As the children of stories long ago rise.
To fight against the storming tides.
The immortal child and the goddess of war.
Shall give everything to protect the doctor.
The man who runs from his past of shame.
The time will come when his home will be burn aflame.
Ch. 9 Jail Break
Tower of London...
They arrive to tower, walking through each and every corridor of the tower's dungeons.
The warder pulls the rope at them, "Come on you three. Pick up the pace!"
They arrive to the door as he cuts the rope and pushes each of them inside, "Come on, you lot, get in there. "
As the warder shoves The War Doctor hard and he mutters, "Ow."
The warder comments, "Stay comfy you lot. You're going to need it."
He laughs as he leaves, shutting the door behind him.
"Well," The War Doctor asks, "now what?"
11 answers as he searches through the ground, "Now...we make a plan."
"Ah, found it," he smiles as he finds a piece of metal bar and starts scratching on a stone pillar.
10 looks around and comments, "Three of us in one cell? That's going to cause some nasty anomalies if we don't get out soon."
He turns to 11 and asks, "What are you doing?"
11 responds without looking at 10, "This is part of my plan."
10 questions, "Plan? What plan?"
11 turns to him as he stops scratching the wall, "The plan of getting us out."
He goes back to scratching the wall as The War Doctor is using his sonic screwdriver on the wooden door.
10 looks over to the The War Doctor and comments, "The sonic won't work on that, it's too primitive."
The War Doctor turns off his sonic and turns to the rest and where again 11 stopped scratching the wall. "Shall we ask for a better quality of door so we can escape?"
10 walks around the cell, examining anything to help escape and then walks back to 11 and The War Doctor. "Okay, so the Queen of England is now a Zygon. Rose is missing. But never mind that. Why are we all together? Why are we all here?"
11 momentarily looks over his shoulder as 10 continues talking. "Well, me and Chinny, we were surprised."
11 looks over his shoulder and mouths, "Chinny."
He mutters something as he goes back to scratching while 10 speaks. "but you came looking for us. You knew it was going to happen. Who told you?"
The War Doctor was about to answer, but then he sees Moment Rose holding a finger to her lips, "Sssh."
11 turns to 10, "Oi, Chinny? Really?"
10 comments, "Yeah, you do have a chin."
Under Gallery...
McGillop was studying the stone dust, analyzing it with his equipment as Osgood reads the results. "Marble, granite. A lot of different stone, but none of it from the fabric of the building. It's like somebody smashed up a lot of old statues."
She walks and looks around as he is sill looking through the microscope.
She turns to him, "Are there any missing?"
McGillop looks up at her and said, "I don't think so. Why would anyone do that, anyway?"
She turns her head and look around while pondering as he continues explaining, "I mean, I know we're meant to keep an open mind, but are we supposed to believe in creatures that can hide in oil paintings and have some sort of a grudge against statues?"
He laughs as Osgood uses her inhaler; he sees her face has an expression of calm fear.
He asked concerned, "You all right?"
She quickly stated, "We have to go, right now, this minute."
McGillop asked, "What's wrong?"
Osgood explained, "The things from the paintings. I know why they smashed the statues.
"Why?" He questioned as he noticed her eyeing the covered statues around them.
She admitted, "Because they needed somewhere to hide."
The nearby statues slowly turn towards them and raise their dust sheets. Under the covers revealed an alien that resembled humanoid with large, cone-shaped head; as their entire upper body was covered in suckers.
They roared as four surround McGillop and one of them placed their tentacles on his mouth; while Osgood screams and runs away from them. She manages to get into the National Gallery and closes the door behind her. She silently prayed that it will be enough to help her from the aliens. However, a tentacle smashes through the painting of Elizabeth and the tenth Doctor. The tentacle destroyed the portion of the painting that held Queen Elizabeth's face and opened the door. Osgood ran to the open elevator, but it isn't moving and she repeatedly pushing the button for it to work; however, to no avail. She backs herself into a corner as the alien slowly approaches her while dark red blood oozing out of its mouth while it roared.
She muttered to herself as she closed her eyes and shielding her face with her arms, "The Doctor will save me. The Doctor will save me. The Doctor will save me. The Doctor will save me. The Doctor will save me."
She opened her eyes to see that the alien has assumed her identity and then it extended its hand to her sounding annoyed, "Excuse me. I'm going to need my inhaler. I so hate it when I get one with a defect."
