Hidden Planet Part Two

The walk back to the hotel was quick. Dodging paparazzi had never been something I was accustomed to, but it seemed that Tenile was a pro. I was admittedly grateful she was with me, because I doubted I would be able to do this on my own, or even if I had my sister with me. It would undoubtedly have made things infinitely harder since she liked to try and blend in, which wouldn't really have been happening if she was here since we were practically celebrities. I almost wish my mother could see me now. I bet she would have been proud of this version of us.

"Hey, can I ask you a question?" I asked as we headed back into the lobby and nodded at the concierge.

Tenile turned and smiled to me. "Of course."

"Tamara."

I didn't need to elaborate, the look on Tenile's face, as surprised as I was to even understand it, told me all I needed to know. "Ah, I wondered if maybe she didn't exist in your world."

"She does. She lives with us in fact, she's fifteen and she's amazing. Witty, we love her."

Tenile nodded. "I understand. I think I know what you're asking and before I say anything I need you to remember that my Tamara is not your Tamara. From the sounds of it, they're very different people."

We stopped at the elevators. "Tell me."

Tenile sighed. "When Tamara was born, Mum knew immediately that something was wrong. The way her head was, the effort it took to birth her, it was terrible."

I frowned. In my world Tamara had been the easiest birth of all. Mum hadn't been in labour for very long at all. I nodded for Tenile to continue.

"The Doctors had been worried about her birth even before it was initiated, but by the time anyone realised there was a problem, Tamara was already too far in for anything to be done. They couldn't perform a caesarean because she was already in the birth canal, but Mum couldn't push her out because there was a lot of stress on the baby, she was in labour like that for almost three days before anyone could decide what to do."

I frowned in horror. That didn't sound anything at all like the tale my mother regaled upon us at every opportunity. "My God."

We stepped into the elevator as the door opened, there were people inside and so our conversation came to an end until the group got out on the third floor. "It wasn't pleasant. I don't know a lot about the medical side of it, but, I'm assuming Tamara, your Tamara has Agenesis?"

I nodded.

"Well, apart from that, my Tamara also has lung and bone issues, partial blindness from the lack of oxygen and also an inability to function properly." She said, shaking her head. "There was nothing we could do. We didn't want to force her into a world where people would constantly take pictures of her, judge her for who she was." She frowned. "You wouldn't understand a lot of it, but it was the right decision and I stand by my family. We visit her whenever we can, when the cameras aren't rolling. There isn't much of the world that know about her, but it's really for the best. You've seen what happens to celebrities I'm sure, could you imagine the impact something like this could have on someone like Tamara?"

I nodded sadly.

"We have no way of knowing how much of the world she takes in or how aware she is. We wouldn't want her basing her self-worth off the arrogant and disgustingly inappropriate comments that some pretentious two-bit halfwit paparazzo said."

I looked over at Tenile who had finished talking as soon as the elevator doors opened to our suite, impeccable timing to be sure. "Wow, I… didn't realise."

Tenile shook her head and rolled her shoulders. "How were you to know? There's nothing to be done for it. It's just better this way, I needed you to know that."

"Needed her to know what?" The Doctor was working on something on the computer, but it didn't seem as important as his questions because he was watching me with an intensity I wasn't familiar with.

"Alright?" I asked as Tenile walked by me to the bedroom to look at dresses. The Doctor seemed stressed by something, but I didn't know what.

He shook his head. "Why were you talking about before?"

"Just Tamara, Tenile was explaining to me about what was going on. So, yeah. Um, but what's going on here, you look… worried." It was a strange look on his face, one I wasn't used to. He usually had all of this to hand. Seeing him look so worried wasn't going to make me feel better and as I looked around I noticed that no one else was around and he'd probably come out here to avoid this very situation. "Did I interrupt you?"

The Doctor nodded but made no move to leave. "We have a bigger problem than I thought." He said after a moment, flipping the laptop around so I could see it. The lines on the screen didn't look good, but I'd never been good with techy stuff, so it was all nonsense to me.

"What is it?"

He started to gesture to different points on the screen. Rambling on about the universal base code and the fact we'd been wrong to think that we had moved to a different universe, apparently, we had actually pulled this Earth out of its own universe and into ours, though they hadn't yet figured out how. Quickly after that he was wildly describing what was going to happen if we didn't fix it with terms like displacement field and time dilation that made little to no sense to me at all. "In the next twenty-four hours this planet will freeze and die."

I blinked at the serious conclusion. It didn't sound good at all. "Uh, are you sure?"

He looked at me, the expression grave and I knew he was serious. The fact that he didn't take the time to be mean said enough as it was. Tenile appeared back at the bedroom door then, a swarth of fabulous colours draped over her arms. "Are you ready, any of these should do? The party is a launch for some new tech they've been developing. It's really exciting. Nothing new ever happens in Australia, so…" She stopped when she noticed the grave expression on the Doctor and the concerned frown on my face. "What's going on?"

The Doctor sighed, clearly realising that he would be best to explain all of this. "We've figured out what's happened, we just don't know how. Suffice it to say, if we can't get your planet back to where it came from, we'll have more than a few twinning problems to deal with." He said. "This explains why the TARDIS still works, we haven't switched universes, you have."

Tenile didn't seem to quite know what to do with this information, but she was clever, and I could see the cogs turning in her head as she tried to understand the implications. "So, if we've moved… that means…"

"It means we're all going to freeze before the rotation finishes." I looked up to see Teigan and my Tenile step out of the TARDIS. Tenile looked unsettled, Teigan looked determined, and I could tell she wasn't ready to call this a loss. I would be the same if I was in her shoes, I was sure.

"What could have happened that the TARDIS pulled it out of its own universe, I can't imagine that's something that happens often."

