Hello, all! Welcome to my story, The Twelve Doctors. I originally wrote this story to welcome Peter Capaldi to Doctor Who, but I guess since we're now waiting on Series Nine, this will now become a wish for yet another awesome season!
Before I begin, I would like to thank a couple people. First would be Peter Capaldi himself, for being such a wonderful Doctor. Next would be two people who I know by the names of Warp and Alvarez. Thank you Warp, for designing such a beautiful cover for this book. And thank you Alvarez, for being my first reader and encouraging me to finish.
Disclaimer: Though I would like to, I do not own Doctor Who. And now, on with the story!
Chapter One
Somewhere, in a swirling vortex that exists outside of Time itself, flew a police box that was not a police box.
Instead, it was a ship that could take its pilot and his companions anywhere in time and space. The pilot, commonly known as "The Doctor," referred to this strange ship as the TARDIS. Currently, the Doctor was in his Twelfth incarnation, and travelled with his young friend Clara Oswald. They had seen many wonders together, and would see more still.
In the spacious console room of the TARDIS, the Doctor and Clara were trying to decide where to go next.
"How about the Waterfalls of Garmon High? I haven't been there in years."
"Or, Doctor, we could go to Krach-gee-ko, you know, the planet with the fish?"
"Oh, fish are boring. Giant bears are much, much better."
"Doctor, we are not going to the forests of Queg."
"Why not?"
"Because-" Clara fumbled around for a decent explanation. "Because their favorite food is human."
"Tough for you," the Doctor remarked.
"But Time Lords looks like humans, don't they?" asked Clara sweetly. "And the bears won't know the difference until it's too late for you."
"All right, all right, do you have a better place in mind?" the Doctor asked. He looked very annoyed.
"Well, not a specific place," Clara said as she walked closer to the hexagonal console in the middle of the room. "But maybe somewhere relaxing? Cos you know, being chased through a Dalek by its antibodies doesn't really top my list as one of my favorite places in the universe."
The Doctor thought for a while. "As a matter of fact, I do know somewhere calm and relaxing."
That's a first, thought Clara. "All right then, where is it?"
"In a moment, we're almost there."
"Already?"
"We were close. Aha!" The TARDIS landed with a thunk! He turned around and faced her. "Open the doors, Clara Oswald."
Grinning from ear to ear, Clara obeyed. Before her, she saw a meadow, with hills and forests in the distance, and a ruined castle not too far away. The air was crisp, but not at all cold. There was not a sound to be heard, apart from the wind rustling the grass.
"Welcome to the Eye of Orion. The most peaceful place in the whole entire universe," the Doctor said as he swept out of the TARDIS and spread his long arms out as if to try and take in the whole planet. The breeze pulled slightly at his grey hair and his long, dark jacket, exposing the red interior. He turned around to find that Clara had disappeared back inside the TARDIS.
"Clara?" he called.
"Yeah?" she responded, poking her head out of the doors a second later, carrying a towel and a little wicker basket.
"What is this?" the Doctor looked confused as he gestured to her quarry.
"Oh, this? I thought that we might have a picnic. Here-" she handed the basket to the Doctor and set the blanket down in front of the police box. "What d'you say we relax for once?" Clara asked as she sat down and patted the blanket, indicating that the Doctor should sit down too. He was just handing the basket down to her when he suddenly looked up, his bottle-opener eyebrows shooting up his face. Clara noticed his surprise.
"Doctor? What's wrong? What-" Clara stopped mid-sentence as she saw what- or better, who- the Doctor was staring at. Not too far away, and coming closer, was a group of people. Four people, to be precise. And the reason the Doctor was staring at them was because he recognised one of them. Well, actually, all of them.
The tallest was a man with fair hair, and was wearing a beige jacket and matching pants. He seemed to be looking anxious as he looked at the TARDIS, and was talking to a pretty woman with brown hair who was wearing a purple air hostess uniform. Behind these two was a boy and another girl who were hurrying to keep up.
"Doctor, who-" Clara tried to ask.
"No!" The Twelfth Doctor protested. "No, they can't be here. This never happened!"
"What never happened? Listen to me, Doctor!" Clara shouted, trying to get his attention.
"Them, Clara, them! They never came here, not now!"
