Hello everyone! Oh my goodness me it's been ages! I have missed fanfics so much (hug you all!) I hope that all my readers are well and had a good christmas and new year. Finally the story is drawing to a close! only a few more chapters to go... I can't promise that I will be quicker, thank you for all the support during the story. I really appriciate it! Special thanks to SG enjoy everyone! See you all again soon!
I do not own Doctor Who or any of it's trademarks but when I win the lottery...
"A what Grandfather?" Susan inquired curiously of her grandfather.
"A fob watch my dear, but within it is the power to suppress a time lord's essence." The first doctor explained intently. He looked at the silver watch and it's innate detail. "One for you and one for me. Isn't' technology amazing these days Susan?"
"Why would we want to do such a thing Grandfather?" Susan asked, utterly confused. "Lock ourselves away like that? It just seems wrong to me… don't you agree?"
"Maybe it's so then you can see how we feel aye Doctor?... Us… what was it again? 'Inadequate beings'?" Ian commented with a slightly smug expression.
"Oh stop it Ian." Barbara said, showing a little more decorum. "You know that the Doctor's sarcastic."
"Sometimes Susan, it can be dangerous to be a Timelord, one never knows what's just around the corner." The first doctor added knowingly.
"You could have fooled me Doctor." Ian added. "You seem to be a professional at the unknown."
"Flattering but inaccurate I'm afraid." The first doctor finished. "But it is an improvement Mr Chesterton, to your usual crude remarks."
"Now hold on just a minute Doctor-" Ian was about to defend himself.
"Oh leave him be Ian, he's only teasing you." Barbara added.
"You keep this Grandfather." Susan smiled, giving the watch back.
"But it's yours Susan. "the first doctor said with a hint of surprise in his voice,
"I want you to look after it… I mean you will always look after me won't you?" Susan asked.
"Of course... as long as you want me to that is-" the first doctor began.
"Then I trust you'll use it on my behalf, when the time is right." Susan answered.
"Very well my child… you could not have left it in more capable hands. I promise you…" The first doctor answered smiling.
"Oh I don't know Susan, maybe I should keep it for when your Grandfather is being unusually contentious in his decision making." Ian quipped quickly.
"You will do no such thing." The first doctor snapped. "You see Susan this is what we have to deal with on a day to day basis."
"But you wouldn't have it any other way would you?"
The first Doctor smiled knowingly. "No…I wouldn't."
So, eventually, year after year, the doctor (whatever his guise) would look at the two watches, paired next to each other, neither would probably be used, but it was one of his Susan memento's so it would remain in the Tardis forever...
And there it remained, for many years…
…Confused and dazed a new doctor walked around a Tardis he knew but didn't know, looking at things he recognized, but couldn't identify, he looked up at the mirror in the room he had stumbled into…He frowned, dark short black hair, blue eyes... big ears…
"Oh my-"
A thick accented dull voice, he held his throat as if he had never heard it before. He was probably middle aged… 37… But who was he?
He was horrified, with no one with him, he had no kind of recollection of who he was. He looked around the… Tardis… that's what he was in… a time machine called a Tardis. But why was no one with him… re-generation number… 9…
But what did that mean? With no one to console him or jog his memory he looked around the Tardis with no comprehension of what he was. His body was struggling, he could feel it heaving around when he walked, he felt he had been battered and bruised... but new… can a body feel new? He began to feel very lonely indeed, he felt like something was missing from him... everything seemed so unclear and confusing. "Hello… is anyone here?"
Silence was the only reply. He felt intolerably lonely now.
Corridor after corridor passed him, but still nothing. He eventually entered a room that looked like a bedroom, he stared blankly at the bizarre wall coverings and relics. He closed his eyes, concentrating, trying to recall something about himself… then something came to him. He was the Doctor, that's what he called himself… he had just escaped something devastating, a sole survivor of a horrendous war. He was tired, drained, grief stricken. He was the last Timelord.
He walked across the room, and leaned against the wall, his head lulled back and he lifted his head to the ceiling sighing heavily. His entire body was wracked with pain, but that was not the reason for his despair. It was this memory that caused him such grief.
