Chapter 6

Ed and Ace turned back towards the house.

And then they both stopped, staring at the woman in the old fashioned, faded dress who had just walked on to the lawn.

"Who's that?" Ace said in a hushed voice.

"Idris," Ed replied.

"But how can she just appear like that?"

"I don't know, but I'm going to ask her!"

Ace watched as Idris walked over the lawn to join them. As she walked over, Ace studied her appearance, wondering how the Tardis matrix could look so completely human...

"He's gone," Ed told her.

Idris nodded.

"And he will fulfil destiny as it is supposed to be. He will save her but be caught by a booby trap explosive and regenerate – into you. And he knows it will happen."

For a moment, pain reflected in her dark eyes.

"I have cried for you with every regeneration, I have felt your pain..."

"And now that pain is over."

But a troubled look was still in her eyes. She looked to Ace, then back to Ed.

"I remember after Rick regenerated, Barbara ran from the console room sobbing. She shut herself in her bedroom and refused to come out. And then you went to her door, Doctor. You told her, 'This is my Tardis and no door is locked to me, Barbara, and I am still your husband.' And I opened the door and you walked in and asked her to look at you. And she did. And you took her in your arms."

And Ed smiled.

"And then she stopped being a virgin wife!"

Then he laughed, but saw Ace glaring at him and quickly lost the bemused expression.

"And that was a very long time ago," he added, "more than a century!"

"And I don't need to hear about that part," Ace added, feeling a sting of jealousy that she couldn't explain over a woman who had been dead for a hundred years.

Idris looked at the Doctor and blinked away tears.

"I have always been honest with you but for one occasion. One occasion, my beautiful thief and now I must explain because you have already asked the question!"

And as she looked at him, Ed looked back at her in confusion.

"What question?"

"My reason for holding on to the power crystals! True, I no longer need them to sustain you in the power core, and you have no need of the holographic body now you are free, but I am not free, I must hold on to the additional power and the reason lies behind the door, the one locked door!"

Ed stared at her.

"What locked door?"

She hesitated, then looked at him apologetically.

"The door that has been locked for a hundred years. Now you are free, the power crystals and the imprint of my matrix can sustain the Tardis for you. And I can keep back enough of my own energy to recreate and maintain the female form I choose to wear indefinitely."

Ed was still staring at her.

"You're saying you can divide the matrix and leave as Idris? But why, where would you go?"

"You are in your final life. My imprint and the power crystals will be more than enough to maintain the Tardis in what ever form you chose to shape it, the maze too. But due to the battle damage space time flight could prove dangerous without me. And I need you to fly the Tardis one last time, Doctor... But first I have to explain...the one locked door..."

She hesitated again, blinking away tears.

"Idris?" he asked, "What's wrong? I don't understand about a locked door?"

Her eyes were misted with tears.

"Your fault," she said as her voice trembled, "You and your habit of bringing home strays...so many of them, all different, always a happy hello and a sad goodbye...I felt it too, I watched them all and shared their joys and sorrows... it would have been easier if you had travelled alone. Of course eventually one of them captured my heart, and I would watch him all the time."

She smiled briefly as she blinked away tears.

"He was so sweet and kind, he looked such a rough man but his heart was oh so gentle, his humour could touch any situation and shine bright light into darkness, and he would stand in front of the mirror, always preening, trying not be ugly...but he wasn't ugly! He was a beautiful living being, a human with more gentleness in his heart that he cared to show."

Ed looked at her in confusion.

"Who are you talking about?"

Her eyes glazed with tears again and she drew in a sharp breath as she recalled painful memories.

"The day the ship was attacked, the day the enemy fleet blew a hole in my side and only the secondary shield system saved you, he was there on the floor, bleeding into me! And I knew..." tears ran down her face as she continued: "I knew I could not bear for Jayden Drake to stop being alive!"

