Disclaimer: Doctor Who belongs to the BBC. I do not own anything, nor do I get paid for it.
A/N Thanks for the reviews on the last chapter. As the title suggests, the enemies are finally here. Believe it or not, I had planned on using Zygons before they had even announced that they would be used in the 50th anniversary episode. Oh well, I didn't have to tweak the story too much anyway.
Happy Reading!
The Roman Invasion: The Zygons
Previously
"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."
Rose blinked at his words. History may not have been her strongest suit but she knew that Caesar had been assassinated by his Senators on the Ides of March and as far as she knew, he had not been aware of their intentions going in. She looked at the Doctor who, to her greatest surprise, was smiling.
"That is splendid to hear indeed," said the Doctor pleasantly. "Now, if you shall excuse us, Lady Rose and I must retire for the night."
Mark Antony saluted him sloppily as he stumbled off, mumbling under his breath. Rose waited until he was out of earshot to look at the Doctor, whose face had gone stony. "Come on," he said, trying to open the TARDIS doors again.
Rose wanted to point out that the TARDIS was hardly likely to change her mind in five minutes but stopped when she realised that a group of people had emerged through the darkness and surrounded them and the TARDIS. The group consisted of both men and women dressed in Roman clothing yet holding sonic blasters of the sort that Rose remembered Amy carrying.
"Doctor," said Rose, nudging the Time Lord who snapped around and went still at the sight of the strangers.
"You will come with us," said the apparent leader of the group, a beautiful dark-haired woman dressed in resplendent scarlet and gold clothing.
"Will we?" asked the Doctor, sounding as incredulous as he could. "Now why would we do that?"
"Yes, you will," she said. "Both of you. Because you are the ones standing at the wrong end of several sonic blasters. Come on now, move!"
"Where exactly is it that we are going?" asked the Doctor, as he and Rose were shepherded through one of the numerous side alleys.
"Please tell me it isn't to an orgy," said Rose, noticing the Doctor's smirk out of the corner of her eyes.
"Ah, the ever popular Roman orgies. A fabulous myth, my darling," said the Doctor, catching on quite quickly. "Historians of your time have had us believe that they were more common than they actually were."
"Doesn't stop people from using it as an example of how we as a society have become sexually repressed," said Rose, noting with some satisfaction that their prattle was bothering their captors. A group of people bearing 51st century weaponry who got uncomfortable at the notion of sex? Hardly likely to be the genuine article.
"Surely there are still orgies taking place in your time," said the Doctor, still apparently interested in the conversation. "Albeit in secret, I expect."
"'Course yeah. Shareen dated this really rich bloke for a while who took her to this big R rated lock and key party," said Rose.
"Lock and key parties?" asked the Doctor with great interest that sounded genuine even to Rose.
"Yeah, it's really quite simple. At the beginning of the party, all the women get a lock that they were around their necks. The men get the keys…"
"Shut up!" Their captors had finally had enough.
The Doctor took personal offence at having the opportunity to learn something new snatched from him. He opened his mouth indignantly but stopped when he recognised the structure that they were being led to.
The Theatre of Pompey.
"Idda, they are here."
Idda looked up from her work station and checked the security feed. Parla, or rather Porcia whom she was currently disguised as, gave her the signal. Idda immediately operated the transmat mechanism that brought their party and their two prisoners down into the ship.
"Fascinating," said the male humanoid prisoner, looking around the organic red ship. "I had no idea it was you lot who had come down here. Well no, that's not quite true," he amended. "I knew that something had taken over these CIA Agents, I just didn't know that it was simply you lot who had taken their forms instead."
Idda watched Porcia's nostrils flare in anger as the female prisoner looked at her companion. "What do you mean? Who are they?" she asked.
"We are the Zygons," said Porcia.
"You lot are far from home you are," said the Doctor. "What's the matter? Get the urge for some more bloodshed and conquering?"
"Our form of conquest rarely involves bloodshed, Time Lord," said Porcia disdainfully.
