𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝘾𝙤𝙣𝙨𝙚𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚𝙨 𝙊𝙛 𝙏𝙞𝙢𝙚 ✧ 𝘽𝙤𝙤𝙠 Ⅱ [✓]

The Next Doctor Pt. 3

"Doctor! I thought you were dead!" Rosita says hugging the next Doctor.

"Now then, Rosita. A little decorum."

"You've been gone for so long. He's always doing this, leaving me behind. Going frantic" Rosita says to the Doctor and {Y/N}.

"What about the TARDIS?"

"Oh, she's ready. Come on" Rosita starts pulling the next Doctor behind her.

"I'm looking forward to this" the Doctor says.

*Time skip*

A while later they arrive at the stables which have no horses inside. The stalls have been converted into the next Doctor's living space.

"You were right though, Rosita. The Reverend Fairchild's death was the work of the Cybermen."

"So, you live here?" {Y/N} asks looking around.

"A temporary base, until we rout the enemy. The TARDIS is magnificent, but it's hardly a home."

"And where's the TARDIS now?" the Doctor asks.

"In the yard."

"Er, what's all this luggage?" {Y/N} asks.

"Evidence. The property of Jackson Lake, the first man to be murdered. Oh, but my new friends are fighters, Rosita, much like myself. They faced the Cybermen with a cutlass. I'm not ashamed to say, they were braver than I. They were quite brilliant" the Doctor scans the luggage.

"Are you whistling again?"

"Yes. Yes, I am, yeah. Yeah" the Doctor mouths shush to Rosita as he puts the sonic screwdriver back in his pocket and {Y/N} takes a suitcase off the pile.

"That's another man's property" Rosita says.

"Well, a dead man's" {Y/N} says as she opens the suitcase.

"How did you two meet, then?" the Doctor asks.

"He saved my life. Late one night, by the Osterman's Wharf, this creature came out of the shadows. A man made of metal. I thought I was going to die. And then, there he was. The Doctor. Can you two help him? He has such terrible dreams. Wakes at night in such a state of terror" Rosita says.

"Come now, Rosita. With all the things, a Time Lord has seen, everything he's lost, he may surely have bad dreams."

"Yeah. Oh, now. Look. Jackson Lake had an infostamp" the Doctor says looking over {Y/N}'s shoulder.

"But how? Is that significant?"

"Doctor, the answer to all this is in your TARDIS. Can I see it?" {Y/N} asks.

"Mrs Smith, it would be my honour" they walk into the yard "there she is. My transport through time and space. The TARDIS."

"You've got a balloon" {Y/N} says.

"TARDIS. T A R D I S. It stands for Tethered Aerial Release Developed In Style. Do you see?"

"Well, I do now. I like it. Good TARDIS. Brilliant. Nice one. And is it inflated by gas, yeah?" {Y/N} asks.

"We're adjacent to the Mutton Street Gasworks. I pay them a modest fee. Good work, Jed" he slaps a strapping young man on the shoulder and hands him a big five-pound note.

"Glad to be of service, sir."

"You've got quite a bit of money" the Doctor says.

"Oh, you get nothing for nothing. How's that ripped panel, Jed?"

"All repaired. Should work a treat. You never know, maybe tonight's the night, Doctor. Imagine it, seeing Christmas from above."

"Not just yet, I think. One day, I will ascend. One day soon" Jed leaves.

"You've never actually been up?" the Doctor asks.

"He dreams of leaving, but never does" Rosita says.

"I can depart in the TARDIS once London is safe. And finally, when I'm up there. Think of it, John and Mary. The time and the space."

"The perfect escape. Do you ever wonder what you're escaping from?" {Y/N} asks.

"With every moment."

"Then do you want me to tell you? Because I think I've worked it out now. How you became The Doctor. What do you think? Do you want to know?" {Y/N} asks.

*Time skip*

"The story begins with the Cybermen. A long time away, and not so far from here, the Cybermen were fought, and they were beaten. And they were sent into a howling wilderness called The Void, locked inside forever more. But then a greater battle rose up, so great that everything inside the Void perished. But, as the walls of the world weakened, the last of the Cybermen must have fallen through the dimensions, back in time, to land here. And they found you" the Doctor says.

"I fought them, I know that. But what happened?"

"At the same time, another man came to London. Mister Jackson Lake. Plenty of luggage, money in his pocket. Maybe coming to town for the winter season, I don't know. But he found the Cybermen too. And just like you, exactly like you, he took hold of an infostamp" {Y/N} says.

"But he's dead. Jackson Lake is dead. The Cybermen murdered him."

"You said no body was ever found" the Doctor says.

"And you kept all his suitcases, but you could never bring yourself to open them. I told you the answer was in the fob watch. Can I see?" {Y/N} asks, the next Doctor hands the watch to {Y/N}. The case is plain except for two initials "J L. The watch is Jackson Lake's."

"Jackson Lake is you, sir?" Rosita says.

"But I'm the Doctor."

"You became the Doctor because the infostamp you picked up was a book about one particular man" the Doctor projects the infostamp onto the wall.

"The Cybermen's database. Stolen from the Daleks inside the Void, I'd say, but it's everything you could want to know about the Doctor" {Y/N} says, the images get to number ten.

"That's you two" Lake says.

"Time Lords, TARDIS, enemies of the Cybermen. The one and the only. You see, the infostamp must have backfired. Streamed all that information about me right inside your head" the Doctor says.

"I am nothing but a lie."

"No, no, no, no, no. Infostamps are just facts and figures. All that bravery. Saving Rosita, defending London town, hmm? And the invention. Building a TARDIS. That's all you" {Y/N} says.

"And what else? Tell me what else."

"There's still something missing, isn't there?" the Doctor asks.

"I demand you tell me, sir. Tell me what they took."

"Sorry. Really, I am so sorry, but that's an awful lot of luggage for one man. Because an infostamp is plain technology" the Doctor says.

"It's not enough to make a man lose his mind. What you suffered is called a fugue. A fugue state, where the mind just runs away because it can't bear to look back. You wanted to become someone else, because Jackson Lake had lost so much" {Y/N} says, a church bell tolls the hours.

"Midnight. Christmas Day" Rosita says.

"I remember. Oh, my God. Caroline. They killed my wife. They killed her" the infostamp beeps. The button on the end is lit up. And there are more of them in a trunk.

"Oh, you found a whole cache of infostamps" the Doctor says.

"But what is it? What's that noise?"

"Activation. A call to arms. The Cybermen are moving!" the Doctor and {Y/N} run outside, and see marching shadows against a wall.

"The Doctor and {Y/N} need help. I learnt that much about them. There should be someone at their side. Now go. Go" Rosita leaves, Lake behind running after the Doctor and {Y/N}.

---

~Bread 🍞