Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who that goes to the BBC
Outside of a desert town in America in 1870, the Doctor stood on the road with Rose as they had their arms crossed as he looked up at a sign marking entrance to the town with the population under the town's having been crossed off and added to with there also being a 'Keep Out' sign nailed to the post she then squinted at the sign.
"Doesn't seem welcoming, does it?" Rose asked her husband as she stared at the sign to the town above the,.
"Mercy, 81 residents," the Doctor said, reading the sign to the town.
Amy and Rory were standing off to the side and were looking at a line of stones and branches that seemed to ring the town.
"Look at this," Amy told both Gallifreyans, "It's a load of stones and lumps of wood."
"Not one of them seems to want company," Rose stated as the Doctor took out his sonic screwdriver and used it along the line as she walked over to Amy and Rory, "It's a boundary line. Primitive, but effective in its own way."
"What is it?" Amy asked them.
"A load of stones and lumps of wood," the Doctor told her as he stood back up and extended his sonic screwdriver before he closed it and put it back in his jacket's pocket.
"A warning, I'd say. Or a deterrent for something," Rose suggested as the Doctor stepped over the line as unbeknownst to them from above, a figure that was wearing a stetson over their head and had cybernetics attached to them, especially around the back of their neck and their right eye watched as the Time Lord crossed the line.
"Uh, the sign does say, 'Keep out,'" Rory told them as they crossed the line.
"Well, where's the fun in that?" Rose asked the nurse, "Besides, we're not exactly known for following rules, are we?"
"Rose is right and besides, I see keep-out signs as suggestions more than actual orders," the Doctor said, agreeing with the Time Lady, "Like dry clean only." He then rubbed his hands together before he turned around and headed into the town with Rose as Amy and Rory followed them.
As they walked down the street, they were being stared at by people from behind windows and doorways as a woman clutched her daughter closely with street lamps lining the road before one of them sparked with electricity as they got close to it.
"That's not right," Rose muttered as she pulled her sonic screwdriver out from her jacket's pocket and activated it as she used it on the street lamp.
"It's a street lamp," Rory stated.
"And there shouldn't be an electrical one here," Rose told him as she put her sonic screwdriver back inside her jacket's pocket, "It's 1870 and they won't be invented till 1879."
"She's right, it's about ten years too early," the Doctor added, agreeing with her.
"It's only a few years out," Rory told them.
"That's what you said when you left your phone recharger in Henry VIII's ensuite," the Doctor retorted.
"Doctor, um…" Amy began to say as she noticed that the townsfolk were staring at them.
"Anachronistic electricity, 'keep out' signs, aggressive stares, has someone been peeking at my Christmas list?" The Doctor asked himself before he took a toothpick out from his jacket's chest pocket with his right hand and put it in his mouth.
"Doctor…" Amy began to say before the four of them continued to walk down the street.
Inside the town's saloon, the place seemed to be doing a brisk business with patrons chatting to each other as a man in the building was playing a piano as men were drinking at the tables or playing poker. The Doctor then suddenly appeared at the saloon's entrance with Rose, Amy and Rose and pushed open the bat-wing doors and as they entered the building, the music and chatter stopped.
"Tea," the Doctor said with a fake American accent as he and Rose walked over to the saloon's counter, where a female bartender with light skin, curly blonde hair and wearing a dress named Sadie was standing behind and put his left hand down on it, "But the strong stuff. Leave the bag in."
"What you doing here, son?" Sadie asked him as he tried to flip the toothpick, only for it to get stuck.
"Son?" The Doctor muttered as he quietly laughed and removed the toothpick from his mouth, "You can stay."
"Sir?" A man with dark skin, brown eyes and black hair, wearing a suit and a Stetson said as he turned towards both Gallifreyans, Amy and Rory, "Might I enquire who you is?"
"We might ask the same of you," Rose told him.
"I'm the town's preacher," the man introduced himself, "And as I said before, who are the four of you?"
"Of course. I am the Doctor, this is…" the Doctor said as he began to introduce himself, Rose, Amy and Rory to them when everyone in the saloon suddenly stood up, "No need to stand." He then turned towards Amy and Rory, "You see that? Manners." A Man with light skin, blue eyes and grey hair and a moustache, wearing a suit and a top hat named Abraham walked up behind the Doctor and measured his shoulders with tape before the Doctor looked at him, "Oh, thank you, but I don't need a new suit."
"I'm the undertaker, sir," Abraham told him.
