by Cour M.
“You became double-agents?”
“Precisely. And then when we learned that the Daleks were interested in the Angels, we informed the Church of the Mainframe and this plan has been developed ever since.”
“But I don’t understand though. Who trained you to resist the inside of you that is Dalek?”
“She learned from the best.”
They had reached the front of the church and standing there was the Mother Superious herself.
“Good afternoon, Doctor.”
“Tasha Lem,” The Doctor said, bowing to her, “it is good to see you once more!”
“Once more I get to see the new face and body.”
“Yes, but my hair is better this time around, I believe. Donna, Leela and everyone, this is the Mother Superious, head of the Papal Mainframe herself, Tasha Lem, keeping you safe in this universe and the next.”
“Should we curtsy?” Donna asked.
“Bowing your head is sufficient,” Tasha said, “given that you haven’t come to church properly naked, I have to overlook protocol for the moment.”
“No way!” Donna cried, “so that really is a real thing for you?”
“Yes, it is.”
“Once more, Tash, loving the gown,” Twelve said.
“Nice to know that your face may change, but you can appreciate a good frock.”
“Of course I can.”
“The main time he stood before me,” Tash said to Donna, “he had a different face and a different companion. I’m assuming that Clara is gone.”
Twelve’s face faltered, but he recovered.
“Yes.”
“Did she go bravely?”
“Of course she did.”
“That’s good to know.”
“Tash, I know that I don’t say this very often, because, well, it’s me; but thank you, Tash. You saved me again.”
“Once more, this was never about you, you egotist.”
“Oh, don’t lie to yourself, this is very much about me as well,” he winked at her.
Tash smiled and Donna leaned into him.
“Did you just wink at her?”
“Shut up,” Twelve whispered back.
“Oh, so you’re a winker now?”
“Keep shutting up.”
Donna bit her lip, highly amused as Twelve turned back to Tash.
“Tell me,” Twelve asked, concerned, “Is the Dalek still within you?”
Tash let the eye stalk emerge from her head. All the refugees who saw it flinched and moved back, but Donna told them to keep still. Then Tash retracted it and it disappeared back into her skull.
“Every moment. And it’s been that way for years.”
“And you still successfully fight it.”
“Of course. Every bloody day.”
Twelve, moved, blew a kiss at her.
“Finally, the right type of admiration.”
“I plan to take these people back to Earth,” Twelve said, “because there is nothing for it now. I have a plan.”
“You have a plan. I always get so very scared when you say those words.”
“Don’t worry, this is a good plan.”
“I always get so scared when you say that too.”
“It’s a really good plan.”
“I’m not even going to respond to it.”
“All I ask from you is just look after yourself. You just blew up a Dalek ship and I don’t want you to fall apart because they came after you again. Tash, you lost part of yourself when you defended the universe against the Daleks. I don’t want you losing the rest.”
Tash’s usual charmingly cynical demeanor softened a bit.
“With every regeneration, your face changes, but inside, deep down, you are still the same, aren’t you? A creature with two hearts.”
“That’s me.”
“And,” Twelve continued, “there might be one more thing I need.”
“Of course,” Tash said, “what is it?”
“I need your help in saving my friend.”
Twelve turned to Donna.
“Doctor,” Donna groaned, rolling her eyes, “there’s really no need to make a fuss. For goodness sakes, I’m fine. Really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really.”
Her neck shifted like she was a robot for a second, and it was beginning.
The beginning of Donna Noble dying.
“What is wrong with her?” Tash asked.
“Doctor I really do feel fine,” Donna said, “that was just a one-time one time one time iter—iteration — iteration – iteration.”
“It’s her brain,” Twelve explained, “it’s melting.”
“Why?” Leela asked, “what’s happening to her?”
Tash leaned forward and inspected Donna with her eyes.
“There’s something inside of her,” Tash noticed.
“Yes,” Twelve answered simply, “it’s me. She was injected with Timelord juice from my regeneration a while ago. I had to erase her memory of me before it overwhelmed her and destroyed her mind. I was wondering, Tash, did you know anything at all that could save her?”
Tash looked at him stoically.
“You’re a Timelord,” Tash said, “you know as well as I that there is nothing that can reverse this, except to erase it again.”
“I know,” Twelve said sadly, and then he turned to Donna, who looked thunderstruck.
“Donna.” Twelve said simply, “I am sorry.”
“No,” Donna sighed. “No, not again!”
“I have to,” Twelve walked forward, “but it was nice knowing you again. It was nice running with you. But let’s be honest. I stole a bit of happiness when I got you back. I can’t steal any more of it.”
“I can’t go back, Doctor,” Donna cried, “I can’t go back to forgetting myself!”
Twelve raised up his hands, but Donna pushed him away.
“I said I cannot do it!”
“Donna, you will die!”
“Then I will die. Because if I go back, I might as well be dead. I have been dead long enough. I will not do it any longer. Doctor, I may lose my life, but please, don’t take my soul again.”
“If I don’t, then you’ll die.”
“Then let me fight. Till the very last second. Tash over there, she has a Dalek in her. So does Harriet Jones. Let me fight the Timelord that is within me.”
