The Boy That Time Remembered
Woohoo! (Doing the most obscenely embarrassing victory dance known to the human race)
ML: (Watching me with exasperation) Oh dear Lord, what the hell are you doing-chazu?
(Turns toward ML) What does it look like, ML? I'm dancing!
ML: It looks like you're trying to shake out some kind of parasite stuck up your ass.
Who asked for your opinion, anyways?!
ML: Nobody, but the First Amendment allows me to-chazu.
...Damn, you have a point there. (Stops dancing and turns to the readers) Hello, hello, everyone! It hasn't been too long since I spoke to you guys last.
ML: Don't lie to the readers.
Sshh, M's! Next point, have you guys been watching the newest seasons for Doctor Who?! Jodie Whittaker! The Lady Doctor we all needed! Hell yeah!
ML: (Waves flag) What a wild ride this turned out to be-chazu.
I know, right? Too bad she won't stay on for long now, if the rumors are true. But I just hope we get another lady Doctor, like they showed Jo Martin. Okay, onto the final thing on my list. I've decided that I am going to be responding to each of my reviewers personally.
ML: Sure you got the time for that?
I have plenty of time. Don't doubt my abilities now, ML!
ML: (deadpan) I never have.
….That was sarcasm, wasn't it? (Sighs) Okay, onto review responses.
For NekoRyuuKo: OMG, you really tripped over your dog to get to this chapter? I feel so flattered! Thank you! And you're a fabulous being too!
For Blueluna12: Thank you! And yes, I really upped the innocence on Adric. He missed out on a hell of a lot during his nap.
For ThatBigBlueBox: I'm glad that you found my story and enjoyed it! And I feel the same way. He acted just like a geeky teenage boy would back then, but the viewers didn't like what was basically them in space. They found it unflattering. I felt sorry for the poor boy so, like a good samaritan, I rescued him from the scrappy heap, along with that freighter.
For AuraGuardian19: Thank you for the compliment! And yes, I noticed how a lot of people didn't write a lot of stories about Adric either. I mean, really, he was one of the few companions, and a teenage one at that, to be outright killed in the TV series! You think that would give him some mileage. But no, he's always remembered as that jerk boy or the one that died way back and caused the dinosaurs to go extinct. There was a lot of potential for his character (he had a healing factor, he could pick locks, he could throw knives, steal if he felt it necessary, along with the math genius thing) but the writers never really used that to his advantage. Those abilities only came once a story and was completely forgotten by the next one. Rare development for his character. And now he's mostly forgotten. Well, now I'm going to be putting the title of this story to great effect.
For Guest: Thank you for the compliment.
….
Okay, that's everybody! See, ML? That wasn't so hard.
ML: Just wait a few days later. You won't be saying that soon.
(Roll my eyes) A bundle of sunshine, aren't you? Okay, disclaimer time!
ML: Taiyo-chan does not own Doctor Who. Doctor Who is the creation of Sydney Newman, C.E Webber, and Donald Wilson, may they rest in peace, and owned by the BBC. It's currently headed by Chris Chibnall.
Though I am still sad to see the Moff leave. (Sighs gustily) Oh well. Now, let's get this show on the road. Quick! To the TARDIS! (Starts running in a random direction)
ML: Wait for me-chazu! (Runs after me)
Sayonara, minna-san!
Chapter 4: The Runaway Bride Part 2
Bright strobe lights swung around the room, the beat of a cheery christmas jingle ringing in their ears. People danced in the middle of the ballroom, several clearly tipsy with drinks in hand. One woman was dancing rather provocatively with what appeared to be the groom. Everybody was having a grand old time, completely ignoring the fact that the bride had disappeared several hours earlier.
This was the scene that the Doctor, Adric, and Donna came upon when they walked into the ballroom that was meant to hold the wedding reception.
"Well, they sure do look devastated to me." Adric couldn't help the sarcasm that leaked out of his voice, the urge too strong. He was swiftly bopped on the head by Donna for his comment. "OW!"
"A bit not good, Adric." The Doctor said wearily as both aliens watched the bride march forward. The music cut off suddenly and the party guests stopped their merriment once they caught sight of the wayward bride. Donna's face was set in a glare that portrayed both anger and indignation, her arms crossed over her chest.
"You had the reception without me?" she asked incredulously.
Lance stepped forward, relief and worry covering his face. "Donna, what happened to you?"
"You had the reception without me?" Donna repeated her previous question.
The Doctor waved his hand slightly. "Hello. I'm the Doctor."
"Why are you introducing yourself?" Adric pulled the Doctor's hand down.
"They had the reception without me." Donna said bluntly.
"Yes, we gathered." The Doctor answered.
"We have perfectly working eyes, you know."
"Adric, not now."
A blond woman piped up from the crowd. "Well it was paid for. Why not?"
"Thank you, Nerys." Donna said back in a sarcastic tone.
Another woman, this one older with short blonde hair that was going gray, stepped up with a frown on her face. "Well, what were we supposed to do? I got your silly little message in the end. I'm on Earth?" She scoffed slightly. "Very funny. What the hell happened? How did you do it? I mean, what's the trick, because I'd love to know."
