The Next Doctor- Part 2
I do not own Doctor Who and I am not making a profit off of this. I only own my OC.
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We walked out into the yard following The next Doctor and Rositta. "There she is. My transport through time and space. The Tardis." An elaborately patterned, but mostly blue, Montgolfier.
"You've got a balloon." I said, looking up, amazed at it's height. I glanced at the Doctor and saw shock and laughter on his face.
"Tardis. S. It stands for Tethered Aerial Release Developed In Style. Do you see?" The next Doctor asked us.
"Well, I do now. I like it. Good Tardis. Brilliant. Nice one. And is it inflated by gas, yeah?" The Doctor asked, running up to it and looking up into the balloon.
"We're adjacent to the Mutton Street Gasworks. I pay them a modest fee. Good work, Jed." The next Doctor slaps a strapping young man on the shoulder and hands him a big five pound note. I know that because it is white.
"Glad to be of service, sir." Jed says.
"You've got quite a bit of money." The Doctor said, glancing at me. I rolled my eyes.
"Oh, you get nothing for nothing. How's that ripped panel, Jed?" The next Doctor said.
"All repaired. Should work a treat. You never know, maybe tonight's the night, Doctor. Imagine it, seeing Christmas from above." Jed said, wistfully.
"Not just yet, I think. One day, I will ascend. One day soon." The next Doctor said. Jed leaves.
"You've never actually been up?" The Doctor asked.
"He dreams of leaving, but never does." Rositta explained.
"I can depart in the Tardis once London is safe. And finally, when I'm up there. Think of it, John. The time and the space."
"The perfect escape." The Doctor murmured. "Do you ever wonder what you're escaping from?"
"With every moment."
"Then do you want me to tell you? Because I think I've worked it out now. How you became The Doctor. What do you think? Do you want to know?" The Doctor asked.
Back inside the stables, The Doctor started the story. "The story begins with the Cybermen. A long time away, and not so far from here, the Cybermen were fought, and they were beaten. And they were sent into a howling wilderness called The Void, locked inside forever more. But then a greater battle rose up, so great that everything inside the Void perished. But, as the walls of the world weakened, the last of the Cybermen must have fallen through the dimensions, back in time, to land here. And they found you."
"I fought them, I know that. But what happened?" The next Doctor said.
"At the same time, another man came to London. Mister Jackson Lake. Plenty of luggage, money in his pocket. Maybe coming to town for the winter season, I don't know. But he found the Cybermen too. And just like you, exactly like you, he took hold of an infostamp." I told him.
"But he's dead. Jackson Lake is dead. The Cybermen murdered him." The next Doctor said.
"You said no body was ever found. And you kept all his suitcases, but you could never bring yourself to open them. I told you the answer was in the fob watch. Can I see?" The Next Doctor hands the watch to the Doctor. The case is plain except for two initials. "J L. The watch is Jackson Lake's."
"Jackson Lake is you, sir?" Rositta asked.
"But I'm the Doctor." Mr. Lake said stubbornly.
"You became the Doctor because the infostamp you picked up was a book about one particular man." The Doctor projects the infostamp onto the wall. We see dear old William Hartnell, then Patrick and all the others. "The Cybermen's database. Stolen from the Daleks inside the Void, I'd say, but it's everything you could want to know about the Doctor." The images get to number ten.
"That's you." Lake said.
"Time Lord, Tardis, enemy of the Cybermen. The one and the only. You see, the infostamp must have backfired. Streamed all that information about me right inside your head." I said to the group.
"I am nothing but a lie." Lake said, having trouble coming to terms with this.
"No, no, no, no, no. Infostamps are just facts and figures. All that bravery. Saving Rosita, defending London town, hmm? And the invention. Building a Tardis. That's all you." The Doctor told Jackson.
"And what else? Tell me what else." Mr. Lake asked,
"There's still something missing, isn't there?" I asked gently.
"I demand you tell me, sir. Tell me what they took."
"Sorry. Really, I am so sorry, but that's an awful lot of luggage for one man. Because an infostamp is plain technology. It's not enough to make a man lose his mind. What you suffered is called a fugue. A fugue state, where the mind just runs away because it can't bear to look back. You wanted to become someone else, because Jackson Lake had lost so much." The Doctor said sadly.
A church bell tolls the hours.
