by Cour M.
Doctor who
The Time of the Companions
Part II
Cour M.
Dedication
You’ve journeyed to Part II of the series, so thank you all for making this trilogy possible!
The Time of the Companions
Chapter 1
Two’s Company
“What?” Donna asked, quite loud and angrily.
“What?” The Doctor asked, confused.
“Did you call me?”
“Yes, I did.”
“Well, that’s just strange because I don’t believe that I’ve ever seen you a day in my life.”
“No, you haven’t.”
“But you know my name?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Well, who are you then?”
“I’m…”
“Yes? Do you not know your own name?”
The Doctor scrounged around, confused of what to do because he could not say his name, for fear that her memories would return and her mind would either melt or explode due to it.
“Yes, I do. I’m… the Professor.”
“Professor? Professor Who?”
“Oh,” The Doctor laughed, “Well, if you like.”
Donna scoffed and took a step forward.
“Has anyone ever told you that you’re just a tiny bit weird?”
“First, yes, and they never really stop, and second, has anyone told you that you are very good at shouting?”
“Yes, they never stop that either.”
“Well, Miss Noble, you’re not going to make the world a better place for shouting at it.”
“I can try,” Donna repeated, and then she flinched.
“What?” The Doctor asked.
“Nothing,” she scratched her head, “it’s just for a second you reminded me of someone.”
“Of who?” Twelve said warmly.
“Of my grandfather. I recall him once saying something quite similar.”
“Wilfred?”
Donna’s expression changed and she walked around the people, toward him.
“You know my grandfather?”
“Yes, he sent me to find you.”
“He sent you? Then, he and my mother know where I am?”
“Yes, they do.”
For a second, Donna’s face was overcome with joy!
“Well how did you get here?”
“Same as you, the Angels.”
“Oh, not you too.”
“Pardon me?”
“And that is where I don’t believe what everyone is saying!” Donna cried, “Everyone is claiming that we got here through these alien angel things that are statues or something one minute, then monsters in the next.”
“Oh, come on, you saw it yourself!” A random woman in the crowd of stranded people argued, “like the rest of us, you saw a statue before you faded here.”
“No, I did not, thank you very much!” Donna denied, “and I would thank you not to pretend as if you know what’s in my mind.”
Twelve pulled up a chair, leaned back, propped his foot up against another chair and relaxed.
“Why do you look so amused?” Donna countered.
“Because we really are right at the beginning, now aren’t we?” He could not resist but laugh.
“You’re doing the weird thing again, but whatever. Back to the problem at hand.”
“How can we address it when you keep avoiding it?”
“Pardon?”
“She’s right,” the Doctor gestured to the woman, “you were kidnapped by alien angel statues.”
“Thank you,” the woman replied, turning back to Donna, “See, I told you!”
“Nonsense,” Donna still denied.
“Well, what other excuse could you have found?” The Doctor asked.
“I don’t know, you tell me, you’re the Professor. But I can tell you what I saw. I was just looking around, taking pictures of some ruins, and there was a statue there, sure, but it didn’t move. I turned around, and whatever happened to me happened from behind, because next thing I know, I’m here. Someone knocked me out.”
“So, you all see a statue of an angel in different places, you’re on another planet now, there are many around you in the same circumstances, and you still choose not to see.”
“Why do I get the sense that you are way too amused about this?”
“Because it’s all the little things for me, really. Big things only make me cry often.”
Donna did not know how to react to this at first.
“Was that you being poetic?”
“It was more so me being sincere, but translate that as you will. Still, you don’t wish to see.”
“No I don’t.”
“Just like that time you didn’t see the invasion of the daleks in the sky along with cybermen marching everywhere.”
“Like I told all my friends, I was scuba diving in Spain.”
“Yup, the woman who always misses the big picture, still you I see?” Twelve winked.
“Are you always like this?”
“Only when I’m happy.”
“Well, be happy and helpful at the same time. We need to get back to our families. Do you know a way that we can get back through time?”
“Yes, can you?” The other woman asked. This question got followed by the other people in the room. The Doctor could not help but wonder how quickly they all began to trust him, but then again, he realized that they were quite desperate.
“Yes,” The Doctor replied, “I can get you all home.”
Everyone cheered at this, and for a moment, Twelve felt a twinge of guilt, because he was going to dampen their hopes in the next moment.
“But I won’t,” he added simply.
“What?” The other woman asked.
“What do you mean?” Donna countered.
“I mean precisely that,” The Doctor continued.
“Why won’t you?”
“Because it would not matter.”
“What do you mean that it would not matter?”