"No, you'd rather just keep the people like that and take over their lives instead," he said furiously, glancing over at the row of CIA Agents standing still as if in a trance with a web of organic red matter binding them together.
"Are they dead, Doctor?" asked the female prisoner.
"No, they are kept in stasis, Rose," answered the Doctor. "They need the originals alive to sustain the copies." He glanced back at the humans and narrowed his eyes. "Oh, but these are not all CIA Agents. There are Roman senators here, even some of their wives."
"It was necessary," said Porcia.
"Ah yes, for your big plan I suppose," said the Doctor, his voice rising. "Preventing Caesar's assassination, are you? And then what? Replace him with one of your own?"
"Yes, quite," said Porcia, looking quite unperturbed. "This is a primitive age in mankind's history, but with such a grand civilisation at our fingertips, we can mould it for ourselves. Think of it, Time Lord. How much farther this world will develop once we have control of it! These people, these primitives, they still believe in gods and magic. They shall learn of technology and industry. This civilisation shall flourish, Doctor! And we intend to make it so!"
"You can't do that," gasped Rose, looking at Porcia in disbelief. "That's like cheating. You can't just jump ahead and not let it evolve naturally. It would destroy history!"
"Couldn't have put it better myself, Rose," said the Doctor, glaring at Porcia. "Oh, haven't you noticed what your little meddling trick is doing to the web of time? The future is starting to crack and time is bleeding through. You are altering a fixed point in time. Do you understand that at all?" he demanded.
"Typical Time Lord hogwash," snapped Idda, speaking for the first time.
The Doctor's gaze snapped to her. "I beg your pardon?" he asked incredulously.
"These Celestial Intervention Agents came here," said Idda. "And you talk to us about non interference?"
"They must have come here to prevent the hole you were about to make through the web of time," said the Doctor. "The Agency's sensors pick up these things."
"Oh, I know they do," said Idda, dropping the Time Agent's form and reverting to the Zygon appearance. Next to the Doctor, Rose jumped in surprise at the sight of the Zygon and the raspy voice that it spoke in. "The Time Lords and their army of these human puppets sit atop their high thrones and traverse the multiverse as they please. Thwarting any progress or change that might threaten their position of power, crushing civilisations who might one day grow to challenge them, and changing history as they please. I say, no more! And we are not alone in that, Doctor. There are races upon races in the multiverse that tire of the Time Lords' dominance and their corrupt rules. If you are correct about the alteration of a fixed point sending ripples through the universe, I would say: let it be so!"
When Fitz had been eight, he remembered running away from Max Shaw and his bunch of cronies. In his haste, he had climbed up a tree in crabby Mrs. Jackson's yard. Max had lost his trail but Fitz had slipped and fallen from the tree and hit his head. On hearing the ruckus in her yard, Mrs. Jackson had come running out and started walloping him with her walking stick for falling on top of her agapanthuses.
Fitz had stumbled home with a concussion and bruises on his arms but his mum had been in one of her moods and hadn't even noticed her son throwing up in the loo for hours. Bruised and concussed, Fitz hadn't been completely well for a week after that.
Yet all that did not compare to the feeling of travelling in time without a proper capsule. As soon as his feet touched solid ground, Fitz was down on all fours, dry heaving.
He felt Jack rub his back as he tried to force back the sick feeling rising in his throat. Suddenly, he was very very thankful for the TARDIS.
"You okay?" asked Jack in concern as Fitz stopped dry heaving, though he remained on all fours.
"Yeah, fine," gasped Fitz, finally raising his gaze from the ground. It was daytime where they were, and as far as Fitz could guess, they were either on the set of a film or Ancient Rome. Judging by the lack of cameras (not to mention, the smell) they were in Ancient Rome. "Where are we?" he asked, using Jack's hand to haul himself to his feet.
"Rome, 44 B.C.," said Jack with a glance at his vortex manipulator. "This is the closest I could narrow it down too."
"What do we do now? We can't go running off around Rome looking for the Doctor and Rose," said Fitz.
