by Cour M.
Doctor Who
The Time of the Companions
The Companions’ Adventure Part III
Cour M.
Dedication
If you made it to this part of the series, then I know that you are devoted and need no introduction. This is the 2nd Edition of this book, but the only difference than the first edition is that this one has forty more pages of extra scenes at the end of the Afterword. Just to warn you though, I tried to keep this one short too, but as you can see by the length, that did not occur. Due to this one being longer, it gets really timey wimey. Yet, you would have noticed at this point that every four chapters it goes back to the same Doctor, therefore if you wish to be linear, you can always go from chapter 1 to 4, 8, 12, etc. then chapter 2,6,10 etc., then chapter 3,7,11 etc. and so forth to just follow one Doctor, then the next, then that’s cool. But if you wish to just go straight forward and bulldoze through, then you are awesome too.
I also know how much endings can disappoint a reader, because there is always something that is not expected/wanted, but I hope that you enjoy the ending to this trilogy.
One last time I dedicate this book to you, for without you all, this trilogy would not have been possible. So really, thanks so much, for you are fantastic! —Yeah, see what I did there? Now to paraphrase the words of Amy in ‘The Big Bang’—okay kid, here is where it gets really complicated.
The Time of the Companions
Chapter 1
The Turncoat
Twelve closed the doors of his TARDIS behind him and then took a few steps forward, where four Daleks were facing him. There were a few Daleks against the walls, standing sentinel and there were even some Paradigm Daleks there as well.
“Ah,” Twelve said to the Daleks while the four head ones came forward, “I take it that you are the hostess with the mostess.”
“I am Dalek Jinn.”
“Dalek Jinn? Well, I would say that it’s nice to meet you, but then that would be a lie. So,” Twelve raised his arms and twirled around, “you’ve got me again. Tell me something? Have you captured me just because you want me to destroy another asylum for you, because I will reply with telling you to clean up your own messes.”
“You know why we have captured you,” Dalek Jinn declared.
“I really don’t, but I do have some questions.”
“We do not answer to the Dalek’s predator.”
“Still call me that sometimes?” Twelve groaned, rubbing his neck, “well, that hurts my feelings.”
“You will be silent, Doc—”
“Yes, I know my name.”
“Why so serious?”
Twelve blinked.
“Did you really just say that by accident, or have you finally taken my advice and developed a sense of humor enough to start watching comic book films?”
“Cease talking.”
Twelve zipped his lips, but not really.
“You see, that’s the problem, Daleks. When you have resolved it within yourselves to kill someone, you begin to lose the right to order him around. After all, why obey something that will kill you anyway? But before you do kill me, which I’m assuming that you really wish to do.”
“The impulse to kill is very strong at this time.”
“Of course it is. But before you do, tell me this,” he continued, as he noticed that a few of the Daleks’ subjects entered the room. He hissed as he saw one of them with the Dalek stalk sticking out of its head. “You’re still harvesting humans and using them as your puppets!”
“It is our birthright.”
“Your birthright, Daleks, is to live, not to be the evilest things in creation. These people had lives, families, and free will. And you took all that away from them. But for now, I must know, what happened back there, on Larissa? You attacked Weeping Angels. You never care for them.”
“Our attack of the Angels was necessary.”
“Did you attack them because they were tracking me, because if so, then you took their lives for a pathetic reason. Using them just to get to me.”
“Your vanity is even more insufferable than before,” Dalek Jinn boomed. “It was not about you. You simply were the means through which we could find them.”
“The Angels? Then you truly were seeking out the Angels? And to kill them?”
“You should thank us. They were going to kill you.”
“Yeah, because it’s not like you’ve ever tried doing that before yourself. Oh wait… right. So tell me, why would Angels be your enemy?”
“It was necessary.”
“Necessary, but why? Come on, you’ve even got the Paradigm Daleks in your ranks again, so that must mean that you are very desperate, for some reason. Then you also are tracking Weeping Angels around the galaxy and killing them. And now you’ve captured my TARDIS, something that they have wanted their hands on for years. So Dalek Jinn, what is really going on?”
Dalek Jinn was silent.
“Silence, right,” Twelve tapped his head, walking back and forth, “but no matter, let me see if I could figure this out. After all, you know that I love figuring things out.” Twelve ran his hand through his hair and then he smirked maniacally with his deductions. “Oh, of course, it’s simple, but it’s also complicated. Isn’t it? You didn’t show up because you were looking for me, or for these victims, but because the Angels came. And the Angels, they are now increasing their food supply for a reason that I didn’t understand, but it’s simple now. With the right amount of energy absorbed into them, and in the right way, they can move even when being observed. They cease to be quantum-locked. I can’t fathom how, but so it is. And just when they reveal that they are getting stronger, you show up and kill them. Something I didn’t even know that you had the technology to do. Which means you are making military modifications. Yes, that’s it, isn’t it! They are increasing their food supply to enhance themselves, to strengthen themselves against you! Then it is… you Daleks are at war, with the Weeping Angels.”
