"You should've seen me. I was great!"
Arthur blinked his eyes for a moment before realising that he couldn't move. Is this a dream? But it was usually rare for Arthur to have lucid dreams. Either that...or this was indeed a dream that displayed his vision.
He found himself in O's homestead. No, the Master's. In the centre, there was a machine shining a deep red colour. The Tardis' console, he realised.
"That brat did not have a clue about me!" The master beamed happily, not noticing his presence at all.
Barton eyed him with disapproval. "This better work."
"Final calibrations, and then we'll be ready," he remarked as he took a look at the silver figure in the case. The same one from Barton's house. "All our efforts will come together in…a moment of beauty. We'll all have what we want."
"So you know, I don't appreciate last-minute changes of plan as I'm about to take off."
"A little chaos is a wonderful thing. Allowed me to swat those flies."
Arthur listened to the Master seriously again. He clearly recognised Arthur from the future, which meant he was about to meet one of his younger versions. But he hesitated when it came to his relationship with Missy. Is Missy a past version of him or a present version?
His mind gets distracted as Barton's phone beeps. "I've just been notified. My plane's about to land at its programmed destination."
"They can't have survived."
"You told me everything was foolproof. What's gone wrong?"
"Watch your tone, Mister Barton. I'm not your employee."
An alarm goes off. Arthur looked at the screen displaying the world map. There was one dot that kept appearing, displaying the following words: The Doctor. The Explorer. The Royal Gallery of Practical Science. 1834.
The Master bangs his head against the console. "That brat!" he hissed.
Barton looks at him with annoyance. "What's happened?"
He stays silent for a moment. "Nothing I can't deal with. I'll drop you at your plane. You sort out her friends, I'll deal with the Doctor and the Explorer."
▪︎▪︎▪︎
Arthur landed in a room filled with a large crowd of people.
"Oh, there's another one," one of the women said. Wait, another one?
"What do you mean by another one?"
"There were two women who just appeared in the gallery. The...uhm, what's her nickname?"
"The Marvellous Apparating Lady," one of the men beside him replied while pointing his head at the Doctor who was talking to a woman seriously. Looking at the clothes of the people around him, Arthur realised that he had landed in the same location as on the map in his vision.
"Excuse me," he said and went over to his mother. "Doctor!"
"Sunny!" The doctor smiled and hugged him. "Oh! Where were you? I didn't see you!"
"I jumped, mum. To... well, to St Luke's University."
The doctor tilted his head in thought. "Oh! You landed there?!"
"Sorry to interrupt," the woman said with a puzzled look, "But do you know this man?"
"Ah, right. Ada, meet Sunny. He's...my relative."
"Nice to meet you," Arthur said as he shook her hand, understanding that with their appearance to be hard to believe as mother and son, that would be the best explanation the Doctor can come up with. "So, how did you come to know her?"
"She appears in my subconscious and I take her with me when my guardian appears."
Arthur glances at his mother. "You didn't appear in her liver, right?"
"No!" The Doctor huffed, learning her lesson after accidentally stuck inside poor Graham's liver for a naughty experiment. "As I said, me and Sunny were in the middle of dealing with a planet-threatening conspiracy 2 centuries from now when I was attacked by an old enemy and exiled to the place where I found you. Oh!" The Doctor picks up the grenade, then hands it off to Arthur.
"I am not a fool, Doctor," Ada remarked.
"She knows that. And she's telling the truth," Arthur assured her. "We're dealing with something dangerous, Ada."
"And this conspiracy involves those creatures you think are your guardians," the Doctor continued. "They're in alliance with a renegade from my home planet and a 21st-century tech inventor. 186 years from now, they're assassinating spies, and I am stuck here without my Tardis, and I need to find my way back before…"
"Ladies and gentlemen! See the incredible shrinking device!" The Master announced in his 19th century clothes. "Want to be smaller, ladies? You can!" He zaps a nearby woman into a tiny doll, causing panic around. "Who's next? You, sir."
Arthur quickly runs to the front to pull the man before turning into a doll.
The Master snarls at him as the man walks away, giving both Time Lords to face each other. "You again."
"Deal with it, Master. I had a fair share of ruining your day," Arthur growled.
"Did you now?" He shrinks the woman far from Arthur grasp and grin like a madman. "When I kill them, boy, it gives me a little buzz. Right here, in the hearts. It's like... How would I describe it? It's like... It's like knowing I'm in the right place, doing what I was made for. And I really hate a bug like you, who always stops me."
"You told me you wanted to change."
"I would never change."
