by Cour M.
Amy turned to Ten and Rory.
“I like her.”
Rory turned to the Doctor.
“Yeah, she does. And she would.”
Rory and Amy followed Ace out of the doors and the Doctor followed them, noticing that they were now four in number.
“Oh my goodness, look at this!” Amy cried, for the city of New Jannifflinquin was lovely.
“Yes, smell that good ole’ stench of many markets crammed into an already too much crammed space. Brilliant isn’t it? The human race, despite it all, you all always can’t keep your feet on the ground, nope! You have to discover new worlds, and boldly go where no one has gone before.”
“Did you just quote Star Trek?”
“It seems like a healthy thing to do every now and again. I love quoting Star Trek. Wait, Ace, did I do it with you ever?”
“Not consciously,” Ace said, “but one time you did say, Ace, Beam me up.”
“The TARDIS can beam people up?”
“Only if the person has Huon particles in them,” Ten cleared up, “but other than that, not really. I probably just said it once when I meant for Ace to put marshmallows in my hot chocolate.”
“Actually you had wanted me to put cream in your cappuccino, but close enough,” Ace extrapolated.
Ten was distracted as he saw an exotic fruit that he liked, so he stopped to get some for the group. As he did so, Amy leaned in close to Ace.
“In the TARDIS back there, when you mentioned him when he was the Sixth Doctor, what did you mean? Did you know him when he was Six and Seven?”
“No, only when he was Seven and sported the question mark sweater, luckily, and not when he wore the tacky jacket that showed the gaudy man underneath. Take your Doctor, the Eleventh one, take his darkest moment. I tell you now that it was nothing like him when he was Six. He told me the stories… the horror stories practically. He could be volatile and frightening. Underneath it all, he had a good heart, but it was covered in darkness still. As he put it, he both was and was not the Doctor.”
“How strange.”
“We all have our scary and ugly patches, Amy. He was no different. He just had something else to make him more over the edge.”
“What was that?”
“The weight of a Timelord. Sometimes he can carry it. And other times he can’t.”
“Amazing,” Amy whispered to her as they watched Ten pay for the fruit, “He looks so different than my Doctor, but also they both look so much the same.”
“I see what you mean.”
“Yes. A smile, a child-like way, and lightness to hide the darkness underneath. And all the secrets.”
“I sense that he has even more than he had before.”
“Yes, I believe that he does.”
“You all have got to try these!” The Doctor said, carrying the fruit forward and offering it to them. Amy, Rory and Ace took the fruit greedily, for they were quite hungry. “I have not had these since I was 400 years old. Dear god, I was young back then.”
“I’m wondering,” Rory said between bites, “you were younger, but did you look even older than you do now? I get the sense that you went backwards.”
“Yes, I did. I was much younger and looked older. I believe the story of ‘Benjamin Button’ stole my trick. Good movie though, so I can’t really complain.”
“So why did we come here, first?” Amy asked Ten, “Of course I understand why you wanted to drop Ace off, but why are we walking around rather than just going back to 1916 to investigate?”
“Because I have to see someone, and I get the sense that he shall be able to find me better if we stay here for a time.”
“Captain Jack Harkness?” Rory checked.
“Yes.”
“But how will he find us?”
“The way I always do,” came a voice behind them. They all turned around as the Doctor’s eyebrows raised, Ace smiled, and Rory and Amy just looked curiously.
“I just follow the trails of the TARDIS,” Captain Jack Harkness said.
“Jack,” Ten voiced gently, “How have you been?”
“I’ve been well,” Captain Jack spoke, standing still, “How have you been, Doctor?”
“I’ve been well. You look a little different than when last I spoke to you.”
“Even I age, as you know. Just in the right order.”
Jack turned to the rest of the group.
“Ace!” Jack cried.
“Captain Jack!” Ace cried and then they hugged each other. Afterwards, Jack turned to Amy and Rory—but Amy mostly in particular. “Captain Jack Harkness, and who might you be?” He asked her as he kissed her hand.
“Don’t start,” Ten groaned.
“I was just saying hello again,” Jack scoffed.
“No really, Jack, I’m warning you not to start because her husband is right behind her.”
“Yeah, seriously,” Rory said, slapping Amy’s hand from out of Jack’s, “and don’t forget that.”
“Never dream of it,” Jack smiled at Rory, “Nice vest.” He winked at Rory in a way that unsettled him, and this time it was Amy’s turn to get overprotective.
“Oi!” She snapped, “Don’t make me have to be the one to slap you this time.”
“I might find pleasure in it,” Jack said, and then he looked around the group. Then he looked back at the Doctor. “But Martha? Where is Martha? Doctor, she’s not…”
“Oh no, she’s fine as well,” Ten assured him, “she’s back on Earth, with her family and she’s safe and I… well, I hope she’s happy.”
“Oh thank god!” Out of joy, Jack embraced the Doctor. “I was worried when I didn’t see her…”
“No, she’s safe… and far away from me.”
Jack looked closely at the Doctor.
“And how do you feel about that?” He asked gently.
