"No!" The TARDIS made a hard landing, tossing the Doctor across the console room. "No, no, no, no!" The Doctor regained his footing and made his way back to the console. "What's the matter with you, old girl?" The TARDIS lurched again, this time sending the Doctor into the console, causing him to let out a grunt. Finally, the TARDIS settled, and the Doctor composed himself. "Now, where are we? What caused all this?" He looked at the monitor. "America! Yes, that's where we were headed! But not far enough. Pennsylvania is nowhere near Utah! Well, relatively speaking it is. Still, I can't walk there."
A new visual popped up on the screen. "Another TARDIS? That can't be right. I'd suppose it was future me, but I know that's not possible. Whatever it is, I better go." The Doctor began to fiddle with the console, when sparks burst from it. "I suppose I'll have a look outside, then."
The Doctor wandered the small town's streets, looking for any trace of aliens. He continued down the road until he heard a familiar noise. As he passed a bank, he heard something... sonic. The Doctor twirled around to see a young woman using a sonic screwdriver on an ATM. "Hold on!" The Doctor mumbled. He took out his psychic paper and addressed the thief."Excuse me, miss. Officer Smith. What were you just doing to that cash machine?"
The girl stared at him in disbelief. "I think if you take another look at it, you'll find your paper's blank. Also, cops don't wear cowboy hats. On another note, no one around here calls them cash machines. Bye!" The girl made a dash for it.
"It's a Stetson!"The Doctor mumbled, and started after her.
The girl abruptly turned around when she found her path to be blocked by an oncoming gang of large people. There was something strange about these people, though. As they approached, the air went stagnant.
"How did they find me? They can't track me!" She ran past the Doctor in the opposite direction.
A shot landed at the wall next to the Doctor. "Lousy shooting!" It was almost as if they were aiming for him. "Hang on!" He shouted, and chased after the girl.
"Why are you following me?" The girl screamed.
"They shot at me!"
"Oh, so you thought you'd put me in harm's way? Thanks!" The girl retorted. She turned a corner, and would've gotten hit by a car, had she not jumped across the hood of it.
"That girl is insane!" The Doctor muttered, but pursued her anyhow.
After a few more blocks, the girl looked behind her, and, not finding the monsters, ducked into an alleyway to catch her breath.
The Doctor caught up to her. "Now, I'm going to guess you're a very long way from home."
"And what would make you think that?"
"Well, not that many on Earth have a sonic screwdriver."
"Ah. Yet you know what one is, so you must not be from around here, either. Alien?"
"Timelord. Last of-"
"Another Timelord! This is great! You can operate a TT capsule, can't you? Alexander's a Timelord, and we travel in his, except, not at the moment, it's broken."
"What! What?"
The monsters turned the corner, and the chase began again.
Roxie grabbed the Doctor's hand and tugged. "This way!" The running began.
"This friend of yours, he's a Timelord?"
"Yep!"
"From Gallifrey?"
"Do Timelords come from anywhere else?"
"Not really, no. It's just that-"
"Keep up! Those guys after us are vicious!"
"But-"
"Less talking, more running!"
"Rude!"
"Running!" The girl called after her.
They came to a dead end - a fence blocked their route. The Doctor peered into his jacket pocket to find his sonic screwdriver. As he looked up, he found the girl still fishing for hers in her purse. The Doctor coughed to get her attention, and tapped at his screwdriver. The girl rolled her eyes. "Fine, you do it, but make it quick!"
"You know, you are a rude child!"
"And you're a bumbling space man! Get to it!"
The Doctor sonic-ed the padlock, and the lock let loose. "It's done." The Doctor said, almost in retort.
"Great! Other side of fence!" She opened the gate, and then slammed it behind the Doctor.
The pair made it across town, and, seeing no one in pursuit, slowed down.
"Why are you being followed by those guys, anyhow?"
"They're bad guys. They don't like us."
"But they're not human."
"And neither are you!" She stared at the Doctor. "They're the Rackateen, from-"
"Raxacoricofallapatorius." The Doctor finished her sentence. "Yes, I've dealt with them before. Well, the Slitheen, their cousins."
