A/N:
And here we go. The next chapter. It's a little shorter than usual. And of course
DISCLAIMER:
I do not own Doctor Who
Chapter 8—The Truth
The Doctor looked at everyone who was assembled. He really hoped they could fill him in on the small details he was missing, which were actually not that small. He took a bite out of his pear, which was not bad, but still not as good as fish fingers and custard. He looked at everyone again and said "Alright, where should we begin?"
The armless kid, Ben, looked at the woman, Margaret, swallowed, and said "Well, it began about seven years ago, when a scouting party located an ancient object near a recently abandoned mining operation. Luckily, no one was nearby, so there were no casualties. I figure that it was the same one that we went through to get here. Anyways, they brought it back to the castle, and it was put in the archives, never to be seen again."
The Doctor wondered if it could be, that wouldn't make any sense. It would though. "Would that object by any chance be the Nightmare Clock?"
Ben perked up. "Yes. What do you know about it?"
"Well, quite a lot. It was created by the ancients of Gallifrey, with borrowed soul manipulator technology from your planet. The ruler of the time was the one who wielded it. She used it to have absolute power over the planet, and used it to build many other devices as well. She was in control with the device until Rassilon, Omega, and the Other took it from her, opened it up with ancient magics, took out her blood, and put in their own, practically making them immortal.
"They ruled with an iron fist, and its power caused Rassilon to attempt to kill Omega, though he survived, and then for the Other to commit suicide. The device was stolen from Rassilon, and lost forever in a cave hidden from time. During that time, something whispered to it, and corrupted it beyond repair.
"During the Time War, a Dalek excursion blew up the cave entrance; and inadvertently released a group of explorers that had been trapped inside and turned into the Horde of Travesties. The clock itself escaped and turned into the Nightmare Child, a gigantic fiery serpent that ravaged anything in its path. We defeated it with an anti-time blast from a modified de-mat gun. I thought it was lost forever in space, until now. I tracked it to here, but unfortunately, I got here too late. Which reminds me, what happened here?"
Ben was obviously piecing things together in his head before he responded. "It started out as simple disappearances. A homeless person gone there, some young child gone there. The police started receiving several missing persons reports, so they sent out a task force to investigate a drug ring they had their eyes on for a while. They were silent for an hour or so, they saw nothing. Then there was the awful screaming on the coms, and then the entire task force went dark. After that, people began to notice the increase of statues everywhere. They were just simple angel statues, it was odd, but we didn't suspect anything. We should have. It soon became obvious that they were killing people. One of my best friends was killed by them. He sent me a video of what happened, and the statue was chasing him. Not when he was looking at it, though. I did some research and I learned that these were the Weeping Angels, and there was no hope left for us. My father, the king, was murdered soon after. The military was crippled, and the hunting began.
"They began to actually kill their victims instead of zapping them to the past, and they seemed to evolve to be more war-like. Is it possible that the Nightmare Clock is responsible for this?"
The Doctor was terrified. Weeping Angels were bad enough when they were just lonely assassins, but hunting people, and being war-like was not part of their average schedule. Sure they would kill people if they needed to rescue one of their own or if there was a source of nearly limitless- "Yes, I do think that it is highly possible that the Nightmare Clock may have caused the change, but from your avatar and the only recent nightmare waves, it's not what brought them here. How was the economy of your country at the time?"
Ben swallowed before answering. "Fine, but I think I know what brought them here. My father was quite the corrupt king. He accepted bribes for… quite terrible policies really. He made the people overly peaceful after a long brutal war, and they sort of just let their dreams carry on by themselves."
Oh, of course, that would explain why they would be here. He was such an idiot sometimes. "So, they came because they come when they feel that it's time for an empire to die, which seems spot on to what happened here. They do what they do, but then find the Nightmare Clock, which radiates time energy. The feed on it, and it makes them far more powerful. All we have to do is find it, neutralize it, and then pop out of here. Yowza, I'm good."
"I understand what the situation is," interrupted Clara, "but what is 'Yowza'. Nobody says that anymore."
The Doctor decided that it would be best appropriate to make a face. "Of course people say it, it's cool. At one point. And I'm not a people so, allons-y." He ran to the TARDIS control room, rather excited to finally stop the Nightmare Clock once and for all.
Ben caught up to him and shouted, "Doctor wait! There's one more thing we need to tell you."
Hadn't they covered everything? He stood there, waiting for Ben to tell him what it was. It could be something exciting, he hoped.
"Umm, the thing is, we think that there's actually a possibility that Margaret is a Time Lord disguised as a human. If it's possible, that is."
That made the Doctor stop in his tracks. This could potentially quite problematic. If she really was a Time Lord in disguise, it could be quite bad news if she was someone like the Master. However, like most Time Lords, it was quite possible that she could be more like the Monk. He was a meddler, but no trouble, really. "Yes, it is possible. What made you think this, though?"
"It's just the way she described her dreams and her past. Jack asked her if she had an old fob watch, and she said she did. He says that that device can be used to rewrite someone's DNA."
