Episode 11: The Dalek Invasion of Bonn
"Doctor!" Dorian exclaimed, turning at the wheezing groans of the materializing police box.
The TARDIS had scarcely formed, when the blue wooden doors flew open and the Doctor gestured for them to enter. His face was as white as death and his eyes dark and serious. The golden-haired thief frowned. Surely the Doctor had been able to help Rose? She couldn't really have…
Beside him, the Major clenched his hands into fists, gazing at the Time Lord with his usual cool glare, but saying nothing.
"Eroica, Major, we have to return to Earth. Right now."
Klaus brushed past him, walking to the TARDIS with quick militaristic steps, but Dorian couldn't move. He felt the sea breeze propel his thick mass of golden curls over his shoulders so that they whipped out in front of him in a wild torrent. For the first time since their meeting, he felt something truly alien about the enigmatic man in the black leather jacket who had taken them from the midst of another NATO mission to the other side of the galaxy.
Sometimes, the Doctor was manic and carefree, a wide grin spreading across his face in an almost elfish way, boundless enthusiasm and confidence radiating from his entire being. It was during those moments that Eroica was able to feel a kinship with him, laugh and enjoy the wild ride the Doctor had dragged them into. But then there were these moments, when the smile faded, and an impossibly dark heaviness rested in those eyes…The Doctor seemed to be an entirely different person altogether, someone angry and cold. And then, like now, Dorian wasn't sure he wanted to put his life in the hands of that stranger.
"You can stay here if you want, thief," Klaus called over his shoulder. "But I for one have no interest in staying in a time with no cigarettes."
The Doctor looked torn. "Dorian…"
"Master," a sharp mechanical voice chirped.
Dorian let out a surprised gasp and was shaken from his foreboding feelings. "Why, I don't believe it! K-9!"
"Master," the small metal automaton slid forwards, to the TARDIS doorframe, its silver tail wagging.
The Doctor looked as surprised to see his dog as Dorian was. "K-9? But who…" he was obliged to step back as the two men entered the TARDIS and the doors fell shut with a heavy snap.
"So, we're finally going back to Earth, yes?" he heard the Major ask as he adjusted the robot's multi-coloured collar.
"We were just on Earth," Dorian reminded him.
"I do not consider the thirteenth century BC to be 'Earth!'" the Major snorted.
The Doctor was strangely quiet. Dorian looked up from the robot dog, growing more worried at the Doctor's pallid face. "Doctor, just what is going on?"
He looked uncomfortable. "Well…"
The Time Lord stopped when footsteps sounded across the console room. Dorian rose to his feet and turned. "Ro—"
And froze.
The woman who stood before him was not the Rose Tyler he knew. She leaned against the console, a long dark red robe pulled loosely around her shoulders, her hair—red and frayed—falling on either side of a face that was ruined with white scars all around the eyes—eyes that were blue and piercing instead of gentle and brown.
He heard the Major draw in his breath sharply, and was quite startled to feel two hands like iron clamp down painfully on his shoulders. It must have been an automatic response, but even so, rather than releasing him, the grip tightened as this Rose slowly moved towards them.
She smiled at him—sadly? Shyly?—he couldn't read her expression. "Rose, you're…" he stared at her in horror. "Your hands…"
The hands that awkwardly clasped her cloak were red and raw, covered with scar tissue, mangled. "Ah…yes, well, I was in a bad accident," she replied softly.
"What? When?"
"It hasn't happened yet…"
"Oh."
"Are you truly Miss Tyler?" the Major asked, his deep baritone voice bordering on threatening.
She merely shrugged, her gaze leaving them and sliding off into the distance. It was K-9 who rolled forwards, red eye-band blinking in recognition. "Mistress."
"K-9?" Dorian asked.
Rose smiled. "I finished up the repairs. I figured we'd need as much help as we can get for what's coming."
"You…" the Doctor repeated in disbelief. "But you don't know how…"
He trailed off. She looked away.
"We can't let this future happen," he tried again, speaking to the group. "That's why we're going back to your time," he nodded to Dorian and Klaus, and began turning switches on the main console.
"But why? What's happening in our time?"
The Doctor paused for a moment, turning back to them. He looked to Rose uneasily, and then back to Dorian and Klaus. "It seems that in…Miss Tyler's future, the Daleks survived the Time Wars, and are now tearing their way through the rest of space and time. According to Miss Tyler, they make their way as far as twentieth-century Earth, destroying everything…" the Time Lord's gaze flickered back to Rose for another second, "…everyone. We have to stop this. And we have to find…me."
"That is you?" the Major asked, regarding the Doctor quizzically.
"No, Doctor, it can't be!" Dorian exclaimed. "You would never—"
The Doctor looked up at him from the console sharply. "We don't have time to argue about this! You don't understand the gravity of what this other me is trying to do! With the Solar Crystal and the power of his TARDIS, the Dalek fleet, and Ristead's alien technology, he's going to attempt to fold time back in on itself to erase what happened during the Time Wars. But that can't be done without erasing everything else! And I do mean everything! The overlap is going to wipe out Time and Space. The universe. Everything."
"But…That can't be possible…"
"Oh? Not possible? Try hanging around for a while and see!"
Dorian felt stung by the Doctor's remark, and uncomfortable under this Rose's gaze. He was about to turn back to K-9 when the entire console room lurched and shivered. "What is it now?" the Doctor slammed his hands against the console in frustration. "Damn it, we don't have time for this! Hang in there, old girl! We need to get to Earth. This time we really, really do need to get to Earth!"
With a final groan the TARDIS shivered once more and grew still. The Doctor looked up from the control panel cautiously. The Major went to his side and examined the monitors. "This is our time, Herr Doctor…" he flicked the switch to change the monitor's screen to a view of the world directly outside the TARDIS' walls.
"Major?" Dorian asked, watching the Klaus' face grow uncharacteristically pale. From where he was, crouched next to K-9, he could not see the screens.
"That…can not be right."
"Major…?"
The Doctor examined the screen. "My God…"
The thief placed his hand on the robot dog's sleek silver back. "K-9…"
"My sensors detected explosions directly outside our perimeter, Master. It would not be advisable to leave the TARDIS."
"Explosions?" Dorian repeated in shock.
"Yes, Master. A release of chemical energy in a sudden and violent manner, generating a high temperature and often—"
"I know what an explosion is, K-9. I meant, where have we landed?"
The robot dog's white satellite-ears whirred back and forth. "My sensors detect…Bonn, West Germany."
Dorian stared at Klaus. The Major's hands were clenched into white fists, trembling with rage. "What…"
The Doctor raised a hand to his forehead. "The Daleks."
The Major turned towards the TARDIS' door.
"Major!" Eroica leapt to his feet. Rose's mangled hand fell on his shoulder and the slender thief repressed a shudder.
