"What do we do?" Donna asked anxiously as she turned from looking out the window at the thick fog that billowed around them and toward her friends.
Terry opened her eyes while the Doctor explained, "We've got to stop the Sontarans from poisoning the planet. Although it's not really like them, all of this. Sontarans are proud soldiers-"
However, Donna had stopped listening to the Doctor by this point. Instead, her eyes remained locked on Terry as she properly looked at the Time Lady for the first time since Terry's arrival. Specifically, she did a double take when she saw Terry's eyes.
"Are your eyes gold?" Donna asked, interrupting the Doctor.
The Doctor paused as well and he glanced briefly at Terry, who just shrugged in response to Donna's question.
"Yep."
"Why? How?" Donna asked, peering at Terry's eyes.
"That's a story for another time, I'm afraid." Terry replied as she looked out the cab window. "We've arrived."
The other two looked out to see that they had indeed arrived at the ATMOS warehouse. Jenkins pulled up right in front of the doors for them. No sooner had he stopped the car than the Doctor was leaping out of the cab. Terry followed right behind him and Donna clambered out last while the Doctor called back to Jenkins.
"Ross, look after yourself. Get inside the building."
"Will do." The young officer responded. Terry almost stopped. But she didn't. Instead, with one last heavy glance toward the young human man, she followed the Doctor and Donna toward the side of the warehouse facility.
The Doctor didn't notice Terry's odd reaction. He was far too focused on a different yet not completely unrelated matter as he led them toward the Tardis.
"The air is disgusting." Donna complained as she followed the Doctor, squinting through the thick gas that continued to billow around them.
"It's not so bad for us." The Doctor shrugged before he stopped outside the Tardis. He nodded at Donna. "Go on, get inside the Tardis. Oh!"
He brightened up suddenly.
"I've never given you a key."
"You've been traveling with her for days and you still haven't given her a key?" Terry asked incredulously.
"Has it really been days?" The Doctor wondered.
"You really are getting old." Terry shook her head at him while the Doctor rummaged around in his pocket before he produced one of the Tardis keys.
"Keep that." He handed the key to Donna, who took the key somewhat skeptically. "Go on, that's yours."
He paused before he added musingly, "Quite a big moment really."
"Doctor, ATMOS, gas." Terry reminded him while Donna coughed irritably, "Maybe we can get sentimental after the world's finished choking to death."
"Ah, right." The Doctor pointed at the Tardis. "In you go. Angel."
Grabbing Terry's hand the Doctor dashed off toward the UNIT mobile headquarters that was parked off to the other side of the warehouse area.
"Where are you two going?" Donna called after them.
"To stop a war!" The Doctor shouted back.
"We'll see you later, Donna - and don't step outside the Tardis until we tell you to!" Terry added, to the redhead's obvious confusion.
But Terry knew Donna would do as she was told (this time at least). And so, she dashed with the Doctor into the main room of the UNIT headquarters.
"Right then, here I am!" The Doctor announced as he entered the room with Terry behind him.
Colonel Mace turned from where he was drawing up battle plans and he frowned slightly when he saw Terry.
"Who are you?" He demanded, looking her up and down. His eyes lingered in particular on the gold buckles on her black oxfords before he looked at the Doctor. "Who is she?"
The Doctor opened his mouth but before he could speak, someone else spoke up. "That's Terry Storm."
Terry turned toward the speaker to see the familiar face of Martha Jones… and she stank. Terry wrinkled her nose despite herself before she quickly smoothed out her expression as she approached the clone who looked like Martha.
"Martha!"
Terry hugged "Martha" and barely managed to keep herself from gagging as the fresh stench of clone flesh hit her. Managing to keep a straight face, she pulled away (and in doing so, noticed the reduced iris contraction in the clone's eyes) and smiled widely.
"It's good to see you again, Dr. Jones." Terry greeted warmly, straightening her red shirt just to find something to do with her hands.
"Likewise, Angel." Clone Martha answered while Colonel Mace folded his arms.
"So, you are the famous Angel Storm."
"Terry Storm. Only my friends can call me angel." Terry answered as she gazed at the Colonel rather distastefully. "Now, do me a favour, Colonel, and don't engage the Sontarans in a fight."
"And why would I do that?" Colonel Mace demanded.
"Because there is nothing they like better than a war, let alone a fight." The Doctor answered, before he gestured toward himself and Terry. "Just leave this to us."