“Because you all don’t know how these creatures work. But I do. The Weeping Angels are quantum-locked monsters, who usually send their victims into the past, letting you live out the rest of your days while they feed on the potential energy of all the days that you never got to live in the present.”
“What?” Donna blurted out, “creatures that feed on our lives?”
“Yes, your present lives.”
“But we weren’t thrown into the past,” the other woman added.
“What’s your name?” The Doctor asked her.
The woman looked left and right, wondering why he singled her out.
“Me?”
“Yes.”
“I’m Leela.”
The Doctor flinched.
“I beg your pardon?”
“I’m Leela.”
“No way, that can’t be your name.”
“It is.”
“Ah,” the Doctor clapped his hands, “Donna and a girl named Leela? This feels like Christmas.”
“Stop getting excited and not telling me why,” Donna interrupted, but gentler. She was growing less aggravated and more curious. “Now, what were you telling us?”
“As Leela said, yes, you were thrown into the future, the distant future. That is not how the Angels hunt or feed. And we need to know why.”
Donna pulled up a chair and sat down in front of the Doctor.
“Professor?”
“Yes.”
“Are you suggesting that we be used as bait? Because that’s not something that I ever would find amusing.”
“It’s more than that,” Twelve said, “and no, I am not using you all as bait.”
“Then what else for?” Leela asked, coming forward and sitting down opposite him, and that was when the Doctor noticed that Leela was holding hands with a child that was clearly her daughter.
“I’m saying that I don’t want to take you back in time before I find out how to keep you away from the monsters.”
“Away from them?” Donna asked.
“They placed you in the future for a reason, so if they all decided to do that, what do you think is going to happen if I bring you back to the past?”
“You think that they will follow us?” Donna asked.
“Yes,” The Doctor replied, “And they will only zap you here again.”
“Are they really that persistent?” Leela also asked as more people gathered around them.
“Yes, they are. The lonely assassins and the kindest psychopaths in the galaxy.”
“And even if we were to get back home again if they were to do that, they would still follow us?” Donna asked, pensive, and the Doctor began to see in her the same woman who had walked into his TARDIS after they had just defeated the adipose industries who was harvesting the people of Earth for its fat.
“Yes, they would,” he answered.
“So the question is simple,” a random man in the audience said, “these Angels have to be stopped completely.”
“Yeah, they have to be killed!” Another woman said, and they were cheered on by the others.
“How often does stone get killed?” The Doctor countered, “for you see, when you look at them, that’s what they turn into, and also when you blink and look away, that’s when they grab you and they zap you through time, this way.”
“I want to go back home,” another woman cried, “we all do.”
“Besides,” Donna cried, “our families are back there. If we stay here, how can we stop the creatures from coming after them?”
“Whether they are our families or not,” Leela chimed in, “many innocent people on Earth will suffer in the way we are. The only way that we have to go back down to Earth and warn them is to get back home.”
“Or the reverse,” Donna noted, and the Doctor turned to her. He leaned forward and placed his hands on his knees.
“Go on,” he encouraged.
“If we go back to Earth, then the Angels will keep on zapping us back here. But if we stay here, which we can’t, then the Angels will just collect more people. Then it means that the only way that we can…”
“Yes. We have to bring the Angels here, to Larissa.”
“But if we are doing that, then we are bringing the monster here, and the people here will suffer,” Leela pointed out.
“The Angels picked you all up and brought you here, to this planet. Not separate places, but this one. To Larissa. Believe me, this planet is already involved, we are just bringing the Angels to it sooner than expected.”
“But the people,” Donna began.
“If I do this right, then they will not be in any danger at all. Well, that is always my plan.”
“And does your plan always work?” Donna inquired, dubious.
Twelve grinned.
“Stop looking at me like that.”
“Sorry, but I can’t help it.”
“So, what is your plan?”
“Get ready, because it’s going to be a hard one.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s about to happen,” Twelve stood up and removed a key from his pocket.
“What’s about to happen?”
“I should have given it enough time for all the Angels to find it by now. You see that is the great thing about a Time Machine. If you set it up so that it is already in motion before you leave it, it continues to travel through the time vortex without you… and it’s never too far away.”
The key began to glow as he summoned his TARDIS and all in the room began to hear the familiar sound of VWORP VWORP!
“Donna and Leela, be prepared.”
“For what?”
“For the beginning of it all. Because this is where it all may end.”
Chapter 2
Raggedy Man
Walking along the fields of the growing TARDISes, followed by Martha and Nigel, the Doctor was lost in thought. Behind him, his two comrades were talking together in a very animated fashion, and he caught every other fourth or fifth word, and the Doctor was both happy and sad. He knew precisely what was needed for the TARDISes to be allowed to grow fully, and he knew where it could be found. There was one other place it could be retrieved besides Gallifrey—until he remembered. The Cybermen had attacked Cardiff… and he never got the chance.
