The Doctor looked at the man in the bed, one of his previous incarnations. He had known what to expect, but still the sight of himself was a shock to his time sense. Except... something felt off this time.
The "Second" Doctor looked at the other Doctor, a strange expression on his face. Something seemed wrong in those crystally blue eyes, and his general mannerisms were off.
"Hello, Doctor." The Brigadier walked closer. "I am Brigadier Halston. How are you feeling?"
The Doctor, the second incarnation, cleared his throat. "M..." he struggled to say. "Much better, thank you." He said, calmly, his voice raspy, He coughed, gently. "...Water... please..."
One of the hospital Doctors retrieved his glass of water and handed it to him.
The second Doctor took it absently, taking a sip. "I'm... I'm afraid... my memory... what happened?"
"We were hoping you could tell us, Doctor." The Brigadier responded. "We found you near the space time rift here in Cardiff, two days ago. You were in very bad shape."
"Y-yes..."
The Tenth Doctor frowned. Alarms were going off on his head. He had positively no recollection of this, though, he supposed that wasn't terribly unusual. His younger self was acting strange, but he also had recently been through a harrowing experience; Something that had damaged his memory, and badly injured him.
It had been a long time since he had been his second life; Over five hundred years. His memory of events were fairly vague now, though he remembered key parts. He remembered all the people that had traveled with him, and facing the Cybermen and robot Yetis. He remembered meeting the Brigadier, His Brigadier, for the first time. But other than that, not much else. He felt like something important happened that he should remember.
"Where are your companions?" Ten asked, slowly.
Two frowned. "I... Jamie... Victoria... I can't remember."
"What about your Tardis?"
The Second Doctor shook his head. "I'm terribly sorry... I can't seem to... remember much of anything."
"Very well." The Brigadier said. "Try to rest, Doctor. Don't strain to remember, but if you do remember anything, let us know. We'll be outside."
Two smiled slightly, but it looked forced.
Ten and Martha followed the Brigadier out of the room. As soon as the door shut, the Tenth Doctor quickly said, "I want to see his medical reports.
"Of course." The Brigadier handed him the file.
"Is anything wrong, Doctor?" Martha asked.
The Tenth Doctor shook his head. "I don't know. Something's off." He frowned as he read the medical report. "His symptoms are very similar to the theoretical side effects of prolonged exposure to the Time Vortex. Theoretical, because no one has survived before..."
He looked very confused. "None of this makes any sense." He motioned toward the file. "His life signs almost seem... human."
Martha frowned. "Could he have used the chameleon arch for some reason?" She asked.
The Doctor contemplated that. "Its possible, but it still doesn't add up. Half of his life signs show up as human, but the other half are most definitely not human. But they don't seem Time Lord either. Its like nothing I've ever seen."
Salamander let out a deep breath as they left the room. So far so good. It didn't look like they suspected him, but he couldn't be too sure. The accent had come much easier that he had expected, but he supposed that stress was a good teacher.
He laid back. He wouldn't be able to keep this up much longer. He knew that. Thank goodness he had remembered the names of the Doctor's friends.
He couldn't help but smile slightly at the thought that the Doctor didn't recognize himself, but it quickly fell again.
His body was still weak, and he could feel sleep creeping up on him, but he was sure that tomorrow, after a good night's sleep, he would be fit enough to get out of here. He had to be.
He shifted gently to a more comfortable position, and closed his eyes, but instead of sleep coming, his mind began to work.
It seemed to him that something about the vortex had changed him. He could feel it, something different, like a fire in his blood, and a presence in his mind. He still remembered the experience, and what he saw, but now the memories were almost locked away. He could access them, but it required effort.
Salamander opened his eyes, looking at the Nurse that was still in her room. The longer he did, the more the strange gold haze he saw shifted and formed into gentle golden strands, swirling and wrapping around her. Each was of a different length, and some were more vibrant than others.
Something in the back of his mind tickled, telling him that this was important and good, but he couldn't place what it was or why he felt that way.
He closed his eyes again. He must find a way out of here. Then he could take revenge on the Doctor for what he did to him. A part of him relished the thought, but as he fell asleep, he couldn't help noticing the small tickle in the back of his mind that felt uneasy about it.
"Och, Where d'ye suppose the Doctor got tae now?" He said to Victoria, before taking a bite of his sandwich.