"Jayden? You fell in love with Jayden?" Ed's eyes widened as a chill passed through his blood. "I thought the body was lost when the shield malfunctioned...what have you done, Idris?"

Tears still reflected in her eyes.

"I gathered him up and placed him in stasis. He was still alive, barely alive. He is frozen in time. The power crystals have enabled me to keep him in stasis and function as Tardis and I even kept you alive in the power core for a century too! But now you are free, and your other self has left the time stream. Which leaves the locked door ready to be opened!"

And she looked at him pleadingly.

"He lives, he is held in stasis! If you can take him to a place where he can be repaired I can do the rest, I can restore him to full function once more! He is too weak now, but if we can repair him -"

"He's not a Tardis!" Ed said angrily, "He's a fragile human being and his injuries were terrible! Let him go, Idris. Let him go."

Her eyes widened.

"But then he will not be alive! I must keep Jayden Drake alive!"

Ed gave a weary sigh and brought his hand to his face and briefly wiped away tears that stung at his eyes as he thought of his close friend, a century had passed by and he had believed him to be dead, and now to find out the truth was a shock... Jayden was still alive, preserved after the explosion and hidden somewhere in the Tardis?

"I grieved for him so long ago," he said, "I've already let him go...and now you're telling me he's not dead? He can't survive, Idris. I saw his injuries. The explosion tore him apart..."

"And I am holding him together," she said, "I've been holding him for a hundred years!"

And he saw desperation in her eyes as she looked to him, silently begging for help.

"You mean there's a body hidden in the Tardis?" Ace exclaimed, "And it's been there for a century?"

Ed kept his gaze fixed on Idris as he replied.

"No Ace, not a dead body. Idris is keeping him in stasis, much like she kept me in the power core, except that he is completely frozen in time, she did it to save him from death."

"That's why you wouldn't give up the power crystals?" Ace said.

Idris turned her head.

"I needed the additional power to maintain the ship and the power core and to keep Jayden in stasis."

Then Ed took hold of her hands and she looked into his eyes again.

"Idris," he said gently, "I saw Jayden's body. Even if we took him to a time and place where he could be saved the chances of that happening, even under the best of circumstances, are very slight. And if he did survive, he would be terribly maimed and I know he wouldn't want to live like that. I think you should take me to where you have placed his body and release him from stasis."

She pulled her hands free of his grip as she stared at him.

"And then Jayden would not be alive! He would die and I do not want him to stop being alive, alive is such a wonderful state of being!"

Ed drew in a slow breath as he gathered his thoughts. The sensible thing to do, would be to have Idris release Jayden from stasis immediately and let nature take its course – something that wouldn't take long, considering the last time he had seen him, Jayden was a bloody mess with his guts trailing red on the floor, there had been a huge hole in his side and his right arm had been almost severed. It had been clear he stood no chance...

But knowing the truth about Idris preserving him had sparked up emotions that had long laid buried through grief, and he knew when he saw Jayden again, letting go would be far more difficult than he cared to admit. The pain of his loss felt fresh all over again – how could he bear to let him go a second time? It seemed impossible, yet the only logical course of action.

"You must let him go," he told her again, "We can both stay with him until the end, he won't die alone."

And she drew in a short, sharp breath and stifled a sob.

"No," she said softly, "There must be more we can do...I have carried you around for centuries, put up with every aspect of all your lives, even the less than perfect ones! I have sheltered you and your companions and I stayed to protect you when you had no lives left to lose and I sang you to sleep for a hundred years! Now, one favour for me! Please..."

He shook his head.

"I can't let him suffer, Idris, it's not right -"

"But we can save him! I can manage a flight into the distant future, we can take him to a cybernetics centre and they can repair him and then, when he's strong enough, my inner power shall be enough to hold his life together!"

Ed looked at her intently. The Tardis was old and wise but he also knew there was no fool like an old one when it came to love...

"Are you certain you can save him?"

