SJ Fic: Taking in Strays Ch. 15 - There's No Place Like Home (Sarah Jane / Duplicate 10)
Disclaimer: It all belongs to the Beeb. I'm having fun with Sarah Jane and Handy today. Since Rose seemed to me like the type to decide something wasn't so good once she had it. Sorry to all those Rose fans out there.
Summary: When the human Doctor clone finds his way to her door, Sarah Jane finds she's opening her door to much more than the trouble she expects. Rating subject to change with further chapters.
Rating: PG
Author Note: Those who may be waiting on A Change for Sarah Jane Smith, I'm working on a chapter right now - and I'm doing two before I start the sequel of this.
And here it is the thrilling conclusion to Taking in Strays. It will be continued shortly in a sequel.
Once again, thank you to Spydurwebb for the masterful beta.
"Who are those two, do you think?" Rani scowled at the two women on the screen.
Clyde shrugged. "Sarah Jane seems okay with them. I wouldn't worry. This isn't real anyway. No reason to get stroppy about it."
"I suppose," Rani replied, making it clear where her loyalties were.
"Still the one in the leather is all right," he quipped just to get her dander up.
"Oy!" Rani spun on him only to find him grinning at her.
"Look, Oliver's back." Clyde nodded towards the screen and their attention fixed on it.
It had been a long time but this place at least was familiar to Oliver. "Koschei," He murmured softly as he took in the landscape surrounding him.
"I do so prefer my adopted title." Oliver's eyes widened at the sound of that voice. "The Master suits me so much more than that relic."
Oliver spun and his eyes widened at the sight of the figure all in black, the high collar, the distinguished countenance, the beard with the white streaks through it. "Oh, this is wrong, very wrong," Oliver shook his head, "A whole suitcase full of wrong."
The Master laughed out loud. "Oh, Doctor. Do you never change?" He stalked towards Oliver, circling around him.
"Where's Sarah?" Oliver glared at the Master.
"Your lovely companion?" the Master smirked. "She has such faith in you. So much faith, that you'll protect her and her children. That you'll succeed in doing what you were summoned here to do."
"And I will," Oliver drew himself up and glared at the other man. "You know other people have tried this before. I didn't listen to them either."
His arch-nemesis continued on, ignoring Oliver's attempt to distract him. "She really has no idea who you are, does she, Doctor?" the Master chuckled. "When she knew you, when she fell in love with you, mercy was your defining characteristic wasn't it? It was the very characteristic she learned from you." A malevolent smile crossed his lips. "So much mercy."
Oliver drew himself up, his gaze becoming steely. The air grew electric around him.
"Ah yes, there's the true you. How does it feel, Doctor? Genocide. Exhilarating isn't it?" The Master could see what no one else could, how his words had struck the other man. He circled closer. "Would she still love you if she really understood what you did?"
"Sarah wanted me to kill the Daleks the first time I had a chance. She knows I only did what I had to do," Oliver responded still holding himself rigid.
"Ah, but does she know that you killed your own race in your quest to beat the Daleks? How many worlds were burned in the war you helped our race wage?" The Master went for the kill with his words, even as he circled around Oliver. "You told her they died but you never admitted your part in their death, did you? Would she love you still if she knew just how much like me you actually are?"
"How do you know this?" Oliver whirled and held the Master's gaze. "You shouldn't. It doesn't make sense. We're on Gallifrey. You can't know that it's gone."
"You mean I shouldn't know that you burned this world?" Suddenly the landscape transformed around them. The grass disappeared, bare earth burning around them, the buildings in ruins in the distance. "This is how Gallifrey looked when you and the Daleks were done with it, wasn't it Doctor? And now you run. You run from who and what you truly are. You don't tell your companion what you are. You're just a genocidal killer. JUST. LIKE. ME."
"I am not like you," Oliver insisted. "I did what I had to do."
"The road to hell is paved with good intentions, Doctor." The Master laughed out loud. "Isn't that what your human pets like to say? Do you really think she's going to accept that?"
Oliver backed off, "No. You can't know any of this!"
"Why not, Doctor?" The Master laughed as the landscape switched back just as suddenly as it had changed. "I shouldn't know that this is all just a fantasy you've dreamed up in your mind. That really at this moment I'm only a figment of your imagination. That this is just a story in a book. You really should be careful about what demons you let loose, Doctor, because they can become frighteningly real."
Oliver shook his head slowly once more, as though trying to banish the voice in his head telling him the Master was right.
"Perhaps Doctor, if you won't tell your Sarah Jane, then I should," the Master grinned.
"No!" Oliver growled. "Never." He scanned the landscape, surmising that the Master didn't have Sarah Jane and trying to guess which way she would go. His eyes were drawn up the mountain and he turned, running in that direction.
"Go, Doctor. Run." The Master watched Oliver but made no move to follow him. "It makes no difference. If you want to rescue those people, you're going to have to face your demons."
"That isn't right," Clyde and Rani looked on, horrified. "That can't be right."
"He's," Rani's voice faded away as she gaped at the screen.
"Mr. Smith we need to get them out of there," Clyde called out. "There's no way."
"I can not retrieve Oliver and Sarah Jane until they are together," Mr. Smith advised.
"And we can't stop them, Clyde," Rani glared at him. "They have to save my dad and all those other people. Whoever that is, he's got my dad. Sarah Jane and Oliver aren't going to leave him there."
Clyde nodded slowly. "I know. I just think - this guy." Rani nodded, understanding what Clyde wasn't saying, so he continued. "Do you think what he said is true?"
