To the Stars and Back

by riverofmemories

Tagging along in the TARDIS after being rescued from a situation she was sold into, Jayden O'Connors finds that there's much more to life than expected. When the Doctor's involved, it's full of adventure, other worlds, saving lives, and quite a bit of running. But the clock is ticking, and even a Time Lord from Gallifrey can't help her run forever.

36. The Waters of Mars

Jay bounced excitedly on the balls of her feet as the Doctor finished checking his own blazingly bright orange suit, and then turned his attention on hers. "Everything just like I said?" he checked as he began ensuring nothing was out of place. One wrong thing, she knew, and she'd be dead before she could blink. Maybe. For all they knew, whatever lingered in her body might have changed that.

"Yes," she said firmly. "I did everything like you told me." Still, she held still, her stomach flip-flopping as the Doctor did a check anyway. Satisfied, he grabbed one of the two helmets and carefully helped Jay place it over her head, locking it into place. They'd done this enough times that Jay knew precisely what to do as soon as it was on, taking a few deep breaths to ensure the oxygen was working.

"Ready?" she said hopefully when he'd finished doing the same, doing one last check over their equipment, and the Doctor flashed her a bright grin, dark eyes lighting with excitement.

"The Red Planet," he declared as they finally stepped free of the TARDIS, and Jay nodded eagerly, immediately looking around. It was a good name for Mars. The soil and dirt around them was a very bright, rusty red, and even the sky seemed tinted. "Nearly sunset," he added, gesturing towards the horizon. "We'll want to be back before long. Just in case."

"Sounds good," Jay said cheerfully as they set out across the red dusty planet. Sand seemed to swirl around them as they walked, taking in the beautiful sight. Jay hummed happily. She'd seen the moon and several planets by now, but she found that it was always impressive, the first impressions of a new planet - or time. Each time she stepped outside the TARDIS, she always found that she was impressed.

"Oh!" she said after a few moments, bounding a few steps away. She'd found a ledge, and when she reached the edge, she gasped, careful not to get too close to the edge. Even on Mars, where gravity was different, she had no desire to fall over the side. "Doctor, look! There's people here!"

"People?" he echoed, following her over. "People," he repeated in awe when he saw a series of domes and glass corridors spiraling out to other smaller domes. It was beautiful. One of those tunnels even went so far as to reach towards a massive rocket, and Jay began excitedly clapping, recognizing the model as an older model that was highly sought after later in the century, its plans lost to time.

The Doctor was so focused on what Jay was talking about, amused with her own rambling, that he didn't notice it until something touched his back. He stiffened and immediately put his hands up as a robotic voice ordered, "Rotate. Slowly."

Jay whipped around, and upon seeing that the Doctor had a robot of sorts, made of spindly metal limbs and belts for feet, pointing a gun at him, she snapped her hands up, too, eyes rounding in alarm. "You are under arrest," the robot informed them. "For trespassing. Gadget-gadget."

Jay was briefly taken aback by the last phrase, looking to the Doctor for an explanation, but he only groaned and looked skyward, as if praying for patience. "I hate funny robots."

---

"I can't get it off," grumbled Jay, annoyed that their time on the surface of Mars had been cut off by a group of overly aggressive apparent humans. She tugged pointedly at her helmet as the Doctor set his own aside, and a smile tugged at his lips as he reached over to help her out, carefully unlatching the helmet and removing it. Jay sighed in relief, mumbling her gratitude, and then looked around as the woman standing before them, just beside the robot that had taken them there, scowled and leveled a gun at them. A second woman stood at her shoulder, wary, and behind them was a rather youthful man, who stood beside the robot that had escorted them there.

The Doctor glared half-heartedly at her, and Jay knew he was anything but pleased about the gun as they began clambering out of their uncomfortable orange spacesuits. Jay copied the Doctor and neatly folded it, placing it near the wall with the helmet carefully located on top of the pile. When they were done, they both fixed their clothes. For the Doctor, it was his blue, pinstriped suit. For Jay, a simple pair of jeans and a blouse she thought matched the color of the planet they stood on now. Immediately, the second woman grabbed one of the spacesuits and began inspecting it, interested.

The room they were in now was plain and opaque, made of sterile, white panels and not much else. An entryway of sorts from the surface of Mars to the facility they'd overlooked from a short distance away. Even as they stood there, helmets tucked under their arms, Jay wished they'd been able to fetch the TARDIS. She didn't like that the beautiful ship was out there by herself, waiting for them to come home.

"State your name, rank, and intention," the woman said suddenly, voice sharp. "Now. You first," she added, inclining her gun in Jay's direction, and the Doctor's gaze sharpened with such ferocity that the woman pointed it at him again, clearly wary of what was happening.

"Jay," Jay said, glancing at the Doctor uncertainly. He nodded encouragingly. "Um, no rank. Just...human, I suppose. And...exploring? Visiting? Whatever you want to call it?"

"And you?" challenged the woman, glaring at the Doctor now.

"The Doctor," he answered immediately. "Doctor. Fun."

Jay gave him an exasperated look. He only winked at her in turn before glancing over when a man suddenly jolted into the room with excitement written all across his face. He grinned at the newcomers, eyes twinkling. "What the hell?" he breathed. "People. Actual people on Mars. How?"

The second woman held up the spacesuit she'd been inspecting, grimacing delicately at its bright orange color. "They were wearing these. I've never seen anything like it before."

"And what did Mission Control say?"

"Out of range for ten hours with the solar flares-"

"If we could cut the chat," interrupted the first woman, rolling her eyes.

The Doctor, of course, couldn't seem to keep his mouth shut the moment it was brought up, and Jay ran a hand through her messy blonde hair, entirely amused with the fact that he began to ramble. "Chat's second on my list, the first being the gun that's pointed at my head. Which then puts my head on second and chat third, I think, with the gun being pointed at Jay's head first." Jay snorted loudly at that, though she was admittedly grateful that he was more concerned about the safety of her head. "Gun, head, chat, yeah. I hate lists. But you could hurt someone with that, so let's just...put it down," suggested the Doctor, inclining his head at the gun.

"You'd like that," the woman said sharply, suspicious, and Jay rolled her eyes as she answered wryly, "Please, kindly tell me when you find someone who enjoys having a weapon capable of causing death pointed at their head, because I can promise you, it'll take you a while."

The woman scowled lightly and the Doctor gave Jay an exasperated look, silently scolding her for her comments. She made a small shrug in return. If he got to have sass, so did she. "Why should I trust you?" the woman finally sighed, annoyed.

"Because I give you my word," the Doctor said, and Jay nodded to show that she was following in his steps regarding the matter. "And forty million miles away from home, my word - our word - is all you've got."

The woman debated a moment longer before lowering her gun. Jay and the Doctor sighed in relief, even as she warned the man behind them, "Keep Gadget covering them." The man grinned, nodding, and the Doctor turned his attention onto the root that had brought them there. His gaze darted from the root to the man and finally to a series of gloves he was wearing.

"You control it?" the Doctor checked, interested, and the man nodded. "Auto-glove response?"

He nodded again, smile widening. "You got it. To the right," he shifted right, using the gloves with care, and the robot copied his movements. "And to the left," he hummed, and the robot moved once more.

Of course, the Doctor wrinkled his nose and commented, "It's a bit flimsy." Jay elbowed him and the man glared irritably, especially when the Doctor asked upon the robot echoing another "gadget-gadget," "Does it have to keep saying that?"

"I think it's funny," he said coolly.

The Doctor looked at Jay and said, "I hate funny robots."

"Excuse me, boss," a voice suddenly called overhead. They all looked up at the ceiling as if they'd be able to see who was speaking with them. "Computer log says we've got an extra person on site. How's that possible?"

"Keep the bio-dome closed," the woman with the gun said, signaling herself as the person in charge of the place. "And when using the open comms, you call me Captain." When the voice asked about their guests, she rolled her eyes and cut her off, shutting down the connection by moving over to a panel on the wall and typing something in. Jay studied her for a long, long moment. She couldn't say she cared much for this woman's attitude, but at the same time...she commanded respect, and she knew what she was doing.

"Hold on," she said, looking around at the three people in the room with them. "We've introduced ourselves, but you haven't." The Doctor beamed at her, proud of her for demanding answers.

The captain of the group looked at them in exasperation. "Oh, come on. We're the first off-world colonists in history. Everyone on Planet Earth knows who we are." When Jay simply shrugged, she rolled her eyes again. "This is Bowie Base One."

