Carrot juice, thought the Doctor, he loathed the taste, much preferring carrot cake instead. One of his companions practically swam in the stuff though and was always pushing it at him. The Doctor wondered why he was thinking about carrot juice all of a sudden, in fact where was he? It was dark, he was definitely sitting down and he could feel the ground beneath him vibrating. A train maybe?
Looking around the Doctor caught the dim glint of an overhead light, it wasn't much but he could fix that. The Doctor put on his sonic sunglasses and tapped into the power source of the light, giving it a little boost. In seconds three overhead lights burst into life illuminating his surroundings - it was a train, an old one, with row after row of sleeping passengers all around the small carriage. There was one, an elderly man sitting on the seat beside the Doctor.
"Excuse me" said the Doctor, touching the man's shoulder lightly
No response.
The Doctor touched the psychic interface on his sonic sunglasses and immediately a list of the man's vitals popped up on one of the lenses - or rather the lack of his vitals as the man was very dead. Cause of death was undetectable by the sunglasses and the Doctor couldn't discover one himself. A dreadful thought ran through the Doctor's head. The Doctor scanned the sleeping woman, sitting in the seat across from him - dead - no known cause. The Doctor scanned the person next to her - dead, no known cause. The Doctor then stood up on his seat and scanned everyone in the carriage - dead, no known cause. The Doctor was in a train car full of corpses. The lense screens of the glasses flickered and just for a second a message presented itself -
"The Doctor ends today"
The message disappeared, leaving the Doctor with even more questions to be answered.
"Oi you can't stand on that!" A very British voice scolded
The Doctor looked down and saw Bill Potts, she was dressed in a ticket inspector uniform.
"Bill!" the Doctor exclaimed, full of hope
"Judging by your clothes I'm guessing you're either a psychic or a magician, but that doesn't matter get down from there, that's train property"
The Doctor stepped down from the chair, regarding Bill suspiciously.
"You don't remember me?" the Doctor asked
"Should I?" Bill replied "I'm the ticket inspector, all of the passengers faces kind of just blur together"
"All of your passengers are dead"
"Well I should bloody hope so"
The Doctor's puzzled face must have amused her, she smirked.
"We're on the last train" Bill explained
"To where?"
Bill pulled open a near by pair of curtains and the Doctor did his best to hold back a gasp. Outside they were traveling through a lake of lava that was boiling and bubbling as they moved. The sky was made of fire and near by mountains looked like they were made of sulfur.
"Welcome to Hell" Bill said cheerfully
"How stereotypical" said the Doctor, trying not to show how impressed he was
"You find a lot of people go in for the traditional fire and brimstone experience"
"So what is it really?"
Bill smiled a wicked smile and then looked a clipboard that the Doctor didn't notice her having before.
"What's your name again?" she asked
The Doctor considered the question for a moment before replying.
"Doctor Horatio Funky but you can just call me the Doctor"
"Yeah I'm going to need to see your ticket" she countered
The Doctor fumbled in his pockets for a few seconds before finally producing his slightly psychic paper, he opened the leather wallet and showed it to Bill, she studied it for a bit.
"That's just blank paper" she concluded
"Are you sure?" the Doctor said, even more puzzled than before.
"Yeah" Bill said bluntly "But..."
Bill produced a ticket from her coat pocket and handed it to the Doctor.
"Your ticket, Dr. Funky"
"Thank you" said the Doctor, examining his ticket, it was entirely blank, just a blank paper stub.
"If you need anything just scream" Bill told him
"Scream?" questioned the Doctor
Bill nodded nonchalantly before making her way to the front of the carriage and unlocking the door with a passcard.
"You're going?" asked the Doctor
"Have to" Bill replied "the dead make terrible passengers"
The Doctor got to his feet but the train shook violently, throwing him back into his seat. A terrible howl echoed from outside the train. It sounded like an old beast was in great pain. When the Doctor looked back for Bill, she was gone and the door was closed. The Doctor bounded to his feet, taking out his sonic screwdriver and running to the door, he analyzed the door with the screwdriver before sighing. The door was deadlocked.
"Why is it that you still can't handle wood or deadlocks?" the Doctor scolded the screwdriver "You'd think we'd have developed an app by now"
"I'm sorry?" said a very familiar voice from behind.