"All you need to know is they're bad, they have guns, and they don't like us."
"Yes, but why-"
"You really ask a lot of questions. Perhaps you should give it a break. Are you willing to help us or not?" She stared at the Doctor.
"Rude!" Then, the Doctor mused, "But it has been a very long time since I have seen another TARDIS. Yes, alright, I'll help. But, you, tone down the snippy remarks."
"Fine. I won't make any promises, but I'll try. We're almost there."
"Right. Onwards."
They walked a couple more blocks, and the Doctor found himself in front of a trailer park. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me! You didn't!"
"We had to blend in. What did you think we were going to disguise it as, the Parthenon?"
"That's just- horrible! It's- shoddy!"
"It works. What does yours look like, anyhow?"
"Mine's a police box."
"What the Hell is a police box?" The girl stopped in front of a particularly tacky trailer home, complete with chili pepper string lights. She took a key from her pocket and opened the door. "Just get in. The interior's much nicer." The pair stepped inside. As with any TARDIS, it was bigger on the inside.
"A three-sided console! This is most definitely a different model than mine." The Doctor noted.
"What model do you have? This old thing is a Mark VII. " A young man walked down the stairs towards the Doctor and the console.
" Well, actually, to be perfectly honest, my TARDIS is a Mark I. Type 40." The Doctor spun in a little circle, taking in the console room.
"Really! You get that thing to fly? That's a feat in itself."
"Alexander! What are you doing up! You need bed rest! You'll hurt yourself further!"
"I'll be fine, Roxie. See? Sitting down, now." He turned to the Doctor. "Alexander, by the way. And you would be?"
"I'm the Doctor. I'm here to -" The Doctor was interrupted as a collective gasp filled the room.
"You're the Doctor?" Alexander narrowed his eyes.
"Yes?" The Doctor answered curiously.
"Roxie, you let the Doctor into our TARDIS?" Alexander exclaimed.
"I didn't know he was the Doctor!"
"How did you not know he was the Doctor!"
"He doesn't look like the last picture we had of him! And it's not like he told me his name, he only said he was a Timelord!"
"You let the Oncoming Storm into our TARDIS!"
"I didn't know!" Roxie shouted.
In the commotion of the argument, the Doctor was busy trying to find out what was going on. He was so distracted with this that he did not notice the pair of them draw guns until it was too late. "Oh, I hate guns."
"Why are you here, Doctor?" Alexander steadied his grip.
"To fix a TARDIS. Can we please put the guns down?"
"No, I mean why are you really here?"
"Look, my TARDIS picked up upon your TARDIS' broken signal, so it landed here. I only came to investigate."
"Sounds truthful enough." Roxie started to relax.
"No. Roxie, you don't know what he did to our people- the Timelords. He trapped them."
"How do you know that if you're here? You can't know that." the Doctor scratched his head. "He can't know that!"
"My mother told me, when she left me with this TARDIS. She said you and Rassilon had a disagreement, and that there was a war with the Daleks, and ultimately you were going to seal the Timelords away."
"It was a bad day. I didn't have a choice!" Then, the Doctor paused for a moment. "Your mother, she must have been on the council, or she wouldn't have known all this. Who was she?"
"A very smart lady." Alexander stared eye to eye with the Doctor, and said no more.
"Can we put the guns away? You're making me very uncomfortable; really, I'm unarmed."
"Unarmed does not make you not a threat."
Roxie nervously played with the chain of her necklace. "So..." She trailed off.
"Broken TARDIS?" The Doctor asked.
"Yes. Over here. It's the artron mainframe, and the fluid links have burst. Now, the mercury needed to replace the fluid links I was able to find here on Earth-"
"You mean steal, don't you?"
"I tried getting a job! I got fired the first day. They said you're not allowed to insult the customers. I was only telling the truth, though."
"You're human, and you've never held a job before?"
"I was a child when I started traveling with him."
The Doctor looked over at Alexander. Alexander shook his hands violently in front of him. "It wasn't like that!"
"It really wasn't. The two of us, we're not like that." Roxie grinned.
Alexander started coughing, and the two looked back at him. Shades of gold escaped his mouth. Roxie ran over to him and helped him sit up.
