Chapter 11: The Armageddon Factor
=Outer Space, Somewhere in Between the Former Site of Gaia and Rallies 366, The TARDIS, TARDIS Console Room, 1003 C.E. =
Most think that if they discovered their home planet had ceased to exist, they would fly into a horrified panic or some kind of angry fit. But it's so big to think about that you classify your feelings as being 'A bit upset.' Only when you think of some of the people that did die on that planet that you begin to realize the reality of it as a whole, and then you fly into a panic or rage, or some other kind of reaction.
Puzzlehunt and Trixie hadn't done that yet, so they just stared off into space as they stopped thinking altogether. Only when a thunderous crash banged through the console room did they come back to reality partially and realize what was going on, or rather, what the Doctor was doing.
He was piloting the TARDIS on a dive through space. It was Mystery. He had compressed his entire form down to the size of an alicorn, but the instability made comets of energy shoot out of his body almost perpetually. And they were heading directly at him.
"Um, Doctor?" Puzzlehunt asked. "Are we doing what it looks like you're doing?"
"Yes indeed." The Doctor said.
"Did it occur to you that we might die?" Puzzlehunt asked with remarkable calm.
"It certainly did." The Doctor said.
"Did it occur to you that we will very probably die?" Puzzlehunt said.
"I worked that one out." The Doctor said.
"Yet we're still headed in the general direction of death at a very fast speed." Puzzlehunt said blandly.
"That is correct." The Doctor said as they continued down.
Puzzlehunt sighed. Without warning, they made impact.
Puzzlehunt opened his eyes and looked around. He saw on the scanner that they seemed to be in some kind of photo negative world, a messed up photograph of the universe. Space was white and the stars were black. They appeared to have made it. And what made him so sure was that he was pretty sure that the universe didn't have an end to it, at least not where it was visible from here.
Yes, they seemed to be in the place where Mystery put the compressed parts of his body. He looked and saw…
Yes, there was Gaia, a warped black and white, preserved after it was consumed. He exhaled. He was really worried there for a second. No wait, his planet seemed to be disintegrating and coming back together at a worrisome pace. Panic engaged.
"We have to get it back." Trixie said, voicing his thoughts.
"I think I might know how." The Doctor said.
And they began to make their way through the space. They didn't know what the Doctor was looking for, but they would find it.
Then they saw it. Well, just barely. It was a star that was the color white. Which was what made it hard to see against the white space. The Doctor piloted them towards it. When they got close enough to it, he pressed a button and spoke into a microphone.
"Am I talking to the main intelligence of the entity that used to occupy this body?" He asked.
"I AM POLARIA. WHILE CELESTIA IS THE SUN, AND LUNA IS THE MOON, I AM THE STARS. BUT I HAVE BEEN FORCED OUT. I WAS ROBBED OF MY ENERGY AND MYSTERY TOOK IT INTO HIMSELF."
"It was when Puzzlehunt threw the amulet into the star, wasn't it? That's how you were born? The amulet burned up inside and the star became you." The Doctor said.
"INDEED." Was the reply.
"You still have a bit of that power to yourself you know. Perhaps enough to dispel Mystery from your body and take it back for yourself." The Doctor said.
"I AM BEING LEECHED ALMOST CONTINUALLY. I DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH."
"You didn't even try you know. You still have a chance. If you're going to take it." The Doctor said.
"I WON'T BE ABLE TO. THE CENTRAL POWER HAS BEEN DEPLETED DRASTICALLY."
"But this is still your body." The Doctor said. "The central power source is still the central power of this whole body.
There was a pause.
"Only a suggestion." And, in a knowing sort of way, the TARDIS dematerialized.
And with that, there was a small golden glow building up inside the white star.
Mystery realized that his physical body, which he was manifesting from Polaria, was beginning to collapse. And in that one second, he realized that his body was flickering and warping as he expanded back to the size of the star being, in a slow fashion. And suddenly, a crushing pain took him as he was forced out of the body, leaving him behind in space. He realized he was asphyxiating, he clutched at his throat. He looked back on his life for one second. And it was then that he realized his brother had truly come out on top. He stopped struggling and let his body dissolve.
And just like that, the star being broke up. All the stars that made it up flew expertly in a way that didn't hit any inhabited planets to the place they had already been before. Their correct place in this galaxy.
One of the stars pulled Rallies 366 into its orbit. The jungle planet was carried away into the infinity of space to wherever it was supposed to settle.
And Gaia reconstituted where it was before. It regained color, and its orbit started up again, as per usual. Nopony could tell the world of difference they had undergone.
And nopony could see the light golden alicorn galloping away into space.
=The TARDIS, TARDIS Console Room, Time Unknown =
"Well, we've landed." The Doctor said.
"And where have we landed? Have you managed to take us anywhere recognizable?" Trixie asked.
"Well, we left in quite a hurry, so I didn't plot any specific coordinates. We could be in any time or place in history, and yes, this is a time machine." The Doctor said.
"Well get us back!" Trixie demanded.
"I could take us back right now. Or, you could stay here in the TARDIS, and you can have the opportunity to go anywhere in time and space you want, and we can start right outside those doors right now, whenever that may be." The Doctor said.
Puzzlehunt and Trixie looked at each other unsurely, weighing all the options. They thought deeply. It was quite an important offer. Go home to their somewhat interesting but rather dull, mundane, and boring lives, or…
Trixie pressed a button on the console, and the doors whirred open.
To be continued in Episode 10
