Chapter Text
Standing in the control room of the Monk's TARDIS, I wondered if I should be impressed at the sight. It might appear to be more high-tech than the console room I was familiar with, but since it just looked like the console room of the Doctor I was currently with, it probably wasn't actually that much more advanced.
However, it was hard to be sure just how advanced it was, as parts of the console looked like they'd been practically ripped apart for some reason or another, cables hanging out and various controls removed.
"What happened here?" Steven said, looking at the console in shock.
"What else?" the Doctor said, looking critically at the console before he turned to the Monk. "You cannibalised your own ship to try and create whatever you needed to dispatch the TVM, didn't you, mmm?"
"Among… other things," the Monk said, looking pointedly at him. "Our last couple of encounters were… well, they weren't exactly relaxing for me; let's leave it at that."
"I see," the Doctor said, a critical expression on his face as he looked at the Monk before he turned his attention back to the console. "In any case, from what I can see, nothing here should prevent the ship from moving; with the coordinates we shall hopefully acquire from Miss Swan's second Time Ring, what we have should be enough.
"Should we be doing this?" I asked, looking uncertainly at the Doctor. "I mean, we have your TARDIS-"
"Which is not the best at precision travel at this time, Miss Swan," the Doctor said, actually looking slightly ashamed at the confession. "Mortimus has done a great deal to this TARDIS, but its dematerialisation circuit still appears to be intact; as well as this, we must consider the possibility that these Time Rings may not be compatible with my vessel, whereas this ship is newer and therefore more compatible."
"But… can we trust him?" Steven asked, looking anxiously at the Doctor. "I mean, he was trying to erase you from history -!"
"And he has witnessed in great detail the consequences of that assault; he will not attempt such a strategy again any time soon," the Doctor said confidently, before he turned to look at the Monk. "Will you, my good fellow?"
"No," the Monk said, a bitter edge to his voice as he looked up at the Doctor, evidently wishing that he could give another answer; no matter what he had learned, it had to be tough to acknowledge that his attempt to save his planet had failed...
The moment passed as he turned back to the console, putting a few panels back into place before he turned around and looked at me as he stood over another exposed console. "Can I have your Time Ring now?"
Nodding in understanding, I reached into my pocket and pulled out the currently-unused Time Ring, holding it out to the Monk. Nodding in acceptance, he turned back to the console and pulled out a few wires, stripping off the covering material before tying them around the bracelet part of the ring. A couple of metal clips were also attached to the circular object at the top of the Time Ring before the Monk stood back, taking a deep breath as he studied the assembly in front of him before he looked back at the Doctor.
"Let's get on with this," he said.
"About that… what are we going to do when we get there?" Steven asked. "Even if we're right and this takes us back to… well, to Bella's Doctor…"
"I can shut the TVM down when I'm in proximity to it," the Monk said grimly. "We have to try; whatever I wanted to erase, that is worse."
"Let us be off, then," the Doctor said, a briefly distasteful look on his face as he glanced at the Monk. "On… silent running, I believe."
"Silent running?" I asked.
"You are, I presume, familiar with the noise the Ship makes when it arrives and departs from our destinations?" the Doctor asked, looking over at me until I nodded in response. "'Silent running' refers to the ship materialising in a manner where it will not make that noise; considering that our goal is unknown, it would be best to avoid attracting attention to ourselves until we must."
"But… if the ship doesn't have to make the noise, why do you always let it happen?" Steven asked, looking curiously at the Doctor.
"I like it," the Doctor replied, with a slightly childish smile that looked more like something I'd see on 'my' Doctor than anything he'd done so far.
Somehow, it was that moment that really helped me see that this Doctor was younger than the one I knew; he just seemed so… light-hearted about it all…
"We're here," the Monk said, looking up at us with an urgency in his manner before he hurried towards the door to the outside world, the three of us close behind him.
As we emerged from the Monk's ship, I nearly wept at the sight that greeted me; the TARDS console room that I was familiar with, coral-like columns and cobbled-together console and all, the Doctor I travelled with at the heart of it…
Then my eyes fell on the sight of me disappearing from one corner of the room as the TVM broke through the forcefield around the console, and my priorities shifted back to the present; what could the Monk do to stop it now-?
Before I'd even finished my thought, or the older-looking Doctor and Steven could do anything themselves, the Monk's hands and face began to glow as he literally dived between my Doctor and the TVM, the missile striking him as golden energy suddenly erupted from his body. The two Doctors, Steven and I could only watch as the small missile that had been about to strike my Doctor moments ago exploded in front of the Monk as he fell to the floor, his face shifting underneath the glow as though it was being re-moulded from the inside as the TVM seemed to put itself back together and explode before repeating the cycle all over again, hovering over his chest…
After a few seconds of this strange loop, the glow finally ceased as the TVM dropped to the ground, the energy outburst at its back having ceased, followed by a withered husk in the Monk's robes that looked as though it would collapse if we touched it.
