Post by medusacascade on Mar 30, 2009 20:57:50 GMT
The red Converse trainers flanked by a long brown overcoat ran full pelt along the harbour walkway, following a short distance behind were the brown leather boots belonging to Capt. Jack Harkness, his blue airman's jacket billowed behind him like the sails on the tall ships, behind him another set of feet, more Converse but dirty white, their laces untied and trailing behind, his brown pinstriped suit snug against his body kept up with the ex Time Agent.
They ran into the Roald Dahl Plas, where the tall lamps stood quiet and unlit and the water monument was silent. He was running out of places to escape. People were milling everywhere, students from one of the Universities were filming crowd scenes as he pushed through the centre of them, scattering them like bowling pins. He was breathing heavily, his legs felt like lead but still he needed space between him and the two men after him. He saw an opening in the crowd and ran for the steps, but they were too high and Capt. Jack was upon him like a huge bear.
'Get off me, GET OFF ME.' He yelled, struggling in the vice like grip of the American.
'End of the line, kid.'
But the 'kid' wasn't giving in so easily. He slipped out of the jacket as Jack pulled him to his feet and ran up the remaining steps and around the side of the Senedd. The Doctor stared exhaustedly at the departing young man and took his jacket back.
'I'm sorry Doctor, but he's gone.' Jack was as annoyed as the Doctor but he suspected there was something more that the Doctor just wasn't saying.
'He'll come back.' He turned and followed Jack back to the Hub, he wasn't leaving until the boy returned, and that might be never.
The hub was quiet, monitors across one small unit flickered with every CCTV camera for the Bay, zooming in and out of potential dangers and suspects, the boy's ID had already been installed from the sonic screwdriver and the computer worked away in silence. The Doctor lifted the mug of tea to his lips and drank slowly.
'So, you wanna tell me why he's so important?' Jack broke the steady silence since they'd returned almost an hour ago.
'He's not. He just stole my shoes and jacket and I wanted them back.' He lied.
'I don't buy it. You have enough clothes in that ship to last you an eternity, what's the real reason?' Jack pushed.
The Doctor sighed and lowered the mug, he hated having to explain to Jack his reasons for anything, least of all the stowaway on board the Tardis.
The bins clattered together at the back of Maetro's restaurant. The chef peered out of the back door, he heard cat's yowling and hurled abuse before slamming the door shut once more.
He climbed out of the bin, brushing off the remnants of someone else's meal from his clothing; he tsked at the meaty stain on the red trainers and proceeded to eat the bounty of food in his hand. Earth it seemed was no different to anywhere else in the Galaxy, people were the same the world over. They ate at posh restaurants, they quibbled over prices, they shamed the staff but they still left food on their plates. He was thankful for that, their waste was his banquet. He pushed chicken legs and pieces of meat on the bone into his combat trouser pockets, one good thing abouot working on container ships, the uniform was handy for storing any amount of tools.
The nightlife in Cardiff Bay was as busy as always, the lights that had been unlit during his afternoon sprint across the Plas were now illuminating the entrance to the Millennium Centre and the Senedd. His meal eaten he pressed his greasy hands against the large windows of the Centre and peered in at the people milling to and from rooms. One of the receptionists dressed in a black blazer and looking very official flicked her hand at him as if shooing a fly, when he didn't move, she proceeded across the foyer towards him and he ran.
'So what do you owe him?' Jack placed two shot glasses in front of him and poured a handsome measure of bourbon into both, pushing one towards the Doctor.
'I owe her my life.' He replied lifting the liquor to his lips.
'Ok, you owe her, not him.'
'He's her son.'
'But he's not yours, whatever he does is not your responsibility.'
'While he's on Earth, he is .' The Doctor frowned.
'Why is he so important, he's just another kid out of his time zone?'
The Doctor poured himself another shot of Bourbon and knocked it back like the first. Jack watched in amusement, it was not like the Doctor to be hitting the bottle.
'What's the kid to you?'
The Doctor didn't answer, Jack rephrased the question. 'What's he to the human race?'
The Doctor raised his head and looked darkly at Jack, who swallowed and knew the answer before the Doctor gave it.
'Deadly.'
Pauline Wincott was closing up for the evening, the takings had been less than usual, but she accepted that the recession but swore nevertheless at the tight-fisted customers who grumbled at prices and didn't leave tips. She held the bank bag tightly in her manicured right hand, she needed to get to the night safe on Banker's Walk. It wasn't that far away, but there were creatures who wandered along the stretch of road where the bank sat. She didn't know what they were, but only that they existed; she saw them out of the corner of her eyes.
As she left the shop, she saw a young man of little more than a teenager, his red Converse shoes were tinged with Bolognese sauce but at first she thought it was blood. He looked cold and scruffy but this could be misleading, she was aware of the tell tale signs, she was aware that many gangs patrolled the streets at closing time, waiting for a bounty.
'What do you want? I've nothing for you, restaurant is closed.' She said quickly, gripping the bag tighter.
'Why do you assume that I'd want anything?' He asked in a Californian accent.
