It wasn't quite as unpleasant as traveling through the Vortex without a capsule. But it was damn close. Didn't stop him from laughing and dancing around, crowing aloud his joy to the empty sky. It worked! He'd made it! Pete's World! He reached down and grabbed fistfuls of red grass, throwing them in the air to watch them rain down like confetti. "We did it! We did it!" He threw his head back and shouted, "Rose Tyler!"
He dashed back to the bridge, the only crafted object in an empty world, and went through. He hurled open the doors of the TARDIS and danced up the ramp, setting the coordinates for far into the future.
Rose! RoseRoseRose his mind babbled like a happy brook as he pushed buttons and turned dials. That's when he felt it. The TARDIS came back.
"Hell-o Sexy!" he crowed, throwing his arms out wide in welcome. "We did it! Clever old thing that you are!"
The golden wisps were back, and they swirled around him once before settling around the dematerialization lever.
"You want to send us on our way? Go ahead!"
But the lever didn't move. Instead, the doors swung open, giving him a look at his glorious diamond bridge. "Yes, it's done," he said, frowning. But she obviously meant for him to look again, so he did. He wandered from one end of the bridge to the other, carefully inspecting it for structural flaws. But there were none. The good thing about building a bridge out of entangled rocks was that so long as one half of the bridge existed, so would the other. The planet could be destroyed (as it one day would be) and the bridge itself would remain, floating in the middle of space.
His eyes continued to flick over the bridge, searching for what the TARDIS wanted him to see. Then he found it.
Alpha.
The first stone he'd dug up, the first he'd lain in the bridge…and the one he would now need to use to create a circular paradox. When he went back inside to retrieve his pickaxe, the sparkles had already vanished. It was the work of a few short minutes to dig Alpha back out of the ground. Then he set it negligently on the Captain's seat while he reset the coordinates. He put his hands on the dematerialization lever and paused for one long moment, waiting for the TARDIS. When she didn't react, he pulled it down, and they were on their way.
Piloting backwards through his own personal past was dangerous. Doing it while the both of him were firmly ensconced in Gallifrey's past was downright dumb. Good thing the TARDIS was backing him up on this one. He wouldn't have ever dared to do anything like this without her.
He materialized right by the rock quarry where he'd dug the trenilio rocks to build the bridge. Only since this was his personal past, the ground was as-yet undisturbed. He grabbed the pickaxe and shovel, quickly digging Alpha out of the ground. Kicking the dirt around so that it wasn't so obvious that someone had been rooting around in the ground, the Doctor returned to the TARDIS and placed the younger fresh-out-of-the-ground Alpha next to the already-entangled one.
Then he went to the console and began to fiddle with the controls. Revving the engines and putting up the strongest temporal shielding, he prepared the Old Girl to withstand the strain of the paradox he was about to create. Then, when everything was set, the Doctor took up the sledgehammer leaning against the railing, hefted it over his shoulder, and brought it down in one mighty swing on the younger Alpha rock, splintering it into smaller bits and powder.
The TARDIS lurched and groaned under the force of the paradox, lights dimming as she strove to keep the older Alpha in existence with the destruction of its younger incarnation. After a few minutes, she settled down, though the engines remained high, and there was an odd, ominous creaking.
"All right, girl. Think you can handle a space jump? We need to go give this to your younger self to complete the loop."
There was no discernible answer, no significantly flickering lights or meaningful flipping of switches. Certainly no glittering gold sparkles hovering in the air. Hoping that it meant she was ready for the jump and not that she was too exhausted to respond, much less move, he threw the lever.
The take-off was slow and sluggish, as if some heavy weight sat low in her belly. Well, perhaps that was true. He certainly had never attempted to keep a paradoxical object in existence while simultaneously jumping said object through space to park alongside a younger version of himself. Which was, of course, exactly what happened. The Doctor married the doors of the older and younger versions of the TARDIS, keeping them flush without any gaps. Then, taking up the paradoxical Alpha, the Doctor stepped across the threshold and into the slightly younger TARDIS.
"Helly Sexy!" He chirruped as he placed Alpha in significant view on the edge of the console. "Younger me will be back shortly," he said, already feeling new memories blooming in his mind. He leaned forward slightly and lowered his voice, as if imparting a great secret. "It works!" Then he yelped cheerfully and dashed back to his TARDIS, slamming the doors closed behind him.
"All right now!" he crowed, dashing around as he set about getting them to Earth's 21st century. "Time to go get Rose! Allons-y!"