The Doctor turned to find Nardole at the other end of the carriage, he was dressed in a very warm looking coat and a farmer's cap.
"Nardole?" the Doctor asked
Nardole nodded, silently
"Do you know who I am?"
Nardole shook his head.
The Doctor sighed again, throwing himself back down into his seat. Nardole sat in the seat opposite, the Doctor could've sworn that it was taken by a corpse until just a few seconds ago.
Nardole studied the Doctor carefully.
"How'd you know my name" he asked
The Doctor paused for a moment, deciding how best to play the situation.
"You're my companion, carer and teaching assistant at St. Luke's, we teach humans from Monday to Friday and usually travel in time and space on Saturday" the Doctor explained, before adding "Sunday's Sudoku day"
Nardole looked like he was processing what he was just told before finally bursting into laughter.
"It's ridiculous, isn't it" the Doctor chuckled before regaining his serious composure "but it's all true"
Nardole gave him a disbelieving glare.
"Once upon a time, my wife was your best friend" the Doctor told him "Her name was River Song"
Nardole's eyes widened.
"You remember her?"
"No" Nardole answered, very quickly
"Your eyes tell a different story"
"Can't help that" Nardole told him "They're not originally mine"
"She told me a story, you know, River Song did" the Doctor continued "About a child called Nardie, she saved him from a prison planet where he and his parents had been imprisoned for years. the parents were eventually broken and murdered... but the child escaped with her, they freed so many innocents together and then they left to journey the stars"
The Doctor stopped when he realised Nardole was crying.
"I'm sorry" said the Doctor
The Doctor and Nardole sat in silence for a few moments. The Doctor wondering how best to proceed, when the door behind him clicked open. The Doctor turned and peeked behind his seat. Standing wearing a dark green outfit, with her trademark umbrella was Missy, she sat down in the seat across the way from the Doctor and Nardole. Missy gave the Doctor a confused glance as he stared at her.
"Missy!" he called
Missy didn't reply and was trying her best not to even look at the Doctor.
"Missy!" he called again "You in the green!"
Missy looked over to him, the Doctor was very clearly getting on her nerves.
"Not that it's any of your business but my name is Kos not Missy"
"Now that's a name I haven't heard in a while" the Doctor admitted
Missy rose up from her seat and strode over to the Doctor, a puzzled look on her face.
"You know my name?" she asked
"I know you threw it away when you were about 450"
"That's a lie" Missy said unconvincingly
"You were starting your beard phase, the Time Lords gave you a TARDIS and told you to hunt me down"
"They betrayed me..." Missy remembered "Then you betrayed me and trapped me in a black hole"
"Yes!" the Doctor exclaimed happily before lowering his voice and tone and saying softly "I had to"
"I hated you for that" she explained "That rage was all that kept me going, when I escaped I started burning entire planets, just to spite you"
"Do you feel any different now?"
Missy nodded, her old eyes gazing into the Doctor's old eyes. Friends reunited at last.
"Anger is like a fire that burns everything you care about, one day you wake up and realize that you have nothing left"
"Where are we?" The Doctor asked her
"No idea, my dear but I really think we should find out"
As the two Gallifreyans got up, the train shook again, throwing Missy across to a smartly dressed pair of dead people and the Doctor back to his seat. Without warning the lights went out, Nardole screamed and the train braked to a halt. Nardole tumbled into the seat next to the Doctor with a thud.
"Nardole, are you alright?"
"I'm sorry sir" whimpered Nardole
Silence fell over carriage, the Doctor looked over at the barely visible Missy, who was clutching her umbrella tightly. The Doctor grabbed his sonic screwdriver from his coat pocket, using it to illuminate the carriage.
Beside the Doctor, Nardole slouched uncomfortably, his hand barely covered a gaping wound on his side. A sharp section of metal from the arm rest had become lodged just under his cybernetic spleen.
"Hold on" the Doctor demanded, he knew time was of the essence.
"This is going to hurt" he warned as he pulled a portion of metal out of the wound
"Doctor?" Nardole whispered
The Doctor ignored him and set about trying to repair his semi artificial organs with the sonic.