"Don't you think you should get changed?" she asked quietly, eyeing the shredded and dirt-stained remains of what had once been an assortment of colourful robes.
Dorian looked to the Major, his uniform as crisp and pristine as ever, despite everything they had been through in ancient Greece. The officer was clearly as impatient as ever, and not without cause, the thief thought, watching with a horrified expression, the explosions that continued to flash across the TARDIS' monitors.
"I'll wait," the Major said.
Dorian reappeared a few moments later, dressed in a sleek black cat suit, the Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver fastened to his belt, and his array of golden curls fastened back with a stray bit of ribbon he'd found in the costume room. A pale scarf was thrown around his neck, knotted loosely above his chest. "Alright," he said softly, brushing some rebellious curls off his shoulders. "I'm ready."
Except that he wasn't. Except that he felt tired, suddenly, so tired and frustrated with all of this…"Is Rose going to be okay, Doctor?" he barely glanced at the strange woman who had joined them. She really wasn't Rose, in his mind. "Our Rose?"
A pained expression flickered across the Doctor's face. "I don't know."
"Oh. I see," he turned to the dog. "Come along, K-9."
The dog's head rose slightly. "Master."
Klaus had drawn his Magnum and had a horrifyingly tense expression in his green eyes. "How could they come here? How could they come here? Damn it!"
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
The ground rocked wildly beneath their feet. The world outside of the TARDIS was thick with smoke; it burned Dorian's eyes and he choked painfully. The next blast sent him sprawling ungracefully to the ground, what was left of the pavement felt scorched beneath his hands.
"Look out!" Rose, the Rose that was not Rose, shouted, and he raised his blurry eyes in time to see the first of the Daleks slide up the slag heap that had formed to their right. Its glistening eye-socket was stretched towards them, and its rifle arm twitched with, Dorian imagined, a sadistic impatience.
He shut his eyes tightly as the horrible screech ripped through the air: "EXTERMINATE THE HUMANS! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!"
The gears were turning. He shuddered. Rose threw her thick red cloak aside and drew out an alien weapon, a sort of gun, he thought, and pointed it at the Dalek with an eerily calm grip. Klaus had his .44 Magnum aimed squarely for the creature's eye-stalk.
"EXTERMI—"
There was a deafening crack as the Magnum fired, and the eye-socket shattered. "EXTERMINATE!" the Dalek screeched, firing into the stone walls of the buildings around them. "EXTERMINATE! THE IRREGULARITIES! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!"
Eroica shuddered, pulling himself to his feet unsteadily with that screeching wail that was barely a voice ringing in his skull. "We have to get out of the open!" Rose shouted. "It's too dangerous."
Klaus glared at her, his grip on the weapon tightened until his knuckles were white and he began in quick strides down the ruined city streets. Dorian gasped from the smoke, trying to keep up with him. The city around them was almost unrecognizable. It was turning into the horrific alien world they had witnessed before Versailles…The Englishman shuddered delicately, the planet had been like a nightmare. He didn't want to return there ever. But this wasn't there, this was…
Earth. Home.
"My God…Are these things in—in London, too, Doctor?" he asked, grasping the Doctor's arm to steady himself as the ground trembled perilously beneath his feet. It was like walking through a nightmare. There were wails and sirens in the distance, the constant rumble of explosions and the smell of sulphur and… "Doctor?"
Rose was walking on the other side of him, her face tight and grim. "They are. They are everywhere. Destroying this planet."
He felt a chill as he looked at this strange woman. The Rose he knew would have been worried, worried for her family, and for all of the people, all of the innocent families…but this woman…
K-9 trundled at their feet, his sensors whirring constantly. The buildings beside them were crumbling slowly as they passed them, once beautiful, grand, proud structures, melting in a wash of rubble. The Major was several yards ahead of them by now, his back straight, his hands clenched. "Oh God, this has to be killing him," Dorian murmured. "Maj—"
"Get Down!" the Doctor shouted, shoving him off his feet. In that second, the entire world spun jaggedly out of focus, and he felt the hard ground fly up and slam against him as a horrible rumble—too loud to even be a sound, too invasive, it cut straight through his skull, vibrating wildly through every inch of his bones—drilled through them. A wash of air as hot as fire, he thought he felt, rather than heard since it was impossible to hear anything anymore, the bits of rubble raining back down against the earth, and for one single moment, it was as though he could feel each and every inch of the country itself tearing up around them.
Dorian felt an odd weight over top of him, but couldn't process more than that. The world was shaking, not trembling, but as though it would tear itself into a million pieces beneath his grasp. He ducked his head, unable, in this quasi-state of being to even feel the solid presence of his body any longer, but that there were pieces of the world falling all over him, and then—
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Klaus couldn't call out. He could not work a sound through his constricted throat, as the smoke and the great cloak of dust swirled over Dorian and the Doctor, obliterating them both from his sight. K-9 made a sort of alarmed noise that sounded neither robotic nor natural, but he barely heard it. There was something quite horrible in that he could not look away. This stranger who was called Rose Tyler stood beside him, her face expressionless as she watched the after effects of the explosion.
"EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!"
And they had no time to grieve, even to be shocked. The enemy was there, on top of them before they had a chance to realize it. A dozen more of the metallic cylindrical bodies were rising above the land before them, hovering over the torn ground, their eye stalks stretching and twisting to find their prey.
It didn't even matter that the damn things could fly. There was nothing about the universe that could surprise him now. The Major aimed the Magnum and fired. Beside him, Rose did the same with her alien pistol, and shouted: "K-9!"
The dog shot something red from it's snout and two of the creatures dropped to the earth, their dome-heads spinning as they tried to focus with shattered eyes. However, the rest were taking aim…
"Major!" Rose shouted, grabbing his arm.
He jerked out of her grasp roughly, taking another shot at the Daleks that hovered above them with a look of pure hatred that even his subordinates, the Alphabets, had never witnessed.
K-9's ears twisted, "Master!"
He stepped back in time to avoid something fired from the Dalek's rifle. The ground smoked beneath his feet. "Major!" Rose shouted again, pointing to shelter. One of the few still-standing structures, a towering church steeple, of all things. Was this supposed to be symbolic? He ducked after her, as the Daleks continued to fire. K-9 slid along at his heels, and within seconds the three of them were crouched in the shadows of the structure that had tilted wildly on its side without falling completely, its long walls providing an escape from the now-blind Daleks.
"I think we got most of them," Rose said, peering out from their hiding place.
He stared at nothing. He may as well have been alone. The Doctor and…Dorian…had vanished, and this woman was not the same person as that girl, Miss Tyler. He felt a seething resentment towards her every time he saw those blue eyes… He looked down at the small automaton. "K-9, can you detect the location of Herr Doctor and Lord Gloria?"
The robot's satellite-ears whirred and spun. "No, Master. They are out of range of my sensors."