"I got a question," a young man with light skin, blue eyes and brown hair, wearing a stetson named Dockery said as he stepped forward, "Is you an alien?"
"Well, um... Bit personal. It's all relative, isn't it?" the Doctor told him, "I mean, me and my wife, the brunette next to me, think you're the aliens. But in this context, yes. Yes, I suppose I am." The men then rushed the Doctor and lifted him up with their hands and carried him outside.
"Doctor!" Amy yelled as the men carried the Doctor along the street as she, Rose and Rory were being restrained as they followed them, "Put him down!"
"Don't think we won't kill you," a woman in the crowd told her.
"Do as she says and let my husband go!" Rose said, agreeing with Amy.
"Leave them alone!" Rory told them.
"Don't worry! Everything is completely under control!" The Doctor assured them.
"Get off me!" Amy ordered as she fought the men that were restraining her.
"And get off me as well!" Rose said, agreeing with her and the Doctor's ginger companion as she fought against the men that were restraining her as well.
"Guys! Guys! Oh, dear," the Doctor muttered before he was thrown over the line, "Whoa!" He then stood back up and cracked his back, "Aargh. Ow." He then turned back around towards the town as the men drew pistols and aimed them at him, causing the Time Lord to raise his hands as in the distance behind him the figure that was watching both Gallifreyans, Amy and Rory when they entered the town teleported a few metres away.
"He's coming," the preacher stated, "Oh, God. He's coming."
"Preacher... say something," Dockery requested the preacher.
"Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name," the preacher began to pray as the Doctor turned around and saw the figure in the distance as he began to teleport closer to him and the town, "Thy kingdom come," the Doctor then tried to get back over the line, only for the men to aim their guns at him again, "Thy will be done…"
They all then suddenly heard a gun being fired from behind them, causing everyone to turn around to look at the newcomer as they saw that he had light skin, blue eyes, brown hair and a moustache, wearing a white dress shirt, green vest, beige jacket and brown trousers.
"You, bow tie," the man called out to the Time Lord as he placed his pistol in a holster around his right thigh, causing the Doctor to point at himself with his right hand's index finger, "Get back across that line." He then moved his jacket back a bit to reveal that he was wearing a badge over the left side of his vest, revealing that he was the town's marshall, "Now."
The Doctor then stepped back across the line as the figure stopped walking towards them as they saw that they were male and had light skin, a blue left eye, a tattoo-like marking under his left eye coloured black, machinery attached to him with one of them being a high-tech gun for a right arm and wearing clothes that a cowboy would wear before teleporting away as the Doctor exhaled.
"Isaac, he said he was a doctor," Dockery told their town's marshall, "An alien doctor."
"Is that a reason to hand him to his death?" Isaac asked him.
"But, Isaac, it could be him," Dockery stated.
"You know it ain't," Isaac told him as he turned and walked away with a nod to Rose and Amy, "Ma'am."
The Doctor then brushed himself off and straightened his jacket before he followed Isaac with Rose, Amy and Rory following him as everyone lowered their guns.
"Just let him go like that?" One of the men asked with disbelief in his voice, "He's seen you, boy."
Inside the town's marshall office, Isaac walked over to his desk as the Doctor, Rose, Rory and Amy entered the office.
"What was that outside?" The Doctor asked Isaac.
"The gunslinger," Isaac answered as he sat on a corner of his desk before Rory crossed his arms, "Showed up three weeks back. We've been prisoners ever since. You see that borderline, stretching round the town? Woke up one morning, there it was. Nothing gets past it, in or out. No supply wagons, no reinforcements. Pretty soon, the whole town's going to starve to death."
"But he let us in," Rory stated as Amy now had her arms crossed.
"You ain't carrying any food, just four more mouths to feed," Isaac told him, "We'll all die even sooner now."
"Four? Oh, I see. Well, me and my husband here have been in tougher spots," Rose stated as she smiled at the Doctor.
"What happens if someone crosses the line?" The Doctor asked Isaac as he smiled back at Rose before Isaac tossed him a Stetson as he caught it in his hands, "Ah, well…" He then put his left hand's index finger through a bullet hole that was in the hat, "He wasn't a very good shot then."
"He was aiming for the hat," Isaac told him.
"He shoots people's hats?!" The Doctor said with disbelief in his voice.
"I think it was a warning shot," Amy told him.
"Amy's right, Doctor," Rose said, agreeing with their ginger companion as she looked at her husband, "It's a common tactic in human history. A warning to keep people in line."
