tonjavmoore (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
tonjavmoore) wrote2010-08-10 09:37 pm
tonjavmoore) wrote2010-08-10 09:37 pm
Entry tags:
When Everything Changed - 2/20
Title: When Everything Changed – A Torchwood/Dr. Who/Sarah Jane Adventures Crossover
Author:tonjavmoore
Characters/Pairings: Jack/Ianto, Gwen/Rhys, Eleven and Amy Pond, and a lot of people from the Whoniverse at large
Rating: PG
Word Count: Total: 31,520; Chapter 2: 1,595
Spoilers: This assumes that you are familiar the five days of Children of Earth. Otherwise, you’ll be a bit lost. This is a timey-wimey fixit, that takes up action partway through Day 3.
Disclaimer: Torchwood, Dr. Who, and Sarah Jane Adventures all belong to the BBC and RTD. Sadly.
Betas: Thanks to midlist_writer and welsh_scotsman on Live Journal. Also, for my friend Alexandria Cameron who put up with my squeals and tantrums when it just wouldn’t get out through my fingers the way I wanted it to.
Summary: When the Shadow Architects find a paradox that is destroying the Universe, can the Eleventh Doctor find a way to restore Jack’s timeline to what it should have been?
This is where it started: Chapter 1
A/N: Everyone has a fixit in them – this is mine.
Comments are cookies for the soul.
Chapter 2
Amy and the Doctor were sitting in a small room just off the larger council chamber. She had given the Doctor a chance to speak first, but he was not exactly forthcoming. He sat with his lips pursed, his brows knitted, and his elbows on his knees. Finally she said, “Who is Captain Jack Harkness?”
The Doctor sighed. “He used to be a Companion of mine. He travelled with me before… well. Before I am who I am now. So he didn’t really travel with me at all, did he? Can anybody really meet the same man twice, whether or not he’s regenerated? On the other hand, it is the same river, even if the water’s all hundreds of miles down-stream…”
Of course, he had to wander into the metaphysical. Amy tried to get him back on track. “But, who is he? And why do all those… um… people think he’s so important? And what did you do, or didn’t do, about him?”
“Those are good questions, Amy Pond.” The Doctor rose and paced the small length of the room. “But, the answers aren’t simple.”
“Try me.”
He gave her a rueful smile. “All right. But don’t be surprised if it all makes your head hurt.”
“Go for it.”
He dropped back into his chair. “That’s not his actual name, by the way. It’s a name he adopted after he went to live in the 20th century.”
Amy blinked. In that one sentence the Doctor had spawned quite a few questions in her head. “After he went to live in the 20th century?” she repeated, inviting clarification before she went further down the road to utter confusion.
“Oh. Right. Beginning. Okay, Jack – we’ll just call him Jack because that makes it simpler, if anything can be simple where Jack is concerned – Jack was born in what you’d call the 51st century, 5034 would be my best guess in Earth terms. In a human colony on one of the planets in a system near the edge of the Milky Way… Boeshane, that’s what it was called. The Boeshane Peninsula.”
“Is that where you met him?”
“No, no. I’m getting to that. Jack lost his family there when he was young, maybe thirteen in Earth years. He grew up and joined something called the Time Agency. Bunch of busybodies really, but they were useful for a few hundred years. They tracked down time anomalies caused by entities traveling illegally in time.”
“Wait a second.” Amy tried to process this. “You mean there are other people who travel in time? I thought that was just you.”
“Oh, not by a long shot. Time travel isn’t that hard, once you get the physics of it. Controlling where and when you travel, though, that’s difficult. That’s what makes a TARDIS so wonderful. She gets it right. Well, mostly, anyway.”
Having had her own experience of the TARDIS getting it wrong by years, Amy wasn’t impressed. She steered the discussion back to this Jack person. “So Jack travelled with you in the TARDIS back to the 20th century?”
“No, no. Jack went back to the 20th century with his Vortex Manipulator.”
She thanked the heavens that she had a lot of patience. Persevering, she managed to get the Doctor to tell her about Jack in increments. She had no idea how long they had, but she tried hard. However, she came to a halt when the Doctor told her what had happened on the Game Station. “The TARDIS made him immortal and you just left him there?”
“I was sick at the time,” the Doctor protested, but he didn’t meet her eyes.
“And you didn’t go back?”
“Um… no.”
“Is that what they’re talking about in there?”
“No. At least I don’t think so. Because I saw Jack again.”
“Tell me about that.”