He frowned, fell back against the slanting wall as the Daleks began to move away, still screaming their threats of extermination even with their damaged eyes. He reached for his coat pocket before remembering that he was out of cigarettes. "God fucking damn it."
"Major?" Rose raised an eyebrow at him inquisitively. "I know you don't exactly trust me…"
When he neglected to acknowledge her in anyway, she stopped with a sort of tired sigh. For a moment. And then made some sort of clumsy movement with her damaged hands, and tried again: "What is it, exactly, that you dislike so much about me, Major? I know I'm different, but I'm still—"
"You are not Rose Tyler. You have his eyes," he gave her a look of pure vehemence, so much so that she was startled and stared for a moment without trying to respond.
"……I—this wasn't—"
"No. I don't want to know your story. All I need to do is stop your future from happening, and then you won't even need to exist," he concluded with a grim smile.
She stared at him blankly.
The Daleks had moved away. He made his way out of the hidden alcove and K-9 followed. He tried not to see the ruined landscape as familiar streets decimated, but as a completely foreign world. He couldn't afford to do otherwise at the moment.
"Where are you going?" she called.
"NATO Headquarters."
"And just how are we going to get there?"
He was silently annoyed for a moment, surveying the damaged landscape that surrounded him. There had to be a sign of NATO somewhere in this—this battlefield. He started walking, Rose followed somewhat suspiciously.
"Master," K-9 chirped, trundling over the bits of rubble and debris. "My sensors detect a large, enclosed, heavily armoured combat vehicle twenty yards from here."
That sounded promising. "Good boy."
He saw the tank as they carefully peered around the corner of the remaining wall of an old baroque façade. "According to my databanks, the model is a—"
"Leopard B-1," Klaus finished. "Fully automated."
"Affirmative, Master."
"It's surrounded by Daleks," Rose interjected. "We'll never get through."
The Major turned to glare at this—stranger. He could see the two dozen Daleks stationed around the street, their rifle-arms swivelling up at the slightest noise, their eye-stalks stretching and peering into the dark shadows of the doorways and windows. He tightened his grip on the Magnum.
There was a cold wind blowing from the West. He felt it running over the back of his neck like thin ghostly hands and pouring back into the grey sky. A piece of an obscure poem from his childhood. And when the wind blows from the West, Departed spirits do not rest.
"What are you thinking?"
His eyes flashed at her for only a second. "That Rose Tyler should have stayed dead."
He moved out from behind the shelter of the crumbling wall and within the next few seconds, moved through the street, the Daleks turning towards him—they didn't have time to fire before his Magnum exploded their electronic eyes and sent them into a wave of furious, but sightless, frenzied shots.
Placing his hands on the steel turret of thick armour, the Major pushed himself up to the tank's hatch. The sound of laser fire and Dalek screeching in the background told him that Rose and K-9 were following closely on his heels. He pulled the hatch open and fell into the vehicle's enveloping blackness.
A moment later, Rose dropped down beside him, the robot dog held securely in her arms. The darkness was so complete that he could not see the outline of her form, but he heard her breathing heavily and the slight bang as K-9 fell to the floor.
"I've got a torch," she told him, and after a moment, a thin razor of light cut sharply through the tank.
He grabbed it from her without comment and turned the light over the controls.
"Shall I assess the damage, Master?" K-9 asked, sensors whirring busily.
Grunting noncommittally, he cast the dog a suspicious glance before continuing his examinations of the tank. It was a good Leopard. One that didn't need a full crew to function. Just like the one he'd chased Eroica in so many years earlier…when he'd first met the damn thief. …That…
No. He could not afford to think of Eroica right then. All he could see in his mind's eye was a thick cloud of dust and smoke.
What had happened to them?
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
It hurt. But the blackness was slowly fading and sifting into white—mist? Clouds? Dust…that unravelled slowly, parting to reveal an almost blinding spot of light breaking through the heavy grey clouds of a blank and tired sky.
Dorian blinked several times and tried to move. Everything ached, and his head was swimming. He felt a strange weight on top of him. The weight shifted, and his eyes began to focus once again on the world.
"Are you alright?"
The Doctor.
He tried to move. His limbs felt like lead, but after a minute of trying he was able to prop himself up on his elbows and shoulders—even if it did cause a sharp stinging pain to drill straight through his skull. He winced. "You…protected me, Doctor?"
The Doctor grinned faintly, while sitting back and brushing the thick film of dust and dirt from his black leather jacket. "I think we'll be alright."
"But…where's the Major? And…Rose?"
"Gone on ahead of us, I expect," the Doctor replied amicably. "Never matter, I'm sure we'll catch up with them sooner or later. Honestly, companions—they never could just stay in one place and wait for me."
Dorian smiled at this, and tried to sit up further, but he froze when something wet and sticky slid onto his cheek. Examining his face with light fingertips he felt splatterings of blood.
"What's wrong?" the Doctor asked, stretching and looking up at the sky, and at the desolate wasteland of what had once been a beautiful city with an air of almost un-interest.
Dorian felt chilled suddenly. "I…I'm bleeding."
"Oh? Let me take a look." The Doctor leaned over him, lifting a few strands of curls out of the way. "Just a scratch."
"Just a scratch…Is what's happening here just a scratch to you? Just a scratch on the universe?"
The Doctor stared at him for a long moment, and then the Time Lord's gaze slid from him, and was lost and, for that moment, so deeply saddened. He looked hurt by the remark.
The silence stretched out, loud and uncomfortable in the way that some silences can be, until the Doctor said quietly: "No. I like this planet. Even being exiled here. It's not a…I like this planet."
Dorian drew his knees up to his chest. Heavy and tired. That was how he felt. The dismal grey sky. The complete absence of life. The complete absence of beauty. How could so much have been destroyed so quickly? And. God. Where was Klaus?
"The Federal Ministry of Defense District."
"What?" the Doctor asked, looking startled.
"The Federal Ministry of Defense District. NATO. That's where they'll be! That's the first place Klaus will go!"
"Oh. Well then, what are we waiting here for?" the Doctor asked, leaping to his feet and extending a hand to help Dorian.
The world immediately jolted and swayed unsteadily, and Dorian nearly toppled over again. The Doctor helped him stand and placed a steadying arm around his back.
It was a lot like that time aboard the Michelangelo with the Major…
"I want to see him again," Dorian whispered under his breath.
"What's that?"
"Nothing."
The silence stretched on as they made slow progress through the decimated streets. There didn't seem to be any Daleks about, but then again, Dorian didn't exactly want to wait around for any. The silence was worse than anything. The silence and the smell of burning that seemed to have permanently imbedded itself in the air. Silence and the sticky thick feel of blood drying on his forehead. Silence and…so many terrifying thoughts.
