The Doctor was holding her hands up, trying her best to get the situation under control before it got out of hand. They weren't currently getting the best reception. It was the three of them (her, Yaz and Dan) mirrored by the other three, one group trying to put a bit of distance between the two parties whilst the other slowly closed in. Carol looked ready to fight with her fists clenched and her eyes on the cusp of glowing. Wong was looking at them sternly. The projection of Kamala's bangle had disappeared, his magic now being focused on self defence just in case he was right about these people standing in front of him.

Kamala, though…she didn't look like she wanted to turn against them on a whim. If anything, she looked hurt, looking at them pleadingly as if she needed them to assure her that they weren't anything monstrous, as if she couldn't bear the thought of them having lied to her this whole time. The Doctor wanted nothing more than to tell her that was the case, that they would never do anything to hurt her. But would the others listen? From their looks, it was if the three of them had threatened them upon arrival. The Doctor felt that she'd been perfectly hospitable up to this point and believed their reaction was over the top. How could she say that to them and still sound pleasant?

"Who are you?" Carol questioned them.

The Doctor had subtly placed herself in between the others and Yaz and Dan in the effort to give them a bit of protection. What she could actually do to stand in the way of the supposed most powerful woman in the cosmos and the sorcerer supreme was a completely different matter. "Look, you have this all wrong! We're no threat to you or anyone in this reality! You need to calm down, that's it! Let's just talk about this over a cup of tea and a few custard creams. Do you have custard creams? I mean, in America. Not this universe. Although do you have them in this universe? Because that might be a reality I couldn't survive in. Imagine living without custard creams. Imagine being the one to invent them! Oh, I could start a business! I'd be raking in money left, right and centre."

"Doctor," Yaz murmured. "You're rambling."

"Sorry. Just a bit nervous. Not about this whole situation because I truly think you won't hurt us without proper reason. It's just that whole custard cream thing really threw me for six."

"Doctor," Dan echoed his friend in warning. Now wasn't the time for her to be behaving like she normally did.

"They didn't know anything," Kamala said sadly, looking to Carol and Wong. "About this world. They didn't know that superheroes existed or about anything that's happened in the past. Nothing about Thanos…or New York."

"We weren't keeping the truth from you to hurt you," the Doctor told her, hoping that she would believe her. "It was just easier that way. So much was going on that we really didn't need that getting thrown in the mix."

"So you admit that you weren't telling the truth." Wong was quick to pick up on her remarks. She hated it when people actually chose to listen to her when she didn't want them to. How many times had she been ignored at vitally important times? It really was a pain how life worked sometimes.

"I'd call it hiding certain facts to streamline events. No point getting bogged down in how we came to be here when Kamala was in trouble. Would it have helped, really? We were stuck in space. Not the best place to stop and have a chat."

"Are you from a different universe?" Wong asked, cutting to the chase.

"One that's remarkably similar to this one. Just without the…you know…superheroes and…stuff."

"That's all I needed to know." He moved quickly, his hand planting against her chest, sparks of golden energy fizzing from his fingers. For a second, nothing happened. He looked momentarily confused, especially when her own hands began to glow with a different kind of golden energy, wavy wisps threatening to take hold.

"No…not like this," she whispered in abject fear. But then the power began to dissipate, falling back into her digits, and her body felt like it was being thrown backwards, like it was being separated from its natural tether.

Not having any clue what was happening and unable to see the effects of the spell, Yaz and Dan simply saw the Doctor fall unconscious, slumping forward whilst still managing to remain on two feet. Kamala jumped back, afraid of what she was seeing. She hadn't wanted the woman to get hurt as a result of her suspicions.

Yaz's heart was racing. "What have you done to her?" she yelled in panic, desperately grasping the Doctor's arms, which were limp and lifeless.

"You need to calm down," Carol warned her, stepping forward.

