NOTE: This fanfic is practically impossible to read unless you are familiar with Doctor Who. A knowledge of Torchwood will also help.
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Zartacla is a rather strange prison situated a few light-years away from Orion's Belt, in a large asteroid belt surrounding the star HD 36780. It's strange, as the entire thing is run, hosted by, and staffed by the inmates. It's not entirely accurate to call the non-law-abiding class 'inmates' in this scenario however, as the local area has a very interesting governmental system: There are two main classes, non-law-abiders, and law-abiders. The law-abiders are all rounded up and shipped off to Zartacla while the non-law-abiders run their homeworld. It's one of the most interesting sights in the universe, one that the TARIDS of the Last Timelord has visited many times. It's interesting, as it's a system that should not work, but works perfectly. Without law limiting the actions of the people, right and wrong are individually determined, so it works perfectly. There are no fights, no robberies, no murders, and no hatred. Surprisingly enough, a lack of law does a greater job than law ever could.
Due to the frequency of the Doctor's visits, the local population have a small prison cell for him to land in. The Doctor has to land in the cell, since he is of the law-abiding class, but the Big Man (more uncommonly known as the Mayor) gives him, and his more-often-than-not-companion, access to leave the prison.
Well, it's not that official, the Doctor usually just uses his Sonic Screwdriver to get out, but people don't stop him.
"Come along, Pond," the Doctor said as he left Zartacla, "There's a lovely restaurant somewhere around here...", the Doctor pulled out a strange instrument that looked like a steel compass covered in wires and flashy lights.
"What's that?" Amy Pond asked as the Doctor fiddled around with it.
"It's a timey wimey detector thingy," the Doctor inserted his Sonic Screwdriver into a small port at the front, "I'm trying to make it point towards highly irresponsible immortal men by targeting temporal anomalies," the Doctor said as he pressed a few buttons.
"What do you mean by 'highly irresponsible immortal men'?" Rory Williams asked. Amy Pond and Rory Williams still chose to use separate surnames, even after all the stuff they've been through together.
"Aha!" the Doctor saw some lights flash on and off a bit, "It's working... That way!" the Doctor pointed in the direction of a very wide street.
Captain Jack Harkness was sitting in a small, inconspicuous restaurant, eating a small bowl of something he had no idea what was, but tasted good anyway. After a whole year of looking for the Doctor, he finally gave up and decided to have a stop at the best restaurant in the universe. He couldn't find him. The trail just ended, nothing to follow. He predicted it was because the Doctor regenerated, but didn't want to believe it. He would never be able to find that man if he had a different face. It's been a whole 365 days since The 456 Incident, and he thought he deserved a rest.
Now he was resting in one of the greatest restaurants in the entire universe, the Bageljuice, slowly snacking on a bowl of dried Melfuggle seeds.
"According to this, he's right in there..." the Doctor was looking at a restaurant hosting a sing saying 'The Bageljuice'.
"Who's 'he'?" Rory asked.
"You'll see." The doctor replied, "Shall we?"
"Why not, I'm starving," said Rory.
"Same here," added Amy.
They walked in, a little doorbell rung quietly, and Captain Jack was suddenly getting a strange sense of deja vu from looking at the strange man in the bow tie that entered.
"Aha!" the Doctor signalled to Jack, "Rory, Amy, meet Captain Jack Harkness."
"Is this the immortal man you were talking about?" said Rory.
"Yup!" replied the Doctor.
Jack's lower jaw was just hanging down from the rest of his skull, "I- but- wh- WHAT!? I SPENT A WHOLE YEAR LOOKING FOR YOU AND YOU JUST FIND ME LIKE THAT?!" Jack was flipping the fuck out.
"Calm down! Yes it's me, of course it's me, hi! It's me!" the Doctor said while flailing his arms in an attempt to get Jack to calm down.
Jack calmed down a bit, "365 days, Doctor. 365 days I spent looking for you,".
"Jack, I'm sorry, but I was busy saving the universe, blowing it up, fixing it again, all that." the Doctor replied. There was a moment or two of silence where nobody spoke, when the Doctor broke the silence, "Look at the painting on that wall," there was a painting of the Doctor's blue box exploding, one the Doctor had seen before. His old friend, Vincent Van Gogh, painted it, "A friend of mine made it. He was a madman, and he predicted the end of the universe. Very accurately, in fact. Anyways," the Doctor sat down next to Jack, "Do you know why it is there?" he asked.
"No," Jack said, "Should I?".
"Yes you should, because it wasn't there a minute ago," the Doctor zoned out, staring at the painting, "How can it be here?" he said to himself, "How can it possibly be here?! It was destroyed along with the entire universe, it cannot possibly be here!" the Doctor stood up and walked over to the painting.
"Hello pretty," Jack said to Amy when he noticed her.
"Oi, stop it!" he said without diverting his attention from the painting, "She got married four hundred million years ago!".
"Yes, she did. To me, in fact," Rory said, "Now lay off her," he added, towards Jack.
"Lucky man," Jack said under his breath.
"Oh no..." the Doctor was tracing his finger over the painting, "Oh no no no no no nononononono!"
"Doctor what is it?" Amy said as she walked to what the Doctor was worrying about.
"Fish fingers and custard..." he replied.
"Oh god, is it?" Amy said.
"Could somebody tell me what is going on?" asked Jack.
"It's a crack," the Doctor muttered, "A crack in time and space, a crack in the very fabric of reality,".
"Like the Rift?" Captain Jack asked.
The Doctor turned his head towards Jack, "What? One is a crack and the other is a Rift, what makes you think they could be the same? No, they're completely different,".