"Number one?" The Doctor perked up, interested. "Founded July first, in the year twenty-fifty-eight. Established Bowie Base One in the Gusev Cater...you've been here how long?" When she answered they'd been there for nearing seventeen months, the Doctor's brow furrowed. "Two-thousand-fifty-nine," he murmured, and Jay instantly got a bad feeling about the way he said it. "It's two-thousand-fifty-nine, right now. Oh!" he cried, throwing his hands up in annoyance. "My head is so stupid, Jay!" He turned on the captain. "You're Captain Adelaide Brooke! And Ed," he continued, "Deputy Edward Gold. Tarak Ital, MD. Nurse Yuri Kerenski. Senior Technician Steffi Ehrlich. Junior Technician Roman Groom. Geologist Mia Bennett." He paused, faltering. "Only twenty-seven years old."

Only twenty-seven years old. The way he said it-

Go. Go. Go. The voice was back, hissing in her ears as Adelaide Brooke said simply, "As I said, Doctor, everyone knows our names."

"Oh, they'll never forget them." The Doctor's expression had become something Jay could no longer read, and the bad feeling in her gut seemed to grow worse. She instinctively reached out and caught his hand, and the Doctor squeezed it hard enough to confirm her suspicions that something bad was going to happen on this base. "What's the date? The exact date?"

"November twenty-first," said Adelaide. "Two-thousand-fifty-nine."

"Right," the Doctor breathed. "Okay, fine." He inhaled sharply and looked around at the people surrounding him and Jay. He kept a tight grip on her hand, and Jay frowned at the way he said, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry with all of my hearts, but it's one of those very rare times when I've got no choice. It's been an honor. Seriously, a very great honor to meet you all. Right, Jay, we really should go."

"Doctor?" said Jay softly, unnerved further when he even went so far as to pat the robot he'd claimed he disliked on the head.

The Doctor ignored her question though, instead giving Adelaide a serious salute - which only scared her more. He never liked saluting people, nor did he ever let anyone salute him if he could avoid it. Something was seriously wrong on this base if he was doing so. He paused, however. "Hold on, there's the other two. Margaret Cain and Andrew Stone."

Ed, having been the one to come charging into the room to see the newcomers alongside Mia and Steffi, ran a hand through his dark hair as he went to the communication panel Adelaide had shut off. "Maggie," he said into it, voice wry yet amused. "If you want to meet the only new humans you're gonna see for the next five years, better come take a look."

The snarl that burst over the comms made Jay's heart skip a beat in fear, and she found herself cowering back as the voice pleaded for her to go, go, go. "Doctor, what was that?" she rasped as Mia echoed her question, and the Doctor looked at her grimly, making a small gesture that indicated they needed to leave. Immediately. Jay found that she agreed with that decision. No protesting was going to come from her mouth.

"This is central," said Ed into the comm, tapping on the screen that should have shown them the bio-dome. "Bio-dome report immediately." Only static showed up on the screen when Adelaide demanded she show him the security cameras, and when Adelaide switched tactics, choosing to focus on eternal cameras, everyone stared in alarm as the lights within the biodome began to blink out until there was only darkness.

"I'm going over," Adelaide decided, voice leaving no room for argument. "Doctor, you're with me."

"Yeah, sorry, we'd love to help, but we're leaving. Right now," the Doctor declared, moving to grab his spacesuit and Jay's, but one look from Adelaide had Steffi snatching them up, going to hide them away for the time being.

"Hey," protested Jay, but Adelaide silenced her with a nasty look. "This started as soon as you two arrived, so you're not going anywhere. Doctor," she said again. "You're with me. Your friend can stay with-"

Jay winced when the Doctor's hand tightened on hers. "Jay stays with me," he said with such ferocity that Adelaide was taken aback, if only for a moment. Jay smiled tightly, entirely alright with that decision. She cleared her throat when Adelaide reluctantly agreed, turning and stalking from the dome and down into a corridor. The Doctor faltered only once before starting after her. They were followed closely by Tarak, and Gadget the robot clattered along after them.

As they walked, the Doctor pulled Jay in and said sternly in her ear, "Stick close, and the first chance we get, we leave."

"Why?" she whispered back, aware that Adelaide had taken notice of their secretive conversation. "I know something bad's happening, but what? The voice doesn't like it here." It was getting louder the further they went, too, as if it could sense something she didn't have any knowledge about. At the same time, however, she got this feeling of excitement, as if she wanted to seek a challenge of sorts, and that only scared her more.

The last one to invoke even a fraction of that feeling was the Vashta Nerada.

The Doctor hesitated, clearly wanting to tell her, but simply gave a small shake of his head, inclining it towards Adelaide. He couldn't say without them hearing for the time being, and apparently, he didn't need or want them knowing. "It's a set point in time," was all he said, and Jay's heart skipped another beat.

"Oh," she breathed in realization.

Some great tragedy was going to take place, and there was nothing they could do to stop it. Not without creating ripples that would potentially rip time and space apart.

"Stay. Close." The Doctor's voice was sharp, and Jay, somewhat offended because she knew he'd already said as such several times, rolled her eyes and retorted that she would.

"Alright," she agreed, "but would you let go of my hand? It hurts." He quickly did so, wincing and apologizing quietly, but Jay bumped her shoulder fondly against his, only to falter for a moment. Was she alright to do such things? She wasn't sure if that was okay anymore. Did it give anything away? Luckily, Adelaide distracted them both.

"What's so important about Mia's age?" Adelaide suddenly demanded as they walked. The lights began to flicker out over their heads, and Adelaide and Tarak whipped flashlights out. Jay looked expectantly at the Doctor, who dug in the pockets of his blue suit until he retrieved two, one for each of them. Jay bit back a snort of amusement. "You said she's only twenty-seven, why does it matter? What did you mean?"

"Oh, I just open my mouth and words come out. They don't make much sense." The Doctor's answer was quick, sharp, and with just enough honesty that no one disagreed. He gave Jay an almost playful look of betrayal when she hummed her own agreement, and then decided to comment, "I hate robots. Did I say?"

"Yeah," said the voice of the man controlling the robot, Roman. "And he's not too fond of you. What's wrong with robots?"

The Doctor amended his statement. "It's not the robots, it's the people. Dressing them up and giving them silly voices. Like...like you're reducing them."

"Yeah," agreed Roman despite their current disagreement on robots. "Friend of mine? She made her domestic robot look like a dog." The Doctor made a face, admitting that it was different, and Jay had to stifle a laugh, remembering that the Doctor had told her all about the tin dog Sarah Jane now kept for him: K-9. "But I adapted Gadget out of the worker drones. Those things are huge! They built this place when the shell was lowered down from orbit. They've got a strength capacity of-"

"The channel is open for essential communications only," Adelaide interrupted sharply, and Jay looked at her thoughtfully as they kept walking, cocking her head. This woman with her near silver hair and sharp eyes seemed like an unstoppable force, but Jay could see the light that sparkled there, hidden beneath the hardened exterior.

So, she asked, "Captain Adelaide, was it worth coming out here? To Mars?" She'd always thought her own travels were worth all the suffering that came with them. She'd lost people time and time again and had even been the reason a few were left behind to suffer, but...to see the stars as the Doctor did, to walk among other people on other planets and in other times, to help the majority of those who couldn't help themselves...it would always be worth the suffering.

The Doctor nodded his agreement, excited by her question. "They say you sacrificed everything and devoted your whole life to get here," he added.

Adelaide faltered. It was the first time Jay thought others could see through the cracks, and a smile danced on Jay's lips when Adelaide said quietly, "It's been chaos back home. Forty long years, the climate, the ozone, the oil apocalypse. We almost reached extinction. And to fly above that, standing on a world with no smoke - where the only straight line is the sunlight? Yes. It's worth it."

Despite having been uncertain about her since her aggressive gun waving, Jay knew then and there that the fact that this day would end in tragedy for Captain Adelaide Brooke would rip her own soul in two. She forgot about it temporarily, however, when she spotted something not too far ahead of them: a body. Jay immediately launched forward at a sprint, ignoring the Doctor's warning shout of her name, and hurled herself to her knees beside it. The Doctor, Adelaide, and Tarak were there only seconds later, and Jay didn't need the Doctor's snapped warning to know not to touch her.

Don't touch, the voice pleaded. Don't touch, run away, go.

Jay recoiled as Tarak took her place, and she hastily retreated to stand closer to the Doctor again. "Something's wrong with her," she rasped, shaking her wrists to rid them of pins and needles, her heart racing thunderously in her chest. "Doctor, we need to - something's wrong with her. Really, really wrong."

