It had been a week since Mars and the Time Lords were now talking again. The Doctor regretted everything and of course had already made up to the Time Lady. Everything was back to how it should have been.
"Sweetheart I did promise her." The Stone repeated for the tenth time that morning as she wondered around the TARDIS kitchen making her tea. "She hasn't seen me properly since you left her in Aberdeen." She grinned teasingly. "And then we never got to talk after the pepper pots tried to delete the universe."
"You helped me fly the TARDIS!" He protested.
"Ah but I never put the coordinates in sweetheart that was all you." She grinned at him.
"You're so rude." He pouted. "Everyone thinks your so nice but really your just rude. Rude and not ginger."
"Now I think you have forgotten that I actually have been ginger before." She smirked at him. "I don't act like a child when I'm not ginger."
"You will when you dislike vans."
"Sweetheart I will never dislike vans. The day I walk past a pair of vans and not steal them will be the day the world ends." She laughed. "Now back to the subject we are going to see Sarah Jane whether you like it or not."
"There is no getting out of this is there?" He raised a brow at her.
"Sweetheart, do you even know me?" She chuckled taking a sip of her tea.
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The Time Lords rushed around the console pulling levers as the TARDIS jolted and wheezed sounding in pain. Of course, a nice trip to see an old friend the Stone hadn't properly spoken to for years was in danger. After finding some information from a couple of neighbours they were as shocked as each other finding out that Sarah Jane was getting married. "I bet it is him." The Stone gritted her teeth. "Temporal schism." She groaned pulling a lever. I just hope Sarah is okay..."
"Stone don't you remember?" He smirked. "She has been fighting off aliens on Earth for a while now."
"You're not worried about her?" The Stone asked.
"Terrified." He looked at her before pulling another lever throwing them both to the floor. The TARDIS stopped jerking about and a moment later the Time Lords were standing in what looked like a hotel reception.
"If any person can show just cause or impediment why they may not be joined together, let them speak now or forever hold their peace." The Time Lords glanced at each other and sprinted inside throwing open the doors. "Stop this wedding now!" They both shouted.
"What?" Sarah Jane blinked.
"What's going on?" A woman asked.
"Who the hell are they?
"I don't believe it." Luke breathed staring at them both.
"Who are they?"
"Master! Mistress!" K-9 rolled out from under a table.
"We said, stop this wedding." The Doctor repeated his eyes on Sarah looking at her worryingly. A wind suddenly blew through the room.
"Alert! Alert!" K-9 shouted. "Danger, Mistress!"
"Stop!" The Stone shouted as the Doctor did at the same time. "Get away from him!"
"No!" Sarah Jane cried out. "Peter, no!"
"Don't be afraid, Sarah Jane. It's the Angel." He softly replied as a faceless figure in all white appeared.
"Why am I almost always right." The Stone groaned as the young girl in the pink dress shouted. "The Trickster!"
"Mum!" Luke shouted. "Mum!"
"Sarah!" The Time Lords screamed in unison. "Trickster, let her go!"
"Too late, Time Lords." He cackled. "You're mine, Sarah Jane Smith. Mine forever."
"Sarah!"
"Doctor! Stone!" Sarah Jane, Peter and the Trickster then vanished as did everyone else in the room leaving the three children and the Time Lords alone lying on the floor completely knocked out.
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The Doctor sat beside Luke as the Stone looked at the two other teenage humans unconscious on the floor. "Luke? Luke Smith."
"Doctor?" He slowly woke up opening his eyes to see the Time Lord grinning at him. "That's me. Good to see you again."
"Hello, Luke" the Stone beamed then looked back at the other two worryingly. They really should have woken up by now.
"What, what happened?" Luke looked around then shot up. "Mum and the Trickster."
"Luke, Luke, Luke, Luke, listen to me. Everything's going to be all right. The Stone and I can find Sarah. We can bring her back. I promise." He said. "But I need you to be strong for me, just like you were before. I know you can do it." The Stone gave the boy a reassuring nod as he looked over at her. She then looked at the boy wearing quite hilariously to the Stones amusement a suit that she thought looked like the Doctors pinstripe one.
