Mars Ascendant 3/4
Story: Mars Ascendant
Author: wmr
wendymr
Characters: Tenth Doctor, Jack Harkness, Rose Tyler, others
Rated: Probably PG13
Spoilers: Up to VotD, AU from most of what we've heard about S4.
Disclaimer: Never gonna be mine, are they?
Summary: It's not the reality that's the worst, really; it's his perception of it. Of himself.
A pinch-hit fic for
sensiblecat in the OT3 ficathon - prompts will be posted at the end of the fic. Hope you like this! With grateful thanks to
dark_aegis for BRing. Acknowledgement: one paragraph of this chapter is quoted from Paul Cornell's New Adventures novel Human Nature.
Chapter 1: The Magician l Chapter 2: Bringer of War
Chapter 3: The Winged Messenger
“D’you want a tissue or something?” Rose sounds faintly impatient, which is kind of unlike her when she’s dealing with a frightened victim, but he can understand it. The guy’s constant sniffing’s getting a bit irritating.
There’s something odd about it, too. And it’s only when the little guy lunges towards Rose, and she darts to the side - her reactions are a hell of a lot better than before too - that he realises what it is. The guy’s nose is dry. He’s not sniffing back mucus. He’s smelling something.
Jack draws his weapon again and levels it at the little guy. “Okay, that’s enough. Just who are you and what the hell do you want?”
The guy moves in his direction, ignoring the gun, and sniffs even harder. “Oh, you’re different. Fascinating, in fact. Immortal, you are. Such a lifeline as that is worth the taking.”
Taking? What is this? Some sort of body-stealing creature? He’s ready to fire but, lightning-fast, something hits his hand and, involuntarily, he drops his gun. It clatters to the ground, sliding too far from his reach. Damn.
Okay. It likes him. Whatever it is, it wants him. He begins to back away, knowing the creature will follow him. “Rose! Run!” She won’t, but instinct still makes him try to protect her.
“You’re kidding me!” she exclaims, and out of the corner of his eye he can see her aiming her gun at the creature.
“Rose! Jack! Get away! Get out of the way!”
The Doctor. He must know what the thing is, and he’s coming, he’s running.
Rose fires. The creature, faster than he could have imagined possible, sidesteps. Why didn’t he move that fast when he was being pursued...
...unless he wanted something like this to happen -
“Jack! Get behind me!” the Doctor yells, and then he’s talking to the creature. “You! Aubertide! It’s not him you want. You want me. I’m a Time Lord. The last one in the universe. What would that be like, eh?”
The creature - the Aubertide - has halted. Its head tilts to one side, and it turns slowly, stares at the Doctor and sniffs hard. “Time Lord.”
“Yep! That’s me. Time Lord. Come and get me, eh?” The Doctor starts to back away.
“No chance,” Jack mutters. He dives for his gun and catches Rose’s eye. She’s ready, too. And he’s pretty damn sure her gun’s not on stun setting now.
“No guns!” the Doctor shouts, still zig-zagging backwards. “Guns aren’t a solution!”
“No? Sure lookin’ that way to me,” Jack shouts back, beckoning Rose to stay level with him.
“Listen to the Time Lord, my humans,” the Aubertide says, smiling, head still on one side. “He speaks the truth.
“What happens if I shoot you, then, eh?” Rose demands.
“You become as bad as him,” the Doctor says, and there’s terrible sadness in his voice.
“That’s not all, Time Lord, is it?”
“No.” The Doctor’s still beckoning the Aubertide towards him. “He can still consume one of you - or me - before that body dies. And then if you kill the body he inhabits next he’ll simply do it again.”
“Not if you take me, my friend,” Jack calls to the Aubertide. “Forget the Time Lord. He’s only got a limited number of regenerations - and that’s assuming his body will still be able to regenerate once you take it over.” He drops his gun, kicking it towards Rose, then turns his head slightly so that he can meet Rose’s gaze. Not the Doctor; the Doctor’d never do what has to be done.
Rose will. Holding her gaze, he continues, his words very deliberate, “Me, I can’t die. They shoot me, I just keep on going. Wanna live for ever? Take me.”
“No -” the Doctor yells, a note of such agony in his voice that he’s taken aback. And then everything vanishes.
***
“No!” the Doctor shouts again, running back towards Jack. She’s frozen, staring at him, at Jack, who’s suddenly not Jack.
He’s not Jack. Right before her eyes, something small and dark sprang from the Aubertide to Jack, and the Aubertide’s body crumpled and fell to the ground. Jack inhaled deeply, and now he’s smiling, a smile she’s never seen on his face before. And he’s looking at her, still with that horrible smile that she can only describe as evil, and he’s sniffing.
“What can we do? Doctor, what can we do?”
The Doctor’s just staring at what used to be Jack, an expression of horror on his face. And that’s when it sinks in. They’ve lost him. They’ve lost Jack. He’s gone, consumed by the Aubertide - isn’t that how the Doctor put it? Consumed?
“Jack’s gone, yeah?” She looks to the Doctor, seeking clarity.
He nods slowly. The pain in his eyes mirrors his own.
Abruptly, she swings back to the Aubertide as rage fills her. “Then it’s okay if I do this!” Once again, she levels her gun at him.
The Aubertide simply cocks his head to one side again, sniffing. “Oh, you foolish, simple human.” It’s Jack’s voice, and yet it’s not, and it hurts to hear that creature stealing Jack’s voice. “This body can’t die. Shoot all you want, little girl. I am immortal.”
Can’t die. That’s what Jack said - yet it’s not... And then it dawns on her. What Jack planned. Exactly what he wants her to do.
