Category: Series 2

Categories
Doctor Who: Crossings Series 2

Temporal Trifecta: Part 4

Miss Tarae and Ganondorf were in the throne room, discussing plans. “…So…” said Miss Tarae. “…About the inherent power struggle over the Key…”

“I was wondering how to broach that topic,” replied Ganondorf. “We obviously have our own designs, but I have armies at my command. How could YOU wrest the Key from me?”

“Now, now,” chided Miss Tarae. “Let’s not go into spoilers. For now, let’s see how our guests are doing.” She fired up several monitors. “All right, Doctor, let’s see if you’re more coopera…Doctor?”

“…Why did you trail off?” asked Ganondorf suspiciously.

“Where are they?” quizzed Miss Tarae. She started checking more monitors. “Doctor, who took you out of your cell?” She then spotted the Doctor and her friends racing down the corridor with the last segment in their hands. “DOCTOOOORRR!” screamed Miss Tarae. Ganondorf turned to his forces.

“Which of you idiots let Link in?!” he demanded.

“B-But, he solved the gate puzzle!” whimpered the Bokoblin. “He HAS to be an ally to you!”

“FOOLS! THOSE PUZZLES ARE WHAT ALLOW LINK TO ADAPT ON THE BATTLEFIELD! AND HE’S A BLONDE WEARING A GREEN TUNIC! HIS APPEARANCE HASN’T CHANGED!”

“Stop them, you IDIOTS!” shouted Miss Tarae. “Do NOT let them reach the blue box!”

“WHO’S THE ASS WHO SOUNDED THE ALARM?!” yelped William as he dodged a Bokoblin’s flaming spear.

“Miss Tarae set up security cameras along the walls,” replied Rassilon as she overturned a table and shoved it into a Moblin. “See those green things on the walls?”

“At this stage in Hyrule’s development?!” protested the Doctor.

“Oh, lovely!” complained Link. “Ganondorf’s discovered that technology! Must have had help from a Yiga Clan spy in Purah’s workforce!”

“…You…know what-?” Amy’s question stopped when she saw something blue and familiar! “THE TARDIS! OVER THERE!”

“QUICKLY! INSIDE!” ordered the Doctor as she got the TARDIS key out of her pocket.

“We can’t all fit in that tiny-!” The Doctor opened the door and pulled Link inside. Link goggled when he saw the interior. “…Box?” he finished. “…Is this…? I mean, are we-?!”

“Time and Relative Dimensions in Space,” said the Doctor. “The TARDIS! Designed by Rassilon over there!”

“Well, I had help,” replied Rassilon.

“…It’s like a Zonai Shrine!” said Link.

“…Sorry?” asked the Doctor.

“Yeah! The Zonai made shrines that took you into another dimension!” explained Link. “Is this another-?!”

“You mean the Zonai engineered dimensions too?!” complained Rassilon. The TARDIS then shook.

“What’s going on?!” yelped Link. William checked the scanner.

“Hoo boy!” he said. “We’ve got uglies outside with Ganondorf firing purple fireballs!”

“Don’t panic, the TARDIS is virtually indestructible!” replied the Doctor.

“‘Virtually’ being the active word here!” said Rassilon. The Time Rotor then moved.

“And that would be the HADS kicking in,” sighed the Doctor.

“HADS?” asked Amy.

“Hostile Action Displacement System,” explained Rassilon. “If a TARDIS is facing enough force that can destroy it, it will simply move to a relatively safer location with all defenses switched on.” The Doctor checked the console.

“And the safer location,” she reported, “happens to be on the Inner Wall of Hyrule Castle. William, the segments we have, please?”

“Got it!” William went to a nearby room and retrieved the segments. Once William returned, Link pulled out the segment that was Zelda.

“All right, we need to assemble all six segments and stick the tracer into the completed Key,” instructed the Doctor.

“Leave that to me,” said Link.

“Seriously, do leave it to him, Doctor,” suggested Rassilon. “He’s good at puzzles.”

“…All right, Link. It’s your show.” Link nodded and quickly assembled the segments into a perfect crystal cube with the tracer sticking out of the top.

“Done and done!” he said.

“Good work, Link!” praised Amy.

“Excellent!” sighed Rassilon. “Time to get this to the Black Guardian?”

“…Why the Black Guardian?” asked the Doctor.

“…That’s who assigned me this quest, remember?” replied Rassilon.

“But we have the Key to Time,” remarked the Doctor. “We have the power to do anything we like. …Absolute power over every particle in the universe…everything that has ever existed or ever will exist.” Now her friends were getting worried.

“Doctor…” said William.

“As of this moment…are you listening to me?” continued the Doctor.

“Y-Yes,” said a terrified Amy. The Doctor then suddenly grabbed the hedgehog girl by the shoulders, a crazed look in her eyes!

“Of course, if you’re not listening, I can make you listen!” hissed the Doctor. “I can make anyone do anything!” Her eyes were rolling into the back of her head with the pleasure of power at her fingertips! “From this moment onwards, there’s no such thing as free will in the entire universe! There’s only MY will…because I possess the KEY TO TIME!” During the Doctor’s rant, Link reached for his sword as Rassilon opened a drawer in the console, reaching for a mallet.

“Doctor, you’re spouting the same nonsense Miss Tarae would speak if she got ahold of it!” warned Rassilon. “The same nonsense I spouted during the Time War!”

“Well, I had to,” replied the Doctor, her demeanor changing at the speed of light! “Imagine if I really WAS that power-hungry, or if you still were.” Everyone’s mood went from concern to annoyance. Rassilon smacked the Doctor upside the head with enough force to knock her hat off!

“Don’t scare us like that!” protested William. “Most of us have only one heart here! We can’t afford a heart attack like you and Rassilon can!”

“So, the real plan?” asked Link.

“We have to use this Key to restore the balance ourselves,” replied the Doctor. “Can you imagine what would happen if the Black Guardian got ahold of it?”

“Not really, but nothing good can come of that,” remarked William. Amy then saw something on the scanner.

“…Doctor, there’s a blonde lady in black Time Lord robes outside the TARDIS,” she said. Rassilon froze in fear!

“The Black Guardian!” she whispered. “She’s here!” The Doctor headed to the scanner and flicked a switch.

“Well, well, well!” she said. “It’s been a long time since we last met. When was it, when you had a bird on your head and tried to have Turlough kill me?”

“Enough with the pleasantries, Doctor!” hissed the Black Guardian. “I know you helped my slave gather the Key to Time for me! Lower the TARDIS’ defenses and give me the Key or I shall pick it out of the wreckage!”

“You really intend to restore balance, then?” asked the Doctor.

“Naturally! Entropy must accelerate according to MY whims! Not the whims of ants like those humans you seem to have an affinity for!”

“And the segments of the Key?”

“I will have no further use of the Key! It will be dispersed and scattered across time and space!”

“And the items and people?”

“Yes, yes, they shall be restored! Now surrender the Key!”

“…One second,” replied the Doctor. “I must test it.” The Doctor turned to the Key. “Key to Time, I command you…to stay where you are while I let her in!”

“WHAT?!” yelped everyone. Rassilon saw what the Doctor was doing.

“Doctor, you’re lowering the TARDIS’ defenses!” she protested.

“Are you really rolling out the carpet for someone that’s supposed to be evil incarnate?!” yelped Amy.

“Why, Miss Rose, Rassilon, you two are color-blind!” chuckled the Doctor. “Unable to tell the difference between black…and white!” The Doctor snapped her fingers and the TARDIS doors opened. A bright light then flooded the console room from outside.

“MY EYES!” cried Link.

“WHO REMADE THE FIZZGIG?!” shouted William. The woman then stepped into the TARDIS…and her robes went from jet-black to sheet white while her skin and hair’s melanin increased to give her African features.

“My congratulations for seeing through my little deception, Doctor,” said the woman kindly. “It turns out you’re still able to tell the difference between me and my black sister.”

“W-Wait a minute,” said William. “What’s going on?”

“The REAL Black Guardian wouldn’t care about Zelda’s life or getting rid of the Key when she was done with it,” explained the Doctor. “Nor would she care about the balance of the universe. She’d hold onto the Key and accelerate the stagnation of order to make way for perpetual chaos.”

“Then, it WASN’T the Black Guardian that put me on this quest?” asked Rassilon.

“No, Rassilon,” replied the White Guardian. “It was me disguised as my sister.”

“…Why me?” asked Rassilon.

“Because you have a long labor to perform,” explained the White Guardian. “But I needed to make sure you were humble enough to do it. That’s why I gave you a quest that required the Doctor’s help. You needed to learn from her how not to be a power-mad dictator like you were during the Time War.”

“A labor?” asked Rassilon. “What’s that?”

“With Tecteun gone, your planet can be restored.” The Doctor and Rassilon’s eyes widened.

“…Restored?” whispered the Doctor. “The Time Lords? …B-But they-!”

“Miss Tarae didn’t purge the Matrix of previous Time Lords,” realized Rassilon. “…Connect the Matrix to the Looms again…”

“…Gallifrey can be restored!” A happy tear rolled down the Doctor’s cheek. She looked at the White Guardian. “It’s your show right now, Ma’am,” she said.

“Key to Time,” said the White Guardian, “I command you to stop the universe for a bit, reset the balance between order and chaos, then disperse yourself to six new corners of time and space, restoring that which your segments once were.” The Key floated into the air, everything then stopped, then the Key exploded into its six segments, vanishing into time and space. Once that was done, Zelda faded into the console room. Link gasped.

“Z-Zelda!” he whispered.

“I told you I’d be back, Link,” replied Zelda. The two Hylians then kissed as the White Guardian faded away.

“…I won’t lose you again!” promised Link.

“…I think I’d better take some self-defense classes, then,” mused Zelda. “…Until then…perhaps that cute Gerudo outfit could grace my chambers?” Link grinned.

“As you wish, your Highness,” he replied.

“Oh, good grief!” complained the Doctor. “And I thought the Ponds got freaky in their bedroom.”

“Link, Zelda,” called Amy, “you sure you don’t want one trip?”

“Oi! My TARDIS!” protested the Doctor.

“…No thank you,” said Link.

“I think we’ll stick to present-day Hyrule,” said Zelda. “Goodbye, Doctor. And thank you.” The two Hylians left.

“…Well, Rassilon,” mused the Doctor, “going to take up your position as President of the Time Lords again?”

“…Not this time. Gallifrey will someone more free-thinking,” said Rassilon. “I’m going to retire from public life. Time for the Madness of Rassilon to be consigned to our planet’s history, as it should, with every act discussed in the Academy.”

“Then there’s one more stop on this trip,” declared the Doctor. “You don’t mind if I bring Amy and William along, do you?”

“Does this mean my exile is lifted, Doctor?”

“I think you’ve learned your lesson, Rassilon.”

“…Dr. William Davies, Miss Amy Rose, you two are cordially invited to come to Gallifrey, such as it is right now,” said Rassilon.

On a distant world, far off the edge of time and space where only time-travel capable people could access, the ruins of a citadel stood. The main citadel was suspended over a pit with a broken glass dome while buildings lined the edge of the pit. There was no noise except the wind. …Right up until the TARDIS announced its arrival in the usual manner. Once it fully materialized, everyone stepped out. Amy and William, still taking into account that this was after a massive war and Miss Tarae’s machinations, gasped in surprise and wonder. “So…this is…” whispered William.

“Gallifrey,” replied the Doctor. “Specifically, the Citadel of the Time Lords in between the mountains of solace and solitude on the continent of Wild Endeavor.”

“It was here that I founded Time Lord Society,” said Rassilon, “here that Gallifrey had its final battle with the Daleks, here that Miss Tarae destroyed what was initially rebuilt…and it is here I shall restore the Time Lords and pass on the lessons you taught me, Doctor. I swear, this won’t be the stuffy Gallifrey you and your granddaughter ran away from. It shall be as fluid as Earth.”

“…I’m going to hold you to that, Rassilon,” chuckled the Doctor.

“…I guess this was it, huh?” asked Amy. “The Doctor once said Gallifrey was off-limits to non-Time Lords.”

“…Tell you what, any non-Time Lords that are friends of Time Lords can come see it,” decided Rassilon. “You’ll see Gallifrey restored to a new glory, one that isn’t so stuffy!”

