Vivian VII
Back on the TARDIS, Vivian leaned up against the counsel next to the Doctor as they landed the ship together. A bell went off.
"It's done." The Doctor commented and Vivian's eyes scrunched up in confusion.
"What is?" Clara asked, puzzled.
"Your turkey. Either that or it's woken up." The Doctor remarked.
Clara giggled at that and began to rush of to get it, "Do either of you want some?"
"Go on, then."
"Got any plates?" Clara asked,
The Doctor looked up from the counsel. "Do you know, I've even got Christmas crackers."
Clara stopped and looked back at the Doctor and Vivian, "One thing. Give me those big sad eyes, look at me so I know you're not lying, and tell me you will never send me away ever again."
"Clara Oswald, I will never send you away again."
Clara kisses his cheek and goes down to get the turkey.
"Lier." Vivian whispers and the Doctor looks down.
"Turkey smells good!"
"Yeah, smells great."
The Doctor looks at young Barnable on the scanner and pushes the scanner away in anger. "Come on." The Doctor whispered.
"Perfect."
The Doctor puts the device into the charger as Clara removes the well done turkey from the vortex cooker. The Doctor and Vivian stepped out of the TARDIS quietly to see it dematerialize with Clara inside.
Vivian looked up at the Doctor, "For what it's worth, you did the right thing. Clara doesn't belong in the middle of a war."
The Doctor griped Vivian's hand, "I know." He whispered as the TARDIS materialized back into view, without Clara.
Barnable walked hesitantly up to them, "If you're not leaving, why did you bring it back?"
The Doctor looked down at Barnable, "It's a reminder. Besides, I might leave tomorrow. Or the next day. Or the day after that."
Time passes. Metal Cybermen beam in and start shooting. The villagers scream and run as the Papal troops and Silents fight back. In the chaos, Vivian is hit protecting the village children and regenerates into her twelfth self.
And so, to the fields of Trenzalore came all the Time Lord's enemies. For this was the winter of the Doctor. In time, when all other races had retreated or burned, only the Church of the Mainframe remained in the path of the Daleks. And so those ancient enemies, the Doctor and the Silence, stood back to back on the fields of Trenzalore.
Everything is in flames and rubble. Vivian sat silently on a chair, watching the Doctor work on a wooden dog in his seat next to the workbench. She was old now. Very old. She had sleek white hair pulled up into a messy bun. She wore brown pants, a dirty white shirt and a knitted shawl that one of the young mothers had knitted for her before she had been killed.
The door opened, "Barnable?" The Doctor asked.
Vivian was about to say that Barnable was dead but then a voice that she thought she would never hear again answered, "Clara."
The toy that the Doctor was holding drops and the Doctor looks around in his chair. There was Clara. Same outfit as Vivian remembered. Her eyes were wide as she took in the two old Time Lords, "Hello, Doctor, Vivian."
"Were you always so young?" The Doctor got out.
Clara shook her head slightly, "Nah, that was you."
"Ah." The Doctor kissed her hand.
"SEEK THE DOCTOR." A Dalek shouted in the distance.
They were sitting in a circle in front of the workbench, "Merry Christmas." Clara said softly
"Merry Christmas." Vivian whispered at the same time as the Doctor.
The Doctor tries to pull the cracker, but his hand isn't strong enough, " Hey, it's okay. It's all right, don't worry." Clara helps him make the cracker go bang. Vivian winced, the bang reminding her of the explosions outside.
"Ah! Is there a joke? Ha?" The Doctor said.
Vivian shook her head, "Only you can get that excited over a Christmas cracker, Doctor."
Clara reads the slip of paper, ""Extract from Thoughts on a Clock by Eric Ritchie junior."
"Is it a knock knock one? Those are best." The Doctor stated.
Clara shook her head, "I don't think so."
"Well, read it. Go on." Vivian said, encouragingly before the Doctor got too impatient.
"And now it's time for one last bow, like all your other selves. Eleven's hour is over now. The clock is striking twelve's." Clara read. Silence.