Again there was evasion and convolution, but Amy managed to wring the gist of the Year That Never Was out of him. “Is that what they mean?” she said. “I mean, you let him be killed every day for a year and then left him behind again?”
“I invited him to travel with me!” the Doctor protested. “I did! But he wanted to go back to his team. I think maybe there was one person on that team he wanted to see in particular. But I didn’t know. I had my hands full getting Martha back to London and her family and all that. I was busy.”
“Uh, yeah. Uh huh. Busy.” Amy didn’t hide the sarcasm in her voice. “Well, is that what they’re talking about?”
“That year was erased from all timelines, I tell you. It never happened. So, I don’t see how it could be. Anyway, I saw him again.”
“Can I get that story?”
At least this one was mercifully short. “And then you dropped him off again. And that was it? Or did you see him again?”
The Doctor blushed. “Only at that bar.”
“Did you talk to him? At the bar?”
“He… okay, I… he didn’t look like he wanted to talk and I was in rather a hurry. So, I thought maybe I’d give him a little gift and sent him a note about the guy sitting next to him. Jack was always flirting and the fellow looked like his type.”
Amy wondered how the Doctor, who seemed particularly clueless about human relationships, would know who Jack’s “type” was unless the Doctor wasn’t telling all he knew. “And that was it? Nothing else?”
“I… er… got a phone call from him once. On that mobile I had before the… well, restructuring.”
“Did you talk to him?”
“No. I didn’t have the phone with me. I was…”
“Busy? I’m sure. Did you call him back?”
“I tried. I did. I called him back a while later. He didn’t answer. I tried again a few times, but he never answered. I tried someone else. She didn’t answer either.”
“And you didn’t go check it out? I thought Jack was supposed to be your friend.”
“There were things…”
“Doctor, it sounds like to me that you just abandoned this man. Over and over. Why the hell would he call you if it wasn’t something important? Is that what they’re talking about?”
“Important…” the Doctor repeated, his face screwed up in a scowl. “Was it…? It happened right about then… I might have… the linear time’s right…”
“What, Doctor? What?”
His eyes snapped open. “Do you remember an incident… a thing where children were all chanting in unison?”
She nodded. “Yeah, I do. They were all chanting about something that was coming. The government said something about an inoculation program, but it didn’t happen. I think there were some reports about riots, but not where I was. The kids stopped chanting. The Prime Minister resigned and there were some grumblings about cover-ups, but it came to nothing in the end. No one that I know understood anything about it.”
“And that was it? Nothing about threats? Nothing about aliens?”
“No. Nothing like that. Just stuff like it had been a conspiracy and it had been found out and people were arrested and all.”
“That’s it!” the Doctor cried. “That must be it!” He jumped up and ran out the door.
Amy followed him. The Architect regarded the Doctor with one raised eyebrow. “I take it that you have remembered?”
“No, not exactly. I don’t really know, but it’s about the invasion of what the humans called the 456, yes? That’s where the problem is?”
“The 456?” Amy echoed. “Who are they?”
“Yes, Doctor. That is where the problem – as you put it – began.”
“But, but, but… It was supposed to happen. I know it was. It was what set the human race toward the stars.”
“Only it didn’t, Doctor. The human race became more insular and backward.” She gestured and a screen appeared. “They regressed as arguments went on about who to blame for the fiasco that was the aftermath. Most humans never knew. By the time the human race looked to expand again, it was too late. There was no territory for them. Humanity died out.”
“That’s impossible. It can’t have.”
“It did. And that is unraveling Time in our Universe. Watch.”
A star field appeared on the screen, serene and beautiful. As they watched, one of the stars began to pulse. A moment later, it exploded. Amy jumped. It was followed by another explosion and another. Soon the entire screen was full of exploding stars. When she looked back where the first star had exploded she saw blackness. Things around the blackness began to swirl and disappear into the void. It was a ghastly vision and Amy wanted to cry.
“The 456 didn’t take the children, Doctor. They failed. One man stopped them. Captain Jack Harkness. He lost everything, but he stopped them. Because he stopped them, the human race had no impetus to try and recover the children. They did not reach out. They did not colonize. Without those colonies, there is no Boeshane Peninsula. There is no man called Jack Harkness to stop the 456, even though they were stopped by him. A paradox so large that it is destroying everything.”
The Doctor swallowed and reached for Amy’s hand. “And what was I supposed to do that I didn’t?”
“You, Doctor, were supposed to go to Earth and prevent the Captain from losing the key to his and humanity’s future. He reached out to you, but you with your prejudices and arrogance failed to respond. Now, our Universe is paying the price. Your TARDIS is dying from it. A short time remains to you to fix this before it goes beyond even the power of a Time Lord to act. So what is your plan, Doctor? What are you going to do?"
