-REMEMBER ME-

PART II

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

The Lonely God

"No, no, this can't be the Doctor. That's…that is not possible."

"The Lonely God, some called Him. The Oncoming Storm, still other said he was. His name was whispered in fear upon the lips of his enemies. And he had so many. The Last of His Kind, it was said. A Hero to many, He was. Ancient and forever, burning at the center of Time. Death followed him wherever he went, and yet he was good, and kind, and brave. A savior of worlds. So many worship his name, crying it out in times of need; and yet his name is never spoken, known only to a few.

"This is all we know, this is where our history fails us. All we know is the question. All we know is the long shadow of the man, the God. Nothing is more important to us, and yet this is where we failed to record our history. Our most mysterious past, our most mysterious man, our God."

"The Doctor isn't a God," I say softly. Jexlan looks at me. "He's a man. He's an extraordinary man. The most extraordinary man I've ever met. But he's still nothing more than a man. He's not a God."

Jexlan smiles sadly.

"That is what he is to us, what he will always be to us," he says. "But he always called himself simply a traveler."

"That's the truth of it," I mutter, captivated by the man's eyes. "So this man, he's…he's the Doctor?"

"Yes."

"Not a Doctor I know," I say, though I know the moment the words leave my mouth they're not true. I do know this Doctor, better than any of the others. How do I know him?

Jexlan begins to walk away from the statue. But I linger, captured by the man's eyes. One thing the artist managed to capture so well was their incredible age. Why? Why does this man seem so familiar? Sure, he's the Doctor, but he's not a Doctor I know, not a Doctor I have seen before. An older Doctor, and yet a younger Doctor. A Doctor from the future. He shouldn't be so familiar to me, but he is. My eyes linger on the bow tie.

"Come, Clara," calls Jexlan. "There is more to see."

I tear myself away from the statue, and follow my guide.

I gasp as we turn a corner, and at what Jexlan shows me

"The box!" he says. "The blue box! It heralds his arrival. Some say it was—"

"Bigger on the inside," I finish. He looks at me, surprised. "Oh my stars," I say breathlessly.

"His magical machine."

"The TARDIS," I gasp. "How? How is this here? If this is the TARDIS than that means…"

My brain is working frantically, the gears turning at a million miles an hour, my mouth unable to keep up, though it certainly tries, piecing it all together. Yet still, so much of this puzzle doesn't make sense. The statue of the Doctor, the TARDIS… Which future Doctor? Is this the real TARDIS? When? When did you come here?

And that girl…that impossible girl.

Does it mean….

Me?

I run up to the blue box, touching it.

It's bigger than it normally is, huge, actually, larger than life…it can't be the real thing. There's a crack in the window.

As I lay my hand on it, it begins to hurt. Not noticeably, not at first, but as a high-pitched whine at the back of my head.

"The Doctor is regenerating!"

"Help him change the future, do it!"

"IF YOU WANT MY LIFE, COME AND GET IT!"

I gasp, pulling my hand away. The whine doesn't fade, but the voices do.

That's not right.

Even matching my flashes of memory or…visions…or madness…whatever they are…I know that's not right.

I place my hand on the TARDIS again.

"A thing that looks like a police box, standing in a junkyard, and it can go anywhere in time and space?"

"It's an appliance! It does the job!"

"One day, I shall come back. Yes, I shall come back."

"Ugh, you're like a guy who can't go out with a girl unless his mother approves."

"There's no point in being grown-up if you can't be childish sometimes!"

"We are in SPACE!"

"And before I go I just wanna say that you were fantastic. Absolutely fantastic."

"Time and Relative Dimension in Space!"

"Is it my name?"

"You bet it's your name!"

"Oh, I see," I say aloud. "You're speaking to me. You are the TARDIS."

"I'm a Doctor, though probably not the one you were expecting."

"What do you mean? What are you trying to say?"

"It's dead, we're in a dead time machine. Floating towards a cold star."

"The bigger on the inside starts leaking to the outside."

"When I said that's the TARDIS I don't mean it looks like the TARDIS, I mean it actually is the TARDIS."

"You're…"

"Even if I change it feels like dying. This me dies and some new man goes sauntering away."

"You're…dead? I don't understand."

"You grumpy old cow, let me in!"

"We've done this before, haven't we? Climbing through a wrecked TARDIS?"

"Amy? Amy? What's the matter with Amelia?"

"Fish fingers and custard."

"Bowties are cool."

"I don't understand!" I exclaim. "You have to explain in a way I can understand!"

The TARDIS makes a groaning sound. Jexlan jumps away, frightened.

"It's never done that before."

"You grumpy old cow, let me in!"

My voice, that's my voice it's using.

"It's …. It's smaller on the outside."

"Anywhere you want, any time you want! One condition: It has to be amazing."

"It's bigger on the inside."

"Is it? Hadn't noticed."

"You want me to go inside?" I infer.

"I suppose, if it's my last chance to say it…"

Taking this as confirmation, I tug on the doors, but they're locked.

"I don't have a key! I can't get in!"

"Well get out, then!"

"Well, rude. You are a grumpy old cow."

"No, she's all wet now! How do you ever expect her to like you?"

"Fine! Sit there and be a grumpy old cow. See if I care!"

"You are not my mother."

"And you are not my child!"

I walk away, severing the connection. I don't like that machine. Officially. If it's not even going to make an effort, than neither am I.

"I don't understand," says Jexlan.

"Well, that makes two of us," I mutter grumpily, turning back to glare at the TARDIS. "I don't understand how this can be here. And it's not cooperating with me."

The TARDIS groans at the it. I roll my eyes.

"Fine. She. She's not being very helpful. She's being a grumpy old cow."

"You…communicated with it?"

"Yes," I say. "The TARDIS is a semi-" I hurl an insult at her. "-intelligent being. She can communicate telepathically."

"I don't understand," says Jexlan.

"But how can she be here? And if she's here, than where's her Doctor?"

"I was mentally linked with Clara. If she's really dead, than how can I still be here?"

This telepathic sentence terrifies me, but the Tardis takes no notice. In fact, she takes a bit of pleasure in my being uncomfortable.

"In the sight of any living thing, they literally turn into stone."

"The Angels have the phone box."

"There's an Angel in her mind!"

"Statues, the man said. Living statues that could move in the dark."

"Statues?" I say to the TARDIS. "What are you on about, statues? I don't— oh."

"What? What is it?"

The statue. The statue of the Doctor.

"But he's not, he can't be—"

"I can't know what's stopped you talking but I can guess. The Angels are coming."

"That which holds an image of an angel, becomes itself an angel."

"Doctor, what do you know of the Weeping Angels?"

"Hello, Angels."

"Run, just run."

"Jexlan," I say. "Er—we might have a problem."

"What's that?"

"But you don't believe statues can move. And of course they can't. When you're looking."

Slowly, I turn, and Jexlan mirrors my movements.

I scream, jumping into the air and slamming back into the TARDIS.

In the hallway, is the statue of the Doctor; moved from where it was before, arms and fingers outstretched like claws, face distorted into an evil scream.

~Run you clever boy, and remember me~