This was a war. Like the…Time War, or whatever it was the Doctor had called it. The Daleks were everywhere, all over the Earth, destroying everything…They would have appeared out of nowhere. No one would know what they were or how to stop them. Every army in the world would be utterly useless…
What was happening in London? What was happening to the British Museum? The Gallery of London? Where were the Royal Family? What was happening to his team? Bonham, James, Jones, what had become of them in all this horror and chaos?
Treasures all over the world. France. The Louvre, oh God, what had happened to the beauties, helpless inside, that these horrid creatures would have no mercy for? The Arc de Triomphe? Were those wretched creatures swarming beneath it? The grand Opéra with its shining marble staircases and ceiling painted by Chagall? Versailles? Were they afire? Destroyed? Ground into dust? He couldn't bear to think of it!
He had to blink the tears back from his eyes.
The Doctor offered a sympathetic look, as though he knew, or guessed at, the thoughts that were swarming through the Earl's mind. But at the same time the eyes were distant. The thoughts were elsewhere. Elsewhere. Of course.
Dorian forced himself to regain his composure. "You're worried about Rose, aren't you Doctor? Our Rose, I mean."
The Time Lord smiled faintly, sadly.
Dorian felt a slight weight in his pocket. He pulled out the small diamond vial the sorceress Medea had pressed into his hand for helping Jason retrieve the Golden Fleece. "Doctor…I don't know what this is. Medea said it was magical. Do you think it might help her?"
The Doctor looked at the slender vial glinting in Dorian's hand for a minute. "Well…who knows?" he said finally, quietly. "One never really knows, in this universe."
"Take it, then," Dorian said with a smile. "See what happens."
The Time Lord smiled, though his eyes looked profoundly saddened. He took the vial and gently slid it into the pocket of his leather jacket. "Thank you."
"Doctor. What is that?"
"What?"
"Something's moving in the rubble over there."
The Time Lord froze on the spot and studied the debris from a safe distance, Dorian standing beside him. "Could be a Dalek. But judging by the way it seems to be moving I'd almost say it was damaged…"
Dorian swallowed. Right. Just what they didn't need. There was indeed something moving, he could hear the rubble shift, slabs of debris falling to the ground. Even a damaged Dalek was not something he particularly wanted to come across at the moment. Or ever. "How are we going to fight it, Doctor?" he asked in a hoarse whisper. "We haven't got any weapons."
The Doctor's face was pale. He seemed tense, as though preparing to run for it at any moment.
Then.
"Wait."
"Wait?" the Doctor whispered.
Dorian nodded. "Wait. I hear…someone crying?"
The Doctor's brow furrowed. "That is odd. Daleks don't cry."
"I think we can stop whispering now."
"There's someone there," the Doctor said. "Is someone there? Come out, we won't hurt you."
There was another slight shift behind the pile of rubble, and a trembling figure began to emerge. The two men heard a muffled sob, and the Doctor began towards the figure quickly.
Eroica gasped as they came upon the small figure, hunched over and trembling in a thin crevice blown out of a crumbling wall. "Agent G!"
G was hiding in the little space beneath the wall, a deep gash sliced through his right leg. Dark blood was running in thin spidery rivers down to his feet. The petite agent was dressed in a jacket and skirt, though both were torn and stained with dirt and blood. The fluffy blond hair that normally curled cherub-like around his face was dishevelled and covered in a thick layer of grey-white dust. His eyes were wide, and thin tear streaks stained the dirty face.
"Agent G? As in one of Major Eberbach's agents?" the Doctor asked with mild surprise.
The young transvestite looked at them in surprise, large green eyes blurry and red with tears. "Oh my God! L-Lord Gloria! Is that you? What are you doing here?"
"Oh, G, what's happened to you, my dear?" the Earl asked sympathetically, still leaning against the Doctor's shoulder to keep his balance. "You look frightful!"
The tiny agent muffled a sob. "It's those—those things—"
"Oh dear, you're bleeding—"
"Those—those monsters—came out of—nowhere—"
"That is a nasty gash you've got on your leg, there," the Doctor commented offhandedly. "Dorian, have you got anything we could use as a bandage?"
"What? Oh yes, take the scarf," he replied, pulling it from his neck with one hand.
"But—but—there are monsters—aliens—you…" G stumbled as the Doctor fastened the make-shift bandage around his leg. He stared at the Doctor for a moment, embarrassed. "Um, thanks."
The Doctor flashed him a cheery grin. "This'll stop the bleeding for now. It's nothing serious." Happy and amicable one minute, in anger and despair the next, Dorian sighed inwardly, wondering if he would ever be able to understand the Time Lord.
G, meanwhile, was still wiping the stray tears from his eyes. "But—but what about the…You don't care about the monsters, do you?"
"We're a bit used to monsters," Dorian told him quietly. "I'm afraid."
"Oh. Oh Lord Gloria, you don't know how glad I am you're here, only…is the Major with you?" the agent asked, looking hopeful and terrified at the same time. "He disappeared—well, you both did, I guess, after that last mission, and—and then these things came out of nowhere and no one knew what to do, and they sent out NATO, but it wasn't enough—those things were screaming—and—and everyone was dying—and—and none of us knew what to do, and—"
"Hush dear," the Earl murmured, putting his hand on the agent's trembling shoulder comfortingly.
"Yes," the Doctor agreed seriously. "You're speaking in run-on sentences and that's never good."
"It's going to be alright now," Dorian continued. "The Major is on his way to NATO Headquarters as we speak, and we're trying to get there, too."
"You…" he looked at the Doctor for a minute. "You're the one the Chief sent the Major to investigate! The spy—"
"What? Oh, that's not important anymore," Eroica said flippantly, tossing his curls back over his shoulder as the black ribbon in his hair came undone.
"Wha—how can it be 'not important anymore,' he's a spy!" the small agent squeaked. "The Major will kill me! Fraternizing with the enemy! Oh my God! I wonder if they have monsters in Alaska…"
"Don't worry, I'm not a spy…" the Doctor said simply. "Now, we need to find the others and think of a way to stop the Daleks."
"Daleks?"
"The monsters," Dorian replied with a slight shake of his head. "Come on, G, we haven't much time. We have to get to NATO!" He pulled the wounded agent to his feet and helped him to stand.
G looked at the Doctor suspiciously after a moment. "You're sure you're not a spy?"
Eroica rolled his eyes. "Oh, come off it, G. Tell us what's going on here. Where are the rest of the Alphabets? Where's the Chief? What's going on?"
A slightly panicked look crossed the agent's face for a moment. "The Chief's—the Chief is dead!"
Dorian's eyes widened in surprise.
"It was just after you and the Major had left. We—well, I f—found him in his office, just…dead."