"It's not working sir" Nardole tried again
"Give it time" the Doctor pleaded
"Direct hit to my core battery sir, I'm finished"
"No!" the Doctor screamed, refusing to give up
Something large collided with the roof, its sharp claws pierced the carriage and rocked it again, letting out a deathly cry.
"Sir" Nardole tried
The Doctor's attention was being torn between saving his friend and observing the massive claws.
"Sir!" Nardole yelled, finally getting the Doctor's attention
"Stop what you're doing!"
The Doctor lowered the screwdriver, turning it away from Nardole.
"It's the end" Nardole sighed
"Don't say that" the Doctor replied
Nardole squeezed the Doctor's hand.
"I remember..." he breathed
"You remember who I am?" the Doctor asked
"I remember everything" Nardole smiled, tear drops trickled down his cheeks.
"River would be so proud of you"
Nardole let go of the Doctor's hand and passes. The Doctor looks at him for what seems like an eternity, he doesn't even notice Missy walking back over to him, putting her hand on his arm.
"Doctor, I'm sorry but we need to leave"
The huge talons swayed again, knocking both the Doctor and Missy to their sides and a lot of corpses to the ground.
"Whatever that thing is doesn't seem to share your sentimentality!" Missy yelled
"We need to get into the next carriage" the Doctor said, bounding to his feet, not daring to look back at Nardole
The Doctor scanned the door to the next carriage with his sonic.
"Deadlocked" he remembered
"Out the way" Missy told him in her Scottish brogue and wielding her umbrella
The Doctor stepped aside as Missy pointed the umbrella at the door. Two clicks and a small sonic-laser burst and the lock retracted, flinging the door open.
Stepping inside the Doctor found more dead bodies, some fastened to their seats others sprawled out on the floor. Examining them he realised that they were very familiar to him. As a matter of fact, they all looked just like him. Written in the blood of a few lying on the floor was a message.
"Companions live, companions die but you and I stand the test of time"
The Doctor pondered over the disturbing message but not for as long as he wanted to.
"What do you think you're doing in here?"
The Doctor looked up and saw Bill standing protectively close to the next door, they would need to exit.
"Nardole's dead, Bill" was the first thing the Doctor could think of to say
"Who's Nardole?" Bill asked
"He travelled with you and me in the TARDIS" the Doctor said, trying to refresh her memory
"The Whatdis?"
"He was our friend"
"I think you've had too much to drink, mate"
Bill grabbed his arm and began escorting him back to the original carriage
"Remember your mother, Bill, all those pictures that suddenly appeared of her, you were so happy to finally see her - I took those pictures, I met your mother!"
Bill stopped, her mouth fell open.
"I'm sorry, I didn't -" the Doctor began but was interrupted by something terrifying - a sing song metallic voice coming out of Bill's mouth - the voice of a Cyberman
"THAT is NOT possible"
"Bill?" the Doctor was failing to understand
The shape of Bill melted away and standing in front of the Doctor was a Mondasian Cyberman. This all felt very familiar to the Doctor, he just couldn't put the pieces together.
Missy raised her umbrella to Bill's chest unit but it was chopped away by the Doctor's hand.
"Don't you dare" yelled the Doctor "She's my friend!"
"She's also a Cyberman, dear"
The unseen creature from before, once again pierced it's claws into the roof of the carriage and shook, sending the Doctor and Missy to the ground.
When it stopped, Missy achingly got to her feet, helping the Doctor up as she did.
"What the hell is that thing?" Missy asked, looking at the claws
"That's a very good question" the Doctor admitted "Another is where did Bill go?"
Missy looked around the carriage, the Cyberman Bill was nowhere to be seen.
"Maybe she went back to her Cyber-friends" Missy suggested
"I can't help but feel something like this has happened before" the Doctor noted
"Deja Vu" Missy replied "A Time Lord's way of knowing that they're far too old"
"I suppose you could do something about that"
Missy smiled and pointed her umbrella at the next door, two clicks and a burst and it fell open.
"Not today dear"
The next carriage wasn't a carriage but instead a small room with a ladder that lead to the roof.
"Plan?" Missy asked
"Winging it" the Doctor replied, as he started climbing up the ladder
Missy huffed, looking up after him, maybe a second longer than she should have before joining him. Up top the Doctor reached the top of the ladder, pulling himself up onto the roof, a couple of seconds later, Missy followed.