"Or what?" Dan returned. "Are you going to attack us too for no reason? Is that how it works here?" He looked around frantically, trying to find anything that he could use to defend himself. The closest thing to him was a heavy tome, which he picked up and brandished chaotically. "Don't go anywhere near Yaz or I won't be afraid to use this. You might have superpowers but I've survived on the streets of Liverpool. I know a thing or two."

"I have simply placed her on the astral plane," Wong told them.

"Is that supposed to mean anything to us?" Yaz asked, wondering if she should get a book for herself.

"She isn't being harmed. It's simply the easiest way for me to find out the truth of her existence. Nothing can hide on this plane, unlike the secrets of our own dimension."

The Doctor felt like she was floating. Mainly because, it turned out, she was floating. She was still in the library, still able to see Yaz and Dan by her side. By her body, which she currently wasn't in. The Doctor didn't want to panic but if any situation warranted such a reaction, then this was it. Not knowing what else to do, she tried to call out for Yaz, always her first port of call. As good as it was to know that she could still speak, it was incredibly troubling to find out that none of them could see. If she had seen herself floating around the place, she would have probably shown a bit more shock than her friends.

Only Wong appeared to be taking in her presence, occasionally glancing in her direction whilst he spoke to them. Their voices seemed distant and disconnected, like they were being distorted through some barrier. The Doctor tried to reach for her body, as if touching it would bring her back. But, the closer she seemed to get, the further her body would be dragged away by some unseen force. She could feel her chest constricting. She might have thought that the agonising process of being ripped from her body would have stopped hurting by now, but it felt like something was still happening to her. And that was when Wong showed the first sign of concern.

"Oh no."

The Doctor turned her head as she heard the voice coming from behind her. A distinctively Scottish accent. She found a pair of wild, intimidating eyebrows in front of her, matching a mop of curly, grey hair. It was a distinctive face that she remembered all too well.

"What sort of trouble have you gotten us into this time?" he asked. He was as easily disgruntled as she remembered.

"Me? Why are you blaming me for this?" she argued back. If there was one thing she was good at, it was arguing with herself. She'd had years of practice.

"Because I'm you and I'm pretty certain this is exactly the sort of thing I'd inadvertently do."

"Inadvertently being the key word here!" She pouted, trying to fold her arms but quickly discovered that they just went through each other. "At least you're accepting who I am. We're not normally that cooperative. I was fully expecting you to complain a lot more than this."

"Maybe it's the vertigo I'm currently experiencing that's stopping the impending dread I'm feeling about the safety of my future. I always thought I might be the last, you know. I always thought I'd give up with the running."

"Trust me, you tried. And it's times like these that make me question why I even bothered to carry on!" She was practically trying to swim back to her body, but her former self's presence seemed to be holding her back. Wong appeared completely befuddled by what he was seeing.

"Excuse me!" another voice sounded, and a head popped up behind her Scottish counterpart. "But I never had us pegged for being such defeatists! We should be enjoying this! It's quite fun once you start relaxing. It's like being in a hot tub."

"How did you manage to get a fez?" she asked, throwing her arms up into the air.

"We're experiencing a completely different existence and that's what you ask me? Not…how are you doing? I've been trapped inside your head for decades. I'm going to make the most of it whilst I'm out."

"At least you got better dress sense over the years," the Scottish one grumbled.

"Look at her! She's all rainbows! Actually…I quite like it. I somehow pull it off. And I have to admire the braces."

"Ugh, not again." A new one entered the fray, slicked up hair and red converse standing out. "I've already had to put up with your face before and now I've got it right in front of me. When I said I didn't want to go, this isn't what I was implying!"

"Of course you have to turn up. You always turn up. You can't possibly miss an event like this. People will be sick of the sight of your face after a while. And that gurning grin you always seem to wear when you think you're being more clever than everyone else in the room."

"I happen to like my face, thank you very much! And what people? We're the only ones here! As for being more intelligent…I can't help that I'm so good. We share the same brain. You're insulting yourself."

"It's worth it just to deflate that ego of yours."

"Again, it's your ego as well! What aren't you understanding about this?"