As if that was a cue, everyone else started to talk over each other, asking Donna similar questions to the ones brought up by her mother. They kept asking her where she was, how did she leave, who were the two males who came in with her?
"Should we do something?" Adric asked the Doctor as they watched the interrogation a few steps away.
"I'm... not sure." the Doctor replied uncertainly. His deep-seated hero complex told him to do something but he was so very emotionally drained from this day that he had a hard time coming up with a decision at the moment.
Thankfully for the Doctor, he didn't have to do anything as Donna abruptly burst into tears. Everybody stopped their questions, startled at the burst of emotion. Lance stepped forward and pulled her into his arms, letting her cry against his shoulder. The rest of the guests burst into applause at the scene.
Adric blinked at the fuss being made. "Really? All it took was just her crying and everything's all better?" He glanced at the Doctor in incredulous surprise.
The Doctor patted the younger male on the shoulder. "Humans are a funny species. I've known them for hundreds of years, yet I still manage to be surprised by them."
While everyone's back was turned, in Lance's arms, Donna took the chance to wink at both aliens.
Adric simply shook his head in response. Humans were truly baffling in behavior.
Adric didn't know how hungry he was until he was able to sit down at a table in the ballroom with a plate of food. After everything had calmed down somewhat, the wedding guests had gone back to partying, this time with the bride in their company.
The Doctor and Adric had retreated to the back of the ballroom, just against the wall. Adric had been glad for the chance to be able to sit down and not worry about something exploding for several moments. He had been dozing lightly in his seat, his head resting in his arms on the table, when the Doctor placed a plate in front of him.
'When did he leave?' was his first thought before the smell got to him.
So now here he was. Even with the festive atmosphere surrounding them, Adric could feel a rather awkward atmosphere surrounding him and the Doctor. To be honest, he really couldn't say that he hadn't seen it coming. He had, at least to the Doctor, come back from the dead. That really isn't something that can be taken calmly or rationally by anybody. Who knew what the Doctor was thinking about all of it? Not only that but how long has it been since? How long has it been since he was left stranded on the space freighter, watching the surface of the Earth come closer and closer, waiting for the fiery crash that awaited him?
'How long has he been mourning me?' Adric glanced from the corner of his eye at the Doctor. 'How many more adventures has he been on since that day? How many people has he met and journeyed with?'
All these questions swirled around his head but there was one that he found himself struggling to even think about.
'Will he let me stay?'
Adric felt the mouthful of plum pudding in his mouth become rancid and abruptly put down his spoon. That was the question of the hour, wasn't it? Will the Doctor allow him to continue traveling with him? His first answer would have been of course the Doctor would let him stay aboard the TARDIS, he lets practically anybody into the TARDIS if they interest him enough.
(Which is essentially everyone in the universe.)
But Adric remembered those last conversations he had with the Doctor before everything. The bitterness that bubbled in his throat, waiting to throw out words that would hang heavily in the air. The resentment that twisted viciously in his abdomen, every time he saw the Doctor pay more attention to Nyssa and Tegan when he just wanted a moment alone with him, to finally be able to clear the air between them after everything.
Would he still want him to come along after all of that?
Adric focused his attention on the Doctor again and found him fiddling with what looked like to be a small, handheld phone. Adric wondered when humans managed to do that.
"What are you doing?" he inquired as he watched the older alien pull out what looked like a sonic screwdriver. It was somewhat smaller than it was before, thinner in the middle in comparison to the previous design. There was a pommel at the end and the emitter was blue instead of red.
"Looking up something." The Doctor answered distractedly. "There was something about HC Clements that just didn't sit right with me." Adric gave him a blank look. "The company that Donna works for." he explained.
"Oh." Adric observed the Doctor turn on the sonic screwdriver and do...something to the phone that he couldn't see properly. But whatever information the Doctor managed to uncover wasn't what he was hoping for. The Doctor's expression didn't actually change that much, but he noticed a shift in his eyes. A feeling that something was...broken inside the Doctor. Whatever he found on the phone had managed to bring those shattered pieces to the forefront again, when he had been hiding them before.
That scene from before in the TARDIS played in his mind again.
Rose Tyler...I-
As he watched the Doctor turn to observe the crowd of dancers, he wondered exactly how long the Doctor had been hiding these broken pieces of himself.
"Doctor." Adric called out to him. That seemed to be enough to pull him out of whatever place his mind had sent him into. He noticed the Doctor swallow a little bit before turning a smile in his direction.
"I'm alright. Just thinking." He reached over and grabbed Adric's arm in a gentle hold. "A lot of things happened today, just trying to wrap my mind around all of it."
"Right." Like me coming back to life was left unsaid but acknowledged. "Doctor." Adric fiddled around with a napkin set next to his plate."When all of this is over...when we get back to the TARDIS...I need to talk to you about something."
The Doctor blinked, the motion only exaggerated by the glasses he was wearing. "Talk?"
