Daughter Who Chapter 8 - A Bad Day, 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 8: A Bad Day

Their hug seemed like it took forever. There was obviously something going on between them, Annabella was sure of it.

"Good luck, love."

"Stay strong, River…I trust your judgment to see it my way."

River opened her eyes, knowingly, but then saddened again. She looked at Annabella.

"Goodbye, Anna dear. Take care of my Doctor."

"Ha," Annabella nervously chuckled, "it's more the other way around."

River looked sadly, before forcing a smile, "well, take care of each other. Ta ta…" and like that, she walked out.

The Doctor closed the door behind her and then stood with both hands leaned against it. After a few seconds, he lightly head-butted the door.

Annabella was about to ask what was the tension all about but he beat her to it.

"We have two choices, as I see it."

"What are they?"

He was still with his forehead on the door, talking down and back at her.

"We go to the future and take down the Empress. Or we stop the Empress from ever existing, by keeping you from being converted."

"So…fight or run?"

"Not exactly," he said, turning around, "you're carrying most of the Bleak's life within you. And after the beating I gave it, it will last… years, until it runs out of juice. Especially while running that shield of theirs."

She nodded and he turned around to look at her.

"Unfortunately, since time-travel is a factor, we can't just wait it out. It will take until you die for it to be over, and that's no life to live."

"So…I'm the heart?" She asked, to the point. The Doctor scoffed a smile and walked towards her, as she rambled, "I don't just have most of the Bleak's life energy, do I? I am like its heart? It needs me to survive."

He grabbed her shoulders and approached his face to her.

"You're too smart for your own good," he poked her nose and then grinned, "we have to take down the empress. She's the Bleak, if we destroy her in a manner that won't allow her to launch her life energy into space again, it'll be the end of it."

"But how will we do it? We've always failed, right?"

"Oh c'mon, now!" He leaped into the controls, "part of the fun's figuring it out!" He started up the ship, which rumbled and trembled as ever. "Next stop, three thousand years from now! We're going to fight an empire."

Annabella looked at the Doctor with a dumbfounded look, he just grinned back. "Exciting, isn't it?" He pulled a lever, and she was pulled towards the controls by the movement of the ship.

"Woohoo, you go girl!"

But as they went, she wondered, if her death could save so many many lives…why didn't the Doctor consider it?

"Doctor," she called out.

"Yes, Anna?"

"If my death can—"

"It can't," the Doctor immediately said, shaking his head. "If you die, that won't kill the empress, because they can also time travel. They can stop me from killing you, stop me from picking you up or even meeting you. And then it's the game all over again. So instead, we stop…'they', and then we go back and stop the Bleak while it's still weak.

"First the future, then the past. That way, we'll end it."

"This time-travelling thing really boggles the mind, Doctor," Annabella complained, massaging her forehead. "Then what about the other alternative, waiting for me to die?"

The Doctor looked confused for a second as if trying to recuperate a memory.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, if me dying doesn't work, then how can my natural death by old age ensure that we escaped?"

"Ah. Yes, that. Good point, I was wrong then, even if you died, that wouldn't help at all, though probably you'd just vanish."

"Vanish?"

"Cease to exist. In place of the version of you that the Empress would go fetch. That's how this all began, remember?"

"But wait…I still don't understand something. Isn't it a paradox for her and me to interact? Doesn't that have, like, repercussions?"

The Doctor looked at her, sort of scared. He then looked a bit sad, as if he didn't want to tell her. But still, he told her, "that's not you," the Doctor blurted out, gesturing frustration.

"Converted is just another way of saying transformed, and your meat is just that, meat. They kill you by extinguishing your life energy. Normally that would lead to your mind also expiring, but the Bleak life energy takes the place of yours."

"…the brain is still mine," Annabella repeated, as an explanation to why the Empress knew everything she knew.

"When all's said and done, it's just a data bank." The Doctor stated, looking at the console, "your memory and personality and feelings are still there, but they're now a small part of it, instead of it all. So it's not a paradox because even though on the outside you're the same, the universe can tell you apart. You look the same, but you really aren't."

"Like identical twins," Annabella again added, sitting down on a step. "I think I get it. But still, the Bleak's life energy is inside me, right, so shouldn't we-"

"Part of it," the Doctor corrected. "The Empress represents the Bleak existence in body form. As in all of it, without none of you, so she's still different from you. As far as space-time is concerned at least - I mean, keep in mind I'm just guessing at an explanation that fits.

"Guessing?" Annabella questioned, almost laughing.

"Well, I'll have you know little of the universe's inner workings are really known, Anna, or all that solidly established. Just because you called them Laws, and write about them, doesn't mean they can't be bent and broken based on some loose loopholes."

Annabella chuckled and let silence settle. She couldn't think of anything else to say.

Her head was ringing, trying to wrap itself around the concepts that were being introduced, so she could be of some use. She thought and considered on these ideas, and how she could contribute to thinking about a plan on the larger scale, on beating the time loop in which she became the Empress. She didn't really keep track of the passage of time.

