The Doctors and the Keys
Chapter 2
Cleveland Ohio – Coven Hall
"What?" the tenth Doctor asked in shock.
"You!" the fifth Doctor yelled accusingly at his older self. He stormed over to the tenth Doctor and started smacking him with his hat. "I should've guessed it had something to do with you when the TARDIS malfunctioned," the fifth Doctor yelled.
"Owe! Cut it out," the tenth Doctor yelled back.
"What was it? Did you forget to put the shields up again or did you do something even more stupid?" the fifth Doctor berated his other self and continued to hit the tenth Doctor on the head with his hat.
Faith snickered while everyone else looked on dumfounded. Buffy was becoming increasingly annoyed that the new guy was interfering with the Doctor helping Dawn. She moved faster than a normal human could and grabbed the fifth Doctor's wrists. "He said knock it off!" Buffy said icily.
"Actually I said 'cut it out', but that's close enough," the tenth Doctor said. He looked at his younger self. "Do you mind? I'm in the middle of trying to save this young lady's life…and no, I didn't leave the shields down," the tenth Doctor said.
"Well if it's not your fault that we're here at the same time, how did we manage a timeline merge?" the fifth Doctor asked peevishly. He looked at Buffy and asked, "May I have my arm back?" The fifth Doctor tried to pull his arm away, but the blonde bride had much more strength in her grasp than he expected.
Buffy kept her hand tightly on the fifth Doctor's wrist. "Only if you promise to stop hitting the Doctor and tell me who you are," she offered.
The fifth Doctor sighed. "I'll stop hitting him, but I reserve the right to hit him again if he does anything else stupid," he said. "As for who am I, I'm the Doctor of course," the fifth Doctor said smugly.
"No…he's the Doctor," Buffy said, refusing to let go of the man's wrist.
"Actually, we both are," the tenth Doctor said. Buffy gave him a confused look. "I'm what he becomes and he's what I used to be," he explained.
Buffy let go of the fifth Doctor's arm. "How about you try that one again in terms that makes sense?" she requested.
Faith stepped forward and pointed at the fifth Doctor. "The Doctor cheats death by regenerating into a different body when he gets killed. That one is the fifth body and ours is the tenth," she explained.
"I thought I recognized this bloke," Spike said. "He was one of the guys singing and dancing with the Doc on the final musical number," he stated, remembering their recent experiences with Sweet. "I recognize the cricket clothes and the celery," Spike said.
"I thought we did rather well on that number," the fifth Doctor mused happily.
"Doctor…" Tegan said, trying to get the fifth Doctor's attention. She was having difficulty following the conversation.
"Silence, Tegan," the fifth Doctor ordered, his mood becoming sour again. "I'm trying to figure out why we are here and what is wrong with the…well…with my TARDIS," he said.
"Wow! You're kind of a dick," Faith told the tenth Doctor.
"I tended to get that way when I was stressed," the tenth Doctor said. "I've mellowed quite a bit with age," he told Faith.
"Excuse me!" the fifth Doctor bellowed.
"See what I mean," the tenth Doctor teased, winking at Faith. "Actually…5 is my favorite past life. Once I calm down, you'll see that I'm quite a nice fellow," he said.
"Yes…well, thank you," the fifth Doctor replied, calming down. He looked down at Dawn as if it was the first time he noticed her. "What's wrong with the young lady?" the fifth Doctor asked.
"I'll explain as soon as our 6 minutes and 9 seconds is up," the tenth Doctor said.
"Ok, that's random even for you," Faith told the tenth Doctor.
"It's a safety feature built into the TARDIS," the fifth Doctor started to explain. "To avoid irreparable paradox and thus the end of the universe as we know it, Rassilon and the Other programmed the TARDIS to erase all memories from the younger versions of the Time Lord after 6 minutes and 9 seconds of contact with a future self," he said. "It was set up so the Time Lord can communicate with himself without fear of destroying the Universe. It's quite handy considering how often I seem to run into myself," the fifth Doctor said.
"All right, I'll ask the obvious question," Spike piped in. "Why 6 minutes and 9 seconds?" he asked.
Both of the Doctors started chuckling. "Rassilon said he wanted the time frame before erasure to be longer than 6 minutes and in a fit of childishness, the Other added the extra 9 seconds just to annoy Rassilon," the fifth Doctor said.
"And that's time," the tenth Doctor said, straightening up. "Here, take a look at those readings and tell me what you think," he said as he handed over his sonic screwdriver.
The fifth looked at the readings and put on his frowny face again. "Are you sure you were using this thing correctly?" he asked the tenth Doctor.
"Yep," the tenth Doctor said, popping the last "p".