He shook his head, his mouth settling into a thin line. "It's not something I've known to have happened before, not that I'm aware of anyway, there's still a lot about universe displacement that I don't know, it's something my people were researching." The before the war was not said, but I knew he was thinking about it just because of the way he was suddenly staring off into nothingness.

"It must have something to do with this Earth, maybe it connected to something, or it sensed something, I don't know, but it can't be a coincidence, right?"

The Doctor shook his head. "You know I don't believe in coincidences, nothing happens by accident, not something like this."

Tenile frowned, the dresses in her arms all but forgotten. "Well, we have to do something, I refuse to stand here and wait to freeze to death. Can we trace anything, figure out what your ship latched on to?"

Teigan seemed to be doing some calculations in her head, which was strange since I really couldn't imagine a world where I would be any good with math. I was as good as any millennial when it came to computers and mostly understood them on some instinctual level, but I never would have gone into programming or anything like that. That was more Tenile's schtick. It was like we'd somehow switched personalities, because I saw a lot of Tenile in this other me and I saw a lot of me in the other Tenile. It was really weird. "I think we might be able to scan something, I saw some data when I was hooked up to your ship, might be helpful."

"I noticed that as well, it had a lot to do with string theory, which doesn't make much sense, I don't know much about your universe, but in ours, humanity has barely even made a dent on it." The Doctor said, standing up and heading for the TARDIS. "We might be able to back trace what's been happening and figure out what we latched on to, I don't know how we could stop it, but it's worth a shot."

I hadn't heard the Doctor like this before, it was like he was defeated before we'd even started. I wondered if maybe this was the first time he'd come up against something he didn't understand, he was used to be the smartest person in the room. I didn't like this. If he started to believe he couldn't fix this, then he wouldn't try and that was alarming. He could do anything if he set his mind to it, he kept telling me the same thing, so it was clearly time for some tough love. "Don't you dare check out." I called as I rushed behind him. "This is important, and you need to focus."

He stepped into the TARDIS and I followed, kicking the doors shut as I did so, effectively letting the others know not to disturb us. It was clear he wanted to be alone, but I needed him to hear me. If we were going to get through this, he needed his mind on it. Nothing any of the rest of us could do would measure up to what he could do. It was an annoyingly true fact because despite everything else, he was smarter than us. Whether that was due to his status as an alien, his status as a time traveller, or just some innate fact about him, it was a truth I'd come to both resent and admire and it was something I wasn't going to let him waste. "You keep saying you're the smartest person you know. You're a genius, we both know it. I refuse to let you tap out on this. This may not be my home, but something we did has caused this, whether or not it was by accident, we can't just sit around and let the planet die."

The Doctor was leaning on the console, his face turned away from me. His back was rigid, whether with anger or frustration, I wasn't sure, but it was better than his previous defeatist attitude. "What do you want me to say, Teigan?"

"I want you to say that you'll fix this. You always do."

"I don't know if I can."

"Well, you never will with that attitude." I said, crossing my arms. "This isn't like you, you never do this. Why are we being opposites right now? I'm usually the one who says we can't and you always tell me we can. So, what the hell is the problem?"

He shook his head, still refusing to look at me. I didn't know why, and I didn't really care, all I wanted was for him to at least try. Not trying was the only way we lose. "I don't think you truly grasp the problem that we're facing. This Earth was ripped from its place, thrown through some interdimensional pathway and dropped into our universe completely unprotected, within in microseconds of us appearing here. That can't be a coincidence."

I shrugged. "Maybe not, with you they rarely are, but how does this change anything. We've got more information than we did before. I've seen you make leaps and jumps and everything else with less."

"It's not the lack of information that's the problem, it's the lack of useable information. Even knowing what we do, we still don't have a source and without that, there really is nothing. We can't leave this Earth here, even if we were able to prevent it from dying, the rupture in the fabric of reality is growing with each second that passes and I dread to think what happens when it gets big enough."

I frowned. "Big enough for what?"

He finally turned to me and I could see the stormy depths to his eyes, the eyes of the man I saw so infrequently I often wondered if I dreamt it when I did. They were the eyes of someone who'd seen everything and nothing all at the same time, war, loss, hope and dreams, and yet still believed in everything. "If that rupture continues to grow, then within about a year, there won't be a universe to worry about anymore, all of it, every single bit, will be swallowed up into the multiverse and it would all exist as one big blob of disused particles."

My eyes widened as he kept talking. None of that sounded very good at all. "Let me guess, the only way to stop it is for the Earth to be sent back to where it came from, right?"

He nodded. "But I have no idea how to do that. I imagine reversing what was done to bring it here would help, but without knowing what that is, I can't say I could recreate it. Even if I could, it would probably take longer than we have to do."

"Can't we just work on finding out a way to save the planet first?"

Now, he sighed, and it seemed we'd gotten to the crux of the issue. "That's just it. We have a choice to make. In the next," he checked the time, "fifteen hours, that rupture is going to continue to grow until it's big enough to support itself and when that happens, nothing we do will close it."

"So… either we close the rupture, or we work on saving the planet, we can't afford to do both."

He shook his head. "It would take too much time to do both, we only have enough time to pursue one and failing at either kills all of us."

I blinked. It was starting to make sense. I didn't know how many times the Doctor had to make this choice, but it was beginning to be quite clear exactly what the stakes were. "Should we tell them?"

The Doctor shrugged. "I don't know. We need their help if we're to do this, but they may refuse if we tell them what's really happening."

What he was saying was true, but I couldn't believe that keeping them in the dark about what was happening was a good idea. We had to tell them something, if nothing else to give them a chance to figure out what they were going to do. I sighed. "You think we shouldn't tell them and I think we should, we need a third."

