Title: Armageddon

Rating: T

Warnings: Major spoilers for "Utopia", "The Sound of Drums" and "Last of the Time Lords"; violence; mild language; allusions to rape (but I promise nothing explicit or graphic)

A/N: So sorry for the long wait guys! I was away from home most of the week before Thanksgiving and last week was, well, Thanksgiving. I've been busier than I'd like to be with helping cooking and cleaning and getting ready for Christmas. Sorry!

And, as always, thanks so much for your reviews! You guys are amazing!

Hope you all enjoy the chapter! Please don't forget to review!

Armageddon:

Part III: The Year of Hell

Chapter Eight

Castiel returned to Heaven as soon as he'd transported the Gwen, Owen, Jake and John to the Torchwood Hub. He knew that they probably still had many questions, but it was not his job to answer them. He wasn't surprised when Zachariah showed up to greet him.

The other Angel was waiting for him, his back to him as he stared ahead.

"You were only supposed to transport Gwen Cooper and Owen Harper, Castiel," Zachariah's voice was even and steady, "The others were not part of the agreement."

"The agreement I made was with Michael," Castiel said, "And I doubt that our Father would be upset that I saved the lives of two humans."

"Two insignificant humans," Zachariah said, "Yes. Which is why they should have been left behind. It's bad enough you saved the others, but Jake Talley and John Watson were an unnecessary addition."

"They deserved to live just as the rest of them did,"

"To what end?" Zachariah turned around finally, and though his voice was still quiet even his eyes were like fire. He was an impressive sight even when he wasn't angry – wings flaring brightly, eyes ablaze. "They are not part of the Plan, Castiel. Their lives are unimportant in the grand scheme of the universe. Our Father expects us to do a job – one job, Castiel, and it's beginning to seem that you may not be worthy of it when that day comes."

As much as the higher up Angels talked about "the Plan", all Castiel and many other garrisons knew for sure was that it involved Sam and Dean Winchester and the Apocalypse. They were never given more than that and Castiel suspected that until the Plan was in motion, they never would be.

"I merely did what I thought was best," Castiel argued, "They could prove helpful to the Torchwood team and if we are not going to interfere –"

"We aren't!" for the first time Zachariah's voice rose to booming strength. "You're treading very dangerously, Castiel," he warned him, "Do not make the mistake of descending to Earth again unless you are told. One more slip and you will be relieved of your command."

With that, Zachariah was gone and Castiel wasn't entirely sure what to make of it. It seemed that he was the only one concerned about the goings on below. Perhaps his older brothers knew more than they were letting on, but Castiel didn't feel content to simply sit and watch while a madman turned his Father's greatest creation into a nightmare. There had to be another Angel who felt the same…

~/.\~

Reid and the Doctor had been left in the main conference room after Jack was taken back to his holding place. The Master didn't really appear to be too bothered that the Doctor still hadn't told him what Martha was supposed to be doing and after a month of torture and demanding questions, Reid had come to the realization that while the Master wanted to know, he didn't actually think Martha was a real threat.

They were both chained to the wall; the Master had eventually allowed someone – Reid recognized the guard, but didn't know his name – to bandage the wounds on his back. It was a bit sloppy, bit was better than nothing. For the moment, they were alone in the room. The Master had gotten bored torturing Jack after a while and left with a couple of other young women who were on the ship. Reid didn't like to think about what couple be happening to those girls…

"Can I ask you something?" he whispered quietly in the dark room, glancing over at the Doctor.

"Hmm?" the Doctor looked over at him, blinking and frowning. They never really talked much, usually, except to assure each other that this was going to end eventually. The Doctor was careful about what he said, not wanting to reveal anything that the Master might stumble upon during his periodic invasions into Spencer or Jack's minds.

"It's about the Master…" he said, "You knew him before, right? On Gallifrey?"

The Doctor nodded, "Yes, we went to the Academy together."

"And you were friends?"

"I suppose, yes," the Doctor nodded, "Neither of us really had many friends so we sort of… stuck together."

"Does that mean he wasn't always… insane?"

"No," The Doctor's eyes darkened and he shook his head, "Not always."

