sassy_lion: Saved By Memories [2/3] (Ten/Jack) [R]

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Title: Saved By Memories (2/3)
Author: sassy_lion
Challenge: Originally started for September's Amnesia challenge, fianally posted for the Amnesty challenge.
Characters: Tenth Doctor, Jack Harkness
Rating: R-ish (This part)
Word count: 2698
Spoilers: Journey's End
Summary: The Doctor gets caught by a mastermind, can he rely on an amnesiac man to help him get away?
Author's Notes: Thanks to my beta cytherea999. All other mistakes are completely my own. Also, I've been really really busy these last couple of months, haven't been paying attention or writing much....
Another Note: Wow, I had to break this up a little more than I thought I needed to...

 

Part 1

It was three full days until the normal guards appeared once again. Jack and the Doctor had both been asleep when the guards slammed open the door, stepped up to Jack and uncuffed him, hauling him away without any hesitation at all.

 

Jack dug his heels into the clay once again, trying to stay in the cell. The guard on his right (the Doctor assumed it was the same one that Jack had gotten in the ribs) kicked his right knee out from underneath him and the two of them dragged him out of the cell.

 

There was silence for a long time before another female appeared. She wasn't dressed as one of the guards; rather she was wearing a knee-length dark blue dress with a white frock over the top. She was also a light gray in color rather than a light purple.

 

"I've been told to fetch you," her voice was soft and high pitched. She was speaking 24th century Common. He replied back in the same. "Why?"

 

The woman stepped forward, a set of keys in her hand. She picked a nondescript key on the chain. "All the other guards were busy with the other prisoner. I was asked by my Lord to fetch you."

 

"Why are they busy? What's happened?" The Doctor needed information and this woman was seemingly more than willing to give it to him.

 

"They have tried the machine again. It wasn't fixed correctly. One of the others tried to tell my Lord the machine wasn't working."

 

"I can fix it. I'm an engineer."

 

The woman nodded. "Test Subject One said you were. The Lord has asked me to fetch you. To fix the machine." The Doctor cringed slightly at Jack being specifically named "Test Subject One".

 

"The guards are also having problems with Test Subject One, which is also why I was sent to fetch you."

 

"How so?"

 

"They cannot detach his mouth from various parts of the Lord's body." The woman looked down at the floor and away from the Doctor; clearly embarrassed she had to mentioning something like that in front of a stranger.

 

"Let me help," the Doctor pulled on the chains, causing the woman to back up in fear. He froze, keeping still to prevent her from running. She was clearly skittish making the Doctor wonder what her actual job was in this place. She leaned over, unlocking the Doctor quickly. He stayed still for a minute, making sure that she would not run away. He needed her to guide him through the building.

 

"Come," she motioned, leaving the room and allowing him to follow.

 

*~*

 

The two of them entered the hall. The Doctor noticed the machine, noted he was not familiar with it in anyway. It was a black padded table, with arms on the sides and straps attached to the ends. Above the machine was what looked to be an Earth x-ray machine.

 

Next he noticed Jack, who was currently bent over the Lord, a large medium purple Rollatifallan. His mouth was attached to the creature’s lower body parts. One hand was also in the same area, the other on himself. The doctor wasn’t terribly interested, however, in the finer details at the moment.

 

The gray female caught the Doctor's hand and pulled him closer to the Lord, despite his intentions to stay away while Jack was performing oral on him. She left him standing about twenty feet away from the scene, made a quick bow and left the room as quick as she could.

 

Jack paused for a moment, looking squarely at the Doctor. He detached himself from the Lord (who was looking overly purple at the moment) and promptly launched himself at the Doctor.

 

The Doctor's bum hit the floor. Jack took the opportunity and straddled him, attaching himself to the Doctor's neck, sucking softly.

 

“This plan couldn't have really worked much better,” Jack mumbled into his neck, nipping at the area below his collarbone. “They tried the lust orb this time, despite the fact that damn machine isn't actually fixed.”

 

“Hmm?” the Doctor moaned out softly, his body beginning to react to Jack's actions. “Orbs?”

 

“Far end of the hall.” The Doctor tilted his head towards the other end of the room, which also gave Jack more room as he began to nip at his neck. He saw several large sets of clear glass cabinets. Inside were hundreds of orbs, shimmering brightly in the natural sunlight of the hall's skylights. “Those are emotion orbs. Rollatifallans have little to no emotions, or at least that's it seems like to me. If they do, it's something simple like happiness, sadness. Nothing really deep, not like lust anyways.” Jack nipped at the Doctor's Adam's apple when the Doctor moved his head back. “The Lord got a taste of power once and vowed he'd never become emotionless again. He's been collecting these orbs over the last two years, using me to filter them into him.” Jack moved his mouth up, nibbling underneath the Doctor's right ear.