“Why did you have to be this?” He hissed, “Donna Noble, why did you have to be this perfect!”
“Because I’m your friend. And the Doctor chooses his friends with care.”
Twelve roared out in grief and then began to pace back and forth. He ran his hands through his hair.
“I can’t stand here and let you die. I won’t do it. No, too many have died or left me. No more!”
He stopped in his tracks, and then he recalled the words that echoed in his soul.
“Gallifrey falls no more.”
“Doctor,” Tash began, but then Twelve raised up his hand, thinking. After a few seconds of silence, he turned back to them.
“That is the very answer, isn’t it? Gallifrey once fell, then I saved it. To make the impossible possible, to make the nightmare into a dream and then the dream into a reality. And then for the reality to stand there, and be the dream itself, never falling. Never dying. I marked the return of the Timelords. I solved the last Great Time War. I have lost good friends and discovered old enemies. I have watched this world burn over and over and the universe put the flames out, because I would not let the galaxies burn for eternity. To save many lives and to never save one. What use is saving the universe if you can’t save your own heart? So often I tell myself that the survival of many justifies me losing a few, but no more! Gallifrey falls no more! Donna Noble forgets, no more!”
Twelve turned to Tash.
“Tash, please, look after all these people until I return. Please, one more favor for me. And Leela?”
“Yes?” Leela said.
>
“Make sure that no one does anything stupid.”
“I’ll do my best.”
Twelve took Donna’s hand and then pulled her along.
“Come on, Donna. We have no more than half an hour before your brain melts completely.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Something dangerous!”
“Well, I knew that already.”
Donna ran with him, but she began to weaken.
“Doctor, I’m sorry,” she gasped, “I can’t keep going, I can’t…”
The Doctor practically pulled her along.
“Yes, you will! Come on, look! It’s the TARDIS, Donna. Look, it’s just a few feet away. Come on, one last time. Let’s make it back in there.”
Donna half-crawled half-walked in and the Doctor closed the doors behind him, laid Donna on the ground, rushed up to the consul unit, inserted an equation into it and then they were flying away.
“Donna!” Twelve cried as he rode the TARDIS through the vortex, “are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” Donna sighed, her eyes closed as she lay there. “Really, Doctor, I’m still here.”
“Don’t you go dying on me, you big ole’ ginger!”
“But what are you going to do?” She asked weakly, “for the Timelord side of me knows that there is nothing that can be done.”
“Nothing but the impossible. Or should I say nothing but what is not proven. Tell me something, Donna, the Timelords have roughly a hundred different strict rules of what not to do. How many of them do you think that I broke?”
“All of them.”
Twelve chuckled.
“You know me so well. The truth is that I broke ninety-nine of them. But there is one more that I still haven’t. There was a Gallifreyan theorist who coined the term, the Blinovitch Limitation Effect, which was an explanation of why a time-traveler can't just go back in time and meet himself. But you know me. Of course I bashed through that theory many times. Too wild, I guess. There was another theorist who disagreed with that one, and he said that we could meet our previous selves, and I believed him. I was right to. But he had another theory. Would you like to hear it?”
Donna was too weak to respond, because her mind was dying.
“Of course you want to hear it,” Twelve rushed out, “Donna Noble of course would want to hear it. Well, this theorist was named the Experimentalist. And he had a theory that because the body of a Timelord was a miracle, too much of it pushed into a human would crush their minds, but if a human were to be in the presence of its healing process, but not too close, then that would change everything. He also had another theory, but I’m not going to tell it to you. I’m afraid you would try and stop me. You would, wouldn’t you?”
When he got no response, he turned and saw that Donna’s eyes were completely closed.
“Donna!” He cried, “Donna!”
He kicked the TARDIS.
“Please, go faster! You know what she means to me, please! Go faster.”
He more so felt the TARDIS speed through the vortex than see it, and felt it arrive precisely where he needed to. He checked the date and made sure that he was correct.
He parked, rushed to Donna, picked her up, and carried her out of the TARDIS as he emerged on the streets of Trenzalore. It was precisely as he had remembered it. He had just got done blowing up the Daleks who were attacking the town of Christmas, and any moment, he would be regenerating… into himself. He was present on the planet that he was buried on in the future, on the day that the Eleventh Doctor would die and he, Twelve, would be born. He knew very well that he could die doing this. But he had to try. Donna was worth the effort.
Up ahead, he saw the older version of his TARDIS and while carrying Donna, he snapped his fingers and the doors to the TARDIS opened.
If he recalled correctly, his previous self would be right at the point where he was going to say ‘I shall always remember when the Doctor was me!”
He entered quietly and there the Eleventh Doctor was, then there was Clara, about to cry because Eleven was about to leave her. For a moment, he was thunderstruck. That was how Clara looked at him before he had changed, and she looked heartbroken!
Twelve quickly set Donna down, close enough to feel the effects, but not far enough away to not get healed, and then right as Clara begged Eleven not to change and he was glowing, Twelve rushed forward and grabbed Eleven’s hand.
“Doctor!” Twelve cried, “not yet!”
