Last chapter for the Christmas special! Sorry, it's so long 14,939 words in total... I think that's my longest in total which is why it is four parts. After this, we get to meet Donna again, yay!
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"Wow. " the Doctor and Rita looked at the large ring like object above them. "Now that is what you call a fixer upper."
"Can't you ever use real words?" Rita asked raising her brows at him.
"You like it really." He winked at her then turned to the Host around them. "Come on then, Host with the most, this ultimate authority of yours. Who is it?"
They watched as the Host walked over and opened a pair of thick doors.
"Omnistate impact chamber." Rita said the Doctor nodded. "Indestructible."
"You can survive anything in there. Sit through a supernova. Or a shipwreck." The Doctor watched as a shadowy figure started to roll out. "Only one person can have the power and the money to hide themselves on board like this and I should know, because..."
"...My name is Max." A voice spoke as a large fork lift with a head came out of of the shadows the only thing not robotic about the man being his head. Max flashed a grin and his tooth glinted.
"It really does that." The Doctor and Rita raised a brow.
"Who the hell are they?" Max looked to the Host.
"I'm the Doctor and this is the Stone." He gestured to Rita. "Hello." They both waved at Max
"Information. Stowaways."
"Well." The Doctor shrugged glancing at Rita who then shrugged at him.
"Kill them." Max instructed. The Host then began to take off their halos as the Doctor stepped forward holding out his arms in front of him and Rita."Oh, no, no, no. Wait, but you can't. Not now. Come on, Max. You've given me so much good material like." He looked around.
"How to get ahead in business." Rita joked as the Doctor started to nod.
"See? Head?" The Doctor asked. "Head in business? The Stone is funny." They tried to laugh at Max who just stared at them. "No?"
"Oh, ho, ho, the office joker." Max looked at her. "I like a funny woman. No one's been funny with me for years."
"Sorry Max." Rita pursed her lips. "I like someone else." She gestured to the Doctor grinning.
"I can't think why." The Doctor muttered rubbing the back of his head.
"A hundred and seventy-six years of running the company have taken their toll." Max sighed bringing the conversation back on topic.
"Yeah but, nice wheels." The Doctor commented looking down at the vehicle
"No, a life support system" Max corrected them, "in a society that despises cyborgs. I've had to hide away for years, running the company by hologram." Max looked at the Host. "Host, situation report."
"Information. Titanic is still in orbit."
"Let me see." He demanded rolling forward and looking down below. "We should have crashed by now. What's gone wrong?" He asked. "The engines are still running! They should have stopped!" He then shouted moving back. The Doctor and Rita walked up looking down below while talking to Max
"When they do, the Earth gets roasted." The Doctor frowned. "We don't understand. What's the Earth got to do with it?"
"This interview is terminated." Max stated as the Host grabbed them.
"No. No, no, no, no, no." The Doctor shook his head trying to struggle free. "Hold on, hold on, hold on. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait." He paused. "I can work it out. It's like a task. I'm your apprentice." He grinned. "Just watch me. So, business is failing and you wreck the ship so that makes things even worse. Oh, yes!"
"No." Rita frowned before changing her mind. "Wait yes!" She grinned. "Past tense."
"The business isn't failing, it's failed." The Doctor nodded.
"My own board voted me out," Max explained. "Stabbed me in the back."
"If you had a back." The Doctor and Rita quietly mumbled. "So, you scupper the ship, wipe out any survivors just in case anyone's rumbled you and the board find their shares halved in value. Oh, but that's not enough. No. Because if a Max Capricorn ship hits the Earth, it destroys an entire planet." The Doctor explained his plan. "Outrage back home. Scandal! The business is wiped out." The Doctor placed the pieces together.
"And the whole board thrown in jail for mass murder."
"While you sit there" Rita gritted her teeth at him. "All safe and sound inside the impact chamber."
"I have men waiting to retrieve me from the ruins and enough off-world accounts to retire me to the beaches of Penhaxico Two, where the ladies, so I'm told, are very fond of metal."
