IT WAS 20,000 YEARS AGO TODAY

Chapter Forty Eight

The Doctor opened the door and gasped when Lila ran up and nearly knocked him over in her haste to get to John Smith. He gave his brother a bemused look when she gave him another kiss.

"I'm glad you're safe," she said.

Everyone behind him giggled while he turned a deep shade of crimson. The Doctor hurried over to the console. Pepa looked at him.

"Is it safe to fire on them now?" he asked him.

"Not quite. I need to give them one last warning before you open fire on the compound. I want to give them a chance."

"Chance to do what? Escape?"

"Not exactly, although that's what I want them to think," the Doctor said. "I'm gonna be in my TARDIS issuing the warning and I'll let you know when it's okay to fire on the main building."

Pepa nodded and the Doctor hurried back to the TARDIS. Everyone made room for him to enter and then followed behind him as he mounted the steps to his console. He walked over to his monitor and plugged a microphone into a hole near it. Everyone watched while he typed in a few commands and then he tapped the microphone with his finger a couple of times before he brought it to his lips.

"This is the Doctor," he said into it. "Attention Mex and all your little cronies. We have managed to escape your compound and we're about to blast it into rubble. However, in the interest of being fair, I will offer you and your mates a chance to surrender before that happens. If you wish to surrender yourselves, broadcast your surrender message to me and I will bring you on board my TARDIS with the promise that you will not be harmed. Ignore this message at your own peril. I give you fifteen minutes to give me your answer before we start the bombardment. Make your decision wisely, Diablons."

He finished up by giving him the frequency of the TARDIS's monitor, unplugged the microphone and stepped back to wait with the others.

"You really think they're gonna surrender?" Jack said to him.

"No, but like I said, I like to be fair and give people a chance," the Doctor said. "I'd rather just have them come on board and have done with it rather than just bomb them into submission."

The monitor flickered for a moment and then they saw Mex's angry face on the monitor.

"So, are you going to surrender?" the Doctor said.

"No Diablon will never submit to a Time Lord!" Mex roared at him. "I only used this frequency to tell you that you're days are numbered and you're the one who's about to be bombed into little ashes."

"So am I to understand that it will be self defense when we begin to bomb you and your people?" the Doctor said.

"You will not escape us! We will destroy you all!" Mex said.

"Paul, go and tell Pepa to open fire on the main building," the Doctor said to him.

Paul saluted with two fingers and ran to the stairs.

"You can't do this! You claim to be better than us and yet here you are killing people."

"I claim no such thing," the Doctor said. "I am the Oncoming Storm and in about two minutes you'll know why people call me that! Now if I were you, I'd get to your ships because your buildings are about to come down around your ears. Bye bye now!"

"You'll regret…"

Mex was cut off when the Doctor cut off the connection. They heard a loud boom and all of them followed the Doctor as he went down the stairs.

"TARDIS, monitor any ships trying to take off and take action if you find them," he said to his ship as he headed for the front door. "I want the captured and disabled."

The TARDIS grunted in reply and they went out the door. They walked up to the front and watched while Pepa blasted the main building with missles, making huge holes in the top and sides of it. While they watched, the Doctor scanned the horizon. He grinned when he saw a small silver ship suddenly rise up from behind the building. A few seconds later, he heard his ship wheezing and then they watched a moment later as the ship disappeared into the TARDIS in mid air. Once the ship was completely absorbed by the time ship, the TARDIS dematerialized and a few seconds later, they heard the wheezing again behind them.

"Hope that was Mex," the Doctor said to them.

"What will you do with them?" Mickey asked.

"Oh…take them somewhere nice and secure. A nice prison planet. I'll be merciful and let the survivors live. I already accused one man of genocide so it would be hypocritical of me to do the same," he said, putting his arm around Jeremy's shoulders. "But wherever they go, they will have a long time to sit and think about what happens when you cross a Time Lord."

They witnessed another ship rising into the air while Pepa continued to fire on the buildings. Once again, the TARDIS intercepted it, absorbed it and came back to the ship.

"I love my ship," the Doctor said with a happy sigh. "Hopefully this means the end of the Illuminati or at least they'll be weakened enough that no one will be threatened with death or mind control if they don't do their bidding. The Beatles can go back home, if they want to and this time I'm betting you'll have a long and happy career."

"What about us then?" John said. "I don't think there's any way we can go back to our universe and our Paul is still dead."

The Doctor considered that for a moment and then he had an idea.

"Bill, come with me before I forget. I wanna give you some medicine that will dissolve the genetic marker in your body and I want to ask my TARDIS to do something."

"But what if another ship comes up while we're in there?" Bill said, pointing back to the time ship.

"Don't worry; she won't let the captured ship land on top of us. I just want to make sure that marker is out of your body. Come with me."

The Doctor and Bill hurried back to the ship.

