Jessa L'Rynn's August Challenge 1: The Rewrite Challenge. People love rewrites. You may choose any episode of modern or Classic!Who, EXCEPT Stolen Earth/Journey's End. You must add or subtract companions, or you may switch Doctors or companions if you prefer. But someone has to be there who wasn't or gone who was. The rules are simple. You cannot cheat. No taking the established dialogue and shuffling it. You must really, REALLY think about it. Rose would never think of a forklift suicide, Sarah-Jane wouldn't need to be told what a Dalek was, Six wouldn't call someone a "stupid ape" when he could say "degenerate, semi-evolved primate" instead, and Nine wouldn't have gone through that mirror alone. You don't have to "back story" if you don't want to, but you have to do it right. For the record, though, don't do Classic!Who if you don't know it. No, really don't.
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Title: Two Timelines
Author: TardisIsTheOnlyWaytoTravel
Story Summary: Something's gone badly wrong with history. The Doctor, along with Rose, investigates to find an airship called the Valiant, and enormous paradox and ...himself? Stars Nine, and Ten.
Setting: Just after Last of the Time Lords, series three.
Author notes:
This is a response to Jessa L'Rynn's above challenge. I'm not sure I'm entirely happy with this chapter; I may yet rewrite it a little. We'll see.
TWO TIMELINES
CHAPTER ONE
It was quiet, not unusually so, for this place. Sometimes it was filled with noise and laughter, or friendly banter; other times it held a content silence, as its occupants dwelled companionably with no need for speech. But something in the quality of the silence had changed, as though the ship were anticipating something, and so the human girl had gone in search of the ship's other occupant. They made a strange pair, a young girl who'd lived all her life in the poorer area of London, and the ancient, intelligent alien with a tendency to brood, but it seemed to work. Probably it was mostly due to the fact that in their own way each quietly adored the other, even if they'd never admit it to anyone. Affection has a way of smoothing out most differences.
She found the Doctor in the console room, frowning at the console screen, in a way that Rose immediately identified as something's not right here.
"What's wrong?" She peered over his shoulder curiously, despite knowing that she wouldn't be able to understand a word.
"Something's gone wrong with history," he said curtly. "There's quarantine on Earth's entire system. Mauve alert. No one goes in or out."
"Mauve?" Rose repeated. "But… what year is it?"
"2007," the Doctor said grimly.
"Two years since I left," Rose said wonderingly. "What could have gone so wrong in two years that no one's allowed near Earth?"
"All kind of things," the Doctor replied. "There could've been a plague, or an invasion by a hostile species, or maybe humans are the hostile species. Not exactly warm and tolerant, you lot. Wouldn't put it past you to declare war on the rest of the universe."
"Oi," Rose said indignantly, "you don't know that's what's going on. Could be anything."
The Doctor ignored this, possibly because he didn't have a good answer. He fiddled with the controls.
"We landing, then?" Rose asked him.
"Yep. There's some kind of satellite network boosting a signal all over the planet, but the signal itself is only being sent from one place."
"Where we're landing," Rose guessed.
"Yep." He grinned at her. "Hold on." The TARDIS abruptly shook, before whirling in all directions. Rose was more or less used to that by now, but almost lost her grip on one of the coral-like struts at a particularly violent rattle.
Suddenly all movement stopped.
-
Rose followed the Doctor out – and almost ran into him. The TARDIS had parked herself in a storage room, and there wasn't much space left over. The Doctor used his sonic screwdriver to fiddle the lock, and opened the door.
Rose gasped.
The door opened out onto a hallway, but what astounded her was the view from the windows opposite – pale sky and beneath it, clouds.
The Doctor glanced out at the view, and began walking.
Rose followed.
"Are we... in the air?"
The Doctor glanced back.
"D'you think we'd be anywhere else, with a view like that?" He looked ahead again. "Some sort of air-ship."
"I've never seen one of these before," Rose commented.
"Top-secret," the Doctor explained. "Military stuff. This sort of technology doesn't become mainstream for another century and a half." He stopped suddenly, with a wave indicating her to be quiet. "D'you hear voices?"
