Chapter 3
London, 2014, Pete's World
"I don't understand."
"Me neither to be honest, regeneration's a strange process."
"But you look so different…so young…"
The Doctor looked at Pete Tyler amused. Rory looked confused in his chair across from Pete in the Torchwood conference room.
"Yeah, it's a bit of a lottery. First thing I did when it happened was check to make sure I had limbs. But don't let the face fool you, I'm even older than when I last saw you." The Doctor explained, despite knowing that Pete wouldn't believe it, not really. It was a typical Tyler reaction. Rose and Jackie hadn't believed it either when he changed to his last face, with his puffy hair, long coat and the mole on his back. He missed that mole. But that wasn't strictly relevant. What he needed to focus on was why and how he was here. Then he could find his way back to his universe. He and Rory had to find Amy, but alas, priorities.
The Doctor's train of thought was broken when Pete's phone rang.
"Rose? What is it? Did you find the TARDIS?" Pete said into the phone. The Doctor's head lifted up quickly at Rose's name, which unfortunately, was noticed by Rory, who looked at the Doctor curiously. "Ok, well, tell the boys to bring it here as soon as possible. We'll see you when you get back."
The Doctor looked at Pete expectantly; trying to hide the hope from his expression that Rose would be here soon.
"She's stopping for lunch." The Doctor's face fell as Pete said this. "But they found the TARDIS, the rest of the boys are bringing it in straight away."
"Well, that's alright I suppose." Rory put in, speaking for the first time in a while.
The Doctor looked at him sadly, and then said with a smile, "Yes. That's alright, that's fine, perfect even, love lunch. Now Pete, I was planning on asking Rose this, but since we are in a rush to get home," the Doctor pointed to Rory, who smiled gratefully back, " do you have any clue how we got here? Cause it shouldn't be possible."
"Yeah, that's going to take some explaining…"
Pete finished explaining how they had begun working on the Artron-Huon Temporal-destabliser a few years previously, and how they used it as a magnet to pull the Doctor through one of the many cracks in their world, but only succeeded by implementing alien tech they had acquired over the years. Then, almost as if it were timed with the end of the story, Pete's office phone rang, informing the Doctor, Rory and Pete that the TARDIS was onsite in the lab with the AH Temporal-destabliser. Rory and the Doctor stood to go down to see it, the Doctor insisted to make sure she was undamaged, from the trip.
As they walked, the Doctor thought about how Pete neglected to mention his other self, the meta-crisis one, the one he left with Rose to keep her safe. It seemed like a big point to skip over, the Doctor hadn't commented on it because he wanted as much information as he could gather. But it quickly became clear that the only way they could ever think of a Artron-Huon Temporal-destabliser would be with his other self's help. But they said it took years, which made no sense, the Doctor could build one in a week or two with the equipment and resources of Torchwood, half-human or full Time Lord.
In some ways it was better hanging out with Pete and Rory, neither were men of many words, allowing the Doctor to think about the problem at hand. If Amy were here she would have so many questions they'd be stuck here before they could get though them all. Thinking about Amy made the Doctor sad and angry. Mostly sad, but it was bad enough having to see his meta-crisis self without having to worry about Amy being out there alone and afraid, and quite possibly in labour.
As the Doctor walked into the lab with the AH Temporal-destabliser, he froze. There in front of him was the TARDIS. But it was wrong, he couldn't work out how, but there was definitely something wrong with the TARDIS.
"Doctor…what happened to her?" Rory's voice came in beside him, making him jump, slightly embarrassing, but there were more pressing issues.
The Doctor was silent walked up to the police box and began to run his hands down the frame. Examining the paint that was torn off and the dull glow of the bulb in the light on top.
"I–I don't know, Rory." The Doctor finally said softly, finished examining the TARDIS. His brain began to run different scenarios of how this could've happened to the TARDIS, but under all of them lay the sadness at seeing his beautiful box so worn, so damaged. He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked over to find Rory standing next to him, ready to support him if he needed it. It shocked the Doctor how calm Rory was right now, given the situation with Amy, he was still so calm and collected, and was being kind. As much as he denies it, he's a Pond at heart.
But before he could come to a conclusion, his world shattered again, but easier this time, because he was beginning to understand what was wrong. He heard the voices of one person he was sure he wouldn't hear again, and another, which he actively tried to avoid hearing.
"Doctor, what happened to her?" An American voice said behind him and Rory, who had turned around to look at the new people in the room.
"No clue. Probably not good though." Said a voice with a northern accent, which made the Doctor turn to find himself face to face with himself.
O.o.O.o.O
"We picked up Void stuff on this thing as we went past on the other side of the block. Turned around and found you two." Jake said as the truck moved, "So the question is, are you human? And if so, how did you get though the Void?"
"Well, that settles that then, we are in a parallel universe." The Doctor said, not answering either question. "See the thing is, we were brought here by accident, our ship took off on its own, when we landed, we were here."
"Your ship? Does it have a name?"
"Yes it does, thanks for asking, it's called the TARDIS."
That seemed to stop Jake from replying; he just opened and closed his mouth, clearly trying to find the right words.
"You alright Jakey-boy?" Jack asked, amused at his expression. The question appeared to let Jake speak again, as he said something to shock the Doctor and Jack.
"Yeah, just, if you travel in the TARDIS, where's the Doctor?"
The Doctor and Jack watched the Torchwood soldiers and Jake load the TARDIS onto a trailer attached to one of the SUVs. Jake seemed to want to get as far away from the Doctor as he could. He had only been confused when the Doctor revealed who he was, forcing him to explain regeneration, which seemed to confuse Jake even more, much to the Doctor's chagrin and Jack's amusement. Luckily for the Doctor, Jack had been much more interested and understanding of regeneration and what it meant for a Time Lord.
