A/N: Welcome back! This chapter update is based on the Doctor Who episode "The Doctor's Daughter."
I do not own Doctor Who. All I own is this story and my OC. Please review, and no flaming will be tolerated.
Happy reading!
IN MY DAUGHTER'S EYES
"I hope you never lose your sense of wonder.
You get your fill to eat, but always keep that hunger.
May you never take one single breath for granted."
– Lee Ann Womack and Sons of the Desert: 'I Hope You Dance' (I Hope You Dance [2000]).
Tardis
The Tardis is hurtling through the Time Vortex after she had unexpectedly taken off after their last adventure. Everyone is hanging on for grim death to the console to avoid being tossed to the floor.
"What the hell's it doing?" Donna demanded, looking a bit afraid. The Doctor had been trying for the past few minutes to regain control of the ship but wasn't succeeding.
"The control's not working." He realises it and gets thrown to the floor. He catches a glimpse of his old hand that had been severed during his duel with the Sycorax and notices that it seems to be glowing a bit more than usual inside the bubbling water. "I don't know where we're going, but my old hand's very excited about it."
"I thought that was just some freaky alien thing." Donna looked appalled. "You telling me it's yours?"
"Well…" the Doctor hesitated.
"It got cut off. He grew a new one," Martha explained to her, and Donna gave the Doctor a weird look.
"You are completely impossible."
"Love, if you haven't already figured that out by now, you never will." The Heart pipes up while making her attempt to stabilise the Tardis to get them out of the turbulence. Donna looks over at her curiously.
"Do you have anything that's been cut off recently and grown back?" And the Heart chuckles.
"Not to my knowledge. When the Doctor lost that hand, I was still human, Rose was still around, and he had only just regenerated." The Doctor manages to rejoin the Heart and takes over stabilising. "It took Rose a long time to realise he was the same man she already knew, just wearing a different face and with a different personality."
There was a bang, followed by a shower of sparks, before the Tardis finally went still and silent. The Doctor and the Heart exchange bewildered looks before both bolt towards the entrance. Donna and Martha follow a bit more cautiously.
Tunnel entrance
Where they stepped out looked like a deserted junkyard in a railway arch at night. The Doctor frowned as he looked around.
"Why would the Tardis bring us here, then?" He pondered, and the Heart shrugged, looking just as lost as he did.
"Your guess is as good as mine, sweetie." She acknowledges the comment as Martha beams from ear to ear, looking excited.
"Oh, I love this bit!" She gushed, and Donna raised an eyebrow at Martha's enthusiasm.
"I thought you wanted to go home?"
"I know," Martha shrugged. "But all the same, it's that feeling you get…" Donna ah'ed in understanding and grinned.
"Like you swallowed a hamster?" She guessed, and Martha nodded, causing both women to giggle like schoolgirls. Suddenly, three men in military uniforms come running in from out of nowhere, pointing rifles at them. All four raise their hands.
"Don't move! Stay where you are! Drop your weapons." The apparent leader barks at them, and the Doctor makes a face at him.
"We're unarmed," He reassures them. "Look, no weapons. Never any weapons. We're safe." One of the other soldiers studies their hands closely.
"Look at their hands. They're clean," He pointed out to the leader, quietly. The leader nodded in confirmation.
"Alright." He holsters his weapon by slinging it to his back with a leather strap. "Process them." He points towards the Doctor. "Him first." Two other soldiers immediately step forward and grab the Doctor.
"Oi, oi. What's wrong with clean hands?" the Doctor protested in confusion as he dragged himself towards a strange-looking machine.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" the Heart demanded, and is shoved back in line as the Doctor's right arm is pushed inside the machine.
"What's going on?" Martha added.
"Leave him alone!" Donna protested as the Doctor suddenly jerked in surprise when something inside the machine grabbed his arm. The Doctor looks very nervous.
"Something tells me this isn't about to check my blood pressure." He mutters and then flinches with pain. "Argh!"
"Doctor!" the Heart calls out to him in alarm. Donna turns on the soldiers angrily.
"What are you doing to him?"
"Everyone gets processed," the leader responded flatly. The Doctor describes what's going on.
