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CHAPTER FIFTEEN:
ARMY OF GHOSTS
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IRIS had been enjoying her freshly baked banana nut mini muffins when her phone rang.

Looking down, her face brightened, and she tapped the speaker button after answering.

"Hey, Charlie, what's going on?"

"You need to come back."

A frown pulled at her lips and worry filled her. "What do you mean?" She asked, panic brewing in her stomach. "Are you okay? Is Griffith — did he have another—"

"—No, no, it's," a sigh, and then he continued. "Just...bring your doctor or something. Ghosts are walking around."

"Ghosts?"

"Ghosts."

"But that's not real, Charlie, we both know that," Iris frowned. "Come on, it's probably just—"

"—Iris, I don't know what this is," Charles cut her off seriously. "But Sebastian can't see them, for obvious reasons and Griffith's not answering his phone. Just...please come home, Ris."

"Okay," Iris relented, softer, worry pulling her eyebrows. "Give me a few minutes."

The call ended a second later and when Iris turned, the Doctor was already there. His face said it all — he knew exactly what was happening.

"Doctor, if you try and tell me that I can't—"

"—I'm so sorry, Iris," the Doctor interjected softly. "You're going, you have to go, but...I am so sorry. I won't see you for some time."

Iris froze, the words chilling her. What did that mean? What was he trying to say? Why was he being so vague?

"What do you mean by that?" Iris replied shakily, putting her muffin down haphazardly and walking towards him. "Doctor, what are you trying to say?"

The Doctor stopped her from approaching him angrily, taking his hands in hers. He closed his eyes, a forlorn look crossing his face. "I am so sorry," he told her gently, leaning forward and pressing a kiss to her forehead. "For what's to come, Iris, I'm so sorry."

Tears blurred her vision and she couldn't stop the feeling that this was some sort of goodbye. "Why are you talking like I won't see you again?"

"Because you'll be with another me," he replied gently, squeezing her hands." And I won't see you for sometime, but please understand that I don't mean what I say."

"What?"

He didn't explain, only lifted his hands to her cheeks and cupped her face. "You've got a lot to do today, Iris Holloway, you shouldn't be late." He stroked her cheeks with his thumbs, staring into her tearful, confused eyes, and then pulled away, leaving her standing in confusion.

"Doctor!" She called after him once she'd regained her thoughts, following his entrance into the console room. "Don't just — you can't just not explain things like this. Am I — is this the last time I see you?"

He froze, hand on the navigation board and looked up at her, expression softening. "You're in my timeline, Iris, I don't know. I hope not. But you've a lot to do now, I think." He pulled the lever, leaving her shaken and confused and a little fearful.

Iris didn't want this to be the end of her and this Doctor. She cared about them all and enjoyed them all but this was the man that she was —

She couldn't lose him.

"Go, Holloway."

Iris shook her head, refusing to leave. If she didn't leave then they could keep travelling. They could do everything together. Time was infinite in the TARDIS and she could focus on only this for the next hundred years and everything on Earth would still be there.

"Doctor, I..."

How could she say it? How could she put into words how high esteem she held him in? How transformative her soul had become by simply knowing him? How much she'd grown and learned and evolved and how much he made her heart quicken and eyes soften, and hand yearn for his? How could she accurately depict in human tongue how deep her love for him went?

But he understood. He always did.

The Doctor smiled a bit, gestured to the doors and sent her a wink.

No.

She would see him again. This wasn't the end of them.

It couldn't be.

—

Iris called her brother seven times after leaving the TARDIS, but he wasn't answering.

That terrified her.

Iris called Sebastian and Griffith too, but to no avail. Added onto the Doctor's vague secrets and tight-lipped smile, she was incredibly cautious and fearful of what was to come.

So far, she'd yet to spot any ghosts, but she did vaguely recognize her surroundings. The Doctor seemed to have dropped her off near the Tyler residence — which did perturb her quite a bit, considering she'd really been looking for her brothers.

Iris tried her brothers again but to no avail, letting out an annoyed grumble and walking further into the complex. A bittersweet smile settled on her face when she spotted the TARDIS, and three figures in the middle of a park.

"Hey!" She called out, breaking into a jog towards them.

