by Cour M.
“What is it?” Mickey asked.
“He hasn’t even met Donna yet.”
“No!”
“Yes. Which means that when I call him to help me with the Sontaran invasion, it will totally freak him out.”[11]
Mickey could not help but laugh.
“Oh well,” Martha smiled back at the Doctor, content. After all, it was worth it, because it only took them years for him to at last see how she would always admire him, despite his flaws.
When returned back to his TARDIS, Ten spent days searching for ways to save the Ponds, but he did not succeed. After he finally gave up, he did not trust himself to forget the Ponds during his next regeneration. He also parted ways with Jack Harkness, who stayed with him for a while. He reached into his chest of storage, and found where he kept the Memory Worm. Putting on some gloves, he lifted it out of its box.
Thinking back on how long the Ponds were in his life, he thought of how long it would take him to forget. Assuming that three seconds would do the trick, he raised up the Memory Worm, took a deep breath and then let it bite him. The shock was excruciating as he felt every memory being drained from him and it hurt more than he expected. He just had enough an amount of self-awareness to push the worm off him before he lost more than a couple of weeks. As he released it, it dropped on the ground, Ten blinked and then he looked down at the worm.
“Oi!” He laughed, “what did I leave you lying around for!”
He put some gloves on again, put the Worm away in a glass but made sure that it got some fresh air.
“Doctor,” Ten said, “that is what you get when you drink too much champagne while you work. No wonder you almost let the Titanic crash! Oh, poor Astrid! I swear, I swear…” He went back to the consul unit and turned on the TARDIS. He got suddenly nervous and looked out of the door. Feeling confusion at being outside in Tokyo during the day when the last thing he recalled was that he dropped Mr. Copper off outside of London. Thinking himself tired, Ten flew the TARDIS into space, placed his feet on a stool, laid down on some seats, and allowed himself to fall to sleep, where, not to his surprise, he was haunted by the worst of dreams.
Epilogue Four
Nine & Clara… & Rose
After all was said and done, Nine and Clara came to a silent realization that it was time that she returned home. Yet due to being exhausted, Nine let her rest in a bedroom on their way back.
Therefore, happy to not get it wrong, Nine saw that the TARDIS landed right where he picked her up, and no more than ten minutes after they had initially gone. When she entered the control room, music was playing.
“Ah, classic stuff?”
“Guess who it is,” Nine asked.
“Mozart.”
Nine shook his head.
“No!” Clara realized, “Then, this is Salieri’s music?”
“Yup.”
Clara listened to it.
“This sounds beautiful.”
“Yes, it is. Mozart was the more unique one, but still, Salieri always did have much talent. He was brilliant.”
“Will you keep your promise? To restore Salieri’s music to the world?”
“I can try.”
“Good.”
“By the way, you’re home now.”
“I am?”
“Amazing,” Nine exclaimed.
“What is it?”
“She is on time,” He remarked about the TARDIS. “She can be late sometimes, but not now. She literally is precisely on time. I think my TARDIS has grown to like you.”
“Oh, thank you!” Clara said to the TARDIS, “I shall take her silence for a you’re welcome.”
Clara goes to the door and turns back to Nine.
“Governor, for some reason, I get the sense that we won’t see each other again, judging by your expression.”
“And you would be right.”
“Through it all, you don’t like me, huh?”
“That’s not it.”
“Your machine likes me.”
“No, Clara, believe me, that is not it at all.”
“Then what is it?” she said, folding her arms.
“Remember how I said I knew him, your Doctor.”
“Yes.”
“Well, I know him very well. Perhaps even better than he knows himself. He’s going to come back for you.”
“Are you sure?” Clara asked, hopeful.
“Yes, he will. He will not be able to help himself. And now, I need you to do him a favor.”
“And what would that be?”
“I need you to never tell him that you met me.”
“Pardon?”
“For his sake, you should not tell him about me.”
“Why not?”
“Because I may not like him, but I still feel sorry for him. When he will invite you aboard his TARDIS, he will do it with the hope of being the first one to show you the galaxy, to make you happy. It’s the highlight of his relationship with you. If you care for him, give him that. Even I know it’s important to him, despite that I can’t stand him.”
“Why can’t you stand him?”
“What can I say, we’re both backwards. He represents the future, I represent the past, therefore naturally I don’t like him. That’s my excuse, I’m sticking with it, and there it is.”
“John Smith, really?” Clara smiled warmly, “That is so stupid to say.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
Clara looked him up and down. He had saved so many lives that day, believed in her, kept her secrets, made her feel comfortable in her failures, and therefore he clearly was a good man underneath it all. Yet she had to check.
“John,” she walked up to him, “promise me that you are telling me this because you care for him, and not because you will hurt him in any way.”
“Clara Oswald, you have to trust me. I’m actually protecting him. Don’t tell him. And believe me, he’ll prefer it that way. He will want to show you everything, and then…”
“What?”
