Disclaimer: Doctor Who belongs to the BBC. I do not own any of it, nor do I get paid for it.

A/N Thanks for the warm welcome back! Your reviews and feedback was much appreciated. Without further ado, here is Part 2 of 'The Roman Invasion'. Still no reveal of the enemies but a lot of explanations coming your way.

Happy Reading!

The Roman Invasion: Fixed Points

Previously

"How much further?" asked Jack.

"Just round here," said Fitz, as he parted the branches to the clearing where he knew the TARDIS was. "After you."

Jack raised his eyebrows but stepped into the clearing and stopped short. Fitz came up from behind him and felt his mouth open.

The clearing was empty.

Jack looked at Fitz and saw the dumbstruck look on his face. "I don't understand," Fitz mumbled, blinking rapidly. "It was right here."

"You sure?" asked Jack sceptically, obviously thinking that he was still inebriated enough to have got them lost in the small wooded area.

"'Course I'm sure," snapped Fitz, sounding uncharacteristically irritated. He raised his eyebrows at Jack. "How do I know you had nothing to do with this?"

Jack rolled his eyes. "I said I meant them no harm. Besides, I was with you the whole time remember?" he pointed out.

Fitz didn't reply but silently admitted that Jack had a point. He walked further into the clearing and looked at the ground. "The ground's disturbed," he said.

Jack followed him and examined the near perfect square border that had disturbed the ground. Fitz was right; the TARDIS had been here.

"They wouldn't just have taken off, right?" asked Fitz, almost afraid to think what he would do if that was true.

"No, I don't think so," said Jack, fiddling with the vortex manipulator on his wrist. "Something's wrong here."

"What do you mean?" asked Fitz.

Jack sighed and met Fitz's eyes. "I told you I had a message for the Doctor and Rose, didn't I? Well, I do, but that's not the only reason why I am here in this universe. So tell me, Fitz, what do you know of fixed points in time?"

"I can't believe I was worried about early 21st century," said Rose as they walked hand-in-hand through the marketplace. "Wouldn't his clothes seem out of place in Ancient Rome?"

The Doctor smiled a little as he held up a bolt of silky pink fabric that the vendor was trying to sell him. "It's Rome, Rose Tyler," he said. "People come here from all over the place. The locals have all but stopped being shocked at anything."

Rose chuckled at that, but glanced around for Fitz either way. Whatever the Doctor said, she wouldn't stop worrying about him. He was still so new to all this. She absently touched the pink fabric that the vendor was convincing the Doctor to buy for her and was surprised at its coarseness. The purple toga that she was currently wearing was definitely a lot softer and lighter than the cloth they were being shown.

"It's Venusian silk that you're wearing," said the Doctor, answering her unasked question as they walked away from the stall after politely declining to buy the fabric. "Much better than what you would find on Earth."

Rose nodded as she played with the soft fabric of her toga. "Do you miss it?" she asked, her voice strangely quiet.

"What?" asked the Doctor, brow furrowing as he looked at her.

"The other universe. Travelling beyond Earth," she said, looking at him questioningly.

"Do you?" he asked, watching carefully for her reaction.

Rose sighed. "Yeah, I mean I miss my mum. I miss talking to Amy and Rory on the phone. I also miss those gorgeous chips we would get on Kukura Alpha. But, I am fine here. Do you know what I mean?"

The Doctor's gaze softened as he brought their clasped hands to his lips. "Yes, of course I do," he said gently. "It is the same for me in many ways. But I have been in this position once before and it wasn't by choice. This time, it has been my decision and I knew what I was agreeing to when I made it."

"You do know that you really didn't have to do this, right?" asked Rose.

"Yes, I did," he said firmly, his voice leaving no room for argument. "The inconvenience of restricted space travel is not even comparable to the pain of being separated from you by a whole universe. So, yes Rose Tyler, I really did have to follow you here. Because I am selfish and the alternative was too painful for me to contemplate."

Rose stared at him in shock at the declaration, and the Doctor grinned a little at the look on her face. "As for the chips on Kukura Alpha, remind me to take you to this restaurant near the New Barrier Reef in the 63rd century," he said, tugging on her hand to keep them moving through the marketplace.

