THE CULT OF THE DOCTOR
Chapter Sixteen Rose ran to steady the Doctor who had stumbled back in shock from the revelation. He steadied himself and gently waved her away. Rose stepped back and watched while the Tenth Doctor moved closer to his other self. "You're sure of this?" Ten said to Eleven. "I asked the TARDIS and she said yes," Eleven said. The Doctor considered that while Eleven watched him. He caught Rose's eye and winked at her. Rose blushed and smiled as she looked away. "That confirms our suspicions then," Ten said to Rose. What suspicions?" Eleven said. The Doctor looked around at Robert. "Is there someplace where we can sit and discuss this?" he said to him. Robert nodded and motioned for everyone to follow him. Eleven shut the TARDIS door and followed them. Robert led them back to the lift and they went back down to ground level where he showed them where the cafeteria was. He went to get everyone some tea while the others sat down at a long white table. For the next hour, the Doctor and Rose explained what had occurred in the past few days while they sipped their tea. When they finished bringing him up to speed, Eleven sat for a moment taking it all in before he briefly explained what happened to him. Another half hour passed before he was done and both Ten and Rose were intrigued by his story of meeting his future self and the War Doctor. When he was finished it Ten's turn to take in what he said. "So where is this Clara then?" he said, looking around. Eleven explained about Clara being injured and recovering in the med bay. He checked his watch. "Which reminds me, I should check on her so if you want to come with me…" Ten nodded. Everyone rose, threw away their Styrofoam cups of tea and went back up to the TARDIS. When they stepped inside it, Ten stopped quickly and jerked his head around, staring at the metallic interior. "Oh no, this is hideous," Ten said, making a face. Eleven rolled his eyes. "Yes, I know you hate it. Your future self already made that perfectly clear," he said while Rose chuckled. "I like it," Rose said, "Looks like a proper spaceship now." She patted Ten's shoulder when he shot her a dirty look and kissed his cheek. Eleven beckoned to everyone and he led them back to the med bay. When they entered, the Doctor walked over to Clara, who was still unconscious, and began examining the scanners. Eleven and Rose walked up beside him but Robert held back, still in awe of his surroundings. "Seems to be stable," Ten said to Eleven while Rose watched Clara. "No permanent injury to her eyes." "Good thing too," Eleven said. "I would have ripped that mole's head off if there had been." Ten nodded. He turned his attention toward the others. "So…what are your thoughts about our course of action now?" he said to him. "Well…if someone seems to know all about you, my thought is our mysterious friend is from Gallifrey. Perhaps he has access to the Matrix?" "What is the Matrix?" Rose said while Robert walked over to her side. "It stores all the memories and knowledge of Time Lords, living and dead," Ten said. "Only certain individuals have access to it but our friend could be one of those someones." "But why would he do this?" Rose said. "What would be the purpose of making the Doctor into a cult leader?" "Maybe this was one way of trying to attract attention in the hopes that you were somewhere in the vicinity," Eleven said. "We told them they were going to be frozen in time and put in a parallel pocket universe. Obviously, the freezing in time didn't work so maybe they're assuming the sending them to another universe didn't work either. They know we love Earth so perhaps this was their way of making a big enough kerfuffle that you would take notice. Except…it must have been meant for me since you're a younger version of the one that was with me. Although…why would they use you instead of me when they were promoting us as a god figure?" "Maybe they learned about John. John is his clone and maybe they thought he was the current Doctor," Rose offered. Eleven nodded. "If they can still move, they might have sent scouts to Earth to try to find me or at least some mention of me," Ten said. "Torchwood has records of my time here, yeah?" he said to Rose. Rose and Robert nodded. "You've never been here before," Ten said to Eleven. "Only me. So if someone was looking for proof I was here, they probably broke into Torchwood's archives and found my file. If this theory is correct." "So how do we prove this theory then?" Robert asked. Eleven and Ten glanced at one another. They stared at each other intensely and Rose got the sense that they were communicating telepathically. She envied that ability. Her suspicions were confirmed when both men nodded. "We have a plan," Eleven said to everyone. "But first…" He shut up when everyone heard a low groan. They turned around and noticed Clara was starting to wake up. Eleven took her hand, urging her to wake up while everyone watched. She finally came to enough to see what was going on around her and she stared for a moment at Ten. "I thought you left," she said to him. "That's not him, that's a past version of my past self," Eleven said. "And this is Rose Tyler and this is Robert." "And I'm Clara and I'm totally confused," Clara said. Eleven helped her sit up and steadied her while Clara got her bearings. He and Ten helped her to stand and everyone watched while the two men walked with her until she was steady enough to walk on her own. When she was strong enough, Eleven led everyone to the TARDIS kitchen so they could reveal their plan to the others.
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