Remnant Who
By ReaderWarrior
I do not own Doctor Who or RWBY.
The Long Game (B)
Beta'd by: Accepting Offers
As always, please comment! It honestly makes my day to read your thoughts and opinions.
Tell your friends!
Honorary (dead) companions:
Clive, Raffalo, Moxx, Jabe, Sneed, Gwyneth, Ganesh, De Maggio
'Bigger on the inside!'s:
2 (Rose, Jackie)
Fantastics:
8
Harriet Jones' greetings:
6
Exterminates!:
8
After being moved to a more private and clean surgical area, Adam was pushed down into a large chair.
"It all comes down to two basic types," the nurse explains and she pulls down a circular crown around his head. " Type one, the head chip inserted into the back of the skull, one-hundred credits." She holds out, on just the tip of her finger, a small circuit board. There's the chip. Tiny. Invisible. No scarring."
Ruby crossed her arms and glared at the screen. "I can't believe that this guy got the gift of traveling with the Doctor and is using it like this!"
"Deplorable," Weiss agreed. "Absolutely despicable and disgusting."
"And other adjectives that don't start with the letter 'D'," added Qrow.
"Type two is the full info-spike."
Adam gulps and points at his face. "Oh, um, that's the… thing?"
She nods. "That's the one. It does cost ten thousand."
"Oh, well, I, um - I couldn't afford it then." Adam pats his legs and moves to sit up.
"Not at all," she explains. The nurse reaches into her breast pocket and reveals the credit stick. "Turns out you've got unlimited credit."
"Dang it!" Yang cursed. "Stupid Doctor being too nice and giving unlimited money."
Weiss, who had noticed her funds had been refreshing less and less these past few months, gulped jealously. "A-absolutely unfair!"
Glancing to the side, Adam licks his lips. "No, but I… I couldn't have it done. I mean, that's gotta hurt, hasn't it?"
The nurse shook her head. "Painless. Contractual guarantee."
Blake frowned and crossed her arms. "A shame."
"No," Adam lies, chuckling aloud. "My, um, my mate's waiting upstairs, I can't have major surgery."
She walked behind the chair, moving to his left. "It takes ten minutes. That sort of money buys a very fast pico-surgeon."
"No, but I… I couldn't though, no."
"Does he want it or not?" Ruby asked, exasperated.
"Yes and no," the Librarian answered. "He wants the benefits, but none of the pain. Sort of how people go to the pool and want to swim but resist jumping in because they know it's too cold. Yeah, your body will adjust and you'll be fine, but it's that sort of fear of uncomfortability."
"But it's not guilt."
Tired of his uncertainty, the nurse leans down to his ear. "Type one," she explains, "you can interface with a simple computer. Type two, you are the computer. You can transmit any piece of information from the archive of Satellite Five which is just about the entire history of the human race."
She taps his shoulder with the stick. "Now, which one's it going to be?"
"If he wasn't going to use it like a lottery ticket, it would be smart to get the chip," Qrow sighed. "Heck - it might even be useful on future adventures where they might need to connect with a computer."
"But that is why he's doing it. Just to get rich from stealing alien stuff, like Statten," Yang growled in agreement.
"It's how it's used that determines whether it is right or wrong," the Librarian nodded. "But definitely don't give them to those who cannot be trusted."
"We are so going to get in trouble."
Standing guard, Cathica did very little to hide her disappointment and resentment as the Doctor, overshadowed by Rose, hunches over a control panel attached to a door. His sonic, whirling aloud, sweeps across the screen.
Like before, Ruby drooled slightly at the device. "Hey, since it's my birthday-"
"It was your birthday yesterday," Blake corrected. "And I don't think anyone here wants you to have that power of all technology."
Ruby grinned cheekily. "Technically, since it's a time machine, every day can be my birthday."
"Still… no."
"You're not allowed to touch the mainframe," Cathica continues, whispering harshly. "You're going to get told off."
"Rose, tell her to button it," the Doctor orders, not even bothering to look up.
"You can't just vandalize the place. Someone's going to notice!"
The sonic shuts off and the doors slam open, revealing a closet-sized room of electrical wires and servers. Green LEDs danced sporadically.
Above them, on the five-hundredth floor, the Editor watches in surprise and amusement, standing behind a line of his frozen workers. "I don't understand," he whispers. "We did a full security scan. That man was there when we found Suki Macrae Cantrell. There were no indications about him. And yet here he is, clearly acting outside the parameters."
He leans down next to one of the 'workers'. This one was new, barely a fleck of frost on her face or in her hair. "Fascinating," the Editor remarks to the now unblinking and unresponsive face of Suki Cantrell.
Team RWBY all gasped at the sight of the rebel.
"What did they do to her?" Weiss whimpered.
"They turned her into one of them," Blake realized. "Just like everyone else who comes up here."
"Is she…?" The words fell silent on Weiss's lips as she looked up to the Librarian with wet eyes.
He clenched his fists. "Almost. But not quite yet."
"Oh, Gods."
From the shadows, the Editor in Chief snarled. His henchman whirled around, smiling hard, and clasping his hands.
"Yes sir," he answered in between the animalistic sounds of the Chief. "Absolutely… At once." The editor then ran back to Suki and ordered her to "Check him." He continued down the row, leaning next to every one of the human computers. "Double check him. Triple-check him. Quadruple."
"He's not going to find anything, right?" Blake asked. "The Doctor's not in their database. He technically didn't get invited onto Satelillite Five so they shouldn't even recognize his being there."
