Team Six
Ten was furious. "What happened exactly?" he asked Eight for the one-hundreth time.
"We were talking, and this thing just came out of nowhere," Eight was explaining for the one-hundreth time. "You saw that."
"Yeah, but that doesn't help me!"
"Then what will?!"
"Calm down, you two," Three chided. "Let's think about this rationally."
"No!" Ten insisted. "That thing wasn't rational. Thinking rationally won't tell us what happened to Donna."
Three gave up. Jo walked over to Ten and gave him a hug. "We'll find her, Doctor, don't worry. We're still here, we can help."
No, I've lost you too. Long ago, Ten thought to himself.
Six cleared his throat. "Ten, I hate to bring this up at this time, but something isn't right."
"Is anything right?" Ten asked, not bothering to hide his grumpiness. Six ignored him.
"What's not right, Doctor?" Peri said.
"The TARDIS," said Six simply.
"What on Earth's that supposed to mean?" Three asked.
"Can't you feel her, deep inside your mind?" Six addressed his other selves. Even Ten took a moment to close his eyes and search for his ship telepathically.
"Something's off," Eight agreed after a second. Ten and Three murmured their agreement.
"I have thus concluded, that we are not standing inside the TARDIS," Six said. "I did fix the Grace circuits, so that thing couldn't have gotten in without a very long and hard fight. Yet it didn't appear to be tired or exhibit anything that showed it had broken in."
"Then where are we?" Peri asked.
"In a very, very good replica," the Sixth Doctor answered.
"Then let's leave," Fitz said. Before anybody could stop him, he turned and tried to open the doors.
"Locked," he jiggled the knob a bit. Six sauntered over to "his console" and activated the door switch. The doors still didn't work.
"Like I said, it's not the TARDIS," Six chuckled.
"And good thing too," Jo remarked. "Have you forgotten those goats?"
"So what do we do?" Anji asked. Six glanced at Ten.
"We find Donna, of course."
"But where do we look? We can't get out, and according to you, this isn't the TARDIS," Ten said.
"According to us," Six corrected. "Because we can't get out, and because this isn't the TARDIS, then the Eye of Harmony would have been replaced with whatever is trying to create this paradox. Therefore, that is where we will go."
"And that's where Donna will most likely be!" Ten jumped up. "Come on!"
But as soon as he said that, his face drained of all color and he crashed to the ground. Jo rushed forward to check on him. Eight slumped to the ground too, but Fitz was able to catch and support him. Three and Six showed signs of extreme pain, but were holding up better than their successors. Six clutched the console for support. He was holding on so tight that his knuckles were turning white.
"Something's wrong!" gasped Three. "Something in the past has gone wrong!"
Team Nine
The Doctors were in varying stages of unconsciousness. Twelve and Nine were sleeping on the ground, and Four had sat down on a nearby rock and pressed his palms to his forehead. Sarah Jane was sitting next to him, going through his pockets to see if there was anything in there that could help. Clara, Rose, and Jamie were trying to rouse the passed-out Doctors, and Jack was hugging Polly while Ben walked around the spot where Two had disappeared, trying to figure out what happened and how to get him back.
All of a sudden, Twelve woke up. Sitting up, he said, "This isn't Gallifrey!"
Groaning, Nine woke up too. "I told you," he muttered. Ben ventured over so he could hear the conversation.
"You okay, Doctor?" Clara asked, helping Nine to his feet.
"Yes, I'm sure I'm all okay," Twelve answered. Four was coming round too.
When he could see that the Doctors were fit to answer questions, Ben asked, "Now what's happened to the Doctor?"
"We're fine," Four insisted. When Ben just looked at him, he asked, "Oh, you mean the little one?"
"Yes!"
"Well…" Four trailed off, looking to his other selves for support. They offered nothing but helpless looks.
"And what was all of this about 'past changing?'" this was Rose.
"Time is not fixed, so it can be susceptible to edits," Twelve explained.
"Like this one?" Ben asked.
"Yes, like this one!" Four huffed.
"So where is he? Our Doctor, I mean?" Jamie asked.
"We don't know," Four responded, after a minute's hesitation.
"But you were him, why can't you remember?" Jamie insisted.
"Because whatever happened to him is the edit. It's technically still happening. We won't know what's happened until the effects catch up to us."
"Effects?" echoed Rose.
"Whatever's happening to him," Sarah Jane answered. Sensing everybody looking at her, she said defensively, "It's just a guess."
"And it was a very brilliant guess," Twelve praised her.
"So what do we do?" Polly now asked.
"We learn where we are, and try to piece together what's happened," Nine said. He began to walk towards the scene of the crime, with Ben, Sarah Jane, and Jamie following. The others went to inspect the TARDIS. Before Twelve could move to follow either group, Clara pulled him aside.
"And if the effects make him regenerate or…" Clara trailed off, trying not to say what she was really worried about.
"Not?" Twelve finished. "If he regenerates, then Three is a slight anomaly. I don't know if that could be fixed or not, with the danger of a paradox created by all of Me being present. And if not, then all of me are in danger."
"How?"
"The effects catching up to me," with that, Twelve turned to help Nine and company.
"But then I'd never meet you," Clara whispered, before heading off to join the other group.
Team Eleven
"Professor!" Ace screamed. Amy was trying to pull Ace away, but girl was strong. They watched as the floor melted beneath Seven's feet, and he disappeared. Ace collapsed to the ground, completely in shock. Amy bent down to try and comfort her, but Ace took out some Nitro-Nine, uncapped it, and threw it at the image in front of them. The First Doctor and Amy had learned by now to Turn Away From Explosive. The image exploded as the Nitro went off.