"Who are you?" The boy blinked at the Stone then the Doctor.
"Hello, Clyde." The Doctor nodded. "And that will be Rani." He looked at the girl as she slowly woke up.
"What? How'd you know my name?" He sat up.
"Wait a moment. You must be... It's you, isn't it?"
"That's me." He beamed.
"The Doctor." She looked at him unsurely.
"That's him." Luke nodded.
"No one knows me then?" The Time Lady raised a brow.
"Wait... if he's the Doctor that means, you have to be her?" Rani looked at the blonde for a moment.. "You're the Stone."
"That's me." She nodded then jumped up helping the other two as the Doctor helped Luke up before he looked around as the Stone brushed herself off.
"I hope you're both as good as Sarah Jane says you are." Clyde looked at them.
"Well, you know journalists, always exaggerating. But yeah, I'm pretty amazing on a good day."
"Oi!" The Stone hit him around the head.
"She's even more amazing." He beamed at her knowing she didn't hit him around the head for what he said about Sarah Jane but because of his ego, something she had warned him about since the incident on Mars... she then smugly looked at him having to not scolded him a second time just because he had said something nice about her. "Nice save sweetheart." The Doctor winked at the blonde before K-9 rolled up to them.
"Master, Mistress Stone, query. Where is Mistress Sarah Jane?" He asked.
"K9!" The Doctor gleefully crouched down petting the robot dog. "Did you miss me. Did you miss me, eh?"
"Doctor he didn't see you that long ago" the Stone chuckled then bent down and patted the dog unable to help herself.
"Repeat. Whereabouts of Sarah Jane? Where is she?"
"Where are we?" Clyde asked gaining the Time Lords attention as they ran to a window looking out.
"There's been a dimensional shift. Time's moved on but us, and this entire building, we've been left behind." The Doctor explained.
"There's nothing out there."
"I said all along, I knew there was something wrong about all of this," Clyde said. "And what exactly is going on?"
"I'll explain later." The Doctor replied before the three began to speak all at once. The Doctor glanced at the Time Lady who looked at him before she jumped up standing on a chair. "Silence!" She shouted making the three stop. "Thank you" she nodded jumping off the chair and brushing where she stood on it. "Don't think I have had to silence children like that since mine argued. That was centuries ago." She muttered to herself. "I am getting old."
"You look beautiful for 906 dear." The Doctor grinned pecking her lips.
"As do you look handsome." She warmly smiled at him then remembered who was in the room and lightly coughed as they gaped at her. "Yes, we are 906 no we do not moisturise." She shivered. "Face products like that and my skin do not agree with each other, anyways." She coughed again. "Doctor, I believe you may have the answers to all their problems, clearly I have spoken enough."
"I think it's adorable when you ramble." He remarked then turned to the three. "As the Stone said here's the answer to all your questions. Yes, that was the Trickster. Yes, we're trapped. Yes, The Stone and I are the only two who can get us out of the trap. Yes, we're going to bring Sarah Jane, and your mum and dad," he nodded over at Rani, "and all the others back safe, but we can't do any of it without you."
Clyde blinked at them both. "You, you need us?"
"Just like Sarah Jane needs you." The Stone nodded.
"My mum and dad," Rani looked at them with worry. "Where are they?"
"Just go along with them, Rani. I saw them save the world."
"You helped us save the world, Lukey boy. Right. Come on, we can use the TARDIS." The Doctor walked off then paused. "I assume everybody knows what the TARDIS is,"
"Unless you've really not been paying attention. Or Sarah Jane just hasn't told you." The Stone added.
With the three staring at them both the Doctor nodded. "And, allons-y!" He ran out then skidded to a stop and froze waving his hand where the TARDIS while had now disappeared once stood.
