With A Snap
Chapter 06 Decimate
The Universe was a vast and wild thing. It was always filled with wonders and horrors that the Doctor just so often found far too easily.
The Doctor's gray coat flapped behind her as she ran around the console, the Tardis had changed a lot recently. The columns around the console were arching over and crystalline and they gave the large room a warm light. The Tardis was the best ship in the universe and a living being on its own, the warmth one felt walking in was from the Tardis core itself. The Doctor had lost how many times they had done up the desktop. Though through all the changes the Tardis had always been there for her, always waiting loyalty for her in any form she took. The Doctor had taken plenty of forms, this was the first time she'd become a woman after a regeneration but she thought she was adjusting quiet well.
She adjusted her coat and glanced at herself in the mirror. She had short blonde hair, what was this the third time she'd been a blonde? She was still hoping to be ginger at least once.
The Doctor had taken a break from her companions. Graham and Ryan went to visit Grace, and the Doctor had never been too good at visiting those already gone. Yaz decided to stop to check in with her family. The Doctor didn't like being alone but thought it would be a good chance to do some maintenance on the Tardis.
That endeavor was forgotten as she chomped on custard cream provided by the Tardis.
"I'm hungry," The Doctor realized pulling a level, "hm, Indian food? Chinese? Italian? Maybe Martian. Oh! I haven't had a traditional Draconian meal in years! Let's get our shift on!"
The Doctor started to dance around the Tardis controls, she had a vague Idea of where to go and hopes that she wouldn't end up somewhere else before lunch. She stopped mid stepped, her gut churning and the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end.
The Tardis roared into life with bells.
"The Cloister Bells?" The Doctor hated those bells, they only rang if something was truly wrong. The Tardis was picking up something but the screens were telling her nothing, and that was telling her a lot.
Well, not a lot but it was telling her something. The Universe was restructuring itself something passed over… over everything… and the Universe was changing. The Doctor couldn't detect what just passed… some sort or energy? She was barely picking up that it had swept over.
Her head was aching, something changed and it was something major space time was affected by it in a major way.
Doctor.
Doctor.
DOCTOR.
DOCTOR!
DOCTOR!
She held her head, she was hearing voices, countless of voices. "It's coming through the Telepathic circuits!" She tried to filter the messages, someone was trying to call her but she couldn't make it out.
Doctor!
The Doctor grit her teeth, as her mind was filled with visions of Gallifrey, her home world.
It had been so long since she'd been there after the Last Time War and mess of other issues her people hid their world at the very of the Universe at the very end of time.
She struggled with the psychic message, they were trying to message her it had to be important.
Suddenly she saw her world crumbling and falling into nothing, all her people vanishing as if they were never there.
She leaned against the console, "They're gone…. They're all gone…," she felt it, the timeline was changed so drastically that the future they were in was gone and took them with it. She was a timelady, she had great sight into time and she could feel it all possible timelines were being wiped away leaving only one.
She was struggling to breath trying to cope with it but the bells were overwhelming.
Something was wrong.
Something was very wrong. All the systems on the Tardis were going wild as the ship started to fly wildly.
"What's wrong?" The Doctor did her best to steer the Tardis. The Doctor turned the controls as hard as she could. She did the her best but suddenly tumbled to the floor. Did she break the handle? The Doctor looked into her hand to find a clump of dust.
"What?"
The Doctor climbed up and looked at the screen, it was showing her some strange scans reading all over the earth life signs were vanishing. It was happening all over the Earth, just half of all life was vanishing… no teleport or anything else they were just gone. The Doctor stretched out the scans and she was getting the same readings across the galaxy.
"That's impossible."
To prove her wrong she was bombarded with distress signals from all over from hundreds of species, hundreds of worlds, countless ships, asking for help. The Doctor was stunned by all this as her hearts went out to them, she wanted to help but she could barely keep the Tardis from falling out of orbit.
The Doctor felt pain, there was a strain, the Tardis was connected to her and she was screaming.
The Doctor's eyes went wide as she started to see the Tardis walls dissolve into dust. Bit by bit the Tardis was starting to dissolve and the Doctor couldn't understand it.
The Tardis shook as they hit the ground, The Doctor barely managed to steady herself as the Tardis door flung open. Wind rushed through the console room blasting the Doctor right out of the door. The doctor tumbled onto on the ground and got up rushing towards The Tardis.
It hit her, the Doctor heard two words echo in her mind, using the voice that the Tardis had for only a day, Idris' voice, "Good Bye"
The Tardis crumbled into dust before the Doctor could reach it. She dug into the dust looking for something, anything ….
She'd been with the Tardis for centuries and she'd been connected to it but now there was just nothing. She didn't move even hearing the panicked screaming from all over the city.
0000
The Doctor let out a long tired sigh. It had been days since decimation wave, or as people were calling it. The Doctor didn't much like the name, after all decimation meant ten percent and in this case it was half.
Half of all life just seemed to blink away, it didn't matter what kind of life it was it just turned to dust. The Doctor still found it hard to wrap her mind around it, her Tardis was something special there was little if anything that could harm a Tardis and this did far more than hurt the Tardis.