"Disgusting." Rita spat. "Two thousand people were on this ship!" She shouted out of anger. "Six billion on planet Earth!"
"All of them slaughtered" the Doctor cut in, "and why? Because Max Capricorn is a loser." He hissed.
"I never lose." He snapped at them.
"You can't even sink the Titanic." The Doctor laughed.
"And this ship was named after the 'unsinkable ship' that sunk."
"Oh, but I can, Doctor, Stone. I can cancel the engines from here." He laughed as an alarm blared.
"No!" Rita shouted.
"You can't do this!" The Doctor went to lunge at him.
"Host, hold them!" Max shouted. The Host stepped from behind them grabbing their arms and forcing them behind their backs.
"Not so clever now, Doctor, Stone." He chuckled. "A shame we couldn't work together. You're both rather good. All that banter yet not a word wasted." He rolled past them. "Time for me to retire. The Titanic is falling. The sky will burn. Let the Christmas inferno commence." He paused then added. "Oh. Oh, Host. Kill them."
"Mister Capricorn!" A voice shouted. The Doctor and Rita swallowed knowing whose voice that was. They looked over seeing Astrid in a fork lift.
"I resign." She then sped towards Max.
"Astrid, don't!" The Doctor and Rita screamed struggling to break free.
They watched in horror as the Host threw their halos at the fork life. Astrid pushed the forks under Max's life support machine.
"No!" Rita screamed as the Doctor shouted at her: "He's cut the brake line!" The Time Lords tried to break free as Astrid glanced nodding at them. She then lifted Max completely off the ground and forced them both forward off the edge.
"Astrid!" They both shouted as the Host let them go. They ran to the edge and watched her fall. The Doctor pulled Rita to his chest tightly holding her as he felt her slightly shaking. "Shush." He softly whispered stroking her hair with one hand the other tightly holding her body to his.
"She was going to come with us," Rita mumbled tears slowly rolling down her face.
"I know." He whispered in a murmur again kissing her forehead and wiping her tears away with his thumb. The Doctor then took her hand and stood up. They slowly walked away from the explosions.
"You know." Rita looked at him sniffing slightly. "If I'm correct the Host follow the orders of the highest authority. I believe that's either of us." The Doctor looked at her smirking. Knowing his plan already she reached up and placed her hands around his neck carefully so she could hold on. The Doctor moved his arms around her and clicked his fingers. The Host then grabbed his arms and they then lifted the Time Lords up and raised their fist punching through into the bridge.
"Deadlock broken." The computer stated as Frame jumped staring at the two.
"Well, that's one way to break in." Rita brushed herself off after the Doctor pulled her up.
"Ah, Midshipman Frame." The Doctor stepped forward. "At last."
"Er, but," he looked at the Host. "but the Host." He stuttered.
"Controller dead..." he said. "They divert to the next highest authority, and that's me."
"There's nothing we can do." He said clutching his side in pain. "There's no power. The ship's going to fall."
The Doctor grabbed the wheel. "What's your first name?" He looked at Frame.
"Alonso."
The Doctor and Rita stared at him. "You're kidding me."
"Great." The Stone rolled her eyes slightly chuckling at the glee on the Doctors face, closely resembling a child at Christmas.
"What?" He frowned at them.
"That's something else I've always wanted to say." The Doctor laughed. "Allons-y, Alonso." He then clutched the wheel spinning it as alarms blared. The ship then entered the upper atmosphere and started to burn. Rita grabbed on to the console and pressed the scanner to find the impact area.
"Great." She muttered picking up the phone on the console. "Got to make a quick call." She muttered pressing the keypad. "Hello, yes." She nodded. "Need you to get me Buckingham Palace?" She said before shouting. "No, you will listen to me! Seven seven one. This is the Stone and the Doctor, that is the security code now get out of there!"
