A/N: Hello People! Sorry, I know the last few chapters have been very emotion based, so I am trying to move the plot along a little more. However, still a lot of emotional stuff to come. Please R&R!
"That's a bad thing, yes?" Amy said. She didn't dare go stand by the Doctor, fearing getting in his way.
The Doctor and Susan competed with each other for control of the TARDIS, swatting each other's hands out of the way as they both tried to fix the situation.
"Stop that!" the Doctor said, trying to reach past Susan to type on his keyboard. "Stop whatever it is you are doing! This is my TARDIS. And no, Amy reversing the polarity of the Earth is not in itself a bad action."
"Yes, but if you don't let me help we might be in some real trouble very soon." Susan stepped aside, but only to frantically begin working a pump on the other side of the console. "For your information, I am trying to reestablish the TARDIS's connection with the planet's core using precision sound waves to resonate off of the metal in the center." Sparks snapped of the TARDIS as Susan whirled around. "The trouble we are having here, Amy, is that this is a distinctly unnatural polar change. The Earth isn't ready for it."
"Reconnecting with the core would work only if this was a gaseous planet," the Doctor yelled, trying to shut down Susan's work as she was doing it. "The Earth changes polarity every hundred million years or so. But it is a natural progress, taking place over time as the Earth has been preparing for it."
"It'll work if we tell the TARDIS to behave like a gas herself," Susan screamed as she dashed down the stairs near the back of the TARDIS, entering the area under the console.
"So how is the TARDIS changing the polarity of the planet?" Amy said.
The Doctor said, "The TARDIS is powered by the Eye of Harmony which works one something like magnetism. Well, when I say like magnetism-"
"He means like the difference between an orphaned child's first birthday and the Sontaran's New Year's Eve party of 7030-84," Susan said, chiming in. "That's how the Eye of Harmony is like magnetism."
"Yes," he said, amazed that Susan had taken the exact simile out of his mouth. "You want my TARDIS to become a gas?"He then yelled at Susan. He couldn't believe this girl's knowledge of his ship. He was certain that he had not taught Susan this much.
"No! Then we would become gaseous too and that could cause all kinds of trouble. I simply want the TARDIS to pretend to be a gas for a few hours. It would buy us some more time." Susan was now pulling wires out from the column under the TARDIS, clipping and reattaching them as she saw fit.
"That... could work," the Doctor conceded. "When Susan tried to activate the Terra Gravity clamp, she didn't finish all of the steps, releasing the magnetism inside the TARDIS. Instead of sitting passively, the TARDIS has now become a giant magnet, pulling the poles of the Earth. The south pole is racing up to meet the TARDIS, which now has something like a north pole charge. But having the TARDIS pretend to be a gas, that might slow down the movement."
"Yeah, that's why I'm doing it. Could you flip the purplish lever for me?" Susan gestured, but the Doctor knew which one she was talking about. He rushed over to flip it, pounding a few buttons on the way.
Susan and the Doctor exchanged instructions for the next few minutes, yelling to be heard of the cloister bell of the TARDIS and the few explosions that came from their hard work. Rory and Amy ran around the TARDIS, answering the commands that came to them. After a few moments, the ringing stopped and the smoke began to clear.
"We did it," the Doctor laughed, as Susan climbed the stairs. He took a moment to look over the girl who claimed to be his granddaughter.
He tried not to think of her as Susan, but he could definitely see traces of her last regeneration, who she was before. Her short hair was still brown, styled and cut slightly shorter than before. She wore a leather jacket with the sleeves pushed up over an off white tank top. Various necklaces hung around her neck but that was the only jewelry she wore. Her jeans were plain and thin. He glanced down at her feet. Converse. Of course.
He was startled as she dashed to hug him as soon as she reached the top of the stairs.
"We did it," she confirmed as he awkwardly put his arms around her.
The hug ended abruptly, finished almost before it had begun. "Double digits?" she screeched, pushing him away. "You smell old! Quite old. You waited ten regenerations to come and see me?"
The Doctor stood dumbfounded. He hadn't expected her anger, at least not so soon.
"Doctor?" Rory said, standing by the TARDIS monitor. "I think we have more trouble."
Looking away from Susan, the Doctor went to fiddle with the dials on his monitor, instantly recognizing the ships on the screen.
"I thought I told you to never come back," the Doctor spoke to the monitor crossly. "Stupid Sycorax."
