The Final Season of Doctor Who
Episode Eleven "An Ordinary Day in Milton Keynes" Part Two of Two
Act Three
Petronella gasped. "Romana? ROMANA?!"
There was a robotic voice in the Data Room. "The intruder is now dead." Then Petronella could hear no more. She tried desperately not to faint in the Alcove Romana had just directed her to.
Meanwhile, Jenny was walking through one of the more sylvan backyards of the Time Lord aristocracy. As she pushed aside branches and vines she called out. "Dad? Dad? Where are you?" Not hearing any response, she took out her communicator. But then she saw something in the shadows and gasped.
What was in the shadows had a human hand, and bade her to be quiet. Then it motioned her to come closer. With her eyes agape, Jenny slowly approached the enigmatic being.
"Come closer," the entity said, still moving a finger. The voice was low, but clearly feminine.
"I can't believe it. This shouldn't be possible."
"It is possible. I have a very important message for your father, but I need you to help deliver it…"
"Hello, are you still there? You overpaid twit?" Nova Osgood shouted.
"Please keep a civil tone," the policewoman hearing the call responded.
"Look, it's bloody obvious. Six people have been killed in half an hour, and they're all connected to me. Just give me the names and I'll show you."
"The police department cannot release details at this time."
"Oh for God's sake. Look, there was Reverend Herbert. He was my pastor when I was a child. And then there was Mrs. Drower. She taught me first grade. And Peter Arnold. He was a few years older, and he helped teach gym class in high school. All right, I graduated the year before he started, but I saw him around. And Uma Bannerjee, Ruth Hellyer, and Joyale Royale? They were all students at the same school I went to. They were all a few years younger than me, but still. It can't be a coincidence."
The policewoman was not convinced, partly because she actually knew only two of the six names on the list. "Why would someone care about who you went to school with decades ago?"
By now, Nova Osgood had reached her home, and was busy opening the door while trying to use the phone. "But don't you see, it has something to do with me!"
"I'm not following."
"Listen. I've never told anyone this before, but it has to do with my sister."
"And your sister is…?"
"Petronella Osgood. She's a few years younger than me, and she works for the government in London. She's kind of mousy, had a bad case of asthma, but she's a scientist and she works in all sorts of top secret stuff. And she knew all these people as well."
"And what would she have to do with all these deaths?"
"Look. I don't go blabbing this around. But all these weird talk about aliens and strange things happening? Like there were shapeshifting aliens, and then there were robots raising the dead. Petronella was part of this, as part of her job. And she actually hangs around with aliens. Someone called the Doctor, who's this flighty weird woman, and looks human but isn't. She must be behind this."
"Now just a moment. Are you saying your sister committed these murders, or this Doctor person?"
"Neither, you stupid dolt! But they go travelling everywhere, and who knows what kind of alien sh…" But just then Nova stopped talking. Right in her kitchen, a black helmeted assassin had appeared. And then another one. And then a third, a fourth, and a fifth. Nova dropped the phone.
"No. Please. Don't. Please," she begged as the assassins came closer. She dropped to her knees, as the first assassin took out its weapon. "Please don't kill me! Please don't hurt me! PLEASE DON'T KILL ME!" This did not stop the first assassin, while the other four came closer and took out their weapons. "Jesus Christ, who art in heaven, hallowed by thy blame, our Kingdom done, in Perth as it is Levon…"
But something very strange happened. Instead of killing her and vanishing, the assassins saw Nova Osgood vanish instead. If there was anyone around to watch, they would see, despite their helmets completely covering any emotional expression, that they were nonplussed by this turn of events. Then they vanished as well.
In the building of Spencer and Associates, Lister and his squad were still fighting the seven Cybermen. In his hands, a quarterstaff suddenly materialized. But it was a special quarterstaff indeed, and when he approached the "shining" Cyberman, a single blow was enough to cut off its head. A second blow removed the upper torso and arms from the rest of the Cyberman, while a third removed the remainder of the torso from its legs. A final blow bisected the legs at its knees, causing all of it to fall to the ground.
Lister smiled, but not for long, because the various pieces quickly reassembled themselves, flowing together like mercury. "Sir, are you seeing this?"
"We are," Greenman said from the Munster room. "So the Cybermen finally mastered living metal."
Notwithstanding this unfortunate turn of events, Lister and his squad still fought the Cyberman. Inside the Munster Room, Greenman, Phrropox, and Turlough monitored the situation with increasing unease.
"I thought you could hamper the subspace systems that allowed the Cybermen to get their upgrades," Robertson angrily asked from his bedroom.