"Yes." Adric tried to put as much firmness as he could into his tone as he could. "It's important. You and I need to have this talk. I don't want to be held off for another time. Or dismissed to focus on something else going on."
Abruptly, Adric found himself flashing back to the last talk he had with the Doctor in his previous regeneration. He remembered all of the frustration and bitterness he had for his mentor. He especially remembered his previous decision on wanting to return back to E-Space, back to the ship where the rest of his people were on, exploring the galaxy.
From the look on the Doctor's face he may have remembered that same conversation as well, for his eyes had softened somewhat, the smile dropping from his face for a pensive frown.
"Yeah." The older male peered into his eyes. "Yeah, we do, don't we?"
Adric only nodded, his throat suddenly tight.
"Later. We'll have it later. Not right now, there's still some things I have to take care of, some loose ends in this mystery and with Donna. But we'll have that conversation later. Okay?"
"Okay." Adric agreed.
"Okay!" The Doctor abruptly clapped his hands and stood up from the table. "Sit tight, old boy, I need to check on something real quick. Won't take me longer than a minute, promise!" With that, the Time Lord went striding in the direction of a man who held what looked like a video camera.
Adric sighed and dropped his head onto the table. The migraine wasn't coming back, but the rest of his body was rather sore from all the running he had done earlier. He wouldn't call himself physically fit most of the time, but whatever state of existence he had been in beforehand had made his muscles far more weaker than he remembered.
He let his mind drift into semi-awareness, the comforting sequence of logarithms sorting in his brain allowing his mind to drift further away. In the background, he could faintly hear the lyrics of the song playing from the speakers overhead.
"Yeah, walk with me, my love, my love. Walk tall, walk proud, walk far, for you are my love. My love, my love, you are my shining star."
Star…. He would like to travel through the stars again, to see the constellations of Gemini and Libra, Corvus and Antila again. To wonder how long those spheres of plasma had existed in the expanse of space and how long they would continue to exist.
Adric continued to rest and dream until everything was simply background noise.
"Adric!"
A hand frantically shook his shoulder. Adric was startled abruptly back into awareness, his head pushing itself off of the table. He looked around and saw it was the Doctor who woke him up.
"Adric, you need to get up, we need to get Donna and get out of here, we need to get out of here, get everyone out of here now!"
"What's going on?" Part instinct from the numerous times the Doctor has told anybody to run (which were a lot of times), Adric was up and keeping pace with the Doctor as he made a mad dash towards Donna. He knew when the Doctor told you to run, it was smart to do so.
"Donna!" The Doctor made his frantic way towards her. "Donna, they've found you."
Donna looked at him aghast. "But you said I was safe."
"The bio-damper doesn't work. We've got to get everyone out." The Doctor explained to her quickly.
"Bio-damper?" Adric questioned.
"Yes, a bio-damper. It was supposed to shield her from whatever was looking for her. But it can't shield from Huon energy! So we need to go!"
Donna looked around in horror. "My God, it's all my family."
"Out the back door!" The Doctor began to usher them out of the crowded ballroom and towards the rear of the building. They made it to the back door with no trouble.
The problem, however, was the pair of robots that were marching up to the door. Adric hadn't really noticed how they looked before, but now he saw that they bore a resemblance to Santa Claus, if Santa looked like a robot.
"Maybe not." The Doctor admitted. They quickly shut the doors and got away from there.
"The windows?" Adric suggested. They rushed over to the windows and looked outside. Several more Santa Robots were outside, steadily marching towards them.
"We're trapped." Donna said fearfully, her wide eyes fixed on the automatons.
Adric squinted at one Santa in particular, who was clutching what looked like a remote control, both hands wrapped around the handles.
"Why do they have a remote control?" He wondered out loud, pointing a finger at said device.
The Doctor looked in the direction Adric was pointing in and saw the remote control. Whatever conclusion ran through the Doctor's head was unknown to Adric as the older alien turned around to glance back into the party hall. His face shifted into horror.
"Christmas trees." He murmured.
"The what?" Adric questioned. What did trees have to do with anything?
"What about them?" Donna followed up.
"They kill." The Doctor answered.
"They do what?!" Adric and Donna shouted simultaneously, but the Doctor was already running back into the ballroom, yelling at everyone to get away from the trees. He began to herd people away
"Oh, for God's sake, the man's an idiot!" Sylvia stepped forward, a frown twisting her mouth. "Why? What harm's a Christmas tree going to…." Sylvia trailed off as she got a good look over the Doctor's shoulder. "Oh."
Everybody in the ballroom watched as the baubles decorating the trees floated up into the air. Murmurs broke out as the guests watched the decorations hover with equal interest and concern. Adric took a prudent step back, keeping careful watch of the glass ornaments. "They're surrounding us." he whispered to the Doctor.
"Adric." The Doctor whispered back. "As soon as things get dicey, I want you to get Donna and keep her safe."
Adric turned his head enough to give the Doctor a bewildered look. "What do you-"
He never got to finish his sentence as the ornaments chose that moment to spin through the air and detonate within the crowd. Glass showered over them all. Screams erupted as the guests panicked and tried to run away from the destruction.
