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Greetings! Welcome to the index to this drabble set.Changes in AO3’s maximum number of tags mean I’ve had to move the story names out of the tags and into this index. See below for what’s included to date:Chapter 2 - Post-Episode: 2017 Xmas Twice Upon A TimeChapter 3 - Episode: s11e01 The Woman Who Fell to EarthChapter 7 - Episode: s11e02 The Ghost MonumentChapter 14 - Episode: s11e03 RosaChapter 15 - Episode: s11e04 Arachnids in the UKChapter 19 - Episode: s11e05 The Tsuranga ConundrumChapter 22 - Episode: s11e06 Demons of the PunjabChapter 27 - Episode: s11e07 Kerblam!Chapter 29 - Episode: s11e08 The WitchfindersChapter 33 - Episode: s11e09 It Takes You AwayChapter 38 - Episode: s11e10 The Battle of Ranskoor Av KolosChapter 42 - Episode: 2018 New Year's Resolution (Doctor Who)Chapter 50 - Episode: s12e01-02 Spyfall Chapter 71 - Book: ScratchmanChapter 76 - Episode: s12e03 Orphan 55Chapter 78 - Episode: s12e04 Nikola Tesla’s Night of TerrorChapter 86 - Episode: s12e05 Fugitive of the JudoonChapter 94 - Episode: s12e06 PraxeusChapter 104 - Episode: s12e07 Can You Hear Me?
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The Doctor fell.She reached out, trying to grab onto something to pull the TARDIS back to her, but it was too far away. Fire exploded from the ship as it spun into space. When the Doctor hit the atmosphere, the flames of her descent obscured her vision. “Oh, this is bad. Very, very bad.” She looked at her hands again and marveled. “I should be burning up. Why am I not? Regeneration energy protecting me or…TARDIS force field?”The flames went out and she twisted to see where she was heading. “Oh, Earth! England! What’s that? Maybe…Sheffield?”
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“Where did you find this thing?”“The peaks.” Ryan glanced back at Yaz, Grace, and Graham as they all followed the strange woman in the tattered suit. “Me and Yaz, were just there when I got Nan’s call about,” he gestured at the train, “this lot.”“So if you’re here now that means you have a vehicle?”Yaz raised her hand. “My police car, yeah. Why?” The woman grinned. “Because I need a lift.”“You mean we need a lift.” Grace grabbed Graham’s hand. “You’re not leaving us behind.” “Actually love,” Graham began.“No, we’re coming too and that’s final.”
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Graham frowned at the stream of ever more unlikely sounds coming from the curtained area of the garage. “What’d you think she’s making in there?”Grace shrugged. “Hard to say. I only understand about half of what comes out of her mouth.”“Half?” He laughed. “You’re doing better than me. I don’t understand most of it.”Grace intertwined their fingers. “I think the important thing is she has a good heart…or two of them given her double heartbeat. I mean here she is, helping protect a planet that isn’t even her own. Who does that?”Graham smiled. “You would.”
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The Doctor threw cables, batteries, and various devices into a bag. Ryan watched her nervously. “Gotta plan yet?“Yeah. It’s not half bad, considering my brain isn’t done cooking yet.” The Doctor looked around. “Anyone seen a mirror?”Yaz chuckled as Grace handed her one. “If you’re trying to clean-up, you might want to ditch those clothes first.”“No time. I’ve an idea for getting rid of the DNA bombs, but I’m only about 85% sure it’ll work.” Adjusting the mirror, the Doctor pointed the sonic at her collar bone. “Not bad odds. Still, better test it on myself first.”
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Ryan and Graham knelt by Grace’s body and mourned.Yasmin swallowed hard. “I should call this in.” “Yeah, probably.” The Doctor led her a short distance away. “You’ll need to think about what you’re going to say.”“I don’t even know where to begin.” Yaz sighed. “Maybe the truth-““That an alien with teeth in his face was hunting Karl? Normally I’m for being honest,” the Doctor made a face, “but in this case-““No one would believe it. Any suggestions?”“An equipment malfunction and we all stopped to help?”Yaz pulled out her phone. “Guess that’ll have to do.”
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The Doctor wouldn’t have believed the spaceship could travel through normal space, let alone make a hyperjump, if she hadn’t seen it herself. She wonder briefly why anyone would risk their lives in such a ship, before everything went black.Seconds later she jolted awake inside a medipod. Slamming her hand on the exit button, she stumbled into the cockpit. “Okay, who are you and where are the others?” “If you’re talking about your friend, I think she’s dead.” The man in the pilot’s chair sounded uninterested in this information. “Name’s Epzo, soon to be master of all I survey.”
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When Graham’s eyes fluttered open, a strange woman was grinning down at him. “Crafty old Epzo. Must have dumped you out after the jump to slow me down.”Groaning, he sat up. “What are you talking about?” “Not to worry,” she continued, walking away. “The computer’s searching for the last planet while the medipods do their thing.”Standing shakily, Graham stumbled into a glowing blue pod. “Wait, what’s Ryan doing in there? Where are the others? Who are you?”“Angstrom, best space pilot in the race.”“Space what?” Graham caught sight of the darkness outside the ship’s viewports. “Oh, right.”
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“Try now.”“Nope, it’s dead as disco.” The Doctor crawled out from the guts of the ship. “How are the readings, Ryan?” She made a face. "Readings Ryan? How’s that for alliteration?”“Hard to say, I barely understand what I’m looking at.” Ryan adjusted the solar panels again before glancing at the screen. “I’ve got a new icon - it’s green. Is that good?”“Maybe?” Turning, she yelled behind her, “What’s happening on your end, Graham?”“This battery thing’s starting to light up. Is that supposed to happen?”“Yes! Come on out.” The Doctor grinned. “Boys, I think we’ve fixed it!”
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The Doctor listened to Graham’s gentle snoring and the water lapping against the solar ship’s hull. “What’s your story?” She glanced up to find Angstrom studying her. “Are you all…family?”“We met a few days ago.” The Doctor smiled as she looked over the faces of her sleeping friends. “They…helped me find myself, quite literally. Plus we rescued each other from a really bad piece of business named Tim Shaw. Strangers pull together in situations like that.” She sighed. “Now I’ve got to get them home.”“Why?”The Doctor looked confused. “I’ve a duty of care, of course.”
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Ryan leaned over Yaz’s shoulder to get a closer look at the surveillance screens. “Why are those SniperBots just standing around the hatch?”She shook her head. “Don’t know, but I’m starting to think we should have shut it behind us.” “And get locked in? No thanks.”“If there’s a network of tunnels,” Yaz began but paused, staring at the screens in horror. “Oh no. They’re coming.” Nearby they heard a muffled cry followed by yelling voices. “Now what?”“That’s the Doctor and Graham.” Grabbing her arm, Ryan pulled her away. “We better find them before those things find us.”
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“Doctor?” Yaz pushed the hair from her eyes as she climbed. “I’ve a question-““Just one,” Ryan quipped.“If you’re an alien, how do you know about the Antique Roadshow?”Graham laughed. “We just survived being attacked by living bandages and that’s what you’re curious about?”“It’s just…for someone who’s not from our planet she knows loads about it.”The Doctor glanced back. “I’ve visited Earth a lot, it’s one of my favorite places.”Ryan raised his eyebrows. “Why? You’ve the whole universe to see-”She shrugged. “Great people, interesting history, gorgeous views - it’s like my home from home.”