“You call if you need help, all right?” said the Doctor. “Video or telepathic makes no difference. …Goodbye, Rassilon. And good luck.”

“It was nice seeing you, Rassilon,” said Amy, “even with the rough start.”

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but thanks for roping us into that quest,” chuckled William. The trio then reentered the TARDIS and it took off.

“…Goodbye, everyone,” said Rassilon. “…Right. Better get to work.”

The Doctor fiddled with the console controls as the Time Rotor moved up and down as usual. “So,” she said, “where to next? The Eye of Orion? The Moons of Kaska VII? Ooh! Raxacoricofallapatorius! You’d love that!”

“…I was thinking…Earth,” said William. “June. 2025. Outside Avengers’ Tower.” The Doctor’s hand stopped.

“…Why?” she asked, though she guessed the answer and so did Amy.

“William, are you…?” asked Amy.

“It’s time for me to leave,” explained William. “I need to help guide Earth to the future of the 30th century, hell, to the point where we have a colony that produces YOU, Amy.”

“…I…I see,” muttered the Doctor.

“I won’t tell anyone about the future,” promised William, “but I can at least guide them to it, help Earth with the growing pains.” The Doctor stepped to William…then brought him into a hug.

“…It’s been great travelling with you, William,” she said. “I’m so glad you could join me, even after that mess with Dr. Doom and Loki.”

“…You’re not gonna forget us, are you?” asked Amy, her eyes welling with tears as she joined in the hug.

“Not in a million years,” promised William. “As long as you guys don’t forget me.”

“Never,” promised the Doctor.

Clint Barton and Natasha Romanov were in the Avengers’ training room, working on their usual skills. As they trained, a noise they heard five months ago filled the air. “Is that the-?” asked Natasha. The TARDIS then appeared just as an arrow flew through the air. The arrow embedded itself into the door!

“Computer, cut training!” called Clint. The room switched off as the TARDIS door opened, revealing a very annoyed Doctor and William.

“First Lady Peinforte, then Queen Elizabeth I’s guards, now YOU, Hawkeye?! Is there a bullseye on the door?!” snapped the Doctor.

“Looks like your coordinates slipped a little, Doctor,” remarked William.

“Is there trouble again?” asked Natasha.

“Nope, just coming home after a fun ride with the Doctor,” replied William. He turned back to the Doctor as she removed the arrow from her door. “See you later, Doctor! And do let me know if and when you regenerate, okay?”

“Will do, William!” replied the Doctor. “And make your life the best one!” She returned to the TARDIS and it took off again.

“…Still missed my chance,” muttered Hawkeye.

“Maybe later,” chuckled Natasha. “So, Dr. Davies, what sights did you see?”

“Hoo boy, do I have stories!” cackled William.

Inside the TARDIS, Amy sat in one of the chairs as the Doctor worked the console. “He’ll keep his promises of not revealing the future,” remarked the Doctor. “I might check on him from time to time.”

“…You’re sure?” asked Amy. “I couldn’t imagine keeping track of all my friends if I lived as long as you. I’m sure to forget.”

“…I can’t forget my companions, Amy. …I won’t.” The Doctor sat down next to her.

“Doctor, can you even remember your family? And I mean the one that made you into what you are, not Rassilon’s old friend.”

“Oh, I remember both when I want to. And that’s the point, really. I have to really want to, to bring them back in front of my eyes. The rest of the time they sleep in my mind, and I forget. And so will you. Oh yes, you will. You’ll find there’s so much else to think about. So, remember, our lives are different to anybody else’s. That’s the exciting thing. There’s nobody in the universe that can do what we’re doing. …Now, come on. Where shall we go?”

“…How about…one of the worlds out there where the sky is burning, and the sea’s asleep, and the rivers dream; people made of smoke and cities made of song. Somewhere there’s danger, somewhere there’s injustice.”

“And somewhere else the tea’s getting cold!” finished the Doctor as both she and Amy stood up, grinning.

“Come on, Doctor! We’ve got work to do!” declared Amy. The Doctor fiddled with the controls once again, letting Amy pull a few levers and press a few buttons. Deep in the heart of the TARDIS, the old time machine chuckled to itself, happy that its pilot was happy.

Categories
Doctor Who: Crossings Series 2

Temporal Trifecta: Part 3

Southwest of Central Hyrule, there was a plateau, the Great Plateau, the location of the Shrine of Resurrection where Link slept for a full century, losing a good portion of his memory in the process. The shrine travel gate was reactivated and three figures of blue light appeared. The blue light then faded into Link, Rassilon, and William. “…The Sheikah Tribe’s ancestors made teleporters?!” asked William.

“Technically, the Zonai did, but the Sheikah made better ones,” explained Link. He then looked at his right arm. “Sorry, Rauru.”

“So why are we here?” asked Rassilon. “We have to find a way into Ganondorf’s castle and rescue Zelda.”

“Rassilon, we have the tracer and…well…we ARE on a quest,” sighed William.

“And as to why you’re here,” said Link, “it’s because there’s a discovery we made that might give us a clue.” Link led everyone out of the old Shrine and brought them to the base of a small mountain, Mount Hylia. Rassilon and William goggled once they saw a familiar structure.

“…Rassilon, isn’t that-?!” asked William.

“A bowship! …MY bowship!” confirmed Rassilon.

“Is this from after you sent it away from the TARDIS?” Rassilon checked her key fob.

“…Temporal origin confirmed. That IS from directly after I sent it away and roped you all into my quest for the Key to Time.”

“That’s impossible,” said Link. “The Sheikah say it’s been buried for 12,000 years, longer than the Imprisoning War.”

“And we’ve been searching for the Key for only weeks,” replied William. “Perspective is relative when you’re time-traveling.”

“And it looks like it was forced open recently,” remarked Rassilon. “And there’s only three that could do that.”

“But only one of those three was here early enough to do it,” deduced William. “So, the question becomes what did Miss Tarae learn?”

“Let’s check the flight logs,” replied Rassilon. “They’ll be the first thing she’ll look for. They wouldn’t have stopped recording until the ship landed here without a pilot.” The three entered the bowship. “This is a new development,” chuckled Rassilon. “To my knowledge, you two are the first non-Gallifreyans to enter a bowship.” She headed to the main computer and keyed in a few commands. A screen switched on and an old man appeared. He was bald, wore red and gold Time Lord robes without the skull cap, held a staff with an elaborate design on top and a silver gauntlet on his left hand.

“This is the Bowship of Rassilon!” barked the old man. “Intruders, you shall be executed for this!”

“Security Override Gamma,” replied Rassilon as she looked into an apparatus for scanning eyes. “Passcode: Omega, Tecteun, V, One, One, Seven. Execute retina scan.” The apparatus scanned her eyes.

“…Security Override confirmed,” reported the old man. “So, Rassilon, you regenerated from that Victorian woman. What’s this, Spanish Dancer? You’re letting the Doctor’s favorite planet influence you.”

“Oh, shut up, Rassilon,” scoffed Rassilon.

“Hang on, did you just call him Rassilon?!” asked William. “That’s one of your previous incarnations?!”

“That’s the current human that’s travelling with the Doctor, isn’t it?” asked the old man. “The one with the pink and black hedgehog girl that listened in to the briefing about our circumstances?”

“Yes, Rassilon, it is. And yes, William, that computer program’s avatar IS based off of one of my previous incarnations,” confirmed Rassilon.

“Incarnations?” asked Link.

“Time Lords stave off death by changing their bodies completely,” explained William. “A side effect includes a different personality. So, Rassilon, you Time Lords can change your sex?”

“Of course,” replied Rassilon. “If I may boast, we Gallifreyans were the most advanced civilization in the universe. Social constructs like gender were beneath us.”

“…Yet you were the founder of Time LORD society.”

“…Yeah, shut up,” grumbled Rassilon.

“A bit disrespectful, isn’t he?” remarked Old Man Rassilon.

“He’s earned that right,” replied Present Day Rassilon. “Now, did you get any intruders here before us?”

“The Master in a new female body, yes,” confirmed Old Man Rassilon. “She discovered our begging the Doctor for help and tracked the TARDIS’ flight path, sending a message about the Key to Time to various threats in those time zones.”

“So that’s how people like the Autons and the Weeping Angels knew!” realized William. “And she’s probably told Ganondorf!”

“All readings taken passively,” explained Old Man Rassilon, “indicated that the current monarch of this time, Zelda, is the last segment. Subsequent research of local history and legends confirm it.”

“Told you,” said Link. Present Day Rassilon sighed.

“That’s really all we needed to know,” she said. “Rassilon, get this bowship out of here. Hyrule’s had enough cultural contamination. Await this signal.” She keyed in the frequency. “That will let you know that my mission is complete and that I am ready to be picked up.”

“Understood, Madame President Eternal,” replied Old Man Rassilon. The ship then powered up.

“Come on, everyone, we need to leave,” called Present Day Rassilon. Everyone left, then the bowship rose into the air and left the atmosphere of the planet.

“…We could have used that to get to Ganondorf’s castle,” remarked William.

“That would have resulted in cultural contamination,” replied Rassilon.

“Oh, we don’t need that anyways,” said Link. “I’ve got a better flying machine in mind!”

“…You guys are making-?” muttered William. “You know what, later. Right now, we’re in a bit of a conundrum, what with Zelda being the last segment!”

“If the White Guardian gave me this mission, I wouldn’t be so worried,” said Rassilon. “Once finished, the Key would disperse, the items or people the segments once were would be restored, and the segments would find new forms. …But it was the Black Guardian instead.”

“You think the Black Guardian would try and keep the Key?” asked William.

“I know they will. …We need to get to Ganondorf’s castle to figure out what to do with the Doctor and Amy involved as well as Zelda.”

“And if Ganondorf or Miss Tarae get the tracer?”

“Well, we’d better hope the Doctor can fix it on the fly. Link, you said you had a means of making us a way to get there?”

“Watch this!” replied Link. He thrust his right hand out and several devices and panels appeared, creating a crude flying machine. “The Hyrule Sky King!” said Link proudly. “Hop on!”

“…There is no way this thing is aerodynamic enough!” replied William as he and Rassilon hopped on. Link then grabbed a control bar and the machine took off! He made it bob up and down, cackling all the while. Rassilon looked a little green in the gills. “Hey, quit waving bye-bye!” complained William. “I’m getting sea-sick here!”

“Oh, you’re as bad as Zelda! This is fun!” laughed Link as he continued flying the contraption.

The Doctor and Amy were brought to Zelda in her cell. The poor princess looked pensive. “Your Highness?” asked the Doctor.

“…I take it Miss Tarae and Ganondorf told you who or what I was?” sighed Zelda.

“Yeah, they did,” replied Amy. “…It’s…it’s put us in a pickle.”

“I really don’t want to do that with one of Amy’s friends, but I also don’t want the Black Guardian’s wrath. …What would be the wise thing to do?”

“…You’ll have to turn me into the last segment,” said Zelda. “I know my duty.”

“But if the Black Guardian uses the entire key-!”

“The balance will be restored.”

“But we’ll lose you! LINK will lose you!”

“…It’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make, Doctor.”

“If there’s no choice involved, then it isn’t really a sacrifice! Zelda, you’re not facing a choice! You’re facing an ultimatum! I can’t-!”

“Doctor!” snapped Zelda, shutting the Doctor up. “…My mind is made up. …Just…find some way to keep the Key to Time out of Miss Tarae and Ganondorf’s hands.”

“…As you wish,” sighed the Doctor.

Link’s flying machine attracted the attention of the guards outside Ganondorf’s castle. “…I thought he gave up that arm,” remarked a Bokoblin.

“Never mind that!” snapped a Lizalfos. “Fire!” The monsters fired arrows of various kinds at them. Link dodged them all and brought his passengers to a part of Ganondorf’s castle that wasn’t that great at security. “All right, let’s be careful,” warned Link as he drew his sword and shield. “I’d rather NOT have everyone here aware of our presence.”

“Link, you stick out like a sore thumb, what with that tunic and gear!” hissed William.

“Hold it!” called a Bokoblin’s voice. “Only Ganondorf’s allies can enter here! You look too stupid to be one of them!” The Bokoblin leveled a club at them.

“…How do we prove we’re smart enough to be your master’s allies?” asked Link, changing tack. The Bokoblin tossed Link a nine-by-nine-by-nine cube with various symbols on each side.

