(MAIN RANGE): The End of The Dark - Part One
(MAIN RANGE): The End of The Dark
Guy Henry Doctor created by Riley
Eleanor Tomlinson Doctor created by Hazel
Elizabeth Olsen Doctor created by Arbrax
Rahul Kohli Doctor created by Mikey
Mary Elizabeth Winstead Doctor created by Gallifrey_Immigrant
All other Doctors created by me
PART ONE OF TWO (or possibly three)
Chapter One
The Doctor stood in front of an enormous void of pulsing color. He began walking through the smoky rainbow of the vortex, and thought to himself very carefully about where exactly he was.
"Hello, Doctor." Said a Serene, Spaced Out Voice.
"You?" The Doctor said, surprised. "Oh, don't tell me this is one of those days, Doctor."
"Indeed it is, Doctor." The Doctor also said. She smiled, her eyes switching between glazed over and bouncing across her eyebrows like a pinball hit too many times in a pinball machine. She adjusted her long hair, and gestured politely. "After you." She said.
* * *
"Which body are you?" The Doctor asked to his female counterpart.
"I believe they call me number Twenty-Two, but to be honest, attempting to number any of us is like playing pin the tail on a Donkey made out of gelatin and also spacetime." The Doctor replied. "And you?"
"Oh, Well, I don't believe I recall. I like to think I'm the most recent model, but then again, all of us think that until we hear otherwise."
The Doctor nodded agreeably. "There are quite a lot of us, yes." She said, hazily. She attempted to examine the ground, but there wasn't any. They were just...walking.
"So, it's just the two of us in here?" The Doctor asked her.
"That I've seen. I also can't remember how we got here, so..."
"Hm. It's usually me who has the memory problems. So it's something affecting us. And I think I am beginning to understand what." The Doctor said.
"Really? That fast?" The Doctor replied.
"Experience, my dear." He adjusted his glasses and necktie, trying to make himself look smart and suave, which he didn't really need to do when he knew that his other self would know exactly how he was feeling, but he still did anyway. "The swirling colors of non-existence, loss of memory and the two of us in the same place points to one forseeable option. But the problem is, I can't remember what it is..."
"Ah, the time gullet!" The other Doctor exclaimed. She chirped happily, her long hair waving in the wind that wasn't there.
"The time gullet, yes! A region of space left affected by the Time War, designed to swallow time lords and TARDISes and tear apart their deeds. But it was left fixed by the last great sanction. No wonder I didn't think of it."
"A weapon of past destruction," The Doctor joked. She laughed. "You fall in here, and I then fall in here. Or the other way around. Eventually it will draw all Doctors in, and alter our timelines to be nonsensical."
"Well, yes." The Doctor said. "But I don't think it was you or me that fell in here. We both arrived and the vortex was already here. The gullet ate another one of our selves and then pulled us in."
"Ahooooooooooooooooooooooooy!!!" A shrill yet Damely british voice shrieked.
"What is Dame Judi Dench doing in here?" The female Doctor asked, confused.
"Oh no. Not her." The Doctor said.
"Helllllllllloooooooooooooooooooooooo Dolly!" The Judi Dench Doctor said, strolling in. "Fancy meeting you here in a vortex of infinite death and despair. I know you, past me, - and so you must be future me! Oh, what a downgrade that must be, lovely to meet you."
"Quite." The Eldest Doctor said stiffly.
"Sorry about all this. I was playing pin the tail on my Gelatin Spacetime Donkey and the TARDIS crashed on back through the Transduction Barrier keeping the gullet safe from the rest of the universe. Golly, what shall I call you people to avoid confusion? I do love nicknames. I'll be Judi Dench, I have this face, might as well use it, and I'll call you -"
She pointed at the Doctor's feminine Twenty Second Incarnation. "...Ditzy, and I'll call you..." She pointed at the Eldest Doctor. "...Rogue One. Rogue for short."
"Thank you, no nicknames are necessary," Rogue Doctor said.
"Too late, they're part of the narration now."
"You know, Judi, this is all your fault." Ditzy Doctor said, conversationally. "You've dragged us into a spacetime gullet and it's going to slowly eat our timeline apart until none of our incarnations exist."
"I know!! Old Technicolor Dreamcoat already went splat, and so did Professor Moriarty." Judi Dench Doctor grinned. "It's all rather exciting. If slightly existentially threatening."
"Excuse me?" A voice came out of the aether and then there was a crash.
"Oh, that must be number four!" Judi Doctor said cheerfully.
Ditzy Doctor turned to look.
