I know I don't usually make notes, but I just want to wish you all a Happy Halloween, and thank you so much for reading! Fun fact: One year ago tomorrow, I started writing The Twelve Doctors!
Ace didn't care who this "Valeyard" was. He did something to the Professor, so he was going to pay for it.
"Oi, Graveyard!" she yelled, taking out her baseball bat. She took a menacing step forward. The Valeyard calmly turned towards her.
"No, Ace!" Amy warned. Black tendrils were curling toward the two girls. Ace attempted to stand and fight while Amy attempted to drag her back. Both failed, and they too vanished. Even more inky fingers snaked towards Fitz, Peri, and Jo. When they disappeared, Ten rounded on his evil counterpart.
"Why are you doing this? Where's Donna?"
"Safe," the Valeyard replied. "And since you are me, why don't you tell everyone why we're doing this."
"To get all of my regenerations, so you can be free to become real, and spread your evil influence across the universe," Ten spat.
"I'm evil?" the Valeyard looked merely amused at this. "Remember, Doctor, we are the same Time Lord. And I didn't cause the extinction of the Vervoids." He pointed to Six. "You did."
Six looked outraged. "Me? ME?! I would never! A whole race? How dare you?"
The Valeyard smirked, but said nothing.
"Owww," Ace moaned, sitting up. Her head hurt. Fitz scurried over next to her. "Where are we?" she asked him.
"I dunno," he said. "Looks like a TARDIS."
He wasn't wrong. They seemed to be in a console room that looked a lot like Six's. Swivelling her head around, Ace noticed that the short man, Ben, she thought, was unconscious, along with the American girl. Amy was waking up, and the smallest of them, Jo, was caring for her.
"How many of us are there?" she asked Fitz.
"I think it's just us, and Sarah Jane. Apparently she's a journalist, so she's decided to do some investigating." He stood up. "Door's locked," he remarked, hitting the doors. They didn't budge. Fitz walked back to Ace, putting his hands into his overcoat's pockets. "Funny."
"What is?"
"The TARDIS my team and I were in. The door was locked too. And the Doctors were saying something about not-a-TARDIS."
"So you think that this, and what you were in, was the Knickeryard's TARDIS?" Ace stood up shakily. The door connecting the console room to the rest of the ship opened, and Sarah Jane walked through. At the same time, Ben jerked awake.
"Doctor?!" he cried. Everybody in the room jumped. After a moment, Jo and Fitz ran over to him and began to explain what had happened. Ben looked perplexed, but accepted it. Ace decided to be helpful and pulled Amy to her feet. Together, they helped wake Peri up, and get her up to date on what was happening. When everybody was ready, Sarah Jane began her announcement.
"I found the missing team members," she said. Beckoning them, she disappeared down the TARDIS corridors. The others followed her, but Fitz had to support Ben until his dizziness stopped. Fitz wasn't unhappy with this.
Ace caught up with Sarah at the front of their little pack. "Is the Professor there?" she asked.
"I think so. I didn't really go exchange pleasantries since I had to come back, but they couldn't have gone far," Sarah admitted. A few minutes and wrong turns later, Sarah successfully found the two missing Doctors and companions.
"Professor!" Ace ran to Seven and gave him a giant hug. He looked surprised, but returned the hug. Two and Ben exchanged a similar embrace.
Donna however, looked concerned. "Where did you come from?" she asked, allowing the slightest bit of suspicion into her voice.
"The Valeyard kidnapped us, like he did to you," Jo attempted to explain.
"Valeyard?" Tegan asked, but was overrun by Seven.
"I was right," he muttered. Involuntarily, Ace took a step away from him and the venom in his voice. Fitz however, was right next to the Doctor.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"Is this the other us?" the Second Doctor asked at the same time. But Seven ignored them, and Jo ended up explaining everything, with Amy and Fitz's help. Two grew increasingly worried.
"A plot to absorb all incarnations of me in order to be free to spread his malign influence across the universe?" he mused. "I don't think the universe could cope. Polly and Jamie! They're still out there!"
"Along with Anji and all of the other Doctors and our other friends," Fitz added.
"Come on, then!" Seven began to run down the hallways toward the console room. "Time waits for nomads!"
"But the door's locked!" Amy protested. "And we need a plan!"
"I do have a plan!" Seven's voice echoed. "Ace?"
"Yes, Professor?"
