Chapter Four: Come Go With Me

Year: 2283
Location: Chicago, the Midwest

They were trapped in an old freight car they used as shelter the night before. Their enemies were closing in on all sides and a sandstorm swept across the city, covering everything in a blanket of sand. These crumbling ruins were once skyscrapers, the pride of the Old World. It was fortunate she was in her new T-60 power armor. Otherwise, her eyes would hurt like hell.

"I always wanted to see Chicago. Never knew what it was until ED-E told me. But it could do without all the murderous, rampaging robots here."

A beep in protest came from a floating Sputnik-shaped robot. It was an eyebot and a unique one at that. The Courier called him ED-E—short for Eyebot Duraframe Subject E. His old master, Dr. Whitley, died while she raided the Enclave's mobile base years ago. Or at least, that was what the Courier told her.

"Not you, ED-E!"

Even as they were in danger, the man who called himself the Courier found a way to make a joke.

She turned to him, who had crouched next to her. He wore a military helmet with red lens that covered his chiseled and scarred face, protecting it from headshots and his eyes from sandstorms. He also wore a Vault jumpsuit, the number 21 marked on his back. From his neck to his shins, leather paddings covered parts of his body.

"Quiet, you two!" Jocelyn quietly hushed the two and poked her head out. She raised the holorifle the Courier gave her and looked through the scope.

As the winds intensified, silhouettes moved in the distance—and closed in fast. There were dozens of humanoid-shaped robots, no doubt the infantry. Accompanying them were two spider-shaped behemoths of robots with cannons large enough to prove their immense firepower, manufactured and sent by the Calculator.

According to old Brotherhood archives, the Calculator was a unique computer system that used human brains for processing, not unlike robobrains. Decades ago, a renegade Brotherhood faction destroyed the Calculator, but somebody found hosts for the vast machine years later.

A laser beam flew across the street, missing Jocelyn's head by mere inches when she ducked. Despite the laser's intense heat, the freight car surprisingly held up.

She bet one of them was an assaultron. These feminine robots were fast and deadly, their heads equipped with powerful laser beams and razor-sharp dual blades in their arms for close-quarter combat.

She turned to the Courier once more. She couldn't help but imagine the smirk hiding underneath his helmet.

"We're in a city tag-teamed by nukes, we're fighting an army of robots, and we're knee-deep in brass and power cells. None of this makes sense!" the Courier remarked.

Jocelyn sighed. "What's the best course of action?"

The Courier pointed in a random direction and her head turned toward the military outpost nearby. It was abandoned, and they had destroyed the turrets that were mounted on the rooftop in their first go.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" she asked.

"Yeah. It has to have some weapons we missed in our first sweep." He looked and patted his robotic friend. "ED-E, listen to me. You gotta fly far and fly fast, okay?"

ED-E beeped in protest again.

"Don't give me that! You know me. There's a non-zero chance I'll make it through this."

"A non-zero chance? So there's somehow a negative chance in there," Jocelyn replied.

"Laugh it up. Trust me on this one, okay? I know what I'm doing," he insisted.

With some reluctance, she nodded. "Need my power armor?"

This gave the Courier some pause. He seemed to be contemplating her offer when he rubbed the back of his neck. "That doesn't sound like a bad idea, but… how good is that fusion core?"

"Still pretty fresh," she answered.

The Courier nodded, and the back of her power armor unfolded as she hopped out and folded back afterward.

"I'll cover your flank. Just… be careful," she urged him as he hopped inside the power armor.

"Loud and clear." With a thumbs up, he hopped out of the freight car and charged into the raging sandstorm.

She could only hope that plan of his would work. If it didn't, then he had made a death wish. She can take on many things: deathclaws, malfunctioning robots, elite Enclave soldiers. Hell, even aliens, of all things. But giant robots deadlier than Chimera tanks? Their chances of survival would feel low to anyone else.

She took a deep breath to settle her nerves and steadied her aim. She fired her holorifle, taking out a foot soldier going after the Courier in a single shot. ED-E, defying his master's orders, fired its blue laser at the assaultron who fired on them. He got out of the laser's path when the feminine robot charged and fired, unscathed. The assaultron tumbled forward to the ground as bolts of laser and protons hit its legs.