Tarak ignored them, lifting a radio to his mouth. "Yuri, I've got Margaret Cain. Head trauma. I need a full medpack."

"I've got it. Medpack on the way." Yuri's voice crackled from the radio as Tarak carefully rolled Margaret Cain over. "Maggie, can you hear me? It's Tarak. Maggie?" He leaned closer, ear near her mouth. "She's still breathing."

The Doctor eyed the corridor that would lead them to the bio-dome and then glanced at Adelaide, who was already nodding. They were apparently going to the location where this had all started. It took a few minutes, in which Jay could feel her skin crawling, her stomach churning, and the voice deafening her. She reached up instinctively to the crystal, trying to silence it by holding it in her fingers, but it did nothing. She found herself a little dizzy even, from it all.

"Why can't we have a nice trip just once?" Jay said in a strangled voice as Ed and Yuri came sprinting down the corridor towards them.

"Jay?" the Doctor checked, touching her shoulder with a frown. She didn't answer, instead taking a few steps further back from Maggie as the Doctor ordered Ed and Yuri, "Don't touch her, use gloves."

"Do what he says," Tarak ordered, moving aside so they could work. "Get her to the sickbay and put her in isolation, just in case."

At least they weren't completely oblivious to the danger, Jay thought as she forced herself to take a shaken, uncertain breath. She shoved and shoved at that voice in her head, silently screaming that she'd heard it, until it suddenly went quiet, acknowledging that she'd heard it. She panted softly for breath as if she'd run a marathon, and then shook her head once to clear it before focusing back on the situation at hand, because Adelaide was suddenly walking, Tarak and the Doctor following. The Doctor paused when she didn't right away, but she was quick to catch up. "I'm fine," she murmured when he gave her the wordless question, his face creased with concern. "It's just...loud in my head sometimes."

The Doctor only smiled tightly, displeased that the voice was clearly ranting at her, as he kept a wary look out for danger. The others were quiet. Adelaide and Tarak both shot warning looks at them, ordering silence, and the Doctor inclined his head. He'd be quiet. Jay would, too.

As they made their way to the entrance of the bio-dome, Steffi's voice crackled to life over the radio at Adelaide's hip. "Captain, that sound we heard from the biodome...I ran it through diagnostics. According to the computer, it's Andy. It registers as the voice-print of Andy Stone."

"Understood," Adelaide said after lifting the radio to her mouth. "Double-check. Thanks." Her eyes lingered on a sealed door. Tarak paused to look at it, frowning, and announced that the air pressure was stabilized before they finally stepped cautiously into the bio-dome. Jay kept a wary eye out for danger as Adelaide called, "Andrew? Andrew Stone? It's Captain Brooke. Andy, report. I need to see you!"

As Adelaide continued calling for Andrew Stone, the Doctor leaned in and said quietly to Jay, "I'm going to put the lights back on. Stay here." He gestured to a computer not too far away, but far enough that should something happen, he'd not be close enough to help out immediately. Jay hummed quietly in agreement and he went to go and do just as he said. "There you go," he declared when a few minutes later, the lights flickered to life. He twirled his sonic screwdriver as he made his way back over, and Jay grinned when Adelaide questioned what it was.

"It's a screwdriver," he told her.

"Are you the Doctor?" she replied, cocking a brow. "Or the Janitor?"

"I don't know, what do you think Jay?"

"Mm," Jay hummed, looking around them in awe as she took in the collection of plants. There were even some flowers growing, and Jay reached out to brush her fingers over a couple nearby. They were beautiful - irises, if she was remembering correctly. She decided then and there they were her new favorite. "Sounds like you. You're always trying to fix things."

Adelaide rolled her eyes to the ceiling of the dome overhead and said, "Right. Doctor, you stay with me. Don't step out of my sight. Tarak, take the girl and go to External Door South. Make sure it's intact." When the Doctor immediately grew irritated, protesting, she said, "My men are trustworthy, Doctor. Tarak won't let anything happen to your special friend."

Jay cleared her throat, fighting back a flustered red that tried to rise to her face. "Right," she murmured, and after a brief look at the Doctor, she went scurrying after Tarak. The Doctor watched after her for a moment, and then went with Adelaide as she demanded. Even so, when Jay looked over her shoulder, she caught him doing the same. She waved nervously in farewell.

Tarak was friendly enough as Jay walked beside him, weaving through complex paths in the bio-dome, albeit quiet. Neither said a word to each other. There were dozens upon dozens of plants, from small herbs to sproutling trees. Jay looked at them all in awe, even as a conversation broke out over the radio. Apparently, according to Yuri, Maggie was awake and couldn't remember anything regarding what had happened to her.

They'd just rounded a corner of corn to get to the External Door South when they both stopped dead in their tracks. "Andy!" called Tarak in relief, spotting a man he clearly recognized. He was facing away from them, and something about him...Jay's hand flashed out and caught Tarak's wrist before he could take more than a single step forward.

"Don't," she breathed, taking a step backward. Something was wrong with the man. She could tell, even from this distance. But Tarak was having none of it. He ripped away and rushed over, concerned.

"Are you alright?" he asked Andy with concern. "Andy?" He slowed a bit, frowning. Jay reluctantly trailed a little closer, but stopped again, several feet away when she saw that the path beneath Andy was soaking wet. And, she realized with some fear, it looked as if it was endlessly dripping from his fingertips in a steady stream. "Andrew," said Tarak. "Look at me."

Andy snapped around to face Tarak and Jay gawked in terror. Water was pouring endlessly from the man's mouth. The skin around his mouth was cracked and sore looking, but what unnerved her even further was the vicious dark look in the pale white eyes that stared them down. Jay recoiled with a cry when Andy suddenly darted at Tarak, even as the radio at his hip cackled to life. "Tarak," Adelaide reported. "This area's unsafe-"

Tarak gasped when Andy seized him by the head and shoved him down to his knees. Jay hovered, reluctant to stay, but not daring to leave Tarak. Even as he began convulsing, body thrashing and flinching, quaking and jerking in unnatural ways, Jay didn't dare leave him, unsure. What if he was simply in pain? But slowly, when Andy's hand fell away from Tarak's head, Jay realized that there was no helping Tarak. He collapsed, and there was a moment in which Andy simply stared down at Tarak with those blank, white eyes.

And then, those eyes turned on Jay.

Every instinct roared to life as she retreated one step, and then another as Tarak began to rise. He resembled Andy now. Water poured from his mouth and nose, and he looked soaked to the bone as it trickled in a steady stream towards the earth below.

"Right," she said uncertainly, retreating another step when Andy stumbled forward one. "Um. Look. I don't know who you are, or what you want, or what you might be, but we can help you. I have this friend, the Doctor, and he's really good at - you're not going to listen to me, are you?" Tarak had stumbled forward a step, water still pouring endlessly from his mouth. "Right. Goodbye."

Without a word, Jay turned and tore off at a sprint. She wasn't surprised when the pair gave chase, her heart thundering in her chest and Jay swore loudly when she realized they were far quicker than they looked. She rounded a corner, and then another, doing her best to follow the edges of the bio-dome. She could practically feel the water spatter her skin-

A breathless laugh escaped her when she found the door. Jay shot through it, very aware that they might follow her through, but when she looked over her shoulder, Andy and Tarak were nowhere to be found. A breathless sound of relief left her. She'd escaped them for now. Doubling over, she shook her wrists out as she struggled to catch her breath.

After a few moments, she straightened and began briskly walking. Gadget would be further down the hall, she recalled, and through Gadget, she could speak with another of the staff here. They could help her get in contact with the Doctor and Adelaide, so she could tell them what had happened. For now, however…

Jay was alone.

---

As the Doctor raced through the biodome, he tried not to think too hard about what might have happened in the quite literal five minutes he'd been apart from his ever troublesome friend. Jay was like a magnet, he thought. Worse than him, even. If there was something wrong, she'd find it, and then she'd disappear like smoke in the air.

"Tarak won't let anything happen to your friend," Adelaide was gasping as they ran, seeking the pair as quickly as they could so they could head back and figure out what was happening in the sickbay to cause so much chaos. Something was wrong with Maggie, the others had said. "He's a good man. He'll get her out."

That wasn't entirely the reason he was worried, of course. As per usual, he was hoping that Jay would make it out of the biodome without her own condition causing her any pain. She'd reassured him before they'd set out on Mars's surface that she'd be alright, regardless of how much running they had to do, but she was still hiding something from him, and he found himself constantly worrying that it had to do with whatever secrets she'd chosen to keep. The Doctor didn't mind secrets; he was the king of them, if the day was right. But when it came to Jay...it really bothered him that she'd not told him. Especially when she'd apparently told Jack.

