for quitehomoerotic: Welcome to the 27th century

[rude_not_ginger]

Follows this.

It was one thing, watching your companion be ripped apart.

One very terrible thing, mind you, but one thing. The Doctor stayed prone on the ground, the sound of Jack's death screams ringing in his ears as that thing, whatever it was, tore him into several unpleasant pieces. It reminded him of the Year That Wasn't, of Jack's screams while the Master tortured him and the Doctor's frail body keeping him from helping. That was torture, far more brutal than anything the Master's tools could produce.

Once the loud stomps of the creature faded away, the Doctor struggled to get to his feet and limped to the place where Jack had been.

It was another thing, having to find his body for it to regrow.

It took some time to find his upper torso, limp and lifeless. It didn't take too terribly long to drag said upper torso to a safe, empty cave not far from the forest's edge (after all, what Jack no longer had in height, he also lost in weight. It didn't take long for time to start snapping around him and his body to start to regrow.

That was something else all together. Muscle and bone formed out of nothing, and while Jack wasn't coherent, he was still alive, screaming and thrashing as he reformed. The Doctor pressed his fingertips to Jack's temple and tried to take away the pain, but when that failed, he pressed his mind into a quiet, comatose state.

While Jack repaired, the Doctor covered him with his coat and sat, waiting. For all that they'd fought, for all that the Doctor swore he'd never want Jack back on the TARDIS again, he did care about him. He wanted him happy, even if he wasn't certain he could handle having him so close. Jack was willing to die for the Doctor, and this was just another example of how he could.

But the Doctor wouldn't leave. Not this time.

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Jack shrugged into his coat (it was all that was left of his clothing) and dashed back over to the Doctor at the panel. His heart palpitated like mad, he wondered if he were anyone else if it might cause problems, if it might overload his system. But Jack was no normal human, and his body could take a lot more than that of most.

"Okay!" he beamed, practically bouncing on the spot. He headed into the new corridor and started to run ahead, having to force himself to stop to wait for the Doctor.

The Doctor. Primary goal, look after the Doctor and stop getting so very excited. "You with me, Doctor?" he called back, making sure he was there.

He flicked open his wrist strap but the central battery had been removed, so maybe they weren't so stupid. Maybe this was all part of it, mayb-- no. No he couldn't start to worry, it'd take over him. He needed to focus.

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The Doctor gave Jack a firm nod. "Always."

There was part of the Doctor that thought this was far, far too easy. They shouldn't have been able to get out so fast. They shouldn't have been able to find their clothes or that panel. He could feel paranoia start to overwhelm his determination and he focused, pushing it back as quickly as he could.

The worst part was, there was part of him that thought the code looked familiar. Very, very familiar, though he couldn't figure out for the life of him how.

The hallway split down two corridors, the ceiling still that high, vaulted mirror-glass, probably with some sort of viewers on the opposite side, enjoying watching them run.

"When in doubt, I've learned we should turn left," he said, leading the way.

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Jack smiled back so brightly at the Doctor that it would almost light up a room in the darkness. Utterly gleeful. Always! He said always! That's just great!

He stopped at the crossroads, continuing to jump up and down to channel his excitement. "Left it is!" he agreed and made down the corridor behind the Doctor at haste.

"So what is this?" he called ahead, "Some sort of Gladiator type entertainment you think plug us full of drugs and see what it does I mean it's hilarious really they've got no idea what they've got themselves into you know I was a Gladiator once for a few days when I took a trip to Rome fun holiday that turned out to be."

His words ran out as one stream of consciousness, almost an overload. "You know I feel a bit like a hamster in one of those balls."

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Jack's overt excitement only fueled the Doctor's cold determination. This wasn't the Jack he knew, and that meant they were hurting him further. They were going to pay for this.

It was a cold hatred he knew he didn't normally feel. This wasn't like him. The last time he hated the way he was hating now, it was to that creature, the one who had crippled the TARDIS and, as the believed at the time, killed Jack. This wasn't like him. He needed to get control.