"Oh, no, no, no, no. It was there. It was right there. Wait, wait, wait." He stepped back pulling the Stone with him who held out her arms in front of the other children not letting them past as the TARDIS started to materialise.
"That noise." Rani frowned. "I've heard it before."
"That was us, trying to break through. Got knocked back by the Trickster." The Doctor answered watching the blue box.
"Temporal schism is preventing TARDIS materialisation."
"Wait a minute. That's the TARDIS?" Clyde blinked not looking impressed. "It's just a wooden box."
"You'll be surprised." The Stone muttered as the Doctor cheered the machine on. "Come on, you can do it. More power. Come on!" He shouted a moment before the TARDIS faded away.
"Okay, got no TARDIS." The Doctor muttered. "It can't materialise here until time moves forward."
"What, so we're trapped here, wherever this is?"
"No. Because what have we got?" He looked around." then grinned at the Stone. "We've got K9."
"Affirmative."
"And we've got you three." The Stone looked at them. "And any friend of Sarah Jane Smith is a friend of mine." The Stone nodded.
"Any friend of Sarah Jane and my wife is a friend of mine." The Doctor grinned.
"But where is this?" Clyde looked around. "What's happened to the rest of the world?"
"Our present location nowhere, no when," K-9 answered.
"No when?"
"Look at the clocks." The Doctor instructed.
"Time's stopped," Rani said staring at a clock.
"What?" Clyde blinked. "You're joking."
"No. Time hasn't stopped." Luke shook his head. "This second's on a loop. Twenty-three seconds and twenty-three minutes past three o'clock."
"And we're caught inside it." The Doctor said as the Stone cut in. "In this one second."
"But again," Clyde frowned. "Where is Sarah Jane?"
"I think she's right here." The Stone hummed in thought before crouching to the ground as the Doctor did the same. "Sweetheart don't lick the floor." She warned knowing he was most likely thinking of it.
"Who do you take me for, dear?" He looked up smirking.
"Hopefully my best friend." She laughed. "And my husband."
The Doctor beamed at her comment as Clyde looked at them both. "You're both 906 and flirting... their 906 and flirting with each other.." He wrinkled his nose.
"And?" Rani looked at him. "I find it hilarious." She laughed. "They say, young love, this is old."
"Did I just get called old?" The Stone looked at the Doctor.
"I think you did dear." He nodded at her. "Best not call her old." He whispered to the three. "It doesn't end well, trust me I made that mistake centuries ago."
Rani nodded before frowning starting to stare at the clocks "So we've been kept behind in this second."
"Affirmative Mistress Rani," K-9 answered.
"But the rest of the world, Mum and Dad and everyone else, they've moved on from here, forwards in time. Why has the Trickster trapped us here?"
"Oh, come on, Rani." The Doctor rolled his eyes making the Stone hit his arm giving him a scolding look. "You know the answer to that."
"We're Sarah Jane's friends, all of us." She said. "Her best friends."
"Yeah. Which means?"
"Hostages." She realised. "He can use us to get at her."
"We've met the Trickster before, but we've never found out who he is," Clyde said looking at both Time Lords hoping that they knew.
"The Trickster is a creature from beyond the universe." The Doctor started to explain. "Forever trying to break into our reality, manifest himself. He's one of the Pantheon of Discord."
"That's a good name for a band." The boy said in thought.
"Yeah, actually, not bad." The Doctor nodded as the Stone frowned a little then shook her head.
"He's an eternal exile, who exists to wreak havoc. " The Time Lady cut in.
"But we can fight him, the six of us. And we can win." The Doctor and the Stones sonics then started to beep.
"Oh look at that." She hummed.
"Oh! Ha, that's it. A time trace." The Doctor beamed looking between his own sonic and the Stones. "Just a hint of Sarah Jane. Ooo, she's close."
The Time Lords looked at their sonics trying to pinpoint the location of Sarah Jane while Rani shivered. "What was that?" She looked up. "Felt like someone just walked over my grave."
