Re: "The Power of a Name" - Dr. Who Multi-Crossover SI Series
Posted: 2017-07-17 09:25am
I stared at Rassilon. And I dwelled on the situation.
Everyone knows how these things are supposed to go. The villain tempts you with something you want, just so long as you do as requested. And everyone knows that of course you don't go for it because either it's a lie and a trap or because the price is too high, no matter how much you may want something
By those criteria, the answer to Rassilon was obvious.
And, quite possibly, something with the only outcome being my destruction alongside the Doctor's.
We were outnumbered. Under guard. Esk and Clara had no element of surprise. For all I knew, Rassilon and the other Councillors could actually see them. Our chance of winning this was fairly small, as such things went. And if we failed, it would all be for nothing
It hurt to think it. That everyone I knew and respected and loved was fated to die, or worse, and that I had no hope of saving them. It looks so much easier when it's a show, or a book, and the heroes are in these situations. Where the obvious choice is to reject the villain's offer and stand for what's right.
It's so much easier than what it actually is to look into Rassilon's mad eyes, to see the utter devotion in his Council and to know there is no help there. Nothing but one scared Time Lady who would never actually stand against him. To know that you are alone and that resistance is simply going to get you killed. That if you accept the inevitable then, at least, you can get something back. A consolation prize, maybe, but that can be tempting in comparison to the yawning pit of oblivion.
Time was running out. I had to make a decision.
So I did.
I turned and looked at the Doctor. I held a hand up, as if to give him a handshake. He looked at my hand and then my face. Stony resolve had set in where boyish mischief and excitement was usually found. It took him several moments to begin reacting by bringing his hand up toward mine.. But as he did I pulled my hand back. He gave me a fierce look and grabbed my arm before I could finish pulling it back all the way. He pulled me close. "Don't you dare," he whispered. "You can't. She'd hate you."
"I know," I answered softly. "But we can't win this. She's the only one I can save."
"She will never forgive you."
I swallowed. "I don't want her to. I won't deserve it."
"Don't…"
I turned away from him and pushed his arm away. I turned back toward Rassilon. I felt the lump in my throat as I swallowed and took a step forward. The guards tensed up. I felt disgust as I forced the words from my mouth. "Very well. I will bow."
Rassilon grinned wickedly. "Of course you will," he said. "You recognize your limitations, at last." He gestured. "Let him pass."
I lowered my head and stepped closer. The guards shifted to let me through. I didn't move much further than them, just a couple of steps, after which I went to my knee.
Rassilon gave me a self-assured look. It was the look of a man who had gotten what he wanted.
And then he looked up to his guards. "This is a trick," he said. "Kill him."
Well well. After all of that, that's how Rassilon was playing it.
Not that I could protest. He was right, after all.
It's not like it would shock you. Seriously, how could I ever accept a deal like that? How? To a creature like Rassilon? Sure, this way I might die, but compared to living in a reality he was constructing? Sometimes it's not about the calculation of what can be accomplished and what appears impossible. Sometimes… it's about doing whatever you can live with.
Even if it means you don't survive it.
I brought my arms up. As I did I curled my wrists to free the objects I had quietly slipped up my sleeves.
Sonic screwdrivers. Plural. Mine and the Doctor's. He had passed it to me during our "talk".
I might yet have died. But raw energy lashed out from nothingness and sent the guards to my side flying into each other. I heard shouts; Esk and Clara had made themselves truly known.
Now to play my part. I brought the sonics up and pointed them ahead of me.
And yes, I'm sure you already figured out what I was doing with them. I wasn't exactly hiding my best shot in the room, was I?
The stasis field holding the Master would ordinarily take a few minutes for a sonic screwdriver to override them. But I had two on hand, linked and helping each other to shut the whole thing down. They whirred in happy tandem.
Rassilon had just enough time to scream "STOP THEM!" at us. And then the stasis field went down.
I'm not sure whether the Master was fully aware while he was in the field. He immediately returned to the work he'd been at before. Energy in the form of lightning crackled from his hands and enveloped Rassilon. The leader of the Time Lords screamed in rage and agony as the energy enveloped him. Lightning crackled over the Master's form as well, revealing bone and such beneath.
His right eye turned and focused on me. I knew he recognized me. I thought I saw him nod. For a brief moment I wondered if he would lash out at me next, to avenge the defeat of his plan.
But he didn't. The Master had bigger fish to fry, I suppose. Literally fry, too.
I stood up and threw a sonic back to the Doctor, who caught it in mid-air and turned to use it to disable the rifle of one of our guards. The other guards were sprawled out; courtesy of Esk's magic or my sonic disruptor in the hands of Clara, I would guess. A number of the Council were likewise disposed. "What next?!", Esk shouted over the din of chaos in the room.
"We stop the transfer," the Doctor said. "This way!"
Ordinarily remaining guards might have stopped us. But they were too busy trying to get to the Master and through the energies surging about him in order to save Rassilon. We rushed out into the hall; Clara ahead of Esk and myself and the Doctor in front. "You had me worried for a second!", Clara shouted.
"I had to get close," I answered. "But I suppose Rassilon thought it a bit obvious."
"He would have killed you anyway," Esk remarked.
"Most likely, yes," I agreed. As I ran a thought came to me. I moved past Clara and joined the Doctor as we rounded a corner and found a spiral staircase leading down a floor. "The Extraction Chamber. Where is it? Because if I can…"
"No." He stopped and put a hand on my shoulder. "I know better than anyone the temptation you're feeling right now. But the Extraction Chamber only exists to temporarily pull someone in at the end of their timestream. You wouldn't be saving Katherine's life. And you couldn't just quantum duplicate her in that state. She wouldn't even have a heartbeat."
I swallowed. "But she'd be alive."
"She'd have to go back," he continued. "Trust me. It's not going to work the way you think it is." He looked away. "Besides, we don't have time to go that way when we've only got minutes before Rassilon's machines begin shifting Gallifrey to your home cosmos. And once we shut that down, the connection will snap shut, and the Extraction Chamber wouldn't be able to lock onto Katherine's final moments."
I will admit my severe disappointment. I felt pain in my hearts. So close. So close to getting her back. The things I could show Katherine, that I never got the chance to show her…
But the Doctor was right. We were running out of time. Rassilon might survive the Master, after all, and it would be all for nothing if we didn't stop his machines. Untold, unfathomable numbers of beings could die in the next several minutes if we didn't get to that array's controls and shut it down.
"Right," I said. "No time. Let's keep going."
"This way." The Doctor checked the sonic in his hand and led us onto the next floor.
A quick dash down a hall, then another, and we were in a large control room, two-tiered, with lots of Gallifreyan control panels and wiring and such about. A couple of technicians were on duty but quickly fell away from the controls upon our arrival. "Get out of here!", I shouted at them. "Go!"