"Mainly the bit about how we ended up floating!" the Scottish one pointed out, trying to corral them like toddlers.

"Magic," the current occupant of their body told them. "And I know what you're going to say because I obviously know how your brains work. Brain? Doesn't matter. Obviously, magic shouldn't exist but we shouldn't also be able to communicate like this so I'm at a loss!"

"These are the safe pair of hands guiding us right now?" Sandshoes asked.

"I never said that they were safe! I thought you of all of me would like my appearance at least. You always had a thing for blondes."

"Actually, I think I started that tradition." Another one, this time wearing a leather jacket. "Though he definitely took it to the extreme once I was gone. Can I just say how good it is to hear myself have a proper Northern accent again? I can actually understand you, instead of these poncy southerners."

"Scotland's in the North," Eyebrows pointed out.

"Not the proper North."

"Why am I here? What's going on?" a grumpy voice entered the mix. She was running out of nicknames for them now. Could she call this one Goatee? "This is definitely something I've done without choice."

"Why are you here? I thought we kicked him out of the club."

"He got reinstated," Bowtie explained. "It's a very long story. Basically, I saved the day."

"We all saved the day," Eyebrows corrected him. "Well, maybe not her but we can't blame her for that. We hadn't afforded the upgrade by that point."

"I'm certainly not the Doctor that I was expecting." Yet another body was floating with them now, all of them forming an ethereal conga. They would be running out of room soon if this carried on. He was wearing a velvet jacket but she was disappointed that his long, floppy hair had been left behind, instead sporting his shorter haircut. She'd always liked the floppy hair. "Can someone run me up to the speed with what's going on?"

"What do you think?" More Scottish, this one rolling his r's a lot more. He was wearing more question marks than any sane person would ever have chosen to. "We've gotten ourselves into yet another tight spot. I know I was always trying to find the truth of our existence but this is too far, even for me."

"Can't we focus on the really disturbing thing here?" Great. Technicolour Dreamcoat had arrived at the party, somehow giving them all a haughty look despite them being the same person . "The fact that, over the years, our fashion sense really became drab . When did we stop being so outlandish? I mean, look at this! Leather jackets, tweed …that one towards the end is wearing a hoodie for goodness sake! Match that with the sunglasses and he looks like some punk rocker!"

Eyebrows was looking more exasperated with each one that popped up. "That's what I was going for!"

"I always knew it would go downhill after me. You can't beat the classics. You just have to look at who's behind me. He's wearing a stick of celery! You couldn't do that nowadays."

"Wherever I go, that's always the first thing that people bring up," the next one sighed, twiddling said vegetable. "They forget that there's a person behind the celery. Did you know that I like cricket?"

"You never shut up about it!" Question Marks answered back sharply. "I made sure to hide that godforsaken bat just in case we reverted back to that hellish time. We're not built for exercise."

"But…it was also fun, wasn't it?"

"No one's ever called cricket fun," Sandshoes broke the news to him. "And that's coming from me, the one who loves you the most."

"Now, now!" A deep, booming baritone commanded. "Let's not insult one another. We should make the most of this strange opportunity and give ourselves some entertainment! Do you think that, if I stretched my scarf out completely, it would be able to wrap around all of us? It'd certainly bring us closer together, quite literally. We've always been a rather disparate bunch."

"Will you clowns keep the noise down?" The one that looked like a fancy James Bond was peering through the winding scarf of his successor. "I'm trying to sneak up on our captor so that I can take him down. He may be a wizard but he's never come across a spot of Venusian Aikido."

"You can't attack a wizard with kung fu!" Technicolour Dreamcoat complained. "Why were we so violent back then?"

"I think you'll find that you were more violent than all of us put together," the cricketer remarked. "I still haven't forgiven you for what you did to dear Peri."

"I was having a bad day! We've all had them!"

Rainbows (why was she giving herself a nickname now?) was struggling to keep abreast of the situation. Under normal circumstances, she would have marvelled at what she was experiencing. But she was still trying to focus on her friends below, as unprotected as they now were from the threats of their current universe.