Still, this was not the time to lose a friend. They should have left ages back, the second he'd wanted to. He could do nothing to stop what was happening, and if Jay was lost in the process, there'd be nothing he could do about it. The mere idea had him moving even faster, shouting Jay's name.

He bolted down a path - only to stop when he realized that someone else stood in the middle of it. No, not one - two people. He gasped softly for breath as Adelaide stopped beside him, breathless herself. "But that's Andy!" she breathed. "And-"

"Tarak," said the Doctor grimly. Both stood shoulder-to-shoulder, as if they'd been waiting for them to come. The Doctor had never seen anything like it before. The water that flowed endlessly from their mouths, trickling onto the floor. Their cracked lips simply hung open, showing where the water came from, and their eyes-

He needed to find Jay, he thought desperately as he stared at those cold, vicious eyes.

Time and time again, she'd expressed particular fears of certain creatures they'd come across. The thing on Midnight had scared her and feared her at the same time, as had the Vashta Nerada. Whatever this thing here was...he had no doubt in his mind that it fell along the lines of those.

Normally, the Doctor might have tried to speak with them. But he knew instinctively that there was no saving these people, no helping them with whatever had taken host inside them. He knew simply from looking at them that they were dead, and that whatever occupied their bodies would not be leaving them. So, the Doctor turned and ran. Adelaide, smart woman that she was, followed as Tarak and Andy gave chase, and the Doctor could have sworn they were hissing. "Set the seals at maximum!" he shouted as they finally sprinted through the door they'd entered through. He slammed it shut behind them, and the Doctor jolted in alarm when Andy suddenly lifted a hand and fired a jet of water at it.

The door held as Adelaide ensured it was sealed, but they both flinched when Andy's head appeared in the small porthole window. He looked between them with those cold, dead white eyes, and then began pounding on the door with his fists, uttering a roar that unnerved Adelaide enough to send her tripping back a step or two.

They stared at him, catching their breath, and then jumped when Adelaide's radio crackled to life again. "Captain, we need you back here."

Adelaide answered, the radio at her mouth. "Just tell me," she rasped, "that Maggie is contained. Can you confirm, Ed?"

"Confirmed. She's locked in."

"Keep surveillance 'til I get back. And close down all water supplies." The Doctor shot Adelaide an approving grin. Smart. "All pipes and outlets. Don't consume anything, have you got that everyone? That's an order. Don't drink the water - not one drop. Don't even touch it."

"Good thinking," praised the Doctor before focusing his attention back on Andy. He was still staring at them, furious. "Human beings are sixty percent water, which makes them the perfect host."

"What for?" demanded Adelaide, frustrated with the lack of answers as she glared at him.

"I don't know." The Doctor exhaled sharply. "I never will. Because we've got to go, me and Jay. Whatever's started here, we can't see it to the end. I can't." He had to find Jay and get her out of there, back to the TARDIS, where neither of them would be in danger. Where neither of them could affect the timeline they were now stuck in for the time being. He winced when Tarak joined Andy. Both began to jettison more water at the door, this time from their mouths, and he checked, "This thing's airtight, yeah?" Adelaide nodded, confirming that it was watertight as well, and the Doctor began backing away from the doors. "That," he told her, "depends on how clever the water is."

Sure enough, the control panel that had sealed the door began sparking. Adelaide gawked, even as she began retreating with him. "They're fusing the system," she gasped. When the door began to creak, they both turned and started running again. Within moments, he heard the door crack open with a sharp crash and then the infected pair were free, following them once more.

Even he was out of breath when they finally made it to Gadget. The robot was where they'd left it, and it twitched and chirped a cheerful "gadget-gadget" when the Doctor immediately went to work, sonic screwdriver buzzing to life in his hand. "Doctor," Adelaide protested, looking nervously over her shoulder. "We haven't got time!"

"They can run faster than us," the Doctor said grimly, knowing it to be the truth. They were far quicker than they should have been, and they didn't tire like the humans would. "We need a lift." He anxiously fiddled with the robot, ignoring Roman's protests when they came through the robot. He clambered onto Gadget when he was finished, hoping that he wasn't simply leaving Jay behind in the bio-dome. She was clever, he told himself. She had to be okay.

"That thing goes two miles an hour," protested Adelaide.

"Not anymore!" he said with a smug grin, trying to be reassuring when he felt anything but. "Trust me."

He half-expected to hear Jay's usual response: "Always." But Jay wasn't there; she was still missing, hidden somewhere in the facility they had no business being anyway near.

Much to his relief, Adelaide chose to trust him, and as soon as she was on the robot with him, clinging carefully to it, he activated the robot and they shot forward at incredibly high speeds, leaving a trail of fire behind them. The Doctor couldn't help the small laugh of disbelief that escaped him. He'd been aiming for fast, but this was fast.

"Come on, Gadget!" the Doctor cried when they had reached the end of the corridor and Adelaide had opened the next series of doors, explaining that the central dome had a different kind of seals, ensuring that there was no way the infected pair could get in. The Doctor didn't believe that for an instant. It would take time, but the water would certainly get in. He held the door open for the robot. "Come on!"

Adelaide gaped at him as he ushered the robot in, slamming the door shut behind it. He sealed it just in time. Andy and Tarak crashed into the door right behind them, making him jump with wide eyes. He had no idea what these creatures were, but the Doctor was definitely not liking them. They were clearly not there for good reasons, and they very clearly intended to cause harm.

His mood was immediately lifted when a voice he knew as well as his own choked out breathlessly, "I thought you hated the robot."

"Jay," he cried in relief, whipping around to find her slumped against the wall with wide, frantic eyes as she struggled to catch her breath. She smiled faintly as she clambered to her feet, and he fully anticipated the hug that she usually gave him following such events. He was disappointed, admittedly, when she didn't hug him. Rather, she tucked her hands behind her back, flinched when Andy unleashed another fountain of water, and asked the Doctor, "What are they doing? Can they get in?"

"We're safe," Adelaide reassured, though she didn't sound nearly as certain as she wanted them to think she was. "It's hermetically sealed. They can't get in."

"Water is patient, Adelaide," the Doctor told her. "Water just waits. It wears down the clifftops, the mountains, the whole of the world. Water always wins." He turned his attention back onto Jay, who blinked when he checked, "Alright?"

She flashed him another grin and pointedly shook her wrists. Her blue eyes shone with warmth. "Just fine," she answered. "Tingling through my fingers, but nothing more. And it's barely grown since we've started running. Again." Despite her sarcastic tone, she was still grinning. She clearly wasn't necessarily enjoying the danger, but the Doctor knew she'd accepted that there was nothing either of them could do to avoid it, and they were always going to apparently find it regardless of where they went.

"Come on," the Doctor said after a brief sigh, ushering her forward. As they jogged away from the door, abandoning Tarak and Andy to try and use the water to get through, he glanced over his shoulder warily. They were watching after them through the little window in the door. He couldn't help but feel that they were smiling, with those cracked, water-spilling lips.

---

"Blimey, it's a distance," commented the Doctor as they briskly walked, trying to stay ahead of trouble. Jay nearly snorted at the idea. It would never happen. The Doctor and trouble were like two peas in a pod, and where there was one, she'd always find the other. Which, she supposed as they finally made it to the sickbay, meant she could always find the Doctor at least.

The sickbay was small in comparison to other healing spaces Jay had seen. She immediately compared it to the hospitals Martha and the Doctor had told her about. It was sterile and white like true hospitals, but there was a wide glass window that separated their half of the room from Maggie's, and Jay was more than pleased about that. Maggie was pressed against the glass, her cracked lips spilling water that slicked the floor beneath her feet. Jay found herself slipping her hand into the Doctor's, truly unnerved by the way she watched them.

"Has that door got a Hardinger seal?" barked Adelaide as soon as they entered, discovering Ed and Yuri in the room. Ed looked wary; Yuri was looking as if he was scared out of his wits. Jay thought he was rather smart to be as scared as she was.

"No," Ed said warily. "Just basic."

"Then the moment she heads for the door, we evacuate. What's going on with her?" she replied.

"Pulse is low," reported Ed. "Electrical activity in the brain seems to be going haywire." When Adelaide curtly demanded to know if she could talk, Ed gave a big shrug and glanced at Yuri.

Yuri shrugged, too, looking nervously at Maggie. "I don't know," he admitted. "She was talking before we noticed the change, but not since."