"The charging is almost complete!", the Doctor shouted, pointing to the master display. It was showing over four-fifths of the charge was already gathered. Once it hit full…
...once it hit full, Gallifrey and the surrounding pocket universe would hurtle down the interdimensional tunnel. And all of those universes would cease to be.
"Right. Let's do something about it." I started walking toward the controls to join the Doctor.
"And about the guards that are undoubtedly coming," Esk reminded us.
"Clara!" I turned to her. She was still holding my sonic disruptor. "Setting 4 is kinetic bursts. Setting 16 is thermal pulses. Setting 42 is a deflector screen to stop anyone from shooting you. Oh, and Setting 21 is neurological disruption, should give them a headache."
She eyed my disruptor and looked at me again. I was answered with a nod.
"I'll get the primary charge line!", the Doctor shouted. "You can handle re-directing the existing capacitor charge to buy time!"
"Right!" I nodded to Esk. "Just give us a few minutes!"
"I'll give you all I can," she promised. She pointed toward the only way in and out of the room. Any moment more of the guards would probably be showing up.
I had other things to worry about. I went to work with my sonic on a nearby panel. I was trying to force the array to discharge energy into the atmosphere, and in as harmless a manner as possible given the population.
But the power flow kept coming. I turned slightly. "Maybe I can isolate the power stream from here!"
"The main charge line is locked behind a quantum rotating encryption barrier, I can't access it."
"How fast is the rotation? Ten milliseconds?"
"Five!"
"Oi." I made a face. "Alright, what about the power stream? I'm trying to isolate it, if we can divert that power stream into the defense systems or something..." I focused on the display in front of me. My sonic whirred as it operated, its tip shining green light over the controls and letting me access…
....wait, green?
I chuckled at the realization. I'd handed the Doctor my sonic screwdriver, not his, and now we were using one another's. Which probably explained why I was having trouble with it, I wasn't use to this model's interface.
"Switch!", the Doctor shouted.
I turned and, with little thought, tossed his sonic toward him. My sonic came sailing toward me at the same moment. I snatched it out of mid-air and turned back to my work. Once again proper purple light was showing. My mind briefly pondered what it must have looked like; the two of us simply turning and exchanging our screwdrivers on such short notice with no effort at all.
"I've got the power stream diverted, but secondary systems are picking up additional power." I checked the charge level. Ninety percent. Oi. I shook my head. "Rassilon's designed this too well. We're not going to stop the charging sequence in time."
"I don't think we have any other options."
I frowned. My mind raced. If we couldn't stop the charge, if Rassilon's device was going to trigger, then maybe…
We looked at each other at the same moment. "We alter the channel!", we both cried out.
He started first. "Modify the array's emissions…"
My voice matched his in pitch and excitement. "...and direct them toward a different subdimensional coordinate…"
"...and instead of shifting Gallifrey down the interdimensional tunnel…"
"...we shift it laterally into a new subdimensional strata…"
"...and the pocket universe's own subspatial structure will absorb the shift…"
"...and stabilize the entire system, causing the tunnel and Cracks to dissipate harmlessly!" I laughed. "It's brilliant!"
The Doctor laughed like a schoolboy. "Oh, we've got it"
It wasn't a mental link or anything. Rather, our minds were simply operating under the same principles. We saw the same data with the same set of desired outcomes and therefore we came to the same conclusions.
There was the sound of gunfire. I briefly glanced over and saw a Galllifreyan soldier, alone among other fallen ones, spraying… whatever it is those weapons were shooting at Clara and Esk. Esk used a magic field to absorb the shots, much to the surprise and consternation of the soldier, and Clara countered with a kinetic burst that sent him flying out of the room. "Any time, Doctor!", Clara called out.
"We're on it!", we answered in tandem. I returned to work at a nearby console and the Doctor found another one. "I'm re-aligning the dimensional vector…"
"...altering targeting protocols…"
"...re-synchronizing to account for the hyperdimensional drift…" I glanced upward at the charge meter. Ninety-six percent.
We were almost out of time.
"Altering emission protocols…"
"Re-distributing power…"
Ninety seven percent..
"Calculating for new dimensional strata."
"I've adjusted the command protocols for the array," I declared. "We should be good on this end."
Ninety eight percent.
More gunfire. Esk gasped from effort as more energy from her blocked off our attackers. I heard the sonic disruptor discharge. Loudly. Clara must have found Setting 27. Literal sonic waves, that one. Useful against bats. Not so much against Time Lords or Gallifreyans though.
Something on one of the panels got my attention. "We may have a problem," I said. "The interdimensional skein is about ten percent more energetic than expected. We may cause damage to this pocket universe if we shift."
The Doctor looked at me and then the main display. I looked at the same.
Ninety-nine percent.
I swallowed. If we got this wrong, one of two things would happen. Either Rassilon's plan would prevail… or the aforementioned skein's energetic power would de-stabilize the pocket universe that Gallifrey was located in, ultimately resulting in Gallifrey's destruction.
"So it's come to this," the Doctor observed.
"Yeah," I agreed. I recognized the look in his eyes. Here we were, about to potentially doom his people to save the universe. Multiple ones. It wasn't quite the same choice he had faced with the Moment. But it was too close to comfort.
But we didn't have time to do anything else. If we didn't act, Rassilon would win in the end.
The Doctor's hand went to the controls at the same moment mine did. "Ready here," he said.
"Shift calculations complete, system ready."
Our hands hit the switches together. Power thrummed about us as the array went into operation.
One hundred percent.
For one terrible moment I could see our failure. I could see worlds wiped out in a flash. Universes collapsing. I could imagine those I cared about - Jan and Cami and the Carpenters and Korra and Asami and Tenzin and Sheppard and Liara and Garrus and Steven and Connie and Katara, their families, everyone, really quite the list when you throw in my Human counterpart and his circle of family and friends - anyway, I could imagine them all devoured by an energy utterly impossible to resist. I could imagine universes collapsing under the strain of a dimensional collapse.
The entire room shook. Everyone, even our attackers, fell to the ground from the sheer ferocity of it. As the rumbling died down I pulled myself back up to the displays. Hope and fear warred within me; had we done it?
My eyes fell on the system indicators.
The dimensional shift had worked. Exactly as planned.
We had done it. Rassilon's plans for ruling all of Reality were thwarted.
The Doctor and I had saved our cosmoses, and so many more, from utter destruction.
…of course, given the violent shaking and the nasty feeling I felt in my gut, we still had to save Gallifrey.
A look at the displays confirmed the bad news for us both. The shift had not been smooth. The energies that resulted had undermined the stability of the pocket universe the Doctor, in his various times, had hidden Gallifrey in. We needed to get it out, preferably somewhere attached to real space, and soon.
"I would suggest using the array," I said, "but it is fried out. We blew every capacitor in the system."
