The humans were confused.
Rightly so.
So, The Doctor explained for them, his eyes never leaving the blonde in front of him. "Progenation. Reproduction from a single organism. Means one parent is biological mother and father. You take a sample of diploid cells, split them into haploids, then recombine them in a different arrangement and grow. Very quickly, apparently..."
The low hum vibrating in the back of Hally's throat was drowned out by the sudden sounds of gunfire. The soldiers, including the blonde all ducked down, readying their weapons. "It's the Hath!" One of the males shouted. They took up position and began firing back at the shadows running along the walls. Hally took refuge behind a makeshift barricade when a bullet ricocheted over her head, clanging into the wall behind her. Martha, Donna and The Doctor followed suit moments later.
She could just about make out their attackers, slightly taller than the humans, almost fish-like, wearing liquid masks over where you might expect a nose and a mouth. The Hath were advancing on them quickly, their small group clearly out-gunned.
"We have to blow the tunnel. Get the detonator." They heard the male order, and The Doctor's… 'clone' ran to comply.
The Doctor shifted from his spot under cover to check on one of the fallen soldiers, calling over to them. "I'm not detonating anything!"
Martha screeched and Hally looked up to see one of the Hath dragging her towards the Hath side of the tunnel.
"Blow the thing! Blow the thing!" The male cried, retreating swiftly, pulling the blonde woman with him.
Hally's eyes widened, she heard The Doctor call out towards Martha but the detonator had been hit. The tunnel was going to blow. Hally felt The Doctor's hands grab her shoulders as he turned them away from the Hath, he pushed her and they ran in the opposite direction as fast as they could before the ground underneath them shook and the tunnel collapsed behind them.
Once they were sure they were alive and relatively unharmed, The Doctor turned his wrath on the soldiers. "You've sealed off the tunnel. Why did you do that?" He rounded on the blonde female version of him, eyes flashing with anger and voice laced with disapproval.
She blinked up at him, immediately confused by his reaction. "They were trying to kill us."
"But they've got my friend." The Doctor looked back at the immovable pile of rubble. They could only hope that Martha had managed to avoid the blast and was currently stuck on the other side.
The blonde shrugged. "Collateral damage. At least you've still got those two. He lost both his men. I'd say you came out ahead."
Hally scoffed in disbelief at her lack of empathy. Donna jumped on her immediately, fury simmering underneath her words. "Her name's Martha. And she's not collateral damage, not for anyone. Have you got that, GI Jane?"
"We've got to go and find her." Hally muttered towards The Doctor, he nodded at her and they made to move away from the group. Immediately the remaining male lifted his rifle, aiming it at the three of them.
"You're going nowhere. You don't make sense, you three. No guns, no marks, no fight in you. I'm taking you to General Cobb." When none of them reacted he shoved the barrel of the gun towards them in a meaningful threat. "Now, move."
The Doctor raised his hands and with a disgusted grimace allowed the soldier to guide them further into the tunnel, further away from Martha. The further they walked, the deeper they seemed to go. Hally had assumed they were underground, but what lay above the surface was a mystery. The atmosphere between the group was tense to say the least.
Donna was trying her best to ease the uncomfortable silence by chatting to the… what was it? Not quite a clone?
"I'm Donna. What's your name?" She stepped in beside the blonde.
She shrugged in response. "Don't know. It's not been assigned."
Donna raised an eyebrow, intrigued. "Well, if you don't know that, what do you know?"
"How to fight." The clone replied simply.
"The machine must embed military history and tactics, but no name. She's a generated anomaly." The Doctor piped up from behind, his eyes trained on the blonde, shimmering with distrust.
Donna pouted, thinking. "Generated anomaly. Generated. Well, what about that? Jenny." Donna grinned.
The blonde, or 'Jenny' smiled brightly back up at the human. "Jenny. Yeah, I like that. Jenny."
Donna hummed in satisfaction, shooting an amused eyebrow towards the skulking Doctor. "What do you think, Dad?"
Hally crossed her arms across her chest and rolled her eyes.
This was insufferable.
The Doctor mumbled irritably behind her. "Good as anything, I suppose."
A smirk tugged at the corner of Donna's mouth, clearly amused by both of their toddler-like sulking. "Well a double letter and a Y seemed to work for you before." Donna motioned to Hally who immediately shot her a glare in response. She did not want to be dragged into this.