"Then what happened?" Reid frowned, "Between you two? He… he seems to hate you, but you don't really act like you hate him. At least, not all the time." Reid could think of several times he'd thought he'd seen hate in the Doctor's eyes, but it always seemed to be brief and only whenever the Master was torturing someone or telling him that someone he'd known was dead.

"That's… that's a rather long story,"

"We've got a lot of time," Spencer reminded him, holding up the chain keeping them in place, "And I don't think we're going anywhere anytime soon."

The Doctor smiled a bit and shook his head, "You've got a point," he said, "But I dunno. It's difficult to explain, really. Sometimes even I'm not sure what happened…" He trailed off, eyes staring at nothing in particular and Reid sighed. He wished he knew what the Doctor was thinking, wished there was something he could tell him.

"You know," he said, pulling the Doctor out of his memories, "Before… when I met the other you, I always thought you seemed sad. Like you'd lost something you could never get back. Then I learned about what happened to Gallifrey and I thought that was it, but… I think it might be because you blaming yourself for everything. Not just the Master, but for what's happening to Martha's family, to me, to Jack… You blame yourself for your friends' suffering."

The Doctor didn't say anything, not bothering to deny what was true. He did blame himself – if not directly then at least indirectly – for what was happening. It was his mess that he needed to clean up; the Master was his responsibility.

Spencer thought about something River Song has once said to him and shook his head, "Don't you think that's a little narcissistic?"

"Narcissistic?!" the Doctor managed to summon enough spirit to sound slightly offended by that and Reid smiled.

"Blaming yourself for everything," he said, "kind of seems like you think the world revolves around you. You can't possibly be the cause of all of our problems, Doctor, and it's not up to you to always fix it. You should remember that. Bad things happen and it doesn't have to be your fault. The Master doesn't have to be your responsibility and carrying around guilt like that only makes it worse."

The Doctor sighed, "I suppose you might be right, but I can still fix it, Spencer, so it's still my responsibility. If I can fix it, then I have to at least try, don't I?"

~/.\~

The glare of the flashlight blinded Dean for a second and his grip on his machete tightened. The features of the two men in front of him were almost indistinguishable – he could tell that the man holding the gun was tall and dark skinned, but that was about it. The teenager he assumed was Adam was on the thin side and his hair was a sandy-colored mess, but that was about it. He was tall and wearing ratty clothes.

"I can't even begin to tell you boys how much it pisses me off to find you now," the man was still holding the gun aimed at Dean, "All these months searching for you and I find you in the middle of fucking Armageddon."

Dean glanced over at Sam, sending him an angry glare, "Well, apparently you know who we are, but I gotta tell ya, we have no clue who the hell you're supposed to be,"

The man smiled, "FBI. Or at least I was… Victor Henricksen."

"FBI?" Sam tensed, thinking about all the FBI agents that had been forced into working for the Master.

"Don't worry," Henricksen said, "I'm not working for that whack-job. Doesn't mean much for you two…" His finger tightened on the trigger of his weapon and Sam and Dean both got ready to dive at him if they needed to.

"Henricksen," Adam spoke for the first time, his voice quiet and a bit nervous, "They're my brothers,"

"Brothers," Henricksen sneered a bit at the word, "Adam didn't you hear what I said before we left? These two are dangerous criminals –"

"I knew my father," Adam said, his voice rising a bit, just a hint of anger there. Dean felt a jolt when Adam said that. How long could he have known John? "He wasn't a murderer,"

"Adam –" Henricksen started to say something, glancing over at the teenager and shaking his head. Dean didn't bother to think much and took advantage of the opening, rushing at Henricksen and wrestling the gun from his hands.

As soon as he held the gun, he stood, pointing it down at the former FBI agents and breathing heavily. "Now," he said, "I think you two owe us an explanation before I shoot you in the face."

"Dean," Sam edged forward, keeping his gun in his hand, but switching the safety back on, "Come on –"

"Explanation?" Henricksen raised a brow at him, "What? Did you just expect us to let Adam waltz right into some shady meeting with his supposed 'long-lost brothers'? The second he said John Winchester was his dad, I knew this wouldn't end well."

