A Town Called Mercy- Part 2

Amy was leaning against the Marshal's desk while Jex was pacing in the middle of the room. I was half sitting, half standing on the railing dividing the jail corner from the rest of the office, "When this is all done, do you want us to take you home?" Amy asked Jex.

Jex looked at Amy, "Thank you, but I've already given everything I have to the Kahler. My skills, energy, all that was good in me. Here, I could start afresh. I could remember myself and help people. That's all I ever wanted to do, end suffering."

"Here." Amy says and she puts Isaac's coat over Jex's shoulders.

Jex stars at her, "You're a mother, aren't you."

Amy looked at Jex, puzzled, "How did you know?"

"There's kindness in your eyes. And sadness, but a ferocity too."

"Life's not exactly straightforward." Amy said.

"It seldom is."

"And what about you? Are you a father?"

Jex hesitated then said, "Yes. In a way, I suppose I am."

Suddenly an very loud alarm went off. Jex stands up, in shock and panic, "That's the alarm on my ship."

"Maybe the Doctor wants to get it working again?" Amy asked, trying to think of what to say.

"But that wasn't the plan. He's not following the plan." Jex mumbled.

Amy sighed and rolled her eyes, "Welcome to our world."

"With us, nothing ever goes according to plan." I remarked.

"I'm going to see if Rory and Isaac are back." Amy says, standing up and going out onto the porch part of the Marshal's office.

As soon as Amy was gone, and the door closed, I turned to Jex and said, "I know what you did. I know who you are and I know why that gunslinger wants you. You experimented on him. You experimented on hundreds of innocents." I spat.

Jex quickly takes out his gun and points it at me, "Don't move or I shoot." Jex growled. And then, in a surprise move, Jex quickly closed the gap between us and knocked me hard on the head with the but of the gun.

I collapsed, cursing myself for letting myself become out of practice. I drifted into unconsciousness as I heard the door open and Amy begin to say, "What-" And everything went dark.

I awoke to a pounding headache and someone shaking me, "Mum?" Came Lia's voice. "Mum? Wake up, please!"

I groaned and blinked open my eyelids, which felt like lead, "Lia?" I murmured as I put my hand to my throbbing head.

Amelia sighed. "Thank god!" Lia turned around to the others who were having an argument, "Rory, Mum's awake."

Rory left the conversation to kneel down besides Lia and checked me over, "Nothing badly hurt. You'll just have a bruise for one or two days. Make sure to put some ice on it once you get home."

I smiled softly at Rory, "Thanks Rory." I said, standing up, with the help of Lia, "Oh, I am out of practice." I turned to Lia, "Once we get home, we are starting self defence classes again."

Lia groaned and looked at Rroy, "The classes consist mostly of either Mum or Dad slaming me on the mat repeatedly."

"No. No, but these people are. Out! Out! Out!" The Doctor was saying, pointing a gun at Jex.

I looked at Lia, "What did I miss?" I asked as we followed everyone outside. Lia sighed and shook her head.

"No!" Jex cries as The Doctor pushes Jex along the street.

"Go on." The Doctor says, waving his gun in the direction outside the boundaries. The townsfolk follow Isaac to see The Doctor push Jex over the boundary, "Get over, and don't come back. The Doctor takes the safety off, the click sounding rather loud with the silence of the large crowd.

Jex stared at The Doctor, "You wouldn't."

"I genuinely don't know."

"Doctor. Doctor." Isaac pleaded.

Amy gets another gun and fires in the air, "Let him come back, Doctor." Amy says.

"Or what? You won't shoot me, Amy." The Doctor asked over his shoulder.

"How do you know?" Amy asked, waving her hand with the gun around, making a lot of the people in the crowd jumpy, "Maybe I've changed. I mean, you've clearly been taking stupid lessons since I saw you last." Her gun fires again and Amy jumps in surprise, "I didn't mean to do that."

Isaac fires to get everyone's attention, "Everyone who isn't an American, drop your gun." A man next to Amy grabs the gun out of her hand and Amy huffed.

"We can end this right now. We could save everyone right now."

Amy stared at The Doctor, "This is not how we roll, and you know it. What happened to you, Doctor? When did killing someone become an option?"

"Jex has to answer for his crimes." The Doctor said, still persistent on his argument.

"And what then? Are you going to hunt down everyone who's made a gun or a bullet or a bomb?" Amy asked.

"But they keep coming back, don't you see? Every time I negotiate, I try to understand. Well, not today. No. Today, I honour the victims first. His, the Master's, the Dalek's, all the people who died because of my mercy!" The Doctor yelled.

"You see, this is what happens when you travel alone for too long. Well, listen to me, Doctor. We can't be like him. We have to be better than him."