Dalek Jinn moved closer to the Doctor, to the point where his eye stalk was only a few inches away from Twelve’s nose.
“Affirmative,” it said simply.
“Why?” Twelve stated. “Why would you fight the Angels?”
“Your questions are at an end!”
Dalek Jinn moved away from the Doctor, the Doctor rushed after it, but was halted by four Daleks, so he shouted over them.
“Talk to me for once, Daleks, and let me help you! Why are you at war with the Angels? And what do you think will happen when they are fully functional? This is one army that you cannot defeat, because they are the stronger species between the two of you.”
“There is no stronger species than the Daleks.”
“That thinking will be the death of you. Wait, that’s right. It has been the death of you before. And it will be again if you don’t listen to me.”
“Listen to the man who abandoned Davros himself once,” Dalek Jinn said, “when he was a child. This is the Timelord. This is the true identity of the man who claims to be a healer, a wise man, a helper. And now see him for what he truly is. No, you will die now, Doctor!”
Twelve closed his eyes as his real name was mentioned. He knew that in the TARDIS, Donna heard his name. And he knew that all of her memories might very well come rushing back to her—everything. And now she would die because of it.
“Daleks, listen to me, for once,” the Doctor stressed.
“Dalek subjects,” Dalek Jinn cried, “restrain him.�
��
“No!” Donna’s voice came from the TARDIS. She emerged from the front doors, stood framed in the light that came from it, and cried out with familiarity, “Doctor!”
Twelve’s nerve was lost. Through it all, he had failed her, when he promised her the reverse.
“Donna,” Twelve cried, practically collapsing from guilt, “I am so sorry.”
“Stop apologizing, Martian,” she bellowed, then she stepped forward, “Daleks, leave him alone this instant. Or I blow up the TARDIS and you go up with it!”
Donna produced a trigger from her pocket and Twelve recognized it from his consul unit.
“The TARDIS self-destruct button,” she said, “and don’t even bother to scan it, because you know that I will activate it if you make any move.”
“You are one of the Doctor’s human companions,” Dalek Jinn cried, “Reports indicate that you will not activate it.”
“Run a Bioscan on me, bug-eye! I’m part human. Always have been. And the last time you ran into a Timelord who came in between you and dominating their planet, recall what happened? Mark the Time War, Dalek Jinn! You remember it.”
“Daleks do not surrender.”
“You will now, or I destroy all on this ship. See if I care.”
“Daleks, take aim and exterminate the Doctor and his companion.”
“Last chance,” Donna cried, “I mean it.”
“Exterminate!” The Daleks raised their lasers and were about to shoot.
But then someone began to shoot the Daleks instead. Twelve turned to who initiated the attack on the Daleks on their own ship, but he first rushed to Donna to get her to safety. When he reached her, he smiled sadly and embraced her.
“Donna, I am so sorry.”
“Once again,” she laughed, hugging him, “stop apologizing.”
“You’ll die now.”
“Let’s worry about that after we survive this. And—oh my god!”
Twelve turned to where she was looking and he saw the leader of the attack force who saved them.
“It’s the Dalek subjects,” Donna cried, “they are retaliating.”
The Dalek subjects, where the humans were killed and recycled as Dalek minions, were actually turning on their masters. But one human stood out before them all as she led them.
“Dalek Jinn!” She bellowed, “On behalf of the Papal Mainframe, you are under arrest.”
She rushed to him with her laser ejected from her hand but Dalek Jinn activated a teleportation beam.
“Teleportation in effect!” Dalek Jinn cried as he dissolved before he could get shot. Yet the rest of his unit were not so lucky as the Dalek subjects who turned on their masters destroyed them all.
Eventually all the Daleks were demolished as their subjects stood over them, victorious. Their stalks were placed back into their foreheads and then the leader stepped forward.
Twelve came toward her, with Donna behind him, and some of the people peeking their heads out of the doors of the TARDIS.
“Unbelievable,” Twelve gasped, stepping over the lifeless form of the Daleks. “But it is…”
“Yes, Doctor it is,” she smiled and turned to Donna, “Good day, I am Harriet Jones, former Prime Minister.”
Chapter 2
The Return of a Shadow
“What do you mean we’re going to lose?” Martha exclaimed, “And how dare you give up?”
“Doctor,” Riley spat out, “that’s not helping.”
“It’s helping by not helping,” Eleven replied, “Because now it’s clear. I know who we are fighting against. And there is only one way for us to survive this.”
“How so?”
“We have to surrender.”
“What?” Captain Davidson cried, “Proconsul, I am not about to lose my settlement.”
“Your settlement was lost long ago, Captain,” Eleven remarked, “and now there is nothing else for us to do, and I care for nothing else, but to save as many lives as I can. At this point, all of your people are not teleported out to the shuttles, are they?”
