The Next Doctor

by devilishlysas

The hour has struck and it's Twelve's turn to take the TARDIS out for a spin. This new face is struggling to be the man he once was, luckily Clara is on hand and there's an army of old faces to help guide him back to the man we know and love. (Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or it's Characters, just borrowing them). Rated M for later chapters.

2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

It was as Clara was stumbling over another set of rocks stalking after the surprisingly quick footed Doctor that she tripped for the umpteenth time on a rock that wasn't a rock and promptly shot out from beneath her foot with some sort of rumbling eep, that landed her on her ass. It was poetic she thought really as she sighed, closing her eyes and just trying to remember it was still Christmas day... despite the stifling heat that was scorching her nostrils with every breath she took in.

It was at this point as she opened her eyes and the Doctor's amused visage filled her view as he stood over her, his hands elegantly behind his back that she noticed the planet appear in the sky above her. Ordinarily that wouldn't have caused her too much concern, after all this was an alien world, for all she knew that was a normal occurrence, planets popping into the sky like that, this sky already had a whole host of them in it. Except for the fact that she recognised the planet... it was easy to, hell she'd been seeing pictures of the damn thing her entire life before she'd taken a trip in big but small blue box and saw it for herself.

"Are you quite alright Oswin? I wasn't aware that walking would prove so challenging for you."

Clara blinked, closing her eyes and opening them again to take in the bright slightly orange sky, the vast assortment of suns, planets, moons and what was unmistakeably the Earth in the alien orbit. "Doctor." She began quietly as he squatted down beside her is concern apparently genuine when she didn't even attempt to get up. "When Pyrovillia got misplaced..." he nodded, "Did it by any chance end up in Earth's orbit?"

The Doctor blinked. Clearly whatever he'd expected her to say, that hadn't been it. He reached out a hand and placed it on her forehead. "Did you bang your ridiculously fragile human head when you fell?"

"Doctor." She pointed up at the sky. "Tell me that's not the Earth?"

The Doctor rolled his eyes but humoured her, his head lifted and he gave the image all of a fraction of a second before returning his eyes to her, the corner of his mouth twitched. "Yes that is most definitely the Earth in the sky." He sighed, "I must be getting old, didn't even bother to look up myself, just tasted the air, smelt the water vapour." He tutted. "Should have looked up." He stood, his knees cracked as he did so and he looked at them accusingly. "I'd probably have also noted what is unmistakably the lost moon of Poosh and the Adipose breeding planet floating up there."

Clara squinted at the other planets or moons in the sky and felt her gaze kept being drawn back to Earth. "We're not in Earth's orbit are we? Which means the Earth's moved. When did he Earth move?"

"Humans." The Doctor sneered. "You have the most remarkable inbuilt perception filters I have ever encountered." But he held his hand out to her and she grasped it firmly, letting him hoist her back onto her feet. His hand was on her back to steady her, he didn't remove it, lowering it instead to latch around her waist his fingers curling tightly, if she didn't know him better she'd have said he was nervous, then again did she really know him better?

"So if that's the Earth..." If the Doctor was nervous she was positively sick with it.

"We shouldn't be here." He muttered. "Only you, Impossible Girl, could have landed us here. Here shouldn't even exist. We're a second out of time with the rest of the Universe, surrounded by the largest Dalek army ever constructed about to detonate a reality bomb that will erase the Universe from existence and you land us right in the middle of it."

Clara quirked an eyebrow at him, mildly surprised by his irritation. "Isn't this the sort of thing that would usually make you giddy with excitement?"

The fingers of his right hand tensed where he had left it wrapped around her waist, as he stared up at the sky and what was clearly a Dalek vessel ghosting past. "Yes well. I have only just acquired this body I'd rather not lose it quite so soon. Besides I think four Doctors would be pushing it."

"Four?" she chose to ignore his revelation that he was actually admitting to being afraid he might die, which given the circumstances and the 600 years of war he'd just waged against the very enemy now floating overhead, she could perfectly understand. Instead she focussed on the other comment, his head lowered and she realised that he was holding her hand, or rather she was holding his. She hadn't even realised she'd taken it. He smiled softly brushing his thumb over the back of her hand, seemingly as surprised as her to find it within his grasp.