'Are you holidaying here, are your parents close by?'
'My parents are dead.' He replied forlornly, but she sensed bitterness in his voice and quickened her step away from him.
He watched her leave, her high heels click clacking along the walkway towards the bank. That's when he saw them, the strange creatures with overalls, walking like Neanderthals and following her movements towards the marble bricked building.
She couldn't hear them but there was a smell in the air, something was wrong and she knew that the creatures in the corner of her eyes were now surrounding her, she had no escape, she was going to die. Suddenly her heart in her throat, the adrenalin kicked in and she found an energy she didn't know she possessed, but just as she was nearing the bank safe, the road ahead of her was swamped in Weevils.
'No,no no no, you can't do this, I'm not meant to die like this, please, please, don't hurt me, oh god, no.'
She pressed herself against the smooth marbled building, a fear had taken over the adrenalin, her legs wouldn't move and she awaited death as the Weevils stepped closer towards her. In her mind the Thriller video became real and the zombies were coming in for the kill.
But as she waited for death to take over, the growling stopped, their putrid breath disappeared and the cool night air enveloped her as she stood cowering. She opened her eyes and saw the young man standing a few feet from her.
'Where did they go? Where did they go, did you see them?' She looked up and down the street and back at the boy, but he was gone.
Gwen Cooper stepped through the opened door with a pizza box and a folder resting on top. She smiled shyly at the Doctor, who followed her movements towards the sofa against the wall. He raised a half smile as she sat down and the smell of pepperoni and cheese wafted towards his nostrils.
'There's a fair amount of Weevil activity tonight, I'm surprised the monitors didn't pick it up.' She said matter-of-factly, pushing a hot wedge of spicy meat pizza into her mouth. The Doctor leapt up the few steps and lifted a slice of pizza from the box, she didn't object.
'Weevils, what are Weevils doing in Cardiff?'
'They came through the rift, set up home in St. Catherine's church. They've been quiet for a while, ever since Owen.......' Jack let the sentence trail off. Owen, king of the Weevils, it had always been a joke, but since the demon host, the weevils had been acting strangely ever since.
The Doctor watched as Jack brought up the monitors on their usual nightly hang outs.
'They normally keep to the shadows, but they have been known to take human victims. Who did they go for this time?' He looked over at Gwen as she attempted to salvage some of the pizza rapidly disappearing into the belly of the Time Lord.
'The owner of Maestro's reported a large number of Weevils following her to the bank. She said she was surrounded but they didn't attack her.'
'Did she say why?'
Gwen pulled a sheet from the file. 'She said it all went quiet and there a boy standing watching her.'
'What kind of boy?' The Doctor stared at her, his eyes deep and penetrating.
'She didn't say, just a boy, a teenager. He was wearing red Converse, she said she remembered that because she thought he was bleeding, but he had Bolognese sauce on them.'
'My shoes have Bolognese sauce on them, what else?'
'Well nothing else. The Weevils had gone but the boy was there. What's going on Jack, what is it about the boy?'
'We need to find him; did she give any mention of where he was going?' The Doctor pressed.
'No, I, well, Andy didn't ask.'
The Doctor clamped his hands on the back of his head and looked stressfully at the monitors.
'What are you thinking Doctor?' Jack asked seriously.
'You don't want to know what I'm thinking.' He cast a glance at Jack and a cold shiver ran through him.
'I'll get my coat.'
The night air was cool, gulls could still be heard on the waterfront, boats thudded against the sides of the walkways between each boat, bobbing as though on a choppy sea. The boy sat on the prow of the nearest boat and tossed a bone towards the Weevil watching him. He watched as it gnawed away, occasionally looking up for another morsel. The boy gladly obliged. He lay back eventually against the windscreen of the boat and gazed up at the cluster of stars. He was millions of miles from home, and even then the planet no longer existed. He was lost, but finding the Doctor and his space ship had been a blessing in disguise. There was something about the man that sent shivers up his back and goosebumps across his skin. He was steeped in history that the boy understood, a desperate desolation that the boy felt which was somehow akin to his life and what he'd lost.
The Weevil, its head to one side, sat watch as the boy slept, occasionally looking out to sea and along the harbour wall where many of its own kind stood like sentries.
The two men strode along the harbour towards the Senedd; the sonic screwdriver whistled and bleeped but could pick up only tiny pulses of energy. He pushed it back inside his jacket pocket and sighed heavily. Jack pushed his hands into his coat pocket and turned a full 360 degrees to pick out anything unusual. There were no Weevils, and that was unusual!
Gwen Cooper called them on the radio, her tinny voice echoing through the earpiece in Jack's ear. They sprinted towards Banker's Walk and the scene of crime. The Doctor instantly felt a presence and scanned the screwdriver around the area.
'He was here.' He stood in the same place, Jack stood where the woman had cowered.
'He was watching?'
'The Weevils didn't harm her, why not?' Gwen stood where she expected the creatures to be.
'He's controlling them.'
'Why?'
'Because he can.'
'How?' Gwen narrowed her eyes.