“Match all the glyphs with the glyphs in the center of each side,” instructed the Bokoblin. William and Rassilon realized what it was.

“Isn’t that a puzzle toy from Earth?” Rassilon asked William.

“A Rubik’s Cube, yes,” replied William. Link grinned and rotated each face of the cube until all the glyphs were the same on each side.

“Boom,” he said.

“…Huh, you ARE smart enough,” remarked the Bokoblin. “Sorry about that. Gotta watch out for that Hero of Hyrule, you know.” He opened the gate.

“Oh, we completely understand,” soothed Link as he led his team inside. The group then made their way to the dungeon and found the Doctor and her cellmates.

“Doctor!” hissed William.

“William! Get out of here!” replied the Doctor. “And take Rassilon with you! Zelda’s-!”

“She hasn’t accepted her fate, has she?!” whispered Rassilon.

“…You know?”

“I told them,” replied Link. “Zelda, is that true? You’re REALLY letting yourself be turned into the last segment?!”

“Link, please understand-!”

“What kind of plan involves giving Ganondorf what he wants?!” Zelda gestured for Link to come closer. Link obeyed and Zelda whispered something in his ear. Link goggled, then sighed. “…We’ll keep you out of Ganondorf’s hands,” promised Link. “You and the other segments.”

“Thank you,” said Zelda. “Now, my friends, your…tracer, please?” Rassilon sighed as she reluctantly pointed the tracer at Zelda. It crackled, then Zelda was surrounded by a bright light before becoming the last segment of the Key to Time.

Categories
Doctor Who: Crossings Series 2

Temporal Trifecta: Part 2

The heroes rushed to the main courtyard as Ganondorf and his forces engaged the Hylian soldiers and the delegates. Ganondorf was showing no mercy. “This is the best you can do, Zelda?!” he laughed. “I suppose, when you have Link, you’re lax in training your men!”

“Says the guy that uses weak uglies!” called Link as he pulled out what looked like a tablet.

“…This isn’t the time for Candy Crush!” protested the Doctor.

“I’m thinking…Magnet Pile,” replied Link. A holographic magnet then appeared and projected magnetic waves onto the broken metal door the enemy forces were standing on. He then raised the tablet and the door carried the Bokoblins up into the air. Link then maneuvered the door over Ganondorf, then twisted it so that the Bokoblins fell onto Ganondorf.

“ARGH! GET OFF ME!” roared the dark sorcerer as he used his power to create a shockwave that flung the Bokoblins off him. He then flew at Link in a rage! Link leapt out of the way, drawing his sword and shield and (at least for him) slowed down time long enough to score multiple sword strikes on Ganondorf. The ability then died down and Ganondorf blocked the next sword swing!

“Are we really doing this song and dance again?” taunted Link. “You know, for all your supposed mastery of the Triforce of Power, you never really win!”

“Mock me all you want, boy!” snarled Ganondorf. “Throughout every timeline, I always return! You cannot defeat me that easily!”

“Every timeline?” muttered the Doctor. Amy then came to her rescue by slamming her hammer into a Moblin’s skull! Rassilon then punched a Bokoblin’s throat.

“Doctor, this is not the time to be distracted!” snapped Rassilon.

“We’ve got it! We’ve got it!” called another Bokoblin. The ‘It’ he was referring to was the TARDIS as he commanded a red-maned Lynel to haul the TARDIS.

“OI! THAT’S MINE!” called the Doctor as she leapt onto the Lynel.

“HELP!” called Zelda as a silver-maned Lynel carried her away. As Link was about to pursue, a blue-maned Lynel carrying Miss Tarae and Amy knocked him out.

Link groaned as he woke up. He saw a stone ceiling. “…Not the Shrine of Resurrection, then,” he mumbled. “…Memories are still there. Good. Now-!”

“Lay back down there!” snapped William as he gently pushed Link onto the bed. “You’re lucky you Hylians are similar to humans. That Lynel hit you good!”

“But Zelda!” protested Link. “And your friends-!

“Sidon is gathering the remaining Sages…whatever they are. They’re gathering armies for an assault on Ganondorf’s castle. We’ll get everyone back.”

“Link, perhaps you can explain something to me,” said Rassilon as she stepped into the room. “Your arm, for a start.”

“I was about to ask, that’s not a normal Hylian arm, is it?” asked William as he pointed at Link’s right arm. It seemed to be covered in dark gray fur and had bronze arm attachments on it.

“…It’s King Rauru’s arm,” explained Link.

“Rauru? The Zonai Leader?” asked Rassilon.

“And Zelda’s first ancestor,” replied Link. “In this timeline, he was the one that sealed Ganondorf away, but Ganondorf released an avatar called Calamity Ganon. I beat that avatar and Ganondorf when he was fully resurrected, but his defeat opened my mind to the previous iterations of Hyrule.”

“So that’s why there’s so much temporal disturbance here,” remarked Rassilon. “This world sits upon a rift that opens into the Time Vortex.”

“So far, there were five main timelines,” explained Link.

“…You’re in the sixth one, aren’t you?” asked Rassilon. “That’s why the TARDIS was directed here.”

“Hm?”

“…We’re looking for a segment of a powerful artefact called the Key to Time,” explained Rassilon. Link’s eyes went wide.

“…I think I know exactly who you’re looking for,” he said.

“…Who?” asked William, confused by Link’s word choice.

In Ganondorf’s castle, the Doctor groaned as she rubbed her head. “Oof. Felt like I wrestled a Sontaran.”

“Doctor!” called Amy’s voice. She ran up to the bed the Doctor was lying on.

“Amy! You’re all right!” said the Doctor as she sat up.

“Yeah, but Zelda’s been taken!” replied Amy.

“Taken? To where?” asked the Doctor.

“That’s not your concern, Time Lord,” cackled Ganondorf’s voice. Amy rolled her eyes.

“I should have known you’d still go after Zelda!” she hissed.

“Still?” asked the Doctor. “Ganondorf, are you still obsessed with Zelda’s power? That’s so old! Clichéd, even!”

“This is not a play, Doctor,” purred Ganondorf, “but you could say it’s the final curtain for you!” The Doctor then collapsed, clutching her sides.

“DOCTOR!” yelped Amy. She ran over and turned the Doctor over…then the Doctor’s laughter echoed throughout the dungeon.

“CURTAIN! AHAHAHAHAHA!” she cackled.

“STOP LAUGHING!” shouted a very slighted Ganondorf. “Don’t you realize your life and Amy’s are in my hands?!”

“HANDS! AHAHAHAHA!” the Doctor continued laughing.

“Erm, Doctor, Ganondorf’s not someone to take lightly!” warned Amy.

“But of all the villains…I had to face…” wheezed the Doctor, “it had to be someone that uses such tired lines!”

“Well, it was either him or Miss Tarae over there,” remarked Amy as she pointed at a very free Miss Tarae. The Doctor stopped laughing long enough to piece together what was going on.

“Really?” she asked the wicked Time Lord. “You didn’t learn from Eggman?”

“Well, I didn’t open with trying to hypnotize Ganondorf,” replied Miss Tarae.

“Yeah, sure, THAT’S the important lesson,” scoffed Amy.

“Don’t be critical, Miss Rose,” chuckled Miss Tarae. “I have to say, it’s a good thing you’re already wearing black. You won’t need to change into funeral clothes when our plan unfolds.”

“What plan?” asked the Doctor.

“Temporal coherence,” said Ganondorf. “Our world sits near a temporal rift that resets the timeline frequently with multiple incarnations of myself, Zelda, and Link in each one.”

“How is Hyrule still here?” asked the Doctor.

“What do you know of Hylia?” quizzed Miss Tarae.

“…Isn’t she one of the Toymaker’s kids that rebelled against him?” recalled the Doctor.

“Indeed. She didn’t like her father’s games, so she worked with the Golden Goddesses and was entrusted with an artefact called the Triforce. The Triforce then split into three fragments of wisdom, power, and courage. Link and Zelda each got the respective Triforces of Courage and Wisdom while Ganondorf here obtained the Triforce of Power.”

“But Hylia interfered in a deeper way,” said Ganondorf. “She reincarnated as the first Zelda with no memories of her time as a goddess and with severely limited power. She manages to keep watch as every iteration of Zelda, still unable to recall her first life.”

“Choosing to be a mortal,” remarked the Doctor. “There’s a gift I wish I had.”

“Gift, my left-hand heart!” scoffed Miss Tarae. “In any event, as this is the sixth timeline of her devising, that left a bit of a clue. After my escape from Eggman’s lair, I crashed at the base of Death Mountain, northeast of Hyrule Castle, and found a bowship! Being interested in why an old Gallifreyan vessel would be here, I took a look and discovered it was Rassilon’s bowship! The same one she used when you exiled her…rather, HIM. I found records of when she stumbled across the Black Guardian and tasked her with finding the segments of the Key to Time and followed the journey right up until she intercepted your TARDIS in the Time Vortex. I then used my own TARDIS to follow your journey and requested Ganondorf’s help in researching what the last segment could be.”

“Or rather…who, as our research indicated,” chuckled Ganondorf darkly. “And we found the answer.”

“You did? …Who?” asked the Doctor, worried now.

“The current mortal incarnation of Hylia in this timeline, the SIXTH timeline!” cackled Miss Tarae.

“…Zelda?!” whispered Amy fearfully.

“Once we learned what Zelda’s true form is,” continued Miss Tarae, “Ganondorf built up his forces to assault Hyrule Castle while I sent a message to various people to slow you down along your stops. …But you just HAD to defeat them, didn’t you, Doctor? Well, defeat those that actually received my message. Maleficent couldn’t work technology without the MCP and Beerus was trapped by Frieza, the Autons were stuck in a time paradox of Tsukasa’s design, the Weeping Angels only saw me as a food source, the only TRULY reliable allies were the Cybermen once I contacted their local CyberMaster.”

“…You put those obstacles in place!” realized the Doctor. “YOU are the reason why so many people knew about the Key to Time!”

“They played their parts well enough to slow you down long enough for Ganondorf and I to prepare for your arrival, so I faked being chased by Ganondorf.”

“And took advantage of Zelda’s compassion!” hissed Amy. “All so you can get her to become the last segment and take ours!”

“Exactly. Now…the tracer, Doctor.” The Doctor then grinned.

“What tracer?” she asked. “Do you see any tracer on me?”

“…Doctor, I’m no longer in the mood for flippancy,” hissed Miss Tarae. “Where’s the tracer?”

“…Contact,” chuckled the Doctor.

“…Very well. Contact,” replied Miss Tarae. They then had a telepathic conference, then Miss Tarae ended it by sticking her hand through the cell’s bars in an attempt to throttle the Doctor.

“What’s wrong?” asked Ganondorf.

“Rassilon has the tracer and she’s still at Hyrule Castle!” snapped Miss Tarae.

“WHAT?!” bellowed Ganondorf.

Categories
Doctor Who: Crossings Series 2

Temporal Trifecta: Part 1

A small, diminutive, monstrous humanoid with a huge head and ears and a hunched back entered a dark castle. The creature, known on this world as a Bokoblin, made his way to the castle’s throne room. He was allowed into the throne room and went down the blood-red carpet. The torches offered dim light, but he could see his master in all his dark splendor sitting on the throne and resting his head on his hand. “My Lord Ganondorf,” spoke the Bokoblin in a gravelly voice, “our spies have reported that our agent is now in the care of the Hylians. As we speak, she is being escorted into the castle.”

“…You think I am unaware of that?” asked the figure on the throne in a bass voice.

“My Lord?” asked the Bokoblin.

“If I needed you to report of the plan’s success, we would all grow old at the rate news reaches us. Leave me.” The Bokoblin felt offended, but he knew better than to make his master angry. He bowed and departed the throne room.

In a much brighter castle, the princess dwelling there was talking to the delegates of all the races of Hyrule. The princess was called Zelda and she was a Hylian, a race that looked human aside from the pointy ears, but elves they were not. The delegates were a red-scaled humanoid with fins on his forearms and a fish tail sprouting from his head (Sidon, Prince of the Zora), a tanned woman with deep-red hair and a revealing outfit, (Chief Riju of the Amazonian Gerudo), an orange-skinned giant with a massive beard and an eyepatch (Patriarch Bludo of the Goron), and an old owl man with five feathers on his wings acting as fingers (Chief Kaneli of the Rito). They were all in a conference with Zelda, discussing recent events. “Unfortunately,” said Sidon, “the East Reservoir Lake is near to flooding again. We can’t exactly blame Vah Ruta again.”

