Spiegel im Spiegel, Chapter 9
Feb. 23rd, 2009 07:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fic_of_forkWord Count: 2500
Summary: Like a mirror reflected into a mirror, choices made create an infinite of possibilities, and images seen may not be what they appear. An encounter with an elusive, incorporeal race leads the Doctor and his allies on a dark journey.
Warnings: None specifically to this chapter.
Rating: Teen
Characters: Ten, Donna, Braxiatel, Torchwood, Original characters (Mike)
Genre: AU, Adventure
Author's Note: Thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mtemplar_fic and lindenharp!
Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who, Torchwood, or any of its characters, and I'm receiving no profit from this beyond the joy of writing.
Chapter 8, Chapter 7, Chapter 6, Chapter 5, Chapter 4, Chapter 3, Chapter 2, Chapter 1
The Hub burst into activity, with the members of Torchwood sliding into their roles, as if they were parts in a well-oiled machine. Mickey and Ianto were absorbed in scouring a computer terminal for more information and cross-referencing what they found with various closed-circuit cameras scattered about Cardiff. Jack snapped orders to everyone, effortlessly coordinating and linking the team together. Gwen was on the phone with her contacts at her old police precinct, who were the first to find the zombie army. Martha hung back from it all, as she collected more information from the Doctor.
"They're psionic. If you're the least bit telepathic, you'll have no defense against them. I should know," the Doctor lectured.
"They have to have some weakness," Martha said.
"Low level sonic disruption will weaken their control over the bodies they inhabit, but I wouldn't count on that one working again," the Doctor responded. "They're vulnerable to psionics, as well, but good luck getting close enough. They're a gestalt--think of the Time Lords. Any one Time Lord you can telepathically overcome. Our brains network, in a sense. Combine them, and there's no getting past."
The lift leading to the Plass opened, and the TARDIS was slowly lowered into the Hub, as the opening closed shut behind it. "There she is!" The Doctor beamed. He abruptly sensed that everyone was staring at him. "What?" he asked. "Do I have something between my teeth?" He turned to Braxiatel and grimaced. "How about it? Teeth clean?"
A puzzled look came over Braxiatel's face, and he was oddly silent, not looking at the humans scattered about.
The Doctor noticed this and became grave. He studied the TARDIS for a moment and said, "I'm not speaking English, am I?" He waited for affirmation, then continued in English. "The Mindwights severed the link to our TARDISes. Not good. Did you all get what I said before?"
"There was a bit about psionics, then I couldn't follow. Sum total of my Gallifreyan is asking where the loo is and a few greetings," Martha admitted.
Switching languages, Mike whispered to Braxiatel, "Would you like me to translate?"
"Yes, please," he admitted.
The Doctor observed the quiet transaction between Mike and Braxiatel. He was silent for a moment, then continued in a language other than English or Gallifreyan, "For as many years as you were on Dellah and at the Collection, you never bothered to learn English?"
"Why would I?" Braxiatel responded. "Do you have any idea how many languages were spoken, on any given day, at the Collection? It was my time capsule that made everyone able to understand everyone else."
"What did they just say?" Gwen asked Mike.
Mike shook his head. "Beats me. Southern dialect. What's spoken in the Citadel is an archaic form of a kind of language that used to be spoken by everyone. You know the notes the Doctor leaves around the TARDIS for himself? That's Gallifreyan. The stuff that looks like a cross between Greek and Arabic is the southern dialect, which he tends to use for personal stuff. By the time kids come to the Academy, if they're from old Time Lord families, it's a good chance they're bilingual. Ada came not knowing a word of Gallifreyan. It's kind of a political thing in the Eastern Desert--Time Lords aren't too welcome there. Old Pythian stronghold, I've been told."
"Anyway," the Doctor continued, interrupting Mike's lecture. "Psionics. Like they just did with the TARDIS. Their strength and their weakness. Same with the Time Lords. We're every bit as susceptible to their attacks."
Jack rubbed his forehead, as if he had the start of a tension headache. "How about the Time Lords? At least getting their help, we'd be on a level playing field against them."