The Doctor found her way to UNIT base, thankfully Kate had survived the decimation and had done incredible work keeping what remained of UNIT together and working on helping people. They needed a scientific advisor, both Malcom and Osgood were lost and the Doctor was more than eager to help. She'd taken everything she thought might have been half useful from the Black Archive and started building whatever she could. She was at least managing to get clear signals from outside of Earth.
She had hoped that maybe someone out there had given something, a madman somewhere demanding their surrender or they would destroy the reaming 50% but no. The stars were filled with messages and distress beacons. The Shadow Proclamation was demanding answers and trying to keep worlds from going to war with each other as everyone turned against each other.
No one was getting answers. The Doctor's equipment hadn't picked up anything new, whatever happened had come and gone. Nothing to trace or dissect.
The Doctor just tried to discern anything. She had to keep working on something.
She couldn't think about it.
Graham and Ryan were both gone, at least they didn't have to mourn eachother… after Grace … they had enough of that.
Yaz had survived but she was a police officer and doing everything she could to help and keep the peace. These times were hectic but she was standing up to the challenge. The Doctor couldn't be prouder.
Knowing how her companions ended up…. She made a mistake. The Doctor had a lot of friends on Earth and she never looked back, she couldn't but this once she did.
So many of them were missing or just gone, it broke her hearts.
Jo Grant was the worst one, she survived but she had made it but it might have been worse. Jo had several kids and even more grandchildren and she survived knowing they were gone. The doctor checked in one her and found her weeping for them, it didn't seem right for the smiling and bubbly Jo to cry like that. She knew what it was like to lose children and grandchildren and would never have wished that on Jo.
Donna and Wilf were both gone, and maybe it was for the best - she hated that thought-it just would have been too hard to cover that up for Donna. They would have lost her again.
There was still some hope, Sarah Janes kid made it and even after loosing Sarah those years ago they were strong. Luke and Sky were doing everything they could to help, they used Mister Smith to help distribute help and supplies and try to connect everyone to everyone else. The Doctor was sure Mister Smith and K-9 were the sole reasons why the telephone system hadn't gone down.
The Prince of the Rhodians that the Doctor hid at Coal Hill was safe and helping out where they could with his friends.
Ace, she'd started a charity foundation and giving out supplies world wide and making sure people were being looked after. The Doctor was surprised that explosion loving companion of his had done so well.
As many tragedies there were there were just as many marvels, her companions were still helping. She couldn't be prouder.
She couldn't give up, she had to keep working she had to find out what was behind this. It felt like the answer was right before her and she just couldn't see it.
"Excuse me? They told me the Doctor was here?"
The Doctor spun around in her chair to find a man in the doorway, a dashing man with a long blue coat.
"Jack?"
Captain Jack Harkness looked on before it sunk in, "Doctor?"
"Jack!" The Doctor ran to him and gave him a hug, happy to see another familiar face.
Jack chuckled, "New regeneration? This one is a hugger and a woman."
"Oh! Yeah. What do you think?"
"You're short."
"I was going to say this isn't my shortest one but it is. How are you?"
"I've been better. Torchwood is gone, has been gone for years now. Gwen was the only member left and I left Earth, I had to. And Gwen rebuild it but when the decimation wave hit she was gone and most her new team. Rhys and their little girl Anwen made it, they're mourning." Jack looked at his hands, "I was in a bar when it happened and people all around me just turned to dust. Doctor, I've never seen anything like this. I don't know anything about this, I don't even know if it hit me and didn't take or-"
"It would have worked, Jack." The Doctor said quietly, "Whatever this was, it was powerful than the Bad Wolf. I've seen your resurrection first hand and what this was would have made it looked like nothing. The Tardis didn't even make it."
Jack snorted, "Well, thats humbling," He ran his finger in his hair. "Wow, so I just got lucky of all the people on Earth. Do you even know whose behind this?"
"No, whatever this is hit every corner of the universe all at once. It hit hard and fast and left no clue or trace."
Jack tried to muster a smile, "So, where do we start? There got to be something we can do?"
"We help where we can. There were a load of disasters right after, people left scared and alone. We help and look for answers. It's not much but it's something."
"It sounds like you need a doctor." Turning the corner came Martha Jones who was followed by Mickey Smith.
Mickey smiled, "Ah, so you did turn into a woman."
"What is something wrong with that?" The Doctor scoffed, but was still overjoyed to see two more friends.
"No, just a little surprised that you went blonde." Martha hugged the Doctor. "I guess Rose rubbed off on you."
"Come here." Jack moved to hug Mickey.
"I missed you too, Captain Cheesecake." Mickey greeted the immortal Jack.
They quickly caught up, Martha Mickey were on a mission in Peru and were just both lucky not to be effected. With the world falling apart it just took them a little longer to find their way back home.
The Doctor smiled, it wasn't the family she expected but she had her fam.
"Oh, isn't this a touching reunion." A familiar voice walked down the hall, she wore a victorian dress and carried and umbrella. He ruby red lips curled into a smile.