The Courier dashed across the street, taking out a sentry bot with a few well-placed shots from his assault rifle, causing enough damage for the bot to overcharge and explode into a million pieces. The damaged assaultron dragged itself and grabbed his ankle, making him stumble a few steps forward. He pulled out his semi-automatic pistol and fired at the robot at the same time as Jocelyn did, turning the damn thing into scrap.

More robots converged on the Courier as he ran closer to the building. He shoved a few along the way though one managed to stab him in his side with a blade. Blood trailed down his body as he burst the door open with his good leg and stepped inside.

Now all she and ED-E had to do was hold the line. She fired once, twice at each of the robotic soldiers, reloading the holorifle every so often.

As if it happened instantly, she looked up to the Courier standing on the rooftop, lofting a large, handheld catapult on his right shoulder—a Fat Man. Several mini-nukes were beside him.

He grabbed one of the mini-nukes, stuffed it into the Fat Man, and fired. The mini-nuke landed on the top of one giant robot, leaving behind a blinding, devastating mushroom cloud that blasted anyone in its vacancy. The behemoth of a robot crumbled, landing on top of a large squad of robots.

Jocelyn was knocked off her feet. Meanwhile, ED-E crashed into the wall behind him with a pained noise. The freight car rattled, nearly flying off the ground. She grabbed the eyebot and stepped forward, using the momentum of the car to put it back into place.

Just as the Courier loaded and launched another mini-nuke, another behemoth turned and fired its cannons at his spot. Pieces of rock and metal flew in all directions. The top of the building collapsed, and the rest of the infrastructure followed.

What remained now were demolished robots all over. Where the building once stood, a pile of rock and rebar were in its place. She looked through the scope to double-check. Still nothing. His body was nowhere in sight.

ED-E squealed in anguish and zipped out of the old train. Jocelyn could only stare in shock.

No. He couldn't have gone out like that, she told herself as she stumbled out of the freight car. He was tougher than that. He could have gotten out of the way and landed safely. She hoped that was the case, but if he didn't, she wouldn't know what to do.

The sandy winds raged on…

Year: 1607
Location: Somewhere in Hungary, Earth

Deep in the dungeons of the castle, there was a massive and complex machine. It was originally built for examining particles of the universe. Within the machine known as the collider, there laid a transparent orb mounted on a plain pillar. The collider whirred and the disks moved around the orb, with a rift in time and space that was slowly expanding. Through the rift were distant worlds and ages of the past and future, overlapping one another as if they were layers of onions.

"What an incredible sight, I must say!" Missy's associate, Azwel, commented with a gleeful smile. The two observed through the monitor mounted on the console from a room high above, safe from the force and pull of the rift. If she hadn't seen everything at this point, Missy would be inclined to agree. But the Time Lady was neither pressed or in awe. Without moving her head, she focused her sight on the scholar.

"You do see it, yes? The beauty, the juxtaposition of order and chaos, all around this magnificent orb!" he was as giddy as a child in a candy shop, with his hands shaking with excitement. He cackled on like a madman. "Oh, wunderbar! So much potential for the human race!"

One thing that was certain of him was that his madness might match her own. Calling himself the Savior of Humanity supported that assumption.

Azwel was almost sickly pale and lean, tall for his time, with strange star-like markings all over his wrinkled face. His dark robes were rimmed with gold, having elaborate and extravagant decorations all over, with golden gauntlets on his hands. The left gauntlet had a blue crystal embedded on the back while the right had a red crystal instead. He once told her these were the shards of Soul Calibur and Soul Edge respectively, weapons that grant their users powers. Despite his long hair turning white, Azwel did well for his age. Even his eyes had a slight, golden glow to them.

She couldn't help but sigh in indignation. "Yes, yes. I see exactly what you mean." She straightened her posture as she placed a hand on her hip. "Shall I try to ignore you while you ramble on like an idiot?"

Azwel balled his hand, brought it up to his face, and coughed in embarrassment. "Ah… my apologies." Still grinning, he turned and looked back at her, his hand now rubbing his bearded chin. "Might I ask that your attempt at contacting your universe was a success?"

