Eleven and Serenity joined the Ninth and Tenth Doctors at the Time Rotor. "So this is what you've done to my TARDIS?" Ten asked, looking at the radically different desktop theme. "I don't like it."
Nine too agreed. "Right, I much more liked the coral theme I had."
Serenity took her seat and the Doctor joined his counterparts at the controls. "I kept that desktop for five years. Thought it was time for something new. And anyway, I didn't have much choice in the matter. She picked this out all herself," he added, smiling up at the Time Rotor. "Everyone, welcome Serenity back," he spoke, followed by a nod to his tiny companion.
Both the Ninth and Tenth Doctors grinned and chorused "Welcome back."
Serenity stood and joined the Doctors at the console. The Time Rotor started up and down, Vworping away as the TARDIS went along, this time much smoother than before with three Doctors at the controls. "Doctor?" she asked, wanting to gain her Doctor's attention.
The Eleventh Doctor glanced down at her. "Yes, Serenity, what is it?" he asked, knowing that it'd take all three of them to pilot the TARDIS onto the plane of existence occupied by the Titans.
"Two things," she told him, "First, how did you know that cutting the power would bring me back to my young form? And two, shouldn't you find the gift I left for the Ninth Doctor and use that to fly the TARDIS?"
All three Doctors listened to the girl's queries. Simultaneously, their eyes widened realizing that they'd skipped over finding whatever twenty-something Selene had left in the TARDIS back in 2005. "Ahh," Eleven spoke. Nine and Ten stopped manipulating the controls and started looking for the storage bin she'd tucked the tool in.
"What did you do with all my storage bins?" Ten asked, looking at the floor beneath them. On his TARDIS, the floor was made from woven metal and there were storage bins set into them. He kept a great number of tools and gadgets in the floor panels which were now replaced by clean, clear glass.
Eleven looked at his past self. "Again, I didn't have anything to do with that. She probably shuffled them around and stuck everything into a store room," he hypothesized.
Serenity tugged at his coat. "Didn't you delete the store rooms when we filled the moon with air?" she asked.
The Doctor's mind rushed back into the past, recalling him deleting the store rooms and emptying the swimming pool to create enough atmosphere to flood the lunar surface. "Blimey," he said, recalling it. He started jabbing controls and buttons with the ferocity of a madman. "That complicates things!" he announced loudly, hoping to get his past selves back at the console.
"What does? What's going on?" the Ninth Doctor asked in his northern accent. He climbed the stairs to the console from the mass of wires underneath.
Ten too joined them, looking curiously at the pair. "What'd you do?" he asked.
Eleven's gaze shifted from them to Serenity to the console and all around. "The gift that Selene left us back in 2005 was in one of the storage bins in the floor…" he spoke.
"We know that," Ten and Nine chorused.
"I may have accidentally deleted the store room it may have been in when I had to fill the moon with air…" he sheepishly told his past selves. He winced, knowing the full extent of his error. Serenity took his hand in solidarity.
The Ninth and Tenth Doctors looked at the newest model in disbelief. "I must have been hit by a truck or something," Ten spoke, "I was never that airheaded."
"Well, tear into me later," Eleven told him, "But right now, we need to find that artifact. Who knows where the old girl put her since she reconfigured herself."
The Tenth and Ninth Doctors looked at the radically different TARDIS interior. The platform they were on led off, upwards on a flight of stairs in one direction and down a flight of stairs in the other direction. "How'd you know where anything is?" the Ninth Doctor asked.
Eleven looked up to the upper stairs. "That staircase leads to the drawing room, then the library, finally the swimming pool." He glanced down to the other, downward moving stairwell, "That one used to go to the fitness center, movie theatre, science labs one through seven and what used to be the store rooms."
Serenity listened as he rattled off all the things that fit into his magical Police Box. "A movie theatre? In a tiny blue box?" she asked him.
He glanced down to her. "That's why I needed the Dr. Pepper machine; movies are more fun when you sneak your own snacks in," he told her with a wink. "Of course, this presents a problem; how can the two of you help search for the… thing… without exposing too much of your own future to yourselves?"
"It's called a trans-spatial dimensional portal," Serenity corrected.
