Hi! Sorry I haven't updated for ages, but it's the holidays, end of term madness, and I've started co-writing a movie length script for a project. Anyway, here it is!
"First stop – Earth!" Jenny called, flicking the switches in front of her to land her ship. "All sorted. Back to step one."
Martha and Mickey stepped towards Jenny, their faces halfway between tears and smiles.
"You'll be ok, right?" Martha assured.
"As much as I'll ever be. Planets to see, civilisations to save – danger's my favourite companion," she grinned.
"Well, you look after yourself," Mickey insisted.
Jenny smiled a little. "I should probably ask . . . Does Dad know that I'm still alive?"
Martha shook her head solemnly. "No. You should probably tell him."
"Probably. Would he want to know, though? I don't want to have to tie him down, and I don't want to have to give up my life how it is now. Either way, I wouldn't know how to tell him. I can't just turn up on his doorstep with a smile and tell him that I'm still alive like I'm back from holiday," Jenny considered.
"You wouldn't tie him down," Martha insisted.
"That'd be the last think I want to do. I'd have to find him first," Jenny laughed.
Mickey smiled. "That might take forever."
"Come with us. You really should!" Martha suggested. "We're after him anyway. We need some questions to be answered."
"No. I couldn't," Jenny denied. "I need to meet him myself in my own time. You go! Find the Doctor and find out whatever you have to."
"Are you sure?" Mickey wondered. "Stick together, I say."
"I've made my choice," Jenny insisted stepping out of her large leather Captain's chair to shake Mickey's hand. "Stay safe." She jumped into Martha's arms, "You too!"
"See you soon!" Martha grinned, hugging Jenny back.
"Anytime," Jenny agreed. "Now get gone. This farewell's lasted too long already."
"See you around," Martha smiled, before taking Mickey's hand, guiding him out onto Earth.
"What is the connection?" the Doctor cried in frustration, skimming through the pages and pictures in the file.
"That's what I always thought," Larry agreed. "Zygons posing as Nazis in the Second World War, then pages on Russia and submarines and this," Larry said, gesturing to a print out of the Black Demon symbol in the file. "What's the link? And what's it got to do with now?"
"What's Black Demon?" the Doctor asked.
"Everything," Sally replied. "From building to electrics and design to catering. They can organise and do everything."
"Who owns it?" the Doctor wondered.
"No-one really knows for sure," Sally shrugged, "but likely originating from Russia."
"So that's the link: the Second World War and Russia," Clara clarified.
"But what is the link? Why were the Zygons posing as Nazi's? What is their interest in Russia?" the Doctor moaned, falling onto the seats in the middle in a frustrated sulk.
Then Clara realised. "The link is me!"
"How come?" Jack inquired.
"A while back, I was taken to Cold War Russia. We were on a submarine when the Ice Warriors were brought back," Clara explained.
"The Ice Warriors?" the Doctor asked in confusion. "How?"
"It was trapped in the ice. A crew member thawed it before they got to land," Clara expanded. "And I know how insignificant this seems, but imagine this: if the Zygons got the Nazis to win the war, the Ice Warriors would never have been brought back."
"But we won the war. What happened to the Zygons?" Jack asked.
"Defeated by the Red Army," Clara replied. "And let's say it wasn't just one Ice Warrior in the ice; there could be nearly a hundred of them, now thawed, in Russia."
"Exactly!" the Doctor cried. "You are good, you Impossible Girl! Hold on, you said Cold War – how did you travel back in time?"
"Erm . . ." Clara stuttered. What to say? She couldn't tell the Doctor who she was. "Jack took me."
Jack raised his eyebrows. "Yeah . . . Sure. I've got my companions too."
"But your vortex manipulator doesn't work," the Doctor pointed out.
"Yes! Exactly . . ." Jack muttered. "But Torchwood found another time travelling device in the wreckage of Mount Snowdon."
"Oh," the Doctor gasped. "Sounds nice. A bit like a date, eh! Mind you, definitely not your first, Jack!"
Clara's eyes bulged, subtly taking a step away from Jack.
"So Black Demon is owned by these Ice Warrior people?" Larry clarified. "Why would they do that?"
