"Books!" John declares loudly as he all but charges out of the TARDIS. He holds his arms out as if running to hug a friend he hasn't seen in ages. "Downloads, and ebooks, and kindles and kobos but nothing compares to the smell of old books!"
"Library voice, Red-Fish-Blue-Fish," the Doctor shuts the TARDIS door behind her. This section of The Library seems quiet, with no noise but John's fanboy moment. He can be such a geek sometimes, and she loves that. "This Library is an entire planet of books! There are continents worth of everything ever written."
"Everything written ever," John purses his lips a bit and nods. He walks just as slowly as the Doctor does, trying not to tread on thin ice. The Library wasn't really a scheduled stop, but the Doctor had declared it their destination that morning. It wasn't entirely unusual of her to be spontaneous in that manner, but with a destination like this, John could guess there was business to attend to.
"It's a collection, physical and digital, managed by the biggest processor ever created," the Doctor ascends some stairs and turns the corner into the main lobby. She does have a reason for coming here, in on which she may or may not have let poor John.
The desk is unattended, and the only movement in the area is the dust floating where the light filters through skylights.
"So, um," John starts clenching and unclenching his fists as he approaches the Doctor. He tries to approach the matter with delicacy. "Do you want me to go with you, or should I just, uh, meander off to…science fiction town?"
"You'd have to take a transport to science fiction, actually," the Doctor looks around as if it makes a difference. "And, no, I…I want you with me for this."
"You still haven't really explained what we're doing here anyway." John tries not to question the Doctor in excess as she leads him into another section of The Library. She has been more withdrawn than normal lately, which wouldn't be such a worry, but John thought they were making headway in their relationship. She had been talking more—saying more, that is, and showing him how to fly the TARDIS. She had even shared that she had a nickname back on Gallifrey, but then it just stopped. The sharing, and openness, it tribbled out and she was just spouting facts at him again.
"The thing is, John, I should speak with Lee, but more importantly I have to hack into the data core. The main processor might have the information I need." The Doctor walks alone, hands stuffed into her coat pockets. As unsettling as John finds it to be walking without her hand in his she finds it possibly more disturbing. "Something weird is happening, and we need to find out why."
"What do you mean something weird?"
"John, Lee is in the data core of The Library, permanently stored in the hard drive. He's a data fragment." The Doctor looks at John solidly, to emphasize that she wants him to know this. "We met here, in the 51st century. I was passing through, you know, and ended up dragging Lee with me to fight the Daleks. Long story short, Lee ended up integrated into the coding of The Library's mainframe. After all the worlds I'd shown him and realities we had saved he had to be stored in the virtual reality in The Library's processor. I pulled him through reality, across dimensions, showed him the stars…and now… Now, he is a string of data code."
John watches the Doctor carefully. Her eyes are glittery with emotion but there's a hardness to them that seems to embody her strength. "When you first mentioned him…you said he wasn't human anymore."
"Lee can't exist outside of the mainframe. I designed him a signature code and custom code sequence." The Doctor looks down, now, nudging some books out of her path with her foot. "I made him the perfect life, where it's always good fishing weather, got rid of his stutter—he always hated it. I…I hoped he would…maybe he could have a family in there."
John has so many questions he wants to ask. He can't, though, because…he just can't. There is so much hiding behind that statement, as well as all her others. This one, though, speaks to him. He wonders if Lee knew the Doctor loved him. Lee certainly loved her but did he want too much?—if he had a relatively normal life? The Doctor said Lee wanted a family, but does that mean she didn't want one? Or was it that she couldn't have a family with a human? "What do you mean you designed him a signature code?"
"I constructed him a unique digital signature so I could keep track of him, in case something ever went wrong." The Doctor pulls out the Sonic and waves it a bit. "That's why we're here."
"What's wrong?" John looks around for a second. "Does it have something to do with how empty it is around here?"
"I noticed that too, and I think so, yes," the Doctor mutters. She goes to the computer console by the desk, pulling out her glasses.