He nodded at me and I moved to the doors. "Tenile, can you come in here?"

Clearly knowing which one I was referring to, my sister stepped into the TARDIS, she looked apprehensive, not surprising, she'd seen some of what was happening, and I could tell she didn't really know what to say. "What's up?"

The Doctor turned away again as I explained. "We need a second opinion. The Doctor thinks one thing and I think another, we need you to be the tie breaker, or if you see another option feel free to voice it."

She nodded. "Okay, what do you need?"

I looked towards the Doctor who'd tensed up again. "The situation isn't great. There's a rupture in the fabric of reality, which, left unchecked, will continue to grow until it swallows the whole universe and not just this one, all of them." Tenile nodded for me to continue, her face carefully blank of emotion. "We have fifteen hours to try and correct it, or it won't matter what we do." I added, shaking my head. "In a little less than twenty-four hours, this planet will freeze, so if we fail with the rupture, it won't matter anyway."

I could see that Tenile was trying to understand the connotations and I gave her a moment to come to her own conclusions. This wasn't something I wanted to rush her into given what was happening. Honestly, I thought that our counterparts deserved to know what was happening, making an informed decision was important and I hoped Tenile agreed with me. I was surprised when she sighed and shook her head. "I think I agree with him." She said, nodding in the Doctor's direction. "If we tell them, they might think we would rather help ourselves. We don't know enough about them, they're us, but they're not. Before I met the Doctor, I would have said yes, tell them, but I'm slowly seeing what could happen and I don't like the thought of them running for the hills and causing a panic, which is possible."

I was completely stunned. I looked over at the Doctor to see he was carefully focused away from us, though the tension in his shoulders had eased somewhat. I fully expected Tenile would side with me, so being the odd man out, so to speak, was unexpected. Especially with how their relationship seemed to be progressing, I'd thought she would disagree with him on principle. "I'm… honestly surprised. I thought you'd agree with me."

Tenile shrugged. "Before today, I would have, on principle, but I've spent a couple of hours with your counterpart and with the Doctor. You keep saying I should trust him. So, I am. If he thinks this is the best course of action, then I agree." She looked over at him. "I'm trusting that you're going to get us out of this. Mark me, if this goes South, I'm blaming you."

The Doctor nodded. "Fair enough. Now that's settled," he moved over to the panelling and nodded to Tenile that she could let the others in. "We need to find a way to track what happened, I'll need both sets of you to do it."

The door opened, and our counterparts walked in, both looking weary. They were obviously concerned about what we were talking about that didn't include them and I could absolutely understand their apprehension. Trying to fake that nothing was wrong, I smiled at them. "Okay, so we have some good news. The Doctor is going to try to calibrate the TARDIS to find what pulled you here. We know the TARDIS latched onto something, so all we have to do is find out what."

Teigan studied me, her expression stern as she looked me over. I hoped she didn't find whatever she was looking for because I couldn't imagine this would go well if so. Finally, she sighed and nodded. "Alright, so what do we need to do?"

Tenile, who has since discarded the dresses and wore a pout looked at me. "So, no party then?"

I shook my head. "Afraid not. Maybe next time."

We both knew there would never be a next time, but there was hardly any point spoiling the dream. The Doctor gestured to the four of us. "The TARDIS doesn't like that there are two of you, it's an anomaly she's not equipped to handle. It should help us. I think there is a piece of TARDIS tech here somewhere that she locked onto, it's the only thing I can think of that might have caused this to happen."

Whilst I was glad he seemed to be forcing himself back into normality, or at least what passed for it in our lives, I was concerned about what all this would mean, and what could happen if they found out what we were keeping from them. I could only hope that they didn't find out. I knew how I would feel, I assumed it would be much the same feeling of betrayal. "So, you want to use the anomaly we create by being together to try and seek out the anomaly created by a piece of TARDIS tech?"

The Doctor nodded, though it was clear I had really simplified it. "In a way. The TARDIS tech would only create an anomaly if it was a piece of our TARDIS, which I highly doubt, there could be remnants of Timelord technology all over the multiverse, the Time war is locked, but it exists at a fixed point, and fixed points transcend universes."

As much as I really wanted the Doctor to explain the whole fixed point in time thing, I nodded. "So, what do we need to do?"

The Doctor motioned us all to sit in the four chairs that were scattered around the console. He pressed electrodes to our temples, the backs of our hands and then just above our hearts. I looked around and we were all wearing identical expressions of unease. Even the Doctor looked unsettled. There was no guarantee this was going to work and though he hadn't said anything, it was pretty clear that this wasn't going to be pleasant. "Alright, none of you need to do anything, but whatever happens, you need to keep those electrodes on. Please remember that, we only have one shot at this, messing it up could be disastrous."

Great. If that wasn't a clear indication this was going to hurt, I didn't know what was. I took a deep breath. "Alright, we're ready when you are, Doc."

It was a testament to what was about to happen that he didn't even blink. He looked all of us in the eye and flipped the switch.

DWPC

The TARDIS immediately seemed to shift, something akin to what I'd seen in so many sci-fi movies and the world around me got blurry until all I could see were simple flashes of colour. My skin began to prickle all over like there were thousands of tiny needles pricking along the nerve lines. I could see everything, but nothing at the same time. It was like I was looking out of four pairs of eyes but still seeing nothing at all. I wondered briefly if this was how a spider felt. It wasn't painful, but it was extremely unpleasant. I could hear myself grunting in annoyance, and it was answered by three other grunts, I assumed from both Tenile's and Teigan. The Doctor was talking, but through the haze of what was happening, the words were hard to make out, but he didn't sound panicked which I took to be a good sign.

