Me: Hello~! Welcome to my very first Doctor Who story~! I'm really excited about it~! (Hopefully the squiggly popped up; I love the squiggly~!)
Spock: We have some background information for you~. ...Laveycee, why are you making me put "squigglies" on the end of my sentences~?
Me: Squigglies are cool~.
Spock: Who told you that~?
Me: Eleven did~.
Spock: ... Background information~: Nine is around "Boom Town"~. Ten is right before "The Doctor's Daughter"~. James/Duplicate!Ten is right before chapter four of "An Unexpected Family" by bittie752~. Eleven is from right after leaving child-Amy~.
Me: That means that Eleven has just left Amelia for the first time~. By the way, we don't own Doctor Who, or any thing with James/Duplicate!Ten, because we're treating bittie752's "An Unexpected Family" as canon~. (By the way, we highly suggest reading it-and maybe "Life as a Circular Paradox" too-before reading this story~. At least until chapter four of "Unexpected Family"~. It really is an awesome series~.)
Spock: I apologize for Laveycee's over-useage of the "~" (or, as she calls it, the squiggly) symbol.
Me: Oh, and just so you know: Nine is Christopher Eccleston's Doctor, Ten is David Tennant's Doctor, Eleven is Matt Smith's Doctor, Tony is Jackie's son with alternate!Pete, in this story Rory is part Time Lord and the son of Rose and the Metacrisis Doctor (also called "James"), Rose is immortal (or near-immortal), Rose and the Metacrisis Doctor/James are back in their home universe, and that should be it. Any questions should be asked via PM, email (in my profile), or via review. Also, some dialogue has been-ah, borrowed-from "The Doctor's Daughter". Just some stuff from the very beginning, so no harm done. I hope.
Disclaimer: Eh, this should go without saying: We own nothing. The actors belong to themselves (and an argument could be made that they belong to the BBC), bittie752 owns "An Unexpected Family" (and she is graciously allowing us to borrow it. Kinda), the characters belong to the BBC, and we only own this story. Please alert us of any typos, as this is currently un-Beta'd. If anyone is willing to Beta for me, I will be eternally grateful!
~~~~This page break was brought to you by BBC~~~~
"So what's on the agenda for today?" Rose Tyler asked the Doctor, whose name wasn't actually "the Doctor"... actually, he wasn't a doctor at all, but an alien traveler from the planet Gallifrey, which had been destroyed in the Time War, along with the Daleks. But never mind all that.
"Not much. Just need to fix some things on the TARDIS, then...something'll pop up. Usually does," said the black-haired, blue-eyed leather-wearing Doctor.
"There's this bar on Rigel VIII-(1)" began their sole guest, Captain Jack Harkness, ex-con man and ex-Time Agent.
"No," said Rose and the Doctor together.
Beep, beep, said the TARDIS. (2)
"What?" Looking slightly worried, the Doctor glanced at the screen displaying Gallifreyian text. "We're being pulled somewhere-"
The TARDIS rocked from side to side. "Where are we going?!" shouted Rose.
"I don't know!" the Doctor called back. The shaking stopped with a final tremor that knocked them all off their feet.
"Well, let's find out," suggested Jack, glancing at the outer...cameras? In any case, he looked at a scene from outside the TARDIS. "Wait...why does that look like we're on a ship...and why is there three other TARDISes?"
"You two stay here," the Doctor ordered.
The two companions glanced at each other and sighed. There was no arguing with the Doctor sometimes.
~~~This is a page break of awesomeness~~~
"Doctor, don't you dare!" shouted Martha.
"No, no, no. I didn't touch anything. We're in flight. It's not me," the pinstriped Doctor promised. The TARDIS shook, knocking Martha and Donna off their feet. The Doctor just barely remained upright, holding onto the console for dear life.
"Where are we going?" Donna demanded.
"I don't know. It's out of control!" the Doctor yelled.
"Doctor, just listen to me. You take me home. Take me home right now!" Martha demanded.
"Martha, I can't, I really can't-" There was a jolt, knocking them all off their feet. "We've landed. Question is," the Doctor said thoughtfully, "is where." He turned to Donna and Martha and grinned. "I'll go... check it out."
"Be careful, spaceman," Donna grumbles.
~~~~Page break stolen-er, donated by-Prussia~~~~
"Alright, let's take her for a test drive!" the biological meta-crisis of the 10th Doctor yelled, excited that their TARDIS was finally ready to go somewhere. "Where to, Rose?"
"I don't know... We could..." Rose Tyler-or Williams, to use her new last name-formerly of Torchwood, tester of the Dimension Cannon, trailed off.
