CHAPTER 6:
THE DOCTOR, THE MAGICAL GIRL, AND THE POLICE BOX
Down darkened streets Homura strode. The die had been cast. She had put her trust into a near-stranger to try and help her steer Madoka away from the path that would lead her to become a Magical Girl.
While Homura had resolved to stop this herself, the truth was, she was desperate to stop it. Weariness was the small but noticeable canker within her resolve, her will to finish this. And truth be told, it was refreshing to be able to speak to someone who was as resolved to halt the process as she was.
But what was Moni's true stake in the matter? He was hiding something, she knew. She realised that there was darkness in his eyes, far more than he should have had if he was the last of his kind. If anything, he seemed to have darkness in his eyes worse than her own, and she knew his pain couldn't possibly be any worse than her own.
She made it back to her apartment. It had ceased being a home long ago, and now served mostly as a base of operations. Her parents had died in the same accident that had put her into hospital, so long a time ago (thanks to the time loops). So she didn't expect anyone there, or anything out of place.
The fact that there was a blue telephone booth with English lettering and a man currently making cups of tea in her kitchen was therefore, and understandably, something of a surprise.
"Sorry for intruding," the man said, almost completely unfazed (save for a roll of the eyes) when Homura extracted a gun and pointed it at his head. "Unfortunately, I needed a good patch of temporal flux in order to land without detection. Rather like coming ashore in a rubber dinghy when it's misty. Given that you're at the nexus of a time loop, it seems I chose the right place. You must be Homura Akemi. I am the Doctor. And I believe that you know my friend Moni."
"How do you know Moni?"
"He may have mentioned the role I inadvertently played in the downfall of his people, when I brought the Master to his world," the Doctor said. "I was hoping he'd be with you: I made three cups of tea. By the way, would you mind putting your gun away? The last time I regenerated, it was because I got shot, and then a surgeon got creative in trying to cure what she thought was a heart condition. She didn't realise I had two of them…"
Homura studied the man more closely. He seemed to be in his forties, of European descent, with a long, thin face that was handsome, but marred by stubble and weariness. Pale blue eyes looked at her, while short brown hair adorned his head. He was dressed in a leather jacket. "You look like a human."
"And you look like a Time Lord," the Doctor pointed out. "Romana sent me, or you might know her as Lady Trey?"
Homura knew who he meant. It didn't mean that she trusted him, though she lowered her gun. "No tricks."
"Homura Akemi, I am full of tricks. I think you should say that I should direct them onto the enemy, namely the Incubators and the Witches."
"Then this thing is yours?" she asked, approaching the blue booth. She frowned. It said 'police box' in English, but it didn't look much like the ones she was used to(1). "This isn't a police box."
"No, though the disguise comes from a British version of police box used in the 50s. It got stuck after I spent some time in the year 1963. But in reality, it is a time machine, a TARDIS. Time And Relative Dimensions In Space(2)." He put the tea cups expertly onto a tray, and said, "Would you mind opening the doors? We'll have a talk inside."
Homura bit off a protest. She very nearly said that it would be impossible for them to do so, until she realised that, if his civilisation was sophisticated enough to create a time machine, then it would solve something like storage space. Not only that, but she had a lot of weaponry to take care of him, should he try anything. So she opened the doors, and the Doctor, with a grateful smile, carefully edged inside.
While she had begun to expect a massive space inside, Homura was certainly not expecting the massive, cathedral-like space, all panelled in dark wood. In the centre, surrounded and supported by a metal framework, was a six-sided control console with antiquated-looking switches and readouts. In the centre of the console was a glass cylinder, with blue crystals within. Dotted around the massive chamber, there were clocks, bookshelves, a small garden, filing cabinets, and even some comfortable chairs around a table, where the Doctor put the tea down.
Homura couldn't help it. An expression of awe and wonder came upon her face, an expression that hadn't been there for an eternity. "This is a time machine?" she whispered.
"Yes. Well, aren't you going to say it's bigger on the inside than the outside?"
"…It's rather obvious, isn't it?"
"Hmm. You're one of the few people who has said that," the Doctor said. "The first was a good friend of mine by the name of Sergeant Benton(3). Of course, at the time, I was still going for a variation of the standard TARDIS desktop. This is one of the alternatives. A bit pretentious, but it's home."
"What about your homeworld?"
"Gallifrey? I don't consider it home. Not anymore. I consider Earth to be my home now more than Gallifrey, though truth be told, the TARDIS is home." The Doctor indicated the seat across from the one he was now sitting down in, and Homura, despite her qualms, did so. "And if you think this is impressive, then consider this: this TARDIS is actually one of the oldest models. When I borrowed her, she was destined for the scrapyards."
"She?" And then, Homura realised that she could feel an ambience coming from all around, like something's attention was on her. "This time machine…is alive?"