The Doctor didn't respond.
"Not what you'd call a natural parent, are you?" Donna shot back at him, eliciting a sarcastically loud hum from Hally's throat.
The Doctor clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. "They stole a tissue sample at gunpoint and processed it. It's not what I call natural parenting." He snapped back. Although Donna had been the one to poke him, his ire was aimed directly at Hally.
She scoffed. "No, but you know that wasn't what I was getting at." She spat, not bothering to turn to address him. She kept her eyes trained forward.
"Right. So according to you, I was supposed to ignore your entire history and instead raise a baby on the TARDIS, alongside its paradoxical older counterpart, hmm?"
Well, she couldn't really argue against that. As much as she might like to. So, Hally chose to stay quiet.
He looked back to Donna, motioning to Jenny as if they hadn't just had a spat about a completely different topic. "You can't extrapolate a relationship from a biological accident.
Donna laughed, her voice lilting with amusement. "Er, Child Support Agency can."
He sighed heavily. "Look, just because I share certain physiological traits with simian primates doesn't make me a monkey's uncle, does it?
Jenny pouted, her face scrunching with distaste. "I'm not a monkey. Or a child."
"Don't worry Jenny, this is his parenting style. You'll get used to it." Hally clipped towards her, silencing them for the rest of the journey.
The male led them through what seemed to be a city, it had buildings and streets but everything was underground. Encased by the soil and dirt. Eventually, they were led into what appeared to be a theatre, being used as a makeshift camp. More clone chambers lined the walls, new beings stepping out of them every few minutes.
The Doctor sped up, overtaking them to speak to the soldier leading them. "So, where are we? What planet's this?"
"Messaline. Well, what's left of it."
An older man with white hair approached them and the soldier introduced stopped, standing to attention. General Cobb.
"Found in the western tunnels, I'm told, with no marks. There was an outbreak of pacifism in the eastern zone three generations back, before we lost contact. Is that where you came from?" Cobb eyed them wearily.
The Doctor nodded quickly. "Eastern zone, that's us, yeah. Yeah. I'm The Doctor, this is Donna and Hally."
"And I'm Jenny." The clone piped up.
Cobb's lip curled in distaste. "Don't think you can infect us with your peacemaking. We're committed to the fight, to the very end."
The Doctor hummed and nodded. "Well, that's all right. I can't stay, anyway. I've got to go and find my friend."
Cobb scoffed at his naivety. "That's not possible. All movement is regulated. We're at war."
"Yes, I noticed. With the Hath. But tell me, because we got a bit out of circulation, eastern zone and all that. So who exactly are the Hath?" The Doctor asked. Cobb looked him up and down, but he explained for them. "Back at the dawn of this planet, these ancient halls were carved from the earth. Our ancestors dreamt of a new beginning. A colony where human and Hath would work and live together. They'd been betrayed by the Hath. The dream died. Broken, along with Hath promises. They wanted it all for themselves. But those early pioneers, they fought back. They used the machines to produce soldiers instead of colonists, and began this battle for survival."
Donna motioned to the boarded-up windows of the theatre. "There's nothing but earth outside, why's that? Why build everything underground?"
"The surface is too dangerous."
"Well, then why build windows in the first place?" Her eyes were drawn to a plaque on the wall, a string of numbers. "And what does this mean?"
He shrugged. "The rites and symbols of our ancestors. The meaning's lost in time."
"How long's this war gone on for?" The Doctor pressed and Hally felt her insides drop. She could tell by his tone exactly what he was thinking, he was going to stick around and 'help'. Which meant they'd be here until he deemed the situation fixed. Which wasn't good for Hally's 'get out of here as quickly as possible' plan.
"Longer than anyone can remember. Countless generations marked only by the dead." Cobb rumbled, a spark of deep anger flickering behind his eyes.
"What, fighting all this time?" Donna's face had crumpled in disbelief.
Jenny looked up at the redhead, her face a picture of innocent certainty. "Because we must. Every child of the machine is born with this knowledge. It's our inheritance. It's all we know. How to fight, and how to die."
A crease pulled in the centre of Hally's forehead, her eyes trailing over the young woman. She couldn't quite bring herself to condemn her for her forced existence. Or the circumstances within which she had found herself.
Hmm.
