“I see what’s going on here!” chuckled the Doctor. “The Kree/Skrull/Shi’ar Mutual Defense Compact of the 29th century has kept you on the back foot in your war against the Sontarans!”
“That is a lie!” argued the Rutan.
“Is it?” replied the Doctor. “You still haven’t regained the space you once controlled in this time and it won’t change for about eight centuries. The only advance you’ve made in that span of time is you don’t need to dissect someone to shapeshift into them.”
“The Glorious Rutan Army is making a series of strategic withdrawals to selected strong points!”
“Oh, sweet Chaos!” complained Amy. “It was unimpressive when the Daleks said it, it’s REALLY unimpressive when YOU say it!”
“Your mockery will cease, mammal,” retorted the Rutan, “when the mighty Rutan Battle Fleet finally occupies this planet!”
“One, if what the Doctor said is true, why did you dissect those poor people?” asked William. “Two, why invade us? We’re pretty obscure in the 21st century.”
“Your planet is obscure, yes,” answered the Rutan, “but its strategic position is sound. We shall use it as a launch point for our glorious final assault against the Sontaran dogs!”
“I need this planet!” snarled Veranke. “If you set up a power base here, the Sontarans will bombard the planet with photonic missiles and reduce it to a lifeless rock and the prophecy-!”
“Was abandoned by our time,” interrupted the Rutan.
“…You lie!”
“It doesn’t,” replied the Doctor. “You Skrulls and the Kree end your war in a stalemate, then two centuries later, you both enter into a mutual defense compact, then you add the Shi’ar to that compact three centuries after that. As for you, Rutan, Veranke’s objections to the Sontarans-.”
“Are as unimportant as what the Sontarans will do,” said the Rutan. “It will serve the cause of our inevitable final victory.”
“And what about its people?”
“Primitive bipeds with no value. The planets of this solar system have been scouted, even the dwarf planet. Earth still suits our purpose in this time.” The Doctor’s face darkened.
“I can understand your military purposes,” she continued, “but why murder helpless humans?”
“It is necessary,” replied the Rutan. “Veranke’s return to the fleet will end all negotiations with the Rutan Host. She must die and Earth will pay the price.”
“But she’s alive,” chuckled the Doctor. “You killed two innocent people to try and get close to her, but she’s now in a position to do something to ensure she survives! You failed!”
“Failed?! The records device accurately tells us when she would leave Earth! We have plenty of time, even with you interfering, Doctor!”
“You don’t know that, you know,” remarked the Doctor. “The records device only says that she left Earth and ended negotiations, it doesn’t give an exact date and time.” Electricity crackled as the Rutan became annoyed.
“That is unimportant!” it insisted. “As long as Veranke is here, our mission will be accomplished!”
“I’m sorry to disappoint you, oyster face,” chuckled the Doctor, “but I have a few ideas on how to send you back.”
“You cannot enact them, Doctor! We are NOT entering your time ship!”
“You can’t be certain that my plans involve my TARDIS.”
“What else could your plans involve, Time Lord?” asked the Rutan.
“Well, if you’ll follow us, we’ll show you!” laughed the Doctor as she rushed to the commons room balcony door. Her friends and Veranke followed and the Rutan, driven by their mission to kill Veranke and the Doctor, followed them. When they got outside, the Doctor’s group blinked as they saw strange machinery along the exterior frame of the door.
“What’s that?” asked Storm.
“Time cage,” replied the Doctor. “Works like so!” The instant the Rutan entered the threshold, the Doctor switched the machine on and projected an energy field, trapping the Rutan in it. “There we go!” said the Doctor. “With that, you should be frozen there until I can send you back!”
“You will regret this, Doctor!” retorted the Rutan. “The Records Device has already been mass produced in our time! Every Rutan is equipped with one! You send us back to the 29th century and another will take our place! For the glory of our race! Long live the RutaaAARRGGHHAAAAAAAAA!” The Rutan’s head was starting to shrivel!
“What?!” yelped the Doctor. “That’s not what I-!” She whirled around to see Veranke altering the settings. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” She leapt at Veranke and tried to get her away from the controls!
“GET OFF ME, TIME LORD!” shouted Veranke. By the time the Doctor got Veranke away from the controls, the Rutan had crumbled into dust. The Doctor switched the machine off too little, too late. Her attempt at mercy was subverted. She stormed up to Veranke.
“That wasn’t necessary!” she snarled.
“Don’t even try to be squeamish about death, Doctor,” retorted Veranke. “It follows you everywhere.”
“Not by choice, I can assure you,” hissed the Doctor. “I try to PREVENT death, even the deaths of my enemies!”