The new TARDIS hummed. "I think she's got somewhere in mind. Allons-y, Beauty!"
The new TARDIS took off without further ado into a smooth flight, landing around five minutes later in a location she refused to tell. Go out, she told Rose. "Doctor, she's saying that we should go out there."
"Well, who am I to argue with our Beauty? Let's get the boys and see what's out there!" The Doctor-or, to use his "new" name, the name that he had to go by in Leadworth, James Williams-reached out with his mind to his son Rory's. Rory, get Tony and come to the console room. We've landed.
Okay, Dad, Rory replied. We'll be there in a minute.
Rory and Tony Williams-even if they were both really Tylers-appeared in the hallway that lead out of the console room. "Where are we?" asked thirteen-year-old Tony.
"We don't know," Rose said with a grin.
"Can we go out now?" Rory-five years old; "Almost six!" he'd insist-asked, wiggling with excitement.
James looked at his son and decided to mess with him a bit. "Well, it could be dangerous..."
Beauty's lights dimmed briefly and Rose glared at her husband. "She says that she'd never bring us somewhere dangerous as long as there are children on board." The lights flickered. "She also says something about not being insulting... but that she doesn't expect much, and to go out there now."
"Alright, family-allons-y!"
~~~This page break was stolen from Torchwood~~~
"No, no, no! I said five minutes. What're you doing? Stop that! Why are you... That's not Amelia Pond's house. That's a ship. Hang on-that's the Valiant. Don't tell me you brought me to the Year that Never Was! If I met a past version of myself-I would remember it! Or, no, if past-me had met me then I'd remember it! This isn't right!" the 11th-and newly regenerated-Doctor yelled. He sighed. "Alright, I'll go out," he grumbled in response to the TARDIS' probing.
~~~This Page Break was confiscated from the Master~~~
The Doctor poked his head out and froze. "What?" said the 10th Doctor.
"What're you doing here?" growled the 9th Doctor. "Why do you feel like a Time Lord? They're all dead."
"I don't remember this happening," mumbled the 11th Doctor.
James yelped in shock. There was Ten, and that was Nine-was that Eleven? Great, his counterpart was getting careless with his regenerations.
"Doctor?" Rose asked from behind him. Ten's head snapped around to stare at James.
"But-" Ten began.
"Uh, hi," James said, stepping out of his TARDIS.
Nine was glancing between the two of them. "Great, there's two of ya?" he grumbled.
"Kinda," James said. "Erm, twenty-seven planets ring any bells?"
Ten looked blank. "Taking that as a 'no'," James mumbled. "The Year that Never Was?"
Ten's eyes darkened. "How do you know about that?" His face paled. "You're me," he said. "But... I heard Rose. If you have Rose with you, you shouldn't know about the Year that Never Was-you should be from my past. She... she can't be back. It's impossible," he whispered.
"How do you two know Rose?" demanded Nine. Ten and James looked at him.
"I'm not quite sure how to put this," started Ten.
"We're you from the future," Eleven said bluntly. They all looked at him. Eleven sighed. "Look, why don't we all introduce each other? And since I'm pretty sure that you all have companions at this point in time, we should let them out too."
By unspoken agreement, they all-with the exception of Eleven-went back into their TARDISes-well, the same TARDIS in different points of the time line, except for the Williams' TARDIS-to get their companions. Eleven went to find a seat at the long table, shuddering internally at the memories of being trapped here while Martha Jones had risked her life.
Ten was the first to exit with Donna and Martha-who was looking slightly pale, in response to being on a ship where her family had been tortured-in tow, keeping their distance from Eleven. Then came Nine with Rose and Jack, who immediately went to flirt with Donna. Ten looked at Rose with an expression of absolute pain in his eyes. Rose looked slightly wary of him, and it hurt that she didn't trust him-which was absolutely ridiculous, of course, as at this point she had no idea who he was-but still. Then James came out, holding hands with another version of Rose, followed by a teenager and a younger boy. That settled it for Ten: there was no way this was a past or future version of him. He didn't know what this person who looked like him was, but he didn't have children with Rose-he didn't even have Rose anymore, but this Rose was looking at him with love in her eyes, but it couldn't be Rose, it was something that looked like Rose, because Rose was in another universe, a parallel one, Pete's World, and there was no way she'd ever come back, she couldn't, she was having a brilliant life with her parallel father, her mother, and Mickey... maybe she and Mickey had gotten back together. That shouldn't have hurt, but it did, and he had no right to be jealous, he hadn't told her how he felt, and he was so stupid for not telling her...
"Dad? Was that you?" asked Tony, pointing at Nine. James nodded. Tony grinned hugely. "You really did have big ears- ("Oi! Right here!" protested Nine), Mum wasn't kidding!"
