Twists in Time
Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Lazarus Experiment: With a Whimper
By Lumendea
…
Running into the reception hall was a stark contrast to the cold stairwell and running for their lives. Rose wasn't sure that she'd ever get used to it. The richly dressed crowd of people were still talking, eating, drinking, and a few were dancing.
"Tish, is there another way out of here?" the Doctor asked urgently.
"There's an exit in the corner, but it'll be locked now," Tish answered. Rose could tell that shock was starting to set in.
The Doctor pulled out the sonic screwdriver and tossed it to Jack. "Setting fifty-four. Jack, Martha, get the people out. Make sure that UNIT is on their way."
Jack nodded. Martha looked uneasy, but they both hurried to the doorway. The Doctor glanced at Rose and she gave him a small, hopefully reassuring smile. That wrong feeling was weighing down on her, but she knew the Doctor already understood how dangerous Lazarus was. There was no need to waste time trying to explain it.
"Listen to me!" the Doctor shouted, running up to the dais. "You people are in serious danger! You need to get out of here right now!" He gestured towards the back exit.
A blonde woman in a cocktail dress scoffed. "Don't be ridiculous. The biggest danger here is choking on an olive."
A roar from the mezzanine made everyone jump. Rose spun around just as the mutated Lazarus leapt down. He crashed onto a table, smashing it under his weight. The rapid shifting of his mass… Rose tightened her hands in fists, wishing that she knew how to summon her power. Right now, that would be the easiest way. Lazarus' tail lashed, sending a table flying through the air. It struck Martha's brother. The sight of that was enough to force Rose's focus to the present. She'd dealt with many threats long before she had any powers.
"Over here!" Martha shouted above the screams. "This way! Everyone downstairs now! Hurry!"
Lazarus lunged at one of the women in the crowd, his jaw swinging wide open. His tail came up and Rose started to move forward while the Doctor shouted at Lazarus. They were both too late. A desiccated corpse hit the floor. Lazarus turned towards Martha's mother and brother. The Doctor rushed forward.
"Lazarus! Leave them alone." He turned toward the Doctor with a hiss. Martha and Jack rushed to Martha's family. Rose shifted closer to the Doctor and summoned her sword, taking comfort in its familiar weight in her hand. If nothing else, she was pretty sure that he could still die if his physical form took enough damage. The trick would be making sure he didn't try to draw life energy from her, Jack or the Doctor.
"What's the point?" the Doctor taunted. "You can't control it. The mutation's too strong. Killing those people won't help you. You're a fool. A vain old man who thought he could defy nature. Only Nature got her own back, didn't she? You're a joke, Lazarus! A footnote in the history of failure!" Lazarus roared, the Doctor grabbed Rose's left hand and they were off down the corridor.
…
Martha was grateful that between her medical experience and her time on the TARDIS that she had mastered staying calm. With her family here and in danger, everything felt sharper and colder. Lazarus roared and took off after Rose and the Doctor. A jolt of fear for them took hold, but Martha focused on her injured brother.
"What are they doing?" Tish asked, peering after them in open alarm.
"Buying us time," Martha replied. "Let's not waste it. Leo, look at me. Focus on me. Let's see your eyes. He's got a concussion. Jack, we need to get him downstairs."
Jack took charge of Leo, outright swinging her brother up into his arms to carry him. Leo protested weakly and Martha took that as a sign more than anything that he was going to be okay. Martha turned to the table and gathered ice from the glasses of water into a cloth napkin. "This'll keep the swelling down." She gave it to her mother who immediately pressed it to Leo's head. "Tish, move! We need to get out of here."
"Come on," Jack repeated, starting to walk to the stairs. Her mother stayed close to him and Leo, keeping the ice on the lump.
Martha almost turned to go after Rose and the Doctor before thinking better of it. The sonic screwdriver in her hand was heavy.
"Martha," Jack yelled. "Come on."
"But I still have the sonic-"
"Rose has one too," Jack answered. "They'll be alright for a little bit."
That was oddly comforting. Martha still wasn't completely sure of the relationship between the trio of more experienced time travellers, but Jack was very protective of them both. If he was willing to help her then they would probably be alright. She hurried after the others, keeping an eye out for further trouble.