They continued to head towards the Earth. "Engines active." The computer suddenly announced. "Engines active." The Doctor gritted his teeth pulling back on the wheel as Alonso hit the wall while Rita grabbed onto the console. Plummeting towards the Earth the Doctor pulled on the wheel with everything he had. The Stone tightening her grip on the console not wanting to hit the wall as the Titanic levelled itself before continuing to head upwards, barely missing the palace and flying up into the sky.
"Whoo hoo!" Frame screamed.
"Ah Ha! Rita shouted hugging the Doctor as he steered the Titanic back into space. "We did it!"
"Used the heat of re-entry to fire up the secondary storm drive. Unsinkable, that's us." He grinned quickly kissing Rita before she sat down the Doctor sitting down between her and Alonso.
"We made it." Alonso breathed.
"Not all of us," Rita mumbled sadly staring down at the floor. The Doctor looked at her then shouted jumping up.
"Teleport!" He pulled Rita up whose eyes widened realising what he was talking about. "She was wearing a teleport bracelet!" The Doctor sprinted into the reception. "Rickston, sonic!" He shouted, Rita ran in behind him and quietly gasped at the sight of the teleport unit which looked completely ruined. The Doctor caught his sonic and turned to Mister Copper. "Mister Copper, the teleports, have they got emergency settings?"
He shrugged at him as Rita ran over to help the Doctor. "I don't know. They should have."
"She fell, Mister Copper." The Doctor explained. "She fell. What's the emergency code?"
"Er, let me see." He went over to help them.
"What the hell are you doing?" Alonso asked as Mister Copper tried to help. Rita and the Doctor began to work on the unit.
"We can bring her back." The Doctor told him.
"If a passenger has an accident on shore leave and they're still wearing their teleport, their molecules are automatically suspended and held in stasis" Mister Copper explained, "so if we can just trigger the shift."
"There!" The Doctor shouted.
An image of Astrid then appeared. Rita looked over fiddling with the wires and shaking her head.
"I'm falling." Astrid cried out in fear.
"Only halfway there." The Doctor gritted his teeth. "Come on."
"I keep falling."
"Feed back the molecule grid. Boost it with the restoration matrix." Rita slowly shook her head moving away.
"No, no, no, no, no! Need more phase containment." The Doctor shouted.
"Doctor." Mister Copper swallowed.
"No!" He shook his head. "If I can just link up the surface suspension."
"Doctor we can't." Rita swallowed whispering.
"I just need to override the safety." He said to her. "I can do this. I can do it."
"Doctor please." She begged walking over to him.
"I can do anything!" He shouted turning to her. His face fixed with anger and desperation. She flinched away at the sudden outburst. The Doctor saw the fear and hurt in her eyes, fear of him. His face softened and he pulled her in, hugging her tightly, his face in the crook of her neck as she did the same to him.
"Even if we did, it's too late." She whispered and felt him slightly nodded understanding.
"Stop me falling," Astrid begged.
The Time Lords looked up as Mister Copper explained to them. "There's not enough left. The system was too badly damaged. She's just atoms, Doctor, Stone. An echo with the ghost of consciousness. She's stardust."
The Doctor took Rita's hand. "Astrid Peth, citizen of Sto. The woman who looked at the stars and dreamt of travelling." He looked at Rita who nodded.
"You can live your dream Astrid."
"Now you can travel forever." The Doctor raised his arm, pointing his sonic at the window which then slightly opened. Astrid then turned into specks of light. "You're not falling, Astrid, you're flying." The light then flew out the window as the two watched sadly.
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The Doctor had his arm around Rita's waist as she rested her head on his shoulder, the two of them staring into the distance. Alonso walked over to them after checking the bridge. "The engines have stabilised." He told them softly knowing that they were upset. "We're holding steady till we get help, and I've sent the SOS. A rescue ship should be here within twenty minutes. And they're digging out the records on Max Capricorn. It should be quite a story."
"They'll want to talk to all of us, I suppose," Mister Copper asked.