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Ryan leaned against a wall. “Are we there yet?” The Doctor ran around the console, fiddling with controls. “No, but we’re getting closer.” “I’ll believe it when I see it,” Graham grumbled. Yaz shook out her jacket. “Wish I had a change of clothes. I feel like I brought half the desert back with me.”The Doctor perked up. “You can do that! There’s a wardrobe,” she gestured vaguely, “somewhere. And bedrooms if you want to get cleaned up.” Graham stared at her. “You’re serious?”“Very. Can’t tell you where they all are, unfortunately.” She shrugged. “New interior. Good luck!”
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“Get the door,” Yaz whispered.“Too late,” Ryan mouthed back as the cop enter the hotel room. Then the Doctor spoke, much closer than either of them expected, and the bathroom door slowly closed. Yaz sighed and nodded toward the window. “Let’s go.““Can’t we wait here?”“I expect even cops in the 1950s clear the whole site they’ve been called to investigate.” She hopped down and waited for him on the other side. “There’s a bin down here, we can hide there.”“Great, a tour of bins,” Ryan grumbled. “Just what I wanted from my first trip to America.”
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Graham waved as the others walked away. The Doctor’s voice carried on the breeze long after they disappeared; her excitement about being invited to “tea at Yaz’s” making him smile. Then Graham sighed, squared his shoulders, and headed home.His plan was to get it over with quickly, like ripping off an Elastoplast, but as he neared the house his footsteps got slower and slower. He still reached it before he was ready.“This is silly,” the Grace in his mind chuckled. “It’s just a house.”“No,” Graham replied, staring at it from across the street. “It’s memories and grief.”
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The Doctor pointed at the map. “Where’s that?”Graham leaned over her shoulder. “It’s that new hotel, right? The one built by that American billionaire bloke-”“Jack Robertson,” Ryan supplied as he made shadow figures against the projector screen with his hands. “That’s the one!”The Doctor tapped her sonic against her chin. “Didn’t Yaz say her mum worked at some posh hotel?”“Bit of a coincidence that.”“Or not.” She turned to Jade. “You have a car?”“Yes, why?” “Because it’s vitally important we visit Yaz and her mum.” She nodded at the others. “Let’s get a shift on!”
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The Doctor let herself back into Anna’s flat. Weaving her way through the webs, she hurried downstairs. At first there was no sign of the spider, but as the Doctor neared Anna’s bedroom it scurried out, hissing at her. “Hi.” The Doctor sat down beside the vinegar barrier. “Thought maybe you’d escaped…but you waited, as I asked.” She reached out but it scuttled backward. “You’re scared, I understand. Humans did this to you, your mother, and your siblings, and I’m sure I look pretty human to you. But if you’ll trust me, I’ll do everything I can to help.”
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“Where’s the Doc?”“She and Jade are tracking down the other spiders. They said to call them-” Ryan reached into his pocket and grimaced. “Aw man! We used my phone in the panic room-”Graham nodded. “To trap the spiders, yeah. I can spot you for a new one if you want.”Sighing, Yaz joined them. “Better hurry, if you’re going to replace it before the Doctor leaves.”“About that,” Ryan scanned their faces, “anyone else thinking about going with her?”For the first time all afternoon, Yaz grinned. “Yeah.”“Can’t believe I’m saying this,” Graham shrugged, “but me too.”
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Yaz groaned. Her whole body ached and there was a weird humming in her ears. Opening her eyes, Yaz cringed at the overly bright lights. “Where’s this? What’s going on?” “It’s alright.” A woman in an apron leaned over her. “You’re being treated for sonic mine injuries.”Yaz tried to stand but weakly fell back into the chair. “The others…where are they?”“Here.” The woman attending her moved slightly and Yaz finally spotted Graham and Ryan. They looked as miserable as she felt. “Still in the land of the living, although they’re having a hard time waking the Doc.”
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“Is the Doctor alright?”Graham shrugged. “She’s an alien, how're we supposed to know?”Yaz shook her head. “She’s upset about losing the TARDIS again. Once we find it-”“If we find it-”“No,” Ryan turned to Graham, “we can’t think like that. We’ll find our way back somehow.”Yaz grinned. “My positive attitude must be rubbing off on you.”“Whatever.” He looked both ways down the corridor. “Speaking of the Doctor, where’d she go?”A loud bang echoed through the ship. Graham sighed. “Odds are, she’s wherever that came from. You two go that way, I’ll try down here.”
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“If you are from the past, why do you know how to use our technology?”“This?” Yaz kept the stazer aimed at the ceiling as she scanned for the Pting. “It’s a gun. What’s there to know?” She walked slowly around the anti-matter drive. “It’s funny, the Doctor doesn’t usually like guns, but she didn’t complain at all about these.”“A pacifist? Interesting. The likelihood of pacifists surviving in this sector of space is,” Ronan paused, “30%.” “Trust me, she’ll surprise you.” Something moved in the decking below them and Yaz backed away.“Hopefully this creature won’t do the same.”
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“You alright?”“Never better.” Yaz focused on retracing their path. “A holy man’s been murdered, my nani lied about where she grew up, and she’s about to marry someone who isn’t my grandfather.”“Don’t jump to conclusions, we don’t know anything yet.” Graham was out of breath as he hurried after her. “And we’ve got a more immediate problem. What’re we going to tell Umbreen and the others?” “The truth, I guess?”“But the Doc said-”“I know! We can leave some things out.”“Like the aliens?”“Bit late for that. But, like you said, we don’t know anything yet.”
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“Don’t you have chicken poo to gather?”Ryan leaned against the barn. “Thought I’d give some moral support.”Graham frowned. “Have a laugh, you mean?”“Mostly, yeah.”“Ta.” He approached the ox carefully, holding out a jar. “Relax mate, I’m here to get a bit of your spit. Wait, no…no…stand still, will ya? Why’s it keep following me around?”Ryan grinned. “Maybe he likes you?”“That’s nice, but it’s not helpful.” Graham glared at his grandson. “Rather like you. You could grab his horns!”“You’re doing great,” Ryan said through poorly concealed laughter. “Just…get in there.”“Ryan!”
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“We have to find her.” Yaz rushed toward the doorway, but Graham stopped her. “She could be in danger!”“She always is, but where you going to start looking?”“Ryan said the Thijarians have a space ship-”“Buried in the woods, but it’s pitch black outside! We’d be more likely to get lost than help anyone.”“Graham’s right, Yaz.” Ryan put a hand on her arm. “And there’s gangs out there, killing people.”“We have to do something!”“We’ll wait, trust the Doc to look after herself.” Graham searched their faces. “If she’s not back by morning, then we’ll search.”
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Umbreen twirled around and held out her arms. “How do I look?”“Amazing,” Yaz replied sadly.“Hmmm, yes. I’d expected a bit more enthusiasm.”“Sorry.” Wiping away a tear, she slipped the garland of flowers over Umbreen’s head. “Weddings…always get to me. You really do though…look beautiful.”Umbreen beamed. “Thank you. I’m just so happy.”“‘Course you are.” Yaz cleared her throat. “We moved all the Doctor’s equipment out of the barn. Is that where the ceremony will be?”“No, I have a much better place in mind. I’m going to be the first woman married in Pakistan!”
