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locker_monsterTitle: Run (3/5)
Rating: PG
Characters: Ten, Ten II
Timeline: Post "The Next Doctor" but no spoilers
Summary: The Doctor's double returns with a message: the walls between realities are beginning to fall again. Can the two Doctors find a way to repair the damage before it's too late?
Disclaimer: These characters aren't mine. If they were, well, that's another story...
A/N: A huge thanks to my beta![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
littlebatti.
Part One. Part Two.
The Doctor opened the door to Ten’s TARDIS and promptly received a handbag to the face accompanied by a surprised scream. He stepped back, stunned, and bumped into his double. They might have gone crashing to the ground if the Doctor hadn’t grabbed onto the doorframe.
“Oi! Give a girl a heart attack.”
A young woman with spiky blonde hair glared at the Doctor. She was dressed for a night out and apparently had been intent on making a phone call from the telephone box. With both the Doctor and Ten filling the doorway, thankfully the young woman couldn’t see into the supposed telephone box.
“Sorry. We were just making a phone call." The Doctor smiled apologetically but didn’t budge from the doorway.
The young woman looked between the Doctor and Ten, unconvinced. “Yeah, likely story. Can I just make a call?”
The Doctor’s smile faltered slightly. “We’re still using it. Got the wrong number, didn’t we, uh, bro?” He glanced at Ten for some support.
His double put on a wide grin. “Right. It’s me old age. Can’t remember a thing these days.”
Rolling her eyes, the woman slung her purse over her shoulder and walked away. “Forget your mobile for one night...” she muttered to herself as she disappeared into the night.
The Doctor stepped out of Ten’s TARDIS and carefully surveyed the area for any other would-be telephone box users. “You really should fix that perception filter.”
Ten closed the door firmly behind him and twisted his key in the lock. “Do you have any idea how hard it is to grow a TARDIS without the right equipment? I had to power her on nuclear power for the first week.”
“But they’re worth the trouble.” The Doctor gazed fondly off into the distance.
Ten followed his gaze. “Oh yes.”
Across the street from them, tucked away in a small alley, waited the Doctor’s TARDIS. He had to increase his pace to keep beside Ten as they crossed the street. His double patted the side of the ship as the Doctor unlocked the door. He hadn’t been in telepathic contact with Ten’s TARDIS, but he could feel his TARDIS inside his mind and she was delighted to see Ten. In the figurative eyes of the time machine, he and his double were one and the same.
The moment the Doctor stepped inside the TARDIS, he felt his fatigue lift. It would only be temporary – the instant he left the state of temporal grace that existed within his ship he would be leaving its protection – but it would give him a boost, enough to complete the modifications.
Slipping off his coat, the Doctor flung it over one of the support struts before lifting one section of the floor grating and easing himself down into the opening. There wasn’t too much space to move around, but he could easily reach what he needed. The exposed hardware of the TARDIS console glowed a pale blue-green, hiding some of the disrepair he had been meaning to fix. Maybe before Ten left he could acquire a few spare parts from his double’s TARDIS.
“Have you looked in on Donna?” With his head coming up just above the opening in the floor Ten’s shoes loomed large in front of the Doctor’s face. They were scuffed, having lost their glossy shine some time ago.
The Doctor ducked down, squeezing his right arm through a gap in the electronics to grab at a bundle of cable. “I’ve run past the house a few times. Can you monitor the power levels? I don’t want to blow any of the circuits.”
The feet didn’t move. Through the grating above him, the Doctor could see Ten standing in the same spot. He continued to grapple with the cable, shoving his arm in all the way up to his shoulder. If he had any more room, he might have crawled through the gap completely.
“Stop it.” Ten’s disembodied voice sounded from above.
Lost in the jumble of electronics, the Doctor replied, “Or you could update the communications program. You know your way around.”
“Stop it.” Ten’s voice, more forceful, sounded closer this time. The Doctor glanced over his shoulder and saw his double hunched over the opening. “You don’t have to do this with me.”
The Doctor tightened his hand around the cable and gave it a good tug. It came free easily. “We don’t need to talk about this right now.”
“I know what you had to do.”
With Ten in the way, the Doctor was trapped. He pulled on the length of the cable, freeing enough of it so he could reconnect it with some of the other cables hanging down from the time rotor. It delayed his answer another moment or two, but his double didn’t budge.
“What do you want me to say?” he demanded of Ten. “Donna would have died if I hadn’t wiped her memory.” Even as he spoke the words, the Doctor felt a pang of regret. There had been no other way to save Donna and though she lived, living a life with her mother and grandfather, he felt as if he had killed her. People died around him, that was certain, but it was rarely on purpose and by his hand.
There was sadness in Ten’s eyes that no doubt mirrored the Doctor’s. “I would have done the same.” He held out his hand to the Doctor.
