Author's Notes: I don't own Doctor Who, any of the Doctors, Rose, a TARDIS. Thanks for the reads and the reviews. Sorry about the cliffhangers, but they have to happen sometimes. I would love to know what you think of this chapter and happy reading!
Ella and Josh had been cowering in the tub in their parents en suite, listening to the noises in the sitting room.
Then they heard one more.
The sound of the TARDIS.
Josh looked at Ella. They were in silent agreement as to what the strange grinding meant.
Josh leapt out first and ran down the steps, quickly followed by Ella. They saw Donna and their father lying unconscious and nice Miss Johnson, bleeding.
The blue box was phasing in and out, as if there was some sort of argument happening. Josh looked at Georgiana's empty walker and ran towards the TARDIS. He banged his hands on the door.
"Let my sister go! Give me my sister!" He said pounding and kicking at it. Some sort of strange energy was coming off the blue box and Josh could see it on his hand as he was forced to stare at it in wonder.
Lydia had been reading when the cloister bell sounded. She looked at the monitor that had suddenly appeared in her room. It was the monsters, some other girl she didn't know and Madame Kovarian.
Madame Kovarian. Every time she had seen her it had only meant bad news. It had meant that something worse than River Song was required for the task at hand.
And that was never good because River Song could do plenty on her own.
And they had the baby. Lydia grabbed the wall as the TARDIS lurched forward. The ship hummed.
"Okay, but what do I do? I don't know how to pilot you! I don't know how to get rid of those monsters!"
The ship hummed again.
"Instruction manual?," she asked. "Since when do you have a manual?"
The TARDIS began a hum that would attest to her hundreds of years history with her thief, but Lydia stopped the Old Girl short. An instruction manual appeared on her bed.
"Congratulations," she read aloud, "you have stolen a Type 40 TARDIS... Really?"
She began flipping through the pages when she noticed a messenger bag had appeared on the bed.
"What's that for?," she asked.
The ship hummed insistently. Lydia looked back frantically at the book. She located Chapter 497: What To Do When Your TARDIS Has Been Boarded.
"Step One: Locate a control room, not the one that's been boarded." She looked at the ship. "Not sarcastic at all, are you?"
The ship hummed.
"Okay, I'm going," said Lydia, putting the bag over her head, carrying the manual. She looked out into the corridor and quickly hurried down to the door the TARDIS had just slid open.
It was the last Doctor's control room, the one she had run into as they narrowly escaped the Silence and what remained of River Song's henchmen.
The tenth Doctor's coat was still tossed absentmindedly over a coral strut.
Lydia hurried over to the console and saw the monitor was tuned to the activities of the main console room. She looked at the navigational controls which seemed to have gone haywire.
"Where are they going?," she asked. "It's as if... across the Void. Not across the Void."
The TARDIS hummed an answer.
"Not the Forbidden Universe!," she said. "Why don't you stop them? Don't you have some sort of safety feature or something?"
The TARDIS hummed back that the ship's thief had disengaged almost all of the safety features.
"Okay," said Lydia, flipping through the manual, "I need to get the baby, get rid of them, get back to my own universe." She checked the power report. "Okay, slight problem getting back to my own universe." She kept flipping. "And all of these options for getting rid of them are not really great. Teleport, yes, how do I teleport the baby out?"
She found the instructions for that and folded down the corner on the page.
There was a loud click and the ship rocked. Lydia looked at a screen that announced Emergency Navigation had begun.
"What do you mean you'll drop me off?," she asked frantically. "Where?"
The ship hummed again.
"Then I'll be stuck and her and we'll never get home. You're our only way out!"
The TARDIS hummed again.
"Oh, that's just great!," she said.
Lydia took a deep breath. "I have to leave. Okay, might as well do this."
The TARDIS hummed in agreement and lurched violently again. Lydia followed the directions for teleportation and soon found Georgiana sitting in the jumpseat.
"Hi," she said. "We've got to leave."
Georgiana gurgled.
"No, I'm sorry," said Lydia approaching the jump seat, picking up the baby. "I don't know how to get you back to your mummy, or my mummy for that matter."
The TARDIS hummed again.
Lydia looked back to the book. "Engaging the intruder repellent program and evacuation protocols." She turned to see Georgiana watching her. "Okay, just bear with me."
Lydia hit the controls and the TARDIS lurched. The console room lit up and the door flew open as the autopilot engaged. Lydia heard footsteps down the hall.
"Okay, going then," said Lydia. She grabbed Georgiana and looked back to see Madame Kovarian and Rose.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't the little Time Lady," said Kovarian.
