THE CULT OF THE DOCTOR
Chapter Fifteen (Meanwhile in the other universe…) The Doctor cursed as he barreled into his TARDIS with Clara in his arms. Clara had suggested a nice little picnic to cheer him up and get his mind off Gallifrey and then next thing they know, Clara was kidnapped by mole people who wanted to enslave her and use her to dig tunnels. He managed to fight his way through a dozen brainwashed slaves before finding his nemesis, a seven foot mole, part of an intelligent race of moles who had harnessed technology. They had strapped Clara to a table and forced her eyes open so they could use a laser to partly blind her and make her eyes sensitive to sunlight. The machine had started before the Doctor could defeat the mole, render him unconscious and save her and Clara's agonized screams tore at his heart. She'd mercifully passed out after he stopped the machine but the Doctor still had to unstrap her and make his way back to the surface before the mole woke up and alerted the slaves to his presence. He wanted to go back and free the slaves but first he had to make sure his friend was alright. "If you've permanently blinded Clara, you bloody mole, I'll gouge your eyes out and sell you to a freak show," the Doctor muttered under his breath as he raced into the med bay with Clara in his arms. He laid her down on the examination table and gently pried her left lid open with his fingers. He gazed down at her but he couldn't see any obvious damage to her eye. He let go of the lid and quickly worked to force her eyes open and let the TARDIS scan and repair any damage to them. He breathed a sigh of relief when the laser scanner was finally on and scanning her eyes, repairing the damage that the mole had done to her. Before he left, he injected a sedative into her arm so she wouldn't wake up before the TARDIS was finished healing her. Once that was done; he walked to the kitchen to make himself a cup of tea and catch his breath. He fully intended to go back and take care of Mister Mole but he needed his rest and he needed to be sure Clara was safe. So it came as a shock to him when his TARDIS suddenly powered up and began to leave. "WAIT, WAIT! I'M NOT FINISHED YET!" the Doctor said as he turned around and ran towards the console room. "I NEED TO RESCUE THE OTHER SLAVES. YOU CAN'T LEAVE YET! TURN AROUND AND GO BACK THIS INSTANT! I'M COMMANDING YOU TO TURN AROUND!" But even as he said it, he knew it was useless. His ship was wonderful but she was also stubborn and had a mind of her own and if she decided to leave, 99 percent of the time there was no stopping her. He bolted into the console room, trying to see where she was headed. That's when the TARDIS suddenly shook so violently that the Doctor was thrown off his feet and landed on his stomach on the floor. He tried to get to his feet but the ship was vibrating so violently that he felt like his teeth were going to be shaken out of his head. "W…WHERE…ARE YOU GO…GOING?" he managed to get out as his body vibrated with the rest of the room. Then suddenly, the ship stopped vibrating and calm was restored. The Doctor got to his feet and staggered over to the console. Before he could see where the TARDIS was taken them, she landed and powered down. The room dimmed and everything fell silent. The Doctor could finally hear his own breathing and could think properly. "Okay, so where are we then?" he asked his ship. In response, the front doors opened and the Doctor heard the soft crashing of waves on the shore. He walked over to the door and looked out. He saw an ocean, sand, rocks and a high cliff outside his door. He stepped outside and looked around, confused. "Okay, why did we come here?" he muttered to himself as he looked around. He got a sense that his surroundings looked very familiar and then he realized why. "We're in Bad Wolf Bay," he turned and said to his ship. "That vibration, you went across the void. But why did you come here?" He went back inside and repeated the question. In response, the lights dimmed even further and a 3D hologram of Gallifrey appeared in front of him. The Doctor stared at it for a moment before he got it. "Wait? You're saying Gallifrey is here? This is Pete's World, isn't it? You're saying we sent Gallifrey to Pete's World?" The TARDIS rumbled an affirmative. "But…we were supposed to send it to a pocket universe outside of reality…for safe keeping," the Doctor said. "You're saying our calculations were off?" Another affirmative grunt. "But this is Pete's World, correct?" Another grunt. "Rose," the Doctor said softly as he thought of her standing there on the beach, wind blowing her hair as she told him she loved him. He quickly brought himself back to reality and when he did, he suddenly had a sense that something was wrong, that the timeline had been tampered with. He could sense time was changing and now he understood why his ship had brought him here. "Do you have enough power to take me to Rose, old girl?" he said. "If the timeline is being altered, I need all the help I can get." The Doctor sensed that the TARDIS had been drained by the crossing and she wasn't going to last long but he heard her powering up and the door shut behind the Doctor as the rotor began to go up and down and the wheezing began. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (Meanwhile at Torchwood…) Rose and Robert watched while the Doctor examined the Transmat Signature Locator, essentially a square, black, metal box with buttons, a dial and a tiny monitor on top. He examined it from all sides before nodding. "I think this'll do," he said to them. "If not, we can always come back and try again." "Come back?" Robert said. "I need to go back to Bad Wolf Bay and run the scan there," the Doctor said. "You wouldn't happen to have a teleport…" He trailed off and Rose's eyes bulged when they heard a very familiar wheezing sound off to the right. They turned and the Doctor and Rose watched with disbelief while the TARDIS slowly materialized in front of them. "It came back," Rose said in amazement when the TARDIS stopped and powered down. She started to walk toward it when the Doctor caught her arm. "No, wait, this isn't my TARDIS. This one has a St. John's Ambulance badge on the door. I haven't had that badge on my door for centuries. Rose, stay back." "What's wrong? This is the TARDIS, yeah?" Rose said. "Yes, but it's not MY TARDIS. We're being visited by another version of me." He noticed the wide eyes and hopeful look of his companion and shook his head. "And I seriously doubt it's my ninth self," he said, reading her mind, "he didn't have a badge on his door either. It's most likely my first self, though why he's here…" He shut up when the door opened and he frowned when a young man with floppy hair peered out at him. "Okay, I have absolutely no idea who that is," he said as the man stepped out and shut the door behind him. The man turned and Ten stared at him for a moment, wondering if this was a companion. Then the man reached into his purple coat and brought out his screwdriver. The Doctor's eyes bulged when he realized the youngster was himself. Eleven put the screwdriver back inside his coat and walked over to him and Rose. "Hello again," he said to them. "It's good to see you, Rose, and I'm glad you're still with my clone." "I'm not the clone," Ten said. "I'm the original. The clone and Jackie have been kidnapped by someone and Donna and the TARDIS are missing. We're trying to find them." "So it's true, time is changing," Eleven said grimly. "My TARDIS sensed it. I suspect that's part of the reason why she brought me here." "What's the other part then?" Ten said. "I've been looking for Gallifrey and I found it. It's here…in this universe."
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