"So what do we do? Clearly they know who you are." Jack said to the Doctor, who seemed to be brooding over the fact that he was known here on this universe. The Doctor had asked Jake if he knew how they were brought here, but he had simply said that if anyone knew, it would be the science department of Torchwood.
"We go to Torchwood. I want to know how its possible they know me. The Time Lords were the only ones in the multiverse; any new universe created didn't have them, which can only mean we're unique. So that means at some point in my life I come here."
"How is that possible? They know you, you don't know them."
"I'm a time traveller Jack, work it out."
The ride to Torchwood was quiet, Jake was still unsure how to react to the Doctor and Jack, Jack was nervous because the Doctor was clearly not at ease, and the Doctor was thinking hard about how they knew him. Travelling to another universe without Time Lords to monitor the travel would probably kill the TARDIS. If they knew who he was, it was likely that there was another version of him here. One of his future selves was probably around somewhere, and foreknowledge was dangerous.
As they entered the building, they separated from the TARDIS to go inspect the science department of Torchwood. They arrived at a restricted section, which was labelled as a clearance level 5 or above. "This looks important," the Doctor said as he got out the sonic screwdriver, "lets have a look."
The Doctor and Jack found themselves in a hallway leading to a room where a blue box could be seen. Assuming it was their TARDIS, they began to make their way towards it, because they saw a man examining it, and figured they should stop him before he hurts himself.
When they entered the room, they stopped, and saw the TARDIS, the paint torn, the bulb glowing faintly.
"Doctor, what happened to her?" Jack asked with a sharp intake of breath. As he asked, a man turned around to face them, clearly having just been comforting the man who had been examining the TARDIS.
"No clue. Probably not good though." Answered the Doctor, his voice not showing any emotion.
O.o.O.o.O
"So how did it happen then?" Rose asked the Doctor as they sat down for Lunch, "What caused you to regenerate?"
"I crashed a spaceship." The Doctor said honestly, deciding that it would be better to give a partial truth, leaving out the parts about the war.
"Onto Earth?" Rose asked with wide eyes.
"Oh goodness me, no. I landed on Karn. I died, properly dead. But the Sisterhood of Karn brought me back long enough to regenerate."
Rose was near tears now, probably picturing her Doctor broken and dead. "How? How could they bring you back? Is that possible?"
"For them it is. They are the keepers of the Flame of Eternal Life. Or as I've always called it, the Flame of Utter Boredom." The Doctor answered, causing Rose to give a small laugh.
"You couldn't stop the ship crashing then?"
"No, I was trying to save the only crewmember left. She teleported everyone else off, making sure they survived before herself."
"Sounds like you would've liked her."
"She was interesting indeed. It was a long time ago now, though."
That caught Rose's attention, how far off had they been when they dragged him through, how long had it been since he had last seen her? "How long?" Rose asked, anxious to know.
"I struggle to keep track, this body was young when I regenerated. I've expended my regeneration energy, so my body began to age. Makes it awfully difficult to know precisely."
"So you don't know your age?" Rose asked, seeming to want to know as much about this Doctor as she could.
The question made the Doctor think back to the previous days, in the Tower of London with his other selves, the elder one with his bowtie saying how he might be lying about his age at over 1200, thinking it was around that. That would be convincing, pretending to be 1200 or so, as he wasn't sure how old he was meant to be when he was her Doctor.
"Twelve-hundred and something I believe."
That actually did cause Rose to cry; clearly it was too much older than she would've wanted. The Doctor took her hand comfortingly; it was much easier to be kind now that he thought of himself as the Doctor again.
"Sorry." Rose said wiping away tears from her face, "I'm bein' stupid. It's just been so long for you, and so little time for me. Ever since my Doctor vanished…"
That interested the Doctor, but decided not to comment, foreknowledge was dangerous, the less he knew the better. Of course, he would forget it all once he left, but still, who knows what might be retained. It was interesting though that he still remembered the events of the Undergallery, and how he saved Gallifrey, the only explanation was that his timeline was still out of sync with his future selves, which means that there should be other versions of him around. However, who knows what point of their timeline they'll be in, they may not recall saving Gallifrey. They might hate him.
"There is nothing stupid about crying for those we've lost Rose, those tears can save us when we least expect to be saved." The Doctor said comfortingly, thinking of how Clara saved him and his future selves from destroying Gallifrey. That girl really knew how to save them, didn't she?
"I just, sorry, but I just wish you were my Doctor." Rose said, with a slight smile, his words having reached her.
"Well, he could well be around here somewhere." The Doctor said.
"What do you mean?"
"Before being pulled here, I was with some of my other selves, the one with a striped suit and sandshoes, and the other with a bowtie and suspenders," Those descriptions seemed to make Rose beam, leading the Doctor to believe she had travelled with one or both of them, "so my timeline is out of sync with my other selves. I should've forgotten those events, but since I haven't at least one of my other selves is here. No knowing where in our timeline they are though."
Roses eyes lit up with determination, getting out of her chair, she said, "Then lets go back to Torchwood, maybe they're there."
"Very well, but keep in mind they may not be your Doctor." The Doctor said with a small smile as he stood up. Seeing Rose nod, he gestured for her to lead the way.
O.o.O.o.O
Somewhere and nowhere, somewhen
Hatred. That was all He could feel. He felt pressure on all sides, trying to crush him, but failing. Everything that tried to kill him failed. He had felt his voice return to him centuries ago, and never stopped roaring in pain. It didn't take long for that roar to turn to one of anger as he adapted to the pain, though.
Suddenly He felt a wave of cold; He was pushed back the way he came. Before He could work out why, He was free. The pain He had felt for so long gone, no pressure crushing His body. Then He laughed, and the universe shook.