Osgood is stunned as the impostor rolled their eyes and swipes it out of her hands, "Ooo, you've got some perfectly horrible memories in here, haven't you?"
She takes the inhaler and uses it.
She sighed as she looked down at Osgood, "So jealous of your pretty sister. I don't blame you. I wish I'd copied her."
Osgood overcoming her shock as she eyed the clone carefully and then noted something as she looked back to the clone, "So do I!"
Osgood pulls on her scarf causing the alien clone to fall back onto the floor, allowing her to escape. She picked up her inhaler and ran as the clone tried to regain its footing.
The clone stand angrily, "Oh, for goodness sake."
It chases after her.
Meanwhile…
A black car drives up to the Tower of London. It drives through a tunnel, but stops.
Clara asks, "Are we there?"
Kate states, "No, but almost."
The street parts, revealing an underground tunnel and the car resumes driving. The car reaches a black corridor and stops as Kate and Clara open the door. They walk towards the big black door as Kate speaks.
"If I'm understanding the Doctor's plan correctly; then he will be trying to send us a message."
She turns to face Clara, "Clara, we're looking for a string of numerals from 1550, approximately."
Clara nods and asks, "What are we going to do?"
Kate explains, "This is Priority One. I'm going to access the Black Archive."
They approach the black corridor and it opens on its own; both Kate and Clara walk inside.
Clara asks, "Black Archive?"
Kate states, "Yes, the Black Archive. It has the highest security rating on the planet. So as a contingency plan; the entire staff have their memories wiped at the end of every shift to ensure for maximum protection."
"How is it done?" Clara asks.
"It is does through the built in automated memory filters in the ceiling," Kate explains as she a guard approaches them from a hidden post.
"Good afternoon Ma'am," he smiles.
"Good afternoon Atkins," Kate speaks, "Access, please."
Kate asks, "How goes it Atkins?"
"It's going well Ma'am considering it is my first day here," he explains.
She hands him her key and he walks away as she leans to Clara. She whispers, "He has been here for ten years."
Clara focuses on the device until the guard opens the door. The two of them enter inside the Black Archive; it is like a giant warehouse with many rows and columns of shelves each containing different equipment. Both turn as they hear the door lock and Kate locks it from her side.
Kate puts her key in her pocket and Clara states, "Lock and key? Bit basic, isn't it?"
They begin to walk as Kate comments, "Can't afford electronic security down here. Got to keep the Doctor out. This whole of the Tower is Tardis-proofed. To be honest, I know he really wouldn't approve of the collection.
Clara remarks, "But you let me in."
They pass a board with numerous pictures and Kate points to it, "You have top level security rating from you last visit."
Clara pauses as she looks the the board and approaches it; focusing on a picture of herself and Kate from another time, "Sorry my what?"
"My apologies," Kate speaks, "We have to screen all his known associates. We can't have the information about the Doctor and the Tardis falling into the wrong hands. The consequences could be disastrous."
Kate stops before a small construct; similar to a stone shed and gazes through the window. Clara walks up to her and looks through the window.
Clara asks, "What is that?"
Kate states, "To put it simply… Time Travel. It is a vortex manipulator bequeathed to the UNIT archive by Captain Jack Harkness on the occasion of his death. Well, one of them. No one can know we have this, not even our allies."
Clara inquires, "Why not?"
Kate reasons, "Think about it. Americans with the ability to rewrite history? You've seen their movies."
Meanwhile…
A scientist with parting brown hair and glasses and a green shirt with jeans under his white coat looks around the room for clues.
"Come on. This room has to be the one," he mutters as he moves his flashlight in the Tower.
Back at the Black Archive…
She walks away with Clara following behind as Clara states, "Okay… so this is how we're going to rescue the Doctor then."
Kate presses a red button located at the center of the metal door and the door opens by itself.
Both enter the small construct as Kate speaks, "In a way yes. However, I'm not sure there's enough power for a two-way trip. In any event, we don't have he activation code. The Doctor knows we have this, so he's always kept the code from us. Let's hope he changes his mind.
Back at the tower…
The scientist mutters, "This is the last pillar in the room."
He slowly walks around it with his flashlight in his hand, carefully examining the stone pillar for any clues.