Braxiatel snorted, after he heard the translation. "They're safe behind the Transduction Barrier. The rest of the universe can go hang." Mike substituted a more polite euphemism.
"And then what? It would be like World War I all over again, but with the trenches being telepathy. The Doctor's no slouch, and they cut him off from his TARDIS like that," Mickey said as he snapped his fingers for emphasis.
"Mickey, Martha, stay with them. Gwen, Ianto, with me. We have a zombie army to take care of," Jack said, as he turned to leave.
"We'll have to take Gwen's car," Ianto said. "The SUV is still a mess."
The Doctor turned to Martha, Mickey, Braxiatel, Donna, and Mike. In Gallifreyan, the Doctor said, "you wouldn't happen to have a Stattenheim Remote for your time capsule, would you?" he asked Braxiatel.
"Unfortunately not. They didn't come standard on the Type 80's," Braxiatel said.
The Doctor tapped the side of his head. "If we link the telepathic relays of my TARDIS with yours, boost it through the crystal refraction links, then that should overcome the low-level shielding they're doing."
"Would give us a bit of a breather," Braxiatel agreed.
"Don't know about the rest of you, but I'm enjoying just listening to the two of them speak," Donna said.
"It's not bad," Mickey agreed.
Blushing slightly out of self-consciousness, the Doctor said, "Anyway, we need to get Brax's TARDIS. If the Mindwights didn't have my memories and experiences, they'd never be able to get past the perception filter on it. If they can get into a TARDIS with my memories, they'd be able to get past the Transduction Barrier, and then there would be a mass slaughter. Thing is, while we're down here, we're safe enough. Lead in the walls blocks telepathy, and I'm sure the Mindwights have quite a headache cutting us off from the TARDIS. The second we set foot up there, we're sitting ducks."
Martha thought for a moment, then responded. "Fast return switch. Send Mickey and I there--we're not going to attract any untoward attention."
"Except then you'd wind up in a time capsule cradle on Gallifrey," Braxiatel said through Mike.
"And you'd never find the console," Donna added. "You've got to shift a few books to get it to reveal itself."
"A bit messy?" Mickey asked.
"It's still in the shape of my rooms at the Collection," Braxiatel explained.
"Best to use my TARDIS, even though it'll attract attention," the Doctor said. "We'll have to be quick about it and back here before the Mindwights can interfere. If nothing else, it should buy time for Jack and the others."
***
"We really should've seen some sign by now," Gwen whispered, as they combed a field near where the zombies were sighted. As soon as they had shown up, the reanimated bodies marching on Cardiff had disappeared.
"In the movies, you see them lumbering along miles before they actually get to you," Ianto said.
"It kind of reassures me that there was no trace of Owen, and Tosh was cremated," Gwen quietly said. "I don't think I could face either, if their bodies had been taken over." They lapsed into an uneasy silence as they searched.
"I still don't see why the Time Lords don't give in," Jack said.
"Come off it, Jack," Gwen said, her voice rising in frustration and anger. "How would you like it, if you knew they'd be waiting to suck up the Doctor's memories."
"They already did, and then this wouldn't be our problem," Jack retorted.
"I know how I'd feel, if it were my loved ones," Gwen said. "They must be stopped."
"I think," Ianto edged in, "that we're in agreement about that." The wind shifted slightly, and Ianto wrinkled his nose. "We've found where they left the bodies."
Without a word to each other, they drew their weapons and inched closer to a nearby crumbling warehouse. As they approached, they could see that a side door had been bashed in. The only sounds came from the crunch of their footsteps on gravel and the door slowly creaking in the wind.
Jack kicked the door open, and the stench of dead bodies oozed out of the enclosed space. Gagging, the other two followed him inside. There, in a heap in the middle of the floor, was the zombie army, now collapsed in an inanimate heap.
"Burn them," Jack said. "That way there's nothing for them to come back to."
"Wonder what made them leave?" Ianto asked aloud.
