Day of the Doctor (Part 2)

A metal door lowered behind them and they found themselves face to face with another painting.

Nobody said anything. Donna and Rose stared at the painting of Elizabeth I and the Tenth Doctor in period attire.

"This way," Kate said as she pulled on the painting to reveal another door. "Welcome to the Under Gallery. This is where Elizabeth the First kept all art deemed too dangerous for public consumption."

The Doctor crouched to scoop a handful of sand from the floor, "Stone dust,"

"Is it important?"

"In twelve hundred years I've never stepped in anything that wasn't."

Kate instructed Osgood to get a science team to analyse the stone dust.

The Doctor looked around the room when a glass cabinet caught his eye, "A fez!" the Doctor took it and placed it on little Jacob's head.

Jacob smiled and giggled.

"Like father, like son!" Rose commented with a bright smile.

However, the Doctor's smile faded when they entered another room. All along the walls were 3D paintings from his homeworld. The protective glass on all of the paintings had been shattered, leaving shards all over the floor.

"3D again," Donna noticed.

"This is why we called you in," Kate informed the Doctor.

"Interesting," the Doctor said taking the fez off Jacob's head.

"What's interesting?" Rose asked as the Doctor passed her Jacob.

"Look at the shatter pattern. The glass on all these paintings has been broken from the inside."

"As you can see, all the paintings are landscapes. No added figures of any kind," Kate added.

"So?"

"There used to be," Kate told him passing him a tablet with one painting original image displayed on the screen.

"Somethings got out of the paintings," Donna observed.

"Lots of something. Dangerous," the Doctor said turning to Rose and Jacob, "Kate, is it safe here?"

"Well," Kate considered, "This whole place has been searched. There's nothing here that shouldn't be, and nothing got out,"

Before he could think about her answer, the air cracked in two causing a time fissure to appear.

"Oh no, not now," He complained.

"Doctor, what is it?" Donna asked.

"It's a tear in the fabric of time," answered Rose.

The Doctor went to Rose, "I remember this Rose. Almost remember," He looked at his wife and son, "Oh, of course, this is where I come in."

The Doctor tossed the fez through the time fissure and watched it disappear before turning back to Rose. "This is fixed. Everything will be fine, I promise, but I need to go," He said looking straight into her eyes.

Rose nodded with trust.

"Geronimo!" the Doctor yelled leaping through the time fissure.

DOCTOR WHO

"Oh that is skinny," the Eleventh Doctor said judging his prior self, before picking himself up from the ground, "And I mean proper skinny; been quite some time since I've seen it from the outside. It's like a special effect." Eleven knocked the fez from ten's head, "Ha! Matchstick man!"

"You're not," ten said back, reaching into his pocket.

They mirrored each other's actions and produced their sonic screwdrivers. Eleven's was not only better but a lot bigger. Gleefully, he showed it off extending it's prong.

"Compensating?" Questioned ten.

"For what?"

"Regeneration. It's a lottery."

"Oh, he's cool. Isn't he cool? I'm the Doctor and I'm all cool. Oops, I'm wearing sandshoes."

"What are you doing here? I'm busy,"

"Oh, busy. I see. Is that what we're calling it?" Eleven said popping the fez on his head. "Hello, ladies."

"Don't start. One of them is a zygon."

Both doctors jumped when the time fissure broke open again.

"Your Majesties," said the Eleventh Doctor, "Probably a good time to run."

Both queens responded in unison, "But what about the creature?"

"Elizabeth, whichever one of you is the real one, turn and run in the opposite direction to the other one." They did so, both giving ten a wet kiss before running away.

"Doctor, is that you?" The voice of Rose asked through the time fissure.

The Eleventh Doctor turned to his prior self; his mouth was agape and looked stunned.

Oh, that was not very good. Eleven thought to himself.

"Ah, hello, Donna! Can you hear me?"

"It's me!" Rose corrected, "We can hear you. Where are you?"

"Where are we?" She heard her husband ask someone.

"England, 1592."

Donna gasped at the voice she heard, it was the previous doctor. The first Doctor she had met. She looked at Rose, who gave her a surprised look in return.

"Who are you talking to?" Rose asked.

"Myself," Two voices responded in unison.

Rose and Donna clamped a hand over their mouth. For Rose, this was the second version of the Doctor to love her but never admitted in.

"This is Kate Stewart, Doctor. Can you come back through?"

"Physical passage may not be possible in both directions. Hang on. Fez incoming!"

Kate, Rose and Donna watched the time fissure. Waiting. But no fez came.

"There's no fez Doctor," Donna informed.

"So where did it go?" the Tenth Doctor wondered.

"Rose, how can the Doctor be speaking to himself?" Donna asked.

"It is possible for the Doctor to meet his past incarnations," Rose informed, "It's him, Donna. The previous Doctor. I'd know that voice anywhere."

"It's crazy. I'd never thought I would hear that voice again,"

As Rose nodded, a commotion in 1592 drew their attention back to the rift. They listened in as a third man's voice joined the conversation.

"I think there's three of them now," Rose said. "I don't recognise the voice so it must be an earlier incarnation."

Jacob began to cry in Rose's arms. Rose paced in a line near the wall and sighed in relief when Jacob's cries became quieter.

