Chapter LXXXIV

10th Doctor

To say he was absolutely flabbergasted would be an understatement. He stood and stared where Mira had vanished within the weirdly orderly moving crowd of Ayxeluriusians. But more than about her behaviour he was shocked about himself. How had he gotten it wrong? Again? He had been absolutely certain that it right now was not the time it had been when he had first come here. Well, truth be told, and he hated to admit it, he had just relied on getting it right somehow. Instinctively. He hadn't really checked it. But he had been pretty certain. Like ninety-nine point ninety-something percent.

And now he found himself in the rare and almost frightening situation of not knowing what to do next. Following her? Risking to run into his earlier self? Was it not enough that Mira would most likely bump into him? And then there were the Xandrians. They had given him quite a ruff time, and he could only imagine what would happen when they met Mira with her ability to do God-knows-what with their psychic abilities. And they had used them excessively back then.

Oh, and she just had to wander off. She could not listen to him for once. Just once. So what to do next? He ruffled and pulled at his hair, trying to make up his mind. All options were bad, but which one was the best of them?

"Doctor?" a voice came from his right side. "What is it?"

He turned his head and saw Martha, staring at him out of wide eyes, seemingly confused.

"What happened? Why do you want to leave? Don't you think we should help?" she continued.

Oh no. Not Martha as well. She would not run off. He grabbed her hand to just make sure of that.

"No Martha. You go back to the TARDIS. I'll try to find Mira," he snapped at her, yet he still hadn't made up his mind if he should really follow her.

"But why?"

"Because! And don't think you can wander off as well!"

She looked at him for a long moment, and he saw how her face changed from looking confused to a hint of fear in her eyes.

"Look," he added, trying to keep it down this time, with limited success. "I've been here before. A while ago. Well, a while ago for me now, not when you take the current time right now as a point of reference. Anyway, I really thought I got the time right, I really did, you have to believe me, but obviously I didn't. So I was here, I am here, well, over there to be precise, right where the explosion just happened. So that's why we have to leave, and you can't wander off. We can't run into myself, do you understand that? It could create all sorts of weird effects, paradoxes, and who knows what, and now with Mira just exactly where I've been – where I am now – that... And even if not, with her being there everything what did happen will change, and..."

And I don't really know what to do.

It was then when he realised he had let go of Martha's hand and had grabbed her by the shoulders, staring in her eyes.

He finally let go off her, allowing her to take a step back.

"Maybe we should both get back to the TARDIS and wait there for her...", he said, not quite convinced, whilst rubbing his face.

"Maybe she's in danger?" Martha said.

"Nah. Either she's with me – well, yes, then it could actually get dangerous – or she's on her own, then she should be fine. She's quite capable. I actually worry more for the Xandrians than her..."

"Who are the Xandrians?" Martha asked.

"Merchants," he said shortly, staring over Martha's head to where the explosion had been.

Indeed, if Mira wouldn't do something particularly stupid, and she really wasn't the type for that, at least most of the time, she would be alright and more than able to deal with them. But he could not really tell what would happen when she ran into his former self. He had been quite different back then, more than convinced to never ever travel with someone, desperately trying to escape the horror he had brought over his people. And then meeting someone like Mira – as good as she was with making up stories – would make him more than suspicious. Suddenly he realised that he had no choice but to follow her to prevent the situation from turning even worse. For her sake and the sake of him, his own timeline and everything else that was on stake. And that could basically be everything, if it would come to the pinch.

"Martha, you go back to the TARDIS. Right back. Stay there, do noth-"

"Where is it? Over there?" she asked and pointed in the completely wrong direction.

"Seriously?" he asked and looked at her. She had just made that up, hadn't she? No one could have such a bad sense of direction. "Fine. But stay at my side. And I mean that. You're not even getting four feed away from me, unless I tell you otherwise. If you wander off even once, you're going back home! And if we meet myself, don't speak to him. Don't say anything at all. Don't even look at him. Just let me do the talking, got it?"

With that said, he took her hand again and ran off, right in the direction where Mira had gone.


9th Doctor

He had a nasty suspicion, and as he went over to the door in the opposite wall with long, determined steps, he almost had it. How had he not gotten it earlier? It all made sense now. The missing children, the Xandrians, their sudden psychic powers...

He pushed the door open, noticing how Betty, who was walking behind him, tugged at his jacket.

"Not so fast, would you?" she hissed from behind. "I'm quite certain there's no living being in that room, but there could still be robots..."

"No, no robots, see?" he replied, taking in the quite massive amount of consoles and screens in the room.