"What're you talking about? Who are you?" demanded Ten.
"Oi, spaceman!" Donna snapped. Ten, James, and Eleven all looked at her, wary of her temper. Nine, however, didn't know about Donna's stereotypical ginger temper and therefore spoke.
"Who're you talkin' to?" Nine growled.
"Him!" she said, pointing at Ten. "Why does he-" she pointed at James-"look almost exactly like you?" she demanded.
"Er, I think I can answer that better than he can," James told her. "I'm Doctor James Williams, and I'm...well, I'm his future biological meta-crisis. Technically, I could be considered your brother, because I share some of your DNA. I had some of your characteristics for a while, too..." he trailed off.
"Yeah, and I had to refrain from killing him a few times," the future Rose said cheerfully.
Ten gaped at him, as did Nine. Eleven, on the other hand, was looking at him slighlty critically. "So, you successfully grew a TARDIS with the piece Donna gave you," he said conversationally.
"Yeah. Which one are you?" James asked.
"Eleven. So. How did you get back to this universe?" Eleven asked curiously.
"Bad Wolf," Rose told him.
Nine finally found his voice. "What's Bad Wolf? Those words have been following us for almost a year, and you seem to have the answers. So what is it?"
"It's... it's the combination of Rose and... and the Heart of the TARDIS, and I took it out of her! That's why I regenerated!" Ten burst out.
"Wait. I regenerate... into you? Why would I... Oh," Nine said softly. "That's why." He snuck a glance at the past Rose, who looked confused.
"Yeah," said Ten. "Come over here for a moment." He got up and walked over to one of the TARDISes-Ten's TARDIS.
"Did she... did she leave? She's not with you, so... did she? Is she happy? Did we scare her too much? I didn't... you didn't leave her somewhere, did you?"
Ten put a hand over Nine's mouth. "You talk more than me sometimes," he told Nine. "She... didn't leave by choice. I... I hope she's happy, she deserves to be happy. We scared her half to death, because we didn't tell her about regeneration, and... there was a battle. Canary Wharf, it's called. The Battle of Canary Wharf. The Void was breached, and this universe was invaded by the Daleks and a new type of Cybermen-an alternate breed. We... we manage to close it, but Rose... she slipped, but she was caught by a parallel Pete. I managed to say goodbye, but I... I ran out of time. She said that she loved me-us-and I... You know what I said? 'Quite right, too'. Of all the things to say, I tell her 'Quite right'. I was going to tell her-really, I was-but I took too long, and she was gone. I don't know what's going on, and that... that is terrifying." Ten stopped talking, choking back a sob.
Nine looked uncomfortable with Ten's emotional state. "She said that she loved us? And you didn't tell her how we felt?! I regenerate into an idiot!" Nine almost wailed.
"Not really," Eleven said, popping his head out from behind Ten's TARDIS. "Just a bit goofy, and very different from you, Nine. Anyway, they want to do introductions back there, and they sent me to get you." Eleven turned to go back to the table.
"Do we ever see Rose again?" Ten asked quietly.
"Twice," Eleven said simply, refusing to elaborate.
~~~This page break was sent here via the Cardiff Rift~~~
"Alright," Rose said, taking charge. "I'm future Rose, but it might be easier to call me 'Bad Wolf'."
"Which means I'm past Rose, and since my future self is calling herself 'Bad Wolf', I'll just call myself 'Rose'," past Rose said.
"I'm the Doctor," announced Nine.
"So am I," Ten, James, and Eleven called out.
"The Ninth version," amended Nine. "So... call me Nine, I suppose-that's what we usually do."
"I'm Ten," Ten said from his seat next to Donna.
"James," James said, looking into his own face that at the same time wasn't his face, because it belonged to Ten.
"I'm the eleventh incarnation of the Doctor," Eleven told them.
"Donna Noble," Donna said simply.
"Auntie Donna!" squealed Rory, bouncing over to jump on her. Donna caught him with some difficulty, as holding on to a bouncy Time Lord-even if he was only part Time Lord-was harder than holding on to a greasy pig.
"Why am I being jumped on?" Donna asked, bewildered.
"Sorry, he's heard... a lot about you," James told her.
"Alright. Sweetie, you've gotta let go of me," Donna said gently.
"No," Rory pouted.
Donna shifted his weight slighly and sighed. "Alright, just for a bit, though. Then you can sit on the spaceman, alright?"
"Okay!" Rory said.
"That's Rory," Bad Wolf told her.
"Captain Jack Harkness," Jack said, looking at James, Ten, Donna, Bad Wolf and Eleven in a way that made them feel distinctly uncomfortable.
