Some liberties have been taken as far as Ten's memories are concerned. Big big thank you to my dear beta NoPondInTheForest.
The Solar System, not far from Planet Earth...
"What!?" exclaimed the Tenth Doctor as his eyes darted to the entrance, the place those words had come from.
The door was wide open, and the bright white light coming from outside allowed him to see the silhouette of a tall man who was leaning on the doorframe with his arms crossed over his chest, and also that of a rather short woman who was peering from behind him. He walked towards them, sonic in hand, and flashed its blue light at their faces once he was close enough to see them. Both the man and the woman remained silent, their eyes fixed on him. The man looked very young, but despite his ear-to-ear smile, his bittersweet gaze instantly revealed that he was in fact much older. The girl, young and very pretty, seemed to still be laughing about her friend's remark, but she wouldn't take her eyes off him. Once thing was certain – in spite of the dim light, they both looked really happy to see him.
But who were these two strangers, he was still wondering? And what could they possibly be doing there? They didn't seem to be finding anything awkward or out of place, not even when the expression on his face changed from surprise and disbelief to utter suspicion. That suspicion turned into absolute distrust the moment he realised where the light he could see behind them was coming from.
The man and the woman were standing in a console room – a console room inside a TARDIS. As a matter of fact, another console room inside another TARDIS.
"What!?" he asked once more, with a frown.
"Hey, Number Ten, hello again! How long have we been gone? Did you miss us?" the man asked.
"Doctor!" the girl shouted, elbowing him. "Have you forgotten he can't remember who we are?"
"Doctor?'" A puzzled Tenth Doctor remained silent for a moment, trying to make sense of that last word he had heard and automatically repeated. "Oh no, you can't be!" he added incredulously, his eyes almost popping out of his head.
"Yes, I am. Number Eleven. You like calling me Chinny. Oh, and this is Cl…"
"Oh you've got to be kidding me!" he interrupted in what sounded to him the purest Donna Noble's style. He was too busy trying to understand to have time to actually smile because of this association. His hearts did though. "Can you explain how my TARDIS has materialised inside your TARDIS? And most importantly, I happened to be regenerating there. Can you tell me what's gone wrong?"
"What do you mean, what's gone wrong? Nothing has gone wrong! Why should something have gone wrong? You look great!"
"Thanks, but to all intents and purposes, I haven't regenerated. Has the process – I don't know to put this – somehow changed? Is there a different protocol now? Am I supposed to shake your hand and wish you good luck? What will happen when I do? Will I just melt or disintegrate or something of that sort?"
"Of course not, Sandshoes! Why should those things happen? Regeneration is a process for which there never has been a… Oh, hang on. This is Clara by the way." The Eleventh Doctor lowered his eyebrows before he went on. "You haven't regenerated!"
"Hello Doctor. Nice to see you again. Oops!" the girl said before her smile vanished, immediately after which she covered her mouth with her right hand.
"Again?" the Tenth Doctor answered. "So I must assume we have met before, huh?"
"Oh, well done, you!" the Eleventh Doctor reproached her. Then he turned to the Tenth Doctor. "Yes, we have. And for us two, quite recently. Truth be told, you've practically just left. We were together at the National Gallery, just a few minutes ago. But who cares about that now? You haven't regenerated!"
"No. I. Haven't!"
"Then how can Clara and I be here?" the Eleventh Doctor added. "Why has your regeneration stopped? Why? Why? Why?!" he added, looking away. "If we could have reached you at any point in time and space, why did it have to be during your regeneration?"
"Because you got the wrong coordinates," interrupted Clara.
"Oh, yes! I got the wrong coordinates! Thank you very much, Clara! Mystery solved!" he said, his voice heavy with sarcasm.
"Oh, brilliant!" added the Tenth Doctor, whose voice was gradually starting to sound irritated. "You got the wrong date and have now created a paradox."
"A paradox! Of course! What else could this be? Clara, we've created a paradox! It's so exciting! I do love a good old paradox!" The Tenth Doctor and Clara kept looking at him in disbelief until his enthusiasm came to an end all of a sudden. "Now let me repeat my question. If you are not regenerating, and we all can see you are not, how can I be here?"
"My point exactly!" the Tenth Doctor scorned him.
"Are you two really being serious? 'Cause the answer's quite clear to me," Clara interrupted.
"What?" the two Doctors exclaimed as one, their eyes now fixed on her.
"Too many strange and unnatural things have been happening lately, and this might just be another, but I don't think it is."
"Then what do you think it is?" the Eleventh Doctor asked her.
