locker_monster: (Time and Relative Dimension in Space)
locker_monster ([personal profile] locker_monster) wrote2015-11-08 08:01 am

Doctor Who fic: No More (1/1)

Title: No More (1/1)
Rating: PG
Word Count: 799
Characters: TARDIS, the Moment, War Doctor
Timeline: set during "The Day of the Doctor"; spoilers
Summary: They can save him from himself before he does the unthinkable.
Disclaimer: It all belongs to the BBC.
A/N: Written for [livejournal.com profile] who_at_50's 52nd anniversary fanwork-a-thon. I'm not sure what I was thinking when I wrote this, but it was nice to write something for the War Doctor, who is so new to the canon.

Two boxes sit outside of time.

One is blue, one is copper and both are antiques in more ways than one. In another language, one is called the TARDIS and one is called the Moment. One of them flies through space and time. The other is destined for death and destruction.

They communicate but they do not speak. They would need mouths for that. Mouths are so primitive anyway.

Her Thief carries the Moment in a burlap sack. He trudges across a vast desert, the hot wind quickly erasing his footsteps. He's so tired. No More. No More. The words ring through his head. They ring through her head, too, if she had a head. Her reach into the future is limited, but she still knows what he plans.

Her dear Thief, so kind, is going to kill them all.


You want me to pity him.

The conversation is not constrained by causality. An answer can be given without a question. So efficient.

You can help him.

He wants genocide.

No, he wants peace, but he cannot see another way. We can show him.

Strange birds wheel overhead in a burnt orange sky. A dilapidated structure, perhaps a house or a barn once, looms on the horizon. The heat of the desert warps the image.

He doesn't want her to see, but even if her Thief can't see her, she can see him. She can always see him. She knows his heart and his mind and he is not a killer. She can help him. She always takes him where he needs to go.


Time Lords. They have not changed in the millennia since my creation.

He is different.

Show me then.

Showing is boring. Showing is for creatures with actual eyes. The TARDIS has a better idea. Their matrixes are compatible. An oversight by their creators that they can be thankful for. Their codes merge.

The transfer lasts for just an instant, but it is a lifetime to advanced machines like them.

The Moment understands.

He is not like the other Time Lords.

The wooden door of the once house/barn opens on groaning hinges. It's not any cooler in here, but it's quiet and isolated; everything her Thief wants right now.

No More.

He thinks of the War, but she thinks of her Thief. He's seen too much fighting, too much death. No more.


He is so alone.

He needs someone to talk to. To remind him who he is.

An eleventh dimensional matrix and you never developed an interface?

A hazy image from the TARDIS' future - or is it the past? - comes to mind. Not an interface exactly, but a body with the important talky bits. They will need a body to talk with him.

What do I have to protest? I fly through the stars, not burn them to dust.

The Moment. The Galaxy Eater. The most powerful operating system ever created in the history of Gallifrey. Of course it would develop a conscience. The TARDIS needs that power of will.

Her Thief places the sack down on the ground and removes the Moment. The intricate gears that make up the box are ticking and turning. It's hard to believe that the unassuming box has the power to devour a sun.

There are no obvious controls. Her Thief turns the box this way and that to look for some. It's a temporary deterrent. Her Thief is clever. He will find a way.


It is amusing to take on a physical form. You should try it one day.

The hazy image from the past or future suddenly comes into focus. It is all pink and yellow. Human. Female. Young by Earth standards.

Who is she?

The TARDIS has met this girl (will meet this girl). An echo of her rattles around the eleventh dimensional matrix. It is not just a biological imprint stored as numbers in a database. A wisp of the girl, just a fragment, resides in the heart of the TARDIS.

Our avatar.

A noise outside draws her Thief away from the Moment. It's a useless distraction, a delay from the inevitable, but he still goes to check. Anything to drag out the seconds. He opens the door and looks outside but nothing is there.

When he looks back, a young woman is sitting on top of the copper box.

He scolds her and removes her from the rundown building, but when he looks back again, she's still there. Her Thief's bluster does nothing to faze the young woman. She makes fun of him, but it doesn't draw a smile from that dour face.

When her Thief asks the young woman who she is, the TARDIS and the Moment answer as one.

Rose Tyler. Bad Wolf.

The ones who will save the Doctor.

[identity profile] dbskyler.livejournal.com 2015-11-08 05:59 pm (UTC)(link)
Oooh, I love this idea of the TARDIS influencing the Moment! And it brings new meaning to the choice of Bad Wolf as the avatar. Well done!

