CHAPTER 24
I do not own Doctor Who and I am making no profit off of this.
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Continuity Note: This chapter takes place just before the current storyline involving The Weaver in my story Bad Wolves that Victoria Waterfield is also currently starring in.
THE MACRA'S MASTERPLAN PART 1
"Dad, what are you doing?" Jacqueline said as she walked into the Console Room to find the Doctor working on a severed Cyberman head.
Trailing close behind her was her little sister Lily who was using her power to hover in the air while Cassiopeia watched over both children. She smiled wistfully as she observed them and remembered when she had once been that young and innocent. Those days seemed so far away to her now. Days long before she had been made into a living weapon against River Song and her parents by the Silence.
The Doctor looked at his girls with a smile despite the disappointment and frustration that he was currently feeling as he said, "This is an old friend of mine. His name was Handles. He . . . died on Trenzalore. Before he did, we had a lot of good times though . . . and some that I'd just as soon forget. I was trying to see if I could fix him and bring him back in some way. Even though the organic part of him is dead, I should still be able to reactivate his mechanical side if I do a manual override with the sonic. It's very tricky stuff though because I don't want to accidentally reactivate his Cyberman programming and have him try to convert all of us as soon as he wakes up."
"Won't he just be lifeless though? I mean if his brain's gone then he'll just be a machine. He'll be no better than K-9, right?" Jacqueline asked.
"Possibly or maybe he'll be like Mikaela's mum Megan, and his consciousness will have been saved somehow somewhere. I just wanted to see," The Doctor said.
"Why are you doing this now for, Dad?" Cassiopeia asked.
"I guess I've just been thinking of Handles a lot recently ever since I had to send George away. It would be nice to get him back," The Doctor said.
"I think someone else who was with you on Trenzalore is the one that you'd really like to get back," Cassiopeia said with a small smile.
The Doctor said nothing but knew that she was right. Even now he still missed Clara and trying to get Handles back was his only way of reconnecting to her.
Cassiopeia smiled in understanding and kissed his cheek as she said, "Good luck, Dad."
Then she gently picked up Jacqueline in one arm and held her while she started softly stroking her hair.
"Stop that. I'm not a baby," Jacqueline protested.
The Doctor smiled as Cassiopeia said, "Sorry, Jackie. I just wanted to show you that I cared. I haven't seen you in forever you know. I thought that you might appreciate it that your big sister missed you."
Jacqueline smiled as she said, "I do. I just want you to treat me like a grown-up now instead of a little kid."
"You're not even three yet," Cassiopeia said with a frown.
There's no use talking to her, Cass. She thinks she's already an adult now and that she's all grown up. You can't tell her any different either. Believe me I've tried. Lily said telepathically with a huge grin on her face as she teleported herself into Cassiopeia's remaining arm.
"You keep quiet. You can't even talk properly yet so you have no right to say anything about whether I'm a real adult or not," Jacqueline argued.
See what I mean? Lily asked with a giggle.
"Don't try to grow up so fast, Jackie. One day you'll find yourself missing these days, and it'll happen a lot quicker than you think. Enjoy being young while you can, both of you," Cassiopeia said with a small smile as she kissed both of her sisters on the forehead.
"What's with all of the kissing? It's disgusting. I hope she doesn't kiss me like that," Michael said in baby talk to Rose as she came into the Console Room holding him.
"I wouldn't even think of it, Michael. How about I give you a big hug instead?" Cassiopeia said laughing.
"No! No hugging. No kissing. I love you, Cass, but that's just not manly," Michael protested.
"You're not a man though, sweetie," Rose said as she laughed at him.
"I will be though so I'm not doing all of that huggy feely stuff," Michael said firmly.
On the other side of the room, Mikaela suddenly burst out laughing as she whispered to Gwyneth, "So he doesn't like hugging, huh? No wonder he gets along so great with the Old Man in the future."
Gwyneth nodded as she said, "Rose and Clara are the only ones who ever get away with hugging him, and Rose is the only one who he'll let kiss him."
"Is he really going to be that bad?" Polly asked with a mischievous grin as she overheard them.
"You have no idea. You shouldn't even have heard that much though," Mikaela said.
"It's okay. I'm not going to tell anyone. Besides I'm kind of curious because I get the feeling from the way that Rose acts sometimes around the Doctor that he's on his way soon. I'm really going to miss this Doctor. He's so much like my little fellow that I used to travel with. It sounds like this next one is going to be more like the first one that I met," Polly said.
"Let's just say that he won't be as hard for you to get used to as he will for the others, Polly, and leave it at that," Mikaela said.
"Oh, so we'll be going back to the tetchy old man again. Oh, joy," Polly said smiling.
"He sounds like he's going to be a real treasure," Shareen said as she joined in on the conversation.
