Doctor Who fic: Project Salvation (6/?)
Title: Project Salvation (6/?)
Author: buckshotwon
Rated: PG-13
Spoilers: Still post S4/Journey’s End
Characters: Martha Jones, Tenth Doctor, Jack Harkness, Torchwood (Mickey Smith, Gwen Cooper, and Ianto Jones), The Master, Jones Family (Leo, Tish, Francine, and Clive), Sarah Jane Smith (eventually), mentions of Donna Noble, Lucy Saxon.
Pairings: Martha Jones/Tenth Doctor, Martha Jones/The Master, (minor) Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones, and Francine Jones/Clive Jones.
Disclaimer: I wish I did own Doctor Who but I don’t own them. BBC does.
Summary: Four months had passed. There were signs everywhere, and they all point to Martha Jones.
Previous Chapters: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5
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“The TARDIS…”
That was the Doctor speaking who was standing in the exact spot where the TARDIS was left. But now, it wasn’t there. “It’s not here anymore, I don’t understand…” He scratched his head and undid the buttons of his jacket, sighing.
Jack appeared by his side. “What do you mean? The TARDIS just left?”
The Doctor just looked at him and Jack found his answer within the Doctor’s expression. “And I bet Martha and Tish were on there as well.” He concluded, letting out another sigh. Oh, this day was not going as planned, it really wasn’t.
He saw the worried look on Martha’s mother’s face and reassured her. “Your daughters are fine, believe me. The TARDIS will take care of them.” His eyes averted to the woman who claimed to be Docherty, stood in the distance, her hands were clasped together, and she seemed to rock on her heels, watching what was before her.
”You,” He started to say, and walked over to her. “Tell me what is going on.” He demanded and Jack and Mickey’s eyebrows rose at the same time. They hardly saw the Doctor get upset, and this was quite the exception.
”It’ll be my pleasure.”
-----
If Tish couldn’t grip any tighter to a nearby pole… Martha thought, looking at her sister who was currently in a state of shock. “Tish, it is okay to let go, trust me.”
Tish looked at her younger sister, seeing her calm venire, and began to loosen her grip.
”Much better,” Martha said, sitting in the captain’s chair, staring at the control panel before her. She couldn’t stop the TARDIS from traveling wherever they were heading to, she tried many times. It was as if the TARDIS was on auto pilot.
Tish had stopped and looked around at the TARDIS herself, amazed, and touched the walls. “I can’t believe this…”
The TARDIS seemed to respond to Tish by humming towards her, and Tish wasn’t afraid as much anymore.
Martha continued to sit in the chair, falling quieter and started taping her fingers against the edge of the seat. A simple beat came over her fingers, her chest heaved in and out as she closely heard the taping in her own ears. It sounded like drums.
”Can’t you hear it? Inside my head. I thought it would stop…” Martha mumbled under hear breath. “The constant drumming.” Martha didn’t seem to notice her sister calling her from across the room.
“Martha, are you alright? You’ve gotten quiet on me.” Tish asked her, and Martha blinked out of her trance, finally realizing her position and the taping of her finger. She fell silent at trying to respond.
”Yes, I’m fine. I was just busy thinking of what to do now.” Martha was certainly good at cooking up a good lie.
Just then, Martha felt the TARDIS slow down, and she couldn’t describe the feeling of feeling the TARDIS move through the vortex, feeling the vortex itself underneath her, and it was almost close to touch. “I think we’re going to stop. And this is the part where you need to hold onto something.” She warned her sister and got up to hold onto something nearby and Tish did the same.
The TARDIS had landed, quite a bumpy one at that, and then everything stopped and fell into silence.
-----
“The riots going on have something to do with this Salvation kick?” Jack repeated and Docherty nodded her head again.
”I can’t reveal much,” she began to speak, leaning against the brick wall behind her. The Doctor gave her a stern look and she glanced in his direction before speaking again. “The Salvation started up a while ago. It was this urban legend, of sorts. It was said that this someone who can balance time and space, a person who can bring healing to the people. This person possesses a gift, and will go through many trials until the signs were directly aligned.” She took a breath, and sighed.
The next thing that came out of her mouth would almost make the Doctor’s heart (one of them) to stop beating.
”I heard about it when Harold Saxon ruled over the earth.”
-----
Martha was the first to step out of the TARDIS and it was dark.
The sky was dark; there were a few stars, no moon.
”This, looks like London,” Martha exclaimed, seeing a few familiar buildings surrounding her. They were parked in the same area the TARDIS was sitting in earlier, but something was off.
It was quiet.
Perhaps, too quiet.
Tish followed out, closing the door behind her and stepped out into the small alleyway. “This is London?” she asked, and Martha gave an expression of confusion.
”It is, I mean, I can see the London eye from here, but it’s not lit up. It’s completely dark around here.” Martha stated, and started to walk in a direction to lead them out. Once they found a street, Tish had a sigh of relief and Martha would have joined but something was still off. “Where is everyone? I mean, if this is London, and it’s late, wouldn’t there still be people out here driving or causing trouble, something?”
Tish finally noticed it too.
There were abandoned cars lined up in the streets, glass from small stores were broken and shattered completely.
Martha spotted a piece of paper, a newspaper, and picked up off the nearby car, setting off the alarm. “Oh my God…” Martha gasped.
