Doctor Who: The Constant Companion
The TARDIS materialized atop a rocky plateau that overlooked the festivities on Sigmund 6.
The Doctor emerged, a smile on his face. He had come to see the Lights of Soul.
Once every few years, the Great Mountain would rumble and spew forth internal magma. The combination of the planet's low gravity and ionic dispersions in the atmosphere cause the magma to reach high into the sky before dissolving in the atmosphere, creating the most beautiful halo of lights in the universe.
The Doctor had specifically come at a time before word of this event had spread throughout the universe, calling droves of people here to see the event.
But as he looked over to the other side of the plateau, the Doctor realized that he was not alone.
A few yards away stood a young woman with dark hair and even darker eyes. She stood at the very edge of the cliff, gazing, not up in anticipation, but down at the inhabitants below. She was clearly human, or humanoid, at least.
The Doctor found that last fact particularly interesting, as the natural inhabitants of Sigmund 6 were primarily crystalline-based life forms that resembled giant snowflakes with spider-legs. Clearly he was not the only tourist trying to avoid the crowds.
"Hello, there," he said, strolling up beside her to get a better look. "You must be traveling as well. Come for the Lights, eh?"
"No," the woman replied with a voice was smooth as silk, and cold as ice. "I am always here."
"Oh, are you an immigrant?"
"No, I have been here for as long as the people of this world," she said, never taking her eyes off the people below.
"Oh…kay," the Doctor replied, furrowing his brow just a little at her responses. "Well, I'll just let you get back to being… there." He turned to leave.
"Wait!" the woman called, seeming to punctuate her statement with the crash of thunder that followed.
The Doctor looked first at her, and then around them at the sky.
"You know, I have never seen anyone actually do that in real life, great bit of theatrics" he said. "But what's especially ominous is the fact that they don't actually have thunderstorms on this world."
"You bring a storm with you wherever you go, Doctor."
"How do you know my name?"
"You are called Doctor, but that is not your name. Would you like me to call you by your true name?" she smiled at him.
The Doctor could feel his two sets of heartbeats rapidly increasing.
"Who are you?" he asked at last.
"Who indeed. You know my name, Doctor, as I know yours. We have traveled together for some time. Constant companions, you and I. Do you not recognize me?"
The Doctor stared at her, and after a moment's time, he realized that he did recognize her. He recognized all of her. Every strand of hair, every mannerism, even the glint in her eyes. He had seen those features a thousand times, in a thousand different places, on a thousand different people.
On all the people he had ever seen die.
"Doctor, you and I must talk," she said.
The Doctor turned and ran as fast as he could.
He opened the TARDIS doors and bolted them closed behind him in one fluid motion. Reaching the console, he put the TARDIS into flight.
Where to go? Anywhere! Anywhen!
He brought the TARDIS to rest in the city of Rome in the year 4 A.D. When he stepped outside, she was there.
On the planet Qasta, sometime during the 4th Great and Bountiful Human Empire, she was there.
In the deep jungles of the living asteroid Primevana, around the time humanity was just learning to walk, she was there.
There was nowhere he could go that she couldn't follow. He knew her name, and her purpose. And why she had come for him.
The Doctor left the TARDIS floating through the Time Vortex as he sat on the floor of the control room and put his head in his hands. He needed time to think, and here in the Time Vortex, there was an infinite amount of time.
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The TARDIS rematerialized on a plain green field of grass on some unknown world.
The doors opened and the Doctor emerged, wearing his long coat and a serious expression behind his glasses.
She was there.
"Assuming I believe you are who you present yourself to be, you said you wanted to talk?" the Doctor asked.
"Yes, I suppose by now you've discovered that you can't outrun me, anymore than you can outrun the horizon. I am everywhere."
"Well," said the Doctor, "that's not entirely true, now is it? Like you said back there, you only exist where there is life. Can't have any death without life, right? Just like you can't cast a shadow where there's no light."
"Do you intend to talk all day?" she asked.
"Oh, anything to put off what's coming, even if it's only for a moment."
She smiled at him.
"You are so clever, why didn't you just run to some uninhabited world where I'd never see you?" she asked.
"Two reasons. One, because that'd be boring, and two, because once I land somewhere, it ceases to be uninhabited. And C, because I'm not a coward."
"C is for Coward," she smirked.
"And D is for Doctor"
"And Death."