"Oh, oh, oh, she's here." The Stone started to back up.
"She's here!" The Doctor shouted. "Sarah!"
"Sarah Jane." Rani corrected. "She doesn't like being called Sarah."
"She does by us. K9?"
"Scanning, Master."
"Doctor, Stone!"
"Mum." Luke shot up, "That was her."
"K9, isolate the time trace." The Stone ordered.
"Affirmative, Mistress."
"K9?" The Doctor asked.
"Temporal schism divided in two, Master."
"Yes, of course." He slowly nodded. "We're trapped here in 3:23:23."
"And Sarah Jane's trapped 3:23:22, just in another second." The Stone cut in.
"Hold on. You said you'd explain later." Clyde pointed at the Doctor. "Well, it's later. Please explain."
"The Trickster doesn't want us helping Sarah, so he's separated us, trapped us in two different seconds."
"Doctor!"
"Oh, oh, she's upstairs." The Doctor looked at his sonic which continued to beep while the Stone started to already head upstairs. "Come on. Luke, K9, watch for the TARDIS, you see it coming back, shout the place down."
"Orders accepted, Master." The dog replied.
"You two with us. Spit spot."
They ran up the stairs the Stone checking her sonic before opening the door groaning as Rani frowned. "Of course."
"How did we end up here again?" Rani asked.
"It's a spatial loop mixed up with a temporal loop." The Stone answered at the same time Clyde did making her blink at the boy.
"How did you work that one out?" Rani asked him as the Doctor smirked at the Time Lady.
"Well, we've been doing this for a while now." He shrugged fixing his tie. "I have taken notes."
"I'm quite impressed, you kept up with my speed, usually only the Doctor can do it."
She nodded as he wandered around the room muttering to himself. "Come on, come on, come on, Sarah. Let me find you."
"Hang on, though." Rani looked at the Time lady messing with her own sonic. "This is mad. The Trickster, he's this all-powerful immortal who wants to cause chaos throughout the stars, and he wants Sarah Jane to get married. What does he get out of that?"
"If she's here. If I can narrow the link ratio." The Time Lady muttered lightly hitting her sonic once more before looking up.
"Doctor, Stone." They saw the Trickster in black.
"Ah. You look better in black." The Doctor commented. "Or is white the new black?"
"No I think it is orange is the new black, or is it too early to make a reference of that... 2013... this is 2009 no too early for a reference ignore everything I just said..."
"You're rambling dear." The Doctor fondly smiled at the Time Lady.
The Trickster then snapped their focus back "At last. Doctor, Stone. I could feel this moment reverberating back through the ages. The meeting of the Pantheon of Discord and the last of the Time Lords."
"I've known the legends of the Pantheon since I was a little boy." The Doctor said, the Time Lady remembering hearing about them before witnessing it herself. "I've fought your shadows and your changelings. I never thought we'd actually meet."
"And I know the legends of the Doctor and the Stone. The man of ice and fire and the woman of darkness and stone, the two who walked among gods, the man who once held the Key to Time in his hands and the woman who helped to build the weapon that destroyed her own people. Now they are surrounded by children."
"They're our friends." The Time Lady glared. "Speaking of which that reminds me that you're looking a bit lonely for a Pantheon."
The Doctor snorted at her comment, the way she was wondering around completely owning the place. To be honest it made her look completely brilliant. "I embody multitudes. And who are you, the man who has lost everybody, to laugh at me about loneliness, when the Gate is waiting for you?"
"What do you mean?" He frowned.
"Sarah Jane Smith is my prize. Even you, Doctor, didn't realise how wonderful she is."
"What do you want with her?" He frowned further.
"What I always want from any of those I visit. Her agreement. Goodbye, Doctor, Stone." He then vanished as the blonde continued to pace around the room thinking. "Her agreement... her agreement... her agreement!" She looked up as the Doctor blinked then realised what she shouted about.
"The power of words!" He looked at her. "She says I do, and. Yes, that's it!"