Arthur paused for a moment. That confirms it. This version of the Master…he's from Missy's past. Which means, Missy is his future self, the one who changes. "Alright, so what do you want?"
"When I arrange for you and your mother's death, I expect you two to stay dead. How did you escape? How did you end up here?"
"Why? Lack of info, Master?"
"Don't test me, boy."
"You're not in control of these creatures." He tilts his head as he tries to see the visions. "Kassavin, I presume?"
"We have…interests in common," the Master informed begrudgingly.
"You, Barton, and a race you barely know?" the Doctor asked as she took a step forward, while Ada moved around slowly toward a machine. "That's one uneasy alliance. Trust each other, do you?"
"Oh, completely. By the way, I bring news from home."
"Down, Doctor, Arthur!" Ada warned as the steam machine gun rattled towards the Master.
"This is not designed for use by a young lady!" a man insisted.
"Pish off, man. She clearly can," Arthur quipped, annoyed by his remark.
"Oh, great. There's a highlander here."
"I hear that!"
"All of you, out!" Ada said as she fired again.
"Ada, I really do not approve!" the Doctor commented as she and Arthur walked to her.
"Run all you like, Doctor. You won't get far without a Tardis!" the Master yelled.
"Yeah?" Arthur takes the bomb from his pocket, pulls the pin, and rolls it in his direction. "Take that, you berk."
▪︎▪︎▪︎
"Surely we must alert the authorities?" the man suggested after they all inside his house.
"They won't believe what just happened," Arthur remarked.
Ada nods. "Besides, what would we tell them, Mister Babbage?"
"I have no concept, Ada. I cannot explain any of what I have seen today."
"Babbage? Charles Babbage?" The Doctor repeated his name.
"Yes," he hesitantly confirmed.
She glances at his device. "So this must be…"
"My Difference Engine," he revealed as she said, "Your Difference Engine!"
"Oh. You...you know of it?"
"She's a fan of it when hear about it," Arthur explained with a smile as his mother took a look at the lovely brass cogwheels inscribed with numbers moving.
"As yet unfinished. It will count and perform quadratic equations," Babbage added.
"If you're Charles Babbage, then you're not just any old Ada," the Doctor realised, looking at Ada. "You're Ada Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron and Annabella Milbanke, one of the great minds."
"I am Ada Gordon, madam," Ada corrected her.
"1834. Of course you are. Well, maybe one day, who knows, you might meet a nice Earl."
"But if that's the case," Arthur said while rubbing his nose. "Then those Kassavins…the reason they took an interest in Ada is what she and Mr. Babbage is going to do their work."
"I'm delighted to hear it, sir."
"Yeah, it's not exactly a good thing. Those things aren't bringing something good like E.T."
The Doctor notices a silver figure. "What's that?" She pointed at it.
"This is the Silver Lady. A revolutionary piece of engineering. But, like all great ladies, she is as much for decoration as for purpose," Babbage explained as they takes a step to look at it.
"How did you come by this?"
"It was a gift, delivered by a young man who said it was a token of appreciation from his master."
"Interesting," Arthur commented as he glanced suspiciously at the figure while the Doctor took a look at Babbage's book. "What does it do?"
"It... moves. And on occasion, projects."
"On occasion projects something like this?" the Doctor showing Kassavin's sketch towards them.
"M... Mister Babbage, you have seen the same form," Ada realised.
"Madam, those are my private notes," Babbage insisted and takes the book back.
"The Master and the Kasaavin. What are they doing?" The Doctor wondered. "Sunny?"
"No clue," he admitted with a shrug.
"Er, do you understand her, Miss Gordon?" Babbage inquired.
"Not in the least, Mister Babbage," Ada replied.
"Ada, when was your first paralysis?" Arthur asked, folding his arms in his chest.
"I was 13 years old. That is when I was first transported to the place where I met the Doctor, and I first saw an apparition."
"And over the years, the paralysis recurs with the same effect?" the Doctor theorised.
"Yes. No doctor has ever been able to diagnose the cause."
"Well, this Doctor may be able to. An apparition, from this machine."
"Correct," Babbage agreed.
"So, they take you, Ada, multiple times from here and they study you in their dimension, which means—"
"They can't be in this dimension for long," Arthur concluded. "And that's where the Master came in. He provided them a way to make them stay longer."
"A mastermind who builds them a machine which stabilises them in this world long enough for them to send spies and to spread their work and start a plan," the Doctor continued. "'Cause we've seen the map in his hut. Multiple Earths. Except not. Not multiple Earths".
