"Doctor?" The woman in question's head whirled around at the sound of her companion's voice and she immediately narrowed her eyes as she pushed herself up from her crouched position next to Omega.
"I told you to stay in the TARDIS." Yaz lifted her head defiantly in response to the harsh edge to the Doctor's voice.
"We were worried about you. Besides," she motioned behind them as Ryan stepped into the room behind her, "we left Graham watching the levels." The Doctor's eye twitched just slightly at the prospect of her least technologically minded companion being left in charge of watching if they were going to be left stuck here. Still though, she said nothing and instead beckoned them both closer.
"Yaz, Ryan, this is Omega."
"We're all good?" Yaz asked her softly, the hidden meaning not quite so hidden but the Doctor nodded anyway.
"We're all good."
"New friends Doctor?" Omega asked her and the Doctor half shrugged with a smile.
"Last time we met was a very long time ago. It's been a long while since Tegan Jovanka and Nyssa." Both humans looked to each other to see if the other was just as confused but neither got a chance to ask any questions as the Doctor suddenly leapt into action. "Okay Fam! I've got a list of things I need from the TARDIS, fancy going on a bit of a scavenger hunt?" She looked between them with a hopeful grin on her face that left little room for them to argue. Not that they would.
"You've got a plan?" Yaz asked, already following her towards the TARDIS.
"Yeah. We're essentially gonna recreate the machine that wiped my memories in the first place. Tear down that wall from the inside."
"What if he just blocks your memories again?" Ryan asked, trying to keep his voice down to avoid being overheard but still evidently panicked at the prospect.
"That's where you lot come in."
"We're coming into your mind again?" Yaz questioned and the Doctor immediately shook her head.
"No. But you lot are gonna be out here watching over things. I imagine it'll be pretty obvious if things start to go wrong." The two shared worried looks over the Doctor's head but as she started rambling out a list of things she'd need, most of which being things they'd never heard of, they realised that their full attention needed to be on this. They were still in the early stages of yellow on the screen and so the Doctor let out a low sigh of relief. They had time.
"You're sure this is gonna work?" Yaz asked, her arms folded across her chest as she spoke quietly to the Doctor, her eyes darting mistrustingly towards the man still hooked up to a myriad of machines that seemed to be keeping him alive.
"No. But what other choice do I have?" the Doctor murmured back just as quietly, never once pausing her work as she continued to follow the instructions given to her about setting up a copy of the mind wipe device Omega had once created.
"Do you trust him to actually go through with this? To not try and kill you or, I don't know, use it to possess you."
"Again, don't have much choice. But my gut is saying I can trust him this time. Usually that's correct." Her work paused for a second, a concerned frown spreading across her face as her eyes darted up to look forward at nothing, with worry shining through them, "Except when it's not." Before Yaz could reply about that vote of confidence the Doctor shook her head at herself and let out a heavy sigh and dropped the device she'd been working on and darted into the TARDIS to check the power levels. "Graham, how're we looking for time?"
"Getting closer to red, but I think we're good for now." The older man sounded unsure and the Doctor took a quick glance at the screen, just to make sure, as she passed by him to check another device on another panel of the console.
When it was finally finished, the Doctor settled herself down into the chair, hands reaching for the hooked-up headband hanging above her head. She was put in mind of the chameleon arch and she couldn't help the nervous little flips that her hearts did in response of the memory. She was quite literally putting herself into the hands of Omega, a man who'd tried to kill her twice, who'd already tried to possess her once before, and she was doing it 100% willingly.
She was glad to have her Fam nearby, though she wasn't sure what they'd be able to do if Omega did try and take her over. The moral support of having someone there if things did go to hell was nice though, as it always had been. She'd plugged Omega in through the machinery he was already strapped up to and she tried to make herself relax enough for the process to go smoothly once she started.
"We'll be right here," Yaz told her, "we'll make sure everything stays alright."
"Keep an eye on where the level's sitting at. If we hit red, wake us up immediately. Even if we aren't finished." The Doctor informed her and Yaz nodded.
"We will."
"Ready Peylix?" the Doctor glanced around to the man and with a shaky sounding breath he nodded.
"I wait for you Doctor. I am ready."
