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: Thanks so much to those of you who reviewed! I appreciate your thoughts! And I am happy that for the first time in a very long time I don't have to apologize for taking forever to post a new chapter.

You should all thank my mom for being so incredibly awesome by letting me use her laptop in the wee hours of the morning because it's going to take around $200 to fix mine...

Anyway, hope you enjoy! And please review!

Armageddon:

Part III: The Year of Hell

Chapter Nineteen

"It should not be this cold in California," Shawn muttered, tugging the thin coat closer to himself. The early morning air was frigid and the sky was overcast. Lassiter's eyes followed Shawn's gaze and he frowned, shaking his head.

"It could be worse, Spencer," he said gruffly, "at least there aren't any Toclafane bastards around right now."

"Yeah, but for how long?" Rigsby looked anxious, "We need to get moving."

Nodding, the other two followed Rigsby as he made his way down the empty street, gun in hand. Their search party was small that morning. Lisbon had wanted to go with them, but Patrick eventually convinced her to stay with him while he tried to help Grace get their laptop up and running – it had been out of commission for several weeks and though Grace wasn't a computer expert, she was very quickly teaching herself a lot.

Dr. Holloway was still tending to the sick child and Henry had wanted to come, but Shawn had begged him to stay with Juliet to make sure that she was alright, despite the fact that Juliet was perfectly alright.

They maneuvered their way through the greater part of Sacramento, carefully dodging patrols and grateful that there were very few Toclafane out that morning. The temperature only rose a few degrees and Shawn was still unhappily mumbling about it when Rigsby called out as loud as he dared, informing them that they were going to head back to the safe house after one more round through what had once been a rather nice hotel.

Shawn's spirits fell as they stepped over debris. The area had obviously been abandoned, but Shawn spotted signs of clean-up in some places. The Master was probably going to knock the hotel down to make room for another of his factories or maybe a work camp. Either way, anyone hiding here would have had to have gotten there recently to avoid having been killed or captured.

His hopes were not high, but he tried not to let that show as they began pushing doors open and searching rooms, careful not to make too much noise as the afternoon sun shown frostily from the sky. There would be more Toclafane buzzing around soon as more of the workers were out and about and they needed to be careful of being spotted.

It was several minutes before Lassiter suddenly froze, holding up a hand and clicking the safety off on his gun.

"What?" Rigsby hissed, easing up behind Lassiter with Shawn close behind him, anxiously looking between the two men.

"Did you hear that?" Lassiter glanced back at them before zeroing in on a door not ten yards ahead. Or, more accurately, a doorway. The actual door part had been torn off, though Shawn couldn't tell for sure if it was recent or it the door had been a casualty of the Decimation months ago.

They slowly edged toward the entrance, but before they could get there a woman suddenly burst out, holding what looked like a long metal pipe in her hands. Her red hair was a mess, her eyes wide and her grip on the pipe was a bit shaky, but she held it with the obvious intent to bash someone's brains in.

"Who are you people?" her voice was high pitched and a bit suspicious, not that Shawn could blame her. Who wasn't suspicious these days?

Lassiter answered, "We're friends," he said, "Carlton Lassiter, former SBPD Head Detective," Shawn couldn't stop the smile on his face at the way Lassiter still addressed himself as "head detective" as if that mattered anymore.

"Wait," the woman cut him off before he could continue, "Lassiter? Like… Lassie?"

Lassiter made a face and Shawn grinned brightly, "That's exactly right!" he said, "How did you know that?" His voice dropped seriously, but there was a light note in his voice, "Are you psychic?"

Lassiter scoffed, but the girl wasn't paying attention, turning around into the room, where they could hear someone shuffling around a bit. A moment later, a grey cat darted out and nearly hit Lassiter in the face. He barely managed not to shoot the poor animal. And then Shawn thought he was going crazy when he heard the voice he hadn't thought he'd get to hear again.

"Shawn? Oh my god, Shawn!"

Shawn felt like time slowed down – like in some dramatic movie or a soap opera – and he stared at Gus, standing there behind the red-headed woman with wide eyes full of hope and disbelief.

"Gus! Gus you're alive!"