"Right, the trans-spatial dimensional portal," the Doctor spoke, correcting himself, "You two, knowing the contents of the TARDIS now could alter your future, and ergo my past… Hang on, I think I've got something for that," he spoke, remembering a device he once constructed on the fly.
He grabbed Serenity's hand and started up the staircase leading to his study. The Ninth and Tenth Doctors followed. The quartet arrived at the large wooden double doors of the study. Eleven and Serenity pressed the doors open and entered the book lined study.
Clocks of all varieties ticked away on the walls, with the odd grandfather floor clock thrown in for variety. Massive shelves of books lined the perimeter walls and housed mementos of his past selves: a long scarf hung from a hat tree in the corner, a cricket ball rested atop a copy of HG Wells' The Time Machine, and a recorder flute stood erect next to a tiny cat shaped lapel pin.
Eleven scanned around. "It should be around here someplace…" he spoke, letting his voice trail off.
"The trans-spatial dimensional portal?" Serenity eagerly asked.
"No. That's still lost somewhere," the Doctor explained. He worked his way down the bookshelves, getting to the glowing fireplace and coffee table.
Serenity still hung onto him. "So what are you looking for?" she asked, growing tired of being drug around in circles in the study.
"Yes, what are you looking for?" the Ninth Doctor asked. He and his successor didn't leave the doorway, not wanting to enter the room and contaminate their own timeline with future knowledge or experience.
"I'm looking…" the Eleventh Doctor spoke, "For a Chronon blocker."
The other Doctors understood. Serenity was having more difficulty. "What's a Chronon blocker?" she asked. "Isn't that a pill for heart patients?"
The Eleventh Doctor stopped, looking at her strangely. "That's a beta blocker," he explained. They began the search again. "No, a Chronon blocker can temporarily render the possible effects of timeline manipulation null and void. It'll let one of my past selves help search for the trans-spatial dimensional portal without altering my past."
"What does it look like?" Serenity asked. She too started looking, not at all sure what she was looking for.
"Sort of like a bracelet," he told her, "With a metal cube on the top. I had to make it on my last trip to Skaro. Amy's past was rewritten when the Daleks invaded Earth in 1963 so I used spare Dalek parts and whipped it together so that Amy wouldn't blink out of existence."
"Daleks?" the Ninth Doctor asked, overhearing the conversation. "There shouldn't be any Daleks. I eradicated the Daleks! They were erased from existence by my Time Lock!" he shouted. The very mention of the Doctor's most hated enemy elicited a response in the tumult of emotions boiling away in the post-Time War Ninth Doctor.
The Eleventh Doctor turned and looked at his past self. He'd forgotten that when he was that man, he knew that the Daleks were a memory. At least until he and Rose ended up in Arizona deep inside a bunker full of alien technology. But in the beginning of that life, as he stood before them now, the Doctor was certain that the Skaro aliens were no more. When he was that man, he did with the Time Lock what he couldn't do on Skaro during the Genesis of the Daleks. He rectified a mistake and eradicated the whole species. "I'm sorry," he apologized.
Ten too looked at him, knowing exactly how angry he was in that incarnation when he discovered a Dalek still alive. "I'm so sorry," he too spoke. That single Dalek in the desert of Arizona changed him forever. But, in the same vein, Rose changed him forever. And for that, in a way, he was partially grateful for the Daleks.
Hatred for the most evil creatures boiled away inside the Ninth Doctor. "They always survive don't they!" he angrily asked. "I lose everything and they always survive!"
The Eleventh Doctor and Serenity joined his past selves back at the door. This time the young girl carried a small bracelet. "Well, on the plus side, we know who is going to wear the Chronon blocker…" he spoke, taking the bracelet and handing it to his angry past self.
"Why me?" the Ninth Doctor asked, taking it and looking at his future self with a look that could only be described as questioning. He couldn't think past the anger or hatred.
Ten looked over them. "You need it because you've got a longer road ahead of you than I do. The Chronon blocker will help to undo anything you learn here when you get sent back to your own time," the Tenth Doctor explained. "My next stop was the Planet of the Ood…" his voice trailed off. "Put it on."
Nine complied, snapping the bracelet around his wrist. The machine set to work, cleaning his body of accumulated Chronon particles. "Okay, so what? Why can't you wear it?" he asked his immediate successor.