"We're arriving," the Doctor commented,

Upon landing, the Doctor took the lead as soon as they reached the door to exit the Tardis. He opened the door, looked around, and upon not seeing anything, he waved Anna to follow him. But before they left, he closed the door again and looked to the side in thought.

"Doc—"

"Anna," he looked at her, "no matter what happens in there, no matter who says what or what happens to who,, you need to remember this. Is not. Your fault. You're a brilliant, just a brilliant young lady, so you also know what's at stake here. Please," he urged her, "never undervalue yourself again. And whatever happens in there, know that I did my best."

"I know that," she nodded, and it was her smiling for once, "I trust you, Doctor."

He giggled, nervously, looking aside. He looked back at her and bowed to touch her forehead with his. He sighed and stayed there for what was a very awkward minute. She really wasn't used to such physical intimacies. "Thank you, Anna. Thank you."

He turned and opened the door, exiting. She followed, yet a bit dumbfounded at what that had been about.

The door closed behind them.

"Shouldn't we be carrying weapons?"

"No no," the Doctor answered, "I don't do weapons. Besides, none would do the trick. We're going to take over this ship."

She thought for a second. Weapons wouldn't work because they need to keep the Empress from sending away her life energy again. But taking over the ship would…? She looked around, checking out the corridor they were in.

"This is their Mothership, isn't it?"

He looked back at her, impressed. She had only seen corridors, but they all looked the same and, more particularly, like the ones inside the structure inside the shield. His look gave her courage to venture further on her own guessing work.

"The shield: it's not switched on, is it? They switch off so they can launch their campaign. You want to turn it on, and then kill her."

He actually stopped walking and glared at Annabella very proudly.

"You are pretty brilliant. Exactly, yes and indeed! The shield will keep her life energy from escaping so she's keeping it off because, well, she already has an entire army to protect her, so it's better to be able to escape than to try and keep her enemies out. Especially when she just has the one," he grinned proudly.

"So we turn on the shield, and then what? How do we find her? How do we take her down?"

The Doctor shrugged and shook his head, giggling. "It's a process, Anna, let's take it by steps."

They moved carefully. This time, they knew where to go, but there were a lot more guards. The Doctor was forced to take down three, while they managed to avoid all the others. Annabella's heart was racing, her skin increasingly sweaty, not only from the physical effort but from the emotional pressure of running around trying to maintain stealth.

They were perpetually just inches off a bleak's view.

After a few minutes running around, the voice of the Empress sounded in the intercom.

"My children…this. Is our age!" Her voice was being carried, she imagined, echoed and repeated all over the ship. "When both the universe and fate will darken, and turn bleak."

She heard mechanical yells, surging from the corridors, and her heart skipped a beat. The Doctor grabbed her hand and looked at her with a warning gaze.

"Just don't stop. Come on." He kept going, while she talked.

"While they all wait and worry about the silence that will fall, we will rise from the light!"

Yelling surged out, and as they crossed an intersection, Annabella witnessed one of the Bleaks. He was standing still, looking at the ceiling.

"We will conquer! We will spread! We will convert until all is naught but a manifested bleak existence! Which will not! Fall! To silence!"

More yelling sounded out as they approached the entrance to the room they had infiltrated in the past. It felt like she had been there not half an hour beforehand. Time-travel was crazy.

The Doctor's grip tightened and Annabella could feel it was warm, not to mention sweaty as well, which made her feel better about her own state of concern. He was equally worried, though more focused. He looked back, afraid someone was noticing them from behind and she saw him lick his lips in thought.

"Many will defy us. But none shall stop us. Not even the legendary Doctor."

They turned and looked inside the room, to see three Bleaks, who stood with their backs turned to the door. In front of them stood the Empress, hands over the same panel the Doctor had hacked in the past, and thus also with her back turned to them.

The Doctor let out air to relieve tension, and stepped into view, allowing Annabella to also approach and look inside.

"Who has fallen into our hands, to deliver to us our hope, and with it, his life," the Empress turned around, leaving one hand on the panel, and knowingly and victoriously smiled at their leaning gazes, adding "just as it has always been..."

The bleaks turned around, and they both opened their eyes in fright.

"Get them."

The Doctor side-stepped, pushing Annabella to do the same. Two of the bleaks broke through the walls, on each side of the door, crashing against the wall that came after, and one did the same, but through the door entrance.

The Doctor pointed his screwdriver and made it beep thrice, catching and downing the bleaks one by one, as they pushed themselves off and turned to face them. The last one fell forward just before he managed to make the leap.

All the while, the Doctor had his arm stretched out to protect Annabella, and carefully stepped backward as the flowing dress of the Empress came into view.

She turned and faced them.

"I have bleaks covering your Tardis," she told him, suggestively walking towards him, "bleaks covering this entire section," she approached, getting closer and closer, until she was right on top of him. "You're trapped, and your only way out is to take me down right here, right now…"

She looked him in the eye, daring him to make a move. Or about to kiss him, it was a bit hard to tell, in all honesty.

He looked back, challenging and persisting, arm still raised in front of Annabella.

"So…what do you say to that...Doctor?"

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.