Danni collapsed against the Doctor, panting and hearts racing. He had flown them away and, finally, they were safe in the TARDIS once again. "Did it work?" she asked.
The Doctor nodded, also panting. "I think it worked."
She sighed in relief. "What now, then?" she asked. "They're on the other side of the universe. Everyone's going to be safe now, yeah?"
"For the time being," he agreed. "It will give the Velosians time to get their act together for when they return."
Danni nodded. She hadn't been incredibly keen to help out to begin with, but watching the Doctor get stuck into the action had made it hard to resist. He'd explained exactly where they were, and what time period they were in, before he'd even opened the door this time. She wasn't sure if she was grateful or feeling slightly patronised but that was a thought for another day.
"And where are we now?" she asked him. She'd felt the familiar thud of the TARDIS landing but she'd not seen him plot a course for anywhere.
"Somewhere green," he declared. "Somewhere without Love Sprites, or intergalactic war." He'd had enough. It had been hell of a forty-two hours and he didn't want to end the day like that. "Earth," he explained. "851-ish."
He was walking to the doorway but Danni caught the glance over his shoulder, waiting for her to tell him that she'd done something terrible there too. She hadn't. She'd explained that her broken manipulator had only given her about a five-year window before it would just stop working. That didn't include 851 Earth.
"Sounds delightful," she drawled, walking over to his side. "I'm sure we've talked about your need to return to Earth constantly. Maybe we need another intervention."
"I don't need an intervention," he replied. "I didn't need the first one."
"I don't know. Me and Clara really agreed that you loved the planet a little too much," Danni reminded cheekily. "I'm sure we've got the banner stashed somewhere. We got the Year 7s to make it. Told them it was for a science fiction book they were going to read. I bet they were really disappointed."
The Doctor opened the door. "You like it just as much as…" he trailed off for a moment, surprised by the darkness outside. They were in a forest, but it was obvious that it was night time rather than being overgrown above their heads. He had been aiming for the daytime. Perhaps the TARDIS was trying to tell him something. "You like it just as much as me."
"I don't mind it," she admitted, stepping out after him. "I don't mind anywhere, really. If it's new or exciting, I can live with it being all on one planet."
"Can live with it?" he repeated. He sounded offended. "I've just saved an entire planet from being destroyed and all you have is that you 'can live with it'?"
"Weren't you exiled here once?" she reminded. "You didn't stick around. You may love this planet, Doctor, but you're just as eager for adventure as I am."
She spoke too soon. She shouldn't have said anything at all. Two swords came from around the back of the TARDIS, one for each of their throats. The area was lit up by the light of flaming torches as a raiding party appeared. They all wore furs and helmets with horns on, some of them holding shields but all of them armed.
"Doctor?" Danni asked, back straight so she didn't get a nasty cut from the blade against her neck. This wasn't exactly what she had in mind when she'd said 'adventure'.
The Doctor, on the other hand, looked distinctly unimpressed. In fact, he looked rather exasperated. "No, no, not Vikings," he moaned. "I'm not in the mood for Vikings."
Danni wondered if she should tell him off as the raid leader stepped forward. Well, she assumed he was the raid leader. He had the biggest helmet and war paint on, which suggested some form of status. "You're coming with us," he declared in a softer voice than she would have expected from a man leading a raid.
"No, we're not," the Doctor replied. "Do you want to know why?" He reached into his pocket and the Vikings all growled in warning, making sure that he knew that they had weapons as they assumed that he was reaching for his own.
Instead he pulled out his sonic sunglasses. Danni just stared, not disguising her disbelief as he put them on. "On my face, right now, more advanced technology than your species will manage over the next nine million years," the Doctor boasted, as if it was going to scare them off. Instead the raid leader just grabbed the sunglasses off his face and snapped them in two. He dropped them on the ground in front of the Doctor, waiting for the man's next move.
The Doctor turned to his wife. "Danielle?"
She looked up at him expectantly. "Yes, sweetie?"
"We're going with the Vikings."
She sighed. "Yes, sweetie."
"Chain them up," the raid leader commanded. Neither the Doctor or Danni struggled as manacles were clasped around their wrists, nor did they protest as they were forced into walking forward.