"Ands now look whose whittering on all day," he said, tiring of this game. "You had a point, go ahead and make it."
"Very well," she replied. "The fact of the matter is, Doctor that you are living on borrowed time. You were meant to regenerate when that Dalek shot you during their invasion of Earth. You tricked Fate itself when you managed to avoid regenerating."
"Oh, is Fate coming too?" the Doctor asked. "And Loneliness and Strife and the Ghost of Christmas Past? Like some great cosmic metaphysical intervention?"
Death ignored the interruption. "The event was not entirely unanticipated. But the whole situation sent a ripple throughout time. The Doctor-Donna and the Other Doctor should never have existed. You knew that. That is why you sent your copy away from this universe and purged Donna Noble's mind of that entity."
"Yep, that was a busy day" the Doctor said, his glibness belaying the grim expression on his face.
"But above all things, Doctor, the most important was that you regenerate on that day."
"Why," the Doctor asked in a hostile tone. "I can't see into my own timeline, so you'll have to explain to me what is so important about that event."
"It is important because there are some things that only your Eleventh Generation is capable of doing. Places only he is meant to walk. It is time for you to pass on, Doctor."
"The Doctor is dead, long live the Doctor, eh?" he asked.
"You know what this is, Doctor. You've experienced it before. It is not death, simply a change of perspective."
"And that's why they sent the living incarnation of death itself to tell me? Was the Tooth Fairy's schedule all filled up, or did you volunteer for the job yourself out of some spiteful glee?"
"It is not death," she repeated.
"It's a kind of death!" he snapped back. "Yes, I will go on. But I won't be ME anymore. This me will cease to exist. I could be a terrible person, mean and cruel and rude and that would be alright with me. It would make perfect sense to me to treat people that way!"
He paused. Struggling with something inside himself it was hard to come to terms with.
"These thoughts, these feelings I have for the people I've met and the things I've done, they are mine! They mean something to me. And when I go, or change, or whatever, I'll see all that differently. I've changed before, and the things that were the most important to me at the time were next to worthless to me afterwards. My friends and goals and all that, completely out the window with this great new perspective and I'm not ready for that yet. I'm happy with this me right now! These eyes haven't seen enough yet."
She starred at him.
"No one can escape change, not even the Doctor," she said sadly.
"Oh really," he questioned, his eyes coming up slowly over the rim of his glasses.
"Care to go for a little trip?" he smiled devilishly.
If was possible for the living incarnation of Death to look taken aback, that is what she looked like.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"Oh, I just thought that since you are sure of yourself, you might like to talk a little walk with me, and let me show you something." The Doctor smiled again.
The woman gave him a look of apprehension. If there was anyone in the universe capable of fooling Death, it was the Doctor. She must be careful.
"Where would we go?" she asked.
"Oh, you don't want to spoil the surprise now, do you?" another smile.
"Fine," she said as she took a step towards the TARDIS.
"Ah, no," he stopped her. "I'd rather you didn't come in, you'll understand."
"Then how shall we travel there?"
"Well, I'll go in the TARDIS, and since you're so clever, you can just find me when I land. Okay?"
"If this is some trick-"
"How could it be a trick? You can go wherever there is life, so as long as I'm alive you can find me, and I'm really not too keen on spending the rest of eternity inside the TARDIS." He turned around and petted the wooden frame. "No offense, old girl," he told the blue box.
"Very well, lead the way, Doctor," she agreed.
"Beautiful," he said, and then he turned around and entered the TARDIS. "See you there."
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The Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS and stared at the view before him.
It was a city, clearly advanced by the look of things. Very high-end culture.
But there was something wrong with it. It appeared as if through a haze, or like an image seen on a viewing screen when the signal is poor.
He took a step forward and heard a sound like someone shivering behind him. There he saw his new traveling companion, her arms wrapped around her body and a look of abject horror on her face as she gazed at the city.
"This place is an abomination," she said.
"Yes," the Doctor replied, "I suppose to someone like you, this place would be pretty spooky, rather like what a haunted house is to the rest of us."
He took a few steps towards the obscure structures before he noticed that she was not following.
"Do you know the name of this place?" he asked.
She did not respond.
"I don't either," he continued. "Not even the Time Lords knew the true name of this place, we just called it what everyone else did."
He looked her in the eye.
"Necropolis, City of the Dead," he said.