A military jeep was pulling up as they got outside with a logo that Martha had seen in the aftermath of the moon. Right behind it was a large truck with three ambulances with military logos on them behind it and another large jeep bringing up the rear. Uniformed personnel jumped from the jeeps as they stopped and began directly the party guests away from the population. The back of the truck stopped and a man in a general's uniform stepped out. Sarah Jane Smith rushed out of the crowd to him. Martha saw him smile at Sarah Jane before shifting to business. She was too far away to hear, but Sarah Jane turned and pointed to her and Jack.
The man nodded and strode over to him, ignoring the calls from the party guests and reporters. Medics rushed over ahead of him with a gurney. Jack gently set Leo on it while Francine fussed over him. Jack gestured for Martha to follow and they met the general a few feet away from her injured brother.
"I am General Benton," the military man greeted. "Sarah Jane tells me that you're travelling with the Doctor."
"Yes sir," Martha answered quickly. "I'm Martha Jones."
"Jack Harkness," Jack greeted. "Not sure if we've met yet to you."
"We have," Benton answered with another hint of a smile. "You're occasionally annoying, but I know you're loyal to Rose and the Doctor." He focused on the building behind them. "What do they need from us?"
"Not sure what his plan is," Jack answered.
"But we need to keep the building isolated. Lazarus' mutation is extremely dangerous. He can kill in seconds."
"Right." Benton nodded, calm as he looked at the building with a slight frown. Martha liked him. She appreciated it. "We'll set up a perimeter. Any idea what the Doctor needs?"
"I plan to go back in," Jack said bluntly. He shrugged off the tuxedo jacket and rolled up his sleeves. "I need to find Rose at the very least."
Benton nodded, completely unsurprised. The sound of her name being shouted made Martha jump. Her mother was with Leo and gesturing for her to join them. Opening her mouth, Martha felt trapped. What was she supposed to do? Jack was going back in? There was medical staff out here checking everyone over thanks to UNIT. As Jack left her side and Benton started talking into a radio strapped to him and giving orders to the nearby soldiers, Martha turned and rushed to follow Jack.
…
It wasn't that the Doctor liked explosions. Not really. He didn't. They were loud and destructive, but sometimes they were necessary. It was a pity though. For the era, Lazarus' labs were very nice. Not as good as UNIT's, but then few labs in the period of Earth's history were. He could still hear the roaring Lazarus behind them as he and Rose ran back towards reception.
"He's still alive," Rose confirmed. "I'm not sure damaging him will be enough. His body is regenerating too fast."
Right, she'd managed a few strikes with her sword to distract Lazarus while the Doctor had been working on blowing up the lab. "So we need to turn that off first," he said. "I've got a plan." He glanced at Rose and grinned at the smile of relief on her face. "It's gonna be alright."
"I know. I have faith in us."
The reception hall was a mess. Glasses had been dropped in the panic, but thankfully everyone had cleared out. Pulling Rose after him, the Doctor rushed towards the capsule. Rose didn't fight him as they jumped inside and closed it tight behind them.
"I assume we're not hiding," Rose said softly.
"No, he knows we're here," the Doctor confirmed. "But this is his masterpiece. I'm betting he won't destroy it, not even to get at us."
"Except we're trapped." Rose exhaled. She was alright, but he could tell that being close to Lazarus was taking a toll on her. Life and Possibility. Lazarus was somehow both and not at all an embodiment of those aspects at once. It was almost fascinating. "Doctor, the explosion didn't kill him and the sword didn't kill him. He's regenerating too fast, but if he keeps it up he's going to focus on prey and not us."
"Right," the Doctor said. He glanced around them at the inside of the tube and followed the carefully sealed seams to the floor. Reaching for his pocket, the Doctor suffered a moment of panic upon realizing that Jack still had his sonic before remembering that Rose had one of her own. "I need your sonic." Rose reached up to her braided bun and carefully extracted her sonic pen. "Really, in your hair?"
"Just in case. No one searches a woman's hairstyle. And this dress doesn't have pockets."
"Fair enough." He'd heard her complain about pockets before and knew she favoured clothing that had proper pockets. Not that he blamed her. His own pockets were filled with anything that might be useful that he picked up in his travels.