"Multiple time periods. The Kassavin… they spied through history, starting with Ada."
The Doctor thought for a moment before sonicking the figurine.
"What are you doing?" Ada asked.
"The Master, the man from the Adelaide Gallery, will be coming for me and you. I need to get back to where I came from, find my friends and figure this out." Then, a Kasaavin appears not far from her and Ada. "And I've only got one way out of here. The same way I came in. If I use my sonic on the Silver Lady, I might be able to force this creature to throw me back to the 21st century. I hope."
"If this is your plan, it is fraught with risk."
"I agree," Arthur remarked, not liking the Kassavin and what happened the last time he entered their realm that made him temporarily died. God knows what happens if they take him again. "There's a risk you can't return!"
"Where there's risk, there's hope. Deep breath," the Doctor muttered and Ada took the Doctor's hand in a mere second.
"Ada, no!" Arthur warned, but he was too late as his mother and Ada vanished in the air.
Babbage drinks a large brandy. "They'll be fine," he assured the boy.
"I know," he murmured softly, taking the large brandy that Babbage had offered to him, which he drank for a few sips as he held the disgusting taste in his tongue. Dad's right. Alcohol is horrible.
With that final though, he vanishes as well.
▪︎▪︎▪︎
"Keeping my promise," Lee muttered, typing something on his phone on his sofa when three Judoons broke down the door.
"Surrender. This property now under Judoon jurisdiction."
"I surrender, okay?" He stands up. "You can tell your boss. You...you got me."
Then, suddenly, a bright light shone between them before it went down, revealing a brunette man with a green hoodie. "Man, that brandy tastes weird," he commented, seeming to be out of his mind before notice where he is now. "Crap."
▪︎▪︎▪︎
Which is why, right now, Arthur stands beside a man named Lee as the Judoon keeping an eye on them both. Great. He'd just arrive and now he had been labelled as a criminal as well.
"Incoming matter transmission," a Judoon announced. From the corner of his eyes, Arthur spots a female beam inside the kitchen. "Commander Gat, your presence is not required."
"Could've fooled me. I've been watching it all," Gat stated as her hand slid down the table. "You're so noisy. Talk about sledgehammers to crack a nut."
A Judoon dragging both Arthur and Lee in front of Gab. "Presenting the occupant of the housing unit and an intruder."
She glances at Lee. "Hello, old friend. I see you're back from the dead. We had such a moving funeral for you. But I suppose that was your intention. Did you really think that we wouldn't find you? Did you think that I'd ever stop looking? Good place to hide, mind, the far backside of a tiny galaxy." She looks at Arthur with a frown. "Did we ever meet?"
"No," Arthur replied honestly.
"Your eyes look familiar."
"Most people say the same when it comes to my eyes."
"How did you find me?" Lee demanded.
"She tracked the box," Arthur answered as Gat slid down the box from his vision. "Chronotelluric alloy. Had a strong entanglement, which made it very easy to track."
"Very good," Gat complimented, eyeing him suspiciously before looking at Lee again. "Sentiment was always going to be your downfall. You kept it. Silly."
Lee steps closer to the box and opens it. "Yeah, well, I wanted to repair it, polish it," he said, grabbing something small. "My service medal. Honour and courage still mean something."
"I agree."
Lee puts down the box with the broken medal in it and reaches for the drawer. But Gat, as if knowing he'll do it, got there first. "See, this is the problem with our identical training. We share all the same tricks. Kill him. Do whatever you want with the other."
A Judoon says, "Detained fugitive must be transferred to contracted—"
"No, idiot. You didn't scan him yet, did you?"
"They haven't scanned me yet," Arthur quipped, which made Lee glaring at him.
"Are you out of your mind?"
"I was raised by a madman. So, yeah. I am out of my mind."
The Judoon scans Lee. "Fugitive, negative." Then, it scans Arthur, and receives a shocking result. "Fugitive, positive and negative."
"What?!" Lee blurted.
Gat takes the scanning device and looks at it. "That's not possible. 50% match?!"
"I think the device is broken," Arthur guessed as he tried to find an escape route. He doesn't know the context of what's happening, but he clearly isn't their main target. Lee and Gat clearly don't know him at all.
So if that's the case…then why does the scanner indicate positive and negative?
"Who are you?" she demanded.
"I'm nobody," the brunette man shrugged. Gat quickly grabs his head to read his mind, which Arthur responds by sending some heat wave of the time vortex, startled her as she steps back.
