Goodbye, A 12th Doctor Story
*Hey all, I'm back. I'm taking a huge break from Barry Allen, Zoom since I kinda lost inspiration awhile ago. Meanwhile, Doctor Who sucks now and I miss Peter Capaldi! I decided to write this story based right after the Hell Bent/Heaven Sent thing. The Doctor just got back in the TARDIS after completely forgetting Clara and being trapped in a confession dial for billions of years. He's decided to give proper goodbyes to all his past companions, as he knows how terrible he left some of them. Enough talkin, on with the story!*
*Doctor Who belongs to the BBC. If I owned it, the Timeless Child wouldn't have happened*
I've forgotten her...Clara...I can't even remember her face..her voice..anything. All I know is she was my Impossible Girl. My life feels so different without her..oh god, is this what they all felt like? Rose, Donna, Amy, even Craig? Is this how they felt when I disappeared? My god...I..I have to make this right. Let's make this right old girl...Chronological order maybe?
"Come onnnn girl, this is a once and a lifetime chance! We're almost through the barrier!" The Twelth Doctor exclaimed, frantically pulling levers and switches and pressing buttons on the Console of his wonderful Space Time capsule.
The Doctor, from an alien race known as the Time Lords, is fresh off his last journey. After losing Clara and rediscovering his home planet Gallifrey at the end of the universe, he's realized how badly he needs to give all his past companions a proper goodbye. Now, if he did EVERY companion he's ever had it would take so long that he'd end up regenerating. He's saying goodbye to all his companions and friends he made after the Time War, starting with the first human he had seen in hundreds of years...Rose Tyler. Of course, this also comes with saying goodbye to Jackie and his uhh.. Meta-Crisis clone. Well, his Tenth incarnations clone at least.
"Oh man, seeing that face again is gonna feel strange.." The Doctor said to himself, recalling the Timelord Human Meta-Crisis..Oh Donna..That's for later though...I'm sure he'll figure it out. Thankfully, he now has full access to all the Time Lord tech he'd ever need to help his old friends. It starts with an addition to his TARDIS that will help him break the dimensional barrier and land back on Bad Wolf Bay, where he said goodbye..well, half a goodbye. Time to set everything right.
"Come on, come on...YES! We did it! Haha, still as beautiful as ever!" He proudly yells into the air, right before giving the console a quick kiss and a pat. With the iconic whirring and vworping, they rematerialized on that same beach that he had left all those years ago...
"Hello love, back from work already?" The Meta-Crisis Doctor says with a smile, greeting his wife Rose at the door. She just came back from a hard day at U.N.I.T, where an anti-Zygon protest broke into a full battle in the streets.
"Yea, we managed to stop the riots and calm the people down fairly easily. Especially when the leader of the anti-zygon group found out his own wife was a zygon. Can't image how that conversation is gonna go." Rose said with a giggle. The two had been living happily in a house, only a few houses away from that bay where the Meta-Crisis Doctor and Rose first started their life together. Rose doubled as a simple shop manager and an agent of U.N.I.T when needed, with the occasional call from Torchwood calling her and her Doctor. While she was out doing all that, he was hard at working growing a TARDIS of their very own. After The DoctorDonna and The real Doctor left the two, they discovered a small seed buried in the sand right where the TARDIS once stood. Guess the DoctorDonna had left the two a going away gift.
"Think I've rigged it to accelerate the growing process by 12x the average rate of a TARDIS, should be done growing by..oh would you look at that, the day before our anniversary. Say sweetheart, how about a trip to get the best belgian waffles in the galaxy on that special day?" He said with the goofiest grin, wearing his brainy specs.
"Well, I think that sounds wonderf.." Rose started, then paused. The two had a puzzled look on their face, that then turned to suprise. They heard that familiar moaning and vworping noise, following by a hard stop and the thump that signified the landing of a TARDIS.
"It..it can't be..right?" Rose said, slightly saddened and suprised. She looked at her husband.
"Well..." He started, removing his brainy specs and putting them back into his jacket's breast pocket, "We're the only ones in this universe even close to having a TARDIS..it has to be."
The two rushed out the door and bounded down the street to Bad Wolf Bay, where they saw that Blue Box sitting on the beach and a man in a velvety black jacket standing there, looking into the ocean.
"I wonder how the two are doing..wonder if they have a kid yet. Wonder what the name would be..that's the kinda stuff I used to think about with her.." The Doctor said, throwing a stone into the great big sea. He noticed the oceans were a bit cleaner in this world, but also a bit faster when it came to making waves. He heard three small knocks behind him, as he turned to see Rose Tyler and the Meta-Crisis Doctor standing in front of his TARDIS.