“Martha and Nigel!” Doctor turned to them suddenly. “The Cybermen, what planet did they come from to be clear?”
“Mondas,” Martha reported.
“Correct. At this point, they usually just occupy quadrants in space, living in ships and looking for expansion. Cyberiad fell too often when it came to planetary invasion, so currently, they are too scared. So answer me this, why here? Why now?”
“Why what?” Nigel asked.
“Why would they attack Cardiff? What does Marinus have to do with them?”
“We don’t know and…” Martha took a moment to think about it, then she walked forward, past the Doctor and glimpsed everything behind him. “Oh my god.”
“Precisely,” The Doctor confirmed, knowing where her mind fell.
“What are you talking about?” Nigel asked.
Martha turned around and felt breathless.
“The TARDISes. The Cybermen were after the TARDISes!”
“Precisely!” Eleven agreed.
“But why though?” Nigel commented, “What would Cybermen do with half-grown TARDISes?”
Eleven began to pace back and forth, trying to deduce it all properly, but what would Mondas have to do with it? Mondas had always been harmless enough, except for the occasional adventure that occurred there every now and again.
“Doctor Jones, Doctor and Nigel?” Came a voice behind them. They all turned and another soldier was accosting them. “You’re needed in the Hexagon, for General Sidney is requesting your presence.”
“Oh, has something been found?” Martha asked.
“Found, yes. We’ve captured a cyberman.”
They followed the other soldier to the Hexagon, which were the main headquarters of the military, with the Doctor complaining the whole way there.
“Capturing a cyberman is never wise,” The Doctor admitted.
“And why not, sir?” Nigel asked.
“Because they are cybermen, for goodness sakes. No other explanation is really needed.”
“Doctor, this is the best option at this time,” Martha advised, “the cybermen came for the TARDISes. We have to know why.”
“Why is always a great question. A truly great one. The problem is that a cyberman strapped to a chair is still just that.”
“Don’t worry, sir,” the other soldier said, “we have taken every precaution.”
They entered the Hexagon, followed the soldier into one of the more hidden chambers and then at last they came upon General Sidney as he stood over a cyberman who was strapped to a chair by metal clamps.
“Cyberman, shackled mackled and chained under pain while he’s strapped by metal scraps in Cardiff,” Eleven began, “Wow, I feel all kinds of clever with that one.”
The Cyberman looked at the Doctor with a blank expression.
“Ah, the same dumb look as always,” Eleven said, “really, you all ought to devise a way to vary up your expressions.”
“Expressions are irrelevant,” The cyberman voiced. “All that matters are the vital parts. Just as torture is useless, for we are made to endure the ultimate pain.”
“The ul
timate pain?” Eleven laughed, “really? You think that’s what I am going to do?”
“No one knows anymore,” the cyberman spoke, leaving Martha to wonder what were the implications behind that statement. “Because I know who you are.”
“No, you really don’t,” Eleven said.
“The man who has done everything in his power to erase himself from the pages of history. You are the Doctor.”
Eleven ground his lips and then moved close to the cyberman.
“And how do you know that?”
“Because we never forgot. Because we remember what happened. At Demon’s Run. And we know what you have become.”
Eleven looked at Martha, wary, as she looked between him and the cyberman. Yet Martha was not in the mood for the Doctor to stand on trial in the presence of so many, so she moved forward.
“Stop avoiding the questions placed on you,” she ordered, “you attacked our settlement without explanation, men and women are dead because of you. Bodies that you would willingly use as spare parts to repair yourselves. I know what’s underneath there. I know it’s a human who was crying out for mercy when you decided to upgrade them. So why are you here?”
The cyberman looked at her only, with its expression blank.
“Answer the question,” General Sidney ordered. “Why did your unit attack Cardiff?”
The cyberman looked at him, and then back to the Doctor.
“A cyberman’s duty is always to follow the orders of our authorities.”
“And why would they order you to come here?” Martha stressed.
“Precisely,” Eleven added, “cyberman all share the same data feed, therefore playing ignorance is not going to work, now is it? Oh, I do so hate one sided conversations, therefore give us a bit back, now will you?”
The cyberman leaned back against the chair he was placed in.
“Not one word, then. We were merely going to give you a chance.”
“A chance?” the cyberman echoed, “like the Doctor did when we were in England?”
The Doctor blinked.
“You did it to yourselves,” he hissed, “you were going to take my friend.”