"Kind of disappointing" said the Doctor, the creature was gone, leaving only large claw marks in the train.
"How so?" Missy asked, her voice cracked slightly
The Doctor turned to Missy, slightly confused.
"There's nothing here" he pointed out
This visibly bothered Missy who had her eyes locked behind the Doctor's shoulder
"You can't see it?" she asked
The Doctor turned fast but nothing had changed. He looked back at Missy, the look on her face said it all, she was fascinated and he was 91 percent sure that she wasn't lying. Something behind his back was visibly astonishing, but he couldn't see it.
"Let me see it" the Doctor asked
Missy was a little taken aback by his request but never the less put the first two fingers on each of her hands to the Doctor's temples, psychically expanding his perception with her own. After a moment she let go, the Doctor braced himself and turned. He could see it.
The creature was at least 15 to 20 feet tall, sitting on all fours, its pale white stretched and cracked skin just barely covered a huge ribcage protruding from its damaged body, its twelve eyes all focused intently on the Doctor and its disgusting stained tongue licked menacingly around its razor sharp teeth. Beside the creature was a Cyber-man holding the body of Nardole.
"Your friend?" Missy asked
"No" the Doctor said firmly "None of this is real"
"What?"
"I'm surprised you don't recognize that creature"
"Care to elaborate?"
"When I was put on trial in my sixth life, the prosecutor was a twisted, bitter, nightmare version of me called the Valeyard"
The creature smiled a sickening smile at the sound of this word.
"Hello again" said a voice that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere
"Hello Scrapyard" replied the Doctor
"What's the Failyard doing here and why does he look like a parasite you'd pull out of a fish's internal organs?" asked Missy
"During my Sixth and Seventh lives after the trial I set up defenses in my mind so that if he ever tried to take over I'd be ready"
"Good plan"
"In my last few lives he's been getting stronger"
"Influencing decisions, every life you've taken, making me stronger!" cried the disembodied voice
"Where are we exactly?" Missy asked
"His domain" the Doctor answered "My mind"
"How?"
The last couple of regenerations, he's appeared to me, trying to take over, one of my defences was to have avatars of my friends to help me out, he chose the battleground, I chose the players"
Missy appears fascinated by the prospect that she's an avatar, she even pinches herself.
"But I corrupted your defences"the Valeyard boomed "Showing your friends to you for what they truly are, what you've done to them"
The Doctor looked over at Bill and remembered, the ship, the black hole, Bill, the Master, electricity flowing through his body, of course!
"I'm dying!" the Doctor realised
"In the end, a lone Cyberman did that job perfectly" the Valeyard confirmed "You live your life in the wake of such destruction, associating with monsters and murderers like Missy. dragging your friends along with you, their reward? death or worse. Don't lie to yourself Doctor, you're already very like me, just make that final step"
"Never!" shouted the Doctor defiantly "You want to corrupt my successor? I'm not even sure I'll have one but if I do, he or she or they will be the Doctor NOT the Valeyard"
The creature screamed and began approaching the Doctor and Missy.
"Missy, could I borrow your umbrella?" the Doctor asked
"Why not, it's not real" Missy concluded handing over the umbrella
"That's where you're wrong" said the Doctor "It's the final defence"
The Doctor pointed the umbrella at the Valeyard, pressing the red setting buttons, the Valeyard stopped in its tracks and stared at the Doctor for a moment.
"You will die soon and then you'll be me" the Valeyard gloated
"You're the path never taken, the Doctor isn't just a title, it's my word and it's the shining light that will snuff you out before you even begin"
"Oh just shut up and explode the thing" Missy complained
"Oh this umbrella doesn't kill" the Doctor informed her, pressing a button on the side that caused a huge piercing noise to emanate from the umbrella, the Valeyard raised a claw to try and swipe at the Doctor but found itself shrinking, the claw missing the Doctor by inches. The creature slowly lost its size, at first by a few feet, then suddenly it was only a few feet and finally it stopped at only a centimetre on the ground.
Missy hovered her foot over the creature, moments away from squishing it.
"Don't" the Doctor asked as politely as he could
Missy sighed and removed her foot from the miniature Valeyard.
