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The Ninth Doctor sat on a couch in a Big Brother house between the other two contestants, his hands clasped between his legs as he tapped his foot impatiently for the announcer to hurry up. He had found himself in this... this awful slaughter system after travelling to Japan with Jack and Rose, and he had to get out to save them. He's broken a camera which Lynda, the woman next to him, had told him was punished by an automatic eviction. He was certain that to have the technology and the want to snatch them straight from the TARDIS meant that they wanted him alive, so he wasn't particularly worried about his fate.
"The Doctor - you've broken the House Rules." The female robotic voice stated over the PA system, "Big Brother has no choice but to evict you." The Doctor silently cheered, "You have ten seconds to make your farewells, and then we're gonna get you!" He jumped off the sofa and headed towards the exit to the house.
"That's more like it!" He cried as he rushed over, "Come on then, open up!"
"You're mad!" Lynda cried as the pair joined him at the door, "It's like you WANT to die!"
"I reckon he's a plant!" The man accused, pointing at the Doctor, "He was only brought in to stir things up!" The Doctor rolled his eyes, even if he had just been another contestant it was way too late in the game to 'stir things up'. Even he knew that; he had watched a couple of the earlier seasons of Big Brother, that Nasty Nick was a hoot and a half. The door slid open and he dashed through into the vestibule outside. He smiled at Lynda as the door shut and he looked up at where he guessed the camera was.
"Come on then, disintegrate me! Come on, what're you waiting for?" He cried impatiently, staring at the disintergrator and crossing his arms, "Disintegrate me!"
"Eviction in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1..." The announcer counted down. There was a pause and there was the sound of the power failing. He pointed at the device with both hands.
"Haha!" He exclaimed, "I knew it! You see? Someone brought me into this game. If they'd wanted me dead, they could've transmatted me into a volcano. They want me alive..." He walked up to the other door, pulling out his screwdriver at he did, "Maybe the security isn't as tight this end." He looked back up at the camera. "Are you following this? I'm getting out!" He made quick work of the door, the one behind him opening at the same time. Lynda popped her head into the room, looking bewildered and anxious. The Doctor turned to her.
"Come with me." He urged. Lynda looked back at the man on the couch, debating in her head whether to follow him.
"We're not allowed!" The Doctor heard the man cry.
"Stay in there - you've got a fifty-fifty chance of disintegration. Stay with me - I promise I'll get you out alive." The Doctor reasoned, "Come on!" Lynda shook her head nervously, holding onto both sides of the doorway.
"No- I can't, I can't..."
"Lynda, you're sweet." He told her gently, "From what I've seen of your world, d'you think anyone votes for sweet?" He held his hand out to her. There was a moments hesitation in her eyes but she reached forward and grabbed it. The Doctor pulled her out of the room and into a large metal hallway with walls stretching high upwards. There were numerous doors around the edges of the room and metal canisters stacked in the middle, obviously abandoned, "Hold on... I've been here before. This is Satellite Five!" the Doctor exclaimed in surprise.
~0~0~0~
The Doctor held his sonic screwdriver up to a panel on the wall, tweaking the settings and opening the side door it was linked to. He stepped inside and found a control panel, but after messing with it for a couple of moments he concluded it was only to control the lighting in the other rooms.
"No guards. That makes a change. You'd think a big business like Satellite Five would be armed to the teeth." He mused out loud as he stepped out of the room. Lynda, who was slowly following, took her microphone off and left it in the room before following him up to a piece of wall he was scanning.
"No one's called it Satellite Five in ages. It's the Game Station now. Hasn't been Satellite Five in about a hundred years." She replied, slightly confused. No one knew it as Satellite Five anymore. She only did because it was part of her schooling; everyone was educated in the history of the satellite and the people who run it.
"A hundred years exactly." The Doctor replied, checking his watch, "It's the year two zero-zero/one zero-zero. I was here before. Floor 139. Satellite was broadcasting news channels back then..." He stopped what he was doing, turning to face her with a smug expression on his face, "had a bit of trouble upstairs. Nothing too serious. Easy - gave 'em a hand - home in time for tea."
"A hundred years ago?" She asked sceptically as he pushed himself off the wall and walked over to a panel, placing his hand on it, "What, you were here a hundred years ago?"
