A/N: When the Doctor lands on a twenty-second century Earth he doesn't recognize, and he finds the human race enslaved by the Machines, he embarks on an adventure to solve the mystery of the identity of the Source and how this time lime came to be.
This story can take place anytime after DW S4 "Journey's End" but before "The End of Time", of course, and starts in Matrix Reloaded. The T rating is a just in case, I never know how to rate these things.
I do not own Doctor Who or Matrix.
Reviews are lovely and happy reading!
The Doctor sat on the bench with his feet resting on the edge of the console, knees slightly bent as he leaned forward studying the readouts on the monitor. He had set the TARDIS on random. He didn't know where she was taking him and he didn't care. He was alone again and this time he wanted to be alone. When he thought of how he ruined the lives of those who travelled with him, he almost couldn't bear it. He needed a distraction.
The circular language of his native Gallifreyan shifted methodically on the screen that threatened to loll him to sleep, but then something caught his eye and he perked up. The Time Lord realized that the TARDIS was landing, and it was somewhere curious indeed. "Well, ol girl," he spoke to the console affectionately, "where have you taken me now?" He checked a gauge and frowned. "Twenty-second century Earth, eh? Huh. Nothing much interesting happened then. Guess I'll have to see for myself."
He hopped gingerly off the bench, strode for the door and held it open as he stared out in surprise. Taking a step outside and closing the door behind him, he let his eyes wander over the massive cavern that was artificially made, and at one point must have been in better repair. The whole of the tunnel was uneven, parts of it collapsed and filled with the clutter of twisted metal pieces and other debris.
The Doctor drifted further away from the TARDIS as he examined random bits of debris using his sonic to determine information about them. "Standard Earth materials," he spoke aloud to himself, "iron, steel, plastic. Nothing extraordinary." He sniffed the air and frowned. He licked the tip of his finger and held it up in the air. His frown deepened. Mentally, he confirmed that he was indeed on twenty-second century Earth.
"But this isn't right," he said, baffled. He turned on his heel looking over the cavern once more, "I remember a completely different twenty-second century Earth. What is going on here?"
A faint sound echoed from further down the cavern. The Doctor turned his ear toward the sound, leaning just a bit, and likened the buzzing to a swarm of bees. The buzzing grew steadily louder and the Doctor held his ground allowing his curiosity get the better of him. Finally, he saw the source of the buzzing rapidly flying toward him. The creature possessed a spattering of red glowing eyes set in a black orb-like body with numerous black tentacles flowing behind it.
"Well," the Doctor whispered in fascination for he had never seen anything like this before, "what do we have here?"
The squid-like creature, a robot the Doctor realized as it got closer, came to an abrupt stop and hovered roughly fifteen feet away from him. It whipped a tentacle around in front of itself with machine precision and the tip spun open into a dish shape. The Doctor watched as the robot appeared to be scanning him. "Hello, there," he smiled a friendly smile, even though his instincts were already telling him to run. "I'm the Doctor," he said. The squid closed the dish, moved that tentacle to the rear, and brought two tentacles to the front. The ends of these split open into claws. The machine advanced on the Doctor with terrifying speed, who bolted for the TARDIS.
The Time Lord managed to get his hand on the TARDIS door when the claw of the machine grabbed his arm, clamping down painfully, and stopped him in his tracks. He screamed out in pain, but twisted around and shoved the sonic in his free hand toward the face of the machine. The sonic chirped to life and the robot shuddered, its grip on the Doctor's arm relaxed. He yanked his arm free and pressed himself against the TARDIS as he kept the sonic aimed at the machine. Finally, the machine fell to the ground with a thud.
Since he expected the cavern to be silent with the fall of that machine, he was surprised to still hear the buzzing. He looked up and saw another squid machine hovering above the TARDIS. The Doctor aimed the sonic and the robot slowly shuddered as it drifted to the ground. But there was still more buzzing as yet a third machine flew around from behind the TARDIS with two tentacle claws aimed for the Doctor.
He knew he was out matched, so he snapped his fingers. The TARDIS door opened, but a mechanical claw dug into his right shoulder and yanked him back. He yelped in pain and struggled to aim the sonic at his captor. Instead, his arm was held fast by another claw that clamped around his forearm. The sonic fell from his fingers as he was abruptly lifted off the ground.
Before the Doctor was whisked away, he spied a glance at his beloved ship and saw her door slam shut on its own. He knew at least she would be safe, for the moment.
.
.
"We're almost to broadcast depth, Neo," Link reported happily from his pilot's seat on the Nebuchadnezzar. For him, it was another day helping the One.
