Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who
A Second Chance
Chapter IX
For what precise reason Hope's parents had included a fully stocked genetic laboratory on her TARDIS, Anthony was not entirely sure of. He sat on the examination table as Hope double checked that all the equipment she needed was in full working order. She then proceeded to don some surgical gloves, take a small pair of scissors and cut a tuft of his sandy hair from his head, placing it gingerly between two glass slides. Puzzled, he asked "Will my hair really tell you anything?"
"It might do; I want to examine all the different types of your cells, to see if the artron energy has affected them differently" Hope explained as she peered at his hair through the microscope. "Hang on, aren't you going to need something to compare it to? I mean, you'd need DNA samples from before I was part Time Lord". Hope grinned. "Way ahead of you, love. Juni, please extrapolate a sample of Anthony's DNA dated prior to his affirmation as an official pilot" she ordered, and Juni hummed as she carried out the instructions.
Hope beckoned Anthony over, and handed him the scissors and a pair of gloves. "I want to compare my DNA to yours" she explained in reply to his expression, "once I eliminate the obvious differences, gender and all, I can see how similar it is to mine". So Anthony snipped a tiny strand of blonde hair and placed it between two glass slides. A machine on the other side of the room bleeped at them, and Hope smiled. "Thanks Juni". She walked over and pulled a slide from the machine, bringing it to be examined under the microscope.
"Interesting…Ant, look at this" Hope showed him the slides with his human and part Time Lord DNA samples. "On the left there, that's a general sample of your DNA – bits of hair, skin cells, snot from when you sneeze and don't get your hanky out in time".
"Gross. So the slide on the right is my part Time Lord cells, yeah?"
"Uh huh. Now play 'spot the difference'. Notice anything?" asked Hope. Anthony pressed his eyes to the microscope and peered closely; then he spotted it, the different coding in the right sample. It was a very subtle difference, but there none the less. "This is one powerful microscope" he commented. "Technically, it's not a microscope; it just resembles one for convenience. It actually does everything that human scientists do to study DNA automatically" revealed Hope.
Anthony nodded. "Oh. Wow. Um…remind me how that's done again?" he asked. Hope snickered in amusement and pecked him on the cheek, just to let him know there was nothing wrong with not knowing. "Okay, for a start the GEL – that's Genetic Enzyme Locator - is 50,000 times more powerful than the most powerful microscope, and it's equipped with X-Ray beams that let you see a cross section of the cells.
"Then it colour codes the nucleotides; like you see here, the telomere nucleotides are colour coded white on the left sample and golden on the right sample. So we know your hair is different...what about say, your blood? You're not scared of needles, are you?" asked Hope as she held one up. Anthony rolled his eyes. "No, I'm pretty sure that my fears haven't changed since I was eight and accidentally fell down into that well" he replied, holding up his finger.
Hope pricked it and let a bead of red, slightly orange tinted blood fall onto a slide. "Oh right, you're scared of the dark" she nodded, and Anthony raised an eyebrow in disbelief. "Err, no... I mean, I got rescued way before it got dark" he reminded her. Hope took a sample of her own blood and slid it under the GEL. "Now that's very interesting…" she murmured. "Hope, do you actually know what I'm most afraid of?" asked Anthony.
Hope nodded distractedly. "Oh sure, why wouldn't I? You're um, scared of water" she answered, still looking through the GEL. "No, again, one more strike and you're out" he told her, before smirking. "You know…if you want to admit you have no idea…I won't get offended". Hope rolled her eyes impatiently and turned to face him. "I do know…falling. You have a fear of falling…" then she went pale, "wait, do you? Oh my God, you're scared of falling and I – I pushed you off a cliff!"
Anthony grabbed her shoulders and looked her in the eye. "Hope, calm down; I'm not scared of falling…though, could you give me more warning next time you shove me into a ravine?" he asked jokingly. "Ok, I'll admit it…I don't know what you're most afraid of" Hope said grudgingly.
