Lessons Learned
8888
Robot ships were flying on an alien sky. Clara stood firm as the building around them shook.
"Fem-droids have breached the primary defense phalanx!" a human general shouted as he braced against a console. He rushed around in a gray jumpsuit that doubled as a military uniform. "They'll be on the ground in fifteen minutes!"
"Doctor, what do we do?" Clara asked as she spun around to look at the middle-aged man in a black jacket with red inner lining.
The man wasn't paying attention to any of the commotion around him. He was staring intently at a small cube in his hand. Clara recognized the box as a stasis cube.
"Now?" His bushy eyebrows fused together into an even angrier conformation. He grimaced as he stared into the cube. "It'd have to be now wouldn't it?"
"Is that..." Clara started as the Doctor's gray-blue eyes shot up to Clara, apparently coming back to the scene surrounding them.
"We need to go." The Doctor said brusquely, Scottish drawl snarling at Clara.
"But..." Clara looked back at the rest of the humans who were looking at the two of them in return. "These people..."
"Now, Clara!" He said as he turned and moved towards the heavy metal doors leading out of the command room.
"We can't just leave them!" Clara shouted. "You...started this! You can't just leave now because, because..."
"We can't stay, the window is closing, if I miss it..." The Doctor stopped, not turning. He pocketed the cube and turned.
"These people will die, if the fem-droids descend they'll kill every human, that's what you said!" Clara retorted. "You gave away these people's location."
"I thought they droids would be ready for peace." The Doctor said quietly to himself. "It's been a century since the Chelonian-Human war...I'd have thought the droids that had taken over this part of the galactic arm would have evolved into something more peaceful! I didn't know..." He cast his eyes up and looked at Clara. "But that's nothing, if I don't leave soon..." His eyes searched Clara. "Clara, you were there. You know what this means to me."
"If you do this, now, you'll be making the same mistake you made then..." Clara replied, standing firm to the Doctor's gaze.
"If I don't do it, now, I'll be making the same mistakes twice in two different portions of my time line!" the Doctor growled. "You don't understand!"
"I understand that you're willing to sacrifice these people for..." Clara fidgeted with her hand and pointed at the pocket with the cube inside it.
"I'll pop over, and be back..no one need know I was gone!" The Doctor said, looking to the other humans and then to Clara.
Clara narrowed her eyes and put her hands on her hips. "We both know what will happen."
"Fine, if you want to help, stay then!" The Doctor said and turned to the door sliding it aside and leaving the command room. "I'll be back for you later, and for crying out loud don't die!"
"Oh no you don't!" Clara shouted chasing after the Doctor.
"So you're coming now?" the Doctor grunted as he looked to his left. Clara jogged alongside of him. "Have to admit I'm a bit disappointed."
"I'm not going anywhere, you're not going anywhere!" Clara growled as she grabbed the Doctor by the arm and stopped him, trying to pull him around. "You're staying and helping."
"There's nothing to help!" the Doctor said, narrowing his eyes menacingly at Clara. "I'm not a miracle worker, have you seen the fleet coming in? Even if I stayed all that would happen that is you and me would be dead. These guys have no idea what's coming at them!"
"You evidently didn't either!" Clara retorted.
The Doctor sighed and shook his head. "All of you are pudding heads. And I'm the plum on top of it all..." He reached into his pocket and pulled out the cube. "I was here before. A long time ago. When the robots initially rose up...stupid metal dog..."
"What are you talking about?" Clara shook her head whilst scrunching her nose in her normal 'what?' face.
"It wasn't my fault, the Black Guardian interfered...the whole thing went nuclear...the Chelonians retreated the humans didn't have anywhere to run..." the Doctor tried to explain. "I had thought that by now the droids would've evolved some commonsense."
"That explains next to nothing..." Clara said shaking her head.
"I was trying to fix something I broke!" the Doctor said, pulling his arm away from Clara. He lifted the cube and pushed it in Clara's face. "Just like then...except then I succeeded, there was a chance...even a remote one! This...this..." He looked up as the building shook again and dust fell from supports. "I'm trading another mistake for a fix. Sometimes there aren't any good choices but you still have to choose."
"Then choose correctly!" Clara implored. "There must be something you can do!"