“I’m fine. Truly, I am fine.”
Jack nodded, but he wasn’t entirely convinced.
“And how about you, Jack? I see that you got your vortex manipulator working again.”
“It took a run-in with the Shadow Proclamation, but yes I got it fixed. Not going to lie, I’ve had a fun time rolling around through time.”
“Did you apologize for anything you might have messed up?”
“Why do you think I mess up things?”
“That’s what men with time vortex manipulators do.”
“Well, I’m different. Besides, in this regard, I might be able to help you. I found a case.”
“The one you told Ace here about.”
“Yes, but it’s all over intergalactic news feeds, where reports of ruptures in time get exposed. So thank my vortex manipulator, because it got your attention.”
“So, what has been really happening?”
“It’s best we speak of this in a private place, for I don’t trust open streets.”
“Sorry for the quick tour,” Ten said to Amy and Rory, “to the TARDIS.”
“No, Doctor,” Jack said, “to my headquarters.”
They all followed Jack to his headquarters, which were a small set of rooms in a boarding house. When there, after making everyone some tea, he showed them into a room where the walls were covered with articles and news.
“Well, something tells me that you both worked perfectly well together quite often,” Ace ventured.
“We both did and didn’t,” Jack interjected, “Stuck between a girl and a box, wasn’t that how we always were?”
“More or less,” Ten admitted, looking at some papers on Jack’s table.
“But something is still not clear,” Jack continued, turning to Amy, Ace, and Rory. “Ace, you’re from the Doctor’s past, which makes sense, but you both are not?”
“No, it’s a little complicated,” Rory answered.
“Complicated?”
“Yes, that is the word for the day,” Ten said, still looking through the papers.
“You’re
dressed like you’re from an earlier time than when he picks up his usual companions,” Jack observed.
“That’s where he picked us up, but truth is that I first met the Doctor when I was a little girl,” Amy began, “in the 1990s. Then he disappeared from my life for 14 years, then he returned and invited Rory and I to travel with him. Things were brilliant for a time.”
“If you mean wonderful, fun, scary, almost dying all the time as well,” Rory interjected, “then yes, it was brilliant. Really, fun times.”
“You are a spoil sport.”
“I am a spoil sport,” Rory smiled. “And then one day, when we were visiting New York City, I got taken.”
“By the Angels?” Ten asked simply, but it may as well have been rhetorical.
“Yes. They pushed me back in time to the 1930s. While there, I came in contact with our daughter, who is also a…”
He was cut off by Amy who gave him a warning look and then looked at the Doctor.
“What?” Ace asked.
“We are from his future, and not his past,” Amy explained, “and we have both seen what happens when we give him too much foreknowledge. We’ve already ruined his life already.”
“You really haven’t,” the Doctor assured her, “remember, I have ways of forgetting things, methods. But I suppose you are correct to withhold certain things from me.”
“Well,” Rory continued, “Anyway, I met someone there who I knew, we both got captured, but there was something different about this time than all the other times that the Angels attack people.”
“How so?” Jack asked.
“Well, it was something wrong with time itself,” Amy reported, “The Doctor and I tried to go back in time to get him, but something was blocking us. The TARDIS could not travel to the year.”
“Really?” Ten asked, confused. “What?”
“Yes, there was something about that year that kept pushing the TARDIS away. We literally could not get into the 1930s.”
“But that never happens.”
“Doctor, we can assure you that it did happen. There was a point in time that the TARDIS just could not push through.”
This revelation made Ten pensive, confused and disturbed.
“She can go anywhere. That is her power.”
“But how did you all get to Rory if the TARDIS could not get in?” Jack asked.
“That person that I was captured with,” Rory elaborated, avoiding looking upon the Doctor as he spoke, “she was able to use a Time Vortex Manipulator.”
Everyone turned around and looked at Jack’s as his manipulator was on his wrist.
“How many of those are running around the universe, I wonder?” Ace pondered.
“Trust me,” Jack replied, pensive, “not many.”
“Well, this woman, she used the manipulator like it was a beacon,” Amy continued, “therefore we were able to land. Unfortunately, by the time that we got there, Rory had been taken again and the Angels once more displaced him.”
“But I wasn’t pushed further back in time,” Rory explained, “rather I was repositioned. Wait is that a word?”
“Yes, it is,” Ten assured him, lowering the papers, “first you were taken back in time, and then the angels just… moved you?”
“Yes.”
“It never does that either.”
“No, they don’t. But when they moved me, it was to an Apartment building named Winter Quay.”
“We retrieved him from there,” Amy added.
“But right after they found me, we came upon… we saw me, an older version of me as I was dying in a bed. I saw myself die.”
There was an awkward silence.
“Well,” Ace admitted, “that killed the mood.”
“What’s amazing is that I have died quite a few times,” Rory chuckled sadly, “but that was the first time that I had ever seen myself go, you know.”
“He had this unfortunate tendency to die a lot,” Amy explained.
“I know the feeling,” Ten assured them.
“Me too,” Jack added.
