Hi everyone! Sorry again! Exams and A levels you know! But this chapter mentions my home town yay!
Disclaimer... I don't own Doctor Who or it's trademarks... if I did I wouldn't be writing this story I would be making it!
Rose looked woefully at the Doctor, who seemed to be fading in and out. She sighed heavily. He tried to be more optimistic about the situation, however the atmosphere made it quite difficult.
"Come on Rose… give us a smile." He said, trying to be cheerful. He smiled, however, it was quite half-hearted.
"I'm sorry Doctor… but I can't…" her lower lip was trembling, as if she was about to cry. The Doctor had shown her so much about the world, he was probably her best friend… the one who gave her more than she could imagine, she didn't want to lose him. "I don't want you…"
"Rose…" he said, trying to assure her speaking quite gently. "I'll be fine…trust me…or the other me…" he then frowned a little. "Just…you know…"
She couldn't help but break her slight tears with a laugh, he did always lighten a situation. "Alright." She brushed her eye, trying to put on a brave face.
"Now you see! That's more like it!" he said cheerfully, now giving his usual charming smile.
The Doctor looked at his scrapbook. He passed his hand over the book with an air of fondness and familiarity. It was more than that though, he almost felt like, it reminded him of his roots, his 'little piece of home…' or more precisely his only piece of home. His hand traced over the name, as he did so, he could hear whispers of the past… and haunting voices around him. His eyes looked around the room, however, he couldn't see anything unusual. He assumed it was the tiredness or maybe his over active imagination.
"It's alright… a bit brash for your taste innit?" Rose said, sitting next to the Doctor. "I thought a book like yours would be like… plain…"
"Oh we never did anything by halves…" the Doctor said, as usual using the word 'we' as a collective term for the other time lords, it was a trick he used, because then he didn't have to think about the word and could just say 'we'.
"So…What's Theta Sigma?" Rose asked trying to change the subject, saying the words slowly.
"Theta Sigma…"
The tenth doctor's eyes seemed to glaze over for a moment; the words seemed to echo in his mind. He looked at Rose for a moment, he could then feel his consciousness ebb. "Rose…"
"Doctor?!" Rose could immediately see that the Doctor was ill, or something about him seemed weak. She looked hesitant and worried. "Doctor what's wrong?"
The Doctor opened his mouth, as though he was about to speak, However, he couldn't get the words out, He fell backward onto the pillow on the bed.
Rose quickly approached the tenth doctor. When she realized that he was unconscious again, she shouted. "Mickey! Doctor! Help!" with all of the volume she could summon. "Please Doctor… be alright…"
The tenth doctor opened his eyes and found himself in a different location than he was before. The doctor looked around in the darkness, which seemed to envelop him. There was nothing else, no landscape, no furniture… just darkness. However, he didn't feel intimidated by the darkness, it was the lack of time that made the place so eerie and foreboding.
The Doctor had always been particularly sensitive to the passage of time, perhaps this was because he was a time lord. However, it did see to affect him quite drastically, even when he was a time tot, time vacuum's distressed him. It was something that the rest of his kind couldn't really comprehend… it wasn't the sensitivity to time…it was the emotional responses that the Doctor had been infamous for on Gallifrey
Well, where ever he was now, time was at a stand still. He couldn't sense time passing, no ticking of a clock, no hum of technology, no nature. Time was completely still. He felt strange, it was deeper than a chill, it was something more, it was like an icy coldness that froze his core. He couldn't shake off this 'perturbed' feeling, no matter how hard he tried, after pacing around the empty space for a while, he concluded that someone would have brought him here for a purpose, he knew it wasn't a dream, it was too... quiet for one of the Doctor's dreams.
Time lords didn't usually dream a lot, but of course… the Doctor did,
'Blame an over active imagination…'
That's what he was always told, he did always believe there was something more to it than that, but at the time, he was hardly in a position to argue.
"Don't care too much for the décor…" he said, standing up dusting himself off and standing up. He tried to sound as confident as possible, despite being phased about the habitat.
"Hello Doctor…"
. The alluring, yet wicked sounding voice seemed to emanate from somewhere in the unknown blackness.
"…Who am I talking to?" the tenth doctor said, not falling for the intimidating surroundings now, more curious of the voice's owner than frightened.
"Oh… come on Doctor… that isn't the way we do things…" the voice said, it sounded like it was mocking him, at very least, it knew what to expect from the usually cryptic Doctor.