'Because he's like his father.' The Doctor strode away into the night and Jack followed, his gun drawn, ready. Gwen made to follow as Jack instructed otherwise and she returned to the Hub to monitor the screens.
'So were you two close?' Jack walked beside the Doctor, their strides matching in symmetry.
'We grew up together, we used to be friends once. But you know the score, Jack, you saw what he did, how he was with people.'
'And you think his son will do the same?'
'I don't know.'
'Nobody knows what a person will do until they're pushed to the max, look at Miguel.'
'You had to bring him into the equation, didn't you?' He growled.
'I miss him, don't you?'
'You know I do.' He swallowed back the pain and concentrated on his quarry. 'Miguel is nothing like the boy.'
'Miguel could control the Weevils.' Jack announced as the Doctor strode ahead.
'What?' He stopped dead and turned to stare hard at Jack.
'When Miguel was here, they never touched him, not once. They protected him against everything, even we couldn't touch without earning a trust. Scarhead even carried him back to the Hub when he was shot.'
'But that's impossible.'
'Is it?' Jack narrowed his eyes. 'They may not have been part of the Order, but they were here for him. He even knew them by name, he talked to them in their own language. Now that takes practice and he had it.'
The Doctor felt a burning pride surge through his body, and a stronger pain grip his two hearts and he struggled to keep a check of his emotions.
'I never knew. I never asked him about here, the Hub, your connections. He never said.'
'He didn't want to rub your nose in it I guess. The fact he knew so much without the use or need of the Tardis.'
Jack walked towards the Doctor who stood staring at the ground, his jaw twitching. He tilted his face towards him and saw the tears run down his face. The Doctor pushed him away, he didn't like to show his emotions in public, but the death of Miguel had hit him harder than he'd ever expected.
'I still see him, just for a second. I could work underneath the ship, fixing wires and see him smiling back, just before she tried to electrocute him again as he fixed the circuits.'
'She liked to tease, that's for sure.'
'Prophecies Jack. Remind me never to get personally involved, don't let me get that close again.' He looked up at the ex Time Agent, his face wet from tears and saw the same in his eyes.
'He was your family Doctor, you can't tell me that you were going to ignore him, walk away and let him fight alone.'
He sucked in the air, his lip wobbling. His face contorted several times as he tried desperately to bring himself back into check. He vowed he would never lose it again in public, but he and Jack had travelled to the ends of the Universe, and he above everyone else except for Rose, knew what it was like to lose someone you cared about deeply.
He tried to focus on the task ahead but the images of his great grandson smiled back at him in the darkness and he broke down as Jack held him close.
He awoke to the putrid breath of the Weevil who had kept guard; it was shaking him out of his slumber. The dawn was rising over the sea, people would be waking soon. He scrambled off the boat with the creature and followed it in search of breakfast.
The Doctor lay back on the sofa against the wall, his feet rested on the arm. He stared up at the dirty brown ceiling and his mind drifted back to Gallifrey and the Academy as a child. He saw the woman he loved, the woman he couldn't have, he saw his one time friend the Master chatting her up and causing her to blush. It had pained him them that the pair would get together, but it hurt worse to realise that the child running about Cardiff with a group of vicious creatures was the son of his arch nemesis.
He blinked away from the ceiling and stared at the monitors, he caught glimpses of creatures running along the deserted streets and sat up when he saw a young person in amongst them. For a split second he saw Miguel running with the pack, he blinked hard and saw the child with the turned up combat trousers and red trainers cut through the back of a row of shops. He read the name of the street and lifted his coat from the hook on the wall and was gone.
Jack lay on his bed and stared up at the ceiling. Last night had revealed a pain that both still shared and both still couldn't completely let go of. He still missed the young man he regarded as his younger brother, the one child of the future who sacrificed everything to save the planet. He heard the alarm sound and climbed from his bed pulling on his clothes as he ran. At the monitors he caught sight of the long overcoat worn by the Doctor disappearing between the shops along the quay.
The smell was foul as he neared the back of the supermarket, its bins open and wafting through the air, the out of date coleslaw, milk and cheeses. He heard scrabbling in the roll top bins to his left and walked carefully past it. As if sensing an intruder, the noises within the bins ceased and the Doctor felt uncomfortable. The head of a Weevil poked out of the bin, its face marred by dairy products several hours old. In its hand it held the remains of a barbecued chicken drumstick, the bone chewed in half and still visible in its mouth.
The Doctor grinned uneasily, he was not in the best of positions, there was only one exit and that was blocked by several of the same creatures as in the bin.
'What've you stopped for?'
The Doctor glanced behind him towards a blue metal bin near the steps beside the supermarket building. The boy looked out and leaned his arms against the side of the bin and neither smiled nor glared at the Doctor for a moment. He watched him, his head slightly on one side as if to mimic the creatures.
The nearest Weevil to the Doctor stepped closer and sniffed at his coat, he stepped away from the creature, its evil mouth and sharp teeth a welcome reminder of what lay in store.
'I wouldn't do that if I were you.' The boy called to him.