"Ah. No," the Doctor muttered as he passed the hat to Rory, "Yes. I see. Hmmm…"
"What does he want?" Amy asked Isaac as husband passed the hat to her, "Has he issued some kind of demand?" Amy then passed the hat back to Rory, who then passed it back to the Doctor who passed it to Rose before she threw it back to Isaac.
"Says he wants us to give him 'the alien doctor,'" Isaac answered, causing everyone to stare at the Time Lord.
"But that's you. Why would he want to kill you?" Amy stated, "Unless he's met you."
"And if you met him, it must've been when I was still chameleon-arched and before we reunited when you were 900," Rose added with shock in her voice.
"And besides, how could he know we'd be here?" Rory asked him before he whispered to him, "We didn't even know we'd be here."
"We were aiming for Mexico," Amy told Isaac, "The Doctor and Rose were taking us to see the Day of the Dead Festival."
"Mexico's 200 miles due south," Isaac stated.
"So, we're in Nevada?" Rose asked him.
"We sure are, ma'am," Isaac answered as the Doctor noticed that the light in the room was flickering.
"Well, that's what happens when people get toast crumbs on the console," the Doctor told Amy as he looked at her for a second before he looked back at Isaac, "Anyway, I think it's about time I met him, don't you?"
"Who?" Isaac asked him as the Time Lord sat down on a railing in the room.
"The chap outside said I could be the alien doctor, but you said I wasn't. So you already know who it is," the Doctor stated before he chuckled, "Two alien Doctors. We're like buses. Resident 81, I presume. So beloved by the townsfolk, he warranted an alteration to the sign. Probably because he rigged up these electrics. And I'm guessing he's in here because if half the town suddenly wanted to throw me to my death…" he then hopped off the rail, "this is where I'd want to be."
"I don't know what you…" Isaac began to say as the Doctor walked over towards the room's cell and tried to stop him.
"It's all right, Isaac. I think the time for subterfuge has passed," they heard a masculine voice say as a male humanoid with light skin, blue eyes and light blonde hair with a black coloured marking around the left side of his face and wearing a suit with a bowl hat over his head along with a pince-nez got up from a bunk in the cell, "Good afternoon. My name is Kahler-Jex. I'm the doctor."
"The Kahler," the Doctor said as he shook Jex's right hand vigorously with both of his hands after Isaac let Jex out of the cell that he was hiding in as Isaac was now sitting on a chair next to his desk, "I love the Kahler. One of the most ingenious races in the galaxy, seriously. They could build a spaceship out of Tupperware and moss."
"He's right, they are one of the most intelligent races in the universe like we Gallifreyans are," Rose stated, agreeing with her husband as Amy gently pushed the Doctor down into a chair as he released Jex's hand.
"All right. How did you get here?" Amy asked Jex.
"My craft crashed about a mile or so out of town. I would have died if Isaac and the others hadn't pulled me from the wreckage," Jex answered as he sat down on the hair behind Isaac's desk.
"And you stayed as their doctor?" Rose realised with a smirk on her face as she stared at her husband.
"On my world, I was a surgeon, so it seemed logical," Jex explained, "And it gave me an opportunity to repay my debt to them."
"Listen to him. Talking like it was nothing," Isaac scoffed, "Tell 'em about the cholera." He then slapped Jex on the back of his head.
"Now, Isaac, I'm sure our guests aren't…" Jex began to say.
"Two years after he arrived, there was an outbreak of cholera," Isaac told both Gallifreyans and their companions, "Thanks to the doc here, not a single person died."
"A minor infection we'd found a treatment for centuries ago," Jex explained.
"No, no, no, what do you call them, the electrics?" Isaac asked Jex as he pointed at the lamp above them in the room with his left hand.
"Using my ship as a generator, I was able to rig up some rudimentary heating and lighting for the town," Jex explained.
"So why does the gunslinger want you?" The Doctor asked him as he leaned forward.
"Yeah, he wouldn't want you unless you did something to him," Rose said, agreeing with her husband.
"It don't matter," Isaac told him.
"I'm just saying, if we knew that…" the Doctor began to say.
"America's a land of second chances. We called this town Mercy for a reason," Isaac stated, "Though there's some round here don't feel that way."
"Now, Isaac, we've discussed this," Jex told him.
"People whose lives you've saved are suddenly saying we should hand you over," Isaac stated as he looked at him.
"They're scared, that's all," Jex explained, "You can hardly blame them."
