The next time the TARDIS door opened, the Doctor was seeing 10 years into the future. He was in the same place, overlooking a red sunset reflected on the river. He staggered up to the bench and sat down. The Doctor panted. Everything was becoming so exhausting.
"Doctor?" It was a young voice. "Oh my god, it is you."
A tall, young teenager gave an excited smile. "It's been ten years, yet you still look the same." The clear, teal eyes glistened in the remaining warm sunlight. Tia sat down next to him.
"Every day of every week, I come here to see if you're here." She took out a little magnifier. It was worn out, but it still worked. "I kept it. You know? It reminded me of you. Reminded me to keep going. I worked hard and became a doctor. A Doctor of biochemistry." She chuckled.
The Doctor weakly chuckled as well. "Congratulations. Dr Tia. So… what's been happening?"
"I got accepted to the Scientists' guild. That building over the river is the laboratory for my research. I'm the youngest member there!" She smiled and continued. "I'm doing a research with a team of experienced scientists to extinguish the infectious disease carried by the Polovils." She said, showing him a picture.
"And how's that going?"
Tia grinned madly and took out a green crystal from her bag. "This is the prototype. We fire this from a special gun, and it will vaporise on contact, sterilising the poor, little Polovils from suffering from that terrible virus."
"Doctor! That's the poison! The green crystal!" Clara said shocked. She could see that the Doctor's reaction was the same as hers.
The Doctor was speechless. He didn't expect her to have finished it so early in her timestream. "So, have you tested it for safety yet? I mean, what if it's poisonous for other lifeforms? The effects will be catastrophic!" Yeah, the effects were devastating. He was the walking proof of that.
"Well, not yet. It does have side effects on the Polovils at the moment, it exhausts them and makes them drowsy. We're trying to fix that." She sighed. "The 'animal protectors' keep interfering with our stuff… We're not in the dark ages anymore; we don't even test it on real Polovils, just holograms of them… but they think the 'sterilisation' will endanger all the Polovils altogether. Some extremists keep messing with our research, and just few months ago, they even tried to kill one of the members for it."
"That's terrible." He added. "If you don't mind, can I see the laboratory? I've never been into one before."
"I'm not supposed to, but since you're the one who sparked this dream, I'll make a special exception. You should say hi to my parents, they're in the building, working as well." She winked.
"Come on!" She excitedly said.
The Doctor struggled out of the bench and breathed out. He was dizzy and nauseous, but he kept going.
As they arrived in front of the high tech building, Tia stopped.
"Wait." She pointed at the open glass door. "That door is not supposed to be open during these hours." Tia started walking towards it.
The Doctor spotted a green and red wires around the building.
"Tia, stop!" The Doctor pounced and pulled her out just as the building was set on fire. The two were knocked out from the shockwave of the bomb.
"No!" Tia tried to go in, but the Doctor held her tight. "Let me go! My parents are inside!"
"No they're not. That is a Spari bomb, it instantaneously combusts everything in its territory. You're lucky you didn't step inside the building. You would have been burnt to crisps." The Doctor yelled.
"Just let me go! I have to try saving them!"
"Clara, it's too late!"
Tia froze. Clara froze too.
"What did you call me?" Tia looked at the Doctor. Doctor cursed at the mistake.
"Doesn't matter, I'm sorry for your loss, but we have to get the hell out of here! The building is going to collapse."
Just as they got to the other side of the river, the building collapsed with a crash. The fires of the remains sadly reflected onto Tia's tears.
"Tia…" The Doctor tried to comfort her.
"…no, you don't get to talk to me." She backed off. "You made me kill my parents. You stay away. You stay long way away, you understand?" She ran away, breaking down.
oOoOoOoO
The Doctor returned to the TARDIS. His breath was heavier, but he wasn't sure if it was caused by what he had just experienced or the spread of the poison. He grabbed onto the side and fell to the ground. He blacked out momentarily.
"Doctor, you have to wake up!" Clara yelled in concern. He couldn't die here, this couldn't be the end for him. No matter how many times Clara yelled, he laid on the floor. Suddenly he gasped, making her jolt.
"Kidneys…. They're gone. It's always the kidneys, they're so unreliable. I didn't like the colour of them anyway." He said, leaning onto the fence.
Clara sighed in relief. He was still alive.
He tried getting up several times and failed. It was hurting him too much. He crawled downstairs, slowly and grabbed onto a cane.
"I hate canes." He whinged as he used it to get up. He hobbled to the infirmary room and took the pain killers left by the TARDIS. "Thanks dear." He said to the sentient machine. The machine softly hummed back. She was always there for him when he needed her the most.
"I know I screwed up, but I need to try again. I don't have much time." He said as he hobbled to the console and pressed the buttons. He pulled the lever and the TARDIS again landed somewhere with a thud.
He opened the door to find himself in one of the storage rooms of an army barrack. He walked outside to see a gold plated name: Tianna Gatford – scientific advisor. He heard a distant explosion and gunfire.
"I thought I told you to go away." It was Tiana. She was much taller than a few minutes ago. She also had grown up, and had a hardened face, a face that had seen too much.
"I'm sorry." He turned around to see a gun pointed at him. "I would put my hands up, but I'm afraid if I do that, I'll lose balance." He said, pointing at the cane.
Tiana lowered her gun and passed him a chair.
"Thanks." He whispered and sat down. He was glad to find that it eased the pain.
"What are you doing here, Doctor? How did you get in here in the first place?" She sat on the other side of the table.
"Why did you become an army officer?" He ignored her question.