Weiss shook her head uncertainly. "I don't know. Perhaps it will just ignore him?"
"Hopefully…"
The Doctor continues to grab at the wires, striking them against each other, and buzzing a few with his sonic screwdriver.
Glancing around them, Cathica finally raises her hands and turns away. "This is nothing to do with me. I'm going back to work."
Go on, then," the Doctor responds, barely glancing up. "See you!"
Cathica groans but stays put. "I can't just leave you, can I?"
"Why not?" asked Ruby.
"Cause she's already helped them to this point. And watched them break in. That makes her a witness at best." Qrow full another swig of a bottle. Surprisingly, he'd only finished two so far and was still working on his third.
"If you want to be useful," Rose interrupts, "get them to turn the heating down, it's boiling." In the cupboard, the Doctor freezes. "What's wrong with this place? Can't they do something about it?"
"I don't know, we keep asking. Something to do with the turbines."
"Something to do with the turbines," the Doctor repeats.
Weiss wrinkled her nose. "Why is he being so rude?"
"Not rude," the Librarian explained. "Just uncaring. He's figuring something out on his mind and can't waste the brainpower making himself likable."
"Still…"
Cathica whirls around. "Well, I don't know!"
"Exactly." The Doctor began to pull himself free from the claws of the cables. "I give up on you, Cathica. Now, Rose, look at Rose, Rose is asking the right kind of question."
"Ah, thank you."
"Why is it so hot?"
"One minute you're worried about the Empire and the next it's the central heating!" Cathica yells.
"Well, never underestimate plumbing," he smirks, returning back to the cupboard. "Plumbing's very important."
"It is?" Ruby and Yang exclaimed synchronizedly.
Qrow snorted. "You kids haven't had to suffer without it. Trust me, plumbing is a miracle."
"Security scan complete."
The Editor claps his hands. "Well, who is he?"
"He is no one."
"What does that mean?" he frowns.
"He is no one."
"What, you mean he has a fake ID?"
"He has no identification."
Yang patted Blake on the back at her correct assumption. "Good job!"
She smiled sheepishly in response. "It was a simple guess."
"But everyone's registered," he chuckles. "We have a census for the entire Empire!"
The computer doesn't recognize his snap. "He is no one."
"What, he doesn't exist? Not anywhere?"
"He is no one."
The Editor, who had begun pacing around the room, points up at the screen. "What about the blonde?"
"She is no one."
"Both of them?" he exclaims with another psychotic giggle. "Well, we all know what happens to non-entities. They get promoted." The Editor placed a hand on one of the workers. "Bring them up."
Qrow smirks. "You're gonna regret that, pal."
"The Doctor is going to stop you!" Ruby added. "You're going to regret…. Whatever it is you are doing!"
"Here we go," the Doctor smiles as he rips away a monitor from behind the mass of wires. He turns it outwards, showing Rose and Cathica a rendering of Satellite Five and its inner workings. "Satellite Five. Pipes and plumbing. Look at the layout."
The two girls step forward. Cathica, her jaw-dropping, grabs the screen. "This is ridiculous. You've got access to the computer's core. You can look at the archive, the news, the stock exchange… and you're looking at pipes?"
"Because it's important!" Ruby yelled.
The Librarian nodded. "But I wouldn't mind getting a glimpse behind that curtain…"
"You're a time traveler," Weiss smirked. "What needs do you have for monetary?"
"Psychic paper doesn't work on everything," he pouted.
"But there's something wrong."
"… I suppose."
Rose pushes forward. "Why, what is it?"
"The ventilation system," she explains, studying the blueprints. "Cooling ducts, ice filters, all working. Flat out channeling massive amounts of heat down."
The Doctor nods. "All the way from the top."
"Floor five-hundred," Rose gasped.
"But why?" Yang frowned. "Yeah, it was cold up there, but this is kind of ridiculous."
"Especially since that means this entire station was designed that way," the Librarian agreed.
"That means it's important," the blonde realized. "More than just keeping their computers cold."
"Something up there is generating tons and tons of heat," the Doctor explains.
"Well," Rose smiles, "I don't know about you, but I feel like I'm missing out on a party. It's all going on upstairs. Fancy a trip?"
Cathica faces the girl. "You can't. You need a key."
"Keys are just codes, and I've got the codes right here," the Doctor explains, moving forward to whisper to the computer. "Here we go. 'Override two-one-five-point-nine'."
"There is no way that works," Weiss whispered.
The monitor shuffles to the number 215.9 (with an additional .0976/31) and gives a happy chirp.
"How?!"
The Librarian shrugged. "I tend to establish an override in most systems whenever I go to a new world. But the Doctor's just playing some psychology."
"Psychology?"
"How come it's given you the code?" Cathica exclaims, her eyes practically popping out of her skull.
The Doctor looks straight into the camera - straight through the screen, and stares at the Editor. "Someone up there likes me."
With no other response to give, the Editor just laughs in amazement.
"So he knew that the Editor was watching him?" Ruby asked.
"Not specifically him, but whoever was in charge," Blake responded. "You can't run a police state like this and not be watching."
Back on Floor sixteen, Adam, and the nurse, was staring into a large mirror. "I told you it was painless," she smiles as he continues to rub the front of his forehead. "No scarring, you see? Perfect success."
"How do I activate it?" he gulps.
"It's a personal choice. Some people whistle. I know one man who triggers it with 'O, Danny Boy'."
"What's that?" Qrow asked.
"'O, Danny Boy' is an Irish ballad by Frederic Weatherly."
