Chapter Twenty Two: The Christmas Invasion

In their flat on the Powell Estate, Rose and Jackie were decorating their white plastic Christmas tree and putting the presents underneath. Jackie hovered over the one on top, the one she'd bought for Alex.

Beside her, Rose frowned, hearing a familiar wheezing, groaning sound. Then she met her mother's gaze, both of them wide-eyed, and they ran down into the street. Mickey was there too, looking all around for the source of the noise.

"It's the TARDIS!" Mickey exclaimed.

"I know, I know, I heard it," Jackie beamed.

"They're alive, Mum," Rose told her, grinning. "I said so, didn't I? They're alive!"

"Well, where is it then?" Mickey frowned.

As if on cue, the TARDIS appeared in mid-air, crashing against a block of flats before slamming to the ground, toppling several bins. Rose faltered. "That's not right."

A young man in the Doctor's clothes stumbled out of the TARDIS, looking practically drunk. He staggered over to them, then grinned. "Here we are, then. London, Earth, the solar system. We did it!" He looked them all in the eyes. "Jackie, Mickey, Rose, blimey! No, no, no, no, hold on. Wait there, I've got something to say. There was something I had to tell you, something important." He groaned, running his hands through some really very nice hair. "What was it? No, hold on, hold on, hold on. Shush, shush, shush, shush, shush." He blinked. "Oh, I know," he said, and then he smiled. "Merry Christmas." He collapsed.

Alex ran out of the TARDIS, looking exhausted. "Oh, Christ, what happened? Is he alright?"

Rose shook her head. "I don't know, he just keeled over. But who is he? Where's the Doctor?"

"That's him, right in front of you," Alex told her, kneeling at his side to check his pulses. "That's the Doctor. It is so far beyond difficult to explain, but I promise, that's him." She glanced up at her sister, and suddenly her vision was blurring. "Oh, my head." Her eyes rolled back into her head and she slumped forwards in a dead faint.

"Alex!"

Jackie stared at the two of them, her daughter collapsed across the Time Lord. "What's she mean, that's the Doctor? Doctor who?"

***

A while later, they'd relocated to the flat, where Rose had tucked both Alex and the Doctor into the former's bed. Both of them looked so peaceful, neither showing a hint of the pain that had caused them to pass out.

It was hard to look at this new man and think of him as the Doctor. All Rose had seen of him was... well, a shambles. Nothing like the cheeky Northern man she had known. And yet, the way Alex looked at him? The way she'd touched him so gently, the way she had checked if he was okay before anything else? Clearly, she was sure he was the Doctor, and that was good enough for Rose. For now, at least.

"Here we go," Jackie said as she walked in, rousing her daughter from her thoughts. "Tina the cleaner's got this lodger, a medical student, and she was fast asleep, so I just took it." She handed over a stethoscope. "I still say we should take him to hospital."

"We can't," Rose told her distractedly. "They'd lock him up. They'd dissect him. One bottle of his blood could change the future of the human race." She plugged the stethoscope into her ears, then listened to the Doctor's chest. "Both working."

Jackie blinked. "What do you mean, both?"

"Well, he's got two hearts."

"Oh, don't be stupid!"

"He has!" Rose insisted.

"Anything else he's got two of?" Jackie asked, raising an eyebrow.

Rose rolled her eyes. "Leave him alone." Together, they left the sleeping couple in peace.

As they closed the door, the Doctor exhaled more of the TARDIS' golden energy, and it sank into Alex's skin.

***

"How can he go changing his face?" Jackie asked as Rose raided the fridge. "Is that a different face, or is he a different person?"

"How should I know?" Rose snapped. After a moment, she sighed, putting her head in her hands. "Sorry. The thing is, I thought I knew him. I thought us and him were... And then he goes and does this. I keep forgetting he's not human." She shook her head, then her eyes widened when she saw a familiar face on the TV. "Is that Harriet Jones?" She went through into the living room, Jackie following. "Why's she on telly?"

"Some space thing," Jackie told her, shrugging. "I keep on saying my girls have met her."

Rose smiled. "Did more than that. Stopped World War Three with her. Harriet Jones..."

***

"So what do you need?" Mickey asked as he and Rose headed into the market for their Christmas shopping. "Twenty quid?"

"Do you mind? I'll pay you back," she promised.

He waved a hand. "Call it a Christmas present."

"Thanks," Rose said. Then she sighed. "Do you think he's really the same man? The Doctor, I mean. He looks so different."

"Look, if Alex says it's him, then it's him," Mickey said, shrugging. "There's no way she wouldn't notice if something was different about him. She's infatuated."