"Whatever it was, it bought us some time," Jack replied.
Gwen and Ianto turned to go back to her car in order to make the arrangements with the police nearby to dispose of all the bodies. Before they did, they heard a wet slurping noise, as one of the bodies picked itself up off of the floor. It lunged for Jack, and caught him unaware. They toppled over, and before Jack could wrestle his way free, the reanimated corpse snapped Jack's neck, then collapsed on top of him.
For the sake of reassurance, Gwen and Ianto fired a few rounds into the corpse that had attacked Jack. When they were satisfied that it was truly dead, they heaved it off of Jack and dragged him out of the warehouse.
***
"I don't like this," Mickey said. "Reminds me of just before the Cybermen would lunge out."
"We're inside of a TARDIS, and the Doctor's is parked steps away," Martha reasoned.
"Have to admit, he's got a classy place," Mickey said, as he ran a finger along the rich wood mantel of a fireplace. "Needs a good dusting, though."
"At least we know the Doctor's TARDIS maintenance skills run in the family," Martha responded.
Furniture had been moved away so that they could work on the console, and Braxiatel looked up from his spot underneath. "I beg your pardon," he said. "I think my time capsule is in remarkable shape, considering it's been through two occupations and a galaxy-wide war. Those Fifth Axis thugs did a number on my hardwood floors with their boots."
The Doctor studied the open panels of wires and flashing circuits and thought for a moment. "When we got the translation matrices back online and boosted them, it blew a fluid link."
"I think I've found it," Braxiatel said. "Hand me the patching compound."
"We're out," the Doctor responded. "Martha, Mike, or Mickey--like the consonance, by the way--go into the TARDIS, third room down from the first left should be a storeroom. Get some more or something to patch up a cable. Anything."
"There should be a roll of duct tape in the broom cupboard just past the master bedroom," Braxiatel said. "We can do a proper patch when we're back at Torchwood."
"I'm on it," Mickey said.
Absentmindedly, Martha flipped a switch on the console marked "viewscreen," and a rare painting from the early 30th century slid into a hidden slot to protect it. She watched traffic go past the garage, where Braxiatel's time capsule was parked as another door. She blinked, and when she looked at the screen again, a man in white had appeared across the street from Donna's house.
"Doctor..." Martha said, the realization slowly dawning on her, remembering some eyewitness reports involving the Doctor and the old Pharos Project radio telescopes.
"What?" the Doctor snaped more harshly than he wanted after banging his head on the underside of the console.
"You need to see this. There's a Watcher outside," Martha said. "I read your UNIT file," she admitted, when she saw the Doctor's incredulous look.
"A what?" Donna asked. She looked at the viewscreen where Martha was pointing. "Oh, the white glowy bloke. Yeah, we saw him."
"What's a Watcher?" Mickey asked as he handed Braxiatel a roll of duct tape.
Mike looked awkwardly at the Doctor and Braxiatel and immediately regretted making eye contact with them. From living on Gallifrey, he knew there were some subjects one just didn't bring up in mixed company. Everyone--Time Lord and human--stared at him. Why does the priest always have to explain hard things? he wondered to himself. He took a deep breath and explained, "It's a projection of a future self."
"Like another regeneration?" Mickey asked.
"I seem to recall from the Doctor's file that it appeared before he regenerated," Martha added.
"How about if I explain it all later?" the Doctor asked.
"What's the problem?" Donna asked. "Ada explained to me that regeneration is a frequent topic of conversation. She said it's polite to ask about it."
There was an awkward silence from both Time Lords.
Mike sighed and explained, "Ada takes perverse pleasure in convincing gullible humans about every myth regarding Time Lord culture and biology. Discussing regeneration is kinda like discussing sex. If anything, regeneration is less appropriate to discuss in public."
"Then there aren't looms?" Donna asked. By this time Martha and Mickey were giggling at the Doctor's and Braxiatel's discomfort.
Why me? Mike thought. "No, Donna, there aren't looms."
