Doctor Who
Carol of the Doctor
Episode Four
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"You're me?" the Doctor said in shock.
"Not any more," Yaz replied. "I was you, I was the Doctor, but now... You remember Yaz, don't you?"
"Yes, I do. Another me reminded me of her."
"Ah yes, I remember that moment. The moment where I thought I could take the children on by myself and, well..."
Yaz turned and went back to her seat. The Doctor took one last look at the nothingness, before letting the doors swing shut behind her.
"What happened?" the Doctor asked, standing in front of the person calling herself Yaz.
"The children won," 'Yaz' said. "They destroyed everything. It was a miracle I managed to get to the TARDIS in time... or a punishment. I spent millennia trying to fix it, to somehow restart the universe. Cost me almost the entire TARDIS. This console room is all that's left of the old girl. Remember the early days, when this was the only part of the TARDIS you felt comfortable investigating, and gave the impression to your companions that this was all the TARDIS was?" Yaz let out a laugh, a sort of manic shriek, before settling down again.
"You're telling me this is all that's left of the TARDIS?" the Doctor asked in concern.
"This is all that's left of the universe," Yaz countered. "Everything that is, was, will be, could be, could have been... This is it. This is all it can ever be. I tried to turn the shields off, of course, but the Children made sure I wouldn't be able to."
"How long have you been like this?" the Doctor asked.
"I don't remember," Yaz admitted. "I lost count of the bodies after the first six hundred."
The Doctor said nothing, looking at her other self in shock. What she was saying was impossible, it broke all the rules, and yet...
"You can thank the Timeless Child for that," Yaz said. "Made sure I'd have infinite regenerations. You'd be surprised how quickly the pain of it all goes away, given enough time. Not that that exists either."
The Doctor wanted to say something, but what? What could she possibly say in this situation.
"You have all this to look forward to," Yaz said unemotionally, not even bothering with the pretence of reading the book. "Don't worry Doctor, you won't be the Doctor for very long. Not after some of the things you do. Not after you ignore Graham and Ryan and try to do your own thing, thinking you're so much better than them. They pay the price for your hubris. But Yaz... now there's a name to remind you of what you did. Your greatest failure."
"Why are you telling me all this?"
"Because this is the same thing I heard when I was in your shoes. I'm trying to avoid a paradox, the last three were excruciatingly painful and cost quite a lot of the TARDIS."
"You remember all this?"
"Vaguely. It becomes clearer the longer we stay together."
"That means this is becoming more and more of a fixed moment in time," the Doctor said, dashing forward to try and pilot the TARDIS.
"Where you going to go?" Yaz asked. "Gallifrey? Hopies? Hillscarian? You won't find anything different, I'll tell you that much for free."
"There must be a way of stopping this," the Doctor said desperately.
"It's already a fixed point of time," Yaz said sadly. "Because this is all that time is. This is all everything is."
"I can't just give up," the Doctor cried, pounding at the console.
"Oh there's the Doctor spirit I remember so well," said Yaz with a laugh. "It's amazing how long you stuck at it. But eventually you stop being a doctor, and you become Yaz instead."
"Oh shut up," snarled the Doctor, gripping the console. There must be a way out of this, surely? This wasn't her future, it can't be. This hell, being trapped in the TARDIS, wallowing in self-pity and despair. Giving up and giving in, this wasn't her. This could never be her.
And yet... this Yaz woman, she was her. That much was painfully clear. The Doctor could feel it on some level, something in her mind convincing her that this was the truth.
"You win," said the Doctor bitterly. "You win," she said again, turning her head up to the roof. "Alright? You win! I can't live like this! This can't be my future!"
"I told you as such," said the child, appearing by her side. The Doctor spun round to look at Yaz, only to find that the woman had disappeared. Spinning around some more showed that the entire TARDIS console had vanished as well. She was in the nothingness, with only her child by her side.
"I just need to know one thing," the Doctor said. "That future, that Doctor... Are these the shadows of the things that will be, or are they shadows of the things that may be only?"
"That depends on you, Doctor," the child said. "I can help you fight my siblings, I can help you capture them, but if you try to double-cross or trick me, if you try and avoid joining me..." The child spread his arms around the nothingness.
"Any attempt to thwart us leads to this. We over-power you in the battle, and by doing so we race across the universe unchecked. In an attempt to stop us you end up empowering us, in an attempt to destroy us you take the entire universe down as well. We only went through the portal first time because you tricked us, and we weren't as practice in our powers as we are now. We are now a part of this universe, as well as its destruction. We have to willingly choose to leave it, least you try to rip us from it."
"I understand," the Doctor said solemnly. "What's the plan?"
"You gather up the children," the child said. "You hold onto them and, when the portal opens up again, you jump into it. You seal yourself in there with us. We can create a heaven for you, as long as you keep us company."
The Doctor nodded, knowing that she didn't have much of a choice. The children were a cancer on the universe, and to try and remove them by force would damage the body of existence. No, she had to surgically remove them, and this appeared to be the only way.
"Are you ready Doctor?" the child asked.
The Doctor paused, looking around at the nothingness. Really was she worth more than the entire universe? She'd live a long life, far more than expected of a Time Lord. Out of all the ways to go, saving all of existence would be up there.
She had no idea how to stop the children. Just one was enough to eradicate her, and she was attempting to take on four of them at the same time? Even with the Timeless Child on her side the chances didn't look good. Children of unimaginable power, ready to fight her, to kick and scream and resist everything she did.
No weapons, no defences, no plan. Nothing but her mind and a screwdriver that made funny sounds. Herself against these universe ending monsters.
She couldn't help but let out a little smile. She was going to die, there was no doubt about it. But at least she was going to die as the Doctor.
"Let's do it," the Doctor said, as the child nodded. There was a flash of light, the first, last and only light in what was left of the universe. But one the Doctor took with her. The universe needed help, and the Doctor was in.