"Them being scared, scares me," Isaac told him before looking back at both Gallifreyans, "War only ended five years back. That old violence is still under the surface."
"You mean your civil war," Rose realised, "Yeah, the aftermath of that war is still being felt all across America."
"You're absolutely right," Isaac told her, "We give up Doc Jex, then we're handing the keys of the town over to chaos."
"Did you try to repair your craft?" The Doctor asked Jex, "Surely someone with your skills…"
"It really was very badly damaged," Jex explained.
"We evacuate the town, our ship's just over the hills, room for everyone," the Doctor said as he stood back up before he sat on the desk, "I'll pop out, bring it back here. Robert's your uncle."
"Really? Simple as that?" Amy said with surprise in her voice, "No crazy schemes, no negotiations?"
"I've matured. I'm 1,200 years old now," the Doctor explained, "Plus, I don't want to miss 'The Archers.'" He then stood back up again and picked the stetson up and headed for the door.
"Yeah, like I'm gonna believe that, Doctor," Rose muttered to herself, "Just cos we're 1,200 now doesn't mean that you've changed within the last 100 years."
"Oh, so you're not even a tiny bit curious?" Amy asked him.
"Why would I be curious?" The Doctor retorted, "It's a mysterious space cowboy assassin. Curious? Of course I'm not curious." He then stepped outside the office.
"Son?" Isaac called out to the Doctor, causing him to reenter the room, "You've still got to get past the gunslinger. How you gonna to do that?"
"With a little sleight of hand," the Doctor answered as he put the stetson over his head with his right hand before he stepped outside as Rose, Rory and Amy all looked at each other.
A while later, Rory and Isaac were running across the desert with the marshall wearing Jex's coat and hat over his head.
"You Okay?" Isaac asked the nurse.
"Yeah, fine, yeah," Rory answered, "Keep moving."
"Well, next time, you get to wear Jex's clothes," Isaac told him.
From an opposite ridge from them, the gunslinger watched them. He zoomed in on Isaac, but when Rory got in the way, his computer registered 87% chance of injury to innocent and to disengage. He then lowers his high-tech gun.
"Can I borrow your horse, please?" The Doctor asked the preacher as he walked up to him in the town and was at a hitching post with his horse, who had brown fur, eyes, maine and streaks of white over its forehead, "It's official Marshall business."
"He's called Joshua," the preacher told the Doctor as the Time Lord mounted the horse, "It's from the Bible. It means 'The Deliverer.'"
"No, he isn't," the Doctor stated as the horse snorted.
"What?" The preacher said with confusion in his voice.
"I speak horse. He's called Susan, like my granddaughter was," the Doctor explained, "And he wants you to respect his life choices." He and Susan then gallopped out of the town.
As Rory and Isaac were making their way along the base of a ridge in the desert outside of the town, the ground between them suddenly exploded from a high-tech gun being fired at them.
"I, uh... I think he's seen us," Rory stated as he looked in the direction of where the blast came from.
"This way!" Isaac said as he grabbed Rory's left arm with both of his hands as they continued travelling along the ridge.
Back at the town's Marshall's office, Jex was looking out the window, while Amy was sitting on the desk with Rose standing next to her.
"When this is all done, do you want us to take you home?" Amy asked the Kahler.
"Thank you, but I have already given everything I have to the Kahler. My skills, my energy. All that was good in me," Jex answered, "But here, I could start afresh. I could remember myself and help people. That's all I ever wanted to do. End suffering."
"Starting afresh… that's not always a bad thing," Rose muttered as she nodded her head with a hint of sadness in her eyes, "Sometimes, it's the only way to move past… past wars. Even wars as devastating as the Time War."
"Here," Amy said as she stood up before she put his jacket over his shoulders.
"You're both mothers, aren't you?" Jex asked them before he looked at the Time Lady, "And Rose, you're a grandmother too, if I'm not mistaken."
"How did you know?" Amy asked him with shock in her voice.
"And how did you know that I was both a mother and a grandmother at one time?" Rose said, agreeing with her and the Doctor's ginger companion.
"There's kindness in your eyes," Jex explained, "And sadness. But a ferocity, too."
"And a bit of stubbornness," Rose added, "It wasn't exactly straightforward for either of us."
"She's right," Amy said, agreeing with the Time Lady.
"It seldom is," Jex stated.
"And what about you?" Amy asked him, "Are you a father?"
"Yes," Jex answered, "In a way, I suppose I am."