 

He involuntarily moaned and pulled Jack further into his lap, gripping his hips tightly. Jack moaned slightly and rubbed himself against the Doctor's trapped erection, trying to create more friction. The Doctor knew it was just an act, but he couldn't help the fact it was hard to concentrate with Jack doing that. He shouldn't have been enjoying it as much as he was either.

 

“You'll need to find the orbs that radiate your own energy signature. Those are ones that contain the memories you're missing.”

 

“I'm not missing any. I'd know ri--”

 

Jack chuckled and slipped his hands under the Doctor's vest and down his sides. “Believe me. You are. They've been feeding us Barshka jam. It increases the synapse rate in the brain. Allows for a better memory transfer. Less chance of them screwing up, and you remembering even a small bit of that memory.”

 

The Doctor felt anger building inside himself and tensed. Jack leaned back and took the Doctor's mouth with his own. Tongues touched, fighting for dominance. Jack won in the end as he was allowed to deepen the kiss. Jack began to grind against the Doctor once again, this time harder.

 

“Relax,” Jack whispered against his lips. “They'll notice if you're tense. Then we won't be able to go through with the plan.”

 

“If you don't ease up sometime soon, I might not be able to go through with the plan at all.”

 

Jack grinned and nipped once more at the Doctor's lips. “I'll distract those three, you get the orbs.”

 

“And how exactly are you going to do that?”

 

Jack's smile didn't fade as he detangled himself and turned slowly, advancing on the Lord once again. The man's composure fell as the room began to smell of sandalwood and sage.

 

Jack's natural pheromones.... the Doctor mused. He felt himself reacting and quickly got up, advancing on the cabinets.

 

The cabinets were solid wood. Each cabinet was about six feet wide by ten feet tall. Each of the five shelves was carved inward with approximately fifteen orbs on each. Figuring the amount from each of the shelves times the amount of cabinets, the Doctor estimated around 775 orbs. He became overwhelmed when he noticed Jack's energy signature on each and every one of them. No wonder Jack was bordering on true insanity.

 

The Doctor focused on finding his own energy signature in the mix. He found four of them in the cabinet on the far right, tucked in the middle of the bottom shelf. Jack's energy signature wasn't as strong on his, meaning he hadn't been filtering them as long as some of the ones on the other side of the shelves.

 

The first one the Doctor touched was a deep red and pink orb. It's luminescence was nearly overwhelming. The Doctor has to assume it was filled with more memories than some of the less brightly colored orbs.

 

Memories began to overwhelm him as he touched it. The first memories were crystal clear in his head. A pair of Rollatifallans discovering the emotion of love in each other. A woman chasing half way across a galaxy to find the man she loved. The memories started to become fuzzy. A Trixtallian in group sex, radiating love for every member of the group. A Kettering couple walking on a black sand beach. The memories began to speed faster and faster, blurring and making the Doctor slightly nauseous. He could feel love, happiness, pain, fear, sadness, joy in the mix. The memories began to slow. A man kissing his wife before she's burn on a pillar. A woman who's found herself making love for the first time after being in an abusive relationship.

 

The Doctor began to recognize his own memories through the haze. His love for Susan as he locked her out of the TARDIS, wishing her luck in her life with David. The day he and Romana shared a picnic on the planet of Strawberri when he wanted to tell her he loved her, but found himself unable to. The images once again became crystal clear. The love he'd felt for Grace, before the Time War. His heart hurt at the last memory they'd taken. The only time he'd made love to Rose, right after the incident in 2012 London.

 

The Doctor began to feel himself become angry. Angrier than he had been in a long time. He couldn't remember the last time he'd really been this angry.

 

All those people, all those memories – lost. Lost on one simple man who'd been from a quiet race. All for greed and power. Greed of wanting emotions his kind weren't naturally attuned to and the power to be able to control the rest of the planet with those memories.

 

All those people, suffering even if they didn't really know they were. All the memories of love, of hate, envy, curiosity. He'd seen all those in Jack, he realized now. He understood. That each day the Captain had been experiencing, expressing one specific emotion when he’d returned. They'd been filtering all the emotions through him so they'd be compatible with the man who'd built the machine. Without another filter, none of those people could ever get their memories recovered – and the downfall of that would be another human driven insane. He'd never be able to put another human – let alone Jack – through that willingly.

