FAMILIAR STRANGERS
"Aaaah, there you are," the Doctor said in awe of the glowing device in his hand. His eyes big, head titled up and mouth opened, as Rose looked on, hearing his high but captivating pitch.
"You see, Rose. One part, just the one, and this will allow my good ol' TARDIS to sustain itself for life. No more stopping in Cardiff for refueling," he said, pushing some buttons with his left hand.
"Well, where was this the whole time I've been here?" she replied, drinking from the soda bottle.
"Well, I liked Cardiff," he laughed and continued, "but since the rift has been misbehaving over the last number of years, I don't want to subject the TARDIS to it's irregularities. Doesn't mix well with the vortex really."
"I will never understand why we can't go back to a time where it doesn't misbehave and refuel it there. That way, all of this could have been avoided."
A surprised Doctor stopped working on the device, slowly standing up and his eyes landed on his ever lovely companion and in a stuttering voice he asked, "Since when do you wanna avoid adventure, Rose?"
"Well, ever since it began having me held hostage to the Slitheens in 1820 London, while you go gallivanting around their base looking around for this," she said pointing to the cursed thing. "It doesn't even work," she continued, taking a brief pause after every word.
"In my defense," he began, "this just needs a small..very tiny boost and then it will be as good as new. And also, I did save you, didn't I?"
"Yeah, yeah. So now, on with it, shall we?"
"That's the Rose Tyler, I know," he replied and gave his charismatic smile. "Just give me a minute."
The Doctor sonic-ed the device and took out the wire from under the console to connect the TARDIS with it.
"My sexy ol' companion. Just be nice," he said very quietly..almost whispering to it and patting the console.
"My what-?" she almost blushed.
"Oh, oh, did you hear that? Sorry, wasn'-wasn't talking to you."
"Oh," a disappointed Rose exclaimed.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
"Yeah, why won't I be? or wait, are we still talking to the time machine?" she shrugged annoyed.
"Alright," he said with a long pause.
"Right, then let's do this," he said and immediately bent down on his knees to connect the wires.
"Allonsy!" he said as he took the ends to plug them together.
"Now, see Rose, the part I added isn't found in a Type 40 TARDIS but I never seem to want to upgrade but what's one tiny little download?"
"Is that what is gonna happen? Downloading?"
"Yeaaah, the engines will make a sound for a bit and we won't be able to travel for umm..maybe an hour. But that's it, I feel."
It was at this second that the TARDIS unexpectedly stopped..doing anything and instantly, the lights went down.
"What's happening, Doctor?"
"I don't know but the entire system's shutting down. I mean it shouldn't happen this way. Shushh.."
"What?"
"Listen.."
As the Doctor pointed to the weird voices, they began to echo in the console room which sounded less like the engine was starting but more like.."..No..not possible," he thought.
But as it were, within a few more seconds, the lights came up and everything went back to be normal, except for the desktop theme maybe. Still, the Doctor breathed a bit easier now.
"Woof, now that was close," he replied and shrugged it off in pride.
He turned around with a huge smile, nay..smug on his face, "Now then, where to Rose Tyler, where wer- what??" he said, removing his glasses.
"Who are you?" asked a strange yet familiar woman, standing in front of him.
"What?"
"I asked, who the hell are you, Mr. trench coat? And where is the Doctor?"
"What!?"
"Will you stop saying 'what'?",
"No. No. No. No. No. Not possible."
She made a face in response with her eyebrows almost yelling, "well?"
"I will tell you what's happening but you are not gonna like it..wait, what was your name again", the Doctor thought for long and hard and was clearly struggling but finally he remembered, "Charley. Yes, Charley!!"
"How do you know my name?"
"Because Charley, I am your Doctor...
I always wanted to say that," he smirked to her befuddled face expression.
And she stood there, in all of her Edwardian glory asking the question of the century to herself, "What?"
(quo Doctor Who theme song-2005)
Paul McGann
David Tennant
India Fisher
Billie Piper
The Wrong Doctors
by karan414
And somewhere..or some-when, Rose was doing a bit of questioning of herself.
"Who the hell are you?" she exclaimed on the other ship, moving away in an attempt to keep a distance from the stranger.
"Well, hello. This is unusual. Where am I?" he replied, standing up to look around. "And, I am..the Doctor miss."
"Blimey! You've regenerated again, haven't you? Tell me..Doctor? I just got used to that one."
"No, no. I didn't regenerate. How did you even-
"And wait, how did you change the theme?"
"The what?" she asked, following his gaze.
"Theme..as in wallpaper! uh."
Rose looked around all confused and befuddled, "I..I didn't. It's always been this way ever since I met you."
"Let me tell you something. Not a big fan of this", he said and began soaking in the new look, completely ignorant of the young woman standing in front of him.
"Helloooo? You're the Doctor, right?", she asked impatiently.
"Well, of course. I am the Doctor."
"But wait, you can't be the Doctor."
"Well why not? I have the suit, the sonic, the big blue space ship and well, hair. What's missing?"
"You have long hair."
"Hey, I like my hair," the Doctor said, being extremely protective of them.
