A/N: Disclaimer: I reclaim my claim of a disclaimer, for I have previously disclaimed any claims to claiming Doctor Who. (Does the word 'claim' look weird, now? It's like clam with an i in it. That's weird.)

So we're back into this again! Updates will be sporadic for a couple of months as real life continuously punches me in the stomach, but I wanted to get on with it.

Series order: Destiny, Paroxysmic, The Debt, Mother's Nature, Echoes, Time, 22 Weeks, Mind Games, Co-consciousness, Insurgent. (Additionally: There are reworks of Destiny, Paroxysmic, The Debt and Mother's Nature on AO3.)

I try to cater for new readers as much as I can, but now we're deep into this series, it's all getting slightly insane. There are extended summaries of the previous stories in all published stories of the Destiny series for a quick swot-up. Anything not making sense, just ask! :D

Previously in Co-Consciousness

On a quest to get Rose back into her body, the Doctor and Jack have to get to Sirrus - the most criminal infested planet in the universe - to find a woman called Geranda. At the same time, the Doctor is contacted by a giant who saved his life after the Time War, Hunfrid, begging for his help. Brax (the Doctor's brother), Gwen, Ianto and Leah (the Doctor and Rose's daughter) go to help Hunfrid, as Jack and the Doctor get themselves imprisoned in New Shada - built by somebody unknown, but with an intimate knowledge of the gallifreyan race.

Jack locates someone to get them to Sirrus, a draconian nicknamed Spleen, and whilst pretending to be subservient to Jack, the Doctor leads the escape. They reach Sirrus, but Spleen, the son of a dictator, has become interested in the Doctor's apparent subservience. He captures the Doctor and Jack. Before the daughter of the dictator is able to earn money out of the Doctor in her sex trade, the Doctor and Jack escape on a slave lorry. They reach the safety of the underground community, but whilst diverting the guards, the Doctor drowns and briefly dies. Jack revives him, but finds Rose is now controls the Doctor's body when he is unconscious.

Meanwhile, Brax, Leah, Gwen and Ianto have discovered that there is a massive spider infestation on Hunfrid's planet. Leah and Alex (the Doctor and Rose's son) concoct some gas to kill the spiders, but during the rescue Alex is poisoned, and begins to die. Brax concedes to visit the Doctor in the future for his help, and to his horror, he finds him on a planet called Anzen. Brax resolves to tell his present brother where he found him when he thinks he's ready to hear it. The future Doctor saves Alex's life, and leaves.

With the help of a fourteen-year-old called Seth, Jack and the Doctor continue on to find Geranda, but two of the three dictator's children die in horrific circumstances involving the group, causing the dictator to declare war on the Doctor. They reach Geranda and obtain a cure for Rose, and discover that the dictator has burnt the people in the underground alive, including Seth's brother. They head to the dictator's palace to defeat him, but Rose is now fully in control of the Doctor's body. She confronts the dictator, as Jack and Seth go to find Elliott's body. Rose realises the extent of the dictator's heinous crimes as he describes how he murdered a Time Lady, whose body still hangs above his throne. Jack and Seth discover that the dictator has captured the Doctor's clone - Zak - and believing him to be the Doctor, has tortured him severely. Filled with anger, Jack finds Spleen, and challenges him. Jack wins, though stops short of killing Spleen, but Spleen kills himself.

Jack and Seth reach the Doctor, who the dictator is hanging. Jack uses his last bullet to shoot through the rope to save the Doctor's life. Seth reveals that the dictator's last child is dead, and the guards turn on the dictator, killing him. Rose reveals to Jack it was her controlling the Doctor's body all along, but her being in his head for so long is causing a severe problem. His brain starts to rip apart. Brax finds a psychograft and puts Rose's consciousness back in her head, before the Doctor and Rose return to pick up Seth.

Seth struggles to adapt to the culture shock of the TARDIS and her occupants. They hold a funeral for the Time Lady the dictator murdered, where Brax admits to Jack that both he and the Doctor knew her, but the Doctor wouldn't recognise her now. Jack has an impromptu party, before Martha goes into labour, and a boy is born. The Doctor and Rose reluctantly realise that they both want another child. Whilst in the library, Brax sees that Tony had been reading books on gallifreyan biology and goes to confront the boy, but discovers the Doctor's new arch nemesis, known as Toby, has somehow got onto the TARDIS. Brax is knocked out by him, and disappears.