"You know, how long I was waiting for everyone to show? I was getting bored."
"You!" The Doctor snarled.
"So, you know her?" Mickey noticed, his experiences having told him that this woman wasn't human and was very dangerous.
The Doctor pointed a finger at her, "Did you have anything to do with this?"
"This? Doctor you wound me." She smiled at her, "What? Did you think this was a rehash of the Logopolis scheme? I don't do repeats. Gotta stay fresh." She gave her a wink.
"Doctor," Jack questioned, "who is she?"
"Please, now that's just rude." The stranger spat at them, "The freak and the girl don't remember me? I spent a year killing one of you and forcing the other to walk the Earth. I know the year never happened now but I'm hurt you don't remember."
"The Master?!" Martha realized.
Jack pulled out his side arm, Mickey pulled out a pistol, Martha pulled out her own gun pointing it at the woman.
"I go by Missy now." She didn't seem put off by the guns, "Oh, please after all the stuff I've survived you think a couple of pea shooters are going to slow me down? Put those down before someone-You- gets hurt."
"Put those away." The Doctor ordered them as she walked up to Missy.
"What no surprise?"
"With you? I've given up trying to figure you out."
"Oh, what a shame. I had this whole speech prepared about the younger me betraying me-"
"Makes sense." The Doctor snarked.
"and I killed them right back, well, first-"
"Makes even more sense."
Missy scoffed to show her irritation at being interrupted, "Well, we will just skip it this once." She looked over the Doctor over, "So you decided to upgrade after you saw the wonders of my new regeneration. I can't say your taste in clothes got any better. And, are you dyeing your hair? You need to touch up to those roots dear."
"It's natural, it just looks like I have roots." The Doctor shot back, "Now what are you doing here."
"Okay, right to business. I noticed it too Doctor. Our people calling from the end of time, screaming as the timelines were shattered. They're gone. We are the last timelord-timeladies- and half the universe is gone. Why don't we put out heads together and figure it out? Because whatever you think of me, I don't like the idea that someone out their who can just wipe me out like nothing if they choose. So come on!" She smacked her hands together, "Let's go team! Let's figure this out!"
"Why should I trust you?" The Doctor told her, "For all I know you are going to try and take the power for yourself."
"Okay, good, good point. How about a peace offering?" Missy smiled, "I was waiting for your little fam to show up. Trying to time things out." Her umbrella beeped, "She's here! That worked out nicely, didn't think she'd find her way here."
"Who?" Mickey asked his trigger finger getting itchy.
"Tracking her was a pain, was saving her for a special Occassion and with this mess-well, the walls of time and space and everything getting twisted I wasn't sure the beacon was working-"
The air cracked as glass shattered and the building shook as something crashed outside.
Missy smiled before racing outside, the other chased after her. As they raced outside they found a space ship crashed right outside the UNIT facility.
The small one man ship popped open and a young woman in a red body suit armor decorated in Gallifreyan seals. She smiled at the group her long blonde hair done in a pony tail.
"It's you."
"Jenny?" The Doctor gasped, her daughter she watched her die, she held her as she died so soon after she was born.
Jenny jumped out of the ship and ran out reaching for a hug. The Doctor raised her arms and Jenny passed her as she hugged Martha.
"Martha! I wasn't sure I'd ever see you."
"Jenny?" Martha smiled in relief. "I thought you were dead."
"Have you seen my dad? I don't know what happened, when I came to you were all gone. He must think I'm dead too." Jenny asked, "There was a beacon and it was telling me my dad needed my help."
"Actually," Martha gestured to the Doctor, who'd gone through a couple regenerations since the last time she saw her.
"Hello," Jenny smiled, "do you know where my dad is?"
Doctor opened her mouth to try and explain this.
Missy just smiled to herself, "Awkward."
"Jenny," The Doctor looked at her, "look at me, really look at me."
It slowly dawned on her, "Dad?"
"Yeah," Doctor just pulled her into a hug, she was just so overjoyed to have family again."
"Well, you're both blondes now." Missy commented, "You probably look more alike now."
The universe had just gone through the greatest disaster since the reality bomb, half the population of everywhere had just been turned into dust and countless were lost and scared. They didn't have a single clue what was behind this.
But the Doctor had friends and family, there was hope.
Author's Notes: So, yeah, Doctor does seem to get lucky a lot so I'd say yeah she might survive the snap. The Tardis being alive was not so lucky and lets face it the Master/Missy is too slippery to stay dead. Lets face it sooner or later there will be a new Master. I did like her death, even in the dark alone and with no glory, she did chose the doctor in the end. And yes I am doing the `13th doctor here. My take, Jodie is doing a great job, i like her. from what I've seen she does seem like she's still getting into the character, finding her version of the doctor. The writing itself seems off, like they are trying too hard giving messages about human condition and everything. Its not bad once in a while but it feel like its every episode and lets just have some fun. Anyway, for this I brought in some spin offs and some of my favorite character and mentioning some others. And I just wanted to bring in Jenny, they never brought her back in but comics do tell her story so going off that. Anyway, let me know what you guys think by leaving a review.