Chapter 2 – High Noon

Previously - The Time Rotor flared into life and the TARDIS began to move. The Doctor sighed, glancing at the floor in the process, "This conversation isn't over Doctor", she whispered and turned off the monitor without waiting for a response. She moved around the flight control and prepared to move her TARDIS into position. The Doctor needed to focus for the next part of her mission, forcing her to push her anger and disappointment aside for the next few minutes. Gallifrey wouldn't be lost just because of an argument with her past self, she wouldn't add the destruction of Gallifrey back onto her list of failures. That would have to drive her forward for the foreseeable future.

The Doctor angrily turned off the monitor and took a few paces away from the console. She stared into the distance and clenched her fists into a tight ball. The conversation with her previous self had infuriated the Time Lady. She had rocky relationships with some of her previous incarnations but the Eleventh Doctor was the total opposite of the person she was trying to be. He was a man who hid from his emotional problems rather than confronting them. He was an overgrown child in an adult's body. The Twelfth Doctor might occasionally act whimsically, however, she was over two thousand years old and it was time to start acting like it and take some responsibility for her actions.

She wasn't the only one who was struggling, The Doctor could feel the confusion and anger emanating from Jenny. The older Time Lady didn't need to turn around to know this and she was angry on Jenny behalf as well. The red head practically lived to see The Doctor again, only to find out that she had been forgotten about. One simple trip back to Messaline would've alerted either of her two predecessors to Jenny's fate.

The Doctor was pulled slightly from her thoughts by a gentle touch on her shoulder. She turned her head slightly but all she could see was the vibrant red hair of Jenny. The younger Time Lady was standing close to The Doctor but still with enough distance for the gesture not to be classed as a hug. It was the gesture of someone who had been hurt in the past and was too afraid to trust again, "It's alright Doctor", Jenny said softly, "I know exactly how you're feeling". The Doctor lowered her head slightly and smiled to herself, it had been a long time since she was a parent but she had bonded very quickly with Jenny, even if it was a little one way at the moment.

The sound of the cloister bell quickly grabbed their attention, jolting the Time Ladies back to the present. The TARDIS was emitting a low rumbling sound from an external vibration, like they were flying into turbulence. Jenny took a couple of paces back, confused by what was going on. The Doctor though knew exact what was happening, "We're approaching Gallifrey but so are my past selves", she stated, "the timestream is struggling to cope with the paradox". She spun around and placed her hands firmly on Jenny's upper arms, "I need to navigate us through the paradoxes, that's means you have to fly the TARDIS".

Jenny's mouth flapped open a couple of times, "But I've never flown this before", she stammered out.

"Not the TARDIS but you've flown plenty of other spaceships, right?" Jenny nodded slowly, "this isn't much different except that the fate of Gallifrey and possibly the universe rests on us getting through safely".

"No pressure then", Jenny mumbled to herself.

"I believe in you Iníon", The Doctor smiled warmly, "that means daughter in High Gallifreyan by the way". She gently kissed Jenny on the forehead in an attempt to soothe the red head nerves, "You're about to go down in history Jenny, the two of us and all of my past incarnations are going to rewrite history". The young Time Lady smiled back but the pair were thrown about by some rough turbulence, "They'll be plenty of time for the mushy stuff later", The Doctor quickly turned back to the console and grabbed hold of some of the pipes that were hanging down near the rotor, "Quickly Jenny, man that console", The Doctor added and pointed to the primary pilots position.

Jenny took a deep breath and gingerly grasped a pair of levers that were sticking out of the console. Despite only stepping foot into the TARDIS today, subconsciously she had a basic understanding of what some of the switches did. She pushed up on the left hand control lever, keeping half an eye on The Doctor. The older Time Lady was twisting frantically on the pipes, getting a shower of steam in the process. "I'm flooding the primary dampers", The Doctor called out, "this should sustain the paradox long enough to get into orbit". Jenny nodded, instinctively throwing the right hand lever all the way forward on the console. The ride was still a little bumpy but at least the annoying cloister bell had been silenced by their actions.

The tense silence in the TARDIS was broken by the loud sound of static. The two Time Ladies froze, their experiences with the Time Shadows still fresh in their memories. Fortunately for the pair, the sound was just the radio crackling into life, "We'd be lost in another universe, Frozen in a single moment of time", a deep male voice boomed from the radio.

"What's happening Doctor?" Jenny asked.