"Bella?" the Doctor said, looking uncertainly at me after a moment's silence. "What-?"
Ignoring my usual shyness as his words broke the spell that had settled over the console room, I ran over to the Doctor I knew best and wrapped my arms around him, pressing my ear to his chest to listen to his reassuring heartsbeats.
We'd just witnessed the worst possible world anyone could experience, and I would need some time to work out how to feel about seeing a man apparently kill himself right in front fo me, but the Doctor was back now…
"What… what just happened?" Steven asked, looking uncertainly at his Doctor, his voice apparently reminding 'my' Doctor of what else had just happened.
"Was that… Mortimus?" the Doctor I travelled with asked, stepping away from me to look incredulously at his younger self; I wasn't sure if he was more stunned at the sight of the other Time Lord or at the fact that his original self was here in the first place.
"Indeed it was," the older-looking Doctor said, smiling at his future self before he looked back at Steven. "And to answer your question, my boy, it would appear that Mortimus intercepted the TVM while simultaneously triggering all of his remaining regenerations at once; the release of temporal energy as he changed would have convinced the virus that it was consuming his past without it ever actually travelling there, thus preserving his past at the cost of... well, at the cost of his own life."
"Regenerations… that's the… thing that allows you to turn into him?" Steven asked, indicating the Doctor that I was currently standing beside, clearly trying to think of something aside from the fact that an enemy had just died for us (Could we really feel sorry about a man dying like that when he made the original mistake?).
"Yeah, that's-" I began.
"A TVM?" the Doctor interjected, looking incredulously between his younger self and the Monk's corpse, as though he'd only just caught up with what had been said earlier. "Are you saying… Mortimus unleashed a TVM on me?"
"Apparently so, my boy," the Doctor replied, smiling at the seemingly younger man. "Fortunately, our intervening selves would have apparently been able to trick the virus into believing that my regeneration was our actual moment of birth, preserving me amid the chaos that resulted from Mortimus's ill-thought actions long enough for Miss Swan to help us learn what had happened, accompany us back to the TARDIS, and from there allow us to find Mortimus's location."
"I didn't do very much…" I said, suddenly feeling embarrassed as the two Doctors looked at me with proud smiles.
"Don't belittle yourself, Bella," the Doctor said, smiling at me. "You went on the kind of journey that few people could have coped with; you were up against some pretty stiff odds, after all…"
For a moment, I was lost in thought at that statement, unsure how to react to the Doctor's praise, but the silence was broken at the sound of something seemingly collapsing behind us. Looking around, I was shocked to see the column that had been the Monk's TARDIS literally dissolving right in front of us, the familiar police box appearing from what I could only think of as sludge as the column fell apart like melting plastic to reveal the elderly Doctor's TARDIS.
"What?" Steven and I said, briefly stunned at what had just happened before we looked back at the two Doctors, who were looking at the younger Doctor's TARDIS with grim expressions.
"You… know what happened, don't you?" I said, as I looked back at the two Time Lords.
"The Monk had already done a great deal to its components to assemble the TVM," the elder-looking Doctor explained, shaking his head slightly as he looked at where the ship had been. "With his death, not to mention the amount of power it expended in getting us here…"
"It… ran out of power?" Steven asked, looking at the place where the Monk's TARDIS had been in surprise. "They can do that?"
"Depending on a variety of factors, yes," the younger-looking Doctor confirmed. "I've fitted this one with a few back-ups over the years- one near-miss with a lack of Zeiton-7 was enough for me- but evidently Mortimus either didn't bother or they all ran out."
"Most likely it was a combination of both," the past Doctor commented. "He had clearly been forced to scavenge components from his own ship to create the TVM he attempted to use against you; add in the complexities of taking us here on his own, and it is likely that his ship simply lacked the power to do anything else but collapse."
"Probably for the best, anyway," the Doctor said, smiling as he reached over to pat the TARDIS on the console. "The old girl's tempting enough a prize to other people when I'm in regular control of her; I've no idea what I'd do with Mortimus's ship if I had to take care of it as well."
"Mmm?" the older-looking Doctor said, looking at his future self with a thoughtful stare before he sighed. "I suspect that this relates to one of those details of our future I should not know?"
"Yes," the Doctor replied.
"Well, if I must live in ignorance, I must ask one minor question," the older Doctor said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out the cricket-ball he'd used against the Sontaran earlier. "Where did I acquire this?"
"Oh, that must be something you picked up from our TARDIS," the Doctor said with a smile.
"Our TARDIS?" the other Doctor repeated in confusion.