The Doctor looked at the cube. "There isn't time...the moment is passing...if I don't go now the lock will seal completely and then..." He looked at his hands, a golden shimmer was washing over them. "It's not just a choice to save the Time Lords, Clara. I wish it wasn't so base, so selfish, but if I don't go now, my whole time line will revert. Trenzalore...everything. I'll be dead out there amongst the graves. If I don't go, the plan fails, the Time Lords burn...no new regenerations...no new...me..."
"Then tell me, I'll stay and make sure your plan works!" Clara said obstinately.
"Ha!" the Doctor said with a snort. "Can't even get your wi-fi to work and you'll save an entire colony of humans from genocidal robots!"
"I've pretended to be you before!" Clara retorted.
"Yeah, I saw that..." The Doctor narrowed his eyes. "Just come with me."
"No." Clara shook her head. "We made a promise."
"I break promises." The Doctor said. "I lie, rule one."
"No, not this one." Clara said. "What happens if I stay?"
"You and everyone here dies." the Doctor said quietly.
"Then you better do something, quick." Clara said, she looked to the cube. "Because I'm not leaving until these people have a chance. Help them win!"
"I don't fight wars, I'm not a general." The Doctor grunted. "I help, where I can, I swan through, I don't stay, I don't get crowned emperor, elected president, I sweep in, help and then leave. I can't help here...not now."
"You haven't tried..." Clara needled.
The Doctor looked at the cube and then looked to Clara. He sighed a loud sigh. "Fine...quickly."
He ran back to the control room. "You, General Mayhem or whatever it is they are calling you!"
"Manheim!" the man in the gray jumpsuit said spinning around and looking to the Doctor.
"Yes, you're not important." The Doctor said pointing to the woman sitting in a corner with a set of headphones on her head. "You, communications girl who never gets to do anything heroic whilst the rest of the team swans off to get killed every week, call Admiral H'Thclok. He's supreme commander of the Chelonian Sixth fleet. Should be about a parsec from here. Remind him that under section 8 of the Human-Chelonian treaty of Balkatheva that he is committed to the defense of human outposts under attack by Fem-droids. Tell him to hyper-jump his fleet on the dark side of the fifth planet in this system. The Fem-droid ships have a blind spot on their dorsal laterals on the starboard side, if he attacks at full capacity he should be able to break through their lines! If he balks, tell him that the Doctor is still considering where or not he'll be the godfather of the next clutch of eggs that are incubating at home and that this act would strongly favor the Doctor to do the ceremony, all two hundred and thirty hours of egg polishing."
"Are you serious...?" the general started.
"Yes, I'm always serious, especially when I'm not being serious!" the Doctor retorted, glaring at the general. "Right now, I have to go save my people from complete and utter destruction, so I'll have to outsource this one to the Chelonians. You'll owe them...don't forget it." The Doctor turned and looked to Clara. Clara beamed at him, and the Doctor turned back to the general. "And for goodness sake, don't die..." The Doctor flicked his eyes to Clara. "The boss doesn't like it when people die."
The Doctor grabbed Clara's hand. Clara smiled up at the Doctor as they ran towards the TARDIS. "What was the fuss about? You had this planned out all along!"
"No, I didn't want to be H'Thclok's clutch's godfather." The Doctor snorted as he pulled Clara along behind him. "H'Thlock won't survive this battle...I'll be stuck with sixty Chelonian juveniles for forty years..."
Clara followed the Doctor numbly as he rushed to the TARDIS and fiddled with the key, opening the door. He walked in and Clara just stood there.
"Wait, so when you said that this was a fix...you didn't mean the humans..." Clara started. "You meant..."
"H'Thclok was a good Chelonian, he'd have heralded in a new era of peace and dignity at the end of the Humanian era. His children...could've used his guiding hand." The Doctor said looking at Clara. "You wanted to save them, you saved them. At what greater cost, who knows. We both learned the same lesson just now. Take from it what you will." The Doctor grabbed Clara's hand and pulled her into the TARDIS. He was leaping to the console. "She's not going to like this, she never does..." He flipped switches and pressed buttons. The entire TARDIS screeched in anger as the Doctor steered her. He looked to Clara glowering. "To the back end of the Time War."