Well, if there's one day you can be sure I'll update on, it's today. Four years, huh? Can y'all believe it? I know I haven't been writing as quickly these past few, but I think the improvement of my skill greatly makes up for it.
I have no plans to end this Fic. Not purposefully. A break, possibly, not not a 'The End'. So don't worry. 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, and potentially 16 are all waiting for me to write about.
So thank you to my 421 Followers (from Adriskratos to asifgillespie ).
Thank you for the 366 Favorites (from TheDistur6edGuy to Rose Rich 2002).
Thank you for all 65 reviews (from zBlader to Wearedeadpool).
And, of course, all of you amazing people in between and to come! I keep coming back to post not only because I have a lot of ideas, but because you guys make me feel so at home. Let's have another great year!
There is a poll up to determine the future of JNPR's participation in this Fic. Please check it out! THIS IS THE FINAL CHANCE TO DO SO!
Remnant Who
By ReaderWarrior
I do not own Doctor Who or RWBY.
The Christmas Invasion (B)
Beta'd by: -
As always, please comment! It honestly makes my day to read your thoughts and opinions.
Tell your friends!
Pixie Duck: (I'm going to comment on yours here specifically because I don't want this to be long and drawn out in my DMs.)
I'm afraid my Fic isn't right for you then. There are a lot of things I disagree with Rooster Teeth handling, but I don't think I've ever had a dislike for the fundamental aspects of their show. And although I respect and thank you for at least reading to this point, past what you must have disliked, I do not think you should read further. Because the point of Ruby's character is to be 'The Hero'. The one who gets back up, the one who becomes an idol - a beacon/shining light (ha) - of what they and we are meant to be. She's the Superman character/archetype. And as much as I love Injustice, that's not the 'real' Superman. Volume 9 was an excellent way for her to face her failures, feel like she had failed, but was still trying to do what she could to help. She just didn't know that she could do it herself.
The Librarian's story is something I want to explore more of. It's to help me as a writer and provide background for why he has chosen RWBY to watch Doctor Who with. I physically couldn't just have him pop in like the Watcher and be like: "Hey guys, want to watch some TV?" Also, the breakaway chapters are for me to write/have fun with. I could write a separate Fic on it, yes, but then they wouldn't have the Doctor Who knowledge and it would basically become a Doctor Who parody in of itself. And I don't want to make a new Doctor. I want to explore someone new.
I cannot tell if this is homophobia or not, but Qrow being pansexual (or, at least, bi), Yang being a lesbian, and Blake being bisexual, is pretty canon now. And I like the representation of it. Captain Jack is pretty much Qrow that doesn't have his memories. He drinks, loves all the people, and is pessimistic. It takes a greater power (Oz/the Doctor) to give him purpose. As for Yang and Blake, they're cute. The effects of the Fall may have had them opposing each other a bit (Yang feeling betrayed, Blake going out of her way to prove herself), but after they cooled off in Atlas, there was a solid connection.
And I don't understand FanFiction's reaction to Jaune. Either y'all hate him for not being good enough or too good, and he's either written as an idiot or a manipulative genius. That's not Jaune. He's normal. He was the average Joe. That's why he was so 'weak' at the beginning and why he trained every second he could to get to everyone else's level (trained warriors, ninjas, savants, etc). Oscar was just as bad when he first joined but he had Ozpin to take the wheel when things got bad. Yes, Jaune does have a strategical mind, but I've never seen it at a Batman level. More so just noticing details around him and making acute assumptions. Sort of like Percy Jackson.
Apologies for the tirade but, all in all, I think this is the wrong Fic for you. If you want something different or 'better', please go write it. I'd be happy to review and help it grow too!
Honorary (dead) companions:
Clive, Raffalo, Moxx, Jabe, Sneed, Gwyneth, Ganesh, De Maggio, Suki, Pete Tyler, the Controller, Pavale, female producer, Lynda, Capt. Jack Harkness(?)
'Bigger on the inside!'s:
2 (Rose, Jackie)
Fantastic's:
15
Harriet Jones' greetings:
8 (2)
Exterminate!'s:
36
Rose runs back inside her mum's flat and steps through the giant tree-shaped hole to where the Doctor is lying. "Mickey, we're gonna carry him."
He catches some blankets as Rose throws them over the Doctor's chest. Jackie follows behind a few moments later, looking confused.
"Mum," Rose orders, "get your stuff and some food. We're going."
Weiss' eyebrow arched. "Since when did Rose have this attitude?"
"Since the Doctor was put out of commission," Qrow said. "She's stepping up. This is her chance to prove she's not just a follower."
"Where to?" Jackie asks.
"The T.A.R.D.I.S. It's the only safe place on earth."
"What're we going to do in there?"
Rose pauses. "Hide."
"Is that it?" Jackie scrunches her nose.
"Mum, look in the sky. There's a great, big, alien invasion and I don't know what to do, all right? I've traveled with him and I've seen all that stuff, but when I'm stuck at home, I'm useless. Now, all we can do is run and hide and I'm sorry. Now, move."
"She's not that useless," Yang muttered. "If it wasn't for her, they'd have died a bunch of times."
Blake frowned. "She saved the Doctor when it was something she knew to do, mostly thanks to him. And most of that was one-on-one, like when she saved him from the dummies. This… this is an army. I don't think she can fight that."
"She might not, but she could lead," Yang said.
The trio begins to pull the Doctor's unconscious body out of bed. "Lift him up," Rose orders as she clears the way to the door.
Back at U.N.I.T Headquarters, Llewellyn points up at the central screen as Harriet Jones marches by.
"They're transmitting on screen," he says.
The Sycorax leader speaks once more in its alien tongue. A few seconds later, Alex reads from a device.
"'Will the leader of this… world stand forward?'" he translates, pausing as the direct translation calls for a tribal leader.
"Barbarians," Weiss said.
Without hesitation, Harriet Jones does so. "I'm proud to represent this planet."
"'Come aboard'," Alex reads off after the Sycorax speaks.
"Well, how do I do that?"
The leader raises its hand and more blue energy spills out. This time, it shines around Harriet Jones' body. She notices that Alex, Llewellyn, and the major also are glowing.
"What's happening?" Llewellyn asks.
"I would imagine," Harriet Jones says," it's called a teleport."
"She's willing to sacrifice herself," Ruby realized. "Since the Doctor used to work here, I bet they have some anti-teleportation device. But Harriet Jones knows that if she sacrifices herself, then they can prevent the hostages from being hurt!"
"But they still don't have a way to stop them," Yang said.
"Maybe there's a machine they can shut off in the ship!"
The group of four turns into blue light and vanish.
Then, instantly, in a cavern-like room, they reappear. Dozens of rows of Sycorax surround them on overlooking levels. Torches and cages lay scattered along the main floor, filling the area with an ambiance of dread.
"It's like they are what the humans always claimed we are," Blake's said. "Savages. Animals."
The Librarian shook his head. "Humans can be animalistic too. It reminds me of the Dark Ages, with its dungeons and torture chambers, and that was just human-on-human violence."
"But the Sycorax seems to enjoy it."
The four Sycorax that had been on the screen now stand in front of them. The alien leader steps forward.
Harriet Jones and her cabinet do so as well until they stand in front of each other. Slowly, the lead Sycorax reaches up at its face.
"It's a helmet," Llewellyn realizes. He gives a small, hopeful smile. "They might be like us."
As the helmet is lifted off, the true face of the Sycorax is revealed. Muscles and red skin stretch across its cheeks and eyes, with patches of bone covering everything else.
"Or not…"
Qrow felt his stomach shift. "Their bones and muscles are inverted," he muttered. "And there's no skin."