"I don't get it." The Doctor stated.
"DOCTOR! VIVIAN! THE DOCTOR AND VIVIAN WILL BE BROUGHT!" A Dalek yelled.
Vivian could hear the rumbling engines of a huge ship and she knew that one was hovering over the village. "THE DALEKS DEMAND THE DOCTOR."
A young man runs in, who is definitely not Barnable, "They're here. The Daleks, we can't stop them. They want you two."
"Oh, all right, Barnable. Are you Barnable?" The Doctor asked/.
"No, Doctor."
"It's okay, Barnable, don't worry. I have got a plan. Off you pop." The young man leaves to the sounds of explosions outside. The Doctor looked back at Clara, "I haven't got a plan, but people love it when I say that."
Clara took the Doctor's hands in her own, "Doctor, what are you going to do?"
"Oh, I don't know. Talk very fast, hope something good happens, take the credit. That's generally how it works."
Clara sighed, "Doctor."
The Doctor shook his head, "Not this time, though. This is it."
"No!"
The Doctor grimaced, "Yes. We saw the future, Clara. This is how it ends. With our deaths."
"Change it." Clara said forcefully.
"Ha."
"Like Tasha said, change the future."
"I could have once, when there were Time Lords." The Doctor shook his head, "Not any more."
"LOCATE THE DOCTOR AND VIVIAN."
Vivian gets her cane and stands shakily up and moves to help the Doctor stand as well. Clara helps out and moves to go with them.
"No. You're going to stay here. Promise me you will." The Doctor said, grabbing Clara's arm.
"Why?"
"I'll be keeping you safe. One last victory. Allow me that. Give me that, my impossible girl. Thank you. And goodbye." He wipes away her tears and totters off up the stairs with Vivian.
"The trouble with Daleks is, they take so long to say anything. Probably die of boredom before they shoot me." The Doctor states as he and Vivian come up on the roof. Vivian stood silently next to the Doctor, leaning on her cane with one hand and holding the Doctor's hand in her other.
"THE DOCTOR AND VIVIAN ARE REQUIRED."
"DOCTOR, VIVIAN!"
"Sorry I'm a bit slow. I may not be at my best right now." The Doctor stated.
"YOU ARE DYING, DOCTOR, VIVIAN." The Dalek declared.
"Yes, I'm dying. We're dying. You've been trying to kill me for centuries, and here I am, dying of old age. If you want something done, do it yourself."
"YOU WILL DIE, AND THE TIME LORDS WILL NEVER RETURN."
"You still can't work up the courage to shoot me, can you? You're still worried I've got something up my sleeve. Well, you knock yourselves out, boys. I've got nothing this time." Flying Daleks fire at the troops on the ground, making the townsfolk scream.
Suddenly the crack opens in the sky and golden regeneration energy enters the Doctor's mouth. His eyes widen in surprise and his hands begin to glow. Vivian began to smile, even though she was still dying, the Doctor would live.
"YOU WILL DIE NOW, DOCTOR. THIS IS THE END OF YOU."
The crack disappears.
"THE RULES OF REGENERATION ARE KNOWN. YOU BOTH HAVE EXPENDED ALL YOUR LIVES."
"Sorry, what did you say? Did you mention the rules? Now, listen. Bit of advice. Tell me the truth if you think you know it. Lay down the law if you're feeling brave. But, Daleks, never, ever tell me the rules!" The Doctor yelled up at the Daleks.
"EMERGENCY! EMERGENCY! THE DOCTOR IS REGENERATING!"
The Tower clock strikes twelve. The Doctor is feeling more youthful already, although he doesn't look it and the yellow mist of the regeneration swirled around him.
"THE DOCTOR IS REGENERATING!"
The Doctor stared down at his hands, which were yellow, then back up at the Daleks, "Oh, look at this. Regeneration number thirteen. We're breaking some serious science here, boys. I tell you what, it's going to be a whopper!"
"EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE THE DOCTOR."