Rose's displeasure was palpable in the air, but the Doctor's grin — his tenth again — made her heart flutter just a little more than it should.

"Sorry, Iris!" The Doctor said loudly upon her approach. "We're a bit busy. Have you any idea what's going on?"

"No, you just dropped me off here." She replied, trying not to think about the Twelfth Doctor's face as she left the TARDIS. It wouldn't do anyone any good to miss him right now. "I thought I'd be with my brother considering he's the reason I'm here. Now he won't answer."

"Oh," the Doctor paused in placing copper-wired cones on the grass, a frown on his lips. "Is he alright? Which brother?"

"Charlie," she replied and Rose cleared her throat.

"We should get on with this," she waved down at the situation. The Doctor nodded, immediately refocusing.

"What's that lot do?" Jackie asked, looking around at the three cones.

"Triangulates their point of origin," the Doctor replied as Iris looked at the equipment he was using, her scientific brain growing less bitter and more curious.

"I don't suppose it's the Gelth," Rose spoke up and Iris glanced at her.

What the hell was a Gelth?

"Nah," the Doctor shook his head, motioning for Iris to hold a cone as he slipped a wire around it. "They were just coming through one little rift. This lot are transposing themselves over the whole planet like tracing paper." He dropped the cone in her hand, and she set it down as he rushed to another one.

"You're always doing this," Jackie pointed out with a frown. "Reducing it to science. Why can't it be real? But just think of it, though," she added when the Doctor ignored her. "All of the people we've lost, our families coming back home. Don't you think it's beautiful?"

Iris glanced at Jackie, shaking her head in response when the Doctor spoke again.

"I think it's horrific." He held the wire spool in one hand, glancing to Iris. She nodded, having already figured out what he was doing and rushed to the TARDIS. "Rose, give us a hand!" He called out, jogging after Iris.

"Soon as the cones activate," the Doctor explained quickly to Rose, plugging the spool into the console. "If that line goes into the red, press that button there. If it doesn't stop," he pulled out his sonic and held it to her. "Setting 15B, hold it against the port, eight seconds and stop. If it goes into the blue, activate the deep scan on the left." He pointed to another button a bit further down.

"Hang on a minute," Rose pointed at a black one. "That one there?"

Iris grimaced and the Doctor grinned. "Close," he replied fondly.

"That one?" She held her hand over a circular valve.

"Eeeh, you've just killed us," he replied.

"Er," Rose hesitated, pointing to a third. "That one?"

"Yeah!" The Doctor exclaimed. "Now, what have got, two minutes to go?"

Jackie glanced to her watch with a sigh and nodded. The Doctor grinned down at Iris. "You'll love this bit," he told her, darting passed her again. She flicked a switch on the console — the idiot had forgotten to counteract the live wire against the copper one which could have easily created a fire and lord knows Rose wasn't prepared for that — and followed him out.

"Hold those steady," he ordered, nodding to the cones and one by one he powered them up with the energy from his backpack.

"What's the line doing?" He called back to Rose.

"It's all right, it's holding!" Her voice replied faintly back.

"You look upset," the Doctor commented to Iris, glancing at her face. "What's bothering you? Is it Charlie?"

"I don't know," she sighed, glancing to the TARDIS, then to him again. "I've got a bad feeling."

"Have you eaten today?" He joked, his tone playful, but his eyes worried.

"Ha, ha," she rolled her eyes. "I don't know," she added softly, worry scrunching her eyebrows and pulling at her lips. "I just feel like something bad'll happen."

"Ah," he grinned down at her. "You're with me, Iris. Nothing bad'll ever happen."

"Doctor," she groaned, throwing her head back a bit. "Now, you've jinxed us."

"No such thing," he shook his head. "Well," he dragged out. "Unless you're a member of The Nehru-Gandhis, they'll never have a normal life." He gave her a look. "Never upset a Limaitre descendent, they can hold a grudge."

"Noted," she replied sarcastically.

He sent her another appraising look, wanting to say something, but didn't, looking down at the equipment again.