"As much as I love a bit of Venusian aikido myself," she remarked. "We need to find a way to get back to where we're supposed to be. Surely we've got enough brains between us to figure this one out. We just have to work together!"

"It's no use." Was that a recorder playing she could now hear? They all groaned as they realised what that meant. "I've been in these situations more than all of you combined. I'm always the one to get thrown together with my other faces. And, if there's one thing I've learnt from those experiences, it's that we simply can't work together."

"We've managed it before. Begrudgingly."

"Our freshest face is right." There was still one to come, and he'd popped up in the nick of time. "We can do this. You just need an overseer, hmm? It's a role I've filled in before when I've had to control myself. Literally. If I managed to keep the dandy and clown in front of me in check, then there's no reason why I can't do it with all of you."

"I don't think you're going to have the time." Ah, this was where things got complicated. Her other selves had been expecting One to be the last, and yet she knew that there was plenty more where that came from. Ruth was standing there, looking so impossibly cool even as she floated like the rest of them. Could she actually call her Ruth? It was like calling herself John Smith, she supposed.

"Who are you?!"

"I'd also like to know that," Sandshoes concurred.

"We really don't have time for that explanation," Rainbows told them firmly. "I'm still trying to figure that one out for myself…ugh, do you feel that?" Her chest was feeling funny again. She looked at the others, watching them phase in and out of view. It was dizzying and nauseating, so much so that she closed her eyes tightly. When she opened them, she was standing back on firm ground. As soon as she began to move, a surprisingly difficult thing to get used to after being so weightless, Yaz was pouncing on her, wrapping her in a tight hug in relief.

Wong was staring at her. "What was that? I've never seen that sort of thing before."

"You've got a cheek, saying that," the Doctor responded. "What did you do to me?"

"Separated your soul from your body," he answered as if it were perfectly natural.

"And do you go around doing that to lots of people?"

"It's a harmless way of exposing a potential threat…as well as efficiently showing a non-believer to the powers we have access to."

The Doctor was wringing her neck. She had an awful crick in it now. "It's certainly done that. You just weren't expecting there to be a lot more to my soul than a regular person."

"There were multiple people there! I could have allowed it to continue but it was becoming too much of a strain, even for my powers. You are a…marvel!"

"We've got an abundance of them now," Kamala commented drily. She hadn't told Carol what her potential new superhero name could be just in case it made things awkward."

"You saw my other selves," the Doctor explained.

Yaz's eyes went wide. "You mean I missed the chance to see the white haired Scotsman?"

"And the rest."

"Is anyone else not following this?" Dan asked with a frown.

Carol held up her hand. "I'm also extremely confused."

The Doctor didn't want to be having this conversation but knew that it would make things simpler. "Do you remember when I said that I didn't have any superpowers? Well, it's not strictly that but…I can regenerate my body if it gets sufficiently damaged. And…in the process, my entire appearance changes. That's what you saw, Wong. It was my soul, every single one of them. They just happened to look different."

"And you don't see that as a superpower?" Kamala asked in wonder.

"No, not really. A superpower wouldn't come with that much pain and self doubt, but I'm not going to get into those details today."

"After viewing you in your entirety, you don't appear to be a threat to our existence," Wong said, though his tone still made him sound unsure.

"Finally! You see sense!"

"But I still need to know how you came to be here. Multiversal travel should be impossible, barring a few individuals and incantations."

"We crashed! I could have told you that! Even ask Kamala! Our ship was completely dead when we managed to save her. The truth of the matter is that we don't know what caused it to crash though."

"So it could be an accident," Carol supposed, her arms folded, guarded.

"Or someone wanted them to be here," Wong hypothesised. "Which is a more troubling possibility."

"Is there any way of finding out which it is?" Yaz asked.

"The boundaries between realities have become weaker than ever before. Your arrival could signal an influx of such events. I met someone very recently who can traverse the multiverse. If anyone could have seen what happened to you, it would be her. The only issue, of course, with someone with such powers, is finding them."