The doors slammed shut behind him.
He walked slowly towards the Trickster. He found himself wondering, in some corner of his mind that wasn’t terrified, why limbo had a floor you could walk on. It was something he could ask Sarah Jane if he ever saw her again. And he knew that doing something brave was a bit like doing something stupid. You shouldn’t think too much about it, you should just do it.
‘You are of no importance,’ said the Trickster.
‘I know something,’ Clyde told him. ‘A secret. Something that could help you.’
Behind his back, Clyde could feel his right hand tingling, as if the artron energy was building up. As if he could control it.
The horrific blank face and hideous wet red mouth with its savage ring of teeth grew nearer. ‘You know nothing. You have the mind of a chittering insect. Be gone!’
The Trickster raised his hand as if to banish him. And Clyde clamped his hand around the Trickster’s hand.
‘Gotcha!’
The Trickster reeled as crackling blue light danced around his body.
Clyde tried to pull his hand back but it was caught fast.
A searing pain surged through his body and he forgot he was Clyde Langer, forgot what he was doing, forgot everything.
The last thing he heard was his own scream.
With a sound like a thunderclap, the TARDIS started to form in the ballroom.
Sarah Jane’s head whipped round. The blue box that had taken her on so many adventures was materialising, its ancient engines screaming in protest.
The door wrenched open and the Doctor appeared in the doorway, struggling to keep the door open.
‘Sarah!’
She moved closer to the box. ‘Doctor?’
‘Gotta be quick,’ said the Doctor urgently. ‘The TARDIS can’t stabilise — Clyde’s keeping the Trickster busy for the moment, oh those three are just brilliant —’
Sarah Jane cut him off. ‘Doctor, what can I do? If I say no we’re trapped here forever, if I say yes I condemn the world to the Trickster! Either way I lose, there’s no way out!’
The Doctor looked her straight in the eye. ‘It all rests with you Sarah Jane. Your greatest challenge, the hardest thing you’ll ever face in your life.’
‘What is it?’ she cried. ‘Tell me what I’ve got to do!’
She wanted it to be like the old days. She wanted him to tell her to operate some piece of equipment, or give her a technical formula, show her how to escape. An ingenious, incomprehensible solution.
But she could tell from his eyes that it wasn’t like the old days.
‘You’ve fought the Trickster before, you know how he operates,’ he said. ‘How he can be defeated.’
Sarah Jane thought back to her previous encounters with the Trickster. She saw her old school friend Andrea on the pier, the faces of her parents as they drove away…
She looked back to Peter, who was staring at the Doctor and the half-formed TARDIS with utter incomprehension.
And she realised what had to be done.
‘Oh no. No.’
The Doctor turned to Peter. ‘I know you’re a good man, Peter. And I am so sorry.’
Peter blinked back at him, confused.
Suddenly the air on the other side of the room rippled, and the Trickster appeared — now clad in black — with Clyde’s lifeless form clinging to him. Crackles of blue energy were fading away.
Clyde sank to his knees, exhausted, his face blank.
‘Clyde, no!’ called Sarah Jane.
The Trickster turned to the Doctor and raised his hand. ‘Doctor — be gone!’
The TARDIS faded away, taking the Doctor with it.
Sarah Jane turned urgently to Peter. ‘Peter. I do love you. But the Doctor’s right, there is another way out.’
‘Do not listen to her lies!’ called the Trickster.
‘Your accident,’ Sarah Jane told Peter. ‘He can only talk to people who are about to die. He appears in that final moment, he gives them back their life.’
Peter frowned. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘Clyde and Rani said your house was empty,’ said Sarah Jane. ‘Why did you never let me see your house?’ She felt tears welling up. ‘Because you died in that accident, Peter. But he needed you, so he kept you half-alive. And if we got married, the bargain would be complete! He would bring you back to life!’
‘Your love’s brought me back to life!’ said Peter. That can’t be wrong, to save a life!’