"I don't know, Clyde," Rani shook her head. "But whatever we saw, it was none of our business. It's the past and it's something that Sarah Jane and Oliver need to work out between them."
"What if he doesn't?" Clyde frowned, not trusting that the former Time Lord would do what he should.
"I don't think that's something you just get to ignore," Rani said with wisdom beyond her years. "Even if you want to."
Clyde nodded and they both turned their attention back to the screen where Sarah Jane shivered with the cold.
"Not the best plan coming up into this elevation without proper clothing." Sarah looked at Romana as she rubbed her arms.
Romana arched her brow. "Ah yes, I forget that humans don't deal with extremes well." She shrugged off her presidential robes and laid them over Sarah's shoulders. "This should help."
"What about you?" Sarah Jane asked, even though she was grateful for the extra warmth the heavy robes provided her.
"Gallifreyan physiognomy is more resilient than a human's, Sarah," Romana said gently. "You need to acknowledge your limitations, although I will admit you're far more resilient than I would have expected."
"Thank you." Sarah knew Romana truly intended it as a compliment. "What about Leela though? She's human too."
Romana turned an amused glance at Sarah. "Would you try to imply that Leela couldn't handle this?"
"No," Sarah chuckled softly. "I suppose not."
"I think only the Doctor would be that foolhardy." Romana finally let a smile show. "I for one am not."
"She's been gone a bit long hasn't she?" Sarah Jane frowned once more, something tickling in her memory, something the Doctor told her once, long ago. Something about Gallifrey. Sarah shivered again from the cold.
"Leela has a habit of forgetting that not all of us are as inclined to the physical as she is." Romana moved closer to Sarah and slid her arm around the other woman. "Our body temperature is not as high as yours but it is higher than the ambient temperature." A frown crossed Romana's expression. "It's unseasonably cold for this elevation."
"PLUNGBOLS!" Sarah suddenly shouted as she saw the snow. "Unseasonably cold and look, there's snow. Those little creatures sense heat and attach themselves to hikers, smothering them to death."
"How do you know about plungbols?" Romana's brow furrowed.
"How else?" Sarah said as she shed the robe and started running upwards towards the snow, spotting Leela's and K-9's tracks.
"Sarah, plungbols never come down to elevations this low." Romana followed after her.
"Maybe not normally, but the Doctor said they live in the snow and you said it was unseasonably cold. Animals do change their normal behaviours when their habitats change," Sarah responded without looking back.
"We have no anti-plungbol spray," Romana warned. "And you're warmer than I am."
"That's why I dropped your robe, being warm is more dangerous right now than freezing to death!" Sarah yelled back. "Leela is human."
That's when they saw it. Two masses of greyish fur in the snow. "No! Leela!" Sarah rushed forward, ignoring the danger and the fact she didn't even have her sonic to defend herself. "And I thought it was sad that they fell away squeaking."
"Humans," Romana scowled and signing her own death warrant, followed Sarah.
Sarah dropped to her knees and began to pull the little creatures from the larger mass. "Leela! Leela!" She pulled and tossed them away from Leela, then screamed as she felt them attaching themselves to her instead. "No! No, I am not dying here!"
Romana was behind her suddenly, pulling the creatures off of her as well. Still, they both fought a losing battle, not seeming to be able to uncover enough of each other or Leela to make a difference. The light began fading from Sarah's sight. "Oh, Oliver, Luke." Sarah took a deep breath as best as she could, the smothering press of the little creatures making even that difficult.
"Sarah Jane!" Both the kids stared at the screen in horror.
Then the view panned to a figure emerging from the trees, at first cloaked in shadow then becoming clear.
"Not on my watch," Oliver growled as he pulled a container of anti-plungbol spray from the never empty pockets of the long coat he wore. He advanced slowly, spraying the three roughly human shaped mounds, then the K-9 shaped one. The little creatures fell away in a chorus of squeaks and squeals that became louder as each body was uncovered.
It was K9 that awoke first. "Master, I attempted to keep Mistress Leela clear, but my battery reserves were depleted."
"I know, K9, I know." Oliver dropped to the ground beside Sarah and pulled her into his arms. "Come on, Sarah Jane. Beautiful Sarah. Not here, not now. We have to defeat the Master, save Haresh and go back to our family. Come back to me, Sarah. Show me those beautiful green eyes."
"Oliver?" Sarah's voice was unsteady as her eyes opened, then her radiant smile crossed her lips. "Oh, Oliver!" She threw her arms around him and buried her face in his neck.
Suddenly Oliver found himself surrounded with former companions with duel cries of "Doctor!"
"Romana! Leela!" He beamed as he clumsily pulled the pair of them into the hug without releasing Sarah Jane. "Brilliant!"
Clyde and Rani both jumped up and down in excitement and unable to hold back their celebration, hugging each other even as Rani made sure to not release her grip on the book.
"Yes, oh yes! Way to go, Oliver!" Clyde grinned at the screen.
Rani was equally jubilant. "Brilliant! Just in the nick of time!"
On the monitor the story continued.
After a moment Romana drew herself away suddenly and moved to pick up her discarded robes. "You always had more hands than a Venusian."
"Oy, what's that supposed to mean?" Oliver glowered at Romana indignantly. "You were the one hanging onto me."
Sarah barely listened to the conversation going on around her. Her prior thoughts about what was going on here being confirmed as she laid her head against his chest. The duel beats of his hearts and the lack of warmth radiating from him that had nothing to do with the air temperature around them was a dead giveaway.