"We'll need to return to our TARDISes," the Doctor responded. "We find your's, we go to mine, right?"
"Sounds fair," I agreed.
At about that moment Esk and Clara came up to us. "They stopped," Esk said. "What did you do?"
"We hijacked Rassilon's array to shift Gallifrey out of the tunnel laterally," i answered. "We're in a different subdimensional strata now."
"Unfortunately, the shift has also structurally undermined the pocket universe I hid Gallifrey in," the Doctor continued. "So we need our TARDISes or we're going to lose the whole planet."
"Which means we need to find your TARDIS," Clara said to me.
"Oh, that's simple," I answered. I took out my TARDIS remote.
"Wait, what's this?", the Doctor asked, eying the remote.
"It's my remote," I said. "I put it together some time ago. It sends out a signal to the TARDIS, she homes in on my location and materializes around me." I grinned. "Cool, huh?"
"Oh, clever," the Doctor agreed. "Gave it a bit of a try myself, but my girl's temperamental, doesn't like being called about. But how did you…"
Before he could finish or I could answer, since I imagined the question, Clara cleared her throat. "Planet. Being destroyed. Soon, I take it?"
"Oh, right." I held up the remote. "Alright, here we go." I sent the command.
Nothing happened.
I frowned and rolled my eyes. "Of course. Quantum isolation field."
"Of course it is," the Doctor chuckled. "Maybe your girl doesn't like you calling her about either."
"My TARDIS is a sweet young lady and comes when I call," I replied defensively. "She likes traveling." I pocketed the remote. "We'll need to find her. Anyone have any ideas?"
"I can help."
The unexpected voice caused us to turn toward the door. The guards were all gone. Now only the Time Lady from my broken memories was standing there, in Gallifreyan finery. She looked at us. The Doctor gazed back silently. "Hello, Doctor," she said. She walked up. "Rassilon had your TARDIS taken to the lower levels and its data examined. It aided his… plans."
"Why didn't you stop him?", the Doctor asked. Not angrily. If anything, just a little sad.
"Fear is a terrible thing," was the only reply she gave. I got the feeling that she meant more than her own fear at the consequences of opposing Rassilon. The Time Lady reached into her robe and pulled out a scanner. "I have loaded the authorization code to release your TARDIS." She handed it to me. Her head turned toward the Doctor. "It is good to see you."
"Yes," was his answer.
I wasn't about to get involved in a discussion like this, stakes or not. Their gaze broke at the same moment. "Go," she said. "The other councillors have fled. I alone remain, and I have ordered the guards out of your way. Please, save us from Rassilon's madness."
We nodded at that. And we left her to fulfill that promise.
The planet still shook here and there while we raced down the stairs. I checked the scanner frequently to make sure we got off on the right floor. We met no guards.
"So how do we stop this?", asked Esk. "Restoring stability to an artificial pocket universe sounds rather difficult."
"It can be," I noted. "But thankfully we have the tool used to make it."
That prompted Esk's next question. "We do?"
"My TARDIS," the Doctor answered. "With both of our TARDISes working together we can re-stabilize the pocket universe."
"Now that sounds difficult."
"This is what being with the Doctor is like," Clara said to Esk. "Always doing the difficult things and making them work."
I can imagine Esk eyed me with a smirk given her next words. "Yes, a challenge I have been made to face before."
I felt a grin at that. But there was no time for banter. No, I just had to go around this corner, then down the hall, and here would be the room where my TARDIS was waiting.
"DOOOOOOOCCCCCTTTTTTTTTTTOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRR!"
Yes, I know that's a lot of letters, but I was trying to capture the essence, the spirit, of the enraged shout coming from further down the hall. The Doctor and I looked that way and saw a battered man in robes still flickering with flames on the edges, covered in horrific burns that had to be fatal. I'm talking about the kind of burns that expose blood vessels or such. He looked more like some sort of horror monster than a normal being.
I shouldn't need to tell you who it was, either. The crazed and overdone scream sort of gave that one away.
Rassilon raised his left hand toward the Doctor. "DIE!!", he screamed. Energy surged through his power glove.
I acted before anyone else could. I threw myself forward and got in front of the Doctor, knocking him to the side in the process.
You hear about these things. About people who jump on grenades or explosives without protection, and do it so instantly that it's hard to imagine they acted out of a rational thought. A drive to protect so strong that it overwhelms the instinct of self-preservation as an instinct of its own.
And that's what I had just done. By throwing myself in front of the Doctor, it was I who would take the hit from Rassilon's glove. A weapon that could vaporize other beings with a gesture and a surge of power. And the only protection I had against its enormous lethal power was a magically-enchanted vest.
I half expected to die right there. To simply… cease. Disintegrated in a puff of smoke and ash like others Rassilon had killed with the weapon.
Instead there was an explosion of sorts when it struck me. The energy was… I can only say agonizing, but even that doesn't do justice to the feeling that resulted. Energy erupted over my chest and wrapped around me. I flew backward, past the Doctor, and slammed into the wall.
Rassilon screamed. His glove began sparking, like some sort of feedback had overloaded it. Given his already existing injuries I can't imagine it did him any good.
Having Esk blast him with enough pure energy to send him flying into the far wall was probably more than enough to ensure that he was going to be regenerating.
But I had more important things to be concerned with. For one thing, I was still in a bit of pain. The other bit was mostly a big question.
One that the Doctor asked as soon as he looked at me.
"How are you still alive?", he asked. "That should have disintegrated you."
I grimaced and looked down. There was a massive black mark on my jacket now, with much of the middle burnt away to reveal what was underneath.
Even as I shifted, the ash did so. Because that's what was on my chest. A lot of gray and black ash. My ice blue collared shirt was fairly intact under it, much to my surprise.
As I shifted, and more ash spread out from the movement, I started chuckling. "Oh, ha ha, how so very interesting!"
"What do you mean?"
"The vest," i said. "Molly - a friend mine - is like Esk here. Somewhat. Has magic and… unh… such." I grimaced from the pain in my torso. "She laid defensive enchantments on my vest. To make it… resistant to attack. Protection."
The Doctor considered that. "Oh, yes. The latent energies of this 'magic' interacted with the energy from Rassilon's gauntlet. Mutual feedback." He glanced down to where Rassilon was sprawled out on the floor. And glowing gold. He was starting to regenerate.
"Yes." I braced myself as Esk and the Doctor pulled me to my feet. We looked closely into one another's eyes. I could see the realization in his eyes. Confirmation in my own thoughts. And he knew that too. "Well… unh… let's get going, yes?"
"Yes."