Rose listened hard.
"Sounds like someone's yelling."
"Come on." The Doctor followed the sound.
-
They emerged through a doorway into an enormous room. There were two men, an elderly one in a wheelchair, and a ginger-haired, youngish one in a smart suit. He was doing the yelling.
"Sorry to interrupt," the Doctor said cheerily, plastering on his daft cheerful grin, "but we seem to have gotten a bit lost. Don't suppose you could direct us to...?"
But at the sight of them the old man's eyes had widened.
"O, no no no no no!" It was a yell of horrified disbelief and denial. "That's impossible! You can't be here!"
"It looks like you decided to pay yourself a little visit, Doctor!" the ginger-haired man yelled in triumphant delight.
"Wait, is that you?" Rose asked disbelievingly, staring at the old man, who was still looking at her wild-eyed.
"Apparently," the Doctor replied dryly.
The ginger-haired man was grinning like a Cheshire cat.
"How nice of you to join us, Doctor," he greeted him. "And this must be the fantastic Rose Tyler." He leered at her. 'The Doctor and his little human love. I almost feel honoured, Doctor," he cooed mockingly at the old man.
" 'Little human love?' " the Doctor heard Rose repeat under her breath.
"Charmed," the Doctor told the stranger. "Glad to know we could help. It's always nice to be appreciated, isn't it, Rose?" He grinned at her cheerily.
"Appreciated, yeah," Rose agreed slowly. She didn't know what was going on, but it seemed ominous.
"And since I'm here already then obviously we've met, but I'm afraid the name escapes me for the moment, so why don't you remind me?"
The madman grinned in delighted realisation.
"Look at you, you really have no clue who I am," he observed to the old man. "Did the Time War really damage you that much?" He shook his head mock-sorrowfully.
"What d'you know about the Time War?" The Doctor's voice was sharp and suddenly dangerous.
The ginger-haired man just smiled like a lunatic.
"Maybe if you lowered your shields, you'd have some idea."
Rose glanced between him and the Doctor, wondering what was going on.
A moment later the Doctor's eyes hardened and the lines of his face turned to stone.
"Koschei." If his voice had been dangerous before, it was positively menacing now.
The other's smile vanished in an instant.
"Don't call me that!" he spat.
"Why not?" the Doctor still watched him stony-faced, "it's your name isn't it?"
"Then perhaps I should address you by your own, Doctor!" Koschei flung at him.
"Right, the Master it is then," the Doctor said, unperturbed. "Rose, the bloke with the mad grin and uncertain temper is called the Master, likes to try and take over the world, tends to dress a bit eccentric. Don't know about the suit, he didn't have that last time I saw him, still, least he's lost the cape."
" Do you really think I'm going to accept fashion critiques from a man who walked around in a patchwork quilt of a coat for a decade and spent an entire regeneration dressed like an Edwardian cricketer?" the Master sneered.
"Thing is," the Doctor continued explaining to Rose, completely ignoring the Master's interpolation. "he was s'posed to have died in the Time War, so what's he doing subjugating the Earth?"
"Chameleon Arch," the old Doctor said suddenly. Everyone turned to stare at him. He looked old, and immensely tired, but within the folds of wrinkles his brown eyes had the same intelligence and sense of ancient power that Rose felt every time she looked into her Doctor's stormy blue eyes.
"He ran to the end of the universe and hid himself using a Chameleon Arch," the old Doctor continued wearily, "rewriting his DNA so he was human and giving him a set of fake memories to match, so that no one could find him. He spent almost his entire lifespan trying to do good and help the human settlement there until me and my companions showed up."
"And then the clever Miss Jones drew my attention to the watch storing all my Time Lord memories and DNA, so that I opened it and was restored to my true self," the Master said triumphantly. "I'd think you'd be pleased to see me, Doctor. After all, it means you're not the last Time Lord after all. Aren't you glad you're not alone?"
