IT WAS 20,000 YEARS AGO TODAY

Chapter Eight

They followed the alien while he led them through the building. They walked through a few more labs and some offices but they didn't see anyone else. The Doctor was still a bit groggy but he was recovering rapidly and he was looking around at everything with curiosity. Occasionally trying to ask the alien about some alien device. The alien ignored him and everyone else as he led them to where Pepa was at. He finally led them to one closed door and stopped them. To their amazement, they heard the Doctor's voice coming from the other side of it, screaming about how he had no right to muck with his DNA and demanding to know what Pepa had done to him.

"Wait," Paul said, "that's the Doctor's voice. Then who's this?" he added, pointing to the Tenth Doctor.

"I'm the Doctor," Ten said.

"No, that voice behind the door is the Doctor," Paul said, pointing to the door. "Who are you really?"

"Honestly, Paul, sometimes you just need to suspend your disbelief for a moment and listen," Ten said as the alien opened the door and stuck his head inside to announce they were there.

The alien grunted as he was shoved out of the way and the Eleventh Doctor stepped outside. He did a double take when he saw the Ten. Ten stared back at him calmly. Eleven's mouth dropped open and before anyone could say anything, he had run back inside ranting and raving again about mucking with his DNA.

"Excuuuse me!" Ten said, breezing past the stunned alien as he walked into the room.

The others followed him and they saw their Doctor yelling and screaming at Pepa while he pointed to the Tenth Doctor.

"You made another me without my permission!" he yelled at Pepa.

"There's no need to scream," Ten said. "Calm down!"

Eleven spun around and stomped over to him.

"Calm down? You have my memories, yes? You do remember the last time this happened, right? The clone and all the trouble he caused?'

His companions glanced at one another while Ten folded his arms over his chest.

"I'm not the same as that clone," he said indignantly.

"No, course not. You're all human instead of half, there's the difference between you and the other one!" Eleven snarled at him before he turned his attention back to Pepa.

"I've had quite enough of your meddling," he said to him. "It's one thing to alter the DNA of Neanderthals but to make a human…thing out of me…you've gone too far and I'll…"

Everyone gasped when they heard a faint boom and the faint sounds of people screaming.

"The attack has begun," Pepa said in a cold tone of voice to Eleven, "the Diablons have found us. I thought we could use the extra help, two Time Lords instead of one which is why I made your duplicate. Granted, I had to figure out which DNA strands to use when I made him and I accidentally made him in the likeness of your former life but he still possesses the same intelligence and memories you have…now, would you like to argue some more or do you want to help stop the attack?"

Eleven glowered at Ten.

"You will stay out of trouble," he said to Ten.

Ten snorted.

"Don't worry, mummy, I won't commit genocide," he said.

Eleven rolled his eyes while Ten stuck his tongue out at him the moment his back was turned. Eleven, ignoring him, asked Pepa what he wanted them to do and Pepa beckoned to them. While they followed him, Amy glanced at Ten who was glaring silently at Eleven while they walked and looked at the others.

"I hate when I don't know what's going on," she mouthed to the others who nodded in agreement.

They reached some metal stairs and Pepa walked up them. The others followed and halfway up the metal steps changed to stone. As they climbed, they heard the booming sounds and the sounds of people shrieking in the distance.

"Could we hurry up in case people are dying out there?" Eleven said impatiently.

"There are a lot of steps up to the warship, be patient," Pepa said to him.

"Where are we?" Paul said, looking at the narrow stone walls on either side of him. "Is this some sort of tomb?"

"Did you see the pyramid when you first came in?" Pepa said. "We're climbing up to the top to the yellow warship on top."

"You mean, the Yellow Submarine," Amy said. "We're going up to the Yellow Submarine?"

Pepa gave her an odd look.

"Yellow Submarine?" he said, confused.

"Never mind," Eleven said. "Just take us up to it."

They reached the top of the steps and Pepa pulled a small remote control out of his pocket. He pressed a button and all of them vanished and reappeared inside the warship. Pepa gave them a sheepish look when they looked around in a stunned silence.

"Sorry, the teleport for the ship has a limited range so I needed to get you close enough for it to work properly," Pepa said. "Now, follow me and we'll go to the control room."

Paul noticed as they walked along that the interior resembled the submarine's interior in the cartoon. He looked at Jane who was holding Tya's hand.

"Cor, they really did their homework," Paul said to her, "they must have taken detailed notes and handed them down if the Diablons were able to copy all this."

"Datachips, I expect," Ten said to him.

Paul studied him while Pepa walked up to the control panel at the front of the ship and parted the blast shield covering the windows.

"What he did to you…is it sorta what they were planning to do with me and Bill. Are you a replacement?"

Ten stared at him with wide eyes.

"I hope not," he said. "No one can replace me!"

"No one's getting replaced," Eleven said over his shoulder as he sat down beside Pepa in the chairs in front of the console. "I'm the one in charge here; he's just a human copy of me."

Ten snorted at that and rolled his eyes which made Paul chuckle. Ten looked down and smiled at Tya when she walked over and took his hand.

"You are a very friendly person, I like that," he said as he picked her up and all of them walked up to the window.

Pepa took the ship up off the pyramid while everyone watched. On the ground below, they could see several Diablons shooting at the panicking humans with laser blasters. Paul sighed angrily and glanced at Bill as he came up beside him.

"If it's a small consolation, at least they don't know who you are here so they won't be baying for your blood," Bill said.

"Yes, that's really the only good thing about this whole situation," Paul said. "I just hope we can wipe them out today or at least discourage…"

He and Bill gasped when Pepa hit a button and a large laser blast shot out from the front of the warship and hit the ground in front of several Diablons. The Diablons scattered and ran in all directions. Eleven pursed his lips while he watched Pepa trying to hit the panicking aliens with his laser.