"It's taken a tissue sample," He realises. "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!" He hisses with pain. "And extrapolated it." The Doctor frowned. "Some kind of accelerator?" The machine lets him go, and the Doctor pulls his arm out and examines his hand. All three women rush over to him.
"Are you all right?" Martha, ever the dutiful doctor, questions him and takes his hand to examine a decent graze on the back of it.
"What on earth? The Doctor is baffled. "That's just—" He is cut off when a pair of glass and metal doors open up behind them, and a figure steps out from the steam and brightly lit interior. The figure turns out to be a skinny blonde woman wearing combat boots, trousers, and a khaki t-shirt. Both the Doctor and the Heart gape at her in stunned shock. The leader approaches the young woman and hands her a rifle.
"Arm yourself." He orders her, and she expertly handles the weapon.
"Not possible…" the Heart murmured, attracting the young blonde woman's attention and flinching when she sensed her excitement and delight in seeing both her and the Doctor standing beside her. Both Martha and Donna were confused.
"Where did she come from?" Martha asked.
"From me/him." The Time Couple say in unison.
"From you?" Donna blinks at the Doctor in surprise. "How? Who is she?" All four time travellers observe the young woman, making sure that the rifle she is holding is armed and ready for use.
"Well, she's, well—" the Doctor babbled, still trying to work out how such a thing was possible, so the Heart answered the question for him.
"She's the Doctor's daughter." Donna and Martha react with surprise as the young woman standing before them grins brightly at the Time Couple.
"Hello, Dad!" She greets the Doctor, then swivels her attention onto the Heart. "Hello, Mum!"
"Mum?!" the Heart parroted, taken aback. "No, no way. You came from him!" She indicated to the Doctor, but the younger blonde was already focused on her commanding officer.
"You primed and ready to take orders?" the leader questioned her, and the young soldier grinned at him.
"Instant mental download of all strategic and military protocols, sir. Generation five thousand soldier primed and in peak physical health." She does a very 'Doctor-like' wink. "Oh, I'm ready." And immediately takes her place with the leader and other soldiers at a nearby barricade.
"She thinks I'm her mother…" the Heart mutters underneath her breath, looking mystified, and the Doctor didn't look much better.
"Hang on, did you say 'daughter'?" Donna questioned the Doctor, who recovered from his shock and adopted a very stony expression on his face.
"Mmm. Technically." He responded.
"Technically, how?" Martha prompted, and the Doctor sighed heavily, an indication he was about to give a long-winded explanation.
"Progenation," the Doctor revealed. "Reproduction from a single organism. Means one parent is the biological mother and father. You take a sample of diploid cells, split them into haploids, then recombine them in a different arrangement and grow. Very quickly, apparently."
"If that is the case, then how come she called the Heart her mother?" Martha followed up, looking over at the Heart, who looked curious and tentative herself, and the Doctor bit his bottom lip, thinking over the possibilities.
"To be honest, I haven't the foggiest." He admits. "But the closest explanation I can give you is that the DNA somehow recognised the Heart as my 'tether' or romantic partner and gave her the label."
"That doesn't make sense, and I studied biology," Martha frowned, and the Doctor shrugged, looking helpless.
"Well, as much as it pains me to admit this, I can't expect to know everything." He reluctantly pointed out. "Remember when Yana was trying to explain his navigational system to me?"
"Something's coming." The young blonde soldier alerts everyone, and everyone turns to see shadows on the tunnel wall. As they come into view, the unknown figures immediately start firing.
"It's the Hath!" The soldiers return fire, and the young blonde rushes over to the four civilians. '
"Get down!" She yells, and the Doctor, the Heart, Martha, and Donna take cover. The Hath are wearing breathing masks, but they have the appearance of humanoid fish dressed in military attire, too.
"We have to blow the tunnel. Get the detonator!" the leader orders, and the Doctor immediately objects.
"I'm not detonating anything!" He stated this before going over to assist a wounded soldier. The Hath breach the barricade, and one manages to grab Martha.
"Martha!" The Heart calls out to her friend in alarm and attempts to help her. "Let go of her!" But the blonde soldier intercepts her and pulls her away while simultaneously fending off another Hath in hand-to-hand combat and retrieving the detonator. "What the hell are you doing? I gotta save her!" The Heart yells at her.
