Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or any of its characters. I wish that I did, but alas…
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Chapter 10
Clara hurried after her Doctor, still feeling somewhat lost regarding what was happening. "So, those strange golden eyes aside, what are we doing? What's the plan?"
"The Dalek fleets are surrounding Gallifrey, firing on it constantly," the War Doctor stated, coming up from behind them.
"The Sky Trench is holding, but what if the whole planet... just disappeared?" Sandshoes prompted.
Clara still looked confused. How could a planet just disappear? "Tiny bit of an ask."
He shook his head at her, unable to see how she couldn't understand what they were planning to do. "The Daleks would be firing on each other - they'd destroy themselves in their own crossfire!"
The War Doctor nodded in agreement. "Gallifrey would be gone, but the Daleks would be destroyed, and it would look to the rest of the universe as if they'd annihilated each other."
"But where would Gallifrey be?"
"Frozen!" Sandshoes grinned, somewhat manically, she noted. "Frozen in an instant of time, safe and hidden away."
The War Doctor looked Clara directly in the eyes. "Like a painting."
And that is when everything clicked into place.
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Rose and John disappeared back into the Doctor's TARDIS to find him ready and waiting at the console. He knew that joining them in the barn on Gallifrey would be a mistake, that it would do more harm than good. He didn't remember seeing himself there, so therefore he had to remain hidden inside the cloaked TARDIS. It was imperative that the other Doctors not know - not yet.
"Everything go well out there?" he asked the pair.
John nodded, still processing everything that he had just witnessed. It was strange for him, being surrounded by his former self while also meeting the men that the Doctor would become after he was already gone and locked away on Pete's World. That day on Bad Wolf Bay it never occurred to him that he would one day return; that he - John Smith, the human Doctor - would be there to assist at the end of the Time War. Not to mention that the Bad Wolf would resurface from within his wife, where she had apparently remained dormant for so many years.
"As well as can be expected," Rose smirked. "Bit surprised, but I guess you knew that was coming?"
The Doctor shrugged noncommittally. "I may have had a vague recollection."
John rolled his eyes as he moved to one of the keypads on the console and began typing. The Doctor merely raised an eyebrow in challenge, but it was enough to make him pause. "Right. Yours. Sorry."
"It looks like everything has already begun," the Doctor informed them, swiveling a monitor around so that they could see a message that had just appeared. It simply read: Gallifrey Stands.
Before anyone could say anything about the message though, the Doctor - in the bowtie - appeared on the screen. "Hello, hello, Gallifrey High Command, this is the Doctor speaking."
"Hello! Also the Doctor," the pinstriped one called as he appeared on screen. "Can you hear me?"
His image was then replaced by the War Doctor. "Also the Doctor - standing ready."
Both the Doctor and John stared at the screen in front of them, hardly able to believe what appeared next. A direct link to the Gallifrey High Command itself - Time Lords that neither had seen for centuries.
"Dear God, three of them," the General spat with disgust. "All my worst nightmares at once!"
"General," Pinstripes called. "We have a plan."
The Bowtie appeared again, nodding. "We should point out, at this moment, it is a fairly terrible plan."
"And almost certainly won't work," Pinstripes agreed.
Bowtie shook his head in slight disgust. "We're flying our three TARDISes into your lower atmosphere."
"We're positioned at equidistant intervals round the globe-"
"We're just about ready to do it," the War Doctor concluded.
The Doctor, John, and Rose all stared at the monitor, as the General and the rest of the Gallifrey High Command did the same.
"Ready to do what?" the General asked.
"We're going to freeze Gallifrey."
"I'm sorry, what?" the General scoffed.
"Using our TARDISes, we're going to freeze Gallifrey in a single moment in time."
"You know, like those Stasis Cubes? A single moment in time held in a parallel pocket universe," the War Doctor added.
"Except we're going to do it to a whole planet," Bowtie continued.
"And all the people on it," concluded Pinstripes.
They all watched as the General stared back in shock. "What? Even if that were possible, which it isn't, why would you do such a thing?"