“The Gorons can help with fortifying the lake’s walls,” assured Bludo. “Perhaps we can create a spillway that doesn’t enter into Zora’s Domain.”

“We have Purah checking that idea out,” said Sidon. “She’s also trying to get us power that doesn’t generate electricity.”

“Odd, considering her job,” remarked Zelda. “But she’s a genius, so I’m sure she…” She trailed off when she heard a noise. The delegates stopped talking and listened.

“…So I’m not the only one hearing that, right?” asked Kaneli.

“I hear it too,” replied Riju.

“I think I see it!” called Sidon. A blue box faded into existence with a lamp flashing on top until the noise finished with a thud!

“…Is that a new invention of Purah’s?” asked Riju.

“Doesn’t look like Sheikah tech,” remarked Bludo. The box’s door opened and out stepped four people! Three women, one man, and one of the women looked recognizable to Zelda.

“…Miss Rose?!” she asked.

“…Princess Zelda?!” asked Amy. Zelda grinned.

“Amy Rose! Welcome!” She picked up the hedgehog girl and hugged her. “It’s so great to see you! I…You’re wearing…?”

“Oh, the new dress!” realized Amy. “No, none of my friends on Mobius are dead. I’m just trying something new.”

“Ah, that ‘Goth’ fashion I heard about. Who are your new friends?”

“Princess Zelda, meet Dr. William Davies…”

“Hello, your Highness,” greeted William as he bowed.

“And the Doctor and Rassilon of Gallifrey,” finished Amy.

“Gallifrey?” asked Zelda, worried. “Then you’re both Time Lords and that box is your TARDIS?”

“I’m a little amazed to hear you say that,” remarked the Doctor. “Did the Time Lords visit your world?”

“One has,” admitted Zelda. “She’s in her room right now.”

“You…have a Time Lord in your custody?” asked Rassilon.

“She said she was escaping Ganondorf,” explained Zelda. “Link’s guarding her room right now. There’s…something about her. I can’t explain what, but I feel a sort of…malice behind her kind face.”

“What’s the Time Lord’s name?” asked William.

“She said she’s called Miss Tarae.” The instant that name escaped Zelda’s mouth, the Doctor, William, and Amy goggled at each other.

“What’s that woman doing here?!” demanded Amy.

“Where is she?!” asked William.

“I’ve got a better question,” interjected Rassilon. “WHO is she?”

“The Master in a new female incarnation!” replied the Doctor.

“…That devil is here?!” asked Rassilon. Fury filled her eyes as she recalled the CyberMasters.

Outside a room, a blonde Hylian man in a green tunic and hat was playing on a blue ocarina. The song was called Zelda’s lullaby. The woman inside, however, wasn’t soothed. “Must you make that incessant noise?!” she hissed.

“What’s wrong with a little ocarina music?” asked the man.

“Link!” called Zelda’s voice.

“Zelda!” replied Link as the princess and her new guests arrived. The two Hylians hugged.

“I know how boring this kind of guard duty is,” said Zelda, “but it’s paying off, I promise. Oh, I almost forgot! We have guests. Presenting the Doctor and Rassilon of Gallifrey, Dr. William Davies…and I believe the hedgehog needs no introduction.”

“Amy?” asked Link. “How did you-?”

“Her doing,” said Amy as she pointed at the Doctor. “We need to speak to Miss Tarae. She’s…I gotta put this bluntly. She attacked my world and is an old enemy of the Doctor and Rassilon.”

“Sorry, did I just hear Miss Rose and did she say ‘Rassilon’?” asked Miss Tarae from inside the room.

“Link, let us pass,” directed Zelda. Link nodded and opened the door. The room was a tasteful guest room with a bed, a vanity, and a wardrobe. But the Doctor and her team were more interested in Miss Tarae, now wearing a dress worthy of a Hylian noblewoman.

“Now that’s what I call luxury!” chuckled the Doctor.

“Doctor!” hissed Miss Tarae!

“In the flesh and making new friends,” said the Doctor.

“What are you doing here?! And why did you and William bring Miss Rose?! And is that flamenco girl really Rassilon?!”

“In reverse order,” answered the Doctor, “Yes, that’s really the same Rassilon that drove you insane to enact her plan of breaking the Time Lock surrounding the Last Great Time War, I brought Amy with me and William because her future self arrived and told her it was an opportunity worth taking-.”

“And I was right,” said Amy. “She even convinced me to try my current goth look.”

“And, well, let’s just say we’re all on a quest,” finished the Doctor. “But enough about us, let’s talk about you! Dropping the Lolita look? Blending in, are we? Doesn’t seem like your usual nature. Don’t you have some sort of speech about how it’s your fate to be the one ruler of time and space?”

“Fate and nature had little to do with my arrival here!” hissed Miss Tarae. “In fact, it had little to do with my entire journey since we first clashed on Earth! I point the finger of blame at YOU, Doctor!”

“Me?! What have I done?! I wasn’t the one that made a deal with the Autons during my exile! I wasn’t responsible for you decaying at the end of your first regeneration cycle, and, well, the actual woman to blame for your madness IS wearing a flamenco dress, as you said.”

“Thank you SO much for reminding me of my sins,” remarked Rassilon, not even bothering to hid her contempt for that.

“The point is that YOU, Miss Tarae, didn’t do anything to change your mad state,” continued the Doctor. “You’re simply unwilling to accept responsibility for your own horrific degeneration, which, conveniently, leads us to the here and now. Your TARDIS still has some residual faults from when Eggman tried to roboticize it, I take it?”

“Your efforts to purge the majority of Eggman’s lunacy are commendable, there is no question about it,” replied Miss Tarae, “but the process managed to damage my navigation systems. I was forced to land here to effect repairs. A real shame I couldn’t land during a time when the Sheikah were the technological masters of the world instead of an isolated village in a valley!”

“That was 10,000 years ago,” remarked Zelda, “as I’ve been reminding you.”

“And taking great pleasure in my annoyance at your repeated reminders!” hissed Miss Tarae. “And need I remind you that Ganondorf’s forces were chasing me?”

“Ganondorf?” asked the Doctor.

“An evil sorcerer that’s after me,” explained Zelda. “Not for any romantic attachments. No, his lust is all dedicated to power.”

“Not a bad form of lust, all things considered,” remarked Miss Tarae.

“You shut up,” said Rassilon. “I thought that way once and now look where I am. Exiled from a dead planet. A dead planet, by the way, YOU created. Finishing what the Daleks started?”

“Now see here-!” hissed Miss Tarae.

“Anyone hear that?” asked William. Everyone stopped talking for a bit and listened.

“…That’s a Bokoblin spear clashing against a Hylian Shield!” revealed Link. “…And that’s a Bokoblin club hitting someone in the head!”

“How do you-?” asked Amy.

“I’ll explain later,” replied Link. A guard then rushed into the room.

“My lady!” he said to Zelda. “Ganondorf is attacking the castle! He’s leading his armies personally!”

“What?!” asked Zelda. “He’s never been this bold before!”

Categories
Doctor Who: Crossings Series 2

The Silver Seed: Part 4

As the two Sailor Guardians fought the Cybermen, the Doctor and Rassilon assembled their segments of the Key to Time. “The Cybermen must be really confident in their victory,” muttered Rassilon.

“If they really ARE as emotionless as they say,” replied the Doctor, “they can’t feel it.”

“So, what now?” asked William.

“Now? Now we stop them,” replied the Doctor.

The Cybermen guarding the room the Doctor and her team escorted the prisoners to the landing site after a few hours. The CyberMaster and Cyber-Controller were still arguing. “CyberMaster, I must repeat my objection to using only five of the six segments! The time alteration will degrade as our replica segment decays!”

“You are outside your function,” replied the CyberMaster. He turned to the group. “Doctor.”

“One partially assembled Key to Time, as requested,” she sighed as she pulled out the Key. Only one corner was missing.

“Dimensions established for substitute segment,” reported a Cyberman.

“Inform the fleet,” ordered the CyberMaster. “Final phase will begin.”

“With only five segments?” asked the Doctor. “Surely it’s more logical to use a completed Key.”

“The Doctor speaks the truth,” said the Cyber-Controller. “The Cyber-Planner has predicted a seventy percent chance of failure if the full Key to Time is not utilized.”

“Our ascension cannot be delayed,” replied the CyberMaster. “We shall proceed with all speed.” That was when the instrument panels of the communications console blared.

“Interference with communications, CyberMaster,” reported a Cyberman. “Transmission and reception affected.”

“Doctor!” said the CyberMaster.

“Don’t look at me!” lied the Doctor. “I was locked in the room with everyone here!”

“Yes, yes!” said William.

“False,” replied the CyberMaster. “I have examined your time stream from the moment of your arrival. You have affected communications with the fleet by using sonic waves devised to be…pleasing to certain human ears.” He turned to the Cyberman running the communications console. “Engage monitoring equipment.” The Cyberman obeyed and a song played.

“Lovers of the dark, step into the light!

We know you’re brave, you’ve come to see us dream,

Many times before, now we open up a door,

To a world so flaming bright, a world you’ve never seen!

Can you hear the Banshee scream?

Can you hear the Banshee scream?

Can you hear the Banshee scream?”

“Brocas Helm, Doctor?!” asked William.

“Classic heavy metal!” replied the Doctor.

“Doctor, you will terminate your jamming frequency,” ordered the CyberMaster.

“Most certainly not!” scoffed the Doctor.

“…Then we shall have to risk creating a temporal paradox. Delete them. Rassilon must be shot again during regeneration.”

“NO!” called a voice. “MOON HEALING ESCALATION!” A shockwave of energy then tore through the Cybermen, causing the armor of a few to fall apart, including the Cyber-Controller, and revealing the people they used to be! Neo Queen Serenity goggled in surprise at who the Cyber-Controller was!

“BERYL?!” she yelped. It was, indeed, Usagi I’s first nemesis, Queen Beryl, complete with blood-red hair and red eyes with yellow sclera!

“You…backstabbing…piece of scrap!” snarled Beryl as she summoned a purple maxi-dress and black crown on her body. The CyberMaster and the remaining Cybermen then regained their footing.

“Upgrade complete,” droned the CyberMaster. “You requested power. I granted you that power.”

“You enslaved me! I’ll have you destroyed for this!” Beryl raised her staff and unleashed an energy attack. A few Cybermen intercepted and were vaporized.

“Upgrade complete,” said another Cyberman.

“Everyone, no!” called the Doctor. “The Cybermen can adapt around attacks!”

“What are they, Borg?!” asked William.

“I have to do this!” said Sailor Saturn as she summoned a glaive! “SILENCE GLAIVE-!”

“NO!” shouted Neo Queen Serenity! “Please, just wait! Wait a minute! Hotaru, put that down! It’s all coming together!”

“Your Majesty?” asked Sailor Saturn.

“Mama, what are you saying?!” asked Neo Sailor Moon. …That was when the communications console stopped with the heavy metal and blasted a high-pitched noise that affected all the Cybermen!

“What have you done?!” demanded the CyberMaster.

“That jamming signal,” explained the Doctor, “carried the codes needed to switch off the emotional inhibitors! And not just for your forces here, but for the fleet on the other end of your time corridor!”

“No! This was not foreseen!” argued the CyberMaster. Unforeseen, yes, but still very possible. The Cyber-Leader collapsed, then saw his reflection in the floor.

“…I’m so sorry,” said the Doctor. The Cyber-leader screamed before his chest exploded. And it wasn’t just the Cyber-leader that self-destructed! All the Cybermen were collapsing and exploding after their emotions were restored to them. The CyberMaster then collapsed. “Right! Now, time corridor!”

“Machine’s over there!” called William. The Doctor looked at where William was pointing, then got to work.

“Can’t we just smash it?!” asked Neo Sailor Moon.

“Too risky!” replied the Doctor. “It could cause another temporal disaster greater than what you lot were investigating!” She checked over the machine, then made several calculations, then enacted her planned shut-down sequence on the machine. The time corridor then closed and the Doctor stepped back. “Now it can be smashed.”

“Allow me,” said Amy as she summoned her hammer.

“…A new kind of magical girl?” asked Sailor Saturn.