"Midnight." Rositta said, glancing out the moonlit window.
"Christmas Day." I murmured softly.
"I remember. Oh, my God. Caroline. They killed my wife. They killed her." Rositta leaned in and hugged Jackson Lake. The infostamp beeps. The button on the end is lit up. And there are more of them in a trunk.
"Oh, you found a whole cache of infostamps."
"But what is it? What's that noise?" Jackson asked.
"Activation. A call to arms. The Cybermen are moving!" The Doctor and I ran outside, and saw marching shadows against a wall.
It is children, not Cybermen, marching past.
"What is it? What's happening? That's Mister Cole. He's Master of the Hazel Street Workhouse. Maybe he's taking them to prayers." Rositta said, coming up behind us.
"Oh, nothing as holy as that." The Doctor said. The Doctor and I catch up with Cole. "Can you hear me? Hello? No? Mister Cole, you seem to have something in your ear. Now, this might hurt a bit, but if I can just" A Cybershade growls nearby. "Ah. They're on guard. Can't risk a fight. Not with the children."
"But where are they going?" Rositta asks with horror.
Jed from the balloon walks up. "They all need a good whipping, if you ask me. There's tons of them. I've just seen another lot coming down from the Ingleby Workhouse down Broadback Lane."
"Where's that?" I asked, not knowing the full layout of Victorian London.
"This way." Rositta said. We started off at a run.
We watch the children being walked past. "There's dozens of them." Rositta breathed.
"But what for?" The Doctor murmured.
The children stop outside a large pair of double doors. Suddenly it is opened by a Cyberman.
"You will continue. You will enter the Court of the CyberKing. March. That is an order. March!" Mr. Scones said. The Cybershades stop the children from scattering.
"That's the door to the sluice. All the sewage runs through there, straight into the Thames." Rositta said.
"Yeah, that's too well guarded. We'll have to find another way in." The Doctor said. But we are spotted by two more Cybermen on guard. "Whoa! That's cheating, sneaking up. Do you have your legs on silent?"
"So, what do we have here?" A woman wearing a long red dress asks.
"Listen. Just walk towards me slowly. Don't let them touch you." The Doctor said.
"Oh, but they wouldn't hurt me, my fine boys. They are my knights in shining armor, quite literally."
"Even if they've converted you, that's not a Cyber speech pattern. You've still got free will. I'm telling you, step away." The Doctor tried to reason with her.
"There's been no conversion, sir. No one's ever been able to change my mind. The Cybermen offered me the one thing I wanted. Liberation."
"Who are you?" Rositta asked.
"You can be quiet. I doubt he paid you to talk. More importantly, who are you, sir, with such intimate knowledge of my companions."
"I'm the Doctor." The Doctor said.
"Incorrect. You do not correspond to our image of the Doctor." A Cybermen to the left said.
"Yeah, but that's because your database got corrupted. Oh, look, look, look. Check this. The Doctor's infostamp." He throws it to a Cyberman. "Plug it in. Go on. Download."
"The core has been damaged. This infostamp would damage Cyberunits." The Cybermen stated.
"Oh, well. Nice try." The Doctor responded.
"Core repaired. Download." The Cyberman plugs the infostamp into its chest. After a moment the Cybermen said, "You are the Doctor. And you are Miss. Anderson. The last living Time Lords.
"Oh." I said, glancing at The Doctor, surprised that my name would be in there as well. "Hi." I waved. "And it's Time Lady, for your information." I snapped.
"You will be deleted." The Cybermen said.
"No, no. Oh, but let me die happy. Tell me, what do you need those children for?" The Doctor said, pushing me behind him.
"What are children ever needed for? They're a workforce."
"But for what?"
"Very soon now, the whole Empire will see. And they will bow down in worship."
"And it's all been timed for Christmas Day. Was that your idea, Miss ?" The Doctor asked.
"Hartigan. Yes. The perfect day for a birth, with a new message for the people. Only this time, it won't be the words of a man." Miss. Hartigan said.
"The birth of what?" The Doctor asked, suspiciously.
"A birth, and a death. Namely, yours. Thank you, Doctor. I'm glad to have been part of your very last conversation. Now, delete them."
"Delete." The Cybermen stomp forward, then their heads light up and they collapse. Jackson Lake is wearing a bandoleer of infostamps.