"As long as he is not weak. He needs to be strong enough to take a small amount of energy from me."

"And how long can you keep him alive? He couldn't handle more than a fraction of your energy."

She smiled as hope shone in her tearful eyes.

"Forever," she told him, "I want Jayden Drake to live forever."

"Of course you do," Ace said, "You love him. Everyone wants the person they love to live forever."

Idris smiled again.

"And I can really make that happen! I can sustain his fragile life, I can make him keep on living, so we never part!"

"And that might not be a good idea," Ed told her, "Your power is immense but as sure as you are of your love for him, what makes you think he would definitely return your feelings?"

She smiled.

"I have taken him in my arms many times, before the great battle. I came to him at night, I made love to him."

Ed stared at her.

"You had sex with one of my companions?"

Idris laughed softly.

"He liked it!" she said excitedly, "But I didn't tell him what I really was. I said I was a time travelling being... I told him to keep us a secret. He wanted me to meet you! I kept making excuses."

"Did he say he loved you?" Ace asked her.

And Idris nodded, blinking to fight off more tears.

"Many times. And when I couldn't be with him I used to silently watch him, I was never far from his side but he never knew, he had no idea that I was the Tardis matrix."

"I totally understand that you love him," Ace said, "We both do, don't we, Ed?"

He glanced at Ace.

"What did you say?"

"I said, we totally understand -"

"No," I'm not sure that I do, I've just found out my Tardis has been having sex with one of my companions, it's quite a shock because this is the first I've heard about it!"

"She loves him," Ace said, "It's simple enough to understand!"

And she turned to Idris.

"You kept the Doctor alive for a hundred years. You sang him to sleep and you made the maze and gave him a hologram, you kept him alive until I came along to rescue him! And I am so grateful you did that, because he wouldn't be here today if you hadn't helped him. So yes, I understand why you're holding on to Jayden. And we will help you -"

"Oh no, don't make promises like that," Ed said to her, "We have to let him go, Ace."

"But we ought to try, if we can, if there's a chance -"

"Please?"

He looked back at Idris, who looked at him pleadingly.

"Please my beautiful thief, please help me. I've always been there for you. Now it's your turn. Just this once, something for me?"

Ed gave a heavy sigh.

"I can't promise you anything," he said, "But take me to him. Show me this locked door you've been hiding from me."

As the Doctor walked towards the house with Idris, Ace followed.

As they went inside and through to the hallway she realised Idris was leading him to the body :

It had been in the house?

Where in the house, downstairs, or in the attic or...

She shivered.

Not the bedroom, not under the floorboards or in the wall or -

"It's here," Idris said, and she ran her hand over the wall where the Tardis roundels had doubled.

"Oh, right here," Ace said nervously, "Just a short distance from the kitchen...nice..."

As the outline of a door way illuminated, the wall shifted and the light faded rapidly, and Ace stared at the sight of a closed door where before had been just a wall.

"It's not locked any more," Idris said quietly.

Ace took in a deep breath.

"I'm not going first."

"I will," Ed told her, and he placed his hand against the door and it swung open.

As Ed walked into the room, Idris followed.

Ace hesitated for a moment and then she walked through the doorway.

She saw the white walls of a Tardis room, and there, on the floor, held in a bubble of pure energy, was Jayden Drake – or what was left of him...

As her stomach turned over she gave a gasp.

"I need to get out!" she said, as her hand flew to her mouth, then she ran from the room and across the hallway and out the back door, where she leaned against the wall taking in fresh air and trying to banish a sight from her mind that she had never wanted to see, but the image stayed fresh and vivid in her mind, Jayden Drake mutilated by the explosion a hundred years before, his insides bloody and gleaming under the harsh light, the blood still crimson and shining fresh...

After Ace ran from the room, Idris turned her head with a worried look in her eyes.

"I didn't mean to make her feel unwell."

Ed was still looking at the body of his best friend.