Clara didn't say a word. She kept looking at him while she took a few steps backwards before she turned around and walked towards the console of her Doctor's own TARDIS. She let her hand pass along it for a few seconds when she reached it, then she turned around to face the Doctors and went on.
"If you took a look around from where I'm standing right now, what would you see?"
"Us!" replied the Eleventh Doctor, pointing up his index finger with a ridiculous smile on his face.
"I asked what, not who!" replied Clara. "I mean, if you – the two of you – were actually standing here."
"Oh, I see!" promptly replied the Tenth Doctor. His glasses had probably been inside one of the pockets of his suit all along, but judging by how expeditiously he took them out and put them on, he might as well have had them in his hand instead. He took one step forward and pushed Future Him aside with a swipe of his hand.
"Oi!" protested the Eleventh Doctor.
"A paradox! I knew it!" the Tenth Doctor went on. "And not just any paradox, but one created by the TARDIS herself."
"Exactly!" Clara agreed, as the Tenth Doctor, who had just reached her, turned around and spent a few minutes studying the evidence that unquestionably supported her view.
"What?" asked the Eleventh Doctor, visibly annoyed.
"Would you care to look right behind you?" the Tenth Doctor replied.
"I don't need to look around! I know what I'm going to see if I look around – your TARDIS. And why would I see it? Because when we decided to come looking for you, my TARDIS decided the best thing she could do was materialise around yours."
"Yep! And in doing so, she's created a paradox. My TARDIS shuts down and I don't regenerate. I may have lost a memory or two, but we both can coexist."
"But why would the TARDIS do that?"
"Excuse me?"
"This has happened before, Sandshoes, and there was no paradox and no shutting down. Nothing, except a temperamental red-haired Scotswoman flirting with herself.'
"What?"
"Honestly, can't that wait?" interrupted Clara, and turning to the newcomer, she went on. "Doctor, we've come looking for you because something's wrong and we need your help."
The Eleventh Doctor nodded, realising she was absolutely right. He didn't have a clue about what it might be, but it was obvious something very wrong would happen soon enough if they didn't stop it first.
"Oh wow, well some things never change, do they?" the Tenth Doctor added, looking at Clara and smiling for the first time since that awkward encounter had taken place. "Alright then! I'll be all ears – and keep my mouth shut, ..."
"I'd like to see that," the Eleventh Doctor cut in.
"…though it would be really appreciated if you could make a few things clear before we do whatever it is that we're supposed to be doing. So far, I've learned that you're the next Doctor – which is okay, I can live with that. However, you've created a paradox whose consequences we might deeply regret, and since this lovely young lady has just made it clear that you intentionally came looking for me… Well, let me tell you one thing – if the worst should come to the worst, it will all be your fault, you bow-tied, chinny thing. Oh, Clara!" he went on as he turned to her, grinning, and shook her hand. "It's so nice to meet you, by the way! I think I owe you an apology if I sounded rude before. I can be quite rude sometimes in fact. Not that I meant to be rude to you at all. Believe me when I say it's a real pleasure to meet you!"
"It's okay, Doctor!" she replied in a tone which indicated that being patient was now absolutely out of the question. "And now, could you both just listen? You can discuss the mysterious ways of paradoxes later, but for the time being let's do what we must, shall we?" she asked as her eyes turned to the Eleventh Doctor.
"As I was saying," the Eleventh Doctor started, "we were at the National Gallery just a few minutes ago – a little bit longer for you I daresay, when this letter was given to us. I think you should read it." He then handed the envelope in his hand to his previous self, who recognized the wax seal immediately.
"That's from Queen Elizabeth I! Such a great woman! I love Queen Elizabeth I! Accidentally got engaged to her once. That was the last time I met her. The first time, she wanted to have my head cut off."
"Yes, and we happen to know the reason why…"
"Oh, do you? Then you can fill me in! I never found out why. I always assumed it was just because she loved cutting people's heads off. These Tudors – they've got a thing about beheadings! I'm rather surprised they were not the ones who invented the guillotine… What do you think they would have called it, by the way? The Tudorine? Well, never mind that… So, have you read it? What does it say?" the Tenth Doctor asked as he took the letter out of the envelope.
"Well, she's basically quite upset by the fact that you ran away right after your wedding..."
"I'm sorry?'" the Tenth Doctor added with a grimace.
"Your wedding," replied Clara, marking her words. "Yours and the Queen's. You married Queen Elizabeth I, have you forgotten that too?"
"I definitely have… Though it doesn't sound like the kind of thing one would forget, does it?"