'This is rather familiar.' Adric grabbed Donna and dragged both of them underneath a table that was still standing. He took notice that her husband(?), Lance, he believed his name was, took shelter on Donna's other side. 'The only thing missing is people shouting for the Doctor to surrender.' Speaking of the Doctor, where in the world did he run off to?
"Oi! Santa!"
'There he is.' Adric poked his head out just enough that he wouldn't be in danger of being decapitated. He could make out the Doctor standing on the stage where several speakers were stationed. He had his sonic screwdriver out.
"Word of advice. If you're attacking a man with a sonic screwdriver, don't let him near the sound system." He plunged the screwdriver into the desk that controlled the sound system. The resulting barrage of noise was grating on his eardrums, so much so that Adric had to clamp his hands onto his ears so he wouldn't go completely deaf. But the sound was destructive enough that the androids bursted with sparks and fell to pieces in short order.
Adric slowly crawled out of his hiding place, ignoring Donna's attempts to pull him back underneath the table. The damage to the ballroom was considerable. Glass littered the floor, nearly all of the furniture had been destroyed, and there was the distinct smell of something on fire nearby. Adric wrinkled his nose.
Several of the wedding guests were trying to take charge and help those still reeling from the attack. There was an older gentleman who was comforting a younger male gaining back his bearings from the chaos. Donna saw what the older man was doing and dragged herself from underneath the table, ignoring Lance's attempts to pull her back.
Adric looked around again and noticed a little girl crying. She couldn't have been much older than six or seven if he had to take a guess. She was sitting there on the ground, her hands covered in scratches from the glass.
Looking at the little girl, Adric felt a swell of emotions build up in his chest. He couldn't quite describe it. There was pity because a child had been caught up in the whirlwind of destruction that followed the Doctor around. Sympathy for the pain and fear that she was experiencing. It blended together with the constant fatigue that plagued his body all day and the recent adrenaline rush. It was a mess.
Adric didn't feel himself move from his spot until he was kneeling beside the girl and reaching for her hands. The little girl was startled at the sudden contact and looked at Adric in surprise. Adric rallied his mind and tried not to panic. He didn't have that much knowledge on how to perform first aid (ironic since he spent a good portion of his time with someone called the Doctor) and really didn't know how to deal with children in any shape or manner. At this point Adric just defaulted to how his previous Doctor used to act around hurt people.
"Hello there." He did his best to keep his as calm as possible. From Adric it only served to make him sound awkward but the little girl was too distraught to notice the difference. "Those scratches look pretty bad. Would you mind if I took a look at them?" He held out his hands and waited for her permission. The child stared at him for several moments before she slowly deposited her hands into his.
'I can't believe that worked.' Adric groped around for something to clean and wrap her hands with. Adric had to make due with a linen napkin soaked in water and several strips torn out of a nearby tablecloth. He wiped down the blood from her hands as best as he could before wrapping them with the torn strips.
"This will have to do until a medic arrives." Adric lowered the little girl's arms down. "Does it feel better, at least?"
Adric was completely blindsided when the young girl reached out and threw her arms around his waist. His arms hovered in the air, unsure on what to do with this new development. She was...hugging him. He doesn't remember anyone going out and giving him a hug before. Not even Nyssa with her gentle nature was one for physical displays of affection. And his previous Doctors doling out physical affection didn't even bear thinking about.
The hug lasted for a short time only before the girl detached herself and darted off, presumably in search of her parents.
Adric stayed kneeling there for several seconds before sighing and standing up from the dirty ground.
'This day is just going to keep getting more ridiculous as time goes on, isn't it?' He looked around the ballroom once more, taking in the destruction. 'Where did the Doctor get to now?'
"Adric!" The younger alien turned and saw the Doctor rushing towards him, Donna and Lance several steps behind him. "Come on, I've managed to catch the signal of whoever was controlling those robotic Santa's. We need to get to HC Clements quick!"
"HC Clements?" Adric made his way over as fast as he could.
The Doctor grabbed his shoulder when he was close enough. "That's where Donna works and where all of this started. Let's go!"
As the group of four made there way out of the building with the sound of sirens becoming steadily closer, Adric couldn't help but wonder just how much more disastrous this will all turn out to be.
Of course it would end up going to hell once they got to HC Clements.
Of course it would end up being a trap for them.
Of course Donna would end up getting kidnapped by the villain of the day.
And of course Adric would find himself taken right alongside her.
It had been going pretty well at first. Well, except for the part where it turned out Lance was the one who was dosing Donna with the Huon particles in the first place. That had left Donna in a pretty poor mood. But her mood seemed to pick up a little bit when they travelled back to the creation of the planet Earth from the dust of the universe.
("It's a little amazing." Adric said as they stepped back into the TARDIS. "How dozens of civilizations started from just specks of dust."
"The universe is always surprising with its ingenuity for creation." The Doctor responded. "That's what makes it so amazing.")
It was from that excursion that they learned the Racnoss Empress (a large, red spider person who had too many sharp teeth and too much bloodthirstiness) had hid the Racnoss ship when the Earth was still forming, essentially becoming the center of the planet. Which was very much not good for the planet.