"Can you hear soldiers?" Rose asked her friend and Kate; they both nodded. "Brilliant."

"That thing," said a soldier, "What witchcraft is it?"

"And you sir, now that you mention it, that is witchcraft. Yes, yes. Witchy witchcraft. Hello? Hello in there. Excuse me. Am I talking to the wicked witch of the well?" Scoffed the Eleventh Doctor.

Donna and Kate looked at each other. "He means you, Donna."

"The cheeky-" Donna scoffed, "Why am I the witch?" Donna began, "Prattling mortals, off you pop... or I'll turn you into frogs."

Suddenly, the soldiers chanted "The Queen. The Queen."

"You don't seem to be kneeling," Queen Elizabeth said, "How tremendously brave of you."

"Which one are you?" Asked the Tenth Doctor, "What happened to the other one?"

"Indisposed. Long live the queen." Declared Elizabeth.

"Long live the Queen." Echoed the soldiers.

"Arrest these men. Take them to the tower."

"That is not the Queen of England! That's an alien duplicate." Stated the Tenth Doctor.

"A dangerous alien duplicate," the Eleventh Doctor added, "Hang on. The tower. Did you say the Tower? Ah, yes, brilliant. Love the Tower. Breakfast at eight, please. And will there be WI-FI."

"Are you capable of speaking without flapping your hands about?" the older looking Doctor asked.

"Yes. No. I demand to be incarcerated in the Tower immediately with my co-conspirators Sandshoes and Grandad."

"Dear God, that man's clever," Kate said, "Come on."

"Where are we going?" Asked Donna.

"My office, otherwise known as the Tower of London," Explained Kate, and began talking on her mobile, "The Doctor will be trying to send us a message. We're looking for a string of numerals from around 1550. I'm going to need access to the Black Archive."

DOCTOR WHO

Kate Stewart led them into the Black archive.

"Oh my God, that's Jack's! His vortex manipulator!" Rose shouted as she looked into a glass booth.

"It was bequeathed to the UNIT archive by Captain Jack Harkness on the occasion of his death. Well, one of them." Kate answered.

The pieces fell into place in Rose's head, "The Doctor needs us to rescue him."

"No," Donna spoke, "Just me. The Doctor doesn't want you and Jacob in danger."

"I'm not sure there's enough power for a two-way trip," Kate began unlocking the case with a key, "In any event, we don't have the activation code. The Doctor knows we have this, so he's always kept the code from us. Let's hope he changes his mind." Kate's phone started ringing, "Yes? Well, if you've found it, photograph it and send it to my phone."

Donna turned around to see Osgood and a male scientist had entered the space. They were walking towards them with a blank but menacing look. "Er, Kate? Should they be there?" Donna asked.

"Oh, they've probably finished disposing of the humans a bit early." Replied Kate.

"The humans?" Rose asked in horror.

Kate smiled. "Dear me. I really do get into character don't I?"

Rose and Donna jumped back in horror, as Kate spat at them before her skin split to reveal a blubbery Zygon.

"The Under Gallery is secured," Osgood state in an alien tone. Rose clutched her son tightly and ran into the glass booth with Donna closely behind.

Rose had seen the activation code on Kate's mobile and used it, "Put your hand it!"

"We're going to time travel with a baby?"

"Yes! She's a Time Lord, she'll be fine!"

DOCTOR WHO

Dust particles powdered the Doctor's hands and drifted over his shoes as he continued to scratch the stone pillar with a metal rod. One number to go and Donna could come and get him out of here.

He turned to look at his warrior self, who stood at the heavy wooden door trying to resonate the molecules with his old, red-tipped sonic screwdriver.

He then turned his attention to his tenth incarnation; his hands shoved in his pockets with a haunted look on his face.

"Did you ever count?" War Doctor asked breaking the silence.

"Count what?" the Doctor asked.

"How many children there were on Gallifrey that day."

"I have absolutely no idea." the Doctor replied. It was a lie.

"How old are you now?" War Doctor asked scratching his beard.

"Ah, I don't know. I lose track. Twelve hundred and something."

"Four hundred years older than me and in all that time you never wondered about how many there were?"

"Tell me, what would be the point?"

His tenth self spoke up. "Two point seven billion."

"You did count!"

"You forgot?!" Anger blazed in the tenth Doctor's eyes, "Four hundred years that's all it took."

"I moved on."

"Where? Where can you be now that you can forget something like that?"

He didn't respond. Instead, a memory surfaced of his family; of Rose and his son. Without control, the Doctor let out a laugh.

"Oh is something funny?" His Tenth self asked, "Did I miss a funny thing?"

"No, no, sorry." The Doctor inhaled, "It just occurred to me. This is what I'm like when I'm alone."

"No, no, no, no. Don't do that. Avoiding my question. For once I would like to know where I'm going."

"I'm sure you would."

"Four hundred years," the War Doctor said with meaning.

"I'm sorry?" Ten replied.

"At a software level, they're all the same device, aren't they? Same software, different case."

"Yeah."

The Doctor raised an eyebrow, "So?"

"So, it would take centuries for the screwdriver to calculate how to disintegrate the door. Scanning the door, implanting the calculation as a permanent subroutine in the software architecture and, if you really are me, with your sandshoes and your dickie bow, and that screwdriver is still mine, that calculation is still going on."