Hello, hello, and hello! Welcome to Parting of the Ways. And thank you very much to LuciferRedeemed for your kind review!
"Damn it," Barry muttered, slamming the TARDIS doors behind him. The sun was shining, the wind was ruffling his hair, and he was absolutely miserable. Having been tricked into the TARDIS like a naive kid, the Doctor had sent him back home with a hologram message, and when he'd tried getting the TARDIS to send him back, the controls had been completely unresponsive.
"Damn, damn, damn!" Barry swore, running his hands through his hair and sinking down to sit with his back against the blue wooden doors.
He closed his eyes and buried his face in his hands.
God, what do I do now?
He thought of the Doctor grabbing his hand as they ran. He thought of watching a Dalek commit suicide; a Slitheen tearing its way out from a human suit; clockwork robots and Gelth and gas mask zombies. He thought of Charles Dickens and Nancy and the Face of Boe and Captain Jack and his mom and Kara and Sarah Jane.
God, they're going to be devastated.
Barry reached for his phone and paused. As a kid, he'd always gone to Joe or Iris. When he'd flunked his football try-outs, failed a test,gotten bullied, or just had a bad day, they had always been there for him. But this? He didn't even know where to start.
Yeah, hey, Iris, how are classes going? Well, actually, I haven't been to class recently because I've been busy traveling time and space with this alien guy and now he dumped me back here so I can sit around while he's going to die.
In the end, there was only one person he could really call.
"Hey, Barry," said Kara. "What's going on?"
"Hey. You got a minute?"
"Always."
There was a loud squealing noise from behind her. "Be quiet, Travis Polong! Sorry. Alien sluggy dude. Long story. So where are you? Or
should I say when?"
"Back on Earth. Modern day."
"So what's wrong?"
"It's a long story," he sighed.
"I have time. For you, Barry, I'll always have time."
"Thanks."
"Yeah. Of course."
Barry took a deep breath. "Well, see, I got super speed…"
"You what?"
"Yeah, I was in Cardiff with the Doctor and Captain Jack—he's this super-cool time agent from 3000 years in the future, and we stopped
Margaret Blaine—she survived that thing in London by teleporting, apparently—and then I got struck by lightning, and then I woke up a few
months or so later, and I had super speed, from all the weird radiation and stuff coming out of the Rift..."
"Wait, what?"
"Uh-huh. And we were heading to the nineteenth century to meet this other speedster, but the Doctor can't pilot the TARDIS accurately, so it
actually ended up being Kyoto in 1336…"
"Kyoto, Japan?"
"You know another one?" Barry asked, raising his eyebrows.
"Hey, it could be some alien planet named Kyoto," Kara pointed out, and he shrugged in acknowledgment.
"So after we got out of the civil war—barely-then there was this super-powerful teleport beam, which somehow got past the TARDIS shields and brought me into this game show in the future, and then I lost, which was not my fault, because there were a whole bunch of questions about, y'know, the future, so I got zapped onboard a Dalek ship, and let me tell you, it is not like "beam me up Scotty" at all, it's terrifying, and they held me hostage, except that didn't work, because the Doctor and Jack flew the TARDIS over and rescued me, and then the Doctor sent me home, and now they're going to be launching this defense against half a million freakin' Daleks and I'm just stuck here! Alone!"
Barry closed his eyes, leaning back against the wall. "I want to be there, you know? Even if the odds are impossible! We're always dealing with impossible odds! And…he's my friend. My best friend. He's like my second dad. Or third, after Joe. Or, or something."
"So why can't you?"
"The TARDIS is dead or something," Barry shook his head, even though he knew she couldn't see him. "The Doctor set it to drop me off here and shut down."
"And there's no way you can restart it?"
"No, it's kaput."
Kara sighed. "I'm sorry, Barry."
"Yeah."
"I mean, it's not like you can talk to the TARDIS and ask it nicely to bring you back."
"Yeah, no…wait, no, yes!" Barry jumped upright. "Kara, you're a genius!"
"I know," Kara ordered, and he could hear the smile in her voice. "Run, Barry. Run."
He ran.
"Hey," Barry said awkwardly as he entered the TARDIS. Nothing happened. He shrugged to himself. This ship's alive, the Doctor's voice
echoed in his mind from a previous conversation. She can hear us.
"Hey, so, listen," Barry said, putting his hands on the console. Was it his imagination, or did the round things brighten just a little at his touch?
"You know, I can't pretend to understand what you and the Doctor have gone through. Nine hundred years of time and space—I mean, I can barely even imagine living to a hundred."
The ship hummed under his feet.
"You've been through so much together. And he…" Barry sighed. "He's meant so much to me. He's like my best friend and the big brother I never had and a dad all in one. It can't end like this, it just can't!"
No response.
