We've just learned what happened to Glenn's mother and niece, and in a related story, the Doctor and Martha have just learned what happens when one looks repeatedly at the same image of a Weeping Angel! We've also learned a bit about Glenn's journey of "recovery," as well as Jack's.
What next for our dynamic trio? Or is it a quartet now?
We're going to gain some extremely valuable info about Glenn, and a bit more about what the Doctor has planned for their little Angel Dilemma (which has just turned into a HUGE Angel Dilemma).
Enjoy!
SEVEN
By the time they had tea and a snack, a quick breather, and the Doctor explained the next steps, and they made it back to Oystermouth, it was the wee hours of the morning.
This time, they chanced to set the TARDIS down in the park where they had seen the block party at sunset. Now, the place was, of course, deserted, but the remnants of the picnic were still visible, including the Christmas lights draped over the playground.
"Are you sure this is safe?" Martha asked, as Jack and Glenn left the TARDIS and locked it behind them.
"Well, we know Jack is not vulnerable to the Angels, and either Glenn will get zapped or he won't. My money's on won't. But no matter which way it goes, his phone has universal roaming now, so…"
"I mean parking the TARDIS here," she said. She was sitting on the navigator's seat of the console room, and he was moving round the controls, setting up defences.
"It's this, or wait until the sun comes up and take the forty-minute bus ride from the Potter's Wheel again," he said. "Plus, we're locked in, and I've activated the shields."
"If you say so," she said, nervously. "It's just that in the past, you've said that the damage they could do with the TARDIS could switch off the sun."
"I just don't think the Angels would take the risk of coming this far into an inhabited area. They've been doing just fine with hapless humans wandering into their territory, without gambling on hanging about in a neighbourhood, where people are observant, nosy, and abundant."
"They came all the way across London before, to the police station, just to get their hands on this thing!"
"Martha, if we're going to get what we need, we've got to take a risk or two," he told her. "That's the gig, you know that."
"Yeah, I know that, but so do the Angels," she said, looking sideways at the computer monitor and CPU that they had taken from Glenn's mother's room, and put on the console room floor, on the other side of the railing. Hardly anything other than cables and tubes got relegated to that space. Martha reckoned the Doctor was not one-hundred-per-cent comfortable with having it on-board.
"Well, it's like a game of chess, I guess," he muttered, moving round behind her. He dug his thumbs and fingertips into her shoulder and neck muscles, and she immediately leaned back against him. He spoke softly, not unaware that he was being slightly manipulative. "If they advance, we'll retreat. If they take pieces off the board, we'll change our technique. We'll move any way we can, so as not to get mated, and if we do, we've got phones. It's kind of beautiful, if you think about it. Like a dance."
She was not unaware of the manipulation either, but allowed it to lull her for the time being. "Okay," she sighed. "Beautiful. Dancing with Angels of death."
He chuckled, and continued the shoulder massage, trying not to think about how useless he was at the moment.
Glenn O'Keeffe and Captain Jack Harkness were walking through the old gate of Oystermouth cemetery toward a Weeping Angel. Glenn said, "Blimey. I'd like to think that even if I didn't know what that thing could do, I'd still keep my distance."
"They're pretty creepy, aren't they? And there are at least three more, so, you know… en garde," Jack said, as they arrived just there, in front of the Angel. He took a quick look around, just in case the others were in the vicinity. "All right, got your phone in your pocket?"
"Yeah," Glenn said, double checking.
"Good. Now, I'm gonna turn my back… what? What's wrong?" Jack asked. Glenn was staring at the Angel with almost a look of pity, shaking his head.
"It's just… these things are creepy, but so is everything else here. All things being equal, they look pretty harmless," Glenn said. "And people just happen by, and get their lives ruined. Literally, in the blink of an eye."
"There was a time when you might've said that those people have got it coming, for wandering into the cemetery at all," Jack said.
"This again? You tried it with me when I was in a cell at Torchwood." Glenn looked at him with annoyance, remembering a time before he had become 'reformed'. "And from that experience we learned: it's different when it happens to your family."
