Hey everyone! It's spring break! It's a needed holiday for me, even if I am still posting chapters... but eh, writing this is fun so I can't say it's work. This chapter made me cry a million times over :'( Oh Reinette... Anways, I hope you enjoy and all of that!
(Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor who! I only own my OC, Phoenix.)
"I could've danced all night, I could've danced all night!" The Doctor started singing as they get onto the ship, swaying left and right, and acting drunk. Phoenix giggled slightly, blinking a couple times as her vision started to get fuzzy.
The Doctor had his tie around his head, and he was wearing a pair of those weird 70's glasses that made him just plan look weird. Phoenix hadn't really changed of her outfit however, just pretended to keep tripping on her dress a lot. They were both carrying glasses, but Phoenix's was filled with wine while the Doctor's was filled with Multigrain-oil.
"They called him the…. They called him the…the…" Phoenix heard Rose start, but fall off because of the extremely loud and silly singing.
They both finally stumble into sight of Rose and Mickey, who were strapped to surgical looking tables and had blades pointed at their throats. Well, least you could do is kill them slowly first, then take the parts you need!
"And I still have begged for more. I could've spread my wings and done a thou. Have you met the French? My god, they know how to party." The Doctor said, grinning like the idiot he is. Phoenix giggled slightly as she leaned on him.
"Oh, look at what the cat dragged in. The Oncoming Storm and Phoenix." Rose growled, rolling her eyes at them.
"Oh, you sound just like your mother." Phoenix said to Rose, rolling her eyes at her. She didn't have to spoil the fun!
"What've you been doing? Where've you been?" Rose asked frantically. It might have had something to do with the blade next to her throat…
Phoenix stopped leaning on the Doctor and stumbled to a crate to sit down. She sighed as she started to watch the play in front of her instead of acting in it. Which meant, drunk acting gone.
"Well, among other things, I think I just invented the banana daiquiri a few centuries early. Do you know, they've never ever seen a banana before? Always take a banana to a party, Rose. Bananas are good." The Doctor said to Rose, then stumbled over to the androids. "Oh ho, ho, ho, ho, brilliant! It's you! You're my favorite, you are. Do you know why? Because you're so thick. You're mister thick thick thickity thick face from thicktown, thickania. And so's your dad. Do you know what they were scanning Reinette's brain for? Her milometer. They want to know how old she is. Know why? Because this ship is thirty seven years old, and they think that when Reinette is thirty seven, when she's complete, then her brain will be compatible. So, that's what you're missing, isn't it, hmm? Command circuit. Your computer. Your ship needs a brain. And for some reason, God knows what, only the brain of Madame de Pompadour will do."
"The brain is compatible." One droid says in monotone robotic voice.
"Compatible? If you believe that, you probably believe this is a glass of wine." The Doctor said cockily, and then poured the liquid onto the Droid's head. The droid started to spark and twitch, until it fell down to the ground with a big 'thump'.
"Multigrain anti-oil. If it moves, it doesn't." The Doctor said, not acting drunk anymore. Phoenix was still slightly tipsy however, she actually did have wine.
The Doctor looked around, soon finding the lever to switch off all the droids, and pulling it down. The droids, well, turned off.
"Right, you two, that's enough lying about. Time we got the rest of the ship turned off." The Doctor said, using his sonic screwdriver on the handcuffs holding them onto the table, releasing them.
Phoenix stood up from the spot she was sitting, and staggered a bit, but then stood up straighter and followed the Doctor around, occasionally softly tripping.
"What about Phoenix? She's still acting drunk." Rose asked the Doctor, eyeing Phoenix weirdly.
Phoenix rolled her eyes at Rose's antics. "I'm actually a bit tipsy. But it isn't anything to worry about. I'm fine." She said, grinning.
"Are those things safe?" Mickey asked, eyeing the droids that had shut down only moments before.
"Yeah. Safe. Safe and thick, way I like them. Okay. All the time windows are controlled from here. I need to close them all down. Zeus plugs. Where are my Zeus plugs? I had them a minute ago. You saw them Phoenix! I was using them a castanets." The Doctor exclaimed, basically turning his pockets inside-out looking for the plugs.
