NOTE: This is my first attempt at writing Dr Who fan-fiction. I admittedly haven't seen much of the earlier (pre-10th) series, but I tried to keep within the spirit of it. Also, I felt that the current series did a grave injustice on the fans with the handling of the 11th Doctor/Clara/Impossible Girl storyline. I don't want it to be 'soap opera-y' but just dropping it so nonchalantly isn't good either. If this is good enough, I may continue.
9/14/14 NOTE: Story complete. Let me know what you think. Based on the ending, I may do another story about what happens post-ending but it's more of an idea than an actual story. I may also do a version of "Listen" (great episode that would fit with the post-ending world not to spoil my story) as well. Better yet, someone else can also use some of the characters introduced or do the story as well.
Over the mountains and into a cave, there is someone tied up. He has been tortured, deprived of light, and of comfort. A robed figure walks toward him. The figure stops in front of the captive and hits him to awaken him.
"Wakey-wakey eggs and bakey, Doctor," he says.
The captive, who is the Doctor, groans as he lifts his head. "Oh, how long was I out?" he asks.
"A rather long time. Come with me." The figure lowers his hood, revealing the face of a black haired man with a wrinkled face. He unties the Doctor and removes the bowtie used to cover his eyes.
All The Doctor can do is ask a question that must be answered for him: "Why?"
"You and I both know why. You remembered. You were me many many years ago. You remembered your exile. You remembered the feeling you had and how it was until it ended. And I need you to complete something that would have happened in my future but your past."
The Doctor finally realizes who this is. This is him. This is the Second Doctor that was exiled to Earth for interference by the Time Lords. The Doctor with brown hair and a tweed coat, nearly collapses from exhaustion. Somehow, he still has the strength to keep going through the corridors, being pushed by his former self. And all he says is three words: "Clara. My Clara."
"This is an Emergency Broadcast through the TARDIS. There is someone on board and I don't know how long I have before I'm caught. If anyone can hear me, please go to these coordinates and help me. The Doctor, signing off."
Clara Oswald doesn't normally take phones during class. She was going over Romeo and Juliet with her students at Coal Hill. Star-crossed lovers, she would snicker to herself. As if I know anything about that.
Excusing herself, she goes into a hallway and listens to the message sent from the TARDIS. It was her Doctor. The Doctor called her the only mystery worth solving. She had saved him countless times throughout the Doctor's history but he never knew it. She walked through the hallways of the school and located one of the headmasters.
"I need to leave for the rest of the afternoon, something came up at home."
Of course, it was a lie. But the TARDIS was just as much of a home to her as her actual home. The new Doctor she still travels with although their relationship is a bit icy. She wants to leave, but can't. The Doctor needs her, even though she doesn't need him anymore. She remembered the first meeting after the Doctor's regeneration and the words he said to her. Clara grimaces as she replays in her mind what the Doctor said. She has to move on. She still hasn't heard back from him – they were supposed to go for coffee but instead went inside a Dalek. Her Doctor would have remembered to take her.
Clara reaches outside and sees the familiar police box outside. The door opens and Clara walks in.
"I suppose you got the same message too," asks the figure in a dark coat and with a Scottish accent. "Time to go save the universe again, Clara."
Clara stood there and was exasperated. "So I guess the message went everywhere. And you need me? Who else has gotten it?"
The Doctor looked at her and ignored her first question. He shrugged. "I wish I knew. I just know that I don't do something fast, it won't be good. It never gets any easier."
The Doctor pulls the switch and the TARDIS whirls as it goes to the coordinates. The Doctor looks at what's at the coordinates and its empty space full of stars and wonders, except for two other police boxes at the same coordinates.
"We got our answer," the Doctor huffs. A voice comes across a speaker. "Hello, this is the Doctor. Anyone there?" The Doctor sees his face through a monitor. It's the familiar dark haired Doctor who's last battle with the Master cost him his life.
"Yes I'm here," says the Scottish Doctor. "Anyone else there?"
"I'm here." This Doctor has a nearly shaven head. "Is there a planet we can go to? I don't see anything here that can be of any help."
The Three Doctors agree to land on a nearby planet.