"And what are you going to do?" The Colonel asked, eyeing Terry in particular with skepticism.
"Well for starters, we have the Tardis." Terry replied.
"Which we can use to get on board their ship." The Doctor added. He nodded at Terry and Clone Martha. "Come on."
And without waiting for the Colonel to respond, the Doctor turned and walked right back out the way he had come. Terry gestured for Martha to go before her. She exchanged wary looks with the Colonel as she did so, before Terry also turned away and followed the Doctor out of the war room.
"We'll need to be quick." The Doctor muttered under his breath as he hurried toward the Tardis.
"Sure we do." Terry's sarcasm wasn't lost in her telepathic message to the Doctor.
"Shush, you. You already almost gave us away earlier with the face you almost made when you sniffed the clone." The Doctor answered.
"You try hugging her and see if you don't gag." Terry retorted just as they reached the corner where they had parked the Tardis.
To neither of the Time Lords' surprise, the blue box was no longer where they had left it (and Donna). But they still feigned their dismay as the Doctor looked around wildly into thin air while Terry exclaimed, "Where's the Tardis?"
"What's happened?" Clone Martha asked, feigning surprise almost as well as the Time Lords although Terry could see the way her lips twitched minutely as she fought back a triumphant smile at the success of her and the Sontarans' plan.
But Terry pretended not to notice anything different as she said anxiously to the Doctor, "Doctor, do you taste that?"
"Yeah, in the air." The Doctor agreed as he licked the air to emphasize his point. "Yuck. That sort of metal tang. "Teleport exchange."
"The Sontarans." Terry pretended to groan and the Doctor nodded. "They've taken it."
"They have. Leaving me stuck." The Doctor frowned. "On Earth, like, like an ordinary person. Like a human. How rubbish is that?"
"Oi, I was human once." Terry said in a warning tone.
"You thought you were human, there's a difference."
"Martha's human." Terry reminded him, gesturing at Clone Martha pointedly like she was cross with the Doctor.
The Doctor just shrugged. "Sorry, no offence, Martha, but come on."
Clone Martha didn't even bat an eyelid as she asked instead, "So what do we do?"
"Not a very convincing human, is she?" Terry observed telepathically.
"Well, she was created by Sontarans. What's interesting is that she seems to have general human mannerisms, though. I wonder…" The Doctor replied while saying aloud to Clone Martha, "The Tardis, it's shielded. They could never detect it."
"What?" Clone Martha asked, caught off-guard.
"I'm just wondering, have you phoned your family and Tom?" The Doctor asked abruptly.
"No, what for?" Clone Martha asked impatiently.
"Well, the gas." Terry pointed out as she gestured around them. "Haven't you checked with them to stay inside, yet?"
"Oh." Clone Martha quickly tried to recover from her mistake as she realized what the Time Lords were getting at. "Course I will, yeah, but, what about Donna? I mean, where's she?"
"Oh, she went home." The Doctor answered with a shrug before he looked right at Clone Martha. "She's not like you. She's not a soldier."
Clone Martha just looked back at him rather blankly.
"So… she has Martha's memories, but that's not enough." The Doctor thought to Terry.
"The Sontarans managed to clone her physically, but they can't replicate her emotions. Not when they don't have a concept for human emotions." Terry agreed.
"Why're you both looking at me like that?" Clone Martha asked.
"No reason. Right." The Doctor clapped his hands together and rubbed them. "So. Avanti."
With that, he turned and ran off once again. Terry followed quickly and she didn't need to look back to know Clone Martha would keep them within her sights at all times. Not realizing that it was the Time Lords who were keeping her in their sights.
"Change of plan." The Doctor announced as he dashed back into UNIT headquarters.
Terry entered right behind him and she caught the Doctor's jacket as he shrugged it off before he tossed it aside. She folded it and put it away into her own black suit pocket while the Colonel looked over at the Doctor.
"Good to have you fighting alongside us, Doctor."
"I'm not fighting." The Doctor replied before adding, "I'm not-fighting, as in not hyphen fighting, got it?"
The Colonel frowned but the Doctor ignored the other man as he hurried through the base while asking the meeting room at large, ""Now, does anyone know what this gas is yet?"
He nodded toward a cylinder full of a sample of the gas that sat in a corner of the war room, and was unsurprised when Clone Martha joined them as well and explained, "We're working on it."
