Greater Justice

[The First Doctor]

She was trying hard not to show it, but he realized that he'd upset her. Old fool, he grumbled at himself, what's wrong with you?

"This afternoon Luke brought home a stray. Not a puppy. The Archetype Mark 2. Designed by the Bane to have enough of my DNA to be a weapon used specifically against me."

"They've-" She held up a hand and he stopped, waiting for her to finish.

"I put an end to the rogue faction of the Bane who started the project. I sent them through Horath's Portal."

At the mention of that name, the Doctor looked aghast.

"That isn't what is wrong, Doctor. For just a moment though, try to imagine what we would do if there were a dozen, a hundred, a thousand little Sarah Jane's come to take over the Earth." Her voice is slowly working up from a harsh whisper to well voiced anger. "It's not like I can put them though Horath's Portal, now can I? But you know what? That isn't what is wrong."

He made an abortive gesture, starting to reach out to her, when she began pacing.

"I'll tell you what is wrong Doctor. She's got 46% of my DNA Doctor, and the Bane had her for a year! And do you know how to turn a child into a weapon? I know you do, and so do I! I can barely stand it, Doctor, but you know what, that isn't my problem either!"

Turn a child into a weapon.

His gaze went distant and, just for an instant, he was lost in the past.

"Yeah," he whispered, voice hard and flat, "Yeah, I know how."

She was crying now. "My problem is, I can't stop them. I can't get to them! Somewhere there is a lab or a computer or whatever the hell they use in place of one, and it's got a sample of my DNA!! They can make my children and hurt them and I can't . . . . !!!"

The gesture wasn't abortive, now. He crossed the room and gathered her into his arms, holding her close, stroking her hair. "Sshhh," he whispered, "ssshh. It'll be all right."

He stood, holding her, letting her pour out her terror and anger. "I should have come," he said. "When I heard the Bane were targeting Earth, I should have come." He hugged her tighter. "But I was so proud of you, so proud of who you'd become." He fell silent.

"I never dreamed they'd do this to you."

[Sarah Jane]

She did let it pour out. The dozen plans that had brewed in the back of her mind these last hours, no matter how she'd tried to stop them. Plans to somehow overcome the impossible, and she explained at least half of them in brief. Crazy plans that had survival probabilities so close to nothing it did not matter. Plans that just might tear a hole in time itself. Plans of arming herself to the teeth and destroying anything in her way. There would be no other way for her to win for certain, and she must.

All of this she explained with her cheek pressed hard against his jacket, her arms tight around his back. Sarah Jane did not take lightly that he would hold her so. Time Lords, she found, were not quick to touch others with anything more than their hands. She also knew this was the safest place in the universe, and it was the only place safe enough that she could spill the near suicidal thoughts she'd had in the back of her mind, all the while trying to test the girl for her nature without alarming her or Luke. These thoughts had run so painfully even as she'd played Cat's Cradle with the Archetype Mark 2.

It hurt so badly because she loved her life so much. She did not want to leave it, she had not yet drained her cup. But but the thought of what the Bane might do to any additional children made of her, that were also out of her reach, had seemed such an absolutely untenable situation.

It mattered not to her that she had never wanted children. It wasn't their fault.

"Sshhh," he whispered, "ssshh. It'll be all right." He said, and instantly, intensely, she knew everything would be all right.

She sagged against him in her relief while he continued to say sweet everythings into her ear. A single sob was all it took before her breathing looses it's hitch and her tears fall silent and easy to have the crushing part of her burden lifted so clearly from her shoulders.

[The First Doctor]

To be honest, he'd been expecting tears. Not hurt and anger, not a frenzied outpouring of half-formed plans - to stop them, to hurt them, to take revenge - that spilled out in a violent torrent that could have been mistaken for weeping at a distance. But she wasn't weeping. And he'd seen rage like this before. Rage hot enough to burn worlds, and hate cold enough to quench stars.

He'd seen it when he looked in the mirror. When he'd razed Arcadia. When he'd seized the Moment, and burned the Time Lords to end the War.

Rassilon, he thought, what have we become?

He didn't want to look at his Sarah Jane, not like this. He wanted to remember the the jubilant Sarah Jane of his youth - he didn't want to see what he'd become reflected in her.

But the past was dead, dead as Gallifrey. He couldn't hide there. It held too many old wounds, too much pain.

The torrent of rage slowed, stopped. He heard a single heart-rending sob, and then she relaxed. He held her longer, hoping his presence would be comfort. Delaying what he would say, when he released her. But even a Time Lord can't hold back time. With a weary sigh he sat her down, then pulled up a chair and sat beside her.

They sat in silence. A stranger would have thought he was struggling for words. The truth was, he was struggling against them.

A deep breath, another long sigh, like a man weary beyond measure. "Tell me how I can help, Sarah Jane Smith."

