Ten Doctors

[KayleeTam42]

Chapter One

The Tardis shook, knocking both the Doctor and Rose to the ground. Almost all of the lights went out, and sparks illuminated the console.

“No, no, no, no, no!” the Doctor shouted, springing back up to his feet, his black hair bouncing. He ran to the other side of the console and started frantically pushing buttons, propping his foot on it as he looked at the monitor. “Not good. Really not good. C’mon, you can do better! Work with me, old girl!” He was yelling at the Tardis, but he still managed to squeeze some concern into his voice.

Something under the Doctor’s foot had a small explosion and propelled him backwards, making him hit his back on the railing.

“Doctor!” Rose yelled, fighting the shivers of the Tardis to stand upright and try to run over to him.

“I’m fine, I’m fine.” the Doctor said, standing up. “Nothing like a good jolt to liven the brain cells.” He jumped in place and shook his arms and hands before racing back over to the console, flipping switches and turning dials. Finally, the Tardis calmed, its lights turning back on and the shudders stopping. He smiled widely at it, then looked at Rose.

“See? Just throwing a fit over a bump in the road.” He chuckled as he patted the console. He looked back at Rose, who was smiling at him. “Well, what’re you waiting for? We’ve stopped, so we must’ve stopped somewhere.”

Rose turned around, grinning, and opened the door. She let the Doctor walk out first.

A sharp pain suddenly pinched between his back and his head, but it was gone as soon as it came. He didn’t do anything to worry Rose as he looked at his surroundings.

They were in a large, green field. The colors were vibrant and almost seemed to glow. There didn’t seem to be much of anything here, besides a few trees. The Doctor turned around so he faced the Tardis, his arms out.

“Where are we?” Rose asked, looking at the very blue sky.

“Not quite sure, to be perfectly honest,” he said, breathing deeply. “But if I had a guess, I would say we’re on Guinness, in the Snickers galaxy.”

Rose opened her mouth to ask a question, and the Doctor nodded. “Yes, this planet is named after a beer, and yes, this galaxy is named after a candy bar. After several billion years, people just can’t come up with many original names.” Rose laughed.

Something jumped out of a tree and spread its wings, drifting to another tree. They stopped talking to watch it. It looked a little like a small pterodactyl, but with fur and wider wings. The Doctor stood there for a minute, then bent down and plucked a blade of grass. He scanned it with the sonic screwdriver, threw it in his mouth and walked back into the Tardis.

“Wait a minute,” Rose said, following him. “What was that you did?”

“What was what I did?” the Doctor asked, looking back outside. “I ate a blade of grass.”

“Exactly!” Rose said, following his gaze. “Why’d you do that?”

“Well, why not?” He pushed a button sequence and read the monitor. “It’s perfectly healthy, and it tastes like ketchup.” He looked back at Rose. “Now, how would I know it tasted like ketchup if I hadn’t eaten it? Information, Rose.” He tapped the side of his head.

He looked back at the screen. “Now, if this is the planet I think it is, it should be mostly uninhabited... well, except for the wildlife.” Something beeped, and he leaned in closer. “Except, apparently, a spot that occupies exactly one square mile.” He ran around the console and pressed buttons, and the Tardis began to shake. It was the normal, small shake of a working Tardis, and it was accompanied by wheezing engines.

When the Tardis landed again, Rose followed him outside. There was a tall, metal tower right in the middle of this planet’s never-ending field. It stuck out like a sore thumb.

“Fantastic,” the Doctor said, looking up at it. Rose looked at him.

“What was that?” she asked, turning towards him.

“What was what?” he asked, not taking his eyes off of the tower.

“What was that you said?”

“I said ‘fantastic,’ I always say that. I wonder who lives there,” he wondered aloud, pointing at the building.

“No, you don’t always say that. You used to, but now you don’t.”

“Of course I do, where’ve you been?” He looked at her, squinting. He started walking toward the tower.

“No, you don’t.” Rose caught up to him, grabbing his arm to make him turn around. “You used to say that, when you first met me. Then you regenerated and you didn’t say it anymore.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, looking back up at the structure. “It looks like it’s from this time, but it definitely doesn’t belong here. Why did these people only build in one specific place?”

“Doctor, quit changing the subject!” Rose said, raising her voice. He turned back to her, his eyebrows raised. “Remember the Bad Wolf thing?” she asked.

“Of course I remember that,” the Doctor replied. “Now can we get back to the huge metal tower on an uninhabited planet?”

She ignored him. “Remember how I looked into the time vortex, and I killed all the Daleks? Then we kissed, and I passed out or something?”

“Yes, I remember Jack, Bad Wolf, the Face of Boe, Lynda with a Y. Can we get back to the matter at hand?”

“When I woke up,” she continued, “You said you had the whole time vortex in you, and how no one can survive that. Then you said something about Barcelona, and you regenerated. Do you remember?”

He stared for a second, then shook his head and gestured at the building. “It doesn’t matter. See, Guinness was declared a wildlife reserve, and they made everybody-”

“Doctor!” Rose yelled suddenly, interrupting him. “You remember the werewolf? Madame de Pompadour? Sarah Jane Smith?”

“Well, of course I remember Sarah Jane. What’s that got to do with it? And how do you know her?”

Rose’s eyes grew wide. “You really don’t remember,” she said softly.

“Don’t remember what?” the Doctor said, looking at her. “What happened?”

“Lots of things,” Rose answered, staring into space. “Cassandra, orbiting a black hole, a television monster that sucks people’s faces, Cybermen-”

“Wait, I know Cybermen. Are you telling me they’re back?” He continued to walk toward the building, Rose following him.

“What? No, they’re from a parallel universe. You don’t even remember that?”

“Parallel universe? Did you cross dimensions without me?”