Sarah Jane rushed to Clyde’s side. The boy’s body was apparently lifeless.
‘Look at this, Peter, this is what he’ll do to millions of people! Unless…’ She couldn’t bring herself to say it. ‘Unless you break your deal with him!’
‘But I’ll lose you,’ said Peter. ‘I’ll die!’ He walked towards her. ‘Sarah Jane, I don’t want you to be alone.’
Sarah Jane took his hand. ‘I love you Peter. But I can’t love you. You said you’d do anything to save me. If you love me, you know what you have to do!’
Peter looked from Sarah Jane to the Trickster.
‘No!’ cried the Trickster.
Peter walked towards him. ‘You got one thing exactly right. Me and Sarah Jane, we were made for each other. We’re the perfect match. And I know what she would do.’
He held up the wedding ring.
‘No!’ said the Trickster. ‘I chose you because you do not have the strength!’
Peter shook his head. ‘You really don’t know my beautiful Sarah Jane, do you? She gave me the strength! And I withdraw my agreement!’
He flung the ring at the Trickster.
There was a noise like the gates of Hell opening.
The Trickster flung out his arms as if to protect himself — and suddenly he was gone.
There was a moment’s silence. Then a pure, chiming note sounded.
Peter looked up.
Then he turned to Sarah Jane for the last time.
‘Here I go,’ he said. ‘I wish I’d always known you…’
‘I love you Peter,’ Sarah Jane called through her tears.
Peter smiled. ‘And I love you — Sarah Jane Dalton.’
Sarah Jane reached out to touch him. But he had already faded away.
The next moment the Doctor burst through the ballroom doors, Luke, Rani and K-9 behind him.
‘Mum!’ cried Luke, crashing into her arms.
‘Luke! Doctor. Oh, Doctor…’
The Doctor held her, while Luke and Rani went to the prone Clyde.
‘Oh, my Sarah Jane,’ said the Doctor. ‘You did it! The trap is broken and time’s moving forwards again. We’re going home. We’re all going home!’
Even as he spoke the air around them was grinding and shifting, a cold wind rushing through…
‘…If any person can show just cause or impediment why they may not be joined together — let them speak now or forever hold their peace…’
Clyde blinked — and suddenly found himself back in his seat in the ballroom. The wind brushed through the trees outside the windows. Rani and Luke sat before him, both of them looking round in amazement. A K-9-shaped bulge showed under the cloth over the table next to him. Rani’s mum and dad and all the other guests were back in their places. The Registrar stood behind the table at the front.
Only two things were different this time. The doors at the back of the ballroom stayed shut. And Peter was gone.
Sarah Jane stood alone, her back to them, at the table.
The guests conversed in astonished whispers.
‘Where’s he gone?’ he heard Rani’s mum saying. ‘Sarah’s bloke — where’s he gone?’
‘What?’ said Rani’s dad. ‘He was just there’
Luke looked round. ‘Where’s the Doctor gone?’ Rani frowned. ‘That all really happened, didn’t it?’
Clyde flexed his hand, still dazed. ‘Oh yeah.’
‘Affirmative,’ said K-9 from under the table.
Luke got up and ran
to Sarah Jane’s side. ‘Mum?’
Sarah Jane turned. Her face was stained with tears. The room fell silent.
‘I’m sorry, everybody,’ she said. ‘I’m afraid the wedding is… cancelled.’
Then she threw down her bouquet and ran from the room.
Chapter Ten
Inside The TARDIS
Clyde tapped nervously at the attic door. There was no reply.
He turned to Rani. Rani stepped forward and pushed the door open.
Sarah Jane was sat before Mr Smith, back in her normal clothes. She looked exhausted and she’d obviously been crying. Mr Smith had slid out into the room, and K-9 was sat in his corner. Luke was tidying books in another corner.
‘Sarah Jane?’ said Rani awkwardly. ‘You all right?’ Sarah Jane took her hand. ‘I’m going to be fine. I’ve got you, haven’t I?’