“…I dunno,” mused Amy. “Maybe. We’ll see.” She then brought the hammer down on the time corridor generator.

“And that, as they say, is that,” sighed the Doctor. By then, Setsuna arrived.

“Doctor, it worked!” she said. “The solar system knows about the origins of the Deimos Temporal Disaster and are preparing accordingly for any Cyberman incursions!”

“So all that’s left is an official renewal of our oath of friendship,” sighed Neo Queen Serenity happily.

“And I say we’re more than ready!” said Taxona.

“Y…You fools…” came a voice. The Doctor turned to the prone CyberMaster.

“Still functional, I see,” remarked the Doctor.

“You…you gave…these apes…the means of…time travel!” gasped the CyberMaster. “Secrets…that were…meant…for us…alone! …SHE…made it…so!” He pointed at Rassilon.

“…Do we know you?” asked Rassilon.

“You…promised me…immortality!”

“Oddly enough, that doesn’t narrow it down. All I could get from that was that you played my game in the Death Zone and made it to the Dark Tower, my tomb.”

“…Is speaking telepathically still available to you?” the Doctor asked the CyberMaster.

“…C…Contact…” strained the CyberMaster.

“Contact,” replied the Doctor. She then got flashes of memories from the CyberMaster. Memories of an old man telling off a young boy on Gallifrey to respect tradition, of a middle-aged man carefully constructing events so a Time Lord’s name was protected, of an old man giving a strange man with a scarf his first nine out of ten, the highest grade the strange man ever received, and of an old man putting on a ring despite a hologram of a trickster giving him opportunities to back away, of turning into stone, of being freed only to become a weapon, then…the Doctor gasped as she backed away and ended the telepathic conference. “Borusa!” she whispered.

“Borusa? You mean that imprisoned Time Lord I made into a possibility engine during the Time War?” asked Rassilon. “That’s who this CyberMaster is?”

“My teacher during the days of the Academy!” confirmed the Doctor. “But…how?!”

“The…Master…gave me…a new chance…” replied Borusa weakly through his Cyber-helmet. “This…was only…a temporary measure. …I would…restore…our world!”

“The Cybermen don’t care for that!” protested the Doctor. “There were ways for you to-!”

“I…needed…the Cybermen’s…technology,” argued Borusa. “I…had to…restore…our time travel…capabilities. …But…I only…got…the standard…set of…regenerations. …That was…my last…incarnation…Doctor. …I needed…continual…regenerations…until…Gallifrey…came back!”

“…You still sought a form of immortality?!” asked the Doctor. “That’s why you’re going after the Key to Time?! After what you went through, you STILL seek immortality?! You’re mad! Magnificent, Sir, but mad!” Borusa didn’t have the strength to reply. The light in his chest unit went dark and he went silent.

“…I once called immortality a curse,” mumbled Rassilon. “…I lost sight of my end goals.”

With now five segments of the Key in their possession, the Doctor and her friends returned to the TARDIS. “Doctor!” called Setsuna. “You’re not leaving yet, surely! There’s still so much to do!”

“And I’m sure you and your fellow Queens will perform splendidly,” assured the Doctor. “But we have a quest of our own to complete.” Setsuna then looked at the Doctor’s friends.

“She STILL tries to slip away quickly and quietly without a goodbye?” she asked.

“Yep,” replied William.

“Uh huh,” agreed Amy.

“A real bad habit of hers,” remarked Rassilon.

“OI!” protested the Doctor.

“Still, the Key to Time IS important right now,” said Setsuna. “I expect my Garnet Orb will be returned?”

“When we’re through,” promised the Doctor.

“Before you go,” said Setsuna, “I need to speak to William.”

“Me?” asked William.

“For a moment only.”

“…Please make it quick,” said the Doctor. At that, William joined with Setsuna somewhere private.

“I’ve peeked into your timeline,” said Setsuna. “Do you really intend to go back home after all this?”

“…Setsuna, I heard we go to war with the Daleks nine times already,” replied William. “We win, but I need to make some contributions in my native time to make sure we’re somewhat ready for the future. I know I can’t tell everyone the future, but if I can guide them-!”

“That’s all I ask,” assured Setsuna. “Just…make sure you tell Winston, at least. Okay?”

“Oh, absolutely,” agreed William.

“Then good luck, Dr. William Davies,” wished Setsuna. William rejoined his friends and entered the TARDIS with them. The TARDIS then dematerialized with the familiar Vworp Vworp! “Goodbye, Doctor,” said Setsuna. “Until our next meeting.”

Categories
Doctor Who: Crossings Series 2

The Silver Seed: Part 3

The Doctor had arrived with the segments. “Doctor!” called Amy as the Cybermen released her and her friends.

“Are you all-?!” asked the Doctor.

“We’re fine, Doctor,” said Neo Queen Serenity.

“Doctor, how do the Cybermen know you?” asked William.

“Oh, trust me, the Cybermen are an enemy as dangerous as the Daleks,” answered the Doctor. “Perhaps even more so, given that they have no emotions.”

“So what constitutes survival, then?!”

“You speak as though emotions are necessary for survival,” remarked the CyberMaster. “They are not.”

“Not necessary?! They’re crucial!” insisted William.

“Tell me, William,” said the CyberMaster, “when your baby sister died, did you not feel grief? Rage? Hatred for the medical field for not saving her?”

“…It never went away,” hissed William.

“That’s enough!” snarled the Doctor. “His pain is his own!”

“The Cybermen CAN remove that pain,” offered the CyberMaster.

“I’d rather die,” replied William.

“All right, we can all debate on the use of emotions until the end of time itself,” interrupted the Doctor, “but I still have questions concerning your goals. How will these actions prolong your survival? The Cybermen have no interest in time travel.”

“As a whole, we do not,” replied the Cyber-controller, “but the CyberMaster has observed paradoxes which threaten the Cyber Race.”

“Our time corridor technology,” explained the CyberMaster, “was scavenged from the Daleks.”

“I figured as much, since they became synonymous with that method of time travel,” remarked the Doctor.

“We upgraded the technology and have been using it for short-term missions. Once we discover the secrets of the Olympus Mons, we shall upgrade the technology and make a fleet of time ships. And with your help, we shall learn the secrets of dimensional-transcendentalism. We shall convert whole planets into Cyber-factories with internal dimensions greater than those your TARDIS can achieve.”

“You can’t make planets bigger on the inside!” protested Rassilon. “It will collapse in on itself!”

“Therein lies why we need the Key to Time,” replied the CyberMaster. “With it, we shall stabilize our mastery over four-dimensional construction. We shall then use the Key to obtain mastery over all celestials, those life-forms worshipped as gods. The Pantheon of Discord, the Guardians of Space and Time, Grand Zeno and his followers, the Gods of Destruction, the Supreme Kais, all shall become like us.”

“There’s something I don’t understand,” said the Doctor. “How did you know we were after the Key to Time in the first place?”

“The Matrix of Gallifrey,” explained the CyberMaster, “revealed to us the travels you took with the first incarnation of Romanadvoratrelundar.”

“Romana?!” gasped the Doctor.

“Our security, however, was not sufficient to keep that knowledge a secret. The revelation of the Key to Time’s existence was scattered across time and space.”

“And certain powerful parties latched onto that knowledge,” said Rassilon.

“Correct. But with five of the six segments and the Core in our possession, we shall become true Time Lords and finish what Rassilon started. Doctor, you will assemble the Key within an hour.” The CyberMaster turned to one of the Cybermen. “Take them to an area where the Doctor can work.”

“Belay that!” ordered the Cyber-Controller. “CyberMaster, we must locate the sixth segment.”

“Do you question my authority in this operation?” The Doctor noticed that. Her mind began racing as the two Cybermen Leaders spoke.

“We must ensure our victory,” explained the Cyber-Controller.

“And will you be held responsible for this delay?” asked the CyberMaster. The Cyber-Controller seemed to hesitate.

“…Carry out the CyberMaster’s orders,” he finally decided.

“Yes, Controller,” replied a Cyberman with black handles, the Cyber Leader. He took the Doctor and her group away.

“Victory is inevitable,” said the CyberMaster. “We shall obtain true mastery over time.”

Everyone was brought into Neo Queen Serenity’s room. “This is bad!” said Rassilon. “The Cybermen have a shot at this plan of theirs succeeding!”

“We have help,” said Neo Queen Serenity.

“You’re not Sailor Moon anymore!” protested Rassilon.

“No, but my daughter took up the mantle,” soothed Neo Queen Serenity.

“And the Cybermen aren’t as cohesive as before,” remarked William.

“I saw that too,” said Amy. “It looked like their leaders are bickering about whether or not they can use the five segments alone.”

“They can’t,” replied the Doctor. “The Key to Time only obeys commands when all six segments are gathered. You CAN make a sixth segment, but that’s a temporary measure and the false segment will decay when assembled with the remaining five. …But it’s the advances made by the Martians in time travel that interest me. Neo Queen Serenity, how is the Olympus Mons powered?”

“I…I don’t really know,” replied Neo Queen Serenity. “I’m not a scientist by any stretch of the imagination. …But I CAN pull up the schematics.” She switched a computer on and pulled up normally restricted information about the Olympus Mons. “There we go.” The Doctor and Rassilon, being Time Lords, examined the plans. Their eyes widened.

“…Harmonics energy!” breathed Rassilon. “They’ve made their own Eye of Harmony!”

“Doctor?” asked William. “Rassilon?”

“Rassilon, you give that lecture,” offered the Doctor. “I need to work out how to use this information against the Cybermen.”

“Got it.” Rassilon turned to everyone. “In the early days of our time experiments, I was working with someone called Omega. He had created a remote stellar manipulator that, nowadays, is called the Hand of Omega.”

“Stellar? As in stars?” asked Amy.

“Exactly,” confirmed Rassilon as she reminisced. “Together, we both used the Hand of Omega to engineer a star, then we suspended time around that star when it exploded and almost became a black hole. Through that, we harnessed the potential energy of a collapse that would never occur! That became the Eye of Harmony, the sacred heart and power supply of the Time Lords! And you lot made your own! Or will, in William’s case. Amy, your planet, Mobius, it’s time travel capable, yes?”

“Well, yes, if you use the Time Stones,” said Amy.

“And have you ever wondered how they came into being?” Amy goggled.

“You mean, they’re-?!”

“Man-made crystals that harness the potential energy of an exploding star before it collapses into a black hole!” confirmed Rassilon. “Miniature Eyes of Harmony!”

“But, there’s a problem of how to safely use that energy,” said the Doctor.

“That’s right,” said Rassilon. “The problem is solved by your time, Amy, but not yet in this time zone. Neo Queen Serenity, I can’t exactly tell you how Omega did it, but I can tell you all the end result to shoot for. You need to figure out a way of shifting your Eye of Harmony fractionally into the future.”

“Why, Rassilon?” asked Neo Queen Serenity.

“Otherwise, you’d get all the power in one gulp,” interjected the Doctor, “rather than a controllable osmotic stream. That function was built into the Eye itself by Omega. And it seems the scientists at the Deimos Temporal Research Station drew the same conclusions you and Omega did, Rassilon. They knew the power itself was unstable without it being shifted fractionally into the future.”

“I think I just developed a theory on how the Cybermen caused the Deimos Temporal Disaster,” shuddered Rassilon.

“I think I’m about to prove your theory right,” remarked the Doctor. “And display how you’re right in the process.” She pulled up the data and showed it to Rassilon.

“…They sabotaged the data needed to shift the Eye,” said Rassilon. “The Eye shifted both forwards and backwards in time. Result: temporal explosion that sent the bodies back in time.”

“Oh no!” shuddered Neo Queen Serenity. She didn’t fully understand the temporal mechanics, but she knew enough to know it was bad.

“So we know the guilty party,” said the Doctor, “we just need to do something about that.”

“Do you think the Cybermen are immune to Sailor Guardian power?” asked Neo Queen Serenity.

“…You’re not Sailor Moon anymore,” remarked the Doctor.

“No, but my daughter is.”

“…Chibiusa might help, assuming her team’s here.” At that, Neo Queen Serenity smiled.

“Her entire team is here and so are my old friends and their apprentices, Doctor.” The Doctor grinned.

“Then the Cybermen better hope they have Sailor Mondas with them.”