"You've regenerated, Doctor." Leela seemed to be appraising him.
"Oh a few times since we saw each other last," Oliver said, smiling down at Sarah. "Not quite as long as between us meeting, Sarah. Leela was, or rather is, Romana's bodyguard."
"I gathered that," Sarah smiled at the other woman.
"You are very brave, Sarah Jane Smith," Leela said approvingly.
"Also, very foolhardy," Romana added.
"Neither of which is news to me, as you can guess." Sarah winked at them both.
"You're all getting along. That's brilliant." Oliver beamed in pleasure then the women all looked at him with nearly identical bemused looks on their faces. "Oy! Or not. You all aren't going to start laughing at me are you? That's what she did the last time," he nodded down at Sarah Jane.
They all started to giggle, which Oliver decided while par for the course with Sarah Jane, and refreshing to hear from Romana but yet just disturbing to hear from Leela. "All right you lot, enough already. We've got the Master to deal with and people to rescue."
"You're right." Sarah Jane drew herself out of his grasp, but wove her fingers through his. "There's no way around it, we have to confront him and hope that we can get Haresh and the others away from him."
"He knows what's going on here, Sarah." Oliver looked at her, watching as recognition of what his words meant her dawned in her eyes. He wasn't looking forward to coming face to face with the Master again, or risking him sharing with Sarah what he wasn't ready for her to know.
"You have a plan, Doctor?" Romana glanced towards the Doctor as they began their descent the way they came.
"Confront my demons and hope they don't destroy me," Oliver said with a sigh. "Other than that, I'm flying by the seat of my pants."
Romana looked towards Leela and gave her a knowing smile. "Pretty much the norm then?"
"Unfortunately, yes," Oliver agreed, and looked at Sarah with concern.
Clyde and Rani watched on Mr. Smith's screen as the storybook seemed to jump forward, just as a television show would, skipping the necessary walk down the mountain side. "That's convenient isn't it?"
"Don't know if I'd want to rush into seeing him again," Clyde admitted.
"Except there's no choice is there?" Rani said, swallowing hard.
The scene before them was pretty much as they'd expected. Haresh, the librarian, and a couple of science teachers from Park Vale, as well as a few others were all assembled, being kept together by guards. "I demand to know the meaning of this," Haresh scowled at the Master. "Sarah Jane? Oliver?" he called as he saw the two of them approaching.
"Ah, Doctor," the Master inclined his head, "So good of you to join us."
"The pleasure is all yours," Oliver quipped. "Just hang tight, Haresh. We'll get you out."
"How did you two get here?" Haresh looked confused.
"Let us deal with this first, Haresh." Sarah Jane met his gaze until he nodded slightly in answer.
"So have you shared the truth with your lovely companion, Doctor?" The Master looked at Sarah Jane and smiled. "So you're the one who came after the delightful Miss Grant."
Sarah looked at the Master with a neutral expression. "It's Jo Jones now, actually. Funny you didn't get an invitation to the wedding."
The Master laughed out loud. "Oh, I like this one Doctor. An oversight, I'm certain my dear Sarah Jane."
"Yeah well, Jo doesn't like you." Oliver scowled at him. "Enough chit chat. Let them go."
"Mr. Smith, everyone is together now," Rani tensed as she watched the screen. "Why haven't you gotten them out of there?"
"It would appear Rani, that there is some sort of interference preventing me from retrieving Sarah Jane and the others," Mr. Smith responded his voice neutral as always.
"I would be happy to release them, Doctor," The Master said evenly. "Though by now, I'm certain Ms. Smith's computer has found that it is impossible for him to simply whisk them away thanks to this." He lifted what looked to be a simple box with several dials on it.
There was silence for a few moments, with Sarah looking between the Master and Oliver. Finally she sighed and shook her head. "All right, since no one else seems to be asking, I'll revert to form and ask. What is it?"
"It is what I guess you already know it is," the Master said indulgently.
"A shielding device of some sort that's preventing Mr. Smith from retrieving us from the memory of this Venarax living story. Most likely by scrambling any sort of data download." Sarah Jane looked bored as she proved that he was right.
"You know, Doctor, I think she may be even cleverer than you are," the Master taunted.
"Tell me something I didn't know," Oliver scowled. "And now tell me what you want."
"Ah what I want. That's quite simple. I want my freedom from here." The look on the villain's face told the heroes that he was quite serious.
"That's impossible. You know this is just a story, something that's been concocted in my head." Oliver scowled at his arch-nemesis.
"On the contrary, Doctor. It's very possible, so long as one of those who have come from outside the story is willing to stay in my place." The Master's smile grew.
"No, that isn't happening. We will not be a party to releasing you onto an unsuspecting world." Sarah Jane was adamant.
"I didn't think you would, Ms. Smith." The Master twisted a dial and suddenly Sarah Jane was within his grasp, his arm wrapped around her throat. "I do believe I'm in a much more enviable position for negotiating now, Doctor."
"Oliver, don't." Sarah Jane continued to struggle against the Master's hold. "Let me go!" She gasped then swallowed hard as the renegade Time Lord handed the shield device to one of his minions and withdrew the Tissue Compression Eliminator from his sleeve and pointed it at her.
"I would suggest you hold still, Ms. Smith. These devices are hardly top of the line any longer, but they'll still get the job done." The Master turned his attention to Oliver once more. "Now Doctor, it's not your precious Sarah Jane I want, but you. None of these other cattle will do. If I'm to be Gallifreyan there, I have to take your place in the world."