The pain in my body was slightly debilitating, yes. I was at the center of a major and volatile interaction of inherently hostile forces of energy. Because of my obvious issue in moving Esk refused to leave my side. She remained, supporting me with her shoulder as we entered the room that the Time Lady's scanner was directing us toward. The interior was a science lab of sorts. My TARDIS stood silently in the middle of the viewing area. A nearby panel was playing what looked to be records from my travels. Or rather had been playing, the image was frozen on the sight of myself and the Doctor with Esk and Clara, just after the Doctor had materialized his TARDIS inside mine. The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and used it on another panel, the one controlling the quantum isolation field or whatever other thing had blocked the TARDIS from coming to me. We would be able to leave now.
I snapped my fingers to open the door and hobbled in with Esk's continued help. Once we got to the panel I nodded. "I'll be fine right here." I winced. "I'll need you on that end."
"What?"
"I need you to co-pilot," I said. "And you'll need to be quick about it." I started working the section of the controls I was at. "I'm locking on to your TARDIS, Doctor. It's right where we left it." I reached over and yanked back on the activation lever. My TARDIS VWORPed her usual, lovely VWORP and took us away from her captors.
"Clara, stay here," the Doctor said. "Give him any help he requires." He moved toward the door.
"But… won't you need mine?", Clara asked, turning toward him.
The Doctor looked back at us after opening the door. His TARDIS was about a meter and a half away. "I'll be fine," he insisted. "Just worry about this side of things!" He closed the door as he left.
"Clara." I gestured to a station on my left, just as Esk's part was to my right. "I just need you to keep an eye on some knobs and switches, alright? I'll tell you when to hit which."
Clara looked me over. Concern was written plainly on her features. I shook my head. There was no time for worrying about my health. We had a planet to save. "Okay, so I…" She stepped up to the panel.
"First, hit this one… no, this one…" After I made that gesture I turned toward Esk. "You've got that lever on the three-quarters position, right?"
Esk double-checked. "Three-quarters," she confirmed.
"Good." I swallowed and tried not to grimace again. I'd taken quite the whopper from that blast. Damn Rassilon.
I shook my head. I needed to focus on the task at hand. With my hands on the controls I followed the Doctor and his TARDIS into orbit.
The Doctor's face appeared on the nearby monitor. "Okay everyone!" He clapped his hands together for a moment. "I'm relaying to you the incomplete calculations I had for creating this pocket universe. We'll use our TARDISes' own fields to reinforce and repair the pocket universe's structure."
"Ready here," I said. I nodded. "Assuming coordinates now. Reading calculations…"
Sometimes it's a shame that I just can't show you lot the imagery. I think the imagery of this would be more exciting. The TARDISes whooshing about Gallifrey as space warped about them. Dramatic camera cuts to the interiors of our TARDISes, one showing the Doctor rushing about his controls as dramatic music played, other cuts to how I was directing Esk and Clara on what controls to hit while I worked my own.
More music, of course. Music is always good for these bits. I mean, how can I compete with music? I suppose I could add musical sheets to the side, but I imagine not everyone could actually play along, you know?
"Doctor, are you seeing this?", I asked.
"I am," he confirmed. "The pocket universe structure is stabilizing."
"Still, over the long term, I'm not sure it'll stay that way. I don't think this strata may have been the best place for it."
"They can handle that, trust me," the Doctor assured me. "This will work for now. Are you ready?"
I put a hand on the activation lever. "As ready as I can ever be."
The Doctor nodded. And he smiled at me. "It's been a pleasure."
"Likewise."
We pulled our levers at the same moment. The Doctor's cry of "Geronimo!" was matched by my "Tally Ho!".
Our TARDISes shifted time and space and did their final work. The pocket universe stabilized around us even as we shifted back to normal space.
And I took the moment to really let that sink in. We… had won. Despite the danger, Rassilon had been defeated. We had saved, well, just about everything I imagine. Not just the universes that would have been destroyed, but those that would have ended up at the tender mercies of Rassilon and his dream of becoming "Reality Lord". Or "Lord of all Reality."
I let out a sigh. It was done. I had saved everything I cared for from annihilation.
I let the TARDIS sit itself down and snapped my fingers. Sunlight poured in from outside. A green lawn was outside, and a tree. North American species.
"It's a… lake?", Clara asked. She walked to the TARDIS exit. "Where are we?"
I smiled at her and hobbled toward the plank leading to the door. I kept one hand on the railing to steady myself. I felt a warm smile come to my face. Old memories, memories of a past life, remembered this place. It remembered fond things of my past.
"Don't worry, Clara, it's all fine. The Doctor will be here any moment," I said. "I gave him the coordinates."
"Why are we here?", Esk asked me. She stepped up to me.
I turned and faced her. I opened my mouth to begin to speak. But I didn't.
There was no point in pretending any more. No more need to be strong.
I collapsed against the railing.
The truth was, I had barely managed our heroic saving of Gallifrey. Withstanding the growing pain in my body, which had now nearly disabled my left leg and was busy moving through my chest... that had taken everything I had. But I didn't need to hold out anymore. I could let go.
Esk yelped in surprise and grabbed me as I went down, bringing herself down with me to give support. I let out a pained, shallow breath as we ended up on our knees. "Doctor!" She held me close. "Doctor, what's wrong?!"
"I wanted to see it," I told her. "I mean, this is the Earth from the Doctor's cosmos, so it's not the same I knew growing up. But it's… still the lake behind my grandparents' house. I have a lot of memories here."
Esk looked at me intently. Ah. She was starting to understand. Clever girl.
I turned enough to be able to stare outside. It was just like I remembered. No drought to suck the lake away…
When I did so, Esk grabbed my ruined shirt and pulled it open. Underneath she found the blackened mark from the impact of Rassilon's gauntlet. Her hand went to my ruined and charred skin. Horror showed on her face. "No," she muttered. "What is…"
"The vest… didn't stop it," I said. I had to gasp for air. My lungs were caught up in the wave of pain now. "Just… absorbed and re-directed some of the energy."
"What are you saying?!", Esk demanded. "Doctor!"
I looked at her. Directly in the eyes. With Clara hovering over her as well. I swallowed and sighed. "The effect of the glove wasn't entirely diminished." I sucked in a needed breath. "Just weakened," I explained.
"Doctor, what are…"
There was no getting around it. I had to be honest. Esk deserved that much.
I raised my right hand from where I had kept it hanging. She saw that and gave me her hand. "Esk." I swallowed. "Esk, I'm sorry. The vest bought me time, that's all."
Esk stared at me. And I could see, in that look in her dark eyes, that she knew.
I could tell given the tears I saw forming in those eyes.
"Yes." I swallowed to keep the nausea in check. "Some of the energy from Rassilon's glove still got into my body. Enough to… unh…" I winced. I couldn't help it. "...enough to… begin tearing apart my body, cell by cell."
"So… you're…"
I nodded. I swallowed to whet my throat so I could speak again. Because she deserved that, at least.