Her lips curled. How would she put this when tact was not her strong suit? "Well," she trailed off, pacing around for no reason. "If you call sending metal men to the far future at a… space station, only to have them screw up as a success, then yes."

Azwel groaned as he rubbed his temples together. "Is there a method to your madness or is it all random?"

"It varies from moment to moment." Missy shrugged playfully. "Sometimes I just like you; other times I might stab you in the back when you least expect it."

He gave her a strange look. "You're rather forthcoming. Are you certain you're joking?"

"Oh, yes I am." she giggled childishly with a dismissive wave of her hand.

The echoes of footsteps bouncing off the walls at the stairway interrupted the madman's spiel, and a dark-haired man, barely into his twenties, in a simple leather armor had entered the large chamber. For a moment, he found himself dumbstruck by the massive collider before him before he turned his attention to the two standing by. His skin was pale, and his eyes were an unnatural red, the irises a golden-yellow. Missy wouldn't find it quite revolting. After all, she had seen worse things in her lives.

"Sir Azwel, Madam er… Missy?" said the messenger, a slight vibration in his voice. He didn't seem to be sure how he would properly address her.

Missy turned and gave the messenger an incredible annoyed look. "Yes, what is it?" An awkward silence filled the metallic, well-lit room. "Spit it out, already!"

The messenger, the poor sod that he was, gulped and nodded. "Graf Dumas wants to see both of you. Immediately," he answered. Almost immediately, he turned and went back up the stairs.

Azwel let out a disgusted scoff and rolled his eyes. "Pitiful creatures, aren't they? Then again, who am I to judge?" he commented as he left the observation room. "Shall we?"

"If we must. I have other things to do, wanton destruction and all, but I suppose I could fit that oh very pointless meeting into my very crowded schedule," Missy answered.

She followed close behind him, traversing through the maze-like corridors of the dungeon, the illumination only supported by the touches mounted on the stone walls. The two went by the torture chambers, ignoring the cries and pleas of the victims soon meeting their untimely and painful ends. They also passed by the cages, the many bars rattled by chimeras behind them, hungry for blood. As they entered a large room with a bridge over a floor far below, Missy glanced around and saw large golems and doll-like automatons working on the pipes connected to the collider before continuing.

Eventually, they came upon a large, wooden double-door reinforced by steel. It opened on its own, and they stepped out of the dark and cold dungeon and into the enormous and glamorous castle. Above them was a chandelier swinging at the whims of gravity, the walls decorated with detailed paintings and landscapes. Through the large windows, it was close to sundown, the orange rays of sunlight shining through them, but it would not be for much longer for the night. Unusual for a castle of that size, it was empty save for the two of them and the messenger, who beckoned them to follow him.

They were led to the hallways and out on the balcony, a compass-like pattern carved onto the stone, and the messenger went back inside without a word. Missy could hear the screeches of the giant birds patrolling the castle. She was accustomed to noises like these. The outer walls were well-fortified save for one gap at the far end, where a lone figure stood at the edge.

The figure, a man standing tall, was covered from head to toe in dark-blue armor, crowned with a horned, bat-like helmet. Red hair trailed down past his back, and his black, gold-rimmed cape softly flapped in the wind. The most noticeable thing about him was his horribly deformed right arm, twisted into a mess of hardened flesh and spikes with a three-digit claw for his hand.

Azwel briefly bowed before his master. "How may we serve you, Graf Dumas?"

The lord turned around to them, his eyes glowing red beneath his helmet. In his left hand was a giant sword covered in flesh. Many tales of this world have been told about Soul Edge, known to many as the Sword of Salvation. In truth, it was a demonic weapon. Those who grasped its hilt fell under its curse, enslaved by its desire to feed on souls and turning them into a bloodthirsty monster.

The giant eye blinked and, for a moment, glared at Missy, making her shiver a little. She had been to the Dalek sewers, and she still found that creepy. The first time they had met, she almost gagged at the stench swirling around him. The lord was Nightmare, the Azure Knight.

"My patience grows thin with each passing day," Nightmare growled. His voice boomed with a greater vibration than the messenger's voice. "Tell me of your progress, Azwel."

