."

"Well, that's all right." The Doctor stuck his hands in his pockets and smiled. "I can't stay, anyway. I've got to go and find my friend."

General Cobb straightened up and shook his head. "That's not possible. All movement is regulated. We're at war."

"Yes, I noticed," the Doctor drawled. "With the Hath. But tell me, because we got a bit out of circulation, eastern zone and all that. So who exactly are the Hath?"

Cobb's eyebrows rose up to his hairline. "Follow me," he said, motioning to them with one arm.

The Doctor looked over at Rose and Donna, standing on a bench looking out a window. A moment later, Rose looked at him and nodded when he gestured with his chin for them to follow. He watched her tap Donna on the shoulder, then when they both jumped off the bench, he lengthened his stride to rejoin Cobb, Cline, and Jenny.

General Cobb led them to the backstage area and gestured at the unfinished walls. "Back at the dawn of this planet, these ancient halls were carved from the earth. Our ancestors dreamt of a new beginning. A colony where human and Hath would work and live together."

The Doctor frowned; that certainly wasn't what he'd seen earlier. "So what happened?"

"The dream died. Broken, along with Hath promises. They wanted it all for themselves." Pride glittered in Cobb's eyes. "But those early pioneers, they fought back. They used the machines to produce soldiers instead of colonists, and began this battle for survival."

"Speaking of survival," Donna broke in, "we looked out the windows earlier, and there's nothing but earth 's that? Why build everything underground?"

"The surface is too dangerous," Cline explained.

Rose and Donna looked at each other, then Rose pressed on. "Well, then why build windows in the first place?"

"And what does this mean?" Donna asked, pointing at a metal plate with a series of numbers stamped on it.

"The rites and symbols of our ancestors," General Cobb said pompously. "The meaning's lost in time."

"How long's this war gone on for?" the Doctor asked.

"Longer than anyone can remember," Cobb answered, his eyes haunted by the memory of years at war. "Countless generations marked only by the dead."

The Doctor and Rose both recoiled at the meaning implicit in those words, but it was Rose who voiced the question. "You've been at war for that long?"

"Because we must," Jenny said.

The Doctor tensed when he looked over at this woman who was supposed to be his daughter, but shared none of his beliefs about war.

"Every child of the machine is born with this knowledge," she continued. "It's our inheritance. It's all we know. How to fight, and how to die."

Rose snorted. "Blimey, and I thought my schooling left out the important bits. At least I learned basic maths and science."

"How big is the city?" the Doctor asked.

General Cobb motioned for them to follow him. "We have a map," he said, and when he hit a button on the side of a chrome canister, it projected a map.

The Doctor stroked his face. "Does this show the entire city, including the Hath zones?"

"Yes. Why?" asked General Cobb.

"Well, it'll help us find Martha."

Cline cut him off. "We've more important things to do." He smiled at the Doctor, Rose, and Donna. "The progenation machines are powered down for the night shift, but soon as they're active, we could breed a whole platoon from you three."

Donna shook her head quickly. "I'm not having sons and daughters by some great big flipping machine." Jenny shifted beside her, and Donna turned and held her hand up in apology. "Sorry, no offence, but you're not… well, I mean, you're not real."

Jenny laughed in disbelief. "You're no better than him," she said, pointing at the Doctor. "I have a body, I have a mind, I have independent thought. How am I not real? What makes you better than me?"

Rose's vehement agreement struck the Doctor, and he tugged at his ear, unable to deny the truth in Jenny's words. Jenny was certainly real, and if she was, she was also his daughter. That acknowledgement didn't make him any more willing to bring her into their life, though.

"Well said, soldier," Cobb said, his voice gravelly. "We need more like you, if ever we're to find the Source."

The Doctor raised his eyebrows. "Ooo, the Source. What's that, then? What's a Source?" He looked from Cobb to Jenny and back again. "I like a Source. What is it?"

"The Breath of Life," Cobb said reverently.

"And what's that when it's at home?" Rose asked.

Cline answered before Cobb could. "In the beginning, the great one breathed life into the universe. And then she looked at what she'd done, and she sighed."

"She." Jenny smiled. "I like that."

The Doctor nodded. "Right. So it's a creation myth," he said, before looking back at the map. There was something more there—he just couldn't pinpoint what it was.

