MISS COOPER

Opening the Void

Disclaimer: THINK I might own 'Zeth Particles.'

Author's Note: Oh I'm excited. Yes, very. I hope you enjoy reading this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it...though it may seem slightly complicated. Oh well; it's Torchwood. If fanfics turned out the way we expected them to, what would be the point of reading them? Now who did I loosely steal that off, do you reckon? :D I'm a bit unsure about a certain detail in this, actually...if I've got it wrong...then the whole thing's wrong, so if I have, then I apologise and you'll just have to pretend. Concerning the episode Doomsday; it's only the Doctor and Rose who truly know what happened at the Battle of Canary Wharf, isn't it? I mean; they were the ones who opened the Void; only they know for sure what happened to the Daleks, don't they? Concerning this chapter; take it that Jack doesn't know :) Please, let me know what you think. Too rambling? Too complicated? Be honest! There's a little bit more Gwen in this chapter...and...oh you'll know when you know!


If Bilis was hoping for more of an outraged reaction from Jack, he was sadly disappointed. Jack simply raised his eyebrows at him with a vain, unimpressed smirk lifting the corners of his lips.

"No. Not on my watch it's not. Nothing doing," he said seriously, but there was a lack of resolution in his eyes, as if he were playing the fool. "Glad we've got that cleared up though. Next?"

Bilis leered. "Ahh Jack, the Void will…"

"The Void is the infinite nothingness between dimensions," interrupted Jack harshly, all traces of his falsely light manner gone. He spoke quickly and definitely, giving the impression that he had been drilled on this. "It stays closed. Like the Rift. You don't mess with it, in the same way as you know that you don't cross timelines, you don't flirt with Freud, you don't look into the Time Vortex and you don't try and teleport after six hyper-vodkas. It gets left alone," he said furiously, speaking like a schoolmaster laying down the law.

Bilis smiled serenely at Jack, looking mildly bemused with his rant, but did not reply. Jack swallowed. Bilis' silence unnerved him, yet not as much as his talk of the Void. First the Rift, now the Void…it was as if Bilis had some sort of compulsion.

From his own twisted point of view though, Bilis did at least have a reason for wanting to open the Rift; his Abaddon…thing. But the Void? If it was just, well, nothing, then what death and destruction could possibly come from opening it?

Not that, that meant that Jack was going to entertain the notion of the Void being opened; he wasn't about to give Bilis the benefit of the doubt. Just…why open the Void? And why was Torchwood Towers significant?

"Infinite nothingness," echoed Bilis finally, scorn and malice forming his words as he peered down at Jack closely. "You poor, misguided, time-lost man."

His words reverberated through Jack's skull, setting Jack's teeth on edge, clogging up his brain. Dread shot to the tips of his fingers and down through his feet. Bilis was talking as if Jack was being particularly stupid about the Void, as if he'd got it all wrong…he'd said that the Void was 'infinite nothingness', yet judging by Bilis' tone, he had been extremely mistaken.

Oh, oh what had Bilis done? Jack felt sick; physically sick, his chest clenched in alarm. It was as if he should have always known, always expected it…the Void…wasn't empty, was it? Of course it wasn't, else why would Bilis be after it? Death and destruction couldn't come from nothing

Bilis suddenly gave a click of his fingers; making a loud, snapping noise, as if his brittle bones had cracked in two, like dead leaves.

Instantaneously, like air being sucked out of a vacuum, the grimy, rotten surroundings disappeared from around him. Gone was the thin, stained carpet, the bleak walls with the mottled wallpaper and the festering smell of unwashed bodies and bodily fluids.

Instead, Jack found himself lying prone on a coarse blue carpet, like the one's in the waiting room of a doctor's office. It was a new carpet; it smelt pristine and fresh and was rich in colour, unlike the rag that had been covering the floor mere seconds before.

The air, too felt different; no longer depressing and clinically sterile like a hospital, but warmer, slightly more cloying. There was a sweet, sickly scent of a plug-in air freshener…vanilla. Jack could smell the chemicals that made up its artificial smell. Staring round uneasily, he saw that the dilapidated furniture that had furnished the patient's bedroom; the split wicker bedside table, the wardrobe and the bed itself had vanished.

It was as if he was no longer in the horrible bedroom at all…it looked more like an office. In front of the window sat a huge, polished oak desk, with an imposing black leather chair pushed against it like a throne. On the desk was a pile of paperwork; plans, sketches, permits, letters from the council, all weighted down with a large brass paperweight in the shape of a lion.

An old-fashioned lamp with a stained glass shade stood proudly on the left-hand side of the desk, but it was an engraved lead plaque that was stood up on the edge that caught Jack's attention. It read: 'Bilis Manger; Property Developer.'