Victoria shook her head. "I don't know. Probably off somewhere getting in trouble." She took a bite of her sandwich.
The two sat in a small cafe, not far from where the Tardis was parked. There were not many other tables occupied. The two of them sat near the large window looking out at the street, watching the people pass.
Jamie laughed at what she said. "Aye. He has a knack for findin' trouble."
They watched the street in silence for a moment.
"Jamie..." Victoria said, softly.
"Aye, Victoria?"
"Do you ever wish we could have more adventures like this? No running for our lives or being in danger, just peace and quiet?" Victoria didn't seem to be able to make eye contact, looking at her food.
Jamie smiled. "Aye, sometimes. But I like adventure. I would go mad if this were all we ever did."
Victoria looked slightly crestfallen, but Jamie didn't seem to notice. "Yes. I suppose so." She said.
They sat in silence again, Victoria looking down at her food again, and Jamie looking out the window.
Suddenly Jamie grasped her arm. "Look!" He hissed, pointing at something in the street.
"What is it?" Victoria couldn't see anything out of the ordinary, but she felt her heart pumping faster. Jamie had a much better sense of danger than her.
"There, by the Tardis!" He pointed at the alleyway where the Tardis was, and Victoria saw several uniformed people around it. They seemed to be trying to load it onto a truck bed.
"They're stealing the Tardis!" Jamie hissed. "Come on!" He was up in a flash, his sandwich forgotten. Victoria followed a little more slowly.
Outside, Jamie was about to charge over to them, and demand to know what they thought they were doing, but a hand stopped him. He turned, suddenly, only to see the Doctor with a finger to his lips.
The Doctor pulled Jamie and Victoria aside.
"They're taking the Tardis, Doctor!" Jamie sounded exasperated.
"Yes, It seems so." The Doctor looked thoughtful.
"Oh, what do we do?" Victoria asked, worry in her voice.
"We can't rush into things. For all we know, they might mean to do us harm. We'll have to follow them and try to figure out why they've taken it." The Doctor rested a hand on his chin, and, after a thoughtful moment, motioned for them to follow him.
The soldiers finished strapping the Tardis onto the back of the truck, and began boarding it.
"Och, Doctor, they'll leave and we'll never find it again!" Jamie folded his arms.
"Jamie," The Doctor looked thoughtful. "Do you remember Gatwick Airport?"
Jamie frowned, but then alarm spread on his face, as he remembered what had happened that fateful day. Aside from meeting Victoria, and the Tardis getting stolen, they had been captured by the Daleks. "Hey, ye don't think its the Daleks, do ye?"
The Doctor didn't reply, watching closely.
"The Truck says UNIT on the side." Victoria observed, but she seemed to be hiding panic. "Oh, Doctor, do you suppose it could be the Daleks?"
"I don't know. Judging by the soldiers and truck, I don't think so." The Doctor rested a hand on his chin. "UNIT... I've heard that name before..."
The Truck started up, and began driving off.
"Come along!" The Doctor started after the truck.
The three of them weaved their way through the crowd, apologizing and asking pardon as they shoved through the people, trying to follow the rapidly disappearing truck.
The Doctor looked back at his companions as if to say something, but before he could, he accidently stumbled into a man passing by. The man nearly tripped, grasping the Doctor to try and regain his balance. In the resulting struggle, the man slipped a small object into the Doctor's pocket, unnoticed.
"Oh, I'm terribly sorry!" The Doctor brushed the man off and helped him steady himself. He smiled warmly. "That was terribly careless of me, I do apologise."
"No, no, not at all!" The man smiled, but Jamie suddenly felt a sick feeling. He observed the man closely.
The man wore a black suit, and he had a goatee. His hands were covered by black leather gloves, and there was a grey streak on his hair. On his face was a pair of glasses.
The Doctor looked at him a moment, clasping his hands together. "Do I know you?" he asked. "You look terribly familiar."
The man shook his head. "I'm afraid not. I'm sorry to have troubled you." The man quickly disappeared in the crowds.
"Och, we've lost the Tardis!" Jamie lamented.
"Oh no!" Victoria looked on the verge of tears. "Now we won't ever find it!"
She buried her face in the Doctor's shoulder, and he wrapped an arm around her, comfortingly.
"There, there, Victoria..."
"Now what'll we do?" Jamie said, exasperated.