Jack laughed. "But it's okay when it's someone else's family?"
"No, sorry, that's not what I meant," Glenn said, taking a step back, and becoming diffident. Jack kept his eyes on the statue to keep it in place, as well as on Glenn. "I just mean… it gives one a different perspective."
"You know, Glenn, normal people take that perspective before they ruin people's lives," Jack pointed out. "It's called empathy."
"I'm trying, all right?" Glenn snapped. "I confided in you earlier – I'm sorry for what I did to you, to Martha, and everyone else. Especially the folks who saw fit to end their own lives because of my actions. I'm trying to do better, even though there's a part of me that misses the power. I thought you forgave me! Was I just an idiot to confess any of that?"
"No," Jack said. "You're not an idiot, and I do forgive you. But part of getting sober, as it were, is having a reckoning, multiple reckonings in fact, with your addiction and the sins you committed because of it. Realising right now that the Weeping Angels are horrible, evil creatures that leave people broken is one thing. But realising that they are not so different from yourself, who also used time travel and energy absorption that crushed people and fed your own needs… well, that's a whole different ballgame. And as your sponsor, it's kind of my job to point that out. The Doctor has slapped me in the face plenty of times for my little peccadilloes… usually just by being himself. But still, it's time I returned the favour to the universe."
"You're my sponsor now?" Glenn asked with a smirk.
"Yeah, I am."
"Okay. What did you do? I mean, that you needed recovering from? Your peccadilloes?"
"You really want to do this now?" Jack asked, glancing at the Angel.
"I might die," Glenn shrugged.
"You probably won't."
"But what better time than when I'm standing here, facing down this thing, acknowledging my crimes and their similarities to the Angels? Unless you're too afraid to put your money where your mouth is."
"All right, all right," Jack said, hands up in disarmament. Then he sighed. "I used to be a con man. I was a rogue Time Agent, just like Candace Raiden."
"Seriously?"
"Yep. Look, you may not have noticed, because you've only known me as I've been standing next to the Doctor, but I'm a clever guy. I'd say a lot cleverer than most. But unlike the Doctor, I've always had the pretty face - for him it's new. And therefore, I learned from very early-on that with a brains-and-looks combo, it is frighteningly easy to manipulate people. Get them to part with their money, their possessions, their secrets."
"I suppose it would be easy."
"I veered a lot of lives off-track that way, and a lot of them never even knew they'd been conned."
"I had no idea."
"Usually no-one died, so I thought it wasn't so bad. But one time, my con caused a crisis that could have taken out the whole city, and if left unchecked, could have changed the trajectory of World War II."
"What?" Glenn asked. He couldn't help but chuckle a bit. "Are you kidding?"
"Not kidding. Not even a little bit. But the Doctor showed me benevolence, even though I had tried to screw him over, and almost caused a time paradox. I saw him do some inspiring shit, Glenn, and then felt the need then to help him out, do something impressive in return. You see, that's his power, and you'd do well to pay attention to him. But that's neither here nor there. The point is, he took me under his wing, and I saw that I could use my brains for something that's actually worth doing. And whenever I'm an ass, or I'm reverting to the old Jack somehow, he shocks me into submission. By example, mostly. Sometimes by calling me out specifically. And I love him for it."
"Okay, maybe you do know what you're talking about."
"Damn right, I do."
"All right. Can I say that what I'm doing here with you right now is a way of making amends? Using my freakish powers of energy absorption to reverse some wrongs, and save a few lives? Even if there is something in it for me?"
"Yes, absolutely."
"Good. Then let's do it. What were you saying before about turning your back?"
"Right, I'm gonna turn so I can't see the Angel," Jack said, suddenly back on track. "You're gonna back up a few metres, and let it advance on you. When I did it, I closed my eyes for four seconds at a time. If it zaps you, call me as soon as you can, and let me know where you are. Or Martha, or the Doctor. Got it?"
"Yeah," Glenn said. "Let's do this."