Rose snorted. "I think she is a bit, yeah." She bit her lip. "But what if he is? I don't want her getting hurt."

"She won't." Mickey rolled his eyes. "Stop worrying about it. Just let it be Christmas. Can you do that? Just for a bit. You and me and Christmas. No Doctor, no bog monsters, no life or death."

"Okay," Rose nodded reluctantly.

He raised an eyebrow. "Promise?"

Then it was her turn to roll her eyes. "Yes!"

"Right, what're you going to get for your mum?" he asked. "And what about Alex? What do you get her she doesn't already have in that TARDIS?"

But Rose was distracted again, eyeing the brass band as it followed them through the market. They lowered their instruments, and suddenly, fire exploded out of the trombone. Everyone screamed, running for cover, and Mickey and Rose ducked down behind a stall.

"It's us!" Rose realised, her eyes wide. "They're after us!"

"What's going on?" Mickey cried as they ran towards the end of the street. "What've we done? Why are they after us?"

"Taxi!" One pulled up sharply, and they climbed in hurriedly. "They're after the Doctor."

"I can't even go shopping with you," Mickey complained. "We get attacked by a brass band." He noticed her dialling on her mobile. "Who're you phoning?"

"My mum," she replied, but the line was engaged. "Get off the phone!"

"Who were those Santa things?"

Rose bit her lip. "I don't know. But think about it. They were after us. What's important about us? Well, nothing, except the one thing we've got tucked up in bed." She swallowed, seeing the Santas watch them go in the rear view mirror. "The Doctor."

***

Still chatting away on the phone, Jackie put a mug of tea on the bedside table next to the Doctor, a second one on Alex's side. As she left, he exhaled golden energy. It sank into Alex's skin, making her eyes glow golden under her lids momentarily.

Mickey and Rose burst into the flat. "Get off the phone!"

Jackie frowned. "It's only Bev. She says hello."

Rose grabbed the phone. "Bev? Yeah, look, it'll have to wait." She hung up, throwing the phone down onto the sofa. "Right, it's not safe. We've gotta get out. Where can we go?"

"My mate Stan, he'll put us up," Mickey told her.

"That's only two streets away," she pointed out, shaking her head. She turned to Jackie. "What about Mo? Where's she living now?"

"I don't know," Jackie frowned. "Peak District?"

"Well, we'll go to cousin Mo's then." Rose nodded to herself.

Jackie's brow creased. "No, it's Christmas Eve! We're not going anywhere! What're you babbling on about?"

Rose blinked. Over her mother's shoulder, her eyes had latched onto the Christmas tree. A green one. "Where'd you get that tree? That's a new tree. Where'd you get it?"

"I thought it was you," Jackie admitted.

"How can it be me?"

She shrugged. "Well, you went shopping, there was a ring at the door, and there it was!"

"No, that wasn't me," Rose told her.

Jackie swallowed, turning to stare at it. "Then who was it?"

As they watched, the tree lit up. A tinny version of 'Jingle Bells' began to play, and the sections of the tree began to rotate.

Rose groaned. "Oh, you're kidding me."

The spinning sped up, causing a draught and chopping through the coffee table. "Get out!" Mickey ordered, picking up a chair to defend them. "Go, go! Get out!"

"We've got to save the Doctor and Alex!" Rose cried, she and Jackie running to Alex's bedroom.

"Mickey!" Jackie cried, standing on the threshold. "Leave it! Get out! Get out!"

"Mickey!" Rose shouted.

"Get out of there!"

He dropped the chair, running in. With Jackie's help, he moved Alex's desk in front of the door to act as a barricade.

"Doctor, wake up!" Rose pleaded, putting the sonic screwdriver in his hand. The tree smashed through the door.

Beside her, Alex was stirring. "What the hell is going on?" she mumbled sleepily.

Jackie screamed. "I'm going to get killed by a Christmas tree!"

Alex scrambled to her feet. "Christ!"

Rose leaned over the Doctor whisper in his ear, hoping he could still hear her. "Help us!"

All of a sudden, he sat bolt upright, buzzed the sonic screwdriver at the tree, and it exploded.

"Remote control," he identified. "But who's controlling it?" He grabbed a dressing gown, putting it on, and walked out of the flat, Alex at his side. "How're you doing?"

"My head feels like I've been out on the lash all night and I think I've developed asthma," she told him honestly. "You?"

He shook his head. "Not done yet. I'm on a knife edge. Could all go very wrong, very fast."

She swallowed, biting her lip. "Great."

They reached the balcony, looking over to see three Santas in the car park. "Ah, here we are."