"Do you recall earlier today, from your perspective at least, me telling you about my regenerations, how once my tenth self was having a vain stage and had wasted a regeneration to stay the same face?"

Clara nodded. "The one with the pin stripes and cockney accent?" she recalled from their recent trip down memory lane.

"Well this is when he made that choice. Got shot by a Dalek, reunited with his long lost love Rose. Couldn't bare to change the face she loved, so dumped all that regeneration energy into a hand I lost another Christmas day... honestly I don't know why I bother celebrating that blasted day." Clara squeezed his hand lightly, trying to bring him back on track sensing a tangent coming on. "A human-Timelord metacrisis. The Doctor Donna is about to be born and a human Ten with a distinctly Donna personality will emerge and they'll save the day."

"Great." Clara sighed, "Nothing to worry about then."

"Ah." He made the soft sound like a tire deflating and Clara stepped around in front of him, he seemed to draw their linked hand closer to his chest and she chose to ignore it, placing her free hand on her hip, giving him what she hoped was a look he couldn't ignore.

"Explain it for my inferior human intellect please." She didn't even bother to ask how it was they'd managed to screw up the events occurring above their head, just certain that they had from his guilty expression, which she supposed should be hers, given as she'd landed them here. "She's set me up hasn't she, the Old Cow made it so I've gone and screwed up a landing good and proper."

The Doctor smirked. "I'll admit it was a rather remarkable bit of flying, I'm not sure even I could have created such a spectacular temporal knot as this."

Clara sighed. "Damn her, I'll bet she switched the control functions on the console just so I'd screw it up."

"Well. Yes. Possibly." He admitted, glancing up at the sky again uneasily, she watched him swallow distinctively. "But unfortunately the little tow-truck trick my past selves are about to perform on the Earth using their TARDIS will be rendered rather less effective with the presence of mine here, which will likely strand Pyrovillia and the Earth in the collapsing pocket Universe that is currently housing the Medusa Cascade and the displaced 26 planets."

"Can we just agree that you drive in future?" Clara snapped, glaring angrily up at the sky. "How long does her face-lift usually take, maybe she's done and we can just leave?"

The Doctor didn't respond as he dropped her hand, reaching inside his jacket pocket to extract his sonic, his none answer was answer enough. "Are we going to have to go up there?" Clara asked uneasily.

"I would imagine so." He responded coolly, examining the sonic. "This one isn't even mine yet either, the Old Girl's still cooking mine." He sighed tossing it through his clever fingers in a way she'd never seen him do before. "I can send out a pulse, the 'me's' up there will pick it up."

"And then what...?" Clara pointed out, "Sounds like there's already one hell of a party going on up there, one misstep, one spoiler too far and we're back to Gallifrey being gone, the Earth being lost and you not being... well you."

The Doctor gave her a look she couldn't interpret yet, but if she was guessing she was going with smug. "See, I knew you liked me." He waggled his overblown eyebrows at her in a way she supposed he thought was charming.

"Oh shut up Eyebrows and come up with a plan." Given as he didn't protest his new nickname she figured it would do until she could think of a new one.

"Well it all depends at what point in the events we've entered." He glanced up, "Judging by the Earth's recent arrival I'd say we've got seats for the matinee." His thumb brushed across his lips, his new thinking face she assumed as he gazed down at his shoes, she hadn't noticed them before they were some god awful red suede loafer... typical; he never could just dress sensibly the whole way down.

"Just how many of well, people like me, do you have up there with you anyway? You mentioned Rose and Donna." If those names meant something to him he didn't react and Clara filed that saddening piece of information away, they all faded to him in the end. Just ghost stories, footnotes in another man's life.

"A few." He muttered. "Did a bit of a victory tour on this one. Ten always was a bit of a show off." At least he had the decency to look mildly embarrassed about it now though she noted.

"Ball park here, how many memories and timelines are we potentially screwing up?" Clara worried her lip, the TARDIS would somehow blame her if one timey-wimey fact got altered because she'd had the nerve to try and pilot her, she just knew it. God she'd never find her bedroom again...

