Text Key:
-Doctor Who- scene break
"speaking Gallifreyan"
'telepathic communication'
The TARDIS materialised under the cover of a stone bridge as it snowed, the Doctor opened the door and stepped out, holding out his hand another taking his that being Ariana's. Who came out and closed the door with her free hand. To think...this was going to be their first trip together since Donna. So a little cheering up and the celebration of Ari's regeneration was in order.
Ari had been a little nervous about this trip at first, having know idea what would lay ahead of them. Because it was either going to be a relaxing and casual trip...which had made her scoff internally...or one full of adventure something that she desperately craved...
She smiled, at the thought that it was the first time she's actually seen snow. Now looking back at the Doctor, who laughed as he turned to lead her along into a busy market. Stalls lining the streets, decked out in green garlands and red bows and carollers singing. Everyone dressed in clothing of the 19th century.
Ariana laughed at the beautiful sights before her.
"Do you like it?" the Doctor asked.
"Oh, I love it, this is amazing," she told him with a grin.
He beamed glad that he got this right for her, "Well I know how much of a history buff you are," he gave a shrug, trying to come off as nonchalantly as he could, "So I thought, why not?"
"You know me so well," she said with a small laugh and smiling fondly up at him, before pulling him down with a chaste kiss on the lips.
Which left the Doctor in a brief daze before looking around and spotting a boy not far from them standing at a stall, "You there, boy. What day is this?"
"Christmas Eve, sir," the boy offered with a nod.
"What year?"
"You thick or something?"
Ari snorted in amusement but just managed to hide it with her hand just as the Doctor sent her a mocking glare before returning to the boy, "Oi. Just answer the question."
The boy sighed, "Year of our Lord 1851, sir."
"Right," he nodded, "Nice year. Bit dull."
Before either of them could break out and have a good natured bicker over period Earth and futuristic Alien trips a shout catches their attention.
"Doctor!" a woman cried out as the Time Lords spun around, confused to as where it had come from, "Doctor!"
"Who, me?" he gestured to himself.
"Our dull just got a lot more interesting don't ya think?" Ariana smirked at him before they took off running. Heading in the direction of where the woman's shouting had come from.
The shouting led them to a side alley and around the corner to another street, where they found a black woman dressed in period clothing cautiously backing away from a large pair of bolted doors.
"Doctor!" she called again just as the Time Lords reached her.
"Don't worry, don't worry," the Doctor goes over to her, "Stand back, what have we got here?" turning in a blink of an eye, he sees his mate pressing her ear up against the door, "Ariana?"
Who jumped before she could respond when something slammed against the doors, a growl following it from the inside, "Whatever's behind that door ain't gonna be friendly," Ari turns giving the woman a serious look, "So I suggest you get outta here, find somewhere safe."
But they only got looked at if they were stark raving bonkers, and she turned back to shouting again, "Doctor!"
Ariana frowned at the woman and glanced to the Doctor, rather confused to what was going on, knowing he was standing right next to her.
"No, I'm standing right here," he frowned equally at the woman with a small wave, "Hello."
"I don't think that it's you she's been calling for," Ariana remarked with an equal frown, "Which Doctor are you looking for exactly?" she then asked the woman.
"Don't be stupid. Who are you?"the woman demanded looking between them both.
"He is the Doctor and I'm Ariana," the female Time Lord answered.
"Doctor who?"
"Just the Doctor," the Doctor remarked.
"Well, there can't be two of ya," she said looking behind them just as a man in a tanned yellow coat ran up, dressed in the right period clothes, as the woman rounded on him, "Where the hell have you been?!"
"Don't worry," he stepped forward coaxing them back, "Stand back. What have we got here then?"
"Hold on, hold on," the Doctor cut in shaking his head, "Who are you?"
"I'm the Doctor," the man replied. Just as Ariana's eyes widened equally as her mates, "Simply, the Doctor. The one, the only and the best. Rosita, give me the sonic screwdriver."
That woman handed him something but it was too quick for both properly see what it was.
"What?" the Doctor shook his head.
"Now quickly, get back to the TARDIS," the Other Doctor ordered Rosita.
"Back to the where and the what now?" Ariana shook her head.
