A/N - Hey, here's the Meanwhile in the TARDIS segment that's also a Prequel to Part Three! Part Three won't start until mid-August, or the first week of September at the latest, so I hope you don't mind the wait. I'll post an extra chapter on this just to tell you when it's up!
The10thDoctorRocks - Haha, I'm glad the story arc's got you thinking! Don't worry, I think this prequel might give you another piece of the jigsaw!
Three small planets in perfect alignment rotated sluggishly around a dark sun. The planets had been burnt black at the dawn of time, said to be caused by a dark god who saw the worlds unworthy of his splendour.
Nothing remained on the surface of these planets anymore besides the Temples. One for each planet – Daya, the Temple of Genesis; Teren, the Temple of Infinity; and Tenua, the Temple of Endings.
It was the Temple of Infinity on Teren that the Tengoka had decided on as their main base of operations, and this was where they had chose to meet.
From the depths of twelve mysterious black tears of light, the members of the Tengoka materalised around a long stone table, each taking seat in matching stone thrones.
At the head of the table their leader, Alder, ascended from his throne and clapped his hands together, causing the several chandeliers around the hall to spark into life with green flame, casting an eerie glow on the twelve members in their seats.
"I am pleased you could all take time out of your various tasks to congregate here," Alder said, throwing his hood back. He was a grey-haired man with a large metal plate covering one half of his skull. A startling pink eye gazed out at the eleven seated men and women on either side of the table. Where his other eye should have been there was only a cybernetic blue light, implanted into the metal plate that had been roughly attached where his real eye had been lost so long ago. He spoke with a distinguished English accent, and a silver tooth gleamed in his mouth, glinting green in the candlelight. "Shall we do this properly?"
"Yes, Alder," nodded the woman sitting to his right, already unhooded. Her hair was tied back in a black bun, with grey hairs visible here and there throughout. Her eyes were milky-white and unseeing, as she gazed out into the space ahead of her.
"Very well, Tsanda," Alder said, smiling thinly as he steepled his fingers together. "Would you like to begin?"
"Of course," the old woman – Tsanda – nodded. "Tsanda, bearer of His Will of Sight."
"Cain," announced the man sitting to her left, his hood still shrouding his face. "Bearer of His Curse of Strength."
"Trask," simpered the next man along, seemingly too focused on gazing intently at his nails. "Bearer of His Charm of Poison."
"Judax," croaked the next figure along. She was a head shorter than Trask, with thin red lines tattooed on her face, running from the corners of her eyes and meeting at the corners of her lips. "Bearer of His Touch of Decay."
"Rain," breathed the Gamemaster through his strange mask as he drummed his fingers rhythmically against the table. "bearer of His Skill of Strategy."
"Olik," growled the man at the end of the left hand side of the table. He was the largest of the organisation, his cloak unbuttoned down enough to expose his heavily muscled chest. He had a close-cropped beard and a heavily scarred face, one running right across his watery blue eyes. "Bearer of His Pulse of Suffering."
At the bottom of the right hand side of the long stone table, the youngest member of the Tengoka smirked to himself as he held out his right hand and a stream of water twirled around his fingers: "Wusun, bearer of His Strike of Water." His eyes were ocean blue, and his messy raven-black hair seemed to be a styled mess – he wouldn't admit it, but it was partly the influence of spending time on Earth in the 21st century while investigating the progress of a particular human.
A young, beautiful and elegant looking woman was next, with startling violet eyes and long auburn hair. Instead of the usual black gloves the rest of the Tengoka wore, she wore metal gauntlets, embedded with tiny red gemstones. "Kalio," she smiled, "bearer of His Kiss of Fire."
Beside her, was an old man – perhaps older than Alder – thin and ill looking, with yellowing skin and dark brown eyes he peered through his small circular glasses with. Like Rain, his voice was filtered and mechanical, though as opposed to a mask, the only difference on the old man's face was a lack of mouth, and just a small speaker grille where a mouth should be. "Baldor, bearer of His Taste of Pain."
Next was a girl perhaps only a year or so older than the young Wusun, a plain, bored looking girl with a tangle of blonde hair. The only noticable feature about her was the pink flower that held her hair behind her left ear. "Castella, bearer of His Grasp of Earth."