"Very much so." He looked up at the ceiling. "She's also rather accepting of you. Which is strange, because you are a living paradox, Homura. The last time she dealt with someone who was a living paradox, she didn't like it(4). Maybe she's become a little more accepting." As he sipped from his teacup, he said, "You and Madoka are the nexuses of a chronic hysteresis, a time loop, one that is becoming dangerously unstable, beginning to spread decay into the surrounding fabric of space and time. You've brought the attention of my people, the Time Lords, onto you. Moni has been sent here to stop the loop from recurring, and I've decided to help, for if the loop isn't halted, the Time Lords may decide to take drastic measures. They may decide to erase you, Madoka, the Incubator, and any Magical Girls present from existence. It's their most extreme measure, true, but I wouldn't put it past them one bit."
The bitterness in his tone was noticeable. "You don't like your people much, do you?"
"I fled from Gallifrey in the first place out of boredom. I grew angry at their apathy towards using their powers to help. And I detest how when they do use their powers, it is out of sheer self-interest," the Doctor said. "Romana is my friend, and I have many on Gallifrey. But I don't like many of the people in power and authority there, or their attitude to what they would call 'lesser races'."
For a time, Homura was silent. Being in the TARDIS was soothing, soothing in a way that she hadn't felt before, or at least not for ages. Eventually, she asked, "How did you meet Moni?"
The Doctor looked at her, and seemed to debate with himself as to what to say next. Eventually, he said, "Moni has been through a lot, Homura. I'm not sure I'm the one who should be telling you this. Moni should be."
"And he hasn't. I want to trust him, but if he's not forthcoming about his past…"
"I understand. But before I tell you, I want to emphasise here and now that he is your best chance of stopping the time loop and preventing things from getting worse. He has a good heart." The Doctor looked pensive, before admitting, "But he also has a lot of blood on his hands. The blood of Magical Girls, like you."
Homura couldn't help it. Her eyes widened in shock. "…What?" she whispered.
"Moni wasn't born in any conventional sense of the term, Homura, nor was he genetically engineered. He was actually engineered from the base blocks of matter, using a process called Block Transfer Computation, the very same process that gives you your so-called magical powers."
Homura nodded. "He told me about Block Transfer Computation. He uses it himself. He told me about how his people used it, before they were wiped out."
"Of course. Only a few members of the population of Logopolis survived the entropy wave, being off-planet at the time. They were also fanatics, who had banded together with other fanatics to try and stop the Incubators. However, the fall of Logopolis and other worlds destroyed by the entropy wave pushed them over the edge into eternal darkness. They were determined to have their revenge on the Incubators, as well as wipe any trace of their operations from the face of the universe. They called themselves the Bloody Hammers, as a reference to the infamous record of witch persecutions in Europe, the Malleus Maleficarum, or the Hammer of the Witches. They saw themselves as righteous crusaders, purging the universe of the Incubators, and of the Witches, not caring that there were other ways to help the Magical Girls. For you see, they make it their duty to murder any Magical Girl they come across, lest they become a Witch."
"And they created him…to be a soldier. Am I right?" Homura asked.
The Doctor nodded. "What better weapon against Magical Girls and Witches than a being with the same powers as they had: Block Transfer Computation, the ability to use mathematics to shape the very fabric of space and time? They made him a mental chameleon, able to blend into any culture in the cosmos, in order to infiltrate and kill. He would befriend Magical Girls, and then murder them. He was to be their Monitor, a term once given to the leader of Logopolis, but now a weapon designed to monitor Magical Girls, and destroy them. He never had a childhood. Murder and subterfuge was his playtime. He had no personality to call his own until he was twelve. Just a blank slate, at first. A child soldier, created from birth to hate and kill, like a Dalek."
"…So what happened?"
"Simple. He actually became a friend with a Magical Girl. A Dulcian, to be precise, by the name of Tolata, who was fighting the Dominators' fleet as well as Witches. The personality he had been given had stuck fast, and the result of twelve years of brainwashing began to wear away. He began to question his purpose, his own morality…and I was there to help. You see, it was my fault the Dominators were attacking Dulkis in the first place: I forgot that, on my last visit, the two Dominators who were there were preparing Dulkis to be used as fuel for their fleet, by turning it into radioactive slag(5). So I was trying to stop the Dominators from finishing what those first two tried to start. Tolata perished saving Moni's life, even knowing he was one of the Bloody Hammers, even knowing that he was their greatest weapon." The Doctor sipped from his tea pensively, before saying, "Moni was distraught, and when I offered him a place on the TARDIS, he agreed. This was after I lost C'rizz and Charley left me, and before Lucie…but never mind about that(6)."
"…What of this 'Order of Maxwell's Demon' he belongs to?"