"If you could stand back, sir, ma'am," the Other Doctor glanced back at the duo grinning, "This is a job for a Time Lord."
"Job for a what Lord?"
Suddenly the doors burst opened revealing a black, shaggy creature with a furry body and a Cyberman-like mask where it's face should actually be.
"Ok, that's different," Ariana commented as the Doctor reached into his coat pocket.
"Oh, that's new..." the Other Doctor agreed with her.
Both the Doctor's aimed their sonics at the creature before them, "Allons-y!" they shouted together only to look at each other, taken aback. The creature looking between them.
"I've been hunting this beast for a good fortnight," the Other Doctor informed the Doctor, "Now step back, sir."
The monster suddenly leaps over them as they duck and it clung itself on to wall of the building behind, as stared down at them with intent, like it was studying them.
"Some sort of primitive conversion," Ariana mentions with a frown, before looking up to her mate, "Like they took the brain of a cat or a dog..."
"Well, talking's all very well," the Other Doctor interrupted her, "Rosita?"
"I'm ready," Rosita gives a nod, passing him over the lasso of rope which he swung around the top of his head. Just as the Doctor pulled Ariana away just to give the other man some room.
"Now, watch and learn," the Other Doctor releases the rope in just in one fail swoop capturing the monster, "Excellent. Now then, let's pull this timorous beastie down to Earth..."
But when all seemed well, the creature started pulling the Other Doctor with it as it climbed further up the wall, who was refusing to let the rope go.
"Or not," Ariana heard her Doctor sigh.
"I might be in a little bit of trouble," the Other Doctor called just as he got dragged further up the building.
"Still haven't changed one bit after all these years," Ariana frowned, not surprised to see her boyfriend run over to help.
"Hang on I've got you!" the Doctor called, taking hold of the rope, only to get pulled up as well.
"Really you too!" Ariana grumbled, pinching her nose in frustration.
"You idiots!" Rosita yelled at the Doctors.
"I prefer dumbass," the Time Lord muttered to herself, "Now I'm saving his sorry ass just like I used to when we were kids," she gave the woman a smile before running off as she picked an axe up along the way and charged up some stairs, listening in to her mate along the way.
"Perhaps if you could pull?" the Other Doctor asked.
"I am pulling," the Doctor replied back, "In this position, I couldn't not pull, could I?"
"Then I suggest you let go, sir."
"I'm not letting you out of my sight, Doctor. Don't you recognise me?"
"No, should I? Have we met? This is hardly the right time for me to go through my social calendar."
Both Doctors manage to get pulled through the window just as Ariana reached the top of the building. She managed to kick the door open just in time to see the creature, pulling both Doctors on with it across the floor, towards a window.
"It's going to jump!" the Doctor warned, just as Ari ran towards them.
"We're gonna fall!" the Other Doctor shouts.
She swung the axe, cutting the rope just in the nick of time before the Other Doctor had reached the window. Both stumbled backwards from the sudden halt. Ariana collapsed herself against the wall, as she catches her breath but at the same time feeling an exhilarating rush, watching as the Doctors stood wincing and moaning with slight pain.
With a shake of her head she made her way over, "That mister is what happens when you get caught in some rope," Ariana lightly scolds her boyfriend.
He returned a wink at her before they started laughing. Both of the Doctors hugging each other with excitement.
"Doctor!" they heard Rosita call with a gasp as she approached, running up to her Doctor while Ariana went to check hers over.
"Everything ok?" she asked checking him over.
"You know me Ari," he wrapped an arm around her waist, leading her to follow the Other Doctor and Rosita.
"A thank you for saving your ass wouldn't go amiss," she complained with a scoff.
"Alright thank you," he chuckled kissing the top of her head affectionately, just before heading down the stairs and going back outside.
"Well, I'm glad you think it's so funny," Rosita gave a glare at both the Doctors, "You're mad. Both of you. You could've got killed."
"But evidently we did not," the threw off with a laugh stepping beside her turning to both of the two Time Lords, "Oh, I should introduce Rosita. My faithful companion. Always telling me off."
"Well somebody has to," Ari smirked, glancing up at her Doctor, as they both thought of Donna.
"Rosita," the Doctor commented, looking at the other woman, "Good name. Hello, Rosita. And this is Ariana...my...well," he glanced down at her with a fond smile, "My girlfriend."