Adelaide nodded, noting this, and stepped closer to the glass. Jay tightened her hand on the Doctor's, and he murmured a soothing comment in her ear that she didn't hear. Not as Maggie's eyes locked onto Adelaide, not seeming to hear as Adelaide prompted her to answer her, reminding Maggie of who she was and requesting to hear what had happened while she was in the bio-dome. But Maggie only looked at the Doctor and Jay, and Jay clenched her jaw as the Doctor uttered a phrase in a language she barely understood, as if the TARDIS wasn't keen on translating it. "What-"

"Ancient North Martian," he told Jay, dropping her hand in favor of studying Maggie, and the others in the room all looked at him in disbelief - until Maggie's gaze snapped to the Doctor. She focused intently on him for just a moment, but a moment was enough. It was as if she'd recognized what he was saying. "Her eyes are different. They're clear, like she's closer to human," the Doctor murmured.

Jay shivered when Maggie's eyes drifted over her. She stepped closer to the Doctor. "Normally, I'd say it's not a bad thing to be an alien, but in this case…"

"Where do you get your water from?" the Doctor asked Adelaide, who lifted her chin. She'd been watching them closely, wary of what they were saying - as if noting that they appeared to do this regularly.

She answered simply, "The ice field. That's why we chose the crater. We're on top of an underground glacier."

When the Doctor made a face, clearly not excited to hear that they were atop a crater filled with water, Yuri said hastily, "But every single drop is filtered. It's screened - safe."

It was Ed who said hesitantly, "If something was frozen down there...some kind of viral life form, held in the ice for all those years…"

Jay perked up at the thought and tugged hastily on the Doctor's arm. Hesitantly, as he leaned in so she could speak quietly, she realized that her thought process might not be a good one. The repercussions weren't good if what she was thinking might be true. "Doctor," she whispered, a chill running down her spine. "Do you think it's like me?" How long had they talked about the poison that seeped into her body acting like some kind of disease? How long had they spent thinking of it like an illness? If it was actually a virus of some sort…

The Doctor shook his head immediately, but Jay couldn't tell if it was out of denial or because he knew for a fact that they weren't similar. Rather than addressing what she'd said, he diverted the conversation. "Look at her mouth. All blackened like there's some sort of fission. This thing, whatever it is, doesn't just hide in water, it creates it. Tell me what you want," he added, attention back on Maggie.

"She was looking at the screen," Yuri said hesitantly, indicating the screen he'd been using earlier, before they'd all gotten there. "At Earth. She wanted Earth - a world full of water."

Everyone grew quiet and serious at the very thought of it, and Jay stared in horror at the creature before them. Its gaze continued to shift from person to person until it at last landed on her. This time when it looked her in the eye, it lingered, and Jay couldn't tear her eyes away from it. Ed and Adelaide were having a serious conversation about something, but she couldn't have repeated what it was. She was too busy staring down Maggie.

As she watched, Maggie seemed to rock from one side to the other, head tipping just a fraction. The water seemed to slow to a soft drip for just a singular moment before Maggie pressed a hand against the glass and created a powerful jet of it, attempting to flood the room or break the glass. Jay couldn't tell which. What she did know, however, was that something in her gut shifted, and she could have sworn there was a buzz in her ears that drowned everything else out as she narrowed her eyes.

The pins and needles seemed to shoot through her for a moment before settling back into her fingers as Jay took a single step forward, her expression blank. She'd never be able to say what it was that Maggie saw, but it worked.

Maggie stepped back.

The Doctor, who'd been inquiring about something Adelaide and Ed were discussing - an evacuation plan, maybe? - stopped listening to watch Maggie, and then turned his attention on Jay. She felt his gaze burning curiously into her, but she only continued to stare at Maggie, daring her to try anything, and she hated the fact that unnerving triumph swept through her when Maggie took another step back, hissing.

Her stomach churned and finally, she looked at the Doctor. A bubble of fear crept into her as they stared at one another, and a question lingered on her tongue, one she didn't like at all.

What's wrong with me?

"Ed!" Adelaide's loud commanding voice broke through, and Jay snapped her gaze towards her. She shook off her fear. Whatever was wrong with her, at least it would frighten off the infected. Hopefully. Jay had no doubt that given the chance, they'd try and occupy her own body. The mere idea made her grimace. That was the last thing they needed. "Line up the shuttle and go straight to ignition status."

"Doing it now," Ed called over his shoulder as he darted out of the sickbay to do just that.

"But what about Maggie?" asked Yuri, already grabbing bags and shoving whatever supplies he could find from various storage spaces into them. Adelaide worked alongside him, and the Doctor was quick to move out of the way so he wouldn't block their paths.

"She stays behind. We've got no way to contain her on board. Close this place down. I want the power directed to the shuttle," ordered Adelaide fiercely, rushing.

When she saw the saddened look on his face, Jay knew that the Doctor was fully aware of something the others hadn't thought of, and she nudged him. He looked at them all with such grief that it only made her feel worse about everything that was happening. "Of course, the only problem is...this thing is clever," the Doctor said softly enough that even Adelaide stopped working to look at him. "It didn't infect the birds or the insects in the biodome, Adelaide."

"It chose humans," realized Jay with horror.

"It chose humans," the Doctor echoed, confirming it. "And I told you, water can wait. When Maggie was infected, it stayed hidden inside her, no doubt, so it could infiltrate the central dome. Which means-"

Adelaide's face went white. "Any one of us could already be infected. We've all been drinking the same water."

"And if it gets back to Earth...one drop, just one single drop…"

"Oh, stars above." Jay let out a loud breath. "It could infect the world. The whole entire world."

Adelaide had faltered, but her expression became fierce. "But we're only presuming infection. If we can find how this thing got through, when it got through...Yuri, continue with Action One. I'm going to inspect the ice-field." She abandoned the bag she'd been packing and bolted for the door.

Jay shifted back and forth, her fingers twitching impatiently. The Doctor hadn't moved, only watched sadly after her. Jay searched his expression, knowing what would happen even as he tried to deny himself what he clearly wanted to do. "We should leave," he told her. Yet, his dark eyes, which so often shone with excitement and warmth, were full of grief and uncertainty. "We really should leave. No point in seeing the ice-field. No point at all."

A smile, small and full of amusement, appeared on Jay's face. "Are you sure about that?" she teased, already starting to walk backwards, following Adelaide.

"Where are you going?" he demanded, trying to look annoyed as he glared at her, but failing miserably. He couldn't seem to help the smile that was beginning to form on his own face. Jay's grin widened when he slowly began trailing after her, not willing to let Jay out of his sight, especially after what had just happened.

Jay merely whistled a small tune and whipped around. "Oh, stop fooling yourself, Doctor, we're going to do our best to give them their best shot, right?" With a wink, she took off after Adelaide, ignoring his annoyed shout of her name. He chased after her, of course, catching up easily, and when he did, he grinned at her.

Jay merely laughed.

---

The Doctor peered down at the ice-field beneath them with fascination. He'd walked the surface of Mars many times, but he'd never thought about microscopic life that might live within the ice. He wished he'd thought of it sooner; maybe this wouldn't have had to happen. Curiously, he asked Jay, who hung far back from the drop, "Did the colonists in your time ever have trouble with this?"

"No," said Jay. "But that's because there were no colonists. People were talking about it before my father sold me off, but there was always opposition, and the government refused to fund any projects. They kept referencing some old project from centuries before that went wrong. I guess this must be what they were talking about, and I can't tell you how happy I am that for once, they're not pushing it."

They would though. Eventually, they would. Humans always did. The Doctor switched topics, even as he meandered over to a computer monitoring the ice-fields. "They tell legends of Mars, from long ago. They speak of a fine and noble race who built an empire out of snow. The Ice Warriors. Perhaps they found something down there and used their might and wisdom to freeze it."

"Well, if they could re-freeze it, that'd be great," muttered Jay, rejoining him once he was away from the drop. Adelaide was already working on another system, anxiously tapping away. She peered over his shoulder as it denied the Doctor access and he scowled at it.

"You don't look like a coward," Adelaide said suddenly, and the Doctor cast her a quick glance. She was still looking at the screen, hard at work. "But all you've wanted to do is leave. You know so much about us, Doctor. Like you know more."

The Doctor exhaled sharply. The date flashed before his eyes as he withdrew his sonic screwdriver, intently trying to work on the computer. "This moment," he said with care, "this precise moment in time, it's...well, it's only a theory, what do I know?" It wasn't a theory; he'd seen the proof of it time and time again. "But I think certain moments in time are fixed. Tiny, precious moments. Everything else is in flux, anything can happen. But those certain moments have to stand. This base, on Mars, with you, Adelaide Brooke...this is one vital moment. What happens here must always happen."

