Doctor Who: The Time of the Companions: Book Two (Doctor Who: The Companions Adventure 2)

by Cour M.

  “Well,” Clara assured her, “Don’t worry. My employer, he not only has a ship that can take us back through space, but also through time. When we get you all out of here, he can get you back to your husband even before he notices that you may be missing.”

  “Would he be able to show Jean this all?” Jeannette asked, eagerly, “I have come through time and space. This is everything that him and I have ever dreamed of. Would Governor Smith be willing to show him this all?”

  “I cannot tell you,” Clara admitted, “but we can always ask.”

  “Right. And, are you and he…?”

  “Oh, no!” Clara refuted, “definitely not.”

  “Do you have anyone special in your life? It’s fine of course if not so. I just figured that I’d ask, because you seem so…”

  “So what?”

  “Free.”

  “Oh, well then, I look as I am. No, there’s nothing at all on the horizon for me. I mean, I have had some boyfriends in the past, but there hasn’t been a bloke in my life for years.”

  “Ah, you like to be alone?”

  “In part, yes. But truth is… well, Mrs. Picard, have you ever been so blind before?” Clara asked, wistful, “And you made mistakes. You embarrassed yourself so much that you don’t ever want to show your face again?”

  “Of course I have.”

  Clara chuckled sadly.

  “Well, truth is, that your failures are nothing compared to mine. So… well, let’s just say that when it came to love, I made a right hash of things many times—and I was a complete idiot about things. And I got so embarrassed about it all, that I took time off of relationships. To figure myself out, you know, and find out why was I so incredibly stupid about things. When falling in love, think of every mistake you can make, I made it, from being obsessively clingy, to turning into a doormat. Yeah, I was a mess. But those five months that I took off to figure out myself turned into a year, a year to two years, from two to three, and so on. The truth is, I got so comfortable with being alone, with being just as I am, that I suppose I did not even figure how to let someone in really, until recently.”

  Her mind wondered over to the Doctor that she had met as he showed up as he arrived at her employer’s home, wearing a monk’s garb. Not long after she had met him, she felt a kindred spirit with him. She had felt as if she had met a friend.

  “And it’s not that man who you came here with?”

  “No, it’s not,” Clara laughed, “believe me, he looked incredibly different.”

  They were interrupted by the familiar sound.

  VWORP! VWORP!

  The wind began to blow around the room, and they all moved backwards as the TARDIS materialized from thin air.

  “Impossible!” Virgil cried.

  “Look around man,” Mozart declared, “Impossible things are happening every day!”

  Clara sighed as she realized that she had gotten the chance to talk to every other one of them, except for him.

  “What is that?” Euripides roared.

  “It’s a police box!” Jeannette answered.

  “Oh, it’s so much more than that!” Clara laughed. “It’s a ship.”

  “Pardon?” Guy Fawkes exclaimed, “That cannot be so?”

  “Oh, but it is.”

  The TARDIS came into full materialization as it finally parked.

  As it did so, Commander Nestor rushed into the room, being informed of the matter by her guards.

  “What is…” she trailed off. “Oh!”

  “Yes, Commander,” Clara voiced, “Governor Smith is back.”

  “Now I have fully seen everything!” Jeannette laughed.

  “Oh, no,” came the Doctor’s voice through the TARDIS doors as he stepped back into the room, “Jeannette, we have not even begun.”

  “You were gone longer than an hour,” Clara smiled, “bless you though.”

  “Don’t ever think for a moment that I’ll be punctual, for you’ll always be disappointed. So everyone, into my TARDIS here for liftoff, and you,” He pointed to Clara, “Did you miss me?”

  Chapter 5

  The Most Important Woman in All of Creation

  VWORP! VWORP!

  The sound of the TARDIS filled the room of the refuge as Twelve instructed all the people in the room to get behind him. Donna let Leela and her daughter get in front of her as they all crowded behind him as all around them, something began to materialize.

  “What is going on?” A random man in the room gasped.

  “You are being placed inside of my machine!” Twelve instructed, “It’s called…” He trailed off when he looked at Donna, for fear of saying something that she would recognize and therefore triggering her memory. “The Valiard, it’s called the Valiard. It can go anywhere in time and space. And it’s mine.”

  The TARDIS materialized around them in full, becoming completely solid as everyone in the room were left to marvel at this.

  “Oh my god!” Donna cried, rushing around the TARDIS, “look at this, this is fantastic!”

  “Did you just say fantastic?” Twelve chuckled.

  “Yes, I did. What, do you not like that word?”

  “Yes, and no. It’s very nostalgic.”

  “What a strange word to get nostalgic over,” She laughed, moving up to him and leaning on the unit while all the others were still looking around in amazement. “How did you materialize this thing around us?”

  “Imagine a blanket folding around a bed. Are you picturing it?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good, because it’s nothing like that. Don’t take all the fun out of the situation, Donna, because I can tell you that the explanation is long, dry and very sciency whiency molecular specular.”

