Fragments of a Shattered Life 30
Title: Fragments of a Shattered Life
Part: 30/35
Rating: 18+
Warnings: Explicit violence, non-con
Genre: Angst, AU
Characters: Jack Harkness, Ianto Jones, The Master (Simm)
Summary: After POTW Jack's life takes a turn for the worse and he desperately needs help. A Doctor Who/Torchwood crossover (AU). Note that this is a very dark fic.
Disclaimer: Not mine.
A/N: A large chunk of this chapter is adapted from the episode Utopia.
Previous chapter here: ohinyan.livejournal.com/8886.html
Chapter 30: Utopia
As the TARDIS landed on Theta Aurigae IV in the year one billion it had barely materialised when the wave of black hate and insanity hit it. And it was coming closer, fast. The TARDIS started dematerialising immediately but the horror was going to be too quick. It touched her just before she became insubstantial and she flung herself away as far as she could get, fleeing to the end of the universe in her terror. Thankfully the horror was left far behind.
* * * * * *
The TARDIS had finally landed, in the year 300 trillion. The Doctor picked himself off the floor where he had ended up during the wild ride. “What was all that about, eh?” he asked her. “What scared you so badly that you brought us all the way out here?”
I should leave, the Doctor thought. I should go, I should really, really go. But he could never resist exploring the unknown and you didn't often get a chance to see the end of the universe. A quick look around wouldn't hurt.
Fifteen minutes later the Doctor was exploring the region around the TARDIS. As he was admiring a hive-like structure he saw, in the distance, a man running. The man was being pursued by a horde of unfriendly, dangerous looking humanoids. The Doctor couldn't resist. He ran down to join the fleeing man and, turning, aimed his sonic screwdriver at his pursuers. He set it to a particular mode and activated it. All the pursuers clapped their hands over their ears and fell to the ground.
The Doctor was about to take the hunted man to the TARDIS to check him over, when a dozen more of the humanoids charged towards them, effectively cutting them off from the TARDIS. The first group of them were recovering and climbing to their feet.
The hunted man said urgently, “we have to get to the silo, run!”
They got there just ahead of the hostile humanoids and after showing their teeth were allowed inside.
“Professor we've got two new humans inside. One of them is calling himself a Doctor,” the silo guard informed Professor Yana.
The Professor sounded delighted and immediately asked what the Doctor was a doctor of.
He was even more delighted to be told that the Doctor was a doctor of everything.
Meanwhile the Doctor was trying to persuade one of the guards to fetch the TARDIS for him. “It's like a box, a big blue box, I'm sorry but I really need it back, its stuck out there.”
Eventually the guard agreed, “A blue box you say? We're driving out for the last water collection, I'll see what I can do.”
As he was escorted through the complex towards Professor Yana's laboratory, they passed many people, all ragged and unwashed. The Doctor was just extolling the virtues of humanity when they passed someone who smelled different, at least to the Doctor's Time Lord senses. The Doctor stopped and approached the man who, on being singled out, reacted violently and snarled revealing pointed teeth. Panic erupted in all the nearby humans who screamed and backed away rapidly. Fortunately for them, the guards escorting the Doctor were armed and well used to dealing with the Futurekind. The interloper was dead within seconds.
“There was no need for that,” the Doctor shouted angrily.
“There was,” one of the guards answered resolutely, “he could have killed any number of our people.”
Leaving one of their number to arrange to have the body removed, the Doctor's escort continued on to the Professor's rooms. The Professor rushed over to introduce himself and his assistant Chantho.
He then explained the workings of the rocket he was building to the Doctor and asked his help.
While the Doctor was examining the equipment Yana asked a question. “Might I ask, what species are you?”
“Time Lord, last of,” the Doctor replied. “Heard of them? Legend or anything?”
“Not even a myth! Blimey, the end of the universe is a bit humbling.”
“The man who was being hunted mentioned Utopia,” said the Doctor, “So what is Utopia ?”
The Professor was surprised by the question. “Oh every human has heard of Utopia, where have you been?”