After what seemed like hours, the prickling died down into a dull ache, like a muscular pain, or a slight cramp. My vision cleared, and I opened my eyes. The TARDIS lights were entirely too bright. I shut my eyes again and I heard a hiss to my right that indicated I was not alone in my assessment. I felt the lights dull and opened my eyes again to see the Doctor hovering around at each of us, checking for any permanent damage. Satisfied, he helped us remove the electrodes.

"Ugh, I'm all sweaty."

The Doctor didn't respond, he moved back to the console as the four of us looked at each other. They were paler than before but looked otherwise unharmed. "I'm going to assume I look as bad as you do." Tenile asked, running her fingers through her limp hair.

Alternate Tenile coughed. "If I look like you, then yes."

I laughed. "I think it's safe to say we've all looked better."

Teigan, who seemed outwardly perturbed by what had occurred turned on the Doctor. "Tell me you got it."

I didn't even think about that and found myself staring at him expectantly, hoping he would come back with a yes. But he only stared at the screen. My anxiety grew the longer he refused to answer. Just when I thought I was about to explode from the tension, he sighed. "Well, I certainly found something, though I'm not entirely sure what it means."

Something was better than nothing and we all quickly moved to crowd around him. He looked at us, letting his mask drop to show how uncomfortable he was at being crowded before he turned back to the screen. "It's not far, apparently, something is pulling the TARDIS towards this location."

Alternate Tenile peered at the rendered map and frowned. "Hold on, that can't be right. That's North End Casino, they're having a party there tonight for some launch."

I frowned. "That can't be a coincidence, what if this launch has something to do with what's pulling us in?"

The Doctor looked at Tenile's alternate. "What do you know about it?"

She shrugged. "Not much, it was all really secret. We were invited because I think we had some investments, or they wanted us to invest. I didn't read the email." She admitted, her face falling. "I regret that now, wish I'd had a proper look."

Teigan dropped her arm around Tenile's shoulder. "It's not your fault, T, you weren't to know we'd be looking for alien devices."

"So, maybe we need to go there and have a look, can't be any worse of a plan than what we already had, which was nothing."

"You may be right." The Doctor said, nodding at me. "I don't like it, but it seems to be our only option. The TARDIS can only tell us the general vicinity, not the exact location, I need to get closer, with the sonic, should be able to tell then."

Teigan nodded. "Alright then, we'll stay here with the TARDIS, you should go to that party, see what's what."

The Doctor shook his head. "No, I'll need either you or Tenile to come with us. We might be harassed by people at the party, you're more likely to know them, we might need you to run interference."

Alternate Tenile raised her hand. "Should be me then. Teigan can stay here and look after the data stuff, can we go all secret agent on this?"

The Doctor frowned in confusion and I laughed. "She means she wants earpieces."

Tenile groaned. "Well, I won't be going, since your taking my alternate, it would look weird for the both of us to show up. I'll stay with her," she pointed at my alternate, "and help look after things."

The Doctor seemed to like that plan a little better and I got the distinct feeling he was warming up to Tenile, if not a little slowly. "Alright, we'll set this up and get going. Teigan, I'll show you how to monitor this section here and you can let us know if it moves. Tenile, you'll be on comms."

Tenile nodded and moved closer to the Doctor to see what he was showing her. Tenile's alternate and I headed out of the TARDIS to get changed.

DWPC

The Doctor handed us the earpieces. "Can you hear us?"

"Got ya, loud and clear guys."

I gave the Doctor a thumbs up. "How's the picture?"

There was a pause for a moment and then some clacking before a sigh. "It's a bit grainy, but not too bad. The modified camera from the drones isn't very compatible but could be worse." Teigan was crackly, but still understandable.

"Alright, we're going to head in, keep an eye on those readings, we need to know if it's on the move and where it's heading." Tenile said, fussing with her hair to hide the earpiece.

The Doctor hadn't bothered to change, wearing his usual burgundy coat. I was beginning to wonder if he just had thirty of the same outfit and only changed when I wasn't looking. He never seemed to wear anything different, it was all similar or the same. Myself and Tenile on the other hand had decided to go all out. Me, because this was the first and probably last launch party I'd ever been to and Tenile because she never went anywhere without a new wardrobe. She'd opted for a gorgeous black and white suit that somehow seemed to compliment her immensely. I'd never considered that a cocktail outfit could consist of pants for a woman. I'd chosen a safe, black option that dropped into a split. It was the only thing that didn't look funny when paired with good running shoes. After all, these things always turn to running. "You have an invite for yourself and your sister, yes?" The Doctor asked looking at Tenile as she held up the invite.

"How are you getting in?"

I grinned. "We're about to introduce you to a little thing I like to call, bluffing."

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Come on, we need to get in there."

Tenile led us up the path. We'd taken the TARDIS and parked it around the corner from the Casino. Apparently, people didn't walk to these events, so we supposed it was a good thing we didn't walk from the Hotel. The Hotel was huge, in comparison to most I had seen in my life, this liked like it could have housed an entire country of people. A small country, but a country none the less. Neither the Doctor or Tenile seemed phased by it though, so I did my best to keep the shock and awe off my face. I had to remember I was playing a role, there was a person I was portraying. I had to hope my acting skills were up to snuff.

"Teigan and Tenile Kaster please." Tenile held the invite out to the security guy at the door and he didn't even look at it. He simply waved us in and I had to assume it was because he already knew who we were. We hovered quietly by the door as the Doctor stood up behind us.

"Doctor John Smith, here to see about investments." He said, holding up his psychic paper. I always got a kick out of watching this because it wasn't very often that it didn't work. I'd even seen him use it on machines.

The security guard glanced at it quickly and rolled his eyes. "In you go, sir. See the girl at the door inside, she'll talk you through everything."