He'd seen it before. Bad Wolf. The Master. Even the Dalek invasion not too long ago. All things that he was confident had to happen. Even finding Jay in that odd bubble of a world, imprisoned by a creature even he had shivered at. They all had to happen.

"Which is what?" challenged Adelaide, pausing.

"I don't know," he lied, and he must have been convincing, because she didn't try to argue it. Jay was quiet beside him, her face carefully blank. His hearts ached at the thought that she trusted him so much, that she'd keep quiet about what she knew would be these people's devastation because he'd stated it was a fixed moment in time. "I think something wonderful happens though. Something that started fifty years ago."

Adelaide snapped her head around. "I've never told anyone that."

"You told your daughter," he said lightly, knowing it to be the truth. "And maybe, one day, she tells the story to her daughter, of the day the Earth was stolen and moved across the universe."

Jay gasped softly, drawing a brief, sincere grin to his face. Had she not thought the even would linger in the minds of at least a few people? Most would have dismissed it. They were human, after all, and it was traumatizing enough that they'd likely written it off. But for some, like Adelaide...it would have lingered, that memory.

And he was proven correct when Adelaide said softly, "I saw the Daleks. We looked up and the sky had changed. Everyone was running and screaming. My father took hold of me...he told me to hide in the attic. He promised to come back, saying that he had to find my mother, but I never saw him again. Nor my mother. They were never found." The Doctor knew what had happened to them. He recalled watching that group of people be turned to dust in front of his very eyes. He flinched, pressing his mouth into a hard line.

"But out on the streets," continued Adelaide, "there was panic and burning. I went to the window, and there in the sky...I saw it, Doctor, and it saw me. It stared at me - looked right into me and then...it simply went away. I knew that night that I would follow it."

"But not for revenge," he finished quietly.

"What would be the point of that?" she said with a shrug, frowning at the computer.

The Doctor smiled warmly at her, quite fond of Captain Adelaide Brooke's outlook on the universe, and Jay seemed to agree, because she told Adelaide, "That's how you create history."

"What do you mean?" she questioned, confused as she looked at Jay, and the Doctor threw his friend a warm glance, wishing he had the time to praise her way of thinking. He truly loved that Jayden O'Connors seemed to see the universe as he did: filled with people of endless potential, whether they be human or something else. She wasn't perfect in believing in everyone; how could she be, she was human. But she tried her best, and that was all he'd ever ask of his companions.

"Imagine it, Adelaide," he said softly, pausing in his work to look at her. Adelaide searched his gaze with wide eyes. "If you began a journey that takes the human race all the way out to the stars. It begins with you, and then your granddaughter. You inspire her so that in thirty years, Susi Fontana Brooke is the pilot of the first light-speed ship to Proxima Centauri. And then everywhere. With her children, and her children's children, forging the way to the Dragon Star, the Celestial Belt of the Winter Queen, the Map of the Water Snake Wormholes. One day, a Brooke will fall in love with a Tandonian prince, and that's the start of a whole new species. But everything starts with you, Adelaide. From fifty years ago, to right here today. Just imagine it."

Adelaide exhaled softly, her face hardening with suspicion even as wonder gleamed openly in her own eyes. "Who are you?" she whispered. "Why are you telling me this?"

And then, the Doctor remembered. On this day, in 2059- "As consolation," he said rather darkly and then cleared his throat as the computer he'd been working on beeped. "Here we go," he declared, stepping back so everyone could see. He stilled when Jay lightly gripped his shoulder, leaning into him so she could see around Adelaide, but didn't move away.

"That's Andy," Adelaide reported, frowning at the screen as a video burst into view. "He logged on just yesterday."

"Maintenance log, twenty-one-point-twenty. November, twenty-fifty-nine," reported Andy on the screen, annoyed. He was clearly frustrated with something, and the Doctor wasn't surprised whatsoever when Andy said, "Number three water filter's bust. And guess what? The spares they sent don't fit. What a surprise. Over and out."

When the screen shut off, the Doctor ran his hands down his face. "A filter. One tiny little filter."

Adelaide, however, smiled for the first time that the Doctor could recall and didn't hesitate to grab her radio. "But that means the infection arrived today, and the water's only cycled out of the bio-dome after a week. The rest of us can't possibly be infected. We can leave!" She lifted the radio to her mouth and spoke into it excitedly. "Ed, we're clean! How are we doing?"

"Shuttle's active, stage one! I haven't got time to convey the protein packs. If you want food, you're gonna have to carry it by hand. Start loading, right now!"

Adelaide was positively beaming now, and the Doctor studied her face with a twisted feeling in his gut. Guilt rose higher and higher as they took off running once again, heading for the central dome. Adelaide was ecstatic that they were safe from infection. Jay looked relieved, as if grateful that no one else had been exposed. The Doctor couldn't bring himself to feel that same relief.

He knew what would happen. Regardless of what Adelaide thought, this day must end in sorrow, and the Doctor knew it.

---

Jay could tell the Doctor was hiding something as he did swift checks of her spacesuit, ensuring every bit was secure and ready to enter the atmosphere of Mars. Jay found herself hoping that the virus was simply spread through water and not through the air, because that would bode badly for all of them. Still, she watched his face closely as he finished with a gentle tug on her collar, ensuring that, too, was adjusted correctly.

"Doctor," she said softly, stopping him with a hand on his wrist, trapping it there. He met her gaze. There was a helpless look she wasn't used to seeing on his face. Helplessness, guilt, and so much more, and Jay wanted nothing more than to erase it for him. "There has to be something we can do."

"We can't," he said quietly, shaking his head. "This must happen."

He seemed to be convincing himself though, and despite her better judgement and knowing what would happen if this period of time was altered, Jay's voice cracked as she asked, "Nothing?" She looked over her shoulder at the scrambling humans, her heart ripping into shreds as she heard their orders and rushed words. The commotion paused as everyone realized something was wrong, and Ed's voice rang out over the radio.

"It's the module sensors. Exterior as well. The cameras are down, but there's pressure on top of the module. Two signals, right above us."

Jay's breath hitched. Tarak and Andy had found their way to the central dome.

Commotion broke out again, but it was Mia - youthful Mia - whose voice shattered her. "Are we safe?" she pleaded to anyone who would listen. "They can't get through, can they? Can they?" The ceiling was creaking overhead, however, signaling otherwise, and Jay couldn't stop the tears from filling her eyes.

How could they do nothing while these people died around them?

But the Doctor steeled himself. Without another word, he pressed a kiss to the top of her head, lingering there as if it comforted him as much as it did Jay, and then he grabbed her helmet and put it on, sealing it into place as he nudged her onwards. Jay watched as he put his own on, the tears rolling endlessly down her cheeks as silence fell. The door shutting behind them had sealed away all the noise.

It didn't take them long to reach the door that would let them outside the facility, and the Doctor took a breath before starting the process that would decompress the air and free them from the danger that had been ravaging the colony.

He faltered, however, when the computer announced, "Access denied."

"Doctor?" whispered Jay, a little nervous, and he narrowed his eyes as he tried again. Once more, the computer denied them access, refusing to let them leave.

"Tell me what happens." Adelaide's voice echoed in their ears, and Jay glanced around, realizing that she was likely behind it. She must have been watching them on some screen, wanting to know what happened. Jay's breath caught in her throat as when the Doctor tried to lie and say otherwise, Adelaide snapped, "Tell me! I could ramp up the pressure in that airlock and crush you both."

"Except you won't," the Doctor retorted hotly. He took a deep breath to steady himself and then continued, a little kinder, "You could have shot them. Andy and Tarak. But you didn't." And for the Doctor...Jay knew that he cared deeply for the fate of someone who'd avoid death at all costs. "Imagine…" He faltered then, resting his head against the door with a frustrated look. "Imagine you found yourself somewhere. I don't know, Pompeii." Jay flinched at the reminder, but the Doctor didn't seem to notice. "Imagine you were in Pompeii. You tried to save them, but in doing so, you make it happen. Anything I do just makes it happen."

Jay pressed her mouth into a hard line and touched his arm, gaze serious. "Not just you, remember?" she said with forced lightness. "Pompeii was on me."

He wasn't too pleased with the comment, but Jay knew he appreciated it, because he smiled just briefly before suddenly straightening, saying bluntly, "You're taking Action One. There are four more standard action procedures, Adelaide. And Action Five is…?"

"Detonation."