“That must be why the Daleks still plague the universe.”
“Do you really think that the universe will be a better place if we all just resorted to killing our enemies or enslaving them?!” The Doctor was using the entire balcony as her stage. “Just look at these people!” She pointed to her friends. “They were met with cruelty and heard that a person needs to be cruel to survive a cruel world and do you know what they said?! They said ‘No’! They know, deep down, that continuing to keep the world cruel won’t make things better! William treated Trakis even though, not ten minutes before that, I intercepted a shot meant for him! Amy Rose, I’m sure she’s tempted to cave Eggman’s head in, but she always holds her hammer blows back! Lurra Rus, she sent anti-Imperial articles around her old galaxy and it caused the fall of the Empire! Storm, she’s saving lives despite a good chunk of those live hating her for having the X Gene! Black Panther, he’s the king of a nation that, despite its technological advances, is poo-poo’d because his nation is part of a continent that everyone else associates with primitives! Despite ALL those setbacks, they STILL choose kindness because they’re sick of a cruel world and want to see a kind one take its place! And they do it by CONVINCING people that they’re right! By winning hearts and minds! They don’t force people to adopt their views and they sure as hell don’t point a gun to their heads and tell them to believe in what they say for their own good or they’d kill them! …Veranke, all I ask is that you see things from their perspective.” Veranke simply looked at the Doctor with a cold look.
“…You held my gaze during your speech, I’ll grant you that,” the Skrull Queen finally said. “You looked me directly in the eyes, so I know you believe you’re telling me the truth. So let me give you that same courtesy as I tell you now; every single letter you strung together and vocalized…was nothing more than sheer idiocy!” The Doctor’s friends stepped back. “You said so yourself, they hate that the world is cruel and are trying to change it. Yet you’re telling me that they’re NOT forcing others to accept their view? Don’t be ridiculous. If they had the power to change the world, they would exercise that power by any means necessary! If they’re just giving speeches, or simply gathering for protests…then they’re NOT exercising that power, otherwise the current regime they hate would be destroyed! They’d solve the problem all at once!”
“You really think us chipping away at the problem ISN’T solving it in the long run?” asked Storm. “I’m sorry, but the Doctor’s speech reaffirmed that what I’m doing IS right.”
“That speech did the same for me,” said William.
“And me,” declared Amy.
“And me!” called Lurra Rus.
“Veranke, from one monarch to another,” said the Black Panther, “protests and speeches are the first step to change, but they’re damn big ones.”
“…Wakanda is doomed to failure if its king believes that,” scoffed Veranke. “Now, I’m going back to my shuttle, I’m going to expose Rutan treachery, and I’m going to make sure we never make the mistake of allying with the Kree or the Shi’ar!”
“Back to the shuttle and exposing Rutan treachery, I won’t interfere with,” replied the Doctor. “However…you DO know too much about the future, so…” The Doctor then pressed her pointer and ring fingers against Veranke’s forehead. Veranke gasped, then collapsed. “…That was desperate of me,” muttered the Doctor.
“What did you do?” asked Lurra Rus.
“I removed the bits about future events from her mind,” explained the Doctor. “Although, I went too hard and put her into mental shock. Non fatal and she won’t remember the Rutan having come from the 29th century. But we need to put her and her aide’s body onto that shuttle.” She then scanned Veranke’s belongings. “Aha! Teleport recall!”
By the time Veranke’s shuttle left, bringing Veranke and her aide’s body back to the Skrull fleet, the Doctor was returning to the TARDIS. She saw Amy and Lurra Rus waiting by the door while William and Skarla were sitting on the couch. “…You aren’t coming?” the Doctor asked William.
“I still have work to do here,” replied William. “People to heal, protests to organize, speeches to make for a better future, a girlfriend to look after here,” he patted Skarla’s hand lovingly, prompting a giggle from the Super Skrull. “I’m swamped. Oh, Storm and the Black Panther have already departed for Wakanda. They wanted me to tell you ‘Good luck’.”
“…I wish the same for them and you, William, Skarla,” said the Doctor as she smiled.
“Doctor,” said Lurra Rus, “I’ve been hearing a lot about Mobius from Amy and I decided…I want to live there. In Amy’s time.” The Doctor smiled widely.
“She’ll be returning home the long way around,” she advised.
“Oh, I already told her,” replied Amy.
“Well then, what are we waiting for?” asked the Doctor as she opened the TARDIS doors. She and her team then entered the box and shut the doors behind them. The TARDIS then flashed its lamp and its mighty, ancient engines made their familiar “VWORP VWORP” noise as it faded away.
“Goodbye, Doctor!” called William. “And good luck again!”