"I don't know if this'll work so I didn't want to say this in front of John, George and Ringo but after I'm through putting the antidote into your body, I'm going to ask the TARDIS to tap into Pepa's ship and use his interdimensional scanners to see if he can locate a universe where everyone died except for Paul. That way I can pair them off with this alternate universe Paul and make the band whole again."

"I hope you can do that," Bill said as they walked back to the med bay.

"So can I. They need a Paul and our Paul can't do it. He has his own set of Beatles," the Doctor said. "I don't want them to be devastated if we have to leave them and Paul leaves them behind. Especially John since he witnessed his Paul's death. I don't want him or anyone else to slip back into despair and drug use. There are millions upon millions of universes out there, there's got to be one where only Paul survived or at the very least, I could find someone like you who will fill in but not be a tyrant like their William was. Just as long as they can keep their band going, that's all I'm concerned about."

They entered the med bay. The Doctor had Bill sit on the examination table while he went over to a cabinet on the right side of the room. While he was preparing a milky liquid and putting it in a syringe, they heard the TARDIS wheezing.

"That's three…we're gonna be quite full," the Doctor said aloud as he filled the syringe.

"Where is she putting them?" Bill asked.

"Not sure. But it's somewhere where they can't escape, I know that much," the Doctor said. "When I'm ready for them, she'll show me where they are."

He turned and walked over to Bill. He rolled up his sleeve and the Doctor injected the serum into his arm.

"There we are, in a few hours, you should be completely free of the genetic marker which means you'll be a free man at last."

"Thank God," Bill said.

The Doctor patted him on the shoulder before he went to dispose of the syringe. Bill hopped up and followed him back to the console room. The Doctor asked the TARDIS to search the alternate universes for another Paul while he typed in some commands into the computer. Once that was finished, he opened the door and peeked out. He noticed they were still inside the ship so he and Bill came outside.

"So no more marker thing?" Jane asked.

"Yup, in a couple of hours that genetic marker will be completely erased from his body," he said while Jane hugged Bill. "How we doin' out here? I heard we got another one."

"Yup," Jack said. "Captured a third. And we pretty much reduced the main building to rubble and we're working on the outlying buildings now. I think they got the message now to mess with you now."

"Good, I hope so," the Doctor said. "Hold fire though, I wanna broadcast another message to ram home the point. We can't stay here all day and do this, it'll take too long. I have a feeling we have their supreme leader, that'll at least slow them down for awhile."

Pepa stopped firing and waited while the Doctor ran back into his ship. He plugged the microphone back in.

"This is the Doctor," he said. "We have just fired on your city. Those of you who are left, consider this your warning. If you try to attack Earth or any other planet besides your own, I will find out about it and next time I will turn your planet into a flaming fireball. If you don't believe me, then I dare you to invade Earth again and then we'll find out how long your planet lasts after that. Consider this your first and only warning, Diablons, because believe me, I will make what my ancestors did to your kind look like nothing!"

He unplugged the microphone and walked back to Pepa's console.

"Okay, I think we've taught them a lesson, let's return the humans to Pepperland," he said to his friend.

"With pleasure," Pepa replied as he flew the ship away from the planet's surface.

When they were back on top of the pyramid, the Doctor and the others forced Nanth and his friends into the ship. Keeping them inside the force field bubbles, they walked them back to the holding cells and put them inside. Everyone ignored their curses and threats and walked away with the aliens still screaming out threats of revenge. The next thing he did was gather up all the humans except for Lila who wanted to stay with John Smith and get them back down into the pyramid. Pepa led them back down while the Doctor checked his console. He grinned when he noticed the TARDIS had a couple of matches in his search for a lone Paul McCartney. He called everyone together and told them about his idea. John, George and Ringo looked at each other.

"So, what do you think? You need a Paul and we have several Pauls in other universes that needs the Beatles. Think you could adopt another Paul into your band?"

"I don't think that would be a problem," John said.

"Yeah, let's go help out one of these poor Paulies," Ringo said.

"Very well, we'll use Pepa's ship and go find one of these lonely Pauls," the Doctor said. "Now as for the rest of you, I'm assuming most of you are going back home except for Paul, Jane, Bill, Michelle…Rose and Jeremy, you stayin'?"

"I'd like to if you don't mind," Rose said.

"Same here," Jeremy replied.

The Doctor looked at John Smith.

"If you'd like, I could take you back with the Beatles and give you a chunk of TARDIS. I'm sure whichever universe they land up in could use a defender."

"I'd like that," John Smith said.

"Does that mean you'll come and visit us then?" George asked.

"If you like," John Smith replied.

"Can I come with you?"

Everyone giggled when Lila asked John Smith that and he grinned and nodded as he took her hand.

"I think I could use a companion," he said.

"Brilliant. First things first though, let's go drop off the Diablons and take William to a safe and secure mental institution for treatment. After that, we'll find one of these lone Pauls and give him the surprise of his life."

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