"I'm hungry. Ladies, let's have a feast," the Doctor said, rubbing his hands and heading to the Library of all places. Martha and Angel followed behind, curiously keeping their eyes open. They rounded a stack of books and found a banquet table packed with an assortment of colorful culinary delights. "Nibbles! I love nibbles." The two women looked at one another with glee, silently agreeing on their love of life on the TARDIS. They feasted while reclining around the pool.
Angel kept quiet while Martha and the Doctor chatted. Martha talked about Tim and Jenny. The Doctor talked about life as a human, and how everything was harder. Every now and then she'd smile and say a word of agreement so as not to alert Martha to her frustration. She was waiting for her to head to bed before she'd let him have it.
Martha yawned and said, "Ooh, I'm beat. Gonna catch some shut eye. Night."
"Night," the Doctor said with a nod.
"Good night, Martha," Angel wished. She waited until Martha's footsteps were inaudible before turning to the Doctor with her eyes narrowed. She reached into his pocket, stealing his sonic and psychically willed it to reduce the damper's percentage to a mere 25%. She was giving him a piece of her mind, literally.
The Doctor was confused and curious, wanting to see what Angel was doing. Before he knew it, he was seeing scenes from the past three months through Angel's point of view. Every nasty remark that Martha had to endure with gritted teeth, every awful thing he said to both of them as John Smith. He felt the concern Angel had for Martha's stress.
"No," he said. He had enough and yanked the sonic back, adjusting her psychic damper to 75%. "We're not doing this. If you want to bring this to my attention, you can do so with words. Heck, you can slap me, I can take it. But you are not going to attack me with your psychic gift and leave me no room for discussion. We are adults, let's act like it." She looked down, feeling ashamed. "Most of the time I forget you were raised by the Master. But little things like that are so like him," he said with a scoff.
"So what! What's so wrong with him?" She raised her voice in anger.
"He's evil. He kills people, lots of them, all the time. He has no remorse for the people he's killed. All he wants is to toy with me, break me, then put me back together. He will kill everyone for the chance to dominate the universe and live forever. Do you really think he cares about you?" He took a breath to calm himself when he saw the heartbreak on her face. "I bet you with every fiber of my being that he had some ulterior motive to raise you, use you as an incubator and produce an actual child of his own. Now, what he did with that child, I have no idea. I refuse to speculate until more evidence turns up."
Angel's heart broke at the information the Doctor dumped on her. "Can't we go back and save my baby?" Her voice cracked and her eyes were wet with tears. His eyes softened and his heart ached for her.
"We can't, I've tried to send the TARDIS to that place loads of times. But she always gets rerouted off course. There's something blocking her from landing there and then." Or else she's stopping me from doing so. He thought to himself, not wanting to tell her that. Angel excused herself and went to cry herself to sleep in bed.
Several weeks go by. Angel decides to stay on the TARDIS for the next few stops. Martha looked for Angel after a particularly trying expedition where she had to save the Doctor. Martha found Angel at the stream on the floor of her forest. They lounged out by the stream. Martha shared her frustrations with Angel. Her nerves were shot and she was enjoying the relaxation.
"I miss Jenny. I feel so bad about her," Martha confessed. "It's all because of us. Usually I can make peace with the deaths, because we save so many people. But that time still weighs on me." Angel didn't know how to help Martha, but resorted to her personal favorite, physical affection. She sat behind Martha, who was sitting on a boulder, and wrapped her arms around her as they both stared at the rippling surface of the stream.
Angel sat in the console room, at the time the Doctor had specified they would be back by. The TARDIS informed her that they still were not, and she did as she was instructed. She initiated the Vastra Protocol and the TARDIS took off.
A violent shake sent it veering off course, but it landed gently in London, 1814. She headed off to the wardrobe to make sure she wore something suitable. She found a deep green Regency style dress, with a high waistline and long sleeves. It took her some time to get the accompanying stays on over her white chemise. Then she tucked in a thin white fichu around her neckline. Finally, she pull on the dress and headed out, throwing her hair is an updo. She didn't care enough to be compliant to every little detail of the time. She just needed to find the Doctor and get back on the TARDIS.
Meanwhile, the Doctor and Bill walk out of their TARDIS after just reparking it.
"Is that a second TARDIS?!" Bill nearly shouted at him. He looked over and spotted a TARDIS sitting in the middle of the fair on the frozen Thames.