"Is this what the Grimm would look like if you skinned them?" Yang asked, earning no answer.
Carefully, through the door, Rose and Mickey carry the Doctor outside. They waddle their way around the corner and to the stairs, before stopping as Jackie drops one of the dozens of bags she's now carrying behind them.
Rose glares at her. "Mum, will you just leave that stuff and give us a hand?"
"It's food!" she says. "You said we need food."
"Just leave it!"
"She's just doing what you told her to do!" Weiss snapped before quickly covering her mouth.
Ruby smiled. "But right now she needs help with the Doctor and that's her main focus. The food can wait, getting him to safety can't."
The leader of the Sycorax reaches its hand over to a device and holds it over a button on the top. It speaks, once again in a garbled, harsh, alien tongue, only to have it translated by Alex a few seconds later.
"'You will surrender'," he reads, "'or I will release the final… curse. And your people will jump.'"
An idea began to form in Yang's head. "If they're so strong and so warlike, why do this?"
"What do you mean?" Blake asked.
"They could invade, right? But instead, they're using mind control to make them surrender. Wouldn't a species like this want to fight?" Maybe… they can't.
"If I can speak," Llewellyn says, pushing himself forward.
The major grabs his arm first and tries to hold him back. "Mister Llewellyn, you're a civilian."
"No. I sent out the probe, I started it. I made contact with these people. This whole thing's my responsibility." He pulls his arm free and steps forward a bit more. Then, after straightening his tie, he speaks to the Sycorax. "With respect sir, the human race is taking it's first step towards the stars, but we are like children compared to you. Children who need help, children who need compassion. I beg of you now, show that compassion."
"Just like the Doctor would say," Ruby smiled.
The leader of the Sycorax twitches as he speaks. It pauses. Then, with a snarl, it pulls back his hand and a whip of energy reaches out. It wraps around Llewellyn's neck and he screams, energy and electricity burning from his neck to his toes and teeth. It disintegrates his body, leaving only a pile of charred bones.
RWBY gasped. "All he was doing was asking for a bit of kindness!" Qrow roared at the screen.
"They killed him," Blake muttered, "without any warning or anything."
"He wasn't even a threat," Ruby whimpered.
Enraged, the major points at the alien invader. "That man was your prisoner! Even your species must have articles of war, forbidding-"
There was another ' Crack!' as the whip is used again, this time on him.
"No!" Yang yelled. She gawked at the main's pain and winced as his body burned away. "He… He was just doing his duty."
Weiss' eyes felt wet. "The dreamer and the warrior. Two sides of the Doctor. And he killed them easily. What's left to save them?"
Harriet Jones looks down and silently gasps as the bones continue to smoke on the ground. She then looks up and tries to compose herself, pushing Alex back behind her before pulling out her ID once again. "Harriet Jones," she greets, "Prime Minister."
The Sycorax snarls and speaks. Alex translates it to: "'Yes, we know who you are. Surrender or they will die.'"
"If I do surrender, how will that be better?" she asks.
"'Half is sold into slavery -'" the Sycorax leader once again holds its hand over the button, threatening to push down on it "'- or one-third dies. Your choice.'"
"Don't surrender, Harriet Jones," Blake warned. "Slavery isn't surviving. Your life is destroyed and replaced by a cruel man's whim. It's still death. I'd rather die fighting with my life than live without it."
"It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees," the Librarian reflected.
Under the shadow of the Sycoraxian warship, Rose leads Mickey and Jackie (while also helping to carry the Doctor) into the T.A.R.D.I.S. Jackie pauses briefly as she enters, still amazed by the dimensional architecture.
"No chance you could fly this thing?" Mickey grunts as he and Rose lay him down next to the console.
"Not anymore, no."
"You did it before."
"I know, but it's sort of been wiped out of my head, like it's forbidden. If I try again, I think, the universe rips in half."
"Ah," Mickey says, "better not then."
"Maybe not," Rose nods.
"And," Qrow added with a slight growl, "it would also make her forget that she and the Doctor finally kissed."
"So what do we do?" Mickey asks. "Just sit here?"
"That's as good as it gets," Rose snaps.
Jackie quickly reaches into one of her bags and grabs a large thermos. She spins off the cap and pours into it. "Right. Here we go. Nice cup of tea."
Rose rolls her eyes. "The solution to everything."
"It's not that good," Ruby muttered. "Tasted like bitter water."
The Librarian nodded in agreement as Weiss rolled her eyes. "Did you try adding sugar or milk?" she asked. They nodded. "How much?"
"Sixteen cubes," they both answered.
"Unbelievable."
"Now stop your moaning. I'll get the rest of the food." Jackie hands the cup and thermos to Mickey before running back out.
He stands there, confused for a moment, with the cup in hand. "Tea. Like we're having a picnic while the world comes to an end. Very British." Mickey stops when he sees Rose looking down upon the Doctor's still-sleeping face.
Blake suddenly grabbed Yang's arm. "She's got to kiss him to wake him up! An act of true love!"
"Isn't that how they got into this mess?" Yang asked. "The Doctor kissed Rose and took the Time Vortex energy stuff."
"But it's all dissipated now," she said. "If she kisses him, it'll be the jolt that wakes him up!"
Trying to distract her, Mickey snaps at the monitor on the console. Galifreyan symbols spin across the screen, with diagrams of unknown sorts along the edges.
"How does this work?" he asks, setting down the tea. "If it picks up TV, maybe we could see what's going on out there. Maybe we've surrendered. What do you do to it?"
Rose walks over to it. "I don't know. It sort of tunes itself."
" She," the Librarian said, "anticipates her user's needs through the psychic field permeated inside the console room. The controls are mostly because no single being can control a T.A.R.D.I.S with only their mind."
" Maybe no human mind," he heard E.L.I mutter.
Trying to change the screen, Rose starts pressing some buttons.
A small alarm rings through the Sycoraxian warship. The Sycorax leader starts to spin in anger and roar, turning from its advisors to Harriet Jones.
Alex quickly checks for the translation. "'The noise. The bleeping.' They say it's machinery. Foreign machinery. They're accusing us of hiding it. Conspiring."
Yang facepalmed. "You're telling me that Rose changing the channel was enough to alter them to a freaking T.A.R.D.I.S?!"
"Maybe it's like the Librarian said," Ruby offered. "Everything is being reset. That might include whatever defenses the T.A.R.D.I.S has."
"And it got rid of all the presets!"
He looks back and forth between the concerned look on Harriet Jone's face and the one of anger on the leader of the Sycorax. It gives a final command with a wave of its arm.
"'Bring it on board'," he reads.
Jackie, carrying the bags she left behind, walks towards the Doctor's spacecraft when it suddenly starts to shimmer a lighter shade of blue.
"Rose?" she asks before the T.A.R.D.I.S suddenly disappears in a flash of light. Jackie drops her bags and looks up at the Sycorax's ship. "Rose!"
Weiss sighed. "At least it can't get much worse now that they have the Doctor and Rose as their unknowing prisoners."
"Don't say that!" the Librarian scolded. "Things can always get worse."
"How, in this situation, can events go even more poorly?"
"… They could end up thinking Mickey is the Doctor."
"Maybe it's a distress signal," Mickey wonders as he studies the consoled.
Rose, now resting with her chin on her hand, mutters "Fat lot of god that's going to do."
"What's got her so upset?" Qrow frowned.
"She's lost her Doctor, probably blaming herself, her world is under attack, and she can't do anything but hide in a box," Blake summarized. "Guilt and self-hate." Even if it isn't… actually her fault…
Mickey glances at his ex-partner. "Are you going to be a misery all the time?"