Then impulsively, he opened the draw with the two watches in although he didn't know why he did it, he looked at the items curiously, he felt the surface. He picked up Susan's… he realized
"I've lost her… I've lost everything…" he looked at the watch,
Still amnesic, he struggled to piece together the puzzle of his identity. All his bright knowledge seemed to have abandoned him to the darkness of solitude…
"I trust you'll use it on my behalf, when the time is right."
'I promised Susan,' the tenth doctor thought. 'And I think I need to use it right now.'
'Are you sure you want to do this?' the ninth doctor quizzed his other self, he didn't seem keen on this suggestion. 'I really don't think the Rani is worth it... she's contaminating something I cherish...'
'Listen if we seal the Rani in there she's got the chance the redeem herself... I don't want her to disappear forever I couldn't bear it... We can leave her somewhere and let her live a new life... I can't harm her... but if I let her roam around in the state she is in now I think she will damage this universe exponentially... We have to do this...'
'I suppose I should go and get the watch then...' the ninth doctor thought.
He silently vowed. He looked at his other self who seemed to nod in agreement, they had a mutual consensus.
The Rani's smugness was halted when the Tardis heaved to a grinding halt. "Why have we stopped Doctor?"
"Well let me have a look Rani." The ninth doctor pulled his sleeves up. "Ooo, It looks like someone tried to change the co-ordinates… you see I put a temporal lock on… ah well, I suppose we'll have to wait…" he gave her a sly sideways glance.
"Wait for what?" she hissed.
"Well we'll have look at the secondary panel in the other console room," the ninth doctor said, "If you hadn't tried to change the co-ordinates in the first place the we wouldn't be in this mess..."
"How dare you accuse me of-" she started
"Come on Rani, I'm not stupid... please credit me a little more intelligence than that."the ninth doctor said
"You'll take me there…" she pointed her gun at him. Unsure whether this was a pathetic subterfuge or not.
"This way your highness." The tenth doctor said.
"Keep walking." She said, not trusting him for an instant. He allowed her to walk in front and then gave the ninth doctor a quick look.
"Let me guess." Mickey started, as the Rani walked out of the room. "You have a plan?"
The ninth doctor didn't answer. He simply walked out of the room.
"He hasn't got a plan?" Mickey squealed apprehensively. "We are really going to be stuck here!"
Rose looked painfully. "Why is he doing this?" Rose commented. "The Doctor doesn't lose…He'll figure something out."
Mickey and Rose were left alone in the console room, they looked nervously at each other. "Do you think he knows what to do Rose? You know him? Is this like him?" Mickey asked quietly.
"I think he does… but I don't think he wants to do what he has to do." Rose said. "I can tell… he's stalling… I think he's waiting for her to change her mind."
"But she's not going to is she, Rose?" Mickey said with finality in his voice.
"No…" Rose looked sadly at the wall. "I don't think so…"
"Well... this is just great innit?" Mickey said slightly hysterically. "We're gonna be stuck here... because your Doctor's having emotional issues!"
"Don't Mickey!" Rose started "the Doctor will sort it out... He won't let his emotions get in the way!"
"Do you really believe that Rose?" Mickey said.
"More than anything..." Rose said confidently.
"Because it's either her or you... and he won't give you up..." Mickey said slowly. Rose looked awkardly, Mickey was right and she knew there was nothing she could do to stop the Doctor from saving her.
The ninth doctor walked into his bedroom, he took Susan's fob watch from the draw. Still ticking obediently, it had sadly long outlived it's owner.
"You helped me find the way… you helped me find myself." He said to the object almost as if it was a friend. "And I really don't want to give you up… I want you to stay with me forever… You're all I have left…" he watched the object glinted in the light. "…But if I don't use you then the Rani will spread chaos for who knows how long… Even though you belonged to Susan… you have a greater purpose… just like I do… " he looked at it sadly. "I have to let you go."
He slammed the draw shut and walked back to the console room clutching it tightly reluctant to let it go, he then used his sleight of hand to conceal the fob watch in his pocket. Taking a heavy breath as he condemned it to it's future existence and then altered his behaviour when he heard Mickey's whinging down the corridor. "Mickey you moan more that Rose's mother! and that's saying a lot. I can here you down the corridor."
"What's that Doctor?" Mickey said.
"What's what?" The ninth doctor said, feigning cluelessness.
"What's that?" Mickey said, pointing at the Doctor's pocket.
