I LIIIIIIIIVE!
Yes the hiatus is over and I am officially back to writing this story! Huzzah!
I just want to thank everyone who's been patient with this story. And without any further faffing about, read on!
"What happened around here?" the Doctor asked, apparently noticing the carnage for the first time.
"That's what I'm trying to figure out," said Jack. "This is the third killing like this in a week. I don't know what's doing it or how. By the time I get to the scene whoever or whatever it is has vanished."
"Well whatever it was it's not from Earth," said Alex. "It smells wrong. Still vaguely human, but different somehow."
"Different how?" the Doctor asked.
Alex frowned. "I don't know. I can't put my finger on it."
"Chemical composition of the body might have changed," the Doctor muttered. Then he turned to Jack. "How did you know that this was happening? This all looks fresh, it can't be more than a few minutes old."
"Cameras," said Jack. "There are cameras all over Cardiff. Whenever one of these murder happens all the cameras that could see what's going on shut off. It lasts about half a minute, then they come back on and there's blood everywhere."
"So it's fast and it knows when it's being watched," the Doctor muttered. "I need to see what the cameras saw, are there recordings?"
Jack nodded. "Back at headquarters, this way."
Alex gave the murder scene one final look before following Jack and the Doctor out of the alley.
"I'm the only one here at the moment," Jack said, taking off his coat. "Gwen and Ianto are out of the country. Anyway, welcome to the Hub."
"Nice," Alex said, admiring the room.
"How long has it been?" the Doctor asked. "Since the Dalek invasion I mean?"
"Not long. Only a month or so. Things on Earth are only just starting to get back to normal. It had actually been pretty quiet around here before the murders." Jack led them over to a computer with several screens and typed something. Video feeds came up on the screens, each one showing a different part of the city. "Now the first one," Jack said, typing again. One of the screens came up with a recording, showing an old man walking down a narrow lane. Then the image broke up into static. "This was up the north end of Cardiff," Jack said. A few seconds later the image cleared up. The old man was gone and everything was splattered red. "The second one's much the same, except that it was closer to the city centre." This video showed a young woman leaning against a wall, checking her phone. Once again the image broke up and when it returned the woman had been replaced with a lot of scattered blood and viscera.
"Impressive," said Alex. "Very impressive." He noticed the looks Jack and the Doctor were giving him. "What?"
"You're admiring whoever's doing this?" Jack asked.
"Admiring the skill of the execution, yes," said Alex. "That doesn't mean I'm about to hop over to their side and start making people explode."
"Well that's… good. I suppose," said the Doctor. He blinked a couple of times then looked back at the screens. "So each time it happens the murderer waits for a couple of days before the next killing?"
"That's been the pattern so far," said Jack.
"Have you been able to find any links between the first two victims?"
"Other than they both live in Cardiff, no."
"So basically our only plan is to wait around for a couple of days until the next murder?" asked Alex. The Doctor grimaced.
"The slow path," he muttered. "I hate the slow path."
The Doctor was pacing. Again. Jack was sitting in front of the monitors, sipping a coffee. Alex was sitting in a chair, barely moving with his eyes on the screens. The room had been silent for hours.
"So," Jack said, with the air of one grasping at straws to make a conversation. "Where are you from, Alex?" Alex took his eyes off the screens, raising his eyebrows in a question. "What planet are you from?" Jack elaborated.
The corners of Alex's mouth twitched in a small smile. "You wouldn't know it. It's quite… out of the way."
The Doctor stopped pacing, looking interested. "I didn't even think Angels had a home planet. What's it called?"
"I don't think there's an adequate translation in English. But you'd possibly call it Elsewhere. Or maybe The Place That Is Not. It's a difficult idea to describe. It lies just under the skin of the universe, not a quite separate plane, but also disconnected from this one. It's both there and not there at the same time, a place where the line between dreams and reality is blurred to the point of near non-existence. The past and the future can exist in the same moment, while the present may not exist at all. At the same time all possible futures, pasts and presents play out."
"This is giving me a headache just thinking about it," said Jack. Alex grinned at that.
"Most creatures have trouble fully comprehending it. And if any creature, other than a Weeping Angel, ever entered it, their brain would probably combust from the sheer amount of infiniteness there. Also it's the only place where Weeping Angels don't turn to stone when we're looked at."
"Really?" asked the Doctor. "How does that work?"
"You can't not exist in a place where everything always exists," said Alex. Then he shrugged. "That's the best way to explain it really. Again, there aren't words in English designed for these sorts of concepts."
"Hang on a second," Jack said. "What was that about turning to stone?"
"You've never heard of the Weeping Angels?" Alex asked. Jack shook his head. "Huh. Well to make a long story short, as the saying goes, Weeping Angels are creatures of both thought and form that are capable of sending a creature back in time and feeding on the potential of the days they would have lived. I believe the Doctor calls us 'creatures of the abstract'. One of our species' little quirks is that we turn to stone whenever another living thing looks at us."
"So… why aren't you turning to stone now?"