Azwel drew a deep breath, sweat traveling down his brow like a river. Missy couldn't help but grin a little, her posture prim and proper. "It has been going well, my lord," she answered calmly. "Though I've met the Doctor's companions. One an old friend, the other who was rather new at this sort of thing."

"Hmmm…. Interesting…" The scholar rubbed his chin in contemplative thought. "What a fascinating thing you have discovered. I wish you would have mentioned this earlier."

"The Doctor? Ah, yes. You have told me about him." The Azure Knight trailed off. "What of his companions? Perhaps their souls shall quench my thirst as well as his."

"He was one of the metal men but not part of their little group. Kroton was his name. Had a more retro look than I remembered," she answered.

"What an interesting choice of words," Azwel commented.

"Indeed." She placed her finger on her chin with a mischievous smile on her face. "The new companion, I never asked for her name. She was quite confrontational and all, announcing that she would stop me and all." She scoffed dismissively as she rolled her eyes. "Can you believe that?"

"Not to interrupt, but could you, ah, change to a more… presentable form, perhaps?" Azwel pointed his finger upwards. "You do have tasks to attend to for the Holy Roman Empire, do you not?"

The Azure Knight let out an annoyed grunt, but he complied. He planted his sword onto the floor. Black lightning flew out of the sword, and everything became bright for a moment, causing Azwel and Missy to avert their eyes. As the light receded, they adjusted their eyes to find his form was now a nobleman with a stylish mask on his face. Fair-skinned with angular features and blue eyes, the sword he had was now gone, and so was his malformed right arm. His armor was the same but silver that gleamed in the sunlight, his hair a short but stylish blond.

"Is this better?" he asked with a French accent.

"Much. Thank you, my lord," Azwel replied. He clapped with a wide smile on his face. "Excellently done."

"Now then, I have other matters to attend to personally. I trust you would take care of this… experiment our lady is conducting while I'm away?" the Graf requested.

"Of course, my lord." Azwel bowed with a wide, toothy smile on his face. "Are you certain you don't require my assistance?"

The Graf chuckled. as he turned and stepped past the two, the Time Lady's gaze following him. She always was a sucker for the classic, maniacal laugh. "With my blade, none shall stand in my way," he boasted. "Not even that defiant child of the Holy Warrior."

Year: 4356
Location: Icarus Station, Alexander Rand's office

"Alex, do you know what these things are?" The Doctor observed the shards. They emitted faintly, mounted in glass containers on the administrator's desk. He and Kroton barely had enough time to catch up on their ordeals before the administrator had called them all into his office.

Jocelyn and her robotic companions looked on as Alex leaned in with squinted eyes. "Not the faintest idea, Doctor," the administrator answered, rubbing his chin. "You said they made the Ania queen miserable?"

"Obviously," the Doctor deadpanned.

"But you didn't suffer from any effects of these shards, right?"

"Seems like it." The Doctor pressed his lips together and turned an uncertain gaze at the administrator. "I know what you're thinking," he sighed. "Don't; it won't end well. It never ends well."

"We need to know exactly how dangerous they are, Doctor. It was dangerous to the Ania, but we have no idea how they would affect human beings, most of all," Alexander replied firmly, with his hands behind his back. "Surely you know better than that."

"Or a Cyberman," Kroton injected. "Or a robot."

The Doctor tried to protest, to make his case with a pointed finger, but even the Time Lord would realize that argument was pointless when Alex turned toward Jocelyn. "Wanderer, would you mind being a guinea pig for a moment?"

Jocelyn hesitated. If only Moira could see me now. "Are you sure that's a good idea? Because I don't think that's a good idea."

The administrator frowned. "I don't suppose you have a better idea in mind?"

"Yeah. I can think of several on top of my head."

"Such as destroying it?" Alex asked. "Probably a sensible course, but if we go through with it, what then? How would we prepare for it next time, if there is a next time? And should OMI or the Cyberman be willing, would they follow through?"

Jocelyn sighed. Perhaps there was no point in arguing. "Guess I'll try the red one," she answered and approached the desk.

