Huh, It Really is 'Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey?'
Disclaimer: I do not own Dr. Who.
Credit to Lunammoon for help editing my work.
Traveling with the Doctor is an experience like no other. You get to see things and go places that most people would only dream about, but the journey is not always sunshine and roses. Sacrifices and hard choices need to be made, and, no matter how hard you try, sometimes, not everything can turn out right.
I know that the Doctor's supposed to be seen as a mighty warrior; the one who always saves the day, but if there's one thing I learned in our first adventure, is that Time needs to happen. I learned that lesson the hard way, and something tells me that it will be one that follows me for the rest of my life…
-Excerpt from The Consultant's Journal. Entry: Caretaker.
Upon finishing his work setting up the Chronodyne Generators for the Doctor, Alex headed back to the shed the TARDIS was stashed in. He smiled as he saw the familiar blue doors of the time machine. It was much more exciting to see in person than through a screen.
As he reached for the handle to open the doors, Alex couldn't help but feel like he was forgetting something important, but he brushed it aside as he entered the TARDIS's control room.
That…was a bit of a mistake.
As he walked into the control room, he realized what had been bothering him. He had just walked in on Clara simultaneously grilling the Doctor about his plan and tearing him a new one for enacting said plan at Coal Hill and endangering the students present.
"So you're leading the thing here?!" Clara was shouting in indignation, "To a school? My school!?"
"This is the only suitably empty place in the area! I've set up a circle of time mines around the school."
The Doctor pulled out one of the Generators they had been setting up around the school and tossed it to Clara, it bounced in her hands as she only just barely caught it before it dropped to the floor.
"Chronodyne generators," the Doctor explained, "bit unstable, but when I switch these on, and the Blitzer gets a one-way trip to a dying world a billion years into the future via the Time Vortex. Alex has even been helping set everything up."
Alex's eyes widened as an irate Clara rounded on him, "You!" she growled, "You're a part of this too! Did you know about all this? Is that the reason you're here?"
"It might be one of them," admitted Alex, "though I really don't have a lot of control over when and where I pop in and out. I will admit though, that I know a bit about what's going to happen, and I can promise you, that nobody here in Coal Hill will die. Everything will be alright."
"You're certain?" pressed Clara.
"Positive," said Alex, "so long as everything goes according to plan, everything turns out alright in the end."
"Don't worry Clara," said the Doctor, "this will all be over before you know it. Tomorrow, we can go back on adventures again. We'll go somewhere nice. Ancient Egypt. Crocodilopolis. They worship a big crocodile there, so the name is a useful coincidence. Go on and relax and canoodle with your boyfriend."
This took Clara by surprise, something that the Doctor noticed, causing him to smile knowingly, "Come on. I wasn't born yesterday. Far from it."
"You recognized him?" said Clara in surprise." Neither she nor the Doctor noticed Alex trying not to laugh.
"Of course," exclaimed the Doctor, "in fact, he reminds me of a certain dashing young time traveler we both knew."
"You did recognize him!" exclaimed Clara, "I mean, of course you did. I'm sorry I underestimated you."
That was a bit much for Alex to take and he rushed off into the halls of the TARDIS and once he was far enough away, he burst out in hysterical laughter.
"Oh god!" he laughed "I know this kind of blows up later on, but I never thought that a misunderstanding like this could be so funny." 'Though in fairness, Clara was attracted to Eleven, and Adrian does resemble him a tad.'
Alex paused as he felt a reverberating pulse from the TARDIS, one that gave off an air of amusement, and almost seemed like…laughter?
"You find it funny too?" asked Alex, getting an affirmative thrum in response, "Fair enough, he can be a bit dense sometimes. You'd think that River would have helped him fix that."
After glancing at his watch and doing some mental calculations, Alex reasoned that he had an hour or so before things would really kick off with the Blitzer. So with the help of the TARDIS, he made his way back to his study, intending to log some of what had happened into his journal before things got hectic and he lost the opportunity. Once there, he picked up his tablet and unlocked the device with his Sonic and began to write.
xXsceneXx
Night had fallen and the school was now mostly empty, so Alex made his way through the darkened halls on his way to the school gymnasium. He wanted to be on site to help if needed and possibly diffuse the upcoming argument between Danny and the Doctor before it got too heated.
Locked doors weren't a significant obstacle. His Sonic could unlock almost any door with ease and the Squareness Gun the Consultant had installed could let him bypass the rest of the doors entirely.