“Bit of a hermit, no friends,” the Doctor explained. It was only too true. He hadn't had a friend since Martha left him. “So Utopia?” he continued.
“The call came from across the stars over and over again. Come to Utopia,” explained the Professor. He pointed at the screen, “originating from that point, out towards the wild lands in the dark matter reefs, calling us in. The last of the humans scattered across the night.”
“What do you think is out there?” the Doctor asked.
“We don't know. A colony, a city, some sort of haven? The science foundation created the Utopia project thousand of years ago, to preserve mankind. To find a way of surviving beyond the collapse of reality itself. Perhaps they found it and perhaps not. It's worth a look don't you think?” asked the Professor.
“Oh yes.” replied the Doctor.
The Professor suddenly lost his focus and stood unseeing as he heard the drums beat in his head.
“Professor, are you all right?” queried the Doctor.
Coming back to himself the Professor babbled “yes, I'm fine. And busy.” He began to bustle around trying to look as if he really was busy.
The Doctor looked at him in understanding. “Except that rocket is not going to fly is it? This footprint mechanism thing is not working.”
“Well find a way,” the Professor stressed.
“You're stuck on this planet and you haven't told them have you?” the Doctor said with sudden insight. “That lot out there, they still think they're going to fly.”
“Well it's better to let them live in hope,” the Professor admitted.
“Quite right too,” the Doctor said, while bouncing around the room. “And I must say Professor Yana, this new science is well beyond me. But all the same, a boost reversal circuit in any time frame must be a circuit which reverses the boost. So I wonder what would happen if I did this.”
As he spoke the Doctor picked up the circuit and zapped it with the sonic screwdriver. Suddenly the machinery started up.
“Chan it's working doh,” cried Chantho in amazement.
“How did you do that?” asked the Professor.
“Oh, I forgot to tell you. I'm brilliant,” said the Doctor with a distinct lack of modesty.
Now that the rocket was functional, things began to move fast. The complex was a hive of activity. The couplings were connected. All the passengers were ordered to board and everyone was recalled from outside the compound. One of the last groups to return brought the TARDIS with them and delivered it to the Professor's laboratory before going to board the rocket themselves.
Meanwhile in the Professor's laboratory the Doctor had realised that the footprint engine couldn't be activated from on board. The Professor and Chantho were planning to stay behind. Indicating the TARDIS the Doctor said “Professor, its a wild stab in the dark but I might just have found you a way out. This is a TARDIS. It travels in time and space.”
As the Professor looked the drums began to beat loudly and he heard whisperings of TARDIS and Time Lord. While the Doctor and Chantho ran around linking cables from the TARDIS to the Professor's equipment, the Professor sat weakly, unable to ignore the noise in his head.
Since the Professor was ill, the Doctor headed down to help the engineers with the final preparations. Meanwhile in the control room, the Professor was still hearing voices. Eventually Yana tracked the voices to his watch and he slowly raised it up and gazed at it. As Chantho watched he opened it. As the Doctor launched the rocket, a golden glow flooded out of the watch and surrounded the Professor. When the glow disappeared Chantho cautiously approached the Professor who had turned to face the TARDIS, with his back to her. He turned and fixed her with a cruel piercing gaze.
Chantho watched horrified as the Professor reached out and pulled the lever that closed and locked the doors to the engineering section, preventing the Doctor from returning. When the Professor pulled the lever that controlled the power for the outer compound's defences and headed for the controls of the inner defence systems Chantho had to stop him. She pulled a gun on him and, trembling, ordered him to stop. He turned, and grasping the broken power cable approached her. Despite his actions Chantho still could not bring herself to shoot him. She couldn't believe that he would really hurt her. It was a fatal mistake. As he thrust the live end of the cable a her he sneered, “I am the Master.”
The Doctor was working his way back to the laboratory via a different route, as the Futurekind poured into the grounds of the complex. However, to their frustration, they were unable to breach the main building itself. The Doctor finally found his way to the laboratory only to find that that door was locked as well. He could see through the glass that the Professor was disconnecting the cables from the TARDIS and he worked at the locking mechanism frantically. He could feel in the telepathic centres of his brain that something had changed, that he was no longer alone. But why wouldn't the Professor let him in?