"Since it is their most vulnerable spot, it is also their best protected," Phrropox explained. "We also have to worry that the Cybermen could attack the Munster room."
Turlough elaborated the issue more. "I have managed to create a special warp field around the room, such that the Cybermen are aware that if they approach it, they could enter a wormhole that would trap them in the Array, allowing us to destroy them once and for all."
"Can't you do that regardless if they approach it?" Robertson complained.
"There is the factor that we do not want the Cyberman to know where the Array currently is. It has to be done very carefully."
Phrropox piped up. "We've been very carefully imitating their sub-space systems, ideally so that we can subtly replace them and their link becomes a hopeless cul-de-sac. But the actual Omega has been cleverly parrying our every move so far."
"Terrific. A couple of days from total triumph, and we have to get smart Cybermen," Greenman added. He temporarily stopped working on another offensive system, and turned on the monitoring system. "The evacuation is going well. But I can't see Raskolnikov on any of the screens."
Turlough abruptly turned off the cameras. "And since we can't assume that the Cybermen can't access our systems, we don't want to give them any assistance in finding our colleague. Mr. Raskolnikov is a professional. He's supposed to go dark. It's not for us to shed any light on him."
"I just received some information," Phrropox added. "Our situation is about to get manifestly worse."
The Doctor was trying to make his way through the Gallifreyan capital. He could see the Prydonian Cathedral perhaps a kilometer or so in the distance. But he couldn't see Jenny. "Why doesn't this communicator work?" he muttered. But as he was about to turn a corner he heard music up ahead:
Who can take tomorrow?
(Who can take tomorrow?)
Dip it in a dream
(Dip it in a dream)
Separate the sorrow and collect up all the cream
The Candy Man can (the candy man can)
And then the Doctor turned the corridor and saw five figures approaching him. The first was a gingerbread man, stumbling and with malice intent in its gumdrop eyes. Then there was a sugar plum fairy that ambled towards the Doctor. There was a strange gummi bear creature, and finally a strange doll-like girl with hair made of genuine cotton candy. With their moans, shambling manner, and lifeless attitude they more resembled zombies than any of the figures from a child's storybook they had originally been designed from. But they were certainly faster than zombies, and the Doctor soon found escape cut off. This allowed the fifth figure to slowly reveal himself and approach the Doctor. Who in turn recognized the android figure whose head was a licorice candy—the Kandyman.
"Well, well, Doctor," the Kandyman said in his squeaky, metallic, slightly childish voice, carrying the adamantium harpoon he had earlier killed a Reaper with. "I bet you never thought you'd see me at the end of time."
"You do have me there. I had no reason to imagine I would ever see you again after leaving Terra Alpha."
"I am happy to report that I have solved the problem where my joints would seize up."
"That does make sense. You would not have lasted so long if you hadn't."
"I've been informed that your sonic screwdriver does not work on wood. And I have reason to believe it doesn't really work on gelatin."
The Doctor took out his screwdriver, and realized that, despite the Kandyman's many metallic joints, the gelatin that surrounded them rendered his screwdriver ineffective. "Ah. You would appear to be correct there as well."
"So tell me, Doctor," the Kandyman gloated as he and his four slaves backed the Doctor against a wall. "What clever scheme do you have to save your miserable life?"
Suddenly the five were cut down by a barrage of weapon fire. "Me," said Ashildr, appearing behind them. "Me not being just a first-person object pronoun, but for the longest time my actual… oh wait, they're all dead."
The Doctor tactfully stepped over the remains of his enemies and approached Ashildr. "I've lost track of Jenny."
"That doesn't mean the worst. Near the end of the universe, communications break down all the time."
"And I also need to make sure Petronella's safe. Did Clara make clear who she was?"
"She did. It'll be easier to help your friend from the Cathedral. Let's go."
The two started running. "I distinctly remember meeting you at the end of the universe sitting with a chessboard."
"There are limits to how far a Type-40 TARDIS can go. But I assure you we are now approaching the very, very end."
There was a pause as the two continued to run. Then the Doctor spoke up. "Quite frankly, you don't seem to be the sort of person who would be helping Rassilon."
"Doctor, do you remember that although my life is infinitely long, I only have an ordinary human's capacity for memory? Not only would it mean that I would outlive my husband, and any children, but ultimately I would forget them as well. I did it once, and now they're nothing to me. But then Rassilon told me there was a way to counter that, to save them once and for all."
"Transmission incoming," Phrropox said.