"Yes."
"You should look at it from my point of view," he sighs. "Stuck in here with your mum's cooking."
Rose looks around as if just noticing that Jackie hadn't returned for a while. "Where is she? I'd better give her a hand. It might start raining missiles out there." She starts to head toward the door.
"Tell her anything from a tin, that's fine," Mickey says, picking up the thermos of tea.
"Why don't you tell her yourself?"
"I'm not that brave."
"Oh, I don't know," she smiles as she opens the door.
"Don't go out there!" everyone yelled.
Before Rose realizes the world around them has changed, a Sycorax grabs the blonde and pulls her away. She screams and Mickey looks back.
"Rose?" Without hesitating, Mickey drops the thermos onto the ground and rushes out the door, leaving the tea to spill out toward the Doctor.
Kicking and screaming "Get off me!" gets Rose nowhere as she is pulled toward to the center of the chamber. She notices Mickey running out and even more panic fills her voice. "The door!" she screams. "Close the door!"
"If they get their hands on the T.A.R.D.I.S, that's it!" Ruby said. "They'll be able to invade any world they want."
Weiss nodded. "And if they get their hands on the Doctor, they might be able to figure out how to regenerate."
"Not good things!"
Mickey, upon hearing her voice and seeing Sycorax warriors charge at him, turns around and slams the T.A.R.D.I.S doors shut. He is quickly grabbed too, however, and taken to join the growing assembly of humans, leaving the Doctor alone in the T.A.R.D.I.S as the tea continues to drip through the console room grates.
The Sycorax cheer as the four humans are brought together.
"Rose?" Harriet Jones gasps. The blonde is then shoved at her but Harriet Jones keeps her from falling. "I've got you. My Lord. Oh my precious thing."
Then, as they hug, she whispers "The Doctor, is he with you?"
"No," Rose answers with a low voice. "We're on our own."
Qrow closed his eyes. "If she can get to the mind control thing, and destroy it, then they can save everyone."
"But…" Yang paused to swallow. "She'd have to be quick then. Rose would need to destroy it before they used the whips."
Both of them knew, however, that if she tried this, Rose wouldn't be fast enough to run back to the T.A.R.D.I.S before the whips could be used.
Smoke and vapor begin to rise from the T.A.R.D.I.S depths, filling the room as more tea drops onto electrical components beneath it. The Doctor breathes it in and twitches. His mouth opens and more yellow energy pours out.
"And now there's a fire in the time machine," Weiss grumbled.
Blake nudged her. "You're the one who said it couldn't get any worse."
"I retract my statement." She pointed at the screen. "It cannot get any worse from henceforth."
The rest of the party groaned, knowing that Weiss hadn't learned her lesson.
The Sycorax leader, holding his whip in one hand and a staff of bones in the other, growls at Rose. It gestures at her and then to the T.A.R.D.I.S.
"'The yellow girl'," Alex translates, "'she has the clever blue box. Therefore she speaks for your planet.'"
"But she can't," Harriet Jones says.
Rose steps forward. "Yeah, I can."
"She is the most alien-engaged person here," Yang said. "She's left more than a few boot marks on alien butts too."
The Librarian nodded. "Knowing aliens exist is one thing, having experienced the different cultures is another."
"And Rose has more experience than anyone on earth!"
Maybe I should wait to bring up the former companions, he thought.
Mickey grabs her arm and tries to hold her back. "Don't you dare."
"Someone's got to be the Doctor."
"They'll kill you," Harriet Jones adds, also trying to do the same.
"Never stopped him." Rose pushes their hands away and steps forward up to the Sycorax. The ones around them snarl in disgust. "I, um, I address the Sycorax… according to Article Fifteen of the Shadow Proclamation."
"That's what the Doctor said when he dealt with the Nestene Consciousness," Ruby smiled. "Maybe she can do this without the Doctor!"
"I command you to leave this world with all the authority of the Slitheen Parliament of Rexicoricophalvitorius, and er, the Gelth Confederacy… as, uh, sanctioned… by the Mighty Jagrafess and… Oh! The Daleks!"
Ruby deflated. "And she lost it."
As her confidence diminishes, and the Sycorax steps closer, Rose tries for one last declaration. "Now leave this planet in peace! In… peace…"
The leader of the Sycorax hisses with a smile. Then, from all around them, so do the others. They all laugh at the humans, mockingly, before the leader points at her and speaks.
Alex looks down at his pad and reads. "'You are very, very funny. And now you're going to die."
Together, Harriet Jones and Mickey rush forward and try to protect her, but Sycorax guards grab them and hold them back.
"Leave her alone!" they cry. "Don't touch her!"
Rose, however, stands still as the Sycorax walks toward her.
"Why isn't she running?" Weiss asked. "She needs to run away. Now!"
Clutching the ring around her neck, a small smile came to Blake's lips. "Because she's being brave. Like the Doctor."
"They're going to kill her!"
"But they might spare everyone else."
While speaking, the Sycorax leader paces around Rose.
"'Did you think you were clever with your stolen words?'" Alex translates.
It raises its arms and roars, shaking the staff in its hand.
"'We are the Sycorax, we stride the darkness. Next to us you are but a wailing child.'"
Rose flinches as the Sycorax leader snaps at her ear.
"'If you are the best your planet can offer as a champion…'"
"- then your world will be gutted."
"Wait, what?" everyone asked as the Sycorax' alien tongue became a lot less alien.
Alex gulps. "'Then your world will be gutted.'"
"And your people enslaved," the alien finished.
"'And your people'- Hold on, that's English."
Harriet Jones nods. "He's talking English."
Smiles began to creep up everyone's faces, large and hopeful. "He's speaking English!" they yelled.
"You're talking English," Rose says.
"I would never dirty my tongue with your primitive bile," the Sycorax spits.
"That's English," Rose repeats, turning back to her allies. "Can you hear English?"
Mickey nods. "Yeah, that's English."
"Definitely English," Alex agrees.
" I speak only Sycoraxic!"
Rose slowly pivots on her heel. "If I can hear English, then it's being translated. Which means it's working. Which means…" She turns to look toward the T.A.R.D.I.S, drawing everyone's attention to the blue box as both of its doors open and the Doctor, awake and on his feet, smiles.
"Did you miss me?"
Cheers began to echo throughout the theatre.
"He's back!" Ruby said as she jumped to her feet. "He's on his feet!"
Weiss, equally happy, but remaining in her seat, nodded. "Just in time to save Rose and everyone else.
"Did he have to wait to turn on the translation program, though?" Blake asked. "What if he was a few seconds late?"
Yang shrugged. "He wasn't though! And he's gonna kick some the Sycorax in their boney butts!"
"The Doctor is in," Qrow chuckled.
As the Doctor steps out, the Sycorax leader roars and strikes at him with the whip. Blue energy meets gold as it comes in contact with his skin. The Doctor pulls on it harshly, freeing the weapon from its master before dropping it onto the ground.
"You could have someone's eye out with that," he warns.
The Sycorax raises his staff. "How dare-?!"
The Doctor grabs it and pulls it away. He effortlessly breaks the alien wood over his knee with a loud Snap! before tossing both pieces away. "You just can't get the staff."
It looks down at the two pieces in shock, then back up to the Doctor.
"Now, you just wait. I'm busy" the Doctor orders. He turns back to the humans and smiles broadly, leaving the alien invader stunned with its mouth open.
"He doesn't fear you!" Yang sang.
Qrow nodded with her. "The biggest threat against an enemy is the unknown elements. How strong are they, what can they do, how many? If you don't know those things, you always expect the worst. That's why the Earthlings were so terrified."