"I'm not surprised she reacted the way she did. Look at him, Idris. If you release him from stasis he won't survive very long. Probably not long enough to be removed from this room, his chances of survival are very very low. And you've kept him in stasis for a century – you may as well say he died then, he might not wake up, he could stay frozen as he fades away. He's already gone."

As he spoke his voice was hushed and he was still looking down at Jayden's body, thinking of his close friend and feeling the pain of his loss all over again and now that pain felt so sharp it seemed like the explosion had happened yesterday...

This would not be easy. It would mean saying goodbye to him, and mourning him, all over again. But to decide between letting him go and giving him a chance, albeit a slender one, was almost too much to bear...

"Can you help me?"she asked, "I can take us anywhere in the universe, anywhere, one flight – there must be a place where he stands a chance of survival."

The Doctor thought about it.

"We would need a time when cybernetics are highly advanced, when synthetic organs are perfected...I suppose we could try here on Earth around five hundred years from now...cybernetics and synthetic organs were very advanced by then... But don't expect this to work, Idris. You only have to look at him to see how bad it is."

She nodded, and then she looked down at Jayden, his clothing bloodied and his wounds gaping.

"But we must try."

"Yes," he replied, "I feel I should say no and let him go, but I can't because he is my friend and a chance, no matter how small, has to be worth trying for."

Idris walked out of the room and the Doctor followed her.

"What are you doing?"

"You said yes, so the time is now..."
She started to glow.

"No!" he said, "Not yet, Ace is outside and -"

Ed fell silent, watching as the walls shimmered and cracked and then as the place shifted, he was standing in the console room of his Tardis once more – a wide, vast room of white walls and polished black console with soft spotlights above set in the ceiling. He had not seen this console since the battle to save the Earth.

"Five hundred years, yes I can do that," she said, and as she glowed warmly, a large crystal glowed in the middle of the console, rose and fell, and the Tardis began to vanish.

Ace had felt a jolt as the wall behind her shifted.

Then the world had shimmered and she had blinked, heard the sound of a departing Tardis and turned sharply as she stared in disbelief:

The house was gone, now all she saw was the familiar sight of a blue box fading from view...

She ran towards it.

"Doctor!" she yelled, but the Tardis faded in and out of sight, and then it was gone.

Ace turned back, looked around, feeling slightly dizzy at the sudden change:

There was no house, no garden, no old wall that hid a maze.

It was all gone, she was standing in the middle of a field, and beyond it, lie woodland.

The Tardis had folded up, reformed and...left without her?

She looked skywards as hurt reflected in her eyes and she thought of all the times the Professor had kept secrets, never quite letting her in on everything:

"You'd better come back for me, Ed!" she said as she continued to look up and think about a time and place far away, "You'd better come back!"

As the Tardis shifted through time slowly, Idris remained in her human form.

She looked at Ed and smiled.

"I'm taking us through slowly, Doctor. I'm not the fast machine I used to be, the battle damage saw to that. When a girl's had part of her design wrecked like that nothing ever works in the same way again. I can still function, but differently. And the journey back will be the same. I must be slow and careful."

"I wish we hadn't left without Ace."

"I will take you back ten seconds after you left, she won't have much time to be angry with you!"

That remark had got him thinking a little too much.

"Do you think she's angry with me?"

"For now, yes but the return journey will cancel out that part."

"I hope you're right, I didn't want to leave her behind!"

"It is kinder to leave her," Idris replied, "At least for now – the sight of Jayden made her unwell."

"Of course it did, his insides are hanging out!"

"So Ace doesn't need to see this," she told him, and then she drew in a gasp as she placed her hand on her upper chest.

Her eyelashes fluttered as she blinked several times, and then she drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"Oh that's better...the loop in time is complete...Rick just regenerated into you. And history will carry on as its meant to be."

And she smiled.

Ed looked at her in surprise.

"You really do feel every single one of my regenerations!"