"Doctor..? Doctor it's Rose...are you in there...?" Rose said, with an obvious worry in her voice
"I love the new exterior mate..gives me some great ideas" The Meta-Crisis Doctor said, examining the Blue Box closer.
"He's not in there" The Doctor said, walking closer. He held back his tears and any other emotions he was feeling. He needed to know if he was even close to the same man he was all that time ago. If the two of them, one of his closest friends and literally himself, could recognize him, he knew he was on the right track. He knew Clara wouldn't be ashamed. He knew he could stay true to that last message she left him. Run you clever boy, and be a Doctor.
"Could you tell us if he left..or where he.." She started to say, before looking over at the Doctor.
"Oh my god..Doctor?" His clone said, with a puzzled and yet happy look on his face.
"Hello Rose..Hello, er uh..Me" He said, tears immediately starting to flow down his face. What can he say? What should he do? It'd be so long since he'd seen either of them that it was almost worse than being trapped in the confession dial..almost. He did die hundreds and thousands of times in there. But the emotional damage here..Well, he is a bit of a drama queen.
"Rose, I've co-" He tried to say, before being cut off. The two had ran over from the doors of the TARDIS and given him a massive hug. He didn't used to be much of a hugger, but that's all changed. He slowly lowered his arms around the two and pulled them in slightly. "I'm sorry.." He said, weakly.
"Mum'll be back soon..She'll be glad to see you..hopefully." Rose said, pouring The Doctor a cup of tea. He had barely said a single word to her or his old clone since that hug, but he followed the two to their house for tea and Jammy Dodgers.
"Ah..Jackie..yea, I have some stuff to say to her as well..to all of you." The Timelord started, staring down at the Dodger in his hand. Oh Amelia..No, no, now isn't the time. He's still got about...6 companions to say goodbye to?! Man, his 10th incarnation got around.
"Why are you here Doctor?" The Human-Timelord said, right before sipping his tea.
"More importantly, HOW are you here?" Rose said, a slight anger in her voice. The last time she'd seen the real Doctor, he said he could never return. "How long has it been? You've regenerated, obviously, but how many times? How many people have you brought with you on your adventures?"
"Twice. I'm number 12..Well, 14 technically but that's a uh..long story. Since I regenerated I had about...maybe 4 or 5..depends on who you count..." He trailed off at the end, looking down still. He took a single bit of the Dodger..just as sweet and crumbly as he remembers. Man's most perfect invention since the Jelly Baby...Hm, he should grab some of those while he's here.
"14? What about the rules of Regeneration?" His clone questioned. "I remember I was 11 technically, and I remember Mr. Grumpy from the Time War..that should have been all but one, you should have been stopped at 13."
"Ah, the Time War..yea, again. Long story." The Doctor decided it was time to catch them all up on his life since he left them. Just as he was about to start, the woman he was waiting for walked in.
"Rose! I heard he's back, I saw the TARDIS, where is he? Where's that timelord?!" Jackie practically yelled into the room as she opened the door. She immediately locked eyes with The Doctor, knowing it was him.
"Ah, hello Jackie..Now that you're all here, let's begin.." He said, with a calm yet stern voice.
"You brought them back?! You brought the whole planet back!?" The Meta-Crisis Doctor was practically jumping with joy. The Doctor forgot how almost rabbit-like his 10th incarnation was when he was happy. He didn't forget about the storm that brewed inside him when he was angry, so he was determined to make sure they were all calm.
"Wait, how were you able to meet all the other versions of you for this? How did your planet get stuck at the end of time?" Jackie almost shrieked in that familiar voice. Honestly, it didn't bother the Doctor as much anymore, as he almost missed that tone.
"Honestly, even I'm not completely sure. I don't even think I've gone to save Gallifrey yet with the other Doctors. Who knows when I'm supposed to fly my TARDIS down there." He Doctor said in that scottish joking and almost sarcastic tone. "The universe tends to just bring Me together in times of Crisis. When the tomb of an ancient Timelord was broken into with an attempt to gain immortality, my First, Second, Third,and Fifth incarnations were all brought together. Shame ol' Four couldn't make it, would have loved to ask him why he thought the Scarf was a good choice. Then again, Five did wear a vegtable. Can't tell you how many times I had to replace that thing, Celery goes bad quick."