"But the Doctor probably knows everything about them, especially how to stop the mind control," she smiled.
"Mickey, hello!" the Doctor greets. "And Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North. Blimey, it's like This is Your Life." He spins back toward Rose. "Tea! That's all I needed, a good cup of tea! Superheated infusion of free radicals and tannin, just the thing for healing the synapses."
Ruby's jaw dropped. "That's it? Leaf water?!"
"Tea is not leaf water!" Weiss snapped. "It has been used for hundreds of years for healing, relaxation, stimulating the mind, and other practical effects."
"Do you know what this means?" Ruby asked, eyes wide. "Jackie was right…"
"Now, first thing's first. Be honest… how do I look?"
Rose, although already having done so already, looks up and down the Time Lord's new body. "Um… Different."
"Good different or bad different?"
"He does still love her," Blake smiled.
"Just different," Rose says.
The Doctor nods. "Am I… ginger?"
"No," she answers, gesturing to his head. "You're just sort of brown."
"Oh, I wanted to be ginger. I've never been ginger," he moans. Then, with a snap of his fingers, he points directly into his companion's face. "And you, Rose Tyler, fat lot of good you were. You gave up on me."
"Can you blame her?" Qrow asked. "You were dead to the world."
"It's not so much that she gave up on the Doctor," Blake said, "but this regeneration. She said he wasn't her Doctor and that the old one would have never done this to her."
The Doctor drops his hand and frowns. "Oh, that's rude. Is that the sort of man I am now? Rude. Rude and not ginger."
"I'm sorry," Harriet Jones interrupts. "Who is this?"
"I'm the Doctor."
Rose nods. "He's the Doctor."
"Your godsdamned right he is!" Yang cheered.
"But what about my Doctor?" she asks. "Or is it a title that's just passed on?"
"I'm him. I'm literally him," the Doctor says, now walking up to her. "Same man, new face. Well, new everything."
"But you can't be!"
"Harriet Jones. We were trapped in Downing Street and the one thing that scared you wasn't the aliens, it wasn't the war, it was the thought of your mother being on her own.
"Oh my God," she whispers.
"When did he learn that?" Weiss asked.
The Librarian shrugged. "Maybe in the future, he sees a documentary about her and she talks about it. Or maybe he just knows people really well."
"Either way, his point is made."
"Did you win the election?"
Harriet Jones nods. "Landslide majority."
"If I might interrupt…" Everyone turns back to face the Sycorax leader as he now holds the two ends of his staff.
"I almost forgot he was there," Yang whispered.
Ruby nodded. "Me too!"
"Yes, sorry," the Doctor says. "Hello big fellow."
"Who exactly are you?" the invader asks.
"Well, that's the question."
With an angry snarl, the Sycorax yells "I demand to know who you are."
" I don't know!" the Doctor yells back, dropping his voice to match his opponent's. Then, in his new, normal voice, he says "See, here's the thing. I'm the Doctor, but beyond that, I just don't know. I literally do not know who I am. It's all untested. Am I funny? Am I sarcastic? Sexy?"
He winks at Rose.
Blake felt a betraying flush appear on her face. "He does appear more age-appropriate for her. And not as broody."
"I like to think that the Doctor prayed he would regenerate into someone that Rose would like more," the Librarian agreed. "Someone without all the self-hate he couldn't let go of."
"Right old misery? Life and soul? Right handed? Left handed? A gambler? A fighter? A coward? A traitor? A liar? A nervous wreck? I mean, judging by the evidence, I've certainly got a gob." As the Doctor rambles, he walks around the chamber, nudging Rose, encircling the Sycorax, and slowly makes his way up toward the control console. "And how am I going to react when I see this. A great big threatening button. A great big threatening button which must not be pressed under any circumstances. Am I right? Let me guess. It's some sort of control matrix, hmm? Hold on. What's feeding it?"
Everyone rushes forward to watch as the Doctor opens up a panel beneath it. A set of wires, connected to the button, lay inside a crucible filled with a dark, red liquid.
"And what have we got here? Blood?" The Doctor reaches in, dabs it, and sticks his finger in his mouth.
"That is disgusting!" Weiss gagged, covering her mouth.
Ruby winced slightly in agreement. "Even if it wasn't blood, that's still alien goo! What if it made the Doctor explode?"
"Awfully ironic considering how you sneezed up my dust on the first day of school," the heiress remarked.
"It was an accident!"
The Doctor smacks his lips. "Yeah, definetly blood. Human blood. A-positive, with just a dash of iron." He wipes his blood-stained finger on the bathrobe. "Ah, but that means… blood control. Blood control! Oh! I haven't seen blood control for years! You're controlling all the A-positives."
The confident smile on the Sycorax leader's face vanishes completely.
"… That's it? No super hypnosis beam, no alien microbes released the day before?" Yang groaned and fell back into her chair. "They can just control people with a blood machine?"
Qrow shrugged. "Sometimes the simplest answers are the best. I'm glad the Doctor doesn't have to make an anti-virus or something whole he's still trying to find out who he is."
"But the target hasn't changed, if they destroy that box, they save everyone."
All of the Doctor's attention is focused on the device. "Which leaves us with a great big stinking problem 'cause I really don't know who I am. I don't know when to stop. So if I see a great big threatening button which should never, ever, ever be pressed, then I just want to do this."
The Doctor's hand reaches out and slams down on the button, sending a wave of energy throughout the ship.
Rose and Harriet Jones reach out. "No!"
Ruby joined in the cry. "What is he doing?!"
"He's killed them," Weiss gasped.
"He's got to have a plan," Blake said. "Maybe he rewired it in the T.A.R.D.I.S."
"Or maybe he really is insane," Yang muttered softly.
Qrow, however, raised an eyebrow. "Or, maybe, we've been trusting the words of the wrong people."
Every blood-controlled person around the world steps closer to the ledge. Then, one step away from it, they all freeze. The blue energy around their heads vanishes and they turn around.
"What the hell am I doing up here?" Jason asks.
Sandra, Rose's neighbor, grabs his arm. "Get away from the edge.
Everywhere else, on millions of rooftops and ledges, one-third of the human race steps back into their loved one's arms.
Ruby's head cocked to the side. "It was… the release button?"
"What kind of moron would install a button to ruin his evil scheme right in the place where people come and go?" Yang asked.
"Evil scientists, usually," the Librarian said.
"You killed them!" Alex accuses.
The Doctor ignores him and walks up to the Sycorax. "What do you think, big fellow? Are they dead?"
"We allow them to live," it grumbles after a moment.
"'Allow'? You've no choice. I mean, that's all blood control is. Cheap bit of voodoo. Scares the pants off you but that's as far as it goes. It's like hypnosis, you can hypnotise someone to walk like a chicken or sing like Elvis, you can't hypnotise them to death. Survival instinct's just too strong."
"Really?" Blake asked.
The Librarian waved his hand. "Depends on the type of hypnosis, the person it's being used on, and the hypnotizer. I'd say blood control, especially if it's being used across an entire planet, is fairly weak. But there are other forms that are much more powerful."
It's not like the stories I read are meant to be true anyway, the Faunus thought.
"Blood control was just one form of conquest," the leader snaps. "I can summon the armada and take this world by force."
"Well, yeah, you could. Yeah. You could do that, of course you could. But why?" The Doctor leans across a rocky shelf and points to Rose and her group. "Look at these people. These human beings. Consider their potential. From the day they arrive on the planet and, blinking, step into the sun, there is more to see than can ever be seen, more to do than- No, hold on. Sorry, that's The Lion King."
"Is that a book?" Weiss asked. "It must be a great work if the Doctor knows about it, like with Charles Dickens."