"It's harmful," another woman added from where she was sitting before one of the monitors near the large screen wall at the front of the room. "But not lethal until it reaches eighty percent density. We're having the first reports of deaths from the centre of Tokyo City."
The Doctor walked over to look at the woman's screen and he asked as he examined her work, "And who are you?"
The woman quickly got to her feet and saluted. "Captain Marion Price, sir, ma'am."
She saluted Terry as well. The Time Lady just nodded back while the Doctor grumbled, "Oh, put your hand down. Don't salute."
He then walked back towards Colonel Mace, who began, "Jodrell Bank's traced a signal, Doctor, coming from five thousand miles above the Earth. We're guessing that's what triggered the cars."
Terry leaned over to watch as the Colonel pulled up an image on the front screen. The Doctor peered at the solar system as it was brought up onto the same screen and both Time Lords examined the pulsing red dot situated just outside the Earth's atmosphere.
"The Sontaran ship." The Doctor murmured.
"NATO has gone to Defcon One." Colonel Mace explained grimly. "We're preparing a strike."
"You can't do that." The Doctor whirled back toward the Colonel instantly. "Nuclear missiles won't even scratch the surface. Let me talk to the Sontarans."
"You're not authorised to speak on behalf of the Earth." The Colonel protested.
"Oh, I beg to differ." Terry replied, straightening up. She met the Colonel's gaze unflinchingly, daring him to argue as she continued grimly, "He has that authority. He earned it many, many years before you were even born, Colonel."
The Colonel stared back at her impassively, but he didn't stop the Doctor as he took out his sonic and pointed it at the communications system. Once he was in, the Doctor called out over the comms, "Calling the Sontaran Command Ship, under Jurisdiction Two of the Intergalactic Rules of Engagement. This is the Doctor… and my angel."
The Doctor looked over at Terry, who nodded supportingly. They all waited and watched as after only a short moment, an image appeared on the main screen. The two Sontarans stared back at them, dressed in their military gear and without their helmets. For now.
"Doctor," the one that Terry remembered was called General Staal called. "Breathing your last?"
Beside Terry, Colonel Mace's jaw dropped. "My God. They're like trolls."
"Seriously, did you never take a course on diplomacy?" Terry demanded, while the Doctor forged on ahead like he hadn't heard them.
"So, tell me, General Staal, since when did you lot become cowards?"
The Doctor settled down into a nearby chair, as though he was disappointed in the Sontarans. His ploy worked as Staal immediately responded indignantly, "How dare you!"
"And you think he's diplomatic?" Colonel Mace asked Terry sarcastically.
"It's been a bad day." Terry muttered while Staal - who evidently either couldn't or wouldn't hear them - continued to bellow at the Doctor.
"Doctor, you impugn my honour!"
"Yeah," the Doctor mused. "I'm really glad you didn't say 'belittle', because then I'd have a field day. But," he quickly grew serious. "Poison gas? That's the weapon of a coward and you know it."
The Doctor straightened up in his seat as he frowned at the Sontarans.
"Staal, you could blast this planet out of the sky. And yet you're sitting up above watching it die. Where's the fight in that? Where's the honour?"
The Doctor paused for effect before adding challengingly, "Or, are you lot planning something else, because this isn't normal Sontaran warfare."
He narrowed his eyes, like he was examining his foes.
"What are you lot up to?"
"A general would be unwise to reveal his strategy to the opposing forces." Staal retorted.
"Ah, the war's not going so well, then." The Doctor taunted. "Losing, are we?"
"Such a suggestion is impossible." Staal shouted, bristling with anger once again.
"What war?" Colonel Mace asked, puzzled.
"The war between the Sontarans and the Rutans." Terry explained. "It's been going on far out in the stars, for fifty thousand years. And for what?"
She glowered at the Sonatarans, her gold eyes darkening dangerously. "Thousands of years of bloodshed and thousands of lives lost, all for what?"
The Doctor glanced back at Terry as her voice dropped slightly lower, but Staal just stood proud.
"For victory." Staal replied before he started to clap his laser cane into his other fist and he chanted. "Sontar-ha. Sontar-ha."
The other Sontarans in the background joined in the chant, their voices growing louder and louder.
"Sontar-ha. Sontar-ha. Sontar-ha. Sontar-ha."