"No Time Lords at all is better than having you hanging around," the Doctor retorted. The Master smirked.
"That's not what your current regeneration thinks, is it, Doctor?" He kicked the old man, making him wince. The Master's voice dropped into a song-song tone. "It's all different now, can't you see, it's just the two of us, can't we just hold hands a nd be friends?" He kicked the old Doctor again. "Even now, when I've destroyed this pitiful planet and broken both his hearts, he still wants me around to fill the empty spaces in his mind! It's pathetic!"
He laughed.
Rose saw the old Doctor wince yet again and couldn't stand it any longer.
"Stop it!" she yelled at the Master. "Why do you have to keep hurting him?"
The Master turned to her with amused, malicious interest, as though he's almost forgotten she was there.
"Because it's fun, Rose," he beamed. "It is Rose, isn't it? The Doctor's perfect little human." And he slapped her across the face.
The Doctor hit him. There didn't seem to be any conscious though involved; his fit just drove forward into the Master's voice, sending him over backwards.
"Leave her alone!" the old Doctor was roaring, "don't you dare touch Rose!"
The Master was getting to his feet and feeling his jaw. He glanced up, gaze dark, and met the Doctor's eyes. For a moment his eyes mirrored the Doctor's, in reverse: ancient, powerful, and filled with malevolence and utter insanity.
It was only for an instant, though, and then his eyes were veiled again with the appearance of humanity. But Rose could feel the hair standing up all over her body and knew that whatever else he was, the Master was extremely dangerous. When the Time Lord's eyes had met it had been like a raging inferno meeting a terrible storm. In some way they were equal, and it scared Rose horribly.
"Well, this is all lovely and I hate to break up the party," the Master's voice was suddenly upbeat again, "but I'm afraid I really can't have you interfering with my little empire. Guards!" he yelled.
There was a moment's silence. No guards. The Master sighed.
"Honestly, you can't get decent minions these days," he confided, "they're all hopeless. Ah! Lucy!"
Everyone else looked around to see a pretty, pale blonde woman in a well-cut, expensive dress watching from the doorway with curiosity.
"Lucy, my love," the Master called, "Would you be a dear and fetch the guards? There seems to be a little problem with communications at the moment."
"Of course, Harry." Lucy smiled at him. "Who are these people?"
The Master laughed.
"Curious, aren't you, my beautiful little ape? Would you believe that this is the Doctor in an earlier regeneration, and his precious Rose?"
Lucy looked at Rose with wide-eyed interest. There was something wrong about her gaze; it was sort of dreamy, but in an empty kind of way.
"Are you going to kill her?" Lucy asked in breathless fascination.
The Master smiled.
"I'm sure I can think of something more interesting than that," he told her. "Now run along and fetch those guards for me."
Lucy gave him a happy, little-girl smile and left.
"What's wrong with her?" Rose asked the Master, angry, and a little afraid. Lucy's expressions had all been so placid and unthinking.
He gave her a big grin.
"Ooh, you noticed!" Perceptive little human, aren't you? I haven't the faintest idea. Isn't it marvellous? Ah, so you decided to show up!" he addressed the soldiers entering the room. "Escort these two to the cells, will you? Put them with" - he deliberated for a moment – "yes, I think with the Captain and the remains of his little Torchwood team." He smiled at Rose and the Doctor. "Anything you want to say before you're locked away in my wonderfully secure cells never to be seen again?"
"Yeah." The Doctor gave him a look. "A human?"
The Master laughed with genuine amusement.
"Well, if you can have one, why not I? Guards! Take them away!" He grinned. "Ooh, I just love saying that. Must rush, have a galaxy to conquer, ta-ta, bye bye!"
The soldiers grabbed Rose and the Doctor roughly and forced them from the room. Rose glanced back just as she went through the doorway.
The Master just stood there, smiling maniacally, brown eyes dark.
END CHAPTER
Next: Rose and the Doctor find out what's going on, meet a new/old friend (depending on whose point of view), see the Toclafanes for the first time, and discover that things are even worse than they thought.