"He's not Gallifreyan," Clyde scowled at Rani, "So much for the all knowing, all seeing bad guy."
Rani rolled her eyes. "Keep working on it, Mr. Smith. Oliver is going to be working on a way to stop whatever the Master is doing and then we need to pull them out."
Clyde's reaction was the same one that Oliver was having. Yet, when he concentrated on his body he could feel it. The double heart beat, the lower body temperature. Here in this book, he was what the Doctor was. What he still wanted to be on some subconscious level. Yet when he looked at Sarah Jane, in the Master's grip, the TCE pointed at her, all he wanted was to be back in the house on Bannerman Road, Sarah curled into his side reading a book up in the attic, with just a single heart owned by Sarah beating in his chest.
"All right," Oliver stepped forward slightly. "You win. Release Sarah and you can have my place in the world." Even as he spoke he concentrated on his pure desire to be human once more.
"Doctor!" Both Romana and Leela cried out in unison.
"OLIVER, NO!" Tears flowed from Sarah's eyes, frightened beyond belief for Oliver's sake.
"Excellent, Doctor," The Master's expression was victorious. "Allow my men to restrain you, and I will let Miss Smith return to your other companions."
Oliver held out his arms from his body and wasn't surprised when the two guards roughly seized him and dragged him towards the Master.
Living up to his side of the bargain, the Master released Sarah and pushed her forward. "Off you go, Miss Smith."
Her heart pounded even harder in her chest as Oliver passed her, catching her eyes and mouthing 'trust me' to her. She stiffened and moved to stand with Romana and Leela.
"A Janus thorn would have finished him." Leela scowled at Romana as she moved to Sarah's side, putting a supportive arm around her.
"The problem is you'd like to use a Janus thorn to finish almost everyone, Leela. From Castellan Reevers to Andred to Narvin at times," Romana hissed never taking her eyes from the Master and Oliver.
"Even you at times," Leela scowled at the Gallifreyan woman.
"That doesn't surprise me at all." Romana looked at Leela and then at Sarah. "It isn't over yet."
"Oh, I think it is." The Master grinned maliciously then reached out and wrapped his hand around Oliver's throat. His expression turned to one of shock. "What trickery is this? You aren't Gallifreyan!"
In the split second that the Master's grip relaxed, Oliver dove towards the guard with the shield box, wresting it from his grasp and slamming it down against the ground so that it shattered into a thousand shards. "Now, Mr. Smith!"
"Downloading," Mr. Smith's voice echoed through the story as suddenly Oliver, Sarah Jane and all the others who had been pulled into the story began to disappear.
"I'm sorry," Sarah called out to the other two women as her body began to fade. "Thank you."
Suddenly both she and Oliver appeared once more on the couch in their night clothing. Oliver extricated himself from beneath Sarah and moved to Rani's side. "You'd better get home, Rani." He took the book from her hands. "Your dad should be waking up wherever he was when he got uploaded into the story."
"Right." She looked at Oliver and then Sarah Jane. "Thank you so much."
"I'll walk her out." Clyde nodded and followed Rani out of the attic.
Sarah walked up behind Oliver and leaned her head against his shoulder. "Need some time?"
"Yeah, I think I do," Oliver nodded slowly.
"I'm here. Whenever you need me," Sarah murmured to Oliver then slowly exited the attic as well, pulling the door shut behind her.
Days later and Oliver still hadn't turned to her. It saddened Sarah Jane, but she supposed she could understand it. Even understand the secret he kept from her. Or at least that he thought he had kept from her. Right now, he was up in the attic, working on that secret.
"How goes the repairs on the book?" Sarah Jane asked from where she stood in the attic doorway.
"Repairs?" Oliver was caught red-handed, but had the grace to look shamefaced.
"Come on, Oliver," she smiled at him indulgently. "You've been fixing the Venarax Living Story. We both know it."
"I just thought," he started then stopped. "I thought we could go back. Visit Romana and Leela. I could show you Gallifrey. You wanted to go when I had to leave you behind. It could be fun. We'd have a TARDIS and an entire universe to explore." He walked over and sat on the small sofa.
"You're right. It would probably be amazingly fun." Sarah moved to sit down beside him. "I could be young again, we could have adventures. I could even be a Time Lady if we wanted." Oliver nodded in excitement as she continued. "It's very tempting." He watched her expression change. "Too tempting."
She paused and held his gaze, "A way to relive the past where all of our mistakes are corrected." She watched Oliver's head drop. "I know there are things you're not ready to tell me yet, Oliver. Things about the Time War." Sarah took a deep breath. "But even with the sorrows in the past, I can't say that I would choose to change any of it. Changing any of it means I might not have Luke or Rani or Clyde."
She reached up to stroke his cheek. "Or you for that matter. I don't know about you, but with all that to lose, I know what I'm choosing. What you choose is up to you." She stood slowly and walked back to the attic door, then descended the stairs only hoping he would choose what she knew was the right path.
Oliver looked down at the book. It wasn't that he didn't want to be human. He loved Sarah Jane and the children, but it was just so tempting.
Tempting.
Just then, shouts of happiness echoed through 13 Bannerman Road. "Luke!" Sarah's voice echoed up the stairs. He could hear the other children welcoming their friend home.
She was right, just like she was almost always right. The choice wasn't truly a choice at all. He stood and walked to the safe, pushing up the outer door, then twisting the combination into the safe and opening the door. He set the book inside, alongside Mr. White, then closed the door and spun the lock.
With a grin, he made his way to the attic door. "JUNIOR! Welcome home!" He called downstairs.
