TARDIS
As soon as the tenth Doctor was inside the TARDIS, his younger self began complaining. "This would have gone a lot smoother if I had been in charge," the sixth Doctor said loudly. "If I were in charge, I wouldn't be wasting our time chatting with an omni-sexual Time Scout," he fumed.
Without saying a word, Faith held out the floor length robe they had acquired from Dorium Maldovar. The tenth Doctor touched the blue tip of the segment tracer to the cloth. With a bright flash of light, the robe disappeared to reveal the segment's true form, a crystal rectangular prism. The length was exactly twice that of the height or width. Faith turned it over in her hands, caught by its beauty.
"Let's get on with things. Looking at the pretty crystal isn't getting me back to myTARDIS any sooner," the sixth Doctor complained from across the control room.
Faith looked her boyfriend in the eyes. "How mad would you be if I put this thing to a really good use?" she asked, jerking her head towards the sixth Doctor.
The tenth Doctor crossed his arms, held his face with one hand, and shook his head. "Faith… you know how I feel about violence," he muttered.
"Are you going to stand there all day?" the sixth Doctor demanded.
Lowering his hand, the tenth Doctor met Faith's eyes. "But, there are times when your hand is forced," he said. "You have my permission to do whatever you think is necessary. Just remember, he has to live so that he can die later and regenerate a couple more times before he becomes me," he reminded her.
Faith skipped forward and kissed the tenth Doctor on the cheek. When she was done, she spun around and held out the key segment menacingly. She tapped her palm with the large crystals and walked silently up the catwalk to the center console. Buffy and Spike edged their way down the other catwalk, giving Faith plenty of room to do whatever she had planned. Once Faith was on the raised platform, she glared at the sixth Doctor. "Ever since you got here, I've wanted to do this,"' she said coldly as she raised the segment over her head. The sixth Doctor's eyes widen in fear and he pulled Peri in front of him to act as a human shield. Instead of bashing the sixth Doctor in the head with the segment, Faith carefully laid it down next to the wheels and knobs that controlled the TARDIS' temporal shields.
The sixth Doctor stared in horror at what Faith had done. "You foolish girl! Do you have any idea of what that could do?" he screamed. Faith watched as the sixth Doctor and Peri faded from sight. Before she was completely gone, Peri gave Faith a cheery goodbye wave.
"No, I don't know what that flashing button means," a deeper voice said from the where the sixth Doctor was standing. "How about we push it and find out what it does?" the voice suggested. A second later, a tall man wearing a brown suit with a darker brown fedora stood hunched over the console. A ridiculously long, multi colored scarf was wrapped around his neck several times. A woman wearing a light blue blouse and white mini skirt stood next to him.
"Pardon me," the forth Doctor said to Faith, as he scooted around the console to get a look at a different scanner. He stopped suddenly and slowly turned around as he registered the different surroundings. His eyes darted around the control room before coming to rest on Faith. "Hello, I'm the Doctor," he greeted her. He reached into his jacket and pulled out a white, waxed paper bag. "Jelly Baby?" he offered.
"Sure, why not?" Faith accepted and popped a red Jelly Baby in her mouth. Her expression was one of pleasant surprise as she chewed the candy. After she swallowed, she looked over at her boyfriend. "That was really good," she told him. "Didn't taste a thing like the one you gave me last week," she chided. "What did you do, change brands or something?" she inquired.
The tenth Doctor ran his hand through his messy hair. "Um… not exactly," he muttered. "It's the same brand, in fact it's entirely possible that they're from the same bag," he admitted.
Faith caught on and looked a little annoyed. Her version of the Doctor was around 500 years older than the one that had just shown up. "That explains why they tasted stale," she stated. She stepped over to the tenth Doctor and playfully punched his arm. "Has it ever occurred to you to clean that pocket out?" she asked.
The tenth Doctor rubbed his sore arm. "I've meant to, but something always comes up and I forget about it," he admitted.
The woman with the fourth Doctor stepped forward and shook Buffy and Spike's hands. "Hello, I'm Sarah Jane Smith," she greeted.
The tenth Doctor couldn't keep the smile off his face, just like when he had met her at the Deffry Vale School, far in her personal future. "Yes, you are," he repeated.