The Librarian nodded. "I love Bing Crosby's cover of it. My father used to sing that song to us. I'll give you a recording of it later."
"But you're set on default for now," she continues. "That's a click of the fingers."
Adam frowns. "So you mean, I just…"
The nurse lifts up her fingers as if to snap them. "Click," she reiterates.
"Seems simple enough for him," Blake hissed.
"If I was there," Yang nodded, "I'd be following him, snapping my fingers every second."
The Doctor, Rose, and Cathica ran over to the lift, where the doors have once again opened. While the first two eagerly rush inside, Cathica stops before getting in, earning a cry from Rose.
"Come on. Come with us."
She shakes her head. "No way!"
"Bye!" the Doctor waves.
"There he is again," Weiss sighed. "Being rude for no reason."
"Because he's trying to figure out what's going on!" Ruby responded.
"That doesn't mean he has to act like this to her. She's just not willing to risk herself for some random strangers."
"Well, don't mention my name. When you get in trouble, just don't involve me," she asks before running off.
The Doctor shook his head. "That's her gone, Adam's given up, looks like it's just you and me."
"Yeah."
"Good," he smiles.
Rose smiles back up at her compatriot as he presses a button. "Yep." Then the doors close and they were carried to the belly of the beast, holding each other's hands.
"As sweet as that is," Blake frowned, "I don't think this is the best idea."
"The Doc's gonna go up there and beat up the Editor and his boss. What's not to like?" Qrow asked.
"Well, whenever someone has taken him somewhere, he doesn't exactly have the best track record of perfect victories. He usually needs a plan beforehand like the anti-plastic. Otherwise, they almost die."
Yang gulped. "So unless he's figured out what he's dealing with… Someone might get hurt."
Snap!
The second Adam's fingers clicked together, a small port on his forehead opened up. He leans forward into the mirror, staring into his own skull, and taps on the metal triangles that opened outward. He snapped again, shutting the gate, and leaned back into the surgery chair.
"That's so disturbing," Weiss groaned.
"Especially if you can just… reach in… and…" Ruby's face paled halfway through her sentence.
"Don't remind me!"
"Oh, my God," he gasps. "I'm going to be sick."
Adam lunged forward, clutching his stomach. His mouth let out a retching sound and he frantically covered it. But as he sat up, his hands contained a single, fairly large, ice cube. He looked up quizzically at the nurse.
"Special offer," she explains. "We installed the vomit-o-matic at the same time. Nano-termites have been placed in the lining of your throat. In the event of sickness, they freeze the waste." The nurse then holds out a small pan, which Adam drops his ice of puke into.
"Okay," Qrow gulps. "Now that is disgusting."
The doors open quickly to the elevator on Floor five-hundred. The Doctor steps out first, taking in the sight of the snow-covered room, and licks his lips. "The walls are not made of gold. You should go back downstairs."
"Tough," Rose remarks as she pushes past him. Holding back a smirk, he follows quickly behind. Following the footprints on the ground, still visible from Suki's recent trek, they soon find the broadcasting room.
The Editor, standing behind his row of workers and staring at dozens of screens, turns to the duo as they enter and gives a cold smile. "I started without you," he explains. "This is fascinating. Satellite Five contains every piece of information within the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. Birth certificates, shopping habits, bank statements, but you two… You don't exist. Not a trace. No birth, no job, not the slightest kiss. How can you walk through the world and not leave a single footprint?"
"By not walking," Yang smirked. "They ride."
Ruby nodded. "But if he checked early Earth records, could he find out about Rose?"
"Maybe," the blonde shrugged.
The Doctor and Rose look around as the Editor monologues. After studying the workers, Rose notices the most recent addition and rushes forward. She grabs at the girl's shoulders and shakes her slightly.
"Suki! Suki! Hello? Can you hear me? Suki?" The girl doesn't respond and her hands and face remain glued to the screen and console. Rose whirls around, "what have you done to her?"
"I think she's dead," the Doctor whispers
Rose turns back to Suki and watches as her fingers twitch and the computer beeps. "But she's working."
"They've all got chips in their head, and the chips keep going." He glares up at the Editor. "Like puppets."
Blake clutched her chest. "That's horrible! Dead but not dead enough. Kept alive to be a slave! That might be why they keep it so cold up here, so that they can keep the 'maintenance' down."
Qrow growled and he 'accidentally' smashed an empty bottle to the ground. "If the Doctor doesn't stop this guy, I'll go there and kill him myself."
The Editor laughs and studies the Doctor. "Oh! You're full of information. But it's only fair we get some information back because apparently, you're no one. It's so rare not to know something. Who are you?"
Careful not to meet his eye, the Doctor turns back to the monitors. "It doesn't matter, 'cause we're off. Nice to meet you." He turns away and orders Rose to "Come on!" only just to get grabbed by two of the ice workers.
Members of the viewing party let out a surprised scream. "I thought they were dead!" Weiss gasped.
"Not enough. Those chips are controlling base functions but nothing with cognition," the Librarian frowned. Like a certain Walking Dead virus.
Strangely, Yang had a similar parallel. "Zombies," she whispered. "Why is it zombies again?!"
Similarly, Suki, or what remained of her, grabs Rose's arm as she tries to walk away. The two holding onto the Doctor held firm as he struggles against them. They turn him around, bringing him face-to-face with the Editor again.
"Tell me who you are."
"He's going to kick your butt!" Ruby yelled.
The Time Lord glares up at their captor. "Since that information's keeping us alive, I'm hardly going to say, am I?"
"Well, perhaps my Editor in Chief can convince you otherwise."