"Does anyone here not eavesdrop on my private conversations?" Mikaela said in an annoyed voice.
"What are you all talking about?" Charley asked as she walked over to them.
"I knew I liked you," Mikaela said with a grin.
"Suck up," Shareen said.
"What? I'm not making it up. I really don't know what you're all talking about," Charley said.
"You seem to be the only one. It's nothing, Charley. Forget it," Mikaela said.
"Forget what?" Victoria said as she suddenly appeared in the middle of the room with Jamie and Zoe.
"Nothing! Now I even have eavesdroppers that I don't even know about," Mikaela said in exasperation.
Victoria smiled as she said, "Good luck keeping a secret on the TARDIS. That hasn't changed at all since my day it seems."
"What hasn't?" Charley asked feeling completely left out of the loop.
"Oh, she's just talking about what a horrible person I'm going to be as Eyebrows. It's nothing, Charley," The Doctor suddenly said as he spoke up from the console.
"Man, everyone really did know!" Mikaela said with a sigh.
"Time Lords have good hearing," Rose said with a grin.
"Yeah and they don't respect your privacy either," Mikaela complained.
"Privacy around him? Yeah, right. He once walked in on me changing my clothes," Shareen said with a shudder.
"Yes, sorry about that. I forgot that humans like to wear different clothes every day. When I pick a look, I stick with it," The Doctor said.
"Yes, no matter how bad you look," Mikaela joked.
"Oi!" The Doctor protested even as he hugged both Shareen and Mikaela and kissed their foreheads.
"See? I told you that he'd hug you one day, and you never thought that he would. He just needed to warm up to you is all," Rose whispered to Shareen.
"Don't get too used to it," Mikaela whispered to both of them.
"Oh, so that's what you were talking about," Rose said with a worried look.
"Don't worry, Rose. The Old Man may not be as loving as Mr. Bow Tie, but he'll always let you know exactly how he feels about you sooner or later," Mikaela said reassuringly.
"I guess I'll just have to get used to that," Rose said sadly.
"That's one reason why I didn't want you to hear about that," Mikaela said.
Then Rose suddenly brightened up as she said with a chuckle, "Blimey! I really have gotten too spoiled by my current Doctor, haven't I? I've had to deal with Doctors who couldn't even tell me that they loved me when I was trapped in another universe so I guess having another one like that around won't be anything that I haven't had to deal with before."
"Nothing ever bothers you does it?" Shareen said in disbelief.
"He's worth it, Shareen. Believe me," Rose said.
Cassiopeia couldn't help but feel sad and happy at the same time as she listened to her mother's words. She was happy for her but sad for herself. Why couldn't she find someone that she could love like that?
"So did all of you come to join us for another adventure, Victoria? You should have been here a little earlier. I found a nice home in the distant past for a space dragon named George. I was really sad to see him go, but I had to do it to save him from being sold to some horrible collector somewhere. I really wanted a space dragon too. Maybe someday I'll get another cool pet that's a lot easier to deal with. I'd love a horse as long as they really are a horse and not a Zygon of course. I miss Arthur," The Doctor said with a frown.
"No, Doctor, we can't have a horse in the TARDIS. I already told you that," Rose said.
"This Doctor is just like a wee little child isn't he?" Jamie said with an amused smile.
"He's really not too different from the way that our first Doctor was at times come to think of it. He could be quite childish too on occasion," Zoe said giggling.
"I am not," The Doctor pouted.
"Of course you're not, Doctor. Let's not pay any attention to those mean people. I came here to travel with you not make fun of you," Victoria said.
"Thank you, Victoria. I always did like you best," The Doctor said with a fond smile.
"I was wrong, Charley. She's the suck up not you," Shareen said.
"You should be so glad that Victoria's such a kind person or she'd turn you into a Whisper Girl for that, lassie," Jamie joked.
"Oh, she would not. Stop that, Jamie. Victoria's too sweet to ever hurt anyone," Zoe said.
"Are we talking about the same lass who sent the Viyrans running like frightened little puppies with their tails between their legs, Zoe?" Jamie said with a grin even as he failed to notice the way that just mentioning the Viyrans made Charley instantly jump.
"That's different though, Jamie, and you know it," Zoe said while Rose and Mikaela both put a comforting arm around Charley.
"A sweet Great Intelligence. I never thought I'd ever live to see that," The Doctor said to Victoria.
"Doctor, are you trying to bring that Cyberman head back to life?" Victoria quickly said as she tried to change the subject since she was beginning to feel uncomfortable.
Sometimes she wasn't sure just how sweet that she really was anymore. Sometimes she was afraid that she might lose herself to the Intelligence's leftover psychic influence that was still attached to his power and that scared her. She tried never to let anyone else know that though especially Jamie and Zoe who she always tried to remain herself with as much as possible while they traveled together.