“No, Rose. I can’t let you do it.” The Doctor’s beside her, and she hadn’t even seen him move. His hand closes over hers, on top of her gun.
“But I have to,” she tells him, and her cheeks are wet, the tears dripping down onto her hands. “I have to. It’s what he wan -”
“I know.” It’s so long since she’s heard that gentle, loving tone from him, and part of her wants to drop the gun and just sink into his arms, let him wrap himself around her and protect her from everything.
But she can’t. “An’ that’s why I have to -”
“No.” Firmly, he removes the gun from her grasp. “I can’t let you.”
She struggles, grabbing at his arm, trying to take it back from him, and all the while the Aubertide’s looking at them, laughing. “You foolish, foolish creatures. And I thought Time Lords were supposed to be geniuses. I will kill you both, and then, Time Lord, I will have your TARDIS -”
A gunshot rings out. Jack’s body falls to the ground. And the gun tumbles from the Doctor’s shaking hand.
***
He’s failed.
Even as he pulled the trigger to kill the Aubertide in Jack’s body, he knew he’d failed.
Because this isn’t him. This isn’t his way. It’s not what he does.
“He'd make the villains fall into their own traps, and trick the monsters, and outwit the men with guns. He'd save everybody's life and find a way to win.”
Oh, Benny. How disappointed she’d be in him now. Yet they left him no choice. Jack with his heroics, and Rose recognising what Jack had done and why.
And yet he can’t help wondering, as he and Rose together run to the body on the ground, is this the better way? The kinder way? Because he did make the Family fall into their own trap. He did trick them. He saved... well, not everybody. Too many people died. Far too many. But he gave the Family what they wanted. He gave them immortality. Just not how they wanted it.
Even as he and Rose drop to their haunches beside Jack’s body, Rose still weeping but carrying on bravely all the same, he’s starting to stir.
He comes alive with a cry of pain and a rippling jolt through his entire body, as if he’s been electrified. “Did... did it work?”
Gravely, he says, taking Jack’s hand in his, “It worked. You’re you again.” And he can never, even with all of his genius, come up with the words to express his relief. Jack might be ‘wrong’, but the universe would be a far lesser place without him. And, difficult as it is to admit, he needs Jack, just as he needs Rose. Rose to ground him, Jack to keep him in check.
With an incoherent cry, Rose flings herself onto Jack. As the Captain’s arms fold around her, the Doctor starts to straighten and retreat. He doesn’t belong in this reunion. Jack’s alive. That’s all that matters.
Until his hand’s caught - by Jack. “Where d’you think you’re going?” And then Rose, too, is tugging him back and he’s caught in a three-way hug. With sudden resolution, he’s shoving away the instinct to keep a distance and willingly, gladly hugging them back. They’re his team. They’re together. And, yes, he wouldn’t have it any other way.
***
Muscles, synapses and neural nodes snap back into place, and he drags himself to his feet, steadied by the Doctor and Rose as he stumbles a bit. “Nice work, Rose,” he says, grinning at her. “I was hoping you’d figure out what I needed you to do.”
“I did,” she says, and as he looks at her properly he can see the evidence of tears on her face. “You said you don’t die. But you do - an’ when you died, so did the Aubertide. But you can’t stay dead - too late for it, though.”
“Yep. Aubertides need a living host to survive,” the Doctor says, his expression sombre. “Once the host dies, if the Aubertide’s still present it dies too. Unless it can leap to another living host beforehand, or there’s another of its kind nearby that it can jump to in its dying moments and reproduce from. They bud,” he adds.
“Didn’t know about that, but I figured that I couldn’t stay dead, not after my Bad Wolf guardian angel -” He gives Rose a grin. “- and thought it was worth taking a chance that it couldn’t survive the minute or so I’d be dead.”
“Worked that out, yeah,” Rose says, and he notices that she hasn’t let go of him. “Wasn’t me who killed you, though. The Doctor -”
His gaze shoots to the Doctor. “You shot me?”
“Yep.” The Doctor’s rubbing the back of his neck, clearly embarrassed. “Couldn’t let Rose do it, could I? I mean, obviously you’re used to weapons now, Rose, not that I like it, but shooting your own boyfriend? Couldn’t just stand by while you had to do that.”
Doesn’t look like it was any easier for the Doctor than it would have been for Rose, though. And the Doctor’s seen him die and resurrect many times now.
“Hey! You lot! What’ve you done with the prisoner?”
The hell...? It’s the Naviscite, the one who was chasing the Aubertide in the first place, running up apparently out of nowhere.
“He’s dead.” The Doctor’s tone is curt, clipped. “You don’t need to worry about it.”
“My mission is to bring him back, dead or alive. In case you’ve forgotten, whoever you are, I’m a police officer, under orders from the government of Navisceon, and in command of this situation. You are nothing but a meddler -”
“Do all police officers where you’re from make a habit of killin’ innocent bystanders?” Rose snaps, marching right up to the Naviscite and glaring at him. Jack has to admire her for it. The guy’s close to two feet taller than she is, and he shot to kill earlier, and she’s not remotely cowed by him.
“Killing?” The Naviscite cop looks down at her, his expression a sneer. “Your associate is clearly alive. And interfering with a police officer carrying out his lawful duty is a crime.” He strides around Rose and heads towards the body that was inhabited by the Aubertide. “My property.”
“I think not!” the Doctor announces. “This is an innocent man. You said yourself the Aubertide stole that body. You’ll leave him where he is. That man’s got a family somewhere, and they deserve to be able to mourn him properly, not wonder for the rest of their lives what happened to him.”