"And who's that?"
Glancing around, the Editor unhinged his jaw and kicked the front of his teeth. "It may interest you to know that this is not the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. In fact, it's not actually human at all. It's merely a place where humans happen to live."
"Humans have been here way longer than any alien I know of," the Librarian snapped. "Whatever the Editor-in-Chief is, it's a parasite, nothing more."
"Getting defensive?" Ruby asked.
"You would be too if I started throwing shade about Remnant."
Yang's eye twitched. Why stop at Shade? Why not throw Beacon too? she wanted to say. But the pun died on her lips at the grim situation.
A snarling and growling noise cuts through the computerized chatter. The Editor, flinching, reaches for his ear and nods. "Yeah. Yeah, sorry. It's a place where humans are allowed to live by kind permission of my client."
He points upwards to the source of the snarling. The Doctor and Rose look up in horror at the creature hanging down. The entirety of its body is tan and lumpy, like wet, smooth skin. At the center of the creature's mass, a pseudopod bites and snarls at them. Though it has no eyes or ears, it does display an almost uncountable set of pointy teeth in its maw.
"EWWW!"
Rose tries to take a step back but is stopped by Suki. "What is that?" she asks, her voice quivering.
Displaying equal levels of shock, and possibly even fear, the Doctor gasps and says, "you mean that thing's in charge of Satellite Five?"
"That 'thing', as you put it, is in charge of the human race," the Editor smiles. "For almost a hundred years, mankind has been shaped and guided. His knowledge and ambition strictly controlled by its broadcast news. Edited by my superior, your master, and humanity's guiding light, the Mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe." He spreads his arms like he's praising a god.
"I call him Max."
Seeing his honesty and sincerity, the Doctor smiles back at him at that closing remark before returning his gaze back up to Jagrafess.
Ruby, while clutching her stomach, gave a thumbs-up to the Doctor. "At least he hasn't lost his sense of humor! That means there's still hope for them."
"That," Qrow nodded, "or he's just trying to make sure the Editor doesn't see how scared he is."
"… let's stick with the hope thing."
Back down on Floor one-thirty-nine, Adam slowly makes his way from the elevator towards the hexagonal room from earlier. He panics, though, when it opens and Cathica runs out. He backs into the wall and pretends to lay with his watch until she disappears. Then, with no one in his way, he enters the room.
"And then there is this idiot," Weiss groaned.
Blake frowned in agreement. "He's going to download everything about the Earth just so he can use it when he gets home."
"If he gets home," the Schnee heiress corrected. "Without the Doctor, he doesn't have much of a way back."
Cathica, on the other hand, ran back to the panel the Doctor had ripped out earlier. She reaches through the mess of wiring and pulls the screen out, tapping it for a few moments, before watching a flurry of data rush by.
Her interest peaked, and having all she needed, Cathica ran over to the lift and stepped inside. Then she grabbed at one of the panels and pulled it down. A pad of numbers was behind it and she presses down the number 215.9.
The lift dings and the doors shut for one final ride upwards.
"I knew she'd make the right choice!" Ruby cheered.
"Let's just hope it won't be her last," Qrow added in a whisper so low, that he wasn't even able to hear.
"Create a climate of fear and it's easy to keep the borders closed," the Editor explains to the now-bound Doctor and Rose. Cuffs of thick, black metal kept their arms apart but locked tight against their chests. "It's just a matter of emphasis. The right word in the right broadcast repeated often enough can destabilize an economy. Invent an enemy. Change a vote." [1]
"So all the people on Earth are like slaves?" Rose asks.
The Editor snaps his fingers and points at the blonde. "Well, now, there's an interesting point. Is a slave a slave if he doesn't know he's enslaved?"
"Yes."
"Yes," Blake hissed.
The Librarian nodded angrily as well. "Even if they have no concept of it, if you keep a person, human or alien, prisoner and without rights, they are your slaves."
Frowning at the Doctor's simple response, the Editor began to pout. "Oh, I was hoping for a philosophical debate. Is that all I'm going to get? 'Yes'?"
"Yes," the Doctor answered.
Their captor chuckles again. "You're no fun."
"Let me out of these manacles-" the Doctor tries to shake his fists "-You'll find out how much fun I am."
Yang cheers. "You show him, Doc!"
"Oh, he's tough, isn't he?" The Editor laughs, glancing at Rose. "But, come on! Isn't it a great system? You've got to admire it, just a little bit."
Rose, however, didn't see his warped 'beautiful' creation. "You can't hide something on this scale. Somebody must have noticed."
He nods. "From time to time, someone, yes. But the computer chip system allows me to see inside their brains. I can see the smallest doubt and crush it."
"That's so wrong!" Weiss gasped. "He's using technology to spy on his own people."
"I don't think he counts as human anymore. More like mini-max," the Librarian agreed.
"If the people knew that the technology they have is being used to spy on them, they would revolt!"
Well…
Cathica, now moving with purpose, marches out of the lift and follows the now-multitude of footprints.
Three-hundred and sixty-one floors below, Adam had snuck his way into the white room. Glancing around, he makes sure it is empty before rushing towards the center chair.
"Then they just carry on," the Editor continues. "Living the life, strutting about downstairs and all over the surface of the Earth like they're so individual. When of course, they're not. They're just cattle. In that respect, the Jagrafess hasn't changed a thing."
Unbeknownst to him, Cathica had slowly stepped into the room. She remained quiet and listens carefully to her boss' words. The Doctor, however, does notice her and changes his fist into an open hand - a silent message to hold back and stay still.