"Junior? What in heaven's name do you mean by Junior?" Sarah called back, playful irritation in her voice and the laughter of the teens echoing behind her.
Summary: When the human Doctor clone finds his way to her door, Sarah Jane finds she's opening her door to much more than the trouble she expects. Rating subject to change with further chapters.
Rating: PG
Author Note: Those who may be waiting on A Change for Sarah Jane Smith, I'm working on a chapter right now - and I'm doing two before I start the sequel of this.
And here it is the thrilling conclusion to Taking in Strays. It will be continued shortly in a sequel.
Once again, thank you to Spydurwebb for the masterful beta.
"Who are those two, do you think?" Rani scowled at the two women on the screen.
Clyde shrugged. "Sarah Jane seems okay with them. I wouldn't worry. This isn't real anyway. No reason to get stroppy about it."
"I suppose," Rani replied, making it clear where her loyalties were.
"Still the one in the leather is all right," he quipped just to get her dander up.
"Oy!" Rani spun on him only to find him grinning at her.
"Look, Oliver's back." Clyde nodded towards the screen and their attention fixed on it.
It had been a long time but this place at least was familiar to Oliver. "Koschei," He murmured softly as he took in the landscape surrounding him.
"I do so prefer my adopted title." Oliver's eyes widened at the sound of that voice. "The Master suits me so much more than that relic."
Oliver spun and his eyes widened at the sight of the figure all in black, the high collar, the distinguished countenance, the beard with the white streaks through it. "Oh, this is wrong, very wrong," Oliver shook his head, "A whole suitcase full of wrong."
The Master laughed out loud. "Oh, Doctor. Do you never change?" He stalked towards Oliver, circling around him.
"Where's Sarah?" Oliver glared at the Master.
"Your lovely companion?" the Master smirked. "She has such faith in you. So much faith, that you'll protect her and her children. That you'll succeed in doing what you were summoned here to do."
"And I will," Oliver drew himself up and glared at the other man. "You know other people have tried this before. I didn't listen to them either."
His arch-nemesis continued on, ignoring Oliver's attempt to distract him. "She really has no idea who you are, does she, Doctor?" the Master chuckled. "When she knew you, when she fell in love with you, mercy was your defining characteristic wasn't it? It was the very characteristic she learned from you." A malevolent smile crossed his lips. "So much mercy."
Oliver drew himself up, his gaze becoming steely. The air grew electric around him.
"Ah yes, there's the true you. How does it feel, Doctor? Genocide. Exhilarating isn't it?" The Master could see what no one else could, how his words had struck the other man. He circled closer. "Would she still love you if she really understood what you did?"
"Sarah wanted me to kill the Daleks the first time I had a chance. She knows I only did what I had to do," Oliver responded still holding himself rigid.
"Ah, but does she know that you killed your own race in your quest to beat the Daleks? How many worlds were burned in the war you helped our race wage?" The Master went for the kill with his words, even as he circled around Oliver. "You told her they died but you never admitted your part in their death, did you? Would she love you still if she knew just how much like me you actually are?"
"How do you know this?" Oliver whirled and held the Master's gaze. "You shouldn't. It doesn't make sense. We're on Gallifrey. You can't know that it's gone."
"You mean I shouldn't know that you burned this world?" Suddenly the landscape transformed around them. The grass disappeared, bare earth burning around them, the buildings in ruins in the distance. "This is how Gallifrey looked when you and the Daleks were done with it, wasn't it Doctor? And now you run. You run from who and what you truly are. You don't tell your companion what you are. You're just a genocidal killer. JUST. LIKE. ME."
"I am not like you," Oliver insisted. "I did what I had to do."
"The road to hell is paved with good intentions, Doctor." The Master laughed out loud. "Isn't that what your human pets like to say? Do you really think she's going to accept that?"
Oliver backed off, "No. You can't know any of this!"
"Why not, Doctor?" The Master laughed as the landscape switched back just as suddenly as it had changed. "I shouldn't know that this is all just a fantasy you've dreamed up in your mind. That really at this moment I'm only a figment of your imagination. That this is just a story in a book. You really should be careful about what demons you let loose, Doctor, because they can become frighteningly real."
Oliver shook his head slowly once more, as though trying to banish the voice in his head telling him the Master was right.
"Perhaps Doctor, if you won't tell your Sarah Jane, then I should," the Master grinned.
"No!" Oliver growled. "Never." He scanned the landscape, surmising that the Master didn't have Sarah Jane and trying to guess which way she would go. His eyes were drawn up the mountain and he turned, running in that direction.
"Go, Doctor. Run." The Master watched Oliver but made no move to follow him. "It makes no difference. If you want to rescue those people, you're going to have to face your demons."
"That isn't right," Clyde and Rani looked on, horrified. "That can't be right."
"He's," Rani's voice faded away as she gaped at the screen.
"Mr. Smith we need to get them out of there," Clyde called out. "There's no way."
"I can not retrieve Oliver and Sarah Jane until they are together," Mr. Smith advised.
"And we can't stop them, Clyde," Rani glared at him. "They have to save my dad and all those other people. Whoever that is, he's got my dad. Sarah Jane and Oliver aren't going to leave him there."
Clyde nodded slowly. "I know. I just think - this guy." Rani nodded, understanding what Clyde wasn't saying, so he continued. "Do you think what he said is true?"
"I don't know, Clyde," Rani shook her head. "But whatever we saw, it was none of our business. It's the past and it's something that Sarah Jane and Oliver need to work out between them."