"No!" she shouted. "This is no place of mine. This is a wicked place, which tried to circumvent all laws of time and space to avoid me and my kind."
The Doctor allowed himself a quick smirk before he looked away from the distraught eternal. Clearly this place was having the desired effect.
"The best that we, or anyone else for that matter, were able to discover was that the people of this city did indeed attempt to make Death extinct. They attempted to permanently map themselves onto the fabric of the universe, thereby living forever.
"Well, they got their wish. They became immortal beings completely cut off from the universe. The only problem though, was that they don't change, they don't grow. They live that last day, over and over again as quantum ghosts haunting this city."
He looked over at her to see that she was still upset by this place. He continued.
"Now, they aren't like your average run of the mill ghosts. You and I both know that real ghosts are simply impressions a person leaves behind when they die, like psychic footprints in the sand. Their souls or consciousness do not remain, any more than your dead Aunt Sylvia can be said to be haunting your television set every time you watch old home movies.
"But these people are still all here, trapped forever in a state of quantum flux. These poor people are as close to "living" ghosts as anyone will ever get."
"Why did you bring me here?" she asked suddenly. "Just to disturb me? This only proves my point, Doctor, that change is necessary and to remove that is to cause stagnation in the simplest of cases, and transgressions most foul in the worst."
"You think so?" the Doctor asked nonchalantly.
Looking back at her he asked, "So, do you want to go in?"
"What!" she screamed.
"It's possible. I mean, it is right there, we could just walk in, nobody would mind. Like I said, no one knows exactly who these people are and how they did what they did, and yet they live that last day over and over again. We could see it all for ourselves."
"You are mad!" she exclaimed.
"Now, don't tell me that. If anything, I'm a fool. You know, fools rush in where angels fear to tread, even the Angel of Death. What do you say?" he asked, staring her dead in the eyes. "What's say we both face our fears today?"
She glared at him for a long time. He could see a hate and anger that might have made others tremble. Him too, if he didn't know that her anger came from fear. He had managed to scare Death. He kicked himself that no one was around to see it. That's what companions are for, he told himself. This is why you always bring an audience.
The woman took a deep breath, finally steadying herself. "Lead the way, Doctor."
"Very good," he said. "There's just one problem."
She raised her eyebrow.
"See, the thing of it is, I don't know what will happen to us once we enter the field. No one has ever tried it before. Unless you know?"
"No. No one has ever attempted what you suggest."
"Right, so it is entirely possible that we ourselves could become trapped forever in the stasis field. But it'd be even worse for us, since even though they are slightly out of sync with the rest of the universe, we would be slightly out of sync with them. So we'd be like ghosts haunting ghosts. Which I'm sure you're used to, but that'd be very hard on me…."
"This was your idea."
"Yes it was," the Doctor said, clicking his tongue. "So that means it must be safe, right?"
Suddenly, the Doctor grabbed his companion's hand and leaped over the threshold to the city of Necropolis.
Passing over really wasn't all that bad. The Doctor could feel a slight tingling sensation over his skin, and his hair stood on end as if charged with static electricity. All in all, not an unpleasant shift in the state of matter at the quantum level, but he had had better.
The Doctor pulled himself up to his feet and looked around. The whole area had a strange shade to it. Everything seemed to have a golden tint. The city itself looked like your typical hyper-advanced civilization. So much so that he fully expected to see the people dressed in tacky silver one-piece jumpsuits. However, he was surprised to discover that the citizens were dressed in a manner not unlike the ancient Aztecs of the planet Earth. The showed a great deal more skin than others who possessed this level of technology, and what clothing they did wear appeared to be more decorative than anything.
They moved as regularly as any people not trapped in a time warp. However, the strangest thing was that there was a total lack of sound. He could see people talking, dropping objects and generally making all kinds of noise associated with everyday life, except there was none to be heard.
"Can you hear me?" the Doctor tested over his shoulder.
"Unfortunately, yes," she replied, walking up beside him.
"Can you hear them?"
"No."
"Well, I guess we won't be finding out the name of this place, unless you can read lips."
"So, where do we go from here?" she asked.
"We need to find out where the experiment is going to take place. Civilization of this type, probably very big on public displays. We need to find the biggest building, or maybe a large open area where people are going to congregate. The leaders are going to want to stand up before everyone, make a very long boring speech about the significance of the day, and pretty much take all the credit away from those scientists who actually developed the process, to further their own political ends."