"Regenerative energy!" the Doctor exclaimed.
"Yes, he's been like that ever since he regenerated." Roxie acknowledged.
"Have you tried tea?"
"You think I haven't tried that already? Yes, tea, oranges, celery, the Zero Room, I've tried it all! He's still like this. "
"Why did he need to regenerate?"
"The Rackateen shot me as I escaped them earlier. We didn't get very far, though, what with the mainframe busted." Alexander explained. "I've never regenerated before this. It was so painful."
"It always is." The Doctor commented. "But you- you're still readjusting! How long has he been like this?"
"Five days. It's been getting worse, too." Roxie replied.
The Doctor pointed his sonic screwdriver at Alexander and scanned him. "It's like you're missing something, as though part of your regenerative process was trapped somewhere else."
"I don't understand. He hasn't gone outside at all since he was shot. It couldn't have gone anywhere."
"No, it couldn't." The Doctor agreed.
Alexander started to fall down and Roxie rushed to catch him. "Alexander- go lie down! This is terrible!" Roxie ordered. Turning back to the Doctor, she added, "And we've been very careful with the doors- because we didn't want the Rackateen to catch his scent- so it couldn't have left that way."
"Why is it you could go out there and not him?"
"They wouldn't have recognized me- I wasn't there when he was shot." Roxie grimaced. "And then you showed up, and they must've smelled that you were a Timelord, which is how I ended up getting chased about town. Thank you for that. " Roxie said, sarcastically.
"Why are they chasing you two, really?"
"They don't like us. Does it matter?"
"I think so, yes. Generally when someone's trying to eradicate you, they have a reason." Suddenly the Doctor was deep in thought. Why did the Silence want him dead? He knew he was going to die - that was a fixed point in time. But why did they want to kill him? Shouldn't he at least know that before he goes?
"Doctor?"
"Sorry I was thinking about death. My death. Why am I going to die? That's a good question!" The Doctor mused.
"Right. Well the truth is... we might have, ehm, stolen something from them, and they want it back."
"Is there anything you don't steal? You two! Bad! No!" The Doctor thought to himself that these two were as unscrupulous as River.
"We needed it to fix our TARDIS, and it wasn't for sale. Besides, they probably stole it, themselves."
"Oh, and that makes it better, does it?"
"Well, where else were we supposed to have gotten one? There isn't exactly an electronics boutique that sells exitonic circuit boards."
"You could have used your emergency messaging system-"
"To what end? Why would we use it? You would have received it."
"Yes and I would have gladly-"
"Alexander had been warned to avoid crossing your path at all costs, Doctor. Getting your attention was not on our list of 'good ideas'."
"Oh. Yes, I see that now." The Doctor nervously brushed at his hair. "Right, then. Take me to this circuit board of yours. Let's see it."
Roxie brought out the board. "So, here's what we're going to do."
"Yeah?"
The Doctor took the circuit board from Roxie. "We're going to return it. Now." He then proceeded to walk out of the TARDIS.
"What!" Roxie exclaimed.
"Don't worry. I have a plan." The Doctor assured her.
"A plan that includes getting rid of my only hope of getting out of this place?"
"Trust me." The Doctor said as he left the TARDIS.
"Well, you haven't killed Alexander yet, so I suppose you're not as bad as they say."
"Not as bad as they say?"The Doctor looked at her incredulously. "Who is telling you these things? I wouldn't kill Alexander! Why would I kill Alexander?"
"It's just what he says, and the instructions his mother left him. And apparently, you have many enemies, too – we haven't heard a good thing about you in my travels."
"I do have my enemies, it's true. It's a pity the pair of you has thought so ill of me, it would have been nice to have known there was another Timelord out there."
Roxie chuckled nervously, and clutched her chest. "Well , here we are. Hello." Through her sweater, she shifted her necklace. Roxie gave the Doctor an anxious smile.
The Doctor smiled back. "Hello."
The moment was cut short, as they became aware they were surrounded by the Rackateen. The Doctor held up the exitonic circuit board.
"Doctor, do we really have to?"
"Hush it. I told you I had a plan."