Chapter 3
Author:
tonjavmoore Characters/Pairings: Jack/Ianto, Gwen/Rhys, Eleven and Amy Pond, and a lot of people from the Whoniverse at large
Rating: PG
Word Count: Total: 31,520; Chapter 2: 1,595
Spoilers: This assumes that you are familiar the five days of Children of Earth. Otherwise, you’ll be a bit lost. This is a timey-wimey fixit, that takes up action partway through Day 3.
Disclaimer: Torchwood, Dr. Who, and Sarah Jane Adventures all belong to the BBC and RTD. Sadly.
Betas: Thanks to midlist_writer and welsh_scotsman on Live Journal. Also, for my friend Alexandria Cameron who put up with my squeals and tantrums when it just wouldn’t get out through my fingers the way I wanted it to.
Summary: When the Shadow Architects find a paradox that is destroying the Universe, can the Eleventh Doctor find a way to restore Jack’s timeline to what it should have been?
This is where it started: Chapter 1
A/N: Everyone has a fixit in them – this is mine.
Comments are cookies for the soul.
Chapter 2
Amy and the Doctor were sitting in a small room just off the larger council chamber. She had given the Doctor a chance to speak first, but he was not exactly forthcoming. He sat with his lips pursed, his brows knitted, and his elbows on his knees. Finally she said, “Who is Captain Jack Harkness?”
The Doctor sighed. “He used to be a Companion of mine. He travelled with me before… well. Before I am who I am now. So he didn’t really travel with me at all, did he? Can anybody really meet the same man twice, whether or not he’s regenerated? On the other hand, it is the same river, even if the water’s all hundreds of miles down-stream…”
Of course, he had to wander into the metaphysical. Amy tried to get him back on track. “But, who is he? And why do all those… um… people think he’s so important? And what did you do, or didn’t do, about him?”
“Those are good questions, Amy Pond.” The Doctor rose and paced the small length of the room. “But, the answers aren’t simple.”
“Try me.”
He gave her a rueful smile. “All right. But don’t be surprised if it all makes your head hurt.”
“Go for it.”
He dropped back into his chair. “That’s not his actual name, by the way. It’s a name he adopted after he went to live in the 20th century.”
Amy blinked. In that one sentence the Doctor had spawned quite a few questions in her head. “After he went to live in the 20th century?” she repeated, inviting clarification before she went further down the road to utter confusion.
“Oh. Right. Beginning. Okay, Jack – we’ll just call him Jack because that makes it simpler, if anything can be simple where Jack is concerned – Jack was born in what you’d call the 51st century, 5034 would be my best guess in Earth terms. In a human colony on one of the planets in a system near the edge of the Milky Way… Boeshane, that’s what it was called. The Boeshane Peninsula.”
“Is that where you met him?”
“No, no. I’m getting to that. Jack lost his family there when he was young, maybe thirteen in Earth years. He grew up and joined something called the Time Agency. Bunch of busybodies really, but they were useful for a few hundred years. They tracked down time anomalies caused by entities traveling illegally in time.”
“Wait a second.” Amy tried to process this. “You mean there are other people who travel in time? I thought that was just you.”
“Oh, not by a long shot. Time travel isn’t that hard, once you get the physics of it. Controlling where and when you travel, though, that’s difficult. That’s what makes a TARDIS so wonderful. She gets it right. Well, mostly, anyway.”
Having had her own experience of the TARDIS getting it wrong by years, Amy wasn’t impressed. She steered the discussion back to this Jack person. “So Jack travelled with you in the TARDIS back to the 20th century?”
“No, no. Jack went back to the 20th century with his Vortex Manipulator.”
She thanked the heavens that she had a lot of patience. Persevering, she managed to get the Doctor to tell her about Jack in increments. She had no idea how long they had, but she tried hard. However, she came to a halt when the Doctor told her what had happened on the Game Station. “The TARDIS made him immortal and you just left him there?”
“I was sick at the time,” the Doctor protested, but he didn’t meet her eyes.
“And you didn’t go back?”
“Um… no.”
“Is that what they’re talking about in there?”
“No. At least I don’t think so. Because I saw Jack again.”
“Tell me about that.”
Again there was evasion and convolution, but Amy managed to wring the gist of the Year That Never Was out of him. “Is that what they mean?” she said. “I mean, you let him be killed every day for a year and then left him behind again?”