"Esk, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
Despite myself, I felt a tear come to my cheek.
"I'm dying, Esk."
Everyone knows how these things are supposed to go. The villain tempts you with something you want, just so long as you do as requested. And everyone knows that of course you don't go for it because either it's a lie and a trap or because the price is too high, no matter how much you may want something
By those criteria, the answer to Rassilon was obvious.
And, quite possibly, something with the only outcome being my destruction alongside the Doctor's.
We were outnumbered. Under guard. Esk and Clara had no element of surprise. For all I knew, Rassilon and the other Councillors could actually see them. Our chance of winning this was fairly small, as such things went. And if we failed, it would all be for nothing
It hurt to think it. That everyone I knew and respected and loved was fated to die, or worse, and that I had no hope of saving them. It looks so much easier when it's a show, or a book, and the heroes are in these situations. Where the obvious choice is to reject the villain's offer and stand for what's right.
It's so much easier than what it actually is to look into Rassilon's mad eyes, to see the utter devotion in his Council and to know there is no help there. Nothing but one scared Time Lady who would never actually stand against him. To know that you are alone and that resistance is simply going to get you killed. That if you accept the inevitable then, at least, you can get something back. A consolation prize, maybe, but that can be tempting in comparison to the yawning pit of oblivion.
Time was running out. I had to make a decision.
So I did.
I turned and looked at the Doctor. I held a hand up, as if to give him a handshake. He looked at my hand and then my face. Stony resolve had set in where boyish mischief and excitement was usually found. It took him several moments to begin reacting by bringing his hand up toward mine.. But as he did I pulled my hand back. He gave me a fierce look and grabbed my arm before I could finish pulling it back all the way. He pulled me close. "Don't you dare," he whispered. "You can't. She'd hate you."
"I know," I answered softly. "But we can't win this. She's the only one I can save."
"She will never forgive you."
I swallowed. "I don't want her to. I won't deserve it."
"Don't…"
I turned away from him and pushed his arm away. I turned back toward Rassilon. I felt the lump in my throat as I swallowed and took a step forward. The guards tensed up. I felt disgust as I forced the words from my mouth. "Very well. I will bow."
Rassilon grinned wickedly. "Of course you will," he said. "You recognize your limitations, at last." He gestured. "Let him pass."
I lowered my head and stepped closer. The guards shifted to let me through. I didn't move much further than them, just a couple of steps, after which I went to my knee.
Rassilon gave me a self-assured look. It was the look of a man who had gotten what he wanted.
And then he looked up to his guards. "This is a trick," he said. "Kill him."
Well well. After all of that, that's how Rassilon was playing it.
Not that I could protest. He was right, after all.
It's not like it would shock you. Seriously, how could I ever accept a deal like that? How? To a creature like Rassilon? Sure, this way I might die, but compared to living in a reality he was constructing? Sometimes it's not about the calculation of what can be accomplished and what appears impossible. Sometimes… it's about doing whatever you can live with.
Even if it means you don't survive it.
I brought my arms up. As I did I curled my wrists to free the objects I had quietly slipped up my sleeves.
Sonic screwdrivers. Plural. Mine and the Doctor's. He had passed it to me during our "talk".
I might yet have died. But raw energy lashed out from nothingness and sent the guards to my side flying into each other. I heard shouts; Esk and Clara had made themselves truly known.
Now to play my part. I brought the sonics up and pointed them ahead of me.
And yes, I'm sure you already figured out what I was doing with them. I wasn't exactly hiding my best shot in the room, was I?
The stasis field holding the Master would ordinarily take a few minutes for a sonic screwdriver to override them. But I had two on hand, linked and helping each other to shut the whole thing down. They whirred in happy tandem.
Rassilon had just enough time to scream "STOP THEM!" at us. And then the stasis field went down.
I'm not sure whether the Master was fully aware while he was in the field. He immediately returned to the work he'd been at before. Energy in the form of lightning crackled from his hands and enveloped Rassilon. The leader of the Time Lords screamed in rage and agony as the energy enveloped him. Lightning crackled over the Master's form as well, revealing bone and such beneath.
His right eye turned and focused on me. I knew he recognized me. I thought I saw him nod. For a brief moment I wondered if he would lash out at me next, to avenge the defeat of his plan.
But he didn't. The Master had bigger fish to fry, I suppose. Literally fry, too.
I stood up and threw a sonic back to the Doctor, who caught it in mid-air and turned to use it to disable the rifle of one of our guards. The other guards were sprawled out; courtesy of Esk's magic or my sonic disruptor in the hands of Clara, I would guess. A number of the Council were likewise disposed. "What next?!", Esk shouted over the din of chaos in the room.
"We stop the transfer," the Doctor said. "This way!"
Ordinarily remaining guards might have stopped us. But they were too busy trying to get to the Master and through the energies surging about him in order to save Rassilon. We rushed out into the hall; Clara ahead of Esk and myself and the Doctor in front. "You had me worried for a second!", Clara shouted.
"I had to get close," I answered. "But I suppose Rassilon thought it a bit obvious."
"He would have killed you anyway," Esk remarked.
"Most likely, yes," I agreed. As I ran a thought came to me. I moved past Clara and joined the Doctor as we rounded a corner and found a spiral staircase leading down a floor. "The Extraction Chamber. Where is it? Because if I can…"
"No." He stopped and put a hand on my shoulder. "I know better than anyone the temptation you're feeling right now. But the Extraction Chamber only exists to temporarily pull someone in at the end of their timestream. You wouldn't be saving Katherine's life. And you couldn't just quantum duplicate her in that state. She wouldn't even have a heartbeat."
I swallowed. "But she'd be alive."
"She'd have to go back," he continued. "Trust me. It's not going to work the way you think it is." He looked away. "Besides, we don't have time to go that way when we've only got minutes before Rassilon's machines begin shifting Gallifrey to your home cosmos. And once we shut that down, the connection will snap shut, and the Extraction Chamber wouldn't be able to lock onto Katherine's final moments."
I will admit my severe disappointment. I felt pain in my hearts. So close. So close to getting her back. The things I could show Katherine, that I never got the chance to show her…
But the Doctor was right. We were running out of time. Rassilon might survive the Master, after all, and it would be all for nothing if we didn't stop his machines. Untold, unfathomable numbers of beings could die in the next several minutes if we didn't get to that array's controls and shut it down.
"Right," I said. "No time. Let's keep going."
"This way." The Doctor checked the sonic in his hand and led us onto the next floor.
A quick dash down a hall, then another, and we were in a large control room, two-tiered, with lots of Gallifreyan control panels and wiring and such about. A couple of technicians were on duty but quickly fell away from the controls upon our arrival. "Get out of here!", I shouted at them. "Go!"