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“Is there time for you to change clothes,” Graham asked. “Shouldn’t you be packing?”“If these men threaten violence,” Prem shrugged into a vest, “then I refuse to meet them wearing a uniform.”“Mate, you shouldn’t meet them at all,” Ryan began, but the Doctor shushed him. “What choice do I have? This is our land and Manish is my brother. I won’t give up on either of them.” Prem sighed. “Besides, if it buys Umbreen and Hasna more time to get away, I have to try.” He smiled at Graham. “All we can do is be good men, right?”
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“Doctor,” Ryan dropped a bubble wrapped book into a box, “is that robophobia thing you mentioned real?”“Definitely.” She frowned, squinting as she tried to read a packing slip. “I’ve run into it a few times. First on a Uvanov’s sandminer and later on Kaldor and the Lorelei.” She tilted her head. “In fact, I’ve seen it most often associated with Kaldor’s robots. Which is odd because, in a way, they’re quite like the ones here at Kerb!am.”“How so?”“They’re both very human-like and attractive-”“I think you mean creepy.” He shivered. “Those glowing eyes freak me out.”
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Yaz looked down the long hallway. “Are we in the right place?”“I thought the factory was massive," Ryan gestured at the sprawling towers of flats surrounding them in all directions as far as the eye could see, "but this place-”“Welcome to Kandoka.” The Doctor checked her sonic. “Flat 23/Epsilon/Apple/Summertime, home of Dan Cooper’s ex-wife, Shelia Maxwell, and his daughter, Anna.”“Right.” Squaring her shoulders, Yaz knocked on the door. “I can handle this, if you want,” the Doctor whispered. “I have some experience-”Yaz shook her head. “Dan saved my life. I owe him this.”
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“Where to next?” The Doctor grinned. “How about the coronation of Elizabeth the First?”“Can we?” Yaz smiled back. “She was amazing.”“Time machine, ‘course we can.” The Doctor turned to the console. “Might be a bit tricky given how things ended between us.”“You’ve met her before,” Graham asked. She looked embarrassed. “Kinda married her…back when I was a man.”“Shut up,” Ryan laughed. “Wait, does that mean you were King of England?”“Not really,” the Doctor blushed, “I left after the wedding. Worlds to save. She was understandably angry about it. Still, new body - should be fine.”
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“We’re looking for Willa, can you tell us-” The old woman hurried past Yaz and the Doctor, barely meeting their eyes. “Or not. Doctor, they’re all so scared.”“They’ve seen 36 of their neighbors, family, and friends drowned as witches.” The Doctor sighed. “I’m not surprised.” “If the mud is just mud, how are we going to help these people? From what you were saying about King James and Becka, we don’t have much time.”“We have to find out as much as we can about what’s really going on here. And for that, we need to find Willa Twiston.”
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The ducking stool was uncomfortable, but the Doctor wasn’t worried. She glanced from Willa to the faces of her friends as they called out to her and was overwhelmed by a memory.A blonde in a cricketing outfit waking in a packing crate open to the night sky, his arms chained behind his back and feet manacled. Harry Houdini, one of their oldest friends, preparing to throw him into the ocean. Another trial by water, another chance to prove who you are, Doctor.She remembered the chill of that betrayal and then she was hurtling downward into the cold water.
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“If this wood is ancient technology,” Ryan paused to lean on the ax Willa had brought them, “how can we be chopping it up like wood?”The Doctor helped Yaz pull the rest of the ducking stool into position. “It’s very clever technology. It’d have to be to blend into its surroundings this long.” “Ryan’s right though.” Graham pushed back his witchfinder hat. “It seems a bit like magic, which is weird because we’ve found everything but that here.”“Arthur C. Clarke’s third law,” the Doctor began.Graham chuckled. “In other words, we wouldn’t understand even if you explained it?”
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“Is that string,” Graham scoffed as the Doctor attached it to a rock. “Very high tech.”“Comes in handy though. Like the time I got lost in a labyrinth with two other versions of myself-”“You what?”Yaz grabbed hold of the Doctor’s sleeve as the three of them felt their way through the cave. “You mean like when you change bodies?”“No, I was literally split apart into three different versions of the same incarnation. Charley called us Eeyore, Tigger, and the normal one.” She tilted her head slightly. “Admittedly, the last nickname could’ve used a bit of reworking.”
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Ryan hurried Hanne downstairs. “This is the back door, as far away from whatever’s in the woods as we can get.”“We’re not going outside,” the girl asked, beginning to panic. “No, but I need you to guard this spot for me.”Hanne frowned. “Where will you be?”“Finding out what’s making that noise.” He held out his hands in a “stay put” gesture, forgetting that she couldn’t see him. “Yell if anything tries to get in, right?”“Okay.” Hanne waited a few seconds, then she quietly retraced their steps to an interior door and prepared to slam it shut.
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Ryan woke with a headache and a lump on his forehead. “Hanne!” Racing upstairs, he found the bedroom empty and the mirror on the far wall without a reflection. “Sorry Doctor,” holding his hands in front of him, he approached the portal, “only one option now.”Ryan stepped into the mirror. For a moment it felt like every particle of his body was being ripped apart. Suddenly he was through and stood gasping for air. “Great,” he shuffled ahead, feeling his way along the wall, “a dark, creepy cave with who knows what in it.” Ryan scoffed. “Normal Wednesday, then.”
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“Don’t do this to me.” The late afternoon sun bathed Grace’s face with an angelic glow. She was more beautiful than he remembered but, staring at her, Graham felt numb. “It’s been so hard…going on without you. The last thing I need is some illusion or trick-”“It’s not a trick,” She took his hand and her fingers felt warm. “I can’t explain it, but it’s really me.”“You’re dead, Grace. We had your funeral and everything.”“I know.” She smiled. “Walk with me a bit. Tell me what’s happening.”“Like I even know.” But still, he followed her.
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“What’s with him?” Ryan nodded at where Graham stood alone, staring into the water of the fjord. “He’s been weird since you all got back. Quiet like, and he looks…gutted.” Yaz considered her words carefully. “There was a consciousness in the portal world. It wanted to lure people in, so it took the forms of people who’d died. Erik saw his wife and Graham saw…your Nan.”“Oh.” They were both silent for a long time. “I should talk to him-”Yaz smiled sadly. “I think he’d like that.” “Right.” Ryan sighed. “Once I think of what to say.”
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Graham shook his head. “I don’t know much about spaceships, but this place is a mess.”“Better search quickly.” Yaz glanced warily at the lone crew member. “He looks like he might freak out at any moment-” “Too late” Ryan took a step forward as the crew member aimed his gun at the Doctor. “Should we go help her?”“No, see that?” The man lowered his weapon and Graham smiled. “The Doc has it under control.” He gestured at a table near the TARDIS. “What’d you reckon this is?”“Computer maybe?” Yaz reached out. “Think I found an on button.”
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The voice hit Graham like a kick to the gut. Overwhelmed with pain and shock, he leaned heavily against the table. Tim Shaw was alive, despite all they’d sacrificed to stop him. It was just…wrong. Looking around at the others, Graham’s pain hardened into anger. There would be no more victims like Umsang. Every second that monster drew breath and every person he killed was an insult to Grace’s memory. The Doctor wouldn’t like it, Yaz too probably. He hoped Ryan at least would understand.But no matter what it cost him, Graham was going to kill Tim Shaw.