Rose called something but the Doctor and Iris glanced at one another, neither picking it up. They shared a small shrug, and the Doctor stepped back outside the triangulation, hand on Iris for a moment, keeping her a bit behind him. She rolled her eyes and moved to step, but he glanced down at her.

"Stay," he said firmly. "I don't know what's doing this, I don't want you in line of fire."

Iris hesitated, ready to throw a multitude of reasons why she was perfectly fine, but his worried gaze stopped her. She nodded, relenting and staying just behind him, her head peeking around him to assess the situation with him.

"Come on, then," he grinned, jumping a bit. "You beauty!"

A ring of static charged in the triangle and a shimmering ghostly humanoid shape stood in the middle. Iris could see why her brother thought it was ghosts and then immediately called for assistance.

The Doctor pulled out a pair of 3D glasses and Iris frowned, looking them over.

"Here," he handed them to her after a moment. "Lost my other pairs, otherwise I'd give you one. Look at that."

Iris set the frames on her face, eyebrows raising as she looked at the figure, then to the Doctor, then down at her arms. Something was surrounding the shapes, a dusting of sorts that seemed to be gathered around them all.

"Why've I got so many?" She asked curiously, looking down at her arms. Even compared to the Doctor, she could barely see her own skin under the dust.

He grabbed the glasses and looked her over, his face growing more concerned. "Next problem," he settled on, looking back to the humanoid in the triangle as it started moving and trying to break free.

He reached down and adjusted the modulator, tightening the hold on it, glancing back up at it to ensure stability.

"Look at that," the Doctor commented with a grin. "Don't like that much, do you?" His face grew a bit more serious. "Who are you?" He asked. "Where are you coming from?"

The figure beat against the restrained box and the Doctor jumped back, bumping into Iris a bit. "Woah!" He exclaimed. "That's more like it, not so friendly now, are you?"

The humanoid kept fighting until eventually it faded away. Iris and the Doctor jumped into action, grabbing the cones and lugging them into the TARDIS.

"I said so!" The Doctor shouted to Rose as Iris stuffed the cones away under the grates and he took off his jacket. "Those ghosts are being forced into existence from one specific point, and I can track down the source."

Iris climbed out of the grate, pulling her hair up after the heat from the excursion got to her.

"Allons-y!"

Iris snorted at the French, leaning next to Rose and looking at the camera as the Doctor started up the TARDIS. All three of them fell back when the TARDIS lurched, Rose and the Doctor landing on the captain's chair, but Iris was bumped onto the floor.

"Ouch," she winced, rubbing her arm which had hit the bottom of the grate.

"Alright, Iris?" The Doctor asked her off-handedly, looking over the screen.

"Fine, yeah," she nodded, taking Rose's offered hand and standing with a grateful smile.

"Good," he toggled switches on the console walking around it as Rose and Iris shared a look. "I like that. Allons-y, I should say allons-y more often. Allons-y! Look sharp, Rose Tyler, allons-y! Well done, Iris Holloway, allons-y! And then, it would be really brilliant if I met someone called Alonso. 'Cause then I could say "Allons-y, Alonso" every time." He turned and looked to Rose and Iris, stopping himself. "You're staring at me."

"My mum's still on board," Rose whispered.

The Doctor looked over slowly, eyes widening at Jackie comfortably sitting from the rafters. Iris and Rose burst into laughter the horrified look on his face.

"If we end up on Mars, I'm gonna kill you," Jackie called down to him, swinging her feet in the air.

—

"Ooh, well, there goes the advantage of surprise," the Doctor mused as they looked over the screen, watching military officials line the outside of the TARDIS. "Still, cuts to the chase." He started walking and both Rose and Iris moved to follow him. "Stay in here, look after Jackie."

The girls shared a look and started walking again.

"I'm not looking after my mum—"

"—and I'm not staying here—"

"—Well, you brought her, and you," he looked to Iris, faltering for a moment. "You, just-just stay here."

"I was kidnapped!" Jackie protested.

Iris gave him a dubious look and crossed her arms, and he let out a noise of annoyance. "Holloway, please, listen to me."

Iris faltered for a moment. It was the first time he'd addressed her by last name directly in any regeneration besides the Twelfth. She thought of his face then, his worry, his confidence in her. His sincerity in her departure and his allusions to the truth.