Hearing those words, a great weight felt lifted. The Doctor knew the power of words. He had justified his actions with Donna more than enough times – with Donna’s mother and grandfather, with Martha, and Jack, and Sarah Jane – but deep down he had never been able to convince himself that he had taken the right course. Just knowing that his own self agreed helped to ease his guilt.
Grasping his double’s hand, the Doctor pulled himself out of the opening.
Reaching up, he disconnected one of the power cables from the time rotor and then plugged in the cable from the interior of the console. With energy from the engines feeding directly into communications, the TARDIS had enough power to broadcast the sub space signal anywhere. He just had to make sure his ship wouldn’t blow herself apart trying to contain that much energy.
The Doctor opened his mouth, ready to give Ten a task, but his double was already at work at the console modifying or bypassing safety protocols. Having the same mind certainly saved on time. He moved to the console screen, set on inputting a program to send the signal.
“I remember,” Ten said softly as he worked the controls. “I can see the whole of Donna Noble’s life in my head.”
The Doctor paused in his task. Two-way biological meta-crisis. Donna could remember everything from his mind. He hadn’t thought much about the reverse. His double would carry a part of Donna with him until the day he died.
They worked steadily without saying another word, not because there was nothing to say, but because they didn’t need to. Working with another Time Lord, even if that Time Lord was himself, it was like he had been thrown back to a time before the Time War, when his people had thrived as a society. The Doctor had been on his own for so long he had forgotten what it was like, the efficiency of working with another who understood the delicate balance of time.
“Ready?” asked Ten, after all the modifications were done. The TARDIS engines whined in the background as they overexerted themselves.
“We can coordinate once you’re back in your ship.” His double nodded and dashed for the doors, headed back to his own TARDIS. The Doctor anxiously rubbed the back of his neck as he monitored the power levels.
A moment later the console screen beeped, indicating that Ten was ready to send the signal from his side. The Doctor threw a switch and across the street, he knew his double was doing the same. The TARDIS engines revved loudly, sounding more like a sports car than a time machine. With enough power to knock a planet out of orbit, the two TARDISes beamed out the signal across all imaginable realities.
The resulting explosion from the console came as no surprise to the Doctor, but he still reacted too slowly and was knocked back off his feet. He slammed roughly into the railing and felt a spasm of pain rush down his back.
The console room fell into darkness, with only enough emergency lighting for the Doctor to see on the console scanner that the signal was breaking through to the other realities. He slid gratefully to the floor and wondered how long it would take before the anomaly came to them.
Rating: PG
Characters: Ten, Ten II
Timeline: Post "The Next Doctor" but no spoilers
Summary: The Doctor's double returns with a message: the walls between realities are beginning to fall again. Can the two Doctors find a way to repair the damage before it's too late?
Disclaimer: These characters aren't mine. If they were, well, that's another story...
A/N: A huge thanks to my beta
littlebatti.Part One. Part Two.
The Doctor opened the door to Ten’s TARDIS and promptly received a handbag to the face accompanied by a surprised scream. He stepped back, stunned, and bumped into his double. They might have gone crashing to the ground if the Doctor hadn’t grabbed onto the doorframe.
“Oi! Give a girl a heart attack.”
A young woman with spiky blonde hair glared at the Doctor. She was dressed for a night out and apparently had been intent on making a phone call from the telephone box. With both the Doctor and Ten filling the doorway, thankfully the young woman couldn’t see into the supposed telephone box.
“Sorry. We were just making a phone call." The Doctor smiled apologetically but didn’t budge from the doorway.
The young woman looked between the Doctor and Ten, unconvinced. “Yeah, likely story. Can I just make a call?”
The Doctor’s smile faltered slightly. “We’re still using it. Got the wrong number, didn’t we, uh, bro?” He glanced at Ten for some support.
His double put on a wide grin. “Right. It’s me old age. Can’t remember a thing these days.”
Rolling her eyes, the woman slung her purse over her shoulder and walked away. “Forget your mobile for one night...” she muttered to herself as she disappeared into the night.
The Doctor stepped out of Ten’s TARDIS and carefully surveyed the area for any other would-be telephone box users. “You really should fix that perception filter.”
Ten closed the door firmly behind him and twisted his key in the lock. “Do you have any idea how hard it is to grow a TARDIS without the right equipment? I had to power her on nuclear power for the first week.”
“But they’re worth the trouble.” The Doctor gazed fondly off into the distance.
Ten followed his gaze. “Oh yes.”
Across the street from them, tucked away in a small alley, waited the Doctor’s TARDIS. He had to increase his pace to keep beside Ten as they crossed the street. His double patted the side of the ship as the Doctor unlocked the door. He hadn’t been in telepathic contact with Ten’s TARDIS, but he could feel his TARDIS inside his mind and she was delighted to see Ten. In the figurative eyes of the time machine, he and his double were one and the same.