"Because he's going to turn into me soon," the Eleventh Doctor spoke. "He's nearing the end of a great run. Rose, Jack, Sarah Jane, Martha and Donna… Harriet Jones, Shakespeare, that lovely Gwen woman at Torchwood… the Nestene, Sycorax, Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans, the Master… all of them. I miss being you," Eleven admitted nostalgically.
Ten contemplated it himself, remembering all the faces of those he loved so much. "It was pretty brilliant, wasn't it? All of it. Everything was fantastic. Too bad you can't tell me what's coming next."
Eleven looked at his past self, knowing that the greatest challenge faced by the Doctor to that point in his life was just ahead. He wanted to tell his old self about the return of the Master and Gallifrey, but he knew he couldn't. "Spoilers," he told himself, citing River again. He looked over to his skinny, suited past self. "But what's coming is fantastic. So, so magnificent. I mean, not for you, obviously, being the end and all, but it's the role we play. The Ood will tell you more."
"Well that sounds all rather impressive," Nine noted, hearing the list of names Eleven rattled off, as well as the enemies. "And since I won't ever remember any of this, can we please maybe get moving along so that I go and do all of it?" he asked.
Ten and Eleven looked at him, his eyebrows high on his head and shoulders raised. It was by far the goofiest looking version since the Time Lock, but even so, he was definitely the most serious of the three Doctors. "I suppose I should let you two go and look for the trans-spatial dimensional portal so we can get this whole show on the road," Ten told them. "I'll be in the console room."
"Right," Eleven agreed. "We'll go and find Serenity's artifact and come back to the control room." He gave his past self a nod. He, the Ninth Doctor and Serenity in tow started down the long corridor next to the study into the depths of the TARDIS.
Ten turned and went back down the flight of stairs to the control room. He was greeted by gilded walls and odd shapes. From the strange staircases going in different directions to the odd ceiling to the oblong walls that were longer on one end, it seemed that this most recent TARDIS interior favored the asymmetrical.
A mish-mash of eras and themes were present. With a telephone on the console from the 1980's to a much older typewriter and a space time visualizer that looked like the last thing someone had watched on it was Queen Elizabeth's coronation in 1953, it appeared as if nothing matched. Even his beloved yellow jump seat had been replaced by three separate white seats, all of them at odd angles. It was as much a hodgepodge as he'd ever seen.
Yet despite the strange shapes and the weird wall angles and kitschy period pieces present, it was still the TARDIS. The old Time Rotor was unmistakable and the hexagonal console hearkened back to the very first console ever; the one that he and his granddaughter Susan took to earth in 1963.
"It's always you," he told the box, "Old or new, from every end of space to the other, it's always just you and me…"
A small chime echoed into the room. He looked over and saw another stairwell, this one not attached to the gantry that housed the console. It led upward. He left the Time Rotor and went to the stairwell, looking up the stairs, trying to see what was in it. The Doctor knew he couldn't contaminate his own timeline by knowing anything more about his future than he already knew, but he felt strangely drawn to that open door.
That was always a part of him. He couldn't resist the call of an open door. Or empty chasm… the thrill of the unknown. He'd spent so much time lately obsessing over the Ood and his own song coming to an end, he nearly forgot who he was; the daft old man who stole a box to go and see the universe. He was the bloke who, after rappelling ten miles down a dark chasm on Krop Top, cut his rappelling line and fell miles more, and eventually faced off with Satan himself at the bottom of a pit. He was the man who, at the end of time itself, decided to take stroll outside just to see what the place was like.
He looked at the door again, wide open and staring at him. "Why not?" he asked himself. "Allons-y." He started up the stairwell, one step at a time, carrying himself into places unknown.
At the top of the staircase he found a rather odd thing waiting for him. Before him stood two wooden doors, blue in color. A placard on the left side read Police Telephone. Free for use of public. Pull to open. "What?" he asked himself as his voice went squeaky. He pushed the door open and stepped inside, finding a most comforting display.
Preserved, in all its glory, were some 282 porthole windows, masses of cables overhead and a TARDIS console still wearing the Coral desktop theme.