Tenile watched in silent fascination as he just stepped right in. "I know people don't always RSVP to these things, but that was a whole other level." She said, grabbing the psychic paper from him to examine it. "What up, this is blank. What is happening right now?"

I grinned. "Like I said, he bluffed. He just does it with a little help from a piece of psychic paper."

"How can paper be psychic?"

The Doctor snatched the paper back and slipped it into his pocket. "It just is, not come on, we don't want to hang around here all day, we have work to do."

Tenile side-eyed me as we walked, smiling and waving at people as we did so. I took her cues and waved at the people she gestured me towards and grinned at others. "Most of these people have stayed in our hotels or know either of our parents from various boards. Teigan could sit on a board since she's nearly twenty, but I have to wait until I'm at least eighteen. I think it's more likely I'll be sitting on boards over her."

I nodded. "That makes sense, she doesn't seem interested in it."

"I'm not. Can you two please focus, Tenile and I are working our arses off here and you're gossiping like school children."

I heard my sister cough in the background and Tenile shot me a look that said, 'this is always happening.' Up ahead the Doctor seemed to be using his sonic to search for the tech we were after and I was about to head towards him before I was suddenly cornered by an overly enthusiastic red head with too much hairspray in her hair.

"Oh my goodness, I thought I saw you, Teigan! I never see you at these things, how'd she get you here, huh?"

Tenile snorted from beside me and strategically stepped around her, leaving me to fend for myself. I glared after her as she hurried to meet up with the Doctor. "Excuse me?"

"That's Connie Miller, she's a rival. Her father owns Miller Estates, a bunch of hotels trying to compete. There's not much competition, but she likes to pretend there is. Try not to upset her, her Daddy will hear about it."

"Your sister, she never usually gets you here!" She said, wrapping her hands around me suddenly in a tight hug. She seemed harmless, but the sudden affection made me tense up in her arms. It was mostly out of instinct, but it seemed a bit like something my counterpart would do, since she didn't seem like the physical type.

"Uh, yeah. Well, we made a bet and I lost."

Connie nodded. This seemed to appease her because she grinned. "Oh, this is so much fun, Daddy's always telling me I should get you to come and hang out more, he's absolutely convinced we'll break into the French market and when we do we'll be a real competitor."

"Huh, interesting," I heard Teigan say over the comm. "Try and keep her talking, ask about what her father's doing, even we haven't broken into the French market, they're remarkably tight-arsed."

I frowned at the mental images of my sister and Teigan. "I'm not helping you."

Connie frowned. "I didn't ask for your help…"

I shook my head. "Sorry, I wasn't… talking to you."

Connie looked around to find who I might have been talking to and looked back at me when she saw no-one. "Oh, but then you must be practicing for when someone asks you! Yes, I've seen how you get when people just spring things on you."

"Girl's dumb as bricks."

I heard a thump then, which sounded like maybe Tenile had hit her, because she groaned, and I smiled in satisfaction. "Something like that. Hey, Connie, I have to catch up to Tenile and a friend of ours, do you mind if we continue this later?"

She looked a bit stunned but nodded anyway and raced off to speak to someone who'd entered behind me.

I found the Doctor and Tenile waiting on the landing, the Doctor was frowning at his sonic and Tenile was bouncing from foot to foot excitably. "That. Was. Hilarious." She said, looking over my shoulder to where Connie had draped herself across some blonde guy with curls.

"Wait a sec, is that Heath Ledger."

Tenile nodded. "Yeah, he's pretty big here. Went to America for a couple of years, but he spends most of his time in Australia. He's big in charities and stuff too."

I watched on, marvelled by the appearance of someone long gone in my world. It was sad really, to think about what he could have been. The Doctor pulled my focus back to him and pointed the sonic in the direction of the double doors. "Whatever it is, it's in there."

Tenile fell into step behind us as we approached the lady on the door. She looked up and immediately smiled at us. "Tenile, Teigan, I wasn't expecting to see you tonight."

The Doctor and I hesitated, looking to Tenile. She shook her head and stepped around us, pulling the woman into a hug. "Ms Singh! It's great to see you too, I hope you're well?"

Ms Singh grinned. "Of course, thank you for lending us that money by the way, when we're fully back on our feet we will absolutely pay it all back."

Tenile waved a hand in dismissal. "It was the least I could do for my favourite event planner. The money was sitting there doing nothing, think of it as an investment if you like. Pay us in shares."

She looked both humbled and delighted and swept all three of us into a crushing hug, despite not knowing the Doctor, who, per usual, was incredibly uncomfortable and kept his arms rigidly by his side. "Go right in, they'll be starting soon."

She didn't give us a second glance as we stepped past her into the room. The Doctor immediately pulled out his sonic and Tenile and I did our best to hide him as he searched out what we were looking for. I hoped we could find it soon, as much as I wanted to come to this party, it all seemed a bit much. "Ooh, champagne."

Tenile rolled her eyes at me, being too young to drink, but I picked the glass up off the roaming waiters plate and took a sip. I coughed. "This is nasty."

"Champagne taste like sadness. You should try the fruity stuff in the red glass. It's amazing."

I did as directed and picked up the red glass, taking a tentative sip. "I should warn you, I can't drink too much of this, I'm allergic."

The Doctor immediately took the glass out of my hand at that and dumped it unceremoniously onto the waiter's tray again. I frowned at him, but he ignored me and kept working. The waiter seemed a little taken aback by the action, but didn't hang around long enough to get the courage to ask. "According to the sonic, we're in the right room. Do you see anything?"

I shook my head as I looked around. "It all looks normal to me."

Tenile's voice crackled. "From what we can see, it hasn't moved. It should be there somewhere, something small."