Whilst the Doctor, Jack and Rose are looking for Brax, The TARDIS unexpectedly goes on a flight due to a mysterious control disc. It crashes on Earth, when they discover the Earth has been utterly decimated by alien invaders in the Doctor's year-long absence. But before they can get to Sarah, UNIT arrive and fake the Doctor's death without warning, and cart him, Rose, Leah and Alex off to destination unknown, leaving everyone else to think he was murdered.

17/11/2016: Document in Gallifreyan v4.

TenRose, A/U, babies, fluff, whump, smut. Anything else?

Chapter 1: Dead Man Walking

Jack woke up with his usual gasp for air, and quickly focused to see a group of people standing over him – Ianto, Jackie, Gwen and Rhys.

Almost immediately he remembered what had happened, sitting up. 'We've got to stop them!'

'Jack!' Ianto said, kneeling down to hold him. 'What happened?'

'Where's Rose and my grandchildren?' Jackie wailed.

'They took them, they shot the Doctor and took them, all of them,' Jack gasped out, struggling to stand up. 'We've gotta go after them!'

'Who? They shot the Doctor!?' Gwen asked, terrified.

'Unit!' Jack replied, and pointed at the blood stain on the ground. Everyone gasped. 'This way!' he shouted, pointing in the direction the van had been.

'Jack!' Ianto shouted, grabbing him to stop him. 'This is stupid, you can't just …'

'They took them!' Jack almost screamed in Ianto's face. 'They've got him, Rose and the kids! They shot him, Yan!'

'I know, I'm sorry,' Ianto said quickly, not letting go. 'But he'll regenerate. And they didn't kill Rose or the kids - they're wanted for something. You can't just charge in. We need to think about this. We've got some time.'

Jack fell still, his steely expression faltering. Ianto was right. Of course he was right. He sagged, and thought again. 'Okay,' he said after a moment. 'We need to get everyone and the Tardis to the Tate's Torchwood and figure out something to save them.'

Everyone nodded and scattered to implement the plan as Jack looked at the direction the van had been. He could see tyre marks, and there was a path of smeared blood from the Doctor's body being dragged across the concrete.

After all they'd been through. After prison, slavery, running and hiding, being captured and nearly dying about seventy-eight times. One poxy little ambush had taken the Doctor and his family away.

'They won't get away with this. I'll find you,' Jack muttered to the blood trail, and ran back into the TARDIS.

The Doctor woke up, and was immediately amassed by an exceptionally potent headache.

He groaned and opened his eyes without moving an inch, finding himself lying in a bed in completely unfamiliar surroundings. He blinked a few times, just about processing he was in some sort of bedroom.

For a while his eyes scanned the industrial-styled room. He was in a double bed that was comfortable, with a toilet en-suite, a sofa to the right, and a desk to the left. There were no windows, so although the room was perfectly adequate, there was something distinctly cell-like about it. He could see a few sets of clothes laid out on the sofa; male, female and child-sized, and bizarrely, four toothbrushes by the sink with washing products, and a collapsible baby-changing table stocked with nappies. He was also connected to a medical machine, which was registering his dual heartbeat with periodic beeps.

After a few minutes of just lying there trying to figure out what he was going to do, there was the sound of a keypad beeping and the door slid open. Immediately he felt the bond course through him, and he realised it was Rose.

'Rose,' he said as she ran to him, running a hand through his hair.

'Hey, sleepyhead,' she said, kissing him. 'Have a nice nap?'

'Nap?' the Doctor repeated.

She giggled. 'Yeah, sorry, not joke time, yeah? How are you feelin'?'

'I have the ice cream headache from hell,' he moaned.

'Yeah, they said sorry about that,' Rose told him. 'They said if you needed any painkillers just ask.'

'Pardon?' he asked, and then had another thought. 'Leah and Alex!'

'They're fine,' Rose said quickly. 'The Brigadier took them to the play area.'

'... I'd really like you to start making sense at some point,' the Doctor said, blinking a little more. 'The Brigadier's here? There's a play area? Where are we?'