"Because I wanted to be more than a mere biochemist. That day when I lost my parents, I figured I couldn't continue anymore. I wanted to do something for my country. Something I can do to make my name in history."
"And this is your idea of making your name in history?" The Doctor retorted. He hated soldiers. Except Kate. She was a scientific advisor who didn't carry around a gun on her. She was against violence. However, Tia wasn't.
"We are winning the war thanks to my invention." She said, frowning. "I am saving millions of lives right now. I am going to make my name for my parents, all this… is for my parents, not for me."
"Can you listen to yourself? This is not remembering them. This is just you trying to get your revenge!" He shouted.
"You don't even know what it is!" She scoffed
"The Polovox toxin. Oh, I know alright." He growled. "The Polovox poison is killing millions of people, and sooner or later, it will kill everyone on this planet. You're going to murder hundreds of innocent people in your parent's name."
"Don't be silly, no one of importance have died yet. Why do you care so much anyway?"
"No one of importance?! IMPORTANCE?!" He trembled in anger. "You think different people have different level of importance? That some people are more important than another? No." He shook his head. "This is not the Tia I met. The Tiana Gatford I met was a kind, compassionate girl. A girl who gave a piece of chocolate to a stranger who looked sad."
The Doctor held back. A few minutes of what seemed like years of deafening silence passed. The Doctor stood up, and then instantly collapsed on the ground. He clutched onto his stomach. His liver was gone and his left heart was getting slower.
"Are you okay?" She instinctively helped him up.
"I'm going to show you." He whispered in pain. "… how much destruction your Polovox toxin is going to bring to the world." He reached for a stethoscope, rather painfully, and placed the ears on Tia. He placed the end of the stethoscope on his chest. "Tell me what you hear."
"Heart arrhythmia. It's common for people… your age." She said taking the ears off.
"No. Listen closely." He said, looking fiercely into her eyes.
Tia reluctantly placed the stethoscope in her ear and listened. Her eyes widened.
Double heartbeats.
"You know about my race, don't you? The story behind the Time War? It's in every 87th century children's fairy tale." The Doctor said, coughing. It was becoming so much worse. He continued.
"Six days ago, for me, I was 'executed' for knowing too much." He said, turning on a hologram of the Navdroid he had taken a scan of with his sonic screwdriver. "This robot, was placed all around space and time from the future of your planet with a sample of your toxin to find a cure. They were so desperate because everyone started dying from the Polovox toxin. But there were no cures, at all. The Navdroids I met were on earth for almost seven thousand years, failing over and over to find an apt organic life that could produce an antitoxin. Because you're right. The person who created it was too much of a genius to leave any weaknesses for a cure."
"And that's why you've been following me. Ever since I was little." She said, half consciously, still looking at the hologram. "To stop me."
"For me, it's been six days." He said. "The Navdroids that are supposed to find an anti-toxin, recently killed two of my best friends. Well… I placed one in a cryogenic tube just before she died so if I can find a solution before I die, I could revive her." He changed the frequency of his sonic and a hologram of Clara appeared.
"Her name was Clara. She travelled with me, until the poison killed her. She was an English teacher in a high school, also had her gran and her dad to support. She saved so many people all around the universe and changed and inspired so many during her travels." He changed the slide, and showed her a hologram of Kate. "She was a scientific advisor of a military base on Earth. Much like you, only she appreciated every life and respected the aid of science. She had two children and a brother. She changed the way their military worked. Peaceful non-violent ways to counteract problems on Earth."
He looked straight into her eyes. "Look me in the eyes and say they weren't important enough. Their blood, is on your hands. … and mine will be in a day. Congratulations, you've managed to kill two very very important, innocent human beings and managed to commit genocide as well. Because of one stupid reason to serve your country."
Tia looked away, in shame. She finally realised what she had done. She sobbed. "I'm sorry, I didn't realise this would be this bad. There's nothing to stop this now. I'm sorry."
"No, it's not too late, Clara… I mean Tia. This is still in your future. You can fix the future by helping me find a cure."
"How? It's a paradox! We already know the future. It will happen, therefore it will happen regardless of my choices." She yelled. Did he just call her Clara?
"Paradoxes fix themselves. Trust me, I am the Doctor, a Time Lord from Gallifrey. And you are the biochemist, who can fix everything, like you tried to fix Polovils' disease problems." He took a syringe and drew blood from his veins. "This is very valuable, and only you are allowed to have it. My blood should have superior immunity systems and a code for regeneration. Please, help me find a cure for the sake of the future." He handed her the sample of his blood.
"Doctor, thank you for opening my eyes. I will find and create a cure… for you. I promise. I am sorry for any damage I've done to you and your friends. I am so sorry." Tia said, gently holding onto the vial of blood.
"I believe in you… Clara." Tia looked sadly at the Doctor. She knew what was happening to him. The hallucinations were probably becoming worse.
The Doctor nodded as goodbye and walked into the TARDIS. As soon as he closed the door, he blacked out from the pain he was withholding. His left heart had stopped, his body was slowly deteriorating, and he couldn't even tell a difference between Clara and Tia. Everywhere he looked he saw Clara's once smiling face, he missed the travels he had with her. "I love you Clara. I miss you."
"Doctor, I do too." Clara hugged the dying body of the Doctor. It was not far now – less than a day until the poison killed his body. He was doing so well to hide the damage of the poison. The tears fell from her face. Clara pleaded her last wish.
"Doctor, please don't die. The universe needs you. I need you."
A/N ;)