"Do you have a plan?" Rose shivered a little. If he hadn't already known that Lazarus was outside, that would have confirmed it.
"Bit of one just occurred to me," the Doctor said. "Mostly I'm improvising."
Rose chuckled fondly and shifted to give him as much room as possible. It was a good thing that they were already lovers or this would have been very awkward. As it was, the Doctor still flushed a little at the sight of her legs before focusing on the small access panel beneath them. It was reinforced due to being inside where the sonic waves would be focused, but thankfully, it wasn't anything that he couldn't get through.
"I can't believe he still considers this a success," Rose said weakly. "And I can't believe you were able to make an explosion that large with a Bunsen burner." That part made her laugh lightly. It was such a Doctor move to mock Lazarus while utterly violating safety procedures.
"He made himself a monster," the Doctor said firmly. The origins of regeneration still haunted him in the quiet moments that he allowed himself to remember that far back. He couldn't fathom actually needing to grab others and consume them. "He isn't the sort to acknowledge that. His pride is what he has left." The Doctor shook his head. "No idea how he thinks this will work going forward."
"He has rich friends or at least rich people who want that technology to work," Rose grumbled. "Probably thinks they'll cover for him so he can refine the process and make it safe for him."
"Maybe," the Doctor agreed carefully. It did sound annoying possible, but Rose had already tried cutting Lazarus with her sword with little success. Oddly, her powers hadn't activated yet. "Here we go!"
The Doctor opened the panel and began rapidly adjusting the energy cells and frequency of the sonic-linked components. Then a hum echoed around them and the side of the capsule shuddered under her hand. "Oh Guardians," Rose gasped. "He turned it on."
"Yeah… I was hoping it would take him a little longer to figure that out."
"Tell me that you have a plan!"
"I'm trying to set the capsule to reflect energy rather than receive it."
"That… you think that'll do the trick?"
"When he transforms, he's three times his size. Cellular triplication. So he's spreading himself thin. Combine that with the healing he had to do from the explosion and your sword and I'm betting he can't take much more." That was the Doctor's hope anyway. He didn't like to kill. That was something he'd done his best to leave behind, but today it was the only option he could see. "Brace yourself." The capsule began to heat up. Standing, the Doctor pulled Rose close and kissed her head.
"Rose!" Came Jack's shout from outside. The Doctor tensed in alarm. He hadn't considered that Jack and potentially Martha would come back inside.
"Jack, get Martha out of here!" Rose shouted frantically. The Doctor hoped that Jack could hear her through the capsule. Because it was too late for him to stop this.
….
Jack didn't hear Rose's shout, but he heard the whine of the machinery and saw the way the lights were slightly different this time compared to before. Lazarus was prowling around the capsule and suddenly started to shift towards them. Jack had the brief thought that Rose was in danger before deciding to listen to the voice in his head that insisted the Doctor had a plan.
And Martha was with him. Jack grabbed Martha and dragged her around the corner, covering her with his body. "Jack?!" Martha gasped.
"The machine," Jack managed just before the burst of sonic energy blasted past them.
It wasn't bad. Not exactly, but not pleasant. He could feel it crawling over his back. Martha curled against him and Jack hoped that his super body would be enough to keep her safe when teamed with the walls between them. At least the outer shell of the building was sturdy metal. Still, the sonic hum thrummed painfully through his ears and down to his skull.
Martha grabbed at his shirt and he heard her make a small sound of discomfort. But not a sound of pain. Good. Then it was over. He swallowed and shook his head, making his ears pop. Hard to imagine that Lazarus had just climbed into a machine that did that.
"That didn't happen before," Martha said softly.
"No, I reckon the Doctor did something to it." Jack shifted back from Martha. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine." Martha nodded and straightened up. She was brave, Jack would definitely give her that. And more loyal than he and the Doctor deserved. Rose did. "Let's go. We need to see if they're alright!"
….
Rose breathed in gratefully as they stepped out of the capsule. The Doctor put his hand on her back. "Really shouldn't take that long just to reverse the polarity. I must be a bit out of practice," the Doctor murmured.
Lazarus was lying on the floor, his clothing long since torn apart by his transformation. Rose stared at him, an odd feeling still lingered in her gut as she studied the pale form. He still had his younger appearance and showed no signs of injury from her sword or the explosions.
