Daughter Who Chapter 7 - A Bleak Planet, a doctor who fanfic

Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to Doctor Who.

Everything else and story line by me but of course they're set in the Dr. Who Universe so I still hold no rights to them.

Story takes place somewhere in the 11th Doctor Era. I hope you enjoy it!

Rating: It's perfectly safe for the whole family, like the show. So don't worry.

PART 7: A Bleak Planet

"ANNA!"

Her eyes opened, frightened, to see the Doctor worriedly reaching out to her. She had dozed off, what had happened? Looking around, she confirmed she was still imprisoned.

She grabbed frantically at his arm so he could pull her out of the cocoon. She stepped out over struggling but enduring legs.

"What are you doing, Doctor?" The voice asked all around them.

"Stopping you. Stop this now or I will do much worse," he warned, the threat in his voice not really supported by his helping Anna get steady.

She looked around, and the scene was exactly the same. She glanced down at herself and saw no glowing veins or anything. And she had the same set of clothes. That all indicated the Doctor had gotten the cocoon open pretty much immediately.

"How long was I inside?"

He looked at her in that deeply worried gaze, and told her, "don't worry, you were only inside for a few seconds."

He then pulled her over to the exit door.

"You cannot stop me, Doctor. You have tried and failed many times already."

"Yes, well, you know me..." he pointed his gadget at the door, squinting his eyes.

"I will have my chosen. I will have my prophecy. It will be done."

"You know the thing about prophecies?" He asked Anna, smiling, "they don't mean anything when they don't come from a prophet."

He slammed his hand against the door, breathed out and put his ear to the sonic screwdriver. Then something clicked, and the door slid open.

"And you," he pointed at the ceiling, "you may be timeless, but you're no a prophet. I'm serious, one last chance before I leave through that door. One last moment before I bring. You. Down!" he jerked his arm around, "one last shot to do what the Cybermen never did. What the Daleks never did. What my own people failed to do! What a lot of other extinct! Species! Never did!"

He sounded serious. Anna could tell he meant it, he wanted there to be a way out of that conflict, a non-violent way.

"Stand down…and let's work this out."

A big moment of silence seemed to stretch for minutes on end even though, in fact, it was just a few seconds. The silence indicated it was thinking, which indicated there was a chance.

If only life was that easy.

"It is prophesized, Doctor. Neither you or me or anyone can do anything about it. I will be victorious."

"Don't give me that, don't you give me that."

"Surrender yourselves to fate."

"Ha!" The Doctor shook his head in disappointment. "I was making fate surrendering to me before you were even born, Bleak. Have it your way, just remember the Doctor gave you a chance!"

The Doctor squeezed Anna's hand - she felt his anger in his grip - and walked out.

"I have locked you in a loop, Doctor," the voice said as it was left behind, "not even you can break the cycle of destiny."

"Yeah, you just watch me," he responded in a dedicated whisper.

"Where are we going?" Anna asked, "isn't the shield out there? How can we go through it, you said—"

"I can't disable it from the outside, yes, but I'm not outside right now, am I?" He winked at her, "the shield generator has to be around here somewhere."

"And if it isn't?"

"Then the energy generator has to be around here somewhere," the Doctor jested, looking at her amused, "as long as you keep moving, something will always come up, Anna."

"Do you know what it is, then? That voice?"

He looked away.

"Yes. I think I understand what's going on, now. The Bleak's actually the - wait!"

He stopped them both, to listen. They heard the stampeding steps of a bleak.

"One's coming this way, we better turn here." He took her through the corridor at their right. "Fortunately for us, there aren't many bleaks left."

"What? Why, weren't there a lot of them? I remember there being an entire army here."

"We're a bit further into the future. After I crippled them," the Doctor told her, "ironic, really, I took you back to your house a few days ago. To think we were here while I was…hm!"

He suddenly stopped, looking inside a door. "What's that?"

The Doctor led her into the room, employing a conservative amount of silence and caution. It was dim-lit with the ever present purplish hue, but a Bleak was soon to appear, creating a shadow against the wall. The Doctor crouched, making her crouch as well while motioning for silence.

He looked at the scenery with interest, thinking. The farthest wall had a big panel across it, and though it had no buttons or levers or dials, it did sport cables and metallic bulges, and more notably, it was glowing much brighter.

The Doctor nodded and pointed the sonic screwdriver at the Bleak.

A moment later, it was lying on its back, debilitated. The Doctor was on the panel.

"Hm, yes, this is definitely something important."