The Doctor sighed, "Amelia Pond. Fine, fine. We think of something else. But frankly, I'm betting on the Gunslinger." The Doctor gives his gun back and holds out his hand, "Jex, move over the line. Now." The Doctor commands sharply because the Gunslinger is right behind him. Jex turns around.

"Make peace with your gods." The Gunslinger says.

"Kahler-Tek, isn't it? I remember all your names, even now. I'll never hurt anyone again. I'm even helping people here." Jex said.

"Last chance. Make peace with your gods." I started to run toward Isaac.

"No!" Isaac yells and pushes Jex out of the way and takes the Gunslinger's shot instead. I stopped short from running, having failed to pull Isaac out of the way.

The Doctor kneels next to Isaac, "Isaac. Isaac. It's okay, it's okay. We can get you to Jex's surgery. He can save you."

"Listen to me. You've got to stay. You've got to look after everyone." Isaac says, coughing.

"It won't come to that, Isaac."

"Protect Jex. Protect my town. You're both good men. You just forget it sometimes." Isaac dies, handing on his Marshal's badge. The Doctor stands up and pins it on his jacket.

"Take Jex to his cell. If anything happens to him, you'll have me to answer to." The Doctor says and four men escort Jex away. The Doctor speaks to the Gunslinger, "This has gone on long enough."

"You are right. You've got until noon tomorrow. Give him to me or I'll kill you all." The Gunslinger vanishes.

"Oh, my god. You're the Marshal." Amy says, in shock.

The Doctor turns around to look at Amy, "Yeah." Then in a surprise move, The Doctor turns to Lia, "Hey Lia, you're the Deputy."

Lia looked at The Doctor as he walked off to the Marshal's office, her mouth hanging open in shock.

The Gunslinger had allowed the undertaker to take Isaac's body to be prepared for burial. It was now night time. We had sat inside the Marshal's office for the rest of the day, coming up with a plan for tomorrow, while taking turns watching Jex.

Someone hammers on the door and The Doctor opens it to reveal the Preacher, "Come in."

The Preacher, Abraham I learned his name when the Doctor left on Susan, takes one step in then stops, "Marshal. Ma'am, Ma'am, Lady, Fella. You need to come outside."

"Why, what's wrong?" The Doctor asked.

"Just come outside. And you should put that on." Abraham nodded his head to Isaac's gun belt.

Lia gulped.

We all stepped outside the Marshal's office onto the porch. The townsfolk have gathered.

"What's going on?" The Doctor asked the crowd.

"He in there? Leave the keys and take a walk. By the time you get back, this'll all be done." It was the same young adult who had pointed a gun at The Doctor earlier.

"I promised Isaac I'd protect him." The Doctor told him.

"Protecting him got Isaac dead. Tomorrow, it's going to be us all, dead."

"We thought Isaac was right to fight, but it's different now. We've got to say, all right we lost, and give that thing what it wants. "

"What it wants is to kill our friend." The bartender said.

"We don't got any ill feeling towards the Doc. We just thinking about our families. Hand him over and we all safe again."

"You know I can't do that."

"We got us a problem."

"Please don't do this." The Doctor pleaded.

"Why, reckon you're quicker than me?"

"Oh, certainly not, but this? Lynch mobs? A town turning against itself? This is everything Isaac didn't want." Walter draws his gun and cocks it. "How old are you?"

"Nearly nineteen."

The Doctor is slowly walking forward to him, having left the porch, "That's eighteen, then. Too young to have fought in the war, so I'm guessing you've never shot anyone before, have you?"

The boy shrugged, "First time for everything."

"But that's how all this started. Jex turned someone into a weapon. Now that same story's going to make you a killer, too. Don't you see? Violence doesn't end violence, it extends it, and I don't think you want to do this. I don't think you want to become that man."

"There's kids here."

"I know, who I can save if you'll let me."

"He really worth the risk?"

"Won't know. But you are. Walter lowers his gun and walks away. The crowd disperses. The Doctor sighs. "Frightened people. Give me a Dalek any day."

I snorted and we all made our way back into the Marshal's office. The Doctor removes the gun belt, "Fresh coffee, Marshal. For what it's worth, I know you're going to save us." Abraham says, beginning to take his measurements. "Isaac made you Marshal for a reason, and if you're good enough for him, you're good enough for me. Reckon you should know that." Abraham.

"Thank you." The Doctor says. Abraham continues to take his measurements. "Oi. Get out of it." Abraham leaves.

Jex stands up from laying on his cot, "Let me guess. The good folk of Mercy wanted me to take a little stroll into the desert. You could turn a blind eye. No one would blame you. You'd be a hero."

"But I can't, can I. Because then Isaac's death would mean nothing. Just another casualty in your endless bloody war. Do you want me to hand you over? Is that what you want? Do you even know?"