It slowly dawned on him that this must be a much bigger operation than he had assumed in the first place. They definitely put some money into that laboratory and this control room. He went over to one of the consoles, not without noticing a few blue barrels in one corner. He pressed a few buttons, and some of the screens came alive. Now he saw why this room was empty – a whole bunch of Xandrians and other, taller figures who could easily be humans from Earth – were busy emptying a large storage room. On another screen he could see their spaceship in a sub-surface hangar. It was an ugly, old vessel, and he had serious doubts about its ability to make it into orbit again. And that seemed to be the plan, as he could now see some of the Xandrians entering the ship, carrying more of the small blue barrels.

It took him only seconds to gain access to their file system, finding his assumptions confirmed.

"What is it?" Betty, who seemingly was guarding the door, asked.

"Drugs," he replied shortly, looking further through the files.

"What drugs?" she asked after a moment.

"It's the children," he finally started to explain. "As long as they're young, the produce some sort of hormone. When it's extracted, it has life prolonging, rejuvenating and restoring effects on some species. It can even – temporarily – bring latent psychic powers to the surface. To an incredible amount," he continued, still fiddling with the console.

"That's horrible!" she said. "We have to get them out of here."

Instead of answering, he continued analysing the systems.

"And what are you going to do now?" she asked after a while, filled with silence.

"Putting an end to it, and probably teaching them-"

Before he could say more, he heard the door, then someone grunting behind him, followed by Betty's voice, "One move and I-"

He spun around and saw her holding a man with his back to her, a gun pointing at his head. It wasn't one of the Xandrians, but one of the more human looking ones – even though he was rather small, a few inches shorter than Betty.

"Don't you dare killing him!"

"What!?" she said and turned her head to him for a short moment. "How about, 'Thanks, you just saved our arses'?" she continued, her attention back on her prisoner. "He would have had less qualms about killing us! Besides, I'm no murderer. But I definitely will knock him out if he causes any troubles. Did you hear that?" she now addressed the man she was still holding.

"Fine. Keep an eye on the door, would you?" he said and turned to the console again. "Brilliant!" he yelled a few moments later, after he had found what he had been looking for.

"I really hate to spoil your enthusiasm," Betty replied, "But there are more coming!"

"Let them," he simply said, turned to the door, arms crossed, and waited.

He didn't have to wait long. Not a minute later the door opened again, and the Xandrian woman walked in, followed by the guy she only called 'Idiot', and two others, who were pointing guns at them. Before he could say anything, Betty had turned so that her prisoner was no facing his companions, using him as a living shield. Nothing he approved of, but he couldn't change it either.

He saw that Betty and that woman stared at each other for a long moment, and he could quite guess what was going on between them on a psychic level.

"You'll never make it out here," she finally addressed him.

"Nope, probably not," he replied calmly. "You neither."

"What?! Do you really think using him as a shield will stop me? I don't even know his name, so why should I care? He's expendable."

"Before thinking about replacing your staff, I would rather replace that old vessel of yours. And definitely not wiring its systems with the main control console. Granted me access to the main reactor control. There I thought those old, dirty fission reactors were banned ages ago. Oh, and I overloaded it. It will blow up in-" he looked over to one of the screens which was showing a timer, "Twelve minutes and thirty-five seconds. Taking down this whole facility as well."

The woman looked back and forth between him and the screen a few times, then she said, "You're bluffing."

"Nope."

"You'll die with us."

"Yup."

"You're mad!"

"Yes," he said, cracking a smile.

"Who are you?"

"I'm the Doctor," he said, his smile growing even wider. "Eleven minutes, by the way. I suggest getting into that ship and initialising the start sequence. I reprogrammed it, so once initialised, it will take you back to your homeworld. No way to overwrite it. The reactor overloading sequence will then stop."

"You're bluffing! He's bluffing," the woman replied, turning to Betty now.

"No, as far as I know him, he most likely isn't," Betty replied.

And here it was again. Did she just say it, or did she inadvertently slip something about knowing him she hadn't meant to say?

"Ten minutes left," he said. "Oh, and don't try to leave someone behind. You have quite advanced scanners on that old banger and a good record-keeping about your staff. Better make sure they're all on board, otherwise the start sequence won't initialise."

"We can always come back, you know?" the woman said and stared at him for one more moment, before she turned around, yelling in a small comm-device she was carrying, "Evacuate. Repeat, immediately evacuate facility. Take off in ten minutes!"

Betty gave her prisoner a nudge in his back, but he was more than eager to follow his fellow guards. He watched on the screen how one after the other made it into the spaceship, the last few just made it at nine minutes and twelve seconds. A moment later the start sequence was initiated, and the ship took off in a cloud of smoke from the liquid propellant rocket engines they used to manoeuvre within the atmosphere.

"They will return, you know," Betty finally said. "At least that was not a bluff."