“When he does, you will look as you wish. You will look smart, fast at learning everything and you will be as you want him to see you. He will be impressed. He will be amazed. He will find you brilliant for being as impossible as you are.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because I know him. And I know you now. For each other, don’t tell him, and even if he speaks about me, still don’t tell him.”
Clara thought about it.
“Very well, I promise,” she answered.
Nine held her chin.
“Don’t worry,” he offered warmly, “he will come back. But there is one other thing.”
“What is it?”
“I know you like this, and that you love being perfect in his eyes if you see him again. If you want to change your life, then go ahead. For we all have the right to start over if we mean it, and to be allowed to change the way we were once perceived if we become it. Yet when you are ready, when you are prepared to show him how human you are, don’t be afraid to do it. He will forgive you for being flawed. Because him and I are more flawed than anyone.”
“Thank you, John. And one more thing.”
“Yes?”
“You were fantastic. And you’re a hero.”
Clara kissed his cheek and Nine watched her as she walked down the street and got on the tube.
“You’re welcome, you prat,” Nine swore to his future self as he closed the doors, “whether you deserve it or not, you are most welcome.”
He did not know why he looked on his future self with such loathing, but he assumed it was just mostly placed from the position of natural resentment. If the next Doctor lived, it meant that he was going to die. Then again, after the Time War, did he even care if he lived… but he did. After that adventure, he realized that he very much did.
Suddenly getting a cramp in his hands from when he healed Clara, he flexed his palms, but h
e felt a tingling in them that rose up and diminished over and over again. Comprehending the depth of the problem, he activated his voice interface.
“Interface on!”
He held his hand as he saw the hologram behind him.
“Computer, run diagnostics and inspect me.”
“Diagnostics already run,” came a familiar voice and he was amazed when he recognized it. He turned and saw that it was Sarah Jane Smith—or at least the image of her.
“Sarah Jane Smith!”
“I am not Sarah Jane Smith,” it same, “I am a voice interface.”
“Why did you choose that image then?”
“A program in my system has now input the option of choosing an image of the person who puts you at ease. This best meets the criterion.”
“You would! Dear Sarah Jane!”
“I am not Sarah Jane. I am a voice interface.”
“Oh stop saying that. Whatever, just tell me what is wrong with me.”
“Scans display a lethal dose of technological plasma in your veins.”
Nine looked up in surprise.
“Technological plasma?”
“Affirmative.”
Nine rushed to his medical compartment and pulled out a pill, then he looked back to the interface.
“Tell me, interface—and by interface, I mean Sarah, even with the medication, how long do I have to live?”
Nine ate the pill.
“If you successfully take three pills per week, the poison will infect you slower, but it is still irreversible. You have three years before the poison will overcome your body and you must regenerate.”
“So I’m slowly dying.”
“Affirmative.”
Nine smiled bitterly and thought of his future self.
“Fortunate fool,” he hissed, in hopes that Clara would never tell him that they met, for this was the only way that she would never know. It was the only way that he could protect her from the guilt of knowing that he removed the technological plasma from her and transferred it to himself. He didn’t want her to know that she traveled with one Doctor because the previous one had to be sacrificed. She deserved better. Very much so!
Yet despite it all, he did not feel scared or sad, but lighter. He didn’t know why, but something about that adventure had reinvigorated him, teaching him the greatness of camaraderie and the magnitude of the human experience: the good and the bad. And despite the good and bad experiences, it was all still worth it.
“To you,” he began to speak out loud to his future self, Eleven. “When I regenerate, I shall make sure to forget all about her, for you. But I will make sure that you will remember this. When you travel with her, she will fight to appear as perfect, and you’ll love that. Yet that’s not fair to her in the end, for every human crumbles under the weight of having to be perfect, because they are not. Enjoy her strength, but remember, the day she opens up to you, she shows how human she is, how flawed, don’t be afraid. Don’t turn away from her. Make her feel… possible.”
Nine paced around the TARDIS and then made a decision.
“Well,” Nine whispered to himself, “nothing for it. I just found someone worth dying for, now I suppose that I should find someone worth living for.”
“Fantastic,” the interface version of Sarah Jane Smith said.
Nine looked up at this, and gasped in happiness.
“What did you say?”
Sarah Jane Smith did not respond, but only looked down at the ground.
“No, go on, say it. Repeat what you said.”
The interface version of Sarah Jane Smith looked up and her expression turned kind.
“Fantastic,” She voiced, “absolutely fantastic.”
Nine laughed, roared out and turned around in surprise.
“Really?!”
The interface did not know what to say in reply.
“Well then,” Nine cried out, “this is the day, isn’t it! This is the day where I begin to see everything clearly.”
He put in the coordinates and equation, pulled the lever and returned back to London. In the year of Rose Tyler.
From out of her window of her apartment, Rose heard the familiar sound of the TARDIS. She looked out of the window in happiness, then she rushed out of her room, past her mother who called out after her.
“What is it?” Jackie Tyler cried.
“The Doctor!” Rose cried, “he’s back.”
“Oh blimey, not him!”
“Get off, mum!”