"That's what?" Clyde looked at them.
"She promises to love and honour her husband, the wedding ring goes on and then she's agreed to it."
The Stone then cut him off continuing to explain. "She's totally under the Trickster's power. Marital bliss, but she forgets all about this. She starts living a new life."
"Forgetting about her old life protecting the Earth," Rani added.
"And the planet's wide open, so aliens can just barge in?"
"Without Sarah, without you lot saving the world from your attic in Ealing, there'll be chaos and destruction." The Doctor explained. "Meat and drink to the Trickster."
"As if she's gonna say yes." Clyde scoffed.
"But she will, won't she." The Doctor said. "Because we're here."
The Time Lords looked up jolting their heads and beaming hearing the TARDIS engine. "TARDIS!" They gleamed.
"Beautiful. Yes! It's homing in on us." He gestured to himself and the Stone. "Emergency program, protecting the pilot, well piolets." He beamed at the Time Lady who hadn't denied that they shared the TARDIS since they were married. "Of course. Partial materialisation."
"What's happening?" Luke ran in.
"Look, that's pure artron energy." The Doctor said pointing at the blue electrical like energy sparking around the TARDIS.
"It's basically TARDIS power. Equal and opposite to the Trickster's power."
"And that's how we can fight him." He took the Stones hand and unlocked the door shouting at the others as he headed inside pulling the Stone in with him. "Run!" There was a large gust of wind pushing the three back as the Doctor and the Stone held out their hands to help pull them in. "Doctor, Stone!" Rani shouted.
"Come on, all of you, get in!" The Doctor shouted over the wind. "Come on now." He grabbed Clyde's hand and tried to pull him in before the door slammed shut.
"Well, that didn't work." The Stone muttered as the Doctor brought her into a tight hug.
"You okay?" He asked.
"Doctor I'm fine." She chuckled. "If you meant the Trickster then it doesn't matter it's trying to get under my skin and will definitely have to try harder than that to get past me."
The Doctor beamed quickly kissing her before running to the console pulling a lever.
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"Ouch." The Stone shrivelled her face reading the monitor. "Clyde hit the TARDIS after the door closed." She said as the Doctor joined resting his head on her shoulder. "That's got to hurt." She muttered then blinked as it changed. "He's doing what?"
"Sarah Janes friends, they are brilliant." He grinned.
"Rani reminds me of how Lila used to be." She chuckled then ran around the console. "Time to see Sarah?"
"Time to see Sarah." He nodded before she pulled the lever. The Doctor opened the door
"Sarah." They both shouted in unison the Doctor opening the door his head just above the Stones seeing Sarah standing looking terrified and heartbroken.
"Doctor, Stone."
"Got to be quick. The TARDIS can't stabilise. Clyde's keeping the Trickster busy for the moment." The Stone winced thinking about how much that has to hurt.
"Oh, those three are just brilliant." The Doctor grinned.
"Doctor, Stone, what can I do?" She asked. "If I say no, we're trapped here forever. If I say yes, I condemn the world to the Trickster. Either way, I lose. There's no way out."
"It all rests with you, Sarah." The Doctor told her.
"Your greatest challenge."
"The hardest thing you'll ever face in your life."
"What is it?" She begged looking at them. "Tell me what I've got to do."
"You've fought the Trickster before." The Doctor said. "You know how he operates, how he can be defeated."
He then looked over at Peter the Stone slowly did the same as Sarah Jane gasped. "Oh, no. No."
"I know you're a good man, Peter." The Doctor sadly looked at him. "I'm so sorry."
Clyde and the Trickster suddenly appeared screaming with Artron energy around them. "Clyde!" Sarah Jane shouted looking at him.
"I... can't... hold.. it..."
The Doctor threw the doors closed the TARDIS unable to hold it much longer. "We have to go to the Luke and Rani." The Stone said running to the console.
"Second that." He quickly followed them both running around the console before running out the TARDIS seeing the two there with K-9. They heard the voices of Sarah Jane and Peter and quickly ran in.