The Doctor continued to question Cobb, who brought them over to a cylindrical table from which a holographic map popped into existence. He was showing him a map of the whole city of tunnels, including the areas occupied by both Hath and humans. It could lead them to Martha.
Cobb scoffed when The Doctor voiced this intention. "We've more important things to do. The progenation machines are powered down for the night shift, but as soon as they're active, we could breed a whole platoon from you three."
A growl rumbled in Hally's throat and she glared at Cobb. "You come near me with one of those things and I'll bite you."
Donna echoed her sentiment. "I'm not having sons and daughters by some great big flipping machine. Sorry, no offence, but you're not. Well, I mean, you're not real."
"You're no better than him. I have a body, I have a mind, I have independent thought. How am I not real? What makes you better than me?" Jenny rebuffed to Donna.
Hally scrunched her face at Jenny. "You might be real but you're not his daughter."
"Why not? I came from him." Her wide eyes landed on Hally.
Hally crossed her arms over her chest.
"Well said, soldier. We need more like you, if ever we're to find the Source." Cobb nodded appreciatively at Jenny. The Doctor practically bounced with excitement.
"Ooo, the Source. What's that, then? What's a Source? I like a Source. What is it?"
"The Breath of Life." Cobb shrugged, he didn't strike Hally as a man who would believe in myths and legends. But apparently…
"In the beginning, the great one breathed life into the universe. And then she looked at what she'd done, and she sighed." He recited for the newcomers.
The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "Right. So it's a creation myth."
Cobb cleared his throat, his features hardening. "It's not a myth. It's real. That sigh. From the beginning of time, it was caught and kept as the Source. It was lost when the war started. But it's here, somewhere. Whoever holds the Source controls the destiny of the planet."
"Ultimate power." Hally rolled her eyes. "How original."
The Doctor waved the Sonic Screwdriver over the floating map and it hummed and shifted, new layers revealing themselves. More tunnels, further underground. The Doctor grinned at his discovery. "A whole complex of tunnels hidden from sight!"
Cobb's eyes lit up as they focused on a cylindrical column in the centre of the map. "That must be the lost temple. The Source will be inside. You've shown us the way. And look, we're closer than the Hath. It's ours." With haste he gathered a group of men, preparing immediately to move out in search of the Source. The Doctor bounded after him.
"Er, call me old-fashioned, but if you really wanted peace, couldn't you just stop fighting?" He squished himself between Cobb and the readying men.
"Only when we have the Source. It'll give us the power to erase every stinking Hath from the face of this planet."
The Doctor's face darkened and his body shifted, gone was the light, casual intrigue and in its place now stood an immovable rock. "Hang on, hang on. A second ago it was peace in our time. Now you're talking about genocide."
Cobb's head tilted in a short nod. "For us, that means the same thing."
"Then you need to get yourself a better dictionary. When you do, look up genocide. You'll see a little picture of me there, and the caption will read, 'Over my dead body'." He growled, his top lip curling into a snarl.
A clipped laugh rolled up Hally's throat. "Oh, are we just glossing over that time wh-."
His dark glare silenced her.
Cobb looked The Doctor up and down. "And you're the one who showed us the path to victory. But you can consider the irony from your prison cell. Cline, at arms."
The young man who had found them held up his gun. It was becoming a little repetitive.
Guns were indeed very inconvenient.
Cline took a threatening step forward, forcing the trio to bunch together in reluctant submission. He nodded his head towards Jenny. "What about the new soldier?"
"Can't trust her. She's from pacifist stock. Take them all." Cobb ordered and Jenny was shoved along with them.
Hally paced along the far edge of the barred cell they'd all been placed in. With all four of them inside, it was feeling rather cramped. The Doctor leant calmly on the other side of the cell, both trying and failing to create as much space between them as possible. It had been five whole minutes of his grating silence before Hally snapped at him. "Great. This is exactly how I was planning on spending my Tuesday. Locked up with you and then, 'more of you'." She motioned to Jenny bitterly. The blonde looked up at her, eyes flicking between the two. "Careful Jenny, if you start developing a martyr complex do let us know." Hally clipped smartly.
The Doctor's arms folded over his chest. "This is hardly my fault. Plus, I didn't force you onto the TARDIS, you barged in all on your own." He grumbled back at her.
