Yay! Chapter 10! There's not much left of this story but this is a really long chapter compared to the others. A lot happens in this chapter and I hope its readable. At one or two points I had trouble making out what I had said. I've tried changing it best I can. Enjoy!
Sand was blowing into the Doctor's eyes. He could just make out the TARDIS in the distance, but being in a sandstorm did not help his cause. His arms and legs were feeling very tired, especially as he had to carry his companion back to the TARDIS. If he did not hurry up soon, they will both perish in this freak sandstorm. It did not help as well as they had both contracted a fatal condition. He was feeling very weak, and he knew this was the end of his fifth life.
As far as looks went, the Fifth Doctor was relatively young compared to his first four bodies. This body had an athletic feel, and he had a sudden taste for cricket. His clothes were ruined. His Victorian cricket outfit was covered in dirt and sand due to his current adventure on Androzani Minor. He wished he had never brought Peri here. They were both dying and there are only enough antidotes for one of them. He's barely gotten to know Peri in this body and now she, like a few others, has to witness a man change his entire image in a matter of seconds.
The TARDIS was quite near now. The Doctor was on the verge of collapsing. The Doctor was at the door of the TARDIS and managed to get the key out while still holding Peri.
She was a young American girl, holidaying in Lanzarote with her uncle, when the Doctor and Turlough landed nearby. Turlough rescued Peri when she tried to swim to shore from her uncle's boat, and took her inside the TARDIS to recover. Only the Doctor has taken her to her death. The Doctor could hear the sound of the TARDIS groaning as if it was landing or taking off, but it stayed right in front of him.
It's the condition. It's making me hear things, the Doctor thought to himself and opened the TARDIS and literally fell in.
The Doctor was thinking about his fifth life as he pulled out the antidote. It was not a bad life, but he had caused grief to almost all of his companions. He had regenerated from his fourth self in front of Tegan, Adric and Nyssa and had many adventures with them. The Doctor felt a pang of regret when thinking of Adric, when he remained on the ship that crashed into prehistoric Earth wiping out the dinosaurs.
Nyssa had lost her father to the Master. She had also lost her planet, as it had been destroyed. On top of all that, she had been infected by the lazar disease and chose to find a cure rather than stay with the Doctor.
With Tegan, the Doctor felt total guilt. He had been very fond of Tegan, but in the end he had scared her away. Her aunt had been murdered by the Master. She was present when Adric died, and was mentally assaulted by the Mara on Deva Loka. Finally sickened by all the death, she had chosen to leave the Doctor and Turlough, after helping thwart the Dalek's plan of invading time.
Kamelion, though a robot, had little adventures with the Doctor, but despite that, he too had perished.
The Doctor had found Turlough on a visit to America. The Doctor was planning to visit Britain, but felt it was unsafe after the whole Spider incident. Turlough's adventures with the Doctor were just as painful as his other companions. He was approached by the Black Guardian to destroy the Doctor. Over time it was eventually revealed that Turlough was an alien marooned on Earth after a civil war on his own planet, Trion, which had claimed the life of his mother. His father and brother had been sent to the prison planet Sarn, where Turlough eventually decided to leave the Doctor. Now, only Peri was left with him as he was nearing the end of his fifth life, and he barely knew her.
The Doctor could hear voices, but he dismissed them as he put it down to the disease.
"I see you got the use of your mouth back as well as your legs. Shame that." One voice said, clearly a man.
"Don't you dare give me cheek. Might I remind you that my daughter is dead because of you. When you going to get around to that? And might I also add I almost died back there. Is it always like that with you and Rose?" another voice asked, clearly a woman.
"Pretty much. Right then, let's see what is happening here." The man's voice said.
The fifth Doctor ignore them and started moving the antidote to his mouth. In other circumstances he would have given the antidote to his companion, but he had been told he must take it for himself or serious consequences will happen. The fifth Doctor felt someone touch his mind, but he was too weak to resist.
The Doctor could see a dark shadow move towards him. His eyesight had gone quite blurry due to the disease and he could not make some things out. A hand grabbed the antidote out of his hand.
"I think not." The voice said and moved away. He could just make out that the shadow had just given the antidote to Peri.
"Someone obviously meddled here. I should have given that straight to Peri, without even thinking of taken it myself but for some reason my fifth mind was dead set on taking the antidote for himself." The voice said.