"Ah, I've got an idea of who it is," he said with glee. "Oh and when you see her, don't say her name. She might not know it yet. We mustn't interfere with her timeline." Bill scrunched her face in confusion and followed the Doctor. They mosey down to the frozen surface of the river, interacting with a few street urchins on the way.
Angel hears a knock on the door of the TARDIS. She opened the door to find an unfamiliar black woman looking at her.
"Oh, An-aaay, what are you doing here?" Bill caught herself before she said the name. The Doctor's face broke into a big ol' smile when he saw her.
"Just here for directions," she said. Then she looked up at the man standing next to the woman. She knew from the glint in his eyes that it was the Doctor. "Hello, Doctor," she said with a smirk. "My how you've grown." Her eyes took him in, delighted to see his future form.
Bill felt like an awkward third wheel. "Okay, well I'll just go try everything now. See you later!" She left before Angel could say anything else. The Doctor followed her inside the TARDIS to chat without the rukus of the outside world.
"Not too old for you?" He asked her.
"It's more like your outsides match your insides." She closes the gap between them and gives him a squeeze. She lifts her head to gaze into his eyes again. "You went to Wester Drumlins and you didn't make it back in time."
"Ahh yes. The Weeping Angels got me. Real ones, not a fair maiden's consciousness trapped in stone." He tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear. Then he stepped up to the console. "I'll come up with a way to trap them, unfortunately you can't just go retrieve me. I'll send you to the right spot and just stay in your room until the TARDIS tells you I'm back," he said while inputting the coordinates.
He turned to pull her to him by the hands. She gasped. He dipped her down, smiling at her. Then he kissed her, and she felt a spark of something ignite within her.
He pulled her back up and kissed her hand as he turned to leave. "What was that for?" She wondered aloud. He just smirked and walked out.
She stood there wide eyed before she hit the switch to begin the dematerialization sequence and away she went.
Martha and the Doctor discovered the TARDIS waiting for them at the instructed coordinates he encoded for Billy Shipton to put on Sally's list of movies.
Martha and the Doctor smiled and hurried back into the TARDIS. They had been missing Angel and their ship. Off they went to Angel's room and found her running on the forest floor.
"Took you long enough," Angel complained.
"We missed you too!" Martha said. They came together for one big three-way hug. "We met a future version of the Doctor!"
"No way, me too!"
"She was blonde!" "He was old!" They said simultaneously. Their comments got each other chuckling. The Doctor just stood there feeling a little disturbed and unappreciated. Angel's thoughts lingered on her encounter with the older Doctor and her cheeks turned red, causing the Doctor to raise an eyebrow. They continued on with their catching up for the night.
The Doctor and Martha walked back into the console room while Angel waited for them. The Doctor, as usual, chatted their heads off and began tinkering with mechanics. Martha was quiet, unlike her normal self.
"Martha, want to go for a dip in the library?"
"Yeah, I'll go get my suit." They seperated. The Doctor continued his splicing and wrenching and whatnot. Angel went directly to the pool, asking the TARDIS to materialize a swimsuit for her. She waited for Martha at the library entrance.
"So, what's really going on?" She asked, trying to get to the root of Martha's internal struggle quickly. Her damn circlet really annoyed her sometimes. Talking was so inefficient. They slowly walked through the isles of books while Martha tried to find the words.
"There was this woman, River Song. She had this worm that she used to erase the Doctor's memory of her. Said it was because of something to do with his timeline."
"That…doesn't seem so bad?"
"She said she was his wife." Angel's heart stopped at that. She shook her head, confused why she felt hurt by that. "I love him, Angel. But I keep getting more and more evidence showing me it's hopeless for me. He's out of my league. I feel more like a groupie, and it hurts." Angel draped her arm around Martha's shoulders, continuing to walk to the pool.
"Don't worry Martha, he's out of your league. But maybe you'll find someone worthy on your travels, ay?" She nudged Martha with her elbow and they jumped into the pool.
They lived life like that for a few months. Angel would hang back while the Doctor and Martha explored more. They would hang out in the theater room and comfort each other if something disturbed them. No one wanted to bother their peaceful friendship with notions of romance. Each of them felt something unresolved, deep down.
The Doctor parked the TARDIS. "Cardiff!" He shouted excitedly.
"Cardiff?" Martha says, flabbergasted.