"A splinter group from the Bloody Hammers. They got disgusted with the extremist methods of the Bloody Hammers, and recognised that Magical Girls were as much victims of the Incubators as those killed by the entropy wave," the Doctor said. "The Order still destroys Incubators and Witches, but tries to help the Magical Girls where possible. It is also, unofficially, backed by some of the Time Lords. I know that the Corsair(7) is a frequent member. Moni joined them, but only after I helped deprogram him extensively. Even now, his psyche is badly damaged. You may have noticed that he has mood swings, even seems to change personality to a degree. He doesn't suffer from actual split personalities, but he is still struggling to form his own identity. It's been years since I've seen him last, thanks to time travel. But even so…when Romana told me Moni needed help, I listened. Even though I've been more than a little…apathetic of late."
Homura looked at the Doctor. Right now, she could believe that he was hundreds of years old. "So…does this mean I can trust him?"
"To do what he can to save everyone, including yourself? Yes. And I will endeavour to do the same, Homura. But first, I need to know everything I can about this time loop, about Madoka, about the Incubators' presence here…and about Walpurgis Nacht."
Homura looked at the Time Lord. "Do you promise to make sure this ends?"
"Yes." A simple word. But spoken with conviction. Complete and utter conviction. And that was what kindled an alien emotion in Homura's breast. It was conviction that she had felt when she had committed, with Moni, to make this loop the last one. But now, knowing Moni's stake in this, as well as a commitment from the Doctor to help, enkindled but the faintest embers of a terrible emotion that had been unfamiliar to Homura for the longest time.
Hope.
CHAPTER 6 ANNOTATIONS:
And another chapter down. I nearly wrote one where Moni is present with Kyubey when he discusses the nature of the Magical Girl contract with Madoka and Sayaka, but this concept for a chapter appealed to me more. At long last, we have the story of Moni's past.
I've been listening to Magia by Kalafina a lot lately. Maybe it's a sign…
Review-answering time! I've already answered Rhettbutler in correspondence, but here's my replies to his queries. I do tend to like the classic Doctors more than the new Doctors, though this is because I was a fan of Doctor Who long before the new series came out. Also, I've noticed that the new series Doctors rather than the classic series Doctors tend to be used in fanfic, so I am using the classic Doctors as something of an antidote to that.
In addition, I didn't have the Eleventh Doctor in mind when I wrote Moni, though it's an intriguing thought. (The following, by the way, is copied and pasted from the PM) It's a possibility that sometimes, Time Lord pattern their regenerations off people they have met or seen (which would explain why the Sixth Doctor looks like the Time Lord Commander Maxil from "Arc of Infinity", or why the Twelfth Doctor resembles Caecilus from "The Fires of Pompeii" or John Frobisher from "Torchwood: Children of Earth"). Maybe Moni looks a bit like an albino teenaged version of Matt Smith (the Logopolitians were albinos, or near enough).
1. The Japanese have police boxes, or at least installations that are frequently called police boxes in Japanese. These are called kouban, and are actually more like mini-police stations than telephone booths.
2. I think the explanation for the TARDIS acronym 'Time And Relative Dimensions In Space' is a more sensible term than 'Time And Relative Dimension In Space'. By 'relative dimensions', I assume it means all dimensions in space.
3. Sergeant Benton, one of UNIT's most stalwart personnel, actually said this in Doctor Who: The Three Doctors. Very little could faze Benton, and he was very loyal to the Doctor.
4. Referring to Charlotte 'Charley' Pollard, one of the Eighth Doctor's companions from the Big Finish audios. She was rescued from an airship crash that she was meant to die in, and was thus a living paradox that the TARDIS didn't like, though that was the least of the Doctor's and Charley's worries. Of course, the TARDIS didn't react well to a later living paradox companion: Clara…
5. The two Dominators and their plans to turn Dulkis into radioactive fuel for their spacecraft appeared in Doctor Who: The Dominators. Tolata was the name of a Dulcian woman who was murdered by the Dominators' robot minions, the Quarks, but I presume there may have been other Dulcians with that name. Obviously, the second Tolata, the Dominator's full-scale invasion, and the involvement of Moni and the Eighth Doctor happened at a later time.
6. When C'rizz, a chameleonic alien with an unstable personality, died, the Doctor's attitude to the death alienated Charley. Although the Doctor believed Charley to leave of her own free will, Charley was actually stranded, believing the Eighth Doctor to be dead. She was thus very surprised to be picked up by the Sixth Doctor. Long story there. Lucie Miller was a later companion of the Eighth Doctor's, but her death (along with others) traumatised the Doctor. Given his experience with C'rizz and Charley, the Doctor was clearly a bit more compassionate to Moni, who, in some regards (and I've only just realised this, while writing this annotation) is very much like C'rizz.
7. A renegade Time Lord (and a friend of the Doctor's) mentioned in the new series episode The Doctor's Wife, although he is also mentioned in passing in the novelisation of Shada.