"Good thing too," Qrow frowned. "She probably hasn't noticed the worm thing and would have either gotten noticed or eaten by it."
"But what is she going to do from there?" Yang whispered.
"Hopefully help the Doctor and Rose escape when she has the chance."
Rose frowns at the albino man. "What about you? You're not a Jagra… uh, belly."
"Jagrafess," the Doctor corrects, leaning to his companion.
"Jagrafess." Rose nods thankfully before turning back to the Editor. "You're not a Jagrafess. You're human."
The Editor cocks his head back and forth. "Yeah, well, simply being human doesn't pay very well."
"But you couldn't have done this all on your own."
"No!" he chuckles. "I represent a consortium of banks. Money prefers a long-term investment. Also, the Jagrafess needed a little hand to, um, install himself."
"Money," Weiss repeated. "It always comes down to money."
"It makes the world go 'round," Blake sighed.
"And the universe expand."
"No wonder," the Doctor comments. "A creature that size. What's his life span?"
"Three-thousand years."
"That's one hell of a metabolism, generating all that heat. That's why Satellite Five's so hot. You pump it out of the creature, channel it downstairs. Jagrafess stays cool, it stays alive. Satellite Five is one great big life-support system." He stares at Cathica as he finishes.
However, she seemed to be too distracted by the entirety of everything to notice.
"Pay attention!" Yang screamed.
"To what?" Weiss asked. "It's not like he can turn Satellite Five off. That would kill everyone!"
Yang slammed her fists together. "I don't know yet. But he's gotta have a plan."
Looking up to the projector, Adam clicks his fingers with a loud 'snap'. The doors on his head open. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out Rose's phone once more to click the redial icon.
"Me again," he explains as the voicemail picks up.
"Don't wipe this message. It's just going to sound like white noise. But save it, 'cause I can translate it, okay?"
He lowers the phone but keeps it high enough for the speaker to pick up any sound in the room. "Three, two, one, and spike." The white energy of information spiraled down and into his brain, causing his eyes to widen and unfocus.
"Unbelievable." Blake waved her arms up. "Absolutely unbelievable. You really cannot trust Adam to do anything morally correct!"
Which one are you talking about? the Librarian wondered.
The Editor points at the duo and smiles. "But that's why you're so dangerous. Knowledge is power, but you remain unknown." He chuckles before snapping his fingers, causing the shackles around the Doctor and Rose to glow an electric blue. They begin to shake, convulsing as they are electrocuted. "Who are you?"
Everyone gasps. "Just tell him!" Ruby yelled. "Tell him your time travelers! He can't do anything about it anyway."
"But still," Weiss gulped, watching in horror as the duo were zapped. "Would you like this guy to know about the concept of time travel?"
"Better than them having to suffer for it!"
Back in Adam's house, his dog began to bark at the answering machine. White light, the data stream. Began to pour out of it, forming a small, warping bubble around the device.
"Leave her alone!" the Doctor roared as the attack stopped. "I'm the Doctor, she's Rose Tyler. We're nothing, we're just wandering."
The Editor bounced on his heels. "Tell me who you are!"
"I just said!"
"Yes, but who do you work for? Who sent you? Who knows about us? Who exactly-" The Editor freezes as the Jagrafess began to snarl once more.
Below them, the energy that was once flowing into Adam's brain began to flow backward. The boy flinches, clutching the arms of the chair in pain.
The Jagrafess' whispers faded.
"Time Lord."
"Oh, Gods," Blake realized. "That's bad. That's really bad."
"What is it?" Yang asked, her voice betraying her with a slight tremor.
The Faunus looked at her partner with wide eyes. "His brain is a thumb drive, yes? Well, you don't just put stuff on it."
"You can also take stuff off it!" The blonde girl gave an animalistic roar. "Adam's going to get them all killed! And give these monsters time travel!"
Frozen at the Editor's words, the Doctor can only let out a simple "What?"
"Oh, yes!" He smiles and whirls a finger around his ear. Now closer than before, they could see a small communicator in his ear. Most likely his connection to the computer's data as well as his translator for the Jagrafess' alien tongue. "The last of the Time Lords. And his traveling machine. Oh, with his little human girl from long ago."
The Editor tries to stroke Rose's cheek, but she pulls away from him.
"Stay away from her!" Ruby warned. Her face was red with anger and she mimicked her sister's habit of splintering the chair's armrests.
"If you so much as touch her hair, the Doctor will toss you into a black hole!" Qrow added.
"You don't know what you're talking about," the Doctor snaps, trying harder now to free himself.
The Editor glares at him. "Time travel."
Screaming louder, Adam is unable to stop the machine as more and more light begins to pour from his brain and up into the Satellite Five system.
"That's what you get!"
"Someone's been telling you lies."
Snapping his own fingers, the Editor brings up the live view of the events hundreds of floors down. "Young master Adam Mitchell?"
"Oh, my God," Rose gasps. "His head!"
The Doctor's eyes fill with horror at the implications. "What the hell's he done? What the hell's he gone and done? They're reading his mind, he's telling them everything." His voice grows louder with each breath - volume and anger rising together.
Cathica, now unnoticed by everyone, looks down at her feet at the Doctor's words.
"She has no idea what's going on," Yang whispered. "No idea what is at stake now."
"And she's now the only one who can do anything," Weiss nodded. But what can she do?
"And through him, I know everything about you." The Editor smiles as he listens to Adam's screams and watches the Doctor's panic. "Every piece of information in his head is now mine. And you have infinite knowledge, Doctor. The Human Empire is tiny compared to what you've seen in your t-a-r-d-i-s. T.A.R.D.I.S!"