"The charging is almost complete!", the Doctor shouted, pointing to the master display. It was showing over four-fifths of the charge was already gathered. Once it hit full…
...once it hit full, Gallifrey and the surrounding pocket universe would hurtle down the interdimensional tunnel. And all of those universes would cease to be.
"Right. Let's do something about it." I started walking toward the controls to join the Doctor.
"And about the guards that are undoubtedly coming," Esk reminded us.
"Clara!" I turned to her. She was still holding my sonic disruptor. "Setting 4 is kinetic bursts. Setting 16 is thermal pulses. Setting 42 is a deflector screen to stop anyone from shooting you. Oh, and Setting 21 is neurological disruption, should give them a headache."
She eyed my disruptor and looked at me again. I was answered with a nod.
"I'll get the primary charge line!", the Doctor shouted. "You can handle re-directing the existing capacitor charge to buy time!"
"Right!" I nodded to Esk. "Just give us a few minutes!"
"I'll give you all I can," she promised. She pointed toward the only way in and out of the room. Any moment more of the guards would probably be showing up.
I had other things to worry about. I went to work with my sonic on a nearby panel. I was trying to force the array to discharge energy into the atmosphere, and in as harmless a manner as possible given the population.
But the power flow kept coming. I turned slightly. "Maybe I can isolate the power stream from here!"
"The main charge line is locked behind a quantum rotating encryption barrier, I can't access it."
"How fast is the rotation? Ten milliseconds?"
"Five!"
"Oi." I made a face. "Alright, what about the power stream? I'm trying to isolate it, if we can divert that power stream into the defense systems or something..." I focused on the display in front of me. My sonic whirred as it operated, its tip shining green light over the controls and letting me access…
....wait, green?
I chuckled at the realization. I'd handed the Doctor my sonic screwdriver, not his, and now we were using one another's. Which probably explained why I was having trouble with it, I wasn't use to this model's interface.
"Switch!", the Doctor shouted.
I turned and, with little thought, tossed his sonic toward him. My sonic came sailing toward me at the same moment. I snatched it out of mid-air and turned back to my work. Once again proper purple light was showing. My mind briefly pondered what it must have looked like; the two of us simply turning and exchanging our screwdrivers on such short notice with no effort at all.
"I've got the power stream diverted, but secondary systems are picking up additional power." I checked the charge level. Ninety percent. Oi. I shook my head. "Rassilon's designed this too well. We're not going to stop the charging sequence in time."
"I don't think we have any other options."
I frowned. My mind raced. If we couldn't stop the charge, if Rassilon's device was going to trigger, then maybe…
We looked at each other at the same moment. "We alter the channel!", we both cried out.
He started first. "Modify the array's emissions…"
My voice matched his in pitch and excitement. "...and direct them toward a different subdimensional coordinate…"
"...and instead of shifting Gallifrey down the interdimensional tunnel…"
"...we shift it laterally into a new subdimensional strata…"
"...and the pocket universe's own subspatial structure will absorb the shift…"
"...and stabilize the entire system, causing the tunnel and Cracks to dissipate harmlessly!" I laughed. "It's brilliant!"
The Doctor laughed like a schoolboy. "Oh, we've got it"
It wasn't a mental link or anything. Rather, our minds were simply operating under the same principles. We saw the same data with the same set of desired outcomes and therefore we came to the same conclusions.
There was the sound of gunfire. I briefly glanced over and saw a Galllifreyan soldier, alone among other fallen ones, spraying… whatever it is those weapons were shooting at Clara and Esk. Esk used a magic field to absorb the shots, much to the surprise and consternation of the soldier, and Clara countered with a kinetic burst that sent him flying out of the room. "Any time, Doctor!", Clara called out.
"We're on it!", we answered in tandem. I returned to work at a nearby console and the Doctor found another one. "I'm re-aligning the dimensional vector…"
"...altering targeting protocols…"
"...re-synchronizing to account for the hyperdimensional drift…" I glanced upward at the charge meter. Ninety-six percent.
We were almost out of time.
"Altering emission protocols…"
"Re-distributing power…"
Ninety seven percent..
"Calculating for new dimensional strata."
"I've adjusted the command protocols for the array," I declared. "We should be good on this end."
Ninety eight percent.
More gunfire. Esk gasped from effort as more energy from her blocked off our attackers. I heard the sonic disruptor discharge. Loudly. Clara must have found Setting 27. Literal sonic waves, that one. Useful against bats. Not so much against Time Lords or Gallifreyans though.
Something on one of the panels got my attention. "We may have a problem," I said. "The interdimensional skein is about ten percent more energetic than expected. We may cause damage to this pocket universe if we shift."
The Doctor looked at me and then the main display. I looked at the same.
Ninety-nine percent.
I swallowed. If we got this wrong, one of two things would happen. Either Rassilon's plan would prevail… or the aforementioned skein's energetic power would de-stabilize the pocket universe that Gallifrey was located in, ultimately resulting in Gallifrey's destruction.
"So it's come to this," the Doctor observed.
"Yeah," I agreed. I recognized the look in his eyes. Here we were, about to potentially doom his people to save the universe. Multiple ones. It wasn't quite the same choice he had faced with the Moment. But it was too close to comfort.
But we didn't have time to do anything else. If we didn't act, Rassilon would win in the end.
The Doctor's hand went to the controls at the same moment mine did. "Ready here," he said.
"Shift calculations complete, system ready."
Our hands hit the switches together. Power thrummed about us as the array went into operation.
One hundred percent.
For one terrible moment I could see our failure. I could see worlds wiped out in a flash. Universes collapsing. I could imagine those I cared about - Jan and Cami and the Carpenters and Korra and Asami and Tenzin and Sheppard and Liara and Garrus and Steven and Connie and Katara, their families, everyone, really quite the list when you throw in my Human counterpart and his circle of family and friends - anyway, I could imagine them all devoured by an energy utterly impossible to resist. I could imagine universes collapsing under the strain of a dimensional collapse.
The entire room shook. Everyone, even our attackers, fell to the ground from the sheer ferocity of it. As the rumbling died down I pulled myself back up to the displays. Hope and fear warred within me; had we done it?
My eyes fell on the system indicators.
The dimensional shift had worked. Exactly as planned.
We had done it. Rassilon's plans for ruling all of Reality were thwarted.
The Doctor and I had saved our cosmoses, and so many more, from utter destruction.
…of course, given the violent shaking and the nasty feeling I felt in my gut, we still had to save Gallifrey.
A look at the displays confirmed the bad news for us both. The shift had not been smooth. The energies that resulted had undermined the stability of the pocket universe the Doctor, in his various times, had hidden Gallifrey in. We needed to get it out, preferably somewhere attached to real space, and soon.
"I would suggest using the array," I said, "but it is fried out. We blew every capacitor in the system."
"We'll need to return to our TARDISes," the Doctor responded. "We find your's, we go to mine, right?"