"You…You're impossible!" She glares with fear, realising what he just did. "How could there's a time vortex inside of you?! No Time Lord should possess it without killing their personality!"
"You really had to blurt it out?" Arthur huffed, confused as to why she knew about him as a Time Lord and the user of a time vortex. Unless she's also…
"Why 50% match?" Lee wondered, still shocked that he's a Time Lord too.
But Gat didn't care about that, simply shook her head and grabbed a gun from her pocket. Knowing what she'll do, Lee jumps in front of Arthur, causing him to disintegrate into nothing.
"You killed him," Arthur muttered, rage began to fill him. He immediately activates his power to slow down time to escape. Since the range of using it isn't long, he wasted no time and ran as far as he could from that place. A vision shows him where his mother is and he'll use the chance to go there.
Right as he's inside, where he spots his mother and another woman, he immediately yells, "They're here!"
On a cue, several Judoons appear, surrounding the three of them as they stand back to back. "This cathedral is under Judoon control. All occupants must surrender immediately. There will be no escape this time. We have you surrounded."
"How can I help?" The Doctor asked.
"You interfered, Regulator."
"You know what they say, one person's arbitration is another person's interference."
"It's really not," Arthur commented.
"Hush. This is a place of worship. Show some respect, or I'll overload those guns and make it a bad day for everyone," the Doctor warned, holding out her sonic. "Now, let us go, and nobody needs to get hurt."
"What have you done with Lee?" Ruth asked.
"Don't," Arthur pleaded.
But the Judoon simply says, "Information request granted." Which, in turn, shows her a projection of Lee's death. "Sentence, execution."
"He tried to save me. I…I tried to distract them, but it only angers them."
"You murdered him and attempted to kill Sunny. That is a violation of your contract," the Doctor pointed out, holding herself from snapping her sonic screwdriver.
"Incorrect," it stated. "Contract stated retrieval of fugitive." The scans quickly gesture to the other woman. "Fugitive identified."
Arthur glances at her. "You're the fugitive?"
"Biological shielding decrypted. Fugitive, positive."
Before anyone can respond or say something, Ruth floors all the Judoon very quickly using some movements Arthur had used several times when defending in Trenzalore. Then, she grabs one of their weapons. "That's it. Back up or Daddy Rhinoform gets it."
"Ruth, what are you doing?" The Doctor asked, shock like Arthur.
"It feels like... instinct against the bullies. Cos you know the thing about bullies? There's always a weak spot." She rips off the Judoon's front horn, making it yelp in pain as she grabs one of the guns before activating the communicator on its armour, saying, "Bo. Ko. Fo. Jo. To."
All the Judoon are beamed away, leaving one Time Lord and one Time Lady in utter horror.
"What have you done?" Arthur whispered.
"Who are you?" The Doctor inquired.
Ruth releases the gun in fear, shaking. Arthur kindly guides Ruth so she's sitting on the steps up to the altar in the Lady Chapel while the Doctor is scanning with her screwdriver. While doing so, they both fill him in on what's happening so far to get him some context.
"Total Judoon evacuation. They've even removed the enforcement perimeter," the Doctor informed them.
"That's…good, right?" Arthur guessed. He never encountered Judoon (since the Doctor is always wary about them) so he rarely knows much on what they usually do and don't.
"No, Sunny. Judoon switching strategy means things have got very bad and very personal now. Ruth, you just dishonoured a Judoon captain, and removing their horn is the worst insult. I think you know far more than you're telling me about Lee and about why the Judoon are here. It's time to share."
"I don't know anything," Ruth admitted. "I don't even know how I did what I just did to them."
The Doctor scans Ruth. "Well?" Arthur asked.
The Doctor shook her head. "I don't have the decryption for her bio-shield. She and Lee must have both had them. Very sophisticated, like biological cloaking."
"Look at me. I know my own life," Ruth insisted. "I'm Ruth Clayton. I am 44. I'm married. I'm a tour guide. And I am scared. Back then... that was not me. My hands, they just moved. They…"
"Automatically kickass some Judoon and rip off their captain's horn?" Arthur finished. "Maybe that was a part of you that you don't realise." Like unknowingly had a time vortex inside of you, for instance.
"I don't understand any of this. None of this is me. It can't be. Help me."
"Show me your phone," the Doctor suggested and Ruth let her have it. "You received a message just before you turned into Jackie Chan. Follow the light. Break the glass. Ruth, I don't think you are who you say you are or who you think you are. I think there's another identity hidden within you. Maybe this text is an activation message. Words to trigger the real you, the instincts that enabled you to attack the Judoon."