"You never let a dream girl have any fun" she complained
The Doctor nodded as he pressed a few more buttons on the umbrella, unlocking the top section which lowered itself and expanded, growing strings and tuners - it became a guitar.
"I don't remember installing that" said Missy
"I may have made some upgrades" replied the Doctor, fishing into his pockets for a guitar pick, he quickly found it and held it to his umbrella-guitar.
The Valeyard creature squeaked in fear
"Do no harm" the Doctor ordered before striking a chord, the Valeyard creature inched backward.
"Never be cruel or cowardly" he struck another chord, the Valeyard crawled away, trying to escape.
"Always be a Doctor"
The Doctor played a ditty, a song inspired by some time he had spent jamming with Jimi Hendrix, Howlin' Wolf and Brian May at a festival he organized on Pluto. The Valeyard creature seemed mesmerized by the song and almost danced toward the Doctor, when it reached him it danced straight into his guitar. The Doctor wrapped up his solo and placed the guitar on the ground. After a moment the guitar sank into the ground, leaving no trace of its existence.
"Where did it go?" asked Missy
"Back home" the Doctor explained "the Valeyard is a concept that likes to raise its ugly head before a regeneration, like all terrible concepts it comes from the darkest side of my mind, I simply shrunk it down and shoved it back there"
"So it could come back"
"It's an idea, you can't kill an idea but maybe, just maybe it might decide this time not to come back"
"Ever the optimist"
"Well at the very least it's gone for another lifetime, which knowing what's coming when I wake up, I'm not sure I even have one of those"
Missy held the Doctor's hand, her touch was cold but strangely comforting.
"I can't imagine a universe without you"
"Same" said the Doctor, squeezing her hand softly
The Doctor then turned his attention to the Cyberman Bill.
"I promise this won't be how it ends, I will do everything I can for you"
The Cyberman Bill didn't respond, she just put Nardole's body down on the ground and then faded away.
"I'm sorry"
The Doctor then went over to Nardole, crouching down beside his body.
"In the real world, you're still alive" the Doctor told him "I can't promise you a long life but I will try and make sure this doesn't happen to you"
The Doctor kissed the palm of his hand and put it to Nardole's forehead. A moment later, Nardole faded like Bill. In fact the whole Hellish landscape started to crumble away.
"The dream is ending" the Doctor noted
"Might as well end it in style" said Missy rolling up a sleeve
"What're you doing?"
"The needful" she informed him before slapping him hard in the face
"Carrot juice!" the Doctor yelled out, waking up and hitting his head off the top bunk above him.
"Who put a bunk bed there" the Doctor complained "Was there always a bunk bed there?"
"Fraid so" said a familiar Scottish brogue, Missy peaked her head out from the top of the bunk.
"Missy?" said the Doctor, confused
"My, my Doctor, you look like someone who's just been slapped in the face"
Before the Doctor could reply, the door to the room fell open and Nardole walked inside carrying a tray with three mugs on it, containing what smelt like hot chocolate to the Doctor.
"I thought I heard voices, I am so glad you're awake, sir"
The Doctor flung his arms around Nardole, almost scalding them both with hot chocolate.
"Sir!" Nardole exclaimed before finally settling into the hug
"What brought this on?" Nardole asked
"... I don't know" the Doctor realised, he couldn't quite recall what had happened in his dream
"Not that I'm complaining, it's nice to recieve a bit of affection from you but could you stop hugging me for a bit"
The Doctor sheepishly let go of Nardole, who put the tray down on the bedside table. Nardole handed a mug of chocolate to Missy, while the Doctor regained composure.
"How long have I been asleep" asked the Doctor
Nardole was about to answer but was interrupted by a voice in the doorway.
"12 days, 4 hours, 58 minutes"
It was the Master, the goateed predecessor of Missy, who once upon a time was also the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
The Master stole a mug of chocolate from Nardole's tray.
"Sleep well grandad?" said the Master smugly, bumping his mug with Missy's
"Decently" replied the Doctor, who stole Nardole's mug of chocolate
"Where's Bill?" the Doctor asked
Missy and Nardole's faces dropped, the Doctor could tell that they had no idea what to say to him. The Master however smiled that arrogant smile of his.
"Oh I have a story to tell you" he promised