"Yes, this Cyberman's brain died but I'm trying to see if there's anything left of him still embedded in its programming somewhere. It's slow going trying to reactivate him without setting any traps in his programming off," The Doctor admitted.
"Give the head to me, Doctor," Victoria said.
She took it from him and then her eyes and hands glowed as she held it. Suddenly Handles' eyes lit up again for the first time since Trenzalore.
"Information: We are no longer on Trenzalore," Handles said.
"Welcome back, Handles!" The Doctor said as he kissed the Cyberman head after taking it from Victoria.
Then he kissed Victoria on the forehead and hugged her as he said, "Thank you."
Victoria smiled happily at his approval because she had always thought of the Doctor, even this young one, as her surrogate father ever since the Daleks had killed her birth father. She knew that the Doctor thought of her the same way. She could easily see just how worried that he looked for her ever since she had gained the power of the Intelligence. It was a look of worry only a father could give.
"I'm happy to do it, Doctor. I owe you so much that bringing one Cyberman back to life is the least that I can do," Victoria said.
The Doctor looked at her in concern as he said, "Are you alright, Victoria?"
"I'm fine," Victoria said knowing even as she said it that he wasn't fooled by her fake smile for a moment.
"If you ever want to talk about anything, I'm always here," The Doctor reassured her.
"Thank you, Doctor. I'll remember that," Victoria reassured him.
Maybe she would talk to him about it sometime but not today. Today she just wanted to enjoy herself and from the way that the console had just stopped it looked like she just might get a chance to very soon now.
"We've landed. I was wondering if the TARDIS was ever going to pick a destination or not. It seems like we've been traveling for ages. So let's see where Sexy finally ended up. Oh, it's Marathon Prime! You'll all love it here. It's a gaming planet where you can find just about any kind of game that you can think of which is why it's called Marathon. It's not just physical games like football or cricket either but also video games, board games like chess, and even virtual games. This whole planet is completely devoted to healthy competition. This is so cool. I'm going to go play some of the football just like I did with Craig. I may even go play some cricket. I was always good at it. I wonder if I've still got that cricketer's outfit around here somewhere. I'll have to get rid of the question mark lapels though. I was going through a really weird phase then where I put them on everything. I wasn't the master of fashion that I am now," The Doctor babbled.
"This might be fun. I bet I could beat everyone at marksmanship and archery," Cassiopeia said with a grin.
Rose smiled at her glad to see that she was enjoying herself. She hated to admit it but the depressed way that Cassiopeia looked sometimes worried her. She would never say it to her face, but she sometimes worried that Cassiopeia was as reckless as she was because she couldn't live with her memories of being an assassin. She didn't think that was true but after what had happened with her TARDIS and being captured by Sil recently she had to make sure. She knew that she wouldn't be able to survive losing her a second time especially if there was some way that she could have stopped it.
Thankfully Cassiopeia wasn't in as bad a shape as Rose feared, but she still felt incredibly down at times. Any distraction was therefore a welcome one in light of that. She really was looking forward to thoroughly trouncing everyone in every competition that she could get herself into in order to cheer herself up.
As soon as everyone went outside the TARDIS though, they instantly realized that something was very wrong on this world. The people were laughing and appeared at first glance to be enjoying themselves, but on closer inspection it was obvious that they all looked and acted almost robotic. It seemed as though they were only going through the motions while they competed against one another and weren't really enjoying themselves at all. It was almost as if they had had all of the life sucked out of them somehow, and they were only pretending to be happy.
Why though? The Doctor couldn't help but wonder about that.
"This is just weird. It's like they've all been hypnotized or something," Rose said as she looked deeply into the eyes of some of the people there and they didn't even seem to notice her.
"I wonder what could have happened. This used to be such a happy, fun place when I was here before," The Doctor said with a frown.
"Doctor, something about all of this seems familiar to me somehow. I can't quite place why that is though," Polly said in a distracted voice.
"Aye. I feel it too, Polly. It's like I've been here before or at least somewhere a lot like it," Jamie said.
The Doctor looked at them in surprise as he too seemed to have a feeling of déjà vu come to think of it.
Then he suddenly started to feel someone trying to break into his thoughts and influence them. They were attempting to brainwash him just as they had the others on this planet.
"Doctor, someone's trying to get in my head," Rose said in alarm.
"Mine too. They're telling me to play a game with the others. They want me to stay here . . . forever," Shareen said in a distant voice.
"I'm being told that I have to work in some kind of mines. It's so powerful. I . . . Help me!" Zoe said in a frightened voice.
"Don't listen to it! Rose, Victoria, can you help block our minds from whatever's getting into them?" The Doctor asked.
"I'm already on it, Doctor. How are you feeling now, Zoe?" Rose asked.
