CHAPTER 3
I do not own Doctor Who and I am making no profit off of this.
Thank you for all of your favorites, follows, story alerts, and reviews!
THE ULTIMATE WEAPON
Clara watched the Doctor and Rose fight it out with the Daleks on the monitor with a look of concern on her face. She knew that they could probably take care of them by themselves, but she still didn't feel right that she wasn't out there standing by their side.
She always felt this overwhelming need to watch out for them. The Doctor needed someone to keep him from going too far, and Rose needed someone to remind her to take care of herself too from time to time and not just others. They were both her best friends and not to be there with them when they needed her was killing her inside.
Polly couldn't help but smile at the expression on Clara's face. She thought back to the time when that had been her once. She had once worried about the Doctor just as much as Clara did now. She had considered it to be like a sacred duty to take care of him and had taken it very seriously. She had taken it so seriously as a matter of fact that she had made Jamie promise to watch out for him in her place when she finally left to return to her time. According to Zoe though, this had been like leaving the fox in charge of the hen house.
Now Clara felt exactly the same way it seemed as she had once done. In fact, she might be even worse.
"They'll be alright. I know it may be hard to believe, but they can manage to actually survive without you for a while. Rose used to be his companion before she knew that she was his wife so I'm pretty sure that she can take care of the both of them," Polly said confidently.
"I know. I'm sure that they're going to be fine. I just wish that I could be there. It feels wrong not to be watching out for them. I've done it for so long and in so many different guises, Polly. It's kind of become my life," Clara said.
"You'll have to watch out for that, Clara. That almost happened to me. It started to become my life too, and then once I realized that I got out. You can't forget to have a life of your own, Clara. You have to find someone who makes you happy and live for yourself too," Polly advised her.
"Aye, you need to find that special someone who you can spend the rest of your life with," Jamie said as he stuck his chest out with pride.
Clara laughed as she said, "You never give up, do you?"
"No. Not when I see something I want. It's one of my most endearing features," Jamie said with a sly grin.
"I still don't feel that way about you. I'm sorry," Clara said in a serious voice.
"I can keep trying though, right?" Jamie asked in concern.
"Of course you can. It gives me something to keep me distracted while I'm worried if nothing else," Clara said.
"Don't worry so much about him, Clara. He can take care of himself. He'll be fine," Jamie said.
"I learned a long time ago that it's usually everyone else that should be worried if the Doctor is left on his own for too long. He gets a little too out of control if he's left to himself. He has his wife with him though so he should be alright. I have to admit that I wish I was with him too. I've only just stopped traveling with him from my point of view. It was only a few weeks ago when the Time Lords sent me home," Zoe said.
"A few weeks? It was only about a day for me," Jamie said in surprise.
"That's time travel for you. It's all relative," Clara said.
At least he didn't make any of you wait for twelve months like he did my mum. Rose's voice suddenly said in all of their minds.
Are you ever going to let that go? The Doctor's replied with a groan.
No. Rose responded with a giggle.
"Are all of you hearing them in your head too or am I losing my mind?" Jamie asked in concern.
"It's okay, Jamie. Apparently Rose has set up a temporary telepathic link between the two of them and the rest of us here in the TARDIS," Clara said with a relieved smile on her face.
"A what?" Jamie asked.
"It basically means that we can hear their thoughts in our heads, Jamie, and they can hear us talk back to them," Zoe explained with an exasperated sigh.
"How? They're not here. How can they hear anything?" Jamie asked.
"They just can. Time Lords are telepathic. What they're doing is direct mind to mind communication," Polly said.
"I'm just going to pretend to know what you're all talking about and nod. It helped me get through some of the Doctor's high-minded talk in the past when I didn't have a clue what he was saying either. They can hear us and we can hear them so I guess that's all I need to know. I don't need to know how it works," Jamie said.
I didn't mean to cause any confusion, Jamie. I just wanted to establish contact with the rest of you because I didn't want you to be worried about us. I know that some of you tend to worry just a tad too much about us. I'm not naming any names though. Rose responded.
Are you talking about Clara? The Doctor responded.
I said that I wasn't naming any names. What did you not get about that, Doctor? Rose replied with a slightly annoyed but mostly amused tone in her mental voice. Clara could almost see her shaking her head at him.
Sorry. The Doctor thought back in an apologetic tone.
"Could it be that part of the reason you established this link was that you were a little worried about us too?" Polly asked with a knowing smile.