Jay stiffened, knowing exactly what would happen, and the Doctor only confirmed it. "The final option. The nuclear device at the heart of the central dome. Today, on the twenty-first of November, twenty-fifty-nine, Captain Brook activates that device, taking the base and all her crew members with her. Nobody ever knows why - but you were saving Earth. That's what inspires your granddaughter, Adelaide. She takes your people out into the galaxy, because you die, on Mars. You die, today, and she flies out there like she's trying to meet you."

Once again, Jay realized, they were in a lose-lose situation. Just like when the Daleks had come and stolen the Earth, and just like when they'd been in Pompeii. Adelaide snarled into the radio, "Help us. Why won't you help, Doctor, if you know all of this? Why can't you change it?"

The Doctor's devastated expression struck Jay. "Can...can we really not doing anything?" she whispered, voice cracking.

"I can't." His voice was hoarse. The Doctor looked devastated as he stared at her, and Jay wanted to weep at the despair that resided there. It wasn't often the Doctor let her see such pain, and he must have hurt badly now to do so. "I can't. Sometimes, we can, Jay, and sometimes, we do. Most times, we can save someone - anyone." She recalled the family they'd saved in Pompeii, remembered how even though countless others had died, that one family had left room for healing, reminding her that while most had perished, not all had. "But not you, Adelaide. You wondered all our life why that Dalek spared you," he continued, looking up at the camera above their heads, which Adelaide was watching them through. "Your death is fixed in time, and that's right."

Shaken, she threatened, "You'll die here, too. You and your friend."

The Doctor stiffened, expression darkening at the threat, but Jay said just loud enough to be heard, "No. No we won't. Because you're Adelaide Brooke, and you didn't shoot two people infected with something we know nothing about."

Silence, and then-

"Damn you."

Jay blinked when the door opened and she found herself staring at the surface of Mars. It seemed like ages ago they'd been here, first leaving the TARDIS, and the Doctor took a final moment to ready himself before stepping out the door. Jay faltered even then, looking over her shoulder until he roughly called her name. Only then did Jay walk after him, heart breaking when she realized the connection had connected to their helmets, allowing them to hear everything that was beginning to go wrong.

Mia was screaming about the water that had come rushing in. Yuri was frantically telling them all he was dry and safe. Steffi found herself trapped moments later, and she was openly sobbing and weeping about being trapped. The tears came back in full force when Jay heard her suddenly start screaming again, declaring that the water had gotten into the room she was trying to hide in. Before long, Steffi was rejecting their declaration of helping her, and Jay gave a strangled, choked sound when two sweet young voices started rambling in German: Steffi's daughters. A recording. Steffi had played the recording in the last few seconds of her life. Those girls would never see their mother again.

"Doctor," she rasped, grabbing his wrist, and he stumbled to a halt. "Doctor, we can't just leave them-"

For Mia was screaming Roman's name now, suggesting that he'd been overtaken by water like Steffi had. She screamed and cried and Jay sobbed along with her, because she was only twenty-seven years old.

Jay closed her eyes when Ed suddenly rasped over the radio, "Captain, the shuttle is down."

"What the hell do you mean?!"

"Compromised. It was Maggie. It's too late. They want this ship to get to Earth. Got no choice." Ed groaned, clearly struggling with the effects of whatever the creatures were. "See you later," he said a few moments later and Jay's knees buckled when the ground suddenly ripped from beneath her feet, an explosion tearing through the world around them.

Jay snapped her head around and stared in horror as Yuri cried, "We're losing oxygen. The hull is broken."

"Doctor," she pleaded, still staring at the chaos. Debris was cast far and wide and Jay hissed when she was nearly struck by some. The Doctor narrowly avoided some himself, and when Jay turned to look at him again, she was taken aback.

Gone was the look of acceptance and defeat and grief. In its place was such a vicious determination and rage that she nearly recoiled from it. This had nothing to do with the loss of Bowie Base One. Rather, Jay couldn't help but feel that this had everything to do with something else, something she wasn't able to figure out at the moment, with flaming debris still raining down on them.

Regardless, Jay found herself to be rather ashamed of her own emotions, because for the first time since Jay had met the Doctor, she thought she might have been scared of what he might do.

---

The room was in chaos. The second they burst into the room, Jay could see that Yuri, Mia, and Adelaide were desperately holding onto anything they could get their hands on to avoid being sucked out into the Martian landscape. Alarms blared and beeped overhead, and the Doctor was immediately on top of the situation, bellowing orders. "Mia, take this sealant, fix that rig!" he shouted, throwing something to her. Mia made a beeline for the hole causing problems and went to work as Yuri, under the Doctor's orders, began opening up emergency oxygen. "Don't just sit there, Adelaide," he added as the captain stared at him in shocked.

Jay, arms thrown out for balance, smiled in relief when the dome settled. Sirens stopped. The oxygen evened out. She didn't dare remove her helmet, unsure of when she might need it next. She kept out of the way as the Doctor scrambled along, declaring, "The dome's still got integrity! It's ten feet of steel-combination made in Liverpool. Magnificent workmanship!"

"It can't be stopped," whispered Adelaide even as Jay clambered over some debris to help her to her feet. She kept a tight grip on Jay's arm and said, "Don't die with us."

As if she'd given up hope, Jay realized, and she supposed she might have - with good reason, after hearing what the Doctor had said.

But the Doctor shouted, "No. Because someone told me just recently that I was going to die. They said he'd knock four times, and I know what that means: it means I'm not going to die right here, right now! 'Cause I don't hear anyone knocking, do you?!" He whirled around and gave Jay a wild grin that unnerved her. That violent, determined look lingered on his face, and she couldn't bring herself to smile back. She wanted to help these people, but she knew then and there that this wasn't about helping them.

The Doctor was trying to prove fate wrong. He was trying to show them all that he didn't fall to the little whims of fate. He controlled it. It didn't control him.

And his song would end when he said it would.

Jay's heart ached. This was not the Doctor she loved. This was not the alien she'd been running with for who knew how long at this point. This was someone else - the Oncoming Storm, she supposed, as she'd heard him be called before.

The worst bit was, she realized she was disappointed in him. Immensely disappointed.

A loud bang on the door made them jump. The Doctor whipped his head around as two more followed. "Three knocks is all you're getting," he snapped, lurching forward. Within seconds, there was a scream as electricity cackled to life. "Water and electricity, bad mix. Now then, Adelaide, what else do we have?"

"There's no way to fight them," she protested.

The Doctor ignored her protests and Mia and Yuri hovered uncertainly nearby, not sure of what was happening as the Doctor flew to the nearest computer, crying, "Heat! They use water, so we can use heat! Works against the Ice Warriors, works against the Flood. We'll ramp up the environment controls and steam them!"

"But Doctor," Adelaide interrupted, cutting him off. He glanced at her, that wild look still residing on his face. "You said we die! For the future - for the human race." That drew scared looks from Yuri and Mia, and Jay lunged as the base trembled around them, slamming hard into Yuri to knock him out of the way from something that came crashing down.

"Environment controls are down!" declared Mia after a quick check.

"Yes," the Doctor told Adelaide as he shook his head, having fallen. His helmet was shattered, and Jay found that worried her. Sure, she'd been learning to drive the TARDIS, but what if something happened and she had to fetch it by herself? She wasn't sure she'd be able to make it back in time to prevent anything from happening. "There are laws - time laws. Once upon a time, there were people in charge of those laws, but they died. They all died. Do you know who that leaves? Me! It's taken me all these years," the Doctor continued, and Jay's face paled as she realized what he was trying to say, "to realize that the laws of time are mine, and they will obey me!" The Doctor hurled his helmet at the floor abandoning it. "Right! Spacesuits in the next section."

"Doctor, wait! Not that way!" Jay shouted when he flew towards a door, her heart racing in her chest. Even from where she stood she could hear water crashing down, on the other side of the door, and the Doctor retreated immediately, trusting her without a second thought.

At least, she thought faintly, there was some rationality left in that empty brain of his.

Deciding to take charge, because someone was too busy thinking about how he could apparently take control over the cosmos, Jay shoved Yuri towards the other door. "Go!" she shrieked as the water roared on the other side of the first one. Yuri took off at a sprint, grabbing Mia as he went. Jay followed with the Doctor and Adelaide hot on her heels, no one daring to linger in the other room for much longer.

The Doctor rambled to himself as he sought something that could be used to keep them safe, and Jay paused for just a moment to watch him, nervous. She ripped her helmet off with some difficulty, gasping for air and pleased to be free of the confining thing. "Doctor," she said urgently, "what are you doing?"

"What's in this section?" he declared after simply rambling in gibberish. She wanted to slap him. Now was not the time.