“But did you die nine full times?”
“No,” Rory replied.
“Then it could have been worse, believe me.”
“Well, when we saw him die,” Amy added, “I refused to let that be the end of it, despite that I knew that the Angels were never going to let him go. You see, they brought him back to that time and were going to keep him there to feed off of him, and while the Doctor—” here she looked at Ten, “sorry, I mean your future self, realized that they were always going to chase Rory, always bringing him back. And then he realized that the whole of New York City was a place that was placed in a sort of time loop. Where no one got out, and therefore couldn’t get out.”
“But if someone did…” Ten’s eyes widened, “then it would create a paradox, and the angel’s food supply would be zapped!”
“That’s what we realized!”
“Oh, it’s nice to see that I am still really clever in the future,” Ten cried happily, “I was worried about that, but look, I am brilliant!”
“Still need a lesson in humility, huh?” Jack smirked.
“Oh shut up, you’re just mad that I’ve got the better hair.”
“Yes, but my smile cannot be beaten, now can it?” Here he winked at Rory.
“What did I tell you?” Amy declared.
“Sorry.” Jack then winked at Amy.
“What did I tell you?” Rory demanded.
“Sorry.” Jack then winked at Ace.
“Jack—” Ten started.
“You can’t, Doctor. She’s beyond your jurisdiction.”
“Anyway,” Rory continued, “we were able to escape by creating the paradox.”
“How did you do that?” Ace asked.
Rory and Amy looked at each other.
“We both jumped to our deaths.”
They all looked at each other.
“Well, that killed the mood again,” Ace declared.
Ten stood up and moved away from them, looking out of the window of Jack’s apartment.
“I… I let you do that?!” He boomed.
“No, you did not,” Amy said, “we didn’t even give you the chance, because we jumped off a roof before you could get to us. Yet it worked, and we did unravel the time loop, killing the Angel’s supply.”
“But then how did you get separated from me then?”
“One Angel made it through the paradox,” Rory said, “and because they just have to be murderous psychopaths, it followed after me. Once we returned to the present, it appeared and then it recaptured me and pushed me back into the past. Back to the 1930s.”
“I saw him get taken,” Amy concluded, “And there the Angel was, staring at me after it had taken him, and I let it take me back as well. So I could find him.”
“I let you do that?” Ten gasped.
“No, but you didn’t really have a say in the matter,” Amy declared, “I never would have let you.”
“And I didn’t go back and get you both?”
“You couldn’t. The TARDIS could never go back there.”
“Then how did you get to me?”
“We realized something,” Amy answered, “you see, the TARDIS could not get in, but that didn’t mean that nothing else could.”
“The Angels had created the time cage,” Rory magnified, “so of course, they could get back in.”
“So, we waited. We spent months looking for the sign of any one of them anywhere, always looking directly at every statue that we came upon, always walking everywhere together, and then we found one.”
“It zapped us back to 1914. And for two years we worked, lived in this small ghastly flat, and then finally thought of a way to get the Doctor’s attention.”
“1914?” Jack asked, “1914 exactly?”
“Yes.”
“The year of World War I. Well, that can be a coincidence of course, but something tells me that its mor
e than that.”
“What do we precisely have to do with anything?”
“World War I,” Ten stated, while looking at the papers, “the year of the most pointless war in Earth’s history. And consequently led to World War II, the most frightening War in the 20th century. Even that horrified me.”
They all looked at him.
“I’ve seen a few things myself,” he explained.
“The end of the Time War,” Amy stated simply.
“I told you both?” He asked.
“Yes, you did. It took you awhile to open up to us, but you did.”
“What Time War?” Ace asked.
Ten was speechless.
Amy, Rory, and Jack turned to the Doctor, for Ace was the only one who was not aware of the Doctor’s past in that regard. It was of course after her time.
“Don’t worry about it,” Ten spoke.
“But Doctor—”
“I said don’t talk about it!” He screamed with venomous ferocity.
“Doctor!” Amy cried even louder.
Ten bit his lip.
“I’ve seen you angry before, to the point of being horrible, but has she ever?” Amy asked simply, turning to Ace.
“I…” Ace was shocked, “you never spoke to me like that before.”
“Ace…” The Doctor began but she looked so horrified by his reaction that she was white in the face.
“Don’t worry, it’s not you,” Jack assured Ace, “this is simply a side of him that emerges when it comes to this topic.”
“I’m sorry,” Ten assured her, “really, I am. I didn’t mean to frighten you. My god, I was that way with Martha, a lot.”
“Yes, you were,” Jack told him, “now you know why I was even nicer than ever to her. It hurts, Doctor. It hurts when you get this way.”
Ten was silenced for a time, feeling very sorry for his reaction.
“Well, if you’re going to be angry at me for no reason,” Ace cried, upset, “Then now you had better make it up to me. Tell me what happened.”
Ten removed his glasses from his face and rubbed his eyes.
“It doesn’t matter,” he explained, “Ace, I promise, I really am the same man. I mean, can’t we go on as we once were? Really, I am no different.”
