Chapter Seven:
The Doctor and Scarlett found their way to the bottom of the tower and noticed that there were no guards on post but the door was reinforced by multiple locks. The Time Lord opened all them with a single buzz of the sonic screwdriver and pushed the hefty door open with a mighty shove.
The two time travellers wandered in, closing the door behind them, and headed up the long winding stair case. "I forgot to ask," Scarlett began. "When that guard hit you; why didn't you hit him back like you usually do."
"Because I was playing a part," The Doctor replied, looking upwards as they ascended the stairs; clasping his cane in his hand. "Magic isn't real but psychic powers are. Magicians are often delusional psychics who manipulate the weak. They all hold themselves calmly and never touch anyone below them; if I hit him then I would have made it look unrealistic."
"So Magic doesn't exist?"
"Come on Scarlett you're a scientist, you should know that."
"But I thought anything was possible in the universe."
"Nearly everything is; but not magic."
The two ascended the stairs and instantly noticed two guards standing in front of a large set of wooden double doors; they wore golden armour like the guards at the gate of the city. "Halt!" they barked.
"Don't stop me, I'm a magician and if you touch me I will crush you!" The Doctor hissed back as he walked straight towards them. "I am not joking, how else do you think I entered the city?"
Scarlett tried to not laugh at how ignorant the guards were as they instantly opened the doors for The Doctor. She followed the top hatted Time Lord into the large extravagant room with couches, fire places, paintings, tapestries; king sized beds and book cases crammed with documents.
They heard the sound giggling of women and they instantly noticed that four women, who were barely clothed, were crawling all over an old man; all seemed to be having a good time but The Doctor was going to put an end to that.
The guards closed the doors as The Doctor reeled back his cane and smacked it into the thick wooden beam that held up the platform above the double bed. The whole bed shook and all of the bed's inhabitants looked up at him.
"I told no one to disturb me!" the old man shouted as the girls scrambled off him and he did up his crystal white robes.
"Well I'm sorry High Priest but this is of universal importance," The Doctor replied, lowering his cane to the ground. He leaned forwards on it, "Now could your…girls leave while we have a chat."
The old man looked fuming but turned to the beautiful girls and said, "Please leave us for a while but I will recall you later." The bunch of scantily clad females rushed from the bed and out of the room; giggling together at The Doctor's apparel.
"Interesting way to spend your time High Priest," Scarlett smirked as she leaned against the bed post.
"Who are you two to judge me?"
"I'm The Doctor and this is…"
"Scarlett," the Scottish red head said, introducing herself. "And we need to talk to you about a sacred arrow."
"The Arrow of Purity?" he gasped, absolutely gobsmacked.
"Shh Scarlett," The Doctor sighed. "I was getting to that." The Doctor removed his gloves and put them in his pocket before taking off his hat and holding it in his slightly sweaty hand. "There is a demon coming that will envelop the universe and the only thing to stop it is your arrow. We need to use this arrow, so please can we have it?"
"No!" the Priest snapped. "You cannot have the arrow of purity, where are my guards?"
The Doctor spun around and tossed Scarlett the sonic screwdriver and his top hat, "Lock the door!"
"What are you doing?" the Priest shouted as he tried to run for the doorway that Scarlett was locking with the sonic device. The Doctor grabbed him and shoved him back onto the bed. "How dare you touch me!" he screamed as he fell onto the mattress.
"Just give us the arrow!" Scarlett exclaimed as she handed The Doctor back his sonic screwdriver.
"High Priest are you okay?" barked a voice from the other side of the doors. Fists banged against the wood.
"No I'm not! Help me!" the man screamed.
"High Priest, I'm getting angry and I'm not a good man when I'm angry!" The Doctor began with a snarl. "So give me the arrow and we'll leave!"
"Never!" the old man declared.
The Doctor instantly let his fist fly and he punched the priest in the nose; there was a loud crack as the bone broke. Blood began to trickle down his face and the elderly man cried out. "Answer my question!" The Doctor screamed.
The man shook his head and The Doctor pulled back his cane and smacked him in the chest. He heard the sound of a crack and suspected that he fractured a rib slightly. The Priest cried out again and Scarlett watched in horror as he reeled back and jabbed the man with the end of his cane in the stomach. She hated it when he got angry, it scared her, but if she tried to stop him then he'd hit her too.
The man screamed again as The Doctor took a step back and wiped the blood off his knuckles against the bed sheets. "Answer me!"
The wooden doors splintered under heavy impact and Scarlett jumped back as a troop of golden armoured soldiers entered the room. The Doctor saw them and cursed under his breath.