"It's alright; it hardly ever comes up, to be honest…oh no, I think I've just jinxed myself; and just so you know, my biggest fear is of…low places" explained Anthony. Hope raised a dubious eyebrow. "Low places?" she repeated questioningly. "Yes. It's a thing! Like how some people are scared to death of high places, I'm scared of, well, low and enclosed spaces – y'know, like wells or caves…why do you think I never go on the Underground?" he asked.
Hope shrugged. "I thought you just didn't like the mess…wait, you're scared of caves? But we were in caves on our first adventure…I'm sorry, Anthony. I didn't realise" she apologised, but he shook his head and smiled at her. "Hey, don't be. If we hadn't gone into those caves, I wouldn't have ended up half-Time Lord, would I? Speaking of which, what is the GEL telling you?" Anthony inquired. Hope stepped aside and gestured for him to have a look himself.
"I don't see any difference" he said after about a minute or so of peering. Hope raised an eyebrow again. "Oh, right…so I've got Time Lord blood?" asked Anthony. Hope pulled out her sonic and scanned him, eyes widening slightly at the results. "You have a lot more than just that. According to this, you're about 85% Time Lord, and 15% human" she explained.
Then she decided to do a full body scan on Anthony; taking him by the hand, she led him over to what looked like a slightly tilted slab with padded manacles. She caught a hint of his alarm and gave him a reassuring peck on the cheek. "Don't worry, they're just there to help keep you on the board" Hope explained, gesturing to the manacles…but she couldn't resist teasing him a little. "Besides, there'd be drainage channels if I was going to dissect you, and there obviously aren't any!" she smiled innocently.
Anthony rolled his eyes at her so not funny joke, and lay back on the board. Hope fastened the manacles around his wrists and ankles. "Right then, let's see how much you've really changed" she muttered as she pressed some buttons on the wall beside his head. A wave of whitish blue light swept over him from head to toe, and he watched as a holographic screen sprang up from a projector in the floor in front of him.
His body appeared on the 'screen', outlined in white. It showed his brain, the image of which seemed to pulse and shift every moment; his nervous system threading through his body, and his organs. There were sparks of white and gold everywhere; in his veins, bones, and especially in his brain. "What are all those little specks?" he asked curiously, eyes roving over the hologram.
"The white specks represent the artron energy in your system, and the gold specks are the energy you imbued from the Vortex…oh…of course! It's so obvious, why didn't I see it before?" she cried, swatting herself in the forehead. "See what?" asked Anthony.
"We kept wondering how you were changing into a Time Lord, and we all thought it was the Vortex, but that should have killed you…even just that one glance should have killed you, but it didn't, and now, now I can see why" Hope rambled excitedly. "See, look how many white sparks there are compared to the gold – you were exposed to Vortex energy for just half an hour, but you've been exposed to artron energy much longer than that, from the TARDISes you've been in, like background radiation".
Anthony began to catch on to what she was trying to say. "Oh, so it isn't the Vortex energy that's turning me into a Time Lord, it's the artron energy, because that energy has had more time to alter me" he worked out. "Yeah, that's it. You absorbed artron energy into your cells, tilted your biology just a little towards being a Time Lord, and when you were exposed to Vortex energy, all that artron energy began to alter your biology completely…but it shouldn't be able to do that without…" she trailed off, and they realised only then that the TARDIS was completely silent.
Hope and Anthony looked up at the ceiling. "Juni…hum if it's a yes, and stay quiet if it's a no…did you turn Anthony into a Time Lord?" asked Hope. There was a slight, sheepish sounding hum. "Did you do it to save my life?" Anthony inquired; Juni hummed louder that time. "It's not enough, I'm afraid…Time Lords can survive longer with the Vortex in them than humans, but not indefinitely. There might be a chance, though…let's see…yes".
She looked at Anthony, right in the eye, and explained, "The few wisps of Vortex energy still inside you will kill you unless it's all removed. Your brain, it's developed enough to let you absorb all of time and space, and a second exposure to the Vortex ought to draw out the energy from you…but if you do that, you won't be human anymore. You'd be full Time Lord". She sonic-ed the manacles open, and Anthony pushed himself up off the board.
