When River Song knocked on the TARDIS door and nobody answered, she became understandably concerned. Knocking again, she called out, "Doctor?" Trying the latch, she found the door unlocked. The Doctor was sitting beside the console upon a short stool, his elbows upon his knees. His hands were beside his head, index fingers alternately tapping his temples. He had changed out of his tuxedo and he wore a fez atop his head. The sight disturbed River. He was so isolated in his mind that he didn't notice her and didn't hear her knock. That was bad. That was very bad.
"Doctor?"
He looked up at her abruptly. "How did you get in?"
"You left the door unlocked, sweetie."
"I did? How silly of me, not that it matters in the current climate."
"Sweetie, what do you mean by that?" River was growing rather alarmed. There was a manic tone in the Doctor's voice that she had never quite heard.
The Doctor stood and approached River Song. He put his hands on her shoulders. "Do you ever experience de'ja vu?"
"The sense that something has happened before? Sweetie, we're time travelers. Other people have de'ja vu. We cause it."
"Have I married you yet?"
Dread flooded River. "You've read my diary, haven't you?"
"Didn't even open it." The Doctor released her and walked around the console. "The Silence is gone. I shouldn't remember them. Nobody should remember them."
"The Silence? You mean the cracks in time."
"The cracks in time were caused by something. That thing is the Silence. We've already faced them, been married, defeated them but they've been swept away and time has been reset to this point, to Amy's and Rory's wedding day. Time has been reset for four of my incarnations. I'm attending Amy's wedding again. My tenth self is reliving the unintended birth of a clone daughter. My ninth self is reliving those moments after his regeneration when he concluded that he was responsible for the death of the Time Lords. My eighth self is at a similar point. History for each of these points has been reset and repeating itself."
If it were anyone else, River would have thought him mad. This wasn't anyone else. This was the Doctor and he didn't imagine these things. "Who's arse do I plant my boot in?"
"Not this time, River. This foe is beyond you. He is beyond even me. Only luck has saved me from him for so long."
"Who is he?"
"Have I ever told you of the Black Guardian?"
Meanwhile, the Ninth Doctor awoke to a bright light. He was lying on the floor of an unknown room. Standing up, he realized that it was a prison cell, with concrete walls and floors. He walked to the door intending to shout for his jailer, but when he grabbed the doors, he felt the door swing easily. Pushing it open, he stepped out of the cell into what looked like a prison wing, but only a few doors down, the modern cells ceased and antiquated dungeons continued down a dank stone corridor.
The Doctor called, "Is anyone there?" He simply heard his own voice echo back at him.
He walked through the dungeon until he found himself in an industrial warehouse. What sort of place was this? The Doctor was reminded a bit of the Celestial Toymaker, but he had never done anything on this scale, and there had been traps. Here, the Doctor had yet to encounter a single trap.
"Stand and fight!" came a shout.
The Doctor spun around and upon seeing a Sontaran pointing a rifle at him, the Doctor immediately turned his back to him.
"What is this? Face me!"
The Doctor raised his hands and said, "I'm no warrior. There's no honor in killing me."
"I was told you were a particular man who called himself the Doctor. If you are, then there is great honor in killing you. You are one of our greatest adversaries."
"Only because you make it so. I don't take life. I protect it." The Doctor felt bile rise up from his stomach. He felt solely responsible for the destruction of Gallifrey and the lie stung him, never mind he felt no need to be honest with a Sontaran. "I suspect that you are in the same predicament that I am. We could help each other find a way out of this place."
"Ha! I would be a fool to work with an enemy."
The Doctor slowly examined his surroundings. There wasn't much he could use. There was little way to distract the Sontaran. He wasn't even sure he had his sonic screwdriver. "I am absolutely defenseless. What honor could there be in killing a defenseless man?"
"Enough talk. Do as I command and turn around."
The Doctor felt the gun touch his back. He turned slowly, then quickly dropped his hands to the gun, wrenching it free of the Sontaran's grip. Kicking hard at the Sontaran, knocking him to the floor, he ran. He ran to the first doorway he saw. Who cared where it led, as long as it lead away from the Sontaran. Seeing some kind of drain, he dropped the gun inside, satisfied to hear the splash a long time after releasing the weapon.