The older Time Lady recognised the voice, it belonged to another Time Lord known as The General, one of the men responsible for the defence of Gallifrey. All of The General's previous incarnations had been female and the Time Lord in question was most disgruntled when he regenerated into a man. The Doctor had been there that day, The General saved his life by stepping in the way of an improvised Dalek explosive device. The General had a wise head on his shoulders, unlike Rasillion. If the founder of Time Lord society had been in the war room then The Doctor would've been in big trouble, "We've tapped into the communication channel", the older Time Lady replied, "we must be getting close".

"You would have hope", The Doctor recognised the voice of the Eleventh Doctor, "and right now that is exactly what you don't have".

"It's delusional", The General replied, "the calculations alone would take hundreds of years".

"Oh, hundreds and hundreds", the Eleventh Doctor stated with a cheery voice.

"But don't worry, I started a very long time ago", Jenny recognised that voice, it belonged to the Tenth Doctor.

The turbulence began to increase and on the monitors, The Doctor noticed several TARDIS's emerge from the Time Vortex, "Calling the War Council of Gallifrey, this is The Doctor". The older Time Lady smiled at the sound of that voice, it belonged to someone she hadn't seen in a very long time.

"Is that one of your past selves?" Jenny stated, slowly pulling back on the control lever.

"My original self", The Doctor smiled with nostalgia, "it's been a very long time since I've been that man".

Jenny opened her mouth to ask a question but she was interrupted by the Eleventh Doctor from the radio, "You might say I've been doing this all my lives".

"Always so dramatic", The Doctor groaned, drawing a chuckle from Jenny, "if I ever talk like that then you've got my permission to slap me". More TARDIS's began to appear in Gallifrey's orbit, flying down low in the atmosphere of the planet. The current version of the TARDIS wasn't that far behind, maybe a few more seconds until it made her own arrival. The radio continued to crackle with declarations from all of the past versions of The Doctor. The current Doctor had to smile, it was extremely rare for past regenerations to meet each other but here they all were and all united with a common goal. She could feel the pride building deep in her chest, for the first time since her own regeneration she finally felt part of the great legacy of The Doctor.

She shook her head gently, bringing herself back to the present situation, "Pull back on the brakes Jenny", she ordered, "we're here".

Jenny did as she was instructed, breaking the TARDIS free of the Time Vortex. The TARDIS was spat out into the middle of a hail of laser fire from several Dalek battleships. Jenny slammed the levers all the way forward, throwing the pair against the console but out the way of the laser fire. A small part of The Doctor wanted to take over the controls herself but she quickly changed her mind when she saw the look of concentration on Jenny's face. The red head was in her element, using her natural instincts to effectively pick a path through the laser fire. Instead The Doctor busied herself with cranking the shields up to maximum by quickly turning a large brass valve on the side of the console. "I didn't know when I was so well off, all twelve of them", The General's voice came out of the radio again.

There was a short pause before another voice added, "No Sir, all thirteen of them".

The Doctor smiled to herself, as far as the Council of Gallifrey were aware she was the thirteenth and final incarnation of The Doctor. They didn't know about her rebirth and she was determined to keep it that way, "Ah hello, nice of you to join us", the Eleventh Doctor called out from the radio.

"Well you know, traffic was a nightmare", The Doctor commented dryly, "hello previous versions of me, good to see you all made it".

"Oi, who let the assistant fly the TARDIS", the indignant and distinctive voice of the Ninth Doctor replied.

"Oi yourself matey", The Doctor replied, "just because you sound Northern doesn't give you the right to insult your future self".

There was a brief pause and The Doctor could almost feel her past incarnations thinking about the possibility of becoming a woman, "You're me", the hesitant sounding voice of the Fifth Doctor asked, "but you're a woman".

The Doctor had to roll her eyes at that comment, "Really, what gave me away", she snorted, "little tip for the future, learn how to put on a bra. Trust me those things are trickier to master than quantum engineering".

"This is no time for flippancy young lady", the stern voice of the First Doctor called out. The Doctor lowered her head, feeling like a scolded child, "There will be plenty of time to discuss this matter later, assuming you don't have to run off, hmm".

"No Sir", The Doctor smiled broadly and shuffled around to the other side of the console, accidently bumping into Jenny in the process. "I'm transmitting the completed calculation to all of your TARDIS's", she said and pulled back firmly on a lever. Once she was happy that the code had been transmitted, she gently wrapped her hand around another lever and took a deep breath. This was the moment she had been anticipating for a very long time. She lowered her head slightly and absorbed the gravity of the situation. With one pull of this lever Gallifrey would be frozen in time, assuming the calculations were correct.