Usagi II and a raven haired woman her age peeked around a corridor. Four other women were forced into rooms that were guarded by Cybermen. “…Right, we only have one shot,” said Usagi II. “Hotaru, you ready?”

“Let’s do it!” replied Hotaru Tomoe, Princess of Saturn. She and Usagi II then pulled out wands.

“NEO MOON POWER, MAKE UP!”

“SATURN POWER, MAKE UP!” The Cybermen heard the transformation announcements and turned, only to be blinded by the light of the transformation.

“Alert! Excessive heat! Retreat!” said a Cyberman. As the Cybermen backed away, leotards appeared on Usagi II and Hotaru’s bodies, then pleated mini-skirts, then sailor collars, then bow on the backs of their waists, then on their chests where the collars formed a point, then heeled shoes, then arm length gloves, then golden circlets on their heads. The two girls then posed once their transformations were complete. Usagi II, now in her pink superhero identity as Neo Sailor Moon, and Hotaru, now as the purple Sailor Saturn, then posed.

“Transformation complete,” said the other Cyberman. “Threat level identified! Maximum Deletion!” The Cybermen then armed their wrist-blasters!

Categories
Doctor Who: Crossings Series 2

The Silver Seed: Part 2

“Ten years ago,” began Taxona, “we Ice Warriors joined in a mutual interests compact with Queen Hino’s people, the Aresians.”

“And it was the best decision our people made,” said Rei. “Ice Warrior and Aresian were both on friendly terms, so Taxona and I decided we wanted to develop time-travel capable vehicles.”

“They reached out to me as I was the expert in time travel law in our time as Sailor Guardians,” explained Pluto. “I offered them some basic guidelines and they drafted a set of time travel laws for themselves. They hadn’t made them public yet until they constructed their time-ship, the Olympus Mons.”

“I think I saw it when it was being decommissioned,” remarked the Doctor. “Nice to see it in its heyday.”

“That ship,” said Taxona proudly, “is the result of five years of pure, top-secret research at the Deimos Temporal Research Station. I’m sure you can guess where it’s located from the name alone. Because this is a relatively new science for us, we had to get scientists from all sorts of fields related to temporal mechanics.”

“The Plutonians were very helpful in that regard,” said Rei. “…But…”

“This is where this disaster happened?” guessed the Doctor.

“After a successful test run three months ago,” explained Rei, “the scientists vanished. Ten days later, they were discovered outside Argyre Planitia, a plain in the southern highlands of Mars. …Or rather, their corpses were.”

“You can imagine the outcry,” remarked Setsuna. “The people across the solar system were ready for war. The two Martian Races were ready to kill each other.”

“But Rei and I wouldn’t hear of it,” said Taxona. “We instead called for a conference to figure out the culprit.”

“And I suggested,” continued Setsuna, “that perhaps an agreement can be reached on the limitation of time travel until this matter is resolved.”

“Protecting your mystique?” guessed the Doctor, snark in her voice.

“I may have my personal agenda in this,” admitted Setsuna, “but there’s a greater agenda that I share with everyone here, and that’s to discover the truth. Who could have done this? Who would risk the wrath of the solar system, with Mars being the most dangerous to provoke?”

“That rather depends on the guilty party being here at all,” remarked Rei.

“At the very least,” said Taxona, “if the guilty party isn’t here, we can assure one another that we wouldn’t dream of harming our people.”

“That’s always a good idea,” said the Doctor.

As the Doctor spoke, William wandered the palace. “Excuse me, sir?” called a voice. William turned to see a blonde woman in a white dress with her hair styled like Usagi II’s, but her hair buns were spherical. This was Usagi II’s mother, Usagi Tsukino I, Neo Queen Serenity.

“Y-Your Majesty!” gulped William. “I’m sorry if I-!”

“Oh, no reason to panic,” said Neo Queen Serenity. “I just noticed you seemed a bit…distracted.”

“I was looking for your library,” explained William. “I heard about the crystals around here that slowed down the aging process and locks someone in their prime age, but…well, I’m not exactly from here. This time, I mean.”

“What century are you from?” asked Neo Queen Serenity.

“The 21st. 2025, to be precise.”

“I see. …I don’t exactly know the science behind the crystals. I was a magical girl back in the day and my science grades, hoo boy! They were NOT good! …Come to think of it, I wasn’t a good student anyways. In any case, Ami Mizuno, she’s Mercury’s Queen, she’s in the library. Perhaps she can help…” Neo Queen Serenity trailed off when she saw a guard setting up a machine. “…Guard!” she called. The guard didn’t either didn’t hear her or didn’t care, too focused on his task. “…Guard, what are you doing?” asked Neo Queen Serenity.

“The time-space induction channel is ready to open, Controller, Master,” said the guard.

“Guard, who are you talking to?” asked Neo Queen Serenity.

“I think he’s on a call, judging by his earbuds,” remarked William. At that moment, King Endymion arrived with Rassilon and Amy.

“Usako!” called Endymion.

“William, there you are!” said Amy. “We looked everywhere for you.”

“Sorry,” replied William. “I was looking for the library, then her Majesty found me and was gonna take me there, but then this guard started acting weird.” He pointed out the guard. “He said something about a…what did he say…ah, yes, time-space induction channel.”

“Time-space…? The common name for it is a time corridor,” explained Rassilon. She looked at the device. “…It’s not Dalek technology. Odd really, given that time corridors are their preferred method of time travel.”

“Maybe it’s connected to his earbuds?” suggested Neo Queen Serenity. “He did report that it was ready to someone. Some sort of Controller and Master, I think.” Rassilon examined the earbuds and gasped.

“GET BACK! THOSE ARE CYBER-EARBUDS!” she warned.

“Rassilon, what’s got you panicked?” asked William as everyone backed away. The machine the guard set up then projected a square energy tunnel on the nearby wall. William’s answer came as the sound of metal boots marching in sync with each other heralded the arrival of what looked like silver-armored robots with humanoid features and handles on their heads. One of them had an organic brain in a transparent case on its forehead while the other looked like it had a Time Lord’s collar replacing the handles and black fabric draping down from the shoulder armor to give the illusion of Time Lord robes.

“Cybermen!” whispered Neo Queen Serenity fearfully. King Endymion pressed a nearby button, activating the general address system.

“Emergency! Emergency!” he warned. “Cybermen have breached the palace via a time corridor! Repeat, Cybermen have breached the palace! All guards to my position!”

“Cybermen?!” yelped the Doctor when she heard the announcement. “My friends!”

“Wait, Doctor!” called Taxona as she grabbed the Doctor’s arm.

“…I would advise you to let go of me!” hissed the Doctor.

“His Majesty said that the Cybermen used a time corridor to get in here,” reminded Taxona. “Shutting that thing down isn’t my area of expertise.”

“We’ll send our soldiers to assist,” assured Rei. “We’ll get them out.”

“Doctor, if the Cybermen are using time corridor technology-,” said Setsuna.

“Then they may be the guilty party behind the Deimos Temporal Disaster,” finished the Doctor.

Ice Warriors and Aresian soldiers stormed into the room Neo Queen Serenity and her group were trapped in. The Cybermen didn’t seem to be interested in attacking her and her friends. The soldiers then burst into the room. The Cybermen saw weapons trained on them. “A rescue attempt,” remarked the Cyberman with the transparent cranium.

“As predicted,” replied the Cyberman with the Time Lord collar. “They are unimportant. Leave two percent alive. They will be hostages along with Rassilon and her retinue. They will be used to draw out the Doctor.”

“We will not be hostages!” hissed an Ice Warrior.

“No,” replied the Cyberman with the Time Lord collar. “You, specifically, will be deleted. Eradicate all extraneous life.” The Cybermen activated concealed wrist-mounted blaster and opened fire. The rescuers did the same. One of the rescuers shot the Cyberman with the Time Lord collar in the chest. It collapsed.

“Yes!” said the Aresian that took the shot. Just then, regeneration energy spilled out from the downed Cyberman’s joints.

“Regeneration?!” asked Rassilon. “When did the Cybermen-?!”

“Hang on, I thought only Time Lords like you and the Doctor can do that!” protested William. “Aren’t they robots?!”

“No, they’re emotionless armored cyborgs,” replied Rassilon, “hell-bent on turning everyone into Cybermen!”

“Let me guess, some disaster forced their ancestors to adopt that kind of lifestyle!”

“Well, for some branches, yes!” The Cyberman with the exposed brain then targeted Rassilon. “Oh, Omega’s pants!”

“Stop!” called the Cyberman with the Time Lord collar. “Controller, do not harm her.”

“Explain, CyberMaster,” demanded the Cyberman with the exposed brain, the Cyber-Controller.

“This is Rassilon, the founder of Time Lord Society,” explained the Cyberman with the Time Lord collar, the CyberMaster. “Her temporal expertise is necessary for the eventual evolution of the Cyber Race.”

“I don’t know if you heard,” hissed Rassilon, “but the Doctor exiled me! My original knowledge of time travel law and all the dematerialization codes have been wiped according to the laws set down by my successors!”

“An exile block can be overridden,” replied the CyberMaster. He then pressed a button on the wall communicator. “Doctor, you will heed me.”

The Doctor heard the call and pressed a button on the nearby wall communicator. “I saw from the footage that there’s a CyberMaster as well as a Cyber-Controller,” she said. “You obviously place this time zone very high on your list of priorities.”

“We place you higher, Doctor,” replied the CyberMaster. “You will surrender your segments of the Key to Time as well as the tracer.”

“Okay, what’s going on here?!” demanded the Doctor. “First the Autons, then the Weeping Angels, now you! Who’s leaked that information?!”

“That is irrelevant. Doctor, you will comply or we shall create a temporal disaster worse than what we did at the Deimos Temporal Research Station.”

“So you WERE behind all that! Why risk the wrath of the solar system?!”

“Our time travel ships must have a basis to start. Your knowledge and Rassilon’s will accelerate our evolution.”

“Release my friends and I shall assist! But I won’t have you using the Key to Time for those ends!”

“Terms unacceptable. Doctor, you will capitulate or your friends die.” The Doctor heard a laser blast and a man screaming!

“WILLIAM!” she shouted.

“We’re all right, Doctor!” replied William. “But the CyberMaster! He just…he killed an Ice Warrior! He had already predicted his death!”

“And William’s current death,” warned the CyberMaster, “will cause a paradox. Obey us and we will avoid it.” The Doctor considered her next move.

“…I’ll be there shortly with the segments,” she sighed.

“We await your arrival, Doctor,” replied the CyberMaster.

Categories
Doctor Who: Crossings Series 2

The Silver Seed: Part 1

“Martian Arrival is imminent, your highness,” said a soldier to a woman in a pink dress and pink hair tied into two pointed hair buns and a long pony tail from each bun.

“If you mean to say Aunt Rei and Queen Taxona’s ship is landing,” giggled the princess, “just say that.”

“…P-Protocol has to be maintained, your Highness,” replied the soldier.

“I suppose so,” sighed the princess. “It’s interesting that my mother of all people has well-trained guards, given how clumsy she was in the past.”

“Time changes people, Chibiusa,” came a voice. “You, of all people, should know that.” A tan woman with dark-green hair tied in a hair bun on top with the rest flowing down the back of her black gown appeared.

“Puu!” said the princess, running up to hug her.

“Y-Your Majesty! Queen Meioh!” stammered the guard as he saluted.

“It’s all right,” soothed the Queen of Pluto, Setsuna Meioh. “How fares Rei’s arrival?”

“The ship just touched down,” replied the guard.

“Well, we’d better greet them,” said Setsuna.

“Come on!” said Usagi II, the former Chibiusa.

As the two women headed off to the Martian Landing Site, the TARDIS landed. Her crew stumbled out. “Anyone would think you flew a washing machine!” grumbled William.

“What was that, Doctor?” asked Amy.

“That, Amy, was temporal turbulence,” replied the Doctor. “Like a massive time-ship tore through normal space and sent out ripples in the Time Vortex.”

“And right as we were landing,” remarked Rassilon. “A rather primitive time-ship, hm?”

“Primitive, but effective,” replied the Doctor. “I’m sure your experimental time-ships were like that before the prototype TARDIS.” The Doctor looked around. “I feel like I have an engagement here to attend to.”

“Where and when are we?” asked William.

“Crystal Tokyo, the new capital of Earth in the 30th Century, under the benevolent rule of Neo Queen Serenity and her husband, King Endymion.”