"Ah, but the thing about Cardiff, it's built on a rift in time and space. Just like California on the San Andreas Fault, but the rift bleeds energy. Every now and then I need to open up the engines, soak up the energy, and use it as fuel." His motor mouth kept Martha and Angel entertained.
"So it's a pit stop?" Martha summarized his long winded explanation, smiling at his antics.
"Exactly! Should only take 20 seconds. The rift's been active."
A man ran quickly on the street towards the TARDIS.
"Wait a minute. They had an earthquake in Cardiff a couple of years ago. Was that you?" Martha accused.
"Bit of trouble with the Slitheen." His face fell and he looked down. Angel thought he might be guilty about something. "A long time ago. Lifetimes. I was a different man back then."
The man ran as fast as he possibly could. "Doctor!"
"Finito. All powered up." Doctor looked at the scanner and saw the face of Captain Jack Harkness just outside. He initiated their departure quickly.
Jack dove at the TARDIS, his last ditch effort to catch up.
Martha, the Doctor, and Angel fell, the TARDIS sparked and shook them to the floor. The Doctor jumped up and used his left foot on the console to steady himself, while analyzing the problem.
"What was that?" Martha asked after getting back up and grabbing the console for support.
"Smooth, Doctor," Angel chastised while rubbing her bum. Pain always irritated her. He ignored her comment. She decided to stay seated on the floor.
"We're accelerating into the future. The year one billion. Five billion. Five trillion. Fifty trillion? What? The year 100 trillion? Here we go again."
"Why? What happens then?" Martha demanded.
"We're going to the end of the universe." He looked at Martha, concern written all over his face.
"What's wrong with that?" Angel asked.
"It's when we found you," he informed her. Her brows knit together, saving the info for later.
"Doctor!" Jack held onto the box through the space time vortex.
"Well, we've landed," the Doctor whispered.
"So what's out there?" Martha asked him.
"I don't know."
"Say that again. That's rare."
"That doesn't sound good. I think I should come along with this time," Angel commented.
"Not even the Time Lords came this far, other than myself of course. We should leave. We should go. We should really, really go," he said soberly. Then he looked at Martha with a mischievous smile and they ran to the doors. Angel, not nearly as excited, walked behind.
Martha and the Doctor exit the TARDIS. Martha's eyes do a sweep of the landscape, taking in the new surroundings. Her eyes land on the body of a man lying several meters from the TARDIS. "Oh, my God. Oh, my God." She runs to examine the man. Angel heard her alarmed shouts and ran to catch up. "Can't get a pulse. Hold on, you've got that medical kit thing." She ran back to the TARDIS.
The Doctor slowly approached the body of his comrade. "Hello again. Oh, I'm sorry." Angel mirrored his movements. She detected his familiarity with the man in front of them. She got a look at his face, not bad looking. She wondered who he was and how he made it here.
"Here we go. Get out of the way," Martha ordered as she set up her supplies. "It's a bit odd, though, not very 100 trillion. That coat's more like World War II."
"I think he came with us," the Doctor finally informed his comrades. Angel was glad he was finally talking.
"How do you mean? From Earth?"
"Must've been clinging to the outside of the TARDIS. All the way through the vortex. Well, that's very him."
"What, do you know him?" Martha asked, surprised.
"Friend of mine." Angel noticed he didn't look happy to see him. Of course who would be when they're dead. But it was also odd that he didn't seem saddened. Just, guilty? "Used to travel with me. Back in the old days."
"But he's… I'm sorry, there's no heartbeat. There's nothing. He's dead." The man let out a huge gasp back to life and grabbed Martha by the arms. She squealed. "Oh, so much for me. It's all right, just breathe deep. I've got you."
"Captain Jack Harkness." He flirtatiously said to Martha. "And who are you?" He brushed her chin, making her smile. Angel kind of liked his accent.
"Martha Jones."
"Nice to meet you, Martha Jones."
"Oh, don't start." The Doctor chastised the 51st century man.
"I was only saying hello." Jack complained.
"I don't mind," Martha said as she helped the captain stand up. He grunted and huffed. Then he looked at the Doctor. Angel thought he looked sad?
"Doctor."
"Captain."
"Good to see you."
"And you. Same as ever. Although, have you had work done?"
"You can talk."
"Oh, yes, the face. Regeneration. How did you know this was me? I could've been her." He pointed to Angel standing beside him.