"Lister, evacuate the hall. Fall back to Spencer's bedroom," Greenman ordered. Although Lister was very different from his father, like him he felt no need to be more valiant than strictly necessary and didn't need to be told twice. Turlough covered his escape by exploding several smoke bombs and attacking the Cybermen with acid bombs.
"Result of acid bombs… ineffectual," Phrropox noted. But before the Cybermen could advance any further, five black helmeted assassins appeared in front of them.
"No…" "Myrtle" the Deputy Cyberleader said, happening to be behind her six soldiers. Immediately she vanished. The Cybermen and the Black Assassins drew their weapons at each other and started firing. In the Munster room it was not easy to see what was happening through the smoke, though the three emissaries noted that the Black Assassin weapons did not make any noise. Then it became clearer and they saw six dead Cybermen on the ground.
"Ordinary lasers shouldn't be able to kill living metal," Greenman noted.
"They also shouldn't be able to nearly kill our Vampire colleague," Turlough added. "Mr. Lister, what can your force fields do?" From the safety of Robertson/Spencer's bedroom, the five bodyguards used their force fields to charge at the Black Assassins. Who easily disrupted and dissipated them with a single shot each. One of the Assassins took up the quarterstaff lying on the ground and quickly snapped it to pieces.
"Suggestions?!" Phrropox asked with some urgency.
"We could boost the power and strengthen the force fields," Turlough noted. "But the readings suggest increasing that strength ten times would make no difference."
"Hold on, I just need a couple of minutes!" Greenman shouted. Turlough quickly directly a barrage of laser and electrical forces at the Black Assassins, while Greenman quickly opened a sub-space communications channel.
"That's to a Judoon prison ship," Phrropox realized.
"And the warden owes me," Greenman replied. "If you could turn off the lights, Mr. Turlough. And seal all the windows."
Turlough did so and noted the figures that Greenman was obtaining from the prison ship. "Those are Weeping Angels. Four of them."
"Given our past and future history with them, is it wise to employ them?" Phrropox objected.
"Not a problem. They've been on that prison ship two centuries. They have no idea who the Doctor is, let alone Spencer," Greenman replied confidently.
"How did the Judoon capture four Angels?" Robertson wondered from his bedroom.
"It's very straightforward. Angels won't move if they think they're being watched. So you bring along a couple of holograms, and make sure you don't synchronize their blinking. We simply teleport them to the hall, and the moment they send our Black Assassins back in time, we transport them back to the prison ship." And so the quartet appeared in the hall in front of the Assassin's path.
And in a few seconds, there were four piles of rocks and the Assassins continued on their way. "Well, I'm impressed," Phrropox said sarcastically.
Rassilon was still on the top floor of the Prydonian Cathedral as he fingered the peridot gemstone that was part of his Presidential costume. He was watching a number of screens, such as the Reapers running amok on one, the Lights causing havoc on another, strange dark shadows gathering on the horizon on a third, Romana's corpse on a fourth and scenes of Time Lords resisting in the Capital on a fifth. "Clayton, come here."
Ruth Clayton did so. "Sir, in case you were ever wondering who would win in a battle of the Chimera against the Martian Water Virus, it turns out it's the former." And she pointed to another screen where Chimera was singing several lines from "Singin' in the Rain."
Rassilon nodded. "Clayton, there's been a security breach in the Cathedral. But it doesn't resemble any of the species attacking us, and its presence is hard to detect. Take a squad of three, and descend to the fifth floor."
Clayton did so with dispatch, while Rassilon looked at the monitors: 22:10, 22:09. "There's something not quite right," he thought out loud softly to himself. But just then another aide shouted out loud, "Lord President, we have another Fendahl infestation!" And this understandably got his full attention.
On the fifth floor, Clayton and her squad (two men, one women) were looking around. "I'm not seeing anything. Or detecting anything odd," she noted.
"An interdimensional being would be able to evade some of our sensors. But switching in and out of our world would be detected by others," said one of the men.
"Not seeing anything on visual surveillance either," added the female squad subordinate.
"I see no choice but to split up," Clayton said. "You two," referring to the two squad members who had just spoken up, "cover the North side of the floor. We two will cover the South. Keep your eyes open, and speak up every thirty seconds. We can't afford to be careless, not so close to the end."
The Northern squad quickly dashed away. As they entered another room after twenty seconds of surveying, the man turned and saw his female partner vanish. And then so did he. It was twenty-eight seconds after they had left, and Clayton was holding her communicator. But just then her colleague vanished right in front of her. She was about to speak into the communicator when it vanished as well.