Jack moves to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Doctor, protecting the body. Rose, her gun back in her hand, stands by the Doctor’s other side.
The Naviscite hesitates. Obviously, he doesn’t have any other weapon, or he’d fight. After close to a minute of stalemate, he turns and stalks off, muttering something that sounds like “Got better things to do.”
They wait until his ship’s left the planet’s atmosphere, and then the Doctor takes a long, deep breath. “Let’s go home.”
***
The Doctor’s been on edge ever since they got back, and she can’t help wondering if he realises how obvious it is. Unlike his habits since they got back together again, he doesn’t disappear off somewhere. He isn’t suggesting a new destination, either. He’s been tinkering with the console for the past few hours, actually inviting Jack’s help, and rambling on for ages about trivialities and the kind of science that, even now after taking an A-level and half a degree in physics, still goes way over her head. He wants company - seems desperate for it.
Eventually, because she wants to know and because she thinks he needs to talk about whatever’s really on his mind, she takes a stab in the dark. “You knew what that thing was, Doctor. The Aubertide. You seen one before?”
For a moment, he looks completely startled. Rattled, even. Then he nods. “Yep. Family of them. Unusual to see one on its own, actually. They live in family groups - that’s how they reproduce - and they stay together, help each other, fight together. They’re almost like a collective consciousness.”
And they met one alone - that’s intriguing, but she’s not going to allow the Doctor to get distracted. “So you met a family...?”
“Long story,” he says, looking down at the console again. “Very long... too long, maybe...” He trails off, staring at the roundels on the TARDIS walls.
Jack straightens from his task down by the grille, hair rumpled and some kind of tool behind his ear. “Sounds like the kind of story that’s best told in front of a cosy fire with a couple of beers, huh?”
She’s convinced the Doctor will say no. Or, more likely actually, be evasive. Change the subject. But, instead, he’s silent for several seconds, then says, “Maybe it would. Who knows? Might as well, I suppose.”
He’s actually going to open up? About something important - something painful, that’s clear by his behaviour - that’s happened to him. That’s a real step forward. And, as Jack meets her gaze and gives her an approving nod, she understands that he knows it too.
***
Impatient, he rocks on his heels as Rose lights the fire and Jack brings in beer and snacks and arranges cushions just so. Unusual for him, agreeing to something like this, but then that’s what keeps life interesting, isn’t it? The unexpected?
Confession is good for the soul; that’s the saying, isn’t it? And how many humans believe that’s in the Bible? Old Scottish proverb, actually - and, of course, that’s only because the person he originally said it to never wanted to come clean about the fact that an alien made him admit to things he never wanted to confess to. It’s true, all the same, and he could say it to Jack and Rose as explanation for his willingness to do this, if he felt like it. They’d even believe him.
What they don’t know, but they might understand once it’s all out in the open, is that it’s their souls it’s good for. Love is blind, so Shakespeare said - and that’s not actually one of the lines he gave Will.
He accepts the beer that Jack passes him, and allows Rose to pull him down onto the cushions. She curls up next to him, her knee nudging his thigh, and on his other side Jack’s shoulder is touching his. Maybe he should move, give Jack more room, but... well, Jack’s not really leaning against him because of lack of space, is he?
Rose bumps his other shoulder. “So, come on then. ‘Bout this Family...?”
“Oh! Right! Yes!” Brightly, deliberately so. “1913, that was. We went there, Martha an’ me. I was a school-teacher again, Rose! History-master this time, though. Thought it was safer than physics in 1913. Well, I s’pose I must have. Was human at the time - not really me, y’see.”
“Oh, so that’s when it happened?” Jack’s voice, coming from so close to his ear, is full of interest. “I heard about that.” A caustic note enters his voice. “You were a pillar of the establishment, and poor Martha had to scrub the floors. And you romanced the matron, right?”
All right, of course he shouldn’t be surprised that Martha’s told Jack about their travels, but why did she have to give him quite so much information? And in a way that’s quite clearly biased, too.
“Romanced?” Rose sounds interested, and not a little chagrined. Well, good.
“It wasn’t like that,” he finds himself protesting. “Told you. I was human. Used a chameleon arch to take away everything Time Lord about me. I had no idea I was anything other than John Smith, ordinary bloke and history master. Anyway, thought you wanted to know about the Family.”
“We do,” Jack says immediately. “The other stuff’s interesting too, though, you gotta admit.”
“If you really must know more, ask Martha.” Brilliant. He sounded petulant there, didn’t he? He really didn’t want that.
Pulling at his collar, he says, “All right. The Family. Aubertides, as you know. Four of them, and they wanted me. Specifically, Time Lord DNA. They were dying. With my DNA, they could have immortality, or as close to it as they could get. So they chased me through time - using a Vortex Manipulator, Jack, stolen from a Time Agent. Now do you blame me for disabling yours?”
Jack shrugs, and he can feel the other man’s body shifting against his. “Never blamed you, Doctor. Just thought you were a spoilsport.”
“They were chasin’ you, Doctor,” Rose says, obviously anxious to get the discussion back on track. “So you became a human... to hide?”
Clever girl. “Yep. Easiest way, really. That was all I had to do - wait them out. Three months and they’d have died.”
“All you had to do,” Jack says, and that faintly caustic note’s back. “Martha had to wait them out with you. In a time and place where an independent, intelligent black woman wasn’t exactly gonna be welcomed with open arms.”
“I didn’t choose the place!” he protests immediately, indignant. “The TARDIS did.”