  “Started well, that sentence.”

  “It did get away from me, yeah.”

  “But what about the rest of the people in the factory?” Donna asked, “can you fit them all in here and get them home?”

  “Precisely,” Leela stressed, keeping a hold of her child as she walked past, “there are many more.”

  “Don’t worry about that, because think of the biggest ship you have ever seen. Are you picturing it?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well good, because it’s nothing like that either. This ship is infinite.”

  “You love your indirect definitions that don’t really define anything, don’t you?” Donna asked.

  “Sometimes the best way to be clear is to be as unclear as possible,” Twelve said, moving around the consul unit, pulling up his computer screen.

  “Well, what is that?” Donna laughed, “space logic?” She pressed his arm with her hand affectionately and they both realized that she was doing so. Twelve looked at her with kindness, Donna looked confused and she removed her hand.

  “Sorry.”

  “No, it’s fine, really.”

  “No, really, sorry.”

  “Fine, fine.”

  “Are you sure that you are not saying fine just because you wish for it to be fine, but not really?”

  “No really, I don’t feel violated at all.”

  Donna scoffed.

  “Violated? How could that have been me violating you?”

  Twelve smirked at her and Donna could not help but smile.

  “Oh, go on, then.”

  “You still have not told me if you like my machine.”

  “What?” She laughed, “you couldn’t tell from my expression. I love it!”

  “Do you?”

  “Yes, oh, it is wicked!”

  “I never heard you ever say wicked before,” Twelve smiled.

  “Well, didn’t we just meet?”

  Twelve’s smiled faltered.

  “Yes, I suppose that we did.”

  

  As they stood there, with all around them marveling at the interior of the TARDIS, Twelve only had eyes for Donna. She had once been his best mate, and now for them to be estranged from each other, due to the repercussions, it was most painful for hi
m. Yet the pain would be one sided. That she should know him while also not knowing him, and to be standing beside this woman who he had once come to know so very well; it was maddening.

  And it made him feel even more lonely.

  He wished to inform her of so many new developments, all the adventures that he needed to speak about but there was no one. He wished to tell her all about how the Master had returned, but was a woman named Missy, about the return of the daleks… because the daleks just always have to return even when he lost everything! He wished to tell her about the painful decisions he had to make when he landed on Skaro and found Davros as a child in a war zone—and how he had abandoned him once. And how he, Clara and Missy had gotten taken as hostage and it was all a trap.

  And how Davros called him a bad Doctor!

  How he had ridden into an arena in the 1200s, playing a guitar… she would have gotten a kick about how, in the grand scheme of things, that actually made little sense. But that’s why Donna would have thought that it was brilliant!

  And he would have told her about how he found Gallifrey! She would love to hear about that. And yet, all those things, and he could not do it. Because if he told her anything, she could die from all the memories, from overload of her once becoming part Timelord.

  But there she was, smiling away, older, but still not much different, and for a second, he had made her happy.

  

  As all the people continued to look around, one of the men in the crowd came forward.

  “Professor?”

  “Yes,” Twelve asked, “what is it?”

  “Will you take us back home now?” He asked, “my wife, my children. I have a whole family waiting for me.”

  Twelve tried to relax his fierce gaze.

  “I’m sorry, but I cannot do that.”

  All the people in the TARDIS looked at him, including Donna and Leela.

  “What do you mean?” Leela cried, “Professor, you promised that you would help us? My family will not know what happened to me. And neither will her mother.”

  Donna looked at the little girl.

  “Oh, she’s not your daughter?”

  “No, she’s my niece.”

  There were more pleas like this over and over, until Donna turned to them all.

  “All right, quiet you lot,” Donna shouted, “Let’s just hang on for a minute.” She turned back to the Doctor, “Professor, why won’t you take us home?”

  “Because you were right,” Twelve informed her, “you all were. If I were to bring you all home, then the Angels would find you, or punish the Larissans because of this. Or they would continue to attack others on Earth, replacing you with them. So, it’s time.”

  “Time for what?” Leela asked.

  “Time to face your attackers,” Twelve informed them, moving toward the TARDIS doors, “you see, the Valiard can do this brilliant trick you see, where it extends the force field and can trap anything around it in this bubble, with it rotating around her exterior… and it can force it to travel through the time vortex.”

  “What does that even mean?” Donna asked, “and vortex? That’s not even a proper word.”

  “Oh, it’s proper. It’s even in the dictionary, so technically, I am correct. And you see, before I came here, I landed the Valiard in a popular park in London, giving them enough time to track it down and come to it. Because, you see, if there is anything that they love more than anything else, even feeding on humans, it is the power that is within my machine. Basically everyone, they usually push people back in time, and live off their potential energy; all the days that the person did not get to live. Yet this time, they zapped you all into the future, and that is not how they feed. So everyone,” he placed his hand on the TARDIS door, unlocking it, “Time to meet your assassins. Remember, we all move in a group, we all look in different positions, and unless someone is looking where you are, do not blink!”