'Unit,' Rose replied. 'Don't ask me where exactly cos I have no idea.'

'Unit?' the Doctor repeated, alarmed. He tried to sit up, but his headache prevented that and he ended up falling back, closing his eyes again.

'Don't move, we're safe,' Rose insisted. 'After you passed out we were all put onto a van and driven away from Jack and the others. I thought they were gonna kill us or somethin', but a few hours later and the Brigadier popped up and said it was all fine, they were savin' us. Apparently they've been preparin' for us for months.' She gestured around the room. 'And they made this room for us.'

'Saving us from what?'

'I dunno yet. They want to brief us when you're ready.'

'But they shot me,' the Doctor said, confused.

'No, they didn't, it was all fake,' she said. 'They said sorry for your clothes, they're bein' washed, mended and brought back. Are you ready to get up?'

The Doctor groaned, closing his eyes.

She kissed him again. 'No, then. I'll get some painkillers for ya.'

After the headache had receded somewhat, Rose had helped the Doctor get dressed into his freshly-laundered and mended clothes and took him to UNIT's purposely-built play area, which was fairly small and had limited toys, but clearly a significant amount of effort had gone into it. There were some children there, and to the side he saw Leah and Alex, who were overjoyed to see him.

'Daddy!' Leah shrieked happily, running to him.

'Bit less high-pitched?' the Doctor asked, dropping to his haunches and kissing her forehead. 'I've got a proper ice cream headache.'

'Sorry,' Leah said sincerely, hugging his neck along with Alex.

'Are you two okay?' the Doctor asked.

'Yeah,' Leah replied. 'Do you know why we're here yet?'

'Nope, but we're about to find out,' the Doctor replied. 'How are they treating you?'

'Good!' Leah said, still refusing to let go of him. 'They gave us a banana milkshake each.'

The Doctor drew back, his eyes wide. 'I want one of those.'

Leah giggled and ran off to retrieve her glass, and ran back to give it to her dad. He took a sip, and beamed.

'Nesquik,' he commented, and handed it back. Rose giggled from beside him. 'We've got to go and talk to the Unit people. You gonna be okay here?'

'Can't I come?' Leah asked quickly.

'It'll be boring. I'll tell you what's going on as soon as I know,' the Doctor told her.

'Okay,' she said, perking up a bit as she kissed his cheek. 'Bye bye.'

'Bye,' he said, finally managing to peel Alex off of him, whose eyes immediately filled up with tears. 'We'll be back in a bit.'

Alex nodded, and just stood there, staring up at his parents, looking so vulnerable. Rose swooped in to collect the both of the children in a hug. When she stood up, Alex still looked miserable.

'Back in a bit,' the Doctor promised them both.

Leah nodded, taking her brother's hand and leading him back into the play area. The Doctor and Rose left into the corridor, meeting a UNIT escort to take them to be briefed.

'I always feel guilty when we leave him,' Rose admitted.

'Yeah,' the Doctor muttered, running a hand through his hair. 'C'mon.'

The Doctor and Rose were invited into the Headquaters, where many people were sit tapping away at keyboards. They were escorted into a small a briefing room, and were presented with food and drink before the woman who had taken them arrived along with the Brigadier.

'General Sir Alastair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart!'' the Doctor said quickly, standing up with a massive grin on his face.

'That's the Brigadier to you,' the Brigadier replied, shaking his hand. 'It is good to see you again.'

'I am Sergeant Magalin, but please, call me Louise,' the woman said next, smiling. 'I'm honoured to speak with you. I've read all of your files.'

'Really?' the Doctor asked, looking happy. 'Which was your favourite? Sorry, nice to meet you,' he said, shaking her hand too.

'I'm very sorry for taking you and your family in such a forceful way.'

'That's okay, not like I haven't been fake shot before,' the Doctor said, shrugging slightly. 'Though I would like to know why.'

'I'm sorry for the cloak and dagger,' she said as they sat down. 'One month after you stopped coming to Earth, we were invaded by an alien race called the Gliek. We managed to - eventually - fight them off, but then another race came, then another, then another. We've been invaded six times in twelve months.'

'I believe they'd got a whiff that you'd left Earth,' the Brigadier said.