"Now I'll have to go and dismantle the traps," Rosita now sighed in disbelief, now turning to her Doctor, "All that for nothing. And we've only got twenty minutes till the funeral, don't forget," she called starting to head back towards the building, "Then back to the TARDIS, right?"
"What funeral?" Ariana frowned.
"Oh, long story," the Other Doctor waved off with a shrug, "Not my own, not yet," he now bends over, looking rather tired, "Oh, I'm not as young as I was."
"Well, not as young as you were when you were me," the Doctor remarked. Before Ariana jabbed him in the side with her elbow.
"When I was who?" the Other Doctor look up in confusion.
"Don't you recognise me?" the Doctor eyed him over before nodding to his girlfriend, "Or her?"
"Not at all."
"You really don't know who I am do you?" Ariana asked, eyeing the man suspiciously. Whilst wondering where in Rassilion's name she was.
"Should I?" when he replied, it honestly hurt, to think that he could forget his own Bonded in the future. Let alone forget himself.
"But you're the Doctor," the Doctor spoke slowly, "The next Doctor. Or the next but one. A future Doctor anyway."
"Oh!"
"No, no, don't tell me how it happened," the Time Lord stepped back and shook his head, Although, I hope I don't just trip over a brick..."
"Oh, definitely that'd be such an embarrassing way to go," Ariana agreed with her mate.
"Then again, painless. Worse ways to go. Depends on the brick."
"You're gabbling, sir," the Other Doctor cut him off staring at him, "Now might I ask, who are you and this lovely lady are, exactly?"
"No, I'm, er, I'm just. Smith," the Doctor introduced himself, giving the mans hand a shake, "John Smith and this is...er.."
"Mills," Ariana quickly answered for him, "Ariana Mills."
"But I've heard all about you, Doctor," the Doctor compliments him, "Bit of a legend, if I say so myself."
'Talk about boosting your own ego,' Ariana mentioned, with a roll of her eyes.
"Modesty forbids me to agree with you, sir," the Other Doctor seemed rather embarrassed about it, "But yes. Yes, I am."
Ari raises her eyebrow, him being modest? Well that was certainly a change.
"A legend with certain memories missing," the Doctor checked with him, "Am I right?"
"How do you know that?" the Other Doctor frowned at him.
"You've forgotten us," the Time Lord remarked, before nodding to Ariana.
The man nodded acting perfectly normal, "Great swathes of my life have been stolen away. When I turn my mind to the past, there's nothing."
"Going how far back?" The female Time Lord asked with concern.
"Since the Cybermen. Masters of that hellish wall-scuttler and old enemies of mine, now at work in London town. You won't believe this, Mr. Smith, but they are creatures from another world."
"Really," the Doctor nodded slowly, "Wow."
"It's said they fell onto London, out of the sky in a blaze of light. And they found me..." the man recalled the event trailing off, "Something was taken. And something was lost," he looked up at the two of them, "What was I like, in the past?"
"That's something we can't tell you," Ari began, cut her mate off before he could speak, "It's best to not say anymore than we have to especially when dealing with memory loss."
"It's strange, though," the man eyed both of them, "I talk of Cybermen from the stars and you don't blink, Even you Miss Mills..."
"Ariana," she insisted to him.
"Ah, don't blink. Remember that?" the Doctor grinned fondly, "Whatever you do, don't blink? The blinking and the statues? Sally and the angels? No?"
"You're a very odd man," the man stared at him oddly.
"Not the first person to tell him that," Ari remarked
"Hmm, I still am," the Doctor adds thoughtfully to the Other Doctor, "Something's wrong here."
The man suddenly jumps up, "Oh, the funeral! The funeral's at two o'clock. It's been a pleasure, Mr. Smith. Miss Mills..."
"Ariana will be just fine!" she told the man with a slight huff.
"Don't breathe a word of it."
"Oh, can't we come with you?" the Doctor asked, laughing internally at his girlfriends mental complaints.
He knew that she was still adjusting after being locked away for so long. That having probably having a last name now just felt a little wrong to her. Having been human for twenty odd years she deserved the freedom of using her real name after all. Ariana the Time Lord. It was understandable of course but he couldn't help but love the cute expressions she made when getting annoyed.