It could be. I used to be one of you after all. Who better to know just how much trouble that you'll all get into if I don't keep an eye on you? Rose admitted.
Aren't you being just a tad hypocritical, Rose? I mean you were the most jeopardy prone companion that I ever had bar none. The Doctor responded.
I know. I know. I just worry about them I guess. I was a little afraid that they might come outside if I didn't check in with them. Or at least that one of them would anyway. Rose replied in a worried tone.
Are you talking about Clara again? The Doctor asked.
They all heard a loud popping noise and a scream that made them all laugh.
What was that for? The Doctor whined.
That's for being so thick. Rose's mental voice could be heard saying next.
Clara looked embarrassed as she said, "I have to admit that I was thinking about it."
"What?" Polly asked in shock. Clara could certainly see both the grandmother and mother in Polly coming out now as she gave her a 'How could you be so stupid?' look that she thought that her father had invented all by himself.
"I was going to put on a radiation suit from the wardrobe room. The Doctor has one. I've seen it in there before," Clara said defending herself.
They could all hear Rose laughing in amusement in the minds.
It would have been a terrible idea, Clara. One rip in that suit, and you would have been killed instantly with all of the radiation that's in the area that we're in now. It's just getting worse and worse in here by the moment. I really don't feel like bringing you back from the dead today, Clara, so don't even think about it. Half of the time that I bring people back to life I tend to make them immortal by mistake. Rose replied with a slight hint of a threat in her voice.
Clara knew that she would never intentionally do such a thing, but she got her message loud and clear. Don't come out here and get yourself killed, you crazy girl!
"Message understood," Clara said.
Good. Now stay in the TARDIS! The Doctor and I are perfectly safe. Stop worrying so much about us. We're going to sort this lot out, kick some Dalek posterior, and then head on back. We'll see you in a little while. Rose responded before breaking off the link.
"She really must care a lot about you. She sounds just like a worried mother," Zoe said.
"I've grown very close to both of them. They're like family to me now, and I care a lot about them too," Clara admitted.
"You must do to do something so incredibly dangerous," Polly said.
"She's very loyal to the people that she cares about, Polly. There's nothing wrong with that. As a matter of fact, I like that in a woman," Jamie said defending her with a grin.
Clara smiled at him appreciatively and surprised both herself and Jamie as she kissed his cheek.
Jamie's smile began to get wider as Clara quickly said, "That means nothing. That was just in appreciation for what you said. That's all."
"Of course it was. I understand," Jamie said smugly clearly not believing her.
"I'm sorry if I came down a little hard on you, Clara. It's the mum in me rearing its ugly head. I know that I'm supposed to be your friend not your mother. I just don't want you to do something foolish," Polly apologized.
"It's okay. I kind of liked it. I miss that kind of thing," Clara said looking sadly for a moment as she silently missed her mother.
Polly placed a comforting hand on her shoulder as she realized what she must be thinking about even as Jamie gave her a reassuring smile. Clara smiled back at both of them in appreciation.
Zoe meanwhile couldn't help but think about her own mother. She hadn't seen her parents since she was very young. She had been taken from them and put into a special education program called the Elite Program. From there, she eventually wound up on the Wheel. She wondered with sadness if they were even still alive or not or where they were.
"Are you okay, Zoe?" Jamie asked with concern.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just great," Zoe said with a fake cheerful tone to her voice.
"I'm always here for you if you'd like to talk about it," Jamie said.
"Thanks. Maybe some other time though," Zoe said as she smiled at him.
"Whenever you'd like," Jamie offered.
This sign of concern and affection by him towards his friend touched Clara. Maybe there was more to him than she thought. She would have to dig a little deeper and find out more about him as soon as this current crisis was all over with.
Back on the Wheel, the Doctor and Rose were tearing through the Daleks like they were made of tinfoil as they both went all out since there were no companions around to worry about accidentally injuring if they did. Rose was quite proud of herself actually. So far she hadn't even had to use her Bad Wolf powers on the Daleks once. She was beating them all just with the skills that she had learned at Torchwood and the Time Lord Academy along with her trusty vortex screwdriver.
"You know you're pretty dangerous even without the Vortex," the Doctor said in admiration as Rose destroyed several Daleks at once with a carefully planned attack that had them shooting each other as she ducked out of the way of their blasts at the very last second.
"Aren't you glad that I'm on your side?" Rose asked with a smug smile on her face.
"Ever since the day I first met you," the Doctor said as he gave her a quick kiss just before he sent several Daleks flying against the wall to their doom by screwing up their shells' internal gyroscopes with his sonic screwdriver.