"Doctor, what is it? That voice? What did you figure out? What did it read as when you scanned it that shocked you so much?"

"It read alive," he explained, "the walls, the ceilings, the floors…they all have life signs."

"Why is that so impressive?"

"Because they're the same readings I get from stars, Anna," he said, listening to the screwdriver as it squeaked at the panel. Even while absent-mindedly explaining things, he still sounded marveled. "I once encountered a cosmic conscience that stole its way into my Tardis. I think it lived inside a planet, this is sort of like that. But that was in another…in another place, outside this universe. And this is a star, I-"

He pulled away, listened to the air, and then jerked back in.

"Sorry, thought I heard something coming. We can definitely shut off the shields from here," the Doctor told her, "the real mechanism is in another place, but everything's connected so if I can…connect with the feed." He pulled back and stared it down, breathing tiredly, "come on, you bugger," he pleaded, annoyed, "come onnn…ah, ok ok, yes yes yeees…" He closed his eyes, focusing.

"Yes, got it! The shield's down, let's hurry."

He ran off, with her tagging along behind him.

"So this whole thing is alive?!"

"No, I've been wrong all this time. I've thought the machines were alive, but it turns out they just contain it. Powered by life, but not actually alive."

She tried to wrap her brain around the concept, and ended up with tangled thoughts.

"What…what's the difference? What does that mean?"

"It means I know what's happening, and now we can fight it. But first, we have to escape."

She didn't want to say anything more after that, afraid to waste breath now that she was tired. As they ran, her mind raced to keep up with what was happening. Trying to find understanding.

Previously, the Doctor had only been able to defeat the Bleaks by attacking outside of the shield. But now they were inside.

"Doctor!" She called out, stopping.

"What're you doing, Anna, we don't have time to be stopping."

"No..uff…listen to me. We can end it here, let's just find the heart of the thing."

The Doctor looked at Anna with a hint of pity in his eyes.

He blinked it away in an instant, "it has no heart, Anna, it doesn't work like that. Trust me, there's nothing we can do to kill it here. Now follow me."

Anna frowned, ashamed. "Oh, sorry," and ran to keep up.

They exited the facility from where they had come from, having met with no bleak besides the one from before, who had been guarding the door.

Running towards the Tardis, they had to stop so the Doctor aimed the sonic screwdriver and checked to see if the shield really was gone.

"Brilliant," he exclaimed, putting the gadget away.

They headed forward, towards the Tardis. There, waiting next to it, was a person. Her figure was visible as a blot next to the blue police box, but as they approached, the figure of a woman became discernible.

"Oh bolloooocks. What is she doing here?!"

Approaching, she saw it was a strong-looking woman, with curly light brown hair, gray eyes, and a cunning smile. She was dressed in a one piece black dress. The Doctor skipped to stand in front of her, notably displeased.

"What are you doing here?!"

"Oh, I was in the neighborhood."

"I told you—"

"It's nice to see you too, love," she interrupted him, approaching him suggestively. He backed away and spun around her, avoiding her touch.

"This isn't the time for that."

"Oh come now, it's always the time for that."

And that made the moment awkward enough for Annabella to feel the need to intrude.

"Who is she?"

She looked at Annabella, smiling at her, with a look as alive and intriguing as the Doctors', only less… lawful. Anna felt as though she liked taking risks and could very easily endanger their lives.

"River Song, dear. You can call me River. And you?"

"You know who she is," the Doctor complained, a bit judgmental all while opening the door to the Tardis, "come on, get in, both of you."

"Ah, as I expected, this place is about to go boom, right?"

"No," the Doctor stated, "that would serve no point. Get in."

"What do you mean?" River asked, confused. Annabella could understand the confusion, she herself had thought it a good opportunity, but alas…

"Look, I'll explain inside, alright?! Just please stop arguing and do what the Doctor says. Get inside."

"Well, fine then," she took a small device from the middle of her cleavage, smiled at the Doctor, and pressed a button on it.

"Yes? I've got a ride out, apparently. Feel free to leave."

After a moment of silence, she laughed, lightly, and added, "the antidote is in your cargo bay, darling, in the blue box," she winked at the Doctor, "nice working with you. Tata…"

She released the button and waved the Doctor along.

"You're so infuriating," the Doctor complained as they went inside.

"What? I thought you'd manage to beat the Bleaks here, I wanted to surprise you with how much faith I have in you. But guess this wasn't one of those days."

"It rarely is…" the Doctor sighed, looking at Annabella.

