Chapter 14

The Doctor kneeled down next to his hand in a jar and said with a smile, "There now". The hand was glowing with residual energy, so The Doctor blew them away with a smile of affection.

The Doctor, still smiling, looked up at Hermione's almost freighted look, and said, "You see? Use the regeneration energy to heal myself, but as soon as that was done I didn't need to change. I didn't want to why would I? Look at me." And he flashed a smile and tugged on his tie. "So to stop the energy to go all the way I siphoned all the rest into a handy bio-metrical reciprocal. Namely my hand. My hand there. My handy spare hand."

Hermione's eyes widened, "That's your hand?"

The Doctor smiled, "Yep. Lost it in a sword fight with the leader of the Sycorax. Nasty race."

Hermione, eyes still wide, asked, "What just happen?"

The Doctor kept his smile, "Time Lords have this little trick. Sort of a way of cheating death. Normally it would mean I would have to change."

Hermione asked, "What do you mean you have to change?"

The Doctor said, "The regeneration cycle breaks down all of the cells of my body and creates new ones."

The Doctors smile faded, and he's eyes darkened, "But even if I change, it feels like dying. Everything I am dies. Some new man goes sauntering away. And I'm dead."

But he immediately cheered up, "But I didn't have to change this time because of my handy spare hand." He let out a maniac laugh.

Hermione couldn't help but smile.

Hermione thought for a moment and said, "While we are on the subject of Time Lords, I know you said that they died, but why didn't you tell me before when we met?"

The Doctor eyes darkened, he stared at her with the look of upmost pain, "I lied to you. Because I liked it. I could pretend, just for a bit I could imagin them still alive. Underneath a burnt orange sky. I'm not just a Time Lord. I'm the Last of the Time Lords. There is no one else. During the war my people fought a race called The Daleks. And they lost. Everyone lost. There all gone now. My family, my friends, even that sky."

He smiled with glistened eyes as he remembered, "Oh you should have seen it. That old planet. The second sun would rise in the south and the mountains would shine."

Hermione had tears in her eyes, then after a moment of thinking she asked, "What happens now?"

The Doctor looked back at her as if remembering she was there, stopping because of not having thought of this, "Go back to normal. Well…. normal for me. Traveling in the Tardis." He looked up at her, his eyes almost pleading, "Would you like to come?"

Hermione thought for a moment. Did she want to travel with this man? In one afternoon of knowing him, her entire life had been uprooted. After one full year of feeling like life was finally at peace, all gone when this impossible man opened the doors of an old blue box.

Hermione continued to think. The last year had been difficult for her. After almost a year of constantly being on the run from Voldemort had put a strain on her soul. Being tortured and watching those closest to her die had killed a part of her. Even after the war, life had been difficult. Reporters followed her daily. Wanting a interview with the women who helped the Chosen One defeat the Dark Lord.

And the nightmares, the constant nightmares. Not a night went by that Hermione didn't wake up screaming and drenched with sweat. Ronald hadn't helped. He loved her in a possessive sort of way, like a trophy. To Ron, Hermione was a object that he had that Harry Potter didn't. When Hermione tried to open up to Ron he just shut her out. Harry on the other hand, the one Hermione truly had strong feelings for since 4th year, listened. He cared. He held her when she cried. But unfortunately, Harry had Ginny.

So Hermione had spent the last year, in a doomed to fail relationship, all the while being in love with her best friend who had someone else. Life had been hard for Hermione. Twice Hermione had almost ended her life, both times been interrupted either Ron yelling for her to fetch him so food, or Harry having came to check on her. But when Harry had calmed down Hermione, he eventually left to be with Ginny, and Hermione felt worse then when he arrived.

Hermione finally came to a conclusion. She had nothing keeping her here. Not even family. Before joining Harry in exile, Hermione performed a memory charm on her parents to protect them and make them forget about her. Even after all the months of searching, Hermione had still yet to locate her parents.

Hermione realized that if she didn't leave with the Doctor, that eventually life itself would kill her. She could no longer take all the emotional trauma with which she had nothing to consol her.