Then a huge force of Cybermen suddenly appeared out of nowhere as they burst into the station and started firing on the Daleks. The Doctor and Rose suddenly found themselves in the middle of an enormous firefight as the blasts from the two opposing forces went flying in all directions.
That was when everything went downhill.
"We will take this station. The device must be ours to use against our enemies. With it, the Cybermen will be invincible," the Cyber Leader ordered his forces.
The Cybermen began to put an even bigger dent in the Dalek forces even as the Doctor and Rose did their best to stop both sides. The whole situation had just turned even more deadly now, and it was all that the two Time Lords could do to keep themselves alive. There were so many Daleks and Cybermen around that they couldn't even make it back to the TARDIS because the station was packed so full of them.
The Daleks had already been heavily devastated by the Doctor and Rose so this sudden attack by the Cybermen was now proving to be very fatal to them. Their numbers were falling steadily by the minute the longer that the battle lasted. They knew that they didn't have much longer before the Cybermen would completely overrun them.
"THE DEVICE MUST NOT BE ALLOWED TO FALL INTO THE HANDS OF OTHERS. IT MUST BE USED TO FREE SKARO FROM THE FALSE EMPRESS. WE MUST PREVENT IT FROM BEING STOLEN. WE MUST USE THE DEVICE TO DESTROY THE INVADERS," the Supreme Dalek shouted.
"IT IS UNPROVEN. IT MAY DESTROY US AS WELL," another Dalek pointed out.
"THEN WE WILL DIE EXTERMINATING OUR GREATEST ENEMIES," the Supreme Dalek said.
"EXTERMINATE THEM! EXTERMINATE THEM!" the Daleks began to chant together as the entire station began to start glowing.
The Daleks and the Cybermen all began to immediately start aging and falling apart even as they fought, and they soon started disintegrating together at the same time. The bodies of the crew in sick bay were instantly aged to death as well. Rose looked on in horror as even the Doctor's body started to visibly age in front of her. She and the baby were unaffected by whatever was occurring only because of the protection of the Bad Wolf. She wondered how much longer that would last though. She never did know for sure if she was immortal or not even with her Vortex powers.
Rose tried to turn whatever was going on off with her Vortex powers, but she quickly found that the entire place was protected with Vortex shielding which prevented her from being able to tamper with it. She couldn't turn the aging effects off or even teleport herself and the Doctor off of the station.
To her surprise, the TARDIS wasn't allowing the two of them inside either. Then she realized why. It was completely sealing itself off from all forms of outside contact and had its shields extended to maximum power in a desperate attempt to protect itself and its occupants from the strange glow's effects.
With her power, she could break through even the TARDIS' shields if she tried, but she was afraid to. She might instantly kill both the TARDIS and her friends if she did so.
"What's going on?" Rose asked.
"It's something that I hoped that I would never see again. The Daleks have somehow turned the entire station into a giant new and improved version of the Time Destructor. It rapidly increases the flow of time around it and can age most living beings to dust in a matter of minutes. A version of it this huge could destroy all life on an entire planet if it were brought within orbit of it. It might even start to affect the TARDIS if it stays here long enough," the Doctor said as he quickly held out his sonic screwdriver and put it on a pre-determined setting before pressing a button.
Rose looked at the setting and said, "She's going to be furious at you. I know I was when you did it to me."
"At least she'll still be alive to be furious," the Doctor said as he collapsed to the ground while his hair turned gray.
"Doctor!" Rose called out in concern.
Clara looked at the console in surprise as the TARDIS suddenly starting taking off by itself. She ran to the controls and tried to get it to stop, but none of the controls would respond.
"Stop! Stop! You can't leave them there!" Clara shouted.
A hologram of the Doctor appeared saying, "If you can hear this message, Clara, it means that Emergency Program One has been initiated. That means that the TARDIS is automatically sending you home to protect you from something extremely dangerous that I'm not sure that I'll be coming back from. I'm so sorry, Clara. I just want you to know that you are the sister that I always wanted, and I love you just like you're a member of my own family. Have a good life, Clara. Take care of yourself, and don't worry about me."
"No! No!" Clara screamed as she beat on the console in impotent rage.
Next: What will happen to the Doctor and Rose? Will they be aged to death? Will Clara ever get back to them? For that matter, will the Daleks get to use the destructive power of the Wheel on Oswin and her Daleks on Skaro?