He was so focused on his own thoughts that he almost walked right into the trap ahead of them. He caught Jack by the shoulder.

"Stop! Wait!" He gestured to the floor. It went from the sterile white floors from before to brightly red-and-white checkered tiles. It struck the Doctor as frighteningly familiar.

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack was so busy rushing ahead, sparking off his own excitement, that he was forgetting to be aware of his surroundings. He was forgetting his own codes that he'd developed over so many years. In many ways, it's a good job the excitement had taken hold, else that fact could make him quite annoyed, annoyed at himself and angry. That'd do none of them any good.

He stopped sharp as the Doctor called out, and swung around to him. "What is it?" the excitement was fading and for a moment he worried what it'd be replaced with. He worried what was ahead of them, and what might be behind.

He was worried. Damn. He tried to control his breathing, but it was hard, and the corridor suddenly seemed smaller and much more terrifying.

He looked down at the floor and at the colours in the tiles. He'd not seen anything like it before, but he was sure whatever it was it was terrible. "What does it mean?"

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The Doctor dug into his pocket and produced the yo-yo. He tossed it out into the board, and the whole thing electrified.

"Oh, now that's clever," the Doctor enthused. "A checkerboard puzzle. The question is, which ones do we step onto?"

He was very, very good at puzzles and, before he could really think about it, he found he was really glad he was the one working on this. He was, naturally, brilliant, and there wasn't a riddle in the known universe he couldn't work out in time.

The overconfidence fueling him, he grasped Jack by the arm. "I bet we could just jump it."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

At any other time, Jack might be more than enthusiastic at the idea of doing something a little bit dangerous. He did a lot of things that were dangerous, and many of them, he took undue pleasure in.

But now, right now, he was aprehensive and nervous. He looked at the squares on the floor with an uncertain gaze, and then back up to the Doctor.

"Are you sure?" he asked, his voice all twinged with trepidation. "I mean, it's pretty far isn't it, and what if something happened, what if something went wrong, what would we do? What if you got hurt?"

He heard himself, and that bit of his mind that still had its sense wanted to smack himself firmly around the face and tell himself to snap out of it.

So that need, that little voice triggered him back out of it and back into confidence. He looked at the floor again and, well it didn't seem that far.

"Right!" he nodded, "jump it, course we can, you and me, right?"

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"No time to waste!"

Without thinking or second guessing himself, the Doctor took the floor in a leap---and missed. It was significantly farther than he'd thought and he landed gracelessly onto one red square with one foot, while the other ended up suspended right next to him. This was, apparently, one of the only unelectrified squares, because the others buzzed and crackled as his coat brushed them.

Panic overtook him. He'd been an idiot. A complete, overconfident idiot. Another voice in the back of his mind told him that his emotions were starting to flow more normally, now. The drug must've been wearing off.

"Right. Bad idea. Jack, stay back!" He looked for somewhere to put his foot down. There didn't seem to be a pattern between the electrified and unelectrified sections of the board. This was bad.

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"Doctor!" Jack called out to stop him but he advanced before he could reach out and take his shoulder. "What happened to together?" he asked exasperated, before trying to settle himself back to neutral.

"Okay," he said, "okay just... stay there. There's got to be a logical system to this. If people are doing this to see what we do then there's got to be a riddle right? Or at least some way of getting around it."

He looked up at the walls and at the mirrored ceiling above. "Think, Jack, think." Wiping a hand over his face he frowned and tried to clear his mind to work it out.

"Wait!" he said suddenly, "You're on the eighth block and the four around you are electrified, right? Try the one diagonal, four to your left. Trust me on this Doctor, if I'm right, and I'm pretty sure I am, it'll be clear."

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"And if you're not?" the Doctor called back, the panic evident in his voice. He needed to get a grip on himself. He trusted Jack, didn't he? Well, yes, in terms of being loyal and being honest and brave and generally knowing anything about flirting ever, but with a puzzle like this?