He looked wondrously at the marvelous police box as he was most intimate with it. The hat tree was in the right spot, the space time visualizer was very un-1950's and the yellow jump seat was exactly as it should have been. Except for one thing standing next to the console.
"Hello," a girl's Scottish voice spoke.
The Doctor looked up and saw a person he was not familiar with. She was tall and skinny with a shock of red hair, fair skin and hazel green eyes. "Who are you?" he asked, closing the wooden door behind him.
"Oh right," she spoke, "You wouldn't know who I am. You linear living creatures; you haven't met me yet. This face would mean nothing to you. Hold on," she told him.
The Doctor looked at her as she closed her eyes, as if deep in concentration. The ginger woman before him disappeared, and was replaced by a short, scraggly man with short hair wearing a vest and jeans. "Now who are you?" the Time Lord asked.
The unknown man looked down his body. "No, I've gotten the wrong one again. If you didn't know the last one, this face would make even less sense." He looked up at the Doctor. "You've met quite a lot of people, backwards and forwards… hard to pick out the right form. You corporeal beings… now wait a second." He too closed his eyes.
In a flash, this scrawny, scraggly man was replaced. This time, by a shape the Doctor did recognize. He was taller and still male, but the scraggly beard was replaced by a clean shaven, steel jaw. "Jack?" the Doctor asked, seeing his friend Jack Harkness before him.
Jack too looked downward, as if he didn't know who he was. "Well it's still wrong." He looked upward. "I mean, I'm getting closer. I was aiming for London, but instead first get Leadworth and now Cardiff. Never was good with exact places… but you know that," Jack chuckled. "Anyway, I've got something special for you, I just need to find the right body. And in case you can't tell, I'm not really Jack or Rory or Amy. Just hang on, okay?"
Jack too closed his eyes. A flash accompanied this change. "There, that's better," the new being spoke approvingly, knowing she had the right form. The Doctor looked in wonder at the new hologram or whatever it was before him. The voice was definitely south London, the hair, blonde. Brown eyes peered at him and he could feel his hearts beat a touch faster.
"Rose?" the Doctor asked, seeing his twice lost but never-forgotten companion.
She smiled, as only Rose could. "Well, kind of," she explained. "I'm actually a graphical interface designed to interact with whatever Time Lord was assigned to operate me. I guess since you stole me, that makes it you. Or I stole you… whichever you like."
The Doctor was putting it all together. "So, you're the TARDIS?" he asked.
She smiled more, flashing her pearly whites. "That's my thief. Quick as ever…"
The Doctor appreciated the form the old box had taken, and was even a little amazed that it had. In all his years, the TARDIS never saw a need to reach out to talk to him. This was a first. "So, why are you here talking to me? Why are we here, in my control room with you? I mean, if I had to guess, I'd say it was something to do with my impending fate. You're trying to calm me down."
"Will it work?" she asked, peering into his soul like no one else could.
He grinned like an idiot. "Well, if anyone could do it, it'd be you," he admitted. He strolled around the control panels, plopping down on his familiar jump seat. "But, you're actually the TARDIS, and you just look like Rose? The actual life-force inside the Box, that's you."
She moved around, joining him on his side of the console. "Yep," she agreed, "That's why I called you my thief. You stole me, after all."
He looked at her, a touch of disbelief tainting his soul. "So, after all these years, after ten regenerations, from one end of time and space to the other, this whole time, you could talk to me?"
She nodded. "Yep," Rose told him, "But, I don't have to though. You and I, we're so close I know how you're feeling and what you're thinking. And when I have to interfere, sometimes you end up in the Cotswolds instead of Roboolore. It's always for the best."
He looked around at the control room, missing it and knowing that he wasn't going to be around for much longer. "And then I suppose sometime soon you're going to hijack me and take me to the Planet of the Ood, so I can go and die?"
She reached out and took his hand, gripping it as only Rose could. "You have to," she assured him. He looked forlorn at the news, not wanting his time to end. "I know it seems like a lot, but that's who you are. Those two versions of yourself rummaging through my store rooms are both brilliant. Your predecessor saved Rose from the Autons. He met Jack Harkness in 1941 and helped him become a new man. He stopped a Dalek fleet from eradicating humanity in the year 200,100 and in the process saved Rose's life. You didn't think twice when you sucked the power of the Time Vortex from her. So, why are you so pensive now?"