Jack felt his heart sink; indeed the office did look like one of a property developer. Maps made up of criss-crossed lines, roads and land plots were tacked across the walls, punctured here and there with several coloured drawing pins. A miniature coffee machine stood in the corner, wafting out the familiar smell of fresh coffee, reminding Jack achingly of Ianto. He gritted his teeth in guilt and averted his eyes from it.

Unsurprisingly, the room was exactly the same size and shape as the patient's bedroom, yet where the bed should have been was just an empty space. In fact, the wall that the bed had been pushed up against was entirely blank. Not even a bin or a plant stood in front of it. Whereas three of the four walls were plastered in maps, advertising posters and health and safety notices, this wall was completely blank, like a cinema screen.

"See for yourself the true appearance of this room," announced Bilis, like a ringmaster hyping up a crowd and introducing the next act. "It adjusts to fit into your perception, to mirror your expectations."

Jack sighed. Yes, he'd already worked that one out for himself thank you. He'd walked, no run into the room, expecting to find himself in the bedroom of the East Wing of Ty Enfys, (because really, why would he have presumed anything different?) and so the room had shown him just that; a disgusting bedroom. If for some reason, he'd expected a bathroom, Bilis probably would have manipulated it so that he saw a footed bath and a manky toilet…

"Nice trick," he said in a bored sort of voice, breathing heavier than was normal. He propped himself up on his arms; finding it still impossible to remain upright. Energy saps… were inconvenient to say the very least. "So…a property developer? Step up from caretaker," he drawled, remembering the first time they had come across this slippery man at an abandoned dancehall. In two different time decades…

"It is, Jack," said Bilis simply, giving him a curt nod, as if accepting a compliment. He threw his arms out to the room, stretching out his fingers, like he was embracing it. "Though perhaps if you'd said a step forwards, it would have been still more fitting."

He lowered his arms slowly, with unaccountable grace, and looked up at the ceiling, like an astrologer gazing up at the stars before facing Jack again. "You see, after the Battle of Canary Wharf, your reigning monarch ordered the immediate closure of Torchwood One, and its towers were brought down, yet the plot of land on which they once stood is now in my hands and so is undergoing renovations."

Bilis said this with a sort of lazy amusement, like a teacher teaching the same lesson endlessly. He seemed to find taunting Jack quite funny, as if he enjoyed his discomfort, and the way his jaw clenched at the mention of the Battle of Canary Wharf.

Jack pressed his lips together and scowled up at him. He could guess at what track Bilis was on. Torchwood Towers had indeed been knocked down at the orders of Her Majesty a few months after the Battle of Canary Wharf, leaving a plot of land open for well…anybody's for the taking, and if Bilis had become Property Developer for this plot of land then, by rights he could do as he wished with it. Out of the public eye, of course.

Jack had no idea why Bilis would want to build on the old site of Torchwood Towers. It was where the Battle of Canary Wharf had taken place, true, but what did that have to do with Bilis' obsession with his new God rising from death and destruction? And what about the Void? Where did the Void tie in to all of this?

Jack felt as if his mind had been shattered into pieces, like a jigsaw, but with one piece missing. One piece that would make everything else slip into place…what was it?

Bilis sneered down at Jack and clicked his tongue impatiently. "I see you're still having trouble in comprehending, Captain," he said shortly, as if he were disappointed that Jack wasn't playing along with him. "In that case…let me make one thing quite clear, Jack, since your ignorance seems to be rendering you blind."

Jack wrinkled his nose and turned his head away, facing the blank wall as Bilis crouched down in front of him, took a hold of his face in a claw-like grip and whispered in his ear, his hot breath tickling his neck. "Torchwood Towers is the site at which the Void was last active…it was last opened during the Battle of Canary Wharf."

There was a long, heavy silence. Jack screwed his eyes shut as he felt Bilis rise, heard the rustle of his clothes, the hiss of the air moving. His cheek tingled from where Bilis had held it; an uncomfortable, burning itch, like being stung by nettles. Jack felt his senses dim, felt the pounding in his head increase and felt his limbs weaken. He innately knew that Bilis had inflicted yet another energy sap upon him.

It had been difficult enough to think before; to get his thoughts into some sort of order; to make sense of the sporadic information being shoveled in, but now it was like trying to wade through treacle. He couldn't think properly; he couldn't reason…it was as if his brain had been cut off from the rest of his body. Random words spluttered and exploded through his mind. Truly; they made no sense at all.