The Doctor had taken off his suit jacket and was now lounging back on the navigator's seat, and Martha was taking her turn at a shoulder massage. He was slowly turning to putty in her hands. At least for the next several minutes. And, the coup de grâce, she dug her fingernails into his scalp and kneaded, tugging at the hair, and listening to him moan, and give a throaty giggle. Which made her giggle, too.
"Mm, let's get things thing solved so we can have some actual alone time," he said, slurring just a bit.
"It's only been a day, you," she teased. "Actually less than that. Wow. Eighteen hours ago, we were still in Sainte-Maxime."
"Well, I thought you knew by now that my body doesn't respond to time in the same way as others'," he said. "And you, Miss Jones…"
He was winding up to say something undoubtedly suggestive when the phone rang in his jacket pocket, currently draped over the console. It was PC Diggs' phone that the Doctor had confiscated.
"Of course," Martha sighed, stepping back.
"A call from somewhere in time, or from around the corner?" the Doctor wondered aloud, digging the apparatus out of the jacket, and then staring at the thing ominously before answering it. Because of universal roaming, the number was scrambled. "Hello?"
"It's me," Jack said. "Glenn is immune to the Angels."
The Doctor exhaled in disbelief, and relief. "It's like I said, he walks the line between the Eternal and the Ephemeral, as do the Angels. His powers are too similar to theirs. Or, or maybe and, Eternals exist outside of time, so that would mean that parts of Glenn are not displaceable in time, which means that all of Glenn is not displaceable in time. Ha!"
"This is huge!" Martha exclaimed. "That means, we're a team of four, and half of us can't be touched!"
"Okay, now, let's try the next thing," the Doctor said. "I need Glenn to try and absorb energy from them."
"Hang on," Jack said, and there was a click. "Okay, you're on speakerphone. Say it again, Doctor."
"Glenn, find out if there's any energy you can absorb from the Angel."
"What sort of energy?" Glenn asked.
"Anything you can get," the Doctor said.
"Okay, but with humans, I've always looked for something specific and targeted it."
"Well, not much is known about the Weeping Angels' inner life, Glenn," the Doctor said. "I don't know if they feel joy or sorrow or fear, or whatever. You're just going to have to see what you can get. My guess is that you'll find yourself riddled with time energy, in which case, we move on to phase two of this particular plan."
"What if it turns me into a vegetable again, like when I tried to…" Glenn began, but trailed off shyly.
"Like when you absorbed Jack's immortality?" the Doctor asked, not detecting the emotion at all. "Yeah, that's a possibility. But we fixed you once, and we can fix you again, don't worry. And in the process, we might be able to get your mum and Hannah back, yeah? So, keep your eye on the prize."
"All right, let's see what happens," Glenn said. And he went silent.
After a minute or so, the Doctor asked, "What's happening?"
"Not much," Jack said, at a whisper. "Glenn's giving the Angel that creepy energy-absorption stare, but I don't think it's doing anything."
That's when they heard a loud exhale, and Glenn say, "Jesus. That's rough."
"What is?" the Doctor asked. "Tell me what you felt."
"When I am around the Angel, I can feel that it's a living thing, and like I said before, it grates on me. You said because it walks the line, just like I do. And I've never met a living thing I couldn't penetrate before, but this…"
"Do you feel anything? At all?" the Doctor asked. "Or is it just like squeezing blood from a stone? Sorry, poor metaphor."
"Let me try again," Glenn said. "I feel like I might pass out."
"I've got you, don't worry," Jack said.
And there was silence again.
It was over two minutes this time, and they heard the loud exhale, as though Glenn had been holding his breath for the entire two minutes.
"Whoa," they heard Jack say. "You okay?"
"What happened?" the Doctor asked.
"He's not too steady on his pins, just give him a sec," Jack said.
After Glenn took a few breaths, they heard him say, "That time, Doctor, I pulled harder and actually could feel something. But what I felt was that the energy is locked away. Behind a wall or something."
"Locked away," the Doctor mused, staring off at nothing in particular.
"Yeah, like it's there, only just beyond my reach."