He looked at her face, remembering all the good times they'd had out among the stars. "When I was him, I didn't mind giving it up to save her. And the new one, he's so much more different… I guess it's because I don't want it to end. I don't wanna go," he admitted.
"But he's still the Doctor," she told him, "That new version of you has done so much already. He re-started the Big Bang, went toe to toe with the Weeping Angels and he danced like a loon at Amy and Rory's wedding. It doesn't matter if it's bowties and tweed or Converse and spiked hair. No matter what, you're always the Doctor. Your future is safe. Your spirit will always be safe as long as you're still alive."
"But he's not me," the Doctor argued, wanting to continue his existence.
Rose stood and the TARDIS recalled an ancient memory. She closed her eyes and summoned a recollection from ages ago. "Go on, have a look," she told him, pointing at the Space Time visualizer mounted on the Time Rotor.
He spun the thoroughly modern flat screen visualizer to him, not knowing what the consciousness inside the TARDIS would conjure up to help him feel good about surrendering his life or becoming a bowtied idiot with swooping hair. On the screen was an image of himself. The picture was old and faded and even in black and white. He looked over the ancient man on the screen, both young and old at the same time. It was the very first version of him, the daft old man who'd stolen the box. The First Doctor.
The old man had a gash on his forehead and his suit was tattered and dirty around the edges. The Tenth Doctor remembered it vividly. He'd just finished fighting the Cybermen from Mondas, Earth's twin planet and his old body was too aged and tired to keep going. His regeneration was imminent. From there, the oldest looking, yet youngest chronologically, Doctor ever began to speak.
He gripped the lapels of his suit and looked skyward, recalling his adventures and his friends and his granddaughter Susan. "One day, I shall come back. Yes, I shall come back. Until then there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine…"
The Doctor sat back on his jump seat, listening to the wisdom of his younger self. Even back then, over 700 years ago, he knew what his lot in life was. When he was that man, he exhausted his body to fight the Cybermen and save Earth. The Second Doctor was placed on trial by the Time Lords for interfering in the affairs of lesser species; defending them from intergalactic threats. That incarnation surrendered his life for them as the Time Lords forced regeneration. His Third self died protecting Earth from an invading race of spiders. And that was the trend that carried on up to that version that ultimately gave his life so that Rose could live.
He couldn't be the one to break the trend.
He couldn't.
As he was now, the Doctor had become very warm and personable. He was adored by those around him. Rose loved him, Martha loved him and Donna loved him, in a strictly platonic sort of way. Jack, Mickey, Sarah Jane, Harriet Jones, former Prime Minister, and Rose's mum Jackie… they'd all grown to love the Doctor. And he couldn't let them down.
He grinned slightly.
"You're so loved," Rose told him. "Everyone in the whole universe loves you, in any form you take. You've touched so many lives… you should take comfort in the fact that, even though you've grown a bit silly, he's still the Doctor. That little girl wandering the halls with you is so enamored with you, that she came along for the adventure, despite facing the most horrible consequence. This adventure will take so much from all of you, but it's something that only you can do. Rest assured that no matter what, the Last Son of Gallifrey will never, ever, die. As long as you're remembered in the hearts and minds of everyone, the Doctor will live forever."
He listened to her, knowing that the aged wisdom of his old Blue Box was talking to him directly. "Well then," he spoke as he stood up, "Once we're done here, I think I should head off to talk to Ood Sigma. See what he has in store for me. Anyway, I should be off." He stood from the jump seat and looked at Rose one more time.
Rose met his gaze. His rambling meant only one thing; he was back. There didn't need to be any confabulation or meetings or even any words. The bond between a boy and his stolen magic box was simply that strong. "I'll see you soon," she told him, "Well, old me, so I can take you to see the Ood. Maybe stop in Hawaii or for a quick Gary Moore concert beforehand…"
The Doctor grinned and started for the door, stepping through the blue wooden doors and onto the staircase leading down to the most recent version of the TARDIS.
As much as he might not like it, that swoopy haired man with a bowtie and tweed jacket was him. And as history tends to repeat itself, the Tenth Doctor knew his future was safe.