"You think I'm unaffected by what I did? That I don't hear them screaming every time I close my eyes? It would be so much simpler if I was just one thing, wouldn't it? The mad scientist who made that killing machine, or the physician who's dedicated his life to serving this town. The fact that I'm both bewilders you."

"Oh, I know exactly what you are, and I see this reformation for what it really is. You committed an atrocity and chose this as your punishment. Don't get me wrong, good choice. Civilised hours, lots of adulation, nice weather, but, but justice doesn't work like that. You don't get to decide when and how your debt is paid."

"In my culture, we believe that when you die your spirit has to climb a mountain carrying the souls of everyone you wronged in your lifetime. Imagine the weight I will have to lift. The monsters I created, the people they killed. Isaac, he was my friend. Now his soul will be in my arms, too. Can you see now why I fear death? You want to hand me over. There's no shame in that. But you won't. We all carry our prisons with us. Mine is my past. Yours is your morality."

"We all carry our prisons with us. Ha!"

We spent most of the night preparing and it was getting closer and closer to high noon. I agreed to let Lia be one of the fake Jex's, but only if she was very careful. The townsfolk have gathered together to pray.

Amy agreed to stay inside the Marshal's office while Rory, Lia, Walter, the kid who challenged the Doctor to a gunfight, and I were dressed like Jex and had his tattoo design drawn on our faces. Lia and I had our hair wrapped up and clipped underneath a hat.

Suddenly we hear several windows breaking, "It's time." I whispered to Lia and grabbed her hand. I nodded at Rory and he nodded as well and we all sprinted from our hiding places, along with several other men.

Lia and I duck behind a back stairway into a house when we heard the screams of the townsfolk from the church, "Oh god." Lia whisperers, "The people."

"I really wish I brought my gun." I groaned.

We heard The Gunslinger talking to The Doctor nearby, " Right." The Doctor said.

"Where is he?" The Gunslinger demanded. Lia and I looked around the corner of the house to see The Doctor facing The Gunslinger.

"He's gone."

"Where? Answer me." The Gunslinger said, pointing his gun arm at The Doctor.

"Away from here. Look up. Any second now you'll see the vapour trail of his ship. This is their home, not the backdrop for your revenge. Lookup, go after him, take this battle away from-"

"Kahler-Tek." Came Jex's voice over some sort of loud speaker.

"Jex. are you?" The Gunslinger yelled.

"I'm in my ship." Jex said.

"What are you doing? Just go!" The Doctor yelled.

"Where are you from? Where on Kahler?"

"Now?" The Doctor asked, exasperated. "You're asking him this now?"

"Gabriah." The Gunslinger responded.

"I know it. It's beautiful there. When this is over, will you go back?"

"How can I? I am a monster now."

"So am I." Jex whispered.

"Just go! Finish this!" The Doctor yelled.

"I'll find you." The Gunslinger yelled to Jex, "If I have to tear this universe apart, I will find you."

"I don't doubt that. You'll chase me to another planet and another race will be caught in the crossfire."

"Face me!" The Gunslinger screamed.

"Countdown to self-destruct resumed." A computer voice cut through, "Face me!"

"No. You've killed enough. I'm ending the war for you, too."

The Computer announced again, "Count down to self-destruct resumed."

"What's going on?" The Doctor asked as Lia asked me the same question.

"Ten."

"The countdown." The Doctor said, slowly releasing, "What's going on? Jex!"

"Thank you, Doctor. I have to face the souls of those I've wronged." Jex said.

"Five."

Jex sighed, "Perhaps they will be kind."

"Three, two, one, zero."

An explosion can be heard in the distance. Black smoke rises above the rooftops. The Gunslinger bows his head, "He behaved with honor at the end. Maybe more than me."

The Doctor stepped forward, "We could take you back to your world. You could help with the reconstruction."

"I will walk into the desert and self-destruct. I'm a creature of war. I have no role to play during peace." The Gunslinger said.

The Doctor tilts his head a tiny bit, "Except maybe to protect it."

The Doctor had gone back and gotten the Tardis, to park it in the middle of Main Street with people walking by, not even caring that it was there. Amy, Rory, Lia and I were standing outside the Tardis when The Doctor came running out of the Marshal's office.

"Okay, so, our next trip. Oh! You know all the monkeys and dogs they sent into space in the fifties and sixties? You will never guess what really happened to them." The Doctor said.

"Could we leave it a while? Our friends are going to start noticing that we're aging faster than them." Amy said, laughing.

"Another time? No worry."

"And we have to get back to The Farm by one. The Carters are coming over." I told the Doctor.

"Alright." The Doctor said. I smiled at the Doctor and Lia and I followed Amy and Rory inside the Tardis.

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