"Yep!" He replied happily, trying to open the door with his screwdriver. It still didn't open.
"You're looking good on it..." Lynda told him shyly. He turned to face her, a serious look on his face.
"I moisturise." He said before looking at his screwdriver, "Funny sorts of readings. All kinds of energy... the place is humming. It's weird. This goes way beyond normal transmissions. What would they need all that power for?" He walked back out into the room and to another door. None of it made any sense, what had happened after they had left to change the course of history so much? He could figure that out later, after he found Rose. And Jack, obviously.
"I dunno." Lynda replied vaguely with a shrug before jogging over to him, "I think we're the first ever contestants to get outside." She told him excitedly. There was no way anyone would forget her now. She would always be in the history books. Lynda with a 'y', sweet but could surprise you.
"I had two friends travelling with me. They must've got caught in the same transmat. Where would they be?" Lynda opened her mouth to reply but there was a flash of white light and a ginger-haired girl appeared. Lynda stared at her, stunned at her sudden appearance, the Doctor barely glancing at her.
"Oh. Hello!" Danni cried, waving at the Doctor, "Have we met yet?" The Doctor nodded.
"Yes." He replied shortly, "Where have you been?".
"Of course, with that Dalek and..." She mumbled before hopping over to his side and smiling widely, "Just saving the human race with your Eleventh self." She replied quickly, "Where am I now?"
"Game Station." Lynda piped up, they obviously knew each other, and both seemed to have different opinions about the other. The ginger girl seemed to beam at his mere presence, where the Doctor was eyeing her suspiciously, but not just because she seemed to appear out of nowhere. He hadn't even seemed surprised she was there. The girl spun around and smiled warmly at her.
"Sorry!" She apologised, "I didn't mean to ignore you. My name's Danni." She frowned in thought, biting her bottom lip, "I should know your name. You're the sweet one, aren't you?" Lynda nodded.
"Lynda..."
"Of course!" Danni interrupted, "With a 'y' not an 'i'. I remember you now." She took both of the girl's hands and placed a kiss on them both, "Lovely to meet you." She turned back to the Doctor, only letting go of one of her hands, "Rose and Jack are in separate games. Jack's fine, but Rose is in the Weakest Link." Lynda gasped in terror.
"Oh god, she's with the Anne Droid!" She exclaimed, "We have to find her!"
"The Anne Droid? What kind of games are they?" He asked the pair.
"Well, there's ten floors of 'Big Brother'." Lynda explained, "There's a different House behind each of those doors. And then beyond that, there's all sorts of shows. It's non-stop. There's um... 'Call My Bluff'... with real guns... 'Countdown', where you've got thirty seconds to stop the bomb going off... 'Ground Force', which is a nasty one... you get turned into compost. Erm... 'Wipeout', speaks for itself... oh! And 'Stars In Their Eyes'. Literally, stars in their eyes. If you don't sing, you get blinded." The Doctor looked horrified.
"And the Weakest Link?" He pressed, suddenly much more worried about Rose than he had already been.
"Don't think about it." Danni replied, "Just concentrate on opening the door." The Doctor regarded her coolly before turning back to the door. As much as he hated to admit it, if Rose was in immediate danger she would say something. She may just appear from nowhere with knowledge of the future, and she may have been behaving strange last time she had been there but she wouldn't wish anything on Rose.
"But first of all, we've gotta concentrate on the getting out." He stated loudly, as if had been his idea to begin with. He moved to the last door, scanning it's edges again, "And to do that, you've got to know your enemy - who's controlling it - who's in charge of the satellite now?" He asked the pair, not really caring who answered. Lynda smiled to herself, this she did know.
"Hold on..." She told him, jogging over to a large switch on the wall and pulling to down with both hands, "Your Lords and Masters." Large lights shone down, illuminating the words 'Bad Wolf' on the wall. The Doctor stepped out from the doorway, staring up at them in wonder and confusion.
~0~0~0~
The Doctor finally managed to get the door open in one of the many doorways, revealing an observation deck. There were large metal stairs leading up to a platform facing the Earth.