Dorian put his arm around the little agent's shoulders protectively. "I'm so sorry, dear…"
G shook his head, wiping tears out of his eyes. "No, he was a jerk and a creep…but still, to just find him dead like that, out of the blue. I mean…I didn't think…Then all these things—Daleks?—started attacking us and everything turned into chaos. A was given the temporary position of commander because of the Major's absence and the—the attack. We started evacuating the city, but they were already on top of us, and—and everywhere else. We're holding out—barely—at the Ministry, or, we were, but…"
"So what were you doing out here all alone?"
"We were trying to fight those things using guerrilla tactics but—but nothing was working. Bullets don't hit them! And then they scream and it—" G shuddered, clinging to Dorian more tightly. "And there's this light, and then—then they were dead, there weren't any wounds or anything, they were just…just dead! All dead!"
"I know," the Doctor said quietly.
"But it'll be okay," Dorian continued. "We'll stop them. We…can stop them, can't we, Doctor?"
The Doctor was staring straight ahead, his face cold and his eyes hard and darkened. "They don't belong here. They shouldn't be here…Shouldn't be anywhere."
"Wait a minute…do you…hear something?"
"Yeah," the Doctor said, looking up suddenly, his clouded expression vanished once again. "Sounds like an engine—a jeep?"
Dorian looked at him. "Do Daleks drive jeeps?"
"Don't be ridiculous. I mean, really…how do you suppose they'd work the pedals?"
Eroica stared at the Time Lord blankly as the jeep drove closer, and then he laughed. In spite of everything truly horrific that was going on around them, he laughed. "Doctor, if I have to live through the apocalypse, I'm glad I get to live through it with you!"
The Doctor grinned, and G shouted and waved at the approaching vehicle. It wasn't any ordinary jeep, but a military-issued armour-plaited vehicle equipped with rifles and other weaponish-looking devices Dorian couldn't name and wasn't sure he wanted to. "Anti-tank rockets," the Doctor murmured into his ear. "Now those are effective."
The vehicle came to a halt in front of them, and Agent Z bolted out of the passenger's side. "G! Lord Gloria, my God, what are you doing here?"
"Long story, love. Now, are you going to offer us a lift?"
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
It didn't take long for the jeep to make its way through the deserted streets, climbing unsteadily over the heaps of rubble and debris. "We were looking for any survivors," A shouted, over the sounds of the engine. "But Lord Gloria, we never expected to find you in Bonn! Is the Major with you?"
"You mean he hasn't reached NATO yet?" Eroica shouted in surprise. He exchanged a worried look with the Doctor.
When they came to a stop at the Federal Ministry of Defense, one of the few buildings still standing, it looked horribly stern and grim, the decimated landscape surrounding it, tanks, helicopters and armed NATO officers patrolling the perimeter. Z turned and regarded Dorian and the Doctor grimly. "The citizens have already been evacuated. Well…those we could get to in time. And non-authorized personnel aren't allowed in—"
"Not allowed?" Dorian shouted, leaping out of the jeep and rushing at Z so that the surprised agent jumped backwards in shock. "What do you mean 'not allowed?' Are you just going to let us die out here?"
"I—I only meant, well it's a decision made by my superiors. Please try to understand, Lord Gloria, that especially in this state of emergency, with everyone panicking, we can't just—"
The Doctor stepped between them suddenly, swiping a small piece of paper out of his jacket and flashing it across Z's face. "What do you mean 'not allowed,' Mister Z? I'm allowed everywhere."
Dorian saw the startled look cross Z's face, before realizing the Slightly Psychic Paper, of course! The Doctor brushed confidently passed the stunned agent and Dorian followed, smiling cheerily at the poor befuddled agents.
But he hadn't taken two steps inside the building when alarms began wailing so loudly he jumped.
"What is that?" the Doctor asked.
Z's face was grim. "Those—things—"
"Daleks," the Doctor corrected.
"Whatever they are. They're attacking again. They seem to come in waves."
"Oh no," G pressed his face into his hands and wobbled unsteadily on his wounded leg. It was Agent Z who steadied him awkwardly. "Not again."
"Mosse is ordering more men out there—" E said, running to meet up with Z and A. "And Agnew says—"
"But we can't go out there! We don't even know how to fight them!" B cried, wringing his hands together in terror. "Bullets don't hurt them! You've all seen it!"
"We've managed to get a couple with the tanks," Z offered. "And the anti-tank rockets."
"But we can't—"
"Oh, if only the Major was here!"
"We already lost three tanks with the la—"
"Well, I don't see you with a better—"
"Orders are orders!"
The Doctor exchanged a pained look with Eroica as the agents continued arguing hysterically around them and rolled his eyes. Dorian smiled, but felt a knot of worry tighten in his chest at the same time. He didn't want to see the Major's Alphabets fight the Dalek forces!
"Alright, everyone shut up!" the Doctor shouted suddenly. The Alphabets froze instantly, staring at the stranger in stunned disbelief. "Shut up, and follow me. I know how we can fight the Daleks…"
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Meanwhile, the Major was making rather uncertain progress repairing the tank. He cursed for the hundredth time in the last hour. "If only I had the right tools…"
"I'm telling you, Major, if you'd just let me help—"
"Shut up, you're breaking my concentration!" he snapped at her.
Rose sighed and sat back with K-9, resting her chin on her hand. "At least we seem fairly safe in here."
The Major snorted. "If it was so safe, what happened to the previous crew?"
She all but leaped to her feet at that. "Alright, Major, enough is enough—"
"And what exactly do you propose I do, Miss Tyler?" he asked angrily.
She tossed something at him. "Use that."
He snatched the object out of the air with one deft movement. The long cylindrical piece lay in his grip. "The Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver," he growled, flashing her an accusing glare. "The Doctor gave this to Eroica."
"And your Eroica still has one, but, Major, the Eroica in my future—"
"Shut up, I do not wish to hear any more of this nonsense about 'your future,' none of that is my concern."
"Oh, but I think it is," Rose stated, nonplussed, as the Major turned back to the complex wiring with the Sonic Screwdriver in hand. "Don't you want to know—"
"No."
"You were devastated, when he died, you know. The rest of the alliance agreed that, afterwards you were always more reckless, almost like you wanted the Daleks to kill you."
"Shut up!" the Major shouted, slamming his hands against the metal.
"It's funny, seeing you both again, like this," she said quietly. "That's all."
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
The Daleks had surrounded them by the time the tank was repaired, and they had crashed over the uneven landscape, a sound almost like a metallic roar erupting from the machine as they had fought them. Iron Klaus had finally felt in his element, in control of the situation. The tank had proved a useful weapon against the aliens, and the smouldering Dalek remains forming a trail from the inner city to NATO Headquarters could prove it.
So why did he only feel glad when he saw the familiar crown of golden curls, the large bright blue eyes turned towards him when he drove the tank into NATO Headquarters and opened the hatch?