"Around 8, possibly 10, maybe 12 companions if we include the ones on Earth... give or take. Ones a robot dog if that helps which should be easier to fix. And a humanish version of me." He looked merely thoughtful, like that wasn't a calamity waiting to happen.

Clara gave him a slightly desperate look in return, "Any chance they beam you up and don't realise your, well another you. A future you?" Clara knew she was grasping at straws his particularly un-amused, 'foolish human' look didn't help any and she felt herself prickle. "Oh give me a break, it's been a stressful Christmas for all involved, aside from the whole 600 year war business, if you remember you did also turn up naked in front of my step-mother of all people. Now if I live through this I'll never hear the end of the 'mad Swedish Christmas boyfriend debacle', I'll be forced into endless blind dates to make up for the stress I put her through."

He gave her a dark look that closed her mouth abruptly reminding her that she wasn't entirely sure how stable this version of him was."Oswin, you're rambling, stop it. I'm trying to think. I'm not quite firing on all cylinders yet and what's going on upstairs is a big enough mess without a brand new untested me wading in."

Clara nodded, she managed to shut up for a whole ten seconds she reasoned, longer than he, the old he, usually fell quiet for at any rate. "Can we sneak up? I mean is there a back door like the emergency chute we just came in, someway of just communicating with the TARDIS, get her to do all the leg work without alerting the other you's?"

"No." Came his abrupt reply, but his thoughtful expression left her thinking she might have given him another idea. It was strange, normally his face or gesticulations gave it all away, but like this, she hadn't got a clue if he'd even got a smidgen of a plan A, let alone a B. His face was so still, except for his eyes, they seemed to radiate intent as he turned them on her now, the barest flicker of excitement finally reaching them. "There may be a brief window of opportunity though. There is a point where the TARDIS is being... eaten. Right when the metacrisis will happen. At that point it will only be him and Donna on board. And given as one of them will exit this Universe permanently and the other will lose their entire memory I can't see a better option."

"And the Old Cow?" Clara queried, if the old TARDIS was going to be used to perform this tow-truck trick and drag Earth back, what the hell were they going to do with the one that was currently on lock out down here? They couldn't just get in and move it. "The one down here I mean, what happens to her? I don't remember all that much from my time as a TARDIS technician, but I remember a TARDIS within a TARDIS being a bad idea. Just in case it was the one you were having."

"Of course it was." He muttered looking thoroughly irritated that it was too. "Do you have a better idea?" he snapped, knowing full well she didn't and slightly surprised he'd ask. "Although I did always wonder how the TARDIS survived the length of time it did inside the Crucible without it's shields and exactly what power the metacrisis me used to dematerialise her to safety given as the Dalek's had rendered it entirely powerless."

Clara glanced back to where the TARDIS stood, an outline of a box on the horizon of this arid landscape. "You think this is a destiny paradox? She bought us here because she had to, so that you could go back and save her?"

The Doctor followed her gaze. "Your flying wasn't that bad." He acknowledged giving her a smirk. "And so yes, probably. If we got the TARDIS to lock onto herself and bring us up right before they drained all the power out of the old one, our Old Girl would still be functional, even if she's locked within her regeneration cycle, her shields would extend around the outer vessel the moment we enter the crucible, a self defence mechanism. The power from our ship would bleed through into the old one, giving it the power to dematerialise. Then Away from the Dalek's stasis ring everything should come back on line."

"And the paradox... a TARDIS within a TARDIS?" Clara pushed, "how long can either of them sustain that for?"

"Well with one being completely powered down, the temporal vortex mostly at rest, it should be longer than usual. Long enough for our girl to maybe skip the last few stages of her regeneration and let us in I hope, at least once she realises the danger."

"And Plan B?" she queried.

"Come off it, I've barely got an A here. Which is better than he used to do." The Doctor pointed out snarkily. "Come on, we need to get back to the ship. I can send out the emergency distress signal, but we'll need to get the timing right. It's got to be before the Dalek's power down the other TARDIs, which means it's got to be before the real me gets out. Hopefully the Dalek's attacking, the near death experience and the return of Rose will prove distraction enough that he won't notice an incoming TARDIS dematerialising in the bowls of his. If I get the timing really right, he might think the Dalek attack and us popping in, are one in the same."