"I've met her before."
"You have?" Angel and the Doctor said simultaneously.
"My lips are sealed." He dismissed their question with a knowing smirk. "I've been following you for a long time. You abandoned me."
"Did I? Busy life. Moving on." Martha looked down when he said that. She wondered where she fit into his future, if this man didn't get to stay with him.
"Just got to ask. The Battle of Canary Wharf. I saw the list of the dead. It said Rose Tyler."
"Oh, no, sorry. She's alive." The Doctor informed, excited it was good news he could share this time.
"You're kidding!"
"Parallel world, safe and sound. And Mickey. And her mother." He added with a huge grin.
"Oh, yes!" Jack was ecstatic to hear it. He lept to his friend and gave him a big squeeze of the shoulders. They laughed a chummy laugh.
"Good old Rose." Martha said softly to Angel. They shared a look.
Jack approaches Angel. "Nice to see you again, Angie." He smiles at her warmly.
"It's odd, you've already met me, but I'm meeting you for the first time." Her face was scrunched, trying to accept the situation.
Jack's was the face of knowing and affection. "That's time travel for you." He decided to give her the bear hug, he had been debating. She had no idea what to do, but it felt nice so she returned it and smiled.
The four of them had set out to explore the new place they were visiting. "So there I was, stranded in the year 200,100, ankle-deep in Dalek dust, and he goes off without me, but I had this." Jack held up a device straped to his wrist. "I used to be a Time Agent. It's called a vortex manipulator. He's not the only one who can time travel."
"Oh, Excuse me, that is not time travel. It's like, I've got a sports car, you've got a space hopper."
"Oh hoho! Boys and their toys!" Martha laughs and gives Angel a look. Angel smiles back at her.
"All right, so I bounced. I thought, 21st century, the best place to find the Doctor. Except I got it a little wrong, arrived in 1869, this thing burnt out, so it was useless."
"Told you. I had to live through the entire 20th cenutry waiting for a version of you that would coincide with me."
"But that makes you more than 100 years old." Martha couldn't believe it.
"And looking good, don't you think?" He smiled.
"Are you a different species?" Angel asked.
"No, I'm human. Long story, maybe I'll explain it to you another time. Anyway, I went to the time rift, based myself there, 'cause I knew you'd come back to refuel, until finally, I get a signal on this detecting you and here we are."
"But the thing is, how come you left him behind, Doctor?" Martha asked, the thought was eating away at her.
"I was busy." Angel's eyes narrowed as she looked at him, unbelieving.
"Is that what happens, though, seriously? Do you just get bored of us one day and disappear?" Clearly Martha was fed up and letting loose with Jack around.
"Not if you're blonde," Jack replied.
"Oh, she was blonde! What a surprise!" Martha let out her frustration.
"You two, we're at the end of the universe, right? Right at the edge of knowledge itself and you're busy… blogging!" Martha looked ashamed. "Come on."
"I'm just glad you finally let it out, Martha," Angel whispered in her ear.
They walked in around in the dark of a desert-like area until they came upon a massive dirt-like structure built into a canyon.
"Is that a city?" Martha asked.
"City or a hive or a nest. Or a conglomeration. Like it was grown. But look, there, that's like pathways or roads. There must've been some sort of life." He sighed. "Long ago."
"What killed it?" Martha asked, saddened. Jack looked at her with pity, glad she was still ignorant of time's cruelty and hoping she didn't have to experience it.
"Time. Just time. Everything's dying now. All the great civilisations have gone. This isn't just night. All the stars have burnt up and faded away… into nothing."
"They must have an atmospheric shell. We should be frozen to death." Jack commented, provoking another explanation from the Doctor.
"Well, Martha, Angel and I, maybe. Not so sure about you, Jack." Angel caught his warning glance to Jack.
"But what about the people? Does no one survive?"
"I suppose we have to hope life will find a way."
"Well, he's not doing too bad," Jack said pointing at a guy running. Then a bunch of other people followed chasing him with torch flames billowing in the wind of their speed.
"Is it me or does that look like a hunt? Come on!" The gang follows the Doctor down to the man running away from the hunters.
"Oh I've missed this!" Jack said. They approach the man head on. "I've got you. I've got you…" He reached out to him, grabbing him.
"We've got to run. They're coming!" Jack pulls out a gun and aims at the hunters.