The Doctor took a breath and leapt to the square Jack indicated. Nothing.

"How'd you know that?"

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"I am, just trust me, I am!"

He gripped his hands together and closed his eyes as the Doctor jumped. Oh he hoped he was right, he had to be right, he really, really had to be right.

And he was.

He let out a long sigh of relief and grinned. The adrenaline rushed again, but he was learning how to force it back.

"It's called the Vortova Sequence. We were taught it as kids. We used to have these little electronic games. All to do with lights and numbers and working them out together. Ancient game, it was, most kids thought it was too geeky and old fashioned but I loved it."

He jumped forward to the first square the Doctor had landed on, and stared down at the squares concentrating hard, mumbling numbers under his breath.

"..so the four with the two over there... Okay! Straight ahead, four squares, that's your next one."

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"I've never even heard of that," the Doctor said, incredulous. "And I was taught recreational mathematics since I was young!"

He was also a little ego-bruised that Jack had figured out the puzzle before he had. All the same, he hopped four squares and landed one foot on the dark red square, his other foot hovering over the electrified squares around him.

"Make sure you start following me," he called back again. "Don't want them switching this up once I've got across."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"Oh don't you worry, I'm right behind you," Jack said as he jumped ahead to another block.

"And how could you have never heard of it? It's 26th century. Apparently it was all the rage then. My Dad used to have an old Vortova game set. Me and my brother used to go play with it in the dunes. Two across to your right and then one forward."

He jumped ahead again and looked behind him. All the squares in their wake were going black. Wherever they were headed (and there was no guarantee that was anywhere good, there'd be no going back).

"Suppose you can't know everything, can you, Doctor." Jack smirked, far too pleased with himself.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Well, now I do know about this."

There was most definitely a pout in the Doctor's voice as he hopped another few squares, and then made the final leap across.

"Maybe that's how they heard about it here. Only a century before and very popular. The question is, where are we that they'd know about that, and whatever drug they poisoned us with?" He waited at the edge of the board for Jack to catch up.

"And who are we performing for?"

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack's smirk only grew at the put out sound in the Doctor's voice. "Well if you're good I'll teach you all about it later," he teased.

He followed over, jumping the last section just in time for all the squares behind to go dark. He gave them a less than pleased look before looking back to the Doctor.

"Well the sequence came from an Earth colony originally. You ever hear about the freighter ship that got marooned for eight years? Well Professor Vortova was the scientist on board. The story goes that he came up with the sequence to give the crew something to do, but inadvertently by using it he found a way to set them free. I don't know, probably Chinese whispers, but that's what I was always told."

With a glance up at the mirrored ceiling he frowned, hands on his hips, "I wish I knew. But whoever they are I doubt they're going to just let us out. And this place is like some elaborate labyrinth -David Bowie again- I wonder if there any goblins."

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"It's all some sort of a game, though the question is why. Money? Entertainment? Some sort of ritual sacrifice based on intellect, maybe? I don't know---"

He led the way down the corridor, keeping an eye on the floor and walls for any possible traps. This was a game, and the Doctor was not about to lose. He wasn't about to give the people watching him that satisfaction.

"Feeling any better?" he asked, turning back to Jack. "I think the drug is working its way out of my system."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"Or maybe all of the above? I don't know, we're foreign bodies to them. Different species, maybe that's it. Maybe it's because we've travelled in time. Maybe it's even some elaborate medical research. Who knows what else they pumped into our systems."

Jack walked along, stepping beside the Doctor and matching his stride. He frowned at the walls and the corridors that all seemed to match. There had to be a key to this, didn't there? And if anyone could find it they could.

"A bit," Jack nodded, "it's still there but I think I've got it under control. Face hurts a bit though," he turned to look at him and motioned towards his slightly swollen and black eye, cut lip and slightly out of place nose. "thanks for that, Rocky."

He laughed gently, he was only teasing him, not genuinely chastising him. Neither one of them could help the emotions that had overcome them, though he did have to admit the fact the Doctor had an emotion to hit him at all was, well... a slight blow.