"Now, now, we don't want to alarm Rassilon, not just yet," said the same low feminine voice that had spoken to Jenny earlier. Clayton stared at the entity, now holding her communicator.
"You! I can't believe it!"
"Yes, I get that a lot. Rassilon is clearly planning something, something very dark and evil indeed. And I think the Doctor would be most unhappy to learn that. Time to turn the tables, and to show the Lord High President fear in a handful of dust," which she helpfully blew into Ruth Clayton's face.
Elsewhere in the Capital, Petronella was still huddling in the Alcove, nervously watching the chaos going around her. Suddenly, without warning, a female Block Warden yanked Petronella (with her purse) by the hand and dragged her running down the alley. "It's not safe there!"
Petronella saw a Reaper screaming in the air above her. "It doesn't seem safe here either!"
"We need to get you below ground. Then we'll be safe for good!"
Meanwhile the Doctor and Ashildr entered the Cathedral and were now in its enormous atrium. Although the Cathedral had stairwells and elevators, Rassilon's team preferred giant bubbles that could phase through the floors. Ashildr climbed on a pedestal and started signaling for one to arrive. The Doctor stood at a slight distance as he watched one descend the six stories of the atrium. Just then his communicator rang.
"Hello?"
"Dad! I've found you! Quick question. Are you alone?"
"Ashildr's a few feet away bringing down a bubble."
"Then make sure she doesn't hear. Come to the third floor. I just met a friend who can help us. Three is one, and one is three."
"What?"
"Three is one, and one is three."
"I'm sorry, what is this? The Council of Nicea?"
"Doctor, anyone could be listening to us. Can't you take a hint? What do I have to do to make you understand that Spencer is Ras…" And then her communicator cut out.
Ashildr spoke up. "Our ride is here."
The two quickly boarded and the bubble began to rise. It looked fragile but it was actually capable of withstanding considerable attacks. Yet at the same time a user could simply walk through the "fabric" at any floor they pleased. Which is exactly what the Doctor did when they were just above the third floor.
"Hold on! Have to check something! Tell Rassilon I'll be a little late." And then he dashed down a corridor and out of Ashildr's sight. She cursed herself and looked out the windows. In the distance she could see a space whale ravaged by Reapers.
As it happened this whale was very close to Petronella and the Block Warden dragging her along. And it was even closer when, screaming in agony, it crashed right into a large building. Petronella was lucky not to be crushed as the rubble came down, though the Block Warden was killed.
Indeed all over the capital, people were panicking, fleeing, dying, and desperately fighting strange and malevolent beasts. Who in turn were also panicking, fleeing, dying and desperately fighting even more malevolent beasts. But there was one exception to this melee. About three blocks from Petronella there appeared a woman, walking out of the shadows of the tall building that once housed the Time Lord Army council. She wore Earth clothing: jeans and an orange t-shirt. She had striking blonde hair and indeed looked exactly like turn of the millennium pop star Billie Piper. While others were fearful and hysterical, she strode with steady and calm determination. She smiled broadly, a smile full of hope.
"Looks like it's time for me to save the Doctor."
Act Four
The Doctor heard Jenny's voice: "Dad, is that you?"
"Yes, it is, Jenny! Where are you?"
"I'm just a couple of rooms away. Follow my voice. I have to tell you about Rassilon, about how's he been behind everything. It's incredible but there's this old friend…" The Doctor raced into the room where the voice came from: "…who can tell us everything."
And then he stopped. It was not Jenny speaking, but a very different woman indeed. Arguably beautiful, with very black hair and attractive fair skin, if perhaps a bit too pale. She wore a dress that resembled Renaissance clothing, or perhaps pre-Raphaelite motifs.
And on her back were two large wings, like an angel's.
She laughed cruelly. "Did you forget that we could imitate our victim's voices, Doctor?"
The Doctor did not respond, as he desperately continued to stare. The woman slowly approached him. "You're keeping your eyes open. And it's not doing you any good."
"A Weeping Angel. And not just any Angel. The Queen."
"Quite so." And in the blink of someone else's eye she dashed at the Doctor and slapped him. Another blink and she slapped him on the other side of his head. Another blink and she punched him in the stomach, forcing him to the floor.
The Doctor slowly got up. "More than a year ago, the Angels stole my TARDIS. The War Quartet was there, but someone, I still don't know who, killed three of them. The fourth one must have found a way to get into the TARDIS's link to the Time Vortex. It could stay there and not be detected. That stone chrysalis—you were inside her body, and you killed her when you 'hatched.'"