"Have you got any Nitro-Nine on you? I know I asked you to leave it in the TARDIS, but we need something that registers 9 on the Richter scale!"
A wicked smile stretched across Ace's face.
"Ace, Professor," she whispered. Unslinging her rucksack from her shoulder, she spoke louder. "How many cans do you want?"
"Just one question, Shipyard," Four started. The Valeyard ignored him, seemingly trying to hint that exposition time was over. But Four digressed.
"How are you going to get rid of me? I mean, us all being here is enough to cause a massive paradox, but killing us? Won't that make it even worse? And what about you? If you're us, then you'll die too."
"Don't waste our breath, Four," Ten interrupted. "He's turned his TARDIS into a Paradox Machine. That's why the 'paradox' we thought was our big problem hasn't been doing anything too bad."
The Valeyard broke his silence. "Very good, Doctor."
Ten grinned to himself and shrugged shyly. "Well, I am a genius." Twelve rolled his eyes and stepped forward.
"I didn't realize that I could be so single-minded," he said in a low voice. "How long has it been since the trial?"
"One hundred years."
"And you're still bent on revenge? Look at us! This elaborate trap, fuelled by my hatred, my arrogance, and my ability to underestimate myself- it's for nothing."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm positive! And you did this, because we're an idiot!" Twelve swept his hands around dramatically.
"I beg to differ," Six muttered.
"Shut up," Twelve said. "You are everything evil in me, so you don't see it! You can't see it! You. Brought. Them!" he gestured to the companions. "And then you made the further mistake of kidnapping us! Ace knew that. Come on… you remember Ace… and you kidnapped the Chessmaster! You've got to deal with her now! Clever Ace, with her Nitro-Nine. And we call out Seventh regeneration the 'Chessmaster' for a reason! You're finest hour, Valeyard, and you can't even do it right." Twelve's expression looked like an identical version of Six's patronizing face.
"So you think that you're headed to the Promised Land then, Doctor?" the Valeyard spat. "I told you- no tricks. That includes the eloquent little speeches you so love to make." Black goo began to descend upon the group.
Elsewhere, the kidnapped team had blown their way out of the Valeyard's TARDIS and were hiding, listening to Twelve and the Valeyard confront each other.
"Paradox machine?"
"What's going on?"
"What's this 'Promised Land,' then?"
"How dare he insult my speeches!"
"Oh my giddy aunt! Oh dear," Two fretted. Ben attempted to launch himself up and over the hill to get to the others, but Seven and Tegan held him back.
"We need a plan first," Seven said.
"I thought we d-did, Doctor," Peri asked.
"Yes, but that was before this Paradox Machine," Seven responded. "We need to disable that so that the Valeyard can't kill me without serious consequences to himself."
"But we can't just wait here! The Valeyard needs to be stopped now! We can't wait to disable that machine!" Ban argued.
"Two priorities," Two mumbled. "Save myself immediately, so that the Paradox Machine doesn't need to work, and go disable the Paradox machine so that it can't work."
Ace sighed. "Thank you, Beatles' Haircut. That's what we're working on."
"But what if we split up?" Two asked, clasping his hands together excitedly. "Half of us go to assist the group in trouble, and the other half goes to disable the machine!"
An excited silence settled over the group as they reviewed the plan and searched for any holes. Fitz killed it by asking, "How do we know where the machine is?"
Inside the Goo-swarm, Jack pulled out his squareness gun. "Rose, Adric!" he shouted to the two companions next to him.
"What?" Rose asked him.
"I'm getting readings of life forms at the top of a hill- two are double-hearted. I think it's the kidnapped Doctors and companions!"
"That means Tegan," Adric said, looking surprised, and a little bit pleased.
"Yeah! I'm going to fire this at the goo here, and I want you two to get through it if it works."
"Why?" Adric asked.
"Because we need back-up! You've got to be quick, because I've got one shot before this thing is useless. Ready? Go!" Jack fired, and a large square formed in the goo. After a second, the trio could see the bleak landscape through it. Almost immediately though, the hole began to close up.
"Hurry!" Rose grabbed Adric's hand and the two dove through. Just before it completely closed up, they could see Jack wink at them.
"Come on," Rose said after getting her breath back. "Let's find our friends, yeah?"