This could definitely be problematic. "Did you expose the watch to her when you were trying to figure this out?"
Ben was obviously confused as to why this mattered. Not generally a good sign. "No, she left it at her house, which isn't that far away she says."
The Doctor grabbed Ben by the shoulders and looked into his eyes. "Listen to me Ben. She could be someone extremely dangerous and not know it. Most Time Lords are not good people, and dozens of them want to kill me, so it would be best advised that we didn't retrieve it. However, although I am one of the smartest Time Lords of my time, even though I barely passed my exams and dropped out right afterwards, I may not be able to stop the Nightmare Clock by myself, and having another Time Lord there would make it much easier."
Ben nodded. "I get it. We're trying to weigh the odds here. If this Time Lord hates your guts, we will fail, but on the small chance that they're willing to help, we have a chance."
The Doctor nodded. It was good he got it. He noticed the others walking in.
"What were you two talking about," asked Clara.
"Oh, something that's not important at the moment."
She raised an eyebrow. "So why can't you tell me if it's not important."
"Because it will be later."
"That's a great excuse. Whatever, let's get going."
"Right." The Doctor turned to Jack. He better have it with him. "Do you still have your vortex manipulator with you?"
Jack smiled. "Yes. But why don't we just take the TARDIS? That's much less painful."
"Well, the TARDIS may or may not be broken right now, and I need a piece from another time travel device to fix it. Even if it's from something as primitive as yours."
Jack seemed uncertain, but handed it over to the Doctor anyways. He pointed his sonic at it, and the sonic told him that the manipulator was not in working order, but he ignored it. He continued to use it until the back of the manipulator fell off. He reached inside and pulled out a small crystal, quite glad that it wasn't broken. "This is what we need, thanks Jack. Also, donate this to UNIT or something, I don't like it." He tossed it to Jack.
"Well I might now that you've finally broken it."
Ignoring him, the Doctor went beneath the console, opened it up, took out a shattered crystal, and put in the new one. "Alright beautiful, let's start you up again. Clara, the main power level if you will." He hoped this replacement would work.
There was a loud hum as Clara pulled the level and the power shut out. It went pitch black until the emergency power lights kicked in.
He found the correct panel, and flipped the necessary switches to get the engine running again. "The power if you will please Clara." Again he hoped, mostly because it had never worked before.
There a sharp buzz accompanied by the buzz from before, and the power switched back on. He was overjoyed that it worked. He jumped back up to the console and spun around. "Incredible, it worked!"
"Would it not have?" asked Margaret. He was too happy to respond, and he figure Clara would anyways.
"There's a high possibility that his idea would have failed, as most of his devices do," said Clara. "Luckily he's usually good with his gadgets, and this was one of those times, so we can get going."
"New component functioning," said a voice. The Doctor turned around to see the TARDIS interface had taken on the appearance of Susan. "TARDIS is still adjusting, 45 seconds until travel ready," and she disappeared.
"Which one of your companions did she impersonate this time?" asked Clara.
"That was my granddaughter, Susan. It's been quite a while since I've seen her. She's somewhere in the twenty third century, if I'm not mistaken. And we shall get going now." He didn't want to talk about Susan; it was still too painful, even after several centuries.
"Remember Doctor," cut in Ben, "we're going to Margaret's house to retrieve her fob watch."
"Oh good," said Margaret. "It's just a couple hills away."
"Righty then, Geronimo!" He pulled the switches on the TARDIS, and the familiar wheezing and groaning.
There was a loud clank and the TARDIS interface reported "New device adjusting. Minor malfunction. Disengagement of wires. Being repaired immediately." There was then a loud ding. "Device correctly positioned. Prepare for de-materialization." Well, at least that one was an easy fix. The engine stopped, and they were there.
"Alright," said Jack. "We don't know what will happen when Margaret is restored to being a Time Lord, so we will be careful about that."
"Oh, if I may," the Doctor jutted in. He needed to test the air. He licked his finger, stuck it up in the air, and detected no toxins. "Right, we're safe."
"Was that actually necessary?" asked Jack.
"Oi, of course it was. There could have been something dangerous like spores."
"Spores?" asked Clara. "I don't think so. We're kind of in the middle of a desert, if you haven't happened to notice."
"Well sorry for trying." He rubbed his hands together and grinned. Who knows what cool gizmos could be in there? "Yes, we shall begin. This could be exciting." He opened the TARDIS door to see a rather derelict mansion standing there. This might not be so safe and easy as it first seemed.
A/N:
Yes it was a little shorter, but big things are going to start coming up next chapter, and we've finally began a start on the action. Tell me what you think. Who is Margaret going to be? What's happening with the Nightmare Clock and Weeping Angels really? Why did the Doctor check for spores? Is it good that he likes pears now? Am I asking too many questions? How excited are you for series eight? How do you think Star Wars will come in? How do you think Star Trek will come in? Is my writing good? What do I need to work on? And please, please, please, please review. I am begging here. I would like it if you did so. I am literally begging here. Also if you would follow this, that would be nice. And please Review.