"It's far too dangerous," the Other Doctor turns to face them, moving backwards, "Rest assured, I shall keep this city safe. Oh, and, er merry Christmas, Mr. Smith, Miss Mills!" he dashed off around the corner out of sight before Ariana could correct him of her name.
"Merry Christmas, Doctor," the Doctor mumbled just as the Other Doctor turned the corner, "Something feels very wrong.
"Your not wrong there because he isn't you," Ari turned to look at him, "Whoever that guy is, he's not a future version of you."
"How can you be so sure?" he asked his girlfriend, feeling she would got a better sense of the man already. But when it came to meeting yourself it normally cancels everything out.
"Ok there's two very reasonable explanations..."
"That he didn't remember you..." he hazarded with a guess.
"No, smarty pants," she shakes her head, "It's strange that the only thing he remembers is up to the Cybermen, when I hadn't even met you yet, so he wouldn't know of me."
"Ok," he nodded. Never realising until now...how odd it felt, to know she had never been there.
"I couldn't even hear inside the guys mind," she continued.
"He...he was wearing a fob watch," the Doctor recalled, only having caught a brief glimpse at his attire before he left, "Could be a Chameleon Arch."
"We're Bonded as mates now Doctor," Ari shook her head, "You wouldn't be able to survive a regeneration without me, it would damage the Bond severely."
Both stayed silent giving this a lot of thought the possibility of how he could have used the Chameleon Arch and gone on surviving, why would he do that? If something ever happened to Ari that broke their Bond he would have used it as a last resort, becoming human, just to escape his pain...if he ever truly would. His human self would have a life without love, fulfilment, relationships, that would probably waste his soul away to nothing. It was a fate worse than death for to loose your Bonded.
He shook off the dread with a shake of his head, took Ariana's hand in his, knowing it was never an option. Because his hearts would truly break, if he ever lost her, he wouldn't escape from the pain, no, he would find a way back to her whatever it took. As he now squeezed her hand, she wasn't dead, she just couldn't be dead, and was truly praying that the Other Doctor wasn't him.
"And besides," she returned the squeeze, "I tried to give his mind a read, but all I got was human brainwaves, nothing about you in the slightest."
He nodded, rather relived to hear that the man was human, "Your second reason?"
"I couldn't feel the Bond."
"Ok, lets say he is a future version of me, I'm not certain that you'd actually feel it," he reasons with her, "It's the future, he's from another timeline compared to you, the Bond wouldn't exist between yourself or the future...different realities..."
It didn't surprise Ariana as she shook her head, of course he was still new to their Bond which honestly was cute with his lack of understanding it sometimes, "I would of felt it. Come on, Doc you should know that a Bond can transfer between space and time. Future, past, present," she looked back down the end of the alley, "I didn't feel any Time Lord essence coming off that watch, it just empty, he's one hundred percent human."
He took a deep breath and frowned, "Ok, so why dose he think that he's me?"
"I haven't got a clue," she shook her head as she gave his hand another squeeze, "We're just going to have to find out."
Off the Time Lords went, running around the buildings corner following the Other Doctor. Having managed to track him down very easily, only being a few feet from the alley, watching the funeral procession at a distance with Rosita by his side.
"The late Reverend Fairchild, leaving his place of residence for the last time," they hear the man say, "God rest his soul. Now, with the house empty, I shall effect an entrance at the rear while you go back to the TARDIS. This is hardly work for a woman."
Ariana raised an eyebrow to what he just said.
"Oh, don't mind me saving your life," Rosita scoffed in remark, "That's work for a woman, isn't it?"
"The Doctor's companion does what The Doctor says. Off you go."
They watch both of them part ways.
Ariana turned to her boyfriend, "If...by chance that this is you...you ever treat me like that, it'll be the last thing you ever do," she turns back and went sneaking off after the Other Doctor.
The Doctor swallowed nervously, now feeling a little scared before going after her. Both looked at the house in question the Other Doctor was heading surreptitiously towards. The Time Lord took his Mates hand, leading her around the block to the other side, soniced the front door and heading inside.
They hear somebody fiddling about with a lock at the back of the house and the Doctor striding over whipped open the door, "Hello," he grinned at the Other Doctor.