"Oh, interesting…" The Eleventh Doctor kept silent for a brief moment, then went on. "When I was you I remembered marrying her, but now that we have interfered… All your memories of what happened while we were with you have been wiped out. Wibbly-wobbly."
"I'm still wondering who invented that."
"So am I… But for the time being, what matters is this. You – we – married her, then we abandoned her, and now she's seeking vengeance and that letter is a threat," he added with resolution.
"A threat?" asked the Tenth Doctor, incredulous, the look in his eyes getting darker. "And what is she threatening to do?"
"That's what we need to find out," the Eleventh Doctor added. "She just says she's about to destroy something that's important to us."
"The letter was written in May 1600," said Clara, "so we thought the best thing to do is just go there and do some research."
"I was there in 1599," said the Tenth Doctor. "An old friend and I were saying goodbye to Shakespeare when she suddenly appeared. She made no threats. None whatsoever. Nor did I get the impression that she might have stolen something from me. She just wanted my head."
"But there's got to be something, Doctor," Clara added, "since both your heads are still standing over your shoulders. There must be something else she's got, something she's found… I don't know! What exactly were you doing there in 1599?"
"Long story… I'll tell you while we're on our way. Ok then! Off we pop, London 1600. Let's see what this is all about. In the meanwhile, would you both please kindly tell me why I cannot remember becoming the King of England?"
London, 16th May 1600, 11:58 pm
The TARDIS materialized somewhere very deep in the country during a very chilly evening, but despite the cold, Clara couldn't fight the urge to run outside and breathe some fresh air. Regardless of the fact that she had already been travelling with the Doctor for quite a while and of how much of the universe she had seen in all that time, she felt a quiver of excitement running through her simply by looking up above – the view of the night sky was absolutely breathtaking! You could hardly ever see a sky like that in twenty-first century London, and you would positively not see it if you happened to spend most of your days and just about all of your nights in the city centre. But this was not central London, and it definitely wasn't the twenty-first century. Never had the night skies of twenty-first century London been so dark, and yet so unmistakably bright. The millions and millions of stars that were shining in the blue were clear evidence of that.
While smiling at her enthusiasm, the Doctors' eyes scanned their surroundings hurriedly. Their scanning was over the moment they spotted a nearby wood, at which point they looked at each other. As it happened, they had both unknowingly shared the same fear, and the realization of that made them share another smile – this time, one of complicity – and a nod. They had just found the way to put an end to their concern.
In turning to the TARDIS, Clara caught a glimpse of her Doctor walking towards the console, and another of the door getting closed behind the other Doctor's back.
And then, out of the blue, the TARDIS dematerialised, leaving her alone in the dark.
For the whole length of their journey to Elizabethan England, he had been listening attentively to the fascinating story his future self and his companion had been telling him. At times he had felt the events in their narration to be beyond possibility, but when their tale came to a fascinating end which implied that Gallifrey and every single Time Lord on it had lived happily ever after, he couldn't think of a single reason why he should put the truthfulness of any of its details into question. Quite the contrary – he only wanted to know more.
The expression on his past self's face had made the Eleventh Doctor feel so delighted and ecstatic that it became Clara's task to add all the missing information the Tenth Doctor was so eagerly requesting. Looking at Number Ten's face, he felt, was like looking at a child who had just been given his favourite toy for Christmas, one he had secretly been longing for but had never really expected to be given, maybe because it was unreasonably priced or because it had sold out so quickly that it was out of stock everywhere. He could understand the way he had to be feeling better than any one else in the universe, and he knew that finding that Christmas present right there in front of him, wrapped up in the most beautiful gift paper he could ever have imagined, had the potential to make that eternally sad man feel happy as a lark, in spite of the still bewildered look in his eyes.
"Thing is," the Tenth Doctor started again, the two of them being now alone in the TARDIS after their brief landing, "although many of the things you've told me sound impossible – there's no denying that –, all in all, we both know this is not the first time the course of the Time War has been altered. First Dalek Caan, then the Time Lords… They all broke the laws of time and succeeded, so why wouldn't we?"
"We did, oh yes," the Eleventh Doctor answered, face glowing. "But I'm nowhere near understanding much of it myself either, I assure you. Especially when it comes to explaining why or how we apparently happened to get a little help from a friend…"
"Getting help from all our previous selves? That makes perfect sense to me! They came, they helped, then they left. Eventually they all forgot, and I will also forget. And now that I'm thinking of it, I've just realised I'm be the only one who will forget it all twice! How cool is that! Huh?"
"I wasn't talking about them. It's just something Grandad said."
"Then spill the beans."