  The Doctor opened the doors.

  

  Many of the people crowded around him as he stood in the doorway and then they all felt the shocking sensation of their eyes widening.

  “Oh my god!” Donna cried, “Professor, are those…”

  “Yes, they are Donna. The Weeping Angels.”

  There were dozens upon dozens of Weeping Angels facing them through the doors.

  “As long as we keep eyes on them,” Twelve said, “then they stay frozen. Remember, they are quantum-locked, and can only move when they are not being observed.”

  “So that is why they have their faces covered by their hands?” The little girl asked.

  “Precisely,” the Doctor said.

  “That’s what took us?” Donna asked, her eyes growing misty from fear and emotion. “That’s what took us from our families and Earth?”

  “Yes.”

  “Monstrous. How can we destroy them?”

  “That’s the horror behind them. We can’t.”

  “No,” Donna replied stubbornly.

  “What?”

  “Professor, everything has a weakness. I have a mother and grandfather back home. Even if I get home, then there is the chance that these creatures could get one of them. No, I won’t let that happen.”

  “I forgot how quickly your character can shift, Donna Noble.”

  “Once more, didn’t we just meet?”

  “Right, sorry, I just keep forgetting.”

  “Blimey, did you slip some scotch into your morning cup of tea?”

  “Please? I’m too crotchety to be anything else but always sober.”

  He took a few steps forward, out of his TARDIS, but Donna grabbed him.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I’ve never walked into a room full of Angels before, and I’m dying to find out what that would be like.”

  “Are you bonkers? You said it yourself, you blink and they grab you!”

  “Yes, they do. And this is when I need you to do me some favors. Leela?”

  “Yes, Professor?”

  “I need you to always be looking to your left, and your niece. Can you do that?”

  “Yes, I can,” her niece said.

  “And many of you, look around with them, the rest of you look to your right, some walk backwards, and Donna?”

  “Yes? How can I help?”

  “I need you and a few others to look up and around the ceiling as you walk.”

  “What?”

  “Donna, they can move anywhere.”

  “Right,” she replied, then she moved to the others and turned into the general that she was at heart, “well, you heard the man. Take positions as we are walking out and don’t let any of them out of your sight.”

  Leela knelt down and informed her niece to remain inside of the TARDIS, and then she moved closer to the Doctor.

  “Is it really safe for us to walk around them?” Leela asked, “Professor, it seems like there’s another chance that we could get zapped further into the future. I don’t want my niece to have no way home.”

  “Mark my works, Leela, I will get you all home eventually. But I have to know what makes these Angels different than any others that I have met. And I need you all to keep looking at them so that I can get an understanding of them.”

  Twelve looked at Leela, and though she looked very different than the woman that he once travelled with, he could not get the connection out of his mind.

  “Leela, I promise you this,” he could not resist as he kissed her forehead, “I will get you back to your family and your niece will be safe. I just need to find out what is different about these Angels than ones that I have encountered before. This is the start of something else.”

  Leela chewed her lip.

  “Then I’ll trust you.”

  “Thank you.”

  

  With his screwdriver raised up in front of him, he walked out, followed by the rest of the people as they all looked around them, only blinking when they knew that someone else was looking where they had been.

&n
bsp; “Professor?” One woman said, “sorry, my name is Molly Pratchett here. And did you look above your Valiard?”

  “No, I have not.”

  “You might want to.”

  Twelve did as she instructed.

  He turned around and looked up to see four weeping angels standing or kneeling above his TARDIS, on the roof of it, with their eyes covered or closed.

  The very sight of it made even him freeze with shock.

  “Never did they make it up there,” he whispered to himself, then he turned to four people in the room, “continue to look up at them. And please, everyone remain in a circle and don’t get too close to them. Just as a precaution.”

  He moved apart from them, and Leela followed him as Donna was not far off.

  “So what’s your niece’s name, Leela?” Twelve asked as he analyzed one weeping angel with his screwdriver.

  “Susan.”

  “Susan? Really?”

  “Yes, is that name special to you at all?”

  Twelve smiled gently.

  “Who doesn’t have a person named Susan who was from their past?”

  “True. Is she from long past, or recent past for you?”

  “Long past. Amazing, it feels as if it has been an eternity ago, but it also feels as if it was yesterday.”

  “Yeah, isn’t it always the way?”

  “Yes, I suppose it is.”

  “Incredible!” Molly Pratchett said nearby, while she was walking with another set of individuals. “They are… it’s like they are beautiful and villainous all at the same time.”

  “Yes, they are. Wait, keep looking at that one there. I don’t want it to move.”

  “Right.”

  “By the way, what is that thing you’ve got?” Leela asked. “Is it like a laser weapon or something?”

  Twelve looked to make sure that Donna was not close enough for her to overhear him. When he saw that she was closely inspecting an Angel who was smiling at her, he continued.