"Blow the thing! Blow the thing!" the leader yells as they run to take cover. The Heart was still trying to get to Martha, who reaches out desperately for help, but the Doctor rushes over and grabs her before she can and reacts in horror when he sees what his 'daughter' was about to do.
"No. Don't!" But the blonde hits the button anyway. A klaxon sounds, and everyone runs before the detonator explodes with a big KaBOOM! It brings down the roof, blocking the passage.
"MARTHA!" screams the Heart as the Doctor turns furious eyes upon his 'daughter'.
"You've sealed off the tunnel. Why did you do that?" He demanded.
"They were trying to kill us." The young woman responded, frowning at him.
"But they've got my friend." The Doctor pointed out, and the young woman had the nerve to shrug like it didn't matter.
"Collateral damage." The Heart and Donna look at her in disbelief. "At least you've still got them." She indicates to the Heart and Donna. "He lost both his men. I'd say you came out ahead."
"How dare you!" The Heart seethed, storming over to her but is intercepted by the Doctor, who wraps a restraining arm around her waist.
"Her name's Martha. And she's not collateral damage, not for anyone. Have you got that, GI Jane?" Donna growled.
"We're going to find her." The Doctor promises darkly.
"You're going nowhere," the leader interrupts, earning the cold look from the Doctor. "You don't make sense, you three. No guns, no marks, no fight in you. I'm taking you to General Cobb. Now, move!"
Tunnel – deeper underground
After initially reprimanding the younger woman for her blunt comment about how Martha's capture and subsequent missing status didn't matter, Donna was the first to approach her and introduce herself.
"I'm Donna. What's your name?" the redhead asked the blonde soldier politely. The young soldier shrugged.
"Don't know. It hasn't been assigned."
"Well, if you don't know that, what do you know?" Donna questioned with a frown.
"How to fight."
"Anything else?" Donna prompted, and the Doctor spoke up from in front of them, still visibly cold towards his 'daughter', while the Heart maintained a resentful silence, still reeling over the loss of Martha.
"The machine must embed military history and tactics, but no name." He guessed. "She's a generated anomaly."
"Generated anomaly?" Donna looked thoughtful. "Generated. Well, what about that? Jenny." She suggested brightly, and the blonde brightened up at the suggestion.
"Jenny. Yeah, I like that. Jenny." She grinned.
"What do you think, you two?" Donna calls up the Time Couple. The Heart shrugged, and the Doctor grunted.
"Good as anything, I suppose." He reluctantly acknowledges, and Donna makes a face at the lack of enthusiasm coming from the new parents.
"Neither of you is what you'd call natural parents, are you?" She observed, and the Doctor scoffed loudly.
"They stole a tissue sample at gunpoint and processed it. It's not what I call natural parenting." The Doctor argued.
"Rubbish. My friend Nerys fathered twins with a turkey baster. Don't bother her." Donna retorted.
"Donna, you can't extrapolate a relationship from a biological accident. It doesn't work that way." The Heart finally speaks up in a monotone voice. But it seemed Donna wasn't about to drop the subject.
"Er, Child Support Agency can." Donna presses the issue, and the Doctor finally stops and glowers at her. The Heart pauses and looks back warily.
"Look, just because I share certain physiological traits with simian primates doesn't make me a monkey's uncle, does it?" He snapped, and Jenny took umbrage with the comment.
"I'm not a monkey!" She shouts. And the Doctor gives her a disdainful look before continuing, pulling the Heart along with him. "Or a child…"
Camp
The soldiers led the Doctor, the Heart, Donna, and Jenny to a large room with a slightly domed roof and a gallery. There were more cloning machines, like the one that the Doctor had been forced to donate DNA to create Jenny, and the ambient lighting all around them was a bloody red.
"So, where are we? What planet is this?" the Heart pipes up, mostly to give the Doctor a few minutes to calm down from venting his frustrations at both Donna and Jenny. The leader, whose name turned out to be Cline, turns and looks at her before gesturing dramatically around the room with a sweep of his arm.
"Messaline." Cline then pauses for a second before continuing. "Or what's left of it." He wanders off to presumably fetch this General Cobb, while a hidden overhead tannoy makes an ominous announcement.