"Don't think so. It's not going to be a direct flight home; they'll make a stop at the Shadow Proclamation."

"And?"

"Well, that here is a protected world under Article twenty-three. So they committed a serious crime. It's all in their computer systems. Don't think they'll come back any time soon. Now, come on. Let's see where they keep those poor children."


Mira

They had found the Ayxeluriusian children not too far away in cells similar to the one she had found herself in earlier. They seemed to be okay so far, and more confused than frightened. She hoped that, due to the strange mentality of their people, they would make it out of that situation relatively okay, and without any sort of trauma.

Now they must probably be halfway through the facility, the seven children latched on to the Doctor and gathered around him, as she watched him walking over to the door the next door, but instead of opening it, he turned around to her and shot her a considering look out of his cool, blue eyes.

With his arms crossed he said, "So. It's been bugging me the whole time, but I can't figure it out. Who are you?"

She watched the Ayxeluriusian children turn their eye-stalks from the Doctor to her, waiting for an answer as well. There was not even a hint of fear about them, just friendly curiosity. Even though it was only seven of them plus the Doctor she suddenly found thirty eyes on her.

"I told you. My name's Betty. I'm from Arkon, and-"

"Stop it! That's not true, and you know it!"

Twenty-eight eye-stalks turned back to the Doctor, pretty much without them turning their heads. As he had finished, the looked at her again. It was almost as if they watched a tennis match. And they obviously had no idea what was going on, but they liked it.

Thoughts were running through her head. Chances were good that he wouldn't stop questioning her. Not until he knew what was going on. At least her version of him wouldn't let go with it. And he seemed to remember her somehow, even though that should not be possible.

Probably it was best to tell what was really going on. Maybe then he would leave it to it, and not ask her any further. The Doctor she knew would still be dying of curiosity, but at least he would understand that she could not tell him any more. And they had already met, so the damage was done anyway.

"Even if that's so," she said slowly, "I can't tell you any more."

"Why?" he asked, completely ignoring the children who were gathered around him and still looking back and forth between them.

"Because," she said and sighed. "Listen. I know you can regenerate. How many times did you do that so far?"

"How..?"

"Just tell me, please."

"Nine times. But-"

Okay, she thought, so that's him before his current regeneration. She wondered how long ago his homeworld had gotten destroyed, because to her it was quite plane to see that it had already happened. Nothing of the playfulness and the childish mischievousness she had seen in the eyes of his forth regeneration was there now. Instead he appeared to be broken, even more than he was now.

"So, let's say, we will meet each other," she carefully said. "Some time in the future. And maybe we have met already, in your past. But that was later in your timeline – I mean, in your future from now on we get back to meet you, but a much younger you. So no idea why you seem to know me, as far as I understand it you shouldn't, but then again, what do I know about time... Well. So no, I can't and won't tell you any more, and if we have to stand here to the last of all days."

"You're right, that's not possible. I should not remember you, if it is how you say. And there I thought you'd tell me the truth."

"It is the truth!"

"Well, for that to happen, I mean, a paradox like this with you being imprinted in my memories like that, we must get to know each other quite well, and that's not possible."

"Why?"

"Why would we? I certainly will never travel with anyone again. Ever. Simple as that. And I don't see why I would change that in the future. It's nothing but trouble, with them always going back home at some point and – anyway. Who are you? You're not from Gallifrey, are you? How did you manage to get away?"

For a moment she was absolutely dumbstruck. But it didn't last very long.

"So, just because you can't imagine to ever make friends again, I'm lying? How can anyone be so stubborn? I mean, not that I wouldn't know by now just how stubborn you can be, but seriously?" Without wanting to she had raised her voice just as he had done. A moment later she felt sorry, as it was most likely – not only – stubbornness, at least not this time. Probably more a desperate attempt to believe that not everyone was gone. What was he supposed to think anyway? Meeting someone here, of all places, who seemed familiar to him, in a way he could not quite grasp?

Suddenly their was a voice from the left side of the room. "Leave her alone. She's telling the truth. And if you continue on this way out, you'll run into a trap. Discovered it in their computer system when I was here first time, it'll blow up the whole facility. Wonder why you didn't see that now. Good grieve, where my ears really that big?"

She didn't really need to turn her head to know who was there. But she did nevertheless. The Doctor, her Doctor, was standing there, dressed in his brown coat, hands in his pockets, looking at his younger self with an evaluating glance.

"And you are?" his previous version said, eyeing him the same way in return. "Oh no. Really?"

They got a bit closer to each other, his previous self walking around his future self, followed by the children which were still gathered around him. "Seriously? And still not ginger? Great. Please tell me you're far in my future."

"Oi, what's that supposed to mean? Don't think you have to complain, with that daft old face! And, at least I have hair. Look at you! And I've got freckles. That's halfway to ginger, I might say."