Rose rushed in front of the Doctor, standing back against the doors. "Doctor, they've got guns," she told him softly.

"And I haven't," the Doctor replied in the same tone, gently moving her aside. "Which makes me the better person, don't you think? They can shoot me dead, but the moral high ground is mine." He gave Iris a warning glance and opened the door, walking out and closing it behind him.

Iris gently pushed Jackie aside, putting her head closest to the opening. No offense to Rose — who sent her an annoyed look — or Jackie, but she was the most intelligent out of the three of them and if the Doctor needed a quick out or assistance, she was definitely going first.

"Oh, how marvelous!" A blonde middle-aged woman came into view. She stood in front of the soldiers and started clapping.

Iris' face twisted in confusion. This lady was definitely a few screws loose. Then again, she supposed people could have very different reactions to meeting the Doctor. This lady happened to clap in a room full of guns.

"Oh, very good," she continued, looking around — so, she was definitely in charge, then — and the soldiers followed suit, clapping for the Doctor. "Superb. Happy day."

"Um, thanks," the Doctor replied after a moment, lowering his surrendered hands. "Nice to meet you. I'm...the Doctor."

"Oh, I should say," the woman replied with a grin, clapping again. "Hooray!"

This entire situation was starting to weird Iris out and she knew the Doctor, who despite all of his shows of intelligence and need the be admired for his cleverness — absolutely hated this much attention. Especially for a reason he couldn't understand.

Iris moved to leave the TARDIS, but Rose grabbed her arm.

"Don't," she whispered. "He said to stay."

"I'm not a dog," Iris snapped and opened the door a bit, sliding through.

She ignored the flash of irritation that quickly passed over the Doctor's face.

"Iris Holloway!" The lady's face brightened impossibly further, clapping harder. "Oh, we have heard of you."

"Oh, goody," Iris remarked dryly, looking up at the Doctor. His hand slipped into hers, clutching it tightly, neither of them entirely comfortable in this situation. Usually, they had the upper hand of knowing more and this was a case they wherein this woman and her soldiers seemed to know more than them.

"Y-you've heard of us, then?" The Doctor asked.

"Well, of course we have," the woman beamed. "And I have to say, if it wasn't for you, none of us would be here."

Iris' eyes narrowed. This didn't feel like the praise it was made out to be.

"The Doctor, Iris, and the TARDIS!" She exclaimed, hands gesturing in awe before she started clapping again.

"The clapping's gotta stop," Iris muttered, eyes widening, feeling a bit overstimulated from the entire ordeal.

The Doctor dropped Iris' hand and held his hands up, putting on a grin and then signaling for them to stop; finger to his lips, a hand motion across his neck. "And...and...and...you are?"

"Oh, plenty of time for that," the woman replied with a shrug. "But according to the records, you're not one for travelling alone. Iris goes in and out of his timeline, but he always has a companion. That's the pattern, isn't it, right?"

Iris froze, looking between the Doctor and the woman. How the hell did she know that about Iris? It wasn't something either of them rattled off to just anyone — really only his companions had known about it. Who were these people? How did they know so much?

The Doctor's smile had long fallen, his face hard and eyebrow pointed up, watching the woman cautiously, trying to figure it all out.

"There's no point in hiding anything," she continued. "Not from us. So where is she?"

Half a second passed before he decided his move. "Yes!" He exclaimed, grinning again. "Sorry, good point." He reached behind Iris, who moved a bit further from the doors and reached a hand in, grabbing the person behind the doors. "She's just a bit shy, that's all. But here she is," he continued as Jackie came out and Iris had to remind herself continuously that this was not the situation for laughter. "Rose Tyler!"

He looked Jackie over a moment. "Hmm, she's not the best I've ever had. Bit too blonde." Iris coughed, looking away and trying not to laugh. His eyes flickered to her, and she met his gaze and the playful look there — he was trying to get her to break.

"Not too steady on her pins," he held up his hand, miming a chatter motion. "Lot of that." At the woman's laugh and Jackie's spiteful look, he continued. "And, just last week, she stared into the heart of the time vortex and aged fifty-seven years, but she'll do."

