The basement was perfectly silent aside from a faint humming. I wasn't sure if I was actually hearing a hum, or if it was like the ringing you sometimes get in your ears; the sound of silence pressing in on your eardrums.
We moved slowly through the damp cellar, the way lit by several floodlights. The room we were in was empty, but there was a door on the far wall. It was labeled "SCIENCE CENTRE" and padlocked shut.
The lock was no match for the Doctor and we soon found ourselves in the adjacent room: the basement of the Science Center. Boxes were stacked ceiling high all around us, we had to move carefully as to not send the boxes tumbling down on us.
"Can you hear that?" I whispered.
The humming had gotten louder.
"Oh, yeah. There is definitely something powerful above us."
After picking our way through all the storage containers we managed to find the door to the stairwell that would take us up into the Centre.
Each floor the Doctor would poke his head out of the stairwell and run a scan to see if it was the floor we needed. As we climbed the humming grew louder and louder.
"Couldn't have taken an elevator?" I panted as we hit the tenth floor.
"Where's the fun in that? Besides, didn't you notice something when I've checked each floor?"
"No, what?"
"There doesn't seem to be anyone in this building. The whole place is deserted. We don't know how whatever opened the door between universes started, but I doubt it just happened. Somebody made this, and that means somebody could be up there acting guard. If we use the elevator in an empty building, we would probably lose our element of surprise."
I sighed heavily, and kept climbing.
It didn't last much longer.
"You're in luck," the Doctor smiled, "this building only has twelve floors, and" he poked his head out of the stairway door, "this is definitely where the energy signal is coming from."
I bit my lower lip and took a deep breath, my nerves finally getting to me.
"What's wrong?" he asked, walking over and placing a hand on my shoulder.
"Nothing, it's just— I'm just…" I trailed off.
"It's okay to be scared," he said softly.
"I just always thought I was ready for something like this."
"Even if that show about 'me' is accurate and knows my life, it's just a show. It couldn't have properly prepared you for this moment, even if you want to believe it had. Don't feel ashamed of being frightened… revel in it. It is one of those many amazing things that makes you human."
I gave him a weak smile.
"Now, ready to save your universe?"
"Not quite, but let's do it anyway."
"That's the spirit!" he cheered.
When we exited the stairwell we were in a long hallway, centered almost directly in the middle, and the humming almost doubled in volume. I could feel it reverberate in my teeth.
The Doctor held is sonic screwdriver aloft and used it to lock on the energy source.
"Gotcha," he whispered, and waved me to follow him down the left side of the hall.
We tiptoed along, down the entire length of the hallway before turning right and finding ourselves outside of a large wooden door.
The Doctor gave me look that clearly said 'here we go,' before swinging the door open loudly.
My eyes were immediately drawn to the center of the room. There was a massive machine lugging and whirring away, clearly the source of the humming. It sort of it reminded me of the center of the TARDIS console.
There was a large tube that looked to be made out of a type of crystal, and inside were three pumping metal rods. The crystal tube was coming out of a metal dashboard covered in dozens of buttons and switches, and at the top of the tube there was a dazzling array of dancing colors and lights.
"Who are you? What are you doing in here?"
My attention was pulled away from the machine to a stocky, balding man angrily charging us. He seemed to be in his late forties or early fifties and had a distinctly academic air about him.
"Hello," the Doctor told him, offering a huge grin. He then approached the loud machine and started to pace around it. "Lovely dimensional manipulator you have here. What's it powered by?"
"I—what are— who are you?" the man stumbled.
"I'm the Doctor, this is Amethyst, and we are extremely interested in why you want to tear your world apart."
"What? I'm not trying to tear anything apart! Just opening a door."
"Well," the Doctor drawled, "you see, you're sucking things into your universe that shouldn't be here. Or haven't you looked outside?"
"A small side effect," the man waved his arm, shrugging off the Doctor's words. "The benefits far outweigh that particular downside."
"And what benefits would those be?" I asked, finding my voice.
"Well… to, well, see how far advanced other parallel universes are. To learn from them!" the man exclaimed.
I furrowed my brow.
"It seems to me, that if you built this, we are already further advanced than the other universes. Right? I mean if not we would already have other doors opening from their side."
"Ooh, good one," the Doctor said. "Though it could also be that the other universes could build something like this, but choose not to because they know it is A HORRIBLE IDEA!"
The man jumped back at the outburst.
"I also don't think that is your real reasoning," the Doctor continued. "I can tell when someone is lying, and oh boy are you lying. Why don't we get this machine neutralized, and then have a little chat about the reasons behind your recklessness."
The Doctor again approached the machine, this time reaching out towards the controls. There was a distinctive click from his side, and when I turned to look I saw that the man was holding a cocked handgun, pointed at the Doctor.
"Step away from my controls!" he ordered.
The Doctor slowly raised his hands and began to retreat from the dimensional manipulator.
"Now, now, careful. No need to be hasty. This energy is too unstable to handle a misplaced bullet."
"Shut up!" the man ordered. "Over there, by her!"
He swung the gun my way to signal his wish. My hands shot up automatically and I felt my heart start to pound.
The Doctor came to stand beside me his arms still up.
"Let's just stay calm," he cooed.
"How did you recognize my machine?" the man asked. "Nobody else on this planet is even close to this technology."
"I'm not from this planet," the Doctor said casually.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"Why do bad guys always ask stupid questions?" I asked.
"Shut up!" the man shouted. "I'm— I'm not a bad guy. I'm not doing this for b—bad reasons."
"Then why are you doing it?" the Doctor questioned softly.
The man's eyes started to water, and he reached up to wipe away unshed tears with the back of his hand.
"My wife. I'm doing it for my wife," he said.
"Why?"
"She died," he whispered, "but I know she is still out there. Cancer free. I can't cope without her… I need to find her!"
I felt a tiny twinge of sympathy as his words settled on me, but then remembered the people I saw struck down in the street by Ibachi. My sympathy vanished.
"So your intention was to open up a parallel universe, find your wife, and steal her back to this universe, consequences be damned?" the Doctor asked.
"She's worth it," he said doggedly, letting the gun drop a few inches.
"I'm sure she is, but you are putting this entire world at risk. I'm afraid I can't let you do this."
I looked back and forth between the two men; their expressions were so raw, one drowning in sadness, the other pleading for him to understand.
Two seconds too late I saw what was going to happen.
The man's sadness switched to determination and his gun rose up to better aim.
"Doctor, look out!" I shouted, just as the shot fired.
The Doctor fell to a heap on the floor.
"No!" I yelled and dropped to his side. "No!"
Author's Note: Just wanted to take a moment to thank those of you who have reviewed, I am glad you are enjoying the story! Also, for those of you who are interested, I pronounce Ibachi as E-botch-ee.
One other thing, I am writing this as I go, so if you have any fangirl questions you would like to ask the 'Doctor' feel free to message me, or leave them in the comments and I will try my best to work them into the story! :)