Back in the desert, Isaac and Rory ran across the desert before they climbed down to take cover against the base of a rocky ledge as Isaac placed his right hand over Rory's chest as he looked around the area before removing his hand from the nurse's chest.
"So, we wait here till the Doctor comes to pick us up in your ship," Isaac told him.
"Yes, I know," Rory muttered, "I was there when we agreed it."
"Yeah, I said that more for my benefit more than yours," Isaac admitted.
Meanwhile in another section of the desert, the Doctor was galloping along the desert on Susan along a dirt road. He then saw something that attracted his attention and slowed the horse to a halt.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa," the Doctor muttered as Susan neighed, "Yeah, I know we're in a hurry. I just want to check something out." He then dismounted the horse, "Two ticks. There's something niggling me." The horse then snorted, "Yes." The Time Lord then got down on his knees, "Yes, it could be important." Susan then whinnied, causing the Doctor to look back at the horse, "Oi, don't swear."
The Doctor then picked up sand from the ground as he heard an electronic buzzing sound coming from all around him before he found a hose running along the ground and held it up in both of his hands and sniffed it before he then tugged it loose.
Back inside the Marshall's office, the lights in the room flickered as Jex looked at one of them through his monocle.
Back in the desert, the Doctor dropped the hose line and ran back to Susan.
Meanwhile back inside the Mashall's office, Jex continued to look at the lights with a look of concern on his face.
Back in the desert, the Doctor followed the line to where it ends as it sparked with electricity.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa," the Doctor muttered before Susan snorted as he dismounted the horse, "Yes, I wear a Stetson now." The Doctor then went up to the mound connected to the line and pulled off a tarp to reveal an ovoid before Susan snorted again. "Yes, good point, Susan." He then began to examine the capsule, "Where is the damage?"
Meanwhile in another section of the desert, the Gunslinger walked to the edge of the ridge and looked down. Isaac reached his right hand over Rory's chest again to keep the nurse pressed back against the wall so they couldn't be seen by him. The Gunslinger picked up their heat signatures and raised his high-tech gun to fire.
Back in the area of the desert where the Doctor was, the Time Lord climbed on top of the capsule before he knocked and tapped on its surface proving it to be hollow inside. He then jumped on it multiple times.
"Ow," the Doctor muttered as he slapped on the capsule with his right hand before he removed his stetson and placed it on the capsule before he took out his sonic screwdriver and used it on the top and as the Doctor used his sonic screwdriver on the capsule, it's alarms went off, "Ah!" He then covered his ears as a door slid open as Susan whinnied.
The sound of the capsule's alarm carried through the desert. The Gunslinger heard it and lowered his high-tech gun arm before he turned away. Isaac and Rory leaned out to make sure the Gunslinger was gone before leaving in the opposite direction.
Back at the Marshall's office, Amy opened the main doors and stepped out of the building followed by Rose and Jex as they stood on the porch and looked out into the desert.
"That's the alarm on my ship," Jex told them.
"Sounds like someone's been tinkering," Rose stated as she smiled, slightly.
"Maybe the Doctor wants to get it working again," Amy suggested.
"But that wasn't the plan," Jex told her, "He's not following the plan."
"The Doctor and plans… they're more like guidelines, really," Rose muttered as she laughed, softly.
"Welcome to our world," Amy muttered to herself as Jex went back inside the Marshall's office, while she and Rose stayed on the porch and exchanged a knowing look.
Back in the desert, with a groan, the Doctor dropped into the capsule and fell into the seat. as the computer announces his presence.
"Security breach," the capsule's computerised voice announced as it detected the Time Lord's presence, "You have ten seconds to enter the pass-code or this vehicle will self-destruct." The Doctor then took out his sonic screwdriver and used it on the panel in front of him, "Thank you for choosing Abaraxas Security Software. Incinerating intruders for three centuries. Nine, eight, seven." His sonic screwdriver finally worked as the alarm stopped blaring, "Self-destruct overridden."
"This is an awful lot of security for a titchy spacecraft," the Doctor muttered to himself.
"Awaiting command," the capsule's computerised voice stated.
"Tell me everything you can about the Gunslinger," the Doctor requested.
"File not found," the capsule's computerised voice told him.
"Ah!" The Doctor groaned as he leaned back in the capsule's seat.
"Please choose from technical specifications, flight recorder, personal files, maps and charts," the capsule's computerised voice stated.
"Personal files of Dr Kahler-Jex," the Doctor requested.
"Names of deceased subjects can be found on the drop-down menu," Jex's voice said from the capsule's computer as his face appeared on the screen along with scrolling text as the Doctor absorbed the files that include people screaming in pain and agony.
