TARDIS At Night

It was the ticking that woke him. Time Lords are, by nature, extremely sensitive to the passing of time and the ticking of a clock. Never before though, had The Doctor ever heard such a loud and steady "tick-tock" hit his ears. He wondered whether or not he would be able to resist the strong urge to step out of his room and search for the source of noise. In the past, curiosity had always gotten the better of him; one would think he would have learned after nine hundred years of existence. But then, what is the past in a time machine anyway? Carefully and quietly, The Doctor opened the door and stepped out into long, dark TARDIS hallway.

In another part of the ship, an entirely different sound what waking the blond, human Rose Tyler. Music, loud, pumping club music seemed to be blaring from somewhere in the TARDS. "Reminds me of London on a Friday night," she muttered to herself as she rolled out of her bed. The Doctor had given her the largest bedroom he could find on the ship, which by her standards wasn't much bigger then her bathroom back at the Powel Estate. Still, the small bed was comfortable, so comfy she often found it an incredible struggle to get up when she needed to, even when the wonders of Time and Space were waiting for her. Tonight, her curiosity was almost as great as The Doctor's himself. She rolled out of bed easily.

"The lights aren't working," was the first thought in The Doctor's mind as he stepped out into the hall. The TARDIS was always lit, no matter what. It ran on a form of Gallifreyan electricity able to withstand the trials of time and never go out. Something, however, had killed his lights. He turned and began to walk in the direction of the control room to see what was happening. The TARDIS wasn't dead, he could feel it still living, but the darkness was making him worry. He was halfway there when the ticking started up again. He sighed and stroked a wall of the TARDIS. "You'll be ok," he said, "hold on for a little while longer and I'll be back." He turned around again, and followed the ticking clock.

Rose almost didn't want to go further as she stepped out of her room. The dark TARDIS reminded her too much of an experience she wanted to forget. The music was blaring in her ears though, and she was sure The Doctor would have heard it too. Wherever it was coming from, The Doctor would be heading there too. She smiled, "He's probably the one playing it, seems like something he would do." She walked down the hallway, following the music. Strangely, it didn't seem to be coming from the console room. She was being led far back into a part of the TARDIS she hadn't explored.

Five degrees. The Doctor stared at the thermometer on the wall. The TARDIS was normally kept at a human comfort level of around 21 degrees. For a Time Lord, temperature doesn't really matter all that much. The climate of Gallifrey was so unpredictable that the species had managed to become able to withstand anything. But for a human, five degrees was Farley hard to deal with without a coat. The temperature didn't rest at five either, it continued to decline about as steadily as the clock ticking in the Doctor's ear. Within seconds, the sonic screwdriver was out, desperately trying to stop the decline in temperature. Even that wasn't working. The ticking continued to beckon The Doctor further. He sighed, "What else am I to do when the sonic screwdriver doesn't work?" and continued to follow the ticking.

It was absolutely freezing. As the music got louder, the temperature seemed to get colder and colder. "I should have brought a jacket," she muttered, "I bet he doesn't even notice it." She tried to roll her eyes, but ended up just shivering instead. She walked forward. A year ago, the cold and the darkness would have scared her so much she would have run back in a panic. Now, after all she'd seen, she wasn't scared.

"Rose!" A scream in the distance. It wasn't the scream that scared her, it was who was screaming.

"Mickey?"

"Rose! Where are you?!"

"I'm here Mickey, in the hallway!" she cursed herself. What a stupid answer. But it was all she could give him, she realized, she didn't really know where she was.

"Oh for-" The Doctor couldn't believe it. He had already failed to fix the temperature, but now he couldn't even fix a clock? He knew exactly how to fix it; he had fixed dozens of clocks over the course of his nine hundred years. Why wasn't it working? I could just leave it, he though, Í could just walk away and leave it alone. Deep down though, he knew that he couldn't. The clock was giving the wrong time. It was ticking out of sync with the actual flow of time, and The Doctor knew he couldn't just leave it alone. As he continued to fiddle with the gears in the back of the clock he began to realize that no matter what he did to that clock, nothing was going to work.

"Mickey what are you doing here?" Rose asked to the darkness she hoped was Mickey. She could hear him calling to her, but couldn't see where he was. By then, the music had stopped blaring in her ears. All she could hear was Mickey.

"I'm here for you Rose," he said from somewhere in the darkness, "I'm here to take you home with me."

"What?!"

"You've got to come home Rose," he said, "something's wrong with Jackie."

"With Mum?" Rose shouted back in a panic, "What's wrong with her? Is she sick?"

"Yeah, she's sick. You've got to come Rose, you've got to!"

"Alright Mickey I'm coming!" she shivered in the icy cold of the TARDIS, "I'm coming."