There had been a plan being formed. Adric knew there was but he didn't really get to hear most of it because he had been jumped from behind by one of the Robot Santa's. Embarrassment would have overwhelmed him at how easily he was taken but at this point he just simply wanted to go lay down somewhere and rest his aching head.
The Racnoss Empress certainly wasn't helping with her grandiose shouting.
"My golden couple, together at last! Your awful wedded life! Tell me, do you want to be released?"
"Yes!" Donna and Lance shouted from where they were hanging ensnared in webbing. Adric was similarly ensnared and had been given the dubious position of ring bearer, whatever in the world that was.
"You're supposed to say 'I do'." The large alien grinned at them in anticipation.
Lance snorted in derision. "Huh! No chance."
Three eyes focused on him intensely. "Say it!" was practically roared into their faces.
'Where in the world is the Doctor?' Adric squirmed futilely in his bonds as the two humans acquiesced to the empress' demands. The webbing was unnaturally resistant to his struggling and he still hadn't regained his full strength in order to rip it apart. Being held like this gave some rather uncomfortable flashbacks to when the Master held him captive in Castrovalva. He wasn't being held over a giant hole like Donna and Lance so he may have a good chance of landing below and not breaking any of his bones. What to do after that….was still a work in progress.
Adric was distracted from any further escape plans by the sight of Donna and Lance glowing a golden shade of light. He closed his eyes and turned his head away, but the brightness was strong enough to pierce his eyelids.
"The secret heart unlocks…" He heard the Racnoss Empress continue speaking. "And they will waken from their sleep of ages."
'They?' The teenager was confused for a moment before he heard something coming from the direction of the pit. His enhanced hearing allowed him to make out the noise of something climbing upwards...a lot of somethings.
Adric felt his blood run cold as he recognized what exactly that sound was. He knew it like the back of his hand, a memory that never truly faded even with the source gone. The sound of multiple sets of legs skittering across the ground, limbs scrambling and pushing to get ahead of one another.
'An empress needs subjects.' Adric looked down into the hole and, if he focused enough, he could make out the wriggling shapes striving towards them. 'And what better way than to create them from your own flesh and blood.'
"My children, the long lost Racnoss, now reborn to feast on flesh!" A beaming, fanged smile decorated the Queen's face. "The web star will come to me."
Adric had no idea what the web star was but he can make the educated guess that it was nothing good for anyone of them.
"My babies will be hungry. They need sustenance. Perish the web."
Yeah, this was shaping up to be not good at all.
It's been some time since the Doctor has felt this type of immeasurable anger. Both of his hearts were working double time in his chest and his hands haven't stopped shaking since he realized that there was no listening to him ramble.
He knew that he needed to keep his composure. Not only was Donna and Adric's lives depended on it, but the rest of the planet as well. He remembered the stories told about the Racnoss, the state of the universe during the Dark Times and how Gallifrey was the one who spearheaded the effort to vanquish the Racnoss billions of years ago that soon gave away to the Fledgling Empires. How the Time Lords were the ones who gave the alliance the means to succeed in the universe.
(Of course, the Doctor took into account how the other members of the alliance were those who Gallifrey were unable to subjugate or intimidate. That part tended to be left out.)
Even though he knew that he needed to keep his calm, the Doctor just couldn't suppress all of the rage that was sparking in his mind.
'They took him.' The three words kept repeating over and over again. They took him, they took him, they took him. It was bad enough when he was taken from him the first time, separated and forced to save himself only to end in tragedy. Now that same scenario could happen all over again and the Doctor doesn't think he could take it. He knew that he was still reeling over losing Rose but found that it wasn't just about Rose.
The universe, just as much as it could be beautiful, could also be cruel. It gives as much as it takes away. With all the good that the Doctor has done for the universe, many tragedies followed in his wake. Having to leave Susan behind, Katarina and Sara sacrificing themselves, Vicky going back to her home, leaving Jamie and Zoe behind, Sarah Jane and Romana too. Nyssa, Tegan, poor Peri, Ace, Charlie, Lucie, Alex, Molly, his family, his species, his planet, oh god he can still hear them burning -!
The Doctor blocked out those particular memories before they could overcome him. But he couldn't get rid of the thoughts towards his past companions. And Adric… he wasn't the first that he lost but he was the one that shook him the most. He had strived to not let anything like that happen to his companions ever again but he kept failing them anyways. Even now, it had only been hours since he had failed her…
Well, not again. No more. If this Racnoss Empress thought she could threaten the planet under his protection, harm the humans who live here, and, to extend the insult, she took Adric, who he had only just gotten back from the fringes of death. The Doctor clenched the gloves of his borrowed disguise. Oh yes, she wasn't going to get away with this. Not as long as his hearts kept beating and even that wouldn't stop him for long.
The Doctor enters the cavern that contained the Racnoss and stopped for a moment to observe her. The descriptions given in the Academy didn't do enough to truly describe the monarch. Her body was large, a deep red that reminded him of human blood, the lower half arachnid in nature while the upper half was somewhat humanoid. The multiple pairs of eyes and the imposing crest on her head did well in giving her an imposing appearance. The razor sharp limbs only added on to the intimidation.