"Well, you'll never get your hands on it, I'll die first!"
"Well, die all you like. I don't need ya. I've got the key."
Through Adam's memories, they watch on the corner of the screen as Rose hands hers to him.
"Oh, no," Blake gasped. "I forgot!"
"Is there anything this guy did that wasn't going to mess up everything?" Qrow asked, bewildered. "He took Rose's phone and key, making it possible for a police state to spread across all of time and space!"
"Adam may have just doomed them all."
The Doctor glares at Rose, muttering, "you and your boyfriends!"
"Today, we are the headlines," the Editor cheers. "We can rewrite history. We could prevent mankind from ever developing."
Glaring at the entrance, at Cathica, the Doctor lets out one more hiss. "And no one's going to stop you. Because you've bred a human race that doesn't bother to ask questions. Stupid little slaves believing every lie. They'll just trot right into the slaughterhouse if they're told it's made of gold." With every sentence, the Doctor glances at her. She seems to nod slightly before running off.
"Where's she going?" Weiss cried. "The Doctor is in there! HELP HIM!"
Ruby's eyes widened. "She doesn't need to help him if she can save them."
"That doesn't make sense! Of course she-"
Ruby pointed at the screen. "Look!"
Rushing into the separate room, where her friend had screamed at the sight of a mummified body, Cathica angrily tossed the corpse aside and to the ground. Then she quickly took its place.
"Disengage safety," she orders. As she leans back, the lights in the room began to flicker to life for the first time in almost a hundred years.
An alarm began to beep in the control room. The Editor, confused, rushes over to the monitors and asks, "what's happening?"
"Maximum access," she continues. "Override Floor one three nine."
On said floor, Adam's room suddenly went dark. The energy disappears and he collapsed into the chair unconscious.
"Great," Yang said in a voice with zero emotion. "She saved him. I was… so worried that he might not make it."
Blake nods, giving the same amount of emotion. "Yes. Thank the Gods that he is safe."
Cathica snaps her fingers as quickly as she can. Her lobe-door whirls open. "And… spike!"
"Someone's disengaged the safety," the Editor gasps. "Who's that?" He calls the image up on the holo-monitor, watching the exact moment as the white energy of information flowed out from Cathica's mind and up into the bulb.
Rose smiles. "It's Cathica."
"And she's thinking," the Doctor adds, his smile large and wide. "She's using what she knows."
The Editor whirls around to the Suki-worker. "Terminate her access."
The Doctor's smile doesn't fade. "Everything I told her about Satellite Five: the pipes, the filters, she's reversing it." He glances to a corner of the room where an icicle begins to melt. "Look at that. It's getting hot."
"That's why the Doctor kept commenting on the heat," Qrow realized.
Ruby nodded. "He was telling her to switch it! Shut off the AC."
"I said, terminate," he hissed, slamming his hands atop of Suki's. "Burn out her mind!"
Cathica, feeling a surge of data trying to incapacitate her, points at the bulb and glares. "Oh, no, you don't! You should've promoted me years back."
All throughout Satellite Five, Cathica's 'attack' takes its toll. Sparks erupt from random circuits and the entire station seems to pitch slightly back and forth. Cool air begins to make its way throughout the floors as all the heat is redirected into Floor five-hundred.
"Let's hope she doesn't destroy everything," Weiss gulped.
Yang, however, smiled at the level of destruction. "I just hope that slimes-ceiling-thing boils."
An electrical explosion knocks out all of the video feeds. Then, to make things worse, all of the operators and workers collapse in an unmoving heap. The Editor is tossed back, trying to keep himself from being hit.
Rose takes this as a sign and, with the help of some dripping water, slips her hands free from her shackles. She then moves to help the Doctor, pulling at some of the cords and wires attached to his set of chains.
"She's venting the heat up here," the Doctor explains. "The Jagrafess needs to stay cool and now it's sitting on top of a volcano!"
Screaming, 'Max' opens its mouth wider than ever before and calls out in its animalistic speech.
"Yes, I'm trying, sir," pleads the Editor as he tries to push the workers back onto their seats. "But I don't know how she did it, it's impossible. A member of staff with an idea!"
"You got distracted by your victory and couldn't fathom the idea of one of your slaves revolting," Blake cheered. "That's where you went wrong! You thought you had won."
Nodding in agreement, Ruby practically leaped out of her seat. "And a fight for freedom will never end, no matter how much you try to stamp it out!"
Qrow whipped away an imaginary tear. "Talking about rebelling already. My Ruby's all grown up…"
The Editor throws Suki's body to the ground in a panic and quickly takes her seat. With his back turned, Rose started reaching inside the Doctor's jacket pockets.
Stretching down, the Jagrafess tries to bite at the travelers. Thankfully, the Doctor is able to move his head far enough out of reach.
Rose finally pulls out the sonic screwdriver and waves it at his chains. "What do I do?" she screams.
"Flick the switch!"
"You can do it!" Ruby yelled, happy to see her favorite tool.
Weiss waved her arms. "Hurry! The whole place is falling apart!"
The sonic glows a bright blue and starts to vibrate. Steam erupts from a pipe as all of its screws fall free and the remaining screens all begin to crack. The Doctor turns back to the Editor with a smile. "Oi, mate! You want to bank on a certainty? Massive heat in a massive body, massive bang. See you in the headlines!"