"Locked away, locked away. Locked… wall… locked away…" the Doctor continued, speaking absently.
"Martha, what's he doing?" Jack asked.
"He's got that faraway look in his eye," she said.
"Locked," the Doctor repeated, then began speaking a million miles per minute. "Behind a wall. The walls between dimensions, perhaps? The Angels are quantum locked, which might mean they are, in a small sense, interdimensional, having two dimensions within them at all times! Which is what gives them the flexibility to use time travel – wield it, but not be propelled through time themselves, unless something else propels them! Oh, they are so much more versatile in those contained stone bodies than I ever gave them credit for, which is very good news for us!"
"It is?" Jack asked. "Doesn't sound like it."
"They are stone, and stone is matter, and matter equals energy, yes, but kinetic energy, propulsion, that's a whole different thing, so…"
"What are you on about?" Martha asked.
He looked at her with wide, excited eyes. "The Angels are quantum locked. They cannot move unless they are being observed. Which means that tangible energy, the kind Glenn can manipulate, cannot be tapped while they are being observed! So, if Glenn feels that their absorbable energy is behind a wall, then let's bring down the dimensional wall, and unlock that kinetic…"
"Oh!" Jack said from the other end of the line. "That means, if I make it move, Glenn can do his thing!"
"In theory, yes," the Doctor said.
"Glenn, can you do it with your eyes closed?" Jack wondered. "Or at least without looking at it?"
"I've never had a reason to try, but I'll give it a go," answered the half-Eternal. "I've got to have a good lock on its whereabouts…"
"Okay, keep an eye on it, I'm gonna go long," said Jack. "If we put the Angel directly between us, then you'll know where it is even with your eyes shut: straight ahead, right?"
"As the Doctor said, in theory," said Glenn.
"Worth a try," Jack said, and then he exclaimed, "Cool! I'm about to play red-light-green-light with a Weeping Angel!" And then rustling could be heard over the phone
Jack ran downhill using an aisle-like belt of scraggly green grass as his track, and stopped about fifty yards from the angel. He wanted to give Glenn plenty of time to get what he needed. When he turned around to face it, it was facing him as well.
"Ready?" he called out.
"Ready," said Glenn, and he placed himself directly behind the Angel, where Jack could no longer see him.
"Here goes," Jack sighed, and he shut his eyes for about two seconds.
The Angel moved closer.
He did it again.
The Angel moved closer.
He had no idea whether Glenn was now able to absorb the Angel's energy, as his eyes were never open long enough to find out. Which was what he told the Doctor, who was still on an open line on the phone in his hand, and who had begun to ask questions after no-one had said anything for about a minute.
The Angel advanced and advanced, and Jack just let it, at two-second intervals, eyes open for one second at a time…
And he got a shiver down his spine. He was fairly certain he couldn't be touched, but still. "This is so messed-up," he said out loud.
"Can't argue with you there," he heard the Doctor say over the phone.
When the Angel was within arm's length, he opened his eyes, stared closely at the Angel, heart pounding, and called out, "Glenn! Are you getting it?"
"Yeah!" he heard from his new Newcastle friend, from up the hill.
"Can I stop now?"
"Give me another minute or so, this is great stuff! Keep going!"
"Okay," Jack called out. I'm going to come back up the hill. And he moved round to the other side of the Weeping Angel, and began to walk backwards, letting the stone predator pursue him. "Good?"
"Yes, keep it coming," Glenn said.
Now that Jack was on the same side of the Angel as Glenn, he could see a blue cloud-like wave wafting between the statue and the Eternal. It seemed to be going through and/or around him.
"Doctor, I can see it now," Jack said. "Whatever Glenn's doing seems to be working."
"Good!" the Doctor exclaimed. "Something breaks our way."
"But don't take unnecessary chances," Martha warned. "Come back as soon as you can!"
"Glenn? Are we done?" Jack said, now perhaps just ten yards from him.
"Just come the rest of the way, and we'll be done," Glenn said, rather dreamily.
Jack did as asked, then took his place beside Glenn, with a Weeping Angel three feet away and menacing them with claws and bared teeth and all. More camly than he felt, he said, "So, how are you?"