"You gave them to some prince I think." Phoenix said, waving it off.
"What didn't they just open a time window to when she was thirty seven?" Rose asked, confused as to why they didn't use the shorter path.
The Doctor started working on the machinery right then, trying to close the time windows. "With the amount of damage to these circuits, they did well to hit the right century. Trial and error after that. The windows aren't closing. Why won't they close?" The Doctor rants, frustrated with the stupid machinery.
"Person in the field." Phoenix muttered under her breath, her lips curling up in the slightest. But then, a bell dings loudly in the room, making Phoenix cringe. After… previous events, her hearing had become quite sensitive. She covered her ears at the loud noise, as it probably was about 100X louder for her than the others.
The Doctor quickly walked over to Phoenix, seeing her in pain. "You okay?" He questioned, worry in his words.
"Sensitive…hearing…Van…Statten…" Phoenix managed to get out, a bit louder than intentional.
His face flickered with pain and anger, then returned back to normal, and he said, "I'm so, so sorry about that."
"It's not your fault. It's time's fault." Phoenix said, looking into his eyes with sternness. She really didn't need him blaming himself more than usual. He didn't need to blame himself at all, yet he did anyways.
"What was that ringing?" Rose asked after a few seconds of silence between all four of them.
The Doctor turned toward Rose, his mask put back up properly like always. "I don't know. Incoming message?" He said, absentmindedly.
"From who?" Mickey questioned, confused in the slightest.
"Report from the field. One of them is still out there with Reinette. That's why the windows can't close. There's an override." Phoenix explained, finally getting her mask back on too.
But then, the first android, the one that had the oil spilled on it, reactivated and expelled the anti-oil out through its fingers and onto the floor.
"Well, that was a bit clever." The Doctor said, staring at the droid with a frown. Randomly, the lever that controlled the droids switched on again, reactivating the other droids too.
"Right. Many things about this are not good." The Doctor said as the four time-travelers backed up slowly, not wanting to get killed by the droids. Then, another dinging echoed through the room, making Phoenix cringe yet again.
The Doctor glanced worriedly at Phoenix, but said to the droids, "Message from one of your little friends? Anything interesting?"
"She is complete. It beings." One of the droids said, and then all press some button on their robotic wrists, teleporting them away to a point in Reinette's time stream.
"What's happening?" Rose questioned, eyes wide.
"One of them must have found the right time window. Now it's time to send in the troops. And this time, they're bringing back her head." The Doctor said.
Phoenix frowned deeply, and sadness poured into her eyes. She really did love Reinette, like a little sister sort of. She had lived with her for seven months for God's sake!
And then, the screams began, echoing through the corridors of the ship, making a tear slip down Phoenix's cheek.
It was time.
Helping the Doctor save a girl through a time window is defiantly not easy. At all. The hardest part is his rambling.
"So if I insert (Enter random technological thing) into the (another technological thing) it should power up the (insert another technological thing) so we can get through the time window. BUT…"
At that point, Phoenix was sitting on the ground, back on the Tardis, humming the song 'The sound of Drums' by Chameleon Circuit, while The Doctor did all of his technological babble. Oh, and it had been twenty minutes since he had started to do that by then.
Phoenix was seriously questioning why she hadn't gone with Rose in the first place at this point.
She glanced around, seeing if there was anything semi-soft to throw at the Doctor to make him shut up. But he still have to get the link set up and… Phoenix banged her head against the Tardis. Make it stop!
Finally, Rose comes running into the room with loud pants as she had probably ran a long way. Thank god for Rose though.
"You found it then?" Rose questioned as Mickey ran up behind her.
"They knew I was coming. They blocked it off." The Doctor said, frowning a bit.
The ballroom suddenly became visible from a large screen in the bulkhead, letting them watch people scream and possibly die from here too!
"I don't get it. How come they got in there?" Rose asked, raising an eyebrow.
