"Hello?" El looked around the console room anxiously. Her powers still weren't back, and there was something in there with her. "Dad, please tell me that's you."

El whipped around and yelped, as the orange sphere reached out glowing tendrils towards her. Her body was covered in an orange glow, as it started to feel like she was being ripped apart.

"Get away!" El ordered, swiping at it. "Get away!"

During her motions, El hit something on the console, and the scanner activated.

"El, it's me!" The Doctor, in the correct console room, appeared. "Well, a recording of me, but that's neither here nor there, unlike you, who is both here and there… in a sense."

"Talk faster!" El shouted at the recording.

"Anyway, I'm rambling." The Doctor waved himself off. "The time riptide has caused a hiccup in the internal timekeeping systems of the TARDIS. See, the inside exists outside of time in a sort of pocket dimension, which means the only flow of time is the flow regulated by the TARDIS herself."

"I know, Jane told me, hurry up!" El ordered.

"And to make matters worse, it destabilized the forcefield holding a sort of blobby orangey thing calling itself the Entity." The Doctor exposited. "They were a criminal of the Time Lords, long ago, who started consuming others' timelines in order to keep themselves alive. Anyway, when their crimes caught up with them, they were executed. But they were clever, they used a thing called a Deathworm Morphant, keeping their consciousness going in the aforementioned orange blobby thing."

"Come on, dad, it's here now!"

"Anyway, to make a long story short, I was the poor shmuck who got saddled with taking them back to Gallifrey, but then things happened, and I just sort of… forgot about them?" The Doctor shook his head and frustratedly rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Anyway, I can fix this, but first I need to get you back here. A series of questions will appear on the screen. No, I can't tell you the answers, cause that just means somebody other than you can mess this whole thing up."

"Okay, questions…" El nodded to herself, as the scanner extended down to her level, loading the Doctor's program.

'Question one: Which one of my faces is known for wearing a scarf?'

"Oh, that's easy." El hit the button for number Four.

'Question two: What did the Vampires we faced in Venice look like?'

El rolled her eyes. "Like I could forget." She pressed the button for fish people. Yeah, that wasn't something you forgot every day.

'Question three: Who knitted the scarf my fourth face wore?'

El furrowed her eyebrows. "Dad loves his questions." She remarked, hitting the button.

'Question four: What version of Cybermen were the ones we encountered at the GSO base?'

"That was… Time War." She selected. "…I don't actually know that much about it. Hm. Maybe I should ask."

'Question five (you're halfway there, sweetheart, you're doing great!): Who was your husband in the Hawkins dream world?'

El smiled fondly, making the choice. "Will…" Ten years of memories didn't fade easily, and absence certainly made the heart grow fonder.

'Question six: What was the monster in Hawkins?'

"Called it… a Neverwere." El recalled.

'Question seven: My fifth face saved his life with one of these.'

"What is a cricket ball?"

'Question eight: Where do you get sent if the weeping angels touch you?'

"The past."

'Question nine: What is my favorite food? (come on, I'm practically giving this one to you!)'

"Fish fingers and custard." Trying it herself, the food actually wasn't that bad… Just stay away if the Doctor tried to make them into biscuits.

'Question ten: Where did we first run into each other?'

"The woods outside Hawkins."

'Question eleven: Am I proud to be your dad?'

El smiled. The Doctor could certainly get sappy. "Yes."

"Ha! Good work!" The Doctor appeared back on the screen, smiling approvingly. "You did it! Then again…" He suddenly looked up. "You could've just brute-forced your way through this, in which case…" The Doctor shook himself out of the thought. "Who am I kidding, you're smarter than that, El. Now, the dispenser under the console should've dispended a fob watch with a couple of wires, take it."

El grabbed the watch, looking it over.

"Now, all you have to do is press the button on yours, and when I press the button on mine, it'll drop you back here."

El coughed, hitting the button, as the Entity floated about.

She heard the TARDIS's engines whirr for a moment, before the console room returned to normal around her, the Doctor appearing in front of her.

"El, amazing!" The Doctor flashed her a thumbs up.