'What?'
'I wouldn't step away, just let it sniff you. Think of the calebs, they pick up on fear. You're not scared are you, Doctor?' He questioned, teasing the words.
'You know my name.'
'Everyone knows your name, my father knew it too.' He replied pulling out a large hunk of rotting meat and tossing it to a small group of creatures. They swooped and pulled at the meat in a frenzy as the boy walked closely beside them. The smell and the actions of the them disgusted him, but he showed no fear.
'They don't scare you?' The Doctor noted as he glanced back at the Weevil nearing his hand.
'What is there to be scared of?'
'They're dangerous, they can kill, they might kill you.' The Doctor spoke with more confidence now the weevil had rejoined its friends.
'They might kill you, but they won't kill me.' The boy noted smugly.
'How are you controlling them?' The Doctor's eyes narrowed and he stepped towards the boy. Suddenly the group beside the young man who were frantically ripping the meat apart stood up and growled as they stepped in between the two men. The Doctor stepped back terrified but tried not to show it. A group of Weevils gripped onto his arms and held him secure as the young man strode towards him.
He c*cked his head to one side and reached up a sticky blood stained hand and touched the Doctor's temple and closed his eyes. He felt the Doctor jolt in his tight grip. The shock of the connection coursed through the Time Lords mind, he grimaced with the pain as he tried to stop the psychic energy routing out his memories. He yelled loudly as the pain ran through his skull as bad as a sensitive tooth hitting cold ice-cream.
'Who am I Doctor?' The young man spoke, a voice so familiar that the words fell out of his mouth too quickly.
'Master.'
'Ooh, that must pain you to say that word, all those years and you thought he was gone and lost forever. But he's back, make no mistake Doctor.'
'But you can't be, the Master died, he took a bullet, he didn't regenerate.' The Doctor leaned back against the Weevil, his legs had buckled, he felt sick and dizzy and tiny beads of perspiration trickled down his forehead.
'He lives through me and only me.' The boy's eyes glinted, the deep penetrating hazel eyes that the Doctor recognised so well.
'Then do something different, you don't have to follow in his footsteps.' The Time Lord begged.
'Who says I was going to be like my father?' The boy flicked his head towards the Weevils restraining the Doctor and they released him. He staggered to his feet, his legs feeling like jelly.
'I don't remember him at all, only the ring that I keep around my neck on this chain.' He lifted it out, the green and silver ring, the markings of Gallifrey and the Time Lords emblazoned on the huge thick signet.
'She says he was a great man, full of ideas, full of plans, always going somewhere and dealing with adversaries across the galaxy. Doctor, I want to travel, I want to go places, learn about the great man, the Master, I want to know what he was like.' The boy was eager and spoke like a child wanting to know where his birthday present was hidden.
'He was a friend once, at the Academy. He stared into the Untempered Schism as a child and it drove him mad. But as the years went on he became twisted and evil, he was always trying to beat me, turning good into evil. I couldn't change him, I couldn't stop him.'
'So who killed him, who fired the shot, you?' He pointed.
'No. I abhor guns, always have. It was his wife, Lucy Saxon.'
'Saxon.'
'The name he chose for himself when he became Prime Minister for Britain.'
'Prime Minister eh, that would be worth aiming for, a position of power.'
'Dressed like that, feeding out of bins.' The Doctor looked disdainfully at the scruffy child in trainers looking very much dirtier than a Bolognese sauce.
'We all gotta start somewhere, I bet even you started at the bottom, Time Lord.'
'Stop it.' He straightened his jacket and looked about at the feeding creatures gorging themselves on waste products. 'So this is your great army, ready to wage war on the world, starting from the sewers upwards is it?'
'I don't think I like your tone Doctor. I could get them to kill you now and save any more pithy remarks.'
'What's stopping you?' The Doctor remarked curtly.
'HIM.' He pointed towards Jack, his gun poised in the direction of the Doctor and the young Master. The Weevils looked over and flanked the boy, growling and waving their hands in a bid to deter any shots fired.
'Step away Doctor, I've got a clean shot.' He called, one eye closed, the target primed.
'Come back with us, if you want to travel, I'll find a planet you can live safely on, where you can start again, be a different person.'
'I like it here, food in abundance, friends all around me.'
'Living like an animal, sleeping and eating in the streets is that what your father would have wished for you?'
'My father's dead, they're all dead. I don't have what you'd call parental guidance, so I'm making it up as I go. Where were you when Gallifrey burned, where were you when they all died?
'There was nothing I could do, I had no choice.'
'You've always got a choice.' The boy shouted back. 'How can you be so sure that the Daleks would have destroyed everything, you had no proof?'
'Daleks and Time Lords never worked together, your father knew that.' The Doctor growled in a rage.
'My father was resurrected because of the Daleks, he was the one who could make deals with them, he didn't run away like you did. He stayed, he fought, you ran like a scared child.'
'No, you're wrong, your father ran, I was there on the front line, your father disappeared. Just like you, always running away from responsibility.' The Doctor raged.