" The Lion King is a nineteen-ninety-four animated movie created by Walt Disney," E.L.I answers. " However, it is based upon Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare, one of the most famous writers of Earth's history."
Ruby's eyes widened. "Hey, didn't we fight two lions at Disneyland? I bet that was them!"
"But the point still stands. Leave them alone!" the Doctor says.
"Or what?"
"Or…" The Doctor grabs at one of the aides and pulls a sword free from its scabbard. He then runs back toward his T.A.R.D.I.S, turns around, and holds it up into the air. "I challenge you."
The Sycorax throws its head back in laughter. Around them, the dozens and hundreds of its species all do the same.
"Oh, that struck a cord," the Doctor mutters.
Blake frowned. "Isn't the Doctor a pacifist? The only time the Doctor - our Doctor, er, the last Doctor - held a weapon was that giant gun he was going to use on the Dalek. And that wasn't him."
"But that was a different Doctor," Qrow said. "From what I understand, this new Doctor could have a less restrictive view on weapons. And technically, he doesn't have to hurt anyone with it. Just disarm them."
"I guess, but it's still a difference. I doubt we would have seen our Doctor this… excited too, especially with the threat of an alien invasion."
He places the point of the sword on the ground. "Am I right that the sanctified rules of combat still apply?"
"You stand as this world's champion?" The Sycorax leader asks, pulling out its own sword free and marching toward the Doctor.
"Thank you," the Time Lord grins. He slowly removes the bathrobe and tosses it to Rose. "I've no idea who I am, but you just summed me up. So, do you accept my challenge? Or are you just a cranak pel casacree salvak?"
Upon hearing their language, the Sycorax hiss.
"The Doctor does know about them then," Yang realized.
Ruby nodded. "Well, he knew about the pilot fish thing and the blood control. So he probably does know a bit about the Sycorax."
"Not to mention trial by combat."
"Jealous you can't try to become Queen of the Sycorax?"
"Nah," Yang smirked, "I'd never get past blood control."
A roar replaces laughter as the Sycorax leader drops to a knee. The Doctor does as well, each of them holding themselves up by their swords.
"For the planet?" it asks.
He nods. "For the planet."
The two rise and charge at each other. Their blades strike and only hit metal. The Sycorax leader parries the blow and, on the Doctor's return strike, catches it with the cross guard. It spins the sword and the Doctor runs back to regain his grip.
Blake and Weiss grimaced. "He's not very good," they said.
"And the Grimm guy is really good," Qrow added.
Again and again, the aliens clash. Each time, the Doctor is put on his back foot while the Sycorax begins to dodge and laugh. As the Doctor tries to block, it kicks him in the chest and knocks him to the ground.
"Look out!" Rose yells as the leader raises its sword.
The Doctor scoots back a bit and spreads his legs, the blow missing his pelvis by a few inches. "Oh yeah, that helps," he remarks as he stands back up. "Wouldn't have thought of that otherwise, thanks."
"She's just trying to help," Ruby pouted.
Weiss, having been in the Doctor's place, shook her head. "Having a voice in your ear telling you things you already know isn't exactly helpful in a combative situation."
"But then we're not helping!"
"Then… wave your arms and cheer. But the Doctor needs to focus."
In his next blow, the Doctor tries to get in close. He nearly presses his face against the Sycorax' skull as he tries to hold its sword in place. However, the warrior slams its elbow into the Doctor's chest, taking his breath away.
The Doctor stumbles back, again, and tries to catch his breath. The Sycorax raises its sword but the Doctor runs away. He races past the T.A.R.D.I.S and up a path leading to a metal wall.
"Bit of fresh air?" he smiles as his hand presses against a button-like panel, opening the door and leading to the hull of the asteroid.
"Change the terrain, change the game," Qrow muttered.
The Librarian frowned. "Is that one of Ozpin's teachings?"
The older Huntsman shook his head. Raven's.
Even with the daylight, the Doctor still is driven further and further back until all he can do is block blow after blow. He tries to strike back, but the Sycorax punches him in the nose.
"Cheap shot!" Yang yelled.
Rose and the others, as they follow the battle, step forward as the Doctor stumbles. He notices and holds out a hand.
"Stay back!" he orders, blood dripping down his nose. "Invalidate the challenge and he wins the planet."
The Doctor rises back up, wiping the blood away on his sleeve. He and the Sycorax resume their battle but it doesn't last much longer. Before the Doctor can land a hit, the Sycorax pushes him back down onto his back. His head dangles over the edge of the ship as the alien invader raises its sword and slices down, hitting the rocky floor with a loud thunk.
RWBY gasped. "NO!"
However, the Doctor was very much alive. He turns to his right and is just able to watch as the sword falls to the London city below, along with his hand. The Doctor grabs for his stump, where blood has already begun to spray out.
"You cut my hand off," the Doctor gasps. He sees Rose aghast with wide eyes, Mickey slack-jawed, and Harriet Jones covering her face.
The Sycorax invader turns around to its followers and raises its sword. "Ya! Sycorax!" it cheers.
Ruby sniffled. "He's alive… but did he lose?"
"It's not like he can fight with only one hand," Weiss muttered.
"He wasn't even doing that well to begin with," Blake said. "He'd have been better off just using the sonic screwdriver."
Yang frowned. "But Rose is still in danger. He needs to fight for her."
"There's nothing else he can do," Qrow added with a frown. "The Doctor isn't a warrior, he needs to out-think his opponents, not out-fight them."
The Doctor struggles to his feet, holding his hound and doing his best to staunch the bleeding. "And now I know what sort of man I am." The Sycorax turns, and its cheering stops. "I'm lucky 'cause quite by chance, I'm still within the first fifteen hours of my regeneration cycle, which means I've got just enough residual cellular energy to do this."
The Doctor brings his arm to his lips and blows. Golden energy, the same regenerative radiation he was leaking the entire day, spills out and wraps around his lost limb. The blood disappears and a new hand begins to form.
"He can do that?!" Blake asked. "I thought you said if a Time Lord is killed mid-regeneration, they die."
"This is after the regeneration," the Librarian said. "And I don't have the full knowledge of Gallifreyan biology and regeneration analysis. But I do believe the obvious aspects, the outer layer of the body, the personality, etc. are some of the first things to change. Everything else is inside, which is why it was bad for the Doctor to be woken up so early. So, technically, he's still in the process of regeneration, which means he can make the energy redirect to where he needs it."
"Which just so happens to be his hand."
He nods. "Exactly."
"Witchcraft," the Sycorax accuses as the Doctor waves his hand.
He smiles. "Time Lord."
With a newly found grin, Rose reaches for another Sycorax aide and pulls its sword free. "Doctor!" she yells, throwing it to him. The Doctor catches it in the air and whirls it, testing the new weight in his new hand.
"So I'm still the Doctor, then?" he asks.
"No arguments from me!" Rose answers.
"Want to know the best bit?" The Doctor winks at his opponent as he points the sword at it. "This new hand… it's a fighting hand!"
"Take him down!" Qrow yelled, raising a fist. His nieces joined him and he smiled. Summer would have loved this.
The Sycorax never had a chance. The Doctor strikes, blocks, and parries faster than before, either due to his new hand or a renewed sense of self. The invader tries his tricks, but each time the Doctor steps back or blocks the blows. Then, the Doctor steps into a strike and grabs his opponent's sword on the crossguard.
With a sharp jab, the Doctor slams the but if its own weapon into the Sycorax' gut. Then again. The Sycorax falls to its knees, dropping its sword and letting it clatter off the edge.
The Doctor puts his blade under the invader's chin. "I win."
RWBY cheered.
"He won!" Ruby grinned. "He really won!"