"What if he doesn't?" Clyde frowned, not trusting that the former Time Lord would do what he should.
"I don't think that's something you just get to ignore," Rani said with wisdom beyond her years. "Even if you want to."
Clyde nodded and they both turned their attention back to the screen where Sarah Jane shivered with the cold.
"Not the best plan coming up into this elevation without proper clothing." Sarah looked at Romana as she rubbed her arms.
Romana arched her brow. "Ah yes, I forget that humans don't deal with extremes well." She shrugged off her presidential robes and laid them over Sarah's shoulders. "This should help."
"What about you?" Sarah Jane asked, even though she was grateful for the extra warmth the heavy robes provided her.
"Gallifreyan physiognomy is more resilient than a human's, Sarah," Romana said gently. "You need to acknowledge your limitations, although I will admit you're far more resilient than I would have expected."
"Thank you." Sarah knew Romana truly intended it as a compliment. "What about Leela though? She's human too."
Romana turned an amused glance at Sarah. "Would you try to imply that Leela couldn't handle this?"
"No," Sarah chuckled softly. "I suppose not."
"I think only the Doctor would be that foolhardy." Romana finally let a smile show. "I for one am not."
"She's been gone a bit long hasn't she?" Sarah Jane frowned once more, something tickling in her memory, something the Doctor told her once, long ago. Something about Gallifrey. Sarah shivered again from the cold.
"Leela has a habit of forgetting that not all of us are as inclined to the physical as she is." Romana moved closer to Sarah and slid her arm around the other woman. "Our body temperature is not as high as yours but it is higher than the ambient temperature." A frown crossed Romana's expression. "It's unseasonably cold for this elevation."
"PLUNGBOLS!" Sarah suddenly shouted as she saw the snow. "Unseasonably cold and look, there's snow. Those little creatures sense heat and attach themselves to hikers, smothering them to death."
"How do you know about plungbols?" Romana's brow furrowed.
"How else?" Sarah said as she shed the robe and started running upwards towards the snow, spotting Leela's and K-9's tracks.
"Sarah, plungbols never come down to elevations this low." Romana followed after her.
"Maybe not normally, but the Doctor said they live in the snow and you said it was unseasonably cold. Animals do change their normal behaviours when their habitats change," Sarah responded without looking back.
"We have no anti-plungbol spray," Romana warned. "And you're warmer than I am."
"That's why I dropped your robe, being warm is more dangerous right now than freezing to death!" Sarah yelled back. "Leela is human."
That's when they saw it. Two masses of greyish fur in the snow. "No! Leela!" Sarah rushed forward, ignoring the danger and the fact she didn't even have her sonic to defend herself. "And I thought it was sad that they fell away squeaking."
"Humans," Romana scowled and signing her own death warrant, followed Sarah.
Sarah dropped to her knees and began to pull the little creatures from the larger mass. "Leela! Leela!" She pulled and tossed them away from Leela, then screamed as she felt them attaching themselves to her instead. "No! No, I am not dying here!"
Romana was behind her suddenly, pulling the creatures off of her as well. Still, they both fought a losing battle, not seeming to be able to uncover enough of each other or Leela to make a difference. The light began fading from Sarah's sight. "Oh, Oliver, Luke." Sarah took a deep breath as best as she could, the smothering press of the little creatures making even that difficult.
"Sarah Jane!" Both the kids stared at the screen in horror.
Then the view panned to a figure emerging from the trees, at first cloaked in shadow then becoming clear.
"Not on my watch," Oliver growled as he pulled a container of anti-plungbol spray from the never empty pockets of the long coat he wore. He advanced slowly, spraying the three roughly human shaped mounds, then the K-9 shaped one. The little creatures fell away in a chorus of squeaks and squeals that became louder as each body was uncovered.
It was K9 that awoke first. "Master, I attempted to keep Mistress Leela clear, but my battery reserves were depleted."
"I know, K9, I know." Oliver dropped to the ground beside Sarah and pulled her into his arms. "Come on, Sarah Jane. Beautiful Sarah. Not here, not now. We have to defeat the Master, save Haresh and go back to our family. Come back to me, Sarah. Show me those beautiful green eyes."
"Oliver?" Sarah's voice was unsteady as her eyes opened, then her radiant smile crossed her lips. "Oh, Oliver!" She threw her arms around him and buried her face in his neck.
Suddenly Oliver found himself surrounded with former companions with duel cries of "Doctor!"
"Romana! Leela!" He beamed as he clumsily pulled the pair of them into the hug without releasing Sarah Jane. "Brilliant!"
Clyde and Rani both jumped up and down in excitement and unable to hold back their celebration, hugging each other even as Rani made sure to not release her grip on the book.
"Yes, oh yes! Way to go, Oliver!" Clyde grinned at the screen.
Rani was equally jubilant. "Brilliant! Just in the nick of time!"
On the monitor the story continued.
After a moment Romana drew herself away suddenly and moved to pick up her discarded robes. "You always had more hands than a Venusian."
"Oy, what's that supposed to mean?" Oliver glowered at Romana indignantly. "You were the one hanging onto me."
Sarah barely listened to the conversation going on around her. Her prior thoughts about what was going on here being confirmed as she laid her head against his chest. The duel beats of his hearts and the lack of warmth radiating from him that had nothing to do with the air temperature around them was a dead giveaway.
"You've regenerated, Doctor." Leela seemed to be appraising him.
"Oh a few times since we saw each other last," Oliver said, smiling down at Sarah. "Not quite as long as between us meeting, Sarah. Leela was, or rather is, Romana's bodyguard."