“And the TARDIS made her a servant? And made even you treat her like dirt?”
“I didn’t!”
“Oh, you did. All right, you weren’t one of the racist ones, at least, but you did remind her of her place more than once. You ask her, if you want to know.” Jack’s suddenly moved away from him, and his side feels oddly chilly. “On second thoughts, it’s probably a waste of time - she’ll only lie to make you feel better.”
He feels like pointing out that this is a very odd kind of behaviour from a man who claimed, hours earlier, to love him. But then Jack would probably explain it as ‘tough love’ or something like that. More of telling him things Jack thinks he needs to hear.
And... all right, yes, he did treat Martha badly. It’s not as if he doesn’t know that. But he can’t be held responsible for 1913, can he? He wasn’t himself!
“Oi! S’posed to be givin’ him a chance to tell us about it, aren’t we? Not attackin’ him!” Rose protests, leaning across him to frown at Jack.
“Yeah. Sorry.” Jack takes a deep drink of his beer.
A thought suddenly occurs to him, and with it a stab of unaccustomed guilt. “Jack, I know I can be spectacularly dense sometimes, but... does this have something to do with me leaving you behind?”
Jack’s expression looks completely innocent, but... “Course not, Doctor. That’s been water under the bridge for a long time now. Ancient history.”
“Yeah, right,” Rose says, and suddenly she’s actually straddling his thighs, reaching for Jack with one hand. “You jus’ left him there, Doctor. You let me believe he was dead, or else that he didn’t care enough about us to stay with us. An’ then he finds out that you deliberately left him cause you couldn’t cope with what I’d made him - is it any wonder he’s pissed off about it? Not jus’ bein’ left, but what does that say about him, Doctor? Bet he’s wonderin’ if you’d’ve left me.”
What?
How did they get onto this? And just when did he lose control of the conversation anyway? And when did his tie end up in his hands instead of around his neck?
Would he have left Rose? By the look on Jack’s face, it is something he’s wondered about.
“I thought you wanted to know about the Family,” he says, quietly, with dignity. Part of him wants to push Rose off him, get up and walk out of the room. But there’s another part that’s telling him that this could be a pivotal moment, like that uncomfortable conversation in the console-room earlier.
Actions speak louder than words. That’s what Martha told him when he saw her again, some months after she left him. Oh, he told her she was brilliant when she was with him. He said some other nice things to her sometimes. But he also kept comparing her unfavourably to... others. Most of all, though, it was his actions that showed her she wasn’t appreciated. It’s not true; of course he appreciated her. But he didn’t show her.
If he’s not to make the same mistake again, with the two companions he knows he’s missed far more than he should have...
“But all right,” he says firmly, just as Rose begins to move, her expression resigned, and Jack’s putting his beer aside. “It’s a fair question.” He lays a hand on Rose’s shoulder, keeping her where she is, and with his other hand reaches for Jack’s wrist, holding him in place. “And the answer is... I don’t know. I really don’t. If you were the fixed point in time, Rose, would I have run? I hope not,” he adds, and the back of his neck’s itching, but his hands are busy. “Because I knew Jack could get off Satellite Five. You... you’d have been stuck there.”
“Right,” Jack says. “She would. So you better damn well not have run from her.”
“Shouldn’t have run from you either.” And that’s an admission he should have made long ago.
“Yeah, like I said, water under the bridge.” Jack pats the hand that’s resting on his arm, then reaches for another beer. “Let it go, Rose. You said you wanted to know about the Aubertides.”
Not what he expected, really, to have Jack defend him against Rose. Or to have Rose accusing him of stuff, either. That’s not how this was supposed to have turned out.
“So, All right. The Family,” he continues as Rose shifts back to her original position, though he notes that her knee isn’t touching him any longer. Jack’s leaning against him again, though.
He gives them a brief account of those weeks in the village, finishing with his decision to become himself once more and the way he fooled the Family into believing that he was still human, still stupid, still gullible.
“Then I punished them.” He says the words slowly, watching the two of them, gauging their reaction. Jack’s is just a curious “Oh?” But Rose sits up, leans forward and stares at him.
“What did you do?”
He holds her gaze and says, harshly, “I gave them what they wanted.”
She frowns. “They wanted you.”
“No.” He shakes his head. “They wanted immortality. That’s what I gave them.”
“How’s that a punishment?” Oh, in some ways, despite the evident greater maturity in her, Rose is still so naïve.
“It’s a curse,” Jack says, his voice expressionless.
“It is.” He’s still looking at Rose; Jack already sees the horror of what he’s capable of, but Rose needs to learn it. “I imprisoned Father of Mine with chains forged at the heart of a dwarf star,” he tells her. “Eternally trapped. Eternally aware. I locked Daughter of Mine into a mirror. Every mirror. Eternally able to see out, but no-one sees her. Well, I can.” His face is very cold; he knows it, and he knows Rose sees it too. The look on her face is everything he was hoping for and dreading at the same time.
“I turned Son of Mine into a scarecrow. He’s still there, suspended in time, guarding the fields of England. You might even have seen him, Rose. And I threw Mother of Mine out of the TARDIS into the event horizon of a black hole. Eternally dying, crushed by gravity. Like Jack said, cursed to live on and on, with no end in sight.”
He’s tempted to add, as he said once long ago to Rose, That’s who I am. Now go home and forget me. But the message is already clear.
But it’s Jack who speaks, even as Rose’s eyes are wide in horror. “Yeah, the curse of immortality, all right. That’s gonna be me one day, trapped in the last black hole. Right, Doctor?”