"Alright then…" the tenth doctor said, not sounding too stressed. "We'll have it your way…What do you want with me? This is a lot of trouble for a friendly 'hello…"
"Of course not Doctor…I've never been in the habit of simply saying a friendly 'hello…but you should know that…" the female voice said, emanating a smirk.
"By your extremely subtle insinuations, I get the feeling that you're trying to tell me that we have met before." the tenth doctor said, sounding quite amused by whoever it was.
"So cocky doctor…" the voice said. "You've always been different Doctor… that is what I've always liked about you or maybe I should call you… Theta Sigma…"
The tenth doctor's eyes widened. The only people in the universe who new his nick name were himself… and Rose… and this definitely wasn't Rose. The matter now became quite serious, he instantly hardened.
"Why did you say that?" The doctor instantly sounded angry, but also insecure. "Who are you?"
"Doctor…don't you recognise me? I thought we were old friends…" the voice teased the Doctor, who seemed to be getting paranoid to the point of becoming neurotic.
"Old friends? I don't think I've never met you in my life!" the tenth doctor said quickly. "Any of my lives in fact!" He frowned and tried to navigate the dark surroundings, with very little success.
"Now come Doctor… how could I know your nick name… if I didn't know you well?" she said, quite logically in fact.
"You know me very well… too well…in fact" he sounded cautious. His eyes were still flickering around to see if he could see some form of being, a device, anything that would help him find who this mysterious person was.
He felt two arms wrap around him in an alluring way, almost in a comforting hugging way... He stiffened, every muscle in his body became tense, he did know this person, he could recognise their touch. He felt... close to this person, sensitive… not alone, why did it remind him of home… now he thought about it, he could even remember the action, someone in his past use to do this to him… but who?
He felt more petrified about recognising this person's touch more than anything he had felt for years. He felt like it was an immense weakness, although he couldn't give the person a name, he definitely knew them… perhaps even intimately… well, closely as a very old friend.
He was frozen, he couldn't do anything, he felt trapped, not by the other person, he was being trapped by his own emotions. He couldn't move, but in a strange way, he didn't want to. He wanted to stay with this person, who reminded him of home.
"You miss home Doctor? Not like you at all…" the woman's voice sounded slightly more familiar, but he still couldn't identify it. She then seemed discontent, she sounded strong almost dominant. "You miss Gallifrey…you were never so attached in the past." Her voice then revealed a confused expression "You're generation has never been on -… How can that be Doctor?" she then sounded troubled. "Your link with Gallifrey… is broken? What does this mean?"
The Doctor began to feel more uncomfortable, he changed his gaze, even though there was nothing to look at, he didn't want his eyes to reveal what had happened.
The woman, or perhaps more correctly the Rani, could sense that the Doctor felt guilty about something that had happened on Gallifrey, something had happened there, something dreadful, but she couldn't tell what.
"Poor Doctor… Lonely then… and even lonelier now…" she said softly.
The words and delivery forced the Doctor's eyes to flicker with recognition, it was not who he thought though. "Stop it!" The tenth doctor could feel the woman delving into his memories. He remembered when Madame De Pompadour had said that to him.
His mind seemed to shut, doors seemed to swarm in his mind, blocking entry to his memories. The woman seemed shocked that he could do this so quickly, it seemed like he had had a lot of practice in the past, present and probably even more so in the future.
"Some memories have doors even you can't open isn't that right Doctor?… perhaps 'Doctor Who' is more than just a secret…"
The tenth doctor had never felt so unnerved in this regeneration. He could feel himself shaking slightly.
"I'm only playing games with your mind Doctor…" the voice answered.
The Doctor didn't seem to be enjoying these games, he was silent. No smart comments, no movement, nothing. Perhaps she was right, maybe she had revealed something even he hadn't considered.
"Or perhaps there is some truth in my words?" she said, now grasping his hands.
All the things this woman was doing, he recognised from the past, she had done it before, not to this regeneration, but a long… long time ago. The Doctor only seemed to become tenser and more stone faced. "It seems there is quite a lot of unrest inside you Doctor… unrest you won't even share with-" she almost gave her identity away. "Well… we shall be meeting again soon… very soon, I am looking forward to seeing you in the flesh as they say… I must apologise but…unfortunately… walking among your memories may have brought some of the more poignant ones to the surface…"
The tenth Doctor didn't even react to this threat. He was so shocked about everything that had happened that he was silent and absolutely still.