"You mean, when a mummy Time Lord and a daddy Time Lord love each other very much and hug each other in that very special way?" she asked while smirking at the Doctor and Braxiatel. Martha and Mickey were crying with laughter at the Time Lords' obvious embarrassment.
Braxiatel stood up and closed the panel on the console. "I think we're done here," he said.
"Good timing," the Doctor whispered under his breath.
***
A metallic-grating, rasping noise reverberated around the tile-lined corridors of the vast network of catacombs underneath the Hub as a blue box materialized. After it, a pair of resplendent lacquered doors appeared across the hallway from the blue box.
The Doctor was the first out of the doors, and he watched the rest spill out behind him. Martha and Mickey walked ahead of them, yelling to the rest of Torchwood, who had returned shortly before they did. As the Doctor watched Braxiatel carefully lock the wooden doors, the Doctor pretended to not observe Donna and Braxiatel. The Doctor noticed how something in Braxiatel's demeanor changed when he was around Donna. She, too, had changed, not the least of which was that she was quieter around Braxiatel, although it still didn't take much to draw her ire.
The spell was broken between the two of them, when shouts and commotion could be heard from upstairs. The Doctor ran with Braxiatel and Donna following closely behind him and found the others making a barricade near the door leading into the other entrance.
"They're already past the tourist center," Gwen said. "Jack died again trying to hold them off."
"How's Jack?" Martha asked.
"Doing better," Jack responded, as he ran into the Hub. "I'll need to visit a good chiropractor, though. God, I love my expense account." Before the Doctor could object to the various weapons lying about in easy reach, Jack snapped, "Those zombies coming mean business. We burnt the one stash, but they must've had another that was closer. If we fall there's nobody who's going to save us. You two can't help us, and the folks back home aren't going to get involved."
"There's got to be another way--" the Doctor began.
"They're coming!" Mickey yelled.
Summary: Like a mirror reflected into a mirror, choices made create an infinite of possibilities, and images seen may not be what they appear. An encounter with an elusive, incorporeal race leads the Doctor and his allies on a dark journey.
Warnings: None specifically to this chapter.
Rating: Teen
Characters: Ten, Donna, Braxiatel, Torchwood, Original characters (Mike)
Genre: AU, Adventure
Author's Note: Thanks to
mtemplar_fic and lindenharp!Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who, Torchwood, or any of its characters, and I'm receiving no profit from this beyond the joy of writing.
Chapter 8, Chapter 7, Chapter 6, Chapter 5, Chapter 4, Chapter 3, Chapter 2, Chapter 1
The Hub burst into activity, with the members of Torchwood sliding into their roles, as if they were parts in a well-oiled machine. Mickey and Ianto were absorbed in scouring a computer terminal for more information and cross-referencing what they found with various closed-circuit cameras scattered about Cardiff. Jack snapped orders to everyone, effortlessly coordinating and linking the team together. Gwen was on the phone with her contacts at her old police precinct, who were the first to find the zombie army. Martha hung back from it all, as she collected more information from the Doctor.
"They're psionic. If you're the least bit telepathic, you'll have no defense against them. I should know," the Doctor lectured.
"They have to have some weakness," Martha said.
"Low level sonic disruption will weaken their control over the bodies they inhabit, but I wouldn't count on that one working again," the Doctor responded. "They're vulnerable to psionics, as well, but good luck getting close enough. They're a gestalt--think of the Time Lords. Any one Time Lord you can telepathically overcome. Our brains network, in a sense. Combine them, and there's no getting past."
The lift leading to the Plass opened, and the TARDIS was slowly lowered into the Hub, as the opening closed shut behind it. "There she is!" The Doctor beamed. He abruptly sensed that everyone was staring at him. "What?" he asked. "Do I have something between my teeth?" He turned to Braxiatel and grimaced. "How about it? Teeth clean?"
A puzzled look came over Braxiatel's face, and he was oddly silent, not looking at the humans scattered about.
The Doctor noticed this and became grave. He studied the TARDIS for a moment and said, "I'm not speaking English, am I?" He waited for affirmation, then continued in English. "The Mindwights severed the link to our TARDISes. Not good. Did you all get what I said before?"