"I don't know," Yuri fired back. "Atom clamps, weather spikes, robots-"

"Robot!" cried the Doctor after debating. "I love a funny robot." He threw himself into his next idea, laughing, and Jay shuddered when a roar flooded their ears. The voice in Jay's head pleaded with her to run, run, run, but she made herself stay put, even as she trembled in fear. She wasn't sure what the Doctor was doing, but she trusted him, even now.

Within minutes, the Doctor was slipping into the gloves that controlled Gadget. Jay stepped over to help him ensure they were on properly, adjusting a piece with gentle fingers as she said uncertainly, "Do you know what you're doing with this?"

"'Course I do," he reassured confidently. "Trust me?"

It was the first time Jay had ever faltered in her answer. Even when she'd first met the Doctor, she'd trusted him without hesitation, no matter what he did or said. Still, she hesitated. Just barely, but she did hesitate, and the Doctor noticed. She thought she saw hurt flicker to life before she yanked sharply on the piece she was fixing, putting it into its proper place.

"Yes," she said fiercely, voice leaving no room for argument. Her eyes flashed as she met his gaze. "Always."

Maybe his mind was focused on something else, but his heart was in the right place. Jay was sure of it.

"Captain?" Mia said softly, uncertain about whatever Adelaide was doing, and when Jay looked over, she found the captain typing on a computer, mouth set in a grim line. "Oh, my God," she whispered after reading over Adelaide's shoulder. "That's Action Five."

The Doctor whipped his head around to glare at Adelaide. "If I have to fight you, too, I will."

Adelaide looked him in the eye and slammed her finger over a key. "Nuclear device now active and primed," declared a computer as a red light began flashing overhead. It echoed it a few times, and the Doctor gave a rare curse.

"Jay, sonic screwdriver," he barked, too busy controlling the robot to get it himself. "Use it on the controls. Left pocket."

Jay fished in the pocket of his spacesuit at his demand and found the sonic screwdriver. She was quick to hit the button, and as it buzzed to life, the Doctor seemed thrown a little off balance. He laughed, as if what he'd been aiming for had been successful. Jay hoped he was just about finished, because as a roar filled the air once again, the entire base began to roil and tremble beneath them, knocking them all off skew. Yuri raced over to grab a fire extinguisher, going to work on putting out a few fires that were sparked by broken electricals.

Adelaide simply sat there as Mia joined him, her head in her hands as the computer began counting backwards from thirty.

And when the count hit zero, the base erupted.

---

Jay looked exhausted. She sat in the captain's seat, kind of slouched there as the TARDIS began to rematerialize. The Doctor, giddy off of his excitement over his victory against the laws of time, slammed the final lever down, and the TARDIS settled. The old girl's sound was off, he mused. Muted, as if she was upset. He suspected it had to do with Jay, who he fully intended to check on as soon as Yuri, Mia, and Adelaide were safely home. He'd not forgotten that brief moment of uncertainty she'd shown him, the first he'd ever seen. Jay had trusted him since he'd brought her aboard; he couldn't understand what might have changed in less than an hour to convince her otherwise.

Mia was the first to burst out of the TARDIS. She was outside before Jay had even risen to her feet, and the Doctor was quick to bustle after her with Yuri and Adelaide right behind him. Mia looked as if she'd be ill, her entire body shaking. Shock, the Doctor thought, trying to brush it off, but the look she gave him when she whipped around, backing away from him…

No, not shock.

Fear.

"What is that thing?" she choked out. "It's - it's bigger on the inside!" Normally, he loved when he heard those words. This time, he realized he didn't care much for them. "Who the hell are you?!" With a sob, Mia turned and fled, and Adelaide flashed a look at Yuri, who took off after her, intending to keep her safe.

Hiding his uncertainty regarding Mia's response to the TARDIS, the Doctor rocked back on his heels. He'd shed the spacesuit the second they'd entered the TARDIS, eager to be rid of it. He smiled brightly at Adelaide, who stared at her house with a stunned look on her tired face. "This is the twenty-first of November," he told her. "Twenty-fifty-nine. Same day on Earth - and it's snowing," he added with a grin at the sky. "I love snow."

"You saved us," said Adelaide quietly.

"Your daughter and your daughter's daughter - you can see them again," he told her, pleased with the matter. Steffi's girls rambling in German echoed in his ears. He'd never forget those voices, how they'd gone on and on about missing their mother. They'd grow up without her now. "You can see them again. Family reunion."

"But I'm supposed to be dead. And Susie...my granddaughter, the person she's supposed to become might never exist now." Adelaide glanced at him, and her face twisted into one of outrage when the Doctor dismissed her comments, simply stating that she could influence her granddaughter face-to-face. "You can't know that," spat Adelaide. "And if my family changes, the whole of history could change. The future of the human race!" She shook her head, taking a step away from him, as if she couldn't stand being near him anymore. "You should have left us there, Doctor. No one should have that much power."

"Tough," he retorted, frustrated. He'd saved them. People he shouldn't have been able to save. People like Donna, Astrid, those in Pompeii. Like those whose suffering he'd watched from aboard the Crucible and the Valiant. He was a Time Lord. For so long, he'd thought that meant simply surviving as the last of his kind, but now? Now he was a winner, someone who could defeat fate.

Adelaide only shook her head. "This is wrong, Doctor. I don't care who you are. This is wrong."

"That's for me to decide," he said with a little coldness. He shifted his attention, trying to move away from the bubbling fear that had begun to form. Had he been wrong to do what he'd done? He'd saved people, but-

Had it been worth that moment of fear he'd seen on Jay's face when she'd debated whether or not she could trust him?

"All yours," was all he said, unlocking her front door with his sonic screwdriver. Adelaide looked at him a moment longer and then turned and walked away. He spun around on his heel the moment her door closed behind her. "Jay," he began to call, intending to fix whatever wrong he'd done to her - only to rip around with a violent flinch when the crack of a gunshot filled the air.

In a flash, Jay had forgotten her exhaustion. She practically tripped over her own feet as she bolted around the console, frantic. She slammed into him, demanding to know if he was alright, but he was staring at the house Adelaide had just gone into. Even as he simply stood there, he could feel the changes that time had wrought on him for what he'd done, and his knees buckled as if he himself had taken the gunshot. "Doctor?" Jay gasped, frantic as he slid down to sit on the ground, not caring about the snow that stuck to his skin.

He barely heard her speak, barely heard her plead with him to answer her, to simply tell her if he was hurt.

Mostly because he was staring at the figure across the way, one that hadn't been there before. It was a hallucination, logic said. A mirage in the snow. But he could have sworn he was looking at an ood. And not just any ood, but the one who'd delivered the message that scared him more than anything. Ood-Sigma simply stared back at him before vanishing, and the Doctor snapped back into reality.

Jay was nearing hysterics, he realized after a moment, her face streaked with tears as she cried, "Doctor!"

"It - it wasn't me," he said after a moment. The Doctor cleared his throat and with Jay's help, climbed to his feet. Her fingers remained tangled in his sleeve, shaking violently, and he shook her off only to take her hand in his, gripping it tightly. She clutched it like a lifeline, still shaking. "It was - I went too far. I went too far."

The Time Lord Victorious, he'd wanted to call himself, a master of fate.

But being a Time Lord Victorious had dire consequences - consequences that affected more than just him. As Jay simply sobbed in relief, having had the life scared right out of her, she threw her arms around his neck and buried her face in his shoulder. He pressed his face into her hair, murmuring soothingly - and even uttering a quiet apology for what he'd done, though he knew there would never be any forgiveness. It was too late for that. He'd gone too far, going so far as to potentially hurt Jay in the process.

After a few moments, however, when she pulled back to look at him anxiously with widened, puffy blue eyes, he made a decision.

Just because he couldn't control fate didn't meant he couldn't keep running from it. And he'd run as long as he needed to, if only to ensure that he helped Jay escape the curse that had been placed upon her.

---

ANOTHER ONE. I'm on a roll, and with that, we head into the tenth Doctor's final moments. OOF I'm so excited to share what happens. I've been planning it for years.

On that note, it is once again two in the morning and not only am I exceptionally pleased with this chapter, but I realized I forgot to mention something regarding the last one: it was meant to reference the Dancing Plague, which apparently did exist! I listened to a podcast recently and was fascinated, which is why it was in my original piece.

Anyhow, hope you enjoyed this wild chapter as much as I did writing it, and thanks to the ever wonderful savethemadscientist for their review as well as those who favorited and followed! I really do appreciate you more than you know. :)