"Heh now that was a good one." The Doctor practically fell to the floor in delighted exhaustion, quickly surveying the room she'd landed herself in. "Falling out of the TARDIS…don't do that too often. Glad to see it's all over now." She fixed herself with another grin as she recognised her surroundings. "I do love the round things."
"Don't you want to know how I survived? You can ask me, don't be shy!" The Doctor hauled herself up onto the central control board. Running her hands over it brought back fond memories…it almost felt like the real thing. "It was quite a fall I had there. Several kilometres easily, but the thing is I was falling fast. Faster than fast." She winced. "That doesn't actually doesn't make a whole lot of sense. What's faster than fast? Ah well I work with this stuff I'll just talk quicker so people won't catch everything. That usually works." She pressed a few buttons but the central column wasn't moving. The room itself may have been almost spotlessly bright and white but there was dead air to it. An unnatural calmness. A cold. The Doctor's smile faded.
"Rule one, time slows down the faster you think. Let's hope regeneration hasn't frazzled my interface." She absentmindedly picked at the charred material that had once been her coat. Were the burns from the Cyber-weapons or the regeneration? Didn't matter now. She'd really liked that coat. Still, she could always get another. "So I survive, she murmured. "How? Rule two, of course. I imagine I've already survived and came back to tell you about it. Not the first time I've done this and not the last probably." She looked up from her now tattered clothes to address the room.
"There's just one problem." She winced again, heavier this time. "Several in fact. I…I have no one left." The Doctor dragged herself, supported by leaning heavily on the console, to the other side of the room. The console room was empty. It looked so very large without anyone else and the dull, oppressive air was experienced by no one other than herself. "I lost everyone again," she whispered. It wasn't just tinged with melancholy but dripping with it. "Again and again." She flicked one of the levers for each of the 'again's but to no effect; it was for her benefit only. She knew they'd do nothing.
"I was right when I said I'm nothing without an audience. My motivation is…well it's not the highest it could be." A wry smile returned to her features. "Actually it's dropping at about the same right I am." She could feel the cold now, stronger. The stillness of the air around her she knew was a lie. A perfect lie to contrast with the howling wind around her. "If I don't figure something out soon I'm done for, whether I'm inside the 15 hour regeneration window or not. But how can I?" The room was ever so empty.
"Bill, I failed you. That projection from Testimony was from the far, far future. A far, far future version of you. Nardole too. The current you is flying about having space adventures but that's no thanks to me. Remind me to thank Heather if I run into her again." The Doctor fell away from the console and onto the floor again. Standing was so much effort she decided.
"The current you was murdered by the Cybermen if that's even the kind or right word for it. Arms and kidneys and spleen all ripped out and replaced with plastic and metal. You're safe now but not because of me. I never even got to say goodbye properly to the real you. Nardole has hope too but that may not last long. Again, no thanks to me." She sighed. "No audience."
"This isn't even my TARDIS." She waved her arms haphazardly. "Well it is...just not my TARDIS," the Doctor emphasised. Mine started to break down and kicked me out into the air. The central column…the heart of the explosion…" She tried to dig her fingernails into the hard metal of the floor, but to no avail. It just hurt; she did it again for good measure. Pain meant she wasn't finished yet.
"Without a sanctuary for my mind to retreat into I had to borrow one from my past. Considering my most recent adventure, my first console room seems about as good as we're getting." The brightness of the room was starting to dim ever so slightly. "I must be closer now and yet not closer to an escape." She checked herself. "Survival, not escape. No TARDIS and these pockets may be bigger on the inside but I didn't pack a parachute." Her eyes began to close, blinking heavier.
"This isn't like last time I did this. The castle in my confession dial. I had a lot to work with there. I had to work out gravity and air density and fall distance. Not relevant here." The white of the roundels was more gray than anything now. The whole room was going the same way. "I'm on Earth still and several thousand metres above anything. Calculations aside the odds aren't great. Still…I'm sure I'll think of something. That's sort of my whole thing." The room was seeming to disagree and was darkening further still. The air was less muggy now, less oppressive. It was starting to move, swirl even. It felt nice.
The Doctor let another smile cross her face before closing her eyes once again. When she opened them hazily she was back in the air. Falling. Falling so fast. It was freezing. She'd think of something but for now…she'd rest. She'd noticed a river nearby the second she'd started to fall. She'd aim for that and improvise. Closing her eyes for a final time she had the vaguest notion there was something different about this new regeneration. Something different about herself.
At least her kidneys were back to their usual color.