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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[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack let out a long audible breath.

"Fine, I'll go first. Either way someone has to wait, whether it's at the top or the bottom. I just think you like being the one telling other people what to do."

He took hold of the ivy and started to tie it around the boulder, knotting it tightly, "Quite a dominant streak that, Doctor, I wonder if it transfers to other areas of your life. There," he tugged on the knot, "if that doesn't hold, nothing will."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

He let out a half-laugh. "I think we both know how dominant my tendencies are. Some of us just aren't as flexible."

The Doctor unlooped the vine from himself and handed it to Jack. He was first worried about something happening to Jack up here, but now he worried there might be something down there. Too many things could go wrong in this place.

"Be safe," he instructed.

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"Yes. We. Do." Jack grinned, teasing him with his tone. "And oh I'm sure you could be flexible, you just need the right person to bend you."

He winked at him as he took hold of the vine, and knotted it tightly around his waist, tugging to make sure it held.

"Same to you," he nodded back, "stay out of trouble." And he moved back to the edge, tested the rock with his foot, and sent himself over the edge.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Doctor waited, watching as Jack lowered himself, checking on the speed of the vine and how safe the drop was. The vine was strong, like Jack had anticipated, but he wasn't sure about the length.

Gallifrey. The planet of his people. The planet he hated and loved. Part of him, a very, very strong part, wanted to call on them, now that Jack was somewhere safer. Call on them and demand an audience. Demand an audience and stop this, all these games.

But they were fixed. And he couldn't risk Jack's life if he tried to stop this fixed event.

"You all right?" he called down.

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

As he moved down Jack kicked his feet against the rock face. It crumbled a little as he moved, but nothing too dramatic or dangerous. Nothing he couldn't cope with.

"Oh just fine," he called back up. "Though this adventure holiday leads a lot to be desired. You wait until I see the rep. I'll be having strong words, just you see!"

He looked around him, and behind at the looming tower. Gallifrey. Gallifrey the stuff of legend and here he was; the planet that had been destroyed from time but he still managed to be here. Seemed somehow right, he was good at the impossible.

"How about you?" he called back up at the Doctor, wanting to keep him talking. "You know now might be a great time for a heart to heart," he suggested, sarcastically. "Isn't that the done thing?"

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Oh, I don't know. Rock climbing, cave dwelling, nature walks, exotic living quarters. Sure, a few interactions with the locals and some primitive medical methods---" the last was said pointedly at the sky, and then back to Jack, "---but overall, I've been on worse holidays."

He got a little more comfortable as the vine went down. So long as they were both all right, this would be good. They would be okay.

"Isn't this the ideal time for conversation? Neither of us are going anywhere any time soon."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"I try and go through my holidays without being eaten, Doctor. Well, unless I'm asked really nicely." He grinned and tugged the ivy over a slight ridge on the rock face, a slight falter but nothing of real concern.

Glancing back he could see the ground. It was far enough, but not too far. Should be easy enough.

"Oh yeah," Jack agreed, and for once not really sarcastic. Well, much, "and none of that pesky face to face having to look at people as you talk, stuff."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Well, maybe not ideal, but it's the best way to make sure the other party won't wander off while you're talking to them. You're both sort of fixed in position. No looking away, no changing the subject. It's sort of freeing."

Freeing might not have been the right word. Sort of entrapping, actually. But, in a way, the Doctor preferred these types of conversations. He could lie more efficiently.

"How much further down?"

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"Fixed in position," Jack nodded and pulled a slight face, "well I'm an old hand at that. But come on! No changing the subject? This is you we're talking about! You change the subject as often as the weather in Cardiff does."

He slid himself down a little further and checked the distance again. It was close now, a few feet, maybe eight. He could manage that, no problem. Reaching down he loosened the knot on his waist and holding onto the ivy he swung himself lower and dropped down, landing his feet firmly on the ground.

The ivy above went slack and pinged back up like a bungy.

"I'm down," he called up, later than he probably should have. He turned and looked at the tower, he didn't like it one bit. "Your turn, Doctor."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Doctor caught the ivy and began to scale down like a professional rock climber. He had done similar many, many times in the past. He didn't call down to Jack as he went, he just dropped.

Once his feet were firmly on the ground, he gave Jack a wide grin.

"See? Wasn't that easy?"

