The Legend of Gallifrey Part 12: Descent of the Dead
Every time the Doctor was visited by M, he was already on his way into the paradox. Whenever he was visited by Rassilon, he was on his way into danger, usually universe-threatening. When he was visited by both, he knew he was in for the ride of his life.
M appeared first, right in the middle of the TARDIS while it was in flight, which was difficult to say the least. Rassilon then appeared on the TARDIS balcony in his own TARDIS, which disguised itself as a bookshelf. The front opened, and Rassilon stepped out.
M was wearing a light grey collared shirt with light blue jeans and, of course, her red shoes. Rassilon had on a black t-shirt with an unbuttoned black suit jacket, and black suit shoes with dark blue jeans. The two of them glared at each other for a moment, then turned their attention to the Doctor.
"M. Rassilon. Hello again," he said, very formally. "The paradox again? What do you request I do this time?"
"It was her idea," Rassilon said. "If it was solely up to me, this paradox would never have happened in the first place, but M here insisted that time must go as it would."
"You were always manipulating time too much," the Doctor said.
M nodded furiously. "You need to meet up with the rest of your selves in the paradox, but it won't be as easy for you as it was for the rest of you. There is a Cyberman base in your way, built to lure in potential allies and entertain them with slaves stumbling their way through obstacle courses. It was abandoned by all other races, but it's still filled with faulty out-of-date Cybermen who are obsessed with entertainment. The whole area was caught in a temporal shift a while back, and now the entrance is in normal space while the exit is inside the paradox."
Rassilon listened thoughtfully, nodding along with the story. When M finished talking, he chuckled.
"Very good, M," he said. "I see the humans can understand as much as the Time Lords can."
M gave him an impossibly dirty look, then turned back to the Doctor. "I can program the coordinates of the entrance into the TARDIS, then I have one more stop, one more person I want to see before I go to meet your seventh face and head into the paradox myself. You probably remember the meeting yourself."
"I do," he said. "You can program the coordinates, but be sure to take Rassilon with you when you go."
"Hey!" Rassilon yelled. "I'm standing right here, you know!"
M chuckled and typed something into the monitor. She then shooed Rassilon into his TARDIS, then activated her Vortex Manipulator. Both her and Rassilon's TARDIS vanished, and the Doctor pulled the materialization lever.
The TARDIS appeared in a sleek silver room with a large closed door that had light seeping through. A single Cyberman stood in front of the door, seemingly guarding it. It was an outdated version, looking like the ones that he'd seen on Pete's world way back when he was younger. It was motionless, but when the Doctor stepped out it turned to look at him.
"New entry in the games, photographed and logged," it said. "Proceed into the arena and commence with phase one of the games."
It stepped aside and the door opened, letting in a river of light that momentarily blinded the Doctor, but when his eyes adjusted he saw a large open area surrounded with bleachers that were filled with outdated Cybermen. When the Doctor stepped out into the arena and onto the sand-covered ground, they all raised their metal hands and clapped metallically.
A trapdoor in the middle of the arena opened, and a section of metal floor replaced it. On the floor was a creature with shaggy black fur and a metal face. The Doctor remembered it: a Cybershade.
It charged at him, growling. He jumped to his left as it tried to jump on him, but as it flew past he noticed something on its flank. It was an open spot, like a port of some kind, maybe for a key.
The Cybershade landed and dug its claws into the ground to slow itself down, then it turned and growled at him with a hollow, echoey tone.
A beep sounded from above, and three items dropped from the ceiling. All three looked like they'd fit in the socket, but instinct the Doctor that that wasn't the case. Only one would fit in, but the Doctor still scooped up all three.
The Cybershade charged again, and the Doctor jumped to the left again and grabbed one of the keys, trying to place it in the socket as the creature jumped past, but it didn't fit. The Cybershade screeched to another halt and growled again. The Doctor tossed the failed key aside.
Instead of charging again, the Cybershade snarled and began circling him like an animal staring down its prey. The Doctor rotated in the same direction and at the same speed. He slowly began reaching into his pocket for his sonic screwdriver, but as his hand touched the fabric, the Cybershade leaped on him, knocking him to the ground.
The two of them struggled on the ground as the Doctor gripped the second key and reached around the Cybershade towards its port.
The Cybershade beeped and stiffened, then fell to the ground. The key had fit in like a glove. The Doctor tossed the third key aside as a door on the far side of the arena opened, and he walked towards it.
On the other side of the door was a dark hallway with water dripping from the ceiling, and glass walls at various points along the hallway, revealing something that looked like an ocean floor outside. Pipes hung all across the ceiling.
He took a slow step forward, and a noise sounded from above him. The glass ceiling had cracked, and water was dripping onto the floor.
He looked at the crack a moment, then took another step forward. The crack widened a little bit, and small streams of water started to pour in. The Doctor stood there a moment, then reached up and grabbed the pipes, hoping they'd hold his weight.