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The Doctor placed the buzzing, crystalline container on the floor and began searching the ship’s equipment bay. Ryan, Yaz, and Paltraki followed her, but Graham wasn’t with them. “You lot, grab a pack.”Ryan picked one up. “What do you want us to put in it?”“Nothing yet.” She frowned. “Hard to know what to bring since we don’t know what’s out there.” She turned to Paltraki. “Do you remember anything?”“A fortress…lots of doors and locks.” He shrugged. “Sorry, that’s all.”“It’s fine,” she reached for the grenades and codebreakers, “I have plenty of experience with locked doors.”
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“Come on, Graham. Waiting now.” Ryan bounced in place impatiently, searching for any sign of his grandfather. Finally, he made up his mind. “Keep going,” he called to Paltraki. Turning, he ran back towards the shrine. “Don’t be dead,” he muttered as he raced through the corridors. “I’m not having it…not you too.” On a hunch, he retraced the path to the rooms where they’d freed the prisoners. His guess was soon proved right when he heard voices echoing from inside. “You are no warrior,” Tzim-Sha sneered.Edging closer, Ryan grinned at Graham’s reply.“No…I’m the better man.”
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“Ready to go?”“Always,” Yaz said as she, Graham, and Ryan hurried into the TARDIS. “Where are we off to this time?”The Doctor entered last, closing the door behind her. “Well, as it’s New Year’s Eve, I thought we’d take a tour of other New Year’s Eves. The greatest hits, you could say.”“How do you know when those greatest hits are,” Graham asked, “‘cause time is always happening, right? You can’t have been everywhere…or everywhen.”“I should hope not! That’d be dull.” Placing her hands on the console, she grinned. “Let’s start at the beginning, shall we?”
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Lin froze. The creature attached to the wall looked squid-like, with masses of tentacles that squirmed in the light from her torch. It was horrifying, but also fascinating. She reached out, never considering whether the action was wise. Before her fingers made contact, Lin heard something; a wheezing, groaning noise like an engine overdue an oil change. She glanced toward the sound and nearly stumbled as a wave of dizziness hit her. She hunched over, groaning at a sudden heaviness on her back. Both feelings soon dissipated and she went in search of the strange sound, the creature temporarily forgotten.
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Hidden under her bathrobe, the Dalek tightened its control over Lin’s body as she sat down in front of her computer. Under its command, she searched for tools, equipment, and weapons - anything it could use to complete its mission.One name kept coming up: MDZ. The creature easily broke the codes to gain entrance to the company’s inventory files. It accessed a list labeled “Black Archive” and, while many words listed there such as Lethbridge-Stewart and London 1984 meant nothing to it, it understood enough.Its tentacle pointed at one line in particular: “Dalek energy weapon and remains of casing.”
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The cafe owner shook his head. “Yeah mate, I don’t need another microwave-”Aaron persisted. “This one’s a combination: microwave and full oven-”At a table nearby, Ryan folded his arms and sighed. This was the first time he’d seen his father in years and, instead of apologizing or trying to make amends, Aaron was hocking dodgy equipment. Ryan shook his head. He should have expected this. As usual, he was the last thing on his father’s mind. He’d nearly resolved to leave when Aaron returned, placing the oven on a nearby chair and resuming his seat across from Ryan.
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Horrified, Lin watched the Dalek raise her hand. A tentacle slithered down her arm into the mechanisms of the weapon she held.The weapon fired, a blaze of light and heat catching the farmer in the chest. He screamed as the power burned through him, temporality making his skeleton visible through his flesh. Lin wanted to yell, to turn away, but she was as powerless now as she’d been during the three other murders the Dalek had committed using her body.“Hurry,” the Dalek ordered as the farmer fell to the ground, lifeless. “Construction must begin. I must be reborn.”
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Yaz joined Ryan at the TARDIS console. “How’s Lin,” Ryan asked. “I don’t really understand the Doctor’s medical devices.” Yaz glanced back in time to see Lin pull Mitch into a hug. “But..getting better, I think.”“Did you see the Doctor’s face,” Ryan frowned worriedly, “when she told us to come back here?”“Yeah.” Yaz folder her arms across her chest. “Her eyes were cold, a bit frightening. It wasn’t like her.”“Maybe it was and we don’t know it? She said things with the Dalek were personal-”“I have faith in her,” Yaz replied resolutely. “You should too.”
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“Who was that,” Ryan asked as the Doctor slipped her cellphone into her coat pocket.“Graham,” she began the sequence to take off, “we’re going to pick him up.”“At his house?” Ryan shifted nervously. “What if my dad’s still there?” “Maybe he should come with us,” Yaz suggested encouragingly.“But-”“I know.” Yaz put a hand on Ryan’s arm. “Trust me. But we can’t just leave him there.” She turned to the Doctor. “Is that alright?”“Fine,” she pulled a lever, “but only if Ryan agrees and Graham explains everything. I don’t have time to handle the normal introductions.”
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Kate Stewart opened her front door and raised an eyebrow. “Well, this is…unexpected.” “But not unwelcome,” Osgood suggested hopefully. Standing beside her, Josh waved. “Hi Boss.”“UNIT UK has been suspended,” Kate glanced both ways to see if anyone was watching, “as you well know, Mr. Carter. I’m no one’s boss right now.”“But there’s no harm in some old friends getting together for a cup of tea and some chat.”“Can we come in,” Osgood asked. “The other Osgood heard some news from her friend at the UK Security Helpline.” She lowered her voice. “The Doctor is back.”
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The three cars arrived at an empty stretch of road almost simultaneously and parked. “Please go to the first car,” the driver instructed as his partner opened the door. “Why,” Yaz demanded, stepping out. “And who are you?”“Everything will be explained later, miss.”She started to speak, but spotted someone exiting the car in front of hers. “Ryan! “ She ran to him. “You okay?”“Fine. What’s going on?” “No clue.” Another black suited man opened a door to the first car and they slipped inside.“So…nice day for some kidnapping,” Graham quipped from his seat behind the driver.
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He watched her all morning as she tinkered on her TARDIS. When at last she walked up the street to the nearby coffee shop, he followed at a discreet distance, eyes on the pavement, observing her only in stolen glimpses. He waited in line beside her and, when she leaned forward to pay for her latte, he slipped a flat, circular disk into the inner pocket to her coat. He discarded the wig and fake beard in a trashcan two blocks away. He’d fixed his perception filter long ago, but you couldn’t be too careful when the Doctor was involved.
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An alert dinged quietly, drawing his attention, and he picked up the tracker. “Finally!” A small red dot indicated the car he was monitoring had entered London on its way, no doubt, to MI6. After all, he’d made sure there were no other security forces available to deal with this type of situation. He opened a second device and entered the codes needed to activate the software he’d added to the vehicle’s sat nav. “Showtime,” he whispered. Once the driver was eliminated, he paused. “What message should I send you. Oh, I know-” Grinning, he typed in one word: Die.