Digging back into his memories, the Doctor could faintly remember having a similar encounter with a similar member of royalty from the Racnoss but it wasn't relevant at the moment, so he pushed it back.
He finally looked away from her and took stock of the cavern they were in. The Doctor immediately clocked in on the sight of Donna and Lance hanging upside down from webbing over a large pit. The faint chittering noises that he can make out from inside the pit told him that the Racnoss children were already awakened.
Then he looked further behind the humans and found Adric.
A bolt of relief went down his spine at the sight of his young companion alive and whole, though completely entangled in webbing much like the humans. The next feeling to sweep through him was anger when he saw the condition Adric was in. The teenager was wrapped up in a similar manner to the humans, though he wasn't completely ensnared like them with his shoulders still free. He was further back to the edge of the pit but he was still in danger of being dropped just the same. Seeing the young teenager wrapped up like that, helpless and at the mercy of the Empress, gave the Doctor flashbacks to the beginning of his fifth life. Images of time in the immediate capacity superimposed with those of the teenager being held captive by the Master, using him to construct his own little kingdom.
'Huh' the Doctor thought faintly. 'I could have sworn that I had those memories locked down.' Repressment had been his main way of coping all the way back to...which regeneration was it again?
No, no, no, no. Focus. He turned his attention back to the Empress. He immediately noticed that Lance was no longer tied up with Donna. The Doctor could make a good guess as to where he had been dropped and felt a stab of pity for the man. He can hear her order an attack on the streets of London to harvest the people for her children. Well he wasn't about to let that happen. The Doctor walked up the steps behind the Empress when she suddenly spoke again.
"So you might as well unmask, my clever little doctor man."
Huh. Whatever way she could tell him apart from her usual minions it still meant that his cover was blown now. The Doctor reached up and took off the mask and robes of the Santa robots.
"Oh well. Nice try." The Doctor shrugged his shoulders, his sonic screwdriver falling into his hand. He made quick work of sweeping it over the prone forms of Adric and Donna. The webbing surrounding them started to dissolve. "I've got you guys!"
Adric, sharp boy that he was, took the chance to free his arms from the restraints. He reached out and grabbed onto the strands still standing up to the sonic's power. Donna realized what was going to happen as well and panicked.
"I'm going to fall!" she wailed as more webbing slipped away.
"You're going to swing! We've got you!" And he was right, he could see Adric just behind her getting ready to swing across the chasm. Could see him shaking away the strands of web still clinging to his torso and legs.
And then there wasn't anymore discussion as the webbing unwound and both of them were sent careening across the pit. The Doctor held out his arms, his hearts pumping even though he knew they would make it across. Yes, yes, there they go across the chasm and past the Racnoss Empress... It looked for a moment that Donna was going to overshoot her landing but Adric intervened. The momentum the younger alien developed from his own swing had sent him higher into the air in an arc. Just as he was right behind Donna, Adric grabbed onto her, still riding on the force. They cleared the chasm and the Doctor caught them in time. They immediately fell to their knees.
The Time Lord took a moment to grasp the other two humanoids tightly by their shoulders. He can hear how hard their singular hearts were beating in their chests, heaving from a combination of adrenaline and fear. Donna was shivering, still clad in her satin wedding dress. Adric was shaking as well, his arms were practically vibrating in his grasp. Swinging from the webbing and holding onto Donna, brief as that moment was, most likely put a lot of strain on his still recovering body. The Doctor gives them both a quick squeeze, as much comfort as he can manage, before turning his attention back to the Racnoss Empress.
All of her eyes are focused intently on them, her fanged mouth twisted into a fascile of a smile. He stood up, supporting his companions (and when did he start to think of Donna as a companion?) with a hand on their shoulders.
"Empress of the Racnoss," The Doctor spoke firmly. "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 coexist. Take that offer and end this now." And he really wished she would take the offer. He was so tired of bloodshed, all he wanted to do right now is curl up in the TARDIS and sleep.
And hold onto Adric tightly. That last thought made him grip the young boy's shoulder harder.
"These men are so funny." The Empress hissed through her needle-like teeth.
"What's your answer?" The Doctor continued to stare the alien royalty down, eyes never leaving hers. In the back of his mind the Doctor heard a steady chant of do it do it take it take it please do it think about your children, if you don't back down you will-
The Racnoss Empress let out a fake gasp. "Oh! I'm afraid I'll have to decline." The sneer was evident and the Time Lord felt a potent surge of emotion. It felt like rage mixed together with grief. He tried not to think about it too much but knew it would pop up later on after this entire event is finished.
"What happens next is your own doing." A cold feeling began to descend onto his mind. He could feel his senses coming out in full, bringing the universe into sharp relief. He could hear the rapid heartbeats of Donna and Adric beside him. The skittering noises of the Racnoss children reaching towards the surface of the planet. The entire smelt of machinery and magnesium, blood and fear. His sense of time told him exactly how long it would take for the ravenous offspring to reach the surface and start decimating the population of Britain. 6 minutes, 23 seconds, 6 minutes 22 seconds, 6 minutes 21 seconds, 6 minutes 20 seconds.