"That's them," Mickey said, nodding. "What are they?" Rose shushed him quietly as the Doctor raised his screwdriver. After a moment, the Santas teleported away. "They've just gone. What kind of rubbish were they? I mean, no offence, but they're not much cop if a sonic screwdriver's gonna scare them off."

The Doctor made a face. "Pilot fish."

Rose blinked. "What?"

"They were just pilot—" He cried out in pain, doubling over.

Alex caught him in her arms, her eyes wide as she supported him. "Okay, you're okay. What's wrong?"

"Woke me up too soon," he panted, grimacing. "I'm still regenerating. I'm bursting with energy." He exhaled some of that energy, only he and Alex noticing as it swirled into her skin. "See? The pilot fish could smell it a million miles away. So they eliminate the defence, that's you lot, and they carry me off. They could run their batteries on me for a couple of—ow!"

"Oh!" Jackie fluttered. "Oh! Oh!"

"My head!" The Doctor grimaced, leaning more and more on Alex as the pain worsened. "I'm having a neural implosion. I need—"

"What do you need?" Jackie asked.

"I need—"

"Say it. Tell me, tell me, tell me."

"I need—"

"Painkillers?"

"I need—"

"Do you need aspirin?"

Alex wrinkled her nose. "He's allergic."

"Codeine?" Jackie suggested. "Paracetamol? Oh, I don't know, Pepto-Bismol?"

"I need—"

"Liquid paraffin? Vitamin C? Vitamin D? Vitamin E?"

"I need—"

"Is it food? Something simple. Bowl of soup. A nice bowl of soup? Soup and a sandwich? Soup and a little ham sandwich?"

The Doctor shot her a look. "I need you to shut up!"

Jackie made a face. "Oh, he hasn't changed that much, has he?"

"We haven't got much time. If there's pilot fish, then—" The Doctor cut himself off, distracted. "Why's there an apple in my dressing gown?"

"Oh, that's Howard," Jackie excused, blushing. "Sorry."

"He keeps apples in his dressing gown?"

"He gets hungry."

The Doctor blinked. "What, he gets hungry in his sleep?"

Jackie shrugged. "Sometimes."

"Blimey—Ow!" The Doctor crashed backwards painfully, only Alex's quick reflexes keeping him from hitting his head. He clutched onto her arm, looking at her desperately. "Brain collapsing... The pilot fish... the pilot fish mean that something, something, something is coming." And then his eyes rolled back into his head, and he went limp in her arms.

***

"Jackie, I'm using the phone line," Mickey called through as he set up his laptop in the living room. "Is that alright?"

"Yeah, keep a count of it," she replied, putting a mug of tea next to him. "It's midnight. Christmas Day." She took another two mugs into Alex's room, where the girls were tending to the Doctor. "Any change?"

Rose glanced up, biting her lip. "Worse. Only one heart beating."

Beside her, Alex was mopping his brow, her foot tapping anxiously. "I don't know what to do," she admitted. "I don't know how to help him." She met her sister's eyes. "What if he doesn't wake up?"

"Here we go!" Mickey exclaimed, saving Rose having to answer. "Pilot fish." They joined him in the living room. "Scavengers, like the Doctor said. Harmless. They're tiny. But the point is, the little fish swim alongside the big fish."

"Do you mean like sharks?" Rose asked.

"Great big sharks," Mickey agreed. "So what the Doctor means is we had them, now we get that."

"And it's close?" Alex assumed.

Mickey shrugged. "There's no way of telling, but the pilot fish don't swim far from their daddy."

She sighed. "So it's close." She rubbed her forehead, trying to put the tightness of her chest to the back of her mind. It was probably just anxiety.

"Funny sort of rocks," Jackie said, watching the space images on TV.

Beside her, Rose's eyes had narrowed. "That's not rocks." Suddenly the transmission changed to a video feed, showing a vicious-looking red-eyed alien snarling at the screen. They all flinched back.

"Take a look at this," Mickey said, turning his laptop so they could see the screen. "I've got access to the military. They're tracking a spaceship. It's big, it's fast, and it's coming this way."

"Coming for what, though?" Alex wondered, biting her lip. "The Doctor?" She glanced over her shoulder into her room, where he was still sleeping, somewhat fitfully.

"I don't know. Maybe it's coming for all of us." Mickey brought up a clearer image of the aliens. "Have you seen them before?"

Rose shook her head. "No. And I don't understand what they're saying. The TARDIS translates alien languages inside my head, all the time, wherever I am."

Mickey frowned. "So why isn't it doing it now?"

"It's the Doctor," Alex told him, her voice small. "He told me how it worked, ages ago. It's like he's part of the circuit, he's got this link with the matrix, and he's... broken." She got up, turned her back on the aliens on TV, and returned to the Doctor.

