Stitches in Time 5.0: Present Tensions pt1

[tangent]

Descrition: Finally the last parts of my Buffy/Who crossover are just about ready . I've decided to split the finale into two parts. Here's the first.
Spoilers: Some spoilers through season 8 up until the events of No Future For You.
Disclaimer: Not mine. No profit. You know the score.


Previously

Someone or something is travelling through time, trying to eradicate Buffy's influence on events in Sunnydale. So far they've tried to stop her meeting Giles, Xander and Willow and by doing so stop their interventions in her life. They've even made a direct attempt on her life themselves although during this attempt The Doctor and Rose managed to capture the would be Assassin,

Now read on...


“There.” The Doctor said with a satisfied grunt. “That should hold him.”

Rose looked at the heavy shackles that secured the comatose stranger to the T.A.R.D.I.S. floor “Is it really necessary though” She asked “I did hit him pretty hard; don’t think he’s going to be making a run for it any time soon.”

“Better safe than sorry, that’s what I always say.” The Doctor grinned, hopping quickly across to the time-ships main console. He moved his hands quickly over its surface, flicking switches and turning dials in a random seeming fashion and then stopped suddenly, giving his companion a thoughtful look. “Actually I don’t always say that. In fact … I don’t think I’ve ever said that. In this case though I’ll make an exception.”

Rose frowned. She had travelled further than she ever dreamt with this man, seen him face overwhelming odds time and time again. The way he was reacting to the lone figure of a balding middle aged man, albeit a balding middle aged man that had nearly changed history, causing the world to be overrun with demons and other servants of evil set her alarm bells ringing.

“He worries you doesn’t he?” she asked quietly.

“Nah!” The Doctor started. Catching an incredulous look from his young companion he sighed heavily and pulled a face. “Well alright then, yes he worries me: a bit. I mean hordes of Daleks? Okay; Armies of Cybermen? No problemo, at least I know them. At least I know what they can do and why they do it.”

He paused and looked down at his captive, tapping his chin pensively.

“But this is just one human; and yes, I’ve checked, he is just a human. But somehow he’s a human whose managed to do something that you’re not supposed to do for centuries yet and he’s nearly ended the world and I don’t know who he is, I don’t know how he did it and I don’t know why.”

“So that’s why we’re going to visit this friend of yours?”

The Doctor grinned. “Oh yes! If anyone’s going to be able to shed some light on this it’s going to be…

---------

Rupert Giles removed his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose as he tried to gather his thoughts. Faith had severed communications, she was on her own. He should have gone with her, he knew, should have been there to protect her, not just from the nest of vipers she was walking into but also from her own worst excesses. He should have been there to fight alongside her, to guide her in her hour of need, but once again he had failed his slayer.

He heaved a heavy sigh and tried to gather his thoughts. Of course it wasn’t too late he could go to her, try to reach her before it was too late. He would need someway to get through the force-field though someway to… Of course! Trafalgar! His old friend’s hammer could penetrate just about any force-field you cared to mention. He stood suddenly, knocking over his chair in his haste, and grabbed his jacket. All he had to do was to summon the dwarf and then they could make their way to…

The train of thought was derailed by a flamboyant tattoo of knocking on his apartment door.

The sound came just as he reached the door, stopping him in his tracks. Apart from Faith there wasn’t another soul on the face of the earth who knew about this place and random callers were all but unheard of.

“Who is it?” He queried a slight tremor in his voice.

“The Doctor.” A strangely familiar voice replied
Giles frowned. “Doctor?” He said opening the door “Doctor w…?”

“Not really the time for jokes, Ripper.” The doctor said with a broad smile as he forced his way into the room “There’s something I need you to have a look at.”

[tangent]

Giles found himself taking an involuntary step backwards as the Timelord rushed past him.

“’Fraid it’s another end of the world type thing, Rup’'.” The Doctor said as he examined the room distractedly “Nice place by the way.”

