(quick writer's note: a long long time ago, when I started this, I was already too old. It's more than 10 years later... so yes, definitely too old for this. But I have decided not to let down those few readers I had and actually try and finish this. I don't know if you're one of that lucky small elite of readers or if you happened here by pure chance, but if you did read through, please leave a review. Even a bad one, it doesn't take a lot of time but it will be appreciated. Thanks, and enjoy!)
Chapter 40
I'm still puzzled, and clearly I'm not the only one. The Doctor checks on his spare hand, the jar still glowing with regeneration light.
"There now". He blows on the jar, the golden glowing stops. "You see? Used the regeneration energy to heal myself, but soon as I was done, I didn't need to change. I didn't want to. Why would I? Look at me", he glances at Rose, then at me, straightening his tie knot. "So, to stop the energy going all the way, I siphoned off the rest into a handy bio-matching receptacle, namely my hand. My hand there. My handy spare hand. Remember?", he wiggles his fingers in front of Rose. "Christmas Day, Sycorax. Lost my hand in a sword fight? That's my hand. What do you think?".
"You're still you?", Rose asks, still shaking, stepping towards him.
"I'm still me", he winks, giving her a warm smile.
They hug.
Seriously?
They hug.
While Donna tries to force Jack to hug her, I glare at the Doctor.
He closes his eyes, pretending he didn't notice me.
Doctor- Kiss her!
He blushes, he opens his eyes and gives me a look.
Oh come onnnnn.
I see him smiling, stiffling a laugh. He gently pushes Rose away for an instant, holding her waist, and kisses her. It's deep and it's sweet and she's short so he's all leaning and they look like teenagers and I wish I had confetti in my hands to throw all over them. Jack glares at me. Donna glares at Jack. The Doctor and Rose feel a little too much at the center of our attention.
"So, what took you so long?", I ask. He knows what I mean, but of course he pretends I asked him something else.
"See, Zoe, it was very clever. The entire Medusa Cascade has been put a second out of sync with the rest of the universe. Perfect hiding place. Tiny little pocket of time. That's why we couldn't find Earth, and the other missing planets. They've been picked from all time and space. Took us… took me a while, yeah", he finally winks. The Medusa Cascade… I know stories about this place. Gallifrey must have been close by…? I wonder if within the time lock, the war is happening in this same place. I shiver. "And you're still you. Or, you again", he says, walking closer to me. "Where have you been all this time, by the way?".
"Torchwood, mostly", I say, nodding in Jack's direction. "Got a desk! Pens and stapler and everything".
He gives me a look, I shake my head. This is not the time to talk about how my search for the Master is still stuck without a clue.
"You've seen my mum? And gramps? Are they safe?", Donna asks me and Rose.
"Yeah", I nod. "Safe and sound. For now".
Suddenly, the lights go down.
I run around the console, trying a few buttons, everything is off. "They've got us. Power's gone".
"Some kind of chronon loop", the Doctor agrees, also trying to reactivate the console.
The Tardis shakes violently, we all stumble.
"There's a massive Dalek ship at the centre of the planets", Jack explains. "They're calling it the Crucible".
I shiver. It's not the time, but what if- "The Cruciform?". What if…
The Doctor looks at me warily, catching my thought. "The Crucible", he repeats. "The Cruciform was a… a place on Gallifrey- he's not here, Zoe", he softens his gaze, gulping. "Besides. Daleks are enough, aren't they?", he pats my shoulder.
"Right", I look down. "Sorry".
Donna looks at me, confused, then returns to the point. "You said these planets were like an engine. But what for?".
The Doctor thinks. "Rose, you've been through parallel worlds. Your world's running ahead of this universe. You've seen the future. What was it?".
"It's the darkness".
"The stars were going out" - wait, was Donna in a parallel world too? I take a few weeks off, and I'm already out of the loop.