A red haired woman in a victorian dress crawled out of a piece of wreckage - There was now a piece of TARDIS roundrel floating in the colors. She crawled up. "Hello there." She said. "I'm the Doctor. Who are you guys??"
The Three Doctors looked at eachother nervously. "Um, sorry," Ditzy said. "We don't know you and you don't know us..."
The Dench Doctor screamed aggressively. "ARE YOU THE TIMELESS CHILD!??!?! ANSWER ME-" She yelled, rummaging in her pockets for weapons.
"Oh, heavens no," This new Doctor said. "I'm just from another universe."
Chapter Two
"Hey, I'm giving nicknames!" The Dench Doctor gazed at this Doctor's hair. "...Nice to meet you, Ginge."
"Please never call me that again."
"Nice to meet you, firetruck." The Dench Doctor tried again.
The New Doctor sighed. "I'll accept it."
"I do apologize for our compatriot." Rogue Doctor said. "She seems to have triggered a time war device that has sucked all versions of ourself into this time gullet."
Firetruck Doctor pursed her lips. "Sorry, can't get my head around this. You're all me from this universe?"
"Yep." Ditzy Doctor said, examining the TARDIS wreckage, wearing Elton John-esque spectacles. "This yours?"
"I'd assume," Firetruck Doctor said. "I wasn't exactly comfortable on the trip over. Now, if this vortex is taking our timelines apart, shouldn't some of the possibilities be... unsavory? We can't stay in one place for long, this gullet or whatever it is is dangerous."
"Why thank you for some common sense. I've found it decidedly lacking as of late." Rogue Doctor said.
The winds that didn't exist began to pick up.
"Oh my," The Ditzy Doctor said. "I think the gullet is going to erase one of us from the timestream."
"Woo hoo, death!!" Exclaimed The Dench Doctor happily. They all stared at her like the fool she was.
Suddenly the color that Ditzy Doctor was walking on fell through.
And then the three of them stood there and blinked for a moment.
"You know, I could have sworn there was a fourth one of us here." The Rogue Doctor said.
"Eh? There's only ever been three of us." The Dench Doctor replied, confused.
Firetruck Doctor blinked at them. "Are you serious!? Ditzy just fell down a pit!!"
"What?" Dench Doctor asked. "Who's Ditzy!"
"Oh!" Firetruck yelled. "My memory isn't affected, because I'm from outside your timeline!"
"We couldn't possibly be forgetting things like that. We'd remember." Rogue Doctor said, completely unaware of the irony of what he had just said.
"Come on! Further up and Further in," Firetruck said, annoyed. "If I disappear next, there's no way the two of you will be able to make progress together."
"He loves me, really." The Dench Doctor smiled, elbowing Rogue.
The Rogue Doctor sighed, and they proceeded into the colorful mist...
* * *
The Ditzy Doctor found herself falling. Out of the time gullet's vortex of color and into a land of white.
Oh, that's just Wonderful. She was going to be erased from time and never have existed. She didn't care for the idea.
Well, she'd done things like this before. Jump out a window, figure out how to stay alive before you hit the ground.
Of course, at times like that her solutions were A. Grappling Hook and B. Try to Land in body of Water.
Drat. She'd left her Grappling Hook on the TARDIS hat-stand. And no Water. She could always hope that this could be reversed later. If you could reverse a life being reversed. Reverse Reverse! Slide to the Left! Slide to the Right! Criss-Cross! Everybody clap your hands! Oh, come on, Doctor, FOCUS...
And then she landed. "Why, Top of The Morning." A dark man in a suit with a wicked smile said.
Okay. She was alive. And evidently not erased yet. Let's think.
The Doctor instantly recognized his type. "You're the Master!!"
The Man smirked and strolled towards her. "Nope. Guess Who."
"You're...You're another me?!"
"Well, yes, but actually no. You see, I have this whole murder thing going on. Big fan of it. You see, your miserable other selves have brought me into this lovely little spot in the multiverse too. We are all in the Time gullet. And History is rewritten here. And you know something about History. It's only rewritten by the Victors."
"You're behind this?! Are you the Valeyard??"
"No, and no. The Valeyard is BUDGET Me. But what I am going to do is win. Hm. This is always the hard bit, the line I say in a badass fashion as I kill you." And with a flick of his hands a knife was in her chest. The Doctor gasped. "Pity I can never think of anything," The Not-Doctor said, and she fell to the floor, dead.