"Doctor, the TARDIS won't explode again, will it?" asked Rory, who got up from a seat he sat down in earlier.
"Again?" asked Jack.
The Doctor scanned the crack with his Sonic Screwdriver, and checked the results, "No, it won't; this crack is different," the Doctor continued examining the crack, "It's a remainder from the past universe, just a dormant crack left unopened,".
"Will you open it?" Rory asked.
"How do you 'open' a crack in time and space?" asked Jack.
"It's like an injury," the Doctor replied "You can get stitches, but for it to fully heal, you need to open it. Hold on, that's a terrible analogy, it only works with flurine-based life-forms, nevermind," the Doctor shook his head, "Anyway, I need to open it for it to heal,".
"So what are you waiting for? Open it! I've seen you do it before," said Amy.
"Amy, it's a crack in reality itself, nothing is behind it. Not 'nothing' as in 'lack of anything' nothing, but a nothingness so empty and voided, that time itself just leaks into it. No, a Sonic Screwdriver can't do this task single-handedly, I'll need the TARDIS, and that's in a cell in Zartacla," the Doctor, Amy, and Rory walked a pretty long distance to get the restaurant, and Zartacla was far away from the restaurant.
"I can get it," Captain Jack offered to help, "I have a Vortex Manipulator, I can get it,".
The Doctor thought for a moment, and then proceeded to fish in his pocket for something, "Here," the Doctor handed Captain Jack a spare TARDIS key, "Keep it. You deserved it,".
"Thank you, Doctor," with that, Jack tool the key and teleported away to fetch the TARIDS.
A few minutes later, the TARIDS materialised just outside the restaurant.
"That was a pretty good landing," the Doctor said to Jack as he walked out.
"Well, it's not the first time I've been it. But it does look a lot different than last time,".
"What last time?" asked Rory.
"Daleks," was all the Doctor said, "Anyway, lets open this crack,".
On the road near the restaurant was a hooded figure silently watching the Doctor and his companions. He had a communications device in his right pocket, and a generic teleportation device in his left.
"Is he there? Is the Doctor there?" he could hear from the communication device.
The man took the device out of his pocket. It had the label 'Grinerald Hold' on the side, and it was a mostly-generic Exterra communications system, "Yes, he's here. He has three companions with him, and his Blue Box just arrived," the man said into the Exterra.
"Good" the voice on the other side returned, "Notify us when they are all in the Box and we will activate it. By the way, Trueman, good job on re-creating that painting. You re-created something that technically never existed."
Trueman smirked slightly, "Thanks," he put the Exterra back in his pocket.
"Jack," the Doctor said from under the metal grated floor of the TARDIS, "In the storage area is a box labelled 'useless', inside that is a roll of copper wire, can you bring it to me?".
"Sure thing," Jack walked off.
"Rory, go get Amy, it's going to get a little dangerous out there in a minute,".
"They're in," said Trueman into his Exterra.
The whole TARDIS shuddered violently.
"What was that?" Rory asked.
The Doctor climbed up from under the TARDIS and ran to the scanner, "Oh dear," the Doctor was worried, "We didn't need the TARDIS to open that crack...".
"What?!" said Amy and Rory.
"It's opened!" the Doctor was pulling at some switches fruitlessly, "I can't stop the TARDIS, we're going in!" the TARDIS was shaking like mad, the Doctor had trouble staying on his feet.
"In where?!" Amy shouted over the noise of the TARDIS.
"In the crack! Into nothing!" the Doctor shouted back.
The TARDIS came to an abrupt halt, knocking everyone off their feet.
"Doctor," Jack stood up, "What. Just. Happened,".
"We fell through the crack..." replied the Doctor quietly.
"So if we fell through a crack in reality, where are we now?" asked Jack.
"Okay," the Doctor started, "First of all, there isn't just a single reality, there's an infinite amount of realities, and they are all stored in the Qtessential plain. So here we are," the Doctor sighed, "the Void of Everything and Nothing," he paused for a second, thinking, "Another important fact is that it's technically impossible to enter or leave realities, which is what we just did. So, we're stuck."
"Stuck," Rory repeated.
"Yep," the Doctor replied, "Stuck." he suddenly paused for a second in thought, "No, hold on," he walked over to Jack, "Give me your Vortex Manipulator,".
Jack handed it over, "What are you going to do?"
"Un-stuck!" the Doctor said as he crawled underneath the TARDIS again, "Un-stuck!".
"What are you talking about?" Amy asked.
"Un-stuck!" the Doctor shouted as the TARDIS shook slightly.
"Could you please give us a clear answer?" Rory asked.
"The Doctor popped his head out through the floor, "The Vortex Manipulator does exactly what it says in the tin: It manipulates the Time Vortex. And there's no vortex in the Qtessential plain, so it finds a new Time Vortex and locks onto it," the Doctor said, waving his arms around like a madman with a blue box, "I plugged it into the TARDIS, so now the TARDIS can re-enter our reality!" the Doctor got out of the hole he was in and sprinted over to the control panels, "Ready?" he asked the three.
"Yep," Amy said.
"Yeah," Rory said.
"Ready as I'll ever be," Captain Jack said.
The Doctor flipped a few odd switches, typed into a typewriter, and finally pulled a large lever, "We're going in!" the Doctor shouted as the TARDIS shook just as violently as it did when they entered the Qtessential plain, "Whoa, we're falling! Crashing!".
The TARDIS flung it's passengers wildly around as it tumbled through the atmosphere of a world, spinning and tumbling before it hit the ground with a loud crash.
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