“No, you were most definitely there.”

“I would remember something like that, Rose.”

“That’s exactly my point!”

He stopped, looking at her. “You’re serious.”

“Doctor, feel your head.”

“Why? It’s not like it’s going to explode.”

“You’ve got hair.”

“No, I haven’t. Not much.”

“Yes, you have! What’s gotten into you?” She reached up and played with his hair, something she had secretly been wanting to do. Instinctively he reached up to fix it, and his eyes widened in shock.

“I’ve got hair.”

“Yes, you have. Now do you believe me?”

“I... regenerated?”

“Right after the Bad Wolf thing. What else could have happened? You absorbed the time vortex!”

Now that he thought about it, standing painfully in the Tardis with Rose was the last thing he remembered. He completely forgot about the tall, silver tower in the middle of the wildlife reserve as he fell back against a tree. “How long has it been?” he asked.

“I dunno. A couple of weeks? A month? Two?”

“Why can’t I remember anything?” He paused. “Besides, it doesn’t even make any sense. Each persona has its own personality. I had a personality, and this man must, too. If I said ‘fantastic’, and he didn’t, even if I didn’t remember anything I still wouldn’t say it if it isn’t his personalty. It isn’t like I walk around with a bag of Jelly Babies anymore.” He was staring at nothing in particular. “No matter what, though, that building there is a problem.” He pointed at it again, lifting himself from the tree.

Rose sighed. The Doctor right now was the bigger problem. “We have to figure out what happened to you first.”

“Do you know what kinds of problems this building presents?”

“Do you know what kind of problem you present?”

“Yes. And to be quite honest I’d rather see what these people are doing here.”

He started walking toward the building, leaving Rose annoyed.  

[KayleeTam42]

Chapter Two

Reaching into his jacket pocket, the Doctor took out his psychic paper as he approached the building. Rose ran to catch up with him.

“What, you’re just gonna walk right in?”

“Yeah. Why, something wrong?” He flashed a small smile at her.

For a second she forgot about what had happened to him, and she shook her head, giggling.

He stopped, wincing, and stood still for a moment. A wiggling line of pain had started in his foot and ended in his head. It felt strange and it hurt, like a giant painful funny bone.

“Doctor? What’s wrong?”

It left quickly, and he shook a little to get rid of the sensation. The psychic paper slipped out of his hand. He blinked a few times and looked at his surroundings.

“Well, that building obviously doesn’t belong.”

“You said that already, Doctor. What happened to you?”

He turned around to look at Rose. “Have I met you?”

“Doctor?”

“Well, I must have, because you clearly know who I am.” He smiled, his eyes crinkling.

“You’ve forgotten me?” She was breathless.

“I’m sorry, but there’s a very obtrusive building in the middle of this beautiful wilderness.” He gestured at it and turned to walk towards it. Rose jogged up to him and stood between him and his destination.

“Doctor, what’s the last thing you remember?”

“Why would you ask a silly thing like that?” He reached his hand into a jacket pocket, and evidently didn’t find what he was looking for. He felt around his jacket and his pant pockets, and whirled around, looking on the ground.

“What are you looking for?”

“My Jelly Babies.”

Rose lifted her eyebrow. Didn’t the Doctor mention something about that? “You don’t carry them around anymore.”

“There’s no reason for that to happen.” He laughed a little, turning around to retrace his steps. He walked over to where the psychic paper lay on the ground and stopped, not remembering where he had been before that. Rose stared after him, confused.

“That’s strange. I must have left them in the Tardis by accident.” He shrugged and turned back to her. “I’m terribly sorry, but I am a time traveler after all, and you may have met me in my future when I wouldn’t quite remember you yet. If you’ll excuse me, I have matters to attend to.”

He walked past her and toward the building, hands at his sides, his long coat billowing behind him. She looked after him. What’s happening to him? She saw something out of the corner of her eye: his psychic paper. She bent down to pick it up. “Wait,” she called, jogging after him, “How are you going to get in without this?”

He had walked up to the guard standing by the door, which needed a key card. “Hello,” he said, smiling. The guard didn’t respond. “What’s your name?” the Doctor asked, looking at the guard’s name tag. “Henry?” This didn’t get the guard’s attention, and neither did waving his hand in front of his face, so the Doctor decided to try the door.

“A key card is required,” the guard said robotically, turning toward him.

He felt around his coat. “Ah, well, I have it around here somewhere-”

“Do you have registration?”

Now he had the guard’s attention. He walked toward him and looked him in the eye. “Henry, you might want to work a little harder at your job. Promotions are coming soon, and that means they’re also going to let people go.” He smiled a little and winked, and though Henry’s face was impassive he showed a small sign that he had heard what the Doctor said. The Doctor patted Henry’s shoulder and turned away.

After the guard turned to look for other people, the Doctor smiled as he looked at the key card in his hand. Henry K. Johnson, it read. He smiled at the back of the guard as he used the card to enter the building.

Rose looked after him, her mouth hanging open a little. She caught the door before it closed and followed after him. “Doctor, did you just steal that man’s card?”

“Oh, are you still here?” He turned to face her, smiling. “That’s just a little trick I’ve picked up.” He turned back, walking down a hallway of lifts and looking at each one.

“You’ve never told me about it.”

“I’m sure I haven’t. Would you like to accompany me? You seem to know enough about me.” He was holding open the door to one of the lifts.

She walked into the lift. He followed, and when the doors closed he looked at the floor numbers. He pressed twenty two, the second story from the top, and the lift slowly moved upward.

“Why that floor?” Rose asked.

“Firstly, never go straight to the top floor of a building, and secondly, why not?” He smiled, looking up at the floor indicator.

What is going on with him? Rose wondered.