"How do you know that?" she asked.
"Come on," he said. "You should know as well as I do that people are the same all over this great big universe."
From up the street came a procession or parade. Leading the charge was a very tall man with an unpleasant face. He was wearing robes that were obviously ceremonial when compared with the rest of the city.
"Good, let's just follow this bloke," the Doctor remarked. "He looks like the sort that knows where he's going."
The Doctor moved to join in with the crowd of followers, and his companion did likewise.
"To think," the Doctor said, "these people do this every day. The same thing, over and over again. The same steps, the same words. It's maddening."
"It is no different than any other ritual that must be performed by the living," she offered.
"That's what I mean," he replied.
The leader took the group up what appeared to be main street, making sure that everyone got a good look at him and his entourage. He led them to what was conceivably the town square, which was right in front of a structure that was larger and more official looking than all the others. Clearly, this was the capital.
Turning around to view his people for the first time as he took the podium, the leader began what appeared to be his carefully prepared speech. It was difficult to tell, what with the lack of sound.
Even without words, it was fairly obvious what was being said. The leader was making sure that everyone understood just how important this day was, how it would be remembered forever, and how all those here to witness it were blessed to be a part of history.
Then, with a wave of his hand, the leader motioned for the Device to be brought forth.
In form, it was a large golden orb, supported by four rods that emerged from the center and then turned down towards the ground to form the legs.
"That must be it," the Doctor said, moving up unnoticed in order to better study the Device. "That's the invention that trapped all these people."
"They deserve it," his companion spat. "Trying to deny one of the fundamental principles of existence, they should have known better."
"I don't know, seems to me that all universal accomplishments have been made in the attempt to circumvent the principles of existence, yours in particular."
"So you condone their actions!? Can you not see the folly? You yourself have remarked a number of times that these people are trapped in a living hell of their own making. They attempted the impossible. And now they stand as a warning to all the higher races that Death can not be overcome!"
"It's only natural to want to live," the Doctor offered.
"This is not life!"
"True, but that's only because they failed," the Doctor said, with a strange new edge in his voice. "They forgot to harness the wave form of the chronon energy. So it looped back around into the Device, causing it to misfire, then the energy fed back through time itself, becoming the very energy that was needed to power the Device in the first place, apparently. And in order to supply that energy, the whole event would have to be repeated ad infinitum to ensure that it happened in the first place. Add to that the intended properties of the experiment itself, and it's not hard to see what happened here."
Death stared at the Doctor. "How do you know all this?"
"Just now, I looked at the device and realized that was the problem. Simple, like noticing that you've plugged the red wire into the yellow outlet. I can't save these poor people, but I can fix the problem before the next time they activate the Device, and make sure it works properly on me."
Just then, the whole of the Doctor's scheme unfolded in her mind.
"So this was your goal! You want to become immortal like they meant to. How could you be so arrogant?"
"Simple, like I said, it's only natural to want to live."
"I could stop you," she said.
"Only by killing me, and like you said, there are still things I have to do. Killing me would do far more damage than anything I'm about to do."
"And how do you plan to go about this?" she asked. "You've only a few moments before they activate the Device."
"Simple again," he said, reaching into his coat pocket. "Sonic Screwdriver!"
"What? Don't be ridiculous! You can't realign a chronon energy pattern into a wave form with just a Sonic Screwdriver."
"No, not with just any old Sonic Screwdriver. But this here is MY Sonic Screwdriver. True it used to be just a fancy screwdriver, good at opening doors and picking simple locks. But I've got a bad habit for customization!"
"What do you mean?"
"Years ago, when I noticed that I spent entirely too much time breaking codes and uploading viruses into the evil computers, it occurred to me to simply download all that into my Sonic Screwdriver. That's why it can do so many things, and why it has so many settings. Because I've customized it to fit my hectic lifestyle. Whenever I have to get a new one, it's a major hassle, since I have to download every thing from scratch. It can take days, even weeks. And I was in the TARDIS, floating through the Time Vortex for such a long time before I confronted you again. Lots of time to think and plan and prepare. There are only so many ways to do what these people have done, and I've always suspected that this is where the Necropolitans went wrong, so I programmed the Sonic Screwdriver to fix the problem!"
The Leader's speech was winding down, and he and his scientists where preparing to activate the Device, damning them for all eternity.
