Max Lin's hands were sore from hammering at invisible walls. Without the twisted machinations, it became easier to see her friend in agony. The Doctor was hurting. Time reversed itself every time she died, the Rani shoved her back into madness, and Max could only watch. Hunger, thirst, even fatigue meant nothing, not when looking at the Doctor.
Max's voice had gone hoarse from screaming, tears had become red-blistered stains on her face, but she managed a little more shouting when the Doctor collapsed.
"It's not over, Doc," she screamed. "We don't lose, not here, not today."
The Rani sauntered over to the Doctor, a pensive face worthy of one prepped to dissect a frog.
"DOCTOR!" She kept ramming the walls but nothing broke through.
Snap
It was weak, but somehow Max heard the sound. A sudden creak followed and she turned her head. The noises were hollow, as if only… Max could notice them. The source wasn't hard to find.
The Tardis door had opened slightly ajar. Max noticed this because the ship faced her directly. A blur of some kind rolled forward like tumbleweed in the old films. It grew until Max started to back away. It passed through the barrier and struck before she had a chance to yelp.
Max Lin had reached her absolute limit of waking up in strange places.
At least this location felt safe, for whatever reason.
"Doctor?" She asked, seemed the best thing to ask when things were getting weird to process.
"Yes?" Four men asked in unison.
Max gasped, she hadn't expected that to work or to have company. She stayed still, not sure if the strangers could be trusted. There was a sense of quiet debating going on above her, she couldn't see anything past the… desks. Max focused on the ceiling, anyone who ever dealt with academia knew how to recognize a classroom. One of them stepped about so Max could see them directly.
"Hello, I'm the Doctor," a man in striped blue suit, red running shoes, and spiked brown hair reached down for her. "Up ya get." She only needed a minute to look him in eyes… to see Hers.
Taking his hand, he helped steady her as she got to fully take in the classroom and the other three men. It was a wide space with blackboard taking up one wall, desks, assorted books, no doors, and overhead lights. One man was clad in leather with impressive ears, another had a tweed jacket with a sturdy chin, and the oldest of them had frayed grey hair with stern eyes. They wore name tags but only had numbers, the one who helped her up had 10.
"You're her then," Max said. "The Doctor, her past selves."
"Correct," 9 said with a broad grin. "Pleasure to be of service."
"Well, actually, that's not entirely true." 11 said. "It's like we're echoes, except we're not."
"And there you go again," 12 muttered. "Saying one thing but disagreeing at the same time, how is it anyone put up with that? Acting cleverer than you should be."
"Oi," 11 countered. "Better than being scary grandad."
"That's enough," 9 said. "Can't believe I'm saying this, but we need to get over ourselves. Help out our friend."
11 and 12 sighed before looking relenting.
"They always like this?" Max asked 10.
"Well, who else do you find a reason to argue with besides yourself?" 10 said. "And they're not wrong. We aren't technically her, Max, we are… the half-time entertainment. Time to make a new strategy."
The four men assembled themselves before the blackboard, facing Max, in numerical order. Giving each other quick glances, they quietly made their decisions of what to say.
"Right then." They said in unison. "Ask us what you need to know."
Max almost felt compelled to sit but recovered, no time to act lesser. This needed to be a group effort.
"Who's the Rani, why is she doing this?"
"Okay then," 9 said. "The Rani is a Time Lord, like us, bit batty with a love for chemistry. She wants us gone, bring out the Valeyard, who we beat four versions before this handsome face. That can't happen."
"How are we here? How is the Rani this dangerous?" Max said.
"I can take this one." 10 said.
"The Rani and I were part of The Deca, a sort-of 'Think Tank' of future renegade Time Lords. They used to place us in little bubbles of time, make one minute last months to teach us obedience. This here is the friendlier version. We didn't have enough time, barely a minute, but clever me created a quick bubble. Wonders of a time machine."
"Okay," Max said. "So, how do we win this?"
"Easy," 11 said. "Right now, there's a little pocket of time between here and the Tardis. We're going to make a plan, the best plan, and sabotage this mini war. Kick over the game board."
"And to do that, we need you," 12 said, pulling out a piece of chalk. "The books assembled are your life story, your memories, even the bits that feel miniscule. Everything counts. We're an echo of your friend, the same way you enter a room and just tell a lot of talking has gone on. Together, Max Lin, we will help you stop the Rani. Ready?"
He tossed the chalk and Max caught it with fluid grace.
"Yes I am."
Shoving the desks aside, the Doctors and Companion pulled out the books. Ones dealing with her home planet were pushed aside, everything about the Rift Games was quickly analyzed, minute knowledge of Ramification Nightmare machinations were critiqued, and the largest volume read by each of them was a 'brief' manual of a Tardis which demanded a sturdier table to endure opening to the first page as well as step ladder read it. They stopped for breaks occasionally, getting better acquainted.
She got along with 9 the most, the accent helped as well as the combination of glee mixed with seriousness.
"So, you got a lucky lady waiting at the end of this?" 9 said while listening to 12 play a calming bass.
