The Power of Family

by orchids117

Jenny and Mara never thought they would see their dad again after he left them on that beach 364 years and eleven days ago. But the unthinkable has happened. The Time Lords have found them, and there's nowhere to run. Their mum is long gone, and any family they have on Earth is hidden. Maybe its not so strange that the Vortex Manipulator would land them in the TARDIS after all.

13. Chapter 12

Chapter 12:

POV: Jenny

Date: November 25, 2023

Dad blinked. "You've got weapons in your wheelchair?"

Shirley nodded. "We all have. Come on!" She began to move off the platform. "Right, you lot—the Nobles—you can get out through that door." She pointed towards a door on the other end of the warehouse. "And you three need to get to engine control, but the port side's guarded. There's no way around it."

"Mara, go with the Nobles and make sure they get out safe. Jenny, with me," Dad said.

I nodded, and watched Mara go. "Be careful," I thought at her. "I'd rather not see you needing to regenerate again."

I felt her inner chuckle. "Worried I'll lose this pretty face? Or wake up as your brother?" She couldn't, really, given her Quo genes, but she liked to tease me with the idea.

I rolled my eyes and turned my attention back to Shirley. "So, what's the plan?"

She chuckled. "I don't just fire darts, Love." She aimed her blaster and shot at the wall until she created a hole . "You two run. I'll fight them off at the lift."

"Incoming Donna," Mara's voice echoed out in mine and Dad's head, and we exchanged a worried look. "She called Dad the Doctor."

"We'll worry about that when we come to it," Dad said through gritted teeth as he sonicked his way into the engine room.

"Dagger Drive systems initializing," a computer voice greeted us. Dad and I quickly moved through the room punching buttons and twisting switches.

Donna caught up with us then, and leaned over to put her hands on her knees as she tried to catch her breath. "That's enough running. Blimey, no wonder you three are so thin."

"Chamber deadlocked," the computer voice echoed ominously.

"No, no, no, no! I told you to go!" Dad let out a noise of frustration. "Right, no time. I've got this. Jenny can help, just—don't move, Donna."

"Can do," she said as she continued to catch her breath.

"Star-launch in five minutes," the computer warned.

Dad tried the controls with his sonic, but they sparked at him. "Oh! Oh, it's been deadlocked."

"What's that mean?" Donna demanded.

"It means we'll have to do it by hand, come on, Jen!"

We both rushed back to the controls as the computer continued to countdown until launch. I was just about to stall out the sequence, and turned to cross back over to the other side of the room to complete my task, when a glass wall slid down to separate the two sides of the room.

"No, no, no, no, no!" Dad cried out as he rushed to the wall. "We need to get back over there!"

"Maxifold bisecting. Double Dagger Drive installed and initiated."

The computer voice grated on my skin. "We can still do it," I protested.

"How can I help?" Donna asked and looked around at the controls on her side. "What do I do?"

Dad shook his head. "No! You can't get involved, you can't!"

I ground down on my teeth. "We don't have a choice! Donna, those top blue switches. Yes, those, flick them all down."

The three of us stumbled as the ship shook around us. "We've run out of time," Dad rasped. "If there was anything else I could do, I would, but…there's only one thing left." I felt his deep sadness as he watched Donna on the other side of the room.

"Well then—do it!" she shouted. "What are you waiting for?"

"Why would the rift send us here?" Dad asked and looked to me. "General Hass is nowhere nearby; I would sense him. Which means…" He turned back to Donna. "Which means we were drawn here because only Donna could help us keep this ship from burning London."

I swallowed hard and reached for his hand. "Dad…"

He accepted my hand but kept his eyes on Donna. "What I need to do…it will kill you, Donna."

She blinked but nodded. "Okay."

I caught her eyes. "Donna, he's right. You'll die."

Donna looked down, and then brought her eyes back up to level a steady look at Dad. "My daughter is down there, and so is yours. Who cares about me?"

"Ignition in 180," the computer continued on.