Something must have shown on his face because Adric turned his head slightly towards him. Adric must have seen something on his face, his eyes widening as he took in whatever expression he held. The Doctor wished he could say something reassuring back to Adric but he didn't believe it would help much, not with what he is planning to do next.
"I'll show you what happens next." The Empress vocalised more throaty sounds and rose up on her spindly legs. "At arms!" The robots surrounding them come to attention.
Donna huddled further into his side, watching the room with fearful eyes.
"Take aim!" Guns are primed and aimed in their direction. 'Why does it always have to be guns?'
"Doctor…" Adric gripped the end of his suit jacket with increasing trepidation. The Doctor could feel his nerves from the tight hold though his hand didn't shake for a second.
"And-!"
But it was okay. He had a plan to save them both. He wouldn't allow for anything less.
"Relax."
With a soft whine, the robots slumped forward like puppets with their strings cut. The Doctor couldn't help the faint curl of amusement building up inside him. He turned to Donna, who was looking at the downgraded androids in confusion.
"What did you do?" She looked at him with bewilderment and awe.
"Guess what I've got, guys?" The Doctor reached into his pants and pulled out the device that he had snatched on his way down here. "Pockets."
The tension slightly left Adric's shoulders. It wasn't completely gone but he would take it as a victory.
'Honestly… this is kind of what I expected to happen in the end.' Adric stared as everything both burst into flames and flooded with water around him.
Really, even though this Doctor was very personal in making sure no one came into harm's way, it still ended with a large swath of death as a conclusion to the adventure. And what a spectacle it was.
They were running, the Doctor, Donna and himself. They had left the Racnoss Empress behind in her chamber as they ran to escape the sudden flood. Sirens rang dutifully (futilely) in response to the destruction, emergency lights flashing red. Adric panted for breath, the muscles in his legs screaming as he did his best to keep up with the adult humanoids.
The Doctor kept a tight hold on his arm. That was nice. It was a sufficient thing to focus on instead of how the environment around him was giving out a similar atmosphere to his last adventure. He had to clamp down on the building panic in his chest knowing that it would do him no good.
'Keep calm. Keep calm.' The trio turned another corner in the underground facility. The smoke in the air was particularly acrid and made it hard to see through his watering eyes. 'Keep yourself calm. This isn't the first time your life has been in danger.'
Another turn. A pipe burst in the wall.
'This is nothing compared to what you faced before. You've confronted elder vampires the size of buildings. You have traveled between dimensions and fought against eldritch beings.'
A little hop maneuver to evade a trail of fire. Donna yelped when some of it nearly got onto her dress.
' You've made it through all of that in one piece. This is no different from them. You survived everything in space no pro-"
Sweaty hands braced against a control panel. Sparks flying into his face. A dreaded mechanical wheezing, almost like laughter, as his last hope disappeared before him.
Adric nearly stumbled to the ground and it was only the Doctor's hold on him that kept it from happening. Adric barely noticed the gesture as he tried to tamp down the panic clawing into his chest.
'Except you didn't survive everything, did you?' An insidious voice whispered from the back of his mind (it reminded him of wire binding his limbs and whispers of dominion over the universe, numbers flying rapidly within his brain). 'You practically died in your last adventure and there was nothing, not even the Doctor, could do to save you from crashing.'
No matter how much he tried, the terror that the short flashback had brought out was settling firmly inside him. Because now was the time, delayed as it was, for a panic attack regarding his near death experience. His heart was pumping frantically against his ribcage and he wasn't sure if it was from the sprinting or the agitation making it hard for him to breath.
'You're not there. You're not on the freighter anymore. You are off, you are okay-
It's coming, it's getting closer, he could make out the mountain tops rising into the air, oh god, he was going to crash-
- you are fine!' Adric gritted his teeth and forced himself to power through the panic trying to bring him down. The sense of doom went down just a smidge but the rapid palpitations of his heart continued. He could feel the Doctor's eyes on him but he didn't look up to meet the elder alien's gaze. If he didn't get it to calm down, he would surely collapse and he didn't know if he could get up again.
'Keep moving. You can't stop now.' Less smoke was gathered before them and the air got a little easier to breath, enough that his lungs didn't feel like they were burning with every step.
'I am still here.' Adric chanted firmly inside his mind. His legs were starting to ache from the stress put on them.
'I am alive.' They turn into another hallway and the younger alien could make out a hatch embedded into the ceiling. They all rushed towards it as water slipped through the faults on the walls and began spilling onto the floor.
'This will not be the end for me.' The Doctor reached for the wheel located in the center of the hatch. 'I won't let it.'
The entire River Thames was drained into the ground. Adric, at this point, was a little underwhelmed by the damage presented. There were points in other adventures where entire towns, even a section of the universe, was destroyed in the Doctor's constant pursuit of dogooder ideals. So a local river being unloaded was rather mild in comparison.