"One by one", Rose continues. "We looked up at the sky and they were just dying", she says bitterly. "Basically, we've been building this, er, this travel machine, this, this er, dimension cannon, so I could… Well, so I could…".
"What?", the Doctor asks, confused.
"So I could come back", she smirks. He smiles. "Shut up", she mocks him. "Anyway, suddenly, it started to work. Which meant the dimensions started to collapse. Not just in our world, not just in yours, but the whole of reality. Even the Void was dead. Something is destroying everything".
"In that parallel world, you said something about me", Donna says, scared.
Rose turns to her. "The dimension cannon could measure timelines, and it's, it's weird, Donna, but they all seemed to converge on you".
"But why me? I mean, what have I ever done? I'm a temp from Chiswick", she says dismissively, turning around.
I don't know why Donna is always this judgmental on herself. Rose just said the timelines were converging on her. It must mean something. Right now, twenty-seven planets displaced, the Daleks army out of the time lock, I can't see any timeline straight. I look at the Doctor, but he's equally confused. Looks worried too.
The scanner beeps, and the Tardis stops. The Doctor sighs. "The Dalek Crucible. All aboard".
We hear the Daleks from outside. "The Tardis is secured", one says, "Doctor, you will step forth or die", another one orders.
"We'll have to go out", I admit, looking at the Doctor.
"Because if we don't, they'll get in", he nods, looking at the doors.
"You told me nothing could get through those doors", Rose says, looking at the Doctor.
Jack looks at him too, then at me. "You've got extrapolator shielding".
"Last time we fought the Daleks, they were scavengers and hybrids, and mad. But this is a fully-fledged Dalek Empire, at the height of its power. Experts at fighting Tardises, they can do anything", the Doctor explains. If he feels defeated, no wonder Jack did too. "Right now, that wooden door… is just wood".
Not the most reassuring words, but I can't help but notice how terrified Donna looks. It's like she's paralyzed with fear.
"What about your dimension jump?", Jack asks Rose.
"It needs another twenty minutes to recharge. And anyway, I'm not leaving", she replies, sternly.
"Your teleport?", I ask Jack.
"Went down with the power loss. Your ring? Skateboard in a storm?".
I nod.
"Right then. All of us together", the Doctor says, looking around us. "Yeah. Donna?". She is just, well, staring at nothing. He snaps her out of it. "Donna?", he calls again.
"Yeah", she says, with a weak voice.
"I'm sorry. There's nothing else we can do", he says.
"No, I know".
He turns to me, whispering. "Keep an eye on her, will you?".
"Yeah. I'm starting to worry about her".
He nods, while the Daleks outside repeat their orders.
"Surrender, Doctor, and face your Dalek masters. Crucible on maximum alert".
Rose shakes her shoulders, trying to break the tension. "Daleks", she laughs.
"Oh, God", Jack joins in, looking at me.
"It's been good, though, hasn't it? All of us. All of it. Everything we did", the Doctor says, softly. I can't help but feel proud of him, of how he doesn't give in, even when we have no other option but to surrender. "You were brilliant", he tells Donna, "And you were brilliant", he tells Jack, then he looks at me "And you, you were brilliant, rockstar". Finally he turns to Rose, and his eyes are shining. "And you were brilliant".
We all smile. Always feels good to hear that from the Doctor.
"Blimey", he says, with a deep breath.
When he opens the doors, the Daleks' voices become louder, deafening. "Daleks reign supreme. All hail the Daleks! Daleks reign supreme. All hail the Daleks! Daleks reign supreme. All hail the Daleks…"
The Doctor walks out, slowly. Rose follows him, and Jack. Donna stops just before the door, I'm behind her.
"Behold, Doctor, behold the might of the true Dalek race", the red Dalek is saying.
I see the Doctor look to his side, where I usually would be, then quickly around. "Zoe?" He calls. "Donnaaaa", he repeats, turning around fast seeing us on the threshold, still inside. "Zoeeey, get her out".
"Come on, we're no safer in here", I tell her.