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"I'll kiss and make it better later," the Doctor replied offhandedly as he turned down another corridor. There was no small amount of guilt for the pain Jack was experiencing, but, for the moment at least, the Doctor could repress it.

Apologies would come later.

A lot of apologies, actually.

He pointed up. "Can you feel that? It's a sort of...moisture in the air. Like we're underground. Would make sense, if they're trying to keep this place hidden. Which means we need to find a way up."

In the depths of their current corridor, the Doctor could swear he heard the sound of moving water.

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"Will you now?" Jack said with a raised eyebrow in his direction before flippantly adding, "You should be so lucky."

Jack wished he had his own trousers on so he could shove his hands in his pockets. But as it stood he had to make do with the pockets of his coat.

"Yeah," Jack nodded in agreement, "and do you smell that? Sort of salty? There's got to be, what, some access hatches around here or something right? Even if this is some well put together observation tank, there has to be emergency ways in and out."

As they walked Jack's stomach made an angry noise and he muttered under his breath, "We never did finish that pizza."

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"Yeah, I'm regretting it, too," the Doctor agreed. "When we're out of here, I think we should take an intergalactic cruise. One of those ships with the all-you-can-eat buffets that never stop refilling."

The smell of salt grew stronger the further down they went, and the walls appeared to bulge slightly. The ceiling stayed flat and shiny, in stark contrast to the walls they approached now.

"If you had to guess, trap or not trap---" the Doctor gestured down the hallway.

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"Ooh I like that!" Jack said enthusiastically, "And one of those big spa baths. You know we never did use that one on that ship. I like a good bath. I haven't lived anywhere with a bath for years."

Jack pulled an unimpressed face as their surroundings changed. It didn't look like anything Jack would ever describe as good.

"Oh, trap. Always a trap," he said flippantly, "so? Straight into it?" he grinned, wide. Always into the mouth of danger.

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And Jack's grin caused him to grin big and wide. Straight into danger, straight into trouble. That was them, all right.

"We really are good for each other, you know," he commented with a nod. And 3, 2, 1...

"Allons-y!"

He took a breath and made a fast break down the corridor.

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

And that? That made Jack's already impossibly wide grin even impossibly wider.

"You know, Doctor, I think we are."

A step behind the Doctor he ran, just as fast, beaming as he did. "This is more like it!" he grinned as they made down the corridor. The salty smell got stronger and stronger, and the curve of the walls seemed even more dramatic as they advanced along.

"Doctor, do you hear that?" Jack called aloud. Around them he could hear a flow like pipes, behind the walls, like water trapped behind a dam. He recognised the sound from the Hub. Sometimes, when it was quiet, you could hear the flow of the bay outside..

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"Yeah, it sounds like---"

The rushing sound was suddenly replaced by a loud popping noise, and the rush of water behind them as one of the corridors began to flood. The Doctor took half a second to make a very irritated face at the water. He'd just gotten into dry clothes.

"Run!" the Doctor cried, turning another corridor and sprinting from the thick, briny water as it began to pour in around them.

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Jack heard the noise and swung his head around in time to see a flow of water hit the walls of the corridor and rush towards them.

"Oh you have got to be kidding me!" he said, and needed no prompting to spring into a sprint behind the Doctor.

"You know I said I wanted a bath?" he shouted, "Well I take that back!"

The slick water licked at their ankles as they ran, and the level steadily rose the longer they were down there. "There has to be an access shaft or something around here?"

He kept going, everything looked the same, constant corridors of nothing but the same tiling. But then something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. They passed another corridor, but at the end of it he was sure he'd seen...

He stopped running and stepped back, and sure enough, at the end of the little corridor, thinner than all the others, was the glint of metal. On the ceiling, a few feet above, instead of the mirrored glass, there was a hatch, small, but a hatch nonetheless.

"Doctor!" he shouted over to him, "back here, I've found something!"