The Sontaran came through into the corridor, quickly closing the distance to the Doctor. The Doctor continued running, soon finding himself in an alley surrounded by brick buildings, dumpsters and fire escapes. Looking up, there was a brick ceiling. Where the hell was he? He hit the ladder of a fire escape and began to climb. The Sontaran, close on his heels stopped at the ladder, slightly too short for it, but after an effort, managed to get on the ladder. Once at the top, the Doctor checked his coat jacket. Fantastic! He knew he hadn't forgotten his sonic screwdriver. The ladder was connected to a slide and was fully extended. Pointing his screwdriver at the bracket of each slide, the ladder came loose and crashed to the ground, swearing Sontaran and all.
"I hope you had a pleasant fall!" called the Doctor.
By reply, the Sontaran shouted an unintelligible diatribe, probably a few choice insults for the Doctor's most immediate relation. The Doctor went through a window and found himself in...a subway. "This place would drive a normal person insane," said the Doctor. "Good thing I'm not normal."
The Doctor didn't know he was on a monitor, an observer watching all that he did. "Yes, Doctor. Run around. A rat in a maze. You'll go insane soon enough...when you realize where you are. Let's tie the threads together."
The eighth Doctor helped Grace up so she could check the cubbyhole above the "P" in Police Public Call Box. There was the much needed key to the TARDIS. They opened the door just in time for an out of control motorcyclist to ride through. Both the Doctor and Grace looked inside the TARDIS to observe the biker's progress until he finally came back to the door and exited. Grace and the Doctor chose not to comment.
When they stepped through the door, Grace took in her surroundings, noting the nobs and wheels on the console, and said, "Well, this looks pretty low tech."
"Low tech?" said the Doctor, indignant. "Grace, this is a type 40 TARDIS, able to take you to any planet in the universe and to any date in that planet's existence. Temporal physics."
"Oh, you mean like inter-dimensional transference. That would explain the spatial displacement we experienced as we passed over the threshold."
The Doctor paused, observing Grace, wondering whether or not she was playing with him. "Yes, if you like."
Grace smiled, savoring the Doctor's clear annoyance, and then said, "So, off to save the universe from the Black Guardian?"
"It's not that simple. If he is simply resetting time then we still have the matter of the Master to concern ourselves with. Whether it has happened before or not, it can still happen again. I think we shall check the Eye of Harmony." The Doctor looked at his TARDIS settings and muttered, "Strange. She appears to be in perfect working order, and yet..."
Walking through the corridors of the TARDIS and into the engine room, where the Eye of Harmony could be accessed, they found a young Asian man, kneeling before the Eye of Harmony, in obvious distress. The Doctor recognized him immediately, while Grace would likely have to search her memory.
"Who is he?" asked Grace.
"You don't remember? This is Chang Lee."
"If all of this has happened before, how come I only vaguely remember him? I'd think I'd never forget anyone I met today."
"You have to understand, Grace, I may have restored your memories of all that's happened, but you are still human and must still cope with time as you perceive it. History is literally repeating itself and you're mind simply cannot comprehend that."
"But it's not repeating itself exactly, is it?"
"No." The Doctor bent down beside Chang. "Can you hear me?"
Chang looked up at the Doctor and nodded.
"Tell me what happened?"
Chang shivered and said, "The Master...I swear the Devil killed him. Never seen anything like that."
"Never seen anything like what?"
Chang shook his head. "No. Not me."
Grace stepped forward and in a soothing voice, she said, "Chang, listen to me. We're-"
"No, Grace. Give him time." The Doctor stood and led her away. "He needs time to understand what has happened. I'm afraid we can't help him." Turning back to Chang, he said, "I have someplace for you to rest. Will you come with me?" Chang didn't resist as the Doctor led him away from the Eye.
When the Doctor rejoined Grace in the control room, there was nothing to say. Seeing Chang in that state had renewed her terror of the mysterious Black Guardian. He checked and rechecked readings to be sure nothing was amiss. Whatever was happening to time did not show up on the TARDIS scanners, but the TARDIS knew something was wrong. The Doctor could sense that much.
"This game ought to be terribly boring for you by now," said the Doctor to the ceiling, loudly. "I know I've grown weary of it. Of is that your plan? Kill me with boredom? Put me somewhere and don't give me any challenges? Dispense of my enemies for me? It's very kind of you! I was just thinking I could use the peace and quiet."
"Peace and quiet is it?"
Grace let out a short, piercing shriek, jumping back at least three feet.
"Is my complacency too trying for the dear Doctor?" There stood the Black Guardian, his shimmering robe dragging the floor, his head covered by a dead vulture, his teeth rotten in his mouth. "Perhaps I should try something more creative."