"How did you get in?" he asked them both, shocked to see Ariana standing nearby.
"Through the front door," she replied, jerking a thumb over her shoulder.
"I'm good at doors," the Doctor offered before frowning at the object in the Other Doctor's hand, "Er, do you mind my asking, is that your sonic screwdriver?"
"Yes," he holds it up, "I'd be lost without it."
"It's just a screwdriver," Ari shook her head, "How can it be sonic?"
"Well, er, it makes a noise," he taps the screwdriver against the doorframe, "That's sonic, isn't it? Now, since we're acting like common burglars, I suggest we get out of plain view."
Stepping back they let him into the house, closing the door securely behind. The Doctor turned to see the man was already heading down the hallway and into another room off it. He glanced at Ariana who only but shrugged as they followed after him to find him rifling through the draws of a desk in a library.
"This investigation of yours, what's it about?" the Doctor asked just after a few moments while looking around the room with Ari.
"It started with a murder," the Other Doctor replied.
"Oh, good," he started with a grin before Ari slapped the back of his head, "Ow! I mean that's bad, very bad! But whose?"
"Mr Jackson Lake, a teacher of mathematics from Sussex. He came to London three weeks ago and died a terrible death."
"From Cybermen?" Ari asked.
"It's hard to say. His body was never found," he replied to the woman with a sigh, "But then it started. More secret murders, then abductions. Children, stolen away in silence."
"So whose house is this?" the Doctor now asked looking at the Other Doctor who now headed to the bookcase.
"The latest murder. The Reverend Aubrey Fairchild, found with burns to his forehead, like some advanced form of electrocution."
"But who was he?" Ariana asked with a frown "Was he important to the community?"
"You both ask a lot of questions," he commented, giving them a suspicious look.
"We're your companions," the Doctor offered with a grin.
"The Reverend was the pillar of the community, a member of many parish boards. A keen advocate of children's charities."
"Children again. But why would the Cybermen want him dead?"
"And what's his connection to the first death, this Jackson Lake?" Ari added.
"It's funny," the Other Doctor looked at them, "I seem to be telling you everything, as though you engendered some sort of trust. You seem familiar, Mister Smith. I know your face. But how?"
Ariana of course had been somewhat hurt that he never remembered her, only however it was only the time he remembered long before he met her.
"I wonder," the Doctor glanced down, to the watch dangling on it's chain on the Other Doctor's waist, "I can't help noticing you're wearing a fob watch."
"Is that important?"
"There is a legend that tells of Time Lords being contained within a watch," Ariana answered.
"Do you mind?" the Doctor offered out his hand. The man placed the watch in his hand, "It's said that if it's opened..." upon opening it instead of Time Lord essence pour out, the insides of the watch came falling out instead. It looked as though it had been broken for a long time, "Oh. Maybe not."
'What did I tell you,' Ari came filtering into his head, 'There's nothing inside.'
He nodded, before spotting something on the watch, 'See this,' he commented to her seeing the engraving 'JL' on the back. Glancing over at his mate who was frowning, having seen what he had.
"It was more for decoration," the Other Doctor offered in remark.
"Yeah. Anyway, alien infiltration."
They moved apart to search the room, "Yes. Just look for anything different. Possibly metal. Anything that doesn't seem to belong. Perhaps a mechanical device that could fit no earthly engine," the Other Doctor instructed, just as the Doctor got out his sonic and began to scan, moving towards a locked desk, "It could even seem to be organic, but unlike any organism of the natural world. Shush! What's that noise?"
He quickly threw the sonic to Ariana who hides it behind her back as they turned to now face him, "Oh, it's just him..." Ari pretends to apologise nodding at the Doctor, "Whistling," he gave her a thankful glance. "
"Oh, yes," he dose an impression of the sonic screwdriver's whistling before turning to face his mate at the desk that had now been unlocked, "I wonder what's in here, though..." he pulled open the writing desks draw, "Ah," he takes out two metal cylinders, "Different and metal, you were right. They' re infostamps."
"Well at a guess," Ari added quickly.
"And if I were you, I'd say they worked something like this," the Doctor pressed one end of the cylinder and it projected out images from the other out onto the wall before them, "It's some sort of compressed information. Tons of it," he puts on his glasses, "That is the history of London, 1066 to the present day."
