Welcome back all, and enjoy! A couple of folks have asked if we'll see Max again-as Doctor Song would say, spoilers! ;)
On Okichitaw, the martial arts style Barry mentions in this chapter that he learned from Max: It incorporates the fighting techniques of the Plains Cree First Nations. As Max canonically lived with the Blackfoot Clan, and is a time traveller, it's hardly a stretch to imagine that he could have learned from them.
Could really use Barry right about now, the Doctor thought idly as he glanced out a window. A woman named Donna Noble having somehow been teleported into his TARDIS and kicked up a fuss, he'd brought her back to Chiswick for her wedding, only to find that they'd missed it, and that she was being hunted by the robot Santas Barry and the Smiths had told him about from the previous Christmas. Now, the robots were surrounding the wedding reception, and one of them raised a remote control.
The Doctor spun to see the baubles on the room's Christmas tree beginning to rise and float through the air. He tensed, hand going automatically for his sonic screwdriver…and a portal burst into life in the middle of the room. Bluish-white in color, it crackled and spat. The Doctor's eyes narrowed.
From it erupted a reddish-orange blur of lightning, a familiar figure at the center of the storm. Moving too fast for human eyes to comprehend, he raced in a circle around the tree, grabbing each of the baubles, and threw them into the portal, which zipped itself closed behind him a second later. The Flash skidded to a stop, a burnt pattern in the carpet mutely testifying to his speed.
"Hey, Doctor," Barry grinned. The Time Lord froze, stunned, for a moment, then ran and scooped up his friend in a giant bear hug, spinning him around.
"Barry!"
Behind them, the roboforms entered, weapons primed and ready.
"Ah. Yes. Never waste time in a hug. Nice job, by the way."
"Thanks!"
"Now then," he raised his voice. "Oi, Santa! Word of advice. If you're going to attack a man with a sonic screwdriver…don't let him near the sound system."
One sonic attack later, and the robots were no more. As the guests huddled together, Barry and the Doctor examined the robots, finding a remote control mechanism in one of their heads.
"What happened to you?"
"I went into the Speed Force," Barry told him, eyes distant. "It…scooped me up, I guess you could say. Met a guy called Max Mercury. Old friend of yours."
"Oh, Max," the Doctor smiled reminiscently. "Yeah, we ran together a bit, back in the day."
"He taught me Okichitaw, which is this really cool martial arts style, and a bunch of speedster tricks. Dunno how long I was in there—a week? Six months?"
He shrugged, made a face. "Time isn't really meaningful in there. And I…I saw my mom. Then they let me back."
"Good to see you," the Doctor smiled.
"Likewise."
Followed by Donna and her fiancé Lance, they hurried outside, discovering that the signal was coming from up above.
"Something in the sky!"
"Spaceship in orbit?" Barry asked him, and the Time Lord nodded.
"Right, business as usual then. Where to next?"
"I've lost the signal," the Doctor snapped. "Donna, we've got to get to your office. HC Clements, I think that's where it all started. Lance! Is it Lance? Lance, can you give me a lift?"
"HC Clements?" Barry asked as they sat in the back of Lance's car.
"Locksmiths, where they work," the Doctor explained quietly. "Sole proprietor—Torchwood."
Barry hissed in a breath through his teeth.
"So be ready for anything, is what you're saying?"
"Yep."
"Well. At least we've got the Dynamic Duo together again!"
The Doctor winked.
"Torchwood was destroyed, but HC Clements stayed in business. I think someone else came in and took over the operation," the Doctor explained as he hurried through the office to a computer terminal.
"But what do they want with me?" Donna asked.
"Somehow you've been dosed with Huon energy. And that's a problem, because Huon energy hasn't existed since the Dark Times. The only place you'd find a Huon particle now is a remnant in the heart of the TARDIS."
He went on to explain that the particles inside her had been attracted to the ones inside the TARDIS, before leading them into an elevator and pressing a button for a level not shown on the official plans.