"You know, I don't think we've ever done Vikings before," Danni commented quietly to the Doctor. His brows furrowed in thought as he tried to think over the many, many centuries they'd been together. "It's both new and exciting."
The Doctor looked at his wife, amazed as always by her. "You're enjoying this, aren't you?"
"What can I say? Vikings, creepy woods, ye olde Earth and handcuffs." She made the chains binding her hands together jingle. "What's not to like?"
The Doctor's chuckle was cut off by the heavy shove of a shield into his spine. "Oh Danielle, if only we were alone."
She shot him a smirk. "Never stopped us before."
~0~0~0~
The longboat journey was quite boring, but Danni couldn't help but stare up at the stars as they were rowed back to the Viking village. Luckily it was deemed that they wouldn't be strong enough to help row and more than likely would just get in the way. The Doctor had protested about being called 'weak', but Danni had taken it as the blessing it was. Apparently they were going to be on the longboat for a couple of days and she didn't fancy rowing all that way.
Still, the view was beautiful. In the past, and the dark, the stars shone overhead without any sort of hindrance. It reminded her of her third wedding. The stars had shone down on them when she had finally gotten married to the Doctor sat next to her. It had been a wonderful, intimate ceremony.
"Danielle?" the Doctor called, pulling her out of her thoughts. She kept her head tilted back, though, so she could still see the sky.
"It's so beautiful, isn't it?" she asked quietly. "The whole universe is just out there for everyone to see."
She didn't look particularly amazed, but the Doctor knew differently. Even if she didn't express herself as fully and openly as her first and second bodies had, he knew that she hadn't changed at all. Seeing her fall in love with everything she came across was what had initially drawn him to her and that awe of the universe and everything it contained hadn't gone anywhere. She saw everything with fresh, new eyes.
He tilted his own head back and tried to see what she was seeing. The stars had always called to him to run through, but he was getting on. Sometimes they blended together. He smiled, though, as they spread out in front of him, calling him.
"Well, that's what people like us are for," he replied. "We're the ones who have to go see it."
She turned to look at her husband, who had that eager, excitable look on his eyes that had tempted her when she'd first met him all those years ago, on a screen in her living room. "We can't exactly run on a longboat, Spaceman," she pointed out. "We'd hit a whole lot of wet very fast."
He leant in a little closer, his eagerness taking a decidedly different approach. "We'll just have to find something to do pass the time until we can, then, my Pet," he suggested with a smirk. The look on her face matched his as she reached over him, trapping him between her arms using the chain of the manacles.
"I can think of a couple of things."
~0~0~0~
The sound of the horn had gathered the villagers to great their warriors as they returned. The Vikings pushed their two captives into the village as they walked. It was a pretty typical Viking village, with a large fence around it, keeping invaders away from the few houses and their livestock. The Doctor glanced over at Danni as a shield was pushed into his back to keep him moving. She seemed to be getting similar treatment, but he couldn't ask. In fact, at the look alone, one of the Vikings stepped between them. They'd been kept apart for most of the journey once the men realised that even restraining them couldn't keep them apart.
What could he say? The stars, the water, the closeness. He was an old romantic at heart.
Danni looked around at her husband. "So, when does this plan of yours get going?" she asked.
"Soon," he dismissed. "Very soon."
"You said that when we got off the boat," she pointed out. "I'm not convinced that this plan exists at all."
"It does," he promised. "It didn't before, but it does now."
"So, for two days on a longboat, you didn't think up of a single thing?"
"I don't see you coming up with anything," he replied defensively. "I tried, you're too distracting."
She smirked, trying to get a little closer to him. "I can't help it, either," she purred. "You know how much I love your hair."
The Viking raider who had stepped between them shoved her away roughly with his shield. She looked up at him. "A bit rough? The shackles." she teased. "You better be careful, you'll give a girl delectable ideas."
"Danielle," the Doctor called over in warning. She winked at the Viking, who didn't know what to do with her words, but turned her attention back onto him. "But I have a plan now."
He was right, of course. She hadn't been able to come up with anything useful. All of her plans had involved her either using her gun – which was something she really hadn't wanted to do to Vikings, it seemed a little cruel – or using her sonic screwdriver. The sonic screwdriver probably would have gotten the manacles off, but they wouldn't have made it much further. Sometimes it was best leaving your best tools for escape for later, just in case you needed them.