'Doctor, step back this way, I don't have enough bullets to stop them all.' Jack called from the entrance.
The young boy smiled. 'You'd better go Time Lord, once they taste real meat, there's no telling where they'll stop.'
TO BE CONTINUED.
They ran into the Roald Dahl Plas, where the tall lamps stood quiet and unlit and the water monument was silent. He was running out of places to escape. People were milling everywhere, students from one of the Universities were filming crowd scenes as he pushed through the centre of them, scattering them like bowling pins. He was breathing heavily, his legs felt like lead but still he needed space between him and the two men after him. He saw an opening in the crowd and ran for the steps, but they were too high and Capt. Jack was upon him like a huge bear.
'Get off me, GET OFF ME.' He yelled, struggling in the vice like grip of the American.
'End of the line, kid.'
But the 'kid' wasn't giving in so easily. He slipped out of the jacket as Jack pulled him to his feet and ran up the remaining steps and around the side of the Senedd. The Doctor stared exhaustedly at the departing young man and took his jacket back.
'I'm sorry Doctor, but he's gone.' Jack was as annoyed as the Doctor but he suspected there was something more that the Doctor just wasn't saying.
'He'll come back.' He turned and followed Jack back to the Hub, he wasn't leaving until the boy returned, and that might be never.
The hub was quiet, monitors across one small unit flickered with every CCTV camera for the Bay, zooming in and out of potential dangers and suspects, the boy's ID had already been installed from the sonic screwdriver and the computer worked away in silence. The Doctor lifted the mug of tea to his lips and drank slowly.
'So, you wanna tell me why he's so important?' Jack broke the steady silence since they'd returned almost an hour ago.
'He's not. He just stole my shoes and jacket and I wanted them back.' He lied.
'I don't buy it. You have enough clothes in that ship to last you an eternity, what's the real reason?' Jack pushed.
The Doctor sighed and lowered the mug, he hated having to explain to Jack his reasons for anything, least of all the stowaway on board the Tardis.
The bins clattered together at the back of Maetro's restaurant. The chef peered out of the back door, he heard cat's yowling and hurled abuse before slamming the door shut once more.
He climbed out of the bin, brushing off the remnants of someone else's meal from his clothing; he tsked at the meaty stain on the red trainers and proceeded to eat the bounty of food in his hand. Earth it seemed was no different to anywhere else in the Galaxy, people were the same the world over. They ate at posh restaurants, they quibbled over prices, they shamed the staff but they still left food on their plates. He was thankful for that, their waste was his banquet. He pushed chicken legs and pieces of meat on the bone into his combat trouser pockets, one good thing abouot working on container ships, the uniform was handy for storing any amount of tools.
The nightlife in Cardiff Bay was as busy as always, the lights that had been unlit during his afternoon sprint across the Plas were now illuminating the entrance to the Millennium Centre and the Senedd. His meal eaten he pressed his greasy hands against the large windows of the Centre and peered in at the people milling to and from rooms. One of the receptionists dressed in a black blazer and looking very official flicked her hand at him as if shooing a fly, when he didn't move, she proceeded across the foyer towards him and he ran.
'So what do you owe him?' Jack placed two shot glasses in front of him and poured a handsome measure of bourbon into both, pushing one towards the Doctor.
'I owe her my life.' He replied lifting the liquor to his lips.
'Ok, you owe her, not him.'
'He's her son.'
'But he's not yours, whatever he does is not your responsibility.'
'While he's on Earth, he is .' The Doctor frowned.
'Why is he so important, he's just another kid out of his time zone?'
The Doctor poured himself another shot of Bourbon and knocked it back like the first. Jack watched in amusement, it was not like the Doctor to be hitting the bottle.
'What's the kid to you?'
The Doctor didn't answer, Jack rephrased the question. 'What's he to the human race?'
The Doctor raised his head and looked darkly at Jack, who swallowed and knew the answer before the Doctor gave it.
'Deadly.'
Pauline Wincott was closing up for the evening, the takings had been less than usual, but she accepted that the recession but swore nevertheless at the tight-fisted customers who grumbled at prices and didn't leave tips. She held the bank bag tightly in her manicured right hand, she needed to get to the night safe on Banker's Walk. It wasn't that far away, but there were creatures who wandered along the stretch of road where the bank sat. She didn't know what they were, but only that they existed; she saw them out of the corner of her eyes.
As she left the shop, she saw a young man of little more than a teenager, his red Converse shoes were tinged with Bolognese sauce but at first she thought it was blood. He looked cold and scruffy but this could be misleading, she was aware of the tell tale signs, she was aware that many gangs patrolled the streets at closing time, waiting for a bounty.
'What do you want? I've nothing for you, restaurant is closed.' She said quickly, gripping the bag tighter.
'Why do you assume that I'd want anything?' He asked in a Californian accent.
'Are you holidaying here, are your parents close by?'
'My parents are dead.' He replied forlornly, but she sensed bitterness in his voice and quickened her step away from him.