"This is like a disk, a Cyberdisk," Ariana shook her head, glancing up to her boyfriend, "But why would the Cybermen need something so simple?"
He shakes his head continuing to watch the projection, "They've got to be wireless. Unless...they're in the wrong century. They haven't got much power. They need plain old basic infostamps to update themselves and..."
"Hey, are you ok?" Ari asked the Other Doctor, noticing that he looked rather pale and had collapsed into the chair with a distraught expression upon his face.
"I'm fine," he brushed of that it was nothing, as she crouched before him.
"No, what is it?" the Doctor asked, coming to join her, "What's wrong?"
"I've seen one of these before," he offered quietly, as he take the stamp from the Doctor, "I was holding this...device the night I lost my mind. The night I regenerated..." he made a pained face remembering it, "The Cybermen, they made me change. My mind, my face, my whole self. And you were there," he looked at the Doctor now startled, "Who are you?"
"Friends. I swear."
"Then I beg you, John," he now reached out, "Help me."
"The two magic words he can never refuse," Ari smiled fondly as her mate helped her stand up.
"But it's not a conversation for a dead man's house," the Doctor now continued, "It'll make more sense if we go back to the TARDIS...your TARDIS. Hold on. I just need to do a little final check. Won't take a tick," he glanced to Ari who nods and offered to help the Other Doctor up as hers started opening the doors, "There's one more thing I cannot figure. If this room's got infostamps, then maybe, just maybe, it's got something that needs infostamping..." Ari looked over just as he opens the door only to find a Cyberman standing in the doorway, "Ok!" he slammed the door shut, "I think we should run."
He ran forward, taking the Other Doctor's arm and Ari's as the Cyberman smashed through the door.
"Run, Doctor!" the Doctor shouted at him, "Now, Doctor!"
"Delete!" the Cyberman cried, as they ran down the hall towards the front door when another Cyberman is blocking their way, "The Doctor will be deleted!"
Turning back around the first Cyberman breaks through the door, "Delete."
"The stairs!" Ariana called, pulling them both back, "We can't lead them outside!"
Ari pushes the Other Doctor up the staircase, only find to be pushed up with him by her mate. Looking over her shoulder halfway up the stairs as she saw him fighting off the Cyberman with...an open umbrella.
"Use the sword dumbass!" she shouted at him in annoyance, gesturing to the sword on the wall.
He turned seeing it and grabbed it off the wall as the second Cyberman appeared.
"Delete!"
He starts flourishing the sword, "I'm a dab hand with a cutlass. You don't want to come near me when I've got one of these. This is your last warning," the Cyberman continued it's advance, "No? Ok, this is really your last warning! Ok, I give up," he backs up towards the stairs, Ari backing up much further.
"Delete!"
"Listen to me properly," the Doctor now begged, continuing to back up the stairs, as it struck him managing to block it.
"Doc!" Ari cried.
"Whatever you're doing stuck in 1851, we can help!" he tried once again blocks the next blow, "We're the only people in the world who can help you! Listen to me!"
"Delete!"
He sighed wanting to give this one final shot, "I'm the Doctor. You need me. Check your memory banks. My name's the Doctor. Leave this man alone. The Doctor is me!"
He stumbles to the side just as one of them moved to chop him once again, when out of nowhere Ariana, kicked the Cyberman square in the chest sending one then the other falling backwards like dominoes down the stairs. The Doctor looked up at his girlfriend who let go of a lamp hanging on the ceiling in the corner by the stairs that she must of swung from to land square on the stairs again.
"I bloody love you!" he grinned at her.
"Delete!"
"Remind me later and then you can thank me!" she shouted with a wink, helping him and pulling him up the stairs.
"The Doctor, remember?" he turned back to them as the Cybermen got back up, "I'm the Doctor! You need me alive. You need the Doctor, and that's me!"
"Delete!"
They make it to the top of the stairs where the Other Doctor is waiting but so were the Cybermen. Carefully backing up just as there is a sudden flash of energy shoots past them hit the Cybermen in their heads. Looking back to see it was the Other Doctor who had opened the infostamp and fired it's beams.
"Infostamp with a Cyclo-Steinham core," The Doctor beathes staring at the man in shock and amazement, "You ripped open the core and broke the safety. Zap! Only the Doctor would think of that."