And then, the doors slam shut in our faces. And we're still inside.
"What?" I hear the Doctor scream outside, his steps returning to the Tardis.
"Doctor!", Donna starts banging her hands on the doors. "What have you done?".
"It wasn't me!", he yells, frantically. "I didn't do anything!".
I try the lock, I try with the laser screwdriver, nothing. Donna keeps banging her hands and I hear the Doctor insisting on pulling the handles from outside, but the door doesn't bulge.
"Oi!", Donna screams. "Oi! We're not staying behind!", she protests.
"What did you do?", I hear the Doctor asks to the red Dalek, still trying to open the doors.
"This is not of Dalek origin", the metallic voice says.
"Doctor!", Donna and I call.
"Stop it! They're my friends. Now open the door and let them out", he insists.
"This is Time Lord treachery".
"Me?", The Doctor says. "The door just closed on its own. Zoe? Donna?".
"Nevertheless, the Tardis is a weapon", I hear the Dalek reply before the Tardis starts shaking, "And it will be destroyed".
We're dropping like a dead weight. Donna and I stumble to the floor. I stand up, help her up, holding her shoulders, covering her as we crouch to reach the console. The Tardis is exploding, and falling fast. Under the metallic grate, flames are engulfing the console floor.
Donna screams and cries, coughing, stumbling again to the floor. I hit the console and start the laser, hoping that the speed of the fall will mechanically start some systems and get the power back on.
"Donna", I call when I lose sight of her, "Donna! Stay down".
Lightbulbs are exploding, one by one. Fire is coming through the floor, and I'm trying to stay confident and believe I can actually fly the Tardis away from the gravity pull of the core. Think, Zoe, think. What could it be, z-neutrino energy? I spot Donna crouching down, she starts crawling around the other side of the console, her eyes fixed on the jar with the hand - crazy how that creepy thing never ever explodes, innit? She's still coughing between tears and cries.
"Donnaaaaa", I call her, as I mechanically try to kickstart the Tardis defences back up. "Stay away from that".
But Donna isn't listening to me anymore, and I see her crawling closer to the jar. I'm clutching the manual start lever with both arms, and it's stubbornly stuck, and I'm putting all my strength to it, so I can't stop her. I try the psychic link with the Doctor, but as angry as I imagine him to be now, his mind is obviously shut down.
"Donna, no", I scream, "Don't touch it", I pant, my voice breaking, as I see the jar starting to glow with regeneration energy. This can't be good for her. "Don't touch the… - oh, well".
I keep pushing as I watch the light twirling, engulfing Donna even before her hand reaches the jar, calling her closer. I'm struggling, I close my eyes in pain. I hear Donna panting, shaking, and I open my eyes again with the sound of the light actually breaking the glass - what the h-
"Donnaaaa", I call her as she stumbles back, then opens her eyes and lifts herself up.
"Wha…", she whispers.
I look down, at where's she's staring. The hand is glowing, no, not only glowing, it's growing. Its golden light expands into a shape - really, what is happening? All those books I've read, what else don't I know about regeneration energy? - a shape, a figure shape, that suddenly pops up sitting, and I'm staring at the Doctor shaking the light away from his body.
Okay, I know the Tardis, and us, we're still burning and this bloody lever is still stuck, but there is a moment of silence as Donna and I exchange a glance, flabbergasted.
"It's you", Donna states, looking at him.
"Oh yes", he smiles.
Donna rolls her eyes towards the exploding ceiling. "You're naked", she points out.
"Oh yes", he replies again.
I can't hold this anymore. "Mind giving me a hand?", I plead, as the lever finally switches into place.
"Oh yes!", he cheers, turning sideways to look at me, and springing into action. I lock the lever in place as he starts typing, and of course with one big button, I feel the Tardis dematerializing and I fall to the floor, panting.
"Well done, Zoe! You're brilliant!", he cheers.
"Shut up", I groan, trying to find my breath again. "And put some clothes on, would you?".