"You think you can stop me now, Daleks? If you want my life, ha, ha, come and get it!" The Doctor winds up his arm and fires a big stream of energy out from his hand. Vivian ducks back around the corner of the bell tower and down into the lower levels to get away from the explosive regeneration that was happening.
"Get inside! Come on, quickly. Get inside, quick!" Clara yells. The Doctor fires of more energy from the other hand as Clara gets the survivors into the Tower. The burning remains of flying Daleks tumble to the ground.
Vivian and Clara meet inside the tower, "I'm sorry." Clara stated, "I tried to get a set for you as well but apparently they didn't listen."
Vivian smiled sadly, "It's okay, Clara. You did your best. Besides, if there was one who deserved them, the Doctor would be it."
"Love from Gallifrey, boys!" The Doctor yelled. Then a final blast from his head up to the Dalek Mothership. A huge explosion shook the building and the shockwave rips open the remaining Daleks on the ground. Then silence falls.
In the process, Vivian falls to the ground and once the ground stops shaking, Clara helps her up.
Clara helped Vivian through the destroyed town looking for the Doctor. Vivian was in constant pain, the shock wave from the regeneration having sped up her dying process.
"Doctor?" Clara called. She stopped, bringing Vivian to a halt beside her and noticed that the TARDIS'S external emergency telephone hanging off its hook and replaces it, then goes inside with Vivian.
The Doctor's village clothes are scattered on the floor, and a nearly empty bowl of fish fingers and custard is on the console. There are footsteps on the stairs. The bow-tied young Doctor smiles at her, "Doctor!" Clara exclaims.
"Hello."
"You're young again. You're okay. You didn't even change your face." Clara said, bringing her hand up to his cheek, then down again.
"Ha! It's started. I can't stop it now. This is just the reset. A whole new regeneration cycle. Ooo."
He finishes his custard and sets the plate on the TARDIS counsel. "Taking a bit longer. Just breaking it in. Oh. Oh. Gah" The Doctor looked at Vivian, "I'm sorry."
Vivian tried to smile, but could only manage a grimace, "It's okay. The world needs you more than it needs me."
The Doctor started the TARDIS'S engines, "It all just disappears, doesn't it? Everything you are, gone in a moment, like breath on a mirror. Any moment now, he's a-coming."
"Who's coming?" Clara asked.
The Doctor smirked, "The Doctor."
"But you, you are the Doctor."
The Doctor smiled, "Yep, and I always will be." The Doctor's hands are glowing, "But times change, and so must I…. Amelia?"
"Who's Amelia?" Vivian asked softly.
"The first face this face saw. We all change, when you think about it. We're all different people all through our lives. And that's okay, that's good, you've got to keep moving, so long as you remember all the people that you used to be. I will not forget one line of this. Not one day. I swear. I will always remember when the Doctor was me."
The Doctor reaches out into empty air and then drops his hand. Then the Doctor removed his bow tie and drops it on the floor. His face is in pain.
"No, no." Clara said, starting to go to him.
"Hey." The Doctor stated, putting his hand out in front of him, making Clara stop short.
"Please don't change." Clara pleaded, tears running down her cheeks.
The Doctor jerks backwards as then forwards in his thirteenth body. Tall, grey haired, piercing blue eyes and a Scottish burr. The new Doctor and Clara stare into each other's eyes, then he jerks back and forward again. Vivian just stared in shock, leaning back against the counsel. She noticed that it was getting harder and harder for her to breath.
"Kidneys! I've got new kidneys. I don't like the color." The Doctor declared in a Scottish accent.
"Of your kidneys?" Clara asked.
The TARDIS starts lurching from side to side, throwing Vivian to the floor though the Doctor and Clara managed to keep standing, holding onto the TARDIS consuel.
"What's happening?" Clara yelled.
"We're probably crashing. Oh!" The Doctor stated.
"Into what?" Clara yelled.
"Stay calm. Just one question. Do you happen to know how to fly this thing?" The Doctor asked.
That was the last sentence Vivian heard as the pain became too much. She closed her eyes and everything faded into blackness.
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