He practically launched himself between Rigsby and Lassiter, nearly knocking down the young woman as he gripped Gus tightly around the shoulders, closing his eyes and feeling like things might just actually be okay. Even hugging his best friend, it still felt like some strangely optimistic dream until he pulled back and glanced down, noticing for the first time that his friend wasn't entirely whole.

"Gus! What happened to your hand?"

Gus winced, "I got caught by some Toclafane," he said, "Charlie probably saved my life," he nodded toward the red head and smiled at her gratefully, but she just shrugged and blushed a bit.

It took Shawn a minute, staring down at the place where his friend's hand had once been, but he sucked in a deep breath and grabbed the stubbed wrist. "This could work," he said, very seriously, "We could get you, like, a hook for your hand… And a pirates hat, a big one…"

Gus grinned brightly, laughing and Shawn frowned for a second, "What?"

Gus didn't say anything, reaching out and tugging Shawn into another hug. There were tears in his voice, but Shawn didn't want to cry. He didn't want to taint this moment.

"I missed you, buddy…"

~/.\~

Martha and Kate greeted each other like old friends inside of St. Basil's. The once beautiful Cathedral was doomed to be demolished in favor of expanding the Master's factories, which already covered a great deal of Russia anyway. Martha didn't want to imagine the devastation that the Master could accomplish with the weapons he was building.

"It's so good to see you, Martha!" Kate said, smiling as she led the younger woman down into one of the few still livable areas inside. They were clearly getting ready to move out – it was dangerous living in right under the Master's nose. The night before Martha had stayed in one of the work camps and would probably spend tonight with another, begging them to spread the word.

"You too," Martha nodded, "It's been ages. I take it things aren't going well?"

Kate shook her head defeated, "Not here and farther east they're even worse. Things are looking bad, Martha. You heard about Japan?"

"I was there," Martha said, her voice hushed, "When the explosion went off…" her eyes got distant, "Must've hit the wrong thing on the Vortex Manipulator, because one moment I was in Germany, the next I was in Tokyo. I spent a couple of days there before the fires started… Barely got out in time. I tried to get people to come with me, but it was chaos and there were explosions and fires everywhere…"

Kate put a gentle hand on her shoulder, "You did your best, Martha,"

She sighed heavily, "It doesn't feel like it," she said, "I can still hear the screaming…" She took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment, trying to remind herself that there would be time enough for her to dwell on this once it was all over.

"What about in the West?" she asked, "I heard things are getting rough in North America."

Kate snorted, "Things are really rough over there and they aren't looking to wait on hearing the Doctor's plan. They're arming themselves for all out war right now. You know how Americans are. Guns blazing, glorious death." She huffed and Martha almost smiled.

"I'll just have to convince them the Doctor's plan is smarter," she said, "Won't be easy, but I've managed to do it so far."

Kate nodded, "That you have and we're lucky for it. Heard about that narrow escape in France… Your name's really getting out there, Martha. Everyone is talking about you now."

Martha felt a bit strange hearing that, "Suppose that's a good thing; they'll be expecting me when I show up. I just hope the Master doesn't catch on before I can get back to London…"

"He won't," Kate assured her, "Which reminds me, we've been working on the second half of the weapon. It's currently in transit, from Kenya. We're trying to move it to Australia. Once you're headed in that direction, we'll send word along. Just make sure that you stay in touch through the network."

"I try," Martha sighed. It wasn't as difficult as it had been in the beginning, but it was still not easy for her to stay in contact with the hacker network. There weren't enough people who had computers – the work camps were now devoid of any electronics except the televisions that were used for the Master to deliver his speeches and to keep everyone updated on the List. Not surprisingly, Martha's name had moved its way to the very top of the list as the more important political and military figures were taken care of.

As they walked, Kate continued catching Martha up on everything that was in development. As far as they knew, there had yet to be a confirmed capture of a Toclafane, but there were many attempts happening around the world. Kate was working with the locals in Moscow and a handful of fugitive UNIT soldiers to build a weapon that would fire an electrical bolt. It was crude at the moment, but they were hoping to eventually be able to implement traps to capture and study as many of the aliens as possible.

As they reached the living area – cluttered with debris and bits of scrap and people talking quietly, looking too thin and sickly – Martha sighed and felt a pang of desperation in her chest. They all greeted her like a hero and she tried to smile through it, wanting to deny their praise with everything in her.