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The failure of the car trap wasn’t surprising. He would have been deeply disappointed if, after everything, this incarnation of Doctor was so easy to kill. Besides, weaponizing self-driving car tech was flirting by their standards. Her WhatsApp message wasn’t a surprise either, in fact it was critical to his plans. “…Send us your location. Kisses.”“Oh you’ll know my location soon enough, Doctor.” He sent her the coded message he’d prepared ahead of time and settled behind the Mandraffian laser rifle. The Master moved the crosshairs from the Doctor’s face to the back of C’s head. “Very, very soon.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“Is this going to work,” Yaz whispered as she and Ryan left Daniel Barton’s office. “There are security cameras everywhere.” “You were the one who said we could do this,” Ryan reminded her. “Act like the Doctor, remember?”She nodded, rummaging through her bag. “There was something.” Yaz pulled out a rectangular device and pressed the button on the back.“What does that do?”“Removes us from surveillance footage…hopefully. Now, find a hiding place.”They took opposite sides of the hallway and tried every door. Most were locked, but one swung open at Ryan’s touch. “Supply cabinet! Hurry, inside!”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“How’d you get these files out of MI6,” the Doctor asked, sorting through paperwork. “Most government agencies frown on former employees walking out with top secret documents.”“That’s just it,” O shrugged, “none of this was secret. Why would it be? No one took my research seriously.” “Bet they’re regretting that now.” Graham repositioned his glasses and picked up a stack of newspaper clippings. “Is there some kind of system, or-”“You’re in alien abductions. Doctor,” he called, noticing the file she was reading, “that’s not relevant.”“But interesting,” she grinned, putting his personnel file back where she’d found it.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
They sat in companionable silence, searching for clues to the identities of the mysterious aliens. Usually methodical, sedentary work like this made the Doctor twitchy, but she felt as much at home in O’s hut as if she were in her own TARDIS.O sat nearby, deep in thought. The Doctor wondered if he’d agree to travel with her after declining her previous offers. She studied his profile appraisingly. She’d liked him the moment they’d met, but had he always been this…aesthetically pleasing?He caught her staring. “What,” O asked, grinning.“Nothing!” The Doctor blushed, returning to her work.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Yaz couldn’t sleep. The man the Doctor called O had made her a cup of warm milk and offered her his bed to sleep in and, while she appreciated the thought, nothing helped. She kept picturing the moment in that nowhere place when the light creatures had attacked her, when she thought she was about to die. In the early hours of the morning, she gave up trying. She crept past the couches where Ryan and Graham were asleep and stepped outside. Sitting on the veranda, she watched the sun come up, unsure if she’d ever feel like herself again.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“No, no, no,” the Doctor frowned, “I read your file. You were a champion sprinter.”“Mmmm," O grunted, replaying the conversation in his head. It was always the simple lies that tripped him up. It didn’t really matter, he had always planned to declare himself on the plane anyway, but having his hand forced by a mistake rankled. Still, the Doctor hadn’t figured out who he was yet and he loved a good reveal. The Master dropped his sweet, geeky O persona, letting his barely contained manic energy show on his face and in his voice. “Got me. Well done.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The Doctor instantly recognizes it from Yaz’s description: a nowhere place full of tree-tall vines, or cable, or veins, or something else. The silence reminds her how long its been since she’s traveled alone. After River’s death, but before Missy and the vault, wasn’t it?Focus, she admonishes herself. Your friends are in danger, you’re Rassilon knows where, and the Master is back. The Doctor assumes this means Missy died, although she doesn’t know when. She should have checked, gone back to the Mondasian ship-Stop it! She tries to slow her thoughts. Maybe saying them out loud will help?
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“Alone at last,” the Master muttered after he’d dropped Barton off in the year 2020. He touched the device tracking the Doctor’s whereabouts, transferring her temporal-spacial coordinates to his TARDIS’s navigation systems. Once the ship entered the vortex, his eyes were drawn to his clothes. The tuxedo fit him well, but it lacked a certain…pizzazz. Style. If he was going to kill the Doctor, he should dress for the occasion. “No. No. No,” he said, sorting through his TARDIS’s wardrobe. “Ah,” he smiled at last, caressing a dark blue and purple waistcoat, “it is the 19th century, after all-”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The Master prowled around the exhibition hall, rage simmering under his every word and action. Missy had never been this angry and the Doctor marveled at the change. It wasn’t unheard of for incarnations to vary widely in personality. The Doctor knew of one renegade Time Lord who’d been an innocuous archivist in their first, a murderous psychopath in their second through seventh, became a good, repentant man in their eighth, only to go back to being a deadly criminal in their ninth.Regeneration was a mysterious process. Still, she wondered what had happened to inspire this radical a change.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“Let them go,” the Doctor strode forward, eyes focused on the Master, “and you can have me.”Slowly he turned and, at the sight of her, he sighed audibly. The Doctor shifted on the balls of her feet like a boxer in a ring, unsure of what to expect from him and ready to react to anything. He closed the distance between them. “I have you anyway,” he sneered, leaning close to gaze into her eyes. The Doctor felt the typical push and pull of their long friendship and enmity, but something else too; something new that she didn’t understand.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“Come on!” The Doctor grabbed Ada’s hand and they ran from the exhibition hall.“There you are,” Mr. Babbage greeted them outside. “I heard such terrible sounds and feared the worst.”“You were right to.” The Doctor glanced back. “Ada’s well-timed intervention aside, the Master will come after us.”“But I shot him,” Ada interjected. “Surely that would deter most men.”“The Master isn’t most men. Is there somewhere we can go to regroup and come up with a plan?”“My house is not far,” Babbage gestured to the right, “if it pleases you and Miss Gordon to follow me.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“We can’t keep this up forever,” Ryan gasped as they ran. “Where are we going?”“I know a place.” Graham stopped to catch his breath and the others did the same. “A housing development that’s not finished yet. Won’t be comfortable, but should be safe enough from Barton for tonight.”“Good idea,” Yaz nodded, “but we need a plan.” She glanced around nervously. “On second thought, let’s not discuss that in public.”“Never know who’s listening,” Ryan agreed. “Although I feel proper naked without my phone.”“There’s a mental image,” Yaz chuckled, dodging as Ryan jabbed an elbow at her.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The Master stumbled into his TARDIS, one hand clutching his wounded shoulder. How had the Doctor recruited another human so quickly? “I’d suspect she was hypnotizing them,” he raged quietly, activating the tracker, “but she’s too sanctimonious.” “That’s impossible.” He checked the readings again. “How is she moving in time and space without a TARDIS?” Shaking his head, he dematerialized his ship. “Doesn’t matter. Must find her.”Then what? The Master replayed recent events in his mind: the Doctor on her knees, his name on her lips, and how that made him feel. Did he really want to kill her?
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
She reached out to the Master with her mind. “Contact.”Several seconds passed without an answer, and the Doctor wondered if he would take the bait. She needn’t have worried.“Contact,” he replied. She felt him push into their telepathic connection, trying to get into parts of her mind where she didn’t want him. She pushed back, forcing him to remain at a safe distance. She felt his amusement mixed with that new feeling she’d experienced in the Adelaide Gallery. He was confident, arrogant, but also vulnerable.This time he pushed her away. “Old-school,” he chuckled, weaknesses hidden once again.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
It took little effort on the Master’s part to annoy his guard into hitting him. Pain radiated through his jaw, but the punch brought the man’s face closer to his own. Tasting blood, the Master looked up and grinned. “I am the Master…and you will obey me.”“Free me,” he ordered, once the guard was under his control. “Then take me to my belongings. Kill anyone who gets in our way.” Ten minutes later he walked out of the Nazi headquarters with a new set of clothes and a plan, leaving the sounds of gunfire and death behind him.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The Master glared at the empty space. Meeting at the Eiffel Tower, turning him over to the Nazis, it was all a distraction to enable the Doctor to steal his TARDIS. “Doctor,” he fumed through gritted teeth, “you will pay for this betrayal.” He couldn’t stay, he was a wanted man now. Luckily, she had unknowingly provided him an opportunity.Weeks later, he was smuggled into the basement of a house in the French countryside. “Is this him,” a man looked him up and down, “the spy?”He smiled and held out his hand. “Codename: The Master, at your service.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The boat was cramped and filled with refugees. The Master focused on the smell of fear in the air to distract from the indignity of his situation. The information he’d given the French Resistance, combined with the lie the Doctor had communicated to the British concerning his double-agent status and the subsequent Nazi manhunt, had bought him passage to England, but he was still a prisoner on this planet. He would escape somehow - steal a TARDIS perhaps, either from himself or the Doctor. Wasn’t there a Time Agent on this world too?He had options. He would find a way.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
She slumped on the TARDIS floor, staring at nothing. All the Doctor could see in her mind’s eye were the smoking ruins of Gallifrey. Her relationship with her people was complicated and the last time she’d visited she’d made a bit of a mess, but it was still her home. The people there had survived so much; they deserved better fates than this. Eventually she stood, piloting the TARDIS back to Sheffield to pick up her friends. But the trips she took them on left her feeling empty. She soldiered on, hiding behind a smile. What else could she do?