***
tbc
Author: wmr
wendymr
Characters: Tenth Doctor, Jack Harkness, Rose Tyler, others
Rated: Probably PG13
Spoilers: Up to VotD, AU from most of what we've heard about S4.
Disclaimer: Never gonna be mine, are they?
Summary: It's not the reality that's the worst, really; it's his perception of it. Of himself.
A pinch-hit fic for
sensiblecat in the OT3 ficathon - prompts will be posted at the end of the fic. Hope you like this! With grateful thanks to
dark_aegis for BRing. Acknowledgement: one paragraph of this chapter is quoted from Paul Cornell's New Adventures novel Human Nature.
Chapter 1: The Magician l Chapter 2: Bringer of War
Chapter 3: The Winged Messenger
“D’you want a tissue or something?” Rose sounds faintly impatient, which is kind of unlike her when she’s dealing with a frightened victim, but he can understand it. The guy’s constant sniffing’s getting a bit irritating.
There’s something odd about it, too. And it’s only when the little guy lunges towards Rose, and she darts to the side - her reactions are a hell of a lot better than before too - that he realises what it is. The guy’s nose is dry. He’s not sniffing back mucus. He’s smelling something.
Jack draws his weapon again and levels it at the little guy. “Okay, that’s enough. Just who are you and what the hell do you want?”
The guy moves in his direction, ignoring the gun, and sniffs even harder. “Oh, you’re different. Fascinating, in fact. Immortal, you are. Such a lifeline as that is worth the taking.”
Taking? What is this? Some sort of body-stealing creature? He’s ready to fire but, lightning-fast, something hits his hand and, involuntarily, he drops his gun. It clatters to the ground, sliding too far from his reach. Damn.
Okay. It likes him. Whatever it is, it wants him. He begins to back away, knowing the creature will follow him. “Rose! Run!” She won’t, but instinct still makes him try to protect her.
“You’re kidding me!” she exclaims, and out of the corner of his eye he can see her aiming her gun at the creature.
“Rose! Jack! Get away! Get out of the way!”
The Doctor. He must know what the thing is, and he’s coming, he’s running.
Rose fires. The creature, faster than he could have imagined possible, sidesteps. Why didn’t he move that fast when he was being pursued...
...unless he wanted something like this to happen -
“Jack! Get behind me!” the Doctor yells, and then he’s talking to the creature. “You! Aubertide! It’s not him you want. You want me. I’m a Time Lord. The last one in the universe. What would that be like, eh?”
The creature - the Aubertide - has halted. Its head tilts to one side, and it turns slowly, stares at the Doctor and sniffs hard. “Time Lord.”
“Yep! That’s me. Time Lord. Come and get me, eh?” The Doctor starts to back away.
“No chance,” Jack mutters. He dives for his gun and catches Rose’s eye. She’s ready, too. And he’s pretty damn sure her gun’s not on stun setting now.
“No guns!” the Doctor shouts, still zig-zagging backwards. “Guns aren’t a solution!”
“No? Sure lookin’ that way to me,” Jack shouts back, beckoning Rose to stay level with him.
“Listen to the Time Lord, my humans,” the Aubertide says, smiling, head still on one side. “He speaks the truth.
“What happens if I shoot you, then, eh?” Rose demands.
“You become as bad as him,” the Doctor says, and there’s terrible sadness in his voice.
“That’s not all, Time Lord, is it?”
“No.” The Doctor’s still beckoning the Aubertide towards him. “He can still consume one of you - or me - before that body dies. And then if you kill the body he inhabits next he’ll simply do it again.”
“Not if you take me, my friend,” Jack calls to the Aubertide. “Forget the Time Lord. He’s only got a limited number of regenerations - and that’s assuming his body will still be able to regenerate once you take it over.” He drops his gun, kicking it towards Rose, then turns his head slightly so that he can meet Rose’s gaze. Not the Doctor; the Doctor’d never do what has to be done.
Rose will. Holding her gaze, he continues, his words very deliberate, “Me, I can’t die. They shoot me, I just keep on going. Wanna live for ever? Take me.”
“No -” the Doctor yells, a note of such agony in his voice that he’s taken aback. And then everything vanishes.
***
“No!” the Doctor shouts again, running back towards Jack. She’s frozen, staring at him, at Jack, who’s suddenly not Jack.
He’s not Jack. Right before her eyes, something small and dark sprang from the Aubertide to Jack, and the Aubertide’s body crumpled and fell to the ground. Jack inhaled deeply, and now he’s smiling, a smile she’s never seen on his face before. And he’s looking at her, still with that horrible smile that she can only describe as evil, and he’s sniffing.
“What can we do? Doctor, what can we do?”
The Doctor’s just staring at what used to be Jack, an expression of horror on his face. And that’s when it sinks in. They’ve lost him. They’ve lost Jack. He’s gone, consumed by the Aubertide - isn’t that how the Doctor put it? Consumed?
“Jack’s gone, yeah?” She looks to the Doctor, seeking clarity.
He nods slowly. The pain in his eyes mirrors his own.
Abruptly, she swings back to the Aubertide as rage fills her. “Then it’s okay if I do this!” Once again, she levels her gun at him.
The Aubertide simply cocks his head to one side again, sniffing. “Oh, you foolish, simple human.” It’s Jack’s voice, and yet it’s not, and it hurts to hear that creature stealing Jack’s voice. “This body can’t die. Shoot all you want, little girl. I am immortal.”
Can’t die. That’s what Jack said - yet it’s not... And then it dawns on her. What Jack planned. Exactly what he wants her to do.
