Chapter 7:
A Choice Must be Made
After hearing this, me and Kate ran back towards the TARDIS, out of breath, but not stopping until we reached our destination. It felt as though we had ran for hours, but still, we galloped on. When we reached the TARDIS, I placed the key in the lock, but Kate's eyes went wider than ever. I turned around to see what she was looking at and it turned out that Rassilon had made it to where we was.
"Seen...what you...you...have done...Doctor?" he croaked, clutching his sides as he did. He leaned himself against the wall, his left hand starting to glow. He looked at his hand.
"Well, it...would appear that...that I too need...to change...but...not before...this...this version of...myself...has a kill." after saying this, he lifted his right hand up towards me. A shot of electricity surged towards me, but Kate jumped in front of me and took the blow.
"No!" I heard myself screaming, as I catch Kate. I look back up at Rassilon.
"Well, close enough!" he bellowed. He started to glow even brighter. I opened the TARDIS door, and placed Kate on the ramp. I looked back at Rassilon.
"You're a monster, Rassilon! A true monster!" I shouted at him. He looked back at me, about to burst with energy.
"Don't forget, Doctor. A choice must be made! Gallifrey or Earth!" he yelled at me. After hearing this, I turned back to walk into the TARDIS.
I carry Kate up to the TARDIS console and place her on the seat.
"Hang on, Kate. Just hold on!" I beg her. I flick levers and switches on the TARDIS console and pull the final lever. The old groaning sound activated and the TARDIS flew from left to right. I ran around the console, but noticed that Kate was becoming weaker by the second. As soon as the groaning sound stops, I pick up Kate and carry her through the TARDIS doors.
"Help! I need help! Someone, quickly!" I shout. We were back in the base in the Sahara. Some soldiers came to my side and helped me to carry Kate to the silver panelled room with the metal table and chairs in. I placed Kate on the table and pull out a stethoscope from my pocket. I checked her heart rate, and knew it was falling, and fast.
"What happened?" a young soldier asked me. But, there was no time to be answering questions. I had to save the most amazing girl I had ever met.
"Doctor, she's dying!" a scientist pointed out to me. I stood there for a moment, thinking about any options that I had. But, I knew that there was only one option for me. A went up to Kate and placed my hands on her shoulders.
"What are you doing?!" one soldier asked.
"Leave him, he can do this." another added. With my hands on her shoulders, I started to move my face closer to hers. When our lips touched, I sent her pure regeneration energy from my body into her. As I did, I could feel her whole body healing itself. As soon as it was all over, I pulled away and looked at her, hoping it had worked.
For a few, silence filled moments, nothing happened, everything was still. Then, Kate started to move, ever so slowly. As she sat up, I heard every soldier and scientist in the room cheer and pat me on the back. I went over to Kate, and she looked into my eyes.
"Doctor? Wh...what happened?" she asked, very weak, but her strength slowly building. I merely laughed and hugged her, not letting go. I helped her to her feet and she looked around.
"Ho..how did we get here?" she asked. Whilst carrying her, I answered her question.
"You saved me, Kate, you saved me. If it weren't for you, we wouldn't be here." I told her, full of appraisal. When we arrived back in the same room as the TARDIS, everyone was thinking the same question, but Kate was the only one who would speak what was on all our minds.
"Where is the shell?" everyone was looking around the room, soldiers were looking under every table to see if it had shrunk and hidden.
As everyone was looking around, I was the only one to actually look up. As I did, I saw a crater sized hole in the ceiling, right above where the shell had been.
"Kate, look." Kate was by my side, looking exactly where I was.
"How the hell did that happen?" she asked, though an answer was not needed to be given. I grabbed her by the hand and pulled her into the TARDIS along with me. I whipped off my coat, threw it to one side and started flicking controls.
"Doctor, what are you doing?" she asked, longing to know.
"Well, I'm doing something I haven't done in a while." I answered. Flicking controls on the console, the TARDIS began to move, but not in the way it usually would. Kate ran up to the TARDIS doors and opened them. It turned out that the TARDIS was flying upwards and had moved out of the hole. When we had left the dirt from the hole, I could see the sand of the desert, whilst flicking controls on the console.
"Doctor, where is the shell?" Kate asked, closing the doors and running back to my side.
"I'm tracking it right now...woh!" as I said this, the TARDIS lurched hard to the left, but I managed to get it back to an even level by flicking 2 switches at the same time.
"There we go." I confirmed, flicking more switches. As I did this, smoke was released from the column in the centre of the console.
"Oh, that's not good!" I yelled, fear in my voice.
"What's not good?" Kate asked, just as scared as I was. Desperately trying to keep my ship in the air, I pulled 5 switches at the same time.
"Kate, if I don't do anything now, we will fall from the sky in the next 30 seconds!" I warned her.
Falling through the sky, I noticed that the shell itself had landed in a destination. So, flicking switches, I managed to land the TARDIS a few feet away from it. Upon landing, me and Kate were thrown off our feet. After a few moments of being dazed, we managed to stand up and walk towards the door. When we stepped outside, I noticed that the shell had landed in a place the looked extremely similar to the place I had seen in my vision on board the TARDIS. As I stepped closer towards the shell, a panel on it's side started to slowly slither open.
"Doctor, what's happening?" Kate asked, as I stepped slowly forward towards the shell. When I was approximately 1 metre away from the it, a burst of light shot into the sky. Looking up, I could see that the light was opening a portal in the atmosphere of Earth. Around me, women were running, clutching babies in their arms. Around me, it was as though I was living this chaos for a second time but in a sense, I was. From the rip of portal in the sky, a voice I had never heard before could be heard escaping through it.
"See, Doctor, even after a regeneration, Gallifrey shall live - with me, Rassilon, as it's leader!"
"Rassilon, he's a fool!" I said to Kate, holding her hand. I look into her eyes.
"Kate, what do I do?" she asked me. Kate knew exactly what to say.
"What you've always done," I shrug my shoulders at her, "be a Doctor." after hearing this, I ran towards the shell, and pulled out my sonic screwdriver and scanned the shell.
"Damn it!" I yelled as Kate ran up to my side.
"What's wrong?" she asked me.
"The shell, its too unstable to close. But..." then I had my own little brain wave.
I grasped Kate by the hand and ran back into the TARDIS. I started flicking controls and switches and the TARDIS was flying up into the air, little did Rassilon know that the shell was attached with a hyper link to the bottom of the TARDIS.
"Doctor, what are we doing?" Kate asked whilst I was flicking switches on the console, keeping us gaining altitude.
"You really like asking questions, Kate. If life gives you lemons, make lemonade! Anyway, I'm going to fly the TARDIS up into the portal, throw the shell into the space behind the portal then get us out of there, sending Gallifrey back to its rightful place – its death." so, I kept the TARDIS going and going when Kate reminded me.
"But Doctor! You said that the TARDIS won't be able to fly for much longer."
But, I still went on, flying the TARDIS higher and higher until we were through the portal. I released the shell from the hyper link and the shell was used to pull Gallifrey back to its own place in the universe. But, then the TARDIS engines cut off, and the console room was plunged into darkness.
Because of this, the TARDIS did not have its own gravity, so it fell back through the portal, plummeting towards Earth, with me and Kate still inside it.