Horrified, he spotted Chantho lying on the floor. As he watched, she raised herself with difficulty onto one elbow and shot the Professor. The Doctor smashed the door's mechanism and finally managed to get inside the lab. The Professor, who the Doctor could now tell was a Time Lord, and one Time Lord in particular, was standing wounded in front of the TARDIS's open door. Before he could reach them the Professor had ducked inside and locked the door. Try as he might the Doctor could not open the TARDIS with his key, nor by using his sonic screwdriver.
As he tried, the Professor staggered over to the console. He could hear the Doctor shouting to him from outside the TARDIS. He was pleading to be let in, saying that they were the only ones left. The Professor, now the Master, stood proudly next to the console as he died and the fires of regeneration swept through him. The Doctor could only watch the glow from the regeneration energy from outside the TARDIS.
Moments later the Master spoke to him from inside the TARDIS. The Doctor pleaded with the Master to wait and talk to him, to no avail. In desperation, as the TARDIS began to dematerialise, the Doctor aimed his sonic screwdriver and prepared to fuse the controls. In a fraction of a second he considered the options. He could fuse the controls to limit the TARDIS to move only between this point and the last place and time she visited. But that was Theta Aurigae IV, and the TARDIS had been so afraid of something there that she fled to the end of the universe. He couldn't force her to return there. The only other option was to use the emergency program coordinates. These had been set to return Martha to Earth, one hour after she left, in the event of anything happening to him. Even though she had left him months previously, he had travelled with no one else so the coordinates were still set to London 2007. That was the better option, so the Doctor fused the TARDIS controls using those coordinates. And then he watched helplessly as the TARDIS faded away.
* * * * * *
The Doctor was fuming as he prepared to activate his vortex manipulator. Two years it had taken him to build it out of the materials left in Professor Yana's laboratory. Two years! He'd practically built it out of spaghetti, string and staples. It was hardly elegant and was huge (about one foot across). He couldn't help comparing it to the vortex manipulator that Jack had. That was elegant and would have been incredibly useful to have when marooned at the end of the universe.
But beggars couldn't be choosers and he hoped that he would only need to use it once to be reunited with his TARDIS. Although it had been so long since the TARDIS had left there had been no other vortex activity on Malcassairo since then. He had designed it so that the home made manipulator would put him onto the path that the TARDIS had made when it left. Although he knew approximately where the TARDIS had gone, it was such a huge journey through time that the Master could have arrived in London any time within a couple of years of the fused coordinates.
Following the path should take him straight to it, much more accurately, arriving within minutes of the Master. Hoping that the delicate components would hold out through the journey he activated it and fell through the vortex.
* * * * * * * * * * *
The Doctor screamed as the manipulator began to spark and overheat as he fell. He was blacking out when the machine failed completely, spitting him out of the vortex abruptly. When he woke he was in horrible pain, lying on grass in a park. He could do nothing but lay there for several minutes, gasping for breath as the pain gradually receded. Finally he was able to get up, look around, and try to work out where he was. He knew he hadn't reached his destination, but if he was close there would still be a chance of finding the TARDIS. He had fallen out of the vortex too early and he'd been travelling backwards in time so the TARDIS should hopefully already be here. At least providing that the Master had stayed where (or at least when) he originally landed and not managed to fix the TARDIS and move on. If that had happened it was probable that the TARDIS was lost to the Doctor forever.
The Doctor didn't let himself dwell on that possibility. He had to be close enough, he had to! Fortunately he wouldn't have to wonder for long. In the two years stuck on Malcassairo he had also built himself a TARDIS detector. He couldn't take the risk of not being able to find the TARDIS after following it through the vortex. This fortunately was much smaller than the manipulator so he had it in a pocket. Getting it out and swiftly checking it for damage he activated it and sagged in relief when it showed that a TARDIS was present. It was hundreds of miles away but what was that after a trillion years and billions of parsecs. Leaving the ruins of the manipulator on the ground he set off.
