Chapter 2
"Doctor?" asked Rose as she followed the Doctor out of the TARDIS. "Who is that?"
"Who is that? I've no clue and you know what else I don't have a clue about?" asked the Doctor, "Why my TARDIS is sitting right across from me and behind me at the same time."
A rummaging came from inside the other TARDIS followed by a shout of joy, "Amy, we've landed! Just wait until you meet the old me, quite the character as I recall. Or was I? I'm not sur- oh." Another man walked out of the TARDIS and stared straight at the Doctor. "I was hoping we'd be able to meet a little later; have some time to think about how to go about this butt obviously not."
"Doctor, what the hell is that thing on that man's head." Rose asked trying to stifle a giggle.
"It's a Deerstalker. I wear Deerstalkers now." The other man frowned. "Deerstalker's are cool."
The current Doctor stood with his eyes wide. He knew he was facing his self. His future self. "You shouldn't have come here."
"Quite right. We better get out of here. Two TARDISes from different times in the same spot will cause a hole exactly the size of, er…Belgium, if we don't leave soon."
"Belgium?" asked the current Doctor.
"Oh," the future Doctor said, eyeing Rose. "haven't gotten there yet."
"Doctor?" said the red headed woman. "should we get going."
"Yes." Both Doctors said. They looked at each other for a moment before the future Doctor said, "Right, we better take your TARDIS. Best not to see the future."
The current Doctor (who must now be called the Tenth Doctor) finally got over the initial shock of seeing his future self and decided to follow the other-um, himself.
"After you, Doctor." The Tenth Doctor said.
"Oh no, after you, Doctor." said the Eleventh Doctor.
"He's so full of it." muttered the redhead to Rose.
The four of them stepped into the TARDIS and headed straight for the console. The two Doctors got right to work to begin piloting the TARDIS.
"This is so weird." said the Eleventh Doctor as he circled the TARDIS.
"I know." said the Tenth Doctor as he to circled the TARDIS, across from the other Doctor.
"I remember this. I loved all this. The coat, I loved that coat, the shoes, wonderful shoes. You still wear those glasses when you're thinking?"
"Well, of course I do."
"Yes, of course you do; I did."
"Got to say, kind of disappointing looking at my future self."
"What, the hair? Took me a while to, but it actually gets kind of fun after a while. See?" The Eleventh Doctor twirled his hair in his hand.
"No, more like the color."
"Not ginger?"
"Not ginger."
"You two having fun there?" asked Rose. "Are we going anywhere or are you two just going to talk about yourself.
"Right, so, where too?" asked the Tenth Doctor.
"Thine IX." The Eleventh Doctor flipped a switch. Behind him, the redhead whispered something into her fellow companion's ear.
"Care to explain what's so important you need to come back to your-my-whatever's past?" The Tenth Doctor.
"No."
"Fantastic."
"You know this is an opportunity that doesn't come often why don't we-hey!"
The redheaded woman had grabbed the Eleventh Doctor's Deerstalker of his head. She tossed it over to Rose who had moved to the entrance of the TARDIS. Rose opened the door and threw it out into the Time Vortex.
"Hey, that was a gift from Sherlock Holmes!" cried the Eleventh Doctor.
"What, you mean he's real?" Rose asked.
The Tenth Doctor replied for the Eleventh, "Well, not on Earth, but yeah, for the orgasmic people of Scrootum, yes."
"Quite messy, try not to go there in the future."
"Obviously, too late."
Five million, two hundred and ninety-eight thousand, six hundred and forty two light years away from earth, thirteen thousand years in the past, at the University of Forloomoonoodoon, a surprised Dr. River Song found Deerstalker mysteriously perched on her head.
"So…Doctor." said the Tenth Doctor. "Mind introducing me to our friend here?"
"Right, Doctor this is Amy Pond, Amy Pond, this is me. Hello."
"Pleasure to meet to meet you," Amy said softly, "Doctor" Amy leaned in close to the Tenth Doctor's face.
"Er, yes. Pleasure, right."
"Amy!" yelled the Eleventh Doctor as he continued to pilot the TARDIS, "Stop harassing me!"
"Well, Doctor, you never told me you used to look so," Amy eyed the Tenth Doctor up and down, "good."
"Hey!" the Eleventh Doctor finished working with the controls of the TARDIS, "I still look good!"
" 'course you do, what with the bowtie and all."
"Yes, what's with the-"
"Excuse me?" Rose said on the said looking a slightly annoyed, "But someone want to explain what's going on to me?"
"Er, yes. Right. Well, Doctor," the Tenth Doctor said, "What so important that you needed to come to me for help."
"Well, last night I got this message on my Psychic Paper." He held the paper forth to the Tenth Doctor and Rose.
"Temple of the Thine. Bring former Doctor along." read Rose aloud. "So you just followed what it said?"
"Never ignored the paper," said the Eleventh Doctor heading for the TARDIS door, "not planning on starting just yet."
"Last night? What took so long?" The Tenth Doctor asked.
"Saved a town from the Black Plague. In Space. In the year 3339."
"Fun. Can't wait." The Doctor followed the Doctor, or rather himself, to the door. They slowly pulled the door in and stepped out.
The sight that greeted them was dull. Or at least, that's what Rose and Amy saw. But to the Doctors, it was a display of history, of the remarkable ingenuity of a dead people.
"A cave?" asked Rose.
"Not just a cave." The Tenth Doctor pointed out, "look at the wall. This is part of the Temple of the Thine, their records, their recorded history."
"Great, another museum." muttered Amy.
