Chapter 16

The answer to the Paradox

Luke wanted to turn away, but his eyes seemed magnetized to Roda as her Time Lord life force was removed. The spine-chilling, unearthly scream didn't help much. It seemed to last forever, but finally the Dalek drew away and Roda slumped to the floor. It was only then that Luke could pull his eyes away.

'In the TARDIS, quick!' shouted the Doctor, and he dragged Luke behind him. The doors to the machine slammed shut as soon as he was through, as though anxious to keep them all safe. Then there was silence.

Nobody spoke. The Doctor looked as though he had been destroyed from the inside, Captain Jack's eyes were wet and the two torchwood members were in shock.

'Doctor,' Jack said, but the Doctor pulled away from his hand and forced himself upright.

'We need to stop them,' he said, in a voice that terrified Luke, even though he was in no danger from the Doctor.

'We don't have any power though…' Jack protested, but the Doctor held up his hand.

'We've still got a time lord and a genius; we can still do the time stop.'

'Well then, people,' Jack said, clapping his hands. 'We've got a lot to do and very little time before the Daleks break into the TARDIS. Let's get a move on.'

Immediately Gwen and Ianto began scurrying around, and even the Doctor began to press some buttons dejectedly. But Luke stayed where he was.

'No,' he said quietly. No one so much as glanced in his direction.

'Stop,' he said a little louder, his voice ringing in the circular room. Everyone stopped.

'There's a way, Doctor, of saving everyone,' Luke said. 'Roda told me before she died. You know there is.'

'There isn't,' the Doctor cried, 'She's wrong.'

'No she isn't. We can make it so that this never happened, so that nobody died,' Luke said, earnestly.

'You mean go back in time and stop the Doctor from coming here?' asked Jack, confused. 'But we're in a time stop! We can't travel anywhere except inside the walls, and they only just cover Hogwarts and the TARDIS! We saw it on the monitors.'

'No, not back in time, Jack,' said the Doctor, and then he stopped, as though confused. 'Hang on a minute, if this is a time stop, how did the students escape into the forest?'

'That proved my theory, and Roda's. They escaped into the forest because this whole thing is a paradox! Doctor, you know this was never meant to happen. You should have never appeared, and all these people shouldn't have died. Harry, Ron, Ginny, and most probably Hermione too. You've seen the future of this world, you know they play a vital part in it, so there is no way they could have died,' Luke said, forcefully.

'You mean this is a paradox?' asked Jack, excitement lighting his eyes. The Doctor stood with his hands on the console, his head down.

'The year that never was,' he said, not looking at anyone. 'The Master turned the TARDIS into a Paradox machine, which rewound time when destroyed so the paradox never happened. The Toclafane couldn't have come to Earth without a paradox machine, because they were the descendants from those on earth and if they killed them they would not exist…'

'So to come here, the Dalek's must have used a paradox machine…' mused Gwen, who had now stopped whatever she had been doing on a Torchwood laptop and had all her attention on the Doctor.

'No,' said the Doctor firmly. 'They weren't the first to come.'

'Then it was the Sontarans!' Luke exclaimed. Then he frowned. 'But they aren't as technologically advanced…'

'It was me,' the Doctor said, his voice breaking. 'I was the first to come, to set the timeline out of sync. I brought Bree, and then I brought you, Luke. And Bree brought the Sontarans, who brought Roda. It's a long chain, a chemical reaction, all leading down to death.'

'But you crash-landed!' Luke protested. 'You didn't construct a paradox machine on purpose!'

'I didn't,' the Doctor said, grimly, finally raising his head from the console, 'but the TARDIS did. When she was parked in Egham she drew Bree towards her, and kept her hidden from me. Then she crash-landed in Hogwarts. The TARDIS turned herself into the paradox machine, so we could stay here, in Hogwarts.'

'But why?' asked Jack. 'Why Hogwarts?'

'Hogwarts is safe, well protected. The TARDIS saw it as a haven, a place for me to relax without worrying.' The Doctor sighed and stroked the console. 'But everything went horribly wrong.'

'What I don't understand,' said Gwen, slowly, 'is why the… err… TARDIS brought you here and turned into a paradox machine in the first place?' The Doctor opened his mouth to say something, but a loud bang came from outside at that very moment and everyone in the TARDIS were flung to the ground.

'Ouch,' muttered Luke, as he heaved himself up.

'The Daleks,' whispered Ianto, his face as pale as death. 'They're coming.'

'We don't have long,' said the Doctor. 'The only way to stop all this is to break the paradox machine, and time will rewind to before. I didn't want to do this before because I would lose Roda and…' the Doctor gulped, 'The TARDIS might not survive.' There was silence, before Gwen spoke up, her voice strong.

'It's the only thing left to do. We have a chance to save everyone who died, and we must.' These words seemed to snap everyone out of it.

'Right, Doctor, what do we do?' barked Jack.

'Everyone try and contact the TARDIS with their minds,' he shouted, as more explosions and bangs came from outside, rocking the TARDIS more. 'Maybe we can get her to break it!'

Luke screwed up his face, and concentrated on sending his thoughts towards the TARDIS. We need to break the Paradox machine; we need to break the paradox machine… The booms and crashes from outside made it hard to hear anything at all, and Luke felt his ears pop.

The there was a complete, sudden, silence, as though everything had suddenly stopped, and a bright light burnt Luke's eyelids. He opened his left eye a crack, and then opened both his eyes wide, amazed. Part of the console had lifted, revealing a bright white light, and an ethereal voice echoed in his mind.

I will break the paradox machine, Doctor and children of time, if that is what you wish.

Luke realized it was the TARDIS speaking. The voice was neither male nor female, though the Doctor always referred to the TARDIS as a she.

'Wait!' the Doctor called out to the TARDIS, as a wind started up and whistled through their ears. 'Why did you bring me here?'

You were dying, from despair and loneliness and loss. I brought you here to keep you safe, my Doctor.

The Doctor remembered when Rose and spoken those same words, and he realized who really kept him going through everything he did. The TARDIS had saved him more times than he could remember, from Bad Wolf to giving him a way to run when he needed to escape, both from deadly enemies and what he himself had done and left behind.

'Thank you', he whispered, as the howling wind increased because the TARDIS was breaking the paradox machine it had built in its very heart. The wind built up into a crescendo, and Luke curled into a ball on the wire mesh floor, his hands over his ears, when a voice spoke.

You are the key, Luke Smith. You will remember everything, so this will not be forgotten. Even the Doctor will forget. Remember, Luke Smith.

Luke knew that only he could hear, so he nodded, and before the world faded to darkness around him, he thought, I will remember.

AN: It's so near the end now, I'm so excited. The last chapter, and then I can start on the sequel! Which I already have plans for. So read and review, for the penultimate time in this story!