Of course, he put the doors back once he was through. He didn't want to see how mad Clara would get at him if he didn't.
It wasn't long before he reached the gym. It was thankfully empty save for the Chronodyne Generator trap the Doctor had laid out. He decided to situate himself behind a stack of chairs. It obscured him from view while still allowing him to have a clear line of sight to the Doctor's trap. Now all he had to do was wait.
It wasn't long before Alex heard the sounds of the approaching Time Lord, with the Blitzer hot on his tail. Alex watched as the doors burst open as the Doctor ran in, the Time Lord beginning to panic when he realized that the Generators were offline.
"No no no no!" exclaimed the Doctor as the Blitzer skuttled into the room and began training its guns around.
"Range one point four.
Nine scan complete.
Problem. Problem."
"Listen," pleaded the Doctor, "I'm unarmed. I'm peaceful. Don't you understand? I, I know that you shouldn't be on this planet but I can help you with that."
Unfortunately, the Blitzer wasn't having any of that.
"Problem solution: Destroy!"
The Alien robot leveled its cannon at the Doctor, but as it was about to fire, the doors opened again and Danny stormed in, causing the Blitzer to change targets.
"GET BACK" yelled the Doctor as the Blitzer opened fire, forcing the former soldier to dive out of the way as the plasma bolts tore through a nearby stack of chairs, dropping the Generator he had been holding.
Having seen enough, Alex leapt out of his hiding space and pulled out his Sonic, "Oi! Blitzer!"
This caught the attention of the killer robot and it turned its scanners upon the temporally displaced man, "New target detected.
Identified: Artron Artron commence retargeting.
Target acquired.
Solution: Destroy!"
"Now Doctor!" yelled Alex as he threw himself to the side to avoid a repeat of his first death, the plasma bolts whizzing past him.
The Time Lord needed no further prompting and quickly activated the Generators, causing a localized portal to the Time Vortex to open behind the Blitzer that slowly began to drag it in.
The robot fought against the pull, but slowly began to lose ground to the suction. Not wanting to leave anything to chance, Alex pulled out his Sonic Pen and used it to hit the Blitzer with a blast that forced it backwards into the rift, allowing things to calm down as it closed.
Of course, once the Generator quieted down, things got loud again. For a different reason this time.
"Oh, oh, well done, PE, brilliant work!" yelled the Doctor as he angrily rounded on Danny as Clara ran into the room, "What's this? A Chronodyne generator? I'll just deactivate that, shall I? I've got a swimming certificate so that qualifies me to meddle with higher technology. Never mind that some people are actually trying to save the planet. Oh, no. There's only room in my head for cross-country and the offside rule!"
"Danny!" exclaimed Clara as Alex pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration, "What are you doing here?"
"I was checking up on him!" explained Danny indignantly, "He's been up to something, fiddling with the electric or something! No, wait. Don't change the subject? Did you see that thing? Tell me you saw that thing."
"I saw the thing, yeah," confirmed Clara before turning to the Doctor, "Doctor, are we safe? Is the planet safe? It's gone?"
"Yes, yes, yes, yes, for the moment," grumbled the Time Lord But the thing is, you see, the Chronodyne generators have to be precisely aligned to generate the vortex. But the sergeant here, he went and moved one!"
"The trap required precise alignment of the generators," sighed Alex as he pocketed his Sonic Pen, "but now the Blitzer won't be sent a billion years into the future as planned. Instead, we now have three days to come up with a new plan to get rid of it."
Upon hearing Alex's explanation, the Doctor tensed and gave a suspicious look towards the young man, but it was gone before anyone could notice it, replaced with irritation towards Danny once again.
Speaking of the Maths teacher, he was now glancing at the trio with cautious suspicion due to what he had been hearing.
"Clara," he said cautiously, "why are you talking to him like that? Why are you using words like Chronodyne? Was that thing a space thing? Oh. Oh, my God, you're from space. You're a spacewoman. You said you were from Blackpool!"
Thinking quickly, Clara blurted out the first explanation that came to mind in the hopes of dissuading her boyfriend from prying any deeper, "It's a play! For the summer fete!"
"It's a what?" asked the Doctor as he looked up from a notebook he had been brainstorming in.
"Dear lord," sighed Alex as he pinched the bridge of his nose yet again, not having realized how embarrassing it was to see Clara trying to save face like this was in person.