Lydia nodded. "It is." She started backing towards the door.
"Hand her over," said Kovarian. "We both know you won't win this. There's nowhere to go. There never has been for you. You belong to us."
"Give her back, we need her," said Rose.
Lydia ignored the girl who seemed to have something in her mouth, at least she supposed that's why she was talking like that. She kept moving towards the door.
"Funny thing about the Type 40 TARDIS, I just read it in the instructions," she said, "you know what it calls someone with a TARDIS key and an incompatible DNA pattern?"
Lydia grabbed the Doctor's coat off the strut by the door as Kovarian glared.
Only Rose took the bait. "What about it?"
"Unauthorized," finished Lydia, stepping out of the door with Georgiana. "Unauthorized."
The TARDIS door slammed shut and violently dematerialized. Lydia realized wherever she was it was raining and night. She pulled the coat over her and Georgiana.
"Box go bye-bye," said Georgiana.
"Yes, it did." She sighed. "Okay, we've got to formulate some sort of plan."
Georgiana looked at her blankly.
"Fine, I'll formulate it."
Lydia started walking. She spotted a huge house in the distance.
"Well," she said, "let's try there."
Lydia knocked at the door and waited. A man answered.
"Yes?"
"Yes," said Lydia. She held out the psychic paper she had found in the bag. "I have this."
The man looked up at her. "I shall fetch the master. Come inside, Miss."
The footman led her inside. He called for the housekeeper to bring them blankets and another man to start a fire.
"Would you care for some tea, Miss?"
"Uh, tea would be lovely."
A dark haired young man appeared in his dressing gown. He held the psychic paper and gave Lydia and Georgiana a once over.
"This says you are my cousin on my mother's side and that your parents were murdered by French revolutionaries."
This was the story the psychic paper had invented?
"You travelled to England unattended? How did you escape the revolutionaries?"
"Uh, the Marquise of Seingalt aided us," she said at once and immediately regretted it. It might have been the wrong year and then she remembered that the Marquise of Seingalt was a title made up by Giacomo Casanova, she had heard it in a long winding story by her father in which he explained why he owed Casanova three chickens.
"Yes, I see that," the man said re-examining the psychic paper as if it was many sheets. "The Countess of Carlisle was certain to note that."
She really hoped that the TARDIS had left something in the bag that would explain the story. Franch revolutionaries, Marquise of Seingalt, Countess of Carlisle.
He looked at her squarely. "Why did the Countess not send you in a carriage? It's unseemly for two young ladies to be on their own on such a night."
Stupid Countess. "Uh, she did, but there were highwaymen." Was that a thing or was she thinking of Robin Hood?
"Well, you must be seen to," said the man. "Mrs. Baxter, see to their rooms. And we must find a nurse to take in Georgiana."
Oh, no, that was bad.
"Does Georgiana have to go?," asked Lydia. "I mean, the rest of my family is dead."
The man nodded soberly. "Of course, cousin. You are quite right. Forgive me. We will find someone to look after her here."
"Banana?," said Georgiana.
"She can speak?," he said in surprise.
"Yeah," said Lydia. "If she doesn't make sense it's because of the revolutionaries."
"Good God! What have you been through, dear cousin?"
"You don't know the half of it."
Donna awoke to find that her sitting room was full of Torchwood personnel, her ex-husband was being hauled out by Gwen as she shoved him into the wall and feigned apologies, Miss Johnson was being taken out on a gurney by medics and John was sitting next to her on the floor, looking as if the life had been sucked out of him.
She looked to the walker. Empty.
"Where is she?," asked Donna.
"I'm sorry, Donna, I'm so sorry."
"I don't want to hear how sorry you are!," shouted Donna. "I want you to go and get her!"
Donna looked over as the Doctor traced the TARDIS' imprint in the carpet with his sonic screwdriver.
"You! Floppy hair! Do something!"
The Doctor looked back. "Is my hair floppy?"
Donna stood, refusing John's help. "Get in your spaceship and do something!"
The Doctor motioned at the carpet. "They've taken my spaceship, as you might have noticed."
Donna was nonplussed. "Okay, hire one!"
"It's a TARDIS, Donna, you can't just hire one!"
"Well, why not?"
"Because it's not like that!," he motioned at John. "Could you tell her it's not like that?"
Donna put her finger in the Doctor's chest. "I want my baby back."
"Well, so do I!," the Doctor growled.
Donna stopped. "They took Lydia?"
The Doctor didn't answer.