As the Doctor and Clara's voices rose, the strangers turned their attention from the TARDIS to them. They hurried forward to see if anything was wrong. The taller man reached them first.
"Are you alright?" he asked, stopping by their blanket.
"Yes, we're alright, now go away," the Doctor snapped. By now, the man's companions had caught up to him.
"Doctor," the air hostess said in a distinct Australian accent, "Who are these people? How come they've got the TARDIS?"
"Because we arrived in it, Tegan," the Twelfth Doctor responded for the Fifth Doctor, the man in the beige cricket outfit.
"How do you know my name?" Tegan asked.
"How do you know her name?" Clara asked at the same time.
"Because I'm him," the Twelfth Doctor pointed to the Fifth Doctor.
All four companions fell silent. The boy who was travelling with the Fifth, Adric, spoke up. "You mean you've changed your face again?"
"More than a couple times." Twelve responded gravely.
This jogged Clara's memory. "I saw you! On Gallifrey, when we-"
"Gallifrey? We haven't been to Gallifrey," Nyssa, the other girl, said. She shot a quizzical look to her Doctor. Clara and Twelve were saved from explaining with the arrival of even more people.
VVVVOOOORRPP, VVOOOOORRPPP, THUNK!
Another TARDIS materialised, its POLICE BOX sign faintly glowing. The doors creaked open to reveal another Doctor and his companion. The Tenth Doctor and Donna Noble hopped out of their ship and surveyed the group already gathered before them. Ten looked confused as he looked at old friends, and friends yet to come.
"See, Donna? I told you that there would be a welcoming party!" he remarked brightly. Donna rolled her eyes.
"Who are you?" Adric asked to Ten and Donna.
"I'm Donna, and Beanpole next to me is the Doctor."
"Another one?"
"Yes," Twelve decided that he didn't want to stay quiet.
"What do you mean?" It was Donna's turn to start asking questions.
"I mean Cricket Boy and Sandshoes and I are all the Doctor."
"Sandshoes," Ten muttered mutinously. "Why Sandshoes?"
"But how can you all be the Doctor? I mean, you all look different," Donna looked around at all of the Doctors, taking in their separate appearances.
"Donna," Ten said. "It's… Martian stuff. Kind of hard to explain."
"You're not Martian, Doctor," Tegan pointed out.
"No, We… I… we're not," Ten acknowledged, but he neglected to explain his and Donna's joke. He turned to Adric.
"How are you, Adric?" he asked. Adric seemed to be a little taken aback at being singled out.
"Fine."
"Good. Now, I haven't seen you before," Ten turned to Twelve. "So I can assume that you're a future me?"
"Yes, you can," Twelve responded.
Five decided to put in his two cents. "What I want to know is," he said, looking worried. "Where is everybody else?"
"Doctor!" This was a new voice. It sounded like it belonged to a sailor, a sailor who had witnessed the Doctor's very first regeneration…
Ben Jackson was running toward the three other teams, panting. Polly and Jamie had stayed behind to help the Second Doctor waft all of the smoke out of their TARDIS. They had crash landed on this planet, and the Doctor hadn't seemed too happy. Polly was the one who had noticed the other people, but Ben volunteered to go and ask them for help. He was almost there now.
He skidded to a stop in front of Five. "Hello, we need help. Our ship crashed!"
The Doctors looked horrified.
"Crashed?" Five asked his former companion. "Can you show us?"
"Sure. Follow me."
The three Doctors and their five companions hurried after Ben as he ran back to his TARDIS. As they neared, they could hear the Second Doctor, Polly, and Jamie coughing inside the time machine. But a few yards away from the smoking TARDIS sat a fifth one, with a pretty blonde girl in a fluffy white coat standing outside. She was looking worriedly at the smoke.
"Jo?" Nyssa heard Ten ask. Ben ran up to the smoking TARDIS.
"Doctor!" he called. "Are you alright in there?"
A voice that wasn't the Second Doctor's spoke up from inside the fumes. "Yes, I'm okay. I might need a little help though. I can't get these three out by myself, especially since we've all lost the door!"
Ben dashed in, and came out a moment later supporting Polly, and Jamie followed. Then the Third Doctor came out with the Second in tow. The moment everybody was out, Five shut the doors.