Rose rushed out of the apartment, ran down the steps and then she emerged in the lot to meet the Doctor. She rushed up to it and then burst in. When she did, Nine was standing there, leaning against his consul unit.
“Miss me?” He grinned.
“Perhaps I did,” she smiled.
“Now then,” Nine rushed out, clicking some buttons. “Where shall we go to next? How about to the past, a past wartime experience? No that would be rubbish.”
“Doctor,” Rose began.
“Or how about we accidentally bump into Andy Warhol as he is pretending to make real art again. I bet he’s a riot.”
“Doctor…”
“Or how about a different planet? Yes, of course, a distant planet would be best at this time, because we spent our time on Earth… in our last adventure. Yes, a trip through space would be best, rather than through time.”
Rose grabbed his hands to slow him down.
“Doctor!” She cried.
Nine slowed down and he was stoic and stern looking.
“What?”
“Don’t try and hide yourself. Not from me at least. And there is something I have to tell you.”
“What is it?”
“It’s about our last adventure. At first I thought it best not to talk about it.”
“I know that it was hard for you not to be able to see your father,” Nine empathized, “and I am sorry for that.”
“Thank you,” Rose sighed, serious and moved, “I wish that it could have ended differently. Yet it didn’t, and it was hard seeing that. Yet there was one thing that was harder, and that was that I let you down.”
Nine looked on her, his stern gaze softening.
“You felt that?”
“Yes, I did,” she confessed, “am I right about what you were thinking?”
“How did you notice?”
“I did stay with you for a long time, remember?”
“Yes,” Nine agreed, “that is true. I admit that Rose, I know what you were going through, but from now on, we both have to fight to make each other better. And let the other one fight to make the other one better.”
“It took me some time to feel it. And I suppose that I am ashamed now that it took me a while to do that. And that was that I put you in harm’s way, and I was too afraid, too in shock, when you needed my help. You almost died because of my actions, and I want you to know, Doctor, that your willingness to protect us all was very good of you, as my actions were not the best. But if you want me to be a hero now, then from now on, I shall always try to be one.”
Nine smiled.
“Rose, I know that you will.”
He picked her up and twirled her around as they sighed out in happiness.
“Now then,” Rose laughed, “where to, Doctor?”
“Anywhere you like,” Nine allowed, “let it be Rose’s choice.”
“No, not me,” Rose said, and then she pulled the lever on the TARDIS. “Let’s leave it up to the blue box.”
“Yes, she always chooses anyway. Fantastic!”
“You bet, mate!” Rose cried, and they were off and flying through time, where all the universe was waiting.
The End[12]
Author’s Note & Afterword
Good day, Reader, and thank you so much for reading my trilogy about my idea of a fun side adventure for Doctor Who. This section serves as part that gives clarity to some of the choices that are made in the series that might be questions you may have. It also
lists other ideas for stories I entertained in my mind.
Question: So Clara spent her whole time with Eleven and never mentioning the other Timelord she met, Nine, which means that Eleven never finds out?
Answer: Yes, he does. When Twelve reversed his regeneration, memories were uncovered and he was able to remember meeting her. It gets addressed after Eleven and Clara reconcile, but it was a subtle acknowledgement in this book that might have been easy to overlook. When he calls her ‘possible girl’ after Twelve shows up, that’s how he shows her that he knows. Also, yes Clara does eventually figure out that they were both the same men. She learned about this when she had to go into his timeline in ‘The Name of the Doctor’, and she did see his face, but afterwards, she still kept the secret.
Question: Why did I choose the companions that I did?
Answer: I admit that I wished to use the companions who were not specially brought back for the 50th Anniversary special, ‘The Day of the Doctor’. In that episode, only Rose Tyler was brought back as the conscience of the Moment bomb, and Clara was in it because she just happened to be the companion at the time. Therefore, I wished to bring each NuWho companion back who wasn’t brought back especially, because I feel that they were all very important to the Doctor and I wanted to show that they were. They just all signified something different about him.
Question: Why did I choose Clara for Nine, the Ponds for Ten, Martha for Eleven, and Donna for Twelve?
Answer: With Donna, I knew for a fact that the best Doctor to unite her with was Twelve. Of course she could work with any of them, but I just felt that after the loss of Clara. Donna would be the best solution. Especially since the focal point of her story was that she would regain her memories. With Eleven, I knew Martha would be ideal because he was in the process of just fully meeting Clara, and since there were so many similarities between those two women, that I knew that would become the perfect one to have a mid-adventure with. I’ll explain this later in a different section. Also Eleven’s story was the only one of these four which I knew was going to need a companion to endure many physical trials, had military experience, was a soldier, while it appeared as being realistic for her to be able to. The only one who seemed to be able to fit into this was Martha. Since Ten had just lost a few companions, I felt that the Ponds would be able to provide the familial camaraderie that he needed and emotional support. With Nine, he was still in a place where he was broken after the Time War and I thought his state would be a great complement for the take I was going to use for Clara’s development as a character.