"They're only nightmares Doctor…" she added, as a farewell.
"No…" the Doctor said quietly.
He could sense her disappear in his consciousness. Then quite slowly, He could feel the foreground and background change into a much more sinister setting.
The orange sky of Gallifrey was burning… it was the beginning of the end of the time war...
"Well it looks like we've arrived." The ninth doctor said, looking at the controls, scrutinising them harshly. "But I don't think we'll need an umbrella… the weather looks okay…"
"The Deca?" Mickey said, following the doctor as the paced around the room, as if he had been pondering on the word for the last 30 minutes. "Hmmm Sound's like double-decker bus…" he smirked and laughed for a minute.
""Mickey? Hmmmmm sounds like Thickey…" The ninth doctor said irately, also trying to concentrate on the external data provided by the Tardis. "Mickey your observational skills are really second to none."
"Awww thanks Doctor." Mickey fondly gave the Doctor a man to man punch on the arm. He felt warm inside, like the Doctor didn't really think he was an idiot. He smiled at his achievement.
The ninth doctor, however, raised an eyebrow and dusted his arm off, quite perturbed that Mickey had punched him like someone from 'the hood.'
"Shut up Mickey." The ninth doctor snapped. "It's called sarcasm…"
Mickey's proud feeling quite quickly vanished and was replaced with the usual feeling…inadequacy.
Mickey had a plan, a simple, (as usual for Mickey), but good plan… it was simple and innocent enough. Basically it consisted of telling both the Doctor's that the other Doctor had been 'making out' with Rose, so then he could have Rose all to himself while they argued, it would be short lived… and probably results in everyone being annoyed at him, but he wanted to outsmart the Doctor, just once, after that everything could go back to normal… (To put this into context, Mickey's plan began fruition about a second after Mickey realized both Doctor's could exist at the same time.)
"Hey Doctor…seriously…" Mickey started acting quite seriously. "You won't believe what the new Doctor's been up to with Rose…"
"You what?" the ninth doctor said disinterested, sounding even more like he was from Oldham or Salford than usual.
"Yeah…" Mickey said, trying to feign that it was some kind of scandal. "They've been getting up to funny business…" Mickey hinted unsubtly.
"Come on Mickey…" The ninth doctor replied unconvinced. "I'm not stupid… I know that's not true…"
"Yeah…they have honest…" Mickey said, sounding slightly desperate that the Doctor hadn't bought it immediately. "How do you know? It's not like you've been around…they might have been doing allsorts of… alien… things with each other…"
The Doctor raised his eyebrow, he wasn't really the jealous type when he was busy. "Mickey I just know…"
The ninth Doctor actually found it extremely hilarious, and had he not been busy, may have actually played along for a while. But he did find it strangely likable that Mickey wanted to be alone with Rose so badly.
Mickey was getting desperate, his plan to get the Doctor jealous was failing,
"They've kissed!" Mickey said, folding his arms, thinking he had just scored the match point.
"Been there…" The ninth Doctor started.
They were both quickly interrupted by Rose's shouting.
"Rose?" The Doctor looked at Mickey's emotionally stricken face. He looked at the console then back at Mickey and then pulled his face slightly. He didn't actually want to constantly want Mickey to feel like the underdog, the Tardis wasn't in any danger, and he wanted Mickey to feel like he had some responsibility… this one time. "Listen Mickey… I need you to monitor the Tardis for me…"
"You'd trust me with that Doctor?" Mickey said, sounding genuinely amazed and grateful.
"Yeah…" the ninth doctor said. "If that…" he pointed to a screen on the Tardis "Goes red… yell…And if this…" he pointed at another console "Goes over 2.7 MHz… then let me know…" the Doctor tried to sound as stern as possible "I'm counting on you…"
"But what about Rose?" Mickey asked, looking worried. "Is she hurt?"
"No… it's not her…it's me…" the ninth doctor looked troubled.
"Theta…Sigma"
The Doctor looked phased, but the words didn't affect him as badly as the tenth doctor.
"Don't worry Doctor… I've got it under control…" Mickey was determined. He had been given responsibility and he had to make sure everything went okay because the Doctor trusted him. He immediately busied himself looking at the console.
"Thanks Mickey…Don't screw up!" the ninth doctor threatened, "Or you're going home!"
The ninth doctor quickly ran down the corridor, to see why Rose was shouting, although, he had a pretty good idea already.