"Sounds fair," I agreed.
At about that moment Esk and Clara came up to us. "They stopped," Esk said. "What did you do?"
"We hijacked Rassilon's array to shift Gallifrey out of the tunnel laterally," i answered. "We're in a different subdimensional strata now."
"Unfortunately, the shift has also structurally undermined the pocket universe I hid Gallifrey in," the Doctor continued. "So we need our TARDISes or we're going to lose the whole planet."
"Which means we need to find your TARDIS," Clara said to me.
"Oh, that's simple," I answered. I took out my TARDIS remote.
"Wait, what's this?", the Doctor asked, eying the remote.
"It's my remote," I said. "I put it together some time ago. It sends out a signal to the TARDIS, she homes in on my location and materializes around me." I grinned. "Cool, huh?"
"Oh, clever," the Doctor agreed. "Gave it a bit of a try myself, but my girl's temperamental, doesn't like being called about. But how did you…"
Before he could finish or I could answer, since I imagined the question, Clara cleared her throat. "Planet. Being destroyed. Soon, I take it?"
"Oh, right." I held up the remote. "Alright, here we go." I sent the command.
Nothing happened.
I frowned and rolled my eyes. "Of course. Quantum isolation field."
"Of course it is," the Doctor chuckled. "Maybe your girl doesn't like you calling her about either."
"My TARDIS is a sweet young lady and comes when I call," I replied defensively. "She likes traveling." I pocketed the remote. "We'll need to find her. Anyone have any ideas?"
"I can help."
The unexpected voice caused us to turn toward the door. The guards were all gone. Now only the Time Lady from my broken memories was standing there, in Gallifreyan finery. She looked at us. The Doctor gazed back silently. "Hello, Doctor," she said. She walked up. "Rassilon had your TARDIS taken to the lower levels and its data examined. It aided his… plans."
"Why didn't you stop him?", the Doctor asked. Not angrily. If anything, just a little sad.
"Fear is a terrible thing," was the only reply she gave. I got the feeling that she meant more than her own fear at the consequences of opposing Rassilon. The Time Lady reached into her robe and pulled out a scanner. "I have loaded the authorization code to release your TARDIS." She handed it to me. Her head turned toward the Doctor. "It is good to see you."
"Yes," was his answer.
I wasn't about to get involved in a discussion like this, stakes or not. Their gaze broke at the same moment. "Go," she said. "The other councillors have fled. I alone remain, and I have ordered the guards out of your way. Please, save us from Rassilon's madness."
We nodded at that. And we left her to fulfill that promise.
The planet still shook here and there while we raced down the stairs. I checked the scanner frequently to make sure we got off on the right floor. We met no guards.
"So how do we stop this?", asked Esk. "Restoring stability to an artificial pocket universe sounds rather difficult."
"It can be," I noted. "But thankfully we have the tool used to make it."
That prompted Esk's next question. "We do?"
"My TARDIS," the Doctor answered. "With both of our TARDISes working together we can re-stabilize the pocket universe."
"Now that sounds difficult."
"This is what being with the Doctor is like," Clara said to Esk. "Always doing the difficult things and making them work."
I can imagine Esk eyed me with a smirk given her next words. "Yes, a challenge I have been made to face before."
I felt a grin at that. But there was no time for banter. No, I just had to go around this corner, then down the hall, and here would be the room where my TARDIS was waiting.
"DOOOOOOOCCCCCTTTTTTTTTTTOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRR!"
Yes, I know that's a lot of letters, but I was trying to capture the essence, the spirit, of the enraged shout coming from further down the hall. The Doctor and I looked that way and saw a battered man in robes still flickering with flames on the edges, covered in horrific burns that had to be fatal. I'm talking about the kind of burns that expose blood vessels or such. He looked more like some sort of horror monster than a normal being.
I shouldn't need to tell you who it was, either. The crazed and overdone scream sort of gave that one away.
Rassilon raised his left hand toward the Doctor. "DIE!!", he screamed. Energy surged through his power glove.
I acted before anyone else could. I threw myself forward and got in front of the Doctor, knocking him to the side in the process.
You hear about these things. About people who jump on grenades or explosives without protection, and do it so instantly that it's hard to imagine they acted out of a rational thought. A drive to protect so strong that it overwhelms the instinct of self-preservation as an instinct of its own.
And that's what I had just done. By throwing myself in front of the Doctor, it was I who would take the hit from Rassilon's glove. A weapon that could vaporize other beings with a gesture and a surge of power. And the only protection I had against its enormous lethal power was a magically-enchanted vest.
I half expected to die right there. To simply… cease. Disintegrated in a puff of smoke and ash like others Rassilon had killed with the weapon.
Instead there was an explosion of sorts when it struck me. The energy was… I can only say agonizing, but even that doesn't do justice to the feeling that resulted. Energy erupted over my chest and wrapped around me. I flew backward, past the Doctor, and slammed into the wall.
Rassilon screamed. His glove began sparking, like some sort of feedback had overloaded it. Given his already existing injuries I can't imagine it did him any good.
Having Esk blast him with enough pure energy to send him flying into the far wall was probably more than enough to ensure that he was going to be regenerating.
But I had more important things to be concerned with. For one thing, I was still in a bit of pain. The other bit was mostly a big question.
One that the Doctor asked as soon as he looked at me.
"How are you still alive?", he asked. "That should have disintegrated you."
I grimaced and looked down. There was a massive black mark on my jacket now, with much of the middle burnt away to reveal what was underneath.
Even as I shifted, the ash did so. Because that's what was on my chest. A lot of gray and black ash. My ice blue collared shirt was fairly intact under it, much to my surprise.
As I shifted, and more ash spread out from the movement, I started chuckling. "Oh, ha ha, how so very interesting!"
"What do you mean?"
"The vest," i said. "Molly - a friend mine - is like Esk here. Somewhat. Has magic and… unh… such." I grimaced from the pain in my torso. "She laid defensive enchantments on my vest. To make it… resistant to attack. Protection."
The Doctor considered that. "Oh, yes. The latent energies of this 'magic' interacted with the energy from Rassilon's gauntlet. Mutual feedback." He glanced down to where Rassilon was sprawled out on the floor. And glowing gold. He was starting to regenerate.
"Yes." I braced myself as Esk and the Doctor pulled me to my feet. We looked closely into one another's eyes. I could see the realization in his eyes. Confirmation in my own thoughts. And he knew that too. "Well… unh… let's get going, yes?"
"Yes."