"Yes, but, where are we going to get another one?"
"Trust me." The Doctor turned his attention to the Rackateen. "Here's your part. My young friends here made a mistake. I trust there'll be no more scuffling after you have this back, yes?"
"They injured two of our brothers."
"They're still alive, though?"
"Yes but-"
"Well, you injured one of them gravely, too, so I'd suppose you can call it even. Go home, and I'll try to forget that what you're wearing used to be people."
"And why should we be afraid of you?"
"Because," and he said it with a smirk, "I'm the Doctor."
A united hiss escaped the Rackateen. "Fine then." One of the aliens came forward and took the part from the Doctor.
The two parties left their separate ways. "Where to now?" Roxie questioned him.
"My TARDIS."
"Right. A police box. What's that look like?"
"It's blue. And it's not a mobile home."
"Yeah, well after this, ours won't be, either, so quit harping on it."
The pair walked on until they reached the TARDIS. The Doctor walked up to it, and knocked on its door. "This is my TARDIS."
"The perception filter must be doing a good job, because I've never seen anything like this before."
They walked into his TARDIS, and Roxie followed the Doctor down a corridor. "Stay here a moment. I didn't exactly leave this room organized." Roxie waited at the doorway as the Doctor dug through boxes of TARDIS parts.
A clamor or junk falling could be heard. "Are you sure you don't need any help?" Roxie inquired.
The Doctor popped out of the room, holding something in his hands. "Nope. Fine. See?"
"You had an extra one lying around?"
"It's old, but it should be fine." The Doctor scanned it with his sonic screwdriver. "It'll work."
"Great, let's get going. I'm worried about Alexander."
"As am I."
As they returned, Alexander confronted the Doctor.
"Where did the exitonic circuit go? It was right here." Alexander demanded.
"I brought it back." The Doctor was standing in the TARDIS' doorway, holding a box.
"Why did you do that?"
"You won't be needing it. The Rackateen won't be on your trail anymore. They've left the planet. You're safe."
"Doctor, what are we going to do without it? How are we going to make our repairs?" Alexander exclaimed.
"No need to thank me! Anyhow, I brought you my spare. I won't be needing it."
"You had a spare?"
"I'm more surprised that you didn't." The Doctor stated.
"We did at one point." Said Alexander, defensively.
"What do you two get yourselves into?"
"Lots of trouble." Roxie replied.
Alexander went quiet, as though he was thinking. After a while, he looked up again, and addressed Roxie. "Well, now that the Rackateen are gone, you can come back now, Roxie."
"Go back where? We're not going anywhere until we get the mainframe fixed."
"I need you to come back to me."
"Come back to you? I was never yours. What delusions are you having now?"
"Roxie, just listen to me, alright? Just come here."
"Why? What are you going to do to me?" Roxie backed up.
"Dammit, Roxie, can't you just do anything I say?" Alexander was visibly upset.
"You're just mad I don't fancy you." Roxie joked.
Alexander grabbed the neck of Roxie's sweater.
"What the Hell are you doing?" Roxie pushed back and slapped him on the face, but Alexander didn't let go. The two struggled with each other until the Doctor got in between the two of them.
"Now, someone tell me, what is going on here!" He questioned the two of them.
Instead of an answer, Alexander grabbed at Roxie, and then broke out of the Doctor's hold. The Doctor realised Alexander had something in his hands.
"Give me that back! Give me my necklace!" Roxie demanded.
"No, I won't." Alexander opened his hands, and the Doctor could finally see what it was.
The Doctor relaxed his stance. "Yes, I thought it might be that."
"Alexander, give it back to me! That was my-"
"No, Roxie, it was not your grandfather's. It never was." Alexander showed Roxie its cover, with Gallifreyan scribed upon it. "I think you should open it, things will make more sense then."
"I can't, it's broken." Roxie's voice wavered.
Alexander walked back to her, placed the fob watch in her hand, and clasped her hand in his. "Just try."
Roxie opened her hand and stared at the fob watch. Roxie gained a different affectation and smiled. "All right to come out now, is it dear?"
Alexander let out a strangled gasp. Smiling, he nodded, and reached to pet her hair.
