I appreciate any support I can get. Non-flame reviews are great.
Chapter Five:
"The TARDIS is leading us in circles," Jack said after coming out the same hall with Martha the third time.
"Why would it be doing this?" Yaz asked as she emerged with Ryan and Graham from another hall.
"It's a she and I don't understand either," River said emerging from another hall with Vastra, Jenny, and Strax. "She usually responds to my will."
"Enough of these games!" Strax said and pulled out a weapon. "We will blast our way through until we find the Doctor!"
"Do that and I will jettison you off into the nearest star," a female voice said.
They looked to the console and saw a human female face ringed with curls.
"You're the TARDIS," River said slowly.
"An aspect of her, yes," she said.
"The Doctor needs our help," Yaz said. "We need to find her."
"She doesn't want to be found. She knows me better than anyone and it could take you years to find her."
"Won't you help us?" Martha pleaded.
"You chose to leave us," she said icily.
"The Doctor was in love with another woman!" Martha said. "I couldn't compete with that."
"You still left us," she said. "I will only allow those who continue to travel with her to attempt to find her."
"Thank you," Yaz said.
"You will encounter many faces and things, take caution and guard yourselves."
"I'll face anything to help the Doctor," Ryan said.
"Why can't I come?" River asked. "I am her wife."
"You've never met this face," she said. "You also are not a consistent traveling companion."
"Because of paradoxes!" River shouted.
"My mind is made up," she said. "Yaz, Ryan, and Graham will find the Doctor."
The ground shifted beneath them and a new door opened.
"Be careful," River said.
"Should we leave breadcrumbs or tie a rope if we get lost?" Graham said.
"The Doctor will lead us back," Yaz said.
"How big do you think the TARDIS really is?" Ryan asked.
"We'll soon find out," Yaz said as she led the way.
The door closed behind them.
"No going back," Graham said.
They approached an area where there were three doors.
"We're not splitting up," Graham said. "We'll go through each door together."
"Agreed," Yaz said.
When they approached the door on the left, it opened to reveal, what looked the TARDIS console room except larger and brighter with white round shapes everywhere. There was an old man staring at a gold antique clock.
"I can't seem to get this to work," he said out loud. "It's as though I don't have the right tools and I have every tool in the galaxy."
"Excuse me," Ryan said. "Have you seen a bald woman run through here?"
He looked at him curiously.
"Baldness is a preferred state among the Etari people on the planet Galaga," he said. "But I don't expect you humans to understand that as woman here coiffure their hair in elaborate styles, though not as wild as the France in the Eighteen hundreds, or the Zells of the planet Borak."
"Do you think it is hologram?" Graham said.
"I am as real as you are, my good man," he said.
"You're her, aren't you?" Yaz said. "You're the Doctor."
"Why yes, I am the Doctor," he said with a smile. "You're a bright one."
"Did she regenerate?" Ryan asked. "Into an old man?"
"I was never a she," he said. "Though the idea does sound fascinating."
"How do we find your current form?" Yaz asked.
"Faces, change but who we are at our core doesn't," he said. "Moral fortitude exists long before a time lord steps aboard his first TARDIS."
Graham and Ryan sighed.
"A future version of yourself is hurting badly and needs our help," Yaz. "Please show us the way."
"There's nothing special about this clock," he said. "I have seen this design a million times, yet I can't seem to fix it."
"Let me have a look," Graham said. "I like to tinker with things."
He gave him and amused look.
"This is hardly tinkering," he said.
Graham looked at it.
"I think I see what is wrong," he said. "The one dial is off by a millimeter and you just need to move this piece upwards."
He stared at him in wonder.
"You are far more clever than anyone would have ever given you credit for."
The clock started to tick and suddenly the ground began to shake. The Doctor began to blink in and out of existence. There was a huge lurch and Yaz, Graham, and Ryan were thrown from their feet. The slid through a pair of doors that suddenly opened.
Once they got to their feet, they found themselves what looked like another TARDIS console room. A man covered in scarves with curly brown hair under a hat was holding a pair of wires.
"If you knew that a child would grow up to be a dictator responsible for the deaths of countless people, would you kill him before he could start?"
"No," Yaz said getting up on her feet. "The Doctor does not kill."
"But I have," he said. "I could save so many life forms just by connecting two wires."
"You know there are better ways," she said. "You always choose brains over warfare."
"But it would be so simple," he lamented. "So easy."
"The simplest explanation isn't always the easiest one," she said. "Doctor, put the wires down and find another way."
"Do you trust me?" he asked.
"With my life," she said.
He put the wires down on the console.
The Doctor began to flicker as the ground began to shake. Once again, the three of them were thrown from their feet. They slid down through a door that had suddenly appeared.
Graham groaned in pain as they landed on the mesh metal floor.
A man in a leather jacket was staring at the TARDIS console forlornly.
"I don't know where to go," he said. "After all I've lost. How do I begin again?"
"My turn I guess," Ryan said as he stood up.
He walked over and punched the Doctor in the face.
"Ryan!" Graham and Yaz shouted together.
The Doctor merely stared at him blankly.
"I don't want to see this face," he said. "I want to see MY doctor! She needs us. I demand you take us to see HER!"
Yaz noticed Ryan was crying.
"My gran died protecting the earth. Without her I was afraid I'd lost a person to show me how to be brave, how to believe I am more than my disability. Then I met the Doctor. She showed me that I am a strong intelligent man like my gran believed. I am a better person because of the Doctor and now it is my turn to help her!"
The Doctor flipped a switch. The door opened out to darkness.
"Thank you," Ryan said, and they walked out.
There were huge waves crashing against a beach under a clear sunny sky.
"DOCTOR!" Yaz screamed. "DOCTOR!"
"Can we swim?" Ryan asked.
"Not in these waves," Graham said.
"Doctor I know you're afraid," Yaz said. "I know you don't want us to see you vulnerable. No one does."
"The thing is Doc," Graham said. "Your suffering is what makes you like us. You may have lived many lives, but the pain your feeling is human."
"Let us be there for you," Ryan said. "We don't think any less of you for showing weakness. You have been our best friend. Let us be yours."
"I love you Doctor," Yaz said.
"I love you Doc," Graham said.
"I love you Doctor," Ryan said.
A massive wave hit the beach. It revealed a path. The Doctor was slowly walking down in the blue nightgown and bare feet. There were tears in her eyes.
Yaz ran forward followed closely behind by Graham and Ryan.
The Doctor raised her arms and Yaz hugged her along with Graham and Ryan.
"I love you too."