“No, at this point, there would have been only fifty percent of them at the most.”
“Right, and it will get worse if we don’t surrender. It will be just enough of a distraction to get as many people out as I can before they notice that’s all it is.”
Martha shot a gelem soldier, and then turned back to him.
“So we have to sound a surrender,” Riley grunted.
“No, you don’t have to do anything except give me a space mic,” Eleven said as Davidson handed him a microphone, “I’m going to surrender… I’m going to give them what they would desperately want.”
“What?” Martha asked.
“What do you think? I’m going to give them me.”
Straightening his bowtie, Eleven moved from his place of hiding and emerged, walking into the middle of a clearing, then he raised the space mic to his mouth and began to speak, “Gelem soldiers! I know what you are. And therefore, in those black holes for eyes, I know who can see me through them. So stop your annoying little attack and swarm around me. Come on! Look at me, no weapons of any kind! Just a mic, a bowtie, confidence and just a sonic screwdriver, so what’s the harm?!”
Eleven turned around, raised up his arms and waited. Yet he did not wait in vain. As one unit, all the gelem soldiers ceased what they were doing and either walked or flew over to the spot where he was.
As they did so, Captain Davidson ordered his soldiers to continue to evacuate the settlement, and more were able to reach the teleportation site, but Martha could not follow them. As she watched the Doctor standing there, letting himself be surrounded, she marveled at it.
“He knows what is behind this all!” She cried. “Riley…”
“Martha,” Riley rushed out, “we have to go. We can get out of here.”
“I can’t leave him.”
“Martha, he’s doing it to save us.”
“I know, but Riley, you know me. I cannot leave him.”
“Riley!” Captain Davidson said over the radio in Riley’s ear, “report to the hanger bay.”
“Captain,” Riley said, “I request permission to remain with Doctor Jones.”
“Riley, this isn’t a request. Report!”
Riley looked at Martha.
“I understand,” Martha said simply.
“Martha…”
Martha leaned over and kissed his forehead.
“Come with me,” Riley urged once more.
“You know I can’t.”
“You left him before.”
“He was different back then. I cannot leave him now.”
Riley understood, nodded, and with one last glance at her, he left, his shoulders feeling heavy.
Martha turned and watched from her hiding place, quite alone as she spied the Doctor still a short distance away, letting himself be surrounded by over two hundred gelem soldiers.
Once they all were assembled, Eleven continued to talk.
“So, I see I have your attention in full,” he smirked, “And all of your soldiers are here. I give you credit, Croesus, you have their loyalty. Now I am asking you, take me as hostage, that is all that you need. And leave these people alone. Come now, for there are few people in the universe who hate me as much as you. My life, for all these people. You know perfectly well that this is actually an even trade. Take me, and leave these people alone.”
Suddenly a loud sound emerged from above and then a light surrounded the Doctor as it became clear that he was about to be transported above from the ship that the gelems arrived on.
“No!” Martha cried, not wanting him to go up alone, so she emerged from her hiding place, her gun raised out as she shot any gelems before her, then she pushed her way through the ranks of the gelems.
“Martha no!” Eleven cried.
“I am not leaving you!” Martha cried, “not this time!”
She reached him, he wr
apped his arms around her and together they were transported through a blue trans-path, rising up, getting closer and closer to the ship above. As they reached it, Martha closed her eyes and dug her face into the Doctor’s shoulder.
When she opened it up, they were standing in the hanger bay of a spaceship and it was vast. Suddenly a large door slid open and a machine entered, sliding forward.
“Is that…”
“Yes,” Doctor answered her, “that is a mechanoid.”
The mechanoid entered, followed by a few other ones, and Eleven squinted as he realized that the mechanoids actually looked quite different than they had before. He recognized them by their outer metal material, but overall, they had a different shape entirely than before, were less bulky and had a sturdier appearance than previously.
The sounds that the transport mat gave off was still going on and therefore it made their entrance more ominous.
“Doctor,” the first mechanoid said.
“Mechanoid,” Eleven said, still making sure that Martha was behind him, “Long time, no see.”
“Did you really think we would fall back into the void of obscurity forever, Doctor?”
“No, but a Timelord can dream, can’t he?”
The mechanoids surrounded the Doctor and Martha.
“Come, he is waiting for you.”
“I’m sure that he is.”
Taking Martha’s hand, Eleven walked forward, following his captors.[1]
“So,” Martha observed, looking around them, “these are what mechanoids look like?”
“Well, to be honest, they are an altered version of the last model.”
“You and them clearly have a relationship. How do you know them?”
“We go way back. I ran into them when I still had my first face. My very first one.”
“Truly? It’s been that long ago for you.”
“Yes, I was so very young back then. While also looking very old. I was with some companions of mine, Ian, Vicki and Barbara, and it was where I met my future companion at the time, Steven Taylor.”