The Last Hope

Part Two

The Doctor and Sarah Jane woke up in the same version of the console room they had been in two moments ago, except that there were now two other people in there with them: a youngish man with ginger curly hair and who was wearing a multicoloured coat and a youngish woman with short hair dressed in a red shirt and blue trunks.
"Oh no!" the Doctor cried, recognising his future self, "Things are becoming very dire indeed."
"Precisely. Enough damage has been done already; Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright are dead." the Sixth Doctor announced, before a few moments of silence.

On Gallifrey, the stranger had led Ian and Barbara to a small abandoned building near the citadel and escorted them inside. The interior resembled the inside of a TARDIS in some ways, mainly because of the roundels, and yet had no control console whatsoever. Instead, it had a small black box in the centre of the main room, covered in Gallifreyan symbols.
"Is this the weapon?" Ian asked, pointing at the box.
"That, Mr Chesterton, is the activation unit for the weapon." the stranger replied, studying the box curiously.
"The activation unit? You mean that this building is the weapon?" Barbara deduced.
"Correct, Ms Wright. I may have lied about defusing it but I did need you for a certain purpose."
He activated a small box-like device and the door to the building locked.
"Why are you doing this?!" Ian demanded, "We're innocent people!"
"You are the Doctor's first recorded human companions and you must be bursting with chronon particles. This building is a timeline bomb and I have programmed it to rewrite your timelines so that you killed every Dalek when you met them. You can't escape. The Doctor doesn't even know you're here."

The Seventh Doctor, Fifth Doctor and Ace were now patrolling the space station they had arrived on and had discovered that the desert planet below was being fired at by Daleks. The two Doctors had decided to try and communicate with the planet below whilst Ace looked up details about the space station on a nearby computer. Ace liked computers. And explosives. And nitro nine. Especially nitro nine. But then came the horrifying discovery.
"Professors, there's something you should see!" Ace called, having found the name of the desert planet below. Leaving the Seventh Doctor to try and establish a comms link, the Fifth Doctor rushed over to Ace and saw the name of the desert planet on the screen.
"It's Gallifrey!" the Fifth Doctor exclaimed, "Right in the heart of the Time War. Run a scan for human life."
Ace tapped at the keys and a blue wave rushed through a model of the planet. There were two humans on the planet below. The Fifth Doctor asked Ace to isolate the life signs and print out the co-ordinates. Having done exactly that in a matter of moments, the Doctor and Ace rushed back to the Seventh Doctor and the three of them went back to the TARDISes. They then established a link-up between the TARDISes and set course for where Ian and Barbara were, before dematerialising away.

Inside the Time Vortex, three TARDISes were flying towards the same location, side by side. In one of them, the Fourth Doctor was stood by the console, with Marie Jones and June Seymour at his side. In another, the Fifth Doctor, alone and unarmed. In the final TARDIS, the Seventh Doctor was stood operating the controls, with Ace watching him.
"It appears that we may have company." the Seventh Doctor announced to his other selves, via a comms link-up they had all established, "I'm detecting two more TARDISes flying through the Vortex."
"Two more?" the Fifth Doctor said in surprise, "Who could they contain?"

In one of the new TARDISes, the Sixth and Third Doctors were piloting the console and had jumped into the comms linkup that had been established. While they were talking to the other Doctors, Peri and Sarah Jane had gathered in one corner of the console room to chat.
"So how are things with him, in the future? What's he like?" Sarah Jane asked her, collapsing into a nearby chair.
"Oh, unbelievable. I've been with two versions of him and I've enjoyed it completely." Peri replied, with her American accent.
"Two versions of him? What do you mean?"
"I met a young guy, who changed into him." Peri said, pointing at the Sixth Doctor.
"That must have been weird."
"You have no idea."
"Does he often cover up when the TARDIS develops a fault?"
"Oh, every time."
They both laughed and watched the two Doctors work.

In the other TARDIS, there were three more Doctors. One was an old man with stern eyebrows and fluffy grey hair; another was a young brown haired bloke with curious eyes and a purple bowtie; the final Doctor was a short blond woman, who wore a rainbow t-shirt, yellow braces, blue shorts, brown boots and a light blue coat that also had a hood. She beamed as they all headed for Gallifrey.
"Come on then, Doctors," the Thirteenth Doctor said, with a childish grin on her face, "let's go and save Ian and Barbara!"

Inside the strange house, Ian and Barbara began to hear the sound of the five police box TARDISes materialising nearby. They beamed as they looked out of the window and saw a gathering of people rush towards the house.
"Oh no." the stranger muttered, just as the door flew open and several versions of the Doctor came rushing in, smiling at Ian and Barbara.
"Cricket, Bad Coat Day," the Twelfth Doctor instructed his former selves, "get Ian and Barbara back to their own time. I'm trusting you so don't mess this up. I don't want a repeat of what happened with Tegan and Heathrow."
"Who put you in charge?" the Sixth Doctor protested, before being tugged out by the Fifth Doctor. Ian and Barbara followed them out and soon the Fifth Doctor's TARDIS dematerialised, as the two Doctors, Ian and Barbara headed back to 1965.

The Twelfth Doctor then instructed his third, seventh and fourth incarnations to deal with the temporal shockwave that would occur after the timelines were rewritten and told his Eleventh and Thirteenth incarnations to help to deal with the stranger.
"So, let's get to the basics of this," the Twelfth Doctor asked the stranger, with a strong Scottish accent, "who are you and why did you want to target my friends?"
"Oh, Doctor. Do you really not know? I thought you knew about your past." the stranger said, smugly.
"I know about my past. I know that I'm the Timeless Child but who are you?" the Thirteenth Doctor queried, almost fiercely.
"My name is the Oracle and I carry a message. I needed to detonate this weapon in order to save Gallifrey from becoming like it did in my home universe. I took your friends just to make sure it had the effect I predicted it would have."
"Show us." the Eleventh Doctor interrupted, "Show us your universe."
"Very well." the Oracle said, "Engaging telepathic contact..."

The Time War. Gallifrey. A burnt planet. A dead planet. Survivors, running, screaming only to be exterminated when they are seconds away from safety. The sharp cries of Daleks as they gain more land. The Key lies within this mess and also a scarred child. A child you should know. A child who, I believe, has already made her impact on you, so very long ago. My world was shattered in two. A weapon that could wipe out the Time Lords in a single moment. A bomb implanted on an innocent victim. Find it, Doctor. Save your universe. Save your home.

The telepathic contact then ended as the three Doctors noticed that someone had shot the Oracle. The shooter was nowhere to be seen but the door had locked and a large metal case had been placed right by the door. The Eleventh Doctor scanned the case with his sonic screwdriver and his worst fears were confirmed. It was a bomb. The countdown had already reached five seconds when he had scanned it and was counting down, second by second.

Four...

Three...

Two...

One...

And then the house exploded.

TO BE CONTINUED...