"What is it?" she asked as they were walked further into the village. The Doctor, who had been looking around, gathering all the information he could on the village, turned to look at her. Instead his eyes caught sight of a young girl who was holding on half of his sonic sunglasses.
He couldn't take his eyes off her, and from the look on her face she'd had the same sense of déjà vu from him. Something about her was special, almost like he'd met her before, but he knew he hadn't because she looked just as confused as he felt.
"Doctor?" Danni called as they were forced into walking again. He hadn't realised he'd even stopped. "What is it? Who is she?"
"Never seen her before in my life," the Doctor replied, turning and walking backwards so he could try and work out what he'd seen.
"You might want to stop staring then," Danni retorted, glancing over her shoulder. The girl was young – really young. "Is she important?"
"Probably, I don't know," he replied, settling back to walk forwards again. "Too much time travel, it happens."
"What happens?"
"People talk about premonition as if it's something strange. It's not. It's just remembering in the wrong direction," he explained, looking back over his shoulder. The Viking behind him shoved him in the shoulder, forcing him to turn back around.
"What, so you're remembering the fact that you're going to meet her?" Danni asked with a frown. He nodded.
"Have you never met someone for the first time and felt like you've known them all of your life?" the Doctor countered. "It's like that, but more obvious. Time travel does that to you."
She nodded. That made a lot of sense. She learnt something new every day. She looked around, also taking in their surroundings. They appeared to be walking towards the middle of the village, where the largest house stood. "Boss man?" she guessed. He nodded. "Usual, then?"
"Am I that predictable?" he asked. She shot him a grin.
"Always," she teased. "No yo-yos."
"Have you got anything better?" he countered.
"Yes. A gun. It glows and kills people. I'm sure that'll seem like magic," she retorted. He didn't pay her any mind. He knew she didn't particularly like the weapon, and he had noticed she was becoming less and less inclined to use it.
"It's in my pocket somewhere," he replied and she shook her head. The boss man came out of the large house, wearing bigger horns than even the raid leader was wearing, just so people knew he was in charge. He greeted the raid leader as his son and Danni found it all particularly boring. She looked around the Viking keeping her and her husband apart and saw the Doctor hold up both his manacles and the yoyo from his pocket.
She raised an eyebrow. That would have been handy two days ago before they'd gotten on the longboat. Should have known he was trying to show off. "You're going to show me how to do that sometime, right?"
His wolfish grin had her smiling. "Where's the fun in that?"
He chucked the manacles straight at the chief's chest and swords and axes were drawn as the pair were surrounded.
"How dare you attack our Chieftain!" the raid leader shouted.
The Doctor lowered his voice. "I am very, very cross with you," he declared, trying to sound as booming and intimidating as possible. Danni pressed her lips together to try and stop herself from laughing. "I am very disappointed!" He turned around and startled the village people, who darted back from him. "I have taken human form to walk among you."
"Who are you, old man?" the raid leader demanded.
"Do you not recognise the sign of Odin?" This was the bit that Danni couldn't watch. He bounced the yoyo up and down once as if it was some great sign of power. It had only ever worked once, but he continued to try it more and more. Just like she had expected it didn't work now.
"You are not Odin, and that is not Odin's sign," the raid leader replied, not at all impressed by a little yellow object on the end of a string.
"Oh, and you would know that how, exactly?" the Doctor retorted. He was so offended that his booming voice dropped off completely. "Have you met Odin? Do you know what Odin looks like?"
With impeccable timing, a thunderclap echoed throughout the village. Everyone turned to look up at the sky, where a large cloud had gathered. From the cloud a face formed, wearing an ornate Viking helmet and a metal eyepatch over one eye.
"Oh, my people. I am Odin," the head declared regally. The village folk began to drop to their knees in front of him. "And now your day of reward has finally dawned."
"I'm going to say that he looks like that, sweetie," Danni commented, looking up at the giant head in shock. She hadn't expected that at all. That was… well, it was impressive. They futuristic eyepatch gave him away, though, but she was sure the Vikings really wouldn't notice nor care about it.