Which was the point where the platform before the door started to crumble. He darted towards the Tower door and tugged it open.

"In, in!"

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"Hmmmn, seems so," Jack said back to him, seeming ever so slightly affronted at the grace and ease with which the Doctor made the descent. "Is there anything you can't do?"

The ground under Jack's feet started to shake, and he looked down at it before dashing behind the Doctor. He ran in through the open door and stopped inside, pausing to catch his breath.

"Whew! That was a close one! So what do we do now? And can I start to look forward to those mind games?"

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Doctor leapt in after him, only just catching the side of the door with his hands as the ground gave out under his feet. "I wasn't aware we'd moved on from mind games to platform gaming. I'm out of practice."

He shut the door and grinned over at Jack. "I can't knit," he said. "Or sit through the whole of Titanic. Something about that soundtrack that bothers me..."

The flip attitude was entirely false, of course. He knew the moment the mind games started, things would be entirely too serious for their own good.

"Look forward to them and look out for them," the Doctor said. "Let's go."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"Oh don't worry, Mario, you might be rusty but a bit of jumping around never hurt anybody. Or are you more of a Sonic?"

Jack squinted ahead along the corridor and took a deep breath, just like the Doctor he was joking and using flippancy as a way to act calmer than he really felt. "You can't? Damn, now that jumper I was gonna ask you to make me for Christmas is right out the window."

He pulled the sides of his coat up over his chest, covering the bloodstain on the scrubs underneath, and stuffed his hands down into his pockets.

"Oh don't worry, my eyes are peeled, Doctor, I'm looking all right." With a nod, he fell into step behind the Doctor and followed him along the corridor.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Doctor walked ahead, tracing each new panel of floor with the edge of his foot before walking on. It was less for amusement and more for security in the Tower, though mind games were a specialty of Rassilon's, too.

He heard the click of high heels somewhere up ahead. They were very distinctive, a low, flat heel, probably from some sort of boot. He used to hear that click behind himself as he ran around corridors and down hallways and just prior to being slapped in the face.

He shouldn't have been too surprised to see her there, standing in a shaft of light.

"Donna."

"Doctor! Doctor help me!"

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack stared out at the corridor around him, at panels in shadow and shades in the floor, looking out for anything that might trip them up. He had the distinct feeling they were being watched; the hairs standing up on the back of his neck and a cool chill running down his spine.

The voice turned his head. He spun his gaze quickly away from the surroundings and looked ahead. She looked so real, Donna in the light, Donna standing in front of them. But it couldn't be.

"Doctor..." Jack said his name like a warning and stepped forward, a hand out in front of the Doctor, protective.

"It's not her, Doctor, it can't be."

But it still looked so real.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

He reached out his hand, and he could almost swear he felt the warmth of Donna's body heat in the cold Tower's air.

"Doctor, you have to turn back. It's too late for me, turn back!"

Even her eyes. The way they looked equally terrified and determined, that was so very, very Donna. A part of his mind wanted to believe. He wanted to believe that somehow they'd pulled Donna from a period before she forgot, that she was there and real. But Jack was right. It wasn't her.

"Donna forgot me," he said. "She forgot everything. So she couldn't be standing there, no. You're right."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack couldn't help but stare. It might not be Donna but it was... something. She looked like Donna, she sounded like Donna. Jack hardly knew her but this... The only reason he was sure it was an illusion is that he told himself it was.

"Exactly," he said, stepping in front of the Doctor, a hand on his shoulder. He tried to apply more confidence than he felt. "Mind games, right? Just a mirage, that's all. Donna's at home, probably having an argument with someone over the latest episode of Eastenders, right?"

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Right."

Without Jack, he wondered if he'd have come to the same conclusion. He liked to think that he would. He liked to think he'd have continued on without hesitation, but he didn't think he could. He missed her. He missed late nights discussing running trips and weekend-long marathons of the West Wing.

But that was the past. He had to move on from the past.

He turned away from her and walked on. He could hear her screaming behind him, a shrill, painful shriek of a memory being erased due to inefficiency.

"Thanks," he said to Jack.

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack pressed his fingers into the Doctor's shoulder and gripped, nodding to him as they stepped away. He blocked out the noise, shut it away. It was false, and they couldn't let it take hold.

"Anytime," Jack said back with a tight lipped smile. "Just need to keep focus, yeah? It'll be fine. Long as we got each other here, right?"