Dad gripped my hand harder. "We do."

She scoffed. "Why? I'm just no one."

Fury ignited at Dad's hearts as he leaned closer to the glass. "No, you are not!" There were tears in his eyes as he looked up to the ceiling. "Why does it have to be this?" His helpless cry brought tears to my own eyes. "First Rose—my Rose—and now this." Dad's shoulders sagged.

"Entering final sequence," the computer chimed.

He let out a weary breath, and looked back up at Donna. "Westerly. Pelican. Dreams."

Donna looked bewildered. "What's he doing? Get on with it; I don't care what it is."

Dad reached back for my hand again, and I took it. "Tornado. Clifftops. Andante."

"Jenny, what's he doing?" Donna asked, and my hearts dropped at the look in her eyes. I stayed quiet. My throat was too thick to speak.

"Grief. Fingerprint. Susurration," Dad continued.

She stepped back as recognition suddenly lit up her eyes. "Oh! Sparrow."

They were speaking in sync now. In the background the computer continued to count down as Dad and Donna kept going with the code to unlock her memories. "Dance," they said. "Mexico. Binary. Binary."

"Binary," Donna finished, and burst into flame.

I shielded my eyes against the regeneration energy as it clawed over Donna's body. Dad rushed forward once it began to dim. "Are you alright?" he demanded through the glass.

Donna paused, and then looked up at us. "I gave away all my money. Like an idiot, and do you know why, Jenny? Because I wanted to be like him." She pointed an accusatory finger towards Dad.

I chuckled. "Worse things have happened to people trying to be like him."

"Ignition in one minute," the computer warned.

Donna huffed. "I had a subconscious infracutaneous retro-fold memory loop that made me act as soft as you lot, and I gave away One Hundred. Sixty-Six. Million pounds!"

Dad opened and closed his mouth. "Yes, Donna, but…destruction of London?"

She flexed her fingers. "Oh, I'll show you destruction, mate."

And then the three of us were off—twisting and twirling about the room in a perfectly synchronized dance that reminded me of driving the TARDIS. I laughed with glee as I turned the final knob. "Oh, yes!"

"How long have I got to live?" Donna asked as she hovered over the last switches that needed pressing.

"Fifty-five seconds," the three of us responded.

She grinned as the computer continued to count down around us. "I'll tell you what—best fifty-five seconds of my life—because I get to do this!" She pressed down the final switches, and in the distance, we heard a loud bang.

"Ignition halted," the computer stated.

Donna gave us a manic grin. "Donna Noble is descending."

Dad laughed as he looked at the readouts. "It's working!"

"Dad!" I shouted as the glass wall began to lift and Donna's eyes rolled into the back of her head. She fell to her knees.

"No!" Dad cried as he rushed to catch her. "No, no, no, no, no! No." He pulled Donna into his arms, and I fell to my own knees beside them. "We did it," he told her as tears once again formed in his eyes. "You saved them. All our girls. All of London."

Donna blinked up at him and reached up to stroke his cheek with her finger. "Why did this face come back?" she asked.

He shook his head. "I don't know."

"Where's your mum?" Donna turned her eyes to me. "Rose, I mean."

I swallowed thickly. "Don't worry about that, Donna. Point is that you saved us. We couldn't have done it without you."

The soldiers with the glowing eyes burst into the room then as Donna's eyes slipped closed. "We have orders to kill you," their leader said.

Dad glared up at them. "Do what you want. This ship isn't going anywhere. You were beaten by the Doctor-Donna."

My tears began to spill down my cheeks until Donna's eyes abruptly opened, and she sat straight up. I felt Dad's shock mirror my own as we stared at her. "What?" I asked.

"What?" Dad demanded.

"What?" Donna looked around at us with confusion in her eyes.

"You're not dead!" I shouted. "How are you not dead?"

"Excuse me," the leader of the soldiers said, and we looked up to find their eyes clear. "Sorry, but what's going on?"