"I guess," Max said. "But that's not really important, with the whole universe at stake."
The pleasant demeanor became stern.
"Make it personal," 9 said. "Make meeting her as real and precious as everything in the universe. Hold tight to knowing, not hoping, you'll be able to say all you've ever wanted to and more. Treat every life as hers and the Rani won't stand a chance."
Max closed her eyes, thinking of Candace, long blonde hair flowing from a nearby breeze with a wide smile. The image created an ache where a ring sh… would be. 9 smiled, not saying a word afterwards. He seemed to know how precious love could be.
10 was focused on working with chemicals, showing off how to mix combinations to help with the game plan.
"Do you ever get tired of it," Max said. "Doing this, moving forward?"
10 took off the spectacles he used for eye protection, leaning against the table while he answered.
"Honestly, I felt like I was prepped to go for so long that I wouldn't really know why to move forward, that thought always scared me. Forgetting the goal, pretending I had a mission, and traveling blind even with every map in the universe. Too busy playing hero and forgetting why."
"Yeah," Max said. "I kind of felt like that too, back with the Rift games. I just lead, trying to keep everyone alive and kept feeling like liar… when I couldn't." She eyed the Doctor, not hers but there was an echo of her in each of them. "Meeting you showed me I could do more than survive, that the day could be saved."
10 smiled.
"Well," he said with a bow. "I learned from the best." Giving her a knowing look and wink before they got back to mixing chemicals, he let Max do more of the work so she'd be ready.
11 tried to fun, but there was a coldness to it that unnerved Max, especially since they both knew how serious things were. He scribbled out puzzles, trying to expand her mind by having Max crack them in a few minutes. The plan was that once Max broke out of the bubble, time would resume and she'd have a renegade Time Lord as well as the Sponsors to deal with. They were along the railings of an upper balcony, inert, and waiting to be unleashed. 11 tried to help Max imagine all the possibilities.
"Time Lords are pretty simple," 11 said. "We think we're the smartest people in the room because we are. It's the convincing everyone else that makes all the explosions happen. I've gotten better at being more imaginative, but you'll need something else."
Max had completed her latest puzzle, failing once against again because she failed consider how custard could be applied to quantum physics. The puzzles weren't helping because she wasn't a Time Lord but only one of them could fly a Tardis. Tampering with the console was no good if Max couldn't some other way outmaneuver everything trying to kill her. What they needed to do was… make a mess.
She pushed aside puzzles, 11 looked prepped to complain before being cut off with a simple question of Tardis mechanics. A quick glance through a psychic image of what Max saw, they found their answer. It was extremely dangerous, no guarantee it would be inconveniencing enough, but that didn't matter. Max Lin found what would give her the home field advantage.
Her last bits of time were spent with 12. They rolled through the plan, every step no matter how haphazard, needed clear precision. She didn't know what to say to him, feeling unnerved by how clear-cut 12 was compared to the Doctors prior to him. This was the truest face behind all those smiles quirky quips. Yet, Max knew 12 had been the Doctor just before hers.
"Is she kind?" He asked.
"What?"
"Me, the one you know, is she kind?" 12's bitter voice was softer than it had been the entire time they spoke. "I… asked for whatever way I moved forward to be that, to be happy. Is she?"
The question was curious, even after reading over Max's journeys that was clearly not enough. Somehow, Max was being asked to be a judge of the Doctor's character. The calm, pensive, stature implied this decision would be taken to heart, both of them.
"I don't really know you, her, too well sometimes," Max explained. "I think she does try to be kind, even when it's hard to tell. For me, the Doctor I know still likes to help people, lives for it."
12 took a long moment to respond, eyeing her, and books expressing his future.
"Good."
That was the only thing he said on the subject before chalking up the plan with great passion. He clearly liked where his future was heading.
The plan had been set, every little thing of what needed to be done drilled into Max Lin's head. All four Doctor's stood with her, no longer bickering or making jokes. This tenacity from each of them, Max had seen it many times now. The Doctor on the verge of winning.
"Glad I met you," Max said. "I'm not exactly sure how good I am at the Companion thing compared to who you've known, but I'll do my best."
"Of course," 12 said as he handed her his guitar. "We don't make mistakes with who we choose to be in charge of us."
"Someone clever." 11 said.
"Someone kind." 10 said.
"Someone who helps us remember how precious those stars are." 9 said.
"And that's you, Max Lin," 12 said. "Now go make sure the story continues, she your tale through."
That made Max pause, awareness finally settled in her head. Victory meant the end of her time with the Doctor. Nothing could avoid that, Candace would get her answer. The end of the story, parting of friends. It helped her grip the instrument with great care.
Saying goodbye was always cooler with a guitar.
She had tried to form a band back on Jaret V, a humiliating effort but she at last learned to play the strings to one of her favorite songs.
In My Life (I Loved You More), by The Beatles.
It would be the song she'd play at her wedding.
The Doctors listened, smiling, and as the final string was strung Max bowed. She gave them a quick grin, remembering what they said would break the trance.
"See you soon."
And with a final strum of guitar strings, the finale had begun.