Gwen. Bilis Manger. Need Torchwood. Torchwood Towers. Nursing Home. Gelbi. Abaddon. Battle of Canary Wharf. Sonneillon. The Void. Death and Destruction. "Torchwood Towers is the site at which the Void was last active…it was last opened during the Battle of Canary Wharf." Death and Destruction. Sonneillon. The Void. The Battle of Canary Wharf…Sonneillon…The Void…The Battle of Canary Wharf…Death and Destruction…

The Battle of Canary Wharf? It was the invasion of the Cybermen! A Cyberman in every home! Daleks across the London skies…Death and Destruction…the Void was active at Torchwood Towers…during the Battle…Sonneillon will rise from Death and Destruction…Daleks across the London skies…What was it that the Daleks were best at? Death and Destruction! "Sonneillon will rise from Death and Destruction"… "The Void is to be re-opened"…The Void; infinite nothingness…it wasn't empty…Daleks…Death and Destruction!

"No!" rasped Jack in horror, the word getting stuck in his throat. Terrible, terrible realisation dawned on him as the words clicked into place much too late. If he'd had the energy to roar he would have done so, but all he could manage was to shake his head furiously, scratching at the new carpet beneath his fingernails as he attempted once again to sit up. Because it made sense…he understood what Bilis was getting at.

For Sonneillon to rise, death and destruction would have to be created on Earth, and in order to do that, Bilis wanted to open the Void because there were Daleks inside, and there was no one better at creating death and destruction than the Daleks…He wanted to open the Void and let the Daleks out!

Bilis using the Daleks was like every nightmare coming true. He wouldn't…he couldn't let him. If Bilis thought Jack was going to let him open the Void…did he know Jack at all? Jack would die (several hundred times) before he let Bilis anywhere near it. The Void was staying closed, and that was final. True, the twenty-first century was when everything changed…but not like this; never like this.

"Why d'you need me and Gwen?" asked Jack, raising his head with all the strength of a decrepit old man to face Bilis. Though he couldn't hear or see her, he knew Gwen was lying somewhere behind him; motionless. "Why two members of my team? You don't seriously think we're going to open it for you, do you?"

He tried to sound dismissive and sarcastic, like his usual self, but he dimply didn't have the energy. A weaker-willed man than Captain Jack Harkness would have fainted five minutes ago. Still though, he was determined to remain conscious; determined to show Bilis that he would never give in; that his Torchwood was never going to bow down to his demands…

"No," said Bilis quietly. "Not for one moment did I presume that you were going to give me your consent. Nor do I think that you and your charming friend will agree to open it for me, now."

He sighed heavily, like a man acknowledging that he has been beaten; regretful and disheartened. Then he laughed.

Forcefully, as if he were blowing out a candle, he bent down over Jack and blew across his eyes; his breath too warm; too moist. Immediately, Jack's eyes spun and his lids snapped shut; it felt as if he'd been put under some sort of sedative. Jack groaned inwardly, not even acknowledging what he supposed was yet another sap.

He felt conscious, yet unconscious at the same time; his body had gone to sleep; he could no longer feel anything from the neck down; it was akin to that time he'd been pushed into a vat of cement after a bar fight in the late twenty-fourth century…not an experience he was anxious to repeat. Yet he was still aware; he could still partly hear, even if Bilis' voice sounded tinny, as if he was speaking on a phone with a bad reception, and so he turned his face to the right, in the direction he thought Bilis' voice was coming from as he continued to talk.

"You will not open the Void, Jack," he went on in a malevolent whisper, as if crooning to a snake. "Because it is already opening…it has in fact, been opening ever since Miss. Cooper entered the room.

Jack's mind reeled. Alarm bells sang…his senses cried out. What? Open? How? Just…how?

"No," he moaned pathetically, his eyes still closed, like someone talking in his sleep. "How?"

"Zeth particles," came Bilis' voice from somewhere to the left of him. "Embedded into the walls…even the ceiling. They attract dormant energy particles. Rift energy in your case. Your team…you're positively bursting with Rift energy…well you would be, wouldn't you? You're exposed to it every day; you're in constant contact with the Rift. Bound to rub off on you!

There'd be enough Rift energy from two members of your team to rip a hole in the universe the size of Guernsey…not that I'm suggesting you try it, mind. So! I'm guessing that, actually, I'm not guessing, I happen to know, ta very much! Your energy sap…whatsits isolate your life energy from the accumulated Rift energy, leaving the Rift energy to be attracted by the Zeth particles, and you to keel over like a dead plant!

Then…oh YES! Oh very good! VERY clever. Completely wrong…but admirable thinking nevertheless…you think that once the particles of Rift energy have been absorbed by the Zeth particles in the walls, they'll become charged don't you?

Rift energy becoming charged using Zeth particles? BRILLIANT! Wrong…but brilliant! Oh, but here's where you let me down…because we're so close to the Void…because the Void runs invisibly straight through that wall over there…you think that the charged Rift particles are going to collect, to build up pressure and collide with Void particles, don't you?