"No. I'm not that person. I don't want to be that person."
"Maybe this isn't a good idea," Arthur remarked, rocking back and forth. "I mean, we don't know what will happen to Ruth if we unlocked her past. For all we know, she won't become the same person again. Maybe there's a good reason why her past left was sealed and Lee kept an eye on her."
"But we don't have a choice. Unless we figure out why they're after her, Ruth's life will be in danger," the Doctor claimed. "Ruth, do you have any idea what this means? The light. The glass."
Ruth frowns. "Yeah, I do. I just saw it. But it's just a memory."
"A memory of what?"
"The lighthouse where I grew up, my family home. Why am I seeing that now? I haven't thought about that for years."
"The message," Arthur shares. "It triggers you. The lighthouse might be the clue to all of this. Do you know how to get there?"
"Course I do."
"Then we're going," the Doctor remarked. "Me, Sunny, and you, now."
▪︎▪︎▪︎
"Tell me about your parents," Arthur suggested as he's driving the car. He had a bit argument with his mother on who should drive the car. In the end, they settle on rock-paper-scissors, which you shouldn't do when you have someone who can see the future.
"I wish I could tell you I adored them. But they chose to live in a disused lighthouse," Ruth acknowledged. "That tells you how good they were with people."
"Not like you, in the heart of the city, talking to people all day long," the Doctor addressed as she sat behind them.
"I guess we all rebel against our parents. It's part of growing up, innit?"
Arthur glances at his mother with a smirk. "I suppose," he agreed.
"They loved it out here. Suited them," Ruth added.
"Loved it so much they wanted to be buried here?"
"Yep."
"You'd moved away by then," the Doctor theorised.
"Yeah," Ruth replied.
"But you still own the lighthouse?"
"Yeah, they left it to me. But I never wanted to come back here to live, though."
"When did you move to Gloucester?" Arthur asked.
"Ooo, 1999. Mid-December," Ruth recalled, before looking at him. "Are you testing me, young man?"
"No harm to check, ya know."
"I don't know why I'm even trusting you two."
"We've got one of those faces," the Doctor stated. "I promise you, I'm your best hope of finding out who you are and staying alive."
Ruth stares in the air for a moment. Arthur frowns as he sees some small visions.
Lee typing a message on his phone.
A big lighthouse.
Ruth takes a gun from a box in a dark room.
"What did you see?" Arthur hears his mother ask him.
"Some scramble scenes," he responded, briefly looking at Ruth. "What about you?"
"Nothing," she said, obviously lying. "We're nearly there."
▪︎▪︎▪︎
He parks on the small road that leads inside the lighthouse. "That smell. Home," Ruth noticed. "Forgotten what it feels like to come back here. Like nothing can touch me."
"Mind if I take a look around?" The Doctor asked.
"Sure. I'll get a fire going."
The Doctor goes up the spiral staircase and out onto the walkway outside the light while Arthur stays outside, looking at the graveyard. He slowly senses something familiar as he steps closer and closer. And before he knew it, he stood in front of a blank gravestone.
"Now that's weird," Arthur murmured, looking down at the grass. He quickly grabs a spade nearby and starts digging. The Doctor, after returning to the graveyard, also helps him as they keep digging.
Then, after Arthur senses it closer, he brushes the soil from a sign that says police public call box.
"What?" Arthur blurted at that, looking at the Doctor who was also very much confused as they both staggered back.
"You're probably a bit confused right now," Ruth said behind them, causing them to look at her. She looks different, wearing a navy frock coat and a colourful kente shirt. She also carries a gun like the vision showed to Arthur. "I broke the glass. It's all come back to me."
"This," the Doctor gestures at the sign. "What is this?"
"That's my ship."
"What?" Both mother and son repeated.
"Let me take it from the top. Hello, I'm the Doctor. I'm a traveller in Space and Time, and that thing buried down there is called a Tardis. Time And Relative Dimension—"
"In Space," Arthur finished. "I know. You told me."
"In the future? Oh, that would be lovely. You two are going to love this!" She takes their hands and they appear inside the console room that Arthur never sees before. "Come on, old girl," she muttered, checking the console after putting the gun on the console and putting yellow glasses on. "Too sleepy. Power up. Need you right now."
"Hi," the Doctor—well, the Thirteenth Doctor—calls her. "Struggling with this. Can you just—?"
"No, I can't. Not right now. No time. Just stand there and don't ask questions," Ruth, no, the Fugitive Doctor interjected. "Sorry you two got caught up in all this, but if Gat is half the operative she used to be, she's already figured out where we are. And we need to be ready, and we're not."