"It's not myth," Cobb insisted. "It's real. That sigh. From the beginning of time it was caught and kept as the Source. It was lost when the war started. But it's here, somewhere. Whoever holds the Source controls the destiny of the planet."

The Doctor had been studying the map while Cline and Cobb explained, and he finally saw the glitch he'd been look for. "Ah!" He smacked the projection, and when it buzzed, another level of detail appeared just for a moment. "I thought so. There's a suppressed layer of information in this map. If I can just…"

He pulled the sonic screwdriver out of his pocket and pointed it at the projector. A moment later, the map more than doubled in size.

"What is it—what's it mean?" Donna asked.

The Doctor put his sonic screwdriver back in his pocket. "See? A whole complex of tunnels hidden from sight."

General Cobb's eyes widened. "That must be the lost temple. The Source will be inside. You've shown us the way. And look, we're closer than the Hath. It's ours."

Despite her irritation with the Doctor, Rose sympathised fully with his frustration as General Cobb rallied his troops and barked out orders. This wasn't the outcome he'd expected when he'd revealed the rest of the map to the soldiers.

"Tell them to prepare to move out," Cobb ordered as he strode back into the main part of the theatre. "We'll progenate new soldiers on the morning shift, then we march. Once we reach the temple, peace will be restored at long last."

Rose jogged forward and planted herself directly in front of the general. "Maybe I'm missing something," she said, "but it seems to me that if you really wanted peace, you could just… stop fighting."

"Only when we have the Source." Cobb's expression was implacable. "It'll give us the power to erase every stinking Hath from the face of this planet."

"Hang on, hang on." The Doctor grabbed Cobb by the elbow and forced him to turn around. "A second ago it was peace in our time. Now you're talking about genocide."

Cobb shrugged. "For us, that means the same thing."

Rose whistled. "Wrong thing to say, mate," she muttered.

"Then you need to get yourself a better dictionary," the Doctor said as he stuck his hands into his trouser pockets. "When you do, look up 'genocide.'" He leaned forward, the lines of his face tight with anger. "You'll see a little picture of me there, and the caption will read, 'Over my dead body.'"

Rose glanced over the Doctor's shoulder at Jenny and smiled at the furrow on her brow as she took in everything her father did and tried to make sense of it. She knew Jenny's warlike attitude put the Doctor off, but if she could be shown there was a different way…

Cobb laughed in disbelief. "And you're the one who showed us the path to victory. But you can consider the irony from your prison cell. Cline, at arms."

The young soldier whipped out his weapon, and Donna and Rose both jumped back half a step to avoid being hit. "Whoa! Be careful with that!" Rose said, nudging the barrel of the gun away from herself.

"Yeah," Donna agreed, staring down at the weapon. "Cool the beans, Rambo."

The Doctor was staring at the gun, and Rose gave him a telepathic nudge to refocus his attention. The muscle in his jaw twitched, but for once, she couldn't really offer any reassurance. They were being led away at gunpoint—it was hard to soften that reality.

"Take them," Cobb ordered. "I won't have them spreading treason." His lips twisted into a smirk. "And if you try anything, Doctor, I'll see that your woman dies first."

"Every bloody time," Rose muttered, hoping to distract the Doctor before he did something stupid, like throttle the man. She glared at the general. "You know, you military lot are all so sexist, I can't stand it. How do you know I'm not the important one? Maybe you should be threatening to kill him if I don't cooperate." The corner of the Doctor's mouth twitched, and Rose winked at him.

Cobb and Cline looked at each other for a long moment, then Cline gestured with his gun. "Come on. This way."

The Doctor pointed at Cobb. "I'm going to stop you, Cobb. You need to know that."

Cobb rolled his eyes. "I have an army and the Breath of God on my side, Doctor. What'll you have?"

"This." He tapped his forehead, indicating his brain.

Cobb was unimpressed, which only showed how little he understood. "Lock them up and guard them," he ordered Cline.

"What about the new soldier?" Cline asked, pointing to Jenny with his gun.

Cobb pursed his lips and considered, but finally, he shook his head. "Can't trust her. She's from pacifist stock. Take them all."

He pushed Jenny into the Doctor's arms, and the Doctor looked down at his daughter, wondering what exactly the TARDIS had been thinking, bringing them here.