Bowtie sighed. "Because the alternative is burning-"
"And I've seen that-"
"And I never want to see it again," Bowtie finished.
"We'd be lost in another universe... frozen in a single moment. We'd have nothing."
"You would have hope," Bowtie informed the council. "And right now, that is exactly what you don't have."
"It's delusional! The calculations alone would take...hundreds of years."
"Oh, hundreds and hundreds," Bowtie agreed.
"But don't worry," Pinstripes smirked. "I started a very long time ago!"
"Doctor," Rose quietly said. "What did he - you - mean by-"
Her hand flew to her mouth as she watched another TARDIS appear in the sky above them. A grin spread across John's face, and he quickly whispered in Rose's ear, "That was her, the TARDIS when I first took her…"
"Calling the War Council of Gallifrey, this is the Doctor."
John took Rose's face in his hands and kissed her. "We are brilliant! It's not just us," he said, manically gesturing around the TARDIS and to the screen showing the three Doctors they had been with earlier, "But all of him, all of us. All of the regenerations! Look! Look at them, Rose. The TARDIS - from throughout her timestream, the TARDIS and the Doctor, all regenerations, all together."
"You might say, I've been doing this all my lives!" Bowtie grinned.
One by one, the many faces of the Doctor did in fact flicker across the screen. All signing on with words of ready, words of encouragement.
"Good luck!"
"Stand by."
"Ready?"
"Commencing calculations."
"Soon be there."
"Just got to lock on to his coordinates."
"Across the boundaries that divide one universe from another."
Wait, what? Rose narrowed her eyes at the monitor before turning to look at the Doctor. "Did he just say-"
But her words died in her throat at the sight of the next man who flickered across the screen. There he was, her Doctor - her first Doctor - with his leather jacket and those big ears, and that Northern accent…
"And for my next trick...!"
Rose froze in place. Where was she when this happened? Once she started traveling with him, they were hardly ever separated. It must have been before she met him, had to have been. She was there when he regenerated.
"I didn't know when I was well off," the General shouted from the screen. "All 12 of them!"
John squeezed her hand, surprising her. She hadn't even realized that he had taken it in his. "You were there, you know," he told her. "On the TARDIS. Sleeping - tucked away in your room, safe and sound, not a worry in the universe."
Rose looked up at John, her eyes full of disbelief. "You knew…?"
He shook his head. "Only just remembered." He tapped a finger to his temple and smiled sadly. "Just unlocked."
Their moment was interrupted as the Doctor began frantically running around the console. "Something's not right," he muttered.
"What?" John asked, springing into action. "The calibrations…"
"The signal isn't transferring correctly, but I can fix it. Hang on!" The Doctor flipped another lever that sent them spinning around the room. "Ha!" he shouted, locking on and resuming his position back at the controls of his ship.
"No, sir," another member of the Council said. "All 13!"
John pulled another monitor around so that he and Rose could watch the progress. Together they saw both Pinstripes and Bowtie grinning at the mention of the newest addition. Perhaps they thought it was the two of them?
Once again, the TARDIS jerked, nearly causing Rose to fall. John grabbed her arm to steady her as the Council provide an explanation for what was happening.
"Sir! The Daleks know that something is happening. They're increasing their fire power."
The General took a deep breath and nodded. "Do it, Doctor. Just do it. Do it!"
Rose watched as all of the Doctors on the screen - and the two on board with her - steeled themselves. "Okay," Bowtie shouted. "Lady and Gentleman... We're ready. Geronimo...!" And with a bit of a flourish, he flipped a switch on his TARDIS' controls, and the twelve other Doctors followed his lead.
It was a sight, that was certain. Rose watched in awe as the TARDISes all circled the planet of Gallifrey, causing some sort of force-field to form around it. Just as suddenly though, there was an explosion and everything went black.
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A/N: Gallifrey Falls. There you have it. Hoping it won't be too long before the next update… in the meantime though, reviews? Please and thanks!