"Stop. Who's Gat?"
"The woman who tried to kill me and killed Lee instead," Arthur answered. "And you…you really are the Doctor?"
The Thirteenth Doctor shook her head. "You can't be."
"Yeah? And why's that?" The Fugitive Doctor retorted.
"Because I'm the Doctor."
She takes a good look at her. "You have got to be kidding me." She looks at Arthur after taking off her glasses. "Really?"
"Yep," Arthur confirmed, rubbing his neck. "And the thing is, despite this whole confusion and my own brains might explode…I can sense you as the Doctor. And yeah, she's also the Doctor."
"Then how did I end up like...that? All rainbows and trousers that don't reach?"
"It's not that bad."
"How did I end up like you?" The Thirteenth Doctor retorted back.
"You don't. You're in my future, not the other way round," the Fugitive Doctor said.
"I've never been anything like you. Trust me, I'd remember. Sunny'd remember."
"This is the first time I see her," Arthur admitted. "And even now, the Tardis' reaching out to me."
"She seems to like you," the Fugitive Doctor noticed from the monitor. "But why? You never been into the Tardis before now…right?"
"Technically, he had," Thirteenth Doctor argued. "Ever since his conception."
"He was made here?!"
"It's not like River knows! It's just…happened!"
"Who's River?"
"That's not the point!" Arthur yelled, shook his head, trying not to think about how exactly he was made into existence. That sort of thing isn't going to make him any better. "The point is, you are both the Doctor. And," he sighs sadly at the blonde one. "She's right, mum. She's from your past. The Tardis confirms it to me."
"That's not possible," both Doctors said at the same time. "Unless it is. But what would that mean? Doesn't make sense. Stop doing that! Oh. Same brain."
"So why don't we at least know each other?" The Thirteenth Doctor asked.
"I dunno. Why don't you try asking that cute little gizmo of yours and your kid?" The Fugitive Doctor pointed out at the sonic screwdriver.
"I'm technically your kid as well," Arthur alluded. Which makes sense why the scan the Judoon had on him gave 50% match. He had the Doctor's DNA.
"I did. I used it on you, but it couldn't decrypt the bio-shield. If you've been restored…" the Thirteenth Doctor scans her before she scans herself. "Same person."
"Told ya."
"But you don't recognise a sonic screwdriver."
"Smart enough not to need one," the Fugitive Doctor shrugs.
"Oh yeah, nothing screams smart like a laser rifle."
"I stored that before hiding, cos I knew Gat would come one day, and now she has."
"What's your relationship with Gat?" Arthur inquired.
"I worked for her once."
"You've got a job?" The Thirteenth Doctor repeated.
"Oh, sort of. Not one you apply for, and not one you can ever leave," the Fugitive Doctor. "Believe me, I tried."
"The Division," Arthur muttered quietly so both Doctors wouldn't hear him. He doesn't know why, but he sensed that it's all leading back to them.
The ground starts to stake as the Doctor slowly transformed into a Weeping Angel—No. He can't lament on that memory. Not now!
"You've been hiding on Earth. You used the Chameleon Arch to hide your identity, to hide your mind, even from yourself," the Doctor elaborated. "That's why the sonic didn't pick it up. And Lee was your protector."
"Well done. You're only 5 minutes behind someone who just had their memory fully restored," the Fugitive Doctor sarcastically said before gasping. "5 points."
"Don't do points. I do points. Points are my thing."
Arthur groaned, dreading what might happen if this scenario will happen again in his future.
Suddenly, their surroundings start shaking. "What's happening?" The Thirteenth Doctor asked.
"We had company," Arthur noted, sensing the big ship above them.
"Now listen to me, Doctor, Arthur. Let me do the talking. Do not get involved," the Fugitive Doctor warned and took the gun. "Because, if you really are me, and Gat figures that, she'll kill us both. And if Gat knows that you're my son, then she'll have more reason to kill him."
The moment they land, the Fugitive Doctor comes out of the Tardis, holding the gun, ready to attack anyone who harm. Behind her, the Thirteenth Doctor and Arthur follow her, with Arthur walking behind his mother.
"Here we are, then. End of the road," Gat said as she stepped closer. "I thought I'd be angry when I saw you. Turns out I'm just sorry."
"Not as sorry as I'm about to be," the Fugitive Doctor stated before two Judoon approached from behind. Arthur glares at them, his eyes swirling in gold.