The Doctor gasped. His nine previous incarnations stood in a line before him. Each of them held a clock, the same clock that he had just failed to fix. One of the incarnations, a younger looking one with blond hair and a cricket outfit, walked up to the current Doctor. "You couldn't fix it, could you?" the blond Doctor asked.

"No I couldn't." said the current.
"That's a shame," said the blond Doctor, "I thought out of all of us, you would be the one to do it."

"You all tried to fix this clock?"

"Yes. It was taken from your memory, but in every form, you've tried and failed to fix that clock. And now, for the tenth time, the clock is still broken, and there's nothing you can do."

"What?" The blond Doctor stepped back and joined the line with the others. All nine wore a disappointed expression that hurt the current Doctor far worse then any Dalek or cyberman. They threw their clocks onto the ground and disappeared.

Somehow, Rose had gotten to her house. She wasn't sure when she got there, or how she got there, but before she knew it she found herself standing at her mother's bedside. Actually, she was standing at her mother's couch side since that's where Jackie lay when she was sick. "Mum?"

"Rose!" said her mother faintly, "I'm so glad you came…"

"Mickey brought me," said Rose, "I think…anyway, as soon as I heard you were sick I came, do you need anything? Is there anything I can do?"

"No," said Jackie Tyler, "there's nothing you can do. Just sit back. Don't resist."

The Doctor was on his knees on the floor in front of the clock. It was gone, it was all gone. The clock, that one stupid clock, had manage to best all nine hundred years of The Doctor's existence. As he leaned forward onto the floor, his glasses fell out of his pocket and broke completely in half. He picked the two halves up and reached into his coat to get the sonic screwdriver, but found that it was gone. No glasses, no screwdriver, none of the knowledge of his previous incarnations, everything he held dear was gone. Except one thing.

"DOCTOR!!!" The scream hit his ears almost as quickly as it stopped. Not a single tear was shed as he listened to the last thing he had die.

"Mum? What do you mean?" Rose looked over at Mickey who looked equally as clueless.

"Maybe she has a high fever?" suggested Mickey.

"I cannot become sick," said Jackie, "I am always in perfect health."

"No you're not Mum, remember?" Rose said in desperation, "you had the flu last February."

"How would you know what my health was last February?" said Jackie, "You weren't here." Rose didn't know how to respond.

"Mickey," she said finally, "go get the thermometer."

"Where is it?"

"How should I know?!" shouted Rose, "sorry."

"It's ok." He got up and disappeared into another part of the flat. Rose looked at her mother.

"I'm sorry I wasn't here when you needed me," she said, "But I want you to know…"

"It doesn't matter," said Jackie, "I feel no anger towards you."

"Ok…" Rose said skeptically, "Thanks Mum…"

"You do not need to feel anger either," said Jackie, "You do not need to feel anything…" And suddenly, Jackie began to change.

The Doctor lay pathetically on the floor. The cold hit him for the first time and he shivered at the thought of it. His vision had clouded and he found he could no longer see with or without his now broken glasses. As whatever had killed Rose grew closer, he felt for the first time in his life completely useless. He could barely move, let alone fight off a monster. The once invincible Doctor lay defeated. A shadow formed over him, as a loud metallic stomping noise filled the room. Cybermen, he thought, or are they? He couldn't remember. His once vast knowledge of the universe was gone. He listened to the short, rhythmic breathing of the cyberman as he waited for the impact to hit him. Then suddenly, he remembered. Cybermen don't breath. And as the memory hit him, the breathing began to sound more and more like the ticking of a clock.

Jackie Tyler stood up, and instantly disappeared. In her place was a tall, metal cyberman. The walls of the Tyler flat came crashing down as Cybermen invaded the Powel Estate. "Surrender Rose Tyler," said the cyberman that was once her mother, "Surrender and never feel pain or anger again." A cyberman stomped down the hallway and dragged out Mickey. Seconds later, he was dead.

"Mickey," whispered Rose, tears shot down her face. Why was this happening? Something always stops the monsters from killing her friends…what was it? The Doctor… something inside her said, and she remembered. As Cybermen grabbed her on both sides and held her up to the cyber mechanics on the ceiling, a man in a striped pin-striped suit rushed into the room.

"Hold on!" he shouted, full of confidence as he pulled out his famous sonic screwdriver.

"Doctor!" said Rose smiling. Her smile faded as two Cybermen came up behind him. They held their arms out, grabbing his shoulder as blue electricity began to build. "DOCTOR!!!!"

"Rose…" and then he was gone.

The Doctor smashed the clock against the wall then threw it onto the floor. He stood in the center of the room, just him and the smashed clock. Silence, he thought, complete quiet. He picked up his glasses, which as it turned out weren't broken after all, and checked his jacket for the sonic screwdriver. As he did, he heard a faint scream in the distance. "Doctor!"