But as they turned a corner, Jack was overwhelmed with a smell, a strong smell that filled the area and flooded his senses. "Do you smell that?" he asked, faltering a little.

It was such a normal smell, but such a specific one. Coffee. A strong coffee, freshly brewed, a special blend. Ianto's blend.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

Donna. Of course they would show him Donna. He couldn't feel guilty for Martha or Rose, not really. They got lives they wanted, but Donna. Oh, Donna lost everything. Everything because he had no choice but to decide for her.

No time to dwell. He pulled out the sonic and fiddled with a door lock. It popped open easily, revealing another corridor.

The Doctor inhaled, but smelled nothing.

"Probably some sort of mineral deposits in the walls," he theorized. "Might be mucking about with your senses, try not to think about it.

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"Right, yeah, no, it's nothing," he said, trying to brush it off. But in his mind the smell was taking him right back, making him awake buried memories. They could be hard to ignore.

He shook his head and followed through the door behind the Doctor. He wished he had something in his hand, he felt naked without it. It didn't need to be a gun, just a torch would do; something to keep his hands occupied.

"So we're seeing things now," Jack said, stating the obvious. "You know a couple of years ago my team started seeing things. This guy, he wanted them to open the rift, was trying to persuade them using people they cared about. Everyone saw someone. Everyone. Well, everyone except me."

He turned his head back over his shoulder, certain he could hear something behind him. He ignored it.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Localized targeted imagery?" the Doctor asked, raising an eyebrow. "That's very advanced, even for something of the rift, did you find out who he was?"

He couldn't understand why Jack wouldn't have been targeted. Was it his brain wave patterns? His cleverness? Maybe the fear that if he knew something was wrong, that he'd stop his team?

He inhaled again, this time a strong, bitter scent that was most certainly not there a moment ago. That coffee, from Torchwood. Definitely. He wondered why he hadn't smelled it before.

"Sensory triggers," he theorized. "Prodding at the receptacles in the brain that pick up stress, pain, memory..."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"No," Jack admitted with a shake of his head, "we never did. But after him there was Abaddon, and then well I was a bit busy being dead for a week. And after that -and I mean literally right after- there was you. I'd been awake maybe three hours when I heard the TARDIS engines up above. Guess I just let things get away from me. Bilis Manger, his name was, and whoever he was you're right he was advanced; he could step across time, show people visions. He knew just what he was doing."

Jack hadn't thought much about Bilis, but really he was another thing he ought to feel guilty of. The team had been through a lot then, and he'd abandoned them without a thought.

"You know," he said with irony in his voice, "Gwen asked me what would have swayed me. What vision. And you know what I said? I said you. The right kind of Doctor."

He shook his head. Little did he know then how things would change.

The smell was still there, stronger than before and even harder to ignore. "Oh great," he sighed sarcastically. "So you're saying it can pick up on anything in the mind that might trigger?" He spun again, quickly.

"Doctor there's someone here."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"I don't know about right," the Doctor said with a small smile, "But I try to be."

Bilis Manger. The Doctor had never heard that name before, but the idea of him sounded very...Eternal. But that was impossible, the Eternals were gone, kaput, finito, left for the Void during the Time War. There was no way they could be back.

And if they were, why would they want Jack's team to open the rift? Chaos. The Eternals did thrive on chaos.

The Doctor didn't hear what alerted Jack, but he spun as well, looking around. "Nobody's here except Rassilon, and he won't bother us."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack laughed to himself, "That's what I used to call you," he told him. "Guess I was being enigmatic. When Torchwood Three became mine, well, I cut off the whole search for the Doctor thing. My team never knew who you were. They didn't even know the name 'Doctor', I made sure of that. So that's what you were, the right kind of Doctor. The one I was looking for."

He shifted again on his heel. It was as though there was something just out of his line of sight. Just out of the corner of his eye. He knew it was his mind playing tricks on him, but he had to keep reminding himself of the fact.

Hearing something yet again, he turned, looking sideways down the corridor. But this time, this time, the corridor wasn't empty. There was a woman, and a woman Jack knew only too well. Alice. She stood there staring at him and shook her head.

"So you're going to do it again, are you? Let someone die. He'll die if you're with him. Everyone does around you. You're toxic."

Jack couldn't speak. He couldn't say anything at all. He just shook his head, stricken.