"Six six three seventy-five deceased. Generation six six seven one, extinct. Generation six six seven two, forty-six deceased. Generation six six eight zero, fourteen deceased. Generation six—"
"But this is a theatre," Donna commented, and the Doctor spoke up, sounding rather sarcastic.
"Maybe they're doing Miss Saigon." He quips, and Donna chooses to ignore the comment as she continues to rubberneck about the room.
"It's like a town or a city underground. But why?" She pondered just as Cline returned with an older man with a neatly trimmed white beard following him. Right away, the Heart could sense immense suspicion coming from him, and she took a step away from him, directly into the Doctor, who took her hand, sensing her discomfort.
"Woah, not getting good vibes from him…" the Heart whispers to the Doctor just before he addresses the older man.
"General Cobb, I presume?" the Doctor questioned formally. Cobb neither confirms nor denies his name but instead ignores what the Doctor had said and gets straight to the point.
"Found in the western tunnels, I'm told, with no marks." Cobb studies them calculatingly. 'And a big hello to you too, mate…' the Heart thought scathingly, not liking the cold look they were getting from this man. "There was an outbreak of pacifism in the eastern zone three generations back, before we lost contact. Is that where you came from?" The Doctor continues in his pleasant, formal tone.
"Eastern zone, that's us, yeah. Yeah. I'm the Doctor, this is my partner, the Heart, and this is Donna." He introduces them to Cobb. Jenny steps forward to introduce herself when the Doctor neglects to do so himself.
"And I'm Jenny." She stated, and the Heart felt the Doctor bristle a little when she spoke.
"Don't think you can infect us with your peacemaking. We're committed to the fight, to the very end." Cobb warns them, and the Doctor is quick to explain.
"Well, that's all right. We can't stay, anyway." He reassures the General. "We're just going to go and find our friend—"
"Not possible. All movement is regulated. We're at war." Cobb immediately shuts the Doctor down.
"So, we gathered." The Heart speaks up. "Who are the Hath exactly?"
"Back at the dawn of this planet, these ancient walls were carved from the earth. Our ancestors dreamt of a new beginning," Cobb explains almost reverently. "A colony where humans and Hath would work and live together."
"So what happened?" the Doctor was puzzled.
"The dream died," Cobb was blunt. "Broken, along with Hath's promises. They wanted it all for themselves. But those early pioneers, they fought back. They used the machines to produce soldiers instead of colonists and began this battle for survival."
"But there's nothing but earth outside, why's that?" Donna questioned. "Why build everything underground?"
"The surface is too dangerous," Cline stated, and the Heart shook her head in disbelief.
"Then why build windows in the first place?" She asked.
"And what do those mean?" Donna pointed towards the wall, where 601707 had been chiselled onto a plaque of some kind.
"The rites and symbols of our ancestors," Cobb explains. "The meaning's lost in time."
"How long's the war gone on for?" the Doctor asks, and Cobb sighs heavily.
"Longer than anyone can remember. Countless generations marked only by the dead." He confirmed solemnly. Donna raised an eyebrow.
"What, fighting all this time?" She clarified dubiously. Jenny steps forward, looking passionate about a cause she had only known for a few hours, which made the Heart feel uneasy about how quickly she accepted what was going on.
"Because we must," Jenny insisted. "Every child of the machine is born with this knowledge. It's our inheritance. It's all we know. How to fight, and how to die."
"That's what I'm afraid of." The Heart mutters despairingly. Cobb brings up a 2D holographic map for the newcomers to see for themselves. The Doctor puts on his glasses to study it better.
"Does this show the entire city, including the Hath zones?" He inquires curiously. Cobb studies him suspiciously.
"Yes. Why?"
"So we can find our friend, Martha." The Heart confirmed, pointedly. However, Cline shakes his head in commiseration.
"We've got more important things to do." He stated firmly. "The progenation machines are powered down for the night shift, but as soon as they're active, we could breed a whole platoon from you three." The Heart glares at him warningly.
"You even think of sticking my arm in one of those things, and I'll break yours." She promises, sounding eerily like the Master during one of his more dangerous moods. Donna was quick to agree with her friend.
"I'm not having sons and daughters by some great big flipping machine." Then, she suddenly remembers Jenny and turns and looks apologetically at her. "Sorry, no offence, but you're not … well, I mean, you're not real." Donna pointed out, and Jenny scowled at her.