Weiss couldn't hide her smile. "All he needed was to know who he was and that was enough."
"With Rose's help," Blake added.
"I'm liking this new Doctor," Yang smirked. "He's a lot more kick-ass than the old one."
"The old one was going to kill all life on earth," Qrow muttered, "all this one did was win a sword fight that he could have won before leaving the inside chamber." Still, this one is more my type…
The Sycorax leader looks up at the victor. "Then kill me."
"I'll spare your life if you'll take this champion's command. Leave this planet and never return. What do you say?"
"Yes," it answers quickly.
The Doctor keeps the sword to its throat. "Swear on the blood of your species!"
The invader pauses. "I swear."
"There we are, then." The Doctor plants his sword into the rocky ground and turns back to Rose. "Thanks for that. Cheers, big fellow."
"What're you thanking the Sycorax for?" Ruby asked.
"Because they helped him find out who he wanted to be in this life," Blake smiled, squeezing Yang's hand.
Harriet Jones claps her hands as Rose runs forward. "Bravo!"
"That says it all," Rose agrees. "Bravo!"
"Ah, not bad for a man in his jimjams." With Rose's help, he puts the bathrobe on and starts walking back toward the inner aspects of the ship. "Very Arthur Dent. Now, there was a nice man."
He reaches into the pockets and pulls out a bit of fruit and laughs. "Hold on, what have I got in here? A satsuma. Ah, that friend of your mother's. He does like his snacks, doesn't he? But doesn't that just sum up Christmas? You go through all those presents and right at the end, tucked away at the bottom, there's always one stupid old satsuma. Who wants a satsuma?"
As the Doctor juggles the orange in the air, the Sycorax leader rises to its feet. It roars and grabs the abandoned sword, lifting it above its head.
"Look out!"
The Doctor catches the fruit and throws it forward, bouncing it off one of the control buttons. The ground beneath the Sycorax folds away, turning its roar of anger into a scream of terror as it falls toward the world it tried to enslave.
"No second chances," the Doctor says without levity. "I'm that sort of a man."
"…"
"Holy shit," Yang gasped after the theater had gone silent.
Qrow nodded slowly. "Now that is the Doctor we knew."
"It really is him," Blake muttered.
Ruby's silver eyes were wide as saucers. "Even though he's finally able to smile… he still hasn't let go of the darkness."
"Perhaps… that's the first step," Weiss said.
The group returns to the bowels of the ship, where the Doctor addresses the rest of the Sycorax.
"By the ancient rites of combat, I forbid you to scavenge here for the rest of time. And when go you back to the stars and tell others of this planet, when you tell them of its riches, its people, its potential - when you talk of the Earth, then make sure that you tell them this. It is defended."
"The ever-returning Oncoming Storm," Weiss remembered.
Then, with a shimmer of blue, the T.A.R.D.I.S, the Doctor, Rose, Mickey, Harriet Jones, and Alex all disappear.
On the ground beneath them, the group reappears. Rose looks around. "Where are we?"
"We're just off Bloxsome Road," Mickey answers. He raises his arms and starts to jump in place. "We're just around the corner, we did it!"
The Doctor waves at him. "Wait a minute, wait a minute." He, along with Harriet Jones, have kept their eyes on the ship. Then, as everyone watches, it gets smaller and smaller as it goes higher and higher. Until the giant asteroid was barely more than a pebble in their eyes. The Doctor smiles.
"It's over!" Ruby smiled. "Finally!"
Blake nodded. "The Doctor saved them, again."
"I still think Rose could have salvaged it, but he definitely did it way better," she giggled.
"Go on, my son!" Mickey roars, pointing at the ship with a grin stretched across his face. "Oh yeah!"
Rose jumps on his back in equal fervor. "Yeah! Don't come back!"
Mickey points at the ground, adding "It is defended!" with a loud chuckle. He drops Rose and they hug, before the blonde runs over to Alex and gives him the same treatment.
Slowly, the two leaders turn to face each other. Harriet Jones shrugs her shoulders as the Doctor sports a wide smile. " My Doctor."
"Prime Minister." The Doctor outstretches his arms and offers a hug, which she accepts.
"Even though it's a different figurehead, it still is held up by what came before it," the Librarian said. "'It is a proud tradition that binds us together, reminding us that the torch has been passed to a new generation'."
Qrow nodded and smiled. "I bet Ozpin would say something about the forefather's legacy to help the next, but the Doctor's situation is a bit weird."
"Absolutely the same man," Harriet Jones says. She glances back up at the ship and the unseen stars beyond it. "Are there many more out there?"
"Oh, not just Sycorax," he nods. "Hundreds of species. Thousands of them. And the human race is drawing attention to itself. Every day you're sending out probes and messages and signals. This planet's so noisy. You're getting noticed more and more. You'd better get used to it."
Harriet Jones holds her gaze at the retreating invaders.
"Hopefully the next ones are more friendly," Weiss said.
Yang shrugged. "If they aren't, the Doctor will be there to kick. Their. Butts!"
"Rose!" a familiar, motherly voice calls out.
The blonde looks up and smiles. "Mum!"
"Speaking of trouble…" the Doctor mumbles as Rose runs into her arms.
"Oh my God!" Jackie yells holding her daughter right. "Rose!"
"He did it mum!" Rose smiles. The group starts to move towards Jackie, although Alex turns away to answer a phone call on his earpiece. "You did it too! It was the tea. Fixed his head."
The Doctor nods again. "That was all I needed. Cup of tea."
Jackie pokes at Rose. "I told you so."
"And look at him," Rose laughs, pulling her towards the Doctor.
"Is it him, though?" she half-whispers. "Is it really the Doctor? Oh my God! It's the bleeding Prime Minister!"
"Near immortal alien," Ruby said, holding up one hand. "Elected official. And the one that makes her more excited is the not-as-cool one."
"At this point, the Doctor is like family," the Librarian said.
"I still think Uncle Qrow is cooler than Professor Ozpin."
The Huntsman beamed. "Aw, thanks kiddo."
"Come here you," the Doctor laughs before pulling everyone into a group hug.
"Are you better?" Jackie asks softly.
He nods. "I am, yeah."
Behind them, Alex walks over to Harriet Jones. "It's a message from Torchwood," he says. "They're ready."
Weiss slapped her forehead. "I can't believe we forgot about Torchwood!"
"Whatever it is, there's no need for it now," Yang shrugged. "The Doctor won."
Harriet Jones closes her eyes. Then she looks back at the happy family celebrating and turns back to Alex. "Tell them to fire."
"What?"
Alex presses a finger to his earpiece. "Fire at will."
A beam of emerald energy, wild yet focused, rises above them. The Doctor's celebration ceases as he and his friends look up. Four more blasts of energy, each from different points in London, shoot into the air and crash together at a single point. Then, with their combined energies, a single streak fires into space. Seconds later, something above them explodes into millions of smaller particles.
" What?!" RWBY repeated.
Rose covers her eyes. "What was that? What's happening."
The cold, joyless glare of the Doctor's eyes falls upon Harriet Jones. "That was murder."
"That was defence," she counters. "It's adapted from alien technology. A ship that fell to Earth ten years ago."
"But they were leaving," the Doctor snaps.
"You said yourself, Doctor, they'd go back to the stars and tell others about the Earth. I'm sorry, Doctor, but you're not here all the time. You come and go. It happened today. Mister Llewellyn and the major. They were murdered. They died right in front of me while you were sleeping. In which case we have to defend ourselves."
"She has a point," Qrow said.
"She killed innocent people!" Weiss snapped. "They were honoring their deal and leaving!"