“No, Rose. I can’t let you do it.” The Doctor’s beside her, and she hadn’t even seen him move. His hand closes over hers, on top of her gun.
“But I have to,” she tells him, and her cheeks are wet, the tears dripping down onto her hands. “I have to. It’s what he wan -”
“I know.” It’s so long since she’s heard that gentle, loving tone from him, and part of her wants to drop the gun and just sink into his arms, let him wrap himself around her and protect her from everything.
But she can’t. “An’ that’s why I have to -”
“No.” Firmly, he removes the gun from her grasp. “I can’t let you.”
She struggles, grabbing at his arm, trying to take it back from him, and all the while the Aubertide’s looking at them, laughing. “You foolish, foolish creatures. And I thought Time Lords were supposed to be geniuses. I will kill you both, and then, Time Lord, I will have your TARDIS -”
A gunshot rings out. Jack’s body falls to the ground. And the gun tumbles from the Doctor’s shaking hand.
***
He’s failed.
Even as he pulled the trigger to kill the Aubertide in Jack’s body, he knew he’d failed.
Because this isn’t him. This isn’t his way. It’s not what he does.
“He'd make the villains fall into their own traps, and trick the monsters, and outwit the men with guns. He'd save everybody's life and find a way to win.”
Oh, Benny. How disappointed she’d be in him now. Yet they left him no choice. Jack with his heroics, and Rose recognising what Jack had done and why.
And yet he can’t help wondering, as he and Rose together run to the body on the ground, is this the better way? The kinder way? Because he did make the Family fall into their own trap. He did trick them. He saved... well, not everybody. Too many people died. Far too many. But he gave the Family what they wanted. He gave them immortality. Just not how they wanted it.
Even as he and Rose drop to their haunches beside Jack’s body, Rose still weeping but carrying on bravely all the same, he’s starting to stir.
He comes alive with a cry of pain and a rippling jolt through his entire body, as if he’s been electrified. “Did... did it work?”
Gravely, he says, taking Jack’s hand in his, “It worked. You’re you again.” And he can never, even with all of his genius, come up with the words to express his relief. Jack might be ‘wrong’, but the universe would be a far lesser place without him. And, difficult as it is to admit, he needs Jack, just as he needs Rose. Rose to ground him, Jack to keep him in check.
With an incoherent cry, Rose flings herself onto Jack. As the Captain’s arms fold around her, the Doctor starts to straighten and retreat. He doesn’t belong in this reunion. Jack’s alive. That’s all that matters.
Until his hand’s caught - by Jack. “Where d’you think you’re going?” And then Rose, too, is tugging him back and he’s caught in a three-way hug. With sudden resolution, he’s shoving away the instinct to keep a distance and willingly, gladly hugging them back. They’re his team. They’re together. And, yes, he wouldn’t have it any other way.
***
Muscles, synapses and neural nodes snap back into place, and he drags himself to his feet, steadied by the Doctor and Rose as he stumbles a bit. “Nice work, Rose,” he says, grinning at her. “I was hoping you’d figure out what I needed you to do.”
“I did,” she says, and as he looks at her properly he can see the evidence of tears on her face. “You said you don’t die. But you do - an’ when you died, so did the Aubertide. But you can’t stay dead - too late for it, though.”
“Yep. Aubertides need a living host to survive,” the Doctor says, his expression sombre. “Once the host dies, if the Aubertide’s still present it dies too. Unless it can leap to another living host beforehand, or there’s another of its kind nearby that it can jump to in its dying moments and reproduce from. They bud,” he adds.
“Didn’t know about that, but I figured that I couldn’t stay dead, not after my Bad Wolf guardian angel -” He gives Rose a grin. “- and thought it was worth taking a chance that it couldn’t survive the minute or so I’d be dead.”
“Worked that out, yeah,” Rose says, and he notices that she hasn’t let go of him. “Wasn’t me who killed you, though. The Doctor -”
His gaze shoots to the Doctor. “You shot me?”
“Yep.” The Doctor’s rubbing the back of his neck, clearly embarrassed. “Couldn’t let Rose do it, could I? I mean, obviously you’re used to weapons now, Rose, not that I like it, but shooting your own boyfriend? Couldn’t just stand by while you had to do that.”
Doesn’t look like it was any easier for the Doctor than it would have been for Rose, though. And the Doctor’s seen him die and resurrect many times now.
“Hey! You lot! What’ve you done with the prisoner?”
The hell...? It’s the Naviscite, the one who was chasing the Aubertide in the first place, running up apparently out of nowhere.
“He’s dead.” The Doctor’s tone is curt, clipped. “You don’t need to worry about it.”
“My mission is to bring him back, dead or alive. In case you’ve forgotten, whoever you are, I’m a police officer, under orders from the government of Navisceon, and in command of this situation. You are nothing but a meddler -”
“Do all police officers where you’re from make a habit of killin’ innocent bystanders?” Rose snaps, marching right up to the Naviscite and glaring at him. Jack has to admire her for it. The guy’s close to two feet taller than she is, and he shot to kill earlier, and she’s not remotely cowed by him.
“Killing?” The Naviscite cop looks down at her, his expression a sneer. “Your associate is clearly alive. And interfering with a police officer carrying out his lawful duty is a crime.” He strides around Rose and heads towards the body that was inhabited by the Aubertide. “My property.”
“I think not!” the Doctor announces. “This is an innocent man. You said yourself the Aubertide stole that body. You’ll leave him where he is. That man’s got a family somewhere, and they deserve to be able to mourn him properly, not wonder for the rest of their lives what happened to him.”