There was a crackling sound above our heads. "Mum! Can you hear me?" I smiled at the sound of Rose's voice. "Doctor! Jenny! I think it's safe for you to come down now."

"Rose?" Donna called out.

"Oh, that's it!" Dad crowed as he got back to his feet. "Too much power for one person, but you had a child, and the Metacrisis passed down. A shared inheritance."

"Does that mean Rose just regenerated, too?" I asked.

Dad nodded. "Donna, your daughter, she chose the name Rose?"

Donna cocked her head. "She did, actually. Oh, and the shed! The shed was her memory of the TARDIS—her toys! Every creature we met, she made into a toy."

"Well, she has good taste in names," I said with a grin. "Mum would be honored." I stood, and offered Donna a hand. "Should we get going?"

We made our way back down to the main floor of the warehouse and were reunited with the rest of the Nobles and Shirley. "Happy now?" Dad asked Sylvia.

She straightened her spine. "My father would be impressed. I have no higher compliment."

Dad let out a laugh, and reached out to pull Mara close so he could drop a kiss on her head. "And you, feeling alright?"

She smiled up at him. "Just fine. A little startled when Rose started glowing, but otherwise okay."

"I'll bet," he said, and looked up at the spaceship. "Calling the Meep!"

The intercom crackled again. "You forget I still have my ship. And if I have to explode the engines and rupture this world and damn us all to hell, then I will!"

Dad rolled his eyes and flicked a switch that caused the Meep's capsule to eject from the rest of the ship. "There you go," he said.

The Meep was quickly taken into custody by another pair of Wrarth Warriors. They were all too happy to share with us their plans to sentence the Meep for a 10,000-year prison stay. Naturally, the Meep had a cryptic message to share.

"A creature with two hearts is such a rare thing. Just wait until I tell…the Boss." The Meep had cackled as the Wrarth Warriors finally teleported away.

"I hate it when they do that," I grumbled.

"As do I, Jenny, but! We've got more important matters. You two." He pointed at Donna and Rose. "We've still got to fix you two, because the Metacrisis might have slowed down, but that thing is still wrapped around your cortexes."

Donna rolled her eyes. "Yes, we know."

"We know everything, thanks," Rose added. "Including how to get rid of it." She reached out to Dad. "Return transfer of psychic energy." Her hand glowed as both she and Donna each took one of Dad's. "In other words…"

"We're giving it back to you," Donna said with a smile.

We watched as gold tendrils wrapped up Dad's arms until they reached his eyes. The light died there, and he grinned. "Oh, Donna Noble. Rose Noble. Brilliant."

I bounced up on my toes with a laugh. "See, Donna? This is why you can't leave him on his own. He stops looking for the obvious solutions."

Donna wrapped an arm around mine and Mara's waists as we headed back for Shaun's taxi. "Now listen to me, both you girls. I don't know what happened to your mum, but I can see on all three of you that you're hurting. If you need someone to talk to, you find me, yeah? I know himself can be a bit much sometimes, but you'll always have a place to stay with me."

I swallowed down another lump in my throat. "Thanks, Donna."

Mara nodded her agreement. "We'll do that."

The ride back to the TARDIS was quiet. It was only once we stepped out that Dad started talking again. "Don't you worry about your house, Nobles. UNIT have a great insurance policy. Damage to property in the course of an alien war should be built right in. And while that's being sorted…" He leaned side to side as he smiled at Donna. "One last trip?"

Sylvia glared at him. "Don't you dare."

Donna sighed. "Do you know…I would love to, but I have got adventures of my own bringing up this one." She reached an arm around Rose's shoulders.

Rose's eyes lit up. "Can I see inside?"

"No!" the Nobles all shouted.

"No, no, no," Donna continued. "Because something will go wrong and you'll end up on Mars with Chaucer and a robot shark…and that's actually happened, hasn't it?"

Mara laughed. "My thirtieth birthday was a hell of a time."

