The End of the Universe (Doctor Who fanific)

Chapter 11

"Hang on, are we really doing this?" Nine asked.

Six shrugged, "Like he said, why not? It's worth a try. We certainly can't make it any worse."

"I just have one question," Seven said. "How did you bring us here?"

"I knew that only one being could work something of this magnitude," the universe answered. "I have watched you, Doctor, through all your lives. You are the only one who could help me so I reached across time and space and led you here."

"I told you it was mind control," Three said petulantly.

"It wassss not control!" The universe exclaimed. "I do not have that power. I am everything, and everything is me. The thought was mine, and therefore also yours "

"Doesn't that undermine free will?" Eight asked. "If all our thoughts are really your thoughts?"

"If I have free will, then so do you," the universe said. "So do all creatures within my boundaries. We are all one."

Nine, to everyone's surprise, smiled, "Universe, I think you and I are starting to understand each other."

"I agree," the universe said.

"Yes, but why all of us?" the War Doctor asked. "Surely, if you found the oldest of us, he would have all the knowledge and experience necessary. You hardly needed to pluck thirteen of us out of our times and bring us all here."

There was an odd noise, the engines grinding quickly, and they looked at each other in confusion. "Is that laughter?" Three asked, somewhat affronted.

"Genius you may be, Doctor, greater than any who has lived within my boundaries," the universe said, sounding amused. "But this problem is more than any one person can solve, even you. I found as many of you as I could before my time ran out."

"Left it a bit late, didn't you?" Ten asked. "I mean, you had centuries when you knew this was coming. Did you have to leave it until the last few minutes?"

"You were not an easy man to find, Doctorrrrr," the universe answered. "Running about in time as much as you did."

"Yes, about that, in future, just use the psychic paper," Eleven said, holding it up. "Receives messages from anywhere in time and space. Much less fuss than all this."

"Psychic paper?" Three asked. "What an extraordinary invention!"

"Do you mean people can send you messages, track you down all over the cosmos on that thing?" Four asked disdainfully.

"Sometimes," Eleven answered defensively. "The universe is right about one thing, we're not exactly easy to find if someone needs to."

"Well, exactly. That's the point," Four said. "I don't want people sending me all over the universe doing their dirty work!"

"Hmm, I must say, I'm glad I didn't have that gadget in my time," Three said. "The Brigadier would have been calling me night and day!" He and Four grinned at each other, and Six looked up.

"Wasn't he doing that anyway? I seem to remember him summoning me all over Britain every time he couldn't handle something."

"If we could stay on task, please," Two said pointedly, glaring at his successor, who made a face back at him.

They began to pace around the room one by one, each Doctor occasionally throwing out an idea and then taking it back when it proved to be unworkable.

"We could send out a signal that instructs the universe to stop collapsing," Two suggested half-heartedly. "There might be some mechanism that's causing all this."