She didn't of course, and instead just asked that they hear her out while she told them a story, a story about a man and his blue box and how he planned to save the world.

~/.\~

Sherlock's dark curls moved slightly in the faint wind as he and Jake crept at the edges of the city. They wanted to avoid being inside the city if they could; the less attention that they drew to themselves, the better.

The weapon was large and cumbersome, but Jake's supernatural strength – which was still a mystery to everyone, even Sherlock didn't have an answer for it – allowed him the carry it with ease. Tosh wanted to try to build a weapon that wouldn't be so difficult to handle, but they had wanted something mobile so that they could move it around if they needed to relocate quickly.

"So what are we going to do?" Jake glanced at Sherlock, deciding to let him call the shots for now. He had no interest in getting into an argument with the other man. "Sit here and wait until one of the little bastards buzzes by and try to shoot it down?"

"That would be the idea, yes," Even agreeing with someone, Sherlock sounded remarkably condescending. Jake was amazed that Owen and John were able to put up with it – especially John who for the longest time hadn't had the ability to walk away whenever Sherlock got annoying.

They had barely been settled into their hiding spot when they heard rustling noise somewhere behind them. At first, Jake assumed it was an animal, but the rustling picked up and Sherlock suddenly shushed him. The taller man rose to his feet soundlessly – a feat Jake would never stop being amazed by – and carefully stepped through the trees.

Jake frowned, remaining quiet as he maneuvered his body so that he was facing the rustling noises and waited. Several minutes of silence had his heart thudding in his chest and his hand gripping the handgun at his hip. When the rustling picked up again, louder and closer than before, Jake aimed the gun and narrowed his eyes, holding his breath.

Seconds went by and suddenly two people burst through the low hanging branches. Jake's finger tensed over the trigger, but he stopped himself from squeezing it just in time when he recognized Sherlock and Owen standing in front of him.

"Owen? What the hell are you doing out here?"

Owen was breathing heavily, ignoring the disdainful look that Sherlock was giving him. He offered Jake a somewhat embarrassed smile and shrugged, "Tosh and John can watch the base for a couple of hours. I couldn't stand being stuck in that place any longer."

Jake raised a brow, "So you followed us? Owen, that was stupid. You didn't have backup."

Owen lifted his gun, "I had all the backup I needed right here," he said.

Jake sighed and shook his head, but didn't bother saying anything else. There really was no point in arguing when Owen was already there. "Fine," he said, "Better settle in. The patrols usually start in about half an hour so we've got some time to kill…"

True to his word, the Toclafane began their nightly patrols exactly twenty-five minutes later. As quietly as possible, Jake stood with the heavy, bulky weapon and balanced it on his shoulder, squinting in the darkness. His knees began to ache and his muscles burned from holding the position as he waited for a Toclafane to drift into his line of sight, but Jake didn't show any of the signs.

Even after all this time, Owen still marveled at how easily Jake handled the hefty weapon as if it weighed nothing. He crept up behind the taller man, feeling Sherlock standing next to him and tensing a bit at the closeness of the other man. He felt wrong standing there with Sherlock so close and not trying to strangle him.

"Come on," Jake hissed between his teeth, finger hovering over the button to activate the gun. It was nearly five more minutes before his eyes flew wide open and he pressed the button, the kickback sending him flying several feet through the air and knocking Owen onto his backside.

"He hit it!" Sherlock exclaimed, not bothering to look back and check on his fallen comrades – they were groaning in pain and therefore alive – and instead starting out toward the fallen alien.

Before he could reach the metal sphere, however, it flickered, buzzing jerkily as it fought to lift itself into the air again. It emitted what sounded horrifying like a child's scream and began yelling, bellowing out that there were fugitives nearby. The sound of human voices soon after sent Sherlock spinning in the opposite direction. He could hear the thundering fall of footsteps alongside the buzzing of the Toclafane now and though he didn't want to admit it, a sliver of fear worked its way into his chest.

He didn't scream or call out, however, instead making his way in the dark back to where he, Jake and Owen had been laying in wait. Jake was back on his feet, already holding the gun and turning to run toward the base. Owen was nowhere in sight.

"Where's Owen?" Jake tried not to yell whenever Sherlock grabbed him by the arm on the run, dragging him along.