Dad waved a hand. "That notwithstanding, I was actually thinking we could take just a short jaunt and see Wilf?" The hope that was bubbling up in his hearts made mine ache. How long had he missed Wilf?

Donna grinned at him. "Now, that is cheeky."

Dad shrugged. "Just a suggestion."

"No!" Sylvia shouted. "No, I mean it, don't you dare!"

Donna turned to her mother. "Oh, but imagine his face, Mum. Oh, he would be so happy. All those secrets Granddad kept for years. He thought I'd never remember. And now, to see not only the Doctor, but to see him and the Doctor's girls? One last time?"

Sylvia's shoulders slumped with defeat. "Oh, alright. But one trip! That's all. Just one."

Donna rushed forward to kiss her cheek. "One tiny, little trip, that's a promise!" She turned back to Dad, and gave him a wide, brilliant smile that lit up her whole face. "It's just like the old days. Well, close enough. Me and the Doctor, together." She turned her smile to me and Mara. "And with the new generation, too! Oh, I want to hear everything about you two. I've missed so much of your lives already."

I grinned as we all followed her into the TARDIS.

She looked around in wonder at the new console room. "Oh my God," she gasped, and then shivered. "Still a bit nippy, isn't she?"

Above our heads, the TARDIS chirped indignantly.

"Oh, come on!" Mara called out. "You can't tell me she isn't rocking this look." She pressed a button so the coffee machine popped up. "And look! That should warm you right up." She pulled out a cup and handed it to Donna.

Donna accepted the mug. "Oh, alright, she's gorgeous. But…" She looked over to Dad. "I still don't get it. The TARDIS can change, alright, but…what about your face? Why did this face come back?"

Dad shrugged as he moved to the console. "Well, you know, I had lost Rose and the girls for a bit there, but they came back…maybe this face just missed them?" He kept his eyes on the console. "Or maybe not. Does there have to be a reason?"

Donna blinked as she processed the information he'd just dropped on her. "Don't try to deflect, of course there does. What does he mean he lost you two and Rose?" She looked between Mara and I.

I exchanged a look with my sister. "A while back…something happened to Mum. She wasn't as human as she thought, and…she was able to see her timeline."

"Curse of the Quo," Mara explained. "Too much foresight. Thankfully it seems like she didn't pass that little quirk on to me."

Donna cocked her head. "Okay, so she saw something. What?"

"The Time Lords," Dad hissed, and turned his dark eyes to Donna. "She had a vision that they would kill our daughters while trying to force Rose and I to do terrible things for them, and that would lead to the end of everything."

"So, we ran," I supplied. "Dad hid us away in Pete's World and sealed off the walls between dimensions. But Mum was turned back into a human by then, and…"

"She died." Mara's voice was bitter. "She lived her human life and she died, but the Time Lords found us anyway."

"And so we came back," I explained, and glared at Mara. "And now one of us wants to go looking for the Time Lords again."

I felt my sister's irritation flare. "I'm not having this argument again," she hissed.

"But we're glad to have you back," Dad said quickly to keep Donna from commenting. "Because I missed you, Donna, so much. And I remembered, you know. Every second with you. And losing you...it killed me. It killed me, it killed me, it killed me."

She blinked and reached out to squeeze Dad's arm. "But we can have more days, can't we?" she asked as she looked between all three of us. "I mean, why is it such a big goodbye with you lot? Why is it one last trip? Cos, like I told your girls, you could always visit. We could do outrageous things. Like have tea, or dinner, and a laugh. You three could actually explain all of that you just tried to gloss over, and we could remember old times. Couldn't we?"

Dad blinked. "Yeah. Maybe. Yeah."

Donna grinned. "Like now. Here we all are, having a coffee. What's going to go wrong?" It was in that moment that she stumbled against the console and sent her coffee spilling out of the mug all over the controls.

The TARDIS screeched and began to spark as the rotor started up with a horrible grinding sound. "Oh no, hang on!" Mara shouted, and we all rushed to try to take back control of the TARDIS as we hurtled through time and space.