"Mum," Luke shouted running to her side and crouching down beside her as Clyde lay on the floor. Rani quickly followed taking her right as the Doctor went beside Sarah Jane's and Ranis left placing his arms around them with the Stone doing the same to Sarah Jane and Luke. "Doctor. Oh, Stone." She sobbed.
"Our Sarah Jane." The Time Lords both looked at her the Stone gently rubbing the woman's shoulder. "You did it. The trap's broken."
"Time's moving forward again, We're going home." The Doctor said.
"Hold on!" Luke called.
"We're all going home."
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With the Doctor and the Stone in the TARDIS due to time going back a few seconds with them never bursting in on the wedding, they set the coordinates for Sarah Janes famous attic they heard about the last time they had seen her. The Stone chuckled as they walked to the door overhearing the woman joke about them both sneaking off. The Doctor grinned and opened one door as the Time Lady opened the other.
"What do you take us for, Sarah?" He joked. "Just thought we'd go the quick way."
"Ooo, I like it in here." The Stone looked around poking her head out the doors. "Sort of reminds me of my old TARDIS." She tilted her head in thought.
"It does actually." he nodded. "Then again your seventh body was quite untidy."
"Me untidy?" She scoffed. "Need I remind you of... actually there are children present best not." She pursed her lips as the Doctor snapped his eyes over at her before she burst out laughing clutching her sides.
"You never change." Sarah Jane looked over at her.
"A little bit." She shrugged. "Still me though."
"Can we have a look?" Rani then looked up at the Doctor and the Stone as he started to wonder about.
"What, in the TARDIS?" The Doctor looked at her. "My Tardis!" He raised his voice as the Stone held her hand over her mouth leaning against the TARDIS. "Course you can, yeah." He nodded smiling as the three ran inside. "Haven't had a joke like that since my children." He whispered in the Stones ear slowly walking inside. "I'm getting old."
"Still handsome." She grinned.
"Still beautiful." He winked at her as the three spun around taking it all in wondering around the console. "Oh, wow. It really is, isn't it? It's bigger on the inside."
"It's beautiful." Rani breathed.
"Transcendental dimensions," Luke explained after the Stone explained to him a little bit about the TARDIS when he was at the wedding.
"Wow, what does this do?" Clyde went to touch the console.
"Hey, don't touch," Sarah warned. "You came all that way for me."
"You're so important."
"Not just to us." The Stone added.
"The Trickster wanted to end your story, but it goes on. The things you've done, Sarah, they're pretty impressive, but, oh, the things you're going to do."
"The future," Luke muttered. "How about we could go for a ride?"
"Or back. To the dinosaurs, yeah?" Clyde asked.
"Another planet?"
"No way." Sarah Jane looked between the three. "For one thing, you were grounded by the Judoon." She said making the Doctor blinked. It was certainly an interesting story that Sarah had told the Time Lady at her wedding after Luke had asked about going to another planet. "And your parents would never forgive me. Go on." She waved them away. They agreed and left the TARDIS before she turned to the Time Lords leaning against the console.
"Is this the last time I'm ever going to see you both?" She asked.
"I don't know." The Doctor said then looked over at the Stone who looked at Sarah Jane.
"I hope not."
"Goodbye, Doctor, Stone, until the next time."
"Don't forget us, Sarah Jane."
"No one's ever going to forget you two." She softly smiled then left closing the door. The Doctor turned and pulled the lever sending them off into the Vortex.
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Only four more chapters to go until series five eeeek I'm so excited I've just started writing series seven with Clara and I am so happy with how it is turning out, hopefully I will get a ton of editing done over the Christmas holidays so I can spend more time writing and getting chapters out for everyone. My plan is too have the first chapter of series out Christmas day (this depends on if I do have time to edit everything for then since I do still have work during the holidays) fingers crossed this happens, if not then the first episode of series five will be out on new years day.
Merry Christmas everyone! <3