Disclaimer – Doctor Who is owned by the BBC, this is clearly fan fiction.

Chapter 3

The Doctor stood up and approached his counterpart. "I know you've been through a lot but you can't stay on the TARDIS and you can't become a Time Lord again. It just isn't possible."

"Why can't he stay?" asked Amy, "Wouldn't having two of you be better?"

The scruffy man who was once the Doctor responded, "There's no way I'll stay with that man, the man who condemned me to this fate. And actually Doctor, Rose came up with a plan before her death to restore my Time Lord powers. She believed as I do if I absorbed the heart of the TARDIS temporarily as she did, I would become a full time lord again. I would be whole for this first time in my existence."

"You can't do that," said the Doctor, "Its suicide. The only reason Rose survive is because we took the energy and died for her. It was the most painful thing I can remember. You can't do this; I'll find you a peaceful home where you can live out the rest of your days."

"I'm sorry, but I would rather die trying than abandon those I left behind. If this works I should be able to return to the other universe and save them. I can begin again," said the other Doctor.

"Stop it," yelled Amy, "this Rose or Bad Wolf or whoever she was wouldn't want you to do this. She would want you to live. Can't you see that?"

"Amy please stop," said Rory. "He's a desperate man and desperate men have nothing to lose. We all have to let him do this, he needs this."

"But he's the Doctor in a way," said Amy, "I don't want to see him die, we just stopped the Doctor from dying. I can't go through that again."

"That's very touching," said both of the Doctors in unison. The two men turned and looked at each other. They were so different, but at the same time they were the same. They shared a past, a woman, and the will to shape and save humanity. They were Earth's silent heroes. They were the men who stood in the background only to be called upon when they were needed and forgotten soon after. One was the Oncoming Storm and the other was the Man Who Never Was, but they were both the same. They were soldiers and they were lovers, they were pacifists who committed genocide, and they were Time Lords. However most importantly they were equals.

The Doctor looked around the console room taking in the faces of those in his presence. He saw Amy with her ginger hair and red nightie with tears streaming down her face, and Rory with his white shirt and black sweatpants and a resolve like steel. His eyes finally came to the other Doctor, a broken down beaten shadow of the man he left behind. But there was a determination like none other behind those eyes, a will to be more than what he was that forced the Doctor to say, "Well let's give it a shot."

"Allons-y!" said the other Doctor as he ran up towards the TARDIS console. "So how are we going to do this? Shouldn't your friends get out of here so they don't get hurt by the TARDIS energy?"

The Doctor laughed roughly, "I forgot how much I would talk when I was happy and yeah, Amy, Rory you should go to the top of the stairs. You should be safe there."

Amy and Rory quickly ran up the flight of stairs as Amy said quietly to her husband, "He still talks a lot when he's happy."

From the top of the stair Amy and Rory looked down upon the scene that was about to unfold. The two Doctors, talking to each other as they worked on opening the TARDIS' center console.