"Gaymer," murmured the man at the top of the right hand side of the table. He had long red hair and a beard that had been tied up in several small braids – "going for the Norse God look", Wusun had once joked. "Bearer of His Scream of Wind."
"And back to me," smiled Alder, coldly. "Alder, bearer of His Lust of Darkness. Shall we discuss our latest observations?"
"I think we best begin with the Earth boy. So far he is the only one of the eight to have been overwhelmed by the Key's influence," Judax said.
"Yes, that may be the case, Judax," Kalio replied, gazing at her gauntlets as if she was inspecting her nails. "But that was a complete fluke – a one-off."
"And of course it was enough to convince the Time Lord to deposit the boy back on Earth. It's been an entire month now."
"You'd think separating them twice would be enough to convince him," Gaymer growled. "Obviously someone wasn't doing their job properly."
Rain slammed his fist down on the table in rage, and the sound was enough to break Wusun's concentration and sending a blast of water coursing from his hand.
"Don't you dare question my abilities," Rain bellowed, standing up to glare across the table at Gaymer, who sat and smirked contently at having wound him up.
"That's enough, you two," Alder said, calmly. "But yes, anyway, the point is that now the boy is safely on Earth, we can move on to the next stage."
"How long shall the Keys need now?"
"Well, the Earth boy was the last one to be found, and now that there's no interference from the power of the time vortex, it should take no less than another month."
"And what if the Time Lord comes back?"
"Our reports on the Doctor indicate he rarely returns for those he has previously travelled with," Tsanda said, "but enough on the Earth boy. What is this of the San Oraktus boy's marking?"
"Oh, it grew visible again," Castella said, twirling a strand of her messy hair. "He was actually stupid enough to confide in me. I suppose going undercover proves rather useful on occasion."
"Yes, because I'm sure being surrounded by sun, sea and sand is just so stressful for you, Castella," Wusun laughed, breezily, earning himself a glare from the young woman.
"Can we not have a single meeting without petty squabbling?" sighed Trask, despairingly, pinching the bridge of his nose and looking skyward, theatrically.
"My sentiments exactly," croaked Baldor. "Anyway, what can we do about the San Oraktus boy?"
"He won't be ready for another fortnight at most."
"I still don't see why we can't just take them in now and accelerate the process here."
"The Eight Keys being accelerated in close proximity could be enough to completely wipe out this entire system, rendering all of our attempts up to now completely useless."
"Hmph, moving on," Alder nodded, "Tsanda, have you been able to find any trace of the girl from K'kanda?"
"I'm afraid not," Tsanda said – her sightless eyes flickering from side to side. "The other six can be found simply enough, yet she has never stayed still long enough to be spotted. And of course, the time vortex is still enough to occasionally cloud the Earth boy from sight."
"Alright, how long until the first child is to be brought in?"
"The girl from Shan Shen. Just another three days until she will be safe to confine until Day Zero."
"Ah, excellent. Shall you be prepared for the task, Wusun?" Alder asked. The young boy smirked.
"Of course."
"Very well." Alder paused momentarily. "Things are definitely beginning to fall into place."
"And the San Oraktus boy?"
"He's a simple enough boy," Alder shrugged, "nevertheless I shall shroud his mark. Shal lwe convene for now?"
A ripple of agreement ran along the table momentarily.
"Alright then," Alder nodded. "Our next meeting shall take place onboard the ship next time."
And with that, he faded away into the shroud of darkness. One by one, the other members around the table followed suit, disappearing into similar rips in reality.
Meanwhile, somewhere and yet everywhere, a little blue box was being buffeted around the time vortex by the time winds. Inside the box, Clara Oswald watched as the Doctor happily leaped around the console of his magnificent time machine. He ran to one of the banks of buttons and switches at the side of the room and prodded and swiped at several of them, changing course.
"What're you doing?" she chuckled, as her bow-tie wearing friend did a little dance from side to side as he leaped from console to control bank, illuminated by the blue-green glow of the central column.
"Not a clue!" the Doctor replied, cheerfully. "Just one more and... there we are!"
With a satisfied clunk, the TARDIS reached its destination: the home of the Maitland family.