"I didn't see him," Sherlock said, "it's dark! We have to keep moving!"

Just as the words left him mouth, the gunfire started and the dark night was lit with the lasers from the Toclafane. Grass and trees were singed and the night came alive with the burst of bullets in the air. Jake kept looking back over his shoulder, hoping to see Owen there somewhere, but the area was empty save their pursuers. Sherlock tugged him along, ignoring his anxiousness.

"Here!" Sherlock suddenly shoved Jake down, diving in after him. For a second, Jake wasn't sure where they were and then he recognized the dense, putrid smell and the dampness at his feet and around his ankles. An old water main or sewer pipe then. His stomach turned at the smell, but he had little time to focus on that as Sherlock pushed him farther in, securing their hiding place.

The footsteps and the whirring went by without pause and Jake held his breath (partly because of the smell). Several tense minutes passed before the footsteps came near again, gruff voices speaking in thick accents that made them difficult to understand, at least for Jake. Sherlock heard them easily however.

"He must've had a partner," one of the men said, "We saw at least two sets of tracks back there."

"It's dark," another said, "They can't get far; we'll search the area once it's daylight. Double the patrols tonight."

There was a heavy pause and then another, younger voice, more timid than the other two, spoke, "Do we kill him?"

"Of course not!" the first man scoffed, "Don't you recognize him from the List? We'll turn him in to the Master. Maybe get ourselves some decent living quarters."

Jake's heart was thudding away in his chest again, his mouth dry as the men moved away. He went to leave, but Sherlock's steady hand on his shoulder held him back.

"They've got Owen!" Jake hissed.

"Yes, but not us," Sherlock's tone was matter-of-fact, "and not our weapon. We need to get back to the base and alert Toshiko and John. We have to be out of here before sunrise."

"We can't leave Owen!"

"We can and will," Sherlock said, his voice flat and cold, "If we risk rescuing him now we'll only make things worse. He's dead already. Don't add your own death to the list needlessly."

Jake scowled, but didn't move, muttering under his breath, "You really are a cold bastard, you know that?"

"I've been informed, yes, now kindly shut up before they hear us."

~/.\~

Charlie wandered around the safe house to get away from the enthusiastic reunion between Gus and his friends. She's been hugged and thanked and touted as practically a goddess for helping Gus – which, she had to admit, was kind of awesome – and felt just slightly smothered whenever Juliet hugged her for the third time.

Shawn was every bit what Gus had described to her. Never quite shutting up, making strange references to movies and – for some reason – bemoaning the fact that they didn't have a smoothie to celebrate finding Gus. Apparently, he hadn't been himself since Gus had disappeared, at least according to Juliet, and this was the first time he'd really smiled in a long time.

It was nice, but Charlie was used to being on her own and at the first opportunity, she scooped up Gandalf and made her way toward the back where the bedrooms were. She spotted a few people – Grace, the doctor, tending to a sick child with a brown haired woman Charlie vaguely remembered was named Teresa; Rigsby talking with a man she hadn't been introduced to yet with blond, messy curls and another red-headed woman sitting on a mattress with a laptop, frowning at it.

She tapped gently on the wall before entered, smiling awkwardly at the woman, "Uh, knock-knock," she said.

The woman looked up and smiled, "Oh, hi!" she said, "You must be the woman who came in with Shawn's friend. I meant to go introduce myself…"

"No worries," Charlie smiled good-naturedly and perched on the edge of the somewhat lumpy mattress, peering over the woman's shoulder to view the laptop screen. It was blinking bright blue, with white numbers and letters flashing across the screen.

"I'm Charlie, by the way," she said.

"Grace,"

"Isn't the doctor named Grace?"

Grace smiled, "There are two of us," she said.

Charlie grinned a bit, "Two Graces… And you're both ginger. Not like you couldn't use a third," she flipped her hair playfully and Grace laughed.

"Is that your cat?" she reached out and tentatively scratched at the grey cat's ears, smiling as he purred quietly.

"Sort of," Charlie shrugged, "I unofficially adopted him. Or he adopted me. I'm not really sure. His name's Gandalf."

"That is a great name," Grace said, "I wonder if he does real magic…"

Charlie snorted, "That'd be awesome. We could totally send him in to the Valiant and he could take down the Master and his flying monkeys with a few words."