"There was a bit about psionics, then I couldn't follow. Sum total of my Gallifreyan is asking where the loo is and a few greetings," Martha admitted.
Switching languages, Mike whispered to Braxiatel, "Would you like me to translate?"
"Yes, please," he admitted.
The Doctor observed the quiet transaction between Mike and Braxiatel. He was silent for a moment, then continued in a language other than English or Gallifreyan, "For as many years as you were on Dellah and at the Collection, you never bothered to learn English?"
"Why would I?" Braxiatel responded. "Do you have any idea how many languages were spoken, on any given day, at the Collection? It was my time capsule that made everyone able to understand everyone else."
"What did they just say?" Gwen asked Mike.
Mike shook his head. "Beats me. Southern dialect. What's spoken in the Citadel is an archaic form of a kind of language that used to be spoken by everyone. You know the notes the Doctor leaves around the TARDIS for himself? That's Gallifreyan. The stuff that looks like a cross between Greek and Arabic is the southern dialect, which he tends to use for personal stuff. By the time kids come to the Academy, if they're from old Time Lord families, it's a good chance they're bilingual. Ada came not knowing a word of Gallifreyan. It's kind of a political thing in the Eastern Desert--Time Lords aren't too welcome there. Old Pythian stronghold, I've been told."
"Anyway," the Doctor continued, interrupting Mike's lecture. "Psionics. Like they just did with the TARDIS. Their strength and their weakness. Same with the Time Lords. We're every bit as susceptible to their attacks."
Jack rubbed his forehead, as if he had the start of a tension headache. "How about the Time Lords? At least getting their help, we'd be on a level playing field against them."
Braxiatel snorted, after he heard the translation. "They're safe behind the Transduction Barrier. The rest of the universe can go hang." Mike substituted a more polite euphemism.
"And then what? It would be like World War I all over again, but with the trenches being telepathy. The Doctor's no slouch, and they cut him off from his TARDIS like that," Mickey said as he snapped his fingers for emphasis.
"Mickey, Martha, stay with them. Gwen, Ianto, with me. We have a zombie army to take care of," Jack said, as he turned to leave.
"We'll have to take Gwen's car," Ianto said. "The SUV is still a mess."
The Doctor turned to Martha, Mickey, Braxiatel, Donna, and Mike. In Gallifreyan, the Doctor said, "you wouldn't happen to have a Stattenheim Remote for your time capsule, would you?" he asked Braxiatel.
"Unfortunately not. They didn't come standard on the Type 80's," Braxiatel said.
The Doctor tapped the side of his head. "If we link the telepathic relays of my TARDIS with yours, boost it through the crystal refraction links, then that should overcome the low-level shielding they're doing."
"Would give us a bit of a breather," Braxiatel agreed.
"Don't know about the rest of you, but I'm enjoying just listening to the two of them speak," Donna said.
"It's not bad," Mickey agreed.
Blushing slightly out of self-consciousness, the Doctor said, "Anyway, we need to get Brax's TARDIS. If the Mindwights didn't have my memories and experiences, they'd never be able to get past the perception filter on it. If they can get into a TARDIS with my memories, they'd be able to get past the Transduction Barrier, and then there would be a mass slaughter. Thing is, while we're down here, we're safe enough. Lead in the walls blocks telepathy, and I'm sure the Mindwights have quite a headache cutting us off from the TARDIS. The second we set foot up there, we're sitting ducks."
Martha thought for a moment, then responded. "Fast return switch. Send Mickey and I there--we're not going to attract any untoward attention."
"Except then you'd wind up in a time capsule cradle on Gallifrey," Braxiatel said through Mike.
"And you'd never find the console," Donna added. "You've got to shift a few books to get it to reveal itself."
"A bit messy?" Mickey asked.
"It's still in the shape of my rooms at the Collection," Braxiatel explained.