The Doctor frowned. "It seems-..." He suddenly cut off as a blue light began swirling around him. He quickly let go of Victoria, stepping back.
"Doctor!" Victoria and Jamie said together.
Jamie moved forward. "Whats happening?" He asked, alarmed.
"Stay back, Jamie! Its a teleportation device of some k-..." The blue light engulfed him, and suddenly it and the Doctor blinked out of existence.
Jamie and Victoria stared. "Doctor!"
The two of them stared at the empty space for a moment.
"Where did he go?" Victoria panicked.
Jamie was speechless. None of the bystanders seemed to have noticed anything, continuing on their way.
"Doctor!" Jamie shouted, more in desperation and shock than in actually thinking it would do any good.
This was too much for Victoria. She couldn't hold back the tears any longer. "Oh, Jamie, what will we do?" She sobbed.
Jamie moved to her side, holding her gently, and somewhat awkwardly. It was usually the Doctor that did the comforting, and he was out of practice.
"Shh... Do nae cry, Victoria. It'll be alright." He held her close.
Victoria calmed somewhat. "Jamie, what do we do? We don't know where the Tardis is and the Doctor has disappeared. Jamie..." She looked at him, her brown eyes filled with tears. "Jamie, I'm afraid."
Jamie rubbed her arm with his hand, comfortingly. In all honesty, he was afraid too. They were lost in a time that wasn't their own, with no idea where the Doctor or the Tardis were. But he had to be strong for Victoria.
"I ken, Victoria, but we've got tae be strong for the Doctor and figure this out. We must nae lose hope." He thought for a moment. "I think first we should try tae find the Tardis." He pointed with his finger. "That's the last direction we saw the Tardis going. We might as well try that way first." He paused, and fished a handkerchief from his pocket, handing it to her.
Victoria accepted it, gratfully, and wiped away a tear. Then she clenched her jaw, trying to appear brave. "Alright... I'll try."
Jamie smiled at her, and took her hand. "Come on." The two of them moved forward, weaving their way through the crowd
The Doctor groaned as he came to. His head throbbed, and his eyes were heavy, but as he moved to put a hand on his forehead, he found his wrist stuck. His eyes flew open in alarm.
"Hello, Doctor. I'm glad to see you finally woke."
As the Doctor's eyes came into focus, he saw the man who had bumped into him in the street.
"Who..." He struggled to speak. "Who... are you? I've... been drugged..."
"Yes Doctor. We didn't want any trouble. Don't worry, you should recover quickly."
"I... I demand you release me... at once!" The Doctor struggled against his bonds, fruitlessly, regaining his strength quickly.
"Patience, my dear Doctor, patience." The man grinned sickeningly.
"You don't seem to have heard me." The Doctor glared. His captor was right. He was recovering remarkably quickly. "Who are you, and where am I?"
"Why, Doctor, don't you recognize me? You could say we were at school together." The man grinned.
"I have no idea what you're talking about!" The Doctor's eyes narrowed.
The man frowned. "Don't you remember?"
The Doctor's eyes narrowed. "No, I don't, but you're obviously a Time Lord." He looked around at the grey walls covered in circles. "And this is a Tardis!" His face turned bitter. "Come to turn me in to the High Council, have you?"
The Doctor's captor seemed agitated for a moment, but quickly recovered. "No, I am as much against the High Council as you are."
"A fellow renegade? How fasinating." The Doctor looked away, as if bored.
"I'm called the Master."
"A very humble name choice." The Doctor muttered, frowning. "Very well, Master." He said the name as though it were sour. "How did you find me?"
The Master smiled. "I had help from a friend."
"A friend? Who? What are you planning? If you want my help, I wouldn't count on it if I were you!"
"Oh, my dear Doctor, I'm not going to tell you our plans."
"Why not? If what you say is true, it should be impossible for me to escape!"
"Nevertheless, Doctor, if you do not know, you cannot tell. A simple precaution."
The Doctor turned his head at this new voice. It was strikingly familiar, but he couldn't place it. The man from which it came was shrouded in shadow.
"What do you want of me?" The Doctor demanded.
"Oh, we just need to keep you out of the way until our plan is in motion. You should accomplish that just nicely in this cell. We will leave him now, ay, Master? Let him stew."
The Master nodded, smiling. "Any efforts to escape would be in vain, Doctor."