He took her hands in his. "I can find one of the Bane worlds, easily enough. From there, we can find what they've... what they've taken from you. But then what?"

He looked her in the eyes. "You tell me, Sarah Jane. You tell me what you want to do about it, once we've found them, and I'll help you do it."

[Sarah Jane]

It was as if she'd had tight metal bands holding her heart together these last hours. With the fear gone, so was most of the ache, the constriction.

"Doctor, if we're lucky, no one has chosen to follow Ms.Wormwood and her renegade faction of Bane on their scientific course. If we're lucky, that all is forgotten somewhere. But you see how I could not rest. All you have to do is find the data, the genetic material, whatever they have and destroy it."

She flashed him a mysterious grin.

"And perhaps if you've a mood for it, you could Sonic them back to the stone age so they'll stop doing this to other races as well. I'm not the only one." She looks haunted again for a moment. "I suppose if they've made more, I'll have to be the one to decide what needs doing."

It is not the choice that worries her. It's not even that the rigors of adventure with the Doctor sounded a bit extreme these days. It was the girl. It was Luke. It was Earth. Now was not the time to go so far away, even if they'd never miss her. For a moment she is at a loss.

[The First Doctor]

"Doctor, if we're lucky, no one has chosen to follow Ms.Wormwood and her renegade faction of Bane on their scientific course. If we're lucky, that all is forgotten somewhere. But you see how I could not rest. All you have to do is find the data, the genetic material, whatever they have and destroy it."

"Sure," the Doctor agreed, grinning. "If we're lucky. Of course, if we're lucky, the Bane will also show up any moment to beg your forgiveness and make ritual gifts of jahaat and salveen as a token of their deep sorrow."

He paused.

"But I don't find that I trust to luck quite as much as I did when I was young. So why don't we go with the 'find and destroy' option?"

She flashed him a mysterious grin.

"And perhaps if you've a mood for it, you could Sonic them back to the stone age so they'll stop doing this to other races as well. I'm not the only one."

His face turned serious again. "I'd... rather not have to go to that extreme, and it may not be necessary. I've got a few ideas..."

She looks haunted again for a moment. "I suppose if they've made more, I'll have to be the one to decide what needs doing."

It is not the choice that worries her. It's not even that the rigors of adventure with the Doctor sounded a bit extreme these days. It was the girl. It was Luke. It was Earth. Now was not the time to go so far away, even if they'd never miss her. For a moment she is at a loss.

"Obviously," he said, the sly grin fading for a moment, "they'd be your children, after all, and it would have to be your decision."

He fetched something that looked like an iPhone from one pocket, and scrolled rapidly through text. As he did, the grin returned. "Bingo. Got ya, you tentacled filth!"

He looked up, eyes dancing with good humor. "Sarah Jane, I've got the perfect solution. Better than a dramatic infiltration of their homeworld, better than hiring Sontaran commandos to destroy their research labs, and even better than blowing up their homestar while it's still forming."

"Look at this!" he grinned, handing her the small tablet. "They're signatories of the Shadow Proclamation. Their actions have put them in violation of a dozen different clauses of the agreement."

He leaned back in the chair and made a production of folding his hands behind his head. "We don't have to fight them at all," he gloated, "You can bring criminal charges. And, under clause 37(A).223(c), you can sue their planetary government."

A pause.

"And any judgements - criminal or civil - will be enforced, free of charge, by the Judoon."

And then he made an expression like someone sucking on a lemon. "Oh, wait. They'll want proof. More proof than just two children." With a disgusted grimace, he stuck the tablet back in his coat. "Right, then. Back to plan A: tracking one of their gene labs down, and getting that proof."

[Sarah Jane]

She took the little tablet, eyes scanning quickly, then meeting his gaze again with a bit of a smile of her own as she said with him, "And any judgments - criminal or civil - will be enforced, free of charge, by the Judoon." She was familiar with that phrase. "Doctor, you're so clever." Then his face fell and he explained why this plan was not certain. It was such a shame, for a moment there a triumph seemed as safe and pure as litigation. Especially with the Doctor as her lawyer. Of course, though, nothing was ever so simple.

"Doctor. I've been thinking. I have to go with you. I can't leave the Archetypes. I just can't be that far away from them in time and space. Not to mention Earth," A big flash of a smile "Those crazy kids." She said summing up all of the human race with this slightly sarcastic, fond endearment. "Even if you brought me home this very night." Now she looked away from his youthful face for the first time. "Anyway, Doctor. I get into trouble here, sure, and I can handle myself. But I don't get into trouble the size you do. Here and now, I can't do it anymore. But I have to go." She is surely growing a smile at her own audacity, eyes flickering back to his. "So I have this crazy idea---"

((Follow this link for the continuing story "Investigation : The Bane" whoniverse-rp.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=doctornine&thread=5819&page=1))