"What is she?" the fifth Doctor asked, perplexed.
"She's my sister and her name is Dawn," Buffy growled. "And if you don't quit dicking around I'm going to toss both of you out of here," she warned.
The fifth Doctor waved the sonic screwdriver in Buffy's direction and read the readings. "She's…human," he said glancing at the readings. "How can they be sisters?" he asked.
The tenth Doctor snatched his screwdriver back. "Long story and it involves a lot that I can't tell you. There are some things, soul shaking things that even a memory wipe from the TARDIS can't clear out" the tenth Doctor warned. He motioned for Willow to join him. "Ms. Rosenberg, would you be so kind as to use your magic to give us a visual representation of the spell the monks used on Dawn?" he asked.
"Um…OK, but I'm not sure if that will help much. The spell used on her is way more complex than I've ever seen," Willow said. She closed her eyes and a brief white glow surrounded her. The fifth Doctor's Companions stepped back in surprise. The fifth Doctor simply watched in fascination. White tendrils of energy reached out from Willow's hands and ran over Dawn's lithe frame. Golden symbols and equations sprang to life over the fallen girl's body. They rotated and swam around each other in a pattern too complex to be followed by a regular human. The Doctors reached into their jackets and pulled out their brainy specs at the same time. The tenth Doctor winked at his younger self who sheepishly put his glasses on.
"Why would somebody put such a complex binding spell on this young 'woman'?" the fifth Doctor asked.
"She's the Key," Buffy told the fifth Doctor, hoping he would know what that meant.
"No she's not," the fifth Doctor corrected her. "Her readings are completely different from the Key," he said. This made Buffy blink a couple of times in shock.
"Nope, pretty sure she's the Key," Xander said from the outside of the circle of friends that had huddled around Dawn. "We fought a Hell goddess to protect her and keep her from opening up a dimensional portal that would destroy the planet," he informed the blonde Doctor. The fifth Doctor looked at his older self for backup.
The tenth Doctor had to decide how much he could share with his younger self about Dawn. He looked around at the Scoobies and tried to decide how much he could share with them as well. As far as he knew, Dawn had never told any of them about her true nature or her special connection with him. He sighed wearily and decided that if any group of humans could handle the truth, these were the people; and as far as 5 was concerned, he would just try to limit any direct information about the Time War. "Actually Xander, I'm right," he said indicating the fifth Doctor. "She isn't the Key. She never was," the Tenth Doctor said. "Dawn isn't even her real name. It's the one she chose when she was forced to take human form by the monks," he added.
"What?" Buffy said in disbelief.
The tenth Doctor knelt next to Dawn again. He gently stroked a lock of hair out of her face. "Her real name is Harmony and in a wibbly wobbly, timey wimey fashion; I'm her father. Well…one of them at least, there were three of us who worked towards her creation," the tenth Doctor admitted.
Everyone stared at the tenth Doctor and then the fifth Doctor's Companions stared at him as he dropped to his knees next to the unconscious girl. "Harmony, what have they done to you?" he asked in a whisper. The fifth Doctor looked at her human body and then at the tenth Doctor. "How?" was all he asked.
"Magic," the tenth Doctor replied with a shrug of his shoulders. "Evil forces were trying to use her energy form to rip open portals to some of the more nasty, lower dimensions," he explained.
"Binding her in human form is ridiculous," the fifth Doctor said angrily. "She's far too powerful to be constrained in such a manner," he pointed out. The fifth Doctor stood up and started pacing. "Tying her to this dimension would put incredible pressures on her. Eventually the pressures would become so great that she would burst from her containment. The resulting explosion would probably race through all known dimensions and remove any trace of her from existence," the fifth Doctor said nervously.
"Correct," the tenth Doctor praised his younger self. "No Eye of Harmony means no Time Lords. No Time Lords means a paradox so huge, Time would simply collapse and this dimension would cease to be," he said cautiously.
"The explosion has already started," the fifth Doctor surmised. "That's why my TARDIS ceased to function. She lost her connection with the Eye of Harmony and used what little reserve power she had to come to the source of the problem," he said. The fifth Doctor looked around the room and then back at Dawn. "Seeing as how none of my other regenerations are here, I must have been the only one close enough in the Vortex to make it," the fifth Doctor guessed.
"Sounds good as anything," the tenth Doctor said in a non-committal fashion.
"It just doesn't explain why your TARDIS looks to be in perfect health," the fifth Doctor said, gesturing to the other TARDIS.
"Oh that…well, she's flex fuel now," the tenth Doctor said, proud of his ability to keep the TARDIS running even after she lost her contact with her primary power source after the war.