"I'm forty!" Jackie protested, giving him a look.

"Deluded," the Doctor grimaced, and Iris coughed again, closing her eyes. "Bless," he added. "I'll have to trade her in. Do you need anyone? She's very good at tea. Well, I say very good, I mean not bad. Well, I say not bad," he pulled a face. "Anyway, lead on! Allons-y!"

"We're really doing that," Iris shook her head and offered Jackie a sympathetic look.

"But not too fast," the Doctor continued, nodding to Jackie. "Her ankle's going."

"Oh, I'll show you where my ankle's going," Jackie mumbled to the Doctor and Iris snorted, coughing and spluttering into her arm to hide her laugh.

"Are you alright, Miss Holloway?" The woman looked to Iris, who nodded, putting on a serious expression. "Word is you're usually the one who keeps him human. It seems that was a lie."

All humor drained from her face and Iris stopped walking, the Doctor sending her a worried look as he and Jackie continued. Iris only moved again when a soldier gently nudged her. Iris shook her head, her feet moving before her mind caught up, the woman's words reeling in her mind.

You're usually the one who keeps him human.

Was she losing her humanity in her travels with the Doctor? Is that what the price of being his meant? She thought she helped him not hindered his character. What was the cost of being a partner, anyway?

I'm your partner. There will be no more Jane's.

How many times had she let down her family in just the few months of travelling with the Doctor? If she was meant to do this for years — how much of her would be left to even go home? She was worried about Charlie but why wasn't she out looking for him? Why was she working with the Doctor to find a solution when her brother was possibly missing? Why wouldn't any of them respond?

Was possibly saving the world worth losing all that had ever mattered to her?

"I'd like to welcome you Doctor," the woman was saying as they approached a set of doors, which she pushed open with a smirk. "Welcome to Torchwood."

Iris stood next to the Doctor, looking up at him with wide eyes and then the scene before them. A large spaceship was in the corner most of the room, military officials and people in lab coats marked and distributed different shipping containers. Was this all alien? How much of this was stolen? When had this been created?

Her heart sank as she recalled Harriet Jones shooting down the Sycorax.

Was this them?

The thought made her ill.

"That's a Jathaa Sun Glider," the Doctor murmured, looking at the spaceship.

"Came down to Earth of the Shetland Islands ten years ago," the woman told them.

"What, did it crash?"

"No," she smirked. "We shot it down."

Iris grimaced, looking around painfully at the equipment and contents of the large room. This was the darkest part of humanity.

You're usually the one that keeps him human.

How human was he meant to be? How human was she meant to be? If humanity shot and massacred innocents or explorers just for ownership under the guise of discovery? How many souls had suffered by the hands of this "Torchwood" and how many more would follow?

What was crueler; the Doctor's lack of humanity or human's belief in it?

"It violated our airspace," the woman continued. "Then we stripped it bare. The weapon that destroyed the Sycorax on Christmas Day?"

"That was you," Iris mumbled.

The woman sent her a smug smile. "You are clever. That was us." She looked back to the Doctor and nodded her head to follow. "Now, if you'd like to come with me." The group began walking, the Doctor's hands in his pockets, but he kept a close eye on Iris as she looked around, feeling so incredibly small in a room full of stolen things.

"The Torchwood Institute has a motto: 'if it's alien, it's ours,'" she continued. "Anything that comes from the sky, we strip it down and we use it, for the good of the British Empire."

Iris blinked, tilting her head at the woman's words.

"The British what?" Jackie asked, as confused as Iris felt.

"The British Empire," the woman stated obviously.

"There isn't a British Empire," Jackie argued.

"Not yet."

Iris felt a chill down her spine, exchanging a look with the Doctor. The woman was handed a large gun, and she smirked, holding it out for the Doctor.

"Do you recognize this, Doctor?"

"That's a particle gun," he observed, jaw tense.

"Good, isn't it?" The woman asked. Jackie reached for it but the woman pulled it away. "Took us eight years to get it to work." She glanced to Iris. "Griffith's been ever so helpful."