Moments later The Doctor felt a warm hand on top of hers as Jenny too grasped the lever, "You didn't think you would have to do this alone", the red head smiled.

"Spoken like a true daughter of mine", the older Time Lady smiled, bursting with motherly pride in the process.

"Do it Doctor", she heard The General call out from the radio. She didn't need a second invitation and the mother and daughter pair quickly pulled back on the lever. The lights slowly dimmed inside the TARDIS as all power was diverted to the compression device. The Doctor quickly glanced at the monitor, the planet was slowly moving into a pocket dimension.

Suddenly something dawned on The Doctor and she quickly ran over to the pilots controls, "Calling all Doctor's, prepare for emergency transit the moment the planet had gone", she said loudly and gripped the handbrake.

"Whatever for my dear"¸ the booming voice of the Fourth Doctor asked.

"We're in the lower atmosphere of the planet", The Doctor replied, "directly in the firing line of the Daleks and their soon to be destroyed ships. Unless we want to join them in a fiery death, I recommend that we reconvene at a safer location".

The Doctor busiest herself with finding somewhere safe for them to meet as the other Doctor's debated her suggestion, "I didn't think of that", the Tenth Doctor stated dryly.

"Which is exactly why you need a woman's touch", The Doctor chuckled, "much more common sense you see". She pushed a button on the console, "Transmitting you some co-ordinates, this location should be stable enough for a few minutes". She didn't wait for a response as the moment of Gallifrey's transportation was upon them. The second the planet disappeared, the Time Lady threw the switch which moved her TARDIS safely away from the massive explosion emanating from the Dalek fleet.

The TARDIS was deathly silence for a few moments as The Doctor and Jenny slowly regained their composure, "Did we do it?" Jenny asked with a quiet voice. The Doctor contemplated her question for a couple of moments. Truthfully she wasn't one hundred percent sure that it had worked and she probably never would be. Her predecessor was correct though, at least they had a small amount of hope that Gallifrey was out there somewhere.

The Time Rotor flared suddenly, the TARDIS was unhappy about something, "It's alright girl, they won't be hanging around for too long". Jenny raised a quizzical eyebrow in the older Time Lady's direction, "She's not too happy that all of my previous regenerations are outside, the potential for a universe ending paradox is off the scale". She took a deep breath and slowly moved towards the door, "Wait here for a few minutes Jenny, I want to have a few words with them first", she pointed at the monitor, "keep watching though, you're about to get your answers".

Slowly The Doctor made her way across the metal walkway, her boots echoing with every step. She grabbed hold of the door handle and took a moment to compose herself. The Doctor's waiting outside the door would know exactly how she extended her life past the usual regeneration limit and that was a little frightening. What if they rejected her, would that really matter? After all they were her past incarnations and she was the future.

Summoning up all of her courage, she pulled the door open and twelve pairs of eyes immediately shot in her direction. Each of them scrutinized her in their own way, some were amused by this future development, others not so. "Good to see you all again gentlemen", The Doctor greeted warmly, "we should be safe on this moon for around ten minutes".

The Second Doctor was the first to approach The Doctor, slowly circling her with a curious eye, "Well, this certainly is different", he began, "at least I've retained my sense of fashion", he added, gently stroking her velvet coat.

"Ah but the difference is that my clothes actually fit me", The Doctor replied with a cheeky smile, "and I've ditched the bow tie", this comment drew a cry of indignation from the Eleventh Doctor.

"This is highly irregular", the Eighth Doctor added, "I've heard of incidents of gender swapping in other Time Lords but I never thought I would undergo it myself".

"There's something she isn't tell us though", the Sixth Doctor stated with the usual arrogance in his voice, "she feels like me but there's something else here as well but I can't put my finger on it".

"Not as sharp as you think", The Doctor snapped, a little hurt that the other Doctor's were taking so long to put the pieces together.

"He's right", the Ninth Doctor added, his arms crossed defensively in front of his body, "why don't you tell us who you really are".

"Oh she's us my boy", the First Doctor stepped stiffly into the fray, "and I'm disappointed in myself that I haven't identified what's occurred here". The First Doctor gave The Doctor a warm smile, "I assume you have an interesting story to tell".

"Isn't it always", The Doctor smiled, "I knew you wouldn't let me down", she took a couple of big strides and wrapped her arms around the old looking man.

The First Doctor gently returned the display of affection, "Hello Doctor, now perhaps you can explain to us why you have a piece of our granddaughter in your head".

TO BE CONTINUED