”What? What is it?” Tish ran to her side, and Martha held out the paper in front of her to show her sister. “Oh…”
The front page read “Harold Saxon wins newest election by landslide!” And right underneath it was a picture of him smiling and Tish felt a surge of nausea kick in. Martha could only stare at the picture more than the headline.
He was still haunting her no matter what she did to ignore it. Tish didn’t know, her parents didn’t know, no one knew about it. And now that he was alive, Martha felt this was too surreal. And then the date in the corner caught her attention.
November 15th of 2012, is what it read.
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“How do you…?” The Doctor was speechless.
No one was supposed to remember the year that never was, except the ones on the Valiant.
”It was almost like waking up from a dream, or should I say, a horrible nightmare.” Docherty explained to them, who were surprised at her confession. Mickey, on the other hand was completely out of the loop, as well as Gwen and Ianto.
”Wait, I am completely lost.” Mickey spoke up.
Jack cleared his throat. “You remember Harold Saxon, he ran for Prime Minister?” Mickey nodded. “He did some terrible things, very bad ones, and he was stopped thankfully by the help of Martha, but when time was redone, no one was supposed to remember except the rest of us who were on the Valiant… I haven’t thought about it in so long.” Jack confessed.
”None of us had, Jack,” The Doctor spoke up, being very quiet.
”Well, I met Martha, I remember meeting her. She was so determined that I was almost amazed at her strength and courage. I started to remember four months ago, and they were dream like sequences. Many people are starting to remember, that’s why there riots. People don’t understand what has happened, what’s going on, why it’s happening. They just want answers, they need peace, they need healing.” Docherty finished talking.
The Doctor was in the background, somewhat in his own world.
He didn’t want to relive the events that took place in that year. He was helpless, taking as a pathetic pet, weak, and all he could do was stand by and watch the attack by the Toclafane onto Earth. He remembered he worried about Martha every day and night, missing her.
The group fell silent as Docherty had excused herself out of their zone, leaving to deal with what was really going on.
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“He can’t believe alive! Martha, we saw him die in the Doctor’s arms!”
Tish was pacing back and forth, still talking to Martha who was sitting on a bench in an abandoned park, the article from the newspaper was tucked in between Martha’s fingers.
”I don’t understand why the TARDIS would bring us here, especially to his time and date. I mean, if this isn’t our world that we’re used to, we might be in a…alternate universe.” Martha was almost amazed at herself. Apparently, paying attention to being a companion to the Doctor came in handy. “I wonder if this will create a paradox…” Martha treaded off, looking around.
”Martha, are you listening to me? I swear, you are like…on another planet!” Tish exclaimed.
”Tish, I know you are scared. I am too, believe me, I don’t want to relive this again. I just can’t…” Martha treaded off, looking away from her sister and Tish immediately wrapped her arms around her. She knew she couldn’t understand what Martha had gone through that year that happened, or didn’t happen, and she knew Martha wasn’t completely over it. She certainly wasn’t either.
Martha hugged her sister back. “You and I have each other. And I will protect you, okay? I don’t know what’s going on, why we’re here, why the Master’s alive, I don’t know. But I won’t let anything happen to you.” Martha reassured her sister, and gave her a soft smile.
Just then, Tish heard what sounded to be footsteps behind Martha.
It was a figure lurking in the shadows.
And he had something in his hands. “You’re one of them, aren’t you?” It was a male voice; he looked about in his early twenties. “You come down here, trying to take more things from us. I won’t let you!”
”What? We’re not who you think we are,” Martha looked at him and stood next to her sister, and noticed they were still wearing their bridesmaid gowns. They did look a bit out of place, considering what the younger man was wearing.
That’s when Martha noticed the gun in his hand.
And Tish stepped in front of the bullet, shielding Martha from being hurt.
The young male was gone, Tish had fallen to the ground, and Martha wondered what to do next.
-----
Martha held her sister’s body in her lap, clutching her hand. “Damn it, Tish, you are not going to die on me. Not while I’m alive,” Martha never cried, not in front of those she cared about, but she felt her tears tickle down her face.
Was this the TARDIS’ mission? To let her sister die in her arms in a world ruled by a man, well non human, who was a complete psycho?
”Tish, come on, wake up!” Martha demanded, her hand was covering the bullet wound in Tish’s abdomen.
”Bravo, Miss Jones.” There was applause coming from behind her.
It was him, but was it the real him, or some kind of illusion.
”Hmm, and here I was thinking that you’d be the first one to go. Ah, you always were the strong one weren’t you?” The Master approached her; intimidation was read over his face. “Leave her. What good is she now?”
Martha kept her eyes on Tish.
The Master leaned his chin onto Martha’s shoulder, holding her steady. “Get back to the lovely TARDIS, Martha, you should be running again. And everywhere you go, I will be there to follow,” he paused, brushing a piece of hair from her and grinned against it. “And I’m not through with you Martha Jones, not by a long shot.”
And he was gone again.
Martha continued to cradle her sister’s head in her lap and all of a sudden, a sense of calmness overwhelmed her.
Out of her tears, she felt something pulse through her veins, it felt unnatural for her.
And then, Tish let out a gasp into the night.
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A/N: No A/N this time! *busy squeeing over supernatural still*