The Doctor said, "What do you want?"
"Fall, Doctor!"
The floor shifted beneath the Doctor's feet. Grace flew through the air, slamming into the Doctor. They both hit the control roomwall, but thankfully, not hard enough to hurt themselves. The Doctor could hear the familiar grinding sound that could only mean that the TARDIS was traveling. The floor rocked worse than it ever had, though the Doctor wasn't quite sure. The TARDIS had been known to have its little tantrums, after all.
When the motion ceased, the lights, indeed all power, extinguished. The presence of the TARDIS was gone. Emptiness. The Doctor felt an emptiness he had never felt before. If forced to think of a time he had felt so empty, he could only say that no such time existed for he could not have known he was so empty in those days before he knew the TARDIS. If this was the first of the Black Guardian's reckoning, the Doctor had to give him credit: this was certainly a cruel revenge. Cruel enough that the Doctor dreaded what the Black Guardian could have in store for him next. The Guardian, of course, was nowhere to be seen.
Grace's voice came from his chest area. "What happened?" She had landed on top of him and was only just stirring.
The Doctor could only say, "She died."
Grace was clearly disturbed by the look in his eyes. "What?"
"She's dead."
"Who's dead?"
The Doctor stood and looked around at his world, his home. "The TARDIS. She's dead."
"Doctor, she's a ship. She ran out of power. You can recharge, refuel."
"With what? Don't pretend you understand. She's more than just a ship. She was a living thing with thoughts and needs and desires of her own. She isn't like technology you know. She has a brain, a heart, feelings. Had them. All of her living functions are gone. I suppose some systems could be brought back online but without her living essence, she'd never live again. No way to move."
Grace accepted this and said, "Okay, what powers her?"
"A black hole, compressed into the center of her drive matrix."
"A black hole?" Grace coughed as she said it.
"Keep one in your purse, do you, in case of emergency?" He looked around and said, "No, I could find a nice star with a dead solar system orbiting it, make a new black hole but it still wouldn't work. After all, the black hole this one uses is contained, otherwise we'd be dead."
"Why not?"
"There's only one way this could happen; if we were flung into an alternate reality. Understand this. Certain things operate on certain physics, and while the major rules of physics may always apply there are subtle rules that change from reality to reality. The fuel this TARDIS needs is exclusive to our universe. Unless we can find a piece of our universe here, I'm afraid there's little we can do."
"Then there's only one thing we can do; explore and find out what we can about where we are."
They checked on Chang, and once assured that his condition was unchanged, they exited the TARDIS, with no plan but an aimless hope. They examined their surroundings where the TARDIS had landed. It was cold, in the forties or fifties. They were on a gorgeous beach, where, they couldn't tell, so they followed it until they came to a road. It was asphalt, which Grace considered promising. Walking along the road, they found a sign. Grace looked at it and was relieved to see it was in English.
"Bad Wolf Bay," she read aloud. "It's in English, too, so we know we're on Earth."
"It's not in English, Grace," said the Doctor.
"I just read it. It says 'Bad Wolf Bay'."
The Doctor pointed ahead and said, "So what does that sign say?"
Grace looked and a said, "Oslo, 138 miles." Then her eyebrows knitted together.
"We're in Norway."
"Norwegians speak English in an alternate reality?"
The Doctor couldn't help but laugh. "I have news for you: most of them speak English in our reality. No. The reason why you're reading things in English is because of me, or rather the TARDIS, which bodes well because it means that something is still working on her."
Grace thought for a moment. "Do you speak English?"
"Fluently. Earth is my favorite planet, don't you know? Even if humans sometimes do foolish things. I made it a point a very long time ago to learn as many Earth languages as I could. I may be from the oldest and wisest civilization in the universe, but Earth is the only place I've ever really thought of as home."
Grace smiled. "That's actually a bit flattering." She saw two cars coming in their direction. "Think we could hitch a ride?"
They needn't have tried hard to get the attention of the drivers. The drivers pulled along side of them, and from each car, men in black suits stepped out. Grace stepped back in alarm as the Doctor took an offensive stance. From the back seat of one of the cars stepped a man with a plain blue suit, blue pants, and a regular blue shirt on underneath. His shoes were striking. He was wearing red high-tops. His hair was fantastic. Exiting the other side was a young blonde girl. She was dressed casually, wearing a white, goose-down jacket and blue jeans.
The man in blue walked up to the Doctor and inspected him. He winked and said, "It's me."
The girl said, "Has he regenerated again?"