"Jack, don't you dare!" The Doctor warns. Jack unloads a few rounds up in the air, maybe to stop their running.
"There's more of them. We've got to keep going."
"I've got a ship nearby. It's safe. It's not far. It's over there." The Doctor looked in the direction of the TARDIS, only to see more hunters running at them. "Or maybe not."
"We're close to the silo. If we get to the silo, then we're safe." The man explained.
"Silo?" The Doctor asked.
"Silo." Jack voted.
"Silo for me." Martha raised her hand.
"Let's go." Angel said, breaking into a run with the man they endeavored to save.
"It's the Futurekind, they're coming! Open the gate!" The man begged.
"Show me your teeth!" The gatekeeper repeatedly demanded. They approached the gate. They all desperately bared their teeth.
"Human! Let them in! Let them in!" The gatekeeper order to his colleagues. "Close! Close!" They closed the gate as soon as they got in. One of the guards fired multiple rounds into the ground with a rifle to keep the Futurekind from slipping in. The group of hunters stopped.
"Humans. Humani. Make feast," one of them growled.
"Go back to where you came from." The guard said with his rifle pointing at him from between the gate. "I said go back! Back!"
"Oh, don't tell him to put his gun down." Jack prodded the Doctor.
"He's not my responsibility."
"And I am? Huh huh. That makes a change."
"Kind want you. Kind hungry." They all had strange black facial markings and lots of facial piercings along with pointed teeth. The one who spoke must've been the leader, he made a movement with his fist and they began to retreat.
"Thanks for that," the Doctor said to the guardsman.
"Right, let's get you inside."
"My name is Padra Fet Shafe Cane. Tell me, just tell me. Can you take me to Utopia?" They finally learned the name of the man they saved.
"Oh, yes, sir. Yes, I can," replied the guardsman.
The Doctor asked a scouting group if they could recover the TARDIS for him before they were escorted through corridors by a little boy. He was helping Padra find his family.
"It's like a refugee camp," Martha noted.
"It's stinking. Sorry. No offence. Not you." Jack felt the need to apologize to a man who looked offended.
The others were walking normally, but Angel couldn't handle the stench. She nearly gagged. Quickly, she covered her nose with the sleeve of her oversized black sweater that she worse over a white cotton dress. She had never been around so many unwashed humans in her life.
"Don't you see, though? The ripe old smell of humans. You survived. Oh, you might've spent a million years evolving into clouds of gas and another million as downloads, but you always revert to the same basic shape. The fundamental human. End of the universe and here you are. Indomitable, that's the word! Indomitable! Ha!"
"Is there a Kistane Shafe Cane?" The little boy repeatedly called out.
"That's me." A ragged woman replied.
"Mother!" Padra ran to his mother.
"Oh, my God. Padra!" She ran to him.
"It's not all bad news," Martha smiled at the spectacle.
"Captain Jack Harkness. And who are you?" He asked a man shaking his hand. The man smiled at his flirtatious charm.
"Stop it. Give us a hand with this," the Doctor sounded ordered, annoyance clear in his tone. Martha and Angel smiled at Jack, beginning to understand him a bit better. "It's half-deadlocked. See if you can overwrite the code." Jack began pushing a series of buttons on the pad. "Let's find out where we are." The door opened. They all yelped as the Doctor nearly fell out of it.
"I've got you." Jack said.
"Thanks."
"How did you cope without me?" Jack wondered. Angel had to agree, he seemed handy to have around.
"Now that is what I call a rocket," Martha said, impressed at the massive rocket in the center of the silo.
"They're not refugees, they're passengers," the Doctor realized.
"He said they were going to Utopia," Martha said.
"The perfect place. 100 trillion years and it's the same old dream. Do you recognise those engines?"
"Nope, whatever it is, it's not rocket science. But it's hot, though," Jack accessed.
"Boiling," the Doctor added. Jack closed the door after they returned to the corridor. "But if the universe is falling apart, what does Utopia mean?" He wondered aloud.
An aged man dressed in a billowy white shirt, black waistcoat and cravat approached the group. He pointed to Jack and asked, "The Doctor?"
"That's me."
The man turned his head and excitedly repeated, "Good! Good! Good!" He grabbed the Doctor's arm and led him down the corridor.
"It's good, apparently." The Doctor said.
"This is all very unsettling," Angel whispered to Jack and Martha as they trailed behind the Doctor. She watched the old man like a hawk.