"Here we are, you midget hobo," muttered Three as Two wrenched himself away and began to cough into his arm.
"You alright, Duchess?" Ben asked Polly. When she nodded in the affirmative, he turned to Jamie. "What about you?"
"Aye, I'm okay."
"Good," Twelve began to usher the five teams away from the broken TARDIS. "Now what were you all doing in there?"
"The Doctor was trying to stop the smoke," Polly explained.
"Then what were you two doing in there?" Clara pointed out.
"We were trying to help," Jamie offered. "But it didn't go too well." He broke off to cough.
"Let's get them into the TARDIS, Doctor!" Jo opened her TARDIS door. Two looked grateful and he and his two coughing companions went inside with Five, who had offered to assist them.
Ten turned to Three and asked, "Was all that smoke their fluid links?"
"No," Three answered. "It was something from the power room. They won't be able to leave here until they fix it."
"Then shouldn't we help them?" Clara said. "You know, fix it for them? Or at least open their doors and let the smoke come out so they can see?"
"No, it'll be fine. The smoke will just dissipate through the TARDIS. Better let it go through there then let it pollute here." Twelve remarked.
"But won't that make the TARDIS cranky?" Donna asked.
"Oh, I doubt it will make her as cranky as Heathrow does. Isn't that right, Doctor?" Tegan called with a pointed look towards Three's TARDIS. The group could hear Five sigh loudly from inside it.
"Doctors," Nyssa said, pulling their attention away from the broken capsule. "There's more people over there!" She pointed towards the distance, where four more people- two men and two women- could be seen. The men were heard long before it became clear who they were.
"Oi! Says the man wearing a rainbow!"
"Says the man wearing a fez!"
"Fezzes are cool."
"Like bowties?" The Sixth Doctor snorted.
"Yes." The Eleventh straightened his own bow tie. His companion, Amy Pond, stifled a laugh at his behavior. The Doctors sauntered forward, and Amy and Six's companion Perpugilliam "Peri" Brown hurried to keep up.
"Good morning, all!" Eleven greeted the ever-growing group of Doctors and companions. "At least, I hope it's a good morning. Anyway, hello Ben, Jo, Nyssa… Tegan… Adric…" he trailed off as he realized that there were more TARDIS teams gathered than just he and Six. Clara, however, seemed very happy to see him.
"Doctor!" she exclaimed. Every Doctor looked at her.
"Which one, my dear, since there seems to be…" Six broke off to count. "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven of us! My, my. This has all the makings of a paradox."
"Oh, you aren't going to make us leave, are you? Not as the party is getting started?" a deep voice asked. The Fourth, Seventh, and Eighth Doctors strolled forward, along with their companions Sarah Jane Smith, Ace McShane, and Anji Kapoor and Fitz Kreiner.
"Why not? Rainbow's right, after all," Twelve said. Six's head slowly turned toward Twelve.
"Rainbow?"
"Why not? You look like you've killed one and now you're wearing it's pelt. The Nemean Rainbow," Twelve teased.
"It's not as bad as his bow tie," Six jerked his thumb in Eleven's direction.
"Bow ties are cool!" Eleven insisted. "And Five wears a plant!"
"Stop your chattering," commanded an old man. He stood at the top of the hill that Twelve, Clara, Five, Nyssa, Adric, Tegan, and Ben had run down in order to assist Two, Polly, and Jamie. Around the man were three other men, one in a leather jacket with a severe close-cropped haircut, one with floppy dark hair who was wearing a suit and one wearing a very nice dark overcoat, and three women, one of whom looked about 15. There was also a slightly older girl, about nineteen or twenty, with long blonde hair, and a woman in her thirties.
The older man walked towards the bickering Doctors. As he approached, they immediately shut up. The youngest girl, who was known as Susan Foreman, rushed after him.
"Grandfather," she said in a low voice. "How many more of you are there?"
Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright, Rose Tyler, Jack Harkness, and the Ninth Doctor caught up to their companions just as Jo, Jamie, Polly, Two, and Five exited Three's TARDIS. They looked worried.
"What's wrong?" Peri asked them. Five responded.
"The TARDIS isn't working. It doesn't respond. It's dead."
Almost on cue, the Cloister Bell rang.
"Trouble," was all Twelve said.