The Doctor just shot her a look as he tried to get the Vikings back to paying attention to him. "Do not believe this foolish trickery!" He tried to bring his yoyo back up the string but it didn't work. "It's supposed to do that."
Odin, or whoever it was in the sky above them, continued as if the Doctor wasn't even there. "Your mightiest warriors will feast with me tonight in the halls of Valhalla!"
In a large ray of light, five large robots appeared. They had guns, and large heads that gave them a rather Judoon-like shape, Danni had to admit. The Doctor's arm went in front of her, slowly pushing her back out of the crowd as the Vikings took arms, ready to attack.
"Stay still. Stay very, very still," the Doctor told her quickly when they reached the back of the group.
"Who is that?" she asked. "Who would want to come invade a Viking town when they've got space travel?"
The Doctor watched the robots approach the Vikings, wondering for just a moment why they weren't shooting on sight. "No," he breathed. "This is a harvest. The strongest, the fittest. The weak and young, they'll leave behind."
The robots pushed one man out of the way before deciding that they had what they came for. All the Vikings who had captured the two Time Lords disappeared in the same teleport light that had brought the robots down in the first place.
"We have to not get chosen," the Doctor finished. Danni nodded, looking around. The villagers were screaming, terrified as the robots bore down on the rest, looking for anyone else they wished to harvest. She, on the other hand, had a gun in her pocket and not much else she could do. She wanted to help, they had to help. But she needed to get the bloody manacles off.
Her eyes fell on the girl that the Doctor had been drawn to, who was holding half the sonic sunglasses tightly as if it would help.
"Danni, no!" the Doctor hissed but she darted over anyway, crouching down in front of the terrified girl.
"Hey, I need that," she said quietly, taking the lens out her hands without any resistance. She held it up to her own eye with one hand whilst looking down at the other wrist.
"What are you doing?" the girl asked. Danni looked back up and smiled at her.
"I'm going to help," she replied. "Don't you worry, alright?"
"Danni!" the Doctor called, trying to get her back to his side. Running over would pull attention to himself, and to her, as the robots seemed to have missed her little movement over to the girl. He couldn't risk that happening again.
It wasn't until she set off the sunglasses, quickly unlocking the manacles that he realised what she was actually doing. By the time he did, it was already too late. He had thought she'd seen the young girl and run over to comfort her, after all she had never been able to stand children crying. Instead she had been trying to free herself and the robots quickly caught the buzz of the technology.
He rushed over. "Danni!"
In another flash of light both the young girl and Danni disappeared, leaving only her manacles in their wake. The robots disappeared in their own light and the Doctor was left to look up at the sky, horrified and in a full-blown panic as the villagers all tried to come to terms with what had happened.
~0~0~0~
The first thing Danni noticed when she reappeared wasn't the fact that the young girl had been brought with her, nor the group of Vikings that they'd appeared in front of. She noticed the small metal room, with no immediately noticeable ways of escape. There was a large set of doors at one end but they were obviously tightly locked. She was trapped in yet another small room, where she didn't want to be, by someone who probably just wanted to hurt her.
She felt the panic starting to rise and her immediate thoughts were to get out of there as fast as possible.
"Welcome to Valhalla, my ladies," one of the Vikings greeted solemnly. Danni sneered at him.
"Oh, grow up," she snapped. She looked around on the floor for the half of the sunglasses but couldn't see them. She turned to the young girl.
"Have you got the-the eyepatch looking thing?" she asked the girl but it was obvious she hadn't. "No, of course not. Teleports, selective kidnappings. They would have taken it off us."
One Viking stormed behind them, the raid leader, and used his axe to open the door. All it let to was another corridor, but he held his arms up in triumph. He stepped into the hallway but Danni knew a trap when she saw one. It shouldn't have been that easy for him to open the doors.
"I wouldn't," she called but he just looked at her in amusement.
"There's nothing to fear, strange maiden," he cried as the sound of something powering up came from the fan-like decorations placed at intervals on the walls.
"You're going to die. Get out!"
"We are Odin's chosen!" he cried. As she had suspected, the fans on the walls weren't for cooling the air. Lightning shot out of all of them, hitting him and electrocuting him. He screamed in pain as the rest of the Vikings backed up. Danni watched as he disintegrated, leaving behind only his helmet and axe.