And thought of all this, she looked into the Doctor's almost pleading eyes. His eye's showed the same broken spirit that she saw every day in the mirror. Here was a soul who had lost everything in war just as she had. Here was a man who had found a way to battle the darkness and had felt the same pain as her. The Doctor may act like a jolly idiot but Hermione knew that he hurt like almost no other in existence. Hermione felt that the Doctor was a kindred spirit for which she had no other. Hermione decided that yes, she would travel with the Doctor.

Hermione was about to tell the Doctor of her decision, then a thought came to her. She had forgotten Harry. He was captured by the Slitheen. That meant…

Hermione yelled, "Doctor we forgotten Harry."

The Doctor thought for a moment, disappointed at not having a answer, when he remembered that Slughorn had taken him captive.

The Doctor smacked his head, "Of course. I'm thick." He ran to grab his coat he had thrown across a Tardis Coral.

Hermione asked, "Where would they have taken Harry?"

The Doctor thought for a moment, "I…. do not know."

Hermione said, "That not quite encouraging."

The Doctor gave her a stern look and shouted,"Oi"

And he went to work on the Tardis consol.

The Doctor, on the Tardis' computer, was searching for any alien tech. But he couldn't find any. "How did the Slitheen get here?" he asked himself. There ship must have cloaking ability. So the widened his search of the area to cloaked ships. Then on the screen there was a bleep.

The Doctor, brainy specs back on, stared at it and said, "There you are."

Hermione walked behind him and asked, "What did you find?"

The Doctor still staring said, "Well I found an energy spike that usually deals with cloaked ships."

As he stared at the bleep, it grew.

The Doctor frowned and said, "Hang on"

Then the Doctor pressed a button and a picture of the ship came onto the screen.

The Doctor's eyes grew and he said, "That's impossible."

Hermione said, "What's wrong"

The Doctor said in a voice full of fear, "That is a Dalek Cruiser" Hermione peeked at the screen and the ship looked like a Flying Saucer that Muggles always went on about.

Then the Tardis lights went out.

The Doctor ran around the consol pressing buttons, "They've got us in a Cronum Loop."

Then the Tardis shook.

As the Tardis shook, Hermione yelled, "What is going on Doctor?"

The Doctor shouted, "That ship is a Dalek ship. The people my people went to war with. And they just are beaming us on board."

"How did Slughorn get a hold of it?"

"I don't know"

Then the Tardis stopped shaking.

The Doctor stared at the door.

The Doctor said with a voice lacking emotion, "We will have to go out. Because if we don't they'll get in."

Hermione said, "But you said these people killed your race."

The Doctor said, "I don't think any Daleks are on this ship."

"Why?"

"Because if the Daleks were in control of this Dalek ship, we would be dead."

The Doctor turned to look at Hermione, "You see my ship has Escapulator shields. That means almost anything can't get in thru those doors. But this is one of the best ships the Daleks ever invented during the war. At the height of their power, there were experts at fighting Tardises, that ship can do anything to us. Right now that wooden door is just wood."

The Doctor looked at her with the up most seriousness, "Now since this ship isn't being run by Daleks then we have a fighting chance. Slitheen aren't the brightest race in the cosmos. Harry is probably on this ship. If we are careful we can get thru this."

The Doctor moved and gave Hermione a hug, "If not, it's been a pleasure Hermione Granger."

And he turned toward the door.

Hermione swallowed all of her fear of a ship full of these creatures that she and the Doctor could barley handle four.

The Doctor looked at the fear in her eyes. He took her hands and said, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. But there isn't anything else we can do."

Hermione nodded her head, and they both turned to face whatever was on the other side of that door.

The Doctor walked out of the Tardis and saw the inside of the ship. The entire ship was piloted by thousands of Slitheen.

The Doctor said, "Wow little family reunion here."

Then the Doctor heard a loud booming voice, "Doctor, how nice to see you."

The Doctor looked up to see none other than Slughorn himself. The Slitheen was in bad shape. His left arm had completely melted from the vinegar. His left eye was milky white which meant that that one eye was blind.