"Yes, it's a play. Shut up, it is a play!" insisted Clara as she shushed the other two time travelers, "We are rehearsing a play. Shh, shh, shh, shh. A surprise play. And, er, you see, the vortex thing is, is a lighting effect. Very clever. And that thing is, is one of the kids. In fancy dress. Really, really good fancy dress."
"How stupid do you think I am?" asked Danny angrily, "I'm not a moron, Clara. And he's not the caretaker. He's your dad. Your space dad. And him," he continued as he pointed to Alex, "he's your space boyfriend."
"What?" said Alex in shock, unconsciously dropping his accent, "No! Ew! First of all we're not dating. Secondly, I'm from America, not space."
"What do you mean 'ew?'" asked Clara, a tad cross at his reaction.
"Sorry," apologized Alex, "you're just not my type."
"Also," interjected the Doctor as he gestured between Clara and himself, "how can I be her dad if we look the same age?"
"We do not look the same age," snapped Clara
"You really don't," muttered Alex.
"I was being kind," said the Doctor offhandedly, causing Alex to facepalm as the Time Lord pulled out his Screwdriver, "Right, I'm going to hypnotize him. I'm going to erase his memory. Tiny little brain, only take a moment."
"Doctor stop!" protested Clara, prompting Alex to quickly pull out his pen and zap the Doctor's Sonic out of his hands.
"Now what'd you do that for?" asked the Doctor incredulously as he glared at Alex.
"Doctor!" pressed Clara, causing the Time Lord to turn towards his female companion, "He's, my boyfriend! I thought you figured this out?!"
"Him?" exclaimed the Doctor, "Really, him?"
"Yes," said Clara exasperatedly, "him."
"But he's a PE teacher," exclaimed the Doctor.
"Doctor," said Alex with a sigh, "he's a math teacher."
"But he's a soldier!" insisted the Doctor, "Why would she go out with a soldier?"
"BECAUSE I LOVE HIM!" Clara blurted out, causing the Doctor to finally stop.
"It's true," confirmed Alex, causing the Time Lord to spare a glance at him.
"What about the handsome one," asked the Doctor, "the one with the bow tie?"
"Who? Adrian? No, no, no. He's just a friend and not my type," explained Clara.
"Clara," said Danny, his voice cutting through their discussion, "are you going to explain any of this? Who are these people?"
"The Doctor is…" began Clara, trailing off due to hesitation as to how to proceed.
"The Doctor is a time traveling alien from another planet that travels around in a time space capsule that is disguised as a blue Police Box. Don't worry though, your girlfriend is completely human though," interrupted Alex, getting a glare from Clara, "look, I know you wanted to ease him into it, but we're a little pressed for time."
"Are you joking?" asked Danny, "Do you think I'm stupid or something?"
"Maybe this would help?" said the Doctor as he drew aside the stage curtain to reveal the TARDIS in all its glory, even snapping his fingers to have the doors open and reveal the interior control room.
"That's…" said Danny as he cautiously walked closer, not believing his eyes.
"It's called the TARDIS," said Clara resignedly.
"It's," said Danny as he peeked inside, "it's bigger on the inside."
"We travel through time and space in it," said Clara, "though Alex only pops in from time to time."
"And what about that thing?" asked Danny, "The robot thing? You said it's coming back?"
"It is," confirmed Alex before the Doctor could speak and make things worse, "but we'll take care of it. Clara, why don't you take Mister Pink to go and sit down. I know this is a lot for him to take in."
"Are you serious?" asked Danny.
"Look, Danny," said Clara, "I promise to explain all of it later, but for now we need to go."
"I'll expect one of those as well," said the Doctor, "when this is over, you'll need to explain him to me."
With that, Clara led her distraught boyfriend out of the room so they could talk. Once they were alone though, the Doctor rounded on Alex angrily.
"You lied to me," he stated, his calm tone having an undercut of his tranquil fury.
"I don't know what you're talking about," said Alex calmly, "your initial plan didn't work, but I know that you'll succeed. Plus, these events were necessary."
"Of course," said the Doctor irately, "Time needs to happen. Your favorite catchphrase. Well, if you want to help, grab those two conduits over there and begin threading them to this piece here and connect them to the Baryon cell over there."
Alex nodded and pulled out his Sonic Pen, relying on its various settings and telepathic interface to make up for his lack of knowledge regarding alien tech. Luckily, it seemed that he was able to draw parallels between computer components he worked with at his job before becoming a companion, and thus was able to muddle through helping the Doctor build his gadget.