He watched her leave, her high heels click clacking along the walkway towards the bank. That's when he saw them, the strange creatures with overalls, walking like Neanderthals and following her movements towards the marble bricked building.
She couldn't hear them but there was a smell in the air, something was wrong and she knew that the creatures in the corner of her eyes were now surrounding her, she had no escape, she was going to die. Suddenly her heart in her throat, the adrenalin kicked in and she found an energy she didn't know she possessed, but just as she was nearing the bank safe, the road ahead of her was swamped in Weevils.
'No,no no no, you can't do this, I'm not meant to die like this, please, please, don't hurt me, oh god, no.'
She pressed herself against the smooth marbled building, a fear had taken over the adrenalin, her legs wouldn't move and she awaited death as the Weevils stepped closer towards her. In her mind the Thriller video became real and the zombies were coming in for the kill.
But as she waited for death to take over, the growling stopped, their putrid breath disappeared and the cool night air enveloped her as she stood cowering. She opened her eyes and saw the young man standing a few feet from her.
'Where did they go? Where did they go, did you see them?' She looked up and down the street and back at the boy, but he was gone.
Gwen Cooper stepped through the opened door with a pizza box and a folder resting on top. She smiled shyly at the Doctor, who followed her movements towards the sofa against the wall. He raised a half smile as she sat down and the smell of pepperoni and cheese wafted towards his nostrils.
'There's a fair amount of Weevil activity tonight, I'm surprised the monitors didn't pick it up.' She said matter-of-factly, pushing a hot wedge of spicy meat pizza into her mouth. The Doctor leapt up the few steps and lifted a slice of pizza from the box, she didn't object.
'Weevils, what are Weevils doing in Cardiff?'
'They came through the rift, set up home in St. Catherine's church. They've been quiet for a while, ever since Owen.......' Jack let the sentence trail off. Owen, king of the Weevils, it had always been a joke, but since the demon host, the weevils had been acting strangely ever since.
The Doctor watched as Jack brought up the monitors on their usual nightly hang outs.
'They normally keep to the shadows, but they have been known to take human victims. Who did they go for this time?' He looked over at Gwen as she attempted to salvage some of the pizza rapidly disappearing into the belly of the Time Lord.
'The owner of Maestro's reported a large number of Weevils following her to the bank. She said she was surrounded but they didn't attack her.'
'Did she say why?'
Gwen pulled a sheet from the file. 'She said it all went quiet and there a boy standing watching her.'
'What kind of boy?' The Doctor stared at her, his eyes deep and penetrating.
'She didn't say, just a boy, a teenager. He was wearing red Converse, she said she remembered that because she thought he was bleeding, but he had Bolognese sauce on them.'
'My shoes have Bolognese sauce on them, what else?'
'Well nothing else. The Weevils had gone but the boy was there. What's going on Jack, what is it about the boy?'
'We need to find him; did she give any mention of where he was going?' The Doctor pressed.
'No, I, well, Andy didn't ask.'
The Doctor clamped his hands on the back of his head and looked stressfully at the monitors.
'What are you thinking Doctor?' Jack asked seriously.
'You don't want to know what I'm thinking.' He cast a glance at Jack and a cold shiver ran through him.
'I'll get my coat.'
The night air was cool, gulls could still be heard on the waterfront, boats thudded against the sides of the walkways between each boat, bobbing as though on a choppy sea. The boy sat on the prow of the nearest boat and tossed a bone towards the Weevil watching him. He watched as it gnawed away, occasionally looking up for another morsel. The boy gladly obliged. He lay back eventually against the windscreen of the boat and gazed up at the cluster of stars. He was millions of miles from home, and even then the planet no longer existed. He was lost, but finding the Doctor and his space ship had been a blessing in disguise. There was something about the man that sent shivers up his back and goosebumps across his skin. He was steeped in history that the boy understood, a desperate desolation that the boy felt which was somehow akin to his life and what he'd lost.
The Weevil, its head to one side, sat watch as the boy slept, occasionally looking out to sea and along the harbour wall where many of its own kind stood like sentries.
The two men strode along the harbour towards the Senedd; the sonic screwdriver whistled and bleeped but could pick up only tiny pulses of energy. He pushed it back inside his jacket pocket and sighed heavily. Jack pushed his hands into his coat pocket and turned a full 360 degrees to pick out anything unusual. There were no Weevils, and that was unusual!
Gwen Cooper called them on the radio, her tinny voice echoing through the earpiece in Jack's ear. They sprinted towards Banker's Walk and the scene of crime. The Doctor instantly felt a presence and scanned the screwdriver around the area.
'He was here.' He stood in the same place, Jack stood where the woman had cowered.
'He was watching?'
'The Weevils didn't harm her, why not?' Gwen stood where she expected the creatures to be.
'He's controlling them.'
'Why?'
'Because he can.'
'How?' Gwen narrowed her eyes.
'Because he's like his father.' The Doctor strode away into the night and Jack followed, his gun drawn, ready. Gwen made to follow as Jack instructed otherwise and she returned to the Hub to monitor the screens.