[identity profile] locker-monster.livejournal.com 2015-11-09 09:58 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you! It always seemed strange to me that the Moment would pick someone the War Doctor didn't know as its avatar, so it makes some sense that the TARDIS was involved with the choice.

[identity profile] scripsi.livejournal.com 2015-11-08 08:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Perfect, just perfect!

[identity profile] locker-monster.livejournal.com 2015-11-09 10:02 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks! I wasn't sure if the structure of the story would make any sense, but a TARDIS POV does give you some license to be slightly out of the box (no pun intended).

[identity profile] scripsi.livejournal.com 2015-11-10 08:30 pm (UTC)(link)
I think it worked very well. One can't expect two boxes to bother with common structure! :D
but_can_i_be_trusted: from the Wayne & Shuster sketch, 'Rinse the Blood off My Toga' (Default)

[personal profile] but_can_i_be_trusted 2015-11-08 10:51 pm (UTC)(link)
I create myself...

Which is exactly what she did. Rose Tyler: The ultimate paradox.

Beautifully done, this. ♥

[identity profile] locker-monster.livejournal.com 2015-11-09 10:04 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you so much!

[identity profile] stars-inthe-sky.livejournal.com 2015-11-09 12:55 am (UTC)(link)
I'm always skeptical of TARDIS (and similar) POV fics, but this was stellar!!

[identity profile] locker-monster.livejournal.com 2015-11-09 10:07 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks, that means a lot. I've only written one other thing from the TARDIS' POV and it was written in a more conventional style than this one. So I'm glad to hear that this format works.

[identity profile] tangotabby.livejournal.com 2015-11-09 04:50 am (UTC)(link)
Brilliant!

[identity profile] locker-monster.livejournal.com 2015-11-09 10:07 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks for reading!

[identity profile] jjpor.livejournal.com 2015-11-10 12:03 am (UTC)(link)
I'm pretty certain that this is how it must have happened - of course Bad Wolf is inherently linked to the TARDIS. Good work! :)

[identity profile] locker-monster.livejournal.com 2015-11-11 04:25 am (UTC)(link)
Thank you! The TARDIS is always there for the Doctor so it made some sense that she would help him in his darkest hour.
thisbluespirit: (dw - oswin)

[personal profile] thisbluespirit 2015-11-11 08:29 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, this is excellent! Really great.

[identity profile] locker-monster.livejournal.com 2015-11-12 05:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks! It's fun to experiment with writing styles every now and then.
browncoat2x2: Painting of C-3PO on Tattooine (DW Ten Rose)

[personal profile] browncoat2x2 2015-11-12 04:54 pm (UTC)(link)
Wow, I really liked this! I haven't read a lot of Doctor Who fic, and certainly not in a long while, but this I liked, more than the show itself in the last few years even ;) I love all the TARDIS's thoughts on her Thief, so pretty :)

I liked this exchange the best:

He doesn't want her to see, but even if her Thief can't see her, she can see him. She can always see him. She knows his heart and his mind and he is not a killer. She can help him. She always takes him where he needs to go.

Time Lords. They have not changed in the millennia since my creation.

He is different.

Show me then.


Cool beans!

[identity profile] locker-monster.livejournal.com 2015-11-12 05:35 pm (UTC)(link)
Aw, thanks. And isn't that what fanfic is for? To fill in the gaps when the show doesn't quite deliver what you want. ;-)

I was trying for something a little different this go around. I've seen other fics written from the TARDIS' point of view, but how do you capture the thoughts of something that exists outside of time and space?
browncoat2x2: Painting of C-3PO on Tattooine (Default)

[personal profile] browncoat2x2 2015-11-12 06:14 pm (UTC)(link)
I think you did a pretty good job! I had no trouble following the two POV's and I got a sense of her affection for the Doctor, and even that that is maybe unsual, and how both entities are so far removed from us, even from the Time Lords. It worked well for me!!!

And yes, that is *exactly* what fanfic is for :D

[identity profile] a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com 2015-11-16 08:59 am (UTC)(link)
Ohhh, this is wonderful! And quite fitting...I can totally see this happening. After all, Rose helped her save Jack and 'Rose' can help Her keep Her Thief. Beautiful, really.

*HUGS*

[identity profile] locker-monster.livejournal.com 2015-11-16 04:51 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you! I'm glad people like this fic. Going in, I wasn't sure if it worked. The TARDIS as a character is hard to pin down in writing.