Louise nodded. 'It's been completely non-stop. Everyone is either dead or in hiding. Communications have ceased - we have no idea what is happening internationally, or even nationally. Food is scarce, and people are dying from the cold. We can only guess, but we assume the population has been decimated. They are calling this the apocalypse. We are completely powerless. The aliens kill who they please - there is no reasoning with them.'

'Oh my god,' Rose muttered. 'What about Sarah?'

'Sarah Jane is here,' the Brigadier told them. 'She and her associates were made safe two months into the first invasion.'

'Where is here?' the Doctor asked.

'Mount Snowdon,' Louise replied. 'We're shielded here. However, the current race – we just call them the invaders – are monitoring all communications. That is why Sarah Jane couldn't pick up your call. But you gave us your location by that. We had operatives in every city, waiting for your arrival. We suspected that the invaders would be aware of your alien presence, so we had to get to you first. We used a drug that would limit your potency as an alien entity on a scanner. They would not have been able to trace you here.'

'But why did you fake kill him?' Rose wanted to know.

'It is absolutely essential that everyone believes you have been killed,' Louise replied. 'The invaders may know that you can regenerate, and now they have no idea where you are or what you look like. Additionally, your children would have been traceable due to their alien DNA, so we brought them too, with their mother, of course, for your peace of mind. They can't be detected here. I'm afraid we couldn't bring your friends, it would have taken too long.'

'You've clearly made a plan,' the Doctor commented, chin in hand.

Louise suddenly looked a bit nervous. 'Yes. Look, we know everything that happened to you as a result of Unit, Doctor. We are not them; we were never them. I know it's absurd, and I know you have better things to do than save a race of people who hate you, but we beg you. Please stop the invaders.'

Rose looked at the Doctor. He was grinning.

'Can't survive a year without me,' he said, laughing. 'Yeah, I'll stop 'em. Who are these invaders?'

Louise smiled and shook her head. 'As soon as you feel well enough then I will explain more to you. Consider yourself having completely free range of the base, just don't go outside. We've have a play area for children, and the quarters you are in are designed specifically to meet your needs. I'm afraid we don't have much space though, so Leah and Alex will be in with you. If there's anything you need, please don't hesitate to ask.'

'Well enough? I'm fine,' the Doctor insisted. Rose elbowed him. 'Ow! What?'

'Your leg,' she told him firmly. 'You got shot, remember?'

'It's fine.'

Rose glared at him for an uncomfortable amount of time.

He withered slightly. 'Okay, okay. But you'll need to talk to Jack,' he told Louise and the Brigadier.

'Why?' Louise asked, frowning.

'Because for starters, he's now got Kiana, who has gallifreyan DNA, and therefore scannable if she is taken out of the Tardis. Then there's the issue that he's going to come after us, and he's probably going to wave a gun around in the process. A lot. He'll be a live wire.'

Louise stiffened slightly. 'But … nobody can know you're alive.'

'What about me?' Rose asked. 'I can talk to him. I won't mention anythin', I'll just tell him to keep Kiana safe and not come after us. I'll say you're threatenin' us or somethin'.'

'But the invaders will see the communication …'

'No, wait, we could use that,' the Doctor said. 'Say something like I've regenerated but I'm very sick, and they're taking me somewhere. He can't follow that way. Then Unit can use absolutely everything they can to keep the message secret, so it looks to them like Unit tried. If they see the communication, you'll send them on a wild goose chase. If not, you're still keeping Jack at bay.'

There was a brief pause as they all considered that, nodding approvingly.

'Excellent plan,' the Brigadier finally commented. 'Shall we get to work?'

Rose was sitting in a room with a video camera pointed at her, ready to link up with Torchwood Tate. The Brigadier, Louise and a handful of UNIT operatives were all standing behind camera, waiting for the connection to be established. The Doctor was handcuffing her to the chair to make it look a bit more genuine.

'I'm nervous,' Rose suddenly admitted, looking at the Doctor.

'It's fine, just go through what we rehearsed,' the Doctor told her, pulling back.

'But we're lyin' to Jack.'

'I know, but it's for his own sake,' the Doctor replied. 'He'll understand.'