Clara gave him a doubtful look. "Is that what you are this time around then, good at timing? Because I've got to say, it's never really been your strong suit." She hurried after him as he placed one long stride in front of the other, dashing back towards the TARDIS, not seeming in the least bit concerned by the sentient rocks that were getting under foot and causing her all manner of problems.

The Doctor shot her a look over his shoulder that managed to be affronted, but he didn't argue. "Let's hope I'm also lucky then shall we?"

"Doctor!" Clara called after him, panting slightly with exertion as he entered a full on sprint. "I take it there's no chance the Dalek's are going to detect this TARDIS?"

The Doctor stopped so abruptly she almost ran into the back of him as he spun on her, giving her one raised eyebrow before the unmistakeable glow of a transmat device enveloped them both. His muttered curse was the last thing she heard as they were both dematerialised.

They re-materialised inside what was unmistakeably a Dalek vessel, Clara made a move towards the Doctor and was immediately enveloped in a circle of light, she didn't need the jolt of pain the edge of the light gave her on contact to know a forcefield when she felt it. She turned her eyes on the Doctor, he looked furious, his entire body seemed to be quivering with rage. The TARDIS stood beside them, useless and impenetrable as it was right now, but at least still here, apparently the Dalek's were having some difficulties powering her down in regeneration mode because the lights were all still blinking away and there was a definite hum coming from her.

"Not a Destiny paradox then I assume?" Clara shouted at the Doctor through her light cage.

He rolled his eyes in response, hitting the wall of light with his foot and hissing in response.

"Terrific. The Old Cow really is going to kill me then, if the Dalek's don't get to it first." On the plus side Clara noted that there was no one else about, no other Doctor, his companions or the TARDIS. Just a slow line of trundling Dalek's that were filing in weapons poised.

"Who are you, and why do you possess the Doctor's TARDIS?" one of the Dalek's barked in its distinctive electronic screech of pure hatred.

"Two guesses." The Doctor smiled back at them, his hands behind his back, looking the very picture of ease, trapped as he was.

"You are not the Doctor. The Doctor is in the Crucible. You will be exterminated."

"Oh I am the Doctor. I'm the Doctor from your nightmares, I'm the Doctor that has seen and done all of this before, I'm the one who's ten steps ahead of you, the Old God, the Destroyer of Worlds, the Oncoming Storm." The Dalek actually seemed to wheel backwards at that, "And I don't have to do a thing. I've already done it. I'm just here to watch you fail again."

"You lie, you are not the Doctor, the Doctor cannot cross his own time-stream, it is not possible." The Dalek screeched, it seemed to Clara that its fear was every bit as strong as its fury in that moment.

"I am the Doctor." He shrugged, leaning forward so the Dalek could see the white's of his eyes as he stared defiantly back at it. "Now tell me I can't do it!"

A Dalek voice erupted through the speakers and Clara jumped, hissing as she hit the forcefield and singed her back. "Prepare for universal detonation. The fleet will gather at the Crucible. All Dalek's will return to shelter from the cataclysm. We will become the only life forms in existence." The static as it shut off was ominous and Clara glanced expectantly at the Doctor, but he wasn't looking at her, his attention was fixed on the Dalek before his cage.

"You are not the Doctor, the Doctor is in the Vault. You will bear witness to Dalek supremacy as you are unmade."

"We shall see." The Doctor snarled.

The speaker burst to life once more, this time it was an actual voice, but it sounded so close to a Dalek's that Clara could barely tell the difference. "The final prophecy is in place. The Doctor and his children, all gathered as witnesses. Supreme Dalek, the time has come. Now, detonate the Reality bomb!" his roar as he called for the end of the Universe was blood curdling and Clara watched the Doctor for any signs of a plan. Surely his past self hadn't let it get this far? Had they already interfered, was it too late?

The Dalek voice came over the speaker once more "Activate planetary alignment field."

Clara screamed "Doctor, do something!" her desperation becoming real as she demanded the impossible of him, but he didn't even look her way.

"Universal Reality detonation in two hundred rels." The Dalek's countdown continued.

"Detonation in twenty rels. Nineteen."

"Doctor, please." Clara pleaded and he finally looked her way.