"You telling me this building's got a secret floor?" Lance gaped.
"No, I'm showing you this building's got a secret floor," the Doctor replied, and Barry sniggered.
Below, they emerged into an eerie-green lit tunnel, and swiftly found transport—Segways, to be precise, which the Doctor found hilarious. His laughter was contagious, and it spread to Barry, who laughed too, and then Donna joined in. The three of them chuckled like idiots as they wheeled, with Lance giving them an "are you crazy look" that just made them laugh all the harder. Upon finding a ladder behind a doorway, the Doctor reported, after climbing up, that they were right underneath the Thames flood barrier.
"What, a secret base hidden under a major London landmark?" Donna gaped.
"I know, unheard of," the Doctor replied, to which Barry coughed into his fist.
They swiftly found the laboratory where Torchwood had been creating Huon particles.
"These particles, are they dangerous?" Donna asked. "Am I safe?"
"Yes."
"Doctor, if your lot got rid of Huon particles, why did they do that?" Donna insisted. He sighed and closed his eyes.
"Because they were deadly."
"Oh, my God," she breathed.
"I'll sort it out, Donna," he promised. "Whatever's been done to you, I'll reverse it. I'm not about to lose you."
"Oh, she is long since lost," a voice boomed out of nowhere. A fake wall slid up, revealing another room beyond.
"I have waited so long, hibernating at the edge of the universe until the secret heart was uncovered and called out to waken!"
Black-robed robots, more of the scavengers, pointed their guns at the little group.
Wait, where'd Lance go? Barry wondered, looking around.
"Someone's been digging," the Doctor noted, strolling to the edge of a pit in the center of the new room. "Oh, very Torchwood. Drilled by laser. How far down does it go?"
"Down and down, all the way to the center of the Earth!" the voice claimed.
"Really?" the Doctor frowned. "Seriously? What for?"
"Dinosaurs," Donna suggested, referencing the film. "Trying to help."
"That's not helping."
"Good movie, though," Barry nodded. "Book's better."
"So very sweet," the voice crooned.
"Show yourself! Only a mad man talks to thin air, and trust me, you really don't want to make me mad," the Doctor ordered.
"Don't make me angry," Barry growled in an undertone. "You wouldn't like me when I'm angry."
"What?" Donna asked, and he shrugged sheepishly as the Doctor visibly struggled to hide a smile. "Never mind."
A flash of light illuminated the dais, and when it faded, it revealed a ten-foot-tall crimson alien with the legs of a spider and the body of a woman, like a ginormous, arachnid centaur.
"Okay, if someone said "big spider," I'd think a few inches," Barry breathed. "But that's…"
"Racnoss," the Doctor breathed. "But that's impossible. You're one of the Racnoss?"
"Empress of the Racnoss," it corrected him.
"The fledgling empires wiped them out ages ago," the Doctor explained in an undertone. "Gallifrey, Krypton, Oa, a few others. But it looks like one of them survived. Unless…" he raised his voice again. "You're the last of the Racnoss! The Racnoss are carnivores, omnivores," he continued. "They consumed whole planets."
"Racnoss are born starving!" she bellowed. "Is that our fault?"
"It is if you choose to eat people!" Barry called back.
"They eat people?" Donna put in, aghast. The Doctor silently pointed out a pair of shoes sticking out of the web, high above.
"Oh, man," Barry grimaced. His eyes were drawn to Lance, who was sneaking up behind the Empress with an axe in hand. He winced—this was not going to end well. As it turned out, he was right, though not for the reason he'd thought. Lance began to swing, the Empress turned and hissed…and both started to laugh.
"I'm sorry," the Doctor said quietly, and Barry's heart began to sink.
"Sorry for what?" Donna demanded. "Lance, don't be so stupid! Get her!"
"God, she's thick," Lance sneered. "Months I've had to put up with her. Months. A woman who can't even point to Germany on a map."
"I don't understand," Donna said quietly, eyes wide.
"How did you meet him?" the Doctor asked.