A flicker of realisation sparked in Jenny's eyes and she looked to The Doctor. "Oh, so is this how you are with all your children then?"
A dark scowl landed on his face as Hally's lips upturned into a smirk.
"No…" He tried to start, but Hally cut him off. "Maybe just his unplanned children. If Irvine or Mejana were here he'd be ecstatic."
The Doctor winced and Hally regretted voicing their names as soon as they'd fallen from her mouth. They hadn't spoken about them since…
"That's not true. Hally, I…"
Jenny cut in, head-turning between the two. "What makes me so different then? To you, to her? How are we not the same?"
"We're not the same." Hally cut across, drawing Jenny's attention entirely over to her.
"Why not?"
"Because you just popped up out of nowhere. You don't have enough trauma to call yourself his daughter."
Jenny rolled her eyes in a way that Hally recognised as her own. It was actually a very irritating motion to be on the receiving end of. "It looks to me like we're on the same side." Jenny hummed knowingly.
"No, we're not." Hally clipped back, crossing her arms over her chest.
Jenny cocked an unimpressed eyebrow her way. "Why? So you're angry at him for not treating you like his daughter, but you're ok doing the same to me?"
"I'm angry at him for lots of reasons. He's angry too."
"Oh, so now you're avoiding the question?" Jenny hummed, quickly jumping on Hally's avoidance. The new clone was backing Hally into an inarguable corner.
"I'm not avoiding the question. There is no question. We are not the same." Hally shut her down.
The Doctor hummed from the corner of the cell. "You are a little bit."
She rounded on him, eyes ablaze with a silencing glare. "Shut up."
Of course, he didn't. Instead, he pouted childishly. "Oh come on, even you're not that stubborn."
"Please go ahead. Tell me exactly how I'm the same as your daughter who popped into existence twenty minutes ago." Hally growled, her tone laced with vicious warning.
His eyes burned with the challenge and he opened his mouth to speak, when Donna stepped between them both, cutting him off. "Both of you shut up. How is this helping?" She looked between them, like a teacher might scolding two misbehaving students.
Hally bristled and turned away from him, sarcasm lacing her voice. "No… you know what. Maybe you're right. I guess she did pop up out of nowhere… 'just like me' and she's not your perfect stereotypical Time Lady 'just like me'." She motioned wildly towards Jenny, who stood in the centre of the cell. Eyes wide. "You'd really rather she didn't exist 'just like me', and you strongly disapprove of her ability to fight and make decisions without consulting you first. 'Just. Like. Me'." Hally spat, her eyes meeting The Doctor's, rage burning behind them.
Donna huffed and shook her head, exasperated.
"You see Jenny, it makes him very uncomfortable to be around people he can't control." She shot Jenny a heavy look.
"Oi!" Donna quipped.
Jenny's face scrunched into a frown. "But you're judging me the same way he is?"
Frustration vibrated in Hally's chest. "No.. it's…"
Jenny shook her head, staring Hally dead in the eye. "Yes, you are. You're exactly the same as him."
Hally's mouth dropped open, any words of disagreement getting stuck in her throat.
What?
No.
They weren't…
That was not what was happening.
The small smirk that had started to tug at the corner of Donna's mouth told her differently. The next sound came from The Doctor, a heavy, sad sigh. The cold exterior he'd paraded before had dropped to something softer. "Hally, I'm not angry at you."
"Yes, you are." She shot back.
He shook his head. "No, you're angry. I'm just… I don't know. Tired."
They watched one another for a silent moment. It felt as if a door had been knocked ajar, an opportunity had presented itself. He was trying. He was open. Looking at her openly.
Hally kicked the door shut. "Thanks for that enlightening reveal." The cell fell into silence once more. Hally stared at the floor, avoiding the gaze of disapproval Donna was currently aiming her way. She heard the human sigh and turn, her focus shifting to their current predicament.
The human hummed. "More numbers. They've got to mean something." She motioned up to the top of the cell door, where another string of numbers had been stamped into the metal.
The Doctor flicked his eyes up towards them with disinterest. "Makes as much sense as the Breath of Life story."
Jenny frowned. "You mean that's not true?"
Donna moved to Jenny's side, offering her a small encouraging smile. "No, it's a myth. Isn't it, Doctor?"