"What? You thought we were setting up a trap for Adam?" Sam sounded shocked, until he remembered that Dean had thought the same thing about Adam before they'd left. Being paranoid had saved their lives more than once in this world.

"No," Adam was quick to rush in, his eyes wide and staring at Sam and Dean, "They were just worried… Trusting strangers isn't exactly a good idea these days."

"You're damn right," Dean swung the gun to face Adam, narrowing his eyes, "Who are you?"

Adam bit his lip, "Adam Milligan," he said, "My mom was Kate Milligan, my father was John Winchester –"

"You're lying!" Dean spat the words with such anger that even Sam was surprised by it. He stepped toward his older brother and put a hand on his arm.

"Dean, Kate Milligan… KM, remember?"

Dean shifted to look at Sam, but still shook his head. "Prove it," he jerked his head toward Adam, "Tell us about your father."

Adam hesitated, "There isn't a whole lot to tell, I didn't meet him until a few years ago. He showed up on my birthdays, a couple of times around Christmas and if he was ever passing through he'd stop in. It wasn't the perfect relationship, but –"

"He was with you at Christmas?" Sam cut him off, his eyes wide. John Winchester hadn't celebrated Christmas – a real Christmas – with him or Dean since Dean had been about ten, maybe even before that.

Adam frowned, nodding, "Yeah, not the day of Christmas, but he'd stop by Christmas Eve or the day after once or twice and he'd give my mom money. For my fifteenth birthday he took me a baseball game –"

"Baseball game?" now Dean cut him off, staring at Adam with a mixture of disbelief and envy. He'd never really given a whole lot of thought to the normal family things he'd missed out on – it was incredibly depressing to dwell on that – but when he'd been younger he'd sometimes fantasized about having a normal life, his dad and him and Sammy playing football in the backyard. He always rationalized it because they had more important things to do, because missing out on a few holidays and family bonding was worth being able to save people.

"Yeah," Adam frowned at them, "What he didn't do that stuff with you?"

Sam scoffed, shaking his head, "I think you're talking about an entirely different John Winchester."

"He was in the Marines," Adam went on hastily, "He fought in Vietnam, he… he said he was married before, but he never mentioned a name –"

"Or us, apparently," Dean muttered. He'd never hated his father, in fact he often idolized him – he tried so hard to remember that John had been the best father he knew how – but hearing this, now, was killing him.

Adam looked a little uncomfortable, but continued anyway, "He was a mechanic. He was tall…" his eyes flicked between Sam and Dean, "You two have the same color eyes he did,"

Sam almost smiled, "Mechanic? So you didn't know what he really did, then,"

"What do you mean?"

"He means their dad was a whack-job serial killer," Henricksen spoke up again, "There isn't much in the records, but I'd bet my last dime he abused and brainwashed these two with a bunch of devil mumbo-jumbo –"

"You don't know shit about my dad!" Dean snapped, turning the gun toward Henricksen with a vicious fire in his eyes. Henricksen didn't even blink, just smirking up at Dean.

"Hit a nerve, Dean?"

"What… what did Dad really do?" Adam asked, his voice tentative, "If he wasn't a mechanic?"

Sam hesitated before answering, "He saved people's lives," he said, "He fought monsters. Taught me and Dean how to kill 'em too. It might sound crazy, but look around you… Does it sound any more insane than an alien dictator taking over earth?"

Adam hesitated, frowning, "What kind of monsters?"

~/.\~

Gwen was the first one to move toward the computer area. They could hear the low hum of the electronics and weren't saying anything until they knew for sure that it was Tosh and Ianto. John and Jake kept close to them, staring around the Hub in wonder as they did.

"No, I haven't been able to get a response yet," that was Tosh's voice, "but don't worry, Ianto, I will."

"Still nothing about Gwen and Owen, then?"

Tosh sighed heavily, but before she could answer, Gwen and Owen – still followed closely by John and Jake – stepped out into the space and Gwen nearly knocked Tosh from her chair as she hugged her. Owen stood back and watch the exchange, shaking his head a little, though even he couldn't hide the relieved smile on his face that the other two were alive and apparently well.