Jack moves to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Doctor, protecting the body. Rose, her gun back in her hand, stands by the Doctor’s other side.
The Naviscite hesitates. Obviously, he doesn’t have any other weapon, or he’d fight. After close to a minute of stalemate, he turns and stalks off, muttering something that sounds like “Got better things to do.”
They wait until his ship’s left the planet’s atmosphere, and then the Doctor takes a long, deep breath. “Let’s go home.”
***
The Doctor’s been on edge ever since they got back, and she can’t help wondering if he realises how obvious it is. Unlike his habits since they got back together again, he doesn’t disappear off somewhere. He isn’t suggesting a new destination, either. He’s been tinkering with the console for the past few hours, actually inviting Jack’s help, and rambling on for ages about trivialities and the kind of science that, even now after taking an A-level and half a degree in physics, still goes way over her head. He wants company - seems desperate for it.
Eventually, because she wants to know and because she thinks he needs to talk about whatever’s really on his mind, she takes a stab in the dark. “You knew what that thing was, Doctor. The Aubertide. You seen one before?”
For a moment, he looks completely startled. Rattled, even. Then he nods. “Yep. Family of them. Unusual to see one on its own, actually. They live in family groups - that’s how they reproduce - and they stay together, help each other, fight together. They’re almost like a collective consciousness.”
And they met one alone - that’s intriguing, but she’s not going to allow the Doctor to get distracted. “So you met a family...?”
“Long story,” he says, looking down at the console again. “Very long... too long, maybe...” He trails off, staring at the roundels on the TARDIS walls.
Jack straightens from his task down by the grille, hair rumpled and some kind of tool behind his ear. “Sounds like the kind of story that’s best told in front of a cosy fire with a couple of beers, huh?”
She’s convinced the Doctor will say no. Or, more likely actually, be evasive. Change the subject. But, instead, he’s silent for several seconds, then says, “Maybe it would. Who knows? Might as well, I suppose.”
He’s actually going to open up? About something important - something painful, that’s clear by his behaviour - that’s happened to him. That’s a real step forward. And, as Jack meets her gaze and gives her an approving nod, she understands that he knows it too.
***
Impatient, he rocks on his heels as Rose lights the fire and Jack brings in beer and snacks and arranges cushions just so. Unusual for him, agreeing to something like this, but then that’s what keeps life interesting, isn’t it? The unexpected?
Confession is good for the soul; that’s the saying, isn’t it? And how many humans believe that’s in the Bible? Old Scottish proverb, actually - and, of course, that’s only because the person he originally said it to never wanted to come clean about the fact that an alien made him admit to things he never wanted to confess to. It’s true, all the same, and he could say it to Jack and Rose as explanation for his willingness to do this, if he felt like it. They’d even believe him.
What they don’t know, but they might understand once it’s all out in the open, is that it’s their souls it’s good for. Love is blind, so Shakespeare said - and that’s not actually one of the lines he gave Will.
He accepts the beer that Jack passes him, and allows Rose to pull him down onto the cushions. She curls up next to him, her knee nudging his thigh, and on his other side Jack’s shoulder is touching his. Maybe he should move, give Jack more room, but... well, Jack’s not really leaning against him because of lack of space, is he?
Rose bumps his other shoulder. “So, come on then. ‘Bout this Family...?”
“Oh! Right! Yes!” Brightly, deliberately so. “1913, that was. We went there, Martha an’ me. I was a school-teacher again, Rose! History-master this time, though. Thought it was safer than physics in 1913. Well, I s’pose I must have. Was human at the time - not really me, y’see.”
“Oh, so that’s when it happened?” Jack’s voice, coming from so close to his ear, is full of interest. “I heard about that.” A caustic note enters his voice. “You were a pillar of the establishment, and poor Martha had to scrub the floors. And you romanced the matron, right?”
All right, of course he shouldn’t be surprised that Martha’s told Jack about their travels, but why did she have to give him quite so much information? And in a way that’s quite clearly biased, too.
“Romanced?” Rose sounds interested, and not a little chagrined. Well, good.
“It wasn’t like that,” he finds himself protesting. “Told you. I was human. Used a chameleon arch to take away everything Time Lord about me. I had no idea I was anything other than John Smith, ordinary bloke and history master. Anyway, thought you wanted to know about the Family.”
“We do,” Jack says immediately. “The other stuff’s interesting too, though, you gotta admit.”
“If you really must know more, ask Martha.” Brilliant. He sounded petulant there, didn’t he? He really didn’t want that.
Pulling at his collar, he says, “All right. The Family. Aubertides, as you know. Four of them, and they wanted me. Specifically, Time Lord DNA. They were dying. With my DNA, they could have immortality, or as close to it as they could get. So they chased me through time - using a Vortex Manipulator, Jack, stolen from a Time Agent. Now do you blame me for disabling yours?”
Jack shrugs, and he can feel the other man’s body shifting against his. “Never blamed you, Doctor. Just thought you were a spoilsport.”
“They were chasin’ you, Doctor,” Rose says, obviously anxious to get the discussion back on track. “So you became a human... to hide?”
Clever girl. “Yep. Easiest way, really. That was all I had to do - wait them out. Three months and they’d have died.”
“All you had to do,” Jack says, and that faintly caustic note’s back. “Martha had to wait them out with you. In a time and place where an independent, intelligent black woman wasn’t exactly gonna be welcomed with open arms.”
“I didn’t choose the place!” he protests immediately, indignant. “The TARDIS did.”