She laughed in delight and impulsively leaned in to plant a kiss on his cheek. As she was pulling away, a movement caught the corner of her eye. She snapped her gaze towards it but it was just an ordinary bunch of stalls where the vendors were packing up their wares as the day was starting to dwindle down.

"What is it?" asked the Doctor.

"Just thought I saw something," said Rose, shaking her head. "Probably nothing."

The Doctor nodded, though he did glance back once or twice. "I think we ought to find Fitz. It will be night soon," he said.

"What year are we in anyway?" asked Rose curiously.

The Doctor glanced around a bit and raised his eyebrows. "Huh," he said. "This is curious."

"What?" asked Rose.

"Well, unless history has happened drastically differently in the universe which I doubt, we are around 44 B.C.," he said. "Towards the end of the Roman Republic, I should imagine. Which is quite interesting…" he stopped mid sentence and snapped around quite suddenly.

"What?" asked Rose, following his gaze but finding nothing out of the ordinary once again. "Did you see something?"

"No," he said. "Well, I don't know. It's like something's wrong. And the answer's here, just hiding out of reach. In the corner of our eyes."

Rose watched as the Doctor stood quite still but moved his eyes to glance around through the corner of his eyes. He stiffened imperceptibly. Rose mimicked his actions and felt her mouth fall open. Only a few feet away from them, were a group of men dressed in jeans and shirts, waving football banners and scarves. They appeared slightly out of focus like bad reception on telly, but they were most definitely there.

"Are they real?" asked Rose in a hushed voice.

"Yes," said the Doctor grimly. "They are completely real."

"Can't anyone else see them?" asked Rose, glancing around at all the Romans who were showing no indication of having people who were clearly from the future in their midst.

"No, they cannot," said the Doctor. "Not yet, anyway." Rose raised her eyebrows questioningly and found the Doctor looking absolutely furious. "A fixed point is about to be altered. This whole universe is in danger of collapsing in on itself."

"What the bleedin' hell are fixed points?" asked Fitz.

Jack rubbed his forehead in slight frustration. "Time isn't just a straight line and one of the first things you learn as a CIA Agent is that it can be twisted to take the shape and form you want. There is normal fluid time that is easy to manipulate, and temporal tipping points that are slightly trickier but still workable if you want to mould time to suit yourself. But then there are fixed points."

"And these fixed points can't be changed or something then?" asked Fitz, trying to follow his words.

"Yes," said Jack. "Changing a fixed point is not impossible, but the consequences are catastrophic. If a fixed point is ever altered, it could send entire universes collapsing on themselves."

"What's that mean?" asked Fitz, his eyes wide with fright. "We all die or something?"

"No, worse," said Jack gravely. "All of time starts happening at once. The dimensions begin to merge together and eventually it just turns into an endless loop of the whole of time happening over and over again."

Fitz gave a low whistle as he contemplated that. "So, what does it have to do with the TARDIS disappearing? The Doctor said this was pretty unremarkable as far as time periods went. Is there a fixed point here?" he asked.

Jack looked slightly impressed at his ability to grasp the facts and shook his head. "No, the TARDIS has nothing to do with it. A few days ago, the CIA picked up time disturbances from this universe. A batch of Agents was sent to investigate and their initial reports confirmed that it looked like someone or something was trying to alter a fixed point. But yesterday, we lost touch with those Agents. There is no sign of them, and the scans around here show that time is starting to bleed through. It is very likely that a powerful time entity like a TARDIS would be one of the first things to traverse through the wound."

"So, is that why you're here? To find your Agents?" asked Fitz.

Jack nodded. "We have to find out who or what is trying to alter the fixed point and stop them before they do," he said.

"And how do we do that?" asked Fitz.

Jack grinned widely at him. "Fitz Kreiner, I never thought you'd ask," he said and held out his arm.

Fitz looked from his arm to him and back before shrugging and threading his own arm through it. Jack's grin widened. "Ready?" asked Jack.

"For what?" asked Fitz, excitement bubbling through his heart despite everything.

"Good point," winked Jack as he pressed a switch on his vortex manipulator, engulfing them both in blue energy.

"Altering a fixed point? Who could be behind it?" asked Rose as they hurried back to the TARDIS.