“Thank you” Giles replied, moving to shut the door “Erm, you mentioned something about the end of the world.”

“Oh it’s nothing too drastic,” The Doctor said waving a hand airily “just someone travelling back in time to alter the course of history so that the slayer dies before she’s meant to. I’ve got it just about sorted, really.” He turned to face the ex-watcher “Except that this time it looks like the humans are the ones trying to destroy the planet and that, doesn’t make all that much sense to me so I wondered if you wouldn’t mind taking a look-see at the guy who just came very close to unleashing hell on earth and seeing if his face rings any bells.”

“Well of course in the normal course of event I would be only too glad to offer any assistance you felt necessary” Giles began “However I have some rather urgent matters to take care of my self at the moment. If I don’t leave for the Savidge estate right now then I’m afraid the life of a young and relatively blameless girl could very well be forfeit.” He shrugged on his jacket and looked round for the bag he kept stocked for emergency situations “Besides, there are many dark warlocks out there who would love…”

“Oh he’s not a magic user.”

Giles put the bag back down “Not a magic user?” He asked, haltingly taking a handkerchief from his pocket and removing his glasses.

“Nah, this guy’s popping back and forth in time like there’s not tomorrow, which of course if he gets his way… Anyway, using that much power would have left a residual trace, which chuckles doesn’t have.”

“You’re sure?” Giles asked polishing the glassed distractedly.

“Trust me. If there’s one thing I know about it’s time travel and this is not the magical variety. It… smells different.”

“Then how..?”

“Well that’s the question isn’t it?” The doctor replied thrusting his hands in his pockets and treating Giles to a grin. “You lot aren’t supposed to get your hands on that kind of technology for centuries but somehow, someone has. Don’t you want to know who?”

“You can definitely get me to the Savidge estate in time?”

“I Guarantee it.”

Giles lifted his glasses to the light, searching out any imperfections in his work before hooking them back on. “Well then, I suggest we get a move on.”

[tangent]

Rose turned as she heard the T.A.R.D.I.S door open a broad smile on her face. She had stayed whilst the Doctor went to retrieve his friend, charged with the job of watching over their unknown captive and although she recognised the importance of the task she hated being separated from her travelling companion.

“You took you’re sweet time.” She quipped as the Doctor swept in to the control room.

“Yeah, well old Ripper here doesn’t move as quickly as he used to.” The Doctor replied with his customary grin. “You gonna wait out there all day Rup’.”

Rose gasped as she caught sight of the figure that followed somewhat sheepishly behind the Doctor. For her only a few days had passed since they had embarked on their current quest and the image of the sullen youth they had encountered at its start was still strong in her mind. The man who stood before her now was undoubtedly the same individual but the differences between the two were immense. Gone was the dirty T-shirt and ripped jeans to be replaced by a more conservative ensemble of open necked shirt and slacks, all in neutral colours. The tousled mop of unruly hair had been somewhat tamed and showed distinct touches of grey that along with the thinly framed glasses lent him an air of quiet respectability.

There was still something there though that belied this image, a hardness in the eyes perhaps, or just something in the way that he carried himself. The barely contained rage of the rebellious youth may have been quelled but Rupert Giles was still a very dangerous man.

“So it’s true.” Giles said, looking around the cavernous control room in interest “It IS bigger on the inside. I assume that would be due to the inside and the outside existing in different dimensions, yes?”

Rose was impressed. Most people were pretty much knocked flat on the back by their first experience in the T.A.R.D.I.S. She herself had had to walk around the seemingly small box several times before she could accept the reality of its particular quirks

“Give the man a cigar.” The Doctor said with a smile, apparently impressed himself. “Doesn’t, er, bother you at all does it.”

Giles flashed the doctor his own tight smile “I’m sure I’ll get used to it.” He said.

There was a moment when nobody seemed to know what to say; a moment that was broken by the Doctor.