"No, this is actually one of my previous incarnations."
The Doctor said, "I'm sorry, but are you the Doctor?"
The man blue said, "I used to be. You're the Doctor. I'm just your meta-crisis."
The Doctor smiled and said, "Well, I did think you looked rather familiar. You're a meta-crisis? I'd be interested to hear how that happened."
The Doctor/meta-crisis looked to Grace and said, "I've missed you, Doctor Holloway. Funny, but I seem to remember you refusing to be my traveling companion."
The Doctor said, "Ah, yes, a long story, which I'm afraid must take precedence. The TARDIS has died, and there is a young man inside who is in no condition to walk."
The Doctor/meta-crisis said, "We can take care of the TARDIS. Let's worry about the man who needs help. Sorry, I've been rude. Grace Holloway, Doctor, this is Rose Tyler. Rose, this is my eighth self and Doctor Grace Holloway."
"How did you find us?"
"Torchwood keeps Bad Wolf Bay under constant surveillance. We saw the TARDIS materialize four hours ago." He gestured to the cars, this time, the four muscle men piling into the same car, with the Doctor, his meta-crisis, Rose, and Grace sharing a car with Rose driving. They began a long discussion, picking up change and arranging a transport for the TARDIS in the meanwhile.
In another time, at another place, the TARDIS materialized in the palace of the planet Atrios. From inside, stepped the Doctor and Romana. The Doctor swept his scarf over his shoulder and put his hat on, while Romana kept her eyes downcast, too embarrassed to show her face now that she looked exactly like Princess Astra. She forgot all about her embarrassment when she saw the condition of the palace. The place was bombed out. Bodies that had been dead for months sprawled across the floor. Nearly half of the ceiling had collapsed, and there were charred holes along the walls.
"By the Hand of Omega," said Romana quietly.
The Doctor looked at her seriously, saw her tears and said, "Weeping for primitives, Romana?" She turned an angry eye on the Doctor. "I'm sorry," he said. "That was mean of me to say. Of course, you'd care. In spite of everything you said to me. How could you not, especially when I've cared for so long I've no more tears to spill?"
Romana's expression softened. Yes, she had chided the Doctor for his compassion for primitives, and now here she was, heart-rent on behalf of primitives. "So what does that make me?"
"A good person. One that I'm proud to know."
She felt a glow of pride at the statement, but it was extinguished by the death around her. "It's all so senseless!" She rounded on the Doctor. "He knew Princess Astra was the final piece. He could just take her like he did before! He didn't have to kill all of these people."
"Yes, but don't you see? They had stood in his way. That was something he could not tolerate. What diabolical mastermind could?"
Romana closed her eyes as if she were afraid her very soul could escape from her pupils. "Yes, that's the word for it, 'diabolical'."
"There's nothing more we can do here. Let's return to the TARDIS."
Reentering the TARDIS, Romana went to the Doctor's favorite chair and sat down. "Doctor, tell me, have you seen anything of what the Black Guardian plans for you?"
The Doctor leaned against the console and gave the question deep consideration. "I cannot pretend to know my future, but I am seeing glimpses of it. In true time, I'm not entirely certain how many times I have regenerated to date, but I know I have done so at least seven times because the Guardian has focused his interest on my eighth incarnation and every incarnation thereafter."
"So, you mean, he hasn't taken an interest in you, now? You're the one that thwarted him, and what about these little visions you're having?"
"He can't take an interest in me. I have the randomizer installed. I can only override it on special occasion, such as an emergency visit to Atrios. You might say that I'm untouchable. As for the visions? I think the Key to Time may be responsible for that. Think about it. I'm the only Doctor to have touched it, to have gathered it, to have intimate knowledge of it, and now..." he trailed off.
Romana leaned forward. "And now he is apparently using the Key to Time to seek his revenge on your future selves."
"Yes, but how did he get it?" The Doctor snarled the last two words.
"Can your future selves see you the way you see them?"
"I am their past, but time has clearly changed. They catch glimpses of memories they aren't supposed to have, but they are the focus of the Black Guardian, not me, so I am not a considered factor. I'm a random element. An element that just may mean the difference between life and death."
Well, there was a hope, anyway. Romana sat back in the chair and was given a start when a loud, smooth voice from around her ankles said, "My sensors detect unsteady heart-rate and increased saline production from the tear ducts. Conclusion: Mistress is upset. Would you care for some tea?"
Romana smiled in spite of herself. "I'd love some, K-9."