"Blimey!" Lynda exclaimed, climbing up the stairs first, "I've never seen it for real before! Not... not from orbit. Planet Earth..." Both the Doctor and Danni frowned at the sight. They had both seen the planet from above before, and they both knew it shouldn't look like it did just then. The surface was covered in a grey smog, hiding everything but a few patches of light from view. It looked dark and depressing, as if someone had sucked the life straight from it's surface.
"What's happened to it?" The Doctor asked, surprised.
"Well, it's always been like that. Ever since I was born. See that there?" Lynda pointed outwards, "That's the Great Atlantic Smog Storm. It's been going twenty years. We get newsflashes telling us when it's safe to breathe outside." She explained proudly. The man seemed so clever, it was nice to know something he didn't.
"So, the population just sits there? Half the world's too fat, half the world's too thin, and you lot just watch telly?" He ranted.
"Ten thousand channels," she confirmed, beaming happily, "all beaming down from here."
"The Human Race." The Doctor spat, "Brainless sheep. Being fed on a diet of..." He stopped mid-sentence and turned to her, "Mind you, have they still got that programme where three people have to live with a bear?" Lynda nodded, delighted at the thought.
"Oh, 'Bear With Me', I LOVE that one!" She cried.
"And me. The celebrity edition where the bear got in the..."
"Got in the bath!" She interrupted and the pair laughed. Danni rolled her eyes, again something that never changed; he was very easily distracted.
"Doctor." She said warningly. The smile dropped from his face, his mind jumping back to the matter at hand.
"But it's all gone wrong. I mean, history's gone wrong. Again. This should be the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire - I don't understand. Last time I was here, I put it right." He told the pair.
"No, but that's when it first went wrong." Lynda replied, "A hundred years ago, like you said. All the news channels - they just shut down overnight." His face dropped, horrified at the thought as he turned to face her.
"But that was me. I did that." He stated quietly.
"There was nothing left in their place. No information. The whole planet just froze. The government - the economy - they collapsed... that was the start of it. One hundred years of hell."
"Oh, my..." He breathed, turning to face the planet, stunned, "I made this world." Danni gently placed a hand on his arm, not wanting to startle him. She could see it on his face, his mind immediately jumping to the worst conclusion of himself.
"No you didn't." She told him, "Something else replaced the hole left by the lies. It could have easily been something to help the human race prosper. You did the right thing."
"How is this the right thing?" He waved at the window to illustrate his point.
"This isn't what you did. This is Bad Wolf, not you." She reiterated. The mention of the corporation seemed to perk him up a bit, the cogs turning in his head. He glanced suspiciously out of the corner of his eye at her before looking back at the planet.
"First we find Rose, then we figure out just who exactly Bad Wolf is." He told them both firmly, a plan now firmly created in his mind.
~0~0~0~
"Hey, handsome! Good to see ya! Any sign of Rose?" Danni, the Doctor and Lynda looked up from the terminal in the observation deck to see Jack enter the room.
"Jack!" Danni cried happily, running over and chucking her arms around him.
"Ha! Danni-Girl!" He laughed, picking her up and spinning her around, "When did you decide to grace us with your wonderful presence?"
"'Bout 15 minutes ago." She replied, "You're looking dashing, as ever." Jack smirked smugly.
"Not as wonderful you. Have you finally admitted you can't resist me any longer?" He asked and she shook her head with a sad sigh.
"I'm just too afraid I won't be enough for you." The Doctor looked up, a scowl on his face.
"Is now really the time to be flirting?" He snapped.
"Sorry, Doc." Jack apologised, walking over to see what the Time Lord was doing.
"He just brings out the worst in me." Danni added, bouncing in between the two men, "With the games shielded, Jack's manipulator won't be able to scan for her on it's own." She told the Doctor, "But we know that she's with the Anne Droid, so you need to find the floors with the Weakest Link." The Doctor went back to fiddling with the computer in front of him.
"If we can just get inside this computer we can narrow down the floors." He ground out as he tried to open the side.
"Well, you'd better hurry up. These games don't have a happy ending." Jack pointed out as he took of his manipulator.
"You think I don't know that?" The Doctor snapped in reply, becoming more and more frustrated by the second. The computer system just seemed to be patched together! Layers upon layers of nothing important and all he wanted was to find Rose.