"Oh, give me a break." The Doctor grumbled. Pointing his sonic at the screen, he switched the channel and Colonel Mace shook his head as a cartoon started to play in front of his troops.
"Doctor." The Colonel called severely as he walked over toward the Time Lord. "I would seriously recommend that this dialogue is handled by official Earth representation."
The Doctor just ignored him as he pointed his sonic at the screen again and the Sonatarans returned to view, now quiet.
"Finished?" The Doctor asked expectantly.
"You will not be so quick to ridicule when you'll see our prize." Staal spat back. "Behold."
The screen widened out and Terry straightened minutely as she saw the Tardis in the background, behind the Sontarans. The Doctor also straightened up as Staal continued smugly, "We are the first Sontarans in history to capture a Tardis."
"Well, as prizes go, that's… noble." The Doctor agreed before he continued in a suspiciously casual tone, "As they say in Latin, Donna nobis pacem. Did you never wonder about its design, though?"
"What is he playing at?" Colonel Mace hissed at Clone Martha and Terry. Clone Martha had no clue but Terry didn't reply as the Doctor continued seemingly randomly but very intentionally.
"It's a phone box. It contains a phone. A telephonic device for communication. Sort of symbolic. Like, if only we could communicate, you and I."
"All you have communicated is your distress, Doctor." Staal retorted, growing tired of the Doctor's apparent random gibberish.
The Doctor just sat back casually, hiding the way his free hand picked up Martha's abandoned phone sitting to one side of the desk. "Big mistake though, showing it to me."
He waved his sonic before the screen meaningfully. "Because I've got remote control."
Staal stiffened instantly and he ordered quickly, "Cease transmission!"
At once, they lost the connection and the Doctor shrugged.
"Ah, well."
"That achieved nothing." The Colonel snapped, frustrated.
But he was surprised when Terry replied, "Oh, you'd be surprised, Colonel, how much important information you can convey in a seemingly unimportant way."
"What? What was so important about a phone box?" Colonel Mace demanded.
But Terry's mind was far away; up above the clouds and on the Sontaran ship where the Time Lady knew Donna was hiding away inside the blue box. A blue box that just happened to have a scanner that could pick up everything in its immediate surroundings. Including video calls made to the Sontaran command centre.
'Good luck, Donna Noble.' Terry thought, closing her eyes as she recalled the scene that she knew was happening to Donna at that moment.
"Our own house, and we're sealed in." Sylvia Noble complained into her phone. "All those things they said about pollution and ozone and carbon, they're really happening aren't they?"
"There's people working on it, Mum." Donna answered, holding the Tardis phone firmly. "They're going to fix it, I promise."
"Oh, like you'd know. You're so clever." Sylvia sniffed. Donna groaned.
"Oh, don't start. Please don't."
At once, Sylvia was contrite.
"I'm sorry." She breathed before admitting shakily, "I wish you were here."
Seeing his daughter tearing up, Wilf comforted, "Now, come on, Sylvia. Look, that doesn't help."
Taking the phone from his daughter, Wilf asked his granddaughter, "Donna, where are you?"
Glancing around the Tardis, Donna replied evasively, "It's sort of hard to say. You all right?"
"Yeah." Wilf nodded. "Fighting fit, yeah. Is he with you, the Doctor?"
"No." Donna admitted.
"What about her - angel? Terry?"
"I'm all on my own." Donna admitted, making her grandfather frown.
"Look, you promised they were going to look after you."
"They will, Gramps." Donna answered with conviction. "There's something they need me to do. I just don't know what."
"Well, I mean, the whole place is covered." Wilf answered, glancing out his boarded up window sadly. "The whole of London, they're saying. The whole, the whole world. It's the scale of it, Donna. I mean, how can one man and woman stop all that?"
"Trust me." Donna smiled as she remembered all the amazing things her friends had done before. "They can do it."
Wilf pursed his lips but he couldn't deny the absolute faith Donna held in her voice.
"Yeah, well, if they don't, you tell them they'll have to answer to me."
"I will." Donna promised. "Just as soon as I see them, I'll tell them."
"Huh." Wilf said gruffly, but he couldn't deny he was proud of the confidence with which Donna spoke. They were good for her, these two strange friends Donna had made. He could feel it. And so, with the same conviction his granddaughter held, Wilf put down the phone and stared out into the smog-filled street, waiting for the miracle he was sure would come.