Actually, can we not call it Void particles? I prefer Void 'stuff'…but anyhoo, theoretically, the charged Rift particles are going to collide with the Void stuff, causing them to nucleate and BANG! Rip a hole in the Void big enough to pull a double-decker bus, isn't that right?"

Jack lay back, stunned, feeling like he'd just been hit over the head with a very heavy object; as if the wind had just been knocked out of him. It took him all of ten seconds to realise that it had not been Bilis who had spoken…the voice had come from Jack's left, and he was adamantly sure that Bilis had been standing to his right.

And, Bilis Manger didn't talk at ninety miles per hour. Nor did he have all the enthusiasm and coiled up energy of a small boy waking up on Christmas morning to open his presents. Nor did he manage to sound absurdly excited over the littlest things. Or seem to have a ridiculously, yet endearingly so, high opinion of himself…

Oh no. The man who had spoken was not Bilis. Not Bilis at all…

In spite of his discomfort, Jack managed a small smile. Maybe, just maybe, rather than building works there'd be a banana grove on this plot of land in a year's time…

"I'm right aren't I? Of course I'm right," the voice went on, chattering away like monkey. Jack's face split into a wide grin as he made out a familiar accent.

"But you're not, are you? I mean, I know what you're trying to do, certainly…the blind monks of Korr could have seen that one coming, oh but it'll never work will it? The nucleating of Void stuff depends on the absorption of Rift particles via Zeth particles…and that will only work if you've got a complete circuit!

Like an engine! Ohhh! The walls! The ceiling! They're the circuit. Ahh that's sweet! I did that at nursery…Funny thing happens, though; when circuits break.…you see if a circuit breaks, then the whole thing stops working! And I'm sorry to rain on your party…put a fly in your helmet and all that, or is that the wrong expression?

Is it something else? Anyway…sorry, but do you know what I fancy doing?"

There was a low, buzzing like live electricity.

"I quite feel like bringing the ceiling down"…


With difficulty, Gwen opened her eyes, her throat feeling dry and itchy, as if she'd swallowed sawdust. There was a hot, sticky wetness trickling down her left cheek. She did not have to taste the potent, metallic tang against her lips to know that it was her own blood. Whimpering with the effort, she raised her head slightly and saw a familiar flash of dark grey woolen fabric. Jack's coat. It took a while for her to gain her bearings and realise that she was lying beside him, with her head tucked into the crook of his arm.

"Ssh, keep still," he told her lowly, his voice sounding strained and thick. Nevertheless, she felt a small pressure on her shoulder and was dimly aware that he had gently pulled her closer towards him. Such was her position that she couldn't see his face, couldn't tell if he was hurt or not, but he was conscious...he was alive.

"Jack," she croaked, sounding like a rasping old woman. "Wha-?"

"Shh!" he replied, squeezing her reassuringly. "Don't say anything. Keep still."

Swallowing, she nodded in obedience and allowed her eyes to flutter closed. Dust and rubble enclosed her vision like a coarse, stone blanket, yet she could still hear. Dimly, she was aware of a loud buzzing that filled her ears like angry wasps. However, it did not take long for her brain to catch up with her ears, and she registered that what she had initially thought was buzzing, was actually two, angry, unfamiliar male voices.

"What business is it of yours, old man?"

"I make it my business when people start messing around with my Void! But come on, Rift energy nucleating Void energy? That's not even impressive!"

Gwen coughed painfully; dust clinging to the back of her throat, making her eyes water. She pushed her face towards Jack's arm and kept it there. She was drifting in and out of conscious, as if she'd been caught by the tides. She kept her eyes closed, feeling comfortable and warm and safe lying beside Jack. She just wished her ears would stop roaring…that her head would clear. She couldn't even remember where she was. Why was she covered in rubble? And why were those two men making so much noise? Honestly…did they have to shout?

She craned her neck, opening her eyes and attempting to sit up again so she could give them a piece of her mind, but she felt Jack pulling her back down.

"Gwen!" he whispered warningly. "Stay put."

Not entirely sure of why she was choosing to heed him, she nevertheless made a small noise of acknowledgement and lay back down again. One arm, she realised was trapped between Jack's body and her own, and really, she couldn't be bothered to move it. Instead, she brought her free hand up and grazed it over Jack's, where he was gripping her shoulder, and closed her eyes, listening in silence.

"Who are you?" one of the men spat; the one who had spoken first.

"Me?" said the second voice breezily. "I'm the Doctor!"


Yep! Yes I did! I just brought in the Doctor!

Back                         Home                              Doctor Who Main Page                          Next

Your Name or Alias:      Your E-mail (optional):

Please type your review below. Only positive reviews and constructive criticism will be posted.