"They teleported. You saw them. As long as the ship and the ballroom are linked, their short range teleports will do the trick." The Doctor explained, still fiddling with the buttons, levers, and wires.
"Well, we'll go in the Tardis!" Rose exclaimed, thinking it was a brilliant idea. It would be, if it didn't rip a hole in the fabric of time and space!
"We can't use the Tardis. We're part of events." Phoenix said from her corner with the Tardis.
"Well, can't we just smash through?" Mickey questioned, raising an eyebrow. Phoenix smirked.
"Great idea, let's get a truck and smash the glass getting seven years of bad luck! I'll be right back, I'm getting the truck." Phoenix said, walking into the corridors of the ship to go get the horse.
She wandered a bit, looking for that bit of pure white signaling the horse was near. But instead, she came to a window in Reinette's time line where she was crying over the loss of her friend. Her sobs almost reduced Phoenix to tears, but she stayed strong. What would the Doctor think if she came back with a tear-stained face?
Phoenix could hear Reinette's words though. "I'm sorry. I'm so so sorry. Please come back. You were the only friend I had beside Phoenix, but no one knew about her. Please." Reinette begged the dead body to come back alive.
Phoenix couldn't handle it anymore and she slowly slipped through the curtain that hid the ship, and she walked over to Reinette, kneeling down beside her. Reinette glanced over and noticed Phoenix, then gasped and wrapped her arms around the time-traveler, pulling her into a bone crushing hug. Phoenix laughed softly, smiling at Reinette's antics.
"Look Reinette, I haven't got much time. But I want to say, I'm so sorry your friend died. I know she was important to you. Friends are like that. But it's ok, there's always that point where you get new friends. Just don't forget her, alright?" Phoenix told her, slowly unwrapping Reinette's arms from her own body.
Reinette nodded, and Phoenix smiled briefly before disappearing back behind the curtain that she came from. As soon as she did that though, she noticed in front of her was Arthur the horse. Phoenix smirked, and swung up onto the horse, slowly riding him through the corridors back to the main area where the Doctor, Rose, and Mickey were.
"Anybody need a horse?" Phoenix questioned as she rode into the main room, smirking.
The Doctor smirks, walking up to the horse and swinging on in front of Phoenix, making her jump slightly. The horse immediately started running, so Phoenix had to hold around The Doctor's waist to stay on, making her face blush very very hard.
The horse runs through the time window, and glass shatters all around them as they gallop into the ballroom where the people were all standing, looking terrified. And then Reinette, she was kneeling on the ground with blades of the droids pointed at her neck.
"Madame de Pompadour. You look younger every day." The Doctor said as they gallop around the droids.
"What the hell is going on?" The king of France exclaimed, eyes wide.
"Oh. This is my lover, the King of France." Reintte said plainly. Phoenix giggled behind her hand a bit.
"Yeah? Well, I'm the Lord of Time, and I'm here to fix he clock." The Doctor said, and both he and Phoenix jumped off the horse in front of Reinette. The Doctor frowned slightly at the broken glass and the brick wall where the time window used to be. But then he turns back, and pulls off the mask of the main android.
"Forget it. It's over. For you and for us. Talk about seven years bad luck. Try three thousand." The Doctor said, frowning deeply.
"The link with the ship is broken. There isn't a way back. You don't have the parts. How much longer do you have? How many more ticks? A day or a minute? Face it, we're not winding you up." Phoenix said deeply, eyebrows furrowed at the android.
The androids then all wind down slowly. One of them falls and breaks into millions of pieces.
"What's happened to them?" Reinette questioned, slowly standing up from her position on the floor.
"They've stopped. They have no purpose now." Phoenix said, staring at them.
Later, Phoenix, Reinette, and The Doctor stare through a window, up at the twinkling night sky. Of course, stars didn't twinkle, but it was nice to imagine.
Phoenix placed her hand on the glass separating her from the infinite universe just right outside. It had been a bit over a year since she had really been up there, exploring the universe and enjoying life. She had been stuck on earth, stuck on the slow path. Phoenix wasn't sure she could ever truly go back to that kind of life. If she ever jumped through all of the Doctor's adventures, she wasn't exactly sure what would happen. She just couldn't go back to a normal life. A domestic life. It wouldn't work anymore.