Leaping down from the tank in one swift movement, for that single moment, he forgot where and when he was, his mind obliterated by that image of Dorian disappearing under the cloud of smoke, falling three floors into the pool from the Spartens' shots, surrounded by Daleks with Rose on that distant world that Earth was beginning, too much, to resemble…and in this one moment, he was granted seeing the Briton again, he reached out and clutched him. He must cement such a moment in reality to banish the previous nightmares. To assure himself that this horrible, dark, Rose from the future, was not from his future. He clutched Dorian forcefully against him, feeling the warmth, the solidity, of another human being, the thick curls tickling his nose, the tight burglary costume smooth under his hands.
It was only after a moment that he noticed how perfectly still and quiet the thief had become, and how the silence seemed much greater than the two of them. He forced himself away abruptly, to be met by the staring faces of every single one of his subordinates. The Alphabets' faces were all perfect expressions of shock: mouths hanging agape, eyes wide, looking terrified in confusion. They visibly trembled when his gaze turned into an icy glare at them, but they couldn't seem to look away. It seemed as though they weren't sure whether to run, or ignore what they had just seen, or say something, or burst into tears and beg not to be shipped off to Alaska, and so all stood there torn and wavering, maybe trying to do all of those things at once.
The Major smiled grimly. This, at least, he was could handle. "You IDIOTS! Don't just stand there—we have a city to defend! You lazy, incompetent MORONS! What do you think you're doing, standing around! Herr A, get me a report, NOW! Herr B, contact Agnew and get a—"
It felt good to be yelling orders again, and to see the panic-stricken expressions of raw-terror cross his subordinates' faces. God, how he'd missed it! "—now MOVE, or I'll have you all sent out there to distract the Dalek line of fire!"
In a wave of chaos and panic the Alphabets scattered, nearly tripping over one another in haste to complete the Major's tasks. Dorian was slightly leaning against him, giving him one of those—looks—that he had found, until only recently, so unsettling, so unfathomable. "It's called LOVE," Dorian had told him, in what seemed like years ago, framed by an alien sunset in a golden palace.
"I'm sure they really are glad to have you back, Major," the thief murmured with a smile. "And so am I."
He grimaced in a way that was almost a smile. But—"Now is not the time." He tried to push Dorian—who, must now be thought of strictly as Eroica, for the sake of him focusing on the tasks at hand—swayed ungracefully and almost tumbled right to the ground. Klaus tried to steady him in a manner that was as discreet as possible, then wondered why he cared so much, now, of all times. "What is it?" he asked gruffly.
"It's nothing," the thief smiled at him shakily. "Just some cuts and bruises."
"Ah. So I see," the German noted, brushing back the long golden curls to examine the small wound on Eroica's temple. "Nothing serious."
The thief was strangely silent and still during this. The Major fancied he trembled. How strange. He didn't know what to do in this situation any longer. Things had changed completely, and then changed back again, but now it was still different than before.
"Sir—!" Z was calling him. "Sir, the Daleks—!"
Changed on so many levels.
He finally tore his gaze away from Eroica's brilliant eyes—brilliant eyes, what a foppish thought, he banished it from his mind immediately. "Herr—" he cast a quick glanced around the chaos-ridden building to find one of his less-occupied agents. "—G! Get me a carton of cigarettes! NOW!"
"Yessir!" G practically squeaked, disappearing quickly into the sea of moving bodies that had begun to swarm around them—soldiers, medics, engineers, suits from other NATO departments he didn't know…
He turned to the Doctor. No manic grins or madcap jokes now, the Doctor was grim and serious. Eroica merely looked unsettled and tired, swaying unsteadily between them. "Can we defeat these invaders, Herr Doctor?"
The Doctor frowned. Rose—Other Rose—appeared behind him, as silently and motionlessly as a ghost, her face nearly blank, but for a flash of scrutiny in the eyes Klaus would not acknowledge, when she looked at the Doctor. "It won't be easy. They shouldn't be here. They shouldn't have been able to get through. They shouldn't exist at this time, in this place. It's—all wrong."
The Major was frowning deeply, a thin line creasing his forehead as he glared in concentration. "We need to start blockading. Damn it, this is idiocy, where is Herr B? I need those maps of the Dalek forces! And the status of our allies, supplies, routes…is—"
"Sir—" Z deposited a thick stack of files into his hands. B stumbled in the distance and was nearly trampled by another regiment. A was on the phone with someone, talking hurriedly, wiping sweat from his forehead with a pocket handkerchief.
"Sir!" Agent G appeared, nervously proffering a carton of cigarettes, and something that looked mauve and furry. "I—It's a jacket," the agent described hurriedly as he stared at the—object—with confusion and repulsion. "For the Earl, he looks cold."
"You idiot! I have a million more important things for you to do than waste your time finding hideous clothes for a civilian thief—" But he noticed, out of the corner of his eye, Eroica take the ugly jacket with a grateful smile. The Major resolutely continued the tirade, because he knew when he stopped he was going to have to face the fact that not he, or anyone else in NATO was going to have a suitable plan. No one in the entire world was going to know the military strategies for beating these monsters. No one, except, perhaps, the Doctor.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
The explosions outside the complex continued long into the night. NATO forces were surrounding, barricading the perimeter, but nothing could shake the chill that hung over the soldiers stationed there. The glowing bulbous eyes glinting through the darkness of night. The high-pitched metallic screeches of the alien invaders. Communication had been cut off with other NATO forces, other world forces. They were deserted, stranded with the Daleks completely surrounding them. It seemed that everyone realized it was only a matter of time before the creatures closed in for the kill, and everyone was living every moment with that awful reality hanging darkly above their heads.
The Doctor had spent the last several hours going over defense strategies with the Major and several other NATO officers, but now…he stared outside at the dark sky, and listened to the distant explosions. Would he be able to save this world this time?
"You're not sleeping," a voice said from the doorway.
Rose stood, leaning against the frame. The light behind her cast a shadow over her face, obscuring the wounds, the scars, the strangely coloured eyes and hair. He stared at her silhouette like that for a moment. All he knew was that he could not allow that future to happen. No matter what it cost…he had to find some way to change it. Set it right.
"I feel like something is calling us somewhere," she said quietly.
He frowned, tilting his head forwards in silent contemplation. "I had thought that, too."
She turned her head slightly, the red cloak was once again drawn about her shoulders, as she gazed down the long corridors. "It seems our paths our diverging. I don't like to leave them here."
"We're not," he said, and shook his head.
But they did slip out of the transformed military complex that night, unseen, and alone.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
The Major looked up from his desk at the faint knocking. He was tired, although he would never admit it. His temples were pounding almost painfully, and he had lost count of the cups of Nescafe he had drunk since the conference with the Doctor and his superiors. Even those idiots had been willing to listen to the Doctor's advice. After all, they were all panicking—no one knew how to fight these things. No one had ever seen anything like it before. The Doctor had tried to tell them about some damn British organization—what was it? UNIT?—that could offer help, but they hadn't been able to re-establish communication with anyone—
The knocking again, a bit louder this time. He massaged his forehead and glowered at the desk and whatever papers he had been looking at—he couldn't remember—eyesight was becoming strained and unfocused. "Enter!" he shouted gruffly.