"Please," he begged. "He's gonna die, two hundred thousand years in the future, surrounded by the Daleks. Even if I have to die myself...I don't care. He shouldn't be alone. Please. Help us. Help him."
He closed his eyes, pressing his hands to the console. "Please."
Under his hands, the TARDIS hummed and whirred, but the central column remained still. When he opened his eyes, though, he noticed something he hadn't before. When he'd first come onboard, he remembered, the Doctor had shown him a bunch of controls.
"Those are the telepathic circuits…"
He reached over hesitantly. It can't be that easy. Hands trembling, Barry slipped his hands into the gaps on the console. If it's telepathic, I should just be able to think what I want.
"Here goes nothing," he muttered, and closed his eyes, focusing all of his willpower on a single thought.
Please. We have to save the Doctor. Please.
After a few seconds—or minutes, or eons, he was never sure afterwards—he heard a creaking noise, and one panel of the console opened.
Later, Barry could never describe what he saw. The events that followed seemed like a dream. The light was beautiful, transfixing, all-encompassing. Looking into it, Barry seemed to fall deeper and deeper while standing still and floating and soaring all at once. He was the TARDIS, and it was him. Sun and moon, night and day, time and space and entropy and order, all passed through his gaze and spun away. Dimensions unfolded like lotus blossoms, and reality became an infinitely branching steam of potential timelines, to be navigated and manipulated as he chose. Past, present, and future; that which could have been and must never be; those were merely steps away in the all-consuming dance of time. Supernovae and subatomic particles spun and whirled across his vision as he stepped forth from the TARDIS.
With the full power of the Time Vortex flowing through him, it seemed that there was nothing he could not do. He brought death, and brought life. With a word and a gesture, he reduced the Daleks to dust. Below, the continents of Earth, bombed by the fleet, reshaped themselves. Aboard the station, Captain Jack, slain by the Daleks, gasped into life. Far, far away, an energy shield shimmered into life and held firm.
"But this is wrong!" the Doctor cried. "You can't control life and death!"
"But I can," he replied simply. "The sun and the moon, the day and the night. But why do they hurt?"
"C'mere. I think you need a Doctor."
Barry woke up lying in the TARDIS, the Doctor hunched over the console.
"What happened?" he asked groggily.
"Don't you remember?"
"There was this singing…"
"That's right," the Doctor told him cheerfully. "I sang a song and the Daleks ran away."
"Makes sense," Barry nodded, deadpan. "I've heard you in the shower. But, seriously. I was…I was talking to Kara…then I was here…I don't remember."
"Barry Allen," the Doctor shook his head. "I was gonna take you to so many places. Barcelona. Not the city Barcelona, the planet Barcelona.
You'd love it. Fantastic place. They've got dogs with no noses!" He snorted. "Imagine how many times a day you end up telling that joke, and it's still funny."
"Doctor, what's wrong?"
"I absorbed the energy of the Time Vortex," the Time Lord explained mock-cheerfully. "No one's meant to do that."
He grimaced and made a face. "Every cell in my body's dying. Time Lords have this little trick, see. This way of cheating death. But it means I'm going to change. And I'm not going to see you again. Not like this. Not without this daft old face."
"Oh, is this the body-changing thing you told me about?" Barry asked.
"Yup. That's…ow!...that's the one."
"Anything I can do?"
"Just stay back. I'll be fine, but…it means I won't see you again. Not with this daft old face, anyway. And before I go…I just wanted to say that you were fantastic, Barry. Absolutely fantastic. And d'you know what?"
Barry shook his head, gripping a pillar and trying to stay upright. The Doctor beamed at him.
"So was I!"
"Good luck," he whispered. The Doctor nodded, then his head and arms snapped back, erupting with glowing yellow energy which poured from him like a volcano. It lasted a few seconds; it lasted an eternity. And when it was over, a new man stood in the Doctor's place. He paused, opened his mouth, and ran his tongue around his teeth.
"Hello. Oooh. New teeth. That's weird. So where was I? Oh, that's right. Singing!"
Right, so here's the deal: Season 2 is coming, but it may be a while before I can get it finished. The more reviews I get, though, the faster I write, so go ahead and let me know what you liked, what you didn't, etc. I will say now that Barry's got his speed, things are not going to be the same nearly as much as they were this past season.
People may be wondering about how Barry just got the TARDIS to open by asking nicely whereas Rose used a tow truck: First of all, it's been established multiple times that the TARDIS mostly flies herself, she just needs someone to help her along once in a while. Secondly, as fans of the Flash TV show know, giving hope speeches is practically Barry's second superpower.
And as for whether the Doctor removed the TARDIS energy from Barry the same way he did from Rose: That's for me to know, and you to imagine. ;) Though, personally, I doubt it. Anyway, until the next time, and don't forget to drop a note!