Ian and Eleven sat down out of sheer exhaustion. They and Barbara had been walking for a while, around twisting corridors and turning back at dead-ends. Barbara walked on a bit before she realized the the boys had stopped.
"Come on, we've got to find the others!" she said, pulling on Ian's arm to try and get him to stand up.
"Oh, couldn't we just rest, Barbara?" he requested, very unhelpfully becoming a dead-weight. "My leg's acting up again, too."
"Yes, couldn't we?" Eleven requested. "My legs are going to start acting up too if we keep going."
"Oh, you two!" Barbara said. She sounded exasperated, but sat down next to them anyway. "But don't you want to see your grand-daughter again?" she asked the Doctor.
"Oh, yes, very much," he responded. "You really have no idea how much," he said in a softer voice. "But we've got to let Ian heal a bit. It'll get stronger if he walks on it, sure, but we don't want it to heal sideways!"
Ian shuddered at the thought. He then remembered that he was hungry, and pulled out his ham sandwich from earlier. As he unwrapped it, Eleven looked at it jealously.
"You still have that, do you?" Barbara asked with a bemused expression.
"Yes," he responded. Ian was just about to take a bite when a shrieking cry echoed through the walls of the maze. Eleven shot to his feet, and this time Ian allowed Barbara to pull him up.
"What was that?" Ian asked nervously.
"How's your foot?" the Doctor answered with a question of his own.
"Better," Ian confirmed.
"Good. Let's run!" The threesome dashed through the corridors, desperately trying to stay ahead of the cry, which was getting louder.
A few moments later, the source of the cry could be seen.
"A dragon?" Eleven asked the universe out loud. Then he dropped like a stone as his two past selves' timelines changed yet further.
The dragon wasn't very big- just the size of an average house. It had beige-orange scales, with some hints of grey. It had an intelligent look to it, underneath the anger at finding three beings so close to where it lived. And it was hungry, too.
The travellers were now stuck- one unconscious Doctor, one limping Ian, and one now very annoyed Barbara Wright. The dragon roared again, and she quickly assessed the situation. The Doctor was going to be a dead weight on them, too heavy for her to carry even a little, and Ian wasn't going to help because he was just barely standing up. As usual, it was up to her to protect them. Some things just never change.
The king of the lizards stepped closer, and Barbara thought quickly.
If I throw something at it, it might get scared and fly away, she thought. Of course, it could also get more angry… I'll risk it.
She snatched Ian's sandwich, which was still in his hand, and threw it at the dragon. She was aiming at one of it's eyes, but of course, the infernal food hit the snout instead. The dragon reared back, and the food hit the ground. Flying back a few meters, the dragon bet down and sniffed the projectile. This gave Barbara and Ian some time to attempt to move Eleven to the sides of the maze, where he might be safer.
The sandwich went down the creature's mouth in a moment. It looked up and surveyed the three, but now it looked more curious than angry.
Barbara took a step towards it. Ian hobbled forward and grabbed her arm, but she shrugged him off. The dragon just sat there, like a little puppy. It even cocked its head as Barbara drew closer, hand outstretched. She was able to rest her hand on its snout. After a moment, the dragon broke away and flew off.
"Hail Barbara, Dragon-Tamer," chuckled Ian as Barbara drew closer. She swatted his arm playfully. Eleven chose this time to become conscious again. He looked troubled.
"Something's wrong," he said. When he realized that being cryptic wasn't gaining him attention from his giggling companions, he stood up and asked, "What's so funny?"
"Nothing, Doctor," Barbara laughed. Sobering up a bit, she asked, "How are you?"
"In danger of being dead," he replied.
Five stopped abruptly. "Shh!" he commanded. Adric stopped by crashing into Five, Nyssa by crashing into him, and Susan into her. As a result, the whole group ended up on the ground. As they were busy untangling themselves, Five repeated himself.
"SSSH!" The companions froze.
"I can't hear anything!" Adric said after a completely silent moment.
"You can't when you're talking," Five whispered. The group sat in silence for a good five minutes.
"I hear it too," Susan whispered.
"What is it?" Nyssa inquired.
"Distress signal," Five answered. "One of my other selves. Eight, I think. He's scared… There's something in the TARDIS…" Five closed his eyes and reached out telepathically. "Contact…"
Just then, his face screwed up in pain, and he fell over. Adric and Nyssa grabbed him and lowered him slowly to the ground. Susan dashed around them.
"Are you alright, Grandfather?" she asked him. She was very concerned.
"There's something… gone wrong… going to alert… the others…" Five gasped.
"What is it? What's gone wrong?" Adric asked. But Five was already unconscious. Nyssa moved as if to touch him and make sure that he was alright, but Susan stopped her.
"No! If we touch or move him, his mind might get severed from his body!" she cried. "He's trying to contact the other Doctors!"
"How long might that take?" Adric looked confused.
"A few seconds, a few hours, it's hard to tell time in the the Matrix," she answered.
"Matrix?" Nyssa asked, turning away from the Doctor and facing Susan. "What's that?"
"It's the collective hivemind of the Time Lords on Gallifrey. It holds the memories of every Time Lord, and is used as indisputable evidence in trials."
Five woke up, looking confused. "I all answered," he said. "But where were they?"
"Grandfather?"
"I think someone's been interfering with the Matrix!" Susan was shocked.
"Interfering with the Matrix?!" she asked. "Why do you think that?"
"Because… Tegan," Five simply said. Nyssa and Adric huddled closer.
"What about her?" Nyssa asked, though she was scared of the answer.
"It saw her instead of me, and darkness swallowed her up," he whispered. The group sat in silence.