The Eleventh Doctor knew the effect his words would have on the other Doctor, so he took a deep breath before going on.
"He mentioned a Bad Wolf girl."
Nobody who had ever known him, if only just a little – or, on the contrary, only too well – would have imagined that, for once in his undeniably long existence, the Doctor, the Time Lord from Gallifrey, could actually be rendered speechless, least of all during his Tenth incarnation.
With his left arm over his chest, the thumb of his right hand under his chin and the forefinger of said hand on his lips, the Eleventh Doctor spent a few minutes pretending to be looking at some fascinating as well as imaginary data which wasn't really appearing on the computer screen. What he really was doing was give the other Doctor – whom he would inconspicuously look at every now and then – time to react.
And as several minutes later the Tenth Doctor still had not reacted, Future Him decided to move on to the subject of his interrupted regeneration.
"In the end, understanding why your regeneration stopped is the easiest thing to do. One of the advantages of having a sentient spaceship is that sometimes you don't even have to set a destination – she will know. And this once, it was as if she already knew where to go and why we needed to find you, so she made her way into the Vortex, and there you go! Your TARDIS was absorbed by my TARDIS in time for it to stop the golden regeneration energy that was floating out of your body in every possible direction. Mystery solved! Well, sort of. There are still some loose ends. Well, quite a lot of them, to be honest."
"If anyone could ever have done something like that," the Tenth Doctor said unexpectedly, thoughtful brown eyes staring into nothingness and a discreet but fond smile on his face, "it would most assuredly have been her."
The Eleventh Doctor knew that, by 'her', he hadn't meant the TARDIS.
The Doctors' eyes met, and the way they looked at one another indicated that, once more, not needing words to be said at all, they concurred. On each of their faces there was a grin exposing an unqualified feeling of pride, as well as a gaze betraying an unbearable feeling of sadness.
"Yes," the Eleventh Doctor replied, "yes, I guess you're right. She was no ordinary human after all, was she?"
"Don't say it like that, please," begged the Tenth Doctor, pain in his eyes and his voice. "I used past tenses to talk about her before, but you have just made it sound as if she were dead."
"We're time travellers, so she'll never be completely dead to us, will she? If we stick to your timeline, of course she's not. But if you take a look at mine… Well, you'd better not. Spoilers and all those things. You know, the usual stuff. The thing is, it's been centuries for me."
The child who just minutes before had been in such good spirits after getting his favourite toy for Christmas had suddenly turned into the shadow of an old man, eyes motionless and void of emotion.
"Sometimes," the Eleventh Doctor continued, "there's just a blurry picture of her in my head, but some other times, even after all these centuries, I can see her so vividly – always young, always brave, always smiling."
"You don't need to describe her to me – I've always remembered what she looked like. Besides, I've just seen her," the Tenth Doctor continued. "Right before you came. I went there, to the Powell Estate. I needed to see her one last time. You know, just in case..."
"In case I wouldn't remember her anymore. Or any of our friends – the ones we made while in that body. You just had to say goodbye to them. And you just couldn't bear the thought of not saying goodbye to her. I know. You don't need to remind me of that. I was there. I felt what you felt. Your regeneration may have frozen and some of your memories may have been wiped out, but your feelings certainly haven't. And for the record, I can remember them all."
There was a long silence before either of them could actually manage to say another word.
"Well," the Eleventh Doctor finally added, wanting to get those stabbing thoughts out of his head as soon as he could, "we've landed again. To be honest, we've been parked for quite a while now, so I guess it's about time we started our research."
The Tenth Doctor looked at him in surprise. He had completely forgotten! He could sense the sadness that had also taken hold of his future self during their conversation, so, in an attempt to give a more cheerful tone to it, he decided to start a new one. "How long have you been travelling with Clara, by the way?"
"Can't really say… Not for long, I think. But I am never sure about those things anymore. And it's been complicated. I mean, really, unbelievably complicated."
"Isn't it always like that?" the Tenth Doctor joked. "You said it's been centuries for you. Did you use to travel alone before you met her?"
"No." The Eleventh Doctor's eyes saddened again. "I was… I had these friends… The Ponds... I… I used to travel with them. Amelia Pond. And Rory. You would have loved them. They were… Magnificent."
"What happened to them?" the Tenth Doctor asked, in a tone which suggested he already knew the answer to that question. How could he have made such a terrible mistake? He should have known better than to stick to the subject of companions.
The Eleventh Doctor looked down and kept his mourning eyes fixed on the console for a while.
"I'm sorry," the Tenth Doctor said.
"I know," his future self replied.