But, most of the time, the time-jumpers never really got through the Doctor's timeline. They always died, or sent back to the other universe. What if that happened to her? She really begged with all her that it wouldn't. It would be the end of her. Even if she was returned to her family, her life would be over. There wasn't any going back after doing this kind of thing. God knows how Martha just kind of up and left the Tardis!
""It's a pity. I think I would've enjoyed the slow path." Phoenix heard Reinette say, interrupting her depressing thoughts.
"Well, we're not going anywhere." Phoenix said, shrugging her shoulders. She knew they were actually going somewhere, but eh, stealing lines seemed fun.
"Follow me." Reinette said, hitching up her skirt slightly and walking swiftly down one of the corridors. The Doctor gave me a confused look, but we both followed her anyways.
"It's not a copy, it's the original. I had it moved here and was exact in every detail." Reinette said, smiling slightly at the pair inspecting the fireplace.
"The fireplace. The fireplace from your bedroom. When did you do this?" The Doctor questioned, running his fingers lightly over the mantle.
"Many years ago, in hope that a door once opened, may someday open again. One never quite knows when one needs one's Doctor or Phoenix. It appears undamaged. Do you think it will still work?" Reinette asked, tilting her head slightly in question.
"You broke the bond with the ship when you moved it, which means it was offline when the mirror broke. That's what saved it. But the link is basically physical, and it's still physically here. Which might just mean, if we're lucky… If we're very, very, very, very, very lucky…" The Doctor rambles, tapping different points of the fireplace. He eventually taps one point that makes a hollow sound, unlike the rest.
"Ah ha!" The Doctor exclaims, tapping it a few more times.
"What?" Reinette questions, wide eyed.
"Loose connection." The Doctor said, pulling out his sonic screwdriver and scans the weak spot on the fireplace.
"Need to get a man in." The Doctor mumbled, and he thumped the fireplace, making it clunk.
"Wish me luck!" He said excitedly.
"No." Reinette said gloomily, looking sadly at the Doctor. His face drops, but the fireplace turns anyways, leaving Phoenix behind.
"Madame de Pompadour! Still want to see those stars?" The Doctor called through the fireplace.
Reinette squatted down in front of it. "More than anything." She said, hope sparkling in her eyes.
"Give me two minutes. Pack a bag." The Doctor said, grinning.
"Am I going somewhere?" Reinette questioned, a smile slowly creeping up onto her lips.
"Go to the window. Pick a star, any star." The Doctor said, smiling brightly. Reinette stood up and ran out of the room, going to the window they had been at only minutes before. Then the Doctor turned to Phoenix.
"Oh, Phoenix, I'll pick you up when I pick Reinette up." He said excitedly, standing up and walking away giddily.
Phoenix smiled brightly, but her eyes betrayed the sadness in her heart. She heard footsteps, and turned around, seeing Reinette had returned to the room.
Phoenix stared at her sadly, her smile dropping from her face, then she couldn't take it anymore and walked up and hugged her. Reinette hugged back rather hesitantly.
"Why are you hugging me, may I ask?" Reinette questioned as the two broke apart.
"Because this is the last time you will see me or the Doctor. I'm so, so sorry." Phoenix said, holding back tears that threatened to fall.
"How come? I could travel with you two!" Reinette exclaimed, the hope lost in her eyes.
"It isn't meant to be. I'm sorry. The next time the Doctor walks through that fireplace is after you have died." Phoenix said, a few tears falling down her cheeks. Reinette had been her best friend, her only friend actually, for seven months.
Reinette's face dropped, a tears rolling down her cheek. Phoenix pulled her into a hug again.
"I will never, ever, forget the times we had. They will always stay in my heart, wherever I do. And I do hope I stay in yours. Maybe I do meet you again in my future. You already know about time travel, of course. I hope I do get to visit. But The Doctor won't get the chance." Phoenix whispered into her ear sadly, more tears slipping down her cheek.