"Um, Doctor," John begins with tight breathing, "why does that statue have a face?"
"Oh, never mind him, it's like donating a park bench or a plaque to a community theater." The Doctor frowns at the screen, quirking her lips. "This is strange."
"Oh, I can guess any number of things," John shudders, being stared down by the statue's face, "but what in particular?"
"If I search humanoids, I get you and I, and that's it," the Doctor begins, "but broaden the search, and it taps out at a million, million."
"A million, million," John stares, having never seen a number like that, "of what?"
"Warning: The Library has been breached," says the statue. "Run for God's sake run. Count the shadows, if you want to live. Warning: The-"
"All right, we got it, shut your trap," the Doctor snaps at the emotionless face. She puts her glasses back in her coat and brings John closer to her. "John, I want you to stay very close to me."
"Doctor," John calls her attention to a shadow that has crept into the light. "That shadow wasn't there before."
"We have to get back to the TARDIS. That shadow isn't a shadow." The Doctor pulls out the Sonic, but it instantly starts blinking at her. "I'm getting some interference."
"Hello, darling!"
A man with grey hair walks in. He wears a proper, grey suit, which accents his peppery hair. There's a distinct swagger to his gait, which helps him with the whole distinguished look he's got going on. He looks a bit like Caecilius, John thinks. That thought dissolves quickly as the stranger comes up to the Doctor and hugs her tightly. His arms wrap around her in unbridled affection as he lays a kiss to her temple.
"Oi, hands!" the Doctor snaps at him, slapping his hands off of her form. "Who the hell are you?!"
"I'm the Doctor," the silver haired gentleman greets with a smile.
"You're not the Doctor, she's the Doctor," John rushes briskly, absolutely seething at how this man dares, well, anything with his Doctor. The way he looks at her, the way he talks to her, even the way he stands bugs John.
"Oh, she's a Doctor, all right, but I'm the Doctor," the stranger disputes with a sporting tone. "The Twelfth, by the way."
"Look, Twelve, I don't have time to deal with you, so just turn around and go back to your ship-"
"TARDIS," says Twelve, startling the Doctor and John. "I have a TARDIS, and you know that, too. That's the interference you're getting on the Sonic. Of course, if it had a red setting, like mine, it wouldn't."
The Doctor looks at the Sonic - Screwdriver, it looks like - this twit is waving in her face offensively. She snatches it out of his hand without reservation. It's a thick, chunky, clinkety-clunkety thing. Sure enough, the light on its end is red, and it even has dampers! "What the hell…?!"
"Sonic Screwdriver," says Twelve, taking it from her without anger and putting it back in his suit pocket. "Don't get me wrong, I like your Sonic too, it's…sleek."
"Okay, how do you have a TARDIS?" John asks, desperately trying to insert himself between Twelve and the Doctor.
"Well, it's not really the genuine article; more of an alternate replica. You see, I am from a reality that got wedged between this reality and a another one; a friction pocket out of sync with time and space."
The Doctor measures the mysterious interloper with scrutiny. He doesn't seem threatening, and if anything, overly friendly with her. "Who are you?—and how do you know me?"
"Doctor," John takes her hand tightly. He points to the hallway through which they came, where the lights go out one by one. It's like watching a tidal wave of darkness approach.
"Run!" the Doctor gets an iron grip on John's hand and takes off. Twelve is running with them, being thoroughly ignored.
"It's locked!" John rattles the brass door handles of an untouched room.
"It's wood, I can't Sonic it!" declares Twelve.
"Oh, back up, you gits," the Doctor pushes them both away just to kick the doors in. Twelve seals the door behind them while John follows her into the lit center of the room. "If you're so great then how come your Sonic can't do wood either?"
"I know, it—it really is embarrassing," Twelve pulls at his ear.
"Doctor, what was that?" John asks in close proximity to her.