"Rose!" he tucked the screwdriver back into his jacket and rushed out of the room, following the sounds of crying and screaming in the darkness. The Doctor himself was about ready to cry when he saw Rose on the floor, eyes closed, screaming. Whatever had gotten to The Doctor, had clearly gotten to Rose too. "Rose…" he said as calmly as possible, trying to shake her awake, "Rose…"

Terrifyingly sharp and razor-like tools came down on Rose. This was the end. She was about to be cyberfied in the most painful way possible. She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down in her last moment of pain-free individualism. One look at the equipment coming after her, and the screaming returned. She took a final look at the body of The Doctor on the floor, not having time to wonder how he could have possibly let her down before…

The Doctor took a deep breath. There was no possible way to get her out of this without doing one of the few things he absolutely loathed doing. He placed his hands on her temples and closed his eyes…

The door opened again and Rose gasped. There, standing behind his own body was The Doctor, alive and well in his long brown trench coat. She tried to shout his name, but the razor blade was too dangerously close to her neck. He walked forward, stepping over his body and Mickey's. Out came his sonic screwdriver, ready to disable the cyber-converter. The Cybermen, took absolutely no notice of him, which Rose took to be rather odd. "Hang in there!" yelled The Doctor. He climbed onto a chair and began to fiddle with the wiring of the converter. Within seconds he had it disabled.

"Error…error…" the Cybermen chanted, "unknown interference in the cyber-conversion program…"

"Can't they tell it was you?" asked Rose, still held by the Cybermen.

"They can't see me," answered The Doctor, "This is all an illusion Rose, something has been messing with our minds, and I can't get you out of it."

"What?!"

"These are your worst fears being used against you, only you can face them."

"How do I do that?"

"Something led you out of your room, right?"

"I think so."

"What was it?"

"Club music!"

"Use that, it'll help," The Doctor sighed as the Cybermen closed in on Rose, "I have to go, I've sort of invaded your mind, and I can't stay there too long."

"Don't leave!" she screamed.

"I'm right here." He smiled. A cyberman fired, and The Doctor was gone.

The dark TARDIS hallway soon came back into view around him. He was thrust back from the impact of being thrown out of Rose's mind. He breathed heavily, his own mind still trying to deal with the shock. Invading another person's mind was not something he liked to do. He watched Rose twist, turn and scream in battle with her own mind. He tried to tell himself that she would be ok, but deep down he was worried. Once again he couldn't be there for her, and it was terrifyingly close to the uselessness he felt earlier.

Rose almost broke down right there. Four Cybermen were closing in around her, and The Doctor, the real Doctor, was gone. What had he told her to think about, club music? How on Earth was that going to help her? She looked quickly around the rubble that was once her flat. The only thing still standing was a radio. I'm right here… he had said.

"DOCTOR!!!" she screamed, "I'M COMING!!"

"Delete…delete…delete…" The Cybermen chanted coming closer, the two Cybermen holding her griped her tighter then ever. She did the only thing she could think to do. She started to jump up and down, rapidly like in a London club. As the Cybermen came closer and closer, arms outstretched, she jumped higher and higher until finally the two Cybermen's grips loosened just enough for her to slip out. "She has escaped!!" shouted one of them, "Stop her! She must be deleted!"

"Too bad," said Rose, as she ducked in-between two of the approaching cybers and dove for the radio. Holding it to her ear, she could hear the same club music pumping on the radio as she had in the hallway. A Cyberman's arm reached out, electricity ready, to delete her. She thrust the radio at the cyber-hand and suddenly darkness consumed her.

"Rose…?" said a friendly voice in the darkness. Rose smiled.

"That should do it," said The Doctor fusing together three wires with his trusty sonic screwdriver, "let there be light!" Rose laughed as the lights came on and temperature went up.

"Very nice," said Rose, "Takes forever for the heat to come on back home."

"Time Lord tech," said The Doctor cheerily, "best in the universe!" Rose smiled, but the night's events still haunted her.

"Doctor…"

"I don't know what happened tonight," he said, as if reading her mind, "Someone could have tampered with our minds somehow, or infected us with some bizarre illness or…"

"Or we're in shock, "said Rose, "from the parallel Earth."

"Or we're in shock," repeated The Doctor, sighing.

"I know you wouldn't want to admit it," continued Rose, "But everything that happened, Lumic, the Cybermen, even Mickey leaving, it frightened you. You said your dream hallucination thing had Cybermen in it too, like mine."

"Yes, but the fear in mine was not of the Cybermen," said The Doctor.

"It wasn't in mine either," said Rose. There was a long pause in which the only sound came from the humming of the TARDIS engines. Finally, Rose broke down and hugged The Doctor as hard as she could. The Doctor, though immensely surprised, hugged her back.

"I'm so sorry," he said.

"I know you are,"