“…NEO Queen Serenity?” asked William. “Bit ostentatious. And Crystal Tokyo? That’s my third trip to Japan so far!”

“Yes, first with Godzilla, then with the Kamen Riders, now with the Sailor Scouts,” remarked the Doctor.

“Sailor Scouts?” asked Amy.

“They still exist?” asked Rassilon.

“Oh yes,” replied the Doctor. “And to answer your question, Amy, their official title is Sailor Guardians. Tell me, do sailor fuku outfits exist on Mobius?”

“Yeah, it’s a pretty popular style in certain countries on Mobius,” replied Amy.

“Well, these girls dress up in such outfits, but they manage to use energy attacks, calling them magic based.”

“Magic? Doctor, are these magical girls we’re talking about?” asked William.

“It’s not really magic! It’s just science that doesn’t have a normal explanation like how a TARDIS looks to a non-Time Lord!” The Doctor then took a breath to calm down. “This particular group of…magical girls have their alternate identities named after celestial bodies, like Sailor Mars, Sailor Jupiter, Sailor-.”

“Sailor Moon?! My sister loved that show when she was little!” said William. “So she’s as real as Tron?!”

“Yes, William, she is,” replied the Doctor. She then snapped her fingers. “And I just recalled that I was invited to a conference as an independent observer in this time zone!” She spotted a guard approaching them.

“And just who are you?” asked the guard.

“Hold on! I have my credentials!” called the Doctor. She pulled out a wallet and opened it to reveal a piece of paper. The guard examined it. He blinked.

“…If you were invited here by Queen Meioh herself,” said the guard, “why didn’t you just pull out your invitation instead of the psychic paper here?”

“To be honest, I almost forgot about this conference,” replied the Doctor. “So, are me and my friends here good?”

“…Well, the invitation DID say you were to land your TARDIS on the designated landing pad,” remarked the guard, “but we’ll have it moved there before King Endymion goes berserk. You’re just in time, Doctor. The Martian Queens and their respective retinues have arrived aboard the Ares.”

“The Martian prototype time ship?” asked the Doctor. She then recalled something. “That’s right, the conference concerns the Deimos Temporal Research Station.”

“Temporal…time travel experiments?” asked William. “We’re gonna be dabbling in time travel?”

“Time travel’s been documented on Mobius,” replied Amy. “Heck, I first met Sonic during a time disaster that he had to fix.”

“And it’s here at this point in time that the human race really learns about temporal mechanics,” continued the Doctor. “Now, let’s go find our esteemed hosts, hm?”

“What about the-?” asked Rassilon.

“Keep the tracer on standby,” replied the Doctor. “Hopefully we’ll find the fifth segment.”

The TARDIS crew was led to the delegates’ lounge where various people were talking. William blinked. “Erm, are those related to the Draconians at all?” he asked.

“Hm?” The Doctor saw two different reptilian humanoids. One looked like a lizard with horns, the other had a beak mouth and fin-frills on its head. “Oh, no,” replied the Doctor. “Those are a Silurian and a Sea Devil. Their species are cousins and they used to be the rulers of Earth until the Dinosaurs went extinct. They used to have bad relations with you humans until the 25th century.”

“Doctor?” asked a voice. Setsuna then approached the group.

“Ah! Setsuna! What a pleasure!” said the Doctor. “Everyone, this is Setsuna Meioh, Queen of Pluto and, at least in this time, the former Sailor Pluto.”

“I thought Pluto wasn’t a-,” remarked William.

“It was reclassified as a planet in the 23rd century,” replied Setsuna, looking annoyed. “Doctor, I can guess you forgot about this conference, given how busy your life is, so what IS your purpose for being here?”

“Well, what if I told you my friends and I were after the Key to Time?” asked the Doctor. Setsuna blinked.

“…Why?” she asked.

“Your Majesty,” said Rassilon, “I am Rassilon, the former Lord President Eternal of Gallifrey-.”

“Yes, I know who you are, Lunatic,” replied Setsuna. “You tried to gain access to the Door of Space and Time to undo what the Master did to your planet.”

“What?! Rassilon!” protested the Doctor.

“I was desperate and the Black Guardian played on that desperation,” explained Rassilon. “I got ensnared in their trap and now I have to gather the segments of the Key in order to restore the balance.”

“…Are you sure-?”

“I’m aware it sounds like something the White Guardian would say! But it WAS the Black Guardian, I’m sure of it!”

“…Very well. Rassilon, do you have the Key’s Core?” Rassilon pulled out the tracer. Setsuna summoned a staff with a giant garnet orb on it. Rassilon pointed the tracer at the staff and it clicked rapidly. She pointed the tracer at the orb and it clicked even faster.

“…Your Garnet Orb?” asked the Doctor.

“It became a segment just a while ago,” explained Setsuna. “I’ll give it to you IF…you help us during this conference.”

“…I think that’s a fair deal, Doctor,” remarked Rassilon.

“…You’ve changed,” said Setsuna. “No self-aggrandizing about how I’m an insect?”

“Come on, I’m traveling with the Doctor. She has a tendency to open people’s minds to a wider universe.”

“I have to agree,” said William.

“Well, that’s settled then!” declared the Doctor. “How can I help?”

“Well, the reason for this conference is to discuss the Deimos Temporal Disaster,” replied Setsuna. “The Martian Queens are here, they can explain better than I can.”

“…Disaster?!” asked the Doctor.

As her crew mingled, the Doctor was brought to a private room. A woman with purple eyes and long black hair going straight down her red gown and a lizard woman in green, scaly armor with red eye lenses in her helmet were sitting and discussing. The two looked up to see Setsuna and the Doctor. “Setsuna, what’s going on?” asked the human woman.

“Who is this woman?” asked the lizard woman.

“Queen Rei Hino, Queen Taxona,” introduced Setsuna, “this is the Doctor, an expert in time travel law and temporal mechanics.”

“Doctor?!” asked the lizard woman. She brought her fist to her chest in a salute. “You brought my first ancestor, Iraxxa, into a golden age for our people! By the moons, I honor thee!”

“And I’ve heard of you, Queen Taxona of the Ice Warriors of Mars,” replied the Doctor, saluting in the same way. “Tell me, what year is this?”

“3089, according to the humans of this planet, why?”

“Didn’t want to spoil your future, but you DID help the humans discover faster than light travel ten years ago. By the moons, I honor thee.”

“And I don’t regret helping the humans in the slightest!” chuckled Taxona. She then turned grim. “But we have a grave situation to discuss.”

“Doctor, if Taxona vouches for you,” said Rei, “then we’ll need your help.”

“Yes, I heard there was a disaster at the Deimos Research Station,” remarked the Doctor. “Perhaps you could bring me into the picture?”

Categories
Doctor Who: Crossings Series 2

Angels of Popstar: Part 4

Everyone at the door dashed inside and shut it. “They’re outside!” warned Amy.

“Hoo boy!” muttered the Doctor. “We’re not ready yet! Where are Rassilon and William?!”

“Right here!” called Rassilon as she and William brought two more boxes.

“Thank goodness! Where have you been?!”

“We had to cannibalize a lot of old machines for half these parts!” protested William. “Rassilon had to walk me through the parts’ description! It took her ages to describe the Epsilon Reticular Gauge in a way I could understand it!”

“I had to keep reminding myself that he’s a medical man, not an engineer,” said Rassilon. The TARDIS then rocked, then a bell rang!

“Laudable effort to explain things, Rassilon,” said the Doctor as she began emptying the boxes in a hurry, “but that may prove academic! That’s the Cloister Bell, everyone!”

“Of all the times to cannibalize the H.A.D.S!” complained Kirby as he got to work connecting and calibrating the parts.

“H.A.D.S?!” asked William.

“Hostile Action Displacement System!” explained the Doctor.

“Something that usually keeps the TARDIS from being destroyed?!” asked Amy.

“An emergency dematerialization away from any destructive force, yes!” replied the Doctor. “But we needed key components from them for this to work!”

“TARDIS computer’s ready for the estimates!” said Rassilon. “200 strong army’s been detected!”

“200 Weeping Angels,” shuddered the Doctor as she fed figures into the console. “That’s pushing it! We’ll have to give it everything! Computer’s calculated the projections! Kirby, Rassilon, it’s time!” The two Time Lords and the Star Warrior wired the segments of the Key to Time to a slapdash machine that seemed to stretch its wires into the console. “Powering up!”

“Feeding through the boosters!” announced Rassilon. The console sparked.

“Potential temporal feedback loop building!” called Kirby. “Projecting perma-lux barrier! No, wait! That’s too early! The flux comparative’s interfering!”

“William! That purple button right there!” called the Doctor. “Press it like you did with Miss Tarae’s TARDIS! 112 BPM!”

“Another one bites the dust then! Here we go!” replied William. He began pressing the button to the beat of Another one Bites the Dust, even singing along.

“Another one bites the dust!

Another one bites the dust!

And another one gone, and another one gone,

Another one bites the dust! (yeah)

Hey, I’m gonna get you too!

Another one bites the dust!” The Time Rotor then started glowing.

“We’re compensating well!” called Rassilon. “Five! Four! Three! Two! One! NOW!”

“WILLIAM, STOP!” called the Doctor. As William stopped TARDIS CPR, The Doctor pulled the take-off lever. The console sparked for a bit, then the TARDIS made its arrival noise and thud. Smoke came out of the console. The Doctor waved it away with her hat and checked the scanner. The other instruments then rebooted. Kirby checked them.

“…We’re just a few yards away from the Angels’ outer perimeter,” he said. The Doctor then smiled.

“Your idea worked, Kirby!” she said.

“Really?!” asked Kirby.

“Let’s take a look outside!” called the Doctor.

Everyone stepped out of the TARDIS to see the Weeping Angels inside a transparent ball of yellow light, being jostled around. “…Wh…What is this?” asked William.

“That, William,” said the Doctor, “is the Weeping Angels gorging themselves on the potential energy of their own lives whilst looking at one another forever! And the TARDIS checked to make sure there weren’t any more Angels! Popstar is clear!”

“…So what do we do with them?” asked Bandee.

“No worries,” said Kirby. “That problem’s about to solve itself.” The bubble then vanished, taking the Angels with it!

“Where’d they go?!” yelped Dedede.

“To a lifeless planet,” replied the Doctor. “We had to convince our potential time energy bubble to go there instead of staying here on Popstar.”

“I’d rather not have any Angels on my lawn,” chuckled Kirby. “…And now that this adventure is over…” He, Dedede, Bandee, and Meta Knight then posed.

“Ooh boy!” said Amy. “Here comes the victory dance!” The four Popstar Warriors then performed a short victory dance before making a final pose. As they posed, Kirby gave up his new Copy Ability and returned to being normal Kirby.

“HAI!” he said.

“Doctor, I’m a grateful king!” said Dedede. “We’ll be holding a feast in your honor!”

“Oh, we appreciate that, King Dedede,” said Amy, “but we have to-.”

“Erm…we can’t really leave yet,” sighed the Doctor. “That trick damaged the TARDIS so much that the old girl needs to rest and recharge its power cells.”

“…Oh.”

“…Well, I think we could do with a short rest,” said Rassilon. “And I’m going to take this opportunity to get myself a new outfit.”

“How about after the feast, Rassilon?” asked Amy. “I could do with some food.”

“Me too,” agreed William.

“…Yes, food IS more important right now,” conceded Rassilon.

“That settles it, then!” declared the Doctor.

At Castle Dedede, the Waddle-Dees prepared a magnificent spread with meats, veggies, and sweets. Kirby and Dedede were the ones eating the most, given their shared love of food. Rassilon blinked. She ate a lot to recover the energy she spent in regenerating, but nowhere near as much as Kirby and Dedede. “It’s a thing with them,” said Bandee.

“I see,” remarked Rassilon.

“Man, that’s good food!” sighed William happily as he patted his belly. “I needed that!”

“You’re telling me!” said Amy. “That was delicious!”

After the feast, the TARDIS crew was brought back to the TARDIS. It looked a lot better now. “Thank you all!” called the Doctor.

“You’re welcome back to Popstar any time!” called Dedede.

“Poyoyo!” said Kirby as everyone waved.

“Bye, Kirby! See you in the next Smash Tournament!” replied Amy. Everyone was back inside the TARDIS and it took off.