***

A few hours later, she had fallen asleep on the bed next to him. She'd always preferred sleeping on her front and this was no exception—this time, though, she rested against him, her head and arm on his chest, like she was shielding him from something. Even unconscious, he didn't seem to mind—he was sleeping more peacefully now, and his fever had gone down a little. Both of them seemed to be happier touching.

"The Doctor wouldn't do this," Rose sighed, watching from the doorway with Mickey at her side. "The old Doctor, the proper Doctor, he'd wake up. He'd save us."

Mickey raised his eyebrows at the way they were curled into each other. He'd never seen her so comfortable with anyone else, excepting perhaps Jackie and Rose. Even Jack hadn't come that close. There was something about the way she looked at the Doctor, like she trusted him, like he understood her. He was always the first person she turned to. "She really loves him, doesn't she?"

Rose nodded, and they hugged.

***

After another few hours, once the sun had risen, they were distracted by a shouting outside the flat. Rose and Mickey went out to investigate. "Sandra?"

"He won't listen," Sandra cried, eyes wide with fear as her husband walked away from her, his face impassive. There was a blue light around his head, and down on the streets below, there were hundreds like him. "He's just walking! He won't stop walking! There's this sort of light thing. Jason? Stop it right now! Please, Jason, just stop!"

Mickey stared. "What do we do?"

"Nothing." Rose shook her head, biting her lip. "There's no one to save us. Not anymore."

***

"Ladies and gentlemen," Harriet began, broadcasting to the nation, "if I may take a moment during this terrible time. It's hardly the Queen's speech. I'm afraid that's been cancelled. But ladies and gentlemen, this crisis is unique, and I'm afraid to say, it might get much worse. I would ask you all to remain calm.

"But I have one request. Doctor, if you're out there, we need you. I don't know what to do. If you can hear me, Doctor... if anyone knows the Doctor, if anyone can find him, the situation has never been more desperate. Help us. Please, Doctor, help us. God help us."

As the broadcast ended, the glass in all the windows shattered and, in her bedroom, Alex shot to her feet, eyes wide. "What the hell was that?!" She ran to the nearest window, looking up to see an asteroid-like spaceship gliding above them. Rose, Mickey and Jackie joined her, each of them staring in horror. Alex set her jaw, making a decision. "We need to go."

Rose nodded. "Mickey, come on, we're going to carry him," she ordered. "Mum, get your stuff, and get some food. We're going."

"Where to?" Mickey asked, grabbing the Doctor's legs.

"The TARDIS," Alex told him. "It's the only safe place on Earth."

Jackie blinked. "What're we going to do in there?"

"Hide."

"Is that it?"

Alex sighed. "Mum, look in the sky. There's a great big alien invasion, and I don't know what to do, alright? I've travelled with him, and I've seen all that stuff, but this is something new, and right now, I'm useless. All we can do is run and hide, and I'm sorry." She ran for the door.

***

"No chance you could fly this thing?" Mickey asked as he and Rose laid the Doctor down on the grating in the TARDIS.

"Not anymore, no," Alex replied, shaking her head.

"Well, you did it before," he reasoned.

"I know, but it's sort of been wiped out of my head, like it's forbidden," she explained. "I could have died. Try that again, and I think the universe rips in half."

Mickey nodded. "Better not, then."

She shot him a smile. "Maybe not."

"So, what do we do?" he sighed. "Just sit here?"

Rose shrugged. "That's as good as it gets."

"Right, here we go," Jackie said, depositing some bags on the floor and handing Mickey a flask. "Nice cup of tea."

"Oh, yeah, the solution to everything," Rose said, rolling her eyes.

"Now, stop your moaning," Jackie told her, heading back for the doors. "I'll go get the rest of the food."

"Tea," Mickey said, snorting. "Like we're having a picnic while the world comes to an end. Very British." Rose gave him a look and he cleared his throat. He tapped the monitor. "How does this thing work? If it picks up TV, maybe we could see what's going on out there. Maybe we've surrendered. What do you do to it?"

Alex bit her lip, going over to work on it. "Jack showed me once," she mumbled, fiddling with some of the nearby controls. The screen lit up with an oscillating picture, like a sound wave. "Er... I mean, it's something, I guess?"

Mickey raised an eyebrow. "Maybe it's a distress signal." She nodded, shrugging.

"A fat lot of good that's going to do," Rose said, scoffing.

"Are you going to be a misery all the time?" Mickey asked her.

She frowned stubbornly. "Yes."