"Yay…" El meekly returned it, wiping sweat off her brow. "Yay me. I don't feel good, though…"

The Doctor's eyes followed the stream of time energy coming off El, towards the source, the Entity.

The gold sphere floated around, trying to get close, before the Doctor's hand shot out.

"Stop!" The Time Lord shouted, the Entity freezing into place. "Oh." The Doctor blinked. "That usually never works."

"Fix now, pat yourself on the back later." El ordered.

"Right." The Doctor sheepishly fixed his bow tie. "Now, I know you can hear me. Speak up. I recognize it's been some time since you've flexed the ol' vocal chords, but we'll understand."

"Then understand this…" The Entity spoke in an almost ghostly, echoing voice. "You will perish."

"No," The Doctor retorted, grabbing a vase similar to the one from before, only new and intact. "You let my daughter go, right now, or I'll lock you back in here while you're too busy finishing her off to fight back."

"…No." The Entity replied. "You held me prisoner."

"I didn't imprison you, I forgot about you. And even if it was intended to be a prison, it was a prison of your own making." The Doctor retorted. "If you'd just died for the last time like you were supposed to, you wouldn't have been conscious while I ferried you back to Gallifrey." He glanced away. "Funny how I kept getting saddled with that job." The Time Lord suddenly glanced back. "Now. Let. Her. Go."

"But I must feed…" The Entity responded, like a feral animal. "On both of you…"

The Doctor shook his head. "You don't need to do that."

"But I must feed…"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Now I remember why I tuned you out." He shook his head. "But never mind that, I found you a place where you can feed forever, to your hearts' content… An all you can eat buffet."

The Entity made a noise that the Doctor could only describe as salivating. "Where is this place?"

The Doctor shrugged. "Give my daughter back the time you're stealing from her, or I'll never, ever, tell. Your choice. Keep El or starve in here." He shook the vase.

"…you have so much time… I think I shall feed on you instead."

The Doctor shook his head as the Entity tried to approach him, hitting a button on the console.

"No! I must feed!" The Entity yelled as it was pulled into the vase.

"Stop hurting my daughter!" The Doctor commanded, shaking the vase with the Entity inside. "Now! Give her back her time, or I'll never let you eat again!"

The Entity remained silent for a moment, before gold-orange energy streamed out from the top of the vase, rejoining El's body.

The girl stood up, making a sudden recovery, as the field faded from around her.

"I have a good mind to just leave you in there." The Doctor told the Entity, as he carried it over to the door. "But I keep my word." He said, as the doors opened, looking out to the small swarm of glowing blue bugs in space. "Chronomites. Four-dimensional void creatures streaming through the shores of eternity… Eat their past and they just bounce right back, right as rain. You can stuff your face." The Doctor frowned. "If you have a face. Don't know. Now, are you going to behave yourself?"

"…this is acceptable. Thank you, Doctor. Release me."

The Time Lord pointed the end of the vase out the door and watched as the Entity floated out into the void, beginning its feast on the Chronomites.

The Doctor turned around, slamming the door shut, and setting the vase down.

El smiled, tilting her head. "You didn't tell it they itched."

"Didn't I?" The Doctor replied. "Must've slipped my mind." A lie, of course, a karmic punishment meant to make sure the Entity wouldn't get off completely scot-free for all the lives it had taken. The Doctor dusted his hands as he walked back up to the console. "Well now, El, you're good as new! Wonder what we should do now that you're back to normal?"

El tapped her hands together, as though she was working herself up to say something. "Dad, could you maybe…"

The Doctor, looking over the console, turned to look at her. "Hm?"

"…can I fly the TARDIS?"

"Ah." The Doctor blinked, before smiling. "No one else has ever asked that! Besides Donna. And Teagan."

"…well?" El hopefully asked.

"Sure, course you can!" The Doctor replied. "Let me just put her in basic mode-"

"No." El cut him off. "Want to learn how to do it right."

The Doctor glanced at her. He seemed to consider it in his mind. "Well, if anything happens, I'll be here to help. And it's not like a car… Alright, come over here." The Doctor waved her over. "Piloting a TARDIS is like driving any regular vehicle, you need to know where everything is first."