"I gathered that," Sarah smiled at the other woman.
"You are very brave, Sarah Jane Smith," Leela said approvingly.
"Also, very foolhardy," Romana added.
"Neither of which is news to me, as you can guess." Sarah winked at them both.
"You're all getting along. That's brilliant." Oliver beamed in pleasure then the women all looked at him with nearly identical bemused looks on their faces. "Oy! Or not. You all aren't going to start laughing at me are you? That's what she did the last time," he nodded down at Sarah Jane.
They all started to giggle, which Oliver decided while par for the course with Sarah Jane, and refreshing to hear from Romana but yet just disturbing to hear from Leela. "All right you lot, enough already. We've got the Master to deal with and people to rescue."
"You're right." Sarah Jane drew herself out of his grasp, but wove her fingers through his. "There's no way around it, we have to confront him and hope that we can get Haresh and the others away from him."
"He knows what's going on here, Sarah." Oliver looked at her, watching as recognition of what his words meant her dawned in her eyes. He wasn't looking forward to coming face to face with the Master again, or risking him sharing with Sarah what he wasn't ready for her to know.
"You have a plan, Doctor?" Romana glanced towards the Doctor as they began their descent the way they came.
"Confront my demons and hope they don't destroy me," Oliver said with a sigh. "Other than that, I'm flying by the seat of my pants."
Romana looked towards Leela and gave her a knowing smile. "Pretty much the norm then?"
"Unfortunately, yes," Oliver agreed, and looked at Sarah with concern.
Clyde and Rani watched on Mr. Smith's screen as the storybook seemed to jump forward, just as a television show would, skipping the necessary walk down the mountain side. "That's convenient isn't it?"
"Don't know if I'd want to rush into seeing him again," Clyde admitted.
"Except there's no choice is there?" Rani said, swallowing hard.
The scene before them was pretty much as they'd expected. Haresh, the librarian, and a couple of science teachers from Park Vale, as well as a few others were all assembled, being kept together by guards. "I demand to know the meaning of this," Haresh scowled at the Master. "Sarah Jane? Oliver?" he called as he saw the two of them approaching.
"Ah, Doctor," the Master inclined his head, "So good of you to join us."
"The pleasure is all yours," Oliver quipped. "Just hang tight, Haresh. We'll get you out."
"How did you two get here?" Haresh looked confused.
"Let us deal with this first, Haresh." Sarah Jane met his gaze until he nodded slightly in answer.
"So have you shared the truth with your lovely companion, Doctor?" The Master looked at Sarah Jane and smiled. "So you're the one who came after the delightful Miss Grant."
Sarah looked at the Master with a neutral expression. "It's Jo Jones now, actually. Funny you didn't get an invitation to the wedding."
The Master laughed out loud. "Oh, I like this one Doctor. An oversight, I'm certain my dear Sarah Jane."
"Yeah well, Jo doesn't like you." Oliver scowled at him. "Enough chit chat. Let them go."
"Mr. Smith, everyone is together now," Rani tensed as she watched the screen. "Why haven't you gotten them out of there?"
"It would appear Rani, that there is some sort of interference preventing me from retrieving Sarah Jane and the others," Mr. Smith responded his voice neutral as always.
"I would be happy to release them, Doctor," The Master said evenly. "Though by now, I'm certain Ms. Smith's computer has found that it is impossible for him to simply whisk them away thanks to this." He lifted what looked to be a simple box with several dials on it.
There was silence for a few moments, with Sarah looking between the Master and Oliver. Finally she sighed and shook her head. "All right, since no one else seems to be asking, I'll revert to form and ask. What is it?"
"It is what I guess you already know it is," the Master said indulgently.
"A shielding device of some sort that's preventing Mr. Smith from retrieving us from the memory of this Venarax living story. Most likely by scrambling any sort of data download." Sarah Jane looked bored as she proved that he was right.
"You know, Doctor, I think she may be even cleverer than you are," the Master taunted.
"Tell me something I didn't know," Oliver scowled. "And now tell me what you want."
"Ah what I want. That's quite simple. I want my freedom from here." The look on the villain's face told the heroes that he was quite serious.
"That's impossible. You know this is just a story, something that's been concocted in my head." Oliver scowled at his arch-nemesis.
"On the contrary, Doctor. It's very possible, so long as one of those who have come from outside the story is willing to stay in my place." The Master's smile grew.
"No, that isn't happening. We will not be a party to releasing you onto an unsuspecting world." Sarah Jane was adamant.
"I didn't think you would, Ms. Smith." The Master twisted a dial and suddenly Sarah Jane was within his grasp, his arm wrapped around her throat. "I do believe I'm in a much more enviable position for negotiating now, Doctor."
"Oliver, don't." Sarah Jane continued to struggle against the Master's hold. "Let me go!" She gasped then swallowed hard as the renegade Time Lord handed the shield device to one of his minions and withdrew the Tissue Compression Eliminator from his sleeve and pointed it at her.
"I would suggest you hold still, Ms. Smith. These devices are hardly top of the line any longer, but they'll still get the job done." The Master turned his attention to Oliver once more. "Now Doctor, it's not your precious Sarah Jane I want, but you. None of these other cattle will do. If I'm to be Gallifreyan there, I have to take your place in the world."
"He's not Gallifreyan," Clyde scowled at Rani, "So much for the all knowing, all seeing bad guy."