The pain in my body was slightly debilitating, yes. I was at the center of a major and volatile interaction of inherently hostile forces of energy. Because of my obvious issue in moving Esk refused to leave my side. She remained, supporting me with her shoulder as we entered the room that the Time Lady's scanner was directing us toward. The interior was a science lab of sorts. My TARDIS stood silently in the middle of the viewing area. A nearby panel was playing what looked to be records from my travels. Or rather had been playing, the image was frozen on the sight of myself and the Doctor with Esk and Clara, just after the Doctor had materialized his TARDIS inside mine. The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and used it on another panel, the one controlling the quantum isolation field or whatever other thing had blocked the TARDIS from coming to me. We would be able to leave now.
I snapped my fingers to open the door and hobbled in with Esk's continued help. Once we got to the panel I nodded. "I'll be fine right here." I winced. "I'll need you on that end."
"What?"
"I need you to co-pilot," I said. "And you'll need to be quick about it." I started working the section of the controls I was at. "I'm locking on to your TARDIS, Doctor. It's right where we left it." I reached over and yanked back on the activation lever. My TARDIS VWORPed her usual, lovely VWORP and took us away from her captors.
"Clara, stay here," the Doctor said. "Give him any help he requires." He moved toward the door.
"But… won't you need mine?", Clara asked, turning toward him.
The Doctor looked back at us after opening the door. His TARDIS was about a meter and a half away. "I'll be fine," he insisted. "Just worry about this side of things!" He closed the door as he left.
"Clara." I gestured to a station on my left, just as Esk's part was to my right. "I just need you to keep an eye on some knobs and switches, alright? I'll tell you when to hit which."
Clara looked me over. Concern was written plainly on her features. I shook my head. There was no time for worrying about my health. We had a planet to save. "Okay, so I…" She stepped up to the panel.
"First, hit this one… no, this one…" After I made that gesture I turned toward Esk. "You've got that lever on the three-quarters position, right?"
Esk double-checked. "Three-quarters," she confirmed.
"Good." I swallowed and tried not to grimace again. I'd taken quite the whopper from that blast. Damn Rassilon.
I shook my head. I needed to focus on the task at hand. With my hands on the controls I followed the Doctor and his TARDIS into orbit.
The Doctor's face appeared on the nearby monitor. "Okay everyone!" He clapped his hands together for a moment. "I'm relaying to you the incomplete calculations I had for creating this pocket universe. We'll use our TARDISes' own fields to reinforce and repair the pocket universe's structure."
"Ready here," I said. I nodded. "Assuming coordinates now. Reading calculations…"
Sometimes it's a shame that I just can't show you lot the imagery. I think the imagery of this would be more exciting. The TARDISes whooshing about Gallifrey as space warped about them. Dramatic camera cuts to the interiors of our TARDISes, one showing the Doctor rushing about his controls as dramatic music played, other cuts to how I was directing Esk and Clara on what controls to hit while I worked my own.
More music, of course. Music is always good for these bits. I mean, how can I compete with music? I suppose I could add musical sheets to the side, but I imagine not everyone could actually play along, you know?
"Doctor, are you seeing this?", I asked.
"I am," he confirmed. "The pocket universe structure is stabilizing."
"Still, over the long term, I'm not sure it'll stay that way. I don't think this strata may have been the best place for it."
"They can handle that, trust me," the Doctor assured me. "This will work for now. Are you ready?"
I put a hand on the activation lever. "As ready as I can ever be."
The Doctor nodded. And he smiled at me. "It's been a pleasure."
"Likewise."
We pulled our levers at the same moment. The Doctor's cry of "Geronimo!" was matched by my "Tally Ho!".
Our TARDISes shifted time and space and did their final work. The pocket universe stabilized around us even as we shifted back to normal space.
And I took the moment to really let that sink in. We… had won. Despite the danger, Rassilon had been defeated. We had saved, well, just about everything I imagine. Not just the universes that would have been destroyed, but those that would have ended up at the tender mercies of Rassilon and his dream of becoming "Reality Lord". Or "Lord of all Reality."
I let out a sigh. It was done. I had saved everything I cared for from annihilation.
I let the TARDIS sit itself down and snapped my fingers. Sunlight poured in from outside. A green lawn was outside, and a tree. North American species.
"It's a… lake?", Clara asked. She walked to the TARDIS exit. "Where are we?"
I smiled at her and hobbled toward the plank leading to the door. I kept one hand on the railing to steady myself. I felt a warm smile come to my face. Old memories, memories of a past life, remembered this place. It remembered fond things of my past.
"Don't worry, Clara, it's all fine. The Doctor will be here any moment," I said. "I gave him the coordinates."
"Why are we here?", Esk asked me. She stepped up to me.
I turned and faced her. I opened my mouth to begin to speak. But I didn't.
There was no point in pretending any more. No more need to be strong.
I collapsed against the railing.
The truth was, I had barely managed our heroic saving of Gallifrey. Withstanding the growing pain in my body, which had now nearly disabled my left leg and was busy moving through my chest... that had taken everything I had. But I didn't need to hold out anymore. I could let go.
Esk yelped in surprise and grabbed me as I went down, bringing herself down with me to give support. I let out a pained, shallow breath as we ended up on our knees. "Doctor!" She held me close. "Doctor, what's wrong?!"
"I wanted to see it," I told her. "I mean, this is the Earth from the Doctor's cosmos, so it's not the same I knew growing up. But it's… still the lake behind my grandparents' house. I have a lot of memories here."
Esk looked at me intently. Ah. She was starting to understand. Clever girl.
I turned enough to be able to stare outside. It was just like I remembered. No drought to suck the lake away…
When I did so, Esk grabbed my ruined shirt and pulled it open. Underneath she found the blackened mark from the impact of Rassilon's gauntlet. Her hand went to my ruined and charred skin. Horror showed on her face. "No," she muttered. "What is…"
"The vest… didn't stop it," I said. I had to gasp for air. My lungs were caught up in the wave of pain now. "Just… absorbed and re-directed some of the energy."
"What are you saying?!", Esk demanded. "Doctor!"
I looked at her. Directly in the eyes. With Clara hovering over her as well. I swallowed and sighed. "The effect of the glove wasn't entirely diminished." I sucked in a needed breath. "Just weakened," I explained.
"Doctor, what are…"
There was no getting around it. I had to be honest. Esk deserved that much.
I raised my right hand from where I had kept it hanging. She saw that and gave me her hand. "Esk." I swallowed. "Esk, I'm sorry. The vest bought me time, that's all."
Esk stared at me. And I could see, in that look in her dark eyes, that she knew.
I could tell given the tears I saw forming in those eyes.
"Yes." I swallowed to keep the nausea in check. "Some of the energy from Rassilon's glove still got into my body. Enough to… unh…" I winced. I couldn't help it. "...enough to… begin tearing apart my body, cell by cell."
"So… you're…"
I nodded. I swallowed to whet my throat so I could speak again. Because she deserved that, at least.
"Esk, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
Despite myself, I felt a tear come to my cheek.
"I'm dying, Esk."