Thanks to Rose, the Doctor's chains unlatch and fall to the ground. He and Rose then quickly turn around and run back the way they came. Hesitantly, the Editor moves to follow.
Max roars at him. His body, once bulbous, now resembles a deflated balloon.
"Actually, sir, if it's all the same to you, I think I'll resign. Bye, then!" The Editor tries to run away, but trips and falls. As he looks back, he watches in horror as Suki wraps both of her arms around his leg.
Yang smiled. "She's alive!"
"No," the Librarian whispered. "This is all that remains of her. One final neuron. An act of revenge."
"Then let's hope she can make the most of it."
The Editor screams. "Let go of me!"
The entire floor seemed to fall apart as the Doctor and Rose try to find somewhere safe. They rush through the main room, dodging falling pieces of ice and ceiling tile.
Its body now turning red, the Jagrafess begins to whimper slightly with each growl and snarl.
"Let go of me!" he screams as Suki keeps his leg glued to the ground. "Let go of me!"
The Jagrafess's body suddenly grows - inflating to an unbelievable degree, before letting out one final hiss.
Then it explodes, the entire room crashing down with it.
All of team RWBY cheered.
"That's what you get!" Ruby smiled.
Weiss nodded. "Comeuppance of the greatest degree."
"He does by the hand of his master and his slaves," Blake smirked. "A traitor to his people and those he worked for."
"I want to watch that thing explode again for good measure," Yang added.
Qrow crossed his arms with a large smirk. "Seems like the Doctor saved the day again, thanks to Cathica."
"But no thanks to Adam," the Librarian hissed. And a rightful life and a wrongful death to dear Suki.
Running into Cathica's Room, the Doctor gives a quick snap of his fingers and shuts off the transfer. Her port closes once again and, slowly, she looks back up at the Doctor.
He smiles back at her.
A new day was dawning on planet Earth. Down on Floor one-three-nine, the inhabitants of the station were helping each other. During Cathica's attack, she had caused much of the station to erupt in turmoil due to the complete reversal of their plumbing system. Pipes had burst and, in some cases, entire segments of the wall had fallen down.
"We're just going to go," the Doctor whispers to their savior. He and Rose had returned to the T.A.R.D.I.S and sat across from Cathica. "I hate tidying up. Too many questions. You'll manage."
"Smart," Weiss nodded. "If he picks up everything and fixes it for them, they won't learn how to do it themselves."
"Also, he doesn't have to do the grunt work of cleaning up," Qrow mumbled. "Lucky bastard."
She frowns. "You'll have to stay and explain it. No one's going to believe me."
Well, they might start believing a lot of things now," he counters. "The human race should accelerate. All back to normal."
"What about your friend?" Cathica glances at the blue box, where Adam was sheepishly walking around its perimeter.
"He's not my friend."
Rose watches as the Doctor gets to his feet. "Now, don't-" Whatever warning she was going to give falls deaf as he marches at their third companion.
"I'm all right now," Adam offers with a smile. "Much better. And I've got the key." He pulls out the key from his pocket and holds it out.
Yang's eyes shine a dark scarlet. "It's your fault we were in this mess!"
Ruby's anger matched her sister's. "You greedy… villain! You're just a bad person! We should have left you back in the museum as it sealed up with concrete!"
"He should toss him into a black hole!"
"Look, it's… And, well… It all worked out for the best, didn't it?"
The Doctor grabbed Adam by his neck and spun him around. Then, after ripping the key from his hands, he unlocks the T.A.R.D.I.S doors.
"You know, it's not actually my fault, because you were in charge."
"OH, DON'T YOU DARE!" The entire party roared.
"Don't even think you can blame this on him!"
"This is your fault. Not his!"
"You obnoxious brat!"
"Let me at 'im!"
"If the Doctor doesn't strangle him, I will."
The Doctor pushes Adam into the T.A.R.D.I.S-
-and, seconds later, they exit it in a completely different location. White walls and well lighted compared to the drab industrialized oranges of Satellite Five.
"It's my house," Adam gasps. "I'm home! Oh, my God, I'm home! Blimey. I thought you were going to chuck me out of an airlock."
"He should have…"
The Doctor's glare doesn't falter for a second. "Is there something else you want to tell me?"
"No. Erm, what do you mean?"
"LIAR!" Ruby screamed.
The Time Lord walks over to an area of the room and picks up the answering machine that Adam had called multiple times. "The archive of Satellite Five," he says. "One second of that message could've changed the world."
Adam scoffs and shakes his head unapologetically. He tries to say something but is ignored as the Doctor pulls out his sonic screwdriver once more and uses it to make the machine explode in a shower of sparks.
Yang smirks. "No more future info for you to use now, jerkface."
"That's it then. See ya."
Adam moves to grab the remains of his device, only to turn and watch as the Doctor moves past Rose and pushes his key into the T.A.R.D.I.S doors. "How do you mean, 'see ya'?
"As in goodbye," came his curt response.
"But what about me?" Adam gasps. "You can't just go. I've got my head. I've got a chip type two. My head opens."
Weiss snaps, asking, "And who's fault is that?!"
"What, like this?" The Doctor clicks his fingers and makes a loud 'snap'.
Adam's head opens. "Don't!" he hisses. Then he snaps his fingers himself.
The Doctor gave a dark smile. "Don't do what?"
Snap!
"Stop it!" It closes with a second snap.
Snapping his fingers, Qrow gave a similar smirk. "If he wanted it so badly, he's got to suffer the consequences."
Rose, who had been watching the entire fight, holds up her hand. "All right now, Doctor. That's enough. Stop it."