Next chapter here: ohinyan.livejournal.com/9285.html
Part: 30/35
Rating: 18+
Warnings: Explicit violence, non-con
Genre: Angst, AU
Characters: Jack Harkness, Ianto Jones, The Master (Simm)
Summary: After POTW Jack's life takes a turn for the worse and he desperately needs help. A Doctor Who/Torchwood crossover (AU). Note that this is a very dark fic.
Disclaimer: Not mine.
A/N: A large chunk of this chapter is adapted from the episode Utopia.
Previous chapter here: ohinyan.livejournal.com/8886.html
Chapter 30: Utopia
As the TARDIS landed on Theta Aurigae IV in the year one billion it had barely materialised when the wave of black hate and insanity hit it. And it was coming closer, fast. The TARDIS started dematerialising immediately but the horror was going to be too quick. It touched her just before she became insubstantial and she flung herself away as far as she could get, fleeing to the end of the universe in her terror. Thankfully the horror was left far behind.
* * * * * *
The TARDIS had finally landed, in the year 300 trillion. The Doctor picked himself off the floor where he had ended up during the wild ride. “What was all that about, eh?” he asked her. “What scared you so badly that you brought us all the way out here?”
I should leave, the Doctor thought. I should go, I should really, really go. But he could never resist exploring the unknown and you didn't often get a chance to see the end of the universe. A quick look around wouldn't hurt.
Fifteen minutes later the Doctor was exploring the region around the TARDIS. As he was admiring a hive-like structure he saw, in the distance, a man running. The man was being pursued by a horde of unfriendly, dangerous looking humanoids. The Doctor couldn't resist. He ran down to join the fleeing man and, turning, aimed his sonic screwdriver at his pursuers. He set it to a particular mode and activated it. All the pursuers clapped their hands over their ears and fell to the ground.
The Doctor was about to take the hunted man to the TARDIS to check him over, when a dozen more of the humanoids charged towards them, effectively cutting them off from the TARDIS. The first group of them were recovering and climbing to their feet.
The hunted man said urgently, “we have to get to the silo, run!”
They got there just ahead of the hostile humanoids and after showing their teeth were allowed inside.
“Professor we've got two new humans inside. One of them is calling himself a Doctor,” the silo guard informed Professor Yana.
The Professor sounded delighted and immediately asked what the Doctor was a doctor of.
He was even more delighted to be told that the Doctor was a doctor of everything.
Meanwhile the Doctor was trying to persuade one of the guards to fetch the TARDIS for him. “It's like a box, a big blue box, I'm sorry but I really need it back, its stuck out there.”
Eventually the guard agreed, “A blue box you say? We're driving out for the last water collection, I'll see what I can do.”
As he was escorted through the complex towards Professor Yana's laboratory, they passed many people, all ragged and unwashed. The Doctor was just extolling the virtues of humanity when they passed someone who smelled different, at least to the Doctor's Time Lord senses. The Doctor stopped and approached the man who, on being singled out, reacted violently and snarled revealing pointed teeth. Panic erupted in all the nearby humans who screamed and backed away rapidly. Fortunately for them, the guards escorting the Doctor were armed and well used to dealing with the Futurekind. The interloper was dead within seconds.
“There was no need for that,” the Doctor shouted angrily.
“There was,” one of the guards answered resolutely, “he could have killed any number of our people.”
Leaving one of their number to arrange to have the body removed, the Doctor's escort continued on to the Professor's rooms. The Professor rushed over to introduce himself and his assistant Chantho.
He then explained the workings of the rocket he was building to the Doctor and asked his help.
While the Doctor was examining the equipment Yana asked a question. “Might I ask, what species are you?”
“Time Lord, last of,” the Doctor replied. “Heard of them? Legend or anything?”
“Not even a myth! Blimey, the end of the universe is a bit humbling.”
“The man who was being hunted mentioned Utopia,” said the Doctor, “So what is Utopia ?”
The Professor was surprised by the question. “Oh every human has heard of Utopia, where have you been?”
“Bit of a hermit, no friends,” the Doctor explained. It was only too true. He hadn't had a friend since Martha left him. “So Utopia?” he continued.