Rani rolled her eyes. "Keep working on it, Mr. Smith. Oliver is going to be working on a way to stop whatever the Master is doing and then we need to pull them out."
Clyde's reaction was the same one that Oliver was having. Yet, when he concentrated on his body he could feel it. The double heart beat, the lower body temperature. Here in this book, he was what the Doctor was. What he still wanted to be on some subconscious level. Yet when he looked at Sarah Jane, in the Master's grip, the TCE pointed at her, all he wanted was to be back in the house on Bannerman Road, Sarah curled into his side reading a book up in the attic, with just a single heart owned by Sarah beating in his chest.
"All right," Oliver stepped forward slightly. "You win. Release Sarah and you can have my place in the world." Even as he spoke he concentrated on his pure desire to be human once more.
"Doctor!" Both Romana and Leela cried out in unison.
"OLIVER, NO!" Tears flowed from Sarah's eyes, frightened beyond belief for Oliver's sake.
"Excellent, Doctor," The Master's expression was victorious. "Allow my men to restrain you, and I will let Miss Smith return to your other companions."
Oliver held out his arms from his body and wasn't surprised when the two guards roughly seized him and dragged him towards the Master.
Living up to his side of the bargain, the Master released Sarah and pushed her forward. "Off you go, Miss Smith."
Her heart pounded even harder in her chest as Oliver passed her, catching her eyes and mouthing 'trust me' to her. She stiffened and moved to stand with Romana and Leela.
"A Janus thorn would have finished him." Leela scowled at Romana as she moved to Sarah's side, putting a supportive arm around her.
"The problem is you'd like to use a Janus thorn to finish almost everyone, Leela. From Castellan Reevers to Andred to Narvin at times," Romana hissed never taking her eyes from the Master and Oliver.
"Even you at times," Leela scowled at the Gallifreyan woman.
"That doesn't surprise me at all." Romana looked at Leela and then at Sarah. "It isn't over yet."
"Oh, I think it is." The Master grinned maliciously then reached out and wrapped his hand around Oliver's throat. His expression turned to one of shock. "What trickery is this? You aren't Gallifreyan!"
In the split second that the Master's grip relaxed, Oliver dove towards the guard with the shield box, wresting it from his grasp and slamming it down against the ground so that it shattered into a thousand shards. "Now, Mr. Smith!"
"Downloading," Mr. Smith's voice echoed through the story as suddenly Oliver, Sarah Jane and all the others who had been pulled into the story began to disappear.
"I'm sorry," Sarah called out to the other two women as her body began to fade. "Thank you."
Suddenly both she and Oliver appeared once more on the couch in their night clothing. Oliver extricated himself from beneath Sarah and moved to Rani's side. "You'd better get home, Rani." He took the book from her hands. "Your dad should be waking up wherever he was when he got uploaded into the story."
"Right." She looked at Oliver and then Sarah Jane. "Thank you so much."
"I'll walk her out." Clyde nodded and followed Rani out of the attic.
Sarah walked up behind Oliver and leaned her head against his shoulder. "Need some time?"
"Yeah, I think I do," Oliver nodded slowly.
"I'm here. Whenever you need me," Sarah murmured to Oliver then slowly exited the attic as well, pulling the door shut behind her.
Days later and Oliver still hadn't turned to her. It saddened Sarah Jane, but she supposed she could understand it. Even understand the secret he kept from her. Or at least that he thought he had kept from her. Right now, he was up in the attic, working on that secret.
"How goes the repairs on the book?" Sarah Jane asked from where she stood in the attic doorway.
"Repairs?" Oliver was caught red-handed, but had the grace to look shamefaced.
"Come on, Oliver," she smiled at him indulgently. "You've been fixing the Venarax Living Story. We both know it."
"I just thought," he started then stopped. "I thought we could go back. Visit Romana and Leela. I could show you Gallifrey. You wanted to go when I had to leave you behind. It could be fun. We'd have a TARDIS and an entire universe to explore." He walked over and sat on the small sofa.
"You're right. It would probably be amazingly fun." Sarah moved to sit down beside him. "I could be young again, we could have adventures. I could even be a Time Lady if we wanted." Oliver nodded in excitement as she continued. "It's very tempting." He watched her expression change. "Too tempting."
She paused and held his gaze, "A way to relive the past where all of our mistakes are corrected." She watched Oliver's head drop. "I know there are things you're not ready to tell me yet, Oliver. Things about the Time War." Sarah took a deep breath. "But even with the sorrows in the past, I can't say that I would choose to change any of it. Changing any of it means I might not have Luke or Rani or Clyde."
She reached up to stroke his cheek. "Or you for that matter. I don't know about you, but with all that to lose, I know what I'm choosing. What you choose is up to you." She stood slowly and walked back to the attic door, then descended the stairs only hoping he would choose what she knew was the right path.
Oliver looked down at the book. It wasn't that he didn't want to be human. He loved Sarah Jane and the children, but it was just so tempting.
Tempting.
Just then, shouts of happiness echoed through 13 Bannerman Road. "Luke!" Sarah's voice echoed up the stairs. He could hear the other children welcoming their friend home.
She was right, just like she was almost always right. The choice wasn't truly a choice at all. He stood and walked to the safe, pushing up the outer door, then twisting the combination into the safe and opening the door. He set the book inside, alongside Mr. White, then closed the door and spun the lock.
With a grin, he made his way to the attic door. "JUNIOR! Welcome home!" He called downstairs.
"Junior? What in heaven's name do you mean by Junior?" Sarah called back, playful irritation in her voice and the laughter of the teens echoing behind her.