"Thank you," Adam smiles as the Doctor puts his fingers down.
However, Rose jumps up and- Snap!
"Oi!"
"Sorry," the blonde giggles. "I couldn't resist."
Laughter erupted through Threatre-7.
Adam snaps his fingers one last time.
"The whole of history could have changed because of you," the Doctor growls.
"I just wanted to help."
"You were helping yourself."
"It was always about helping yourself," Blake growled. "Every day it's about you and no one else, no matter who ends up suffering."
"And I'm sorry," Adam pouts. "And I've said I'm sorry, and I am, I really am. But you can't just leave me like this."
The Doctor shakes his head. "Yes, I can. 'Cause if you show that head to anyone, they'll dissect you in seconds. You'll have to live a very quiet life. Keep out of trouble. Be average, unseen." He smiles. "Good luck."
"That's much better than just killing him," Yang smirked.
"He's going to suffer for the rest of his life," Weiss nodded. "He can't use his 'superior intellect' at all or risk being seen for what he is."
"A monster. Now with proof."
"But I want to come with you," he whines.
The Doctor sticks his head out of his blue box. I only take the best. I've got Rose."
"Awww."
"Rose, Rose," Adam pleads as he hears the front door begin to open. "Oh, my God."
"Who's that?" a voice calls out over the sound of crinkling bags. "Geoff, is that you?"
Adam panics. "It's me, mum. Don't come in. Wait there a minute."
"Oh, my Lord! You never told me you were coming home! Hold on, I'll just take my coat off. You should've told me you were coming home. I would've got your favorite tea in."
"Rose," Adam whispers, leaning forward as the blonde smiles. "Take me with you."
Ruby's eye twitched. "So you just want to leave your mom after telling her your back? Look how happy she is!"
Qrow growled. "I can't believe he's that much scum that he'd leave his family like that."
"At least Rose called her mom!"
Not even questioning her decision, Rose spins around and walks into the T.A.R.D.I.S, slamming its doors behind her.
"Yeah!"
"You don't deserve to even think about her."
"You've done this to yourself!"
"Suck it!"
The ship begins to dematerialize immediately.
"Hey, what's that noise?" Adam's mother asks. "Have you left the back door open? Blimey, there's a draft." She enters the room to see Adam glaring at the now-empty corner. "What a surprise. Oh, let me look at you. Oh, six months. It's like I saw you yesterday. Isn't it funny? The time goes by like that-"
Snap!
To Adam's horror, he watches as his mother's smile turns into a scream before collapsing onto the ground.
"Oh, my Gods," Ruby gasped as the lights turned back on. "I almost feel sorry for him."
"For his family, maybe," Qrow clarified. "That little twerp deserves all that's coming to him.
Yang got up to stretch. "All of the bad guys got what they deserve. Pimple, popped. Ice man, exploded. And traitor, dumped. All in a good day's work for the Doctor."
"I wonder where they will go next," Weiss commented. "Maybe back home for a bit? Perhaps the past? Or maybe we can finally go see an alien world!"
"At some point, all of the above," the Librarian answered. He moved to grab the remote but stopped upon noticing Blake's expression. "Actually," he coughed, "I need to get something from the console room. Blake, care to give me a hand?"
Blake shook her head. "What?"
"I need your help for a second. We'll be right back." The Librarian moved over to the Slip-slope controls and smiled. Then, after the Faunus-girl had joined him, they disappeared.
"What's that about?" Yang asked.
"Maybe he is giving her some psychic paper as well," Weiss smirked.
Ruby gasped. "Noooooo!"
Huge, huge thanks to my first-ever supporter!
Helpful supporter - Dalek2150
[1] Boy, as an American, this seems downright prophetic.
A bit of a sudden end here, I know, but I didn't want to overstretch the ending. But please let me know if you want another small break chapter filled with the Librarians and Blake's talk (as well as some T.A.R.D.I.S shenanigans) or just want that to be put at the top of the next episode chapter.
Wow, I forgot how absolutely hateable they make Adam at the end here. Seriously, go rewatch it. I wasn't able to capture every action of his and, to be honest, don't want to. He shows zero regrets about his actions and only starts to freak out when he loses another chance to screw around with the timeline.
And it came to me halfway through the episode that Adam is supposed to represent a younger Henry van Statten. Both are greedy and used alien tech to build up their own lives (but had the capabilities to be great with their own strengths). I don't think I saw anyone comment on this in any of the reviews I watch, so I wanted to say that I call dibs on being the first to realize this.
(And if I wasn't… well, did they call dibs? :)
These next few weeks are going to be a pain for me writing-wise. I'm starting on the final chapter of the current My Mistborn Academia arc. That'll be its birthday post and the last update there until after I've revised all its previous chapters. Then, I'm going to work on getting both chapters for Father's Day (the next Doctor Who episode) for this Fic's birthday.
And maybe start on the two-parter of The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances. But depending on how long that takes, I might wait till after mid-September since I plan on doing a special chapter then.
And the poll is back! Filled with some new ideas and old ones. Depending on how many vote, I might add back in the votes from the last poll. So don't be afraid to vote for something new! The next breakaway story will take place after the two-parter and will be the last one before Series 1's season finale.
Holy crap, we are officially over halfway done with Ninth's run. Wow. And it's only taken me 2 years. Guess I'll be done around the summer of next year, lol.
Please, feel free to follow and comment on predictions, thoughts, etc. I am always looking for new ways to improve my craft. Tell your friends!
Also, if you have the money, please think about supporting me.
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