Touch The Sky: Doctor Who/Studio C [Book 3]

Turn Left and It's Always the Same

Turn Left and It's Always the Same

(Turn Left: Part 6)

A/N: Short chapter today as the last pieces begin to fall into place. Also tomorrow (9/01) is my last day at home before I leave for college so while Turn Left is completely written, I have no idea what my posting schedule will be like for the next few weeks/months.

"It's the ATMOS devices," the woman explained, peering up at the slowly but surely fogging sky. She—her name still ungiven—had led away from the busiest part of town, settling on a quiet park bench. "We're lucky it's not so bad here, Britain hasn't got that much petrol. But all over Europe... China... South Africa... they're getting choked by gas."

"Is there anyone who can stop it?" Matt asked quietly, wondering when this mysterious woman had become some sort of all-knowing figure in his mind.

"Yeah, they're trying right now," she said. "This little band of fighters, on board the Sontaran ship. Any second now..."

As she spoke, the sky was lit ablaze, the fire flying from one horizon the other in a matter of seconds before it all went dark again, now with stars clearly showing up above.

Matt's eyes went wide and a moment passed before he could form words. "And that was...?"

"That was the Torchwood team," she explained in a hushed voice. "Gwen Cooper, Ianto Jones, they gave their lives." She let out a tiny sigh. "And Captain Jack Harkness is transported to the Sontaran homeworld. There's no one left."

A beat passed. "Why are you always wearing the same clothes?" he asked softly, looking her up and down. "And why won't you just tell me your name?"

Ashe expected, she didn't answer. "None of this was meant to happen. There was a man. This... wonderful man, and he stopped it. The Titanic, the Adipose, the ATMOS, he stopped them all from happening."

A memory flickered through him, of the first time he'd met her. "That... Doctor?"

"You knew him," she said softly.

"I did?"

"I think you dream about him sometimes. It's a man in a suit. Tall, thin man, great hair. Some... really great hair." Her voice took on a tone he recognized, the slight wistfulness of a lover, or an almost-lover.

"Who are you?" he asked, his perception of her shifting a little.

"I was like you. I used to be you. You've traveled with him, Matt. You've traveled with the Doctor in a different world."

"Well, that'd be a bit hard to do if he's dead," Matt pointed out.

"He died underneath Utah Lake last Christmas, but you were meant to be there." She paused, bringing her next words greater effect. "So was Mallory."

His eyes went wide. "What? What does she have to do with anything?"

Yet again, she didn't give him a straight answer. "He needed someone to stop him and that was you. You made him leave. You saved his life."

For a terrible moment, he was in a world of fire and water, both swirling around him in some elemental nightmare. There was a hand clasped in his—Mallory's hand—and when he looked up he caught a glimpse of the man this woman had so achingly described.

And then it was Matt's own voice, calling out with more strength than he thought he had. "Doctor! You can stop now!"

In a split second the Doctor glanced down at him, soaking wet with his hair plastered to his head, and his eyes... Eyes like fire and ice and rage and the night and the storm and the heart of the sun...