"Have faith." He nodded, as if willing her to believe in the old him, knowing she wasn't quite ready to believe in the new him yet.

"Nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one." The Dalek voice cut out and an alarm began to blare, the lights switching to a faded emergency glow of ominous red.

"System in shutdown. Detonation negative. Explain. Explain. Explain!" It was almost amusing to hear a Dalek panic, it was like music to her ears in that moment as utter relief washed through her, but that had been cutting it seriously fine.

"One?" She sceeched at the Doctor and he just shrugged a smirk playing at the corners of his mouth.

"Donna always did have a flare for the dramatic." He explained as if that was sufficient excuse for her near heart failure. The light-cages failed and the Doctor stepped out as the Daleks surrounding them raised their weapons... and did nothing.

"System malfunction. Motor casing interference. What is happening? Explain!"

The Doctor stalked right up to the Dalek that had been doing the talking and quite deliberately pushed it with his hand, sending the thing spinning out of the way, apparently utterly unable to control its motor functions. The rest seemed to be having the same problem as Clara took in the sight of hundreds of Dalek's spinning on their axis, screaming inside their metal cages as the vast room they had been in became apparent to her.

"They're helpless." Clara whispered in awe as the Doctor strode towards her.

"Yes and the human Doctor is about to throw a tantrum." He grasped her hand and dragged her firmly out of the way back towards the TARDIS as the Dalek's began to scream as their casings blew, one by one, the explosions alighting the room like fireworks. He glanced back. "Like shooting fish in a barrel," he noticed her unease, "I know hardly sporting is it, but in my defence I was human now... and they had tried to erase the Universe."

He lifted his spare hand, the other still gripped hers tightly as he pounded on the TARDIS doors with his fist. "Open up!" he bellowed. Clara stared horrified as the Dalek ship began to collapse around them, in minutes the whole damn thing was going to be a burning mass and the TARDIS was only inches away from them. "I will not die here you blasted machine, do you hear me! Open these damn doors now or so help me I will fix the chameleon circuit and deliberately break it again so you're left looking like a Silurian birthing pod for all eternity!"

The TARDIS was glowing, inside and out.

"Yes, yes I know what your damn well doing, now now now!" he roared his fist pounding so hard against the wood Clara was convinced he'd break his own hand. The TARDIS gave a hiss and steam began erupting from her to match the steam and smoke that was starting to choke the life out of them from the ruined Dalek's as the Crucible began to fail. One last pound and the TARDIS doors flew inwards at his insistence, but his grip on her hand was absolute and Clara was dragged inside as the doors slammed shut. It took Clara's eyes a minute to adjust, and then she blinked again.

The TARDIS console room was a hot mess. Clearly the old girl hadn't finished putting her face on because there were bits of caballing and half moulded banisters and railings everywhere. But first and foremost there was glass, or at least what Clara thought was glass, it was like she was stood inside a giant goldfish bowl looking out at their surroundings as the Doctor flew to the controls, his hands working feverishly until they were pitched into the vortex with a wheezing protest from the TARDIS. A fact she could tell because as she looked out she could see its magnificence all around her.

"Are we safe?" she asked, reaching the console and trying to get his attention as she pointed out the see-through walls.

"What?" he frowned, squinting about as he took in the state of it. "Yes, yes perfectly." He looked away pausing a moment before he turned back to her his hand grasping her bicep tightly "Although don't get too close, radiation shieldings a bit iffy when the walls are translucent." She nodded aware that his grip was becoming painful, something of it must have shown on her face as he glanced at his hand and slowly the fingers uncurled as he released her.

"So that's it. History was unchanged?" he didn't respond so Clara crossed to the console herself and pulled the screen to her, it looked fragile this time, a thin transulescent layer of glass. Very spacey-wacey as the 'other' him would have said. Clara punched in the events of today, the Earth had been returned the Companions were all back in there respective time zones, it was interesting putting the names to the faces as she flicked through; then she punched in the Doctor's timeline, that too seemed unaltered from what she knew of it. Her eyes flicked to the TARDIS, the Doctor was already tinkering, his head beneath the console, Clara placed her hand on the centre panel whispering in her head, 'look after him, he's still not done cooking either.'