Yang crossed her arms. "Their leader swore on the blood of its species that the battle was done but still tried to kill the Doctor and we are supposed to trust them?"
"So you're going to judge one person for their entire species?" Blake accused.
"No!" the blonde said. "But Harriet Jones saw that happen."
Blake raised an eyebrow. "She also saw the Doctor saying he would protect them and she saw them leave."
"The Sycorax leader said there was an entire armada out there," Qrow added, crossing his arms.
"And if they came back, that is when they should have used this Torchwood," Weiss said.
The Huntsman frowned at her. "How would they be able to prove they were attackers until they attacked? Would you blow them up because they might be on the attack?"
"Why else would they return?"
"To apologize, I don't know," Qrow said. "But blowing them up now versus blowing them up if they return, it's the same. This way is preventative and keeps people from potentially dying."
Blake nudged her team leader. "Ruby? What do you think?"
"I…" Ruby pulled on her cloak and sighed. "I don't know… On one hand, it was wrong. It was killing innocent people. But on the other hand, Harriet Jones is right and they need to be able to protect themselves without him."
"So you would make the same call?" Weiss asked.
"No. Never!" the silver-eyed schoolgirl said.
"Why not?" Qrow asked.
She paused. "Because I don't think I could do that based on a what-if."
"Everywhere the Doctor goes, there's danger," the Librarian said. "We've seen it. Dozens of times, people died due to alien threats or sacrificing themselves for him."
"We can't just kill someone because they might be a threat," Blake growled. "Protection and safety is supposed to be reactionary because that's the only way to be certain. Otherwise, you start to profile and inspire hate upon people because of something a similar group did."
"Britain's Golden Age," the Doctor mocks.
"It comes with a price."
"I gave them the wrong warning," the Doctor realizes, still glaring at the Prime Minister. "I should've told them to run as fast as they can, run and hide because the monsters are coming. The human race."
Harriet Jones glares back. "Those are the people I represent. I did it on their behalf."
"And I should have stopped you."
"What does that make you, Doctor?" she asks. "Another alien threat?"
"To you, maybe," Weiss scowled. "He's protecting everybody else."
Blake nodded. "Humans are not worth any more than Sycorax. Not in peace."
"Don't challenge me, Harriet Jones, 'cause I'm a completely new man. I could bring down your government with a single word."
Harriet Jones shakes her head. "You're the most remarkable man I've ever met, but I don't think you're quite capable of that.
"No. You're right," he admits. "Not a single word. Just six."
"I don't think so."
"Six words."
"Stop it!" Harriet Jones snaps.
"Six." The Doctor brushes past her and over to Alex. He pulls the device from Alex's ear and leans down to him. "Don't you think she looks tired?"
Yang frowned. "That's it? Those are the six words he picked?"
Qrow was equally confused. "Not command codes in the government? Or some secret clause in their law?"
"What does her needing to take a nap have anything to do with taking her down?"
Meanwhile, a slow, evil, and understanding smile comes to Weiss. Oh. Oh!
Then the Doctor walks off. Rose, Mickey, and Jackie follow quickly, leaving the two officials alone on Bloxsome Road.
"What did he say?" Harriet Jones asks, grabbing her attendant's arm.
He studies her face. "Nothing, really," Alex says.
"What did he say?"
"Nothing. I don't know."
Harriet Jones turns back to the Doctor and calls out to him. "Doctor! Doctor, what did you-? What was that? What did he say? What did you say, Doctor? Doctor!"
But as she receives no response, and Alex steps back to make a call, Harriet Jones whispers two final words.
"I'm sorry."
"For blowing up the Sycorax as they were leaving or because the Doctor spanked you?" Yang asked.
Qrow nudged his niece. "I thought you were for shooting them."
She shook her head. "No. I just understood why she did. That doesn't make her right."\
Shirts, skirts, jackets, dresses, and clothes of all sorts hang around the Doctor. He jumps from one section to the next, pulling out and throwing away different styles.
'When I woke up today and the world seemed a restless place, it could have been that way for me.'
Mickey, Jackie, and Rose all run around a table, jumping from cutting a turkey, to tasting it, and laughing with each other.
"Christmas dinner," Blake realized. She smiled. "They're finally able to celebrate."
"But the Doctor's not there," Ruby said. "He's picking out a new wardrobe."
Blake paused. "He said before that dinner with family wasn't his thing.L
"But that was that Doctor. This is this Doctor."
'Then I wandered around and I thought of your face that Christmas looking back at me.'
The Doctor, now with a scarf over his neck and a hat on his head, pauses as he notices a suit on a hanger. He grabs it, and holds it to his chest. Then picks up another hanger, this one of a long brown coat, and runs off.
'I wish today was just like every other day. Cause today has been the best day.'
Rose serves, scooping and scraping bits of food onto plates and handing them out. She places one next to her before making her own plate.
'Everything I ever dreamed. Then I started to walk, pretty soon I will run.'
With new regeneration confidence, the Doctor looks in a mirror. Gone were the jumpers, jeans, and leather jackets. In its place was a brown pinstripe suit, tie, and long coat.
"… I like it," Weiss said.
Yang scoffed. "Of course you would. I liked the leather jacket!"
"But it wasn't his leather jacket. It was… Um."
"Nine's?" the Librarian offered.
Weiss nodded in thanks. "It was Nine's jacket. This Doctor, Ten, has a new style. It's as if he's finally moved on past the grunge, punk phase."
He smiles in the mirror and takes a moment to analyze his new face, pulling it slightly and sliding his tongue over his teeth.
"Okay," he says before walking out.
'And I'll be running back to you. Because I followed my star, and that's what you are. I've had a merry time with you.'
Rose looks up as the door opens and smiles as the Doctor enters.
"See!" Ruby pointed.
The two smile at each other broadly.
'I wish today was just like every other day.'
After Christmas dinner, the Doctor (now wearing a paper crown) and Rose tug at a wrapped tube. It cracks and she gasps before falling into giggles. Jackie claps her hands as the Doctor looks inside and holds out the container to her.
"Oh, that's yours," he says, passing it over.
Rose reaches inside and pulls out another paper crown. "It's pink!" she realizes. "Mum, it should be yours." But Rose puts it on happily anyway.
"Christmas crackers!" the Librarian smiled. "You pull on them to get little gifts inside. Sometimes it's just the crown, but some will also include small gifts like toy cars or can openers."
After some begging, the Librarian had some brought out for them. They each crossed their arms and tugged, earning a crown for each of them in their favorite colors.
After Rose puts on her crown, she points to the telly. "Look, it's Harriet Jones."
" Prime Minister," a reporter asks as a camera is pressed nearly up against her face, " is it true you are no longer fit to be in position?"
"No," she answers. "Now, can we talk about other things?"
Another reporter pushes their microphone forward. " Is it true you're unfit for office?"
"This is why he only needed those six words," Weiss smirked.
"I don't get it," Ruby and Yang said simultaneously.
Blake's eyes widened. "Rumor!"
"Exactly," the Schnee heiress nodded. "The Doctor implanted a seed of doubt in Alex's mind. Then, perhaps innocently, he would go ask someone else if they thought she looked tired. Then they ask someone, and someone else. Then everyone in their cabinet and inner circle is starting to wonder if Harriet Jones is the best woman for the job."
"Right up until the press hears about it and starts hounding her," Blake said. "Considering the situation, people wouldn't need much convincing that Harriet Jones needs a break."
"He used the people she represents against her," Qrow smirked.
The Doctor pulls out a pair of glasses and puts them on to watch.
" Look, there is nothing wrong with my health," Harriet Jones explains. " I don't know where these stories are coming from. And a vote of no confidence is completely unjustified."