He nodded, his face scrunched with thought. "Yes, but there could still be something real in that temple. Something that's become a myth. A piece of technology, a weapon."
"So the Source could be a weapon and we've just given directions to Captain Nutjob?" Donna concluded.
"Oh, yes." He clipped back bitterly.
Donna crossed her arms over her chest. "Not good, is it?"
He raised an eyebrow in agreement. "That's why we need to get out of here, find Martha and stop Cobb from slaughtering the Hath." His eyes slid to Jenny, doubt flickering over his face. "What, what are you, …what are you staring at?"
A smile crept onto the blonde's face. "You keep insisting you're not a soldier, but look at you, drawing up strategies like a proper general."
Hally raised her gaze to watch the pair. The Doctor's face darkened and he bristled. "No, no. I'm trying to stop the fighting."
"Isn't every soldier?" She countered.
He cocked his head to one side, trying desperately to talk his way around Jenny's straightforward worldview. "Well, I suppose, but that's, that's. Technically, I haven't got time for this. Donna, give me your phone. Time for an upgrade." He pulled out the Sonic Screwdriver, taking Donna's phone from her.
Jenny practically squealed. "And now you've got a weapon."
"It's not a weapon." He corrected quickly, waving the screwdriver over Donna's phone.
"But you're using it to fight back. I'm going to learn so much from you. You are such a soldier." Jenny grinned with childlike excitement.
The Doctor groaned. "Donna, will you tell her?" He started pressing buttons on Donna's phone. The human watching him, amusement written across her face.
"Oh, you are speechless. I'm loving this. You keep on, Jenny."
The Doctor grumbled under his breath before Donna's phone pulled his focus. He brought it to his ear. "Martha! Thank god!"
Relief washed through Hally, Martha was ok. The Doctor chatted away to her, she was fine, but it turned out that when The Doctor had revealed the deeper layers of the map, he'd revealed them for the Hath too. Both armies were headed the same way in search of the Source. He warned Martha to stay where she was, before hanging up. The sounds of soldiers taking up arms rumbled through the corridors. They were already on the move.
"They're getting ready to move out. We have to get past that guard." The Doctor lowered his voice, eyes trained on Cline, who was positioned just away from the door to their cell.
Jenny nodded. "I can deal with him." She made to turn towards the guard, but The Doctor gripped her arm, stopping her.
"No, no, no, no. You're not going anywhere."
"What?"
"You belong here with them." His voice was low, grave.
Donna slapped The Doctor's hand off the young woman. "She belongs with us. With you. She's your daughter."
Hally's heated glare turned to Donna, but the human didn't bat an eyelid.
The Doctor bristled. "She's a soldier. She came out of that machine."
Donna rolled her eyes. "Oh yes, I know that bit. Listen, have you got that stethoscope?" She motioned towards The Doctor's top pocket. "Give it to me. Come on."
Jenny looked from Donna to The Doctor, concern pulling at her features. "What are you doing?"
Donna took the stethoscope from a reluctant Doctor, he had leant back against the cell bars once more. A dark look sat on his face as he watched his companion press the bell to Jenny's chest. Hally's own chest tightened.
Donna nodded to herself, removed the earpieces from her ears, motioning for The Doctor to take her place. "Come here. Listen, and then tell me where she belongs."
Judging by the look on his face, he already knew the sound he was going to hear before he heard it. He took the stethoscope for himself and listened. Pain flickered over his face and Hally's jaw clenched.
"Two hearts." He murmured.
"Exactly." Donna nodded.
"What's going on?" Jenny looked up at The Doctor, her eyes wide. His face softened, an expression that Hally realised made her hearts twinge in longing.
"Having two hearts doesn't make you a Time Lord." She snapped. Three pairs of eyes landed on her.
"What's a Time Lord?" Jenny looked from Hally to The Doctor, hope written on her face that one of them might answer.
"It's where we're from. It's who I am." He answered for her, voice barely above a whisper.
"And I'm from you." Jenny's eyes bored up into his, never letting him slip away.
His face blinked with a grimace. "You're an echo, that's all. A Time Lord is so much more. A sum of knowledge, a code, a shared history, a shared suffering." He broke contact with Jenny to look to Hally, a heavy understanding flowing between them. That was something they could agree on. A flicker of regret passed across her father's face before he turned back to Jenny. "Only it's gone now, all of it. Gone forever."