"So Doctor." Clara called, he finally raised his head. "That was your plan, do nothing?" He frowned, "Because that was what you did. Just stood there and watched. The world could have ended, the Universe could have ended, just by being there we could have unwritten it all and still you did nothing."

The Doctor stood, that smooth reptilian grace back again as he stalked forwards his face jutting out towards hers in a sneer that was more than a little terrifying. "It worked didn't it?"

Clara blinked. "You really are an ass this time round." She muttered making to stalk away. "Take me home."

He spun on her, grasping both her arms this time in his painful grasp, "No." His hissed word was clear enough.

"You aren't the man you were. I need time to think." She insisted, trying to shake him off and finding she couldn't which ratcheted up the panic again, all of this couldn't be good for a human heart, far too much strain.

"Don't you understand." He bellowed clasping her face and forcing her to cry out in pain. "I did exactly what was needed, me, for the first time in history, I did nothing. I didn't interfere I didn't screw up the time-line. Even the Dalek's new better than to interfere, they are geniuses you see, they understand time as much as a Timelord; and they knew, knew that if I was there then they must have failed... and still they didn't dare alter the time-line." His eyes bored into hers, frightening and unknowable and so full of something all at once. "Sometimes we could learn a thing or two from the Daleks."

Clara reacted she couldn't help it, if he was seeing sense with the Dalek's then he had truly lost his mind. She struck him soundly across his cheek and his hands fell away, Clara stumbled, loose finally. She fled to the other side of the console as he stood straight touching his reddening cheek with clear surprise, at least she'd only slapped him, if she'd really wanted to do him harm she'd have closed her fist when she'd hit him. He raised those eyes again to her and stalked to the other side of the console, letting it separate them.

"Take me home." She whispered, her voice broke over the word.

"No."

"No?" she spat back, stunned. "So you're what, into kidnapping school teachers now?"

He blinked and she thought maybe he was starting to see sense. "Funny you should mention that, it wouldn't be the first time. You really should have a chat with the Head of Governor's at that old school of yours, I'd imagine he'd be able to tell you a thing or two about a grumpy old man and a magic box." Clara opened her mouth and closed it again... she'd distinctly remembered that face; was that what he was again, first time out in a new set of regeneration, was he back to factory settings?

"No, he was grumpy; you are an angry, forgetful, guilt ridden old man, with no bow tie, who's kidnapping me!"

Clara felt something inside of her snap and she hit the TARDIS console with both her palms, so what i it was transference but she was angry at both of them right now. "You Old Cow! Take me home." the tears broke through, "Please." She begged, dropping her head to the console and quietly sobbing. It was too much, all of it and she still needed to mourn.

"She won't." The Doctor admitted, stroking the console softly as he made his way around to her. "She knows I need you, the TARDIS may be many things, but she is always exactly what I need her to be." Clara lifted her head to see him smiling softly at his old faithful companion. "Just like you have always been, Impossible Girl."

"I'll come back." She swore lifting her head and letting him see her tear stained face. He closed the distance between them, his hands raised and she flinched, but his grip was gentle this time as he cradled her face.

"You won't." His hands were soft but his expression was fierce, desperate. "Because I'm not the man I was." He admitted. "That's why you need to stay Oswin, you can help me become a better man."

"How?" she managed, "You're impossible, you never listen to a damn thing anyone says."

"Oh come now. You were there, you stopped me, all three of me in fact, from making the singular most important and catastrophic mistake of my many lifetimes."

He was looking at her like she was some sort of salvation and she backed away from him, "All I did was talk sense into you." She pointed at his chest "You stopped yourself, you came up with the way of saving Gallifrey. Not me."

"Semantics." He muttered. "You are a spark, you always have been. Something that ignites greatness in others; in me." He sighed looking like it pained him to admit it, "I need that now, because this," he swept his hand down at himself, "it's a whole new me... a me born out of a war that lasted centuries, born out of hopelessness. And if I am to live up to this name that I have been cursed with..."

Clara cut him off with a sharp word "Gifted." She corrected glaring solidly at him as he pursed his lips, looking like the jury was out on that. "The name you have been gifted with." Finally he nodded.

"Then show me Clara Oswin Oswald."