He snorted. "You should look at it from my point of view. Stuck in here with your mum's cooking."

A smile flickered across Alex's face. "Where is she? I'd better give her a hand. It might start raining missiles out there or something."

"Tell her anything from a tin, that's fine," Mickey joked.

Alex rolled her eyes. "Tell her yourself!"

"I'm not that brave," he admitted.

She grinned, her back to the door. "Oh, I don't know." Opening the door behind her, she stepped back, right into the grip of a Sycorax. She screamed.

And as she and Mickey dropped everything to help her sister, Rose could have sworn she saw the Doctor twitch in response to Alex's plight.

***

"Get off!" Alex shrieked, struggling against the Sycorax' grip. For a moment, for one terrible, awful moment, she wasn't on the Sycorax ship, but in Jimmy Stone's bedroom, her skin bruising with the force of his grip. She lashed out with a sharp elbow, and as she stumbled away from her captor, it was a Sycorax crying out in pain, not him. She saw something in the corner of her eye, and thrust a hand out toward the TARDIS. "The door! Close the door!" Mickey got there just in time.

"Alex!" a very familiar voice exclaimed. "Rose!" Suddenly they were swept up into Harriet's arms. "I've got you. My Lord... Oh, my precious things. The Doctor, is he with you?"

Rose shook her head before her sister could say a word. "No, we're on our own."

"The first yellow girl," Indra Ganesh said, reading off a translator as the Sycorax leader snarled. "She is different. She has the clever blue box. Therefore, she speaks for your planet."

"But she can't!" Harriet protested.

Alex set her jaw, stepping towards the Sycorax leader. "Yes, I can."

"Don't you dare," Rose cried.

"Someone's got to be the Doctor," she said, swallowing back her fear.

Harriet stared. "But they'll kill you."

Alex glanced back at her, shrugging a little. "Never stopped him." She turned back to the Sycorax, steeling her nerves as she faced the hundreds of alien creatures. "I, er... I address the Sycorax according to Article Fifteen of the Shadow Proclamation. My name is..." And there she trailed off. Part of her wanted to say her real name, but she had to keep them convinced she was alien, someone to be reckoned with. Another part wanted to say the Bad Wolf, but that didn't seem right either. But there was another name, wasn't there... The Controller, on the Game Station, she had called her something else.

The Angel.

"My name is the Angel," Alex lied, ignoring the confused noises from the others behind her. "I have travelled through time and space. I have seen so much and done so much more. I became the queen of a human tribe, and I gave a Raxacoricofallapatorian a Glasgow Kiss. I was decapitated and survived, and I brought a man back to life." She turned on the spot to look at the hosts of Sycorax before her, hoping they couldn't sense her fear. "I killed half a million Daleks without even touching them. So I guess what I'm really saying is... leave. Now. Before I get really pissed off."

The Sycorax leader started to laugh.

"You are very, very funny," Indra translated, horrified. "And now you're going to die."

"What?" Alex gaped, insulted. "I'm not lying! I did all those things, I swear!"

"Leave her alone!" Harriet ordered.

"Don't touch her," Rose and Mickey cried.

The three of them were held back as the leader walked up to Alex. She swallowed, but held her nerve, not even flinching when the creature snarled at her.

"Did you think you were clever with your stolen words, little Angel? We are the Sycorax, we stride the darkness. Next to us, you are but a wailing child. If you are the best your planet can offer as champion—"

And then the Sycorax began speaking English. "Then your world will be gutted and your people enslaved."

Alex's brow furrowed. "You're talking English," she told him, the others realising it at the same time.

The Sycorax leader snarled. "I would never dirty my tongue with your primitive bile."

Rose grinned. "That's English." She turned to the others. "Can you hear English?"

"Yeah, that's English," Mickey agreed.

Indra nodded. "Definitely English."

"I speak only Sycoraxic!" the leader bellowed. In English.

Alex started to laugh. "Oh, but that is wonderful. That is incredible! Because if we can hear English, then it's being translated. Which means the TARDIS is working again. Which means—"

The TARDIS doors creaked open, revealing the Doctor in his dressing gown. He grinned. "Did you miss me?" The Sycorax leader cracked a whip at him, and he caught it, yanking it away from the alien. "You could have someone's eye out with that."

"How dare—!" The Sycorax leader lifted a staff, charging, but the Doctor was too quick, snatching the staff away and breaking it over his knee.

"You just can't get the staff," he joked, smiling when he heard a familiar snort. "Now, you just wait. I'm busy." Then he turned to the humans. "Mickey, Rose, hello! Indra Ganesh! And Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North. Blimey, it's like This Is Your Life." And then he turned to Alex, who met his gaze with a brilliant smile. "Tea! That's all I needed, a good cup of tea! Superheated infusion of free radicals and tannin. Just the thing for healing the synapses. Now, first things first, be honest, how do I look?"