"I'd have thought so, yeah."
"I think one or two inconvenient truths might come to light." Mister Copper sighed. "Still, it's my own fault, and ten years in jail is better than dying."
Slade stepped in front of the Doctor and Rita he had clearly been crying, his voice cracked as he spoke. "Doctor, Stone, I never said thank you." He hugged them both as they stood there looking distant and uncomfortable. "The funny thing is, I said Max Capricorn was falling apart." He then went on to explain clearly not seeing the hurt look on both their faces which should have told him that they didn't want to be spoken too much right now. "Before the crash, I sold all my shares" Rita clenched her jaw, "Transferred them to his rivals. It's made me rich. What do you think of that?"
"You want to know what I think?" Rita questioned. "This is exactly what I think." She spat punching the man right in the nose. "People have died today!" She shouted face to face with the man as he stumbled backwards holding his nose in pain. "People who had become my friends!" She screamed in his face as he flinched. "And what do you care about?! Your precious money!" She huffed glaring at him. He shivered slightly and jumped as his vone rang before quickly turning away.
"I hate violence." She hissed watching him leave. "But people I cared about died."
The Doctor sadly sighed not saying a word letting her tightly hug him, allowing her to grieve.
Mister Copper looked at them both. "Of all the people to survive, he's not the one you would have chosen, is he?" He asked them then started to talk again. "But if you could choose Doctor, Stone if you decide who lives and who dies, that would make you the monsters."
"Mister Copper, I think you deserve one of these." The Doctor handed him a teleport bracelet before putting one on himself and placing one on Rita's wrist. Alonso then saluted them both before they disappeared.
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The three slowly walked through the grass back on Earth in the snow the Doctor and Rita saw the TARDIS on the grass in perfect condition.
"So, Great Britain is part of Europey," Mister Copper said after listening to what the Time Lords had told him about Earth as they walked "and just across the British Channel, you've got Great France and Great Germany."
"No, no" the Doctor shook his head at the man "it's just-" He lightly chuckled. "It's just France and Germany. Only Britain is Great."
"Oh, and they're all at war with the continent of Ham Erica." He said.
Rita laughed, the Doctor did as well. "No. Well, not yet. Er, could argue that one. There she is." He nodded to the TARDIS patting her and changing the topic. "Survive anything."
"You know, between us, I don't even thing this snow is real. I think it's the ballast from the Titanic's salvage entering the atmosphere."
"Yeah." The Doctor sighed glancing at Rita for a moment. "One of these days it might snow for real."
"So, I, I suppose you'll be off." Mister Copper stuttered.
"The open sky."
"And, what about me?"
"We travel alone." He looked at Rita forcing a small smile. "It's best that way."
"What am I supposed to do?"
"Mister Copper can I see that credit card?" Rita asked. He handed it to her shrugging.
"It's just petty cash. Spending money. It's all done by computer." He explained. "I didn't really know the currency, so I thought a million might cover it."
"A million?" She asked. "In pounds?"
"That enough for trinkets?"
"Rita laughed. "Mister Copper that's worth fifty million credits."
"How much?" He gaped at her. The Doctor laughed patting the man's shoulder. "Fifty million and fifty-six."
"I've got money." He gasped.
"Yes, you have."
"Oh, my word." He gasped. "Oh, my Vot! Oh, my goodness me. Yee ha!"
"It's all yours." Rita handed it back to him as the Doctor continued for her. "Planet Earth. Now, that's a retirement plan. But just you be careful, though." The Doctor warned him.
"I will, I will." He nodded slowly walking off. "Oh, I will."
"No interfering." Rita pointed at him. "I don't want to have to drag the Doctor half way through time and space to fix your mess, have a nice life."
"But I can have a house." He gasped muttering to himself. "A proper house, with a garden, and a door, and. Oh, Doctor, Stone, I will made you both proud. And I can have a kitchen with chairs, and windows, and plates, and..." he started to skip away.
"Er, where are you going?" The Doctor asked.