He walks around to the fourth side of the pillar and smiles, "Bingo."
He puts his flashlight down and calls Kate.
Back at the Black Archive…
Kate hears her phone ring and answers the call.
"Yes…"
…
"Good."
…
"Well, if you've found it, photograph it and send it to my phone."
Clara notices through the window Osgood and McGillop have arrive as well.
Back to the tower…
"Yes ma'am I understand," he states as he ends the call. He flips his phone and takes a picture of the pillar with the numbers etched on it, sending it to Kate's phone.
He sighs as he goes to gather his things and then heads out of the room.
Back to the Black Archives…
"Er… Kate," Clara calls her name as Kate examines her phone impatiently, "Should they be here?"
Kate sets her phone down and walks away from the window as Clara walks closer to it, "Why have they followed us?"
Kate turns and faces through the window, "Oh, they've probably just finished disposing of the humans a bit early."
"Pfft… The humans…" Clara asks as she eyes Kate.
Kate chuckles, "Dear me…"
She continues as Clara slowly faces her while Osgood and McGillop stand outside, "I really do get into character, don't I?"
Kate spits some venom at Clara as half of her face transforms into a Zygon. Clara gasps and steps back into the corner to avoid the venom blob. Kate gradually transforms into a Zygon as Clara stands in awe before it. Once fully transformed, the Zygon roars and then faces Osgood.
Osgood states, "The Under Gallery is secured."
The Zygon states, "Very good."
Unbeknownst to them, the phone rings and Clara notices the picture message arrive.
The Zygon continues, "Prepare to dispose of one more human. We have acquired the device."
Clara grabs the Vortex Manipulator and turns the phone; she sets the code in.
The Zygon turns to face Clara and she looks to them with a smile on her face, "Activation code, right?"
Clara pushes a button and then the Zygon growls angrily as she disappears.
Meanwhile in the Past…
11 is still scratching his message in the pillar while the War Doctor scans the door with his sonic screwdriver.
He stops and faces both 10 and 11 as he speaks, "In theory… I can trigger an isolated sonic shift among the molecules, and the door should disintegrate."
10 looks to the War Doctor and the door shaking his head, "We'd have to calculate the exact harmonic resonance of the entire structure down to a sub-atomic level. Even with the sonic it would take years."
10 wanders off, unaware of Moment Rose in the room watching the three of them at work.
The War Doctor walks away from the door and sits down as he comments, "No, no, the sonic would take centuries to finish the calculation. Oh, we might as well get started. Help pass the timey-wimey."
11 freezes as he eyes the War Doctor momentarily before resuming his focus on the pillar while 10 sighs and digs in his pockets.
The War Doctor asks, "Do you have to talk like children? What is it that makes you so ashamed of being a grown up."
11 stops again and looks at the War Doctor with 10 also looking at the War Doctor.
"Oh, the way you both look at me. What is it? I'm trying to think of a better word than dread."
"It must be really recent for you," 10 asks the War Doctor as 11 sighs.
"Recent?" the War Doctor states.
11 shift his eyes away from the War Doctor, pondering before commenting as he refocuses his eyes on the War Doctor. "The Time War. The last day. They day you killed them all."
10 faces 11 and remarks, "You mean the day we killed them all."
11 comments, "Same thing."
10 shakes his head as he walks away from 11, unaware of Moment Rose; while 11 goes back to work on the pillar.
Moment Rose states to the War Doctor, "It's history for them. It is already been decided. They think their future is real. They don't know it's still up to you."
The War Doctor looks between 10 and 11 while Moment Rose is sitting close to him, "I don't talk about it."
10 comments as he walks around a pillar, "You're not talking about it. There's no one else here."
Moment Rose speaks with the War Doctor, "Go on… Ask them. Ask them what you need to know."
The War Doctor sighs as he looks at both 10 and 11, "Did you ever count?"
11 stops and responds, "Count what?"
10 circling around 11 as 11 continues to etch in the pillar.
The War Doctor states, "How many children there were on Gallifrey on that day."
11 once again stops his scratching and he ponders as he moves his eye around while 10 leans on a pillar opposite 11.
11 states as he resumes scratching, "I have absolutely no idea."
The War Doctor asks, "How old are you now?"
11 comments, "Ah… Well… I don't know."