"In the office."
"He made you coffee."
"Huon particles in liquid form," Barry shook his head. He would've facepalmed, except he didn't want to take his eyes off the alien.
"He was poisoning me," Donna realized.
"It was all there in the job title," the Doctor noted, raising his eyebrows. "The Head of Human Resources."
"This time, it's personnel."
The Empress sissed as Lance continued, never taking his eyes off Donna. "I couldn't risk you running off. I had to say yes. And then I was stuck with a woman who thinks the height of excitement is a new flavour Pringle. Oh, I had to sit there and listen to all that yap yap yap. Oh, Brad and Angelina. Is Posh pregnant? X Factor, Atkins Diet, Feng Shui, split ends, text me, text me, text me. Dear God, the never ending fountain of fat, stupid trivia. I deserve a medal."
"Oh, is that what she's offered you?" Barry sneered. "I knew a dozen guys just like you in high school. You think you're so cool, and charming, but you have no problem seducing a woman and filling her with poison! You're just a grown-up high school bully."
Lance scoffed. "Please. I get to hang with an Empress. How many high school bullies can say that?"
"But I love you," Donna said quietly.
"That's what made it easy," he sneered. "It's like you said, Doctor. The big picture. What's the point of it all if the human race is nothing? That's what the Empress can give me. The chance to go out there. To see it. The size of it all. I think you understand that, don't you, Doctor?"
"Doesn't matter how much stardust you get exposed to," Barry shot back. "You can stand six feet tall, or twelve, and at the end of the day you're still an insect."
"Kill them!" the Racnoss ordered.
Barry tensed, lightning flickering across his eyes. But as it turned out, he didn't need to do anything, as the Doctor pulled out the container of Huon particles and twisted the knob on top. Moments later, they were safe and sound in the TARDIS, which dematerialized, spinning under the Doctor's hands back through time to the creation of the Earth. As the Doctor danced around the console and babbled, Barry gently reached out to Donna and rubbed her arm.
"Thanks," she sniffed.
As they arrived, the two humans moved to join the Doctor at the doors. He thought back to one of his first adventures with the Doctor, which felt so very long ago, watching the Earth be consumed by the sun.
"And here it is," he muttered to himself. "Just starting out."
He closed his eyes for a moment, feeling uniquely blessed. How many people in the world—in the universe—could say that they'd watched the beginning and the end of their own planet? He knew, instinctively, that the memories would stay with him forever.
"Puts the wedding in perspective," Donna muttered. "Lance was right. We're just tiny."
"No, but that's what you do," the Doctor shook his head. "The human race makes sense out of chaos. Marking it out with weddings and Christmas and calendars. This whole process is beautiful, but only if it's being observed."
"It's amazing," Barry said quietly, and the Doctor grinned at him. "We came out of this. Stardust. And we're gonna last billions of years on. That planet, that brand-new one, it's gonna hold everyone. All of human history, every person, every animal, every building and civilization, just…just everything."
"Isn't it brilliant?"
As they watched, a Racnoss spaceship, like a seven-pointed star, floated into the middle of the cluster of rocks, attracting more and more to join it.
"It didn't hide in the center of the Earth," the Doctor breathed. "It became the center of the Earth!"
As they watched, the TARDIS shook around them, and they slammed the doors shut.
"What was that?" Donna asked.
"Trouble," the Doctor snapped, running back up to the console.
"Hadn't noticed, thanks," Barry put in, following him. "What's happening?"
The Doctor quickly explained that the Racnoss was pulling them back, but he was able to use the extrapolator to shove them sideways about two hundred yards, giving them a bit of latitude.
"But what do we do?" Donna asked.
"I don't know," the Doctor admitted. "I make it up as I go along. But trust me, I've got a history."
"No one better," Barry agreed. The Doctor grinned at him.
"Barry, scout around, okay? Let us know when she starts sending out those robots to find us."
"Got it," the speedster nodded, changed into his suit, and vanished in a second.
"How'd he do that?" Donna demanded.