"How pedantic of you, Doctor."
"The Vampire King must have made a deal with you."
"Aren't you curious as to where your daughter is?" The Angel Queen moved so quickly it was as if she disappeared and reappeared again. "Here's her jacket." She did this again. "Here's her weapon," and she showed him Jenny's assault rifle/blaster, except she had tied a knot in the gun barrel. She disappeared and reappeared a third time. Now she displayed a tray with some glasses and a crystal wine decanter.
"I think some malmsey would be in order. A good English wine." She poured herself one glass, then picked up another one. Then she looked at it more closely. "Oh, there she is," as she turned the glass over and poured half a pint of dust out.
She tossed the glass aside. "You think I'm bluffing Doctor?"
"No," the Doctor responded quite truthfully.
"Let me show you," and once again the Angel Queen vanished and reappeared, but this time carrying a bound and gagged Ruth Clayton. "Do you remember when your eleventh incarnation regenerated? 'When you think about it, we're all different people all through our lives, and that's okay, that's good, you gotta keep moving, so long as you remember all the people that you used to be. I will not forget one line of this. Not one day. I swear. I will always remember when the Doctor was me.'" The Queen sneered as she spoke those words in the Eleventh Doctor's exact voice. "So what are you going to remember of this woman who was never you at all?" And with a touch Ruth Clayton appeared to vanish, as the Angel Queen absorbed her energy, until there was nothing of her but a small pile of dust. Which the Angel Queen contemptuously blew away.
"I know what you're thinking. The Angels live by taking other people's time. And these people have no time left. But you don't understand. Hundreds of millions of years of Time Lord history, and no one could remember it all. Everyone forgot how Rassilon defeated the Weeping Angels. But I was at the beginning of Time. And I am at the end. And because I am at the end, I am unimaginably more powerful. No need to stay in stone. I am the most potent enemy you have ever faced."
And with another split-second movement, she grabbed the Doctor and forced him against the wall. "And do you know what's most amusing? You want to save the universe. And you know so little." And an instant later it appeared the Doctor was webbed to the wall, though it was actually an electro-magnetic barrier. "Rassilon's the real enemy. Perhaps I'll come back to kill you. Or you'll die with everyone else." And then she vanished.
The Doctor could not move a lot in the "web," and every time he touched it, he received an electric shock. "This is electrical, and has a wave interface. My screwdriver deals in sound waves." With considerable difficulty he slowly extracted it from his pocket….
"I have a plan," Phrropox declared. "Throw everything we have at them. Lasers, acids, force fields, dimensional shifts."
"But we've done that, and none of it works," Greenman objected.
"Yes, but leave a path open to them. Make them turn left."
Turlough quickly directed such an attack. "It's working."
"Good, direct them to the Green Corridor."
"I will unlock the door," Turlough replied.
The three emissaries saw the Black Assassins march into the Green Corridor, and then Phrropox closed the door behind them. "Adjust the relative dimensional interface, Mr. Turlough, but carefully."
"I am not seeing any difference in their progress," Greenman added sourly.
"Mr. Turlough, open up the telepathic channel," Phrropox replied. What appeared to be a nearby vase of blue crystal glowed. "This is Phrropox here. Why aren't you attacking the intruders?"
A voice spoke, supposedly from the Vase, but actually telepathically. There was something distinctly sinister and inhuman in its tone. "Their… aura is too… strong."
"Then you must overcome it."
"We're running out of time, Mr. Phrropox," Greenman sternly added.
"They are… very evil…" the voice repeated.
"Perhaps I am not being clear," Phrropox said in a tone that did not brook any opposition. "The Assassins aren't made of metal. If they were, we could use magnets against them. If they were made of plastic, we could use our anti-Auton measures. We could hit them if they were made of stone. They must be made of flesh, and my sensors confirm it. And if they are flesh the Vashta Nerada can eat them. I don't care if you're not peckish. I don't care if eating them makes you sick or if it kills you. As an Eloise my symbiotic nature disrupts your collective intelligence and I assure you there is nothing the Assassins can do to you that will be as bad as what I will. So start biting!"
The voice of the Vashta Nerada did not respond. Turlough watched the Green Corridor on the screen. "Wait. The Assassins are slowing down."
"They're actually stopping," Greenman said, rather impressed.
"Wait, they're moving again," Turlough added, with the same calm he had shown the entire morning.
"I am… sorry. We have… failed," the Vashta Nerada gasped weakly.