"Right, well, we can't escape that way," she stated. "Perhaps we could channel the…" There were a few thuds of machinery as cogs started to whir into life. They all started again as the wall behind them began moving in, pushing them all towards the door. The Vikings were quick to try and push the wall back into place but it didn't help.
Danni turned her back, looking through to the door on the other side. The ship had only beamed both her and the young girl up after she had used the sonic sunglasses to free herself. It hadn't been interested in either of them as they weren't particularly strong, not compared to the Viking warriors before them. They were in a spaceship which mean some alien tech. The sonic sunglasses were certainly alien tech.
She reached out, grabbing the young girl by the arm. She had a hunch. The Doctor usually worked of hunches.
"Come on!" she cried, pulling the girl through the hallway. The fans didn't whir into life, which meant her hunch was paying off. Whoever had picked them up would want to talk. She and the girl were safe.
Unfortunately, there wasn't much she could do for the rest of the Vikings as they were finally pushed into the passage. She just turned to the girl as she grabbed the small gap in the doorway. "Get this open. Quick as you like!" she commanded, trying to pull one door towards her. The girl did the same, but the fans came into life and the room was suddenly charged with energy. Danni felt the door slowly give way and she shoved the girl through into the large room behind it. The Vikings' screams followed them out as they too were disintegrated, leaving nothing but helmets and weapons in their wake.
The young girl dropped to the ground, most likely out of shock than anything, and Danni quickly made sure she was alright before standing up. They were on some sort of processing floor. Around them seemed to be large metal containers spewing out smoke and steam and the floor was grating to allow for easy drainage. It wasn't in a style that Danni recognised, but then again was she supposed to remember every single species of alien and their manufacturing styles?
The girl groaned on the floor and Danni turned her attention back to her. She had been surprised to have been beamed up onto the spaceship, but that was an oversight on her own part. She felt incredibly guilty that the girl had been brought up with her. She'd had to witness half her village being wiped out in seconds. It was cruel and could have been avoided if she'd just waited a few more seconds before unlocking her shackles.
There was nothing she could do now, though, but make sure the girl got back to her family. She crouched down next to her and gave her a shake. "Wakey-wakey," she called gently. "We don't have time to lie around."
The girl's eyes opened, blinking in confusion and Danni shot her a winning grin. "There we go," she praised, helping her to her feet. "Just a quick power nap. Maybe not the right place for it, but they're always good."
Danni took a look around again. If she could find some sort of controls, maybe she could broadcast her giant head into the sky like the fake Odin had done. She could get a message to the Doctor that way. Her attention was caught, though, by a machine depositing green liquid into vials. She frowned, walking over and flicking one. The glass clinked but nothing made any more sense to her. Could she steal one?
"Why are we still alive?" the girl asked, horrified. Danni walked back over to see her looking into the hallway at what remained of the people in her life. She was devastated and what was Danni supposed to say? 'Because we're more of interest than your friends and family'?
"Because of this." They both turned around to see the fake Odin stood there, flanked by two of his robots, holding the half of the sonic sunglasses that Danni had been using. "Explain."
The girl was just terrified, which meant Danni had to do some pretty quick thinking. She stepped forward, shooting him a giant grin.
"Hi," she greeted cheerfully. "Nice to meet you face to face. Well, I guess, more face to not-so-giant-face-in-the-sky." She pointed at him. "Loved that, by the way. Brilliant show. I'm going to have to steal it for my next big entrance."
"Explain or I will kill you both," Odin threatened. Danni shook her head.
"No, you won't," she replied. "That is one half of my husband's sonic sunglasses. He's all about wearable technologies these days. Well, I can see you are too." She motioned to his face and the eyepiece he was wearing. "I'm going to guess that you couldn't tell what it was, otherwise you wouldn't be asking. Also, if you couldn't tell what it was but knew it was something special, it means," she grinned, "ours is better than yours."
She reached into her jacket pocket to feel her gun. "So, we're both new kids on the block. However, you're trying to start a fight that you can't win." She held the gun out, letting it dangle downwards so he could see that she wasn't about to shoot him. The robots did step forward but he motioned to stop them. "Give this a scan with your fancy tech and tell me that I'm not a threat." He stared intently at her for a moment and Danni did her best to seem as cool and collected as she needed to be.