Back in the Marshall's office, Amy and Rose reentered the office with the Time Lady closing the doors behind them and when they turned around, Jex cocked and aimed a pistol at them in their faces.
"I'm sorry, Amy and Rose," Jex apologised to them, "He really should have followed the plan."
Back in the desert, the Doctor stood on top of the entrance of the capsule. Behind him was the Gunslinger as he aimed his high-tech gun to the Doctor's head. As the weapon powered up, the Doctor ducked back inside the capsule.
"Don't shoot! Don't shoot! Don't shoot!" The Doctor pleaded with the Gunslinger before he came out and faced the gunslinger, "I know who you are. And who Jex is, too!" The Gunslinger then lowered his weapon, "Now, what I don't understand is why you haven't just walked into the town and killed him."
"People will get in the way," the Gunslinger explained with a deep masculine voice.
"Look, you want justice, you deserve justice, but this isn't the way," the Doctor told him, "We can put him on trial, we can…"
"When he starts killing your people, you can use your justice," the Gunslinger stated as he raised his high-tech gun at him before the Doctor eyed the Gunslinger nervously.
Back in the Marshall's office, Jex kept the gun trained on Amy and Rose as he filled his pockets with personal items from his cell.
"Isaac says he doesn't care about my past," Jex told them, "But things may have been uncovered that even he might struggle to forgive." He then moved towards the door, So it's best we beat a hasty retreat."
"We?" Amy stammered with disbelief in her voice, "We're coming with you?"
"Oh, I wouldn't miss this for the world," Rose interjected with a smile on her face.
"It's unlikely the Gunslinger will shoot if I'm with the two of you," Jex explained, "As far as I can tell, he's programmed to take innocent lives only if absolutely necessary."
"Well, that's comforting," Rose muttered, dryly.
"Oh, well, colour me reassured," Amy said sarcastically.
Jex then backed out the door, only to have a pistol cocked and aimed at the back of his head as it was none other than Isaac as he stood in the doorway with Rory as they forced him back inside.
"Doc, what are you doing?" Isaac asked the Kahler.
Back in the desert, the Gunslinger lowered his high-tech gun as the Doctor stared at him.
"No more warning shots," the Gunslinger told the Time Lord, "I'll kill the next person to step over that line. Make sure it's Jex." He then walked away from him.
"It was stupid of me," Jex admitted as he was now standing in front of the wall of the Marshall's office with Isaac, Rory, Amy and Rose standing in front of him, "I realise that now. I just thought I'd put you all in enough danger, perhaps if I left…"
"He's lying," the Doctor stated as he entered the building and walked over to Jex, "Every word. Everything he says, it's... all... lies. This man is a murderer."
"I am a scientist!" Jex protested.
"Sit down," the Doctor ordered the Kahler, only for Jex to refuse before he shouted at him, "Sit down!" Jex then did as the Time Lord ordered and sat down on the chair behind him, "Tell them what you are."
"What am I?" Jex asked him, "A war hero."
"Okay," Isaac said as he walked over to them as the Doctor walked away from them, "Somebody want to tell me what's going on?"
"The Gunslinger is a cyborg," the Doctor explained.
"A what?" Isaac asked him with confusion in his voice.
"A cyborg, Isaac, is a being with both organic and biomechatronic parts," Rose explained, "It's like a fusion of a living organism and machine. At times, they can be used as weapons, and sometimes they're not."
"And Jex built it," the Doctor added, "He and his team took volunteers, told them they'd be selected for special training, then experimented on them, fused their bodies with weapons and programmed them to kill!"
"Okay, why?" Isaac asked the Kahler as he placed his hands over his hips and looked at him, "Why would you do that, doc?"
"We'd been at war for nine years. A war that had already decimated half of our planet. Our task was to bring peace, and we did," Jex explained, "We built an army that routed the enemy and ended the war in less than a week. Do you want me to repent? To beg forgiveness for saving millions of lives?"
"And how many died screaming on the operating table before you had found your advantage?!" The Doctor asked him, rhetorically with anger in his voice as he came up to him in his face.
"War is another world," Jex stated, "You cannot apply the politics of peace to what I did, to what any of us did."
"It's like how the Time War was," Rose muttered to herself.
"The Time War... You're thinking about what the Doctor had to go through, aren't you?" Amy asked Rose as she looked at her.