Eventually though, the TARDIS doors opened and Clara walked in, along with, if Alex was remembering correctly, an invisible Danny Pink.
"Afternoon," the Doctor greeted without turning around, "Thanks for keeping out of my way. You haven't brought Dave with you, I hope."
"His name is Danny," said Clara crossly, "and no, I haven't. Actually, I explained it all to him. He gets it, and he took it really well."
"Did he now?" asked the Doctor uninterestedly.
"Yeah," said Clara, "everything's great. So, when the Blitzer comes back, are you going to catch him with that?"
"That's the plan," said Alex as he used his Sonic to fuse some parts together.
"And it's supposed to come back on Thursday?" asked Clara in confirmation, "You're sure?"
"If you want to bother someone, go bother PE," huffed the Doctor.
"Doctor," said Alex warningly, causing the Time Lord to grunt before looking up with a curious expression.
"Interesting," said the Time Lord before hopping to his feet, "I'm bored. Let's go somewhere fun. Let's go somewhere fun. What do you say? Do you want to see the Thames frozen over? Oh, those frost fairs."
"You've been there before," said Alex, "and you'll be there again. Right now, we have more important things to deal with."
"Oh don't worry so much," said the Doctor, "this is a Time Machine. We can head out and pop back in time for tea."
"But what about the Skovox?" protested Clara.
"We'll have plenty of time," said the Doctor, "besides, it's not like you haven't done things like this before your dates. Just be sure not to get a tan. Bring back some seaweed this time."
"Right," said Alex with a sigh, "I remember this. Mister Pink. You can turn off the watch. He knows you're here."
"Wait what?" said Clara in surprise as Danny flickered into visibility.
"I should have guessed you'd know," muttered the Doctor before turning to Clara, "Time Lords can feel a light field aura when it's right next to them."
"Oh ho, ho," laughed Danny mockingly, "Time Lord? I should have known."
"And what do you mean by that?" asked the Doctor angrily.
"Well, your accent's pretty good, but I can spot the aristocracy," said Danny with a smirk, "It's all in the attitude. Now, Time Lords, do we salute those?"
"Absolutely not!" growled the Doctor.
"Sir!" barked Danny with a sharp, yet mocking salute.
"Alright you two, enough!" snapped Alex, his patience regarding this issue about gone.
"Right of course," said the Doctor, "run along Soldier boy."
"Doctor," snapped Alex, "shut up. Shut up, before I deck you. And not a word out of you either!" he snapped at Danny as the Maths teacher made to retort, "There is a killer robot on the way that won't hesitate to slaughter every living thing in this school, be they parent, teacher, or child, when it arrives, and you pick NOW as the best time to argue?!"
"Doctor," said Alex as he tried to get his temper under control, "I know you hate soldiers and I understand why, but you of all people should know better than to judge one man by the sins of others that have shared his occupation. Need I remind you of the atrocities of the Time War?"
The Doctor scowled at the low blow, but remained silent, allowing the dimensionally displaced human to turn to Danny, "And you, you know about the hard choices people make in war and what they can do to people and their outlooks."
"And what would you know about me?" interrupted Danny angrily.
"Probably more than you think or want!" snapped Alex, cutting him off, "I know about your 'bad day' and what it did to you." Softly he continued, "Did you think you were the only one to go through that? This man has seen war as well, and it left its mark. All I'm asking is that we calm down and deal with the current threat, once we're certain we're gonna live to see tomorrow, then we can all sit down and talk about this."
"Fine," agreed Danny, as the Doctor grunted a confirmation.
"Right then," said Alex, "Clara, I believe you two have a Parents Night to go prepare for. The Doctor and I have to ready our trap."
"Right," said Clara as she put a gentle hand on Danny's arm, "C'mon Danny. Let's go get some air."
Once they left, the Doctor rounded on Alex angrily, "That was out of line."
"So were you," Alex countered, "I know a lot about your past lives. Probably more than you'd like. Yes, Danny's a soldier, but he is trying to put that behind him in order to wash the blood off his hands. Is it too much to ask that you not judge him until you get to know what he's about?"
The Doctor was silent for a moment before turning back to the device they were working on, leaving Alex to wordlessly continue his work.
xXsceneXx
The two of them continued to work for a few more hours before an alarm on the TARDIS scanner began to go off, causing the Doctor to look up in horror.
"No! No no no no!" he said as he scrambled to pull on the device they had been creating.
"It's back?" asked Alex, though he knew the answer.