The older TARDIS evaporated , leaving behind the younger one, bearing its stony burden, to wait for her Doctor's return. She didn't have long to wait, for he returned from studying the village minutes later, the disc at his elbow fit to bursting with recordings. He entered to find Alpha waiting for him and was instantly on guard. Who was it that had come into his TARDIS while he was away? But that was an easy question to answer, for there was a sticky note attached to the front of the rock and on the note, in his handwriting, was his full, true name spelled out in the swirling language of his people. A language none of the people below yet spoke.
He took up the rock and studied it carefully, even as his excitement began to chatter away at the back of his mind. Because…because he knew what this was. It was the start of a circular paradox. And he would only have started the paradox if it worked. It worked! He danced a small jig while the TARDIS hummed around him. "It works!" he cried, looking down at the rock in his hand.
Now he just had to figure out how.
ooOO00OOoo
The trip out was much easier than the trip back had been, and didn't require but a quarter of his attention. The Doctor used up the rest of it going over his new memories, seeing what younger him had done upon finding the rock. Thus far it looked much the same: he studied people, learned their culture, stayed at the B&B, found the Schism, and dug up the rocks. The only differences seemed to be in that he was always planning on building a bridge instead of initially planning a door; digging up just Omega from the ground (since Alpha was already in his possession), and not needing to destroy Alpha to begin the loop.
Good, the paradox was stable.
His return to Gallifrey's past was a Fact, supported by the existence of the circular paradox. Now a younger version of him couldn't come along and mess it up. This time was no longer in flux.
Thrilled but exhausted, the Doctor pulled the TARDIS out of active travel as soon as they cleared the traps and left her to spin lazily in the Time Vortex while he did some necessary research. The Old Girl was a beautiful old ship, and she was capable of many wondrous things. But she couldn't tap into the Vortex running through Pete's World. She couldn't travel through space and she couldn't travel through time. To compensate, he was going to need alternate transportation.
All he needed was a small two person transport. Something that could take him from Gallifrey to Earth and back without needing to refuel. He had to assume that there wasn't going to be compatible fuel sources. His overwhelming excitement urged him to go faster fasterfasterfaster because he was so close to seeing Rose again. But he wasn't protected by a circular paradox here, and he had to do this right.
He found what he was looking for in a 2X932. Not the prettiest of ships (it certainly was no TARDIS) it nonetheless was fast enough for his needs and even had enough storage space for the extra fuel he planned on bringing with him. Then there was the food and water and other necessities. Assuming the distances were the same from one universe to another, it would only take about a week to make it to Rose. But still. A week with nothing to do.
Frankly, the whole ship buying process was an exercise in frustration and patience. The TARDIS gave him such freedom. He didn't have to pay for licensing or registrations. He wasn't required to get a pass to pilot her, and no one could pin him down and write him a ticket for speeding in flight zones. Still, he persevered and in (relatively) short order, found himself in possession of his first non-TARDIS spaceship in…ever.
He materialized around the ship in an interesting stretch of his faculties that required eighth dimensional folding, and promptly faded away again before the red tape brigade showed up and tried to cordon off the TARDIS for study.
He carefully considered at which time he should cross over to Pete's World. Rose and her mother were both listed among the dead at Canary Wharf. Mickey had long been put on the list of the missing. But with this bridge a permanent fixture in the universe now, he would be able to pass back and forth freely. Rose could visit her Mum in Pete's World and still maintain her relationship with Shireen in this one. But if she did want to pick back up with Shireen, well, better there be a good reason for having been listed among the dead, shouldn't there? And what better reason than long-term amnesia? That would help explain away the years she'd spent with him, as well. She'd aged with him while not moving in time with the 21st century.
Which was why the Doctor set the TARDIS down on the bridge a year and a half after the events of Canary Wharf. He didn't like the idea of leaving her alone so long, but this gave her the best chance to have a normal life back on this Earth. If she wanted it.
Shaking free of his thoughts, the Doctor unloaded the ship, double and triple checking that he had everything. Then he went back inside for one more word. "Well, Old Girl. This is it. Two weeks, three at the max, and I will be back here with Rose Tyler, if she'll have me. Wish me luck!"
There was no response, but he didn't expect one. He exited his lonely TARDIS for what he hoped was the last time. From now on, he would have a hand to hold.
It was finally time.
ooOO00OOoo
Author's Note: My lovely beta has just finished with the epilogue. So you're going to start getting two chapters a week. Hold onto your hats, kiddos!