Yes I Know I'm a terrible author. But I once said I would never abandon a story and I won't.
I'm just terrible at managing my time.
Hope you enjoy the chapter just two or three left before the next one.
It takes Elizabeth a few minutes to compose herself. The queen of England had never been in a room with someone who out ranked her before. It was the odd little human, Clara that placated her, pointing out that even though I am a goddess, I am not one to stand on ceremony never have been.
Time travel will always amuse me, so far this child knows me better than I know myself. I suppose someone has too.
[Zygon control room]
The queen shepherds us to another part of the tower, telling us to keep quiet. As she explains why the Zygons are invading. Their own planet having burnt in the first days of the Time War.
"So, they want this planet." Clara interrupts her.
"Not yet."
"Let me guess, too primitive." I ask leaning against the wall.
She nods along with my question, "The Zygons are used to a certain level of comfort."
One of the Zygon soldiers spot us chatting on the upper level, marching over to ask, the queen why. She dismisses him so easily. Telling him it is time for him to be translated, whatever that means. Turning to the three doctors she says,
"Observe this. I believe you will find it fascinating." She grins at them.
The Zygon puts his hand on a glass cube with dents in the corners, then vanishes. Appearing in the picture to the side of them.
"That's him! That's the Zygon in the picture now. From the under gallery." Clara exclaims smacking the Doctor's arm bouncing on her toes, looking between the picture and device.
"It's not a picture, it's a stasis cube. Time Lord art. Frozen instants in time, bigger on the inside, but could be deployed as" The warrior explains only to be cut off by the 10th.
"Suspended animation. Oh, that's very good. The Zygon's all pop inside the pictures, wait a few centuries till the planet's a bit more interesting, and then out they come."
"You see, Clara, they're stored in the paintings in the Under Gallery, like cup-a-soups. Except you add time, if you can picture that. Nobody could picture that. Forget I said cup-a-soups" The 11th finishes.
Their words make Clara and I angry, they are invading the future from the past, only willing to take the world once it's worth conquering. I will never understand why such creatures are allowed to live.
The 10th Doctor turns on the queen. "And do you know why I know that you're a fake? Because you're such a bad copy. It's not just the smell, or the unconvincing hair, or the atrocious teeth, or the eyes just a bit too close together, or the breath that could stun a horse. It's because my Elizabeth, the real Elizabeth, would never be stupid enough to reveal her own plan. Honestly, why would you do that?"
I stand up straighter, why the words my Elizabeth, ring in my ears I'm unsure, but they make me unhappy none the less. I want him away from that woman. The queen crosses her arms at his impertinence. Telling them that she is indeed the real Elizabeth.
The 11th Doctor elbows Clara sending her stumbling into me, "Doctor really." She says glaring at him. "I'm so sorry, he acts like such a child sometimes."
I can't fight the grin that makes its way across my face as she speaks, this girl is a treasure. I don't remember the last time I laughed. As we are laughing between ourselves the 10th Doctor is trying is best to back track. The queen waving him of, tells them how she killed her zygon doppelganger in the forest.
"Your majesty, was it? How exactly did you fight off an alien in a dress?" I ask bemused, she does not answer with words, but by producing a dagger from the garter beneath her skirts.
"That would do it." Clara chokes on a laugh as the men look on in shock.
"These Zygon creatures never even considered that it was me who survived rather than their own commander. The arrogance that typifies their kind." The queen smirks as she puts her dagger away.
"Zygons?" The warrior asks.
"No, men." All three of us, correct him.
"I may have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but at the time, so did the Zygon. The future of my kingdom is imperilled. Doctor, can I rely on your service?" The queen calmly asks.
The 10th Doctor readily agrees but would need his Tardis first. Elizabeth waves him off, having already procured it earlier. The 10th claps his hands together, ready to start give out orders.
"But first, my love, you have a promise to keep." Elizabeth links her arm with his, "You can all come see the momentous occasion."
I hear the 11th whisper 'uh oh'.
"Uh oh what uh oh." Clara and he share a look, "That, oh no, no, no. Your majesty we have no time for that." She tries to intervene.
"I am the queen of England; we shall make time." She looks at me for the first time, "Lady Goddess was it, it would be my pleasure, to have you attend my wedding."
"That's not right. You're the virgin queen. You never marry."
"Says who?" The queen asks.
"Says all of time and space." I say, I may not know who I am, But I see all of time and space, this I know, for a certainly.
"My lady, if I may," The 11th interrupts my mussing. "Time is not fixed, thing we do, people we meet, we change them without meaning to."
"Time is in flux, when we meddle. When I meddle."
"This isn't your fault." Clara laments patting my arm.
"Are we following them." The warrior asks, watching his younger self being dragged away by the queen of England.
[Castle courtyard]
The 11th Doctor ushers us all out the door, and all the way to the courtyard. We all stand there in confused silence as the 10th Doctor married the virgin queen of England. None of this makes any sense to me.