Robertson spoke from his room. "They'll be in my room in less than a minute! Can't you modify the relative dimensions to trap them there?"
"We can delay it a few seconds," Turlough replied, who adjusted the dimensional interface from his console. "But if we try to imprison them there, they will simply destroy the walls of the Corridor."
"They will kill Spencer, Lister and his squad. Then they'll reach the Munster Room and kill all of us," Greenman pointed out, all too accurately.
"Steady, Mr. Greenman," Turlough said. "I have examined the situation. The Black Assassins cannot be destroyed. They cannot be defeated. They cannot even be delayed." He then opened a panel that revealed a large red button. "They can, however, be distracted." And then he pushed the button.
Outside the building of Spencer and Associates, the police had already cordoned off the area and were shooing away journalists. Suddenly explosions wracked the building, and the police and bystanders dashed away as the building neatly imploded, and collapsed upon itself.
Rassilon was busily watching the many monitors and scanners, including the clocks that were counting down: 11:33, 11:32, 11:31. "More power surges! Commander Aspasia," he called out to a Time Lord official at the opposite end of the room, "I need you to check the Malachi circuits."
But before Aspasia could do that, she vanished. And then, in quick succession, so did three of the four people assisting Rassilon. The fourth was Ashildr and the Angel Queen appeared in front of her.
"You're human," the Queen noted. "You're that strange immortal one, aren't you?" All this time Ashildr vigorously and uselessly fired her weapon at the Angel Queen. "You're also right handed, aren't you?" Suddenly Ashildr gasped in pain as her right arm above her elbow was broken.
Rassilon fired his special blaster at the Angel Queen, who not only contemptuously swatted it out of his hands, but then snatched it back before it could hit the ground. For an instant she toyed with whether to force Rassilon to do her biding, or simply kill him. She decided on the latter, but the blaster wouldn't fire. In annoyance, she tossed the weapon away, and it bounced down a stairwell.
Petronella slowly got off the ground. She adjusted her glasses and wiped the dust off her clothes. The city was still in chaos: a Reaper snatched a Time Lord child less than ten feet from her. But her face showed determination and authority. "Romana was right. I am not going to die today. I have the strength and confidence to survive. I know what I need to do and exactly when to do it."
She looked at the pile of rubble that had nearly crushed her. Impulsively, she turned her purse upside down and dumped its contents on the ground. Then she filled it with some of the smaller debris. She then bent down to see if there was anything from her purse worth keeping. She picked up her asthma inhaler, and then crushed it in her right hand.
The Angel Queen quickly moved back and forth as she interrogated Rassilon. "Where is the Could Have Been King?"
"I'm not telling you."
"Do you think I won't kill you?"
"I'm not afraid to die. I've done it before."
"I could kill so many people to force you."
"I imagine you could. We're both willing to kill. Except I've created the greatest civilization in the known universe, and you're nothing but a bunch of statues waiting for people to blink. You could slaughter many people. Thousands of them. But there would be millions of Time Lords left, and you couldn't kill them all in the time you have left." And he pointed to the clocks counting down: 9:24… 9:23… 9:22.
The Angel Queen pondered this. "I could disrupt your plans, destroy your machinery. Where is the Could Have Been King?"
"You're bluffing. You could use your powers to escape, but you don't know enough about the systems not to destroy yourself as well."
"You can't be sure of that. The more I kill, the more I learn about your destined-to-be-annihilated civilization."
"I don't need to be sure. Under the circumstances, I'm satisfied with the probable."
"We'll see about that," and the Angel Queen took an ostentatiously slow step towards the computers and machines.
"Stop!" came a shout from the stairwell.
The blonde woman who looked and sounded exactly like Billie Piper was in the "wastelands," the deserts that surrounded the capital, perhaps thirty kilometers from the chaos in the Capital. She approached an extremely derelict hut. The wind was blowing, so it was perhaps not surprising that the figure who emerged from the hut wore a heavy jacket, gloves and a scarf that obscured the figure's face.
Notwithstanding this, the woman recognized the figure, and smiled with joy. "It's you. It's actually you. The Doctor will be so pleased to see you…"
But the figure took out a rectangular object, like a remote control. Three metal tendrils flew from it and attacked the woman, like she was being tasered. She could not even scream as she fell to the ground. The figure seemed to press invisible buttons on the "control" and there was a flow of energy back to the hut.