He stops scratching as he continues, "I lose track. Guess Twelve hundred and something, I think, unless I'm lying."
He shakes his head and resumes scratching the pillar, "I can't remember if I'm lying about my age, that's how old I am."
"Four hundred years older than me, and in all that time you've never even wondered how many there were? You never once counted?," the War Doctor speaks confused.
11 bites his lip in frustration and faces the War Doctor, "Tell me, what would be the point?"
10 glares at 11 and pushes himself off the pillar, "Two point four seven billion."
The War Doctor exclaims, "So you did count!"
11 shakes his head and turns away from both 10 and the War Doctor as he resumes etching the pillar.
10 walks up to him and states, "You forgot that easily? Four hundred years, is that all it takes?"
11 sighs as he stops and faces 10, "I moved on."
"How? Where? Where can you be now that you can forget something like that?" 10 half states and half yells at 11.
11 calmly states, "Spoilers."
10 retorts, "No. No, no, no. For once I would like to know where I'm going."
11 raises his voice, "No, you really wouldn't."
The War Doctor shakes his head, "I don't know who you are, either of you. I haven't got the faintest idea."
Moment Rose clarifies, "They're you. They're what you become if you destroy Gallifrey. The man who regrets and the man who forgets."
11 resume etching away while 10 shakes his head and walks away.
The War Doctor turns to face Moment Rose, "The moment is coming where you have to decide."
The War Doctor turns away and speaks, "No."
10 parrots confused, "No?"
The War Doctor replies, "Just, no."
Meanwhile…
Clara finds herself in an open courtyard and sighs. "Great… Which way to the Tower?"
Clara follows a path and runs as quickly as she can. 'Just wait for me you clever boy. I'll be there soon.'
Back in the dungeon…
11 stops as he leans against the pillar. He sighs and releases a small laugh.
10 asks him, "Is something funny? Did I miss our funny thing?"
11 states, "Oh sorry. It's just… It occurred to me. This is what I'm like when I'm alone."
10 shakes his head and pulls out his sonic screwdriver and flips it around as he thinks.
Moment Rose appears between both 10 and 11, "It's the same screwdriver. Same software just in a different case."
The War Doctor then looks to his own sonic screwdriver and then at 10's. He flicks it on and speaks, "Of course…. Four hundred years."
He repeats as he pats his head, "Four hundred years."
10 looks to the War Doctor confused, "I'm sorry?"
11 stops as he hears the War Doctor's explanation, "Yes. You see at a software level, they're all the same device, aren't they. Same software, different case."
"Yeah?" 10 comments intrigue while 11 pulls his sonic screwdriver out.
"And so?" 11 responds as both he and 10 look at the War Doctor.
The War Doctor stands up and faces the door as he continues, "So, it would take centuries for the screwdriver to calculate how to disintegrate the door. Scanning the door, implanting the calculation as a permanent subroutine in the software architecture and, if you really are me, with your sandshoes and your dickie bow, and that screwdriver is still mine, that calculation is still going on."
He turns to face them both with a smile as 10 activates his sonic and pulls it closer to his ear, "Yeah, it's still going."
11 activates his and states amazed, "Calculation complete."
Moment Rose comments from afar, "Same software, different face."
11 smiles, "Hey, four hundred years in four seconds. We may have had our differences, which is frankly odd in the circumstances, but, I tell you what, boys. We are incredibly clever."
The door opens and Clara nearly falls on the floor; she examines all three of them as she catches her breath.
11 drops his arm in disbelief and asks her, "How did you do that?"
Clara answers as she grabs on the knob, "It wasn't locked."
11 sighs, "Right."
Clara asks 11, "So they're both you, then, yeah?"
"Yes. You've met them before. Don't you remember?"
"A bit," Clara remarks as he looks at 10, "Nice suit."
"Thanks," 10 comments.
"Hang on…" Clara eyes each of the doctors, "Three of you in one cell..."
She turns to the door, "And none of you thought to try the door?"
The Warrior remarked, "It should have been locked."
11 comments confused, "Yes… Exactly. Why wasn't it locked?"
Footsteps echoed neared the door and before the group stood Elizabeth, "Because I was fascinated to see what you would do upon escaping. I understand you're rather fond of this world. I think you saw what's going to happen to it."
She snaps her fingers and troops rounded them.