“I invited him to travel with me!” the Doctor protested. “I did! But he wanted to go back to his team. I think maybe there was one person on that team he wanted to see in particular. But I didn’t know. I had my hands full getting Martha back to London and her family and all that. I was busy.”
“Uh, yeah. Uh huh. Busy.” Amy didn’t hide the sarcasm in her voice. “Well, is that what they’re talking about?”
“That year was erased from all timelines, I tell you. It never happened. So, I don’t see how it could be. Anyway, I saw him again.”
“Can I get that story?”
At least this one was mercifully short. “And then you dropped him off again. And that was it? Or did you see him again?”
The Doctor blushed. “Only at that bar.”
“Did you talk to him? At the bar?”
“He… okay, I… he didn’t look like he wanted to talk and I was in rather a hurry. So, I thought maybe I’d give him a little gift and sent him a note about the guy sitting next to him. Jack was always flirting and the fellow looked like his type.”
Amy wondered how the Doctor, who seemed particularly clueless about human relationships, would know who Jack’s “type” was unless the Doctor wasn’t telling all he knew. “And that was it? Nothing else?”
“I… er… got a phone call from him once. On that mobile I had before the… well, restructuring.”
“Did you talk to him?”
“No. I didn’t have the phone with me. I was…”
“Busy? I’m sure. Did you call him back?”
“I tried. I did. I called him back a while later. He didn’t answer. I tried again a few times, but he never answered. I tried someone else. She didn’t answer either.”
“And you didn’t go check it out? I thought Jack was supposed to be your friend.”
“There were things…”
“Doctor, it sounds like to me that you just abandoned this man. Over and over. Why the hell would he call you if it wasn’t something important? Is that what they’re talking about?”
“Important…” the Doctor repeated, his face screwed up in a scowl. “Was it…? It happened right about then… I might have… the linear time’s right…”
“What, Doctor? What?”
His eyes snapped open. “Do you remember an incident… a thing where children were all chanting in unison?”
She nodded. “Yeah, I do. They were all chanting about something that was coming. The government said something about an inoculation program, but it didn’t happen. I think there were some reports about riots, but not where I was. The kids stopped chanting. The Prime Minister resigned and there were some grumblings about cover-ups, but it came to nothing in the end. No one that I know understood anything about it.”
“And that was it? Nothing about threats? Nothing about aliens?”
“No. Nothing like that. Just stuff like it had been a conspiracy and it had been found out and people were arrested and all.”
“That’s it!” the Doctor cried. “That must be it!” He jumped up and ran out the door.
Amy followed him. The Architect regarded the Doctor with one raised eyebrow. “I take it that you have remembered?”
“No, not exactly. I don’t really know, but it’s about the invasion of what the humans called the 456, yes? That’s where the problem is?”
“The 456?” Amy echoed. “Who are they?”
“Yes, Doctor. That is where the problem – as you put it – began.”
“But, but, but… It was supposed to happen. I know it was. It was what set the human race toward the stars.”
“Only it didn’t, Doctor. The human race became more insular and backward.” She gestured and a screen appeared. “They regressed as arguments went on about who to blame for the fiasco that was the aftermath. Most humans never knew. By the time the human race looked to expand again, it was too late. There was no territory for them. Humanity died out.”
“That’s impossible. It can’t have.”
“It did. And that is unraveling Time in our Universe. Watch.”
A star field appeared on the screen, serene and beautiful. As they watched, one of the stars began to pulse. A moment later, it exploded. Amy jumped. It was followed by another explosion and another. Soon the entire screen was full of exploding stars. When she looked back where the first star had exploded she saw blackness. Things around the blackness began to swirl and disappear into the void. It was a ghastly vision and Amy wanted to cry.
“The 456 didn’t take the children, Doctor. They failed. One man stopped them. Captain Jack Harkness. He lost everything, but he stopped them. Because he stopped them, the human race had no impetus to try and recover the children. They did not reach out. They did not colonize. Without those colonies, there is no Boeshane Peninsula. There is no man called Jack Harkness to stop the 456, even though they were stopped by him. A paradox so large that it is destroying everything.”
The Doctor swallowed and reached for Amy’s hand. “And what was I supposed to do that I didn’t?”
“You, Doctor, were supposed to go to Earth and prevent the Captain from losing the key to his and humanity’s future. He reached out to you, but you with your prejudices and arrogance failed to respond. Now, our Universe is paying the price. Your TARDIS is dying from it. A short time remains to you to fix this before it goes beyond even the power of a Time Lord to act. So what is your plan, Doctor? What are you going to do?"
Chapter 3