"Well, they're longer than mine. And also, your accent doesn't help."
"Aah, here we go again. That's the real reason. Regenerate on the wrong side of the planet just this once and nobody believes that you are the Doctor"
"Ahaa. So, you did regenerate."
"No, no," he sighed. "I didn't, Miss-?"
"Tyler? Rose Tyler? No? Doesn't ring any bells?
"Don't you know who I am?"
"No, not really. I'm sorry. Though, I will have to admit, you do have a certain familiarity about you. I can't put my finger on it but something's up."
"Wait, just answer me this: what age are you?"
"723. Why?"
"Oh, no.. What has the Doctor done now?"
"I didn't do anything," the Doctor began defending himself.
"No. I meant, my Doctor."
"You must be what, no. 5 or 6 or 7? I know you are not 9."
"Aah, it's another one of those days then, isn't it? And it's number 8, Miss Tyler. But don't you worry. Though, I am a bit happy that my tendency to put myself in trouble hasn't faded away," he smiled at her. "But maybe I shouldn't be," he laughed.
She certainly didn't think it was funny. "Well, lighten up a bit. We'll correct the time stream in no time. In the meantime, care for some tea?"
"No, but why don't you ask your sexy companion if she'll have some?" she almost pouted.
The Doctor's eyebrows were raised in an instant. "What? You are..nobody is not supposed to know about that," he said as he looked over her with puzzled eyes whilst a horror expression took over his face as if ancient-not-to-be-spoken knowledge was just uttered.
"Oh, dear dear dear. Am I this open with my companions in the future?" he mumbled to himself, very reminiscent of the original.
He shook it off because he had to and continued, "Anyway.. Alright, my girl," he said patting the console, "let's get back to some work."
Meanwhile,
"Unless…of course," the other Doctor exclaimed, startling Charley.
"What? Unless what?"
"Oh, you just wait and see, Charley," he said with a huge smile across his glowing face as he hit various buttons while walking around the central control panel and finally hitting the lever.
"You still didn't explain, Doctor. How are you my Doctor?" she asked, who unlike Rose had never experienced "another" Doctor in her lifetime.
"You see Charley, we Time Lords..we have a way of tricking death..well, sort of. As in, whenever our body is in a mortal danger, our cells change. They literally change. I have a new face, new voice..well, new everything."
She sighed and continued, "Now I've seen everything. I know I keep saying that but really, anything else I need to know about you Doctor? And is this...permanent?
"Well, I didn't change now. I am from the future..well, you can say that I am a future Doctor. I was mingling with some wires in the TARDIS and I don't know exactly how but I seem to have been displaced with a past version of myself," he replied while scratching a bit on his cheeks. "Way past.."
"So, my Doctor is still out there?"
"Yup. He must be with Rose," he replied and almost immediately regretted it, bowing his head down as he continued working.
"Who's Rose?" He stopped for a second, hearing the question he had answered all too many times.
"Well, a friend; just like you."
"A friend like me?," she asked. "And wait, am I..am I not with you in the future?"
The Doctor didn't reply. What was the point of it? They never understand anyway.
"You even...forgot my name, Doctor."
He remained quiet and stood in his place, fake pressing some buttons to let the moment pass.
"Doctor?"
But he knew Charley wasn't among the ones to let go of such things. So, he muttered up some strength, turned around and replied, "Listen, Charley. I didn't forget you. I could never forget you. It's just that-"
But before he could give her an explanation, the TARDIS began shaking off violently and a second or two later, both the members were thrown off against the wall, rendered unconscious.
You could hear the sound of some sort of metal chains or something coming closer with each second through a portal which opened besides the console and his first reaction was to smile. Just stand in his place and smile at the state of the victorious Time Lord.
"Look at you now, Doctor," he spoke his first words with a heavy voice.
"So helpless. Without your TARDIS, without your people, without your companions and now? Without power," he gave a laugh and headed towards the control panel.
He removed one of the central pieces and the TARDIS immediately shut off.
He opened up the portal once again and turned around to say his final words, "Over the years Doctor, I've realized to never give you a second chance or even a moment of opportunity to let you talk your way out. After all, that's what you do. No weapons. And the mighty Doctor still wins wars, let alone small skirmishes.
"So, I bid my farewell, old friend. And it will be farewell as the TARDIS won't work and you will have an endless fall into the deep space to look forward to." He turned back, laughing as loud as he could and the portal closed behind him.
And with that, the TARDIS fell and their was hope no more.
"Well..maybe not."
Author's notes:
Well, Whovians? How was it? I honestly tried to mimic the personas of both the Doctors and the companions as much as I could and I hope it worked well.
Also, if anybody's confused about "who the hell is Charley?". She's from the Big Finish audio dramas and I picked 8/Charley because they simply don't get enough love and I love India Fisher as Charley Pollard. I have listened to only a few of the plays so I may not be accurate in regards to the timeline of that series. Pardon me for that!
Finally, if you liked the intro, please follow the story for future updates. I have at least more chapters already completed with more planned.
Thanks for reading! See ya all next time!