"Fair point," said Jack absently, still fiddling with the vortex manipulator.
"Can't you track your agents in some way?" asked Fitz.
"Usually I can, but whatever's happened to them, it's made it so I can't find them," he said, sounding frustrated. "Ah, oh no."
"What?" asked Fitz.
"I just found what today is," said Jack. "It's the Ides of March."
Publius Servilius Casca Longus had been preparing for this day for a while now. He loved Caesar, he really did, but he had to go. Rome did not need a despot like him. Caesar's time was up, and after today, he would no longer be a hurdle.
He held the dagger in front of him, and admired the light as it glinted off the blade. It had never seen blood, newly forged as it was, but today it would be drenched in the blood of Caesar, the first stream of blood that shall shed from him. Casca could hardly wait.
Lost in his daydreams, he missed it as a shadow crossed the window. In the very next moment, a huge, red creature with suckers all over it darted at him. Casca screamed as the vile creature towered over him, looking at him with beady, scornful eyes.
"Great Gods, save me!" yelled Casca.
He did not know what would happen, but his prayers were answered as two bolts of blue light hit the creature who crumpled to the floor. Casca looked for his saviour and found two men with the oddest clothing standing over the creature.
"You saved me!" said Casca, hardly believing the events that had transpired.
The two men were not paying attention to him. "What is it?" asked the younger man with the long hair.
"A Zygon," answered the other one. "Shapeshifting creatures." Abruptly, he turned to Casca and smiled widely. "Senator Casca? Would you like some wine?" he asked, holding out the oddest metal flask Casca had ever seen.
Casca reckoned that they really had to be gods. How else would they know his name? He accepted the wine without question and gulped it down rapidly. Halfway through his third sip, the flask slipped from his fingers as Casca tumbled to the floor, unconscious.
"What in the hell was in that drink?" asked Fitz, picking up the flask.
"Retcon," said Jack, taking the flask and pocketing it. "He won't remember the last hour or so when he wakes up. No point in him thinking he had a great big thing with suckers attack him."
"Is it dead?" asked Fitz, poking the Zygon with his toe.
"Stunned," said Jack. "We are going to need it to show us to the Doctor and Rose, and my agents. Come on, let's revive him."
"So, if Caesar knows he's going to be killed, why are they copying the Senators?" asked Rose as she and the Doctor sat in their cell. For some reason, the Zygons had not copied them but kept them prisoner for what felt like hours now.
"At a guess? I should think they want to make sure that their plan succeeds. I have never met Julius Caesar in this universe, but if he is anything like the one in the other one, he would manage to get himself killed even if he knew it was coming," said the Doctor.
"Why wouldn't they just send a duplicate Caesar instead?" asked Rose.
"And sacrifice one of their own? Zygons are many things, Rose, but they do not betray their kind. Not for anything," he said.
"Unlike us," muttered Rose. She shook her head at the Doctor's concerned look. "So, what happens? Caesar goes in and no one kills him?"
"Most likely, he dismisses the lot of them," said the Doctor. "He was well on his way to becoming a dictator. Treason of this kind will give him ground to usurp the power he has always craved."
"And history changes," said Rose. "What are we going to do?"
"Idda! There's something wrong!"
The Doctor and Rose looked away from each other and saw Porcia bustling over to Idda who was in the form of her husband Marcus Brutus. "What?" asked Idda.
"More time travellers," said Porcia. "The scanners say there are two more."
"Two?" murmured Rose in surprise but the Doctor shushed her as they eavesdropped on Idda and Porcia's conversation.
Idda growled. "More of them! But, no matter. Noon approaches and the hour is here. They shall be too late to stop it. Time is changing, and CAESAR SHALL LIVE!"
A/N End of Part 3. Thanks for reading.
The next part will see the Zygons changing history, and the Doctor and friends trying to stop them. Plus, there are a lot of Senators and Caesar to consider. Ought to be fun.
It will be up soon. See you then!
~ Phoenix