"Are you alright?" Jack asked urgently.
"We're fine," the Doctor answered. "You two?"
"We got out of the blast," Jack assured him.
"Martha?" the Doctor called. "You alright?"
"He seems so human again," Martha said softly. "It's kind of pitiful."
"Eliot saw that, too," the Doctor replied. This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang, but with a whimper."
"We need to make sure UNIT takes his body," Rose said quickly. "It needs to be destroyed." Maybe that would fix that odd feeling she had. They couldn't risk someone trying to replicate this from his work. "And we need to destroy the records."
"Alright," the Doctor agreed. "Alright, we'll wipe all the computers inside. And any off-site servers they connect to. Call Spock in."
That made Rose feel a little better, but it didn't shake off the cold feeling. Frowning, she stayed in place and watched as Unit swarmed around the body. She shifted back, suddenly mindful that she was crossing her timeline. While she had a lot of faith in the UNIT staff in general, it wouldn't take much for someone to say something. Though… her younger self would mostly ignore it. Still, Rose didn't remember anything like this.
"Come on, darling," the Doctor said gently. "Is UNIT outside?" he asked Jack.
"Yeah, Benton is here."
Rose brightened at that. She hadn't seen Benton in a long time. Too long. Maybe she needed to poke the Doctor to visit him in York or wherever he'd gone off to hide from being called back at this point. She had to put those thoughts away as they stepped outside and UNIT troops immediately swarmed forward.
"Doctor, Rose," Benton greeted with a relieved smile and a small nod. "Is it sorted?"
"Lazarus is dead," the Doctor said softly. "Be careful with his body. It needs to be destroyed."
"And be on guard," Rose added. Both of them looked at her. "He still seems…" she trailed off and glanced at Benton. "He had strong regenerative abilities. Might still be a little active."
"Lazarus," the Doctor said slowly. "That would fit." He looked at the vehicles. "Best get something heavy-duty and have guards ready just in case."
"Right. We'll keep the building in lockdown down and I'll call a containment unit." Benton reached for his radio and turned away as Sarah Jane slipped out of the crowd.
"You all alright?" Sarah Jane asked kindly.
"We are, Sarah," the Doctor replied. He smiled at her and held out an arm for a hug. "Thank you for the help."
"I doubt you needed it, but still, it was fun. Bit like old time." She chuckled a little and glanced at Martha. "Forgive me, I'm Sarah Jane Smith. I used to travel with the Doctor myself."
"I know," Martha replied. Then she stopped and shook herself. "Wait, right, sorry. We haven't met yet, have we? I'm Martha Jones."
"We haven't," Sarah Jones replied kindly. Then she chuckled and looked at the Doctor. "Crossing your timeline a bit more often now, aren't you, Doctor?"
"Well…. Maybe a little. It's Rose's fault," the Doctor replied. Then he froze. "I mean, just visiting Earth."
Sarah Jane nodded slowly, pressing her lips together tightly. Rose was grateful that she didn't reveal she knew they were in a relationship. That would be complicated to try and explain. The Companion Club might have known when Rose in her last year in uni that she and the Doctor would be in a romantic relationship, the Doctor should not know that yet.
"Well, with the excitement over, I best get home," Sarah Jane said. She hugged the Doctor again. "Good to see you. Take care of this new body," Sarah Jane said firmly as she released him. "I don't want to meet another you anytime soon." Then she looked at Martha.
"I've heard about regeneration," Martha offered.
"Look at you," Sarah Jane teased the Doctor. "Warning companions in advance."
"Yeah, yeah. See you, Sarah. Give my love to the kids."
"I will." Sarah Jane hugged both Rose and the Doctor again before waving to Benton and vanishing into the crowd.
"Alright," Benton said. "Containment truck is heading here from the Tower with an escort. It won't be long."
The Doctor nodded. Rose tried not to fidget. In the corner of her eye, she saw Martha timidly heading for her mother who was fussing over her brother. She considered following to back Martha up before deciding against it. Martha had gone over without saying anything. That felt important, but Rose couldn't help but keep her gaze on their companion. Just in case she needed backup. If nothing else, it was a good distraction from the lingering sick feeling and her worry about whether Lazarus was truly dead.