Though the Racnoss ship being taken out of the sky by judicious use of giant armoured vehicles was new. Destructive but new.
He was tired. He was sore. The edges of his clothes were soaked in water and the London chill was making him shiver. There were probably bruises on his body from being handled so roughly by the robot Santa's. And his stomach was busy reminding him that it was quite willing to eat anything at this point as long as it was filled.
Adric leaned heavily against the side of the TARDIS, the Doctor and Donna a few feet away from him. They had managed to get Donna back to her family (again) after all of the shenanigans this day brought to them. He wasn't truly listening to what they were saying, eyes closed as he attempted a light doze, but he could just imagine what it was about. Acknowledgement of friendship probably, apologies for the chaos and offers of travel. Not that he thinks Donna would be up for space. She appeared a bit too high strung for the lifestyle, reminding him strongly of Tegan.
(Although Tegan managed to grow into her new lifestyle and left everyone who crossed her regretting every action that led them to this point.)
(Adric felt his already tired heart give a painful throb. God, he missed her. Nyssa as well.)
He didn't do much even when it started to snow, only huddled further into himself. Adric only starts paying attention again when Donna raises her voice.
"Tell you what I will do, though. Christmas dinner. Oh, come on." He looked at them and could see Donna scowling at the Doctor who was making a complicated expression. It looked like he either wanted to frown or smile. More likely option A.
The Doctor shook his head in the negative. "I don't do that sort of thing."
"You did it last year. You said so." Donna argued back. "And you two might as well, because Mum always cooks enough for twenty."
Adric listened and thought it sounded like a nice idea. The food that he managed to eat at the wedding reception felt like so long ago and all he wanted was to get out of the cold. He looked at the Doctor and caught the micro-expressions that crossed his face.
It was a technique that Adric developed back when he traveled with his first incarnation of the Doctor, after Romana chose to stay behind in E-Space. Regardless of the manic cheer he loved to maintain around every being they came across, he was still an elder alien being from an incomprehensible species that communicated with the world in ways other species just couldn't. Often there were communication issues and Adric had to develop a way to determine the Doctor's state of mind without Romana to act as a buffer/translator for it all. He didn't use it as frequently with his second Doctor, who expressed his thoughts more freely, but it was still useful to have.
He was glad the skill was still applicable, even after literal centuries of changes that the Doctor went through. Adric could see that the Doctor was struggling in accepting the offer before them. The elder alien was touched by the dinner invitation, going by the softening around his eyes. However, the purse of his lips told Adric that the Doctor had no intention of taking up the offer, soft as he was to it.
Well, the Doctor may not want the invitation, but Adric surely did. The entire day had been just one, never ending ride from one catastrophe to another. He just wanted to be able to sit down, have a peaceful meal and sleep for the next few days.
"Doctor."
The man in question paused and turned to look at Adric. He wasn't sure what expression was currently on his face but he hoped it conveyed just how done he was with the universe in general. It must have been enough because the Doctor's eyes softened even further. Adric would have cheered if he felt like it.
"Please. Let's just….let us just take a moment of peace." 'I've already had to fend off a panic attack today, you've already had to deal with another crisis before you found me.' "Just accept her invitation."
A moment of silence enveloped them save for the faint hum of the TARDIS. Adric didn't say anymore, just watched the older male think. Donna looked between them both, her face creased with worry at the interaction before her. He appreciated the concern she showed, considering how she reacted to them at the beginning of this whole adventure.
Finally, the Doctor sighed, his head leaned back and eyes closed. The tension that was present in his shoulders eased up, not quite gone, but not as pronounced. He rubbed a hand over his face.
"Alright." The Doctor took his hand off his face. "One dinner." His eyes darted between Adric and Donna. "Just one dinner and we'll get out of your hair."
Donna smiled brightly. "Brilliant!" She reached out and grabbed the arms of both aliens, pulling them in the direction of her house. "Much as I complain about her, Mum can make a good dinner for the holidays. I just hope Dad and Gramps haven't tried cutting the turkey, they just don't know how to handle a knife…"
As they drew close to the front door, Adric allowed the stress plaguing him to slowly leave. Even though he still had questions over his random resurrection and what happened afterwards (Where were Nyssa and Tegan? How did the Earth survive? Was he still welcome to travel with the Doctor?), he allowed it to recede to the back of his mind. Though he still had one question that he couldn't help wonder about.
How in the world did Donna's dress stay intact and clean throughout the whole day?
Holy shit, I think I managed to add on to over half the wordcount!
ML: (Takes a look at the word counter) You managed to put in about 7,951 words. Well over half the previous word count-chazu.
I still can't believe it, this monster of a chapter. I'm clocking it to nearly 24 pages long, 22 pages if you ignore the notes. I'm just so happy I finished this thing after so long.
ML: So does that mean you're finally going to go to sleep?
Hell no, you know that my insomnia won't leave me be just like that! I have to get to work on my other stories before I lose my motivation.
ML: You are going to pass out like this-chazu!
Can't hear you, I'm writing! Sayonara, minna-san! Until next time!