The moment the Doctor stepped inside the TARDIS, he felt his fatigue lift. It would only be temporary – the instant he left the state of temporal grace that existed within his ship he would be leaving its protection – but it would give him a boost, enough to complete the modifications.
Slipping off his coat, the Doctor flung it over one of the support struts before lifting one section of the floor grating and easing himself down into the opening. There wasn’t too much space to move around, but he could easily reach what he needed. The exposed hardware of the TARDIS console glowed a pale blue-green, hiding some of the disrepair he had been meaning to fix. Maybe before Ten left he could acquire a few spare parts from his double’s TARDIS.
“Have you looked in on Donna?” With his head coming up just above the opening in the floor Ten’s shoes loomed large in front of the Doctor’s face. They were scuffed, having lost their glossy shine some time ago.
The Doctor ducked down, squeezing his right arm through a gap in the electronics to grab at a bundle of cable. “I’ve run past the house a few times. Can you monitor the power levels? I don’t want to blow any of the circuits.”
The feet didn’t move. Through the grating above him, the Doctor could see Ten standing in the same spot. He continued to grapple with the cable, shoving his arm in all the way up to his shoulder. If he had any more room, he might have crawled through the gap completely.
“Stop it.” Ten’s disembodied voice sounded from above.
Lost in the jumble of electronics, the Doctor replied, “Or you could update the communications program. You know your way around.”
“Stop it.” Ten’s voice, more forceful, sounded closer this time. The Doctor glanced over his shoulder and saw his double hunched over the opening. “You don’t have to do this with me.”
The Doctor tightened his hand around the cable and gave it a good tug. It came free easily. “We don’t need to talk about this right now.”
“I know what you had to do.”
With Ten in the way, the Doctor was trapped. He pulled on the length of the cable, freeing enough of it so he could reconnect it with some of the other cables hanging down from the time rotor. It delayed his answer another moment or two, but his double didn’t budge.
“What do you want me to say?” he demanded of Ten. “Donna would have died if I hadn’t wiped her memory.” Even as he spoke the words, the Doctor felt a pang of regret. There had been no other way to save Donna and though she lived, living a life with her mother and grandfather, he felt as if he had killed her. People died around him, that was certain, but it was rarely on purpose and by his hand.
There was sadness in Ten’s eyes that no doubt mirrored the Doctor’s. “I would have done the same.” He held out his hand to the Doctor.
Hearing those words, a great weight felt lifted. The Doctor knew the power of words. He had justified his actions with Donna more than enough times – with Donna’s mother and grandfather, with Martha, and Jack, and Sarah Jane – but deep down he had never been able to convince himself that he had taken the right course. Just knowing that his own self agreed helped to ease his guilt.
Grasping his double’s hand, the Doctor pulled himself out of the opening.
Reaching up, he disconnected one of the power cables from the time rotor and then plugged in the cable from the interior of the console. With energy from the engines feeding directly into communications, the TARDIS had enough power to broadcast the sub space signal anywhere. He just had to make sure his ship wouldn’t blow herself apart trying to contain that much energy.
The Doctor opened his mouth, ready to give Ten a task, but his double was already at work at the console modifying or bypassing safety protocols. Having the same mind certainly saved on time. He moved to the console screen, set on inputting a program to send the signal.
“I remember,” Ten said softly as he worked the controls. “I can see the whole of Donna Noble’s life in my head.”
The Doctor paused in his task. Two-way biological meta-crisis. Donna could remember everything from his mind. He hadn’t thought much about the reverse. His double would carry a part of Donna with him until the day he died.
They worked steadily without saying another word, not because there was nothing to say, but because they didn’t need to. Working with another Time Lord, even if that Time Lord was himself, it was like he had been thrown back to a time before the Time War, when his people had thrived as a society. The Doctor had been on his own for so long he had forgotten what it was like, the efficiency of working with another who understood the delicate balance of time.
“Ready?” asked Ten, after all the modifications were done. The TARDIS engines whined in the background as they overexerted themselves.
“We can coordinate once you’re back in your ship.” His double nodded and dashed for the doors, headed back to his own TARDIS. The Doctor anxiously rubbed the back of his neck as he monitored the power levels.
A moment later the console screen beeped, indicating that Ten was ready to send the signal from his side. The Doctor threw a switch and across the street, he knew his double was doing the same. The TARDIS engines revved loudly, sounding more like a sports car than a time machine. With enough power to knock a planet out of orbit, the two TARDISes beamed out the signal across all imaginable realities.
The resulting explosion from the console came as no surprise to the Doctor, but he still reacted too slowly and was knocked back off his feet. He slammed roughly into the railing and felt a spasm of pain rush down his back.
The console room fell into darkness, with only enough emergency lighting for the Doctor to see on the console scanner that the signal was breaking through to the other realities. He slid gratefully to the floor and wondered how long it would take before the anomaly came to them.
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