"You're no better than him," She pointed towards the Doctor. "I have a body, I have a mind, I have independent thought. How am I not real?" She argues vehemently. "What makes you better than me?"
"Well said, soldier." Cobb nodded approvingly at Jenny. "We need more like you if ever we're to find the Source." That caught the Doctor's interest.
"Ooo, the Source. What's that, then? He asked eagerly. "What's a Source? I like a Source. What is it?" He perked up brightly.
"The Breath of Life," Cobb responded, and the Doctor immediately went blank.
"And that would be?"
"In the beginning, the great one breathed life into the universe. And then she looked at what she'd done, and she sighed." Cline narrated like he had this story drilled into his head from a young age. The Heart rolls her eyes in realisation as Jenny grins at the idea.
"She. I like that."
"A creation myth?" the Heart and the Doctor looked at each other dubiously. Cobb looked defensive.
"It's not myth; it's real. That sigh. From the beginning of time, it was caught and kept as the Source. It was lost when the war started." He looked determinedly at the 2D map. "But it's here, somewhere. Whoever holds the Source controls the destiny of the planet." The Doctor has a theory and immediately pulls out his sonic and makes the map buzz.
"What are you doing, sweetie?" the Heart queried, and the Doctor grinned at her, pleased by his discovery.
"There's a suppressed layer of information in this map," He clarifies. "If I can just—" He uses the sonic once more, and immediately, more tunnels and chambers appear like magic on the holographic map, making all the soldiers gasp in disbelief. The Heart grinned at her tether as he practically basked in his triumph.
"What is it? What does it mean?" Donna asks, and the Heart explains.
"Essentially, there was a whole complex of tunnels that had been hidden away from sight." Cobb points to one particular chamber that seemed to be the main focus on the map.
"That must be the lost temple." Cobb looked positively gleeful about this discovery. "The Source will be inside." He straightened up and turned towards the Doctor, who realised almost instantly that he might've unwittingly set off a chain of events and looked regretful, especially when he saw the ruthless, almost greedy expression on Cobb's face. "You've shown us the way. And look, we're closer than the Hath. It's ours!"
"Oh, no…" the Heart muttered, going pale.
"Tell them to prepare to move out. We'll progenate new soldiers on the morning shift, then we march. Once we reach the Temple, peace will be restored at long last." Cobb orders, and the Doctor just gives him a flat look.
"Er, call me old-fashioned, but if you wanted peace, couldn't you just stop fighting?" He pointed out, logically.
"Only when we have the Source. It'll give us the power to erase every stinking Hath from the face of this planet." The Heart winces at the pure malice she could hear and sense from him.
"But a few minutes ago, you were speaking of peace in our time. Now you're talking about committing genocide." The Heart stated.
"For us, that means the same thing." Cobb was very matter-of-fact, and that answer and what the soldiers had planned was a big no-no in the Doctor's books.
"Then you need to get yourself a better dictionary," the Doctor suggested coldly, raising to his full height. "When you do, look up genocide. You'll see a little picture of me there, and the caption will read, over my dead body." However, Cobb did not look the slightest bit intimidated by the Doctor.
"And you're the one who showed us the path to victory," He retorted pointedly. "But you can consider the irony from your prison cell." Cobb looked at Cline. "Cline at arms." The younger man immediately cocks his gun and points it at the Doctor, the Heart and Donna, as other soldiers grab their arms and restrain them.
"Take your hands off me!" The Heart snarls. Both the Heart and Donna struggle in their captors' grip, while the Doctor surrenders without a fight but maintains a cold glare at Cobb.
"Oi, oi, oi. Cool the beans, Rambo!" Donna growls.
"Take them," Cobb orders. "I won't have them spreading treason. And if you try anything, Doctor, I'll see that your woman dies first." He threatens Heart, and the Doctor sees red.
"Don't you threaten her/Don't you dare touch her!" The Doctor and Donna both warn, while the Heart's eyes widen in alarm. Cline gestures with his gun away from the campsite.
"Come on, this way." The soldiers restraining the trio start moving off, but the Doctor shrugs them off to make one last parting remark.
"I'm going to stop you, Cobb. You need to know that," The Doctor promises. Cobb sneers at him, unconcerned and overly confident.