Grace smiled for a moment, but then her shoulders slumped again as she sighed, the laptop screen going entirely blue and the flashing letters disappearing.

"Trouble with the laptop?"

"Yeah," Grace sighed, "it's been out of commission for months. We're trying to get it back online so we can try to communicate with others…"

"I'm good with computers," Charlie said, "Great, actually. It's kind of my thing… Mind if I take a look?"

"Knock yourself out," Grace passed the computer over to Charlie and she smiled, settling more comfortably on the bed with the laptop in front of her. Her fingers moved fluidly over the keys as she tapped away. After a few minutes, she looked up, giving Grace a calculating look before turning her attention back to the computer. With any luck, they'd be connected to Archangel by the next day.

~/.\~

The Master had led them all into the conference room after over an hour on the deck watching Japan slowly burn. He looked ready to continue the torment when Lucy entered the room, her dead eyes wide as she whispered something urgently to her husband. The Master froze for a moment, his body going taut, before a malicious grin spread across his face.

"Excellent!" he said, "Come with me." He practically dragged Lucy out of the room and the Doctor could have sworn she sent him an apologetic look before stumbling after the Master. As soon as they left, the guards in the room relaxed a bit, but kept their hold on their guns tightly. They knew better than to let the prisoners escape under their watch. Still, they wouldn't stop them from talking.

They weren't chained up aside from Jack who had been shoved into a chair and chained down in every conceivable way. The Joneses sat huddled together at the end of the table, Tish still looking like a hollow version of herself while her mother wrapped her arms around her tightly.

"We have to get them out of here, Doctor," Reid's voice startled him. It sounded almost as hollow as Tish look and the Doctor didn't like the way Spencer's eyes seemed to stare off at nothing sometimes, seeing horrors inside of his mind.

"You all need to get out of here," the Doctor said, not quite looking at the younger man as he spoke. He kept his attention on Jack, trying not to think too much about that last gruesome death and Jack's screams as the pain became too much for even him to handle.

Spencer turned to stare at the Doctor, his lips folded together, "I don't want to leave you here alone,"

"It's not up for debate, Spencer," the Doctor said, "If we can make a successful escape, you and the Joneses and Jack are leaving. He won't kill me. He might kill you or any one of them."

Spencer didn't argue that time, sighing heavily. "We need to find someone to help us," he said, "Lucy won't do it again. Not after the first time…" he cringed thinking of how empty she'd looked after their first unfortunately escape attempt. They never did learn exactly how the Master had gotten her to tell him about the attempt.

"That's not going to be easy," Jack said. His voice sounded ragged. "No one on this ship wants the Master to turn on them and they've got families to think about too. Lucy was our best bet and she fell through pretty quick."

"We've got to think of something," Reid said, his eyes going to Tish again, "They're going to fall apart if they have to keep living through this nightmare."

"So will you," the Doctor said gently, finally looking at Spencer fully. The younger man shrugged and shook his head.

"And you won't?" he asked.

~/.\~

McGee's lips turned down into a frown as the monitor in front of him beeped. Abby and Garcia were, for once, away from the computers, chattering away with little Jack and Gibbs. It was really early in the morning and things were still moving a little sluggish for everyone. Everyone except Jack, that is. He seemed to be wide awake and was quite enjoying the attention he was getting.

"Hey guys," McGee called out, taking a quick sip of his coffee, "We just got a message from Sarah Jane…"

Only Reid, Ducky and Gibbs moved to stand around the computer. Tony and Prentiss stayed where they were, seated on the old couch next to Jessica. Hotch wandered in from the kitchen with Fornell and Rossi not far behind.

"What's up, McGee?" Gibbs asked.

"Uh," McGee frowned, taking a moment to decipher what was written. He, Abby and Garcia had gotten good at reading the code quickly over the last few months of studying it and partly helping develop it.

"Torchwood Three tested their weapon… it slowed the Toclafane down, but didn't kill it. Oh… One of their people was taken…" his trailed off, his voice going soft, "Sarah Jane says they'll be out of communication for a while because they had to relocate quickly."

"Damn," Gibbs swore and frowned.

"Did she say anything else?" Tony called from where he was sitting.