Sarah Jane turned around and looked at the young, skinny man in the pin striped suit. She looked him up and down and noticed the red trainers that didn't match the suit. Sarah Jane had witnessed the Doctor regenerate from his third life into his fourth and realized this man must be one of his future versions. "Doctor, I presume," she stated.
The tenth Doctor continued to smile. "That's my Sarah Jane, brilliant as always," he complemented her. He snapped out of his nostalgia and looked at his younger, even taller self. "I already know your Companion, let me introduce you to mine," he offered. The tenth Doctor motioned towards Spike and Buffy. "Those are my good friends, Spike and Buffy Summers," he said.
The fourth Doctor hurried over to them and enthusiastically shook their hands. "Pleasure to meet you," he told them, sincerity in his voice. He let go of Spike's hand and then leaned forward, squinting. The fourth Doctor leaned back and turned to face his older self. "He looks just like William Pratt," he observed.
Spike sighed and said, "I am William Pratt. I changed my name when I got married," he explained.
The fourth Doctor smiled even more and took Spike's hand again, shaking it. "Your poems truly moved me," he shared. The fourth Doctor decided to ask his older self whether or not he had told William about the whole Anyanka incident. He turned around and looked at Faith. "And who might you?" he asked warmly, offering his hand.
Faith shook the offered hand. "I'm Faith," she replied.
The tenth Doctor stepped up behind Faith and put his hands on her shoulders. "She's my girlfriend," he said proudly.
"Really?" the fourth Doctor asked rhetorically. "That's wonderful," he stated. The fourth Doctor took a step forward and whispered in the tenth Doctor's ear. "Did we finally give up being celibate?" he asked.
Faith nodded her head vigorously. "Oh yeah he did," she answered for her boyfriend.
The fourth Doctor clapped the tenth on the back in congratulation. "That's a relief," he sighed. Looking around the control room, he took in all of the differences from his version of the TARDIS. "Coral theme?" he inquired. The tenth Doctor just nodded, amused by the fourth. "Not bad," he said. Drawing himself back to events at hand, he looked at his older self. "Since there are two of us here, I take it something bad is happening?" he asked.
The tenth Doctor stepped away from Faith and leaned on the control console. "6 minutes and 9 seconds bad," he admitted.
"Aaahh," the fourth doctor replied. "The High Council decided to put its best man on the job… whatever it is?" he pressed.
The tenth Doctor refused to look at his younger self and slid around the controls to put the Time Rotor in between them. "Something like that," he lied.
The fourth Doctor pulled out a red yo-yo from his jacket pocket and leaned back on the console. He simply stood there, playing with the yo-yo until the safety buffer time was up. At 10 seconds past 6 minutes, he caught the yo-yo in his hand and put it away. "And I believe that is time," he announced. "What trouble have we gotten into this time?" he asked with a broad smile.
Faith put her hand on the tenth Doctor's arm. "I got this one," she offered. She took in a deep breath before speaking. "Eye of Harmony was turned into a human, universe collapsing because she can't hold her human form. We're looking for the segments to the Key of Time to keep everything from turning into cosmic shit," she explained. Spike snickered at Faith's bluntness and Buffy just rolled her eyes.
Despite how brash the young American woman seemed to be, Sarah Jane found herself intrigued. "What's the Key of Time?" she asked the fourth Doctor.
The fourth Doctor shrugged his shoulders. "I have no idea," he admitted.
The tenth Doctor smacked his forehead suddenly. "Right… if I'm traveling with Sarah Jane then I haven't met the Guardians or been sent to look for it the first time," he exclaimed. With a tilt of his head, he added, "And I obviously haven't gotten a look at the Logopolis code yet."
"I've always wanted to go to Logopolis," the fourth Doctor said cheerfully. Faith bit her lip and walked around the fourth Doctor to get to the tenth. She knew all about the events that started on Logopolis and eventually led to the fourth Doctor's death on Earth.