"Yes," the Time Lady confirmed as she nodded her head and looked at her husband, "The Doctor and our people, they... they had to make impossible choices, just like Jex. But that doesn't excuse what Jex did. There's always another way. There has to be."
"But what happened then?" Rory asked Jex as the Doctor walked over to the other side of the room and by the Kahler's cell before he crossed his arms and leaned against the wall, "How come you're here?"
"When the war ended, we had the cyborgs decommissioned. But one of them must have got its circuitry damaged in battle," Jex answered, "It went offline and began hunting down the team that created it, until just two of us were left. We fled and our ships crashed here."
Rory looked over at the Doctor and reached his left hand out towards him as if pleading for the Doctor to listen and help, only for the Doctor to simply ignore him as Rory turned back to the others.
"So what do we do with Jex?" Rory asked Amy, Rose and Isaac.
"What do we do with him?" Isaac said, repeating what the nurse just asked.
"Yeah, I mean he's a war criminal," Rory explained.
"No, he's the guy that saved the town from cholera," Isaac argued, "The guy that gave us heat and light."
"Look, Jex may be a criminal and yeah, kinda creepy…" Amy began to say.
"And still in the room," Jex muttered to himself.
"But I think we should put aside what he did and find another solution," Amy told her husband.
"Amy's right. We can't just... execute him," Rose said, agreeing with Amy as she nodded her head in agreement, "And it's not like we can take Jex to the Shadow Proclamation for trial for what he did during the war that ravaged his planet. We need to find another solution."
"Another solution?" Rory repeated with disbelief in his voice as he looked at them, "It's him or us."
"When did we start letting people get executed?" Amy asked him, "Did I miss a memo? Doctor, tell him."
"Hmm?" The Doctor muttered as they all looked at him before he looked up at them, "Yes. I don't know. Whatever Amy and Rose said." He then looked out the window.
"Looking at you, Doctor, is like looking into a mirror, almost," Jex said as he polished his monocle, "There's rage there, like me. Guilt, like me." The Doctor then turned around towards him, "Solitude. Everything but the nerve to do what needs to be done. Thank the Gods my people weren't relying on you to save them."
"No! No!" The Doctor yelled with anger as he rushed at him before he grabbed Jex and yanked him up, "But these people are!" He then began pushing him towards the door, "Out! Out! Out!"
Amy, Rory and Rose made their way to follow the Doctor, but Isaac pointed at them in warning with his right hand's index finger. Rory put his hands up before they followed Isaac. As Amy and Rose reached the door, Rory stopped them.
"Oh, you're really letting him do this?" Amy said with disbelief in her voice as she looked at her husband.
"Save us all?" Rory asked her, "Yeah, I really am."
"Rory, he's not doing this to save us. He's doing this because he's angry. And when he's angry, people can get hurt," Rose told the Nurse as she turned towards him, "I know him, Rory. I grew up with him, we were Time Tots together. I know him better than anyone. This... this isn't him."
With that said, Rory then left the Marshall's office before Amy and Rose exchanged a quick glance before they left the building as well.
"Move!" The Doctor ordered Jex as he shoved him through the town.
"No. I…" Jex began to protest.
"Move!" The Doctor ordered him again.
"Now what's going on?" A woman asked as she and the rest of the townsfolk along with Isaac, Rory, Amy and Rose followed them as the Doctor and Jex headed towards the boundary.
"Get over that line!" The Doctor said as he shoved Jex over the line, causing the Kahler to fall to the dirt.
"Hey!" One of the townsfolk protested as the Doctor walked back into town and grabbed a pistol from his holster and aimed it at Jex's head as the Doctor tried to cross back into the town before Jex raised his hands.
"You wouldn't," Jex told the Time Lord.
"I genuinely don't know," the Doctor said as he cocked the pistol at him.
"Doctor?" Isaac called out to the Time Lord, "Doctor?"
The Doctor then whirled on Isaac with the gun in his hand before Amy fired a pistol into the air before she lowered the gun to aim it at the Doctor, causing him to lower his gun.
"Let him come back, Doctor!" Amy ordered the Doctor.
"She's right, Doctor," Rose said, agreeing with their ginger companion, "This... this isn't you. We don't execute people. We're better than that. Let him come back."
"Or what?" The Doctor asked them, "You won't shoot me, Amy."
"How do you know?! Maybe I've changed," Amy suggested as she cocked the gun, "You've clearly been taking stupid lessons since I saw you and Rose last…" She then waved the gun around and accidentally shot the ground with it, "I didn't mean to do that." She then fired it at the ground again.