"I did that..."he started to recall, "Last time."
"Come here," Ariana reached out her hand to him and pulled him up, "You'll be okay," she looked over to her boyfriend, "You still got that stethoscope?" he hands it over to her, as she placed it to the Other Doctor's chest, "I'm just going to check something."
"You told them you were the Doctor," the Other Doctor looked at the Doctor over Ariana's shoulder, "Why did you do that?"
"He was doing it to protect you," Ari informed him with reassurance, as she continued listening to his chest. She glanced over at him briefly who looked to the scope, the only thing that could be heard was a single beating heart.
"You're trying to take away the only thing I've got, like they did," the Other Doctor moved away from Ariana, "They stole something, something so precious, but I can't remember. What happened to me? What did they do?"
"We'll find out."
"You, me and Ari," the Doctor agreed, "Together."
-Doctor Who-
Night had fallen by the time they made it back to the alley finding Rosita pacing nervously in wait for them.
"Doctor!" she ran over to the Other Doctor hugging him soon as she saw them, "I thought you were dead!"
"Now then, Rosita," the Other Doctor pulls away from her, "A little decorum."
"You've been gone for so long," she turned to the other two, "He's always doing this, leaving me behind. Going frantic."
"What about the TARDIS?"
"Oh, she's ready. Come on," she takes him by the arm leading the way.
"Oh, I can't wait to see this," Ariana remarked, as she linked arms with the Doctor and followed after them. They come to some empty stables with no horses, only finding clothes and suitcases scattered about the place. The Time Lords looked around as the Other Doctor talks with Rosita.
"You were right though, Rosita," he informed his companion, "The Reverend Fairchild's death was the work of the Cybermen."
"So, you live here?" Ariana looked around her.
"A temporary base, until we rout the enemy. The TARDIS is magnificent, but it's hardly a home," the Other Doctor went into a stall and washed his face with a cloth and some water in a basin.
"And where's the TARDIS now?" the Doctor asked.
"In the yard."
"Er...what's all this luggage?" the Doctor pointed at the luggage around them.
"Evidence. The property of Jackson Lake, the first man to be murdered. Oh, but my new friend is a fighter, Rosita, much like myself. He faced the Cybermen with a cutlass. I'm not ashamed to say, he was braver than I," Ari quickly chucked the Doctor his sonic back, sensing he needed it to look around, started to flash it about scanning everything. Making Rosita look up from the sound.
"He was quite brilliant," he finishes, "Are you whistling again?"
"Yes," the Doctor spun around, quickly turning off the sonic, "Yes, I am, yeah. Yeah," he gave Rosita a wink, making a 'shh' motion before going to another trunk taking it off the pile.
"That's another man's property!" Rosita called.
"Well, a dead man's," the Doctor began when Ari slapped the back of his head again. Wincing he went on to open the suitcase and look through it.
Ariana glanced over at Rosita with a smile, "How did you two meet, then?" she pointed to the Other Doctor.
"He saved my life," she answered with a sigh, "Late one night, by the Osterman's Wharf, this creature came out of the shadows. A man made of metal. I thought I was going to die. And then, there he was. The Doctor. Can you help him, sir? He has such terrible dreams. Wakes at night in such a state of terror."
"Come now, Rosita," the Other Doctor joined them, "With all the things a Time Lord has seen, everything he's lost, he may surely have bad dreams."
The Doctor tenses up and Ari notices laying a hand upon his arm, "With the bad dreams, come plenty of good ones," she whispered softly in reminder.
He looked over at her and kisses her forehead, "Yeah, I know," he agreed with her before getting back to the luggage, "Oh, now, look..." he pulled a stamp out, "Jackson Lake had an infostamp."
"But how?" the Other Doctor shakes his head, "Is that significant?"
"Doctor, the answer to all this is in your TARDIS. Can we see it?"
"Mr. Smith, Miss Mills," he smiles just as Ariana shook her head, "It would be my honour."
Turning the Other Doctor lead them through the stables into a courtyard outside. Stopping to stare at his magnificent TARDIS before walking over to it with Rosita.
The two Time Lords could only but stare at the...hot-air balloon that was tethered a few feet away.