"What happened?"
"There was a war." Hally muttered, when The Doctor didn't.
"Like this one?"
The Doctor's scoff was full of resentment. "Bigger. Much bigger."
Jenny was so open, she hid nothing behind those wide, bright eyes. Like a child trying to understand, trying so desperately to belong. Hally's hearts thumped heavy in her chest. "And you fought, and killed? Both of you."
The Doctor nodded. "Yes."
When Jenny looked to Hally for her response, she sighed and conceded. "Yes."
"Then how are we different?" Jenny pressed them both, looking from one to the other.
It was the heaviness in her chest.
The pain wringing in her hearts.
The truth.
They weren't.
They weren't different at all.
The Doctor hummed and motioned towards Cline, indicating for Jenny to go ahead. Hally watched, a heated swarm fluttering in her chest as Jenny essentially flirted her way out of the cell. Hally was reminded, yet again, that if the gold band wasn't fixed around her neck, she could have fixed all of this herself. They wouldn't need Jenny to help them get out. Although… she might pocket her tactic for future use. With the soldier now at gunpoint, he begrudgingly unlocked the door and released them. The four swiftly snuck away, heading back into the lower levels.
After Jenny had knocked out an unsuspecting soldier, The Doctor stole his navigation device to check a copy of the new map he'd revealed. "Wait. This is it. The hidden tunnel. There must be a control panel." He pulled out the Sonic Screwdriver, waving it over the concealed doorway.
Donna's eyes were fixed above the door. "It's another one of those numbers. They're everywhere."
"The original builders must have left them. Some old cataloguing system." The Doctor threw over his shoulder, focusing on the door.
"You got a pen? Bit of paper? Because, do you see, the numbers are counting down. This one ends in 'one four'. The prison cell said 'one six'…" Donna took the pad and pen The Doctor handed to her, scribbling down the number above them. 60120714. Alongside the numbers she'd seen in the cell and the theatre.
A bemused smile curved Jenny's mouth. "Always thinking. Who are you people?"
"I told you. I'm The Doctor." The Doctor commented, working on the control panel with the screwdriver.
"The Doctor. That's it?"
"That's all he ever says." Donna hummed, a knowing smile brightening her face.
Jenny's face flickered with realisation. "So, you don't have a name either? Are you an anomaly, too?"
He shook his head. "No."
"Oh, come off it. You're the most anomalous bloke I've ever met." Donna laughed.
A panel slid off the wall, revealing the controls he'd been searching for.
"And Time Lords. What are they for, exactly?" Jenny tilted her head to one side, eyes alight with curiosity.
"They're not for anything." Hally cocked an eyebrow.
"So what do you do?"
Hally shrugged. "We don't do anything. We travel."
"Travel?"
"Through time and space." The Doctor added in helpfully.
Donna shook her head, exhaling heavily at both of their lack of explanation. "He saves planets, rescues civilisations, defeats terrible creatures. And runs a lot. Seriously, there's an outrageous amount of running involved."
The door creaked and opened, revealing the hidden tunnel. "Got it!" The Doctor's celebration was cut short, the sounds of Cobb and his soldiers echoing along the corridors. He turned to Jenny and shot her a lopsided grin. "Now, what were you saying about running?"
He bolted into the new network of tunnels, followed enthusiastically by Jenny. Hally and Donna shared a look before running after them. They followed The Doctor for a few minutes, the tunnels leading them further underground and closer towards the Source. Hally turned a corner and saw that The Doctor had stopped, then she saw why. The tunnel was blocked by an array of laser beams crisscrossing across the way ahead.
"That's not mood lighting, is it?" Donna muttered from behind them, eyeing the closest beam, flickering with heat. The Doctor pulled something from his pocket and threw it towards the beam. With a bright spark, it burned and disintegrated in an instant.
Donna hummed. "No, I didn't think so."
Hally's eyes trailed over the walls on their side of the laser barricade, finally focusing on a small blue box. "There's an arming device."
The Doctor followed her gaze and jumped into action, he pulled out the Sonic Screwdriver again, working on opening the device to deactivate it. Hally grumbled under her breath, wishing she had her Laser Screwdriver to hand.
Donna took out her pad and pen, jotting down a new set of numbers she'd spotted. "There's more of these. Always eight numbers, counting down the closer we get."