"How did you know it would be here and now?" The woman asked.
"I didn't. I took my own advice and trusted the TARDIS. Besides, I didn't care where we ended up as long as it wasn't back with those spiders." The man's voice said.
The fifth Doctor was trying to keep up with this. He was quite annoyed that his antidote had been taken away. Indeed, he had been told by a Timelord that he must take the antidote himself.
"We'd better leave, it won't be right for us to be here. It's not right for me to meddle in my past, but it can't be helped." The man's voice said and two dark shapes had left the TARDIS.
The fifth Doctor was extremely weak now. Peri had regained her strength thanks to the antidote and had crawled over to the Doctor.
"It feels, different this time Peri." The fifth Doctor said. Peri just looked confused.
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"Quick Jackie. I have feeling I know who has done all this." The Doctor shouted at Jackie through the sand storm.
They both ran to the TARDIS and closed the door quickly. Some sand had come in the TARDIS and had landed by the still form of Rose.
"Who?" Jackie asked.
The Doctor looked in pain. As the fifth Doctor was regenerating into his sixth self, the seventh Doctor was regenerating into his eighth self.
The long brown haired Doctor looked at Jackie and said, "Me."
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It was a beautiful November morning. It looked as if nothing could go wrong. But it had already. The TARDIS was sitting where he always left it when he brought Rose home. It's a wonder no-one has really noticed it too much. It was here throughout the whole Slitheen fiasco and when aliens made a game where humans were fighting for their lives. The Doctor knew he would find the answer to this mess in the TARDIS.
As he approached the TARDIS, he could hear running footsteps behind him. He turned and saw Jackie running after him.
"I'm coming with you whether you like it or not." Jackie said. The Doctor didn't refuse. As much as he didn't want Jackie as a companion, he had let her daughter die.
He entered the TARDIS and Jackie followed. He expected her to be in awe but then remembered she had been in here many times. Just not travelled.
"Where are you going to sort this out?" Jackie asked.
"You can always find an answer to a question within you. It just so happens I got 9 of me I can go and visit to try to answer that question. I think I'll go back to the beginning. Let's go and meet Mr Grumpy Boots himself!" The Doctor replied.
The Doctor looked down at his console and saw a note written in a familiar handwriting:-
BLOCK YOUR MIND AGAINST THE OLD MAN. HE WILL TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE INFORMATION GIVEN AND WILL CAUSE MANY DEATHS IN THE PROCESS.
The Doctor made a mental note of blocking his mind against his first self.
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"How did you do that?" Jackie asked, as the note had just disappeared.
"It's a little trick of mine. Do you understand why I did it?" The Doctor asked. He had changed as well back into his leather coat.
"Not really." Jackie replied.
"Do you remember me telling you about how many of me there were and traits?" The Doctor asked. Jackie remembered.
"Like I said, some of our traits get carried over in each regeneration. For example, the selfishness of my first self. He selfishly took Susan away from her home so he'd have company just as he selfishly decide to use the information I gave him to his advantage. That was the cause of one regeneration backwards, as my second and third self knew exactly what was going to happen. The result of that of course was the Spiders." The Doctor said while fiddling with the controls. "The second regeneration backwards was caused by my fifth self. Someone had told him to take the antidote when he shouldn't have. As I intervened, the regeneration backwards never happened then. Any moment now I should be going back to my ninth."
As before, Jackie was having trouble keeping up with all this. "What about Rose?" Jackie asked.
"I know exactly where Rose died and why. Only I got to make a quick detour first." The Doctor said, and the console had stopped moving.
"Where are we now?" Jackie asked.
"Go and have a look for yourself." The Doctor replied while eating some jelly babies.
Jackie opened the door and got out. She was back in the estate. Only this time, there were no giant spiders anywhere. She could hear people laughing in the distance and traffic as well.
"I have to drop you off here." The Doctor said, but this time he had a northern accent. Jackie turned around and there stood the Doctor, the one with the big ears and big nose.
"You. Why? Why can't I come with you?" Jackie asked.
"Because, where I'm going you shouldn't be. I sent Rose home from where I'm going but she still came back. Trust me, it's best if you don't come." The Doctor said.
Jackie thought on this. She wasn't happy being left behind.
"Alright then. Just make sure you come back." Jackie said.
"Don't worry. I'll try. I'm off to the Gamestation." The Doctor said and closed the TARDIS door.