"Stop it," James, Ten, and Eleven said in unison.
"That's creepy," Jack said cheerfully.
"I'm Tony," Tony said.
"Ah, so you're Tony!" Eleven said. "You look like your father, you know, except with more hair and... you're younger."
"You knew my biological dad?" Tony asked. "How'd ya meet him?"
"It was my fault," past Rose said sadly. "I saved him and since he should have died, but didn't, the Reapers came..."
"Wasn't your fault," Bad Wolf told her. "This idiot"-she pointed at Nine-"didn't tell you what would happen if you changed something, and you thought that it'd be okay."
"I wasn't angry at you," Ten jumped in. "I was more angry at myself for not telling you what would happen if you changed something."
"Though our fight probably didn't really help," mused Eleven.
"And what'd'ya mean when you said that you're the eleventh incarnation of the Doctor?" past Rose asked suddenly, looking at Eleven.
"Oh, that's right. I never really did tell you..." James mumbled.
"Until you started regenerating. Idiot," Bad Wolf said affectionately.
"Er... Time Lords have this little trick, it's sort of a way of cheating death..." Nine started.
"But it means that all the cells in said Time Lord's body changes-" Ten continued.
"And it means that their body changes, and they look like someone else," James jumped in.
"Therefore, all of us-except for Ten and James-are the Doctor, just... different versions," Eleven finished.
"But what they forgot to mention is that it's limited. Thirteen bodies in all, twelve regenerations," Bad Wolf added.
Rose, Martha, and Donna stared at them. "Okay," Martha said. "I'll... introduce myself to avoid an awkward silence. Doctor Martha Jones."
"Now that that's over," Bad Wolf said, taking charge again, "Anybody have any bright ideas about why we're here?"
Jack looked up, eyes lighting up mischieviously. "O-"
"JACK!" yelled James. "There are children present!"
"Good point," Jack mused. "So, that's one idea down."
"The TARDIS wanted us here, remember?" Bad Wolf said, looking at James. "She was..." Bad Wolf paused, trying to find the right word.
"Eager?" James suggested.
"Exactly," Bad Wolf agreed. "Or it could be Bad Wolf itself."
"Wait, I thought you were Bad Wolf," Martha protested.
"I am and I'm not. It's... really, really complicated. There's no good way to describe it..." Bad Wolf trailed off.
"I suppose the best way to put it was that it was the combination of the TARDIS and Rose together to try to... fix certain things," Ten said.
"...You'll be explaining that to me later, spaceman," Donna told Ten.
"Any ideas about why we're here?" Nine asked, trying to get back on track.
Bad Wolf tilted her head to the side and closed her eyes slightly. "Beauty says... they wanted us here. The TARDISes. They planned-no, hoped? No. They wanted us here for something. Eleven, your TARDIS has something for us."
Everyone-excepting James, Rory, and Tony-stared at her. "How do you know that?!" demanded Eleven.
"Mummy has a connection with Beauty," Rory told them.
"More of Bad Wolf's meddling," James clarified. Ten sighed through his nose. If Bad Wolf knew so much, why didn't she keep Rose with him?
She did what she had to, to get me, Rory told Ten.
Wh- How did you-
You forgot to shield, Rory told him frankly.
Oi! Pretty boy! Nine's gruff "voice" came through. Pay attention, would you?
Ten shook his head slightly, blinking. Everyone but him had stood up and walked over to a door leading deeper into the ship. He quickly jogged over to Donna. "What're we doing?" he hissed.
Donna leveled a Look at him, causing Ten to flinch slightly. "Weren't you listening? Eleven found a DVD case in his TARDIS, and we're going to watch it. Honestly, spaceman, pay attention."
(1) "bar on Rigel VIII": This is a reference to the bar Sulu and Chekov got into a bar fight in Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens' Prime Directive, which, if you're into TOS Star Trek, I highly recommend.
(2) "Beep, beep" said the TARDIS: Well, how else are you going to describe it? And it works, so don't judge me!
Me: I apologize for any Americanisms. I'm not British, and I never will be, no matter how hard I wish. ...Although the fact that I'm American means that I can be rude and people will just go "Oh, a stereotypical American", so that's good. Wait, why am I apologizing? I'm American, dammit! ...Anyway, next chapter will be them in the next room watching the mysterious DVD. 0.0 What is it? ...I would tell you, but I'm having too much fun trying to make it all mysterious sounding.
Spock: Suggestions for writing characters are appreciated, as we think we have them mostly in character, but some are harder than others to write.
Me: Please send us a review on your way out. Even a "good start" is appreciated. And we do try to respond to any and all reviews we get. Just so ya know. = )