"So why did you need me here!" she asked, her voice filled with rage.
"Well, this kind of thing is always better with an audience," the Doctor said with a wicked smirk.
He aimed his Sonic Screwdriver at the Device just as it was being primed.
"You can't do this Doctor!" she screamed.
"Watch me!" he yelled back.
The Device was activated, and a yellow light that matched the rest of the city began to emanate from the machine. At the same time, the Doctor pushed the button on his Sonic Screwdriver, which began to hum blue.
Death glared at the Doctor. This man! This arrogant man! He, who had avoided Death countless times, had figured out how to make Death powerless. This would not stand! Not this man. Anyone but him. Not this arrogant Doctor!
Death's eyes became black pools of nothingness. She summoned all her powers of entropy and leveled them against the Device. She would not allow it. The Doctor would not win and damn the consequences!
Her wave of nothingness slammed into the Device at the same time the Sonic Screwdriver realigned the energy signature. Space warped around the infernal Device, and Time itself stood still.
And then it woke up and began moving again.
Death came to and found the Device intact. Yet it no longer spewed forth its awesome power. It was dead.
"Whew, thanks for that," the Doctor said from where he was sitting on the ground. "I thought for a minute there you were actually going to let me get away with that."
"What have you done?" she asked.
"The energy that was feeding back was on a constant loop, dragging these people along for the ride. I couldn't get them off the track without stopping the Device, but I need the Device to realign the energy so it would go through properly. That's where you came in, I straightened out the signal, and you used your ability to decay it before it could start up again. So, together, we saved these people."
She took a moment to look around at all the citizens. They appeared as bewildered as she did.
"So, thanks," the Doctor said.
"These people are free now! THAT was your true plan all along" she said.
"Of course. I agreed with everything you said about stagnation and such, eventually. It took some time in the TARDIS to get used to the idea. I realized that I'm getting too attached to this life, this me, and that's not a good thing. Yes, I might not care for the type of person I'll turn into, but I suppose I'll like myself when I am that person. And I had forgotten how much fun it is to see with Universe with new eyes. I let my fear get the better of me for a while."
"So, why all this?" she asked.
"Well, I always thought that the plight of Necropolis was one of the great injustices of history, and I also thought that, while I had your ear, I might get you to lend me a hand."
"You could have just asked."
"Could I? You seemed pretty sure these people deserved what they got. I had no choice but to trick you."
"Seems to me like you just wanted to prove that you could."
"Well, otherwise it looks like I just gave up without a fight," the Doctor smiled.
The Doctor dragged himself off the ground and took a good look around.
"The people seem unsure of what to do next," she said.
"That's only to be expected, given that they had spent countless eternities doing to same thing over and over. It'll take some time, but they'll move on. Time to for something new." He winked.
"But they are in my domain now," she said. "They will all die eventually."
"Well, that's life."
"Heh," she chuckled. "Shall we take our leave?"
"I supposed I couldn't ask you for just one more favor?" the Doctor pleaded.
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The TARDIS materialized atop a rocky plateau that overlooked the festivities on Sigmund 6.
The Doctor emerged, a smile on his face. The Light show had just begun.
"Here again?" she asked, standing where she had when they first met. "Of all places and times, you come here for your last trip?"
"Like I said, I really wanted to see those Lights."
They dazzled and danced across the sky, forming patterns and shapes that held endless possibilities.
"Besides," he said, "I have all the time in the world to go see all that other stuff. It's not as if I'm dying or anything."
They stood and watched the Lights come and go, finally disappearing into the night; a serenade arose from the ground below as the people of Sigmund 6 applauded in their own strange and beautiful way.
This whole universe was strange and beautiful, the Doctor had decided long ago, and that's why he had to see as much of it as he could.
"Are you ready?" his companion asked.
The Doctor walked over to the TARDIS and opened the doors.
"After you," he said, motioning for her to enter, finally letting Death in.
"Thank you," she said.
The Doctor took one last look around.
"Beautiful…" he said.
He disappeared into the TARDIS. And a few moments later, its sound could be heard mingling with the chorus of the people below, joining in with the music of the universe.
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S-Shield's Notes
Thanks for reading. My whole "DVD Commentary" section is contained in the next section, or "Chapter 2". I really appreciate those of you who took the time to read this story, and please let me know what you thought of it in a review. Good, bad, or just meh?