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“Here we are!” The Doctor twirled triumphantly. “Home in time for tea.”“And we only had two life-threatening disasters to deal with on this trip,” Graham quipped. “Practically a holiday.” As the three companions made their way to the doors, Yaz realized the Doctor wasn’t following. “I thought you liked tea at mine?”“Oh I do.” The Doctor smiled unconvincingly. “Just a few things to do. Errands, that sort of thing…”They all stopped. Yaz folded her arms. “Dangerous ones?”“Not really.” She looked shifty. “Just visiting Purgatory to rescue my former self from the Devil. You know…the usual…”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“The real devil,” Ryan laughed, “with horns and everything?”“No,” Graham nudged him, “wings. He was an angel before he fell.”“Perhaps not the devil,” the Doctor conceded. “I’ve met many creatures who’ve claimed to be that and they’re always a disappointment. This one was at least a devil. Nearly killed me and my friends. Did kill an awful lot of others-”“We need to stop him,” Yaz began. “We can’t.” She waved off their protests. “It’s already happened! It’s part of my own personal history. All I can do is make sure everything happens now like it did then.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“Be careful. Don’t trust anything you see here.”“We know,” Ryan replied, a little indignantly. “It’s not like we’re new at this.”“But this place is particularly dangerous,” the Doctor eyed the partygoers as they danced by in their fancy dress, “despite the trappings. Stay here, I’ll be right back-”Yaz shook her head. “I’m coming with you.”“My former incarnation is so vulnerable right now. One day he’ll be perhaps the best of us, but right now he’s new.” She gave Yaz a pleading look. “I have to help him…alone.”Her friends shared a look and reluctantly agreed.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“Hold on!” The Doctor pulled a series of levers. “This dimension is collapsing.”Graham staggered backward until Yaz pulled him to safety. “Cutting it close, Doc.” “I wouldn’t have to if someone,” she narrowed her eyes at him and Ryan, “hadn’t wandered off.” “Fair point,” he admitted, “but how were we supposed to know the place could create anything we imagined?” Ryan staggered to the TARDIS console. “Did we cause this?” “No. My former self is,” she laughed, “doing something clever and annoying. It was pretty much his specialty.”“So, not much has changed then,” Ryan observed, earning a glare.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Yaz stepped cautiously from the TARDIS. “Looks like Earth. Is it?”Slipping her hands into the pockets of her coat, the Doctor joined her. “An island near Ireland, I think. Don’t remember if I ever knew its name.”“Looks like a nice day.” Graham turned to the others. “Fancy a walk?”The Doctor did not. She remembered what happened on this island all those years ago, but at least it was deserted now. “You go on, I’ll catch up.”Ryan studied her. “Everything okay?”“Fine.” She waved and headed toward the beach. “Need to see a man in a scarf-”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Ryan put a single finger to his lips. “Shhhhh.” The other guest ignored him. Breathing hard, he searched for an escape route.“Don’t run,” Ryan whispered. The man made a break for it. Seconds later, they heard a scream as an unknown liquid hit the partition they were hiding behind. Ryan grabbed Bella’s hand and ran. They didn’t get far before they were cornered. The creature was tall and muscular, with enormous teeth and claws like something out of a nightmare. Bella whimpered beside him and Ryan felt her grip on his hand tighten. At least he wouldn’t die alone.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The Doctor was horrified. “Apex predators! And we…we are driving straight into their territory!”“This is what you wanted,” Kane glared at each person in the vehicle, “all of you. I didn’t want to come out here. When I found out the Dregs had Benni, I wanted to turn back. But you all insisted we continue.”“Because we didn’t understand what we were up against.” The Doctor paced the aisle of the vehicle. “This is information we needed from the start so we could make a plan. Why didn’t you tell us?”Kane shrugged. “Too late now,” she replied.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“Where’re you all going?”Ryan, Yaz, and Graham froze on their way out of the TARDIS. “Off to see the sights” Yaz replied slowly, “like we normally do?”The Doctor waved a hand at them. “Dressed like that?”Graham looked himself and the others up and down. “What’s wrong with our clothes?”“It’s New York in the early 1900s. If you’re going to be a tourist without causing a riot, you need to blend in. Wardrobe first, please.” “Are you changing clothes?”“My outfit,” the Doctor explained haughtily, “is carefully crafted to fit in everywhere.”“More like nowhere,” Ryan snorted.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“Seeing the sights,” Graham grumbled, perched on a packing crate, “all we’ve seen is the inside of this baggage car.” “Sorry,” the Doctor checked her sonic screwdriver, “but these energy readings…nothing from this time should be giving off this much power.”“Which is why we’re going to Niagara,” Yaz guessed, shifting uncomfortably on a trunk. “There’s a power plant there?”“Hydro-electric generator,” the Doctor nodded. “It’s brand new.”“And why couldn’t we travel in the TARDIS,” Ryan asked.“Too risky until I know what’s happening.” Oblivious, she grinned happily at her three grumpy companions. “Besides, I love a train.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Tesla slammed the office door behind him, the words of the protestors ringing in his ears. “Their words do not affect me,” he repeated, storming to his bedroom. “Short-sighted fools.” He threw the packet of mail onto his bed and began to pace, but stopped when something buzzed in his pocket. He pulled out the green, glowing sphere and studied it. “In all the hubbub, I nearly forgot about you.” Calmer now, he thought about the Doctor; in her he sensed a kindred spirit, someone who could understand his vision. “Perhaps it’s time to take a chance and...make amends?”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“The orb,” Tesla slowly approached the device, “it’s glowing again. I wonder why?” Suddenly, he changed direction. Rushing around his lab, Nikola pulled out odds and ends of unfinished inventions from various drawers and cabinets. “What’re you doing,” asked Yaz, slightly worried. “We need to learn about what it’s doing.” He dropped an armful of items on his desk with a clatter and grinned at her. “Luckily, I’m a decent engineer. If we take these apart, I should be able to fashion something to study it.” She returned his grin. “You sound just like the Doctor. How can I help?”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“Why are we running in this direction,” Edison panted as he chased after the others. “Tesla’s lab is the other way. Better still, we should contact the police.”“They wouldn’t be able to help us.” The Doctor led Edison, Ryan, and Graham down an alley and stopped in front of a blue box. Fishing a key from her pocket, she added, “Besides, we might need something in here.”“What could you possibly have-”“Oh, just get in already!” Graham pushed Edison inside the TARDIS and shut the door. “And keep your hands to yourself. We ain’t in your gaff anymore.“