“Oh-kay then,” He said with a deep breath in “if you would like to walk this way Rup’. Our guest is right over….”

“Here?”

[tangent]

The Doctor found himself staring at the empty space between two sets of loosely coiled shackles that had until recently contained the unconscious prisoner with something akin to disbelief.

“Rose!” He shouted “He’s disappeared. He’s gone!”

“What? That’s impossible I was watching him right until you came in.” She ran up to join them “Where can he have gone? There’s nowhere for him to go.”

“This guy is obviously a teensy bit more resourceful than we gave him credit for.” The Doctor mused. “Not to worry though Ripper old son, he’s chosen to pull his little disappearing act from MY T.A.R.D.I.S.” He rushed over to the crafts controls and started to manipulate them in a seemingly haphazard way. “And that means that being the extremely clever and gifted individual that I am, I can track him wherever and whenever he went.”

“Whenever?” Giles asked an expression of interest on his face.

“Yup, looks like laughing boy has somehow managed to timeshift on us. There’s definite traces of temporal disturbance and if I do this.” He twirled a small dial on the control panel theatrically “We should be able to track it.

“Like tracking a boat by following it’s wake.” Giles mused.

“Exactly,” The Doctor said, again looking impressed “And… ooh that’s interesting.”

“What?” Rose asked.

“The trail splits. One half of it goes back to the point in time where we picked him up and the other heads off to somewhere in the early twenty first century.”

Giles stared at the floor frowning in concentration. “Could you be a little more specific please, Doctor.”

The Timelord pressed a few buttons and brought the small pivoting screen into a better position “Sunnydale, California.” He announced “Two thousand and two.”

“Then I suggest that that is the trail we should be concentrating on.”

The Doctor nodded “Agreed.”.

“Am I missing something here?” Rose asked feeling a little left out of this meeting of intellects. “Why shouldn’t we be heading back to where we found him?”

Giles removed his glasses and gave her a grave look. “I’m afraid that our adversary is proving to be very determined.” He began “And from what the Doctor has told me he is getting desperate; moving from trying to undermine Buffy’s support, stopping her meeting the people that will save her in one way or another, to more direct attacks. He is still intelligent enough and careful enough to attack her when she is at her most vulnerable though, and in Two thousand and two, Buffy was very, very vulnerable.”

“Besides,” the Doctor added distractedly “He hasn’t tried to alter the same event twice as of yet. I don’t see any reason why he should change his M.O now.”

Rose considered this for a moment. The reasoning of the Timelord and the former Watcher seemed faultless.

“Well I suppose Two thousand and two it is then.” She said.

[tangent]

As the Doctor and his companions set off for their destination another traveller in time had just completed the same journey. He gasped as the machines he was attached to fulfill their purpose and returned him to what he thought of as the here and now.

“Sorry about that.” Adam said as he ghosted into the others line of sight. "Bringing you back is getting harder and harder. I had to force things a bit that time which is why you’re probably feeling a bit sore.”

The older figure sat up and ran a hand other his face wearily. “No matter, we have other problems I’m afraid.” He said “It would seem that your Doctor is closing in on us.”

“You saw him?”

“I confronted him actually, unsuccessfully I’m afraid.” The older man replied, removing himself from the apparatus “In fact before you called me back he had me chained up in his... craft.”

“You were in the T.A.R.D.I.S?”

“Yes he probably meant to interrogate me in some way but don’t worry I played dead. He didn’t learn anything from me.”

Adam turned and threw his arms up in the air in exasperation. “You don’t get it do you. If I pulled you back from the T.A.R.D.I.S He can trace you. That ship of his is like a living thing and now it’ll have your scent. They’ll follow you here.”

The other figure gave his young colleague an unfriendly look “I thought that was what you wanted?”

“Yes,” Said Adam taking a long breath as he calmed down a little “but not yet. I’m not ready to face him yet. It isn’t time.”