Notice it, the Thirteenth Doctor grabs her son. "Sunny," she warned, shaking her head slightly before glancing at her past self. "Ruth, put it down."
"Yes, Ruth. Do as your little friend says," Gat mocked. "You are surrounded, after all."
The Fugitive Doctor reluctantly hands her weapon to Gat. "Don't point that thing at me, Gat."
"Oh I won't. But he is," she points at Arthur. Oh, great. Another weapon aiming at him. "Besides. This was mine, you stole it."
"Mmm, confiscated it. No, really, don't point it at him. He's innocent."
"You don't know? Of course you won't. He hides it perfectly well with that power of his."
"You had no idea what you're doing," the Thirteenth Doctor warned. Gat knows about the time vortex. This is bad.
"But I do. I know what happens when a time vortex inside of a living body. What the consequence will be if he stays alive."
"He is not part of the contract," a Judoon stated. "Contract states Judoon must deliver fugitive to contractee at Division."
"I'm here on behalf of the contractee."
"Hang on, I thought you'd hired the Judoon," the Thirteenth Doctor interrupted.
Gat frowns. "Who are you?"
"I'm…"
"Imperial Regulator," Arthur revealed with a smirk.
The Thirteenth Doctor grins. "Sort of. Bit of a fib. Sorry. Actually, I'm…"
"She's nobody," her past self insisted, giving them both a warning glare.
"Fine. I'm nobody. Absolutely nobody. See, I know why you want her. You've got a contract, fair enough. But you? You want her dead because she left her job? And you want to kill my son because he had a time vortex inside of him?"
"Shut. Up."
"Is that what she told you?" Gat asked. "This goes way higher than me. And that man you claimed as your 'son'? You don't know the horror he will unleash."
"Then do tell," Arthur provoked. "Tell me why I am so dangerous that killing me is sooo much better than teaching me to be good."
"I told you two to keep quiet," the Fugitive Doctor cautioned.
"And look where that's gotten us. Lots of guns in lots of faces," her future self addressed.
"And have you got a better idea?"
"I do, actually. My favourite. The curveball and the Judoon." She looks at Gat. "You wanted to find the Doctor?"
"Don't you dare."
"Well, here I am."
"Mum," Arthur warned but she didn't listen.
"Go on, scan me."
Gat looks hesitant but she lets a Judoon scan her. "Fugitive match positive." Then, it scans the other Doctor. "Fugitive match positive."
"Is there even a word for how dumb you both are?" the Fugitive Doctor mocked.
"You said that as if you never did something stupid," Arthur noted.
"Subsection 951 triggered. Two fugitives, two payments," the Judoon asserted.
"There won't be two payments, because two of the same Time Lord can't occupy the same space at the same time. It's an abomination. It'll destroy the time streams before you get anywhere near Gallifrey. And to make things worse, we had a living Time Lord who possessed a time vortex!" Gat barked.
"What did you say?" the Thirteenth Doctor repeated while teh Fugitive Doctor asks, "You're a Time Lord?!"
"She's a Time Lady," Arthur informed, looking at the Fugitive Doctor. "Well, you know I'm going to be your son, of course I'm a Time Lord as well."
"A dangerous one," Gat scoffed. "A Time Lord who had a time vortex in their body will be consumed by the power and become a vengeful god! Can you imagine what kind of destruction you will cause to the universe?!"
"Sunny would never do that!" The Thirteenth Doctor fumed. "He uses his power to protect himself and others! He never wants to hurt innocent creatures!"
"Even if he doesn't, the infinite power he has will attract more enemies to come. And Gallifrey will suffer the consequences! Our people will be engaged in war! I won't let it happen just because of this one man!"
"It already happened," Arthur informed darkly. "Gallifrey in my time is gone by the war."
"I've seen Gallifrey destroyed. Twice. First by a war, second by a lunatic who I'm still trying to find," the Doctor added seriously. Arthur gaped at that statement. Gallifrey destroyed? Again? "In my time, Gallifrey doesn't exist. It's gone. Forever. And if you don't know that, you're in my past. So, you are only serving at the glory of ash and bone."
"This is a trick," Gat accused.
"Check my mind, one Time Lord to another. See what I saw."
"Keep an eye on them," she gestures to the Fugitive Doctor and Arthur.
As she steps a bit closer, the Thirteenth Doctor touches her forehead. "Contact," she whispered, giving her the image of destruction she saw recently. Gat staggers back, trembling on the image.
"What did you see? What did she show you?" the Fugitive Doctor asked, curious.
Gat glares at Arthur, pointing the gun at him. "I don't know what trickery this is. But I know you caused it."