Roxie looked up. Her new manner faded, and she pushed Alexander's hand away. "Am I really that nice? What, do I eat sunshine and daisies for breakfast?"
"Well, no, you're not always nice, although you are definitely nicer than you have been as of late. Please change back."
Roxie shoved the chameleon arc into her pocket. "No. I like who I am. There's nothing wrong with me, I function like a normal person, there's no need. Why should I change back?"
"Because I need her. This is her TARDIS. She's brighter than me, and she's caring, and she wants to see the rest of the universe. We have so much more to see."
"I could travel, instead."
"As you are now, you'd age and die, and I'd still be so young. If you got hurt, you would not be able to regenerate." Alexander looked over to the Doctor. "Doctor, help."
The Doctor nodded. "Changing back, in its own way, is as painful as becoming human. Only, instead of knowing ahead of time that you're going to have your life ripped from you, this time it's put upon you. You don't get any choice. It isn't fair."
"Um, Doctor, I asked you to help."
"Yes, I know, I was getting there. Roxie, I know what it's like- I've had to come back from being human, myself. It was terrible. I had to choose between a woman I loved, and saving the world. The life I had to give up could have been wonderful, yes, but it could never have been. As a Timelord, we have a responsibility to the universe to keep things in balance."
Roxie paused, and then walked to the TARDIS door.
Alexander started towards her, but the Doctor motioned for him to stop. "Roxicallaturin! Don't you leave me!" Alexander cried.
Roxi turned around and smiled. "You know, I might not love you like she does, but I wouldn't ever leave you." She took the chameleon arc out, and unhinged its cover. A gold aura seeped from the timepiece, and Roxi gazed into it. "I wouldn't leave. Besides, it's my TT Capsule."
"Roxi!" Alexander was crying, but he did so with a smile.
Roxi smiled sweetly. "Darling." She nodded. "We have a TARDIS to fix. Thank you for solving our parts problem, Doctor. Sorry for being so rude to you earlier, as I'm sure you know, the chameleon arc can really change your personality."
"Oh, lay off it, Roxi. You'd have been just as rude had you been given the chance." Alexander refuted.
Roxi laughed. "Yeah, I would've. Oh well, cat's out of the bag!" She looked down at the pocket watch. She was about to close it when a small gold glowing cloud puffed out of it. "That's not mine."
They watched as it floated across the room towards Alexander. "Hello!" The Doctor remarked.
"It's the last of my regenerative process!" Alexander exclaimed as he cupped it in his hands.
"How did it end up in there?" The Doctor pondered.
"Ah. Right." Alexander had figured it out, and looked over to Roxi.
"Yes, it makes sense now. He held my hand when we activated the chameleon arch. That must have somehow transferred a bit of his regenerative process into the arch."
"That's what was keeping him unstable!" The Doctor remarked. "As long as it was trapped, Alexander was only going to get weaker."
Roxi smiled, and gave Alexander a light punch on the arm. "You had to leave a piece of you with me, eh? How cheesy."
"Right. Roxi, why don't you go and be a dear, make us some tea? It's likely that it might actually help Alexander now."
Roxi raised an eyebrow, but, seeing no reason to argue, left the room.
A short while passed. She returned to the console room with a couple of mugs in hand, walking on the middle of a conversation Alexander was having with the Doctor.
"Do you ever get along with other Timelords?"
"Sure! I must have, at one point!"
"Really though, Doctor. You were rivals with the only other Timelord you knew to be in existence, and you banished your entire people out of time and space. "
The Doctor shifted his bowtie. "Well, a long time ago, I knew this Timelady. When I met her, she was so young, like you. Oh, she was something- more annoying than this one-" The Doctor gestured at Roxi.
"There's the pot calling the kettle black!" Roxi crumpled her face.
"-But she was brilliant. You know, when she had to regenerate, she chose what she would become." The Doctor looked like he would almost cry. "I wish we hadn't needed to part ways."
"She had her reasons, I'm sure."
"Yes, she went on to do great things." The Doctor looked at Alexander.
After an awkward pause, Roxi broke the silence. "I guess we ought to get to working on the repairs."