Eleven turned to him, his regeneration beginning.
“Doctor, I am you! You cannot change just yet!”
Twelve felt his regeneration energy force begin to come from him, swivel around his body, and he hoped it would work.
“Eleven, I am Twelve, and your hour is not done yet! Your hour is not done yet!”
Both Eleven and Twelve’s regeneration energy then exploded between them and the room was filled with their light.
Chapter 6
Where the Heart Is
Clutched by her throat, gasping for breath as she was being choked to death, Martha’s blood ran cold as she heard what the Doctor said.
The Doctor had just told Croesus, leader of the Mechanoids, to kill her. It was the worst thing in the world to hear and her heart was broken. Feeling so utterly betrayed, she felt foolish for thinking that their relationship had changed. Many times he sent Martha off to die when he was Ten and now it had only gotten worse. She was as expendable as always.
Suddenly Croesus lowered Martha to the ground, but he still held his hand around her throat.
“Well, at least you still have the refinement to see that death by strangulation is never how a leader does things,” Eleven said to Croesus casually, as if he was ordering some tea. “I’d hate to think you got even sadder, Croesus.”
“This is coming from the man who was willing to let his companion die for him.”
“She’ll die today or tomorrow, or the day after that, so really, who cares, eh?”
Martha was appalled, offended and would have shot him if she still had her gun.
A gelem soldier moved past them, Croesus gave it an order, then it went into a teleportation beam that was near the wall, another gelem pressed a button on the command unit and the gelem soldier was beamed out of it. Eleven noticed this and Martha saw how he slid his TARDIS key out of his sleeve, secretly, and in the palm of his hand. Now he was going to abandon her, she saw, but she wouldn’t allow it if it came to that.
“But I just wish to point out how foolish you are, Croesus, to think you know where my heart lies,” Eleven continued, “but I can tell you now that it was never with them.” He gestured to Martha. “I don’t know why you villains, sitting there on your would-be thrones always think that. So tell me, since you already know that I am aware, why are you after the TARDISes on Marinus?”
Croesus ordered some gelems to hold Martha in place while he walked back to his throne.
“You are so afraid of her that you have to have her restrained,” Eleven laughed, “come on. You’re the ones with the many guns pointed at us.”
“You may be the Doctor, but our research shows us that she is a soldier. So, you came here to Mondas, in response to the cybermen attacking your precious Marinus. And you think it has something to do with me?”
“Tosh, I know it does. So come on, Croesus, since you have us captive and we can’t go anywhere, you ought to give me a bit back.”
“I will give you nothing, Doctor. The man who is a scourge to the mechanoids. But I should not be surprised that you would let your companion die for you, because you were so used to letting others die for your negligence before.”
“I did everything in my power to make up to you what had occurred,” Eleven replied, “I have attempted to rectify this damage done for centuries.”
“But it was never enough,” Croesus looked around at his fellow mechanoids, “do you like the way that they look, Doctor? The new and evolved sp
ecies of mechonoids?”
“You’ve been making modifications and improvements, but there is more to it than that, I see.” Eleven moved up to one of the mechanoids and inspected it, “well, I heard rumors of your hideous experiments, Croesus, but I never knew that you would find another means through which to make me sick.”
“Be careful, Doctor, you are stepping on my dreams,” Croesus replied, “and my artwork—my grand masterpieces. It has taken me years to perfect the new master-race of mechanoids.”
“The patterns are all there,” Eleven noticed, “these mechanoids have been spliced with actual human parts, look at them! Human eyes with metal cheeks, halfway metallic neck and organs… you simply turned yourselves into more sophisticated versions of cybermen. And it’s vicious. It’s unforgivable.”
“This is coming from the man who lets whole nations burn, all for him. All so that he will live.”
“I can see that you are not going to change your mind and give me the answer, so let me see if I can work it out for myself.” Eleven moved backwards and then began to pace, trying to figure it out.
“Eureka!” Eleven cried, “yes, oh, but yes! The cybermen want to have stronger methods to overtake the many galaxies. A TARDIS would give them that. But they know that the TARDISes on Marinus shall never fly. Unless they had a sufficient Eye of Harmony, and then if so, they could get the TARDISes to reach full growth. And you have that Eye of Harmony. I don’t know how you got it, but you did! So, what is the plan then? If you give it to them, then you will get half the TARDISes? Is that what they promised you?”
“No,” Croesus responded, “not many TARDISes. I only want one.”
“One TARDIS?” Eleven repeated. “Why one only? Because everything that you have done up until this point was deliberate and large. One TARDIS, rather than many, simply means that you don’t intend to do many little things, but instead, it means you simply wish to go back in time and do one large thing. Yes, admit it, I am right, aren’t I?”
“Doctor, the man who always thinks that he knows things.”
“Because I do,” Eleven said, “and I know my enemy this time. I always love knowing my enemy. Croesus, I know that you hate me, I know that you will never forgive me for when I landed on Mechanus and brought the Daleks with me, and therefore there is only one thing that you will do. You want a time machine, to take yourself back in time so that you can rewrite history. So that you can undo me ever reaching your home planet.”