"Yeah, good. Fancy a walk back to the park?"
"Thought you'd never ask."
"Get back here quickly, guys," the Doctor said. "I've got plans for you, Glenn."
And two men, immune to the touch of the Weeping Angels, turned their back on their foe, and walked away, unbothered. They were pursued by the other three assassins as well, but they did not flinch.
And the Angels did not leave the cemetery. Too much humanity beyond those boundaries.
"Honeys, we're home," Jack called out, opening the TARDIS door with his key.
The Doctor didn't even say hello, he just came down the ramp quickly and ordered Jack to lock the door behind him as he grabbed Glenn by the arm and hauled him back up to the platform. He positioned the half-Eternal at a particular point near the controls, and said, "Don't move."
"So," Martha said, with a smile. "Hello. How are you gents after that harrowing encounter? Cup of tea?"
"Sorry, was I being rude?" the Doctor stopped moving for a few seconds.
"Yeah, but it's what we love about you," Jack chuckled, coming up the ramp.
The Doctor set about flipping switches, making adjustments, turning dials, et cetera. Then he opened a compartment on the console, and said, "Glenn, put both hands in there. I'm interfacing you with the TARDIS."
"Interfacing me with… the TARDIS? Are you sure?" Glenn asked, looking worried.
"Yeah," said the Time Lord. "It's the only way we're going to be able to read what you've absorbed from the Angel. I hope."
"You trust me to interface with the TARDIS?"
"Is there some reason I shouldn't?" the Doctor asked. He hadn't been privy to the discussions Glenn and Jack had been having, and this time, he only saw the ends, not the problems inherent in the means.
Glenn looked at Jack with concern. Jack said, "It's all right. I'm right here," and he put his hand on Glenn's shoulder. "I won't leave your side. If you feel yourself slipping, just communicate, okay? Tell us, do you hear me?"
"I hear you," Glenn said, and he nodded.
"What's going on?" Martha asked. "Glenn, are you okay?"
"Yeah, it's just… imagine I'm a recovering alcoholic, and the Doctor is proposing to drop me in a vat of Scotch," he said, breathlessly.
"Oh!" she exclaimed. "I hadn't thought about that!"
"Thought about what?" the Doctor asked.
"He's trying to reform, Doctor," she pointed out. "A little more than weeks ago, he was absorbing energy and playing with time to the detriment of possibly everything. Tried to absorb Jack's immortality, and then wanted us to dump the energy into the Vortex so he could track it down, swim through it, remember? And you didn't want him anywhere near the console room because… well, who knows what he'd do here?"
The Doctor frowned. He asked Glenn, "So you think if you're given an 'in,' you might not be able to stop yourself from using time energy to…"
Glenn shut his eyes tight. "Maybe. I'm sorry. I didn't know this was what you had planned for me."
"Well, that's my fault," the Doctor sighed. "I'm not always super forthcoming with my plans, especially when they're not fully formed. Glenn, do you really think there's a danger?"
"No," Jack said confidently. "Because I'm here. I'll keep him grounded. Just like you keep me grounded."
The Doctor nodded with a deep seriousness, and said, "Okay. Let's do it."
"Glenn," Martha said, now taking the man's hand, on the side not occupied by Jack. "Just think about your mum and sister. Think of how badly you need and want them back. It's safe to say that if you crawl into the TARDIS, figuratively speaking, and never come out, then we might never find them."
"Just be passive," the Doctor said. "If the TARDIS asks you a question, so to speak, answer it. And nothing else. She doesn't need you to reach out, just to let her in. Okay? Does that help?"
"Yes, yes, all of it is helpful," Glenn said, nervously. "Let's get it over with." He gripped Martha's hand so tightly, she got the hint that she was not to move away.
"All right," the Doctor said sobrely. "Here we go."
Friends, we just survived another encounter with the Weeping Angels! What are your thoughts? If you're reading, only fair to review every now and then. ;-)
Thanks so much for reading, one way or another!