 

The Doctor had been able to reabsorb his memories because he was naturally telepathic and the orbs reacted to him because of the emotions swirling around inside. But, he had also absorbed all the memories from all the others who'd been in the machine, who'd had parts of their lives taken from them. Fortunately he'd be able to suppress them because he was a Time Lord. His brain was meant to handle all the information of the universe. He would be able to suppress them, but never get rid of them. In a way, he never wanted to either. These memories he was absorbing had been part of someone's life, something treasured. Lost to the individual, but not to him. Not now, not ever.

 

The Doctor looked at the orb in his hand. It was now just a clear piece of glass. He touched the second orb – this one a dark blue and cream color – hesitantly. The memories that flooded through him were melancholic and lonely. The third orb – a pale blue and white less brilliant in color – was filled with bliss and joy. This orb didn't contain as many memories as the red one and even less than the dark blue. There were only a handful of memories he identified as his own, but each and every one of them was as important as the last.

 

The last orb was a bright orange and silver swirled. He knew instinctively this orb was important, more important than any of the others and that every memory in this orb was his. He touched it gingerly, holding it in the palms of his opened hand.

 

Gallifrey. The bright orange skies. Silver leafed trees. Red grass. Snow-capped mountains. The Citadel. The memories poured back into him, blurring quickly. The roller coaster of emotions attributed to his home planet began to roll down his face in form of tears. The faces of Time Lords he'd known. The flames of the planet burning it's way from existence.

 

With the last memories absorb from the orb, the Doctor threw it against the wall with all his might, shattering the glass into a million pieces. He'd nicked the edge of the last case and watched it shake violently at the force that had just passed it. The cabinet swayed precariously before landing upright in its original position.

 

He stalked back to where Jack was finishing trying the last of the trio. Without even glancing at Jack, he stepped up to the Rollatifallan Lord and promptly pushed him over with his foot.

 

“You,” he growled, “you made all those people miserable, their lives empty, meaningless. For what? For greed? To want something your species wasn't naturally attuned to have? Do you know what it's like to be driven insane?” The Doctor hauled the Lord back into a sitting position. “Or to be completely devoid of emotions? Just an empty shell day after day after day?” The Doctor's voice became angrier at each passing question.

 

The Lord shook his head violently, his eyes as wide as saucers in fear of the Time Lord in front of him.

 

“It feels like this.” The Doctor pulled his hands to the sides of the Lord's head and began to construct a wall in the Rollatifallan's mind, pushing all the memories and emotions behind the wall. He felt Jack's hand on his shoulder and the word “Stop”, but he didn't. If this Lord ever got another taste of power, somehow some way, the whole event could be repeated. The Doctor couldn't allow that. He couldn't allow that to happen to anyone else. He pushed the finally emotion behind the wall and removed his hands.

 

He stood up and looked at Jack. “What about you?”

 

“What about me?”

 

“I can't give you your memories back. You're only mildly telepathic, not enough to affect the orbs without the machine. Even if you could, you can't selectively absorb your own memories. You'd have to reabsorb them all. Even me, Time Lord – brain the size of a planet – couldn't be selective. I only had reabsorb four orbs, you'd have to reabsorb 771. It'd kill you.”

 

Jack's eyes shifted to the floor. “I have to actually admit something.”

 

“And that would be?”

 

“I retrieved a big chunk of my memories already. I did that a few days ago. It's what caused the machine to break. That machine,” He looked up and waved his hand in the general direction of the memory machine behind the Doctor, “isn't really meant to work so well in reverse. Time Lord?”

 

The Doctor nodded. Jack shook his head. “Time Lords are a myth, everyone knows they don't actually exist.”

 

The Doctor shook his head. “Not a myth. Just gone. Gone from Time.” He put his hand on Jack's shoulder guiding him towards the cabinets. He felt Jack shaking as they got closer.

 

“They're yours to destroy. I can't touch anymore or I'll absorb the memories inside. Like I said, you're slightly telepathic, but not enough to be affected by the orbs themselves.”

 

Jack nodded and stepped away from the Doctor's hand. He could almost see Jack shaking, but after what just happened – what's been happening for 18 months – it was understandable that he'd be a bit frightened by the orbs, since the orbs had been his one real threat since he'd been trapped here so long ago.

 

The Doctor watched as Jack stepped up to the first cabinet and simply pushed it over. The orbs inside shattered with a deafening crash.

*~*

Part 3