The two of them began walking away, leaving the Doctor stuck as he was.
"You... You won't get away with this, whatever it is!" The Doctor shouted, in desperation, at the retreating figures. "You won't!"
"My dear Doctor, there is nothing you can do to stop us!" The Master laughed.
He heard the dull clang of a door closing, and the click of a lock. He tried the restraints, and found them just as solid as the Master had suggested. He stopped struggling, gasping in exasperation.
"Oh, crumpets..."
"Here, Doctor," Martha handed him a cup of tea. He accepted it, gratefully.
"Doctor, along with your earlier self's appearance, we have been experiencing several fluctuations in time, with side effects such as time loops and other temporal anomalies, and we have had several UNIT vehicles go missing in the Cardiff area over the last month."
The Doctor frowned, listening. "Hmm..."
The Brigadier handed him a file, and he quickly looked through it
A soldier entered the room, and saluted. "Ma'am, the transport has arrived with it's cargo."
"Good. Doctor," She turned toward him. "In light of your younger self showing up unexpectedly, I sent troops and a transport vehicle to find his Tardis and bring it here. They've just arrived."
The Doctor frowned. "My Tardis is in the city too."
"They picked this one up in Catheys."
"Hmm." The Doctor nodded. "Well, that's not where I parked. Let's go take a look. Allons-y!" He dashed out the door, Martha following after him.
Outside, The Doctor looked over the old battered Police Box.
"It looks a lot more beat up than yours. It seems smaller too." Martha commented.
"Yeah..." The Doctor touched the side of it fondly, running his fingers down it, before inserting his key and opening the door. He stepped inside, and Martha followed.
"You're so young..." The Doctor muttered, running a hand over the white console. "What did the nasty soldiers do to you?"
Martha looked around at the interior. The white circles, the white floor, and the colorless controls on the console. "It's... cleaner than yours."
The Doctor frowned. "Cleaner?"
"Yeah. It's very white, too." Martha seemed to find it fasinating. "Is this really the same Tardis?"
"Yeah, only about five hundred years younger." He gently stroked the console, smiling slightly at the hum in the back of his mind.
"Why'd you change it?"
"Oh, I thought I'd get a little color into my life, as soon as I could appreciate it."
"What do you mean, 'As soon as I could appreciate it'?" Martha asked, leaning on the console.
"My first two incarnations were monochromicly colorblind." The Doctor replied.
Martha frowned. "Really?"
"Yeah." The Doctor nodded. "Didn't take much notice until my third self saw color for the first time."
Suddenly, they heard shouting outside the Tardis.
The Doctor glanced at Martha, confused, but headed toward the door. Martha followed
Outside, some of the UNIT soldiers were restraining a young man wearing a kilt, of all things. A young girl was watching in surprise and alarm.
"Let me go, ye Sasanach!" The young man shouted. "Ye have nae the right tae keep me here! Fight me like a man, will ye!"
The Doctor's face lit up when he saw them. "Jamie! Victoria!"
"Oh, do let's take a break. My feet are killing me." Victoria sat on a public bench, rubbing her feet.
"Aye, alright. But only for a moment." Jamie sat down next to her. He had to admit his feet ached too.
They had walked miles, with no sign of the Tardis. He wouldn't tell Victoria this, but he had begun to lose all hope of finding the old ship.
"Jamie, I just had an idea." Victoria said, her eyes narrowing in thought. "Suppose, because the Tardis says 'Police' on it, someone turned it into the police, not knowing what it really was?"
Jamie smiled. He didn't want to dash her hopes, but he very much doubted it. "Aye... perhaps. Let's try for the police station then." He stood, wincing at the ache in his feet.
"Excuse me, sir," Victoria asked a random man passing by. "But do you happen to know the way to the nearest police station?"
"Yeah," the man nodded. "Three streets down, next to the hospital. You can't miss it."
"Thank you!" Victoria recited in her head what he said. "It's that way." She pointed. "Let's go, Jamie."
Jamie nodded. "Okay."
The two of them walked in silence. Both of them knew they were probably chasing dead ends by now, but it kept them occupied.
Jamie couldn't help thinking the worst. What if we do nae find the Tardis or the Doctor again? I do nae thing I could adjust tae life in this time. And what about Victoria?
Victoria grabbed his sleeve, suddenly. "Jamie, look! The Tardis!" She pointed.