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“Whoa,” the Doctor whispered, making a face. “Teleports always leave a funny taste in my mouth.” She squinted, glancing around the dark interior of the spaceship. “This place is like a jumble sale on Callufrax Minor - tons of bits and bobs, none of it from the same planet or species. Maybe we’re dealing with alien scavengers? That would explain a lot, actually.” Raised voices echoed down a corridor, too far away to be understood. “That’s my cue. Hold on Yaz and Tesla, I’m coming.” As she picked her way through the crowded space, enormous alien scorpions followed her from above.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“I tried speaking with him,” Dorothy said, stepping back into the TARDIS, “but Mr. Tesla insists on surrendering himself to the Skithra to save the Earth.” Edison folded his arms. “Sounds like a fair trade to me.”“Nobody asked you,” Graham shot back. He turned to the Doctor. “We can’t let him sacrifice himself, Doc.”“Of course not.” She patted Dorothy’s arm and headed for the door. “I’ll talk to him, inventor to inventor.”“Yeah, don’t worry,” Graham agreed as they all watched her leave. “The Doc’ll sort it.” “Waste of time,” Edison grumbled. Everyone turned to scowl at him.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“You ever worry,” Ryan began as they walked back to the TARDIS, “about showing people from the past stuff from the future? What’s to stop Tesla or Edison from using what they’ve seen - the TARDIS or the Skithra - to invent technology before its time?”“It’s a risk,” the Doctor admitted, “and sometimes I have to step in to prevent changes to history, but I’m not worried about those two.”“Why not,” Graham asked. “Edison’s too worried about his profits to experiment that radically and Tesla,” her smile faded, “is too honorable to claim things he didn’t create as his own.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“I’ll be back in an hour,” she said, giving them a cheery wave.“Really,” Ryan groaned, “‘cause you said that last time and it was longer than an hour.”“Much longer,” Yaz added.Graham nodded. “Much, much longer.”The Doctor rolled her eyes. “Fine. I’ll put a timer on my phone-”“Is that the iPhone or that old flip phone,” Graham asked. “You’re still carrying both. Why is that, Doc?” “Yeah,” Yaz narrowed her eyes, “there’s so many things you’ve never explained.” She noticed the drawn look on the Doctor’s face and relented. “Fine. An hour. Don’t forget this time.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The Doctor bangs her hand on the console, venting her frustration at yet another failed search. The TARDIS whirs mournfully, its lights dimming to a deep blue. She wonders briefly if the ship is reflecting her feelings or using the decor to convey its own. Maybe it’s a bit of both?“Where are you,” she spits out between gritted teeth. “The one time I want you, Master, is the one time you’re nowhere to be found.” She could try again, but decides to leave it until tomorrow. Instead, she pilots to the place she most doesn’t want to see.Gallifrey.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Ryan nodded as he passed Yaz in the corridor. “Good morning.”“Morning.” She yawned, closing her bedroom door. “Not sure it’s a good one yet.”“What’s wrong,” he asked as they walked together. “Couldn’t sleep?”“Did eventually. I keep having these weird dreams-” “This place’ll do that. Something about the sounds…like white noise, but living somehow?”“Morning you two,” Graham greeted them in the TARDIS control room. “Or what passes for it here.”“Morning…and good morning to you, Doctor,” Yaz called. But the Doctor didn’t react. She stared at the console readings, a forlorn expression on her face.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“I already tried,” Graham said as they sat down beside him on the steps overlooking the console. “She made a bit of a noise - not a word, mind you, just a noise. I’m not sure she even knows I’ve been sitting here, that’s how lost in her own head she is.”“What is going on?” Yaz looked from the Doctor to her friends. “And why won’t she talk to us about it?”Graham shook his head. “Your guess is as good as mine.” “She looks worried,” Ryan added, “I don’t like it when she’s worried…and quiet. Makes me nervous.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The handsome stranger smiled at Graham as if greeting an old and longed for friend. “How ya been, Doctor?” Finally, all the pieces fit into place. “Ah,” Graham smiled, “I’m not actually the Doctor.”“Wait, what?” The man’s face fell. “‘Course you are!”“I’m really not. Don’t feel bad though, this has happened a few times. Well, me being mistaken for the Doc, not,” he gestured around, “being teleported to wherever this is.”“It’s a spaceship.” The man helped him stand up just as explosions rocked the room. Graham grabbed the stranger’s arms to steady himself. “One apparently under attack.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“What about your friends,” Ruth asked, dazed. “You said you’d meet them here?”“Oh, right.” Guilt flashed across the Doctor’s face - she’d clearly forgotten. “I’ll leave a note. Do you drive?”“Yeah." She blinked away tears. "My car’s outside our flat.”“Good. You’ll drive us to the lighthouse. Maybe there’ll be clues there to who you really are.” The Doctor found a pencil and paper on a nearby desk. “Hi fam,” she wrote. “We’re fine, but tracking down a lead. Lay low and we’ll meet here soon as we can.” “That’ll have to do.” She nodded to Ruth. “Let’s go.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The hairs on the back of Ruth’s neck stood up, as if someone was watching her. She stopped stoking the fire and turned, thinking at first that her new friend was standing behind her, but no one was there. On the opposite wall, a small circular object reflected the firelight. Ruth frowned. She didn’t remember seeing that fire alarm before.The voices that had been whispers in her mind since Gloucester Cathedral became pleas. Ruth stepped closer to the device and read the words “Break Glass” printed on the front.“Break the glass and follow the light,” the voices urged.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The Doctor wandered in a daze. She’d left Ruth’s TARDIS - no, she reminded herself, my TARDIS because Ruth is me - without conscious decision or plan. Somehow she made her way back to the flats where she’d last seen her friends. Her body went through the motions, but her mind was elsewhere, trying to unravel what had just happened. We touched, she thought. If we’re the same person, where was the Blinovitch Limitation Effect?
Why doesn’t one of us remember the other? That makes no sense.
Has someone messed with my memories?
Is Ruth an alternate timeline me?
Who am I?