"Hang on," McGee muttered impatiently, "Okay, yeah. She says she got lucky a couple of hours ago when she took K-9 out on a food run and he hit a Toclafane directly with his laser."

"He shoots lasers!" Abby practically squealed, "God, that's so unfair…"

"Yeah," McGee said, "Apparently he's fired on Toclafane before, but this is the first time he's directly hit one. She's going to try and crack it open and figure out what's inside, but she wants to attempt a video feed. She thinks she can manage it. It'll be short, but we'd get to see what we're dealing with. She wants to set up a time when we can all link up so we'd be connected to whoever else is able to get a feed…"

He looked up, eyes going immediately to Gibbs.

"Sounds like a plan," Hotch was the one who answered.

"How long does she think it'll take to get the feed established?" Garcia asked.

"A day or two," McGee said, "She wants to make sure it's secure so the Master doesn't catch the scent. If he picks up the feed he might be able to trace it back to every one of us…"

"It's risky," Ducky said, "but worth it, I think."

"The more we know about the Toclafane the better,"

"So we're all in agreement then?" Gibbs asked, eyeing them all. When no protest came, he turned to McGee, nodding. "Alright then. Tell her we're in."

~/.\~

"It's risky," Rufus muttered, frowning at Ash. Ash, Sam, Gordon, Henricksen and Martin were all gathered in the now cramped feeling eating area. Ash was sitting at his computer, explain to them the message he'd just received from Sarah Jane Smith about the video feed of the Toclafane she'd taken down with her robot dog.

"Yeah, but my gun isn't ready yet," Ash motioned to the half-assembled jumble of parts that in no way resembled a gun. "We're gonna need to know all we can know about those little bastards if we're really planning on attacking the Master within the next couple of months."

"I think Ash is right," Sam agreed, "this is something we've gotta do. The more weakness we can find in the Toclafane, the better our odds. I mean, we don't know anything about them right now except that bullets don't work and their somehow sentient metal balls…"

"Maybe," Gordon didn't look convinced, "but if that feed is traced back to us we don't have any way of fighting 'em off right now. How do you propose we deal with that?"

"Make sure we're ready to go if something goes wrong," Henricksen said swiftly, "We can find another safe house. This is a chance to see what's inside the Toclafane firsthand."

"See them firsthand how?" Dean frowned as he entered the room with Garth and Adam right behind him.

"Sarah Jane," Ash explained, "her robo-dog killed a Toclafane. She wants to set up a video feed to connect us all to her so we can watch while she cuts into it to see what they're made of."

"What you mean they're not made of snips and snails and puppy dog tails?" Dean muttered. "So what's the problem?"

"If the Master finds the feed, he could probably track it back to whoever is connected to it. Which means he would know immediately where we are and we'd either be dead or out of the safe house…"

Dean frowned, "I say go for it," he said, "The Master wants to try to screw with us, we've got explosives. Let him come."

"Dean," Sam frowned and Gordon rolled his eyes.

"You're just ready to go out in a blaze of glory aren't you, Winchester?"

Dean glared at him, "Damn right I am. I'm more than willing to die trying to take this son of a bitch down,"

"Taking unnecessary risks is stupid," Sam snapped, "You just want to go on a suicide mission."

"And?"

"And I'm not gonna let that happen, Dean," Sam said, "You're not killing yourself on my watch."

"Whatever," Dean muttered.

The air was tense, everyone falling silent for a moment. Rufus slowly cleared his throat, "So we're gonna do it then?"

"Sounds like our best option right now," Garth said, "We've got to study them somehow and Ash is still working on his weapon."

"Alrighty," Ash banged away on the keys, "Sarah Jane's got herself a few more audience members. Here's to us figuring out how to destroy those little assholes."

~/.\~

A/N: For the record, I hate writing Ash. He's so difficult to get right. *pout*

Also, seriously, can you believe I got this posted so fast? I feel like celebrating. I've already got an outline (in my head) for the next chapter and I'm working on setting it down on paper now. So hopefully I'll be able to post the next chapter soon. (HINT: It involves the video feed. And Owen. Also, Gabriel might make an appearance. If not next chapter then very soon.)

Anyway. Hope you enjoyed! Please, please review! Love it, hate it, I just wanna hear your thoughts!