"I'm sorry," said Donna. She took a breath. "All the same, you two need to work this out and find them."
"The Doctor's universe," said John. "That's the only place that she would go."
"Okay," said Donna, "go there."
"Well," began the Doctor, "several problems. One, transport. We have no way there. Two, I'll probably get exiled for going, but I've been exiled before, not a big one. Three, once we get there, where are they?"
"What?," asked Donna. "Is that it? What about your daughter? Where's that stupid cannon thing they let that stupid bint use?"
"I took it apart, Donna," said John. "We can't do that, it's too unstable. It could destroy all the universes."
"Agreed. TARDIS is definitely the way to go."
"We don't have one," said John.
"I'm aware that. I'm currently sorting that out."
Donna looked to see Josh and Ella standing nearby. She opened her arms and they ran into them.
"It's alright, sweethearts," said Donna.
"We tried, Mummy," said Josh.
"The monsters came too quick," said Ella.
Donna shook her head. "No, no, you're safe. You did exactly as you were supposed to."
"I couldn't get the door open," said Josh.
She squeezed them closer. "It's alright."
The door flew open. The Oracle entered, trailed by Amy and Mayantha.
She looked at the Doctor. "You're the first one I am going to kill for whatever you did to piss the Silence off!"
"What if I haven't done it yet?," asked the Doctor.
She leaned in. "Even better." She turned to John. "The next one I'm going to kill is the Doctor from your universe for whatever possessed him to take a nineteen year old girl as a companion."
"How did you know about that?," asked John.
"Amy told me everything," said the Oracle.
"Uh, Gwen told me everything," Amy piped in.
"Not to mention the bit where she opened the heart of the TARDIS which frankly is a death sentence if it doesn't kill you and then giving up a regeneration for her! I don't believe in giving away regenerations for stupidity," said the Oracle.
"That's true," the Doctor said. "It's her rule number one."
"Shut up!," said the Oracle. Then she turned back to John. "Then giving her no sort of punishment, then continuing to travel with her, then never mentioning that he wasn't really in love with her."
John shrugged. "Well, he was once-"
The Oracle moved closer to him. "Well, you and he can keep lying to yourselves about that one, but if you leave a girl in a parallel universe, you're just not that into her."
Donna nodded. "Yeah, that's true."
"Yeah, I've got to agree with Donna and the Oracle," said Amy.
"Wait, I've changed my mind, I'm killing Rose Tyler first. Or possibly trapping her in the event horizon of a collapsing star, I haven't decided which yet," said the Oracle. "So, Rose, I'm guessing Madame Kovarian, then the Doctor, then the other Doctor." She looked as the Doctor seemed to be following a trail from the TARDIS imprint to Josh. "You're not helping your case."
The Doctor looked at Josh. "You said you couldn't open the door."
"I couldn't, I tried," said Josh.
"No, you couldn't have, Josh, but that means you touched it. The residual energy is on your hand."
"What does that mean?," asked Donna.
"It's not dangerous," John said quickly.
"He's created a trail," said the Doctor. He looked up gleefully. "We can use it to follow my TARDIS through the Void and to try and find the right universe."
"Forgetting one slight problem," said the Oracle.
"I'm sorting that out," said the Doctor.
"There's still when and where," said Mayantha. "How do we know where and when they are?"
John suddenly ran out of the room and upstairs.
"John!," called Donna.
He ran up to the walk-in wardrobe and to one of the small boxes he had when he moved in. There he found the clothes he had been wearing at Bad Wolf Bay- they had never been quite right since being dunked in the sea on the ferry home. Inside the pocket, he found something that had finally come good.
"I know where they are!," he shouted excitedly holding up a book.
"Oh, Rassilon, you're all the same..." groaned the Oracle.
"What is that?," asked Donna.
"Well, it's a book!," he said.
"Yeah, noticed that," said Donna.
"Pride and Prejudice!," said John.
"Not following at all," said the Doctor.
"The TARDIS put this in my pocket. Do you know what this book is about?"
Donna rolled her eyes. "You said two people who can't stand each other and they fall in love anyway."
"Yes, it is, but you know who's in it?" He looked at the Oracle. "A girl called Lydia," he turned back to Donna, "and a girl called Georgiana. On one level, this book is about protecting those girls. This is where they are!"
"Suppose it's just a coincidence," said Donna.
"Yeah," said John, "it's never a coincidence with the Doctor."
"Other Doctor?," asked Josh. He looked over at this universe's Doctor. "Do you mean there's more than one of him?"