“…Goodbye, Doctor,” said Meta Knight to himself. “And good luck.”

As the TARDIS entered the Time Vortex, the Doctor inserted the tracer into its slot. “All right, old girl,” she said to the TARDIS, “you take your time in calculating the next destination. Rassilon, you think you could-?” She noticed she was alone in the console room. “…Rassilon? Amy? William?”

“In the wardrobe!” called Amy’s voice.

“…Ah! Yes! Rassilon!” recalled the Doctor. She headed to the wardrobe. She knocked on the door.

“Come in,” called Rassilon. The Doctor entered to see Rassilon in a blue shirt, skirt, brown jacket, and a brown trilby. “Well?”

“…I think the blue would work better,” remarked the Doctor, “but the rest of the ensemble makes you look like a comedy internet reviewer.”

“…Well, I suppose…” Rassilon ducked behind a curtain, then came out looking like a blue Queen of Hearts. “…What do you think?”

“…Too stuffy,” remarked William.

“…No, then,” sighed Rassilon. She went behind another curtain, then came back out in a patchwork coat!

“Now you’re just mocking me!” hissed the Doctor.

“Yes, I am, aren’t I?” chuckled Rassilon.

“You…you wore that, Doctor?!” asked Amy.

“Yes, during my sixth incarnation,” sighed the Doctor. “My Mid-lives crisis, as it were.”

“You’d fit in at a Pride Parade in that,” remarked William.

“Oh, no doubt,” agreed the Doctor. Rassilon ducked behind another curtain, then came out wearing a blue flamenco dress with a blue rose and bow pinned to the left of her hair.

“I think we have a winner!” she said.

“…Rassilon, we do a lot of running here,” remarked William.

“Oh, don’t worry,” replied the Doctor. “I had a companion that always wore the wrong shoes and she got herself out of plenty of trouble.”

“…Something’s missing,” muttered Rassilon. She then saw a makeup kit. “Lipstick! That’s it!” She got out blue lipstick from the kit and applied it. She then examined herself in the mirror.

“I’m guessing Meta Knight’s accent had an influence,” chuckled Amy.

“Yes, this is the one!” declared Rassilon. “Now, where to next?”

“Rassilon, there’s a mystery here,” remarked the Doctor.

“Doctor?” asked William.

“How did the Angels know where to base themselves?” continued the Doctor. “And how did they know we were after the Key to Time?”

“…Come to think of it, the Autons were after it as well,” recalled Rassilon. “Almost as if…as if someone told them!”

“The Black Guardian,” said the Doctor. “It’s the only logical explanation. They want you to fail.”

“What would be the Black Guardian’s endgame in making me fail, though?” muttered Rassilon. “Unless they view my seeking your help as cheating.”

“Questions, questions, where are the answers?” muttered the Doctor. “We’d better find them by the time we assemble the Key.”

“Agreed,” said Rassilon. William and Amy stood by.

“…I really hate it when they act this way,” muttered William.

“Don’t knock it,” said Amy. “It looks like Rassilon is changing for the better. The Doctor DID call her a tyrant at one point and Rassilon’s not so high-handed and Time Lordish.”

“…It really has been fun,” mused William.

“Hm?” asked the Doctor.

“Nothing,” replied William.

Categories
Doctor Who: Crossings Series 2

Angels of Popstar: Part 3

“KIRBY, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” protested the Doctor as Kirby inhaled the excess regeneration energy. “THAT’S NOT SAFE FOR YOU!” Rassilon’s glowing then died off and Kirby stopped inhaling. He then flipped in the air and a skull cap appeared on his head with a collar that wrapped around where his shoulders would be and a semi-circle grew above his head at the back. A curve then sunk in at the top of the semi-circle. The strange collar and skull cap turned scarlet while scarlet fabric covered Kirby’s body. “…He…He turned the regeneration energy…into a combat form!” breathed the Doctor.

“He has become Time Lord Kirby!” announced Meta Knight. Everyone looked at the adult Star Warrior. “…Don’t ask,” he mumbled.

“And he’s wearing Prydonian robes!” said the Doctor. “That’s my chapter!”

“Ooooggghhh!” moaned a new voice. There was a new woman in Rassilon’s dress and she was collapsing.

“Rassilon!” yelped the Doctor. She caught the newly regenerated Rassilon in time. The hat tumbled away to reveal curly brown hair that went to her shoulders and lightly-tanned skin.

“That regeneration must have drained a lot of her energy upon release,” remarked a voice.

“Holy crap! Move aside!” called William. He brought out his stethoscope and listened to Rassilon’s hearts-beat. “…Okay, it’s stabilizing, but we gotta get her out of here!”

“Right,” agreed the Doctor. She got Rassilon to wrap her arms around hers and William’s shoulders. “Kirby, Amy, think you two can scout ahead? Make sure there aren’t any Weeping Angels?”

“Sure thing!” said the two pink people. …Amy goggled when she heard another voice agree with her. She slowly turned to Kirby.

“…Was…that you?” she asked.

“…I think it was!” replied Kirby. “Amazing! This new form not only gave me the intelligence and abilities of the Time Lords, but the speech of them! I can say things besides ‘Poyo’!”

“Erm, Kirby, laudable,” said the Doctor, “but could you please hurry?”

“Yeah, the new Rassilon’s not getting any lighter,” said William.

“Right, sorry!” replied Amy. She and Kirby looked outside.

“Oof! That’s bright!” said Kirby as he blinked hard.

“You’re telling me!” agreed Amy. Once their vision cleared, they looked around.

“…I’m not seeing any Angels,” said Kirby.

“Nor am I,” said Amy. She called to everyone. “We’re good!” Everyone rushed out into the sunlight.

“Still a sunny day,” remarked the Doctor.

“Yeah, days are a bit longer on Popstar,” replied Kirby. “Now, we need to get to your TARDIS. I think I have an idea.”

“Can you tell me telepathically?” asked the Doctor.

“Sure. It’s a bit involved anyways,” said Kirby. “Contact.”

“Contact.” Kirby and the Doctor shut their eyes and concentrated. After a few seconds and some walking, the Doctor grinned. “There’s an idea!” she said.

“Think it will work?” asked Kirby.

“We’ll need the fourth segment to be sure,” said the Doctor.

“What are you planning?” asked Meta Knight.

“We’re going to make the Weeping Angels gorge themselves on potential time energy,” explained Kirby. “But we need the segments of the Key to Time.”

“Three’s probably enough to make it work,” said the Doctor, “but four would really make it a certainty.”

“Hang on,” said Amy as she checked Rassilon’s dress. “The tracer should be around here! Aha! Here it is!” Amy pulled the tracer out of Rassilon’s sleeve and pointed it in different directions. It crackled louder when it was pointing at what looked like a tomato plant.

“…The Maxim Tomato patch?” asked Kirby.

“Maxim Tomato?” asked William.

“Whenever someone eats one raw,” explained Kirby, “it restores them to full strength.”

“Raw?! Ugh!” shuddered William.

“Don’t knock it!” said Bandee. “It works!” The group approached the Maxim Tomato plant. Upon closer inspection, William could see that there were big, black M’s on the tomatoes themselves. Amy waved the tracer near the Maxim Tomatoes until it crackled at its fastest frequency.

“That one!” said Amy as she touched the tracer to it. The Maxim Tomato then turned into its natural form as a segment of the Key to Time and fell to the ground. By then, Rassilon groaned. Her eyes fluttered open and revealed themselves to be blue.

“My head!” she groaned. She then breathed deeply. “…Okay, recap. I landed on Popstar with the Doctor. We were cornered by Weeping Angels. We were thrown into prison by King Dedede acting on the Angels’ orders. I then used my regeneration to blow a hole in the wall.” She then looked around. “…And it worked.”

“Rassilon?” asked William. “How are you feeling?”

“…Sore all over, Dr. Davies,” replied Rassilon. “But I should be able to walk. …Where did Kirby-?”

“Your excess regeneration energy,” explained Kirby, “gave me this new Copy Ability.”

“…So you’re a Time Lord?”

“Well, in the loosest sense of the title, yes. I can’t regenerate, only come back to life twelve times.”

“Twelve?” asked Amy. “That makes thirteen lives in total.”

“Yes, the Doctor and I,” explained Rassilon, “are special cases. We can regenerate ad infinitum, but when I gave that ability to the others, I made it so the average Time Lord is limited to thirteen lives. Didn’t want Gallifrey to be overcrowded.”

“Hey!” called Dedede’s voice. The King then ran up to them. Meta Knight and Bandee drew their weapons.

“Hang on!” called Kirby. “…King Dedede?”

“…Kirby?!” yelped Dedede. “When did you start talking?!”

“It’s a Copy Ability thing. What are you doing here?”

“I saw you guys escaping and realized I was tired of listening to statues,” explained Dedede. “Those things killed my Waddle-Dees! I won’t stand for it! Doctor, you said you can get rid of them!”

“And thanks to Kirby’s new Copy Ability, I can make good on that promise,” said the Doctor. “But we’re going to need a show of good faith from you.”

“Doctor, Dedede’s just misguided at times,” said Amy. “The only time he was evil was when he was mind-controlled.”

“…Well, there WAS my first encounter with him,” said Kirby, “but that’s neither here nor there. The point is, Doctor, we could use his help. He’s more of a hero than you realize.”

“Kirby speaks the truth,” said Meta Knight. “He’ll pull through when push comes to shove.”

“He kept the Beast Pack from the Forgotten Land off our backs so we could escape and defeat an eldritch horror,” said Bandee. “He’s a hero where it counts.”

“And if saving the life of even one of my loyal subjects means my sacrifice,” promised Dedede, “then I choose to die a King!”

“…I appreciate the sentiment,” said the Doctor, “but no one else is dying to feed the Angels today. Kirby, your Warp Star! We have to get to the TARDIS!”

“Right!” replied Kirby. He summoned the Warp Star and it took everyone back to Kirby’s house. Dedede blinked.

“That is your TARDIS, Doctor?” asked Meta Knight. “I thought it would blend in.”

“Broken Chameleon Circuit,” explained the Doctor.

“Looks kinda small,” remarked Dedede.

“If I got my new intelligence right,” said Kirby, “it’s not as snug as it looks.”

To say Dedede was gobsmacked about the inside of the TARDIS would be an understatement. Bandee was just as surprised. Meta Knight, having heard about a TARDIS before, wasn’t AS surprised, but was honored to be allowed inside one. “H…HOW?!” spluttered Dedede.

“Dimensional transcendentalism,” replied Kirby.

“It…It’s…bigger on the inside!” whispered Bandee.

“Like I said, dimensional transcendentalism.”

“Kirby, we have a lot of work to do,” said the Doctor. “Could you run your plan by Rassilon?”

“Sure thing. Rassilon? You good for pooling our experiences?”

“You can do that?” asked Rassilon. “I think your new Copy Ability is a bit overpowered.”

“Well, I’ll be giving it up when all this is over,” promised Kirby.

“Right, well,” sighed Rassilon, “we better get started. Contact.”

“Contact.” The Star Warrior and the Time Lord spoke telepathically.

“…Amy, you think the Doctor and Miss Tarae did that concerning the roboticized TARDIS?” William asked Amy.

“Probably. They were in there for a short time,” said Amy. “Too short for a verbal workshopping of the plan.”

“Kirby, that’s a great idea!” said Rassilon once she and Kirby were finished. “But we have to work fast. Doctor, where’s the parts storage?”

“William, take Rassilon to the parts storage,” directed the Doctor. “We have until the evening, considering the Angels like darkness.”

“What can we do in the meantime?” asked Meta Knight.

“You all can act as watchmen,” replied the Doctor. “Don’t engage the Angels, you hear? You come back inside the instant you see a wing!”

“Got it!” replied Dedede.

The work was taking a good chunk of the day. Night was starting to fall. King Dedede and Amy were outside with Bandee and Meta Knight standing at the door. By now, it was getting dark enough to risk flashlights. “…Why the heck does the Doctor call these things torches?” asked Dedede.

“I think it’s a British thing,” replied Amy. She then saw his confused face. “…From Great Britain, on Earth.”

“How big IS Earth?” muttered Dedede. …His light then flickered. “Erm, Amy!”

“Mine too!” gulped Amy. The lights came back on in time to see the outline of multiple Weeping Angels ready to strike!