"You had a brief run-in with our fifth self a short while back in your timeline; he had a thing for the game and must have picked it up while you were alone there," the Doctor I travelled with explained, smiling at his other self. "It was… well, an interesting experience, anyway."
"I see," the elderly Doctor said, nodding thoughtfully before he reached down and picked up the Time Rings lying near the Monk's robes, looking back at my Doctor and I with a solemn smile. "Well then, I suppose I'd better get on with programming these things before I erase my memory, mmm?"
"Probably a good idea, yeah," the Doctor said, holding out a hand to smile at him. "Good to see you again, Doctor."
"Always an… interesting experience, my boy," the elderly Doctor said, smiling briefly at his older self before he looked over at me. "And it was a pleasure to meet you, Miss Swan; I look forward to spending more time with you when I become him."
"You're… you're welcome," I said with an awkward smile.
"And Steven Taylor," the Doctor said, grinning at his old companion. "Always a pleasure to see old friends."
"Uh… the same," Steven said, smiling awkwardly at my Doctor before he looked over at me. "And… good to meet you too, Bella."
"Hey, we're companions," I said, smiling at him in understanding as I shook his hand. "We might not spend much time together, but it's always good to meet someone else who's been through this wild ride."
"Yes it's… quite an experience," Steven said awkwardly, before he turned his attention back to the Doctor he'd come here with. "So… reality's back to normal now?"
"Oh, most assuredly it is, my boy," the elder Doctor said with an understanding smile. "However, we have to depart from this location promptly if we wish to avoid any negative consequences of this experience; having our version of the ship remain inside its future self would be dangerous if allowed to continue for long."
"Right… that… makes sense," Steven said, nodding uncertainly at the Doctor I knew before he smiled at me as he turned back towards the other TARDIS.
"Well, I must be off," the elder-looking Doctor said, smiling at me before he shook his future self's hand once again. "Goodbye, my boy; it was… interesting to meet me."
"Always a pleasure to see me too," the Doctor replied, returning the handshake before his other self walked back into the ship. After a moment's waiting, the younger TARDIS vanished from the interior of its younger self, leaving the Doctor and I alone in the ship once again, exchanging smiles at the thought of what had just happened.
I'd dealt with a lot since I'd learned what Edward was, but this was the first time I felt like I'd done something really important…
"So…" I asked, looking uncertainly over at the Doctor after the silence became less comfortable, indicating where the younger TARDIS had been. "Do you…?"
"Remember what just happened to you from his perspective?" the Doctor finished for me with an understanding smile as he indicated where the younger TARDIS had been moments ago. "I do now, but I didn't before now; whenever I meet myself, the younger me's memories are automatically erased until I've caught up with the oldest version of us involved in the crisis. The Time Lords did it themselves a couple of times, but we soon learned that they fitted a retroactive memory-lock in the TARDIS when I did it too often; best way to keep the timelines straight-"
"Hold on; you've met yourself before?" I said, unable to stop myself; the idea of talking with yourself when you were younger went against so many things I'd read about time travel…
"Only ever happens in the gravest of emergencies, and you naturally hope it won't ever get that bad, so I never mentioned it," the Doctor explained. "Dealing with one of the founders of Time Lord society, investigating a secret from Gallifrey's past, saving a younger version of myself from a dangerous geneticist, stopping a race of beings who feed on changes in history, stopping an alternate timeline replacing our own… things like that, you know."
"Ah," I said, nodding in understanding. "That… does sound difficult."
For a moment, we returned to silence, until I looked back at the pile of sludge and the ash-covered robes that were the only things that remained of what might have been the only other Time Lord left. "I'm… I'm sorry about Mortimus."
"Don't be," the Doctor said, looking grimly at his body. "The last time I saw the Monk, he helped the Daleks invade Earth and was indirectly responsible for the deaths of two of my companions and my great-grandson; it sucks that he went to these lengths just to kill me, but I can't exactly regret him dying."
"Oh my- your what?" I said, cursing my unintentional rudeness even as I knew I couldn't take back what I'd just said.
The Doctor had had a great-grandson?
Meaning that he'd had a grandchild?
Meaning that he'd been a father?
"It was… a long time ago," the Doctor said, before he sighed and looked at me with a casual shrug. "Anyway, now that we've dealt with that, how about a break on the Eye of Orion before we get back to travelling around wherever we want to go?"
I recognised evasive behaviour when I saw it, but considering that I was essentially asking the Doctor to talk about the deaths of his own children, I decided that this wasn't the time to press the issue; we had dealt with Mortimus's attempt to erase the Doctor from history, I had met the Doctor's original self, and that was that.
The only thing I was left wondering now was what happened to Marcus in this timeline, now that we'd restored it…