"We'll find her." Danni told the Doctor gently, shooting Jack a scolding look. He replied with a sheepish one of his own.
"And you know that?" The Doctor snapped at her. Danni nodded.
"Yes." She told him honestly, "Just take a deep breath and try the manipulator." Jack held out the device to the Doctor, who all but snatched it out of his hand.
"Patch that in. It's programmed to find her." Jack explained.
"Thanks." The Doctor mumbled in reply, setting to work. Jack then spotted Lynda stood there looking slightly nervous. He shot her one of his smirks and held his hand out for hers.
"Hey there!"
"Hello!" She replied with a huge smile on her face, obviously charmed by his good looks.
"Captain Jack Harkness."
"Lynda Moss." She told him shyly. He smiled, looking her up and down. She wasn't his type, but that didn't mean he couldn't appreciate the good-looking woman in front of him.
"Nice to meet you, Lynda Moss!"
"D'you mind flirting outside?" The Doctor told him, not even looking up from what he was working on.
"I was just saying hello!" Jack protested. Danni laughed and patted him on the arm.
"For you, that's flirting." She told him. He poked her in the side, chuckling as she yelped in surprise.
"I'm not complaining." Lynda told Jack, blushing slightly. He smirked and kissed the back of her hand.
"Which is a good idea."
"Oh!" Danni rolled her eyes and smacked him on the arm.
"Seriously, Jack. We're trying to find Rose." He nodded, slightly solemn and let go of Lynda as the system beeped, rejecting the device the Doctor was trying to patch in.
"It's not compatible. This stupid system doesn't make sense." He exclaimed, chucking the manipulator at Lynda, who caught it but held it out in front of her as if she was afraid she would break it. Jack and the Doctor both grabbed a side of the computer each and pulled the front off, Jack chucking it to one side. The Doctor snatched the manipulator back and started working again, "This place should be a basic broadcaster. The systems are twice as complicated. It's more than just television... this station's transmitting something else."
"Like what?" Jack asked.
"Something worth hiding." Danni replied grimly, looking out of the large window in front of them uneasily.
"Do you know?" Jack asked, intrigued. The girl had jumped in and out of his life since he met the Doctor and Rose back in wartime London and she had told him where she went when she wasn't there. He knew she had knowledge of the future, although it seemed only she and Rose knew why.
"Even if she did she can't tell us." The Doctor answered instead, "If she changes anything then the future won't happen like she knows it should, and she might destroy a fixed point and that would be the end of the universe."
"I doubt this would change anything..." She started but he stopped what he was doing to glare at her.
"I don't want you telling me, I can figure it out on my own." He snapped, "You made that perfectly clear with Nancy, didn't you?"
"I don't know, I haven't been there yet." Danni said in reply, turning her back on him to face Jack, "Sorry, I'm not allowed to help save Rose any sooner." She told the American before walking over to the edge of the observation deck, sitting down to look out at the grim sight of the Earth. Stupid Time Lord, always having the need to show off to everyone around him, no matter which version of him it was.
"This whole Bad Wolf thing's tied up with me." The Doctor told Jack, distinctly ignoring Danni, "Someone's manipulating my entire life. It's some sort of trap and Rose is stuck inside it."
~0~0~0~
Jack left the Doctor's side, having patched in his manipulator into the system. It was currently searching for Rose, slowly but surely making it's way through the floors. Lynda stood to the side, feeling a bit redundant. Jack patted her on the arm, shooting her a charming smile and telling her she was doing great. She shrugged but smiled in return, feeling reassured as she moved over to the Doctor, watching the data on the screen scroll down. Jack headed over to Danni, who was still sat looking at the Earth, a sad look on her face.
"Hey, are you all right?" He asked her, sitting down next to her and crossing his legs. She smiled weakly at him and nodded.
"Yeah, I just forget what an arse he is back here." She replied. He chuckled and nodded.
"Rose told me he wasn't always like that." Jack replied and Danni shrugged.
"I've only met his Ninth self once before." She explained, "And I don't know if he just ignored me because he didn't know who I was, or because he was being an arse or if it was just because he was worried about Rose. He's much worse as Ten, though. He wanted to leave me on an alien planet just so I wasn't in the TARDIS." Jack shot her a surprised look and she nodded, confirming what she had said.