They break apart, and Reinette sadly nodded, getting Phoenix's point. They hug one more time, before Phoenix parted, rotating the fireplace to the cold metal ship on the other side instead of the glowing, fantastic mansion back where Reinette had been.
"Go get her. I'll be in the Tardis." Phoenix said as she arrived on the other side, fake cheerfulness in her voice. The Doctor eyed her suspiciously, sensing something wrong.
"Are you ok?" He questioned, raising one eyebrow.
Phoenix nodded, not trusting words at the moment, else a sob broke out. She didn't want the Doctor to know at the moment, because he was supposed to get the letter.
The Doctor still eyed her, but he nodded, taking her word, and stepped onto the fireplace, turning it to the other side where the gloomy day of Reinette's death lay.
Phoenix stumbled to the Tardis, eyesight blurred by the tears in her eyes. The Tardis door creaked open, making Rose and Mickey turn their heads to watch Phoenix find her way in.
"Phoenix?" Rose questioned, but got no reply. Phoenix instead just wobbled over to the captain's chair and sat down, staring off into space with a broken look in her eye. Reinette had been her only friend for seven months, but she hadn't gotten to know her as well as she had wished. Of course she was bound to be upset about Reinette's death.
The Tardis door creaked open again, though Phoenix payed no attention to anything around her, and the Doctor walked in, looking just as broken as Phoenix. Witnessing the deaths of their friends did that to people.
There was silence for a long while, The Doctor just leaning on the console, Phoenix still staring out into space, and then Rose and Mickey looking worriedly at the two. But then, Rose asked, "Why her? Why did they think they could repair the ship with the head of Madame de Pompadour?"
"We'll probably never knew. There was massive damage in the computer memory banks. It probably got confused. The Tardis can close down the time windows now the droids are gone. Should stop it causing any more trouble." The Doctor said sadly.
"SS Madame De Pompadour." Phoenix said suddenly, making the other three turn to look at her.
"Huh?" Rose looked at Phoenix, confused.
"The ship. It's called SS Madame De Pompadour." Phoenix said, her voice completely devoid of emotion, surprising even the Timelord.
The four stayed silent for a while, three of them letting the newly learned information sink in. Then the Doctor interrupted the sad silence.
"Oh, Reinette left you a letter." He said, passing Phoenix a letter that looked slightly old. Phoenix reached out and grabbed it, then stood up and walked off into the corridors of the Tardis, going to find her bedroom.
Eventually entering her bedroom, Phoenix sat on her bed, staring at the letter before her. Should she read it? Reinette would want her to.
She slowly peeled off the seal and pulled the letter out, unfolding it. Phoenix read the letter, her eyes filling more with sadness as the seconds passed by.
My Dearest Phoenix,
You were right in saying you visit, but the Doctor does not. I can tell though, this is a future version of you. Your eyes look older and your hair is at different lengths and has different colors each time. I do miss younger you, even if the versions visiting me are the same. There is something different about older you, like you have seen horrible conflict and war. It makes you more reserved and kept inside yourself sometimes when you visit. But I still do enjoy the company. I fear my days grow short, however. I shall think of you as I die, along with my King and the Doctor of course.
Godspeed, My Friend.
Reinette Poisson, Madame De Pompadour.
Tears quickly steamed down Phoenix's face, leaving stains on the parchament below her. She hadn't exactly imagined a letter like that. Different hair colors? That wasn't exactly expected.
Phoenix felt a tingling sensation in her hands, and she looked down to see the familiar golden glow, signaling it was time for her to leave.
She didn't want to go however. She just wanted to crawl under her covers and sob her eyes out. But time had another plan for her.
"Goodbye Doctor, Rose, Mickey, Reinette." She whispered, sniffling.
She disappeared in a golden flash of light, leaving everyone behind. Reinette would never be forgotten, that was one thing to be sure of, in the crazy messed up world that was Phoenix's.
Yet she wouldn't trade it away for anything.
*cries* God, I've always loved this episode, but it's just so sad! Anyways, I hope you enjoyed!