Hello my dear readers! Here I come again for one more chapter but not any chapter... because yes! This is the finale! This is the last chapter of Time and Space!
There's an epilogue that will follow but it's already written, I can't believe that I have achieved this work! One year on working on Time and Space and it's finished!
Thank you Turtle for your incredible support and also a big thank you to Freya Astrid Nova for the proofreading and the amazing support!
Thank you to all my followers and readers, so... all of you!
I know some of you got bored with me rewriting the episodes with only a few alterations but well... I still hope you liked it and will like this ending...
We will meet again on the epilogue :)
Enjoy!
Melody - x.
Chapter 50
As Jenny was coming back to life thanks to Strax, whispers started to run on the ground, on the walls around them. Jenny, Strax and Vastra looked up to see they were surrounded by Whisper Men. They made way for another shape to walk in the middle of them.
"I see you have repaired your pet. No matter, I was just attracting your attention. I presume I have it now."
"Doctor Simeon." said Vastra getting up. "This is not possible."
"And yet here we are, meeting again, so very far from home." Simeon answered.
"But he died!" exclaimed Jenny, confused.
"Simeon died, but the creature that possessed him lived on. I take it I am now talking to the Great Intelligence?"
"Welcome to the final resting place of the cruel tyrant!" the man only answered, as though he was running a show. "Of the slaughterer of the ten billion, and the vessel of the final darkness. Welcome! To the tomb of the Doctor!"
He spread his arms before going on as the three others were watching him silently:
"It was a minor skirmish, by the Doctor's blood-soaked standards. Not exactly the Time War, but enough to finish him. In the end, it was too much for the old man."
"Blood-soaked?" Jenny intervened.
"The Doctor has been many things, but never blood-soaked!" exclaimed Vastra.
"Tell that to the leader of the Sycorax, or Solomon the trader, or the Cybermen, or the Daleks!" retorted the Great Intelligence. "The Doctor lives his life in darker hues, day upon day, and he will have other names before the end. The Storm, the Beast, the Valeyard."
"Even if any of this were true, which I take the liberty of doubting, how did you come by this information?"
"I am information."
"You were a mind without a body that thought it could invade the world with snowmen the last time we met!" Jenny sassily answered.
"And you were supposed to stay that way." added Vastra coldly.
"Alas, I did."
At these words, the man tore his face revealing his body was nothing but an empty shell that evaporated as the clothes fell to the ground.
One of the white figures came forward, and suddenly its face started to move to finally form the face of Simeon again who said:
"As you can see." Paying no more attention to their questioning look, he turned around to face the doors behind him. "The doors require a key, the key… is a word, the word… is the Doctor's!" he exclaimed, turning around to face the Time Lord.
"Here I am. Late to my own funeral."
The Doctor smiled at Jenny, happy that Strax managed to save her.
"Open the doors Doctor. Speak and open your tomb."
"No. I will not." the man in a bow tie darkly answered.
Clara knew he could not do it. He did not want to, but most of all he could not do it.
"The Doctor's friends, stop their hearts!" ordered Simeon.
The Whisper Men stepped forward, their hands stretched out to tear Vastra, Jenny, Strax, and Clara's heart apart from their bodies. Clara quickly glanced at the Doctor that was unable to hide the panic in his eyes, as the white figures were getting dangerously close to his friends, to his Clara.
The young woman looked behind Simeon's shoulder to the astral River that had appeared and nodded discreetly. She let go of the Doctor's hand and turned around, facing the Whisper Men that were inches away from touching her, Vastra, Jenny and Strax.
As the gloved hand touched the fabric of her dress, she looked up at them and smirked. A pure golden light emanating from her flashed around in a destroying wave that targeted the Whisper Men: they all burned and got reduced to ashes in a heartbeat without them hurting even one of them.
Clara blinked a few times to chase the glowing darkness of her eyes before looking at the doors again. It did not work on Simeon, but that did not surprise her: he was the Great Intelligence, he might have been tougher. His inexpressive face only twitched at the sight of his men destroyed by one girl.
"How…" started the Doctor, confusion in his eyes.
But the doors opening did not let him finish his question and instantly diverted his attention.
Simeon stepped aside and waved to the doors ajar, silently ordering the Doctor to enter.
The Doctor contemplated the possibility to say no, to walk away, but he did not open the doors and if the doors opened then that might mean he had to do it, he had to do this.
Whispers ran on the floor again, surrounding them, and a few seconds later, new Whisper Men were forming a circle around them. Whatever happened with Clara, the Doctor did not want to take the risk to get her hurt again.
Sighing, he walked up to the doors and opened them before entering, his friends and Simeon with his men following him.