"I can't believe he actually went through with it." Clara's voice pulls me from my musings.
I can't help but ask why. Clara stumbles over her words unsure how to explain.
The 11th Doctor comes to her rescue. "Clara still can't believe how many times I have been married and to how many people."
I don't know how to respond to that, but I don't have to, as he keeps talking. "Take you for example."
I take a step back, startled at his words.
"It's nothing bad my lady, during parts of your timeline, we have been married, multiple times in fact."
"Parts of my timeline?" I ask with a raised eyebrow.
"I promised you a long time ago I would never lie to you. Just because you." He pauses trying to find the words, "You don't remember yet, your past is fuzzy, and your future is empty. You'll remember soon enough."
"Why not just tell me."
"You asked me not too, told me to let you heal."
I nod, it's almost mechanical, this man truly does know me better than I know myself. I can't help but smile at him.
The warrior watches us in pensive silence, turning to Clara asking her if this happens a lot in the future, with a mischievous smile Clara grabs his arm dragging him away to congratulate the happy couple.
Pulling away the 10th Doctor looks frazzled, shifting his gaze between his new wife and myself. I wouldn't know how else to describe the look on his face other than haunted.
"I will be right back." He says to his bride, ushering the rest of us into the Tardis.
[Tardis]
"You've let this place go a bit." The Warrior exclaims peering around the console room.
"Ah, it's his grunge phase. He grows out of it." The 11th jokes.
I protest patting the console, she is a beautiful ship, her presence calling out to me, I can feel her happiness.
An alarm sounds as the desktop begins to glitch. All three Doctor's rushing around trying to fix it as the ship filters between three backgrounds.
"There are three of you from different time zones, she's just trying her best." Moving the timelords out of the way I press both hands to the console. "There that should do it." The background stables on the 11th's design.
"We're going to the National Gallery. The Zygons are underneath it." The 11th directs as the 10th drives.
"No that's wrong," I start.
"No, UNIT HQ. They followed us there in the Black Archive." Clara finishes for me. Receiving three stares in return.
"Okay, so you've heard of that, then." She asks. Laughing I agree with her assessment, "Though he has never been able to get in."
"That wasn't very nice lady goddess." Remarks the 11th. He seems to be the only of the Doctors willing to speak to me the 10th just watches me sadly, the Warrior avoiding me to avoid his future.
"If I may," the 11th hits a few buttons on the console, "There now we can see what we are walking into.
"Wonderful, copies, they all have Zygon copies, how will we tell which is which." Clara exclaims.
"Left is human, right Zygon." I saw, not having to hear them speak, being a goddess comes with some perks.
We listen as Kate admits she would blow London up to save the world.
"Doctor do something." Clara insists.
"Science leads, Kate. Is that what you meant? Is that what your father meant?"
Kate looks around the room startled that the Doctor could get in.
"Space-Time Telegraph, Kate. A gift from me to your father, hotline straight to the Tardis. I know about the Black Archive, and I know about the security protocol. Kate, please. Please tell me you are not about to do something unbelievably stupid."
"I'm sorry, Doctor. Switch it off." Kate says looking down at her hands.
"Not as sorry as you will be. This is not a decision you will ever be able to live with." The 10th insists. I watch on helplessly, Clara clutching my arm.
The 11th demands to know why we can't land the Tardis, but Kate won't listen. I nudge the Warrior taking the stasis cube from the console handing it to him. He nods smiling at me turning to his future selves.
"Cup-a-soup."
I ask Clara for her phone handing it to the 11th, "You're going to need this."
He walks across the console to make his call, as Clara and I watch on, both Kate cancelling and reactivating the countdown.
[Black Archive]
A Dalek explodes out of the Gallifrey falls painting, the three timelords following it through.
"Hello." The Warrior waves at the room.
"I'm the Doctor." The 10th introduces himself.
"Sorry about the Dalek." The Eleventh grins flipping his sonic.
"Also, the showing off." Clara adds as we step through the painting.
The human Kate jumps to her feet, "Rose what, how, when."
"Kate Lethbridge Stewart, what in the name of sanity are you doing?" I ask much to the 11th's surprise.
The 11th leans over to whispers, "You remember."
"Not fully." I admit, "But the words feel right somehow."
"The countdown can only be halted at my personal command. There's nothing you can do." She whispers looking down, as if meeting my eye would change her mind.
"Look at me Kate." I demand.
"No, I need to do this."
"We Can make you both agree to halt it." The 11th says with more confidence than I can comprehend.
"Not even the lady goddess herself can stop me." The 11th touches my arm pointing up at the ceiling. A smile nodding in understanding as the Warrior speaks.
"You're about to murder millions of people."
"To save billions. How many times have you made that calculation?" He takes a step back, had that not been what he was about to do when I stopped him. How can he judge her, here and now.
So what do you think.
hope you guys enjoyed it.
T