The door creaked open a centimetre. It was enough to catch a glimpse of the familiar riot of golden curls. "Lord Gloria. Why aren't you resting?"
"It sounds strange when you call me that now, Klaus," Eroica said, sliding into the room and shutting the door silently behind him.
Klaus glared at him. "You didn't answer my question."
The thief shrugged vaguely. "Who can sleep at a time like this? Knowing we might be killed at any second…"
The Major snorted. "Welcome to my world."
Eroica frowned. "But it has never been like this before. Even on missions. Penned in…surrounded…our enemies aren't even human. They don't have any emotions. They don't think like us." They don't have any mercy.
Klaus straightened the piles of paper on his desk. "A man shouldn't be afraid of dying an honourable death protecting his country."
This was greeted with a weak, shaky laugh. "Well…thieves don't have a lot of honour anyways, as I recall…"
Pushing himself away from the small desk, the Major rose to his feet, but then he realized he didn't know what to say or what to do. He merely sighed. In the next few seconds, Eroica—no, Dorian—was across the room and hugging him as though the walls were falling in and it really was the end. He took a moment to be almost amazed by the force of that embrace, before putting his hands firmly on the thief's shoulders. He had every intent of pushing him away. This was not the time, nor the place. However…
He was so close. And now. He breathed in the scent of roses and drew Dorian closer to him. "This is not the end," Dorian whispered, but his voice was shaking.
"It's not like you to be afraid, Herr Thief," the Major murmured. He was tired. He must have been, to be running his hands along the warmth of that sleek black catsuit beneath G's ugly mauve jacket. Dorian was nuzzling his neck, and he wasn't resisting. He had hands full of the springy golden curls. And then. Ran his hands along the smooth throat, drawing Dorian's head back a little so he could kiss him. His mouth was warm and sweet, and for a long moment, they stood locked like that.
Until the door opened.
Klaus looked up at the agent who had just entered with a look that could have killed something. Unfortunate Z was frozen to the ground, his face as pale as a ghost. He looked stricken with terror, as though he didn't know which would be worse: running away, or staying to explain why he had disturbed the Major.
"Ah—Uh—Well—Um—"
The Major's eyes narrowed.
"Well—that is—S—Sir—"
"AGENT Z IF YOU HAVE SOMETHING IMPORTANT TO TELL ME, THEN OUT WITH IT THIS INSTANT!"
"Sir! The Daleks are approaching and the General is ordering all officers to report at once! Also, that mysterious Doctor and his companion have disappeared, Sir. No one can find them anywhere!"
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
They had been fighting for hours. No one had caught sight of the Doctor or Rose, and in the commotion they could be anywhere. They could very likely be dead. The Major leapt from their hiding place, firing the Magnum and feeling the shock of the recoil running through his arms. He had never been in a battle before that had seemed so hopeless. No matter how many they damaged, more kept coming. The aliens cared nothing for the Daleks who were destroyed in front of them, and it was becoming painfully obvious that they would continue to press forward until the Major's team ran out of ammunition…
He fell back against the wall, feeling the muscles in his arms ache. Dorian was crouched beside him, hunched over in dismay. The explosions, the gunfire, had been going for hours now. And the only end in sight seemed indeed a dismal one. K-9 was perched beside Dorian. The robot had been useful at the beginning for transmitting data on the positions of the enclosing Daleks, but now…it hardly seemed worth it.
They had begun fighting with Agents Z, G, A, B, and E, but they had since gotten separated. Separated from his men. He didn't like it. Didn't like to think that they could be dying horribly somewhere. He was the commander. He be the first to—
Beside him, Dorian whimpered slightly, hugging K-9 around the neck. "Master," the robot noted reassuringly, its head rising and falling quietly.
How long could they go on like this?
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Running through deserted streets. Even NATO had gone up in flames. The personnel scattered to be hunted down like rats… The buildings around him destroyed, the city, mutilated…
"You can't understand," he snapped suddenly, hunched against the cold greying wall of a building that was no longer recognizable. The heavy darkness of night seemed unfairly oppressing. And the Major had never felt depressed on a mission in his life. He had never had time for melodrama or other such idiotic nonsense. In fact, the less he thought about it, the better. But this was different. So horribly fundamentally different.
It was probably idiotic to be mourning a place in itself, as much as the people who had lived there. But it wasn't even real, to be witnessing, buildings he had grown up around, structures that were ingrained forever in his mind as immutable pieces of the universe; streets, lined with trees that he passed every day, that were dark and spindly and bare in the cold of winter, strung with webbings of small orange lights at Christmastime. Buildings that were old and tall, their Baroque facades familiar and crowded not unpleasantly, the violet twilight darkness that sometimes fell over the city just before nightfall, the hazy image of the looming Siebengebirge hills like slumbering guardians just beyond the buildings. All the things he had thought he hadn't had the time or inkling to notice, but suddenly realized he had.
"But I can understand!" Dorian's voice was strangely quiet. "How can you say I can't understand when the same thing is happening in North Downs and in London right now! I—"
"But you aren't there," Klaus said decisively. "You don't have to see it."
Dorian pulled his knees up to his chest, huddling forwards in the darkness. "Only in my mind…"
Klaus stared up into the darkness and the faintly shifting coils of smoke and dark clouds moving against the darker sky. Everything was as though drenched in ink, everything felt thick and cold and suffocating. "We have to get out of here." He never thought he would say that. Running away. No, that can't be right.
But Dorian was nodding weakly, one hand covering his mouth, his eyes closed. "Yes, oh God, yes…" he murmured again and again beneath his breath.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
The sky was flashing, deep dark bursts of indigo, mauve. A thick stream of deep violet was winding and twisting, stretching it's slivering arms over the night sky. The wind was cold, slicing through their clothes and flesh like a knife.
The Time Lord saw the Rose who was not Rose walking beside him, her strange orange hair flashing across her scarred face as the wind made it frantic. He felt his hands curl into fists and flex almost involuntarily at his sides. Drawing a deep breath of the piercing cold air, he spoke to her quietly. "This is not right."
Rose's eyes did not leave him, with their kind of unnatural intensity. "Doctor…"
The earth trembled beneath their feet. Lightning crashed and broke across the sky, shattering the dark heavens and the even darker clouds and coils of darkness and mist that poured so thickly overhead. The forked lightening exploded in a crackling burst not ten yards from where they stood. Rose jumped, pulling the red cloak tighter around her shoulders. The Doctor glared into the emptiness.