"So you were called by the same thing? Your futures and my past. And we don't have any idea where he is."
The dark haired Doctor speaks, "Nor do we have any idea who stole him. It can't be him – I fought him already and he stopped my regenerative abilities for over a year. I'm not ready to fight him again."
The shaven head Doctor looks and stares at the frozen image of the 11th Doctor: "You see something there – in the background." The others and Clara look at the dark haired man with a recorder over the Doctor's shoulder. "You know what this means, right?"
The newest Doctor seems to recognize the figure but catches himself. "I feel I should know that face, but I can't put my finger on it."
The shaven head Doctor responds: "That's because it's you. And me. And him. The Doctor was kidnapped by…himself."
Clara interrupts: "Hold on – how is that possible? How was he able to go back in time? I don't just mean with the TARDIS. Why would he go back?"
Back at the cave, the tweed coat Doctor is standing in front of something he saw when he ended the war in Gallifrey: the Moment. The robed Doctor speaks:
"You know what this is?" The Doctor nods. "This is something that I need you to do. This is something that has been building up for me for a long time. I think you know exactly where I am going."
The tweed coat Doctor then responds. "I do and you're wrong. You can't do this. Not like this. You can't make me cause him to appear. You'll end your own life by doing this. You'll end my life by doing this. You'll change everything."
The recorder Doctor looks around in the ice cavern. "Because this was my life after the great Time Lords of Gallifrey vanquished me here. " Speaking loudly, "It was a mistake I tell you!" Back to a normal speaking voice, "Those were my final cries. I had a long time to think about it, Doctor. In a lot of ways we're alike. We both had our plans. It was like staring into the Untempered Schism except every day. It would drive me mad. My regeneration didn't take place immediately. I was in a void of nothingness for the longest time until I came to my senses. When I got back to the TARDIS, I realized that 3 years had past since I saw Jamie and Zoe. But after I regenerated I of course blocked it out of my mind. I had to help UNIT, you see. I was sent away for violating the rule of non-interference but I had to go to Earth? I was their errand boy."
The younger Doctor clears his throat. "Think about what you're doing, Doctor. You can't force me to do this. You can't. This isn't you. This isn't me."
"Well, if I can't convince you, then maybe he can."
Seemingly out of nowhere, Walter Simeon appears.
"Well, we meet again," says the 11th Doctor. "I should have known."
Walter begins to laugh. "Of course, you should have known. I have been there all along. I was in your mind, lying dormant since you met me. You are essentially fighting against yourself with me." Walter changes shape into the 11th Doctor. "You can't run from me, Doctor. You know you can't. You can't win this time. You can't reboot the universe. You can't call in favors. Your wife is dead and won't save you. This is it. This is where it ends for you."
The 11th Doctor fights the urge. "Never!"
"What will it take? Hmmm? What about this?" Walter changes shape into Clara Oswald. "This girl. I jumped into your timestream to save you Doctor because I wanted you all to myself. I wanted to be yours forever." Walter changes back to his original form. "You see what good that did. She's just an ordinary girl, Doctor. And I'm at the peak of my abilities when I took control of you albeit an earlier form. He became suspectible. I showed him what happened after he regenerated. I caught him at the right time. I caught him during his exile. I showed him his future and it made him angry. He let his anger control him. And it will control you."
The black haired Doctor seems to drop his head as Walter looks at the 11th Doctor. Walter begins to stare intently at the Doctor and he tries to fight it. Eventually, he loses. The Doctor begins to reach his hands out towards the Moment, with no control. The 2nd Doctor, realizing what's going on, grabs him.
"Stop Doctor, don't do it!"
Walter reacts in anger. "So I know I can't control the same Doctor at the same time. Damn you you fool!" As Walter and the second Doctor begin to fight over the control of him, the tweed coat Doctor runs out of the cave into the frozen world outside.
The Doctor looks everywhere for his TARDIS outside. He looks behind him and hides behind a cliff as the Whisper Men walk outside into the snow. The Doctor remembers where his sonic screwdriver is.
The Doctor gets back to the cave he was originally and held captive. He finds the screwdriver, thrown down and seemingly broken. The Doctor makes some adjustments to the device and it powers on. He also finds his TARDIS key.