"Please," the woman gasped. "There's a way to stop Rassilon's plan, to stop the darkness, to save everyone…"
"I don't come here to chat," the figure responded, with an all too familiar vaguely American mid-western accent. The figure turned around, leaving the woman gasping in pain, and returned to the hut. In a few seconds, there was the familiar sound of a TARDIS dematerializing as the hut vanished.
The Doctor emerged from the stairwell, carrying Rassilon's blaster, which he pointed at the Angel Queen. "I don't want to kill you," he said.
"Don't worry. You won't."
"Let me rephrase that. I don't want you to die. The Vasari pointed out that I knew the price for beating Neetcha would be his death. I know I am running out of time. I try to challenge my enemies, they laugh at me, and they die anyway. I don't want to keep doing that."
"Very shortly, you won't be doing anything at all."
"Doctor," Ashildr said in some pain. "That blaster won't work on her. She's too powerful."
The Doctor ignored her. "Please, I am giving you a choice. I know how powerful you are. You can leave. You could go anywhere in time and space that you please. None of the restrictions on the Angels would affect you."
"Do you have any idea how long I have waited for this moment? For revenge on Rassilon? Why do you think I would give up my chance for total power?"
"Just hear me out. Have you considered being nice, as a general approach to things? There's so much of the entire universe you could enjoy. There's Marcel Proust. I admit he takes some time getting used to, but he's worth the effort! And contrary to some reports, he's a much better writer than Anthony Powell."
"Doctor, let me make this simple. I will allow you to fire that weapon against me even though that weak human girl has already told you it won't work. Then I'll test the effects of throwing you off the Cathedral and having you fall several hundred meters."
The Doctor aimed the blaster at a confident Angel Queen. Then he abruptly moved his arm ninety degrees and shot it straight upwards. The blast went through the roof, then through the force field (which immediately resealed itself). And then, several kilometers up above, it hit the "bubble" protecting Gallifrey from the end of the universe. And there, one could see the smallest of cracks begin to form.
"No…" the Angel Queen gasped.
With absolutely no time to lose she leaped up to the crack in the bubble. At the same time, Ashildr used her left hand to take the blaster from the Doctor and toss it to Rassilon.
"Thank you," Rassilon replied, who then went up the stairs to the roof. The Doctor followed him as Rassilon started working on one of the screens and monitors. "Ah, the Queen of the Weeping Angels," he said, arranging a commlink with her.
"What are you doing?!" she screamed.
"It should be fairly self-evident. The Doctor offered you mercy. You should have taken it." Kilometers above them the Queen wailed in agony. "Below you were an entity of singular power and malice. Up above, you are simply a very large power source which I can manipulate with Time Lord technology into sealing the crack in the Bubble. A vast power source with a tiny little soul. You shouldn't have been so nonchalant about it."
Rassilon pressed a few more buttons as the Angel Queen howled in agony. Her life force drained from her body. And then the bubble was sealed, as good as new. All that was left of the Angel Queen were a few violets that floated down and landed on the force field about twenty feet above Rassilon and the Doctor. Then the wind blew them away.
There was an abrupt silence. The Doctor noted the numbers counting down: 4:56, 4:55, 4:54. "Now what?" he asked.
And then the skies over the capital were filled with an appalling roar. There was a billowing cloud of deepest darkness which tossed aside the Reapers, Space Whales and Lights in the vicinity. And in the distance, further forms of unimaginable strangeness appeared.
And at the same time the TARDIS rematerialized exactly where it had landed earlier. In the empty console room, with the Cloister Bell still tolling, the monitor counted down: 3:36, 3:35, 3:34.
"It's come, Doctor," Rassilon replied. "The universe's final minutes. And they've arrived. The Names. The Lilith of the Calculus. The Genocide Babies. The Death of Music. The Absence. The Rapists of Pi. From the millions of galaxies you've never seen, the millions of millennia you've never visited. They have come for the Final Sanction."
"No."
"Yes, Doctor! Either we invoke it, destroying the Universe at its end, middle and beginning, and live forever, or entities of unimaginable malice will, destroying every conception of life! There is no other choice!"
"No, Rassilon, there has to be another way!"
"I do not have the time to argue with you," Rassilon declared, as screaming figures flew towards the Cathedral. He aimed his blaster at the Doctor. "And you have no time at all."
Suddenly a shock wave hit the city, causing chaos and destruction, scattering the screaming figures and forcing the two men to the "floor" of the rooftop.
"What was that?" the Doctor asked. Rassilon dashed to the computer screens and started searching. And then he saw the helpless woman who looked like Rose Tyler. "It's the Moment."
"What moment?" Then the Doctor realized: "You mean the Moment?!"