They did, so the Doctor began to swing down the long hallway like he was on monkey bars. Every few yards he'd stop and land on the ground to take a break, and a small crack would appear in the ceiling, but never anything too major.
The hallway was much longer than a hallway should have been, but the Doctor kept swinging from pipe to pipe towards the other end of the hall.
The Doctor saw the door around the corner, about ten yards away. He grabbed the next pipe, but it broke and the Doctor fell to the ground, and the ceiling cracked. Water dripped onto his coat as he lay there. He couldn't move; if he did then the crack in the ceiling might widen, and he'd drown. On the other hand, he had to get through to the door. He made a split-second decision, and as he began to move he realized that he was undoubtedly crazy.
He jumped to his feet and took off towards the door, taking long strides so as to create as few cracks as he could. The ceiling began to splinter, and water began to rise around his feet, but he kept running as fast as he could towards the door. As the water level continued rising, he began to slow down, but he continued running as fast as he could.
He reached the door and began to pull on the handle as hard as he could. The water level reached his waist as he pulled desperately on the door, but the handle came off in his hand.
He felt around the door, looking for any way to pull the door open, but there didn't seem to be any way.
The water reached the center of his chest, and the Doctor began to realize that there wasn't going to be any way through the door, except one. He turned towards the glass wall, and smashed it, and the water began to flow in. Just before the Doctor went under, he took a deep breath.
The water reached the ceiling and the current stopped, allowing the Doctor to swim out into the ocean outside. Past the door was a metal wall, but it only stretched out from the smashed hallway for about three meters. The Doctor gripped the wall and began to pull himself towards where the wall ended.
He grabbed the edge of the wall and pulled himself over. Around the wall was a large room without any walls, and the water being held back by a force field. Inside was a large maze made out of metal hedge-like structures, and at various points in the maze Cybermen stood as still as statues.
The Doctor pulled himself through the force field and landed in the area just after the door that he couldn't get through. The entrance to the maze was in front of him, beckoning the Doctor to enter. He obliged.
Since the paradox was on the other end of the maze, the Doctor's time senses directed him through the maze. He ran through the maze, dodging as the still Cybermen unfroze as he ran past and swiped at him. By the time he felt the end of the maze getting closer, he had a whole legion of Cybermen running after him.
He burst out of the maze and ran towards another door, and the Cybermen exited the maze right behind him, moving surprisingly fast, as they usually walked along making their signature noise. Now, they weren't making the noise, but rather running in a very human way towards the Doctor.
He reached the door and scrambled to open it, and all the time the Cybermen were gaining on him. They were only a few feet behind him when the door clicked and swung open, and the Doctor stepped quickly through, closing the door, and the Cybermen crashed against it. The door cracked, but it held, and the Doctor took a look at the new room, if it could be called that.
The door stood behind him, just as it should look, but everything else was completely black. A ways off in front of him was another door that looked exactly the same, and in the middle was just blackness.
The Doctor took a step forward, expecting something to happen. Then another step. Had he gotten through the tests? Was the paradox just through the opposite door?
He took another step forward. This time something happened; a swirl of energy appeared about five yards ahead of him. He stopped and watched as the energy slowed to a halt, and M stepped out.
"Hello again, Doctor," she said. "You've made it to the paradox, there's only one thing left to do."
She walked over to him and pulled out a small device and grabbed the Doctor's hand, placing the device on the back of his hand and pressing a button on it. It flashed red for a moment, then M put the device back in her pocket.
"As I'm sure you're aware, all the memories that your previous selves had of the paradox have been removed, because they had to," she said. "All of you are needed to fix this, and if you kept your memories then you wouldn't be compelled to re enter it. You, specifically, need these memories, and this device will now keep you from forgetting by shielding you from the effects that the paradox has on memories."
M then stepped aside and gestured towards the door. "Go on, then," she said. "I have one person I want to see before I visit your seventh form. I'm sure you remember it."
The Doctor looked at her for a moment. "You've been holding back a secret from me ever since I first met you. Who are you?"
She grinned. "I told your fifth self, or at least I wrote him a note outlining it. You'll know when to open it, it'll be very soon. I won't tell you a minute sooner."
The Doctor continued looking at her for a minute, then he turned back towards the door and began to run. When he got to the door, he grabbed the handles and pulled it open, revealing a small circular room with glowing metal walls, and four people stood there.
The Doctor stepped into the room, and the door disappeared behind him. He looked at the people and grinned. There was a man with black hair and a sideways bow tie, a man with a brown hat and a long striped scarf, a man with a light colored suit and a stick of celery on his lapel, and a man with a leather jacket and short brown hair.
They all looked at him, then the man in the jacket stepped forward.
"I guess you're the latest one," said the eighth Doctor.