"That darkness wasn't just a shadow, it was a swarm." The Doctor takes John's hand - to the unseen chagrin of Twelve - and leads him to the edge of the darkness, where she Sonics it. "It's not darkness, we fear, but what's in the darkness. It's Vashta Nerada."
"The piranhas of the air," Twelve steps up to them while pulling out his own dark rimmed glasses. "They'll melt the flesh off bone in the time it takes you to blink."
The Doctor pauses maybe all of a second and a half before squeezing John's hand. "John, come with me."
"Doctor, where are we going?" John asks but doesn't resist.
"That little shop is always by the exit so they can sell you stuff," the Doctor mutters to herself as she runs. Sure enough there's a teleport pad onto which she all but throws John. "I'm beaming you back to the TARDIS; if I'm not back in five hours an emergency protocol will activate and take you home."
"Doctor, I'm not leaving you here, and certainly not with him!"
"John, I am not going to argue on this! I have seen what those things can do and I will not let that happen to you! I will not watch that happen to you—not you!"
John tries to jump from the teleport but the Doctor beats him to it. She holds him there, tilting her head up and fusing her lips to his. He holds her head, kissing back with a sad desperation on his lips. The warmth she provides only makes the cold fear in him scarier.
The Doctor feels tears collect in her eyelashes as John's touch leaves her. She pulls back and there are only a few particles of light left. In a few forceful blinks her tears divide into her lashes, freeing her vision. The Doctor takes a few deep breaths to calm herself; with John safe maybe she can at least focus enough to find CAL.
"With me, Sunshine!" Twelve shouts for her.
"Look here, you," the Doctor approaches and glares at Twelve. He seems eager but instead of whatever he was expecting he gets a slap in the face.
"You haven't done that to me in a long time," Twelve laughs with a kind of dreamy smile. "I've kind of missed it."
"Okay, sicko, you've made it clear you know me-"
"I know you better than you know yourself," Twelve chirps. "I know you were sent home from kindergarten for biting, I know your favorite author is Agatha Christie, I know you love grapes but hate pears, and I even know about that little spot behind your left ear I-"
"Oi!" the Doctor interrupts Twelve as he reaches behind his own left ear with a sneaky smile. Her affronted pout does nothing to convey her irritation with him. There's only one thing to know about the back of her left ear and it's nothing to discuss in the open air. "All right, you know me, but you haven't explained how!"
"Spoilers," Twelve takes on a softer, deep tone. His accent is rough, like a Scottish accent wrapped inside an English one.
"Spoilers," the Doctor mocks; "I'm a time traveler. I point and laugh at spoilers."
"I know you're a time traveler, because I am too." Twelve leans a little closer to the Doctor, who, much to her own surprise, doesn't tense at all. "I can't tell you how, but you do know me. I am someone you trust with your life, and I trust you with mine. That's in another universe, though, and it is in danger. This, mine, and a lot of other universes are in danger, and I've been rocketed here by temporal waves in hopes of correcting that. So, I need you and your brilliance here and now."
"Give me one good reason to trust you," the Doctor dares him coldly.
"Donna!" Twelve snaps. The fearful look on the Doctor's face tells him he has made his point. "That's your name: Donna."
"It's a crude, earthen translation of sorts," she glares at him, still defiant but at least not angry.
"Well, the you I know, is named Donna. You're brilliant, and amazing and the most important woman in the whole wide universe—in my universe." Twelve looks the Doctor dead in the eyes, and she sees something. There is the same haunted, darkness in his pale blue eyes as in her oceanic ones. "I am the Doctor, and I have been pulled through realities and dimensions to save you."
"I don't need saving," the Doctor breaks contact with the stranger - albeit handsome - with a scoff. "I need to get to the data core of this planet."
"How do you expect to do that with swarms everywhere? There's no other flesh source to divert them and I'm not going to let you run headlong into danger alone!" Twelve shouts after the woman who was already running off before he started speaking. "Why do you need the data core, anyway?"