The tenth Doctor pushed himself away from the control console. "Ok, quick summary Faith Lehane style," he said, winking at his girlfriend. "The Key of Time rewrites the source code of the Universe. It's broken into six segments, of which we have found three," he said quickly. He placed the segment tracer into its slot in the navigation panel. "This feeds us the coordinates and we go and retrieve the next segment which is disguised as something else," he explained while reading the new coordinates for the fourth segment. Frowning, the tenth Doctor took out his brainy specs and reread the numbers. "The next segment happens to be in the middle of the Gythoosh Star Void," he muttered.
"What's the ga… ga… the Star Void thingy?" Buffy asked, not quite having a handle on the first word.
"Gythoosh," the fourth Doctor supplied.
"Bless you," Spike said automatically since it sounded so much like a sneeze.
Buffy folded her arms across her chest, waiting for an answer. The tenth Doctor put away his brainy specs and pulled Sarah Jane by the hand to stand midway down the catwalk leading to the front doors. "Sarah Jane is your galaxy," he said and then raced over to Buffy and had her stand on the walkway leading to the rest of the TARDIS. "Buffy represents the Mayall's Object, a galaxy rather far off from yours," he explained. Waving his hand between the two women he stated, "This big empty space between Sarah Jane and Buffy is the Gythoosh Star Void."
"Bugger," Spike swore. Nova had been one of his favorite television shows and he had a pretty good grasp of how much empty space they were talking about. "Extremely small needle in an absurdly huge haystack," he muttered.
The fourth Doctor walked over and clapped Spike on the back. "Exactly," he agreed. "We can always hope that the coordinates are spot on and whatever this segment thing is has a big flashing beacon on top," he offered, always the optimist.
Sarah Jane walked back up the catwalk to stand next to Buffy and Spike while the Doctors prepared the TARDIS for flight. "So, how did you two end up meeting the Doctor?" she asked.
"My friends and I were fighting a big evil that was about to enslave the Earth and then move on to take over everything else," Buffy replied. "Doc showed up out of nowhere and saved the day," she added.
Sarah turned to look at the Doctors who were arguing over what a certain set of knobs did on one of the hexagonal panels surrounding the Time Rotor. She smiled when she realized how similar some of their mannerisms were. She continued to smile she turned to face Buffy and Spike again. "Sounds like a typical week for him," she joked.
Spike chuckled a bit at that thought. "You're right. It's never dull when you're around him," he agreed. "One moment you're fighting zombies on an alien planet and the next you're trying to save a population of giant bears from an evil human corporation," he sighed.
Sarah Jane nodded her head. "I know exactly what you mean," she replied. "Just last week the Doctor and I were investigating a 15th century church said to be haunted and a half naked Time Agent suddenly appeared in front of us," she told them. "When the Doctor pointed at him and told him he wasn't wearing any pants, the Time Agent said that sometimes happens with Vortex Manipulation," she relayed to them. "When the Doctor pointed out that the man wasn't wearing any underwear either, the cheeky bastard winked at us and said that happens all of the time," she stated, blushing slightly. "The Doctor grabbed his wrist, activated his Vortex Manipulator, and sent the bloke back to whenever he came from," she chuckled. "As for me, I was simply speechless," see admitted. "It's not every day a man pops out of thin air naked from the waist down. Especially one as handsome as that," she said.
Buffy and Spike grinned at each other and nodded. "Jack," they said in unison.
"I take it you know this gentleman?" Sarah Jane inquired.
Spike tossed another stick of gum in his mouth as he remembered his last meeting with the Immortal. "Too well, I think," he responded.
The tenth Doctor input the final coordinates, cranked a handle, pumped a plunger two times, and flew the TARDIS through the Vortex to their intended destination. When they arrived, he raced around the different control panels looking at the various scanners. When he was done, he leaned back and thoughtfully rubbed his chin.
"What is it?" Faith asked curiously.
The tenth Doctor adjusted the exterior shields and walked to the front doors. He opened the doors and pointed outside at a bright light that was winking on and off. "Big flashing beacon," he pointed out, obviously surprised it had been that easy.
With the combined skills of both Doctors piloting the TARDIS they managed to get within a few feet of the beacon after overshooting it twice. The doors were open and the Doctors stood in the entryway, looking at what they had found. A black metallic cube measuring a meter on each side floated just outside of the doors. Metal cooling fins were evident on four of the side. Black burn marks were clearly evident on at least three sides. "Is that what I think it is?" the fourth Doctor asked.