"At your service, Doctor, Miss." Lake saluted.
"Shades! Shades!" Miss. Hartigan yelled.
"Run! Come on!" The Doctor said, grabbing my hand.
"Shades!"
"One last thing." Rositta punches Hartigan with a right hook and she falls.
"Can I say, I completely disapprove. Come on." The Doctor, Rosita, Lake, and I run off as the Cybershades run to their mistress.
"That stronghold down by the river. I need to find a way in." The Doctor said.
"I'm ahead of you. My wife and I were moving to London so I could take up a post at the university. And while my memory is still not intact, this was in the luggage. The deeds. Fifteen Latimer Street. And if I discovered the Cybermen there, in the cellar, then-" Mr. Lake said.
"That might be our way in. Brilliant." I said.
"There's still more. I remember the cellar and my wife, but I swear there was something else in that room. If we can find that, perhaps that's the key to defeating these invaders. So, onwards!
"Maybe you should go back." The Doctor said to Rosita.
"Don't even try." Rosita said.
A Cyberman stands guard at the bottom of the cellar steps at 15 Latimer Street. "Delete." Lake zaps it with an infostamp.
The Doctor runs over to a high tech device in the middle of the room " It must've been guarding this. A Dimension Vault. Stolen from the Daleks again. That's how the Cybermen travelled through time. Jackson, is this it? The thing you couldn't remember?"
"I don't think so. I just can't see. It's like it's hidden." Mr. Lake said.
The Doctor groaned. "Not enough power. Come on! Avanti!"
The Sewers are remarkably dry and rat-free as we climbed around in them. "What do the Cybermen want?" Rositta said, not understanding.
"They want us. That's what Cybermen are. Human beings with their brains put into metal shells. They want every living thing to be like them." I told her.
The Doctor, Lake, Rositta, and I look down on the child laborers from a sewer opening high in the wall. "Upon my soul." Jackson Lake said.
"What is it?" Rositta asked.
"It's an engine." I supplied.
"They're generating electricity, but what for?" The Doctor said.
Jackson started to get up from the crouch position from where we were hidden. "We can set them free."
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no." The Doctor said, making Lake stop. "Power at ninety percent. But if we stop the engine, the power dies down, the Cybermen will come running. Ooo. Hold on. Power fluctuation. That's not meant to happen."
"It's going wrong." Lake said.
"No, it's weird. The software's rewriting itself. It's changing." The Doctor said, amazed.
The control panel goes bang. " Whoa! What the hell's happening? It's out of control." The Doctor said.
"It's accelerating. Ninety six percent, ninety seven." Jackson said.
"When it reaches a hundred." Rosita started.
"What about the children?" I finished.
"They're disposable. Come on!" The Doctor ran off with me behind him, Rosita behind me and Jackson Lake coming in last.
"Delete." A cybermen said. A klaxon sounds. The children look around in alarm.
"Delete. Delete." The Doctor and I run in as Lake zaps the Cyberman, then Rosita takes over.
"Right. Now, all of you, out! Do you hear me? That's an order! Every single one of you, run!" The Doctor yelled.
"All of you, come on, as fast as you can. Come on!" Mr. Lake yelled.
"There's a hot pie for everyone, if you leg it!" I yelled. The Doctor looked at me and I shrugged. "Children have a love food. I did."
"Go!" Rositta yelled.
"Rositta, get them out of sluice gate. Once you're out, keep running. Far as you can! Come on, come on, come on." The Doctor said.
"Turn right at the corner! Fast as you can. And don't stop! Keep running! Keep running!" Rositta lead them away.
The Doctor chases some more of the urchins out. "Go! Quick, quick. It's some sort of starter motor, but starting what?"
Lake watches the last boys leaving,"Lake sees a little boy stranded on a platform high up on the machine. "That's my son. My son. Doctor, my son!"
"What? The Doctor asked, astonished that he remembered.
"They took my son. No wonder my mind escaped. Those damned Cybermen, they took my child! But he's alive, Doctor. Frederick!"
"Come on!" The Doctor yelled.
"No, he's too scared. Stay there! Don't move! I'm coming." An explosion knocks him down.
"I can't get up there. Fred!" Lake yelled in anguish.
"They've finished with the motor. It's going to blow up." The Doctor warned us.
"What are we going to do, Doctor? What are we going to do?" Mr. Lake looked at him, pleadingly.