'So were you two close?' Jack walked beside the Doctor, their strides matching in symmetry.
'We grew up together, we used to be friends once. But you know the score, Jack, you saw what he did, how he was with people.'
'And you think his son will do the same?'
'I don't know.'
'Nobody knows what a person will do until they're pushed to the max, look at Miguel.'
'You had to bring him into the equation, didn't you?' He growled.
'I miss him, don't you?'
'You know I do.' He swallowed back the pain and concentrated on his quarry. 'Miguel is nothing like the boy.'
'Miguel could control the Weevils.' Jack announced as the Doctor strode ahead.
'What?' He stopped dead and turned to stare hard at Jack.
'When Miguel was here, they never touched him, not once. They protected him against everything, even we couldn't touch without earning a trust. Scarhead even carried him back to the Hub when he was shot.'
'But that's impossible.'
'Is it?' Jack narrowed his eyes. 'They may not have been part of the Order, but they were here for him. He even knew them by name, he talked to them in their own language. Now that takes practice and he had it.'
The Doctor felt a burning pride surge through his body, and a stronger pain grip his two hearts and he struggled to keep a check of his emotions.
'I never knew. I never asked him about here, the Hub, your connections. He never said.'
'He didn't want to rub your nose in it I guess. The fact he knew so much without the use or need of the Tardis.'
Jack walked towards the Doctor who stood staring at the ground, his jaw twitching. He tilted his face towards him and saw the tears run down his face. The Doctor pushed him away, he didn't like to show his emotions in public, but the death of Miguel had hit him harder than he'd ever expected.
'I still see him, just for a second. I could work underneath the ship, fixing wires and see him smiling back, just before she tried to electrocute him again as he fixed the circuits.'
'She liked to tease, that's for sure.'
'Prophecies Jack. Remind me never to get personally involved, don't let me get that close again.' He looked up at the ex Time Agent, his face wet from tears and saw the same in his eyes.
'He was your family Doctor, you can't tell me that you were going to ignore him, walk away and let him fight alone.'
He sucked in the air, his lip wobbling. His face contorted several times as he tried desperately to bring himself back into check. He vowed he would never lose it again in public, but he and Jack had travelled to the ends of the Universe, and he above everyone else except for Rose, knew what it was like to lose someone you cared about deeply.
He tried to focus on the task ahead but the images of his great grandson smiled back at him in the darkness and he broke down as Jack held him close.
He awoke to the putrid breath of the Weevil who had kept guard; it was shaking him out of his slumber. The dawn was rising over the sea, people would be waking soon. He scrambled off the boat with the creature and followed it in search of breakfast.
The Doctor lay back on the sofa against the wall, his feet rested on the arm. He stared up at the dirty brown ceiling and his mind drifted back to Gallifrey and the Academy as a child. He saw the woman he loved, the woman he couldn't have, he saw his one time friend the Master chatting her up and causing her to blush. It had pained him them that the pair would get together, but it hurt worse to realise that the child running about Cardiff with a group of vicious creatures was the son of his arch nemesis.
He blinked away from the ceiling and stared at the monitors, he caught glimpses of creatures running along the deserted streets and sat up when he saw a young person in amongst them. For a split second he saw Miguel running with the pack, he blinked hard and saw the child with the turned up combat trousers and red trainers cut through the back of a row of shops. He read the name of the street and lifted his coat from the hook on the wall and was gone.
Jack lay on his bed and stared up at the ceiling. Last night had revealed a pain that both still shared and both still couldn't completely let go of. He still missed the young man he regarded as his younger brother, the one child of the future who sacrificed everything to save the planet. He heard the alarm sound and climbed from his bed pulling on his clothes as he ran. At the monitors he caught sight of the long overcoat worn by the Doctor disappearing between the shops along the quay.
The smell was foul as he neared the back of the supermarket, its bins open and wafting through the air, the out of date coleslaw, milk and cheeses. He heard scrabbling in the roll top bins to his left and walked carefully past it. As if sensing an intruder, the noises within the bins ceased and the Doctor felt uncomfortable. The head of a Weevil poked out of the bin, its face marred by dairy products several hours old. In its hand it held the remains of a barbecued chicken drumstick, the bone chewed in half and still visible in its mouth.
The Doctor grinned uneasily, he was not in the best of positions, there was only one exit and that was blocked by several of the same creatures as in the bin.
'What've you stopped for?'
The Doctor glanced behind him towards a blue metal bin near the steps beside the supermarket building. The boy looked out and leaned his arms against the side of the bin and neither smiled nor glared at the Doctor for a moment. He watched him, his head slightly on one side as if to mimic the creatures.
The nearest Weevil to the Doctor stepped closer and sniffed at his coat, he stepped away from the creature, its evil mouth and sharp teeth a welcome reminder of what lay in store.
'I wouldn't do that if I were you.' The boy called to him.
'What?'
'I wouldn't step away, just let it sniff you. Think of the calebs, they pick up on fear. You're not scared are you, Doctor?' He questioned, teasing the words.
'You know my name.'