The Doctor continued to scan as we all fanned out. I really had no idea what we were supposed to be looking for, it was mostly a complete mystery. Something small, probably looked kind of out of place. But I could see nothing that looked even remotely alien… except. I turned to look at the front of the room, there was as small bit of coral to the side of the room, under a small glass dome. But that couldn't be it surely. Frowning I moved over to where the Doctor was looking in the other direction. "Can the TARDIS piece be a bit like coral?"

The Doctor frowned. "The coral circuit gets its name from that appearance, why?"

I gestured over his shoulder and pointed at the small pink bundle. "Coz I think I found it."

The Doctor spun around and eyed the coral silently. "It's hard to tell from here, but if it is a coral circuit it explains why I had a hard time figuring this out with the scanner, they're part of the chameleon circuit which helps the TARDIS blend in and not be detected."

I raised an eyebrow. "You must forget to use yours then."

The Doctor scoffed. "Mine's broken, besides, what would you do if it wasn't a blue box anymore, you'd be beside yourself and you know it."

I was glad to have our old banter back, despite how annoyed I was that he was right. Things had been tensed between us for a while after what I had taken to referring to as The incident but it seemed we were less strained now.

"I can probably get you closer. Do you trust me?"

"Be careful, those two security officers aren't going to want to let you get too close. You might be best waiting."

The Doctor nodded. "She's right." I noticed he didn't respond to Tenile's question and the look on her face told me she did too. "We might need to wait for the right moment, we'll take up the table closest and hope that it gives us a good vantage when they bring it all out."

I lead the way to the closest table, quickly pulling my chair out and sitting down. Tenile for the most part, remained silent, though I wasn't sure why. If we were going to do this, we were only going to have one shot, so I hoped that we would do it right. Without the circuit, no one had any hope and I didn't want to think too much about that. If this didn't work, we were going to have the talk of our lives and I wasn't sure I would ever be prepared for it.

It wasn't long before everything started moving. The Doctor, Tenile and I watched carefully as the Managing Director started talking about the new improvements they were making on their anti-radar technology, improvements, the Doctor said, were useless without the Coral circuit. The circuit in question as placed in the middle of the room for everyone to see and not surprisingly, people were surprised at the look and size of it. Many people asked questions about its origin and where it came from, why it looked like a piece of coral and the Doctor, clearly surprised that the man talking was effortlessly fielding their question, grumbled about how everything the man was saying made absolutely no sense.

I rolled my eyes and looked at Tenile who seemed to have zeroed in on the Doctor and was watching his every move. I looked back to the man talking, hoping to find an opportunity to speak, but didn't think it would actually happen given I didn't really have any questions that wouldn't reveal my hand. I never had been good at figuring stuff out on the fly.

Then, it happened, the man invited everyone to come and look at the coral and I immediately jumped up at the chance. I hoped that maybe we could work some sleight of hand magic when no one was looking, though that job was probably best left to the Doctor.

"If you're going to do something, it has to be now." Tenile said, her voice breaking slightly as she spoke. "Looks like they'll move the coral out soon and it'll be near impossible to get I think."

"I was thinking we could do a little sleight of hand."

The Doctor nodded. "That seems reasonable."

We moved as a unit closer to the glass dome, hoping to get to where we could stand without being seen. The more space we had between us and the other would be more time for us to run. Tenile discreetly moved towards the front of the room, engaging the speaker in idle conversation as I moved to the doors and kept watch on the Doctor. He would need to hand off the coral, throw off the scent so to speak and who better than the person at the door, the one no one really talks to because I'm never here.

"Hiya. What're you doin'?"

I inwardly groaned as I heard Connie's voice from beside me. The Doctor was inching closer to the casing now and Tenile was fully engaged with the speaker. I didn't have time for this. "Hi Connie, I'm just taking a bit of a breather. I don't want to be rude and leave, but I need some space."

Connie nodded. "Right, right, me too, I'll stand here with you and we can have some space together."

I sighed. "Connie, that's not really how this works, needing my own space usually means not having people around me."

Teigan snorted in my ear. "Connie Miller does not compute."

As if on cue, Connie frowned. "I'm sorry I don't understand."

"There you go."

I smiled slightly at her. "When I say I need space, I mean like to be by myself without other people around me. For me to stand here, with no other people standing near me at all."

Connie frowned, and I could hear the laugh from Teigan through my earpiece. "But I'm your friend and I want to help you, so if you say you need space, then I need space too."

The Doctor had now reached the casing and Tenile was carefully steering the speaker away. The crowds were starting to disperse as they chatted to each other. I had to get rid of Connie, the Doctor couldn't hand me the coral if she was hanging around. "Look, Connie, can we chat later, I really just need some me time, could we have this discussion later on?"

She seemed hurt by my sharp tone but nodded gingerly and moved away. I felt bad. Maybe the other Teigan didn't like her for whatever reason, but she didn't seem too bad to me. Just as little pushy, but who wasn't?

The Doctor dashed passed a sulking Connie and deposited the coral in my hands quickly as he looked over his shoulder. "Take this back to the TARDIS quick as you can, I'll grab Tenile and we'll follow you."

I nodded and rushed out of the room, leaping down the stairs two at a time in my haste and barely saving myself from tripping down the stairs. The decision to wear running shoes had obviously been a good one. I would never be convinced that comfortable shoes were the wrong decision after this.

I rushed through the security guys and once again had to save myself from tripping down the stairs, this was too important to worry about picking myself up off the ground. I needed to get that coral circuit as far away from them as possible, we had no idea what would happen if they actually tried to make things with it.

As I approached the TARDIS I could hear shouting coming over the earpiece, but I knew I couldn't stop now. I had to get the coral back to the TARDIS or none of it would even matter.