"Best to use my TARDIS, even though it'll attract attention," the Doctor said. "We'll have to be quick about it and back here before the Mindwights can interfere. If nothing else, it should buy time for Jack and the others."
"We really should've seen some sign by now," Gwen whispered, as they combed a field near where the zombies were sighted. As soon as they had shown up, the reanimated bodies marching on Cardiff had disappeared.
"In the movies, you see them lumbering along miles before they actually get to you," Ianto said.
"It kind of reassures me that there was no trace of Owen, and Tosh was cremated," Gwen quietly said. "I don't think I could face either, if their bodies had been taken over." They lapsed into an uneasy silence as they searched.
"I still don't see why the Time Lords don't give in," Jack said.
"Come off it, Jack," Gwen said, her voice rising in frustration and anger. "How would you like it, if you knew they'd be waiting to suck up the Doctor's memories."
"They already did, and then this wouldn't be our problem," Jack retorted.
"I know how I'd feel, if it were my loved ones," Gwen said. "They must be stopped."
"I think," Ianto edged in, "that we're in agreement about that." The wind shifted slightly, and Ianto wrinkled his nose. "We've found where they left the bodies."
Without a word to each other, they drew their weapons and inched closer to a nearby crumbling warehouse. As they approached, they could see that a side door had been bashed in. The only sounds came from the crunch of their footsteps on gravel and the door slowly creaking in the wind.
Jack kicked the door open, and the stench of dead bodies oozed out of the enclosed space. Gagging, the other two followed him inside. There, in a heap in the middle of the floor, was the zombie army, now collapsed in an inanimate heap.
"Burn them," Jack said. "That way there's nothing for them to come back to."
"Wonder what made them leave?" Ianto asked aloud.
"Whatever it was, it bought us some time," Jack replied.
Gwen and Ianto turned to go back to her car in order to make the arrangements with the police nearby to dispose of all the bodies. Before they did, they heard a wet slurping noise, as one of the bodies picked itself up off of the floor. It lunged for Jack, and caught him unaware. They toppled over, and before Jack could wrestle his way free, the reanimated corpse snapped Jack's neck, then collapsed on top of him.
For the sake of reassurance, Gwen and Ianto fired a few rounds into the corpse that had attacked Jack. When they were satisfied that it was truly dead, they heaved it off of Jack and dragged him out of the warehouse.
"I don't like this," Mickey said. "Reminds me of just before the Cybermen would lunge out."
"We're inside of a TARDIS, and the Doctor's is parked steps away," Martha reasoned.
"Have to admit, he's got a classy place," Mickey said, as he ran a finger along the rich wood mantel of a fireplace. "Needs a good dusting, though."
"At least we know the Doctor's TARDIS maintenance skills run in the family," Martha responded.
Furniture had been moved away so that they could work on the console, and Braxiatel looked up from his spot underneath. "I beg your pardon," he said. "I think my time capsule is in remarkable shape, considering it's been through two occupations and a galaxy-wide war. Those Fifth Axis thugs did a number on my hardwood floors with their boots."
The Doctor studied the open panels of wires and flashing circuits and thought for a moment. "When we got the translation matrices back online and boosted them, it blew a fluid link."
"I think I've found it," Braxiatel said. "Hand me the patching compound."
"We're out," the Doctor responded. "Martha, Mike, or Mickey--like the consonance, by the way--go into the TARDIS, third room down from the first left should be a storeroom. Get some more or something to patch up a cable. Anything."
"There should be a roll of duct tape in the broom cupboard just past the master bedroom," Braxiatel said. "We can do a proper patch when we're back at Torchwood."
"I'm on it," Mickey said.
Absentmindedly, Martha flipped a switch on the console marked "viewscreen," and a rare painting from the early 30th century slid into a hidden slot to protect it. She watched traffic go past the garage, where Braxiatel's time capsule was parked as another door. She blinked, and when she looked at the screen again, a man in white had appeared across the street from Donna's house.
"Doctor..." Martha said, the realization slowly dawning on her, remembering some eyewitness reports involving the Doctor and the old Pharos Project radio telescopes.