"That?" The ninth doctor repeated.
"That in your hand?" Mickey said irately.
"Don' have anything in my hand." The ninth doctor had an empty hand.
"But you just-" Mickey stood amazed, absolutely gob-smacked. The ninth doctor smiled.
"I have to go and see the Rani now… when she comes back she might not be the same person…" He checked both of their expressions. Rose and Mickey both looked quite taken aback. "Do you understand what I mean?"
"Err… no but it's Okay... I mean your going to save us though?" Mickey said looking stunned. Rose looked concerned.
"Doctor what do you mean?" Rose added looking at the Doctor's reaction to see what his behaviour would reveal.
The ninth doctor walked out of the room. He didn't say a word. Rose began to worry. The way he didn't answer made her sense that perhaps he would later regret this action.
"Doctor, please don't do something you'll regret…"
The tenth doctor eventually stopped walking.
"This isn't the secondary console room Doctor!" The Rani shouted aggressively, pointing her gun at him intrusively.
"No, it isn't." the ninth doctor pulled the door to behind him as he shut it.
"Then why have you brought me here?" she demanded loudly. She then noticed that neither of them were intimidated by her large gun."I'll shoot you know and that will cause a rather nasty paradox." The Rani said cautiously.
The tenth doctor did not move, he stared at her for a few moments and then looked at his other self.
"Do you have it?" the tenth doctor said, sounded very slightly nervous.
"Yes… I wish I didn't have to use it." The ninth doctor replied, sounding quite the opposite, resolute and decided on the matter.
"What are you two babbling about?" The Rani energized her gun. "Tell me what's going on or I will shoot you!" she now began to sound slightly threatened. She had been playing games with the Doctor since they met, however, he no longer seemed frightened or bothered about her. "Why are you two no-"
"What not panicking?" the ninth doctor said, sounding calm. "Because Rani it's over."
"It ends here, now." The tenth doctor added uneasy.
'It couldn't be…?' a look of fear struck her face 'Has he been planning this since he knew I was his nemesis?'
"Again the Gallifreian ego has overridden common sense." The ninth doctor said. "We've had this in mind the whole time Rani, we thought you might try and pull something like this… time told the story we thought it was going to… unfortunately we knew the ending long before you did."
The Rani looked confused. There was an eeriy calm in the room, it was like an endgame in chess, it seemed that the winning side was clear, there was nothing the Rani could do, except watch the moves play out.
The ninth doctor produced a fob watch from his pocket. "These things were produced by the Gallifreians not long after you were exiled Rani." He looked sadly at the object.
"A watch?" the Rani looked with a hope that it was only a watch. "That is the best you have? Forgive me Doctor, but I think they were made long before then... Relatively speaking…"
"No Rani, this isn't a watch… this is-" the ninth doctor started.
"I want to give you a chance Rani." The tenth doctor appealed, "I don't want to have to condemn you to this half life… promise you'll change and I won't do it." The tenth doctor was so desperate to make her change, so then he wouldn't be alone again… But he wouldn't be talked around, if she didn't say an immediately yes then he would do what had to be done.
"If I change then I won't be myself anyway Doctor, and then you are practically destroying me… you will be alone and you will regret letting me go." The Rani said, playing off the tenth doctor's emotions, she bargained her success on his compassionate emotions. She continued to talk metaphorically rubbing salt into the wound. "Time's little crusader… Theta Sigma… you'll save all the worlds on your own won't you?"
She looked at his facial expression, it did not change. His eyes were fixed on her, he had such a firm resolve that there was no turning back.
"You'll never change." He added, with a surprisingly bitter twist in his voice. "You just don't stop trying to worm your way out do you?" He felt that she had betrayed his good will and effort, and he had had enough. "It's the end for you as you know it… Don't worry, it won't hurt you, it will just seal part of you away… and who knows maybe one day, I can let you out," he said, looking at her with a doleful expression. "Goodbye Rani…"
"No Doctor, you can't do this!" she exclaimed pleadingly.
The ninth doctor opened the fob watch… The Rani began to lose her balance, she eventually swayed until she fell to the floor. All the essence all that made her what she was floated away inside the ticking device...
"Will she be alright?" the tenth doctor added, looking at her with a regretful look on his face.
"Time will tell…"