"Could be any idiot with no idea how time works," said the Doctor, still quite irritable.

Rose knew that people trifling irresponsibly with time got on his nerves quite severely. When he had first explained it, she'd pointed out that they pretty much interfered with time wherever they went but he had been quick to explain that he was a Time Lord and therefore aware of the nature of time better than any other race in the universe. Rose had to admit that he was right, considering the number of times he had stopped them from interfering when he knew that there was a fixed point or a particularly dangerous temporal tipping point in the vicinity of when they had landed.

Considering all that she had learned ever since meeting the Doctor, Rose knew how dangerous time travel actually was to the universe as a whole. Time travellers had to be responsible and while she disliked the rather rigid rules of the Time Lords, she could see why they were necessary. What was to stop someone with an access to a TARDIS from changing history so drastically that it would lead to a worse future or a future that was so unpredictable that it turned destructive.

However, it was one thing to be told about the dangers of altering fixed points and quite another to be witnessing the consequences of one. The presence of the out-of-focus future people had unsettled Rose. It felt wrong; like a large jagged rock in an otherwise smooth flowing river.

"What about Fitz?" she asked as they neared the TARDIS. "Shouldn't we warn him?"

"I don't think Fitz is here," said the Doctor grimly. "The scanner might not have malfunctioned at all. There was nothing wrong with the TARDIS this morning. She was trying to warn us about this. He might very well be in 2010 after all."

Rose digested this bit of information but before she could ask him more, they reached the spot where the TARDIS was waiting for them.

"Oh thank Rassilon," said the Doctor as he ran to it. "Nothing's tried to pull you into an abyss yet, eh old girl?" he murmured fondly, patting the exterior of the blue box.

He started to unlock the TARDIS but the doors wouldn't open. Rose's brow furrowed as the Doctor struggled with the key to get the TARDIS unlocked. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"Oh no, no, no, no," said the Doctor. "Not now. Come on, not now."

"Doctor, what happened?" asked Rose sharply.

"She won't let us in. Not when time is bleeding like this," he said, slamming his fists none too gently on the doors.

Rose pulled his hands away from the TARDIS and met his gaze squarely. "How do we fix this?" she asked calmly.

The Doctor relaxed a little and ran a hand through his hair. "We have to find the fixed point and make sure that it's not altered. There is still time to fix this."

"Good, okay," said Rose, glad that he was thinking of a way out and not just losing his temper over it. "Can you track the fixed point without the TARDIS?"

"Yes, but it might take time," he said. "Using my time sense without the TARDIS guiding me would be like finding a needle in a haystack without a handy magnet to help you."

"Oi! What the hell is this?!"

The Doctor and Rose snapped around to find a young Roman man, staring drunkenly at the TARDIS. He had dark curly hair and wore robes of very good quality despite his drunken state.

"Ah, you see this is just a piece of art that Rose and I were admiring," said the Doctor with a smile. "I'm the Doctor, by the way, and this is Rose."

The man blinked blearily at them before smiling. "Wonderful to meet you, Doctor and Rose Tyler," he said. "Mark Antony, at your service." He tried to do an odd bow but ended up losing his balance.

"Are you alright?" asked Rose as she moved to help him but he waved it away as he stood up without her help.

"Oh, I am spectacular, Lady Rose," he said, sounding ecstatic. "Tomorrow will be the most glorious that Rome has ever seen. I could not be happier!"

"Really?" asked the Doctor with interest.

"Oh yes indeed," said Mark Antony. "The Gods themselves have blessed this. Everyone in our generations to come will remember the Ides of March."

"Sorry, did you just say the 'Ides of March'?" asked the Doctor, his eyes wide.

Mark Antony nodded vigorously. "The Ides of March, Doctor. It will be the glorious and wondrous tomorrow that shall see Caesar defeat his treacherous senators and rule Rome for all of time."

A/N End of Part 2. Thanks for reading.

I apologise for any historical inaccuracies. There will be character inconsistencies since this is obviously fictional but if there is something that is too OOC, I would appreciate being told so I could correct it.

Anyway, Jack's in search of his agents, Mark Antony is talking about the Ides of March and fixed points are being altered. Fun times to be had by all. Part 3 will be up soon. See you then!

~ Phoenix