The Doctor said, "Slughorn old chap. Someone is looking a little worse for where."

Slughorn yelled, "I have you to thank for that. You see Doctor while my brother and sister were murdered in your trap; I managed to teleport back to the ship."

The Doctor said, "Not soon enough apparently."

Hermione was listening to this, when she heard a loud thump coming from the Tardis consol.

The Doctor seeing Hermione had yet to leave the Tardis yelled, "Hermione, you're no safer in there."

Then the Tardis doors slammed shut.

The Doctor ran toward his ship, and Hermione yelled, "Doctor what have you done." As she tried to open the door.

The Doctor yelled, "It wasn't me I didn't do anything."

Hermione yelled, "Doctor I'm not staying behind."

The Doctor looked at Slughorn, "What did you do?"

Slughorn looked at him, "I don't know. My family didn't make this ship, we barley know how to work it ourselves."

The Doctor could hear Hermione yell his name. He looked at Slughorn and he commanded, "Stop it, she's my friend. Now let her out."

Slughorn roared, "This is Time Lord Treachery."

The Doctor said, "It didn't just close on its own."

Slughorn said, "I might not know much about this ship but I do know what this button does." And he pressed a button on his wrist device.

And right where the Tardis was parked was a trap door that opened up and the Tardis fell.

The Doctor yelled, "What are you doing? Bring it back!"

Slughorn laughed, "Bring it back? I barley knew how to make it go away."

The Doctor said with urgency in his voice, "What have you done? Where is it going?"

Slughorn said, "The incinerator, the dump, the pool, I don't know. I don't care. This ship was a gift from our employer, we haven't gotten it all figured out yet. I do now that this ship has heart of Z-Neutrino energy. The Tardis should be dropped in its core if I pressed the right button."

The Doctor said, his voice faltering, "You can't. You lowered its defenses."

"That's what that button did? Talk about luck." Slughorn said.

The Doctor yelled, "It will be torn apart."

Hermione felt the Tardis drop. She grabbed the railing yelling for the Doctor. After it had fallen for a few minutes, she could feel it hit something and the Tardis started to burn.

Fire was everywhere. In her haste to run away from the fire at the door, she tripped next to the consol and dropped her wand. She was coughing from all the smoke.

The Doctor was watching all of this from a screen on the ship's deck. The Doctor watched his beloved ship burn with his friend. He could feel it. That same feeling of his hearts breaking, that he felt when Galifrey was lost and when he watched Rose fall toward the vortex into the Void between dimensions only for her to be caught by her other dimension father.

The Doctor said in a small voice, "Please, I'll do anything."

He turned away from the screen, screaming, "Let me take her place. I don't care what you do to me, just spare her."

Hermione was crying. She knew in her heart that she was about to reunited with that worthless toad-stool Ron. She knew that she would never see Harry again. But mostly she felt bad for the Doctor, losing someone else.

Then she heard the thumping. It sounded like a heart beat. She saw that it was coming from the Doctor's spare hand. It was glowing.

She didn't know why, but she had this urge to touch the glass of the hand. When her hand made contact with the jar, energy flowed thru the glass into her. She felt pain she hadn't felt since the Cruciatus Curse. As the energy flowed thru her, she shook violently.

Then the glass of the jar broke and Hermione backed away from the broken glass.

She stared as the hand on the ground continued to glow, then it twitched. The hand flexed. The the energy sprouted from the hand, creating a body. Then in a burst of light the body sat up. The body was that of the Doctor.

Hermione gasped, "It's you."

The body said, "Oh yes."

Hermione let out a laugh of relif. Then she looked down, then immediately looked away, saying, "Your naked"

The body said, "Oh yes"

The Doctor stared at the screen breathing heavily. He was about to lose yet another companion. And for some reason this hurt a lot worse then his lost for Rose did. With Rose he felt saddness. But now he felt anger he hadn't felt since the war. Slughorn had no idea of the hell about to rain down on him.

The body set up and pressed a button on the Tardis consol.