Stepping back into her memories felt strange with someone like Omega now beside her. Seeing as he had no true corporeal form that she'd ever been privy to outside of her brief foray into the past, it was that face that he ended up with when they stepped through the console room of her mind into the passage containing her memories. Peylix looked down over the living body the Doctor's mind had given her, her hands moving to grasp at her own skin beneath the cloth of her robes.
"It's strange." She murmured quietly, "I'd forgotten what it was like." She'd spoken mostly to herself, and the Doctor waited for the moment it sunk in so that they could walk on. Omega's eyes drifted casually over the memories they walked by. Less of the wonder of her companions and more the quiet silence of intrigue. "You have been a great many places Doctor. I wish I would have known even half as many." The Doctor's eyebrows furrowed.
"What're you talking about? Surely you travelled?"
"My time was spent fuelled by a need to further Gallifrey's scientific advancements. Locking myself away in labs unless it was absolutely necessary. I didn't even realise it as my enemies moved against me. Even with your warnings. I was a fool, and now I can make amends." The two continued on in silence after that until they finally reached what looked like the end of the Doctor's timeline, they both knew, however, that it continued on after the wall in front of them, even if only one of them could pass through.
They approached the wall slowly, the Doctor feeling the nervous energy thrumming through her, both out of worry about Omega and what she could possibly do if she wasn't truly here to help her, and also over what she was going to remember if this did help. Omega reaching out to run both her hands down over the wall, eyebrows furrowed, and she let out a little frustrated sigh.
"Something wrong?" The Doctor asked and Omega gave a half shrug.
"Sometimes I regret being so great at building things." The Doctor couldn't help her little noise of amusement at Omega's words.
"Can you not bring it down?" she asked, worriedly.
"I can. It's just going to be a more complicated process than I thought." She closed her eyes after she spoke and fell silent, pressing her forehead against the wall, hands moving in places against the wall every few moments. "It's a psychic block at its core. Just a very good one."
"Don't pat yourself on the back too much now."
"It's held for more than 3000 years. Plus however long it lay dormant before you were essentially reincarnated through the looms. I've think it's more than earned me a pat on the back." She glanced around to the Doctor, her face still pressed against the wall, an eyebrow raising. The Doctor took a moment before sighing and visibly relenting to that.
"Yeah, you're right. Still though." Omega smiled then turned back to having her forehead pressed against it. There was silence for another few moments, before Omega let out a noise of delight and stepped back.
The wall began to fall away piece by piece and there was a moment finally, before the wall had fully fallen, where the Doctor could see her past self stood there, waiting on it to fall so he could step through. His eyes locked first on Omega, however, and the two stood there as the wall continued to crumble away.
"Hello, Peylix." They couldn't hear him through the wall but the words were clear from his mouth as he spoke. At once Omega's eyes began to water and the woman stood there's composure began to crumble. Any doubts the Doctor may have had about Omega's possible true intentions disappeared and the woman's face scrunched up in guilt and grief and she reached out a hand towards the man but it hit the wall that still held them apart until the visible wall was gone.
"I'm sorry." Omega told him, unsure if he could even hear but desperate for him to know, "I'm so sorry." The Other Doctor smiled softly, clearly able to understand despite the barrier between them. He lifted his hand to sit it on the other side of the wall.
Finally the wall crumbled away and all three gasped at the sudden charge of energy that raced out from both ends, the Doctor's brain racing to attempt to piece itself together and Omega reached out once more to the Other Doctor, unable to reach him before she was forced from the Doctor's brain. The two Doctor's braced themselves against the force of the energy, as the lines began to connect, and stepped closer to one another. They reached for one another, their hands managing to grasp against the forces trying to keep them apart and suddenly the Other Doctor began to glow, so bright that the Doctor couldn't keep her eyes on him.
"What's happening?" She cried out to him, panicked slightly.
"Once we're connected, I cease to exist. My memories are your memories now. You're welcome to them, Doctor." And with a smile he disappeared in a burst of bright light, the wave of energy making the Doctor's hair and coat billow up before finally everything settled and the Doctor was left with a whole new line of millennia of history to explore and to sort through as memories of a life she could both remember and not swirled around her.