"Gwen!" Tosh pushed the other woman back and stared at her with wide eyes, "Owen… You're… you're alive!"

Ianto was standing there, dumbfounded for a moment, before he saw John and Jake hanging back and he frowned, "Who are they?"

Gwen, still smiling so hard that it hurt, turned to the other men, "It's a bit of a long story, actually…" she took a deep breath, "And I'm sure we've all got a lot to explain."

"Right," Tosh agreed, standing, "Why don't we go into the conference room?"

"Sounds like a plan,"

They all headed toward the room, Owen still hanging back with John and Jake. Tosh stopped and frowned at him, "Can't even say 'hello', Owen?" When he still didn't respond, Tosh frowned and waved a hand in front of his face, "Owen? Are you in there? Are you alright?"

Suddenly, Tosh found herself wrapped into another hug, this one thankfully not as tight as Gwen's had been, but probably twice as shocking. She thought she heard Owen choking back a sob, but maybe that was her imagination running wild. He only held her for a second before letting his arms drop and composing himself.

"Right," he said, clearing his throat, "It's… it's good to see you again, Tosh."

Tosh smiled softly and looked down, "Yeah," she said, "You too, Owen,"

It took them all a couple of hours to trade their stories of what had happened after Castiel had teleported them from the Himalayas. If the other pair hadn't been there, it might've sounded incredibly unbelievable. Tosh and Ianto got the others up to speed about exactly what was happening – they explained more about the Toclafane and about the Archangel network that was proving a pain to work around.

Of course, they'd heard that many people had been killed in the original Decimation – they counted themselves lucky that they'd been able to avoid that, mostly, but there were still people dying every day. When Tosh told them about Jack being on board the Valiant and the torture that they'd witness, Gwen gasped and didn't know what to say. She had asked why they hadn't tried to rescue Jack, but she quickly realized how futile and reckless an attempt would've been.

"So Martha Jones is her name?" Owen asked, frowning a bit as Tosh showed them the picture of Martha that the Master broadcast every day. "Young isn't she?"

"But she's smart," Ianto said, "And the Master doesn't want her out there. If she's right about this Doctor…"

"Do you think it's the same Doctor Jack talked about?" Gwen wondered aloud.

"Has to be," Owen said, frowning, "Wouldn't have ditched us otherwise, right?"

"Owen!"

Talk soon moved to who they knew that had survived so far and Gwen was anxious to know about Rhys. Tosh and Ianto hadn't seen or heard from Rhys, but Tosh was quick to assure her that it didn't necessarily mean that he was dead. He could still be alive, working in one of the Master's labor camps.

Tosh glanced at her watched and frowned, "It's getting late," she said, "We were just about to go to sleep… Sherlock should be here tomorrow,"

"That's the guy that was with that Martha girl, right?" Jake asked, frowning.

"Yes, Sherlock Holmes," Tosh said, frowning, "He's already left London and he tends to move fast so he'll most likely be here before dark tomorrow."

"We could all use some rest," Gwen agreed, "Tomorrow you can show us what you've been doing with Archangel."

"Rest?" Owen looked a bit wistful, "In a bed?"

"No, Owen, we're going to make you sleep on the floor,"

Owen gave Gwen a dirty look, but didn't say anything else, too excited at the prospect of not having to sleep on the ground. The six of them quickly found places to sleep – whether it was in beds or makeshift beds – and drifted off. It was the most restful any of them had slept in a while. Tosh couldn't help but smile as she fell asleep; it was good to have their team back together.

~/.\~

A/N: Yeah, I know this is about half the length I've been giving you – and it's much more manageable this way, I gotta say. Don't worry, we'll hear from Sherlock, Martha, Lestrade, the Mentalist team and, of course, the NCIS and BAU teams next chapter. I'm going to start alternating between Martha's scenes and the Doctor's as much as I can. I'm really sorry for the wait on this guys, part of the reason it's shorter is because I didn't want you to wait any longer for an update.

So, hope you enjoyed! Please review!