“The call came from across the stars over and over again. Come to Utopia,” explained the Professor. He pointed at the screen, “originating from that point, out towards the wild lands in the dark matter reefs, calling us in. The last of the humans scattered across the night.”
“What do you think is out there?” the Doctor asked.
“We don't know. A colony, a city, some sort of haven? The science foundation created the Utopia project thousand of years ago, to preserve mankind. To find a way of surviving beyond the collapse of reality itself. Perhaps they found it and perhaps not. It's worth a look don't you think?” asked the Professor.
“Oh yes.” replied the Doctor.
The Professor suddenly lost his focus and stood unseeing as he heard the drums beat in his head.
“Professor, are you all right?” queried the Doctor.
Coming back to himself the Professor babbled “yes, I'm fine. And busy.” He began to bustle around trying to look as if he really was busy.
The Doctor looked at him in understanding. “Except that rocket is not going to fly is it? This footprint mechanism thing is not working.”
“Well find a way,” the Professor stressed.
“You're stuck on this planet and you haven't told them have you?” the Doctor said with sudden insight. “That lot out there, they still think they're going to fly.”
“Well it's better to let them live in hope,” the Professor admitted.
“Quite right too,” the Doctor said, while bouncing around the room. “And I must say Professor Yana, this new science is well beyond me. But all the same, a boost reversal circuit in any time frame must be a circuit which reverses the boost. So I wonder what would happen if I did this.”
As he spoke the Doctor picked up the circuit and zapped it with the sonic screwdriver. Suddenly the machinery started up.
“Chan it's working doh,” cried Chantho in amazement.
“How did you do that?” asked the Professor.
“Oh, I forgot to tell you. I'm brilliant,” said the Doctor with a distinct lack of modesty.
Now that the rocket was functional, things began to move fast. The complex was a hive of activity. The couplings were connected. All the passengers were ordered to board and everyone was recalled from outside the compound. One of the last groups to return brought the TARDIS with them and delivered it to the Professor's laboratory before going to board the rocket themselves.
Meanwhile in the Professor's laboratory the Doctor had realised that the footprint engine couldn't be activated from on board. The Professor and Chantho were planning to stay behind. Indicating the TARDIS the Doctor said “Professor, its a wild stab in the dark but I might just have found you a way out. This is a TARDIS. It travels in time and space.”
As the Professor looked the drums began to beat loudly and he heard whisperings of TARDIS and Time Lord. While the Doctor and Chantho ran around linking cables from the TARDIS to the Professor's equipment, the Professor sat weakly, unable to ignore the noise in his head.
Since the Professor was ill, the Doctor headed down to help the engineers with the final preparations. Meanwhile in the control room, the Professor was still hearing voices. Eventually Yana tracked the voices to his watch and he slowly raised it up and gazed at it. As Chantho watched he opened it. As the Doctor launched the rocket, a golden glow flooded out of the watch and surrounded the Professor. When the glow disappeared Chantho cautiously approached the Professor who had turned to face the TARDIS, with his back to her. He turned and fixed her with a cruel piercing gaze.
Chantho watched horrified as the Professor reached out and pulled the lever that closed and locked the doors to the engineering section, preventing the Doctor from returning. When the Professor pulled the lever that controlled the power for the outer compound's defences and headed for the controls of the inner defence systems Chantho had to stop him. She pulled a gun on him and, trembling, ordered him to stop. He turned, and grasping the broken power cable approached her. Despite his actions Chantho still could not bring herself to shoot him. She couldn't believe that he would really hurt her. It was a fatal mistake. As he thrust the live end of the cable a her he sneered, “I am the Master.”
The Doctor was working his way back to the laboratory via a different route, as the Futurekind poured into the grounds of the complex. However, to their frustration, they were unable to breach the main building itself. The Doctor finally found his way to the laboratory only to find that that door was locked as well. He could see through the glass that the Professor was disconnecting the cables from the TARDIS and he worked at the locking mechanism frantically. He could feel in the telepathic centres of his brain that something had changed, that he was no longer alone. But why wouldn't the Professor let him in?