'But it's not just him, it's my mum; it's everyone. Everyone'll think you're dead and that me and the kids are in danger.'

'I know,' the Doctor said again. 'We'll make it up to them. They'll get it.'

She pulled a face. 'Yeah, maybe.'

He paused, gazing at her. 'You should probably be crying.'

'I'm too tense to cry,' she said.

He considered that, and then suddenly seemed to change the subject. 'Aww, do you remember when we finally got to Barcelona? The planet, I mean.'

Rose frowned, confused. 'Yeah ... why?'

'And the dogs could talk too, and they were so cute,' the Doctor continued. 'But they were being wiped out by a plague. Do you remember that, Rose?'

Rose's eyes widened as she realised what he was doing. 'No. Shut up. No.'

'And the colony of Jack Russells that had just been wiped out …'

Her eyes began to well up. 'Shut up!' she said seriously.

'And do you remember that golden retriever puppy who asked us to save his puppy friend, but his friend was almost dead? Do you remember that, Rose?'

'I said shut up!' she yelped, trying to resist the tears, but it wasn't working.

'Remember the dying puppy? Those big brown eyes gazing up at us?'

'Stop talkin' about dyin' puppies!' she said, crying now.

'The way he twitched, whimpered and quietly died? Remember, Rose? Remember the dead puppy?'

'Doctor!'

He grinned. 'Sorry,' he replied sincerely.

'Live in ten,' one of the UNIT mechanics said.

The Doctor quickly got up and limped to behind camera. 'Okay?' he checked.

'Yeah. But you're dead.'

The Doctor shrugged half-heartedly, clearly trying not to smile.

'Five, four, three, two …'

The UNIT operative trailed off, and two seconds later the screen in front of her turned on, where suddenly she could see the interior of an old-looking metal structure, looking a lot like the Torchwood in Cardiff did. There was no one there.

'Jack!' she called. 'Jack, it's me!'

Seconds later, Jack's face appeared, looking both terrified and relieved at the same time. 'Rose! What the hell's going on? Where's the Doctor, is he okay?'

Rose sniffed back her puppy-induced tears. 'They … They killed him, Jack. They just let him bleed to death.'

Jack's eyes widened. 'No!'

'He regenerated but he got really sick. They took him away. I dunno where.'

'Where are you? I'm coming to get you, and I'm gonna kill 'em.'

Rose shook her head quickly. 'No, please don't. They'll kill us. Just stay there, please, and look after Kiana. If she goes out the Tardis she'll be detected by scanners.'

'She hasn't been out. But I can't just stay here. Where are you?'

'I don't know. But please don't follow us. Please. They're threatenin' Alex and Leah if I don't do what they say.'

'Fuck, okay. What does the Doctor look like now?'

Rose looked beyond the screen, falsifying it as a moment of grief. The Doctor shrugged.

'I … I don't know, I just felt him die. They just said to make sure you knew not to follow us, yeah? Please don't. Please. They'll hurt Leah and Alex. Please.'

Jack took a deep breath, closing his eyes briefly before opening them again. 'Okay,' he said. 'But you can damn well tell them if they lay a finger on any of you, I'm gonna rip their throats out, I swear to God. And we'll find him, Rose. They can hide him all they like, we'll fucking find him.'

Rose nodded. 'Oh, Jack …' She paused briefly, looking at the Doctor, who was about to signal for the communication to be terminated. He stopped immediately. They hadn't planned this bit. 'Please … Please don't tell my mum what's goin' on.'

Jack shook his head. 'I won't.'

The Doctor signalled for the communication to be cut.

One of the UNIT operatives terminated it immediately. 'The invaders saw it,' he told the crowd.

'Excellent,' the Brigadier commented, nodding approvingly as the Doctor moved forward to release Rose from the restraints.

'Sorry,' she told him, still full of tears - only this time, they weren't due to the puppies.

'It's okay,' he replied. 'I'd have done the same. And come on. We saved the rest of the puppies in the end.'

As soon as she was free, she hugged him tightly, and for a long time.

'You'd better get yourself to the sick bay,' the Brigadier said once they had finally parted.

The Doctor sighed. 'Must I?'

The Brigadier smiled slightly. 'There is someone there I think you will want to see.'