“And the TARDIS made her a servant? And made even you treat her like dirt?”
“I didn’t!”
“Oh, you did. All right, you weren’t one of the racist ones, at least, but you did remind her of her place more than once. You ask her, if you want to know.” Jack’s suddenly moved away from him, and his side feels oddly chilly. “On second thoughts, it’s probably a waste of time - she’ll only lie to make you feel better.”
He feels like pointing out that this is a very odd kind of behaviour from a man who claimed, hours earlier, to love him. But then Jack would probably explain it as ‘tough love’ or something like that. More of telling him things Jack thinks he needs to hear.
And... all right, yes, he did treat Martha badly. It’s not as if he doesn’t know that. But he can’t be held responsible for 1913, can he? He wasn’t himself!
“Oi! S’posed to be givin’ him a chance to tell us about it, aren’t we? Not attackin’ him!” Rose protests, leaning across him to frown at Jack.
“Yeah. Sorry.” Jack takes a deep drink of his beer.
A thought suddenly occurs to him, and with it a stab of unaccustomed guilt. “Jack, I know I can be spectacularly dense sometimes, but... does this have something to do with me leaving you behind?”
Jack’s expression looks completely innocent, but... “Course not, Doctor. That’s been water under the bridge for a long time now. Ancient history.”
“Yeah, right,” Rose says, and suddenly she’s actually straddling his thighs, reaching for Jack with one hand. “You jus’ left him there, Doctor. You let me believe he was dead, or else that he didn’t care enough about us to stay with us. An’ then he finds out that you deliberately left him cause you couldn’t cope with what I’d made him - is it any wonder he’s pissed off about it? Not jus’ bein’ left, but what does that say about him, Doctor? Bet he’s wonderin’ if you’d’ve left me.”
What?
How did they get onto this? And just when did he lose control of the conversation anyway? And when did his tie end up in his hands instead of around his neck?
Would he have left Rose? By the look on Jack’s face, it is something he’s wondered about.
“I thought you wanted to know about the Family,” he says, quietly, with dignity. Part of him wants to push Rose off him, get up and walk out of the room. But there’s another part that’s telling him that this could be a pivotal moment, like that uncomfortable conversation in the console-room earlier.
Actions speak louder than words. That’s what Martha told him when he saw her again, some months after she left him. Oh, he told her she was brilliant when she was with him. He said some other nice things to her sometimes. But he also kept comparing her unfavourably to... others. Most of all, though, it was his actions that showed her she wasn’t appreciated. It’s not true; of course he appreciated her. But he didn’t show her.
If he’s not to make the same mistake again, with the two companions he knows he’s missed far more than he should have...
“But all right,” he says firmly, just as Rose begins to move, her expression resigned, and Jack’s putting his beer aside. “It’s a fair question.” He lays a hand on Rose’s shoulder, keeping her where she is, and with his other hand reaches for Jack’s wrist, holding him in place. “And the answer is... I don’t know. I really don’t. If you were the fixed point in time, Rose, would I have run? I hope not,” he adds, and the back of his neck’s itching, but his hands are busy. “Because I knew Jack could get off Satellite Five. You... you’d have been stuck there.”
“Right,” Jack says. “She would. So you better damn well not have run from her.”
“Shouldn’t have run from you either.” And that’s an admission he should have made long ago.
“Yeah, like I said, water under the bridge.” Jack pats the hand that’s resting on his arm, then reaches for another beer. “Let it go, Rose. You said you wanted to know about the Aubertides.”
Not what he expected, really, to have Jack defend him against Rose. Or to have Rose accusing him of stuff, either. That’s not how this was supposed to have turned out.
“So, All right. The Family,” he continues as Rose shifts back to her original position, though he notes that her knee isn’t touching him any longer. Jack’s leaning against him again, though.
He gives them a brief account of those weeks in the village, finishing with his decision to become himself once more and the way he fooled the Family into believing that he was still human, still stupid, still gullible.
“Then I punished them.” He says the words slowly, watching the two of them, gauging their reaction. Jack’s is just a curious “Oh?” But Rose sits up, leans forward and stares at him.
“What did you do?”
He holds her gaze and says, harshly, “I gave them what they wanted.”
She frowns. “They wanted you.”
“No.” He shakes his head. “They wanted immortality. That’s what I gave them.”
“How’s that a punishment?” Oh, in some ways, despite the evident greater maturity in her, Rose is still so naïve.
“It’s a curse,” Jack says, his voice expressionless.
“It is.” He’s still looking at Rose; Jack already sees the horror of what he’s capable of, but Rose needs to learn it. “I imprisoned Father of Mine with chains forged at the heart of a dwarf star,” he tells her. “Eternally trapped. Eternally aware. I locked Daughter of Mine into a mirror. Every mirror. Eternally able to see out, but no-one sees her. Well, I can.” His face is very cold; he knows it, and he knows Rose sees it too. The look on her face is everything he was hoping for and dreading at the same time.
“I turned Son of Mine into a scarecrow. He’s still there, suspended in time, guarding the fields of England. You might even have seen him, Rose. And I threw Mother of Mine out of the TARDIS into the event horizon of a black hole. Eternally dying, crushed by gravity. Like Jack said, cursed to live on and on, with no end in sight.”
He’s tempted to add, as he said once long ago to Rose, That’s who I am. Now go home and forget me. But the message is already clear.
But it’s Jack who speaks, even as Rose’s eyes are wide in horror. “Yeah, the curse of immortality, all right. That’s gonna be me one day, trapped in the last black hole. Right, Doctor?”
***
tbc