As she opened the glass box and grabbed the strange red shard, she felt a sudden jab in her hand. Looking down at it, she found that the shard had cut the tip of her index finger, on her left hand. As her finger bled, a wave of dizziness washed over her. She stumbled past the Doctor and others, who looked on with a mix of confusion and worry. The Doctor's eyes became wide with alarm and he and the others hurried toward the Lone Wanderer.

"Guys? I… I don't feel so good," she muddled in her words as she spun toward the Doctor. "I don't know what's happening."

"Let go of the shard!" Kroton commanded.

Jocelyn, baring her teeth, lifted her left arm and looked at the shard, now glowing a hellish red, once more. Try as she might, she could not let go of it, as if an unseen force kept her hand closed.

"I can't," she responded.

"OMI, can you help me out?" Kroton asked.

"At once!" OMI replied, their face nodding, as they and Kroton went forth and tried to pry the shard away from Jocelyn's hand. As the robot touched the shard, a red wave appeared around Jocelyn and pushed them back. OMI flew headfirst into the wall nearby; Kroton was merely knocked off his feet.

It felt like there was a fever burning inside her body as she collapsed, but it wasn't the floor the Lone Wanderer landed on. Rather, it was like she started to fall, darkness enveloping around her. She looked upwards, only to see a dot of light quickly growing smaller and smaller.

The last thing she heard before she fell into complete darkness was the Doctor calling out, "Stay with me!"

She tried to stand up, but she found herself floating in a vast space, as there wasn't a ground to stand on. The sky and everything around her appeared to stretch onto infinity. Surrounding her were chunks of masonry floating nearby, a pillar broken from a temple, a fully collapsed house, and a fallen tower. All of them were structures of every shape of size from every place on the planet.

In the center, where she landed on a massive rock, was a presence, shining like a fire at a campsite. Bricks ripped from their mortar and a piece of rubble made contact then disappeared under silence. At a glance, the fire seemed comforting to her but at the same time, it had filled her heart with a sense of uncertainty.

Did the shard resonate with this thing? She gazed at the still-glowing shard in her hand.

The fire suddenly burst forward, wreathing everything in its vicinity, including her. Her eyes stung even as she covered them with her arm before putting on her gas mask, the tips of her waistcloth beginning to blacken. She gritted her teeth, small grunts of pain escaping her lips.

Amidst the red hellfire was a speck of blue light, floating at where the fire once stood. As far as she knew, it could be her way out of here. She stepped forward, the sheer force of the flames pushing her back, yet she ignored it and the pain with it with every ounce of her strength. Each step brought her closer to the blue light, her right arm stretching out to grab it.

After what felt like agonizing minutes, she finally came upon the light. Over her hand was a small, blue stone. Looking at it, she felt as if she was at peace.

The last thing she saw before losing consciousness was a blinding flash of light emitting from the stone as she grasped it.

"Stay with me!" the Doctor called out. He reached out to Jocelyn, only for her to disappear before his very eyes. Looking at his now trembling hands, his breathing became shaky as he clenched his teeth together. His face was scrunched into a frown, a mix of anger and despair written all over it.

"Did she… Is she…?" Kroton was a difficult one to read, being a renegade Cyberman and all. But it was clear he shared the Doctor's sentiment. "What just happened?"

The administrator, stunned at this sudden turn of events, could barely stand, his legs quaking beneath his feet. I had no idea a shard of Soul Edge would do that."

This caused the Doctor to perk up at him. "What did you just say?"

"Soul Edge," the administrator answered. "Did you not know of this before?"

"No. Moments ago, you said you had no idea what it is," the Doctor pointed out.

"Of course, I always know!" Alexander insisted. "I just didn't know what sort of effects it had."

The Doctor turned to OMI. "Do you know that, too, OMI?"

An image of a thumbs up appeared on the robot's screen as they tilted their head. "Well, of course, Doctor! It's in my database, as a matter of fact. Would you like to know more—"

"Nevermind that. Kroton?"

The Cyberman shrugged. "I'm in the same boat as you are. This is the first time I've heard about this Soul Edge." He paused as if something had dawned on him. "Er, Doctor? This is why I'm—"

The Doctor raised his index finger without a glance before the Cyberman could finish his sentence. "Quiet! I'm thinking." He rubbed his chin, as if in deep thought. "This isn't right. Something's off…" he mumbled to himself. "We're faced with contradictory information here. Normally, somebody's lying, but consider this." He whipped out a piece of chalk from his coat.