"These people may not be any match for you, but I am," she finished. "Take your ship and leave, and we won't speak any more about it." She didn't even flinch as another robot appeared, walking up to Odin and handing him a green vial. "Sorry? Is this a bad…" She trailed off, looking over her shoulder, past the girl and at the helmets that littered the passageway door. "Oh." She turned back as he broke the top off. "I see," she drawled. She felt angry, actually angry and that wasn't something she felt very often when on the behalf of other people. "You pick up the strongest of the land, grind them up into powder and drink them up, don't you? Your own little steroid supplement."
"Adrenaline. Testosterone extracted from the finest warriors," Odin confirmed before downing the green glowing liquid in one gulp.
The girl stepped forward. "They what?"
"Shut up," Danni hissed to her before addressing Odin again. "But you don't think you can win when you face them, do you?" she continued. "Otherwise why pretend to be God and beam them up and out of the way?"
"What is a god but the cattle's name for farmer? What is heaven but the gilded door of the abattoir?"
Danni snorted in derision. "You're no god," she dismissed. "You're not even a thief. You're just afraid."
"I have nothing to fear," the man replied. Danni smirked.
"Yes you do," she replied. "And she's standing right in front of you. If you need a new hit, go somewhere else. There's plenty of warriors in the universe who can give you your next dose of war hormones."
The young girl moved to Danni's side. "I don't understand," she said. "Ground them up? What are you saying?"
"Seriously, shut up," Danni replied lowly. The girl just needed to stay quiet a little longer. "You don't need to fight us. We're not going to chase you. We have better things to do with our time. Just take your ship and leave."
"War is out way," Odin replied with a sickly grin.
"You think you've seen war. You've no idea," Danni snarled. "The Last Great Time War burns in my husband's veins. We've both done things you won't ever believe. This war won't be yours to win. You'll be remembered as the man who lost. Do you really want that?"
"Yes!" the Viking girl cried and Danni's head snapped around to look at her. The girl obviously was trying to seem intimidating, but all Danni saw was someone angry and mourning. "You'll pay for what you have done here today," she continued as she walked to stand in front Odin. "I am a Viking. Ashildr, daughter of Einarr. You have mocked our gods. Killed our warriors. And we will crush you on the field of battle."
"That's better!" Odin replied as his blood lust was suddenly being riled up again. Danni strode forward.
"No, no it's not," she exclaimed. "There is no need for this. Just turn around and walk away."
"You almost had me talking," Odin replied, ignoring her words. Danni suddenly felt like she was in a losing battle herself. "Talk is for cowards."
"War is for the foolish," she retorted. "Talk is for the people who will survive! Please, just leave!"
Odin addressed Ashildr, ignoring Danni and the gun that she now held limply in her hand. "I accept your challenge."
"We will crush you!" Ashildr promised.
Danni looked over her shoulder at Ashildr. "Oh, for God's sake will you please shut up you stupid little girl?" she scolded. "You don't know what you're getting into!"
"Shall we say this time tomorrow?" Odin asked Ashildr. "Ten of my warriors versus the best of your village."
"You will beg for mercy!" Ashildr promised.
Odin chuckled, obviously amused and a little bit fond of the fight in the young girl. "I will send you back. You can inform your people of their impending destruction."
"What are you trying to achieve here?" Danni asked tiredly, not at all surprised by the lake of value in life the man was showing. "What is the point?"
"Why else? The joy of war!" he crowed. "Can't you see it on my face?"
Ashlidr's eyes widened in horror as Odin lowered what appeared to be a hologram, revealing his true face. Danni had seen many aliens so the many teeth and strange skin didn't bother her, but she was glad that Ashildr was finally seeing what she'd done to her village.
"Said like a man who has never been to actual war," Danni snarled. "There is no joy. No one wins, and neither will you."
~0~0~0~
The Doctor stared up at the sky for longer than he could actually recall. There was no sign in the sky of the giant head pretending to be a god, nor of a spaceship of any kind which meant that the teleport had to have gone quite far away. He had no way of telling because he didn't have his sunglasses, because half of them was still by the TARDIS and the other one was up on the spaceship with his wife.