The were inside the console room that was invaded by crawling plants. Looking up at the time rotor that was still and silent, Clara could not help but find it very sad though, somehow, beautiful. The only noise produced by the Tardis that could be heard was the faint toll of the cloister bell. The Tardis was dying, slowly, but always protecting the Doctor within her caring walls.
They climbed up the stairs to go on the console unit platform to find there was no console unit anymore, just a stream of swirling light filaments that was producing a small sound, like an inaudible whisper.
"What's that?" asked Strax.
"What were you expecting, a body? Bodies are boring." the Doctor answered, his voice weary and faint. "I've had loads of them. Nah, that's not what my tomb is for."
"But what is the light?" asked Vastra.
"It's beautiful." whispered Jenny, as Clara made a step towards it.
"Should I destroy it?"
"Shut up, Strax!" exclaimed Vastra. "Doctor, what is it?"
"The tracks of my tears."
They all gathered around it, on one side the Doctor and his friends, on the other Simeon and the Whisper Men. Clara, seeing the Doctor looking quite dizzy came back to him and took his hand in hers.
"Less poetry, Doctor. Just tell them." Simeon cut him off.
"Time travel is damage. It's like a tear in the fabric of reality." he explained. "That is the scar tissue of my journey through the universe. My path through Time and Space from Gallifrey to Trenzalore…" he finished, taking out his sonic and pointing it to the light stream.
The whisper became audible for all, though they could only catch few bits of sentences. They could hear the many voices of the many faces he had had.
"Have you ever thought what it's like to be wanderers in the fourth dimension?"
"Do I have the right?"
"Daleks, Cybermen, they're still in the nursery compared to us."
"There are corners of the universe that have bred the most dangerous things."
"You were fantastic. Absolutely fantastic."
"I'm the Doctor. I'm from Gallifrey in the constellation of Kasterborous"
"Hello, Stonehenge!"
"My own personal time tunnel. All the days…" he started, his voice getting more faint.
"It was the daisiest daisy I'd ever seen."
"Oh Melody Williams! I knew you were special!"
"This time there's three of us!"
"Even the ones that I, er… even the ones that I haven't lived yet…" he muttered before suddenly collapsing to the ground, weak.
"Doctor!" Clara let out, kneeling next to him and brushing his hair back.
"Which is why I shouldn't be here. The paradox. It's very bad." he said, as Simeon was stepping closer to the light stream. "No. No. No. What are you doing? Somebody stop him!"
Clara got up and tried to jump on Simeon to push him away. He was hurting the Doctor! But she had only made a step toward him when the Whisper Men seized her. She tried to fight, but there was ten of them, when she was alone. From the corner of her eye she noticed Vastra, Jenny and Strax that were starting to step forward to help her.
"Stay back!" she shouted. "All of you stay back, that is an order Vastra!"
"The Doctor's life is a open wound." started Simeon, taking advantage of the confusion around. "And an open wound can be entered."
"It would destroy you!" exclaimed Clara to him, still held by the men, her clothes torn by her fight, letting her show some of her skin.
"Not at all. It will kill me. It will destroy him." said Simeon. "I can rewrite his every living moment. I can turn every one of his victories into defeats. Poison every friendship. Deliver pain to his every breath! It will give me peace, as I take my revenge on every second of his life! Goodbye. Goodbye, Doctor."
Simeon stepped back and fell into the Doctor's time stream, screaming out of pain as he was shattered in a million pieces.
"NO!" Clara shouted, as she tried to fight against his men that were still here. One of them decided it was enough and started to plunge his hand in her chest to take her heart.
"Leave her! Clara!" shouted the Doctor that despite the burning pain of Simeon rewriting him had gotten up to help her. It was hurting, so much, but it was hurting him even more to not be able to help her. He fell on his knees only a few steps away from her, facing her back. As he looked up, something caught his eyes. Something on her skin.
He tried to narrow his eyes while getting closer. Circles, dark markings following her spine.
Those circles…
A blinding light suddenly flashed in the console room, as though the sun had burst in front of them.
When the Doctor opened his eyes again, he looked around the console room. Vastra, Jenny and Strax had disappeared, the Whisper Men had disappeared, only a feminine shape standing in front of the light stream. He found the strength to get up and observed her.
The bits of skin of her back were covered in markings, circular markings that were glowing in a golden light, and as she turned around, he saw that they were also covering her neck and drew patterns around her glowing eyes. The glowing light faded, as though it was absorbed by her skin and their eyes met.
Green on green.
Those eyes, these eyes.
He then noticed her face, the shape of her nose, of her lips, her hair cut to her neck, burning in a fiery red that was the same as her mother.
At this moment, it was as though time had stopped, as though he was not dying, not being rewritten by the Great Intelligence, not suffering as each of his cells were burning because of those eyes.
Those bright green eyes.
He stepped forward and as he stretched a hand to caress her cheek, a tear rolled on his as he realised she was real.