A TARDIS appeared slowly before them, flickering and shuddering as chaotically as the bolts of lightening that scorched the ground. Rose narrowed her eyes at the apparition, her long hair flashing before her gaze. The Doctor stood between her and the…
The doors were knocked open, seemingly of their own will, revealing a stark black emptiness inside. From the darkness, the Other Doctor emerged. He had lost the fanatical, mad quality of his character, and stood regarding them in the darkness and cold with a stoic, apathetic expression. His eyes were dark. He regarded them seriously. "Rose. And…You. What are you doing here? Thought you could stop me? Doesn't surprise me. Seems like something I would do." This was said without emotion, merely calm. Emptiness. Emptiness like the black interior of this TARDIS, of this night sky.
"You can't do this. You have no idea what you'll be destroying."
"Oh no? I think I do," the Doctor replied quietly.
"But why!" Rose shouted, the wind snatching her voice and making it distant, distorted, the wind using her hair to hide the scars on her face. Her eyes showing through, cutting through the darkness. Blue. Tearing. Undisguised fear.
He regarded her. "You can ask that? After all you've suffered. Rose. I'm doing this for you as much as anyone."
She looked helpless, lost.
"All you've suffered. Ever. I'm going to erase it."
"But you're going to erase her, too!" the Doctor shouted.
The Other Doctor's gaze flashed to him, disdainful. "Better than what she's been through. Why don't you tell him, Rose? How you're body was torn apart by the glass and cables? How the fire destroyed your skin? How you lay screaming in your own blood, the stench of your burning flesh filling your brain as the others fought to cut the pieces of you out of the shuttle's twisted remains?"
She looked away, shaking. "Shut up!"
"You, Doctor, should understand most of all. You watched our Gallifrey being destroyed. Romana, Leela—everyone! Erased in an instant. An entire civilization snuffed from the universe as though they had never existed. And for what? The Daleks STILL exist! They're everywhere! They're destroying this world, now, too! Think of all the suffering everywhere as we speak. I can end it, now. Make it so that it never existed…"
"You'll destroy everything!" the Doctor's voice was a harsh whisper. Gallifrey. Romana. Leela. He clenched his hands. Had to ignore the stinging pain behind his eyes. Nothing would bring them back now. It could only erase them from the past, as well as the present…
"If they were never born, they will never have suffered!"
"No…That's not…a good enough reason."
"I'll erase the Daleks from the crust of the universe. Destroy them all! Forever!"
"You can't do that. The Time Wars should have done that."
"But they didn't. They failed. It's up to us to set it right again. To stop all this horror from happening in the first place."
No…
He had an image in his mind.
The first time he met Rose. Reaching out, grabbing her hand tightly. "Run."
He sees inviting her to join him. She is standing in the alleyway, her boyfriend cowering behind her. She stands coolly, her hands lightly on her hips, studying him, thinking seriously. Her light blonde hair is falling onto her shoulders. She looks like an Athene.
He sees her smiling at him, light sparkling in her eyes, and she falls against him in the movement of the crowd, laughing. And her joy becomes his joy, her excitement his, and no matter how alone he is now, she is still there, beside him.
And in Versailles, her body close against him. She smelled of flowers and spring air, her eyes glowing as she laughed and smiled up at him. Her lips against his mouth, nuzzling his chin, his neck.
And then he saw her being erased from all of those settings, all of those places, scratched out, blurred away, erased. He saw them empty without her, dark, miserable. He saw her lost.
"I can't let you."
"Oh?" his Other self asked, stepping slowly away from the TARDIS doors. "I don't really think you can stop me."
The light of the Luinway Solar Crystal was blinding. It shot out of the TARDIS' console room, slicing through the darkness and filling the sky, erasing the ground in it's blinding haze.
There was one thought running through the Doctor's mind. This is not enough.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
They were standing atop the Siebengebirge hills. It had taken so long to get there, an eternity of running through blind empty darkness, after the stolen Merc had run out of fuel. By the time they made it to the top, the sky had long since opened to a grey, grey morning, noon, day…A day so black and white it seemed as though the entire Planet was mourning. The wind was alternately cold, and the wind from the thousands of raging fires, hot.
"…'m not scared," Eroica's voice said softly. They stood at the edge of a grassy cliff, looking out over the land of Germany, once so beautiful, now scarred and torn with swelling fires of red and orange, clouds of black smoke, smouldering craters, war-ravaged valleys. The wind, hot with the burning of the fires, even so many miles away, stirred their hair and shifted the light fur trim on the Earl's tight mauve jacket.
"Don't be an idiot," Major Eberbach snapped back. It was more out of habit than anything else, and the deepest bitterness was not aimed, for once, at the conniving art thief. Well, it hadn't been for a while, had it? The Space Station, Versailles, Ancient Greece.
But this…
Klaus was watching his Germany, stretched out before him like the entire world, which in a very real way it might as well have been, because everywhere else across the globe, exactly the same scene was being played out. His hands were clenched at his sides, as useless as himself, an officer for an army that no longer existed, unable to do anything but watch from a mountaintop as the world around him ended. "Of course you're scared. We all are," he added quietly, and with no small amount of spite, though, once again, not aimed for the thief.
Klaus felt the large sapphire blue eyes turn to him, and study him for a long, painful moment, as the smoke shifting through the air from the fires below stung his eyes. The low shaky breath sounded as though it ought to have been followed up with words…but wasn't.
Finally, he turned his gaze. The Major allowed himself to study Eroica for the one moment. The air whipped several long golden curls across the pale white face, and Dorian hardly bothered brushing them back, hugging his arms tightly around his chest, swaying slightly. Looking at the sky, looking at nothing.
"Stop that!" Klaus snapped, turning his eyes sharply back to the scene of destruction unfolding beneath them. "You'll throw yourself right off the damned cliff!" And a sharp fall down how many thousand feet to whatever rocks and grass or fires were below.
Dorian's gaze turned back to him again, startled, the wide blue eyes filled with something between tears and shadows, but now slowly filling with that same strange inner warmth that they had so often gazed upon the Major bearing in the past.
There were no words, but Klaus felt the surprisingly timid warm touch of fingers brushing tentatively against his hand, hovering there just as though…
He grabbed the hand tightly with his own, forcing his fingers roughly between the Earl's and holding tightly. There was so much lost already. Deutschland. NATO. The whole fucking world. Damned if he was going to let Dorian get off as easily as throwing himself off the God-damned hilltop. Klaus squeezed harder, felt the hand he was clasping tense for a moment in shock, and then tighten firmly around his own.
"I'm still here, Klaus," Dorian's voice told him softly. And somehow, those words meant the world to him. Somehow, those words meant the world.
He breathed deeply. "I know." He drew the thief close against him, buried his face in the abundance of hair. He didn't want to look at the world any longer.
To be concluded in Episode 12: All Worlds Ending