About a half a block away, in front of a large building, was the familiar blue sight of the Tardis. It sat next to the truck that had taken it, unfortunately surrounded by soldiers. It was a sight for sore eyes, none the less.
Victoria could almost cry in relief.
"Victoria, we need tae get tae the Tardis. If ye distract them, than I think I can slip past." Jamie said, quickly.
"Okay. I'll try... How?"
"Talked tae them. Tell them that you're lost, and ye need directions or something."
"Okay."
Victoria moved forward toward the guards, tentatively. "Excuse me?" She said to the nearest guard. "Could you help me please?"
The guard turned toward her, smiling. "Of course, Ma'am. What can I do for you?"
The other guards took notice, and Jamie began sneaking toward the Tardis.
"Is this the hospital?"
"Yes it is. Are you lost?"
Jamie was nearly there when one of the guards spotted him and gave a shout.
Two of them instantly turned toward him. Before they could point their guns at him, he shouted "Craig an tuire!" and leaped onto the nearest one. He managed to give the man a good fist to the jaw before they tackled him, pinning him to the ground.
"Jamie!" Victoria shouted in concern.
"Let me go, ye Sasanach!" Jamie shouted, struggling hard. "Ye have nae the right tae keep me here! Fight me like a man, will ye!"
Two people came out of the Tardis, and though Jamie was rather preoccupied, Victoria noticed, and was suddenly captivated by the man. She was certain she had never seen him before, yet he looked familiar somehow.
His eyes widened when he saw them. "Jamie! Victoria!" He excitedly walked to Jamie, motioning for the soldiers to let him go.
Jamie, now released by the soldiers, took a defensive stance.
The man held his hands up in surrender. "Easy there, Jamie. It's me! The Doctor!"
Jamie frowned. If the situation hadn't been so dire, he might have laughed. "Och, I'm nae blind! You're nae the doctor I know."
"I've regenerated."
Jamie's eyes narrowed. "Regena-what now?"
The Doctor imposter frowned. "I never did explain it to you, did I? Well, you see Jamie, when the Doctor dies, his body goes through a process called regeneration. It saves his life, but changes his outward appearance. I come from your far future where this has happened."
Jamie's hard expression didn't change. "I do nae understand."
"I was him, he will be me."
"Who will I be?" Jamie asked, prompting a chuckle out of the girl next to the Doctor Imposter.
Jamie sighed, in frustration. "Och, I do nae understand all this fancy talk. What have ye done with the Doctor?"
"He's inside the hospital." The girl said, motioning to the building.
Jamie finally softened slightly. "Is he injured? If ye have harmed him in anyway..."
"Oh, could you take us to him please?" Victoria asked. "We've been terribly worried ever sense he disappeared."
The Doctor Imposter frowned. "Disappeared?"
"Aye, in a cloud of blue." Jamie said, quickly. "He said something about a teleport or something afore he vanished. Can we see him?"
"I'll show you the way." The girl smiled. She held out a hand. "Martha Jones."
Jamie eyes her suspiciously, but shook it. "Jamie McCrimmon. And that's Victoria Waterfield."
"It's a pleasure." Victoria shook her hand, giving her a smile.
"Come on." Martha walked toward the building, Jamie following.
Victoria paused before following. She looked at the other Doctor. "Are you really him? I mean... our Doctor?"
The Doctor smiled. "Yes, Victoria. I'm the same Doctor that fought the Daleks at your home, and the robot Yeti, but from the future."
Victoria looked him in the eye a moment "I... I don't understand how you can be the same man if you look so different, but I believe you. Even if Jamie doesn't, and it seems impossible." She smiled. "Your eyes are the same as the Doctor's."
The Doctor smiled back, warmly. "Let's go in with the others, okay?"
"Alright." Victoria nodded.
The Doctor wrapped an arm around her shoulder, and together, they walked toward the building.
AN: The Master in this story is the Delgado Master. He's my favorite. Also, I love Jamie and Victoria's relationship.
The colorblind thing comes from the Day of the Doctor novelization.
Any feedback, good or bad, would be greatly appreciated. Even just a sentence on how you enjoyed it, or anything really.
What will happen? Will Jamie and Victoria recognize Salamander as an imposter? What will happen to the Second Doctor? Who is that third mysterious man helping the Master? Find out next time!