"You've been torn through realities, you know the dangers," she huffs at him. "I got a signal from a friend here saying there was danger. If realities are ripping here as well then I have to stop them."
"They're linked to your friend," Twelve frowns deeply. "You have companions, then, that you travel with?"
"Not that it's any of your business, but yeah, what of it," she growls.
"This companion here, at The Library, his name is Lee, isn't it?—Lee McAvoy," Twelve proposes. The Doctor stops dead in her tracks, nearly making him crash into her back. She's upset with him enough as is. "You met him in The Library, where the world is wrong and time is disjointed."
"Lee is integrated with the software here, now. I need to find CAL so I can contact him." The Doctor continues running again. She turns down a glass walled corridor, that stands miles over the city of books. "If you know so much about my timeline here then why haven't you done anything about it already?"
"My timeline got misaligned as soon as my universe began degrading," answers Twelve. "Mine and every other universe is in danger."
"But what from?" the Doctor turns, exasperated. "What could endanger every universe?"
"Donna," Twelve takes on a very serious tone. However, he doesn't get a chance as a rustling attracts their attention. "What was that?"
"We're the only life forms here," the Doctor frowns. She and Twelve look towards the end of the corridor, squinting in the darkness. The rustling is heard again and a whiteness appears. It looks like a body, staggering out of the shadows. "That's impossible."
"Someone was here," Twelve pulls out his Sonic.
"And now they've got him," the Doctor concurs, pulling out her own. The light remains dim and she feels dread shoot through her bones. "John's not in the TARDIS."
"What?"
"I should have gotten a signal." The Doctor hardly gives Twelve a second thought - he's got a Sonic Screwdriver! - and runs back. She runs under the dimming lamps, slightly uncaring of the shadows near literally nipping at her ankles. Finally she sees a node statue. "You!—John Smith, locate him, now!"
"John Smith has left the library."
The Doctor stumbles back from the device, now wearing a poor counterfeit of John's likeness. The blood drains from her face and ice fills her hearts. It can't be; there's only one reason for this to happen. "No, John, don't tell me… "
"John Smith has been saved."
Her worst nightmare, the Doctor thinks, might have been this happening. John isn't back in Chiswick, he's not in the shadows, he's not safe, he's not anywhere. John Smith has been saved. Those five words, repeated like a death chime, kill her. Of all the things to happen to him—of all the ways for her to lose him this one scares her the most. She didn't fear this the most but it scares her more than anything else because if this is real then she has lost two of her loved ones to a reality she can't reach.
I might never see John again, the deepest corner of her mind whispers to her so loudly she can't ignore it. I can talk to Lee but I designed him a signature code to reach. John will just be reduced to numbers. I'll never see him again; never hear his voice. I'll never hear him say "allons-y" ever again.
"Donna!" Twelve takes her by the shoulders and leads her through a side hall.
"That was John," she whispers as if remembering a nightmare.
"I know, but you've got to stay with me," Twelve grunts as he continues to lead her forcefully. "Tell me what CAL is."
"CAL is the data core of The Library," the Doctor murmurs in a detached manner.
"All right, core means center, so we need this," Twelve leads them into another circular room and seals it behind him. The symbol iconic of The Library is emblazoned on the floor, which he Sonics. "Gravity lift; let's just reverse your polarity."
"John was saved," the Doctor says again. No tears appear, no breaks in her voice emerge, she just says it. She affirms that this reality, the worst possible one, is happening.
"What do you mean, what does that mean? Isn't John safe a good thing?" Twelve notices the Doctor's catatonic state and grasps her shoulders tightly. "Doctor, you've lost your friend-"
"My Earthboy," she whispers with a bit of emotion starting to leak through again.
"But I need you to focus. John is somewhere, he's safe-"
"No, he's saved," the Doctor pushes Twelve away slightly, but leaves her hand on his chest. "The computer has saved John on the mainframe. He's been coded into the interface."
"Saved means saved, on a computer," Twelve nods in realization, "not safe. So, how do we get him out?"