"I have an army and the Breath of God on my side, Doctor. What'll you have?" The soldier who had been restraining the Doctor grabs onto him again as the Doctor responds fiercely and confidently.
"This." He points towards his temple, basically indicating his brain, before the soldier holding him pulls him away. Cobb rolls his eyes and dismisses him before addressing Cline.
"Lock them up and guard them." He orders, and Cline indicates towards Jenny, still waiting for her orders.
"What about the new soldier?"
"Can't trust her." Cobb doesn't waste time thinking it over. "She's from pacifist stock. Take them all." A shocked and visibly hurt Jenny is rounded up and taken away to the cell blocks with the trio as well.
Cell
The trio and Jenny are tossed not too gently into a damp and dank-looking cage. Above the doors, there were more numbers embossed onto another plaque. These numbers read 60120716. Donna spots them and studies them curiously.
"More numbers. They've got to mean something." She ponders out loud, but the Doctor dismisses it in his frustration.
"Makes as much sense as the Breath of Life story." He points out sharply. Jenny frowns at her father in confusion.
"You mean that's not true?" She questions, and Donna shakes her head.
"No, it's a myth. Isn't it, Doctor?" She looks over at the Doctor, who is pacing and trying to figure out a way to get them out of their predicament so they can stop Cobb and the rest of the soldiers from committing genocide.
"Yes," He acknowledges distractedly. "But there could still be something real in that temple. Something that's become a myth. A piece of technology, a weapon." He lists the possibilities.
"Meaning this so-called Source could be a weapon, and we've naively given directions to Cobb and his sycophants?" the Heart clarified bluntly, and the Doctor nodded.
"Oh, yes."
"Wonderful," the Heart commented sarcastically, shaking her head at their stupidity.
"Which is why we need to get out of here, find Martha, and stop Cobb from slaughtering the Hath." Jenny was looking at both him and the Heart with fascination and admiration, and it was making the Time Couple feel both annoyed and uncomfortable. "What, what are you, what are you, what are you staring at?" the Doctor demanded harshly.
"You both keep insisting that you're not soldiers, but look at you." Jenny looked at the Doctor critically. "Drawing up strategies like a proper general."
"I think you're mistaken, love." The Heart denies Jenny's claims. "We're trying to stop the fighting."
"Isn't every soldier?" Jenny retorts, and the Heart narrows her eyes at her, remembering vague memories of the Time War and seeing Time Lords and Ladies fighting back with everything they had against the Daleks, often paying the ultimate price.
"It's complicated. Soldiers fight for multiple different reasons, encompassing both choice and necessity, and often it's to avoid the consequences for disobedience." The Heart explains solemnly.
"Look, we haven't got time for this." The Doctor snaps before heading over to Donna and brandishing his hand towards her. "Donna, give me your phone. It's time for an upgrade."
"And now you've got a weapon." Jenny points out smugly.
"It's not a weapon," The Doctor corrects her.
"But you're using it to fight back," Jenny insists with an excited grin on her face, which makes the Doctor and the Heart nervous. "I'm going to learn so much from both of you!"
"Donna, will you tell her?" the Doctor looked pleadingly at Donna, who shook her head, looking rapt with what she was witnessing. The Heart frowns at her friend, sensing her amusement.
"You, Doctor, are speechless. And Heart, you look so frustrated." The redhead giggles with delight. "I'm so loving this. Keep going, Jenny." She eggs the younger blonde on, much to the Time Couple's chagrin.
"Thanks so much for your help, Donna…" the Heart drawled in irritation as the Doctor finished sonicking Donna's phone and calls Martha.
"Doctor?" Martha's urgent voice almost immediately picks up. The Doctor sagged with relief.
"Martha, you're alive!" He exclaims, and both the Heart and Donna sigh with relief.
"Atta girl, Martha!" the Heart praises her.
Doctor! Oh, am I glad to hear your voice. Are you all right?" Martha questioned, concerned.
"Yeah, I'm with Heart and Donna. We're all fine. What about you?" the Doctor asks, as Donna looks disapprovingly at him for neglecting to tell Martha about Jenny.
"And Jenny. She's fine too." Donna reminded him, and the Doctor huffed irritably.