The door closed behind them.

"Here's what happened, Anna. I thought this was impossible, but it's the only explanation…" he massaged his nose, "we're dealing with a planetary conscience. Bleak is the planet, and I'm thinking he, she…is regarded as godly by the Bleaks. So it was alive, but it was destroyed. You know how the stars you see might have died millions of years ago? It just takes the light longer to reach you?"

Annabella nodded.

"This is like that. This is living energy, the essence of a planet's core, but disembodied. It used some kind of…energy channeling, or morphing technology. Turned most of itself to light and sent it off to mingle with star rays. The light would then arrive at a receptacle, a living being that received starlight. Humans do that through their eyes: the visual spectrum. Every race the Bleaks attacked had that trait in common: they only see in the visual spectrum."

"Even considering everything we've gone through…" River put in, "that sounds like science fiction to me."

"Yes, fascinating, isn't it? That we can still find things we don't understand!" His giddiness made River giggle, and that small interaction really relaxed Anna a whole lot.

"However it managed to do it, there's no denying that the machines are imbued with a living, existing conscience. 'I think therefore I exist'…ha," he jested, smiling at his own cleverness. "But it's true, we can't kill it because it's pure energy. As to the prophecy, it probably told it to the Bleaks itself, knowing what it had done."

"I…I caught the rays," Annabella pointed out, "it's inside me, isn't it?"

"Yes, but it's fine as long as it's not stimulated to connect to the conscience. Energy is just energy. It's will that makes it life."

"Which is what the cocoon was for, huh?"

"Right," he said, looking sad. "I'm sorry Anna."

She felt like the unluckiest person in the world. Or in the several worlds that were getting light from that star system.

Rays of light had crossed half the cosmos waiting to be seen by anyone, and they had landed right in her eyes. She closed them now, massaging them with both her hands. How cursed could she be for something like that to happen? She was trying not to cry when she felt the Doctor's hands on her shoulders.

She looked back at him, on the verge of tearing.

"It's okay, Anna, we will fix this. I promise you, there is always a way out."

He smiled hopefully at her, nudging his head in to ask, "yeah?"

She sniffed. His confidence was intoxicating, she found herself cracking a light smile. "Yeah?" He asked again, smiling with his lips wide and funny.

"Yeah," she agreed, unable not to smile back.

"Brilliant!" He patted her on the shoulders, opening and closing his arms, "let's really get out of here, though, it's quite dangerous right now." He moved to again interface with the levers and buttons.

"What's the plan now?" River asked.

"First, we'll get you back on Earth so you can find what I prescribed you. At least some good will come from you wasting your time to come to me."

River scoffed in complaint, holding her hips in a snotty manner.

"Your prescription, is it? Don't you think it's unfair of you to ask that of me? Why don't you get your hands dirty, huh?!" River had started playfully, but at the end, she seemed quite hurt. The Doctor seemed to sense it too, immediately skipping back to River.

"I would, I really would…but I can't," he said, sad, "I'm dealing with this right now, Anna needs me."

"You hypocrite," River stung, angry, but Annabella felt special. She felt safe to see such dedication from the Doctor. In a way, it was the kindest thing she'd ever heard or seen out of anyone.

"I wouldn't even dirty anybody's hands if I could," he said, looking down, "but it really is the only way, River. I'm counting on you. I depend on you. The universe depends…"

He broke off and they stared at each other like lovers with a grudge. Him asking to be forgiven, she not knowing how to do it. They were as if communicating telepathically.

"You know me…" he slowly and passionately stated, "you. Know. Me. I would—"

She moved her hand and touched his lips, looking sweetly at him. "I know, sweetie…I know. I'll…do what you ask. I'll trust you, so you can trust me."

He hugged her, deeply, and it looked more like he was still apologizing rather than giving or seeking comfort. Then he stepped back, smiling happily like nothing ever happened.

He looked at Annabella and raised his eyebrows twice, suggesting excitement was abound, and then moved back to the controls.

"Right then, no time to lose, we have a bleak universe to enlighten, yeah?" he looked back with a giddy smile, and they couldn't help but smile back, exchanging glances as if agreeing there was no way to stay mad at him. To not expect the best outcome of whatever would come next.

"Next stop, Earth."

Part End: Thank you for reading, please consider leaving a review if you have the time.

Oh boy! Things are so tense, huh? Next up, plot thickens even more, let's keep it up!

Also don't worry, the story is fully written. I'm doing all updates during this next week to compensate for my away time, and wrapping it up.