"Oh, he got hit by lightning, which gave him access to an extra-dimensional source of energy," the Doctor shrugged, leading his friend along. As he explained why Lance had doused her with Huon particles, using her as a key to unlock their spaceship, he got so involved in his explanation that he didn't even notice her being dragged away. Just then, Barry appeared, seemingly out of nowhere.
"Doctor, the robots are everywhere," he announced. The Doctor sonicked open a door, revealing yet another one pointing a gun right at him.
"Hadn't noticed, thanks."
"My children are climbing towards me, and none shall stop them!" the Empress announced as a robot walked up the steps. "So you might as well unmask, my clever little doctor man."
"Oh well, nice try," he shrugged and did so, pointing his sonic screwdriver up at the web, where Donna hung like a fly.
"I've got you, Donna!"
The bride swung across the chamber on a strand of webbing, heading towards the wall, but as she approached, a blur of lightning flashed out of the shadows and caught her safely.
"Thanks," she growled, and Barry nodded to her.
"Flashy entrances suit you," the Doctor smirked, before growing serious and turning to the Empress.
"Empress of the Racnoss, I give you one last chance. I can find you a planet. I can find you and your children a place in the universe to co-exist. Take that offer and end this now."
She refused, naturally, and ordered her robots to take aim at the friends. They tensed…and the Doctor quietly ordered them to relax, pulling out a remote control from his pockets.
"Roboforms are not necessary!" the Empress snapped. "My children may feast on Martian flesh!"
"Oh, but I'm not from Mars," the Doctor told her quietly. This, Barry knew, was his danger voice.
"Then where?" the Empress growled.
"My home planet is far away and long since gone. But its name lives on."
The Doctor paused for effect, then added, "Gallifrey."
Now that got a reaction, the Empress rearing like a startled horse. "They murdered the Racnoss!"
"I warned you," the Doctor told her, and Barry shuddered to hear the tone in his friend's voice, colder than an Arctic winter. "You did this."
With that, he withdrew a handful of bombs and threw them into the air, then another, and another. They spun around the Empress, some shooting down the tunnel, others throughout the hallways. Wherever they went, they detonated, blasting holes in walls and ceilings that the Thames rushed into. A mighty wave roared into the tunnel, drowning the Racnoss children. As fire rose from below, water poured in from above, and the Racnoss screamed, the Doctor stood above it all, staring down like an angry god of destruction.
"You can stop now!" Donna shouted to him.
"Doctor, let's get out of here!" Barry agreed. His friend seemed to shake himself out a trance, then nodded and led the way up the ladder. As they climbed, the Empress' ship exploded high above them under tank fire, and the Racnoss were no more. There was just one more problem: They'd accidentally drained the Thames. A cacophony of boat horns shattered the night, and the three of them burst into laughter.
Not much later and well across the city, they stood around the TARDIS, outside Donna's home. There were no more Huon particles inside of her, the Doctor confirmed, but she'd lost her job and her husband in the same day.
"I'm sorry," Barry told her.
"We couldn't save him," the Doctor added, stuffing his hands in his pockets.
"He deserved it," Donna insisted, then looked away. "No he didn't."
As a Christmas gift, the Doctor hit a switch in the TARDIS, and sent a burst of energy careening into the sky, which came down as snow.
"So, what will you do with yourself now?" Barry asked, leaning back against the TARDIS.
"Not getting married, for starters," Donna shrugged. "And I'm not going to temp anymore. I don't know. Travel. See a bit more of planet Earth. Walk in the dust. Just go out there and do something."
"Good for you."
"Well, you could always come with us," the Doctor offered, but Donna turned them down.
"Right then. See you around, maybe. Thanks then, Donna. Good luck. And just…be magnificent."
"Bye, Donna," Barry smiled.
"Bye."
Waving farewell, Barry closed the TARDIS doors, and the ship flew off into the sky, carrying them off to new adventures once more.
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Next week: A future member of the Justice League makes his debut!