"He didn't do it!" the Thirteenth Doctor snapped, angry that Gat was still delusional of her son being dangerous.
"Put the gun down, Gat," her past self reminded her, trying to be reasonable.
"But it ends here," Gat insisted.
"Don't do this," Arthur pleaded, knowing where this was going. But it's still painful to see Gat fires the gun and it destroys her instead.
"Oh!" the Thirteenth Doctor glances at the gun that's sliding down between the three of them, looks at her past self. "You knew that would happen. You sabotaged the gun."
"I told her not to do it. I begged her not to fire," she remarked while Arthur flinched.
"But you knew she would!"
"Don't take the moral high ground with me."
Those words startled her. Her eyes caught her son who looked down, feeling guilty. The Thirteenth Doctor remembered the similar accusations she had levelled at Arthur hundreds of years earlier, when she was young, still a stubborn Time Lord to understand Arthur Jonas and see him as the culprit of the mess that happened, and how he had hurled those words back.
"Crime has been witnessed," a Judoon reported.
The Fugitive Doctor picks up the gun quickly, pointing it at the Judoon. "No crime. An accident. And, besides, a Judoonese Talwak Freighter like this, moving at 80 million klicks an hour, entered interstellar space 12 seconds ago. No one has jurisdiction in interstellar space. So, no laws, and no crime. Isn't that right, Doctor?"
"Yes," she agreed with mixed emotions.
"Recalibrated. Who wants some?"
"The Doctor never uses weapons."
"I know. Shut up. We're leaving now. If you know what's good for you, do not come for me again. Ever. Consider your contract…cancelled."
"Judoon contracts will always be fulfilled," a Judoon yelled.
"Do be quiet," Arthur retorted back at them before entering the Tardis, holding his mother to come with him.
▪︎▪︎▪︎
"Homing in near your Tardis signal," the Fugitive Doctor informed as she navigated the Tardis. "Can't get too close. Imagine the temporal feedback loop. I'll drop you two at the docks near my flat. How's that?"
"Could work," Arthur shrugs. "What will you do now?"
"Hiding or travelling around. Who knows?"
"You can't be me. I know what I've done, I know my own life," the Thirteenth Doctor insisted.
"One of us has to be wrong," she concluded, glancing at Arthur. "I want to ask you more about time vortex and other things…but I don't think my other self wants to."
"I don't need another version of 'me' I barely know being near to my son," the blonde woman retorted. The last thing she needs is getting her son hurt.
The Tardis materialises.
"I'd quite like it if you two got off my ship now," the Fugitive Doctor said.
"Now I see the resemblance," Arthur quipped before he suddenly jumps in front of the familiar Tardis of his mother.
"Sunny?" the Doctor called, slowly standing up. "Where…?"
"Your future," he replied. He looked again at his mother's face which was shocked by seeing him here. But there was one more thing on her face. Sorrow. "You just went to Gallifrey."
She nods quietly. "It was destroyed again, Sunny. It's just like the war."
Her phone suddenly beeps, followed by a hologram of the Master—the one Arthur had encountered with—appearing wearing a long dark jacket and chequered trousers. "Geo-activated. If you're seeing this, you've been to Gallifrey. When I said someone did that, obviously I meant…I did. I had to make them pay for what I discovered. They lied to us, the founding fathers of Gallifrey. Everything we were told was a lie. We are not who we think, you or I. The whole existence of our species, built on the lie of the Timeless Child."
The Doctor gets a sudden headache as Arthur holds her. He saw some visions in his mind.
A little girl in a yellow dress is standing near a big monument.
The Doctor grabs a watch that keeps whispering.
A blonde man with a tuxedo and long hat waves at him, smirking.
"Do you see it?" The Master asked. "It's buried deep in all our memories. In our identity. I'd tell you more, but...but why would I make it easy for you? It wasn't for me."
Right as the hologram disappears, in frustration, the Doctor throws her phone away. Arthur immediately hugs her in silence, letting her venting out all of her emotions of what she had just learned. As he calmed his mother down, Gat's words flashed back into his mind.
A Time Lord who had a time vortex in their body will be consumed by the power and become a vengeful god! Can you imagine what kind of destruction you will cause to the universe?!
Firstly Kovarian, now Gat. Is he...really that dangerous?
Note: Happy 60th anniversary of Doctor Who! Anyone already watched The Star Beast? I absolutely loving it, and I can't wait for Wild Blue Yonder!
I may or may not have a plan regarding the 60th anniversary with Arthur ;)