"I don't understand it." Jack stated, "It's not like you're a bad person, and you have so much knowledge of the future. Plus, you're hot." She nudged him with her shoulder.
"Behave." She warned him gently, "But I think that's why he doesn't like me. He never liked being around people who know more than him."
"I thought he was jealous, you know because of the..." he trailed off, motioning to his ears, making exaggeratedly large ear-shapes around his own. Danni shook her head with a laugh.
"There's nothing wrong with his ears." She defended for the man in question. Okay, so Nine wasn't the best looking of all the incarnations, but that didn't mean he wasn't attractive.
"Boy, you've got it bad Danni-Girl." Jack teased. She glanced behind her at the Doctor and sighed to herself.
"Yeah." She admitted. They were interrupted by the manipulator beeping.
"Found her! Floor 407!" The Doctor exclaimed happily. Danni and Jack scrambled to their feet as Lynda gasped.
"Oh, my God! She is with the Anne Droid!" She exclaimed in horror, "We've got to get her out of there!" She turned to Danni, "How did you know?" Danni shrugged.
"I'm from the future." She replied simply, pausing as the other three ran out to the lift Jack had come up in. When did she stop thinking of herself as being from another universe? It was like she had always been there. She shook her head and followed them, diving in as the doors closed.
~0~0~0~
The Doctor had his hands planted firmly on either side of the display in the lift, glaring it as the numbers moved too slowly towards 407.
"Come on... come on...!" He exclaimed, willing the lift to go faster. Jack stood next to Danni, looking equally worried and Lynda chewed on her fingernails anxiously, worried about the girl even though she'd never met her. Danni stood next to the Doctor, feeling a bit lost at what to do. Had it been Eleven, she would have held his hand, or hugged him, or just reassured him any way she could, but she didn't think Nine would appreciate it. Not really knowing how to act, she just stared at the numbers climbing higher and higher.
~0~0~0~
The doors to lift slid open and the Doctor pushed his way out, each of the people running to a different door as they searched for the right room.
"Game Room Six, which one is it?!" He shouted.
"Over here!" Lynda shouted, spotting the number before anyone had a chance to check. They all changed course and headed to the door she pointed out, the Doctor pulling out his screwdriver as they did. He headed straight for the touch-pad, pressing it into every place on the hand-shaped hole on the device.
"Stand back, let me blast it open." Jack commanded.
"Can't, it's made of Hydra Combination." The Doctor replied, listening to the whirring noise the sonic screwdriver made, hoping to hear the correct frequency.
"Come on, come on, come on..." He whispered urgently, desperate to save the blonde-haired girl he'd brought into his TARDIS, into this situation. The door finally clicked and opened, "Come on!" He cried happily, the four rushing in to see the Anne Droid pointing at Rose.
"This game is illegal! I'm telling you to stop!" Rose half-commanded half-begged as the rest of the room turned to look at the two very angry men who had barged in and the two frantic looking women who followed.
"Rose!" The Doctor shouted over, Rose's head shooting towards them, looking so relieved.
"Stop this game!" Jack shouted, pulling out his gun and aiming it at the robot. Danni barrelled towards the blonde, past the three who had paused on the way in, scanning the room to see just what was happening. She didn't need to see, she just had to get to Rose.
"I order you to stop this game!" The Doctor snapped, running towards Rose as fast as he could. It was just a little further, and he could save her. He just needed to get across the room.
"We're live on air!" The Floor Manager protested in vein as the Anne Droid turned to face the intruders.
"Look out for the Anne Droid, it's armed!" Rose shouted, alarmed and pushing off her podium, heading straight towards them.
"You are the Weakest Link." The robot declared, it's jaw dropping and the disintegrator gun appearing.
"Rose!" Danni screamed, pushing the blonde out of the way just in time to get hit in the back and dissolving into dust in front of their eyes, appearing seconds later in a huge expanse of a room, sprawled on the floor. She smirked to herself, knowing exactly where she was and, thankfully, where Rose wasn't. She picked herself up and, with a deep breath, turned to face into the Dalek slowly approaching her.
"Just wait and see what's coming for you now." She snarled.