Chapter Three
"Time is always a bit of an inconvenient thing. You can't kill time. You can put huge gaping holes in it, you can break fixed points, and the universe can damn near collapse but time as an entity always ends up trying to fix itself in some way. A universe of interchangeable time periods, Winston Churchill and Silurians and Charles Dickens on BBC Four. Or reapers coming out of Church walls, and cars appearing out of nowhere, trying to run over a Dad that isn't there. Or even anti-time seeping into the real universe from a Gallifreyan Nursery Rhyme. It always tries to fix itself up. Our timeline is being fundamentally altered. It won't be long until possibilities become fact. We have to prepare ourselves for those nasty possibilities." The Rogue Doctor said.
"Will you shut your trap?" The Dench Doctor exclaimed. "Blah, blah, time! Blah blah paradox! Blah Blah Blah!!"
The Rogue Doctor spat. "I have tried to be genial with you. You are a clone. You are me at my darkest point, struggling to figure out what 'me' is, and let me tell you, you are miserably failing!"
"Oh come on!!" Firetruck exclaimed. "You two are giving me such a migraine! Can you at least try and make up?!"
The Dench Doctor sighed. "Sorry. I can be a bit much. Hey...If you're in my future I guess I figure it out eventually??" She smiled awkwardly, extending hands and the Rogue Doctor shook it.
"Come on, Grand Moff!" She laughed, "Let's see who else is in the LSD time vortex of Doom. Also what the hell do you mean I'm a clone?!"
"The Real Doctor is a curator in Sussex. Let's move."
As they passed through the mist, a silhouette of a woman appeared before them, sitting on a box of luggage.
"I don't recognize her. Is she another one from an alternate universe?" Firetruck Doctor whispered.
"No, I don't think so. I think you're a one time deal. Our timeline is being eaten up, like I said. I think...this must be time's attempt to plug in the holes."
The new Doctor began to...sing? ♪ I wish ♪ More Than Anything ♪ More Than Life ♪ More Than Jewels ♪ The King is giving a festival ♪ I wish to go to the festival ♪ Nevertheless ♪ I wish to go to the festival and dance with the Prince ♪
"Okay," The Dench Doctor said. "Can we leave ol 'musical' here behind?"
"We have to figure out how our history has been impacted." Rogue Doctor replied.
The Musical Doctor continued to do scales, sitting on top of her luggage, gazing longingly at the swirling colors around her.
The Musical Doctor sat there, head cocking, and began to give narration. "Cinderella lived in a house all alone except for her stepmother and two step-sisters. All three were beautiful of face, but vile and black of heart. Someday Cinderella wished her prince would come."
"...This is odd. This is worryingly odd." Firetruck Doctor whispered. "Oh, by the way, just to be sure, your universe doesn't sponaneously break into song and dance?"
"No"
"I wish" The Dench Doctor said, skipping forward. ♪ Cinderella you musn't go to the Festival ♪ Until You've Done Your Chores ♪ Look at your shoes ♪ Look at your Dress ♪
♪ I am the Doctor ♪ True and True ♪ Yes I am and So are You ♪ Tell me why you're here and what you'll do ♪ Tell me of your Journey ♪
The Musical Doctor began blabbering and collapsed onto the floor shaking.
The Dench Doctor turned to Firetruck and Rogue. "She's doing the prologue for Into The Woods. I can't get though to her."
Firetruck Doctor exclaimed. "Come on, we're wasting time, and that's what she is, time. If history unravels further, you two will have more nonsense... and I'm not sure what will happen to me."
The Musical Doctor fell out of the world. Just like Ditzy had.
"Oh, she just fell out of the world too!"
"Who?" Rogue and Dench asked.
Firetruck tried her best to keep her refinement. "I don't know, a Big Lipped Alligator Moment!!" She exclaimed. "Let's just keep moving."
"Cooooeeee!" With a flash, a new face was before them. The Not-Doctor smiled wickedly. "Nice to meet you all. I'm the Doctor. I'm here to help," he lied.
* * *
The Four of them walked through the smoke some more.
"So, who are you?" Firetruck Doctor asked the Not-Doctor. "I'm the Doctor. Or at least, I believe, a possibility. And with your help, I'd like to come to fruition."
"I know you from somewhere....My sixteenth body, you were..." The Dench Doctor struggled and for a moment, the Not-Doctor's eyes flashed.
"Oh, I can't remember." The Dench Doctor said cluelessly.
"Quite right too. I have no clue what you're talking about, old bag." He replied, smartly. "So, what exactly is your plan? The three of you must have come up with something brilliant, riiiight?"
The Rogue Doctor looked at him with a methodical expression. "Several." He said quietly.
"Oh, we have a chessmaster on our hands. What's he got up his sleeves?"