"I knew this wouldn't be easy," he sighed, holding his cane like a sword and adopting a short fighting stance. He was ready for combat but could he fight all of them and keep Scarlett safe?
Jack adjusted his coat, "So you want me to go out there and stare at a being that you don't know anything about; without a space suit?"
"Don't worry about dying of lack of oxygen," The H-Doctor reassured him. "We've expanded the oxygen bubble from the T.A.R.D.I.S around the whole moon; so you'll be fine."
"But the rest is correct," T-Doctor continued. "Since you can't die you're the perfect person to meet the being and then come back and tell us what it is."
"What about you guys?" Jack asked, ready for what he was about to do.
The H-Doctor checked the screen on the console and turned a dial slowly, "We'll turn up the shields here and wait for you to come back."
"Well this sounds fun," Jack smirked as he adjusted his suspenders under his thick coat. He turned and walked towards the wooden doors of the ship and waited.
"Good luck," both of the Doctors said at the same time.
Jack opened the door, "I'll need it." He stepped out of the ship and closed the door behind him. The grey, dusty, rock under his boot shifted as he placed both feet outside the ship. The moon was grey dusty; much like the Earth's own. Jack walked away from the blue box while looking up at the stars and planets above him.
For years Jack had been on Earth, defending it from aliens, so being on a distant moon with bright lights in the sky; it was amazing. Before that he had been travelling with The Doctor; seeing the old Doctor with the new one in the tuxedo was just plain weird. But then he was the man who couldn't die so seeing two different Doctors wasn't all that strange.
Slowly he made his way around the moon until he noticed a swirling white portal; just like the one The Doctors had described. Strange white ripples moved out from the edge of the portal and faded into the air.
"Holy cow," Jack muttered under his breath. He pulled back his sleeve and scanned the large portal. He was trying to stay as far back as possible as he didn't want to collide with anything coming in or out of that thing!
The Vortex Manipulator was connected to the T.A.R.D.I.S so as soon as it gathered the required data it beamed it to the console for The Doctors to analyse. The data finished streaming and he rolled back the sleeve of his coat. Slowly his hand went to his gun holster and he undid the clip. The firearm was cold to touch but he pulled it out anyway and readied himself.
The Doctor, the ginger one, had told him to send the data from up close but to stay afterwards and wait for whatever lay on the other side of the portal. Even though he knew that he couldn't be hurt or killed; Jack was terrified!
The console room was covered in spare parts, microchips and wires along with crystals and plastic. Both Doctor's had removed their coats and hats and were focusing on the task at hand. The T-Doctor moved his hand about in a compartment within the console and removed it with a sonic screwdriver in hand. It was small with a blue nib, the casing was crème and slightly cracked, the bottom was completely black.
"Ah I haven't used this one in a while," The T-Doctor smiled as he moved it about in his hand.
The H-Doctor was trying to keep a steady hand as he pushed a bright red crystal into the centre of a hollow metal tube that was connected into a metal cuboid. "I've got one of these back in the T.A.R.D.I.S so I don't see why we have to make a fresh one."
"Because this isn't a basic triple enfolded proton cannon," T-Doctor explained. "We need something special for a job like this!"
The T-Doctor grabbed a small metal box and slotted tree microchips into it; the box instantly activated and lights around the object came online. With dexterous fingers, and multiple blasts of the sonic screwdriver, The T-Doctor sealed wires onto the box and waited for his counterpart to seal the other end of the wires onto the tube in which he was sealing up.
"How comes you can't tell me exactly how things are going to pan out?" H-Doctor asked his next incarnation.
"You know how it is," The T-Doctor sighed as he found the perfect casing for the weapon, a large plastic tube. "When things like this happen, my memory seems to be fuzzy and I only remember them as soon as things happen. It's quite irritating!"
"I can understand," The H-Doctor replied, finishing off the inner components. "So right now we're just being like the normal people; not knowing the future."
"Basically yes, isn't it annoying?"
Both of them laughed. T-Doctor had to admit it; at first he wasn't happy to see the red headed Doctor but now he didn't want to see him leave. Whenever he met himself it was rather odd because they were always jibing at each other like an old married couple at first but it was him! No one knew The Doctor quite like a Doctor. Whatever he said in his head was already in the head of another; it was brilliant!
The T-Doctor took the plastic tube and slid it over the assortment of technology that they had been assembling. With a buzz of the sonic screwdriver; the weapon was finished.
The H-Doctor plucked it up and pulled back the charging bolt, he looked as he always did; like a warrior ready for a fight. "Ready for a battle?" he asked with a devilish grin.