'Everyone knows your name, my father knew it too.' He replied pulling out a large hunk of rotting meat and tossing it to a small group of creatures. They swooped and pulled at the meat in a frenzy as the boy walked closely beside them. The smell and the actions of the them disgusted him, but he showed no fear.
'They don't scare you?' The Doctor noted as he glanced back at the Weevil nearing his hand.
'What is there to be scared of?'
'They're dangerous, they can kill, they might kill you.' The Doctor spoke with more confidence now the weevil had rejoined its friends.
'They might kill you, but they won't kill me.' The boy noted smugly.
'How are you controlling them?' The Doctor's eyes narrowed and he stepped towards the boy. Suddenly the group beside the young man who were frantically ripping the meat apart stood up and growled as they stepped in between the two men. The Doctor stepped back terrified but tried not to show it. A group of Weevils gripped onto his arms and held him secure as the young man strode towards him.
He c*cked his head to one side and reached up a sticky blood stained hand and touched the Doctor's temple and closed his eyes. He felt the Doctor jolt in his tight grip. The shock of the connection coursed through the Time Lords mind, he grimaced with the pain as he tried to stop the psychic energy routing out his memories. He yelled loudly as the pain ran through his skull as bad as a sensitive tooth hitting cold ice-cream.
'Who am I Doctor?' The young man spoke, a voice so familiar that the words fell out of his mouth too quickly.
'Master.'
'Ooh, that must pain you to say that word, all those years and you thought he was gone and lost forever. But he's back, make no mistake Doctor.'
'But you can't be, the Master died, he took a bullet, he didn't regenerate.' The Doctor leaned back against the Weevil, his legs had buckled, he felt sick and dizzy and tiny beads of perspiration trickled down his forehead.
'He lives through me and only me.' The boy's eyes glinted, the deep penetrating hazel eyes that the Doctor recognised so well.
'Then do something different, you don't have to follow in his footsteps.' The Time Lord begged.
'Who says I was going to be like my father?' The boy flicked his head towards the Weevils restraining the Doctor and they released him. He staggered to his feet, his legs feeling like jelly.
'I don't remember him at all, only the ring that I keep around my neck on this chain.' He lifted it out, the green and silver ring, the markings of Gallifrey and the Time Lords emblazoned on the huge thick signet.
'She says he was a great man, full of ideas, full of plans, always going somewhere and dealing with adversaries across the galaxy. Doctor, I want to travel, I want to go places, learn about the great man, the Master, I want to know what he was like.' The boy was eager and spoke like a child wanting to know where his birthday present was hidden.
'He was a friend once, at the Academy. He stared into the Untempered Schism as a child and it drove him mad. But as the years went on he became twisted and evil, he was always trying to beat me, turning good into evil. I couldn't change him, I couldn't stop him.'
'So who killed him, who fired the shot, you?' He pointed.
'No. I abhor guns, always have. It was his wife, Lucy Saxon.'
'Saxon.'
'The name he chose for himself when he became Prime Minister for Britain.'
'Prime Minister eh, that would be worth aiming for, a position of power.'
'Dressed like that, feeding out of bins.' The Doctor looked disdainfully at the scruffy child in trainers looking very much dirtier than a Bolognese sauce.
'We all gotta start somewhere, I bet even you started at the bottom, Time Lord.'
'Stop it.' He straightened his jacket and looked about at the feeding creatures gorging themselves on waste products. 'So this is your great army, ready to wage war on the world, starting from the sewers upwards is it?'
'I don't think I like your tone Doctor. I could get them to kill you now and save any more pithy remarks.'
'What's stopping you?' The Doctor remarked curtly.
'HIM.' He pointed towards Jack, his gun poised in the direction of the Doctor and the young Master. The Weevils looked over and flanked the boy, growling and waving their hands in a bid to deter any shots fired.
'Step away Doctor, I've got a clean shot.' He called, one eye closed, the target primed.
'Come back with us, if you want to travel, I'll find a planet you can live safely on, where you can start again, be a different person.'
'I like it here, food in abundance, friends all around me.'
'Living like an animal, sleeping and eating in the streets is that what your father would have wished for you?'
'My father's dead, they're all dead. I don't have what you'd call parental guidance, so I'm making it up as I go. Where were you when Gallifrey burned, where were you when they all died?
'There was nothing I could do, I had no choice.'
'You've always got a choice.' The boy shouted back. 'How can you be so sure that the Daleks would have destroyed everything, you had no proof?'
'Daleks and Time Lords never worked together, your father knew that.' The Doctor growled in a rage.
'My father was resurrected because of the Daleks, he was the one who could make deals with them, he didn't run away like you did. He stayed, he fought, you ran like a scared child.'
'No, you're wrong, your father ran, I was there on the front line, your father disappeared. Just like you, always running away from responsibility.' The Doctor raged.
'Doctor, step back this way, I don't have enough bullets to stop them all.' Jack called from the entrance.
The young boy smiled. 'You'd better go Time Lord, once they taste real meat, there's no telling where they'll stop.'
TO BE CONTINUED.