"This is my stop then! I'll see you next Wednesday," Clara smiled, standing up on her tip-toes to give the Doctor a hug.
"Yeah, I was thinking we could try Ancient China next week! Though I might end up inventing the stir-fry. Again... Hm..."
She chuckled again as she picked up her red bag and slung it over her shoulder, before she gave a small wave and made her way out the TARDIS doors, calling back, "Just make sure there's no carnivorous squids wherever we end up!", as she left the Doctor standing alone in the console room.
Just before the Doctor could have a moment to smile contently to himself, an alarm began to ring as the TARDIS took off, and he quickly slid round to inspect the monitor closest to him. Onscreen, a transmission was decoding rapidly.
"Ooh, interesting," he nodded, flicking a switch to maintain the TARDIS' flight through the vortex. "Where do you want me to go then, hm?"
"Glamisium Calit, Doctor," announced a deep male voice, seemingly from all around the room. As the Doctor watched, the transmission began to pulse a blinding white light around the console room, and the hologram of a man appeared, wearing a small flat hat and carrying a parrot on his shoulder.
"Ah, um, who are you? What do you want?"
"I... am a servant of the Universe," the man smiled. "And your assistance is required."
"Oh, and what would that be?" the Doctor sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose.
"Something has, ahem, fallen into the wrong hands. The Sontarans had a weapon. A most terrible weapon, perfectly tuned to commit genocide on the Rutans."
"I'm noticing a past tense there. 'Had', not 'has'. Who has it now?"
"The Rutans," replied the man, simply.
"Ah..." The Doctor looked upwards, turning a little on the spot. "So what exactly do you want from me? Jailbreak this boy?"
"Well, for lack of a more appropriate term, yes."
"Oh well, alright then, that sounds like something that'll keep me busy! And a perfect opportunity to drop in on some old friends!" beamed the Doctor. "I suppose you better tell me where and when I'm going then!"
"The Captain says you will find your co-ordinates already onscreen, Doctor." The man was apparently referring to the parrot. "Goodbye."
The man disappeared with a quick fizzle of power and the Doctor rolled his eyes.
"A Rutan war camp, and a boy who could wipe out an entire species," he marvelled. "Anyway... priorities!" He clapped his hands together before slapping down on the panel in front of him. "Next stop: Glasgow!"
It had been far too long since the Doctor had promised to return to Callum, Keith and Laura. He had went to visit the Ponds and found himself there for the Year of the Slow Invasion of the Very Small Cubes. After that, he had travelled with them up until the events of Manhattan.
And then the dark days came, stuck up on his cloud. And then Clara Oswin Oswald had came along, and brought him back down to Earth.
Now, here he was, travelling with her 21st century counterpart every Wednesday. So far, they'd visited Akhaten, encountered an Ice Warrior on a Russian submarine, and met the psychic, Emma Grayling, and the mysterious Crooked Man.
The Doctor considered all this for a moment. He'd been trying his best to find some sort of way of solving the mystery of the impossible girl, just one of many mysteries... He'd left quite a few mysteries behind after losing the Ponds, in particular the mysterious circumstances that were surrounding Callum Hendrick.
An image of Callum, under the influence of a mysterious entity back in the Cyberman ship, so long ago, suddenly came to the Doctor. The black sclera and golden irises; the strange black energy that had pulsed from his hands; the way the voice Callum had spoken with was the same, yet so completely different.
But since then, there had been no signs of anything strange surrounding the three teens since their return to Earth. He had gifted them biodampers to keep them safe from that sinister organisation – the Tengoka.
Yet fate seemed to have drawn the Doctor back full circle to reuniting with Callum and the others, in exactly the same situation as before – with absolutely no leads into the mystery of the Fallen Triangle.
"Hm, yes... Priorities," the Doctor muttered to himself again as the TARDIS changed course, veering off backwards in time by about a year. He had promised to be back one month after dropping them off, but he figured he could afford to be a week or so out. "I do hope Callum has Jammy Dodgers!"
Coming Soon -
Episode 9: The Apocalypse Boy
Episode 10: Day of the Drowned
Episode 11: The Phantoms of Equinox
Episode 12: Terror of the Sands