"Mostly having us walk while he broods." Firetruck said. "But I have some ideas myself. This vortex has had several pieces of technology crash into it as well as well, us. Our TARDISes are being pulled in as well as us. I think we have to gerrymander a makeshift TARDIS console if we're going to bring ourselves out - and we need a body that isn't an alternate universe, or a possibility, or, sorry Dench, a clone."
"Ah." Rogue said. "There...I have some bad news. The Dench Doctor is a clone, yes, of the real Doctor, a retiree. She eventually grows into a Doctor enough in her own right that the proper Doctors recognize her as an incarnation."
"Ew," Dench said, not having had character development yet.
"The issue is...I am one of her regenerations. I am a clone as she is. None of us can escape this vortex."
"You mean, we're trapped in the time gullet?! For good!?" Firetruck exclaimed.
"Unless we rewrite our own future..." The Not-Doctor said, smirking ominously. Everything was going according to his plan.
Chapter Four
Everything was not going according to his plan.
"Wait, so I don't understand." Firetruck Doctor said. "Why would the vortex summon Ditzy in if none of us are the original Doctor? But me, but like, different timeline here, roll with me."
"We are the Doctor." The Dench Doctor said, suddenly serious. "The Doctor is a name. The Doctor is a promise. Never cruel, never cowardly. The Doctor is a name, and a promise, not a person, the Doctor is a goal, a manifesto. We are as much The Doctor as anyone."
"That was remarkably profound, Dame Judi." The Rogue Doctor said.
"...Um, Elephant Tacos." The Dench Doctor said, trying to restore her 'lolmemes' factor.
The Not-Doctor scowled. They were beginning to question it. If he didn't do something to cause division and disbelief in eachother they would soon realize that she was right.
"Regenerations are a fascinating thing." The Not-Doctor said, hands perched like a tent or a praying man on his chest. "Even the best man can have a bad regeneration and do the wrong thing. Even the worst can be a good man for a life. If you are never cruel or cowardly, tell me Doctor, what did you do to that bar in New York."
"I don't remember." The Dench Doctor said.
"You killed a man there. Because he displeased you. You set the place on fire and tore off a guests skin. Because it was funny." The Not-Doctor's glasses flashed again, adjusting their memories as needed. "Isn't that right??"
The Dench Doctor's face was suddenly filled with despair. "I...I did what?? I don't remember - I - I-" She curled up into a ball. "I didn't, I musn't have, I didn't, I didn't!"
"It's true!" The Rogue Doctor screamed. "I remember it too. You were the worst of us. Why should we believe anything you say!!"
Firetruck Doctor spat. "And this hasn't come up before now how?!?!"
"Because she forgets all of the little people, doesn't she!" The Rogue Doctor yelled. "She forgets -"
"No, no, no, no no n o o oo n oo n ooo no" The Dench Doctor shrieked and suddenly her head started glowing.
"What the- What's going on!?!" The Not-Doctor shrieked. "This shouldn't be happening!!! I shouldn't have-" He corrected himself. Don't give the game away. "What's going on?!!"
"Regenerations aren't just caused by physical damage, they can be caused by mental damage. That you can't recover from. Whatever's going on, she must have repressed the memory so deeply, or not have known, or whatever it means, but her timeline has already fallen apart! She's regenerating now, even though she can't!" Firetruck explained worriedly.
And the Dench Doctor screamed and exploded. The entire vortex glowed a bright harsh yellow and with it, the Doctor split.
She fell apart onto the floor, into two people.
"What's going on now!?"
"Her future is irreconcilable with what it was and what it is now. What her future used to be - the regeneration before mine -" The Rogue Doctor pointed to one of the Doctors on the floor.
She had regenerated, clothes and all. Her entire form appeared in an overcoat and lumpy hat set above her blazing red hair and her creased old skin.
"That's her future as it should be-" The Rogue Doctor continued to explain... "and that's what it is now."
They looked next to her. She was unconcious but he was awake. A young man in a suit, hair combed back neatly. He was rather foppish, and dreadfully overwhelmed. "Hello." He said, worriedly. "I'm the Doctor."
The Not-Doctor smiled neatly.
To Be Continued...
This Story (Hypothetically) Starred
Guy Henry as The Doctor AKA Rogue One
Dame Judi Dench as The Doctor AKA Judi Dench
Eleanor Tomlinson as The Doctor AKA Firetruck
Elizabeth Olsen as The Doctor AKA Ditzy
Cillian Murphy as The Not-Doctor
Bernadette Peters as The Doctor AKA Musical
Brenda Blethyn as The Doctor
and Introducing
Patrick Walshe McBride as The Doctor
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