Iris froze; eyes wide as a sense of disconnect overwhelmed her. The Doctor's eyes widened, and he looked down to Iris quickly, but her mind had short-circuited. Her brother? Her eldest brother who loved stars and space and the universe and the expansion of human connectedness had somehow implanted himself in this disgusting team of people.

He'd put a rover on Mars and now contributed his wonderful mind to the destruction of evolution and alien sustainability.

You're usually the one that keeps him human.

What the hell was her humanity worth, the Doctor's worth, if her own flesh and blood surmised a plan against it? Helped create the suffering and extermination of dozens (hundreds? thousands? how many aliens had been harmed by this branch of government?) without any word to Iris?

And now he was ignoring her? Where was Sebastian and Charlie? What was happening to her family?

The Doctor's attention was pulled away from Iris as the woman continued speaking but Iris couldn't hear anything but the blood rushing in her ears. The pounding of her heartbeat, the guilt swimming in her mind, the bile rising in her stomach. How could she walk alongside the Doctor — a man who saved countless species daily — while her family was part of something that worked entirely against him?

Tears threatened her eyes and she tried to breathe but her throat felt like it was closing in. She looked around, the room full of foreign people and objects suddenly feeling so much smaller. Her hands trembled and she blinked back tears, looking up at the Doctor, who was listening to the strange woman who knew more about Iris than Iris did.

But that wasn't unusual nowadays, was it? For people to know more about her? The woman on the TARDIS phone, Rose when they first met, this woman here, the Doctor.

Everyone knew more about Iris than Iris did and the expectation of being one thing while trying to understand another was so overwhelming.

Panicking and trying to stuff it down, Iris looked around aimlessly, trying to find an out. She just needed some air. If she could just — just get some air, it would be fine. If she could just breathe normally, she would be fine.

She knew this was her Doctor, they were all her Doctor, but this one was different than the Twelfth because the Twelfth would have noticed her panicked state becuase he noticed everything. He'd been with her for so long that he picked up on her habits and tells before she started feeling them.

This Doctor couldn't tell she was panicking, but the Twelfth packed snacks and goods for her to eat when she was hungry.

Her hand moved to her chest as the oxygen failed to reach her lungs, her head dizzying, the world getting a little darker.

"Iris."

Iris met his eyes, trembling and wide-eyed, paler than she normally was, tears soaking her cheeks and breath coming out unsteadily.

"Shh, shh, little star, take a breath. We'll get it all sorted."

"I — I can't — Griffith is — and you — and —"

"—I know," he cut her off softly, cupping her face. "Just breathe."

Iris followed his breaths, eyes on his, until the world stopped threatening to burn away. His eyes were younger than the Twelfth's, but if she looked close enough; there he was.

The very same man.

"Thank you," she whispered and he nodded.

"We'll figure out what's going on," he replied quietly. "I need you to focus, can you do that for me?"

Iris nodded, hair brushing her face and she hadn't even realized she'd been touching it during her panic attack. He offered a small, comforting smile, and straightened, helping her up.

When had she landed on the ground?

The woman was giving them a curious look, Jackie was watching pityingly, but the Doctor paid neither of them mind, gesturing for the woman to continue and then pulled out Iris' ponytail.

More tears gathered in her eyes at the gentle feeling of his hands pulling her hair back up, smoothing it into a better ponytail.

Of course, he noticed her discomfort, she chastised herself. It was her Doctor.

He always noticed.

—

okay WE ARE IN THE FRONTLINES NOW PEOPLE RAHHHHHHH
brace yourselves it's about to get really really hard for a few chapters hahahaha you all know I love me some angst.
and no that's obv not the end of 12 ofc we'll see him again you all know this is a 12 centric fic (i know it doesn't feel like that yet hhahahaha) but i do want to really drill in that they're all the same doctor, just different faces and personalities. hopefully you guys like this??
doomsday is soooooo special to me despite my feelings on rose so i hope i do it justice in this story. also the overarching theme of humanity throughout doctor who is going to be so prevalent in this story because iris IS fundamentally human and the doctor loves humanity, but there's so much pain where humanity is involved amongst one another and other species so hopefully this will come across well in this book.
also, i feel like that's very very much told with the 12th doctor, and more glossed over with the others, so that's why it's such a big theme for iris.
any predictions?