"Yes! Repairs. Good old TARDIS repairing."
"It's my TT Capsule, and I won't call it by that silly name if I don't want to."
"Alexander calls it a TARDIS."
"Only because you called it that first. They are called TT Capsules."
"I like TARDIS better."
"You would, wouldn't you."
"The pair of you! The names are interchangeable, it doesn't matter." Alexander laughed at their bickering.
Roxi rolled her eyes and walked over to the console. She lifted up a couple of the floor panels, then dove in. She popped her head up. "Be a dear, pass me the supplies, won't you, Alexander?" Alexander grabbed the box of hodge-podge, and lowers it down to her. Roxi gave him a wink and clicked her tongue before disappearing again.
The Doctor gave a questioning look to Alexander, whose only reply was a smirk and a shrug. "I thought you two weren't an item?"
"Roxie and I weren't, no, she was like a sister to me. Roxicallaturin, on the other hand, well-" Alexander let his sentence trail off.
The Doctor grabbed the exitonic circuit board, and climbed under the console.
"So. Chameleon arch." The Doctor commented to Roxi.
"It was the only way to throw them off our scent. One of us had to be unrecognizable as a Timelord. Otherwise they would've found us."
The Doctor nodded. "Right, then." The two continued on their work for a time, when the Doctor could stand it no longer and had to ask. "So Alexander, he's your boyfriend? Lover-slash-companion?"
Roxi laughed. "More like, lover-slash-hubby."
The Doctor dropped his tool, and fumbled to pick it back up. "But the pair of you. You're so young."
"I'm 186, He's 195. We're not that young."
"Yes you are! Young! That's young!"
"Oh, and you in all your wisdom, you're what, 400?"
"Hardly! I haven't been that young in ages!"
"Come on now, Doctor, how old are you then? Hm? Old man?"
"If you must know, I'm eleven-hundred-and-three." The Doctor stated indignantly.
"You're 1103? And you've never been married?"
"Oh, I've been married plenty of times."
"Yet you're all alone. Don't you have anyone?"
"I've had companions, from time to time. Just until recently, too. But it's best to let them go before anything terrible happens to them. And something terrible is about to happen to me. I can't have them tangled up in it."
"But if something's going to happen to you, wouldn't you want them there to help you? To prevent it?"
"This can't be prevented."
Roxi glared dead-on at the Doctor. "You are a Timelord. You can do anything."
"Those are bold words, coming from a Timelady." Alexander butted in, peering down from above. "How's it going in there?"
"Almost finished installing the exitonic circuit board." The Doctor fitted the board into the slot. "Be a dear, give us our screwdriver."
"I'm not reaching into your pocket. Who knows what you've got in there! Here! Just use mine." Roxi handed him her sonic screwdriver. It was more slender than the Doctor's current one.
"Don't give me yours!" The Doctor took it regardless. "It's rubbish. Why's the blinky yellow? Yellow's rubbish."
"Oh shut up- there's nothing wrong with the diode. Besides, I happen to like yellow."
The Doctor finished the repair and returned the sonic screwdriver to its owner. "Right then! You've fixed the fluid links, the circuit's on board- looks like my work here is done."
Alexander lowered a hand to help the Doctor up. "Sure you can't stay a while, Doctor?" The Doctor jumped up and brushed himself off.
"Really, Doctor. We haven't had the company of another Timelord in so very long."
"I'd love to. Really, I would. But I have to go and take care of something. I've been putting it off for many years now, but it's finally caught up with me. It can't be ignored any longer."
"For your sake, I hope you're wrong."
"Yes well, I suppose now I ought to say goodbye." He hugged Alexander, then Roxicallaturin. "No more stealing, you two!" The pair smiled. The Doctor started to leave, but then turned back. "One more thing. If you ever run into them- and I really hope you never do- if you run into The Silence, run. Run for as far and as hard as you can. You're all that's left of the Timelords." With that, he left.
As he returned to his own TARDIS, he again felt the foreboding sense that had been following him since Berlin. He programmed the console. "One last go, old girl." The Doctor began to accept his destiny, when a new mood took over him. "Why?" He asked. Why?