He leant in and kissed her like he had always wanted to do it, the touch of her lips against his making his hearts skip a beat.
"Melody…"
"Doctor." she answered with a soft, but somehow sad smile. "There isn't much time left, I managed to build a stasis bubble around us for a few moments but we need to stop the Great Intelligence, you are still in danger."
"No, wait, explain. How… You were dead! I've searched for you everywhere! You died…"
"I'm plus Time Lord, Doctor, the Tardis gave me regeneration abilities, and some others as you've seen and can see now. I regenerated when you were marrying River. When the time line got aborted I woke up on Earth, as Clara Oswald. I knew then that I had to do what Clara did, trying to limit my interventions to not create a paradox."
"It was you… It was you all along! But you died, in the Asylum, in Victorian London you-"
"Yes, I know, this is why I am here today, this is why I've been running with you. This is why the Tardis created me." she said, glancing at the Doctor's time stream. "I was born to save people, but above all, to save you, Doctor."
He stroke her cheek.
"My Impossible Girl… My Impossible Pond…" he whispered. "I didn't have the time to say goodbye that day…"
"Then you better do it properly today…"
"What? Why? No, you're coming with me right?"
"Doctor did you listen?" she asked, as he could see sadness growing in her eyes. "We don't have much time, I have to stop the Great Intelligence, there's nothing you can do, this is up to me."
"No, Melody no, I've lost you too many times, not this time, just this once for the hell of it, let me save you!" he said, talking quickly as he took her hands in his, almost pleading.
"I'll be fine." she said with a smile, raising one of her hands to his cheek. Though, her voice trembled a little and he could see that her eyes were filling with tears at the idea to cause him pain again. But she will fix that. "I'll go in there and I'll be saving you, meeting each of your incarnations, past and future. I'll be fine Doctor, I'll be with you. Let me be brave."
"But you won't be here, you'll be dead again and I'll be alone again… you'll be dead." His voiced cracked. This tore her heart apart, but she had to do it.
"There isn't another way… believe me, you'll be fine, and we'll meet again, I promise. Once I'll jump in there, you'll see me again, I'll come to you, sometimes in the most surprising ways. But there isn't another way." she said, her eyes in his. "Trust me… "
For a moment she glanced around them. Vastra, Jenny and Strax will come back when she will jump in his time stream. There was no trace of the astral River… because she was here. She felt that she would not be able to keep the stasis bubble much longer and pain will gradually come back to him.
"How… do I say goodbye…?" he asked, making her look up at him.
"There's only one way I'd accept it." she said. She looked deep into his eyes. Those big sad eyes. "Everything you are about to say, I know it. So just do it knowing that we'll meet again."
He did not like endings.
His green eyes glimmered with contained tears but he managed to smile to her. He lovingly kissed her before kissing her forehead and stepping away.
"See you around, Melody Pond."
She smiled and stepped closer to the light stream, her finger losing touch with his.
"Run you clever boy…" she started, a smile full of emotion on her lips, a smile he will never forget. "And remember."
And she stepped in the Doctor's time stream, the light that had become red slowly turning back to white. As she disappeared, the bubble stasis disappeared and the Doctor collapsed to the ground, undergoing the changes that Simeon had made, burning from the inside and clenching his jaw to not scream out of pain before gradually feeling the pain fading as Melody, his Melody, was saving him.
Always running to save him.
She fell.
It was like she was breaking into a million pieces and there was one thing she could remember: she had to save the Doctor.
He would always look different. But she would always know it was him.
Sometimes it was like she was everywhere at once, running every second just to find him.
Just to save him.
And he would always hear her.
She had been created by the Tardis.
She was the Impossible Pond and she was born to save the Doctor.
He closed his eyes as a tear rolled on his cheek, shimmering at the light of the stream.
He had lost her.
Again.
And there was nothing he could do to save her.
And his hearts were wrenched again. Bleeding again.
Suddenly, a memory came up to his mind, playing as though it was a film in his closed eyes.
Making the red herbs rustle, a young girl, a child, was swiftly slipping through them. Running while a crystal laughter was escaping her lips. Her long red hair, her shiny green eyes, her pale skin where some discreet golden circles could be found, and her long gold and dark red dress were making her look like she was the personification of the nature around her. Her hair and the ribbons tied to her dress were floating in the small breeze as she was still running, still laughing.
The picture of elation itself.
A smile started to stretch his lips as he was lying on the ground of his decaying Tardis, on the Fields of Trenzalore.
He opened his green eyes that were now shining with a soft and nostalgic happiness, and whispered:
"Oh Melody Pond… My Impossible Girl…"
I can't believe this work that took me a year is finished... I'll see you on the epilogue that will come soon :) Let me know what you think, I hope you liked it...