"No, don't kill them. Capture them!" Eleven said to him.

"Yes, we can't resort to their tactics!" Ten agreed.

"Do you mind? I'll handle this," Eleven said in an annoyed voice to Ten who had walked up behind his chair.

"I'm merely agreeing with you," Ten said.

He looked down when Tya came up beside him and caught her when the ship suddenly shuddered and she nearly fell to the floor. Jane ran up and took Tya from him.

"Hey, is there somewhere on this ship where we can keep Tya and Nog? They don't need to be in the middle of all this," Jane said to Pepa while he continued firing at the Diablons.

"There are sleeping quarters but I have no time to show you where they are," Pepa said while he continued to scatter the Diablons.

"Where is it then? I can take them," Ten said.

Pepa gave him directions to the sleeping quarters. Bill took Nog's hand and Jane picked Tya up while Paul walked beside her. While they were walking, Ten looked down at his toga and made a face.

"Blimey, no wonder I'm freezing. I need a proper set of clothes," he said.

They gasped and Ten grabbed Jane to pretend her from toppling over with Tya when something hit the ship and it rocked violently. Jane soothed Tya when she began to cry.

"Sounds like the Diablon are attacking us now," Ten said. "Hope this submariney ship is stable."

"Paul!" Tya sobbed, reaching out for him.

Jane transferred her to Paul and he held her close. They reached the sleeping quarters. The entraced was a hatch in the floor. Everyone backed up against the wall except for Ten who grabbed the metal wheel that served as the lock and spun it around to open the hatch. He lifted it open and let everyone else go down one by one. He took Tya from Paul and soothed her when Paul went down the hatch. Then he knelt down and slowly lifted her down so Paul could take her, once she was safe in his arms, Ten went in and closed the hatch door. The sleeping quarters had platforms built into the wall that were made of a crystalline material. There were nine platforms and at the foot of each one a blue blanket and pillow was folded neatly. Paul put Tya on a platform that was at his chest level and she sat with her legs dangling over the edge of the platform while she looked around.

"So now what do we do?" Paul asked Ten. "Are we just gonna keep blasting the Diablons until they surrender?"

"Unless Pepa has something else up his sleeve," Ten said with a shrug. "I have my other self's memories and I retained the things he read about this place but to be honest, we didn't know about this Pepperland until we read the history. There's so much history concerning the dark times that even we had no idea of this place or the invasion of the Diablon at this stage."

They gasped and Tya cried when something hit the ship again and it rocked violently. Bill noticed Nog was terrified and he put his arms around her and sat her down on bottom platform while he tried to calm her down. Ten paced around while Paul and Jane soothed Tya.

"Hate this, hate not being the one in control," Ten muttered while he paced, "there has to be a solution. Even if I'm a human, I still have my Time Lord intelligence. Fez Boy isn't the only one who can help out. They can't just blast the Diablons into submission, that's what Fez Boy accused his clone of doing."

"What do you mean, his clone?" Jane said. "You?"

"No, no, there was another a few years ago," Ten said. "He was half Time Lord, half Human; I'm all human like you are. This other Doctor caused a genocide of a race called the Daleks and the Doctor punished him by sending him to another universe."

"Another universe?" Bill said. "There is more than one?"

"Oh, Bill, there are countless universes, so many no one knows how many there are," Ten said. "They are parallel to one another, separated only by a nothing space called The Void."

They gasped when something else hit the ship and the ship rocked so hard Tya slid off the bed. She cried as Paul tried to catch her.

"I s'pose we'll have to sit on the floor," Paul said to them as he and Tya sat down on the metal floor.

Jane sat down next to him along with everyone else except for the Doctor.

"Blast, I'm gonna go up and see if I can help, if Fez Boy don't like it, tough. I'm not gonna stay down here while people are dying. You lot stay down here and I'll be back as soon as I can."

Everyone watched while Ten went up and through the hatch. He put the hatch down and went away without locking it. Paul sighed and leaned back against the platform.

"I s'pose they'll come and get us when we're needed," Paul said to the others. "I agree with the Doctor, that Doctor, I feel useless just sitting here doing nothing while a war is going on."

Tya stood up and kissed his cheek.

"Okay, now I feel useless and loved," he said while Jane laughed.

Jane watched Paul hug Tya and kiss her on the cheek. She leaned into his ear.

"Amy wondered if we were going to adopt her," she whispered.

Paul's eyes went wide and he looked at Jane.

"Do you want to?" he said while Bill watched and listened.

"Do you?" she countered.

"Wouldn't mind it. I like Tya," Paul said. "And she needs someone now. So, why not?"

"What are you on about?" Bill asked.

"Amy asked us if we were planning to adopt Tya," Jane said to him.

"I think you should. She obviously likes you and I think you'd be great parents," Bill said.

Jane looked down at Tya who was watching her quietly. She put her arm around her.

"Tya, would you like for me and Paul to be your mummy and daddy?" she asked her.

"What's that mean?" Tya asked.

"Your parents, love, your father and mother, would you like to be our daughter?" Paul said.

Tya stared at him for a moment and then smiled as she nodded. Bill grinned as Jane and Paul gave her both hugs. Suddenly, there was another loud boom and everyone gasped as the impact made them fall sideways to the floor. Then a few seconds after it, they felt the ship began to descend rapidly. All of them looked at each other in fear when they felt how fast the ship was heading towards the ground.

"Oh bugger," Paul said, "everyone brace yourselves. I think we're gonna crash!"

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