"I don't have the coral, as you can clearly see." I heard the Doctor over the earpiece as I slipped my key into the TARDIS lock. When I stepped inside I moved over to Tenile who was staring at the screen as Teigan typed furiously along the keys on her makeshift keyboard. I wasn't sure what she was doing.

Looking at the screen Tenile had turned for me to see, I could see both the Doctor and Tenile cornered at a wall, a number of security guard harassing them with what looked like rifles. I frowned, how could they possibly have known it was the Doctor that took them.

"Tenile, don't react, I'm trying to switch off the lights, but I need to bust in. It's all low-level security, mostly I don't think they would ever suspect someone to hack off a drone but give me a few minutes. I'll flicker the lights and then you make your move."

The Doctor hadn't said anything, but he looked at the camera in Tenile's hair as if asking what Teigan was talking about.

"Tenile and I both went to self-defence classes, considering who we are it made sense. Tenile picked it up a lot better than I did, and they can't shoot those weapons at you because they don't know who has the coral. Let her get you out."

The Doctor didn't seem to like that plan.

"Who has the coral, we know one of you took it."

I couldn't tell who was talking, but it was clearly one of the people who were pointing their guns currently, since it wasn't a voice I knew. "You can check me, I have nothing."

The security guards made a move towards Tenile, but the Doctor stepped in front of her. "Did you hear me mention her anywhere in that sentence. I said you can check me, and unless you've any women around, you can leave her alone."

Tenile smiled and looked at me. "Yeah, you tell them. Lay a hand on her and they'll lose more than their right to bare arms."

I snorted and the Doctor rolled his shoulders. "We don't have your coral and even if we did, you wouldn't get it back. It's dangerous if used in the wrong hands."

"I suppose you would know how to use it then, would you?" Came another voice, this time it was from a man who was standing further back, though I couldn't see his face.

The Doctor nodded resolutely, hands raising in a placating manner. "I know a lot more about it then you do, I can take it back where it comes from."

Suddenly, the lights began to flicker and alternate Tenile looked up at the same time as the security guards did, grinning before she suddenly dropped to the ground, forcing the Doctor down with her. When the lights cut out, all I could hear were shouts and the sounds of flesh hitting flesh like a punch to the face. Several minutes later, the sounds died down and all that was left was heavy breathing as Tenile stepped out into the foyer, dragging the Doctor behind her, who looked stunned.

"Told you she could handle it." Teigan said proudly, flicking the keyboard away from her and rushing out of the TARDIS to meet up with the Doctor and her sister.

I looked at Tenile who shrugged. "I mean, it does seem like something a rich version of me would be able to do."

"I bet we could go full batman, you know, fighting crime, hacking into things."

She laughed. "Maybe, they could, we certainly couldn't."

"Pity."

The Doctor slipped into the room and nodded at us. "Do you have the coral?"

I slipped it out of my bra and handed it over, the Doctor shook his head at me before placing it carefully on the console and hooking it up to different instruments.

Alternate Tenile and Teigan re-joined us and stood to the side as they watched the Doctor. They clearly were both fascinated by him, something I had to admit was a commonality amongst most people. The Doctor was a fascinating person, it was hard to look away when he was being clever.

"So, what are you actually doing?"

The Doctor looked over his shoulder. "Making sure there's nothing else here that they could get their hands on. We don't want a repeat of this, not that that's likely, fixed points and all."

I was going to have to ask the Doctor to explain fixed points to me one day, as they didn't make much sense.

"So, you're using that to track down other pieces?"

"That's it. This hidden planet nonsense has gone on too long, I want it over with."

I rolled my eyes. Now that it was close to over, my adrenaline was dying down and I was starting to feel the effects, I was really tired and all the cuts and scrapes I'd sustained over the last couple of hours, both from this world and back on the sub were starting to catch up to me. I leant on the console and sighed as the Doctor got to work making sure there was nothing left to fuss over. After all, with the way it was all going, we certainly didn't want everything to implode. I still couldn't believe we'd managed to get away without anything bad happening. I hadn't gotten kidnapped, no one had died, the universe wasn't going to implode, and the Doctor had managed not to deeply offend anyone. Overall, I had to say this was a win-win.

Tenile pulled me to the side and I stumbled after her. Yawning, I sat on the floor and hung my legs over the edge. "What's up?"

"I wanted to apologise."

I couldn't stop my eyebrows from shooting up in surprise. "What?"

She nodded. "Yeah, about what I said before, when we were walking through the trees. About the Doctor."

I had to really think to remember what she'd said, a conversation she'd tried to continue from the sub and even, if I was honest, a conversation we'd been having constantly over the last six months. "What made you change your mind?"

She looked over her shoulder to make sure we weren't being eavesdropped on and sat down beside me. "The Doctor, actually. Though I'll deny it implicitly if you ever tell him."

I snorted slightly and wrapped my arms around the railing pole. "He would let that get to his head, yeah. As much as he denies it, he has a massive ego."

Tenile smiled slightly and nodded. "I saw today what you see in him. He's deeply devoted to the Earth and the people on it. To the people travelling with him, even. Which extends to you and by default I guess, to me. Even though he could have just kept us in the dark about everything and left it to itself, he chose to ask us for permission, as if we speak for the world."

I nodded, I'd seen how he was when he had to make a decision like that, no one wanted that kind of decision on their hands alone. "He treats it like a second home."

"I can see it wasn't his fault, the stuff that happened on the sub and that those people were saved because of him. Despite it all, I think I knew that before, but I was so worried about you and what was happening that I couldn't see it."

I nodded. This kind of thing was hard to grasp, and I knew that from experience. "I can't really blame you. Whenever you were around, something bad always happened to me."