"I don't know if we can." The Doctor's stare remains hollow, but tone returns to her voice. "I couldn't extrapolate Lee from the mainframe cleanly and that's why he's here. He's saved as data, here."
"If we can get to the mainframe I promise we will get John back," Twelve kneels as the Doctor slumps onto a stack of books. He looks in her eyes and moves his hand slowly. When she shows no retaliation he places it on hers, gingerly. "I need you, though, right now. I can't do this on my own."
"Sure you can, you've got a Sonic, you're," the Doctor holds up her fingers to mimic quotation marks, "the Doctor, you'll manage."
"No, Donna, because I'm nothing without my companion, and you are my companion, for all of space and time: forever. That's what you promised me, Donna: forever. I lost you, in my reality, so I tried to find a way to correct it. That's how I learned the universes are tearing. I traveled across universes to try and bring you back to me but something went wrong in another reality, in another timeline. I lost you and…well, you know very well how rubbish I am without you."
The Doctor manages to laugh a little at that. Figures, she muses, no matter what world you're in a bloke is nothing without his woman. Or her Earthboy, her mind ads sadly, much to her own agony. "I have to get to CAL. There's a chance of getting John back, if I can get directly to CAL and reverse the immersion processor."
"All right, then," Twelve gives her hand a little squeeze and stands again.
"Wait," the Doctor stops him. He gives her his attention, patiently. "You have two heartbeats, like me."
"You really are the Doctor Donna," Twelve smiles adoringly. "I'm from Gallifrey. I took the name the Doctor because I travel through time and space: saving civilizations, fighting terrible creatures, running an awful lot—you said that."
"Who am I in your world?"
"You're my companion," Twelve avoids eye contact and it's a dead giveaway.
"Who am I to you?" the Doctor presses. Twelve takes her hand again, forcing her to look him in the eye, long and hard. She feels a warm flood of thoughts enter her mind. It's not invasive, but like his thoughts hugging hers. The tingle of shared telepathy brings light to her eyes. The same golden light in her eyes appears in his and she gasps. "I-I know you—Theta?"
"Theta Sigma," Twelve smiles a little tiredly, "a crude, earthen translation of sorts."
"That's why you know me, we…" the Doctor lets the statement end there. Twelve keeps her hand in his but brushes her hair from her cheek. She feels torn. This man, her…he knows her, and she knows him, in a way she never thought she would anyone since Gallifrey. John, though…then there's John. "Am I human in your world?"
"Not anymore," Twelve shakes his head. "A lot of spoilers, but, one word: metacrisis."
"Damn," the Doctor mutters, knowing full well what that means. "Okay, so how can we fix this, then? How did you lose me?"
"I…don't really want to revisit that," Twelve looks down in pain. "Besides, it's not in flux anymore, it can't be rewritten. We just have to figure out how to stabilize this reality. The realities surrounding this one are tearing but maybe that chain can be broken here, with us."
"All right, let's get to CAL," the Doctor stands with a new fire of determination.
"After you, Milady," Twelve allows the Doctor to jump ahead of him. He lands a few seconds after her, in what looks like a basement of sorts. "Is this the main computer?"
"This is where I can link up to CAL." The Doctor Sonics the console's panel off and begins fiddling with wires. "I can converse with Lee, see what's going on."
"Are you going to link up with the processor? Won't you be in danger of being coded yourself?" Twelve starts to protest until he sees what she's doing. As she continues to install the Sonic into the computer, linking it with the processor he nods. "So, here's a question: how did you leave it, you and Lee?"
"I used the teleport to bypass his physical download and keep his consciousness more in tact during the encoding process."
"No, I mean," Twelve tugs on his right ear again. "Did you tell him you loved him?"
The Doctor halts in her ministrations. "No, I didn't."
As her hand slips down the Sonic a flickering appears. A flash of John's face is projected but aside from that the Doctor feels a tug in her mind. It's the mental equivalent of a hand pulling at her sleeve.