"Ohhh I remember that, good ol Five. I did love him, although I can't remember what our obsession with Question Marks was all about" Meta-Crisis fondly remembered that multi-doctor event. He still had all of The Doctor's memories up to the point he was created, so he recalls most of these events.
"I actually brought the Question Mark thing back, would you like to see?" The Doctor gripped the waistband of his pants, to which the three shook their heads no.
"So, How long has it been? Since we last saw each other, I mean.." Rose looked at the ground and said with a soft tone.
"To be honest, I lost count when they trapped me in that confession dial..it could have been well over a trillion years since I last set foot on that beach..and I need to say something" The old Doctor stood up, sighing and wiping the crumbs from his shirt. "Rose...Jackie...Doctor..what I did to you all those years ago..wasn't very kind. It was cowardly at best. I abandoned you, twice over with barely any goodbye. Hell, I was gonna be the one to give you that TARDIS seed before I..I chickened out and Donna left it to you."
"Oh Doctor, It's alright.." Rose started, before being cut off
"IT'S NOT OKAY ROSE! I abandoned you, I had to wipe Donna's memory, I left Martha and Mickey. I got an invite to their wedding, you wanna know what I did? I ran off! again! I got in my box with whatever human I had and adventured and tried to forget every terrible thing I ever did! I just thought 'Oh I got a new face! They wouldn't recognize me and they don't care anyway!' as an excuse for not wanting to face my problems! I haven't even tried to contact Captain Jack! I've seen Sarah Jane one time since my last regeneration! One of my oldest and closest friends that's still alive..I didn't even bother to see her.." The Doctor yelled to the heavens, before putting his head in his hands and slumping back down to his seat
"Oh Doctor...I'm sorry, I'm so sorry.." Meta-Crisis sorrowly said. This produced a small chuckle from the sad old timelord, remembering when he and his past 2 incarnations met up to stop the Voord. He really did say he was sorry a lot in his 10th form, possibly too much..maybe around 120 times? He wasn't even sure.
"Doctor..It's been so long since any of that happened. I forgave you a long time ago because it was what was best for me. If you hadn't left like you did, I'd be stuck in this dimension thinking about you for the rest of time. It was harsh, and yea it hurt like hell...but It was what was needed." The former Bad Wolf said with a heavy smile, putting her hand on the Doctor's knee
"Thank you Rose..you did always know how to get my spirits up..no matter what face I have" He said with a slight smile. "I really should get going in a sec..the dimensional buffer switch was only a concept when I last saw gallifrey, and it's still very experimental and the TARDIS might leave without me." He stood up to say his last goodbyes
"Well Doctor, Allon-sy. Heheh" The slender clone said with that same childish grin that the timelord had when he said that signature line. He does miss having a catchprase that isn't 'shut up' sometimes.
"Allon-sy...oh, and Jackie? Sorry I was such a...well, a jerk to you." The timelord tried not to curse, looking at the woman standing in the kitchen
"Ah, I was annoyin' back then wasn't I? Sorry I gave ya so much trouble spaceman" Jackie said quietly, giving a half smile.
"So, this is goodbye? For real this time?" Rose said, standing in front of that same Blue Box she started her adventures in so long ago.
"I'm afraid so..the buffer switch is only meant to work once at this point. I'm sorry" He hung his head and put his arms behind his back. He didn't really want to go, but then again..he said the same thing when he regenerated back then.
The Doctor pulled Rose in for one last hug and waved goodbye, as he opened the door to the TARDIS with a snap.
"Oh, you've redecorated! I don't like it" The Meta-Crisis Doctor chimed in, peaking in through the TARDIS door.
"Oh you never do, do you?" The Timelord snapped slightly, walking into his TARDIS. "What about my new Sonic?" He help up his brand new Sonic Screwdriver
"Ah, Blue sonic. Classic!" His clone said with a smile
The Doctor smiled slightly, said goodbye just one more time, and closed the doors. That whirring and vworping noise started up and the Blue Box suddenly vanished from the sand in Bad Wolf Bay
"Alright, who's next..Donna or Martha and Mickey...Uhhm...Flip a coin!" The Doctor grabbed a coin from his jacket pocket and flipped it. "Heads Martha, Tails Donna?"
The coin landed tails up, which the Doctor wasn't happy with. "Uhhh redo!" He flipped again and the coin landed tails again. A small noise came from the console of the TARDIS
"Alright alright fine, We'll do Donna first..this is gonna be hard.." He said, flipping the fast return switch to head back to Gallifrey. He needed one more piece of time lord technology to help Donna and fix what he did.