But Clyde could see that she was doing what adults always did to kids when they were upset. Putting on a brave face, and not being very convincing about it.
There was an awkward silence. ‘I can’t believe the Doctor ran off like that,’ said Luke.
‘Sudden disappearing acts,’ said Sarah Jane shortly. ‘That’s him all over.’
Suddenly there was a wheezing, groaning sound.
‘Temporal flux escalating,’ said K-9.
‘Escalation of temporal flux,’ said Mr Smith at the same moment.
The TARDIS materialised in the attic, and Clyde saw Sarah Jane’s face light up. He felt himself smiling too. How could you be sad, he thought, when the Doctor was in the world?
The Doctor stuck his head out of the TARDIS. ‘What do you take me for, Sarah Jane? Just thought I’d go the quick way.’ He peered around the attic. ‘I like it in here.’
Rani peered past him through the doors of the TARDIS. ‘Can we have a look?’
The Doctor glared at her, a stern and forbidding look. ‘What, in the TARDIS? My TARDIS?’
Rani took a step back, obviously wondering if she’d gone too far.
‘Course you can!’ said the Doctor brightly and flung the door open, beckoning them in.
Clyde knew he would never forget walking through the blue wooden doors of the police box and into the cavernous control room of the TARDIS. At the end of the metal ramp leading from the doors was a huge, many-sided console covered in dials, switches and levers. At the centre of the console was a tall glass column that seemed to be lit from within with a throbbing green aura. The walls were covered with an array of roughly circular patterns. There was a constant rumbling noise, like a gigantic creature breathing in and out.
Clyde couldn’t find the words to say. ‘Oh my — wow — it really is, isn’t it? Bigger on the inside!’
‘It’s beautiful,’ said Rani, running her hands along one of the strangely-shaped coral pillars.
Luke walked slowly round the console. ‘Transcendental dimensions!’
The Doctor and Sarah Jane followed them in. ‘Hey, don’t touch anything!’ she called.
Clyde reached for a particularly big and enticing lever. ‘What does this do?’
Rani grabbed his hand. ‘Look, don’t touch!’ Sarah Jane turned back to the Doctor.
‘You came all that way. For me.’
‘You’re so important,’ he said. ‘Not just to me. The Trickster wanted to end your story. But it goes on. The things you’ve done, Sarah Jane, they’re pretty impressive — but oh, the things you’re going to do.’
Intrigued, Clyde, Luke and Rani drifted back over to them.
The Doctor looked at them, smiling. ‘Between you and me — and I am so naughty telling you this — in the future, they put up statues. Clyde Langer, Luke Smith, Rani Chandra, Maria Jackson, Sarah Jane Smith. And the others. Your story lives on, forever.’
‘The future…’ breathed Luke, looking at the console. ‘How about we go for a ride?’
‘Or back!’ said Clyde.. ‘Dinosaurs, yeah?’
‘Another planet?’ suggested Rani.
‘No way!’ said Sarah Jane. ‘For one thing, you were grounded by the Judoon. And your parents would never forgive me. Go on!’
She ushered them to the door.
When they were gone, Sarah Jane turned back to the Doctor. ‘Is this the last time I’m ever going to see you?’
A shadow passed over the Doctor’s features.
‘I don’t know. I hope not.’
Sarah Jane gathered herself and headed for the door. ‘Then bye, Doctor. Until the next time.’
‘Don’t you forget me, Sarah Jane,’ said the Doctor.
Sarah Jane looked back at him. ‘Aw, come on! No one’s ever going to forget you.’
With the wheezing, groaning sound all of them now knew so well, the TARDIS dematerialised from the attic, taking the Doctor off to new adventures.
‘You were right,’ Clyde said to Sarah Jane. ‘He’s amazing!’
Sarah Jane put her arms around them.
And so are we,’ she said.
[Sarah Jane Adventures 09] - The Wedding of Sarah Jane Page 6