She looked him up and down, shrugging. "Er... different?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Good different or bad different?"

She grinned. "Oh, good different."

"Very important question. Am I ginger?"

"No," she said, laughing a little. "No, your hair's all sort of brown. It's nice." She bit her lip, hiding the extent of her smile. "It's really nice."

"Oh!" He pouted. "I wanted to be ginger. I've never been ginger." He wheeled around to point at Rose. "And you, Rose Tyler, fat lot of good you were. You gave up on me." He blinked. "Oh, that's rude. That's the sort of man I am now, am I? Rude? Rude and not ginger?"

Harriet frowned, looking towards the girls for an explanation. "I'm sorry, who is this?"

"I'm the Doctor."

Alex smiled up at him. "He's the Doctor."

"But what happened to our Doctor?" Indra asked. "Or is it a title that's just passed on?"

"I'm him," the Doctor assured him. "I'm literally him. Same man, new face. Well, new everything." He winked at Alex, who blushed.

"Oh, I think he's picked up a bit of Jack," Rose sighed, rolling her eyes.

"But you can't be," Harriet protested.

The Doctor looked her in the eyes. "Harriet Jones, we were trapped in Downing Street and the one thing that scared you wasn't the aliens, it wasn't the war, it was the thought of your mother being on her own."

Harriet stared. "Oh my God."

"Did you win the election?" he asked, grinning.

She smiled proudly. "Landslide majority."

The Sycorax leader growled, clearly not used to being ignored. "If I might interrupt!"

"Yes, sorry," the Doctor said apologetically, turning back to him. "Hello, big fellow."

"Who exactly are you?" the Sycorax asked.

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "Well, that's the question."

"I demand to know who you are!"

"And I don't know!" he shot back. "See, there's the thing. I'm the Doctor, but beyond that, I just don't know. I literally do not know who I am. It's all untested. Am I funny? Am I sarcastic? Sexy?" Again, he winked at Alex, and again, she blushed. This new regeneration was far more forward than the previous one, and she was definitely enjoying it. "Right old misery? Life and soul? Right handed? Left handed? A gambler? A fighter? A coward? A traitor? A liar? A nervous wreck? I mean, judging by the evidence, I've certainly got a gob.

"And how am I going to react when I see this, a great big threatening button," he continued, skipping up to a pulsing red button. "A great big threatening button which must not be pressed under any circumstances, am I right? Let me guess, it's some sort of control matrix, hmm? Hold on, what's feeding it?" He opened a hatch and dipped a finger inside, tasting the crimson liquid. "And what have we got here? Blood? Yeah, definitely blood. Human blood. A Positive with just a dash of iron.

"Ah, but that means blood control," he realised. "Blood control! Oh, I haven't seen blood control for years! You're controlling all the A Positives. Which leaves us with a great big stinking problem, because I really don't know who I am. I don't know when to stop. So if I see a great big threatening button which should never ever ever be pressed, then I just want to do this." He slammed his hand down on the button.

"No!" Harriet cried.

Indra stared. "You've killed them!"

Alex, on the other hand, just frowned. What were they on about?

"Oh, you know, the murder of a third of your planet's population, but it's fine, they're all fine." The voice was inside her head and, she realised, familiar. Her eyes widened.

"What do you think, big fellow?" the Doctor asked, in that same familiar voice. "Are they dead?"

The Sycorax leader hesitated, but only for a moment. "We allow them to live."

The Doctor snorted. "Allow? You've no choice. I mean, that's all blood control is. A cheap bit of voodoo. Scares the pants off you, but that's as far as it goes. It's like hypnosis," he explained. "You can hypnotise someone to walk like a chicken or sing like Elvis. You can't hypnotise them to death. Survival instinct's too strong."

"Blood control was just one form of conquest," the Sycorax leader sneered. "I can summon the armada and take this world by force."

"Well, yeah, you could, yeah, you could do that, of course you could." The Doctor tilted his head. "But why? Look at these people. These human beings. Consider their potential. From the day they arrive on the planet and, blinking, step into the sun, there is more to see than can ever be seen. More to do than—"

Alex cleared her throat. "That's The Lion King."

He blinked. "Oh yeah. But the point still stands. Leave them alone!"

"Or what?" the Sycorax leader spat.

"Or—" The Doctor stole a sword from a Sycorax warrior and stood in front of the TARDIS. "—I challenge you." The Sycorax's laughter echoed around the ship, and he raised an eyebrow. "Ooh, that struck a chord. Am I right that the sanctified rules of combat still apply?"