He reached out and took hold of her hands, rubbing his thumbs tenderly over her knuckles. "It's alright; I've already come to terms with changing species. If becoming full Time Lord is what it takes to save my life, and stay with you, I'll do it within two heart beats" Anthony said earnestly. Hope gave him a soft, loving kiss; then she took him by the hand and led him to the console room.
"There's no more Untempered schism, but if I raise the shields to maximum, and you process a feedback loop through the door controls so they don't deadlock…this is how my parents showed it to me when I was eight" explained Hope as she and Anthony worked at the console. "Eight? Isn't that a bit, well, young to see all of time and space?" Anthony said dubiously.
"All Time Lords were initiated at the age of eight, it's Gallifreyan tradition. And don't forget, even an eight year old Time Tot can understand much more than an eight year old human; it's just the right age for us to be able to absorb everything; oh, but you'll need a very long sleep afterwards. My parents told me I slept for like a week straight after I stared into the Vortex" Hope explained. The TARDIS floated in the Vortex. "Are you ready?" she asked.
Anthony nodded, and strode over to the doors. "Wait!" Hope called out; he paused and turned to her. "I…I should warn you, it's…not easy. You might run, or be inspired, or…or go mad. Just…whatever happens, I'll be here for you". Anthony nodded, understanding. He stood there a moment, gathering his courage, before yanking the doors open.
The moment he laid eyes on the sight beyond, Anthony knew he would never be able to describe it to anybody else. How could he describe the sensation of gazing at all of reality? All of time and space flickered through his brain; one second he was staring at mammoths, the next at a star liner crash landing; one moment he saw a supernova burst forth in a cacophony of burning colours, and then beheld a dingy Liverpool street. More and more of it poured into his mind, it was becoming too much, and yet it was so incredible he couldn't tear his gaze away.
A sharp pain erupted in his knees, and he dimly thought he might have dropped to the hard floor of the TARDIS; then he lost all sensation in his body entirely. He was just pure consciousness spinning through the ever shifting tidal wave of the Vortex, struggling to cling on to who and what he was. Anthony! Anthony, it's alright, I've got you! He heard someone calling, someone he knew…Hope? Yes, his wife, his Connection. He needed her, he…he needed help.
I know love, I've got you. Don't try and fight it, just…look for something, anything that you recognise and try to focus on it she told him. How could he focus on anything in this maelstrom? Please, you have to…look for your own timeline, Anthony, and follow it! Hope urged him, and he searched desperately through the Vortex for his earliest memory, but it wasn't working, there was just too much to look at!
I told you, don't fight it, just…let it come. Just be ready for it; I'm sorry, I wish I could tell you how, but I can't said Hope, and she sounded as if she was crying. That simply wouldn't do…and suddenly, he spotted a little speck of the past and threw all of his attention, all of his being on to it.
He began to watch his life in fast motion; watched himself learn to walk, run and ride a bike with Hope…birthday and Christmas trips to far off planets in her parent's TARDIS…dancing with Hope at their school celebration…going to university to study paleontology…becoming Hope's boyfriend…graduation day…he and Hope rescuing Time Lords and saving the universe…getting married to the woman of his dreams…all of this, in what felt like only a few minutes.
Still, it worked. He felt everything slotting into place, where he fit in the grand scheme of things. It was a little…actually, very humbling to realise just how insignificant he really was. "You're not insignificant" said Hope. Anthony realised he was back inside his body, and opened his eyes tentatively. "Hi" he muttered, gazing up at Hope from where he lay in her arms. "Hi" she smiled.
"How do you feel? Mad, or…?" Hope trailed off. "Does being mad about you count?" asked Anthony with a cheesy grin. "Oh, shut up" she grumbled. Anthony sat up and rubbed his aching head. "Okay, I will honestly say that I feel…utterly exhausted and I never want to do that again" he said bluntly, and Hope laughed. She helped him to his feet, and guided him off to their bedroom. The universe, Juni and her quite aspiring plan…well, they could all wait for a while.