"Hey, don't do that!" Alex exclaimed. He straightened his stance and moved toward the Time Lord.

The Doctor ignored his protests when he knelt and planted the chalk on the floor. As he began to move it, the chalk snapped in half. Not only that, but it didn't leave a mark on the floor. He sighed, dropping his head in embarrassment. "Uh… anyone got a marker I could borrow?"

Nobody answered. "Well, I'll take that as a no, then." He picked up the pieces in stride as he stood back up. "I'll make do." He paced around the room. "Now, then… where does that leave us?"

"What do you mean?" Alexander asked.

"I'll give you a straight answer: time is being rewritten as we speak," the Doctor finished firmly. "Maybe even reality itself. Now that's a chilling thought." He chuckled a little, only to stop when he noticed the unsettled looks on OMI's and Alex's faces. "Sorry, got carried away." He cleared his throat. "Now, the question is…" He turned at the blue shard in the glass box, still closed and sealed up. "Where is the source of the paradox? How do we stop it?"

"Doctor, what are you doing?" Alexander called out.

"Trust me on this one." The Doctor opened the glass box and grabbed the crystalline shard. As soon as it was in his hands, he felt a sense of tranquility washing over him. He needed to find the Wanderer. He needed to stop a paradox from ripping all of reality apart. Suddenly, something clicked in his mind like it had jogged his memory.

He turned around to the others, a grin spreading across his face. "I got it, now. This shard…" He waved the shard around like it was a tiny flag. "Can take me wherever I need to go."

"But Doctor—" the administrator replied.

"My apologies and I do appreciate meeting you all, but we must make haste!" He made a beeline for the TARDIS while beckoning to the rogue Cyberman. "You should go with me, Kroton. I think this is what you're here for."

"Of course, Doctor!" Kroton exclaimed. "It's good to be back!"

With that, Kroton followed, closing the door behind them as they entered inside. The shard still in hand, the Doctor rushed the console of the TARDIS and ran a diagnostic check on it.

The Doctor looked over the diagnostics of the shard on one of the console screens. It took him some effort to read through the seemingly random numbers and other gibberish, but he found the coordinates of the shard's origins, as a projection of Earth had emerged on the screen. A different version of Earth, to be exact. Suddenly, the screen flashed out:

RIFT DETECTED

SEVERITY: DANGEROUS

SIZE: LARGER, BUT STILL SMALLER THAN BELGIUM

LOCATION: EARTH.

YEAR: 1607

EXACT COORDINATES: UNKNOWN

"Oh, that can't be good…" the Doctor muttered in horror.

"What is it?"

"We're running out of time," the Doctor answered. He stepped away from the console, waving his hands around to clear his thoughts. "This shard came from a parallel Earth. Renaissance era. Early 17th century."

"Great! So we can take the TARDIS there," said Kroton. A pregnant pause from the Doctor, his hand resting on his chin. "You are sure the TARDIS will pull through?"

"It won't be easy. We'll have to cross through the Void—empty space between dimensions. Think of it like, like…" He clapped his hands together, struggling to come up with an appropriate metaphor.

"I know what that is, Doctor. Two universes stacked against one another; the space between worlds." Kroton crossed his arms in front of his chest.

The Doctor flashed a grin on his face. "Well, yes! That should be obvious, no? Now, this thing…" He gestured toward the shard. "…can give us a safe passage. Well, a safer passage. Probably a good thing I happened to have some spare power cells from the last time I went to a parallel universe, but…" He puffed his cheeks. "…I admit it's not a perfect set-up, so I can guarantee it'll be a rough ride."

Kroton acknowledged his warning with a nod and grabbed onto the rails of a nearby stairway as the Time Lord approached the console and pulled the lever. This time the entire TARDIS—once again—shook like an earthquake.

"Steady now!" the Doctor bellowed out. He gripped the console as much as he could. "Steady!"

Outside, the blue box tumbled through the space-time vortex, as galaxies and planets and stars all seemed to bend and fold, then unfold, giving away to a spiral of a wormhole.