Neo stood behind Link and patted the pilot's shoulder. "Thanks," Neo said in an even tone.
"Anything for the One," Link said with a smile.
Neo felt fingers slip into his hand and he looked over his shoulder into the smiling, loving face of Trinity. "Are you ready?" she purred into his ear and pressed her body against his back. Neo turned to face her and wrapped an arm around her waist.
"Ahem," a deep voice said clearing his throat. Neo and Trinity turned their heads and smiled sheepishly at Morpheus like teenagers caught by a parent. Morpheus just looked on them with pride, enjoying the sight of young love despite the world they lived in.
"Alright, boys and girls," said Link in amusement, "Here we…hang on. What's this?" He stared at the monitor with crunched eyebrows. Morpheus, Neo and Trinity moved closer to take a look.
"What is it, Link?" Trinity asked with a clenched jaw.
"I'm getting an energy reading," he said.
"Squids?" Morpheus asked with concern.
"No. Not them," he shook his head and looked out the hovercraft's windows. "Let me get this girl down," he said and maneuvered the Nebuchadnezzar to a landing on the cavern floor.
"What. Is. That?" asked Morpheus staring out the windows in disbelief at a blue box with softly glowing windows that was very out of place amongst the dirt covered debris.
"Police box? I've never seen anything like it," Trinity whispered turning to Neo, "Have you?"
Neo shook his head and simply said, "No."
"You say that thing has an energy reading?" Morpheus asked Link.
He nodded his head, "Yeah. What do you want to do?"
Morpheus sighed in thought as he pondered the answer. "Take a closer look," he said at last with a shrug and disappeared into the rear.
Once outside, the trio cautiously approached the blue box. Neo held back, while Morpheus dared to reach out a hand and press his palm on the wood of the door. "It feels…warm," he said and tried the door. He frowned when it didn't give way. Trinity noticed a shining metal object on the ground that seemed out of place. She picked it up and examined the strange cylindrical object. "Look at this," she said and held it out for Morpheus and Neo to see. Neither of them knew what to make of it and Neo motioned to head back to the hovercraft. Trinity tucked the cylindrical object into a pocket and returned to the ship.
When Morpheus, Neo and Trinity returned to the bridge, Link asked, "Well?"
"Whatever it is, we can't open it," Morpheus answered, "We'll have to look it over back at the Dock. Right now, let's not waste our time. Neo has some saving to do."
.
.
The Doctor stared grimly at the scorched world of the surface as the machine that carried him flew quickly through the air. It joined a stream of countless other squid machines like itself. The Doctor was horrified at their numbers. Must be billions. He noticed the sky above cracked with lightning and rumbled with thunder, and knew it wasn't a natural storm. It was something worse, a scorched sky.
The pain in his shoulder intensified each time his captor altered course, and he turned to biting his lip to keep from crying out. Finally, the machine brought him to a platform on top of a tower hundreds of stories high. The squid slowed as it approached the edge and released its grip. The Time Lord dropped to his knees as soon as his feet hit the grated platform. He rubbed his shoulder and waved his arm in circles to work out the pain.
"Doctor," a synthesized voice spoke smoothly.
Raising his head, the Doctor gazed upon a human-like face made up of hundreds of squid machines squirming in constant motion forming a wall of sorts that towered above him. He climbed to his feet, wincing at the pain in his shoulder. The wind that cut across the platform threatened to knock him down as it whipped around him.
"Yes, I'm the Doctor," he yelled over the wind, "And who are you?"
"You are species, Time Lord," it ignored the question, much to the Doctor's chagrin, "Estimated lifespan, seven thousand years. Energy output, one hundred times that of a human being. Doctor, known throughout the universe as the protector of Earth."
"How do you know those things?" the Doctor demanded, "You can't be of this planet if you know those things. Am I right?"
"You are correct," the face answered, "I am not of this planet but this planet is where I am and it is mine."
"What you have done here is in direct violation of galactic law!" the Doctor was outraged.
"Yes it is," the face replied nonchalantly, "In order to prevent you from alerting the Shadow Proclamation, you will be taken to power grid forty-two and inserted into the Matrix."
As a squid broke away from the face and flew down toward him, the Doctor screamed in fury, "Now, hang on just a minute! You still haven't told me who you are?"
"I am the Source," the face seemed to smile.
"Never heard of you. Why don't you tell me who you really are, eh?" he asked trying to by some time to think of a plan. He took a quick glance at his surroundings, but nothing useful stood out. He really wished he hadn't dropped the sonic screwdriver.
"That is irrelevant," the Source answered evenly as the approaching squid grabbed the Doctor by the arms and flew him through the air toward what he supposed was power grid forty-two.