"What?" the Doctor snaped more harshly than he wanted after banging his head on the underside of the console.
"You need to see this. There's a Watcher outside," Martha said. "I read your UNIT file," she admitted, when she saw the Doctor's incredulous look.
"A what?" Donna asked. She looked at the viewscreen where Martha was pointing. "Oh, the white glowy bloke. Yeah, we saw him."
"What's a Watcher?" Mickey asked as he handed Braxiatel a roll of duct tape.
Mike looked awkwardly at the Doctor and Braxiatel and immediately regretted making eye contact with them. From living on Gallifrey, he knew there were some subjects one just didn't bring up in mixed company. Everyone--Time Lord and human--stared at him. Why does the priest always have to explain hard things? he wondered to himself. He took a deep breath and explained, "It's a projection of a future self."
"Like another regeneration?" Mickey asked.
"I seem to recall from the Doctor's file that it appeared before he regenerated," Martha added.
"How about if I explain it all later?" the Doctor asked.
"What's the problem?" Donna asked. "Ada explained to me that regeneration is a frequent topic of conversation. She said it's polite to ask about it."
There was an awkward silence from both Time Lords.
Mike sighed and explained, "Ada takes perverse pleasure in convincing gullible humans about every myth regarding Time Lord culture and biology. Discussing regeneration is kinda like discussing sex. If anything, regeneration is less appropriate to discuss in public."
"Then there aren't looms?" Donna asked. By this time Martha and Mickey were giggling at the Doctor's and Braxiatel's discomfort.
Why me? Mike thought. "No, Donna, there aren't looms."
"You mean, when a mummy Time Lord and a daddy Time Lord love each other very much and hug each other in that very special way?" she asked while smirking at the Doctor and Braxiatel. Martha and Mickey were crying with laughter at the Time Lords' obvious embarrassment.
Braxiatel stood up and closed the panel on the console. "I think we're done here," he said.
"Good timing," the Doctor whispered under his breath.
A metallic-grating, rasping noise reverberated around the tile-lined corridors of the vast network of catacombs underneath the Hub as a blue box materialized. After it, a pair of resplendent lacquered doors appeared across the hallway from the blue box.
The Doctor was the first out of the doors, and he watched the rest spill out behind him. Martha and Mickey walked ahead of them, yelling to the rest of Torchwood, who had returned shortly before they did. As the Doctor watched Braxiatel carefully lock the wooden doors, the Doctor pretended to not observe Donna and Braxiatel. The Doctor noticed how something in Braxiatel's demeanor changed when he was around Donna. She, too, had changed, not the least of which was that she was quieter around Braxiatel, although it still didn't take much to draw her ire.
The spell was broken between the two of them, when shouts and commotion could be heard from upstairs. The Doctor ran with Braxiatel and Donna following closely behind him and found the others making a barricade near the door leading into the other entrance.
"They're already past the tourist center," Gwen said. "Jack died again trying to hold them off."
"How's Jack?" Martha asked.
"Doing better," Jack responded, as he ran into the Hub. "I'll need to visit a good chiropractor, though. God, I love my expense account." Before the Doctor could object to the various weapons lying about in easy reach, Jack snapped, "Those zombies coming mean business. We burnt the one stash, but they must've had another that was closer. If we fall there's nobody who's going to save us. You two can't help us, and the folks back home aren't going to get involved."
"There's got to be another way--" the Doctor began.
"They're coming!" Mickey yelled.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-02-24 06:22 am (UTC)Naughty, naughty Ada! *grins*
And poor Mike!
no subject
Date: 2009-02-24 06:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-24 06:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-24 04:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-24 04:50 pm (UTC)I think if you asked both of them, they'd be wanting to take things slowly. Neither one's had healthy relationships. Donna's fiancé tried to kill her, and the whole friendship/relationship between Benny and Brax was dysfunctional at best. (Benny just seems to bring out the worst in people, though.)
no subject
Date: 2009-02-26 02:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-26 02:41 am (UTC)