The Doctor stared at the Tardis as is faded away.

Slughorn laughed, "So ends the last ship of Galifrey. How does it feel Doctor? Do you feel angry. Despair maybe?"

The Doctor breathed, "Yeah"

Slughorn yelled to his family, "Take him to the brig."

One Slitheen said, "Where?"

Slughorn roared, "That place next to the bathrooms!"

"Oh ok" the Slitheen said.

The Tardis was rotated around the Earth. The body had The Tardis teleport at the last moment. The body ran into a room of the Tardis, and came back a few minutes later in a black shirt and leather jacket and pants. He pressed a button on the Tardis and all of the damage of the fires were gone.

The body whispered, "All repaired. There now. No one knows whe are here. We better keep it that way."

The body contiued, his voice getting faster, "Silent yet running. Like a submerine when they can't even drop a screwdriver. I like the leather jacket. What do you think?"

Hermione stared at him, "Your insane"

The body frowned, "Why what's wrong with leather? Your anti-leather?"

Hermione asked, "Is that what Time Lords do? Cut a bit off, grow another one?"

The body said, "No no no no no. I'm unique. Never been a one like me. Because all that regeration energy went into the hand." He wiggled his fingers, "Look at my hand. I love my hand."

The body contiued, "And you touched it. Instantaneous biological Meta-Crisis. I grew out of you. Still could be worst."

Hermione said in a sarcastic tone, "Watch it space-man ."

The body said in the same tone a voice, "Watch it Earth Girl."

They both backed up and looked at each other.

The body said, "I sound like you. I sound all nerdy."

Hermione said, "Thanks"

The body said, "Much have picked up a bit of your voice that's all. Is it? Did I? No! Oh you are kidding me! I have one heart. This body only has one heart."

Hermione asked, "How many hearts does the other you have?"

"Two"

Hermione said, "So it's like your human?"

The body exclaimed, "That's disgusting!"

The body thougth about it, kneeled down to pick up Hermione's wand, gave it a shake, and sparks came out of the end.

The body said, "No wait. Part Time Lord, Part Human, Part Karia Knight."

Hermione said, "I thought I could hear a heart beat earlier."

The body said, "Oh that was me. My single heart."

Then the body took a step back. "I can see inside your head. All that pain. All that horror of the war. The abuse Weasly put you through. The feelings you have for Potter. The ones you have for the other me."

Hermione said, "What feelings for the Doctor?"

The body winked, "You know"

Hermione said, "Please stop it."

The body said, "No it's like we were heading for this. You first saw me when you were 14 years old. You found the cathedral with the picture of the Saited Psychian. I got your signal in the Tardis. That's not coincidence. Something has been drawing us together."

Hermione said, "But your talking about destiny."

The body said, "Still not finished. It's like the pattern is not complete. The strains are still drawn toghet. But heading for what?"

The Doctor sat down in what was suppose to be the brig but the Slitheen guard had really ended up taking him into the bathroom.

All he could think about was Hermione. He had promised to protect her. Now she was dead. He swore he would make Slughorn pay. He pulled out his sonic screwdriver and opened the door.

The guard on duty said, "Hold it right there prisoner."

The Doctor said, "I'm not a prisoner."

"Yes you are."

The Doctor pulled out his psychic paper, "You see? I'm from the Time Agency. I'm here to inspect this ship."

"But my cousin Slughorn told me to not let you out of there?"

The Doctor said, "That was a test. He wanted to see how you would react to proper documents that said against what his orders were. Seeing how you chose to listen to your commanding officer over the proper documents, I think you passed. There's probably a promotion in it for you."

The Slitheen grinned at the thought of being promoted to cabin boy.

Before the Doctor left, he asked, "Where did Slughorn put that human?"

The guard said, "Oh he put him in the kitchens."

The Doctor walked on pass him, muttering about proper glalatic education nowadays.

The Doctor made his way toward the bridge, with thoughts of revenge on his mind. This time he would make sure Slughorn was dead. Of cource, after he saved Harry. Hermione would have wanted it that way.