"As you said, Black Demon do everything. They could have the whole country under your control," the Doctor explained.
"Even Torchwood," Clara realised.
"But we wipe all builders' memories and delete any records," Jack dismissed.
"Even Ice Warrior records?" Clara argued.
" . . . Ok . . . Maybe we didn't check for that," Jack muttered.
"But why do the Zygons want to stop that?" Sally asked. "Not unless the Ice Warriors are against the Zygons for whatever reason."
"Maybe," the Doctor considered. "But I can't help thinking that this goes above Black Demon."
Clara frowned. "How could it be any worse?"
"So, where are we going?" Donna asked as River marched her and Gwen through London.
"The London Eye," River replied. "Not just sightseeing, mind. The Doctor's up to something. Him and his plans across time."
"Why? What's happened?" Gwen inquired.
"Zygons in the Second World War. Can only mean trouble?"
"Well, as long as they're on our side."
"Said the Zygon Hitler."
"What?!" Gwen cried. "Hitler was a Zygon."
"No. But at one point, yes," River replied.
"Why's everything happening now?" Donna cried in exhaustion. "A Zygon thing posing as a future version of the Doctor, the Doctor's friends uniting and a plot from World War Two. Why all at once?"
"That's what the Doctor's finding out," River replied.
"Why can't we just go back in the Tardis in undo this day? Back to normal."
"Because the Tardis is lost."
"Where is it?" Gwen asked.
"That's one of the continuing questions when something is lost," River replied sarcastically. "But at the moment I do have one question: what's that?" River asked, pointing to a large billboard.
"One of the bloody PPI adverts," Donna replied. "It's nothing."
"No. Not the advert. The symbol in the corner," River corrected her, gesturing to a small black symbol.
"That's just Black Demon," Gwen replied. "It's just a company. They'll sort out anything for you. Building, advertising, that sort of thing."
"And they're just that?" River argued.
"Yes. Even Torchwood have investigated them. Why?" Gwen wondered.
River turned to Gwen, a face as serious as the Doctor's. "I am a time traveller. I've seen version after version of this planet throughout time and space, but there's one I will never forget. A while ago, I tore the universe apart to save the Doctor. I refused to kill him, so the whole of time was split, happening and unravelling and recreating itself all at two minutes past five, forever. Every second of time was happening at once. Chariots in the streets. News reporting the continuation of the hundred year war. Silurians tending to Winston Churchill. And London . . . The heart of London was ablaze, torn to the ground into a pit of rubble. Hanging above it was a single sign, looming over the city as a memorial to its destruction. That sign bore the Black Demon symbol."
"And what happening to that timeline?" Gwen asked.
"It was aborted. It never happened," River answered.
"Then what's the problem?"
"Black Demon is here. Right here right now. That timeline was built from the whole of the past and the future. Black Demon is real and it's here. If we don't stop it right now, Black Demon will destroy London, if not the whole of the country, maybe the world. We can stop it, but we have to start now."
"But how?" Donna asked.
"We've got to go to the heart of Black Demon itself. The people behind it," River replied.
Amy opened her eyes. The air around was thick and smoking as she inhaled a deep breath of soot and dust, quickly coughing it out of her lungs. Her head was spinning, as if the whole world were rotating around her. The ground scraped at her cheek, littered with rubble and destruction.
Her ears burned with cries and screams. Deep, bass boomed ricocheted through her body, repeating over and over in the distance. The whirls of machinery and the bangs and spits that rippled over her head.
The whole world flickered with red and black, bursting into an amber life before dying back into darkness. Footsteps marched past her, hurried and fearful. Cloth and ash fell over her, blanketing her with material dread.
Slowly, Amy raised her head, opening her eyes to the vastness of the horrors.
"Where am I?" she croaked.
The Master spoke. His sinister voice, echoing through her head:
"Welcome to the Time War."
. . . . .! Black Demon? End of London? What?! And the WHOLE of the next chapter will take place with the Master and Amy at the centre of the Time War. Enjoy :) Please review! (There is also a poll on my profile page where you can choose which monsters to apart in the story! Pick 5!)