They continued exchanging comments about their appearance when she got distracted by Martha who had walked over to her.

"You're all right?" Martha asked.

"Yeah. Just tell me exactly how angry is he? I know I messed up."

"Quite, I think," Martha replied. "He kept on ranting about people wandering off almost the whole way. And about paradoxes and how you of all people should know. And how he'd managed to get it wrong this time. Didn't say what though." She nodded over to the previous Doctor and added, "Who is he? He said he was here before, and would run into himself. But that's-"

"That's him," she said.

"Oh no, you're kidding me. No way that's him."

"It is. He didn't tell you then, did he?"

"What did he tell me?" Martha asked.

"Maybe ask him that yourself, as soon as they're done with putting self hatred to a whole new level," she replied, looking over to the two Doctors who were still commenting on their looks, their voices, their way of talking and each others ability to evade traps.

"It was her, Betty, distracting me! Had to keep her from shooting that whole place into pieces," his ninth regeneration just said, pointing over to her.

"Oh yeah, she does that," her Doctor replied. "What, wait. Betty? She's told you that that's her name? Who's Betty?" he added, now looking over to her as well.

"Betty? She was an old friend, if that matters now. He – you seemed to remember me, so I thought it's a good idea to not give my real name," she replied.

"Yeah, but who's Betty?" his ninth regeneration wanted to know as well now.

"Seriously? I said, an old friend. She was a fellow mutant, telepath and telekinesis."

Being obsessed with – most of the times - irrelevant details seemed to be another quite persistent trait of his personality.

"I'm sorry," her Doctor said, looking at her suspiciously compassionate.

"What for?" she said irritatedly.

"You said she was an old friend. So I assume she's dead?"

"What?! Nah, she's not. She's just no longer with us... Physically, at least. Anyway. Done with exchanging pleasantries? Can we go?"

She knew she was due for a telling-off, and she only want to get over with it. And as much as she wanted to spend more time with his previous regeneration, if only for the sake of him being so completely different, which would most likely help her to understand him even better, it probably was for the best to separate the two of them as fast as possible.

Later, after they had made their way out of the facility with the children safely back with their parents, she was sitting under a large tree, leaning against its trunk, watching the setting sun casting dancing shadows through the leaves. No, she hadn't wandered off again, the Doctor, at least her version, was somewhere over there on the market-place, surrounded by Ayxeluriusians. They had latched on to him, for whatever reason, and not even he had managed to sneak away this time. Martha was there with him as well; some sort of party was going on. It was then when she heard steps in the soft grass, and when she turned her head she saw the Doctor in his ninth regeneration sitting down next to her, although a few feet away.

They sat there in silent for a while, until she finally said, "Thought you've headed off already."

"I did. But I came back, as you see."

"Yeah," she replied, her gaze fixed on the grass in front of her. She could feel his eyes on her.

"So, who are you? Really, I mean. Not that Betty-story."

She sighed, faced him again and then said, "I thought we already had that conversation. I can't tell you, and you know damn well why."

"I know. I- I guess I'm just trying to understand why. Why do I remember you? I shouldn't. And why do we travel together? And Martha as well? Can't believe that. That's not me. Not any more."

He shook his head, his eyes looking at something in the far distance.

"You know, people actually do change over time. Most will deny it, if asked. But we do. Guess you're not an exception," she replied. "And you have changed. Quite a lot, at least in some ways."

"Still, seems not like me anymore. A lot must happen until I'd change in that way. So, what is it? Not even a hint?"

"Seriously? No. Not even a hint."

"I seem to be happy," he continued after a few minutes of silence, as they were staring at the partying crowd. "Am I? Am I really happy in my future?"

She looked at him, right in his eyes, and even though they were so different from the ones of his future regeneration, she could still see him in them. How much could she tell him? Were they meant to have that conversation? Was that the reason he considered travelling with someone again? Had it been Rose? Or someone else, before her?

"I'm not sure if that's the way to put it; happy... You know, you don't talk that much about yourself. But I guess you've made a good start towards being it again some day. Or, you will make, from your perspective."

They sat in silence again, and, a few minutes later, she knew he was gone, even without turning her head.


a/n: I know, long time no post. Sorry, I had sort of a writers block, and then started to play Fallout 4, which didn't help either. But I decided to definitely go on with the 11th Doctor after the next season. And maybe a few more original stories with another companion between Donna and him regenerating again – maybe Jack? ;D Always thought the should travel together at least for a while...

OneWhoReadsToMuch, heroherondaletotherescue, bored411, Natasha Strong, djmegamouth, DarknessShallSpreadXx, NeoMulder, E-man-dy-S: Thanks for leaving a review :-)