"No, more than a museum. See, the Thine people were psychic, extraordinary people. Predicted the fall of the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Great and Bountiful Human Empires. Not in the right order, otherwise it might not have happened, however…" The Tenth Doctor trailed off before picking back up again. "These are the histories of other worlds, of other civilizations. The Thine prophesized some of the most important events in history. In fact, some say they predicted who the last species to survive to the end of time was."
"They did." muttered the Eleventh Doctor.
"Sorry?" asked the Tenth Doctor.
"Oh, erm, nothing, nothing."
"Doctor?" asked Rose. "If they were so amazing, why didn't they write this down in a book or something?"
"Well, their abilities were amazing, but technologically, they were dumb as a-well, you don't get much dumber than the Thine. If other world visitors hadn't found the planet, the Thine would never have gotten off to the other side of their own planet, forget others."
"They saw so many things, but there was one thing they saw they both feared and praised. It was like a religion to them. It was a religion to them, in fact."
"So what did they worship?" asked Rose.
The Eleventh Doctor continued "No one knows. When the Thine civilization was wiped out by the Descent of the Putrid Sock," Amy snickered quietly to herself. "No one was able to enter the Thine atmosphere because of the smell, it killed. They would have quarantined the planet if there had been any chance anyone who had lived there before still remained."
"Then how're we able to breathe?" asked Rose.
"Good ol' TARDIS." Said the Tenth Doctor, patting the big blue box.
"Just got to be careful not to go too far from it or, well," the Eleventh Doctor wrinkled his nose, "may the Sock have mercy on our souls."
"Doctor?"
Rose had already neared the wall and had begun to examine it. "Doctor is that…your TARDIS?"
"Impossible why would my TARDIS be on their-" the Tenth Doctor quieted down as he reached the section of the wall Rose was examining, "Oh. Doctor?" He turned around to his future self, "we haven't been here before have we?"
"Well I have, but you haven't yet."
"Right. Hmm." The Tenth Doctor he looked at the image surrounding his TARDIS. There was his big, blue box and in the background, right behind his TARDIS was a circular symbol made of twisting shapes and lines. "There's the TARDIS and behind, that's the Seal of Rassilon! When's the last time I've seen that? Actually," Eyeing the Eleventh Doctor, "better not ask. So my TARDIS in front of the Seal what-oh! Over there!" The Doctor pointed over to another end of the cave, "There's the image again, but the look! The Seal's broken. And over here!" he said rushing to another edge of the cavern. "The seal is gone, but the TARDIS is still there, and over there." Rushing to the last painting in the cave. "The TARDIS is cracking, and look what's seeping through the breaking TARDIS."
"Darkness." Said the Eleventh Doctor.
"So the Seal, that's what, then?" asked Amy.
"Seal of Rassilon. Seal of the Time Lords." The Eleventh Doctor said.
"So the Seal cracking is like…the Time Lords disappearing." Rose said.
"And the darkness is…what?" asked Amy.
"If the Seal is the Time Lords disappearing, then that could be the, ah, Time War." The Eleventh Doctor said.
"But there's something coming out of the TARDIS. It's cracking." Amy observed.
"If the broken Seal is the end of the Time Lords, then that would imply a time after the war. So then the cracking TARDIS," The Tenth Doctor grabbed his hair as he realized what the pictures meant. "would be something happing afterwards!"
"And this darkness, it's bad, yeah?" asked Rose.
"Oh, it's the worst!" The Tenth Doctor said gleefully.
"And you're happy about that?"
"Well, what could it mean? The mystery, the enigma, ah!" The Tenth Doctor smiled at the Eleventh. "That feeling, right?"
The Eleventh Doctor smiled. "The best."
The Tenth Doctor began to run back into the TARDIS, "Follow me, Rose!"
"Yes, come along, Pond" said the Doctor ask the rushed into the TARDIS.
"Huh, 'Come along, Pond' I like that." remarked the Tenth Doctor as they reached the TARDIS console.
"Oh trust me," Amy said getting uncomfortably close to the Tenth Doctor again, "you do."
The Doctors begin to start up the TARDIS controls.
"Doctor, I don't get it, what are we doing?" Rose asked.
"Doctor?" asked Amy in the same confused, questioning tone that Rose was using as well.
The Tenth Doctor, while still working the TARDIS, turned his head towards his companion and said, "Don't you see? Those pictures depicted my involvement in the Time War."
"The Time War ended, but I was still alive." said the Eleventh.
"And the darkness,," said the Tenth, "They were something else that survived the war, or perhaps, something the war caused."
"Something," the Eleventh Doctor said, "that could very well destroy me."
"And you're going to go rushing towards it?" asked Amy.
"Yes."
"No really any crazier, then anything else he's done, though is it?" asked Rose.
Amy snorted, "Not mine, yours?"
"You kidding?" Rose said as the TARDIS shook viciously, "I've seen him do things that would make this seem tame."
The TARDIS stopped shaking and the Doctors backed from the controls.
"So, Doctor," said Amy rushing to the door, "what've got for me this time?"
She flung the door open and found them floating. They were in space. Around them were chucks of rock and debris. Around the rock where swirling gases, predominately gold, but the gold color seemed to be made of every other color in the universe, some they had never seen before. It was a beautiful site, but the feeling the area projected was of sadness
"Before this was the home to a great civilization, spanning millions of years. A wonderful, good people. The keepers of Time and Space, the guardians of the Time Vortex, behold," the Tenth Doctor spoke with a somber voice, as if recalling an old happiness that had long since faded, "Gallifrey."
Author's Note: For the Tenth Doctor and Rose this takes place in between "The Satan Pit" and "Love & Monsters." For the Eleventh Doctor and Amy, this takes place in between "Vincent and the Doctor" and "The Lodger," which is why Rory is absent.