"Yeah, all right. And Jenny. That's the woman from the machine," He reminds Martha. "The soldier. My daughter, except she isn't, she's, she's…" He gives up trying to explain and moves on. "Anyway, where are you?"
"I'm in the Hath camp," Martha explains. "I'm okay, but something's going on. The Hath are all marching off to some place that's appeared on this map thing…" Martha confirms, and the Doctor winces.
"Yeah, that was me." He confesses. "If both armies are heading that way, there's going to be a bloodbath."
"What do you want me to do?" Martha asks, worriedly.
"Just stay where you are." The Doctor instructs. "If you're safe there, don't move, do you hear?"
"But I can help!" Martha insists. The phone goes dead, and the Doctor curses as he pulls the phone away from his ear and glares down at it.
"I lost her." He stated, and the Heart's eyes widened in alarm.
"What do you mean?"
"Relax, darling. Her battery's probably flat. We've got bigger problems right now." The Doctor reassures her.
"Shh! I can hear Cobb saying something…" Donna states, and everyone falls silent to listen in.
"The doors that have been closed will be open to us now," Cobb was rallying the troops. "The door to the Temple, to the Source, and victory." All the soldiers cheer loudly. "Come the dawn cycle, we march!" Cobb declares.
"To war!" the crowd of soldiers cheer, and the Heart curses.
"Damnit, we're running out of time." She realised, and the Doctor nodded in agreement.
"We have to get past that guard." He indicates to Cline, who was standing with his back to the cage door, only just out of earshot. Jenny gets to her feet, looking determined.
"I can deal with him."
"No, no, no, no. You're not going anywhere." The Doctor shuts her down firmly.
"What?" Jenny exclaimed, indignantly. The Heart nodded in agreement.
"You belong here with them."
"She belongs with us," Donna argued on Jenny's behalf. "With the two of you. She's your daughter."
"No, she's a soldier. She came out of that ridiculous machine." The Heart retorts. Donna scowls at the Time Couple.
"Oh yes, I know that bit." She decides to try a different method of persuasion. "Listen, have you got that stethoscope?" The Doctor looks at her suspiciously but withdraws the requested item. "Give it to me. Come on." He reluctantly hands it over, and Donna turns towards Jenny, who immediately takes a step back from her.
"What are you doing?" Jenny demanded warily.
"It's all right. Just hold still." Donna reassured Jenny before pressing the chest plate to Jenny's chest, checking both sides. Satisfied with what she had heard, Donna pulls the buds out of her ears and gestures insistently at the Time Couple. "Come here." She hands the stethoscope first to the Doctor. "Listen and then tell me where she belongs." The Doctor humours Donna and listens to Jenny's chest. His eyes darken with pain, and he avoids direct eye contact with a confused Jenny. He pulls away and removes the buds. "Now, you…" Donna hands the stethoscope to the Heart, and she repeats the process. Tears well up in the Heart's eyes.
"Two hearts." The Doctor confirms quietly.
"Exactly," Donna stated triumphantly.
"What's going on?" Jenny demands.
"Does that mean she's a Time Lady, like you, Heart?" Donna asks, and the Time Couple don't answer immediately.
"What's a Time Lady?" Jenny asks instead.
"That's what I am," the Heart confirms. "The Doctor is a Time Lord. It's where we're from."
"And I'm from you." Jenny realises. However, the Doctor throws her a cold glare, which makes Jenny flinch back in surprise.
"You're an echo, that's all." He corrects her scornfully. "A Time Lord is so much more. We're sums of knowledge, a code, a shared history, a shared suffering."
"And it's gone now. All of it. Gone forever…." The Heart added brokenly.
"What happened?" Jenny looked sadly at her 'parents'.
"There was a war," the Doctor explained, reluctantly.
"Like this one?" Jenny indicated. But the Time Couple shook their heads firmly and bitterly.
"Bigger. Much bigger." The Heart corrects her.
"And both of you fought and killed?"
"Not me. I wasn't needed. But the Doctor did." The Heart stated, and Jenny narrowed her eyes accusingly at them.
"Then how are we different?" She argued, and the Heart straightened up, realising that Jenny had a point, and decided to give the younger woman a chance to prove she was more than just a soldier participating in a pointless war.