Doctor, is that you?
Yes, John!—where are you? The Doctor thinks frantically.
I don't know.
Then, like that, the connection is gone.
"Donna, what just happened?" asks Twelve.
"It was John, in my mind, he contacted me, but I don't know how. It means he hasn't been encoded, he's just…existing. He's conscious—he's got conscious thought!" The Doctor begins a new sequence of actions, detaching some wires from the Sonic and holding them in her teeth.
"You better not be thinking what I think you are," Twelve warns her.
"If John can reach my thoughts with his then we still have a connection and John hasn't be integrated with the programming. If I go in there in person using our connection as a link maybe I can pull him out myself."
"You could also end up programmed in there yourself!" Twelve takes the Doctor's hands in his aggressively.
"Let me go!" the Doctor fights him but he's much stronger than her. He holds her wrists, not roughly, but with the strength she knows could break her bones if she fights too hard.
"I will not let you do this," Twelve persists. "If you get stuck in that mainframe and I can't get you out there will be no hope, for anyone."
"You can extract anything you need from the data core with your own Sonic, you can transport, you can leave, you can do whatever you want, but I'm going in there!" The Doctor shouts back in Twelve's face.
"No, you're not, because I won't let you. If you go in there and don't come out it could very well mean the world's end." Twelve moves the Doctor away and plucks the Sonic from the console. Using one hand to restrain her he slips his own Sonic in the place of hers. "You don't have a chance of extracting yourself and you can't regenerate in there, meaning you could be deleted from every existence—every universe!"
"You have no more of a chance than I do and I'm going!"
"Sh," Twelve presses a kiss to her forehead. His breath is ragged, torn up by feeling. "You know my name and I know yours. You know what that means and you know that's why you have to trust me."
"Let me do this!" the Doctor continues to fight against Twelve's grip, but it's like cast iron. She would have to rip her hands off to escape him.
"It's not your time, Donna," Twelve activates his Sonic Screwdriver with one hand. With the other he draw's the Doctor hands in, kissing both. "You'll see me again."
The Doctor panics as Twelve's hands dissipate from around her wrists. The screen registers the transfer of data and flickers. The Doctor frowns; 4024 saved. John and Twelve are two but… "Oh!—no, you have all of them, don't you? That's where everyone is! You have them!"
"Stop shouting; please, stop shouting."
The Doctor startles from the voice, but obeys. "I-I'm sorry, I really am."
"Have to…I have to save."
The Doctor wanders toward the voice. She flips the switch and the steel doors retract. She gasps as she comes face to artificial-face with a girl. It's just a little girl, hooked up to the largest mainframe in the history of existence. "Hello, there, sweetheart. Are you CAL?"
"Charlotte Abigail Lux," the face's voice, tinny and hollow, answers to the reference.
"You saved them," the Doctor smiles at the girl, who smiles back. "You saved everyone in The Library, Charlotte. You saved them all."
"Save…I have to save."
"You did it, honey," the Doctor lets her fingers ghost over the cold cheek. The girl smiles. She's just a little girl, the Doctor thinks. She has 4025 voices in her mind, saved; that's such a big burden for just a little girl. "You have my friends in there."
"John Smith has been saved," says Charlotte.
"I need him back, Charlotte," the Doctor bites her lip a little. "I need my Earthboy."
"John Smith has been saved," Charlotte repeats, unable to do anything else.
"Charlotte, you need to let them go, darling. You need to let me take them out of there." The Doctor gives Charlotte another smile she hopes is comforting before going back to the main computer. "I can help you, Charlotte, but you are letting them go. They can be restored; 4024 of them can be restored."
"Lee McAvoy has been saved."
The Doctor frowns a little at Charlotte, who doesn't seem anymore happy about it. "I know…I can't get him back…but I can help the others."
"Have to save," Charlotte echoes.
"I know," the Doctor nods and takes a definitive stance at the computer.
"Allons-y."