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“Three deaths in three different parts of the world,” Graham joined the Doctor at the console, “how we gonna tackle that?”“Divide and conquer.” She kept her eyes on the readouts. “I’ve had the TARDIS search for anything else strange in these regions and she’s turned up some interesting results. Ryan, you take Peru - they’ve got birds falling out of the sky. Take something to collect one for me.” She looked up. “Don’t touch it.”He wrinkled his nose. “No fear there.” Yaz frowned. “Sure he should go alone?”“He’ll have to, I need you and Graham in Hong Kong.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“Hong Kong?” Graham grinned. “Another one off the bucket list.”“No time for sight-seeing.” The Doctor pulled up a map. “There’s some seriously strange energy readings coming from there.”Yaz leaned over her shoulder. “Alien?”“Definitely. I’ll install tracking software on your phones and-” Hurrying to an octagonal wall panel, she wrenched it off and pulled out a tool box hidden inside. Rummaging through the box, she produced a large ring of keys. She tossed them to Yaz. “Butch Cassidy’s skeleton keys.”“Where will you be?”“Looking into a lost American submarine near Madagascar.” She surveyed their faces. “Everyone ready?”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“One more thing-” The Doctor handed them small, circular devices. “Put this behind your ear. Touch it once, think about who you want to speak to, and if they also have one of these, it’ll put you in instant contact.”“Could’ve used these before.” Graham put the disk behind his ear and grimaced as it adhered tightly. “Where’ve they been in our travels?”The Doctor shifted uneasily and hurried to the console. “I found them recently-”Behind her back, her three companions shared a worried look. “On one of your trips without us,” Yaz guessed, but the Doctor didn’t reply.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“Have you noticed,” Yaz asked as she and Graham watched the TARDIS fade away, “she keeps investigating on her own, even when we’re all working the same problem?” “Something’s bothering the Doc, beyond meeting her other self. I’d bet a pile of money I don’t have that the Master is behind it somehow.” Graham sighed and glanced down at his phone. “Come on, this way.” They followed the tracker through narrow streets. Turning a corner, they saw a man in a leather jacket trying to kick in a door. “Lemme guess,” Yaz quipped, “the readings are coming from in there?”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“You sure this is a working hospital?” Ryan glanced both ways down the corridor. “Looks abandoned.”“Why would an ambulance bring a patient here if this place was empty?”“Wouldn’t be the strangest thing I’ve ever heard.” He kicked a pile of something on the floor, scattering it. “What’s with all the sand? Piles of it near this computer, in the hallway near that bird-” A door slammed, making them both jump. “Probably just the wind, but…guess we should check anyway.”Following the sound, they found a door blocked by police tape. The sign overhead identified it as quarantine.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Aramu stared at the Doctor. “You just said…’alien.’”She shrugged. “The tech’s too advanced to be from this planet or time period, so it’s a logical assumption.” “Logical,” Suki repeated, eyes wide.“Exactly.” Something beeped. “Wait, getting a call.” She pressed a finger to the commdot behind her ear.“Doctor,” Ryan’s voice on the comm sounded sad, “I’ve found something you’ll want to see.”“Gotta go.” Grabbing Suki’s hand, she wrote a phone number on it. “Call me if you see anything unusual.”“Wait,” Aramu yelled after her as she ran down the beach, “where are you going?”“Peru!”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Graham gently elbowed Jake. “Go on, check on your husband…and try not to worry. The Doc’s good at this sort of thing.”Jake angrily tossed a stone onto the beach. “I don’t even understand what’s going on!”“Join the club, mate. But I know this: whatever happened between you two before, Adam needs you now.” “What do I do?”“Hold his hand. Be there for him.” Graham stood and held out his hand. “Come on, Jake - you can do this.”Jake ignored the offered hand, but stood. He walked back to the lab, his shoulders hunched and hands clenched.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Aramu watched Jake reenter the lab. “Is he alright,” he called to Graham, who changed direction to join him.“No, but he’ll manage. Everything okay?”“The birds have moved off.” He pointed toward the nearby cliffs. “There. See them?”“Just about,” Graham squinted, “but I can really hear them.”“They’re angry.” Aramu took a step backwards. “Looks like they’re coming this way again.”“Maybe you should join the rest of us inside,” Graham suggested as the dark shapes approached, “I’ve a bad feeling about that lot-”“No, I’ll stay.” Aramu smiled bravely, but his voice quavered. “Don’t worry about me.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Jake froze. Instantly, he saw the two directions his life could take: follow the others, stay with Adam, hope the Doctor saved their world; or he could follow his husband’s advice and take responsibility. Whirring to his left brought him out of his reverie. The door to the spaceship was closing. Jake dove inside and ran to the pilot’s chair. He searched for safety belts, but a moment later the ship’s propulsion pinned him against the chair anyway. When the pressure lessened, he reached out to press a button. “These comms on? Spaceship calling blue box - can you hear me?”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The TARDIS faded into the Madagascar sunset as Jake, Adam, and Gabriela walked past Suki’s lab. Adam started chuckling.Jake squeezed his husband’s hand. “What?”“I need to contact the ESA, tell them I survived, but I have no idea how to explain any of this. None of us have passports, money, or anything. In all the excitement, I didn’t even think-”“We can call my cousin.” Jake nudged Adam. “You remember…Sam Bishop.” Adam grinned. “The one who could be your twin?”“Yeah. He’s military or something, travels the world, and he has connections. Bet he could sort this.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Tibo handed Ryan a blanket and pillow. “Sure you don’t mind staying?”“It’s fine. I’ve kipped in worse places than on your couch.” His friend eyed him warily. “On your travels?”“Yeah,” he nodded, putting down the items. “Want to order pizza?”Tibo looked away. “Not hungry.”Ryan pulled out his phone. “How about I order some and keep the rest in your fridge?” He playfully boxed Tibo’s shoulder. “Breakfast, right?”“Whatever. I’m…going to bed. Make yourself at home.”“‘Night!” With a worried frown, Ryan watched him go and made a silent promise to check on him more often.
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Gabe and Fred shared a look. “You alright, Graham?”Frowning, he rubbed his forehead. “Sorry lads, I’ve a bit of a headache.” Graham huffed an unconvincing laugh. “Not used to so much time on dry land, maybe? Mind if we call it a night?”They nodded and stood. “Sure, whatever you need.”Graham saw them out of the house. Once the front door closed, he sagged against it as the visions rushed into his head again.“Graham,” the beautiful woman’s cry echoed through his mind, “please, you must help me!” “What’s happening?” Reaching for his phone, Graham called the Doctor.
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Yaz sat up, gasping. The dream clung close, temporarily disorienting her. Something across the room caught her attention - a pale, bald man dressed in black stood staring at her. He gave her a thin-lipped smile as their eyes met. “Who are you,” she demanded. “What are you doing here?” Without a word, he disappeared into a puff of dark smoke. Yaz stood cautiously. Grabbing her dad’s cricket bat from the floor, she searched her family’s flat. Sonya was asleep in her bedroom, but otherwise the place was empty. Retracing her steps, Yaz pulled out her phone and called the Doctor.
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Tahira turned slowly. “What is the place? How…can it be bigger within than without?”“It’s my ship.” The Doctor placed the hairs of the creatures who had attacked the hospital into a tray and slipped it into a part of the console. “I call her the TARDIS.”“And,” Tahira began tentatively, “your friends are here?”“No. They’re in a place called Sheffield in,” humming, she glanced at her watch, “about seven hundred year’s time.” She looked up. “Doing okay? It’s a lot to take in.”“I’m alive and unharmed,” the girl joined her, “that, at least, is a start.”
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The Doctor’s mind raced as Zellin stalked around her. It had been several lifetimes since she’d dealt with this kind of immortal. Many were destroyed by the Time War or safely imprisoned by her seventh self. Before that, they were almost common place. Zellin casually mentioned the old names - the Eternals, the Guardians, the Toymaker - and the Doctor’s anger rose. Here was another creature who treated the suffering of others like a game; who felt their god-like powers and lifespans gave them the right to manipulate, torture, and kill. Never again. She’d stop him, just like she’d stopped the others.
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The Master spoke in her head as if they were telepathically linked, but instead of a connection to his thoughts she felt only a vast emptiness.
“It’s buried deep in…all our memories. In our identity…built on the lie of the the Timeless Child.”
A stone structure towered over her, glittering in the bright sunlight against a stormy sky. A child stared up at the spire, but the Doctor couldn’t see their face. Fear and grief overwhelmed her senses, followed by a claustrophobic panic. She woke with a gasp, still imprisoned in the magnetic shackles of the immortals’ trap.