"Everyone who isn't an American, drop your gun," Isaac ordered Amy as he pointed his right hand's index finger at her.
"We could end this right now," the Doctor stated as he walked over to Amy and Rose, "We could save everyone right now!"
"This is not how we roll, and you know it," Amy told him, "What's happened to you? When did killing someone become an option?"
"Amy's right, Doctor. This isn't you," Rose said, agreeing with Amy as she looked at her husband before looking at Amy, "This isn't us. We've faced impossible situations before, and we've always found another way. A better way. Killing… it's never an option. It's never the answer."
"Jex has to answer for his crimes," the Doctor explained.
"And what then?" Amy asked him, "You going to hunt down everyone who's made a gun, a bullet or a bomb?"
"That would be a bit ridiculous, wouldn't it? Going after Gatling, Maxim, Nobel and Oppenheimer… all because they invented something that ended up being used as a weapon," Rose stated as she laughed, softly, "It's not the invention, it's the intent and the actions that follow. That's what we need to consider with Jex. We can't just judge him for his past, we have to look at his present too."
"They keep coming back, don't you both see?" The Doctor asked them, "Every time I negotiate, I try to understand. Well, not today! No! Today I honour the victims first! His, the Master's, the Daleks', all the people who died because of my mercy!"
"See, this is what happens when you travel with anyone but Rose for too long," Amy told him, "Well, listen to me, Doctor, we can't be like him. We have to be better than him."
"Amy's right, Doctor," Rose said, agreeing with their ginger companion as she looked at him before she looked at Amy again, "We can't let ourselves become like him. We can't let anger and revenge dictate our actions. We have to remember who we are, what we stand for. We're not executioners. We're not judges. We're the ones who find another way, a better way. That's who we've always been. That's who we need to be now. More than ever."
"Amelia Pond. Arkytior," the Doctor muttered before he sighed, "Fine. Fine!" He then turned back around towards them, "We think of something else." He then handed the gun back to the man that he took it from, "But frankly, I'm betting on the Gunslinger." They then heard the air crackling in the distance as he held out his right hand to Jex and waved his fingers out to him, "Jex, move over the line. Now."
The Gunslinger suddenly appeared in the distance behind Jex and was moving and teleporting closer towards him before he stopped just behind Jex with his high-tech gun raised to the back of his creator's head before Jex turned to face him as the Gunslinger's computer recognised Jex by his tattoo.
"Make peace with your gods," the Gunslinger told him.
"Kahler-Tek, isn't it?" Jex asked him, "I remember all your names, even now. Please. I'd never hurt anyone again. I'm even helping people here."
"Last chance," the Gunslinger told him, "Make peace with your gods." He then prepared to fire his high-tech gun at him.
"No!" Isaac said as he pushed Jex out of the way before he was shot by the Gunslinger's high-tech gun, causing him to fall to the ground.
"Isaac! Hey," the Doctor muttered as he rushed over to the Marshall and kneeled beside him and cradled his head, "Isaac? Isaac, it's okay. It's okay. It's okay, we can get you to Jex's surgery, he can save you."
"Listen to me, you gotta stay," Isaac told the Doctor as he gripped his left hand with his left hand, "You gotta look after everyone."
"It won't come to that, Isaac," the Doctor assured him.
"Protect Jex. Protect my town," Isaac pleaded with him, "You're both good men. You just forget it sometimes." He then lowered his right hand as he passed away.
The Doctor removed his hands from Isaac's left hand to find his Marshall's badge before he grabbed it with his hands and looked at it for a second before he pinned it onto his jacket's lapel as he stood up as the townsfolk stood around in shock.
"Take Jex to a cell," the Doctor ordered everyone, "If anything happens to him, you'll have me to answer to." Jex was then 'escorted' away by Docherty as the Doctor walked towards and faced the Gunslinger, "This has gone on long enough."
"You are right," the Gunslinger said, agreeing with the Doctor before he aimed his high-tech gun at him for a second before lowering it, "You've got until noon tomorrow. Give him to me, or I'll kill you all." The Gunslinger then turned around and teleported away before the Doctor sighed as he turned to face the town.
"Oh, my God, you're the marshall," Amy told the Doctor with shock in her voice.
"Yeah," the Doctor said, agreeing with her, "And you're the deputy."
"And I guess that makes me the peacekeeper," Rose stated as she smiled at them as she stuck her tongue in between her teeth, "We're going to sort this out, together. We always do."
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