"I'm much better now. Thank you, Rose. What is going on here?" Zoe asked.
"Information: This is a trap. Numerous alien life signs detected on this planet that do not belong here," Handles said.
"What life signs, Handles? Tell us what you know," The Doctor asked.
"Answer: It is a group of aliens identified as the Macra," Handles said.
"The Macra! Oh, no!" Polly said as she began to look around her nervously.
"Not them! They're horrible beasties, Doctor. They almost killed us the last time we came across them," Jamie said in an alarmed voice.
"Who are the Macra?" Zoe asked in confusion.
"They are," Jamie said as he pointed to a dozen large crab-like creatures with huge pincers that were quickly heading toward them.
We sense someone here who is fit for much more than just luring unwary travelers here by taking part in the games or doing the mining for the gas that we need to survive. We sense a mind filled with secrets. They are powerful secrets that we could use to enslave everyone in the galaxy and bind them to our will if we had them at our disposal. Then we would no longer have to hide here and lure people into our trap. The Macra would finally be restored to our former glory once more! One of the Macra said telepathically.
"They're talking about me. They want the secrets of the Viyrans," Charley realized in horror.
"They're not about to get them, Charley. Don't worry about that," Rose reassured her as she began to glow with power.
We will have the female and pluck all of the information that she knows from her brain. The Macra will be great once again. Another Macra replied.
"You're not doing anything to her. I defeated you once and I can do it again," The Doctor said confidently.
That mind! We thought that it seemed familiar. You are the Doctor. You did this to us! You helped our human slaves overthrow us and took away our once mighty empire. A Macra said accusingly.
How ironic that you would be the one to bring us the means to right that great injustice? You will not leave here with the girl. She is ours now. She belongs to the Macra! Another Macra proclaimed.
"You'll have to go through me first, mate, and believe me when I say that that's not going to be easy," Rose said as she began attacking them with blasts of Vortex energy.
That was when things began to get much worse as suddenly hundreds if not thousands of the Macra started running towards them. They were soon surrounded on all sides by the enormous creatures as they attacked them both mentally and physically at the same time while they swiped at the others with their enormous pincers.
"Doctor, do something!" Jamie screamed as one of the Macra got a little too close to Zoe and he barely pulled her away from it in time.
"Don't worry, Jamie. We have Rose, Cassiopeia, and Victoria with us. They'll be able to overcome a few thousand Macra easily," The Doctor said confidently.
"Information: Several thousand additional Macra rapidly approaching this destination. Several million more Macra detected all over this world," Handles said.
"Wonderful. It seems that the Macra have been in hiding here for a very long time," The Doctor said with a sigh.
"Doctor, I'm not sure that even I can fight that many Macra. We have to get back to the TARDIS," Rose said.
The Doctor could see that she was right and started to look for it. Only it was now gone!
"It's missing and the remote control isn't working for some reason. They must have taken it somewhere where it's being blocked," The Doctor realized.
"That's not the only thing being blocked. I can't teleport us out of here," Rose realized.
"Neither can I," Victoria said.
"They must have activated some kind of powerful transduction barrier around the planet as soon as they saw what you could do, Rose. They're blocking us from teleporting out. It must be how they kept anyone from escaping once they caught them," The Doctor said.
"Maybe Victoria, Cassiopeia, and I can still break through it if we combine our powers together," Rose suggested.
"We may not have time," The Doctor said as a massive army of Macra now came thundering towards them on all sides.
"Don't worry, Doctor. I have an army of my own, remember?" Victoria said as she quickly made an army of Yetis, Snowmen, and Whisper Girls from the basic materials of the planet itself and sent them to confront the Macra.
"They're holding them back for a little while, but if there are as many of them as Handles says then I'm not sure even that will work for long," The Doctor said.
"Prediction: We will eventually be completely overwhelmed by a planet full of Macras and will soon either perish or become enslaved by them," Handles said.
"Thank you so very much, mate! You're a regular little ray of sunshine you are," Rose said in an irritated voice.
Meanwhile all of this was being observed by unseen eyes. The owners of those eyes had been following Charley Pollard at a safe distance out of range of the Symmetry technology which they had detected in use for some time now. They had just been biding their time and waiting for the right moment to kidnap Charley away from the Doctor once more.
Now it seemed that they couldn't wait any longer.
"We must stop the Macra from gaining our secrets. Get ready to attack. We will kill all of them in order to preserve our knowledge. No one must be spared except for Charlotte Pollard," The leader of the Viyrans ordered his subordinates.
Next: It's a war between three armies at once as the Doctor, Rose, and their allies fight for their lives and Charley's freedom against both the Macra and the Viyrans even while the Viyrans try to kill them all! Who will win and what will become of Charley at the end of it all? Will she ever be free of the Viyrans?