The 'kidnapped' team was ready to go to their missions- Ace, Ben, Amy, Seven, Tegan, and Jo
were to go help the others, and Peri, Fitz, Sarah Jane, Two, and Donna were to shut down the machine.
"D-Doctor?" Peri noticed two people climbing up the hill towards them. "Should we be worried?"
"About what?" Sarah Jane responded, trying to see what Peri had. Her face broke into a grin.
"Rose?" she called.
"What?" came the girl's reply. Sarah Jane sat back.
"It's all right," she assured Peri. "She's one of us."
"But who's with her?" Peri asked. Sarah Jane considered, and leaned toward Rose.
"Who's with you?"
"Adric," Adric answered for himself. Tegan became more alert.
"Adric?" she asked. The two escapees finally met up with the group. Despite their usual fights, Adric and Tegan gave each other a small hug.
"What's going on?" Rose asked Seven.
"Well, half of us are going to help everybody down there-" Seven jerked his thumb in the direction of the Valeyard and company. "-and the other half are going to disable the Valeyard's Paradox Machine."
"Right. And where is that?"
"In his TARDIS."
"Yeah, but where is it?"
"Probably where the Eye of Harmony is," Amy spoke up. Rose looked skeptical.
"Everybody's always been trying to get there, this whole time. Makes sense that that would be where that Machine is." Amy elaborated.
"That… does make sense. Who are you?"
"Amy Pond."
"Rose Tyler."
"Pleasure."
"Likewise."
Fitz couldn't take the pleasantries. "Our friends are dying down there, and we're making small talk?"
"Good point," Seven said. "Let's go, everybody! Rose and Adric, you'll be going with the other me."
The Paradox Machine team entered the TARDIS. Being the polite gentleman, Fitz stood aside and let everybody else in first.
"Rose, is it?" he asked Rose.
"Yeah," she nodded.
"How did you two escape?"
"My friend Jack helped."
"Jack?"
"Tall, dark overcoat not unlike yours…"
"If we get out of this, I'm counting on you to introduce us."
"Will do. Where's the Eye of Harmony?"
"This way," With Fitz's help, the team successfully found the Eye. It was in a tall, ornate room, with arches and balconies. The Eye itself was a smoky blue, encased in a stone "eyelid." Tubes and appendages snaked into the Eye, giving off a red glow.
Gong… gong…
"The Cloister Bell!" shouted Two. "We haven't got much time!"
"Doctor," Sarah Jane said. "We may have found it, but how do we shut it down?"
Inside the Valeyard's "storm," the Doctors were struggling. The Time Lord was deep in a telepathic conversation with himself, but the companions were left to be stuck where they were.
"Susan!" Ian shouted.
"Yes?"
"Can you try to see what they're talking about?" he asked. Susan nodded.
"I can try. But don't get anywhere near me or Grandfathers. Our minds could get severed from our bodies, and we'd die." With that, Susan closed her eyes and stood still. All companions quit their conversations, and an eerie silence overtook the group. Within a few moments, Susan was back, breathing heavily. She toppled forward, but Jack grabbed her arm at the last second and set her gently on the ground. Barbara scootched forward and brushed her student's hair away from her eyes.
"Susan?" Barbara asked softly. "Are you okay?"
"Couldn't… find them. Must be… the Matrix. The Valeyard must be manipulating it so I couldn't listen in," panted Susan. "Do you really think that the Valeyard is Grandfather?"
Clara walked over and sat next to the girl, being careful not to bump into the Doctors. She looked Susan in the eyes. "Yes, I think so," she admitted. "But the Doctor can defeat him. I know that we can win."
"How?"
"Because I think that he's won before. The Doctor, I mean," Clara smiled a little. "And that was when there was only one of him. And now there's twelve. Would you like some water?"
Susan looked a little startled at the change in conversation, but accepted the bottle of water that Clara pulled from her jacket pocket.
"Where did you get this?" she asked before taking a sip.
"My Doctor and I were about to have a picnic, and I guess that I took this with me when this all started. Funny, that was only a few hours ago. It feels like centuries."
"Yes."
Silence fell. Then one of the Doctors- Nine- twitched violently. Jamie made as if to try and comfort him.
"No, don't touch him!" Susan screamed, and Jamie froze.
"What's happening?" he whispered, as the shudder moved to Eight, then Three, then Eleven. Susan shot to her feet.
"Something's gone wrong!" she couldn't hide the tremor in her voice