"You're not." She agreed before looking seriously at the Doctor. "If she says she can get us out, let her. Let's give her the benefit of the doubt." The Doctor still looked against the idea, convinced that a leopard couldn't change its spots, but eventually gave in. Jenny beamed happily and flung herself at the Heart, hugging her enthusiastically.
"Oh, thank you, thank you!" She chirped, and the Heart stiffened up briefly before gently pulling away from her.
"Don't thank me just yet. You still need to break us out of here." She reminds her, and Jenny sober up and nods. The Doctor, the Heart, and Donna pressed themselves up against the wall, out of sight of Cline, and waited for Jenny to make her move. Donna frowned questioningly at the Heart.
"What was that about?" She accuses, and the Heart blinks at her in confusion.
"Pardon?"
"Just now. You flinched when Jenny hugged you." Donna points out, and the Heart looks at her incredulously.
"I don't think now's a good time to analyse this. We're in the process of getting out of this cell." The Heart chides her.
"Shush!" the Doctor snaps harshly, as Jenny sidles up to the cell door and begins flirting with Cline. The young soldier looks cautiously at her.
"Hey."
"I'm not supposed to talk to you. I'm on duty." Cline told her, and Jenny grinned coquettishly at him.
"I know. Guarding me. So, does that mean I'm dangerous or that I need protecting?" Jenny queried.
"Protecting from what?" Cline frowns.
"Oh, I don't know. Men like you?" Jenny responded innocently before grabbing him by his shirt and tugging him closer to kiss him through the bars. While he was distracted, she took his pistol and pressed it against him. Cline blinks at her in astonishment. "Keep quiet and open the door." Jenny requested, seriously. Out of sight, the Doctor has a fairly disapproving scowl on his face, while the Heart just raises an eyebrow.
"I'd like to see you try that," Donna remarked to the Doctor, who scowls at her in annoyance.
Stairs
After escaping the cell, the four of them make their way to a flight of metal stairs, only to encounter a guard on the lower level. The Heart huffed when she saw him.
"That's the way out." She whispers. Jenny raises her pistol, and the Doctor immediately growls at her when he sees it.
"Don't you dare!" He warns, and Jenny frowns but lowers her pistol obediently. Donna straightened up and smoothed down her outfit, and fixed her hair a little.
"Let me distract this one," She volunteered. "I have picked up a few womanly wiles over the years." But the Doctor puts out his arm to stop her. Donna looks at him questioningly.
"Let's save your wiles for later," He suggests, then pales when he sees the mildly offended expressions on Donna and the Heart's faces. "In case of emergency…" He quickly adds to defuse the situation.
"Then what do you suggest we do then?" the Heart counters, and the Doctor starts rummaging around in his coat pockets.
"I know I've got something of use in here. Where is it? ah!" He triumphantly withdraws a clockwork mouse and holds it up for everyone's perusal. Donna raises an eyebrow at it, looking sceptical. However, the Heart considered it and nodded approvingly.
"Yeah, that might work…" She concedes, and the Doctor winds it up and sets it down on the floor. The toy immediately wheels itself across the stone floor and grinds to a halt behind the guard, who turned when he heard the squeaking and studies it quizzically. He stoops down to pick it up when Jenny suddenly comes up behind him and karate chops him. The guard goes down like a sack of potatoes. "Jenny … why did you do that?" The Heart groaned when she followed the younger blonde and looked down at the guard as the Doctor came over and gaped between the unconscious guard and his daughter in disbelief.
"I was going to distract him, not clobber him." The Doctor protested, and Jenny shrugged like it was no big deal.
"Well, it worked, didn't it?" She reasoned, and the Doctor shook his head and glanced back at the Heart.
"She must get that from you…" He grumbled, and the Heart gave him the annoyed scowl that all girlfriends or wives give their partners when they are accused of something out of their control.
"Don't bring me into this." She complained warningly. The Doctor sighed heavily before continuing with their escape plan.
"They must all have a copy of that new map." He realises, then turns and looks sternly at Jenny. "Just stay there. Don't hurt anyone." Jenny pouts at him as the Doctor frisks the guard for the aforementioned map. He finds one and then gestures for everyone to continue down the staircase. At the bottom, they found themselves in a tunnel.
A/N: Part two isn't far away!