"It would explain why it survived when everything else blew up. Key segments are indestructible," the tenth Doctor replied. He reached out to grab the fourth Doctor's hand. "Hold on, I'm going to try to grab it and pull it inside," he said. The tenth Doctor held onto the fourth Doctor's hand and reached out into the darkness to grab the large box. He was able to get a hold on one of the cooling fins and pulled it back into the TARDIS.
As soon as the box was past the front doors, the gravity inside the TARDIS pulled the box to the floor with a loud thump. The fourth Doctor leaned from side to side as he tried to figure out where to grab the heavy thing. "We should probably take it up near the control console so our TARDIS can try and interface with it," he suggested. The other Doctor nodded in agreement and they both tried to lift the box without success.
Faith and Buffy walked over to them and gently pushed the Time Lords aside. With one hand each, they easily lifted the box and carried it up the catwalk. When they were next to the Time Rotor, they gently let it down.
The tenth Doctor noted the shocked look on his younger self's face. "They are the result of the Other tinkering with human DNA to develop the perfect vampire slayer," he tried to explain.
The fourth Doctor narrowed his eyes at the tenth. "Vampires are just a legend our nannies tell to keep Gallifreyan children in line," he stated sarcastically.
"Oh, that's right. I forgot, you haven't fought the vampire king yet," the tenth Doctor said suddenly. He led his younger self back up the catwalk with a hand on his elbow. "Trust me, no one knows better than us that the great vampires were very, very real," he assured the fourth Doctor.
Sarah Jane leaned from side to side as she looked at the large device the two young women carried. "What is it?" she inquired.
"This is the central data matrix from a TARDIS," the fourth Doctor replied.
"A whatsy?" Buffy asked, feigning ignorance.
Faith leaned over to Buffy and said, "It's a TARDIS hard drive," she explained.
The fourth Doctor snatched off his hat and twisted it in his hands. "It is absolutely NOT a hard drive," he exclaimed. "This matrix is one of the most advanced computers in existence. Comparing its multi-dimensional phasic crystal processors to a magnetic media drive is like comparing a master chef's desert to a Twinkie," he fumed.
"Twinkies last forever," the tenth Doctor chimed in. "I'm still working on that experiment we set up in the academy to see how Twinkies age after prolonged time spans. You know, the one where we eat a Twinkie from the same box every hundred years," he reminded his younger self.
The fourth Doctor put his hat back on. "OK, a Twinkie was a bad example," he admitted. Curiosity got the better of him and he asked, "How is the experiment going?"
The tenth Doctor sucked on his teeth before answering. "Our hypothesis was correct, 900 years later and they taste the same," he replied.
Faith stepped in front of the charred matrix and bent down to look at it. "So how do we connect this thing to old blue?" she asked.
The tenth Doctor kneeled next to her and ran his hand along the side facing them. "If I remember correctly, there should be an I/O port somewhere on the front here," he told her. His fingers found what he was looking for and he slid back a small hatch. As soon as he did, a red beam shot out of a concealed port and struck both the tenth Doctor and Faith. They froze in place and then disappeared.
********DrW********
The tenth Doctor woke up facing a cloudy, dark sky. Strange blue lightning bolts arced from cloud to cloud in a dazzling pattern. He rose up on his elbows and looked around. He was lying on some sort of black ground with a grid work of blue energy lines trailing off as far as he could see in all directions. Faith's moans as she woke up forced him to his feet. He found her a few feet away from him. Offering his hand, he helped his girlfriend to her feet. "Are you all right?" he asked her.
Faith ran through her usual broken bones / internal injuries checklist and came up with a clean bill of health. "Yeah, I think so. Just sort of disoriented is all," she assured him.
A light appeared on the horizon and started to get brighter as it approached the. "This promises to be interesting," the Doctor stated, eager for a new adventure.
Faith looked down at the black, skin tight suit she was now wearing. Glowing white highlights stood out in a pattern on her torso and limbs. The Doctor was similarly attired. Faith leaned back and ogled her boyfriend's shapely rear in his skin tight suit. "You can say that again," she muttered happily.