"Okay." El nodded.

"Right, first up is the mechanical panel." He guided her over to the panel next to the one closest to the stairs. "Up here's the door release, but that's boring, so I just call it the wibbly lever, it unlocks and locks the doors. This is the engine release," He placed a hand on the big grey lever at the front. "When the engines are fully powered, this engages the gears and lets them control the TARDIS. That there's the locking down mechanism," The Doctor pointed to the little black lever, "It stops the TARDIS from moving in physical space, different to the time handbrake, which we'll get to. Up there's the gyroscopic stabilizer," The Doctor pointed to the spinning top, "Supposed to keep the TARDIS upright during flight. Supposedly. These are the TARDIS readouts," He tapped the four ammeters in sequence, "Shields, outer shell integrity, fuel, and total power across the ship."

"Okay…" El nodded following along so far, committing it to memory.

"This here's fabrication." The Doctor moved clockwise around the console, to the panel with the laser screwdriver. Speaking of which, the Doctor pulled the device out returning the panel to normal. "That's the Heisenberg focusing device, the zig-zag-plotter. You can observe a particle's velocity or its state, but not both at the same time. This device compensates for that on different strength levels." The Time Lord tapped the little black spinning lever. "This is the harmonics generator; it keeps the TARDIS from making noise when it lands. I never use it though. The main dematerialize/materialize lever," The Doctor placed his hand on the red lever, "It's what actually engages the engines, the other lever just gets them ready." He pointed to a little circular gauge on the side. "That's the TARDIS's speedometer, shows us how fast we're going, remember that, very important. The viewport," He gestured to the eyepiece that looked like it came from an optometrist. "Shouldn't need that, not planning on scanning anything outside."

El frowned. "There sure is a lot of stuff…"

"Don't worry, most of it is actually rather simple." The Doctor replied. "The main difficulty with flying the TARDIS is that it was designed for six pilots, and I have to know exactly what to do at the exact right time and do it on my own and have the dexterity." He guided her to the next panel in sequence. "Communications. Typewriter for when I need to print something out. Telephone for calls from people with more primitive forms of communication. Voice recorder that Sarah Jane mainly uses to remind me to pick up the shopping. Digital comm for talking to another spacecraft. And the radio for cranking up the tunes." He looked to the girl. "What? Not hip enough? Truth be told, you probably won't need to use most of these either."

The girl laughed, shaking her head.

"Right, diagnostics. Bunsen burner for analyzing samples that the scanner can't." The Doctor began. "Water dispenser for diluting samples. Cooling systems," He pointed to the small little thermometers near the top of the panel. "Those go by themselves, but keep an eye on them, because if they get hot enough, we'll have to vent the heat manually. The external inertial dampeners," He placed his hand on the red lever by the side. "Turn them up or down and they make the TARDIS's handling looser or tighter respectively."

"Handling?" El asked.

"How it performs during movement." The Doctor moved along. "Here we have navigation. The directional pointer," He flicked the little copper telescope at the top. "It orients the TARDIS in space, letting you turn whichever direction it's pointing. Very important during spatial flight. The navcom keyboard," The Doctor clacked the keys randomly. "You can use this to select from a list of bookmarked destinations or input the coordinates manually, letting the TARDIS go straight to where you want without all the mucking about in normal space. The atom accelerator," He tapped the spinning metal ball with spikes in the center, "Opens the power conduits. You're supposed to hit this first before doing anything else, or the TARDIS won't get power to all its systems. The time space forward/back control," He played with the two small linked levers on the side. "Self-explanatory, really, it controls the direction through which the TARDIS travels in time. And now, the helm panel."

"Helm?" El repeated. "Like?" She gestured to her head.

"No, helm in this case mainly has to do with steering." The Doctor explained. First, he gestured to the big black lever on the side. "The Time Rotor handbrake immediately stops the TARDIS traveling through time. You'll want to put that off before engaging the engines, or the TARDIS won't take off at all, and when you land, you'll want to put it on, or the TARDIS will drift off somewhere in time. The space time throttle," He grabbed the silver throttle with the yellow lights, "Controls the TARDIS's speed, either through normal space or while time traveling. I always push it to maximum vworp."