" Are you going to resign?" they continue to pester.
" On today of all days, I'm fine. Look at me, I'm fine. I look fine, I feel fine. "
The TV turns off as the phone rings. Jackie picks it up and listens for a moment. "It's Bev. She says to go and look outside."
"Why?" Rose asks.
"I don't know, just go outside and look. Come on, shift!"
Ruby groaned. "Please tell me it's not more aliens…"
Snow falls in London on Christmas Day. Heavy jackets are being worn as Rose, Mickey, Jackie, and the Doctor all run outside. Other flatmates are outside already, throwing clumps of snow at each other without a care in the world.
"I love snow!" Ruby smiled. "Whenever it got too high in Patch, and the heater broke, we'd always make a fort in the basement with all of our pillows and blankets. Mom would pull out a dust-heater and make hot chocolate while Dad would try to tell us funny stories."
Yang laughed. "We'd always fall asleep and wake up in our beds. I think Dad would just turn off the power to get us all together."
"I've never really seen the snow," Blake shrugged. "I grew up on a tropical island. The closest we ever got to cold was having to wear a coat."
Weiss, however, was silent. I can't remember the last happy memory of our family in the snow.
"Snow sucks," Qrow grumbled, practically shivering. "It's cold and wet and sticks to everything - and it never stays where you want it to."
Rose looks up to see streaks of light in the sky, crisscrossing in random directions. "What are they, meteors?"
"It's the spaceship breaking up in the atmosphere," the Doctor answers. "This isn't snow, it's ash.
"Okay, not so beautiful."
"Ash fell from the sky," the Librarian muttered ominously.
The Doctor wipes away some of the snow - ash - from his T.A.R.D.I.S. "This is a brand-new planet Earth. No denying the existence of aliens now. Everyone saw it. Everything's new."
Rose stares at him. "And what about you! What are you going to do next?"
"Well… Back to the T.A.R.D.I.S," he answers. "Same old life."
"On your own?"
He gives a small smile. "Why, don't you want to come?"
"Well, yeah."
"Do you, though?"
"Yeah!"
"Well, I just thought… 'cause I changed…"
Blake smiled. "That's why he was so late for dinner. He was scared she might not like him."
"She did say he wasn't her Doctor," Qrow frowned.
"He's not. But that doesn't mean she can't have a new one. Especially if all the parts she loved are still in this one."
Rose blushes. "Yeah, I though 'cause you changed… you might not want me anymore."
"Oh, I'd love you to come," he smiles.
She does so as well. "Okay."
"You're never going to stay, are you?"
Rose turns around and shakes her head at Mickey. "There's just so much out there," she says softly. "So much to see. I've got to."
Slowly, Mickey nods. He forces a smile. "Yeah."
"Poor Mickey," Ruby said.
"Well, I reckon you're mad," Jackie says. "The pair of you. It's like you go looking for trouble."
The Doctor runs to her side and shakes her arm. "Trouble's just the bits in-between. It's all waiting out there, Jackie, and it's brand new to me. All those planets, and creatures and horizons. I haven't seem them yet! Not with these eyes."
He walks back over to Rose. They share a glance. "And it is gonna be… fantastic."
"Awww!"
"Godsdammnit, give me a tissue," Qrow muttered. "Dunno why that is what gets me. I'm gonna miss the old Doctor."
"So will she," Yang smiled. "That's why he did it."
Rose looks down to see the Doctor's new, new hand outstretched for her. "That hand of yours still gives me the creeps." He wiggles the finger, but she takes it.
"YES!" Blake yelled. "Sorry..."
"So, where are we gonna go first?" Rose asks, pulling herself close.
The Doctor looks up at the sky and points. "Um… That way. No, hold on. That way."
"That way?" Rose asks, following the new direction.
"You think?"
"Yeah. That way."
The two travelers look up from a new Earth, with new eyes, to a new destination in mind.
"And with that," the Librarian claps as the lights begin to return to the room (earning more than a few squeals and whimpers), "Series One is over!"
Ruby stretched in her seat and sighed as her joints popped. "It feels like… four years have come and gone."
"We did watch Rose travel for a year," Weiss nodded. "Kind of. The time travel aspects do make it difficult."
"What's to come next then?" Blake asked.
Yang turned toward their guide. "We need a break. That's what."
"I agree," Qrow said. "It's time for us to go home."
The Librarian's smile faded slightly. "Yeah. I remember. Straight to? Or the long way around?"
"Straight back home," the Huntsman said. "These girls didn't sign up for the same thing as Rose. They have responsibilities. And so do I."
Ruby frowned. "But, we could always come back, right? Maybe it's a yearly thing or on everyone's birthday."
"I don't think so, Ruby," the Librarian said. "This lifestyle is addicting. You four - five," he added, nodding to Qrow, "have destinies. Far greater ones than you know. I can't afford to ruin that."
"You're just going to leave us then?" Blake asked. "Give us all of this knowledge and information and just… take it away?"
"I don't want to. But you guys brought up an important point. I like surprises. Secrets. Potential conclusions. And, of course, spoilers." He shrugged. "Things I won't spoil for you. And I don't want to get hurt, or my ship to become damaged, if I do so."
"But…" Yang frowned. "It was just the one thing, right?"
"I know what's to come in the next few series. A few specifics, but not everything. Things you'd definitely punch me again for knowing."
"Why not just tell us then?"
"Because that's part of the journey. And so is the end." The Librarian made his way back over to the transportation controls and smiled. "Let's see if this is ours."
Huge, huge, thanks to my Pat. supporters:
Helpful - Dalek2150, Gokai QM
Nice Guy - David Padgett
Hey, want to see me tick some people off? Here's my complaints on this half of the episode:
First of all, the battle on top of the ship is kind of ridiculous. The Doctor, someone who rarely would allow himself a gun even if it was just to shoot some glass, enacts a sword fight. I only bring this up because I've heard people complain about 11 using one in such instances as a tool while the Doctor does use this sword as a weapon.
Secondly, there are some bad edits (I'm ignoring the poor CGI and lack of blood for obvious reasons). When the Doctor gives him his 'I can reform my hand' speech, the clip shows him in front of Rose and the others, when his back is meant to be the skyline - and the Sycorax leader's position to watch him keeps changing as well. And as cold and cool as the Doctor's 'no second chances' moment is, why does that button get rid of a random section of the hull?
And third, Harriet Jones was never told the Doctor was unconscious. So how did she know he was asleep? Granted, this is a nitpick, because her argument still stands.
(Also, annoyance for me to write 'the Sycorax leader' over and over again because it is never given a name!)
Does it take away from the episode? Hm… no. But I do want to say that 10's run was not perfect. No show is. I am an impartial writer that wants to draw attention to the fact that people hate later seasons for 'messups' or 'poorly written moments' when this existed on 10's very first episode. Will it continue? We will find out.
But, all in all, a pretty good start to 10's run. They do establish pretty well that he is not 9, both in style, attitude, and fashion. And I like the different styles the Doctors had in comparison. I cannot wait to cover it more in the future :)
Next up, a few breakaway chapters. This might have been the end of Series 1, but I've got to wrap up Season/Volume 1 of Remnant Who. Character arcs to fulfill, people to add (people to lose?), and an original story to create that I've had in my mind since the genesis of this story. I know y'all tend to hate those stories *glances up at the review sheet* but I like it. This is a writing exercise for me. And I hope you guys enjoy what I create.
So, read on, warriors. It's time to hobey-ho and allonsy!
As always, I'd like to ask everyone to comment on this chapter (whether or not you are reading this as it updates or a year from then). It helps me improve and gives me even more drive to write!
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