"Well here with you at the end of your lifetimes, I feel echoes of the past all the time because the matrix is a part of it and I'm the matrix."

And then she cast a glance around the console room, and watched as the crystal in the centre of the console rose and fell in a graceful rhythm.

"We're almost there," she said, "Not long now..."

Far off in time and space, at the other end of the time line, Rick's regeneration had just happened, and the man who stood in his place cast aside the blood stained leopard print jacket, declared he hated turquoise and said he needed to redecorate.

And Jayden had stared at him.

"Doc?"

"Doctor. Not Doc. That was him. I'm not him, I'm me..."

And then he ran his fingers through his dark hair as he thought for a moment.

"Who am I this time?"

And then he turned to the darkened view of deep space beyond the viewing panel, and in its starless depths he saw his new face looking back at him reflected in the glass.

"Not bad at all!" he said, "I'm rather pleased with this one. Good thing I am, this is my last regeneration!"

And then he looked around the console room and back at Jayden.

"Where's Barbara?"

"She ran out of here crying when you regenerated."

"I'd better go and find her. She needs to understand I'm still the Doctor."

"And Doc -"

He gave a sigh.

"Doctor, not Doc, what?"

"You might want to get changed and clean yourself up first," Jayden told him, indicating to his shirt.

He looked down and saw blood stains.

"Right, I'll do that, Jayden," he replied, and then he left the console room.

A short while later, the newly regenerated Doctor had showered and changed his clothes and stood in front of a mirror admiring his new appearance as he ran a comb through his dark hair. Then he put the comb down and ran his hands down his red and gold waist coat and smiled into the mirror.

"No bad at all!" he said aloud, and then he looked closer and thought some more.

"What name shall this version of me have? I'm not Rick, he's gone...John Smith has been used far too many times..."

And then he snapped his fingers.

"I've got it! Edward...Ed, my name is Ed in this regeneration. Nice and short, easy to remember, the Doctor known as Ed...sets me apart from the others. Now, where is Barbara?"

And then he left the room, walked down the long and winding Tardis corridor, then stopped at a closed door and knocked.

"Barbara," he said, "It's me, it's the Doctor."

There was a long pause, and then she replied:

"I saw him die! Rick is gone, my husband is dead!"

"No, your husband lives! I regenerated, I don't look like him but I can assure you, I am the Doctor. Can I come in?"

"The door is locked!" she said sharply.

Ed stepped closer, placing his hand on the lever.

"I promise you no door in the Tardis is locked to me, Barbara. And it's been a year since we married. And I just regenerated saving you because I love you. I realise this could take some time, but I'm still your husband and I've waited a long time for us to be together. So please, just look at me. Look in my eyes, you'll know who I am."

And he opened the door and walked into the bedroom.

Barbara was sitting on the bed, her long, sheer dress was stained with dirt and smoke from the explosion, and blood from his former life's injuries.

She turned her head, her alien skin as pale as her long fair hair, but her eyes stayed fixed on the bed and she would not look at him.

"So you can open any door. And now I want you to leave."

He stepped closer, walking over to her, and still her eyes were cast downward.

"I'm still the Doctor," he said again, "And you've been my virgin wife for long enough. And I'm not letting you walk away from me just because I've regenerated. Look at me, I'm still the Doctor. And I don't think you'll be disappointed."

She slowly raised her head and looked up at the man who stood beside her.

He smiled.

"Hello," he said warmly, "I'm the Doctor, but you can call me Ed."

And her dark eyes filled with tears as she started to smile, and then she reached for him and he embraced her, kissing her with passion that had been held back for a very, very long time...

And while the past was playing out as it was meant to, at the other end of the wibbly, wobbly ball of timey-wimey stuff that was the Doctor's time line, while Ace waited on Earth, Ed travelled onwards into the future with Idris, clinging to the slender hope that Jayden Drake's life could still be saved...