Horrified, he spotted Chantho lying on the floor. As he watched, she raised herself with difficulty onto one elbow and shot the Professor. The Doctor smashed the door's mechanism and finally managed to get inside the lab. The Professor, who the Doctor could now tell was a Time Lord, and one Time Lord in particular, was standing wounded in front of the TARDIS's open door. Before he could reach them the Professor had ducked inside and locked the door. Try as he might the Doctor could not open the TARDIS with his key, nor by using his sonic screwdriver.
As he tried, the Professor staggered over to the console. He could hear the Doctor shouting to him from outside the TARDIS. He was pleading to be let in, saying that they were the only ones left. The Professor, now the Master, stood proudly next to the console as he died and the fires of regeneration swept through him. The Doctor could only watch the glow from the regeneration energy from outside the TARDIS.
Moments later the Master spoke to him from inside the TARDIS. The Doctor pleaded with the Master to wait and talk to him, to no avail. In desperation, as the TARDIS began to dematerialise, the Doctor aimed his sonic screwdriver and prepared to fuse the controls. In a fraction of a second he considered the options. He could fuse the controls to limit the TARDIS to move only between this point and the last place and time she visited. But that was Theta Aurigae IV, and the TARDIS had been so afraid of something there that she fled to the end of the universe. He couldn't force her to return there. The only other option was to use the emergency program coordinates. These had been set to return Martha to Earth, one hour after she left, in the event of anything happening to him. Even though she had left him months previously, he had travelled with no one else so the coordinates were still set to London 2007. That was the better option, so the Doctor fused the TARDIS controls using those coordinates. And then he watched helplessly as the TARDIS faded away.
* * * * * *
The Doctor was fuming as he prepared to activate his vortex manipulator. Two years it had taken him to build it out of the materials left in Professor Yana's laboratory. Two years! He'd practically built it out of spaghetti, string and staples. It was hardly elegant and was huge (about one foot across). He couldn't help comparing it to the vortex manipulator that Jack had. That was elegant and would have been incredibly useful to have when marooned at the end of the universe.
But beggars couldn't be choosers and he hoped that he would only need to use it once to be reunited with his TARDIS. Although it had been so long since the TARDIS had left there had been no other vortex activity on Malcassairo since then. He had designed it so that the home made manipulator would put him onto the path that the TARDIS had made when it left. Although he knew approximately where the TARDIS had gone, it was such a huge journey through time that the Master could have arrived in London any time within a couple of years of the fused coordinates.
Following the path should take him straight to it, much more accurately, arriving within minutes of the Master. Hoping that the delicate components would hold out through the journey he activated it and fell through the vortex.
* * * * * * * * * * *
The Doctor screamed as the manipulator began to spark and overheat as he fell. He was blacking out when the machine failed completely, spitting him out of the vortex abruptly. When he woke he was in horrible pain, lying on grass in a park. He could do nothing but lay there for several minutes, gasping for breath as the pain gradually receded. Finally he was able to get up, look around, and try to work out where he was. He knew he hadn't reached his destination, but if he was close there would still be a chance of finding the TARDIS. He had fallen out of the vortex too early and he'd been travelling backwards in time so the TARDIS should hopefully already be here. At least providing that the Master had stayed where (or at least when) he originally landed and not managed to fix the TARDIS and move on. If that had happened it was probable that the TARDIS was lost to the Doctor forever.
The Doctor didn't let himself dwell on that possibility. He had to be close enough, he had to! Fortunately he wouldn't have to wonder for long. In the two years stuck on Malcassairo he had also built himself a TARDIS detector. He couldn't take the risk of not being able to find the TARDIS after following it through the vortex. This fortunately was much smaller than the manipulator so he had it in a pocket. Getting it out and swiftly checking it for damage he activated it and sagged in relief when it showed that a TARDIS was present. It was hundreds of miles away but what was that after a trillion years and billions of parsecs. Leaving the ruins of the manipulator on the ground he set off.
Next chapter here: ohinyan.livejournal.com/9285.html