"Yes it's back!" exclaimed the Doctor, "and it's early!"
"Right right," said Alex, "is the device finished?"
"Almost," said the Doctor, "but I need more time."
"Got it," said Alex, "I'll get Clara and we'll draw it away from the civilians and meet you back here. Be ready to go once we arrive."
"Ok then," said the Doctor as he pulled out his Screwdriver and ran off, working on finishing his device as he ran.
"Right then," said Alex, "Its show time."
Bolting out of the storeroom, Alex made a beeline to the room the teachers were holding Parent's Night in and peeked through the doors, frantically waving at Clara to get her attention.
"Sorry," said Clara awkwardly upon seeing him, "the Caretaker's…assistant needs to talk to me. Be back in a jiff."
Ignoring the outcries of the Parents, Clara ran to meet up with Alex, Danny following close behind, "What's going on what happened?"
"Right," said Alex frantically, "short version is, our calculations were a bit off and the Blitzer is arriving earlier than expected."
"How much earlier?" asked Danny.
"In a few minutes," said Alex, "maybe less."
Pulling out his Sonic Pen, Alex tossed it to Clara, "It has a telepathic interface. Tell it to release short, quick bursts of Helicon energy. That'll draw the Blitzer away from the Parents and to the TARDIS where we're preparing our trap."
"You're using her as bait?!" exclaimed Danny.
"It's nothing personal," said Alex, "but she's had more experience with Sonic Tech. I'll be helping too. Apparently, the thing's drawn to me automatically so I'll be running interference. If you want to help, then keep up, but use the watch and don't give it another target."
With that, Alex and Clara ran off to waylay the Blitzer. They came across it soon enough and Clara drew its attention with quick bursts from Alex's Pen as they ran.
"Target acquired.
Solution: Destroy."
Alex's eyes widened and shoved Clara down to keep her from getting fried by the Blitzer's plasma bolts. Falling back, he slowed down long enough for the Blitzer to turn its sights on him instead, allowing Clara to get back up and run.
"Incoming
Stop.
Identified: Artron Artron commence retargeting."
"Shit!" cursed Alex, remembering his previous Death, Alex bolted off towards the TARDIS, leading the Blitzer along until they reached the storeroom.
"I hope you're ready Doctor!" yelled Alex as he and Clara burst in.
"Just about," confirmed the Time Lord as he finished working and pulled the mechanical backpack on, "am I green?"
"You're green!" confirmed Clara as she checked the light, and just in time too.
"Problem solution: Destroy."
The Blitzer blasted its way through the doors as the Doctor raised a microphone to his mouth, "Stop! Skovox Blitzer!"
"Awaiting Orders."
"Superior Skovox Artificer," said the Doctor into the mic, "Analyze stop! Analyze stop!"
"Superior recognized.
Pattern 110,
Orders orders."
"The device makes the Blitzer think he's its commanding offer," said Alex to Clara as explanation.
"Commence shutdown protocol," continued the Doctor, "No conflict. Conclusion?"
"Problem solution…"
The group waited on baited breath for the Blitzer to process the order.
"Conclusion?" pressed the Doctor.
"Final input code missing.
Emergency terminate.
Initiate self-destruct in nine, eight…"
"The input code. I forgot the final input code!" exclaimed the Doctor in horror as he frantically worked, "I need more time! Somebody distract it!"
Suddenly, Danny appeared behind the Blitzer, having turned off the invisibility watch, and vaulted over the alien robot, causing it to abort its self-destruct in favor of firing blasts at Danny.
"Under Attack!"
"Artificer Artificer!" yelled the Doctor, drawing the Blitzer's attention to him,
Stop. Confirm stop override final input code."
"Code accepted. Abort self-destruct. Orders accepted. Stop stop stop…"
As the Blitzer powered down, Alex breathed out a sigh of relief and took his Sonic back from Clara. It seemed that, despite his presence, things had gone the way they were supposed to, but he hoped that he had been able to make enough of a difference to improve things down the line. As he pondered this, Alex felt a familiar tingling sensation filling his body and he realized that his time in this part of the story was nearing its end. Suddenly, he felt a sharp tug, and the world around him faded to nothingness.
Time needs to happen…but that doesn't mean events are fate. Changes can be made, and I will maintain that I can change things for the better. When you run with the Doctor, things turn out alright…for the most part, but I want to make sure as many people are saved as possible.
-Excerpt from The Consultant's Journal. Entry: Caretaker.