Behind them, the sound of footsteps was growing ever closer. Cobb's voice commanded the troops forward. "We've got incoming." Hally uttered, shooting a look to The Doctor that she hoped would get him to hurry up.
Jenny heard them too because she made to dart back down the tunnel, towards the oncoming soldiers.
"Where are you going?" The Doctor pulled away from the arming device, holding Jenny back with his intense stare.
She motioned towards the sound of the advancing men. "I can hold them up." She held up her gun as if the solution were obvious.
The Doctor shook his head and stepped away from the wall. "No, we don't need any more dead."
Jenny's face scrunched up at The Doctor, baffled by his words. "But it's them or us."
"It doesn't mean you have to kill them."
Jenny shook her head. "I'm trying to save your life."
The Doctor took Jenny by the shoulders, eyes never leaving hers. "Listen to me. The killing. After a while, it infects you. And once it does, you're never rid of it."
She took a small step away from him. "We don't have a choice."
"We always have a choice."
There was a moment, the two staring into each other's eyes, where Hally could see Jenny considering his words. But eventually, she pulled back, shaking her head as she moved towards the incoming soldiers. "I'm sorry." Then she turned and ran towards Cobb, setting up a defensive stance.
Hally's hearts beat painfully in her chest. She watched Jenny run from them to fight, then she trailed her gaze back to The Doctor. His face had fallen, bitter disappointment swirling in his eyes. Hadn't he said something similar to her before? Hearing him say it to Jenny, it made sense. He wasn't wrong.
Gunfire sounded.
Jenny had opened fire on the soldiers and they were firing back.
The Doctor shook his head, scowling. "I told you. Nothing but a soldier."
"She's trying to help." Donna tried to reason.
Hally looked back towards Jenny and again to The Doctor. Maybe Donna was right. Maybe The Doctor was wrong. Maybe Hally was wrong. Perhaps she'd been blind. Stubborn and selfish. She caught The Doctor's gaze. "Even if she is, does that mean we just give up on her?"
Some of the darkness within the deep brown of his iris lifted. "You've changed your tune." His voice lilted with a semi-serious tease.
She cocked an eyebrow. "Weird day."
The bright beams flickered and blinked out of existence. Their way forward was clear. The Doctor grabbed Donna's hand, pulling her towards the tunnel while calling back to Jenny. "Jenny, come on!" When the young woman didn't instantly appear he called again, the three of them now safely through the laser field. "Jenny, leave it! Let's go."
Finally, her bouncing blonde ponytail appeared and she jogged towards them. "Hurry up." Donna beckoned her over quickly, but before Jenny had even fully come around the corner, the lasers blinked back into life.
"No, no, no, no, no, no. The circuit's looped back." The Doctor groaned, looking frantically for another control panel on their side of the lasers. But there was nothing.
Jenny checked behind her, an uncertain fear passing across her face. "They're coming."
The Doctor was struggling, trying to think quickly on the spot. "Wait. Just. There isn't. Jenny, I can't…"
Jenny chucked her weapon to the side and braced herself. She shot a smile towards The Doctor. "I'll have to manage on my own. Watch and learn, Father." She gave herself a short run-up, before launching into a succession of perfect forward somersaults. She landed, unharmed and barely out of breath on the other side. The Doctor caught her in his arms, his face split into a beaming smile.
"No way. But that was impossible." Donna stared at Jenny in awe, letting out a laugh of disbelief.
The Doctor was still grinning down at her. "Not impossible. Just a bit unlikely. Brilliant! You were brilliant. Brilliant!" He pulled Jenny into a tight hug, before pulling back to look down at her. She wasn't sure why, but watching him wrap her in his arms, a sharp pain crashed into Hally's chest. The father and daughter in front of her wore matching open expressions of joy and Hally was very immediately reminded of the fact that Jenny had come solely from The Doctor. Practically a clone. The same. Hally was still different. Too different. Her chest cracked heavily.
"I didn't kill him. General Cobb, I could have killed him but I didn't. You were right. I had a choice." Jenny grinned up at The Doctor.
Hally turned on her heel. They needed to move if they didn't want to be shot at. "I thought we were supposed to be running?" She shot over her shoulder, breaking into a sprint. Donna and Jenny barrelled after her, The Doctor bringing up the rear, bullets crashing against the metal behind them.