A second shock wave hit the city, and both men had to grab the computer station. "It appears we have a third choice," Rassilon explained.
"Nine waves of power," the Doctor realized.
Rassilon saw footage of the person leaving the Moment behind. He quickly found a good angle to see who it was, and retrieved another image, that of Romana's corpse from when she had been shot. It was the same person. "She deliberately put her body in the same chamber as the Could Have Been King!"
"You still have the Could Have Been King?" the Doctor shouted as a third wave hit.
"Of course! We need his paradox power! I put him in a special tomb that nothing could destroy—except for the Moment."
"Wait, there are two of her?" the Doctor yelled, as a fourth wave hit.
"She must have used the same temporal duplication process I did!"
"I don't understand. Why would Romana be doing this?"
Rassilon looked at the Doctor with shock, as he realized just how wrong his final gambit had turned out. "Romana?"
"Yes. She was an agent of Carmel. Drax was her immediate superior. Surely you know that?"
"No, no, no," Rassilon groaned as a fifth wave hit. "Doctor, I froze out Drax months before the end of the Time War, because he was soft on you." Rassilon quickly composed himself. "Doctor, do you remember when Councilor Hedin stole your bio-data extract to allow Omega to return?"
"Of course."
"What you don't know is that at the same time, Romana's bio-data extract was taken as well. At the time, the Council thought Hedin made a mistake, and tossed it aside because Romana was still in E-Space. Therefore, it wouldn't allow Omega to enter our universe. But during the Time War I sent soldiers to find Romana and bring her back. Only to find her and her Tharil friend murdered."
"What?!" the Doctor shouted as the sixth wave hit.
"Don't you understand, Doctor? That isn't Romana!"
Coda
Rassilon tried to explain as the Doctor took in this information. "I should have realized it, Doctor. There was a time gap between my countdown and the Malachi cir…" But just then the seventh wave hit, razing nearly all the Capital, and hitting the Cathedral so hard that the Doctor was forced to the stairs. He turned and saw the wave hit the TARDIS, smashing it to pieces. Various rooms of the TARDIS flew into the air, only to be destroyed in turn by the shock wave.
Rassilon looked at a computer, then the gap between him and the stairs, and then at the Doctor. Quickly he chose. He adjusted his blaster, and fired at the Doctor.
Instead of the blow killing the Doctor, it pushed him down the stairs. A dazed Doctor saw the peridot from Rassilon's costume tossed towards him as Rassilon himself shouted. "You have to stop her! You're the only one who…"
And then the eighth wave hit, destroying everything on the rooftop and almost all the city as well. Romana's corpse glowed with special energy, then surged into a secret chamber just as the eighth wave annihilated the surrounding pyramid.
Notwithstanding his pain, the Doctor snatched the peridot, and dashed to the computers and machines. Ashildr spoke out: "Doctor, if we could only hold on for forty-five seconds!"
"We don't have fifteen!" The Doctor was a flurry of quick motions and typing as he desperately sought a solution. "Stay near me Ashildr! Using every temporal and extra-dimensional trick! Cutting it very close! We won't have a sec…"
And then he vanished.
Ashildr turned and in her final second saw the Ninth Wave destroying her, Gallifrey, all the entities and the bubble itself, reducing everything to particles humans would never conceive of, as the universe itself died.
"…ond to spare," the Doctor said as he reappeared. It was cold, dark, yet darkness visible. He turned around and saw Petronella about ten feet above and behind him.
She smiled. "The hybrid will stand in the ruins of Gallifrey." She opened her purse and dumped the debris she had collected earlier. "La-ta-ta-ta-ta-da," she said as she conducted a desultory soft shoe. "The Zygons?" the Doctor wondered. "Oh hardly, Doctor. You're alarmed. As well you should be. It's so easy for me to defeat you, to completely reduce you to a state of helpless terror. With one just word, I can completely remove all hope from you. Just one word, Doctor, just one word. Midnight."
TV Guide preview Episode #12 Eclipse
The Doctor, after suffering the greatest defeat in all his regenerations, now finds himself fleeing for his life in the void between the universes. Only the most unexpected of allies can help him. Meanwhile Captain Jack Harkness and Romana flee from the minions of Spencer.
TV Guide preview Episode #13 Unglucklich das Land, das Helden notig hat
The Doctor, with no TARDIS, no Time Lords, no companions, no weapons, and with less than an hour to live, must find a way to defeat Spencer's plan to destroy the universe, and everything else. But which Doctor is the one to do it? And who can he call on for aid?