Adric's curiosity over rode his natural fear of Magic. He stepped a few feet closer and watched the golden symbols and equations chase themselves over Dawn's body. "Doctor," he said, tugging on the fifth Doctor's sleeve without looking away from the golden problem.
The fifth Doctor looked at Adric's expression and asked, "What is it, Adric?"
Adric released the fifth Doctor's arm and pointed at the swarming symbols. "I've seen this before," he said. "These are the same equations the Logopolans were working on…just the equations seem to be degrading," Adric explained.
Both Doctors leaned towards the golden representation of the spell the monks used. "Yeah…I see it now," the tenth Doctor exclaimed. He stepped back and smacked his forehead with his hand. "Of course…that's the only way the monks would be able to contain her. They tied the binding spell directly into the source code of the Universe," the tenth Doctor said.
Willow rocked back onto her heels in defeat. "How can we even hope to fix Dawny if the problem lies in the how the Universe itself works?" she moaned. The room became quiet as everyone let that sink in. Buffy began to cry and turned her face towards Spike's chest, sobbing. Spike tried to come up with something comforting to say, but came up empty. He just held his new wife in his arms. Willow saw Buffy crying and started crying herself.
"You can't change the very nature of existence," the tenth Doctor said, his face set in determination. "But just maybe I can," he shouted.
"Oh no…it's far too dangerous to go down that route," the fifth Doctor said, making the same leap the tenth Doctor had. "There's a very good set of reasons why the segments were scattered again," he reminded the tenth Doctor.
Buffy had stopped crying and looked hopefully at the tenth Doctor. "If it can help Dawn, we have to find whatever it is you guys are talking about," she said resolutely.
The fifth Doctor looked at Buffy, different emotions warring across his face. "What we are talking about is the Key…the real Key…the 'Key of Time'," he told Buffy. "It's an artifact that grants the user unlimited power to reshape the fabric of reality as they see fit," he explained.
"Good lord," Giles swore.
"Exactly," the tenth Doctor agreed. "After we dealt with it last time, the six segments were scattered by the White guardian throughout time and space," he said.
"And with my TARDIS out of commission, we're stuck here," the fifth Doctor said. The tenth Doctor jerked his thumb at his TARDIS. The fifth Doctor took off his brainy specs and put them in his pocket. "Flex-fuel you say?" he asked. The tenth Doctor nodded. "All right then, let's get to it," the fifth Doctor said, giving in.
Buffy walked over to a large speaker box off to the side of the altar. She pressed the hidden catch and the false front swung open to reveal and small set of weapons. Buffy pulled out a sword and then tossed one to Spike. "We're coming with you guys," she told them, leaving no room for argument.
"Now see here…I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name," the fifth Doctor said.
"Buffy," the blonde Slayer told him.
"Really?" the fifth Doctor asked, surprised at the odd name. Buffy rolled her eyes at the umpteenth time some asked her that. "Well then, Buffy, perhaps you might want to stay with your sister," he suggested.
"She's coming along with us in the TARDIS," Buffy informed him.
The fifth Doctor was about to protest when the tenth put his hand on his shoulder. "It's a lot less painful if you agree with her from the beginning," he confided.
The fifth Doctor rubbed his hands together. "Right," he said. "Your TARDIS, so I suppose you get to decide who gets to come along," he conceded.
The tenth Doctor smiled and snapped his fingers, hoping the TARDIS would want to show off her new trick. She was feeling obliging and the front doors opened by themselves. The fifth Doctor looked suitably impressed. Spike picked up dawn with no effort at all. He and Buffy hurried into the TARDIS.
The tenth Doctor turned around and looked at the three people who had once been his Companions. "You three up for another adventure?" he asked.
Tegan , Nyssa, and Adric looked to the fifth Doctor for guidance and permission. He smiled at them and jerked his head towards the tenth Doctor's TARDIS. "Go on," he said.
Faith gestured for the other Companions to follow her. "Come on, I'll show you guys around. From what the Doc tells me, the TARDIS has had a major remodel since your Doctor," she said. Fait turned around and walked into the TARDIS.
The tenth Doctor watched his younger self's face as he tried to hide the fact that he was looking at Faith's butt while she walked. The fifth Doctor caught him looking and gave the other Doctor a sly smile. "I see that I still have an eye for attractive Companions," he said.
"Ohhh…she more that," the Tenth Doctor said slowly. "She's my girlfriend," he boasted.
"Your what?" the fifth Doctor spluttered.
DrW
Author's note: For those of you wondering about the 6 minutes and 9 seconds…it's the amount of time Peter Davison spends on screen during "Time Crash".