Categories > TV > Doctor Who > Doctor Who- the Vanishing of Penelope Kelsey
Cold rain mixed with sleet taps at the window glass. John Smith throws another log onto the fire, sending up a shower of orange sparks. The heat has been slowly burning off the damp air in Kelsey's guest room, and fogging up the Doctor's glasses.
She is sitting on the bed, legs crossed at the ankle, flipping through a stack of complicated looking medical formulas. “Ten, twenty years out, maybe, I think...” The Doctor wipes the lenses on her shirt, peers at them then scrubs at a persistent smudge.
Fisher has been walking around the room, looking at things. He pulls books down and opens them, takes small ornaments down and turns them over in his hands to check the bottom.
The door opens, and Rose comes back in, her hair wrapped in a towel which she removes and hangs beside the hearth. She leans down to kiss John on the forehead as he pokes at the bottom log, then slides onto the bed and scoots up beside the Doctor.
“What are you looking at?”
“Kelsey's formulas- the one our mystery girl helped him with.” The Doctor tilts the pages so she can see.
Rose takes one of them, looks it over. “This looks...”
“Like a bad idea?” The Doctor laughs. “Yeah, well, actually this is...better...than most of what they'd get around here. Almost suspiciously advanced...he might have gotten caught if they'd been at it much longer.”
Rose pats the Doctor on the the shoulder, and she shifts an arm to let Rose put her head on her chest.
“You're wet.” The Doctor comments.
“A little.” Rose says.
“Do I need to separate you two?” John says loudly.
“So, what's the deal with Mrs Turner and Penny?” Fisher asks.
“I think they're the same person.” The Doctor says.
“What? How's that possible?”
“People like...us...her and me, we don't die properly.” The Doctor says.
“Like you.” Fisher says.
“Yes.” The Doctor says. “Time Lords. Time Ladies, I suppose. Same thing.”
“Lady.” Rose sniggers.
“I know.” The Doctor grins. “ Anyway- when we get hurt badly enough, we regenerate, get a new body.”
“As a kid?” Fisher asks.
“Sometimes.” The Doctor says. “Not very often. It's sort of...random. Most of the time. What Kelsey saw, what he described as fire, was a regeneration. Now, theoretically it could be two different people, but you see this one, Missy, she's always up to something. And she really, really likes to irritate me as much as possible. And she has an MO of stealing my Tardis.”
“Wait- how many of you are there?” Fisher asks.
“Um...well, not many.” The Doctor says. “It's...complicated.”
“So, what do you guys do, run around fixing things?”
The Doctor bursts into laughter. “Oh my, no. Well, we're not supposed to. I do. Sort of. Sometimes. Not really.”
Rose hugs her. “You do fine.”
“Thank you, dear, I appreciate that.” The Doctor closes the folder, taps it against her leg with her free hand as she thinks. “Tomorrow we probably need to go pull down that wall, see what's behind it.”
“And tonight?” Rose asks.
“Tonight-” The Doctor blows out a breath, gives Rose's shoulder a squeeze “we should all try to get some rest. And keep an eye and ear out for these so called snakes in the walls. Maybe the damp will bring them out.”
There is a knock on the door, John is closest and rises to open it. Kelsey stands in the hall, wearing an overcoat, a wide brimmed hat in his hand.
“Ah, Dr. Kelsey. Found someplace to stay the night?” The Doctor calls from the bed.
“I'm going to go to my practice. I still have a few things to pack up.” Kelsey sighs. “I...appreciate you doing this.”
John follows him down to the front door, watches him climb into his covered wagon and set the horse moving with a shake of the reins. When he comes back up into the guest room he finds the Doctor standing by the fire. When he steps in, she starts talking.
“Alright, as of now, here's what we have to go on- this person, Missy, identifying herself as Mrs Turner, comes here for reasons unknown- maybe she got stuck, maybe she has a plan. After she 'died', she was taken to the morgue, and then vanished. She must have been transported somehow, it's even possible that she faked her own death simply to be removed from the house, and later just got up and walked away. Whatever the circumstances, she then appeared after having traveled back in time and regenerated, where Kelsey found her.”
“But, wait, if she just wants the Tardis, why didn't they take it from the train?”
“Because she needed it to leave from here” The Doctor says. “That whole thing on the train could have been set up at any time, and if she just dumped us into the basement we wouldn't be doing all this running around. Which she obviously wants us to do.”
The Doctor sits down on the bed, looks around the room. “She wanted an investigation, she wanted records...her death creates a fixed point in time, events here can't be altered...but why did she bring us here?"
The wind kicks up, making the roof creak. The howling dies down, but the sound in the walls persists. The four of them freeze, listening. Something slowly sliding up inside the hollow parts of the structure.
“Snakes in the walls.” The Doctor says in a hushed voice.
The floor shudders, dust drifts down from the ceiling. The group moves as one, streaming out into the hall and down the stairs.
The basement door is rattling on it's hinges, greenish light and mist pours from the cracks. The Doctor wrenches it open and they stand, looking down.
The basement is full of mist, the back wall crumbling away as light presses in from the other side. The Doctor is going down the stairs, they follow, the mist wraps up around to their thighs.
The Doctor lifts the sonic screwdriver and aims it at the wall. The last bonds sepperating the two realities pull apart and the wall breaks away, dissolves into bright green light which burns into pulsing darkness.
The Doctor pulls a flashlight out of her pocket and aims it down into what has become a deep tunnel.
The basement ceiling cracks loudly, the walls buckle as the foundation begins to give way. Muddy water trickles between the stones.
“Come on-” The Doctor motions them into the tunnel. “Quick, now!”
She steps in just as one of the beams gives way, the floor above crashing down with an explosion of dust and debris.
The mist covers the ground under their feet, and after a few yards the mist clears enough so they can see that they are walking on millions of tiny bones, birds and rodents, occasionally something the size of a small cat.
A wind begins to drift over them, carrying with it a sweet, mildewed smell, like rotting fruit. The tunnel widens, opens out into a cave which glows green with phosporescent fungus. The walls and floor are lined with the egg creatures, all perfectly still.
“The Temple of MogDoth.” The Doctor says. “Oraxacon Beta.”
John is shaking his head in disbelief. “How far back have we come?”
“Millions of years.” The Doctor says.
Rose is staring at the statues. “Look