“Then may I suggest we go to plan B.”

---------

“Do we even have a plan?” Rose asked.

“Well I was pretty much going to play this one by ear.” The Doctor replied looking up form the control panel “The timeline hasn't been affected yet and we won’t know what laughing boy’s got up his sleeve until he actually does something.”

“What if he doesn’t do anything?”

“Oh I don’t think there’s any danger of that. He’s risked a lot to get rid of the slayer. I can’t see him stopping now. Rupert?”

Giles pursed his lips as he thought through the question “No, I think your right. If he’s come this far he’s seeing it through to the end.”

“Well we’ll soon see.” The Doctor said his expression becoming serious “We’re here.”

Here turned out to be a large building in almost complete darkness, its size only given away by the sense of endless space before them and the hollow echo of their footsteps.

“Night time in Sunnydale,” Giles said wistfully “Never exactly the safest of times.”

“No.” The Doctor agreed “But at least it’s not a graveyard. Let’s spread out, see if we can’t spread a bit of light on the proceedings.”

They moved cautiously apart, treading carefully in the almost pitch black, arms outstretched to feel for possible obstacles. Their progress was slow as they inched into the waiting darkness and they can only have moved a matter of feet before a damp crack sounded and with a droning hum the lights exploded around them.

“So you’ve finally managed to find us.” A voice said. “I actually didn’t think it would take you this long.”

The Doctor blinked towards the sound trying to shield his eyes from the sudden glare “I know that voice.” He said.

As his eyes became used to the conditions he saw a figure emerging from the light, walking towards them in a deliberate, unhurried way.

“Yes, Doctor, You do.” Adam said.

[tangent]

“Adam?” The Doctor said “Adam Mitchell? But your not here, now; I mean we left you…”

“That's right Doctor you did. You left me. You swept me up and then when I didn’t play by your rules you dumped me again. Did you really think I’d let you get away with that?”

“You know there’s more to it than that Adam.” The doctor replied his face suddenly grim “After all you were the one that abused my trust. You're the one that tried to use time travel for your own profit, the one that put all of our lives in danger just so you could get rich quick. You should have known I couldn’t allow that, that abusing my trust would get you dropped just,” He clicked his fingers “like that.”

Adam’s hand shot to his forehead as the snapping of the Doctors fingers opened the information port that still lay imbedded in his forehead.

“And there it is; the evidence of how far you were willing to go just to get money and fame. Sitting there like the mark of Cain.”

“Yes” said Adam, his voice rising as anger overtook him “I’m marked. I'm a freak, thanks to you. You could have helped me. Could’ve shown me a better way, could’ve reversed this” he pointed to his forehead “You could’ve HELPED me. But no you’re the Doctor and all you care about is your own self serving, holier than thou, sanctimonious, make believe, morality lessons.”

“So that’s what this is all about then is it Adam?” Rose asked filling the void of silence that followed Adam’s rant. “Just your common or garden revenge: everything you’ve done; everything you risked just so you get your own back for what you did to yourself.

“Shut up!”

“No, I get it, I do. You can’t blame yourself so you blame the Doctor and before long it’s all you can think about. How he’s to blame for everything you’ve gone through, everything you’ve lost. It becomes everything to you and you look to get even anyway you can.” She took a step forward to the young man “What I don’t get though is why you brought this slayer girl into it. I mean there’s loads of ways you could have got our attention, why her?”

The Doctor frowned “Hmm, that’s true why involve the slayer? It doesn’t make sense.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t necessarily say that.” A voice from behind them said.

The three of them turned just in time to see the form of their missing prisoner walk into the room.

“I wouldn’t say that at all.”

Giles started, flinching back from the figure with an audible intake of breath.” That’s impossible!” He exclaimed.

“You know him?”

Giles turned to the Doctor, shock and disbelief writ large on his face. “His name is Quentin Travers,” He said simply “And he’s dead.”