The Doctor draws the cutlass he got from the Reverend's house. "Come on, Jackson. You know me." The Doctor grabs hold of a rope and cuts it free from its tether. He goes up into the air and lands on the platform by Frederick.
"Oh, that's it. Hello. Now, hold on tight. Don't let go." Frederick clings on to the Doctor's back as he uses the rope to swing across the vault, then brings the boy down to his father. " Merry Christmas."
Jackson Lake carries young Frederick back to their house. " Head for the street." I yelled.
"Come on, Doctor. Hurry up!" Lake said. The Doctor takes a long thin piece from the Dimension vault.
Back in the street's I looked up and saw the steam-punk Cyberman towers over old London town. "Behold, I am risen. Witness me, mankind, as CyberKing of all." Hartigan yells.
"It's a CyberKing." The Doctor gasps.
"And a CyberKing is what?" Lake asked.
I turned to face Jackson."It's a ship. Dreadnought class. Front line of an invasion. And inside the chest, a Cyberfactory, ready to convert millions."
"And I will walk. I will stride across this tiny little world." The giant feet crush buildings and people. "My people. Why do they not rejoice?" Miss. Hartigan asks. It strides up St Martin Le Grand and Aldersgate, missing Saint Paul's Cathedral.
"Just head south. Take him south. Go to the parkland." The Doctor said, grabbing my hand to prepare for running.
"But where are you two going?!"
"To stop that thing." I answered Jackson.
"But I should be with you." Lake argued.
"Jackson, you've got your son. You've got a reason to live." The Doctor said.
"And you haven't? God save you, Doctor, Susan."
"It's our job." I said. "We fight and save."
We parted as the CyberKing keeps walking.
Back at the stables The Doctor searches the luggage. "What the hell is that thing, sir?" Jed asked.
"Oh, good man. Jed, wasn't it? Jed, I need your help!" The Doctor said.
"I'm not going out there." Jed protested.
"I'll give you five pound notes." The Doctor said.
"Er. All right. What do you want me to do?" The Doctor has another bandolier of infostamps and hands them to me.
"The Tardis is going to fly."
The Doctor climbs into the air balloon's basket and I follow him.
"You two are flaming bonkers, sir." Jed said.
"It's been said before. Now give me." Jed hands over the item from the Dimension vault.
"Not enough power. Come on! Jed, let her loose." I said.
"Ever flown one of these before?" Jed asked.
"Nope, never." The Doctor said and I smirked.
"Can I have my money now?" Jed asked.
"Oh, get on with it." I told Jed.
Jed unties the last rope holding the balloon down, and up she floats. " Good luck to you, sir Ma'am!"
The Doctor and I are throwing out the sandbags and a picnic hamper out of the Tardis to make it go higher.
"Attention. Proximity alert." I heard a cybermen say.
"How is that even possible? Oh, this I would see. Turn!" Miss. Hartigan said. The Doctor readies his infostamps as the CyberKing swings around so that he and it are level, facing each other. " Excellent. The Doctor. Yet another man come to assert himself against me in the night."
"Miss Hartigan? I'm offering you a choice. You might have the most remarkable mind this world has ever seen. Strong enough to control the Cybermen themselves." The Doctor said.
"I don't need you to sanction me." Miss. Hartigan said, in hatred.
"No, but such a mind deserves to live. The Cybermen came to this world using a Dimension vault. I can use that device to find you a home, with no people to convert, but a new world where you can live out your mechanical life in peace." I said. I glanced at The Doctor who nodded in improvement.
"I have the world below, and it is abundant with so many minds ready to become extensions of me. Why would I leave this place?" Miss. Hartigan asked us.
"Because if you don't, we'll have to stop you." The Doctor told her.
"What do you make of me, sir and Ma'am? An idiot?"
"No. The question is, what do you make of us?" I asked.
"Destroy them." Hartigan commanded.
"You make me into this." The Doctor fires his array of infostamps into Miss Hartigan.
"Then I have made you a failure. Your weapons are useless, sir."
"The Doctor wasn't trying to kill you. All he did was break the Cyber-connection, leaving your mind open. Open, I think, for the first time in far too many years. So you can see. Just look at yourself. Look at what you've done." I told her.