It wasn't like it was the only thing that ever happened, but it seemed to happen largely when Tenile was with us, or at least we were in the most danger then, but adrenaline was adrenaline and mostly we thrived off of it. As much as the Doctor bemoaned a quiet life, I think everyone in the universe knew he wouldn't know what to do with himself if he really had a quiet life. There were any number of places he could go if that was really what he was looking for.

Tenile nodded. "I just need time, I think."

"Do you want to leave?"

She shook her head. "I think I need more time with you and him, to see what you do. I want to go to cool places. You can pick me up on the weekends."

I smiled. Now that I had deferred, and I was full time with the Doctor, it was making all of this so much easier. "That sounds good, we can start next week if you like, I think after all of this, we both need a good rest."

"There's nothing left here, this was the only one there." The Doctor called and Tenile and I both stood up so that we could stand behind him to see what he was looking at. Our alternates stood on the other side, looking over his shoulder. It was still weird. "Time to drop you girls home." He said, looking at them pointedly, as if he was waiting for them to ask if they could stay.

They didn't.

Dropping them off was easy, we'd headed back to the Hotel and made our goodbyes from there, hoping no one would notice anything was off. "We'll get everything sorted before we send you back, if we do it right, no one will notice a thing and if they do, they won't be able to figure out what it is."

The explanation was more convoluted, but I usually tuned out when he started talking about space things. It was too much for me to understand at the best of times. Tenile was sleeping in her room and the Doctor had promised to drop her off the day after she'd left, jetlag was really bad when you were actually changing time zones and travelling to different times or in this case, universes. Though it hadn't really been that. The Doctor reset the coral circuit and managed to send the planet back with a message of goodbye, letting them know to be careful in future, though I had a suspect feeling that Tenile and Teigan weren't simply going to head back to their normal lives, they'd seen things, after all.

"Doctor?"

He looked up from where he was hunched over the console messing with the levers, but didn't anything, obviously waiting for me to continue my question. "Can you explain something to me, I didn't understand it when you were talking about it before, but it made me curious."

"What?"

"Fixed points," I said, thinking back the numerous times I'd heard him mention them. "You talk about them all the time, but you've never explained what they are."

He stopped fidgeting for a moment and sighed. "Okay, fair enough." He stepped away from the console, so he could better explain things to me. "First you have to understand that there are two categories of fixed points. The foreknowledge and the Universal truth." He said, watching me to make sure that I was absorbing the information. "Foreknowledge is something that happens a lot in time travel, for example, death. If you know someone is going to die, there is usually no way of stopping it, or you'll case damage to the time line, so seeing your own death is a bad thing, naturally you'll try to prevent it, which is probably the cause of your death in the first place." He said, leaning against the console. "Foreknowledge comes around often, you see it all the time and so do I, as time travellers we have a responsibility to make sure we don't interfere in that regard, because we already know what will happen. In saying that though, there are certain events which are in flux, that we can't see the outcome of, like events in your future or mine."

I nodded, that made sense. "What about the… Universe truth?"

"The Universal Truth, the UT yes." He said, now he began pacing in front of me. "This is a more complicated aspect of fixed points, you see, they transcend the boundaries of dimensions, which is why it's called a universal truth. But when we say that, we are using it in its complex terminology. As in all universes, every universe."

"Even pocket dimensions?"

The Doctor shook his head. "Pocket Dimensions are a little different. Fixed points can't be changed because they are always meant to happen, in every reality. Change one, cause dire consequences. Every choice you make, it all leads to one place even if the paths have changed. Something like the day someone dies, that's not a universal truth, because one person doesn't cause the entire universe to dissolve. But if you have an inter dimensional time war for example, that would transcend every universe and exist as a singular point."

I nodded, though I wasn't quite sure I understood what he was saying. It wasn't often that he took the time to explain this stuff to me, so the fact he was, meant he was opening up about something, letting me in, but I couldn't see what he was seeing. "What do you mean by that?"

"Fixed points can be flexible and don't have to happen exactly the way they did the first time, but they do have to happen. So, whilst you can change certain elements, you can't make it not happen at all. Like an alien invasion can be stopped, but you can't reset it to never having happened. Or, for example, my people getting destroyed in every reality because the time war had to happen."

I was stunned. I hadn't thought about the fact that the Doctor may only exist in one reality, or that in every reality, all the hundreds of millions of plausible time lines, the Doctor was the only Time Lord left in existence. It almost seemed cruel to think about. "That's…"

The Doctor looked away, but not before I managed to spot that terrible sorrow in his eye that sometimes made itself known when he thought I wasn't paying attention. To carry a burden like that, and yet he still managed to get himself out of bed of a morning, if in fact he ever actually did sleep, since I'd never seen it, it had to take some serious will power, a crazy amount of self-preservation and most importantly, belief in a better tomorrow. If the Doctor ever once lost hope, I wasn't sure what would be in store for the rest of us. "I'm sorry."

The Doctor nodded but didn't say anything. I knew enough to not hug him, as much as I might have wanted to. Sometimes he was best left to his own devices and that's what I did. Though he was my friend, and I would always consider him such, I wasn't really sure what he thought about us. If he was to be believed, he lived a lot longer than humans, he must have had hundreds of people travelling with him over the span of his life. We were probably footnotes in the book of his life. All I could really hope was that I was at least a footnote that he liked.

A/N: Hi all, I hope you liked my explanation of fixed points. I'm not quite sure how they explain them in DW, if they do at all, but this seems like the most appropriate explanation for me, since it would account for why Time Lords never seem to exist in the other universes. Pocket Dimensions work a little differently, which I will explain later. For now, please enjoy.