"You stand as this world's champion?"

The Doctor smiled, taking off his dressing gown and handing it to Alex. She clutched it to her chest anxiously as he took his position opposite the Sycorax leader. "Thank you. I've no idea who I am, but you just summed me up. So, you accept my challenge? Or are you just a cranak pel casacree salvak?"

The Sycorax leader snarled. "For the planet?"

"For the planet," the Doctor agreed, and then they clashed, their swords flashing between them with such force it was hard to tell who was winning. The Doctor almost failed to parry a sharp strike, and Rose squeaked.

"Look out!"

The Doctor rolled his eyes, concentrating on the fight. "Oh, yeah, that helps. Wouldn't have thought of that otherwise, thanks!" He retreated up a tunnel, elbowing a control on the wall to open up part of the hull of the spaceship. "Bit of fresh air?" They all followed the fight outside, where the Sycorax leader punched the Doctor in the face, making him stumble back. Alex made to help, but he held up a hand to stop her. "Stay back! Invalidate the challenge and he wins the planet!"

Suddenly, the Sycorax slashed viciously downwards. Alex barely stifled a scream as the Doctor's right hand and sword fell to Earth.

"Ya!" the Sycorax cheered.

"... you cut my hand off." The Doctor stared at the stump, his face the picture of surprise.

"Sycorax!"

And then the Doctor stood up, making the Sycoraxic cheers stop. "And now I know what sort of man I am. I'm lucky. Because, quite by chance, I'm still within the first fifteen hours of my regeneration cycle, which means I've got just enough residual cellular energy to do this."

He grew a new hand.

The Sycorax leader recoiled. "Witchcraft!"

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "Time Lord."

Alex stole another sword, throwing it to him. "Doctor!"

"Oh, so I'm still the Doctor, then?" he checked.

She beamed. "No complaints from me!"

He grinned, turning back to the Sycorax leader. "Want to know the best bit? This new hand? It's a fighting hand!" Within minutes, he'd disarmed the Sycorax, tripping the alien onto the ground. "I win."

"Then kill me," the Sycorax rasped.

"I'll spare your life if you'll take this Champion's command," the Doctor told him. "Leave this planet and never return. What do you say?"

"Yes."

He pointed his sword at the Sycorax's neck. "Swear on the blood of your species."

"I swear."

And suddenly, like the sun coming out from behind a cloud, his demeanour brightened. "There we are, then. Thanks for that. Cheers, big fella." He walked back to the others.

"Bravo!" Harriet cheered.

"That says it all," Rose agreed, "Bravo!"

The Doctor shrugged. "Ah, not bad for a man in his jim-jams. Very Arthur Dent. Now, there was a nice man."

"I missed you," Alex grinned, helping him back into his dressing gown and then hugging him.

"Hold on, hold on, what have I got here?" He pulled back from her, reached into his pocket and pulled out—"A satsuma. Oh, that friend of your mother's, he does like his snacks, doesn't he? But doesn't that just sum up Christmas? You go through all those presents and right at the end, tucked away at the bottom, there's always one stupid old satsuma. Who wants a satsuma?"

Looking over his shoulder, Alex's eyes widened. The Doctor noticed. He threw the satsuma at a control on the spaceship's hull, causing part of the wing to retract, and the traitorous Sycorax leader fell to the Earth below, sword and all.

"Christ," Alex mumbled, looking away from the falling creature. She still wasn't fond of heights.

"No second chances," the Doctor said. "I'm that sort of a man." He put his arm around her shoulders and, together with the others, they returned to the TARDIS inside. The Doctor spoke to the Sycorax. "By the ancient rites of combat, I forbid you to scavenge here for the rest of time. And when you go back to the stars and tell others of this planet, when you tell them of its riches, its people, its potential... When you talk of the Earth, then make sure that you tell them this: it is defended." And with that, they were all teleported back to Earth.

Rose frowned, looking around. "Where are we?"

"We're just off Bloxom Road," Mickey realised. "We're just round the corner. We did it!"

"Wait a minute, wait a minute," the Doctor said, and they watched the spaceship fly away. Then he smiled, and they started to celebrate.

"Doctor," Harriet greeted, walking over to him.

"Prime Minister," he returned. They hugged.

"Absolutely the same man," Harriet smiled. "Are there many more out there?"

"Oh, not just Sycorax," he told her. "Hundreds of species, thousands of them. And the human race is drawing attention to itself. Every day you're sending out probes and messages and signals. This planet's so noisy. You're getting noticed more and more. You'd better get used to it."