El frowned. "Vworp?"

"You know, vworp, like the sound the TARDIS makes while it's in flight." The Doctor explained. "It seemed clever at the time… And, that's it." The Doctor stepped back from the console, looking to El. "All the controls you need to fly the TARDIS. Well, not getting into protocols, but we'll save that lesson for another day, eh?" The Doctor looked to the girl seriously. "Right, you ready?"

El swallowed, inhaling, looking to the console. "…yes."

"Alright," The Doctor sat down on the seat. "Once you start, you'll have sixty seconds to complete the takeoff sequence before the system resets to prevent engine damage."

El's brow furrowed. "Not helping?"

"Nope." The Doctor shrugged. "If you paid attention, you shouldn't have anything to worry about. Trust me, when I first got the TARDIS, I had no idea what in blazes I was doing, and I managed to keep it going just fine."

"Okay…" El looked back to the console.

"Now, let's get this show on the road. Quick, lock the doors!"

El nodded, and walking over to the mechanical panel, pulled the wibbly lever straight up, the lock on the doors engaging across the room.

"Good, now, the clock's started." The Doctor informed. "Power up the atom accelerator."

El ran around the console to the navigation panel, pressing the top of the spinning metal ball. In response, it hummed, and began to speed up, as power coursed through the TARDIS.

"Nearly got it!" The Doctor smiled proudly, looking at El. "Now, pull the dematerialize lever!"

El dashed over to the fabrication panel, pulling down the red lever, the TARDIS thudding in response.

"Engage the inertial dampers…" The Doctor guided.

El hopped over to the diagnostic panel, pushing the lever all the way up, the system letting out a small buzz.

"Great, now, full speed ahead!" The Doctor excitedly grinned. "Hit the space-time throttle!"

El sprinted back over to the helm panel, grasping the handle, before slamming the silver throttle all the way forward, the console room shaking as the TARDIS took off. A moment later, the room stabilized, as the time rotor moved up and down.

"I did it… I did it!" El jumped up and down excitedly, one more step closer to being the woman she knew her future self as.

"You took off the TARDIS, yep!" The Doctor stood up, before leaning in to whisper conspiratorially. "But how about I show you how to actually fly her?"

"Really?"

"Course." The Doctor turned her around, ready to guide her. "And, we can get some sightseeing in once we arrive. I know just the place, somewhere nice, somewhere perfectly peaceful and serene." He moved over to the keyboard, typing in some coordinates. "I'll show you how to work the coordinate system later, for now, you just focus on keeping us flying."

El nodded and turned back to the console. She could do that.

Especially since she seemed to be able to hear the TARDIS in a way that even the Doctor couldn't.


"Oh... my… God…" The Doctor breathed, poking his head out the TARDIS door first. "EL!" He bellowed back into the ship.

The girl, still standing by the console, jumped. The Doctor had been guiding her the whole time, along with the TARDIS in her mind, so why was he mad?

The Time Lord fixed her with a serious glare, before the mask started to slip, and he began laughing.

"Don't!" El smacked him. "Do that!"

"S-Sorry…" The Doctor apologized, laughing. "You should've seen the look on your face!"

El shook her head, trying to move past the Doctor. "Where are we?"

"Exactly where I set the controls for." The Doctor turned to the girl, stepping out of the TARDIS.

They looked to have landed in some sort of deep-sea base, the corridors dimly illuminated as thousands of tons of water bore down on the transparent corridors from above.

"You got us here right on target." The Doctor nodded approvingly. "London after the great flood of the 23rd century. Like I said, one of the safest, calmest places I know."

Something screeched, as a shadow passed over them.

The Doctor looked up, towards the source.

A giant shark, the size of a megalodon with two tails swam through the water. It passed overhead, and turned around, eyes focusing predatorily on the two in the corridor.

The creature's swimming sped up, as it prepared to ram the corridor, intent on getting to the Doctor and El.