"Actually that was how I met the Doctor. There was this man named Jarva, a scientist with an excess of intelligence and a lack of common sense…"
Alex was standing in front of the screens, completely still except for his wings, which slowly waved to and fro, creating tiny ripples in the rift energy that only he could feel. The Doctor had retreated to the TARDIS, intent on finding something to stave off the boredom.
"How are things around the city?" Jack asked, walking up behind him.
"The same as ever. Humans wandering around doing their human things. How this species ever manages to raise a galaxy wide empire is beyond me. Oh, no offense Jack."
"None taken. Sometimes I wonder the same thing."
For a while the two stood there, just watching the screens for any sign of trouble. Then Alex asked, "Why are humans always doing that?"
"Doing what?"
"That thing with their mouths. What was it called? Kissing, that was it."
Jack shrugged. "It's one of the ways we show another person that we like them. Or sometimes it's just a completely spur of the moment thing. Mostly the latter in my case."
Alex watched as another couple on one of the screens shared a lip-lock. "I wonder what it's like," he murmured to himself.
"Why not find out?"
Alex turned to raise an eyebrow at Jack. "Are you flirting with me?" Jack's only answer was a cheeky grin. Alex shook his head and turned back to the screens. "Anyway, kissing someone would be a very bad idea. You remember how I told you that I send someone back in time with a touch?"
"Yes."
"Well a kiss is different. Instead of sending them I drain them of their life energy, reducing them to dust. Unlike sending I can't control it, it happens whether I want it to or not."
"… Okay," said Jack. "I can see why you don't want to test it out." He paused for a moment. "You know, I can't actually die."
Alex looked at him again. "What?"
"I can't die. An old friend of the Doctor's brought me back to life once, permanently. I literally cannot be killed."
"Huh," Alex said with a thoughtful look as he turned back to the screens. Then there was a blur of movement and something grabbed the front of Jack's shirt and a pair of lips were pressed up against his. For a moment Jack froze, before responding with gusto, despite the fact that he could feel the energy in his body draining away and replacing itself at an alarming rate. Alex pushed harder against him, his eyes shut tight. A few seconds later it was over, Alex quickly pulling away, his cheeks bright red. Jack stumbled a little, dizzy from dying so many times in a row.
"Wow," he said.
"Yeah, that was… wow," Alex muttered, staring fixedly at the monitors.
Jack let out slow breath and cleared his throat. "Well I'm gonna go… do…" he pointed meaninglessly over his shoulder.
"Yeah," said Alex. "I'll just stay here and… keep an eye on things."
Jack made to head off, then paused. A few moments passed. "Wanna go again?" he asked.
He was nearly bowled over as Alex leapt on him.
It had been three days since the Doctor and Alex arrived in Cardiff. Everyone was tense and expectant, knowing that the next attack would be coming very soon. The Doctor kept glancing at the screens from where he was sitting, working on some homemade doohickie. Jack was wandering around, taking inventory on a tablet. Alex was once again sitting in his chair. Everyone was so busy waiting for something to happen, it took a few seconds for any of them to notice the sound of static.
"Monitor!" they shouted in unison. Alex and the Doctor leapt from their chairs and Jack dropped the tablet on a nearby table.
"There," the doctor said, pointing to a square of static on the screen. "Where is that, how far away?"
"Hang on a second," said Jack, tapping away at the keyboard. A map of Cardiff came up and a second later a red dot popped up. "It's not far, less than a mile. We need to leave now." Jack turned and noticed something. "Where'd Alex go?"
"He's probably on his way there," said the Doctor, taking over the keyboard. "Might have already arrived by now. We'd should see if we can get the camera back up from here. If we can manage that we might get to see for ourselves who's behind this."
Alex's body burned with energy as the world rushed past in a blur of colour and sound. He'd waited just long enough for to see the map before allowing energy to flood his body, rendering him little more than a gust of wind and a slight blur to the humans he passed. He reached the small back street in barely more than a second and drew to a stop, throwing off his speed and momentum in a way that violated several laws of physics. Or at the very least, gave them a rather inappropriate fondle.
As the rest of the universe came back into focus Alex was surprised by what he saw. A middle aged man was kneeling in the middle of the street with a look of fear and shock, his head surrounded by a bubble of green mist. No one else was around. Even as Alex watched the bubble shrank, the mist rushing into the man's nose and mouth. The last of it disappeared and for a second nothing happened. Then the man made a strangled gurgling sound and forcefully exploded. Blood splattered everything and various bits and pieces went flying. A fair amount of it splattered over Alex. A few seconds passed.
"Ew," said Alex. Then the sound of sirens reached him. He turned to go just as a large truck pulled up at the entrance to the street. Humans in body armour poured out, bearing rifles. Alex looked over his shoulder as another truck stopped at the other end of the street. The soldiers levelled their rifles at him as another man raised a megaphone.
"This is the Unified Intelligence Taskforce," he shouted. "You are under arrest. Surrender or we will open fire."
Alex arched an eyebrow.