Mercy Hartigan's eyes have returned to normal. The Cybermen are staring at her. " I'm sorry, Miss. Hartigan, but look at what you've become." The Doctor said. She screams and realises she is secured to the throne. "I'm so sorry."
She continues to scream. Electricity dances around the Cybermen and they all explode. Miss. Hartigan also vanishes. The CyberKing begins to sway.
The Dimension vault thing beeps. "Ooo, now you're ready." I said. The Doctor and I aim it at the CyberKing. Swirls of energy surround it and it vanishes.
The Doctor and I hear the cheers and applause of the people below. The Doctor and I and wave back, ringing the basket's bell.
"The city will recover, as London always does. Though the events of today will be history, spoken of for centuries to come." Mr. Lake said, still holding his son.
"Yeah. Funny that." I remarked.
"And a new history begins for me. I find myself a widower, but with my son and with a good friend." Jackson said.
"Now, take care of that one. She's marvelous." The Doctor said, nodding to Rositta.
"Frederick will need a nursemaid and I can think of none better. But you're welcome to join us. We thought we might all dine together at the Traveler's Halt. A Christmas feast in celebration, and in memory of those we have lost. You won't stay?" Lake asked.
"Like I said, you know me." The Doctor said. I looked at The Doctor, pleadingly. "No, Susan." I pouted.
"No I don't think anyone does." Lake said, ignoring me. He sees the real Tardis underneath the archway. "Oh! And this is it. Oh! Oh, if I might, Doctor. One last adventure?"
"Oh, be my guest."
The Doctor let Jackson walk in first, I followed then The Doctor came in last. "Oh. Oh my word. Oh. Oh, goodness me. Well. But this is, but this is nonsense."
"Well, that's one word for it." The Doctor said.
"Complete and utter, wonderful nonsense. How very, very silly. Oh, no. I can't bear it. Oh, it's causing my head to ache. No. No, no, no, no, no, no." Mr. Lake said.
We walked back into the marketplace. "Oh! Oh, gracious. That's quite enough. I take it this is goodbye." Mr. Lake asked.
"Onwards and upwards." I said.
"Tell me one thing. All those facts and figures I saw of the Doctor's life, you were never alone. All those bright and shining companions. But not any more? What about Susan."
"No." The Doctor answered. "Susan's not a companion. She's one of my own people now."
"Might I ask why no companions?" Lake asked.
"They leave because they should. Or they find someone else. I suppose in the end, they break my heart." The Doctor said. I grabbed his hand and squeezed it. He squeezed it back.
"That offer of Christmas dinner. It's no longer a request, it's a demand. In memory of those we've lost." Mr. Lake said.
"Oh, go on then." The Doctor said. I beamed.
"Really?" Jackson asked.
"Just this once. You've actually gone and changed my mind. Not many people can do that. Jackson, if anyone had to be the Doctor, I'm glad it was you." The Doctor said.
"The feast awaits. Come with me. Walk this way." Lake said.
"I certainly will. Merry Christmas to you, Jackson." The Doctor said.
"Merry Christmas indeed, Doctor, Susan."
"Doctor?" I asked a while later, walking back into the control room from having taken a shower. "Can I go see Jack? It is Christmas and I... just wanted to..." I said stumbling.
The Doctor sat up from fixing the Tardis underneath and wiped off the black grime off on his pants. "I understand." The Doctor got up and silently started to work at the controls.
I slowly walked up to him and put my right hand on his right shoulder. I felt it tense. "You know," I whispered. "You can come with me."
The Doctor turned around and stared at me. "I thought you would want to spend time with Jack... alone."
I blushed and said, "That can wait. Christmas is supposed to be a time of family, is it not?"
The Doctor smiled. "Thank you." He breathed. The Doctor turned around to set the coordinates as I helped, looking forward to spending time with Jack and my huge family. I couldn't wait to see everyone, Martha and Mickey, Donna and her family, Sarah Jane smith and her gang and of course my Torchwood family. I smiled as the landing lights came on and The Doctor left the breaks on... and ran out into Jack's office in Torchwood, smiling.
A/N: Some notes on reviews:
Maren the fangirl: I loved this episode. :)
Badwolfdoesthedrunkengiraffe: Oh, I meant earlier updates in the day, sorry if I confused you.
copperdragon2: I loved his reaction in the show to it... I cracked up laughing the first time I saw it. :)