Lost in the Universe

xxix

Nina, the Doctor and Jack started to take pieces of Martha's phone and laptop. They had a plan: create low-level perception filters with their TARDIS keys. So that's what they did.

"Now, the Archangel Network's got a second low-level signal. Weld the key to the network and Martha, look at me. You can see me, yes?" The Doctor asked her. Martha nodded. He then placed the key around his neck with a string they had attached to it. "What about now?"

Jack and Nina watched as Martha's eyes kept looking to the side, her attention being pulled away from the Doctor every time she tried to concentrate on him.

"No, I'm here," the Doctor reminded her upon seeing her look away. "I'm right here." Martha frowned.

"It's like I know you're there, but I don't want to know," Martha told him. The Doctor smiled, pulling the key away from his neck.

"And back again," he said with a grin. "See? It just shifts your perception a tiny little bit. Doesn't make us invisible, just unnoticed. Oh, I know what it's like. It's like, it's like when you fancy someone and they don't even know you exist," Nina shifted awkwardly, noticing the looks on both Jack and Martha's faces. "That's what it's like. Come on," the Doctor said throwing a key to each one of them and then walking away.

Nina shifted her weight between her two feet. Jack looked at Martha, then at Nina. There was an awkward silence between the three.

"I see we're all in the same boat," Jack decided to say with a laugh. Nina granted then a small smile before following the Doctor. Luckily, Martha and Jack lingered behind.

"Way to make things awkward," Nina mumbled as she walked to the Doctor. He turned around upon her arrival and frowned. "Are you that oblivious?"

"What?" he asked, a frown lingering on his face. Nina chuckled, rolling her eyes.

"Forget it, let's just get this over with."

♧♧♧

"Don't run, don't shout. Just keep your voice down. Draw attention to yourself and the spell is broken. Just keep to the shadows," the Doctor told his three friends. Nina wanted to give a smart comment about how this wasn't her first time on the run but decided against it.

"Like ghosts," Jack guessed. The Doctor nodded.

"Yeah, that's what we are. Ghosts."

As the four stepped out of their abandoned refuge and into the night, they put on their shielding devices, ones that would keep them out of the view of other people as long as they didn't attract any attention to themselves.

They walked silently through the dimly lit streets, soon enough reaching the small airport where the Prime Minister would welcome the President of the United States.

The four watched in silence as the two important politicians had a conversation that seemed to escalate by the second, but they couldn't hear a word of what they were saying. They couldn't risk getting too close to the Master. He was a Time Lord, after all, he surely would be the one to notice them standing there despite their perception shifters.

The two walked away from each other, the President getting inside a car. For a second, Nina thought the Master was staring right at her. She froze but soon frowned when a police van arrived at the scene, sirens on and everything.

"Hey, guys!" The Master laughed as policemen started to practically push people out of the van. It took them a few seconds to realise the people were Martha's family. Her father had to be held by two armed men for charging at the Master, anger obvious in his actions.

"Oh, my god," Martha let out angrily through her teeth. Nina placed a hand on her arm. She didn't think Martha would be stupid enough to actually go and run towards the scene, but it didn't hurt to have a little insurance.

"Don't," Nina told the younger woman. "Don't move."

"But-"

"Don't, Martha," The Doctor backed her out.

"I'm gonna kill him," Martha whispered as she watched her parents struggle in the policemen's holds.

"Say I use this perception thing to walk up behind him and snap his neck," Jack whispered to them. Nina frowned, and the Doctor's head snapped towards him.

"Now, that sounds like Torchwood," the Doctor told him. Jack shrugged.

"Still a good plan."

"He's a Time Lord, which makes him my responsibility, not Torchwood's", the Doctor said. Nina frowned. So every Time Lord in existence was his responsibility, now? Granted, there weren't many of them left, but seriously? "And I'm not here to kill him. I'm here to save him."

"Aircraft carrier Valiant. It's a UNIT ship at fifty-eight-point-two north, ten-point-oh-two east," Jack said as he read the information on his Vortex Manipulator.

"How do we get on board?" Martha asked.

"Vortex Manipulator?" Nina suggested.

"Don't really have any choice, do we?" The Doctor complained. "You sure that thing will work as a teleport?" he asked Jack, who was already typing in the coordinates.

"Since you revamped, yeah," Jack granted. They all placed their hands on Jack's wrist and before they knew it, they had been teleported away.