"The image is clearing up," the Doctor said, his sonic screwdriver whistling as he pointed it at the screen. Then his eyebrows shot up in surprise. "What are UNIT doing here?"
"Same thing I'm doing," said Jack, "looking into the murders. They've been less subtle about it than me though."
"That's not exactly surprising," the Doctor muttered. "Are they trying to arrest Alex?"
"Looks like it."
Alex resisted rolling his eyes as one of the soldiers came forward with a pair of handcuffs. He looked nervous. Alex stuck his hands out and the shackles were snapped around his wrists.
"Can someone explain why I'm under arrest?" he asked loudly.
"Murder," the man with the megaphone, who seemed to be in charge, called back. "There's no point denying it, we've caught you right at the scene of the crime. Don't try flying away either, or we will open fire."
They can see through the disguise, Alex thought, a little impressed. They must have experience with other aliens.
"Hey look over there!" Alex shouted, pointing at the end of the alley. Some turned around, most didn't. But for the briefest of moments, everyone glanced away from the Angel. There was a rush of air, and when everyone looked back he was gone and a pair of broken handcuffs were lying on the ground.
"Friends of yours Doctor?" Alex asked from behind the Doctor and Jack. The two jumped slightly in surprise but recovered quickly.
"Sort of," the Doctor said. "I used to work for them. I think I still do actually." Alex raised an eyebrow and the Doctor shrugged. "They're mostly alright, they just get… enthusiastic. Do you want to go have a wash, you've got a bit of…" The Doctor trailed off, making vague gestures at his face.
"I probably should. First though, I saw what killed that man."
"Really?" Jack asked, looking hopeful. Alex nodded.
"I arrived in time to see it all happen. Doctor, do you know anything about green mists that make humans explode?"
One shower and a change of clothes later…
"From what Alex told me about what he saw," The Doctor said to Jack and Alex, "and from some of my own research, I'm pretty certain I know what's causing these deaths.
"They're called gavel spores, from the planet Coloscosus. Most of the time the spores are fairly harmless. They sort of act like worms do on earth, aiding decomposition and helping to get nutrients back into the soil. Interesting thing about them, though, is that when they gather in groups they form a hive-mind intelligence. The more spores there are in a group the more intelligent the group is. Once a year, during the breeding season, lots of these groups form. In order to reproduce the spores need to incubate inside another living creature. For the natives of the planet that's completely fine, the worst that happens is they get a headache and some nausea for a few days."
"But if they try to reproduce in a human…" Jack said.
"The human body can't handle the chemical changes brought on by the spores. Massive amounts of gases are produced all over the body in seconds. All that pressure has nowhere to go and…"
"Pop," Alex finished. "So they aren't actually murders? They're just spores on the wrong planet?" The Doctor nodded.
"When the victims explode the spores are probably scattered about," he said. "That's why there's been a couple of days between each of the incidents."
"They probably came through the rift," said Jack. "We get all sorts of interplanetary flotsam round here."
"So how do we get them off Earth?" Alex asked.
"That should be easy," the Doctor said. "The spores are attracted to certain electromagnetic signals. We gather all the spores in one location, trap them, then take them back to Coloscosus."
"Sounds easy enough," said Jack. "You get started on that, I'll go tell UNIT what we've got. Maybe that'll get them to leave us alone."
"I'll be perfectly honest," Alex said, peering at the green mist swirling in the glass he was carrying as they walked to the TARDIS. "I wasn't expecting thing to go this smoothly."
"Things don't go wrong every time," the Doctor replied. Alex raised an eyebrow.
"Doctor you have the worst luck of anyone in the universe. Things always go wrong around you."
"That's not true."
"Actually it kinda is," said Jack. The Doctor huffed.
"Anyway," he said, pulling the TARDIS key from his pocket as they approached the blue box. "It was good seeing you again Jack."
Jack grinned and saluted. "Stay safe Doctor."
"Oh, hang on just a moment," said Alex. "Hold this." He passed the jar to the Doctor, who was looking rather confused. Then he turned around and engaged Jack in a passionate, fiery kiss. The Doctor raised an eyebrow. After ten seconds of non-stop lip-lock he cleared his throat loudly. With apparent effort, Alex pulled himself off Jack, breathing heavily.
"Ok," he said, looking a bit dazed. "Ready to go." Then he wandered past the Doctor into the TARDIS. The Doctor turned to Jack.
"You," he said, "are a terrible influence." Jack's grin widened and he laughed. The Doctor smiled too and stepped back inside the TARDIS. The door closed and Jack turned and walked away as the metallic groaning started and the blue box faded away.
Next time…
"I am Alexander Silver"
He will kill you
"I am a Weeping Angel"
He will abandon you
"And I. Am. Afraid"
"… Please save me."
This chapter gave me a lot of trouble writing and I'm still not completely happy with the way it turned out. That may be mostly my fault though seeing as I wrote the damn thing as an excuse for Alex to snog Jack. I promise the next chapter will be more thought out. See you there!