"Well, I've no idea." He shrugged at them.
"Neither do we." Rita smiled up at the Doctor. "It's more fun that way."
"But Doctor, Stone I won't forget her." He told them. They both sadly smiled. "Merry Christmas, Mister Copper." They whispered watching him head off. The Time Lords watched him leave before walking towards the TARDIS.
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It had been over an hour since Rita had left the Doctor in the console room alone while she went to change out of the dress. He began to slightly wonder why it had taken her an hour. Wondering the halls he saw her bedroom door slightly open and heard quiet mumbling from the other side of the door. Frowning the Doctor lightly knocked on it with his knuckles hearing a quiet 'come in' he entered the room seeing the blonde lying on her bed face up with her knees in the air, back in her blazer. "What are you doing?" He asked moving over and sitting on the edge of the bed.
"Thinking." She replied not looking at him, just staring up at the ceiling.
"About?" He raised a brow watching her eyes flicker over the pattern on the ceiling.
"Everyone that I lost." She sighed sitting up. "Thinking used to help me feel better in my previous body." She pursed her lips then continued talking. "Doesn't work anymore." She then looked over at the small squares of chocolate on the bed. "So I tried chocolate, doesn't work either, I just feel like it's my fault, I promised them, Doctor."
"We both did." He sighed. "Come on," holding out his hand the blonde frowned and took his hand.
"Where are we going?" She asked as he led her out of her room, heading towards the console.
"You promised me a dance yesterday." He replied not looking at her.
"Doctor I don't feel like dancing" she sighed "I just want to crawl into my bed and sleep.
"That isn't going to make you any better Rita, so we will dance." She rolled her eyes as he smirked stopping at the console she shook her head as he placed his hands on her waist while she placed hers around his neck loosely.
"So we're just going to dance in silence?" She raised a brow as they started to slowly sway.
"I also wanted to talk to you." He mumbled.
"Okay," she thought for a moment wondering what was wrong by the look on his face. "What do you want to talk about?"
"Back on the ship" he swallowed. "When talking about Christmas you went to say something but stopped yourself, what did you want to say?"
"Well..." she looked around at everything but him. "I... er..." she bit her lip. "You'll think it's a horrible idea."
"Stone." He looked into her eyes showing a serious expression. "Please just tell me."
"I've never really got to have a Christmas when I was human, being alone and all that." She muttered looking down "And I never had a proper one, we're best friends Doctor and in all these centres we never have had a 'proper' Christmas I dislike 'domestics' almost as much as you do and when we were telling Mister Copper about Christmas I remember when you said to Donna about..." she swallowed looking at him. "And I was thinking... well... maybe you would..."
"Yes." He cut her off chuckling. "Yes, we can have our own Christmas." He grinned at her. She blinked for a moment looking at him not piecing what he had just said with her brain. "Speaking of Christmas I have a surprise. Rita groaned as the Doctor dragged her back down the hall.
"You know I hate surprises."
"I do." He widely smiled at her pulling her into a room.
"Doctor, What are we doing in here?" She asked before frowning seeing quite a few boxes scattered around.
"I've kept this for a long time." He mumbled digging into a box then bringing out a small globe.
"Is that." She gasped reaching her arms out slightly looking at it, it was just how she remembered, the orange sky and the beautiful mountains. "The globe you gave me of Gallifrey when we became friends." She looked up at him. "How?"
"You know I said I took your mothers necklace before the Time War, well I took this as well. Kept it in my room until it broke my hearts seeing it every day so I placed it in here."
"Thank you." She took the globe from his hands and squeezed him tightly in a hug. "Thank you, Doctor." She then pulled away. "But I don't have anything for you..."
"I don't need anything."
"What do you mean?"
"Having you by my side every single day is all I have ever wanted." He tucked a loose hair behind her ear and then gently moving her face to his cupping her cheek and slowly kissed her lips.
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I honestly love these two so much. Is it bad that I ship them?