Watching her disappear in front of him reminded him of that moment when he realised Missy had captured her. A sudden, deep and terrifying realisation that he had no way of getting to her and no way of helping her. All that he had this time was the knowledge that this wasn't Missy and that she hadn't been taking because of a ridiculous need to keep her as a pet, but rather because she was of interest. And, because she was of interest, she could talk herself into surviving until he could get to her.
He moved over to what appeared to be the beginnings of a new longboat. The Viking woodworker of the village had been carving up a large piece of wood into a rather ornate dragonhead. It wouldn't be done for a long time, but it was giving him an idea. If he could get back to the TARDIS then he could get onto the ship and save her and everyone else.
But the boat wasn't going anywhere. There was another waiting for him, but even he couldn't paddle a longboat built for a Viking raid all on his own. It would also take days for him to get back to the TARDIS even if he could.
"They took half the village," one man commented.
"Yeah, and it was the good half," another man grumbled. He looked up to see a balding man glare at his two friends.
"They went willingly to Valhalla as would we all," he replied firmly, as if they shouldn't be ashamed of.
"I wouldn't," replied a man whose beard had be braided into two small plats. The rest of the village stared at him. "Well, I wouldn't," he defended. He pointed up at the sky. "I'm not good with heights."
The Doctor quickly became annoyed at their bickering. He was trying to think and their acceptance at the what had happened was frustrating. "Oh, stop it! All of you, stop it right now," he stormed over, the village a perfect way for him to vent that frustration of feeling useless. "Homo sapiens, you're an intelligent species. Stop lying to yourselves."
The bald man stood his ground. "Choose your words carefully, False Odin."
It sounded like an accusation. One the Doctor was more than willing to bear. "Yes, I am a false Odin. That's exactly right, I lied," he agreed before pointing at the very small cloud cover above them. The big fella in the sky, he lied too. You all know it. Because what's the one thing that gods never do?" he asked, as if he was expecting an answer. "Gods never actually show up!" He looked around but no one would look him in the eye. They knew he was right, but he didn't have time to wait for them to admit it. "Guess what? You got raided. Guess what else?" He strode away, looking up at the sky. Danielle was up there somewhere, he just had to work out where. "I lost someone who matters to me."
The bald man, angry, walked right up to him. "So did I," he snarled. The Doctor frowned, looking over the man who looked both hopeless yet had enough fight in him to argue with the guy claiming to be a god.
"The young girl," he started in realisation.
"My daughter," the man replied. "Ashildr."
The Doctor suddenly felt less inclined to have a confrontation with the man as he recognised the worry and pain in his eyes. They both wanted the same goal; their family back.
He nodded. "Let's work out what to do, then," he declared. "I've got… give me a moment." He reached into his pocket, rummaging around. His yoyo had been all but useless, which probably meant that his spare non-sonic sunglasses weren't going to impress them either.
He pulled out a book he'd been reading. He always carried a bit of reading material in case he and Danielle were trapped somewhere for a ridiculously long time. She had always enjoyed reading and that hadn't changed. This time around, though, she was much more drawn to non-fiction books.
He tapped the spine of it a couple of times. It was a book about infamous races across time and space. Whoever it was in the sky could, quite possibly, be in there. He pointed the book at the father.
"I have a plan," he told the man. The same way he'd told Danni when he was making it up as he went along. It wasn't as if he didn't have a plan. He just didn't have a plan yet.
He settled down to read his book, instructing no one to disturb him until he found out what he was looking for. He took a seat near the spot where Danielle had been taken and he used the best weapon in the universe; a book.
He looked up at the sound of a teleport. Danni and Ashildr were dropped to the floor in a flash of light. His whole being was flooded in relief and he was off his chair like a shot. As he quickly made his way towards his wife, though, he slowed as she stood up, pulling Ashildr off the ground. She looked furious.
"Do you have any idea what you've done?" she demanded of the little girl, who looked ashamed of herself. "Any idea at all? All you had to do was shut up!"
"Danielle?" the Doctor said, confused, and she looked over at him.
"The Vikings are dead," she declared, much to the horror of the villagers. "He disintegrated them to make Viking juice out of their testosterone. And she," she motioned to Ashildr, who ran to her father's welcoming arms, "she's just waged war on him!"