The Doctor took the sonic screwdriver from his pocket and scanned Future Ruby up and down. "It's really you."
The girl nodded but started to wobble on her feet, prompting the Doctor to rush forward and catch her. "Hey, hey, come here. Sit down." He gently sat her against a wall and knelt in front of her, holding her hands. "Tell me from the beginning. What happened?"
Future Ruby inhaled deeply and locked eyes with the Doctor. This time, he saw a faint glimmer of hope in her hollow eyes.
"We landed on this planet. You told me you'd never been there before either, so we went to check it out.''
"You mean, my future self told you this?"
She nodded. "Yes, it was in February of 2025. Or… it is going to be in February of 2025, I should probably say."
He noticed that she was starting to drift off from exhaustion. "Ruby, stay with me, okay? I'm going to help you, but I need to know exactly what happened." He fidgeted with the mending settings of the sonic and directed it at her. "Better?"
Again, she nodded. "Thanks." A small smile appeared on her face. "I'm so glad I found you." She leaned forward and held him tight. "I missed you so much."
The way she said it gave him an ominous feeling. He pulled back from her, but kept his face mere inches from hers. He met her eyes and both his hearts shattered at the look in them. He knew the truth immediately, her eyes gave it away. 'This is why she's here', he thought to himself. He scraped his throat, prolonging asking the inevitable. "I need you to be honest with me. In your time, did I regenerate, or did I… you know, die?"
She didn't reply and looked down.
''Ruby?''
"You died." It came out with a sob. "I tried to save you, but there was nothing I could do. I did try to save you."
He bowed his head and wiped a hand over his face. The fact hung between them like a dark cloud, but he knew there wasn't much time to let the news sink in. He had to move on, especially because Current Ruby could return at any moment, and he didn't want to think about the consequences of the two Rubys meeting just yet. "Okay. That's okay. That's totally fine, no need to worry about that now. We're going to fix this. Let's go back to where you started. On that planet we visited, what happened that caused all of this?"
Future Ruby kept her gaze steadfast on him, as if letting herself wander off would overwhelm her and prevent her from continuing her story. "On that planet, you—or Future You," she corrected herself, "got all excited because we found this machine that could manipulate time. You told me that it was rare to find such machines and that you'd seen only a few similar ones in your lifetimes. You also said this machine could manipulate both time and different dimensions. I mean, I didn't really understand much of it, to be honest. Everything happened so fast."
The Doctor, on the other hand, knew exactly what she was talking about. It was probably a kind of dimension cannon they would find on that planet next year. He nodded encouragingly for her to continue.
"So, a bit later, we found out that a group of vulture-like aliens were keeping a group of local inhabitants of the planet hostage. They wanted to have that machine but didn't know how to use it, so kept the people there imprisoned to force them to help them get the machine to work. And you…"
She was interrupted by the excited voice of Current Ruby from behind the walls of the control panel. "Okay, Doc, I'm ready when you are. Let's go to the Games!"
He got up as fast as he could and ran towards the hallway from where she was trying to enter. "Ruby, Ruby, give me a minute, yeah? I just need to… I need to…" He made a vague gesture meant to indicate a stop sign.
Current Ruby laughed. "What's wrong with you, then? You look like you've seen a ghost. Look, I'm fully dressed for the occasion and ready to go. Want to do a fit-check first?" She twirled around in the green and white striped dress she'd picked, and her heels clattered on the floor.
''Honey, you look beautiful. And I mean it,'' he assured her, ''but I'm… I'm preparing a surprise for you, but it's not ready yet. I need some more time and will call you when it's done.''
This man… she honestly didn't understand him sometimes. ''What are you on about? You said we would go as soon as I was finished getting changed?''
The Doctor bit his lip. "I know, and I did say that, but something came up. And it's never a good thing to spoil a surprise," he tried to say as cheerfully as possible. "Why don't you go check out some more areas of the Tardis? There's a nail studio on the second floor and a hairdresser on the fifty-seventh. I'll come to get you right when your surprise is ready, promise. Oh," he added quickly, "just stay out of the green room on the nine hundredth floor. I spilled something there years ago, and I believe it's still toxic."
"Doctor? It's okay for her to see me. I'm wearing a protective bracelet. No more time paradoxes." Future Ruby appeared out of nowhere, and Current Ruby put her hand over her mouth in sheer shock.
She couldn't find the words to express all her questions. "Who…? Who, but that's… That's… Doctor, how?"
It was Future Ruby who answered her younger self. ''Don't worry. I'm you from the future. I need the Doctor's help.''
Current Ruby crossed her arms, forming a defensive pose. She was over the initial shock, and her eyes narrowed imperceptibly. "Is that so? You are me from the future?" She put extra emphasis on the word "me."
Future Ruby nodded in acknowledgment.
''It's true. I scanned her with the sonic. She's you from the year 2025,' the Doctor explained.
''Right,'' Current Ruby replied, directing her attention back to her future self. ''But if you need the Doctor's help, why can't you ask him in your time then?''
The Doctor and Future Ruby looked at each other and silence stretched between them.
Ruby raised a brow. ''What? What are you not telling me?''
It was The Doctor who broke the silence. ''Apparently, I will die in the future.''
She didn't believe him. "No. You told me that you don't die. You only change your face." A hint of trepidation dawned on her as she said it. She wasn't entirely sure if she got it right or not. Travelling with the Doctor was still fairly new to her, and she didn't know everything about him yet. Some parts of him were still a mystery to her.
Future Ruby gave the Doctor's hand a reassuring squeeze, something that Current Ruby eyed suspiciously. It was just bizarre to see a copy of herself standing next to the Doctor, while it didn't feel like herself at Doctor sighed deeply. ''Until now, I've changed faces, yes. But I'm not invincible. I can die permanently, depending on the situation.''
"But, how?" Ruby felt defeated by this revelation. She had been convinced that the Doctor would stay with her all her life. Silly and naive, of course, but she'd never wanted to think about any possible alternatives. She loved him as her best friend, as a brother. The thought of losing him forever tore her apart from the inside. She turned to her future self. "How will he die?"
Future Ruby swallowed, and the Doctor noticed tears welling up in her eyes. She took a deep breath before answering her younger version's question. "Because of me. He died because of me."