"Girls!" They all turned to see Jackie rushing towards her daughters.

The Doctor snorted. "Oh, talking of trouble."

"Oh my God! You did it!" she exclaimed as he walked over, hugging her daughters.

"You did it, too!" Alex told her. "It was the tea, fixed his head!"

"That was all I needed," he agreed, grinning. "Cup of tea."

"I said so," Jackie said smugly. "Is it him, though? Is it really the Doctor?" She looked past him and her eyes widened. "Oh my God, it's the bleeding Prime Minister!"

The Doctor rolled his eyes fondly. "Come here, you." The five of them hugged.

"Are you better?" Jackie asked.

"I am, yeah," he assured her.

Behind them, five green energy beams met in midair, firing out into space. The Sycorax ship exploded. "What is that?" Rose asked, her eyes wide. "What's happening?"

The Doctor turned to glare at Harriet. "That was murder."

"That was defence," she countered. "It's adapted from alien technology. A ship that fell to Earth ten years ago."

"But they were leaving," Alex protested.

Harriet shook herself. "The Doctor said it himself, they'd go back to the stars and tell others about the Earth. I'm sorry, Doctor, but you're not here all the time. You come and go. It happened today. Mr Llewellyn and the Major, they were murdered. They died right in front of me while you were sleeping. In which case we have to defend ourselves."

"Britain's Golden Age." The Doctor shook his head.

"It comes with a price," Harriet shrugged.

"I gave them the wrong warning," he realised. "I should've told them to run as fast as they can, run and hide, because the real monsters are coming. The human race."

"Those are the people I represent," she told him. "I did it on their behalf."

"Then I should have stopped you!"

"And what does that make you, Doctor?" she asked. "Another alien threat?"

He narrowed his eyes. "Oh, don't challenge me, Harriet Jones, because I'm a completely new man. I could bring down your government with a single word."

Harriet hesitated. "You're the most remarkable man I've ever met, but I don't think you're quite capable of that."

"No, you're right," he allowed, tilting his head. "Not a single word, just six."

"I don't think so," she said coolly.

"Six words."

"Stop it."

"Six!" The Doctor walked over to Indra, pulled out his earpiece and said quietly, "Don't you think she looks tired?" Then he rejoined Alex and Rose and Jackie and Mickey, and the five of them walked away.

***

The Doctor had decided that it probably wouldn't do to spend the rest of his life in another man's pyjamas, so while Alex had gone to change into some proper clothes, he had explored the TARDIS wardrobe. All fifteen floors of it. He'd eventually settled on a brown pinstripe suit and a long tan trenchcoat, and came back to the console room to find Alex waiting for him.

"Nice," she complimented, after a moment of looking him up and down. "I like it."

"You too," he returned, gesturing towards her cosy Christmas jumper and jeans.

She smiled. "Thanks." After a long pause, she looked away. "That Sycorax bloke said something earlier. He said I was different. He assumed the TARDIS was mine. And then I heard your voice in my head, like you were talking just to me." She bit her lip. "What's happening to me?"

"I don't know," the Doctor admitted, and she met his gaze sharply. "Really, I don't. Nobody's ever taken the vortex into their head before."

"Jeopardy friendly," she remembered fondly. Then her smile fell. "But it killed you. You had it in your head, and then you died." She hesitated. "Am I gonna die?"

He closed his eyes briefly. "I'll look after you," he promised, avoiding the question.

She sucked in a breath. "Right. Well, then." Her face broke out in a small smile. "If this is gonna be my last Christmas, I am so making you wear a party hat!"

***

"Oh, it's beautiful," Rose enthused as they stood outside in the snow that evening, watching streaks of light criss-cross through the sky. "What are they, meteors?" A few feet away, Alex was dancing around, catching snowflakes.

"It's the spaceship breaking up in the atmosphere," the Doctor corrected, wearing a party hat as promised. "This isn't snow, it's ash."

"What?!" Alex started to scrape off her tongue, shooting him a look. "Thanks for telling me!" He snorted, and she couldn't hide a smile.

"Not so beautiful," Rose said, rolling her eyes.

"This is a brand new planet Earth," the Doctor told her. "No denying the existence of aliens now. Everyone saw it. Everything's new."

"Well, I reckon you're mad, all three of you," Jackie said. "It's like you go looking for trouble."

"Trouble's just the bits in between," the Doctor told her, grinning. "It's all waiting out there, Jackie, and it's brand new to me. All those planets and creatures and horizons, I haven't seen them yet! Not with these eyes." He took Alex's hand. "And it is gonna be... fantastic."

She beamed at him. "Yeah."

~~~