Author's note: This is the direct sequel to "Walker Zero" so if you don't want spoilers I would recommend reading that one first. However if you don't mind spoilers, you should be able to figure out what's going on from here. This story is intended to resolve the Walker Zero continuity in it's entirety and as such may end up being quite long. This will be primarily set in the Doctor Who universe, if you want to see what is going on more along The Walking Dead side of things that will be covered in "Flesh and Steel" (unfinished, ongoing) and it's potential sequel.

Cheers!

Walker Zero: Part II

Chapter I: The Sins of the Doctor

The Doctor walked back into the TARDIS dismayed and determined. "Is it done?" asked Rick the moment he shut the door behind him. "Not quite." the Doctor answered him abruptly. The Doctor walked right past Rick and went for a draw from which he rummaged through and withdrew the high tech equivalent of a hypodermic needle; something to allow him to stealthily and painlessly take a blood sample from one of the first few victims of the pathogen for analysis. "I'll be right back, don't move." the Doctor ordered Rick in an uncharacteristically firm and serious voice. The jovial, playful Doctor he was not right now, the gravity of the situation weighed heavily upon him. He was not about to lose his second home; not after the Time War, this would not be a repeat of the sorrows that came when he lost his first home by his own hand. The difference this time was that he did not destroy Earth for some higher purpose; he did not save countless worlds throughout the whole of time and space by its demise. The fall of Earth was utterly without cause, a loss and a true failing at every sense. Wait a minute, the Doctor thought as he exited the TARDIS, the Earth was not lost, now was not the time to grieve but to act. The Earth was not dead, only sick and he was the Doctor. He would do as any good doctor would do with the sick and cure it. Earth would not be listed in the great big book listing the sins of the Doctor. This he promised to himself.

The Doctor went outside and tracked down one of the first among his victims, the girl he had taken the photo with outside the TARDIS. The Doctor brushed up against her and took a sample of blood from her neck. Before she or airport security could react he hurriedly power walked back to the TARDIS and locked the door behind him. He was aware of the optics of the situation; that he was being recorded on video. The record would clearly show what would look like the Doctor, Earth's would be savior on several occasions, had poisoned the planet to wreak untold years of hell upon those unfortunate enough to survive. "Can you tell me what is going on now?" asked Rick, growing impatient with waiting around in the TARDIS so long. "That wasn't the beginning of it. We have to look elsewhere." the Doctor told him. He wasn't about to confess his transgressions to Rick. Rick had a bit of a mean streak to him, understandable given the brutality of the world he came from but nonetheless wisdom dictates the Doctor's culpability be kept from Rick. He wasn't about to let Rick's anger lead to a lesson in Time Lord regeneration. He liked this body and wanted to hold onto it as long as he could. That raised a curious question in the Doctor's mind as he ran the blood sample through the TARDIS analyzer. What would happen to him if the pathogen inside him metastases and becomes active? Would he regenerate or would his tenth incarnation remain as a zombie, or "walker" as Rick's people called them. If the latter were true when his undead doppelganger was slain would he then regenerate or was this plague potent enough to kill a Time Lord in one hit? If he did regenerate would his eleventh form be living or undead? If living would the regeneration kill off the disease and the Doctor be made whole again? He had so many questions; this was all uncharted territory for the Doctor. For the first time he had actually felt mortal. It was a strange feeling even if it wasn't certain, as if a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders until he thought about it more and that weight was replaced by an even heavier burden. Knowing he may have a limited amount of time to undo his error was a worse feeling that having the boundlessness of time and space, back and forth, sideways and slantways, all to himself however long he needed to correct and atone for his grievous error.

"Ding!" went the machine. The Doctor looked down and studied the display with a sigh and a frown. The TARDIS results were inconclusive. He had no better idea of where he should look than when he came began running the sample. He could run a sample on his own blood but would have to do it in a way that would be discreet enough to where Rick wouldn't know what he was doing. Another thing he didn't understand is this time loop he was in should've created a paradox in and of itself. All the timey-wimeyness of his own timestream should have prevented the TARDIS from taking him here. If he didn't go back there would be no outbreak but if there was no outbreak he wouldn't go back. Thinking it over struck him with a new sense of fear, what if this was a fixed point but instead of a point it was a fixed loop? No, no, no it couldn't be; if it was a fixed point he could feel it. He would instinctively know and if there is anything a Time Lord knows, it is time. "What does it say?" asked Rick. "Not enough I'm afraid. We're going to have to go somewhere else for the answers." the Doctor replied. "Where?" asked Rick. "Let's see." the Doctor said as he walked over to the TARDIS controls and tweaked around with them. "The historical record does us no good, let's turn to the crank file." the Doctor said as he pulled up a list of disproved facts and legends. "No, no, no, Sasquatch didn't do it he was just visiting from Kashyyyk on his honeymoon, Wookies aren't zombies everyone knows that. Roswell, no that was just Strax and he hadn't left earth for a century before that so no." the Doctor mumbled through the supposedly promising "legends" in the crank file. "King Arthur was me, Houdini also me that time, oooh I look good in my next incarnation." the Doctor noted some of his past and future appearances that had snuck into the crank file, though these were factual; they should've been filed as such, bad TARDIS. "Chupacabra, no. Slenderman, no. Mothman, no. Gorgon, no. No, no, no!" the Doctor said. There was so much rubbish in the crank file. "Wait, here we are. Haverhsam, England, September 21st 1983. A farmer was seen walking down a road outside of town seven days after he was found dead in a field by his son. Sounds promising enough, at least I can't disprove it right away." the Doctor said with tempered optimism. "England huh? Bet you'll feel right at home there." Rick said. "Only in sound and appearance Ricky my boy. Now let's give it a whirl, alons-y!" the Doctor exclaimed as he pulled back the TARDIS actuator. Outside in the airport the TARDIS faded away as the plague responsible for ravaging Rick's world continued to spread. The first of many planes bearing carriers of the virus departed for New York, with one of the three infected passengers ultimately bound for London. Before the plane touched down at La Guardia however, everyone on board would be infected with the disease. The global pandemic had begun.