"Now what?" he asks to himself. Going back outside, he finds the TARDIS half buried. The Doctor begins to dig in the snow and unlocks the TARDIS. He finds his main console. He looks at the time on the console. It is July 3rd, 2557.
"So I was exiled in the far future before I regenerated." The Doctor uses the Emergency Broadcast channel once again. He knows the coordinates for this Earth.
"Hello, hello, this is the Doctor. Can anyone hear me?"
Meanwhile, in the present, the three Doctors and Clara look at the screen and see an old familiar face. The Scottish Doctor responds:
"I can hear you. Where are you? What happened?"
The 11th Doctor smirks. "Oy, I must have gotten really old. Please don't tell me I got old. Whatever you do, don't come to these coordinates….it's a trap. I'm in the year of July 3rd, 2557 and I'm on Earth. Clara, it's not safe for you here. But you're a brave girl.
I'm being forced to start something I never wanted to do. I'm being forced to become the Vale -" Suddenly, the screen cuts out.
The three Doctors look at each other and pained expressions has crossed their faces.
Clara, confused, looks at the screen then back at them. "What's the matter?"
The dark haired Doctor responds, "It's happening. He's putting into motion the events that lead to the Doctor becoming the Valeyard."
The shaven haired Doctor shakes his head. "The Valeyard. After ending the Time War, there is something else that must be done and must be stopped. I get tired of this. When will it end? Where will it end?"
The newest Doctor responds, "It will never end. So are you going to help baldy or do I have to do this myself?"
"Baldy? Who the hell do you think you are? Did you get left at the nursing home one day grandpa? If this is the future I have to look forward to, count me out. I'd rather deal with humans than a nitwit like you."
The 10th Doctor shifts uncomfortably. "Why the sad face, pretty boy?" asks the shaven head Doctor.
The dark haired Doctor steadies himself and responds "We need to work together" but he is ignored. Clara whispers in the 10th Doctor's ear while her current Doctor and his 9th incarnation argue. "Are they always like this?"
"Yes, I'm always like this."
Clara then stops and remembers something. She heard the Valeyard mentioned once. At night, she does have dreams of the multi-colored Doctor battling a figure called the Valeyard.
The tenth Doctor looks at her for a second, "Clara, you seem to have something on your mind."
Clara gathers herself and begins to speak: "I remembered bits and pieces of the Valeyard. I remembered seeing you battle him years ago. And although I saved your life many times, the Valeyard was the one thing I couldn't save the Doctor from. That was something he had to do himself. Why would he leave the message for me to help I don't know. I don't have your abilities. I'm not a Time Lord."
The newest Doctor interrupts, "It's Time Lady" and goes back to arguing with one of his predecessor.
Clara, flustered, continues, "Time Lady, whatever. I'm just an ordinary girl." But she is just ignored.
"….And secondly I don't wear a magician's coat! What is wrong with you?"
"At least I don't look like a member of a failed rock band."
"OK Dreamboy, time for you to leave and let the grown ups handle this."
Clara then yells, "Stop! Stop this fighting at once!"
The newest Doctor looks at his predecessor then back at Clara.
Clara asks, "Do you even remember what I said?"
"Yes I heard every word. You wondered why you. Since you jumped into my timestream, you know what I know and seen what I've seen."
Clara nods.
The newest Doctor looked at the others then at Clara. "Clara, remember when I said I wasn't your boyfriend?"
Clara nods with a downturned lip.
"I'm not your boyfriend because he – "pointing to the blank screen and a picture of the bowtied Doctor as the source of the message – "is. He asked for you because he knew you could do it. I know you can do it. You're his Impossible Girl, after all."
Clara looks at the Time Lords and wipes her eyes. "OK, can we just stop fighting? If you're going to continue, I'll just go back to Coal Hill."
The dark haired Doctor laughs and remarks, "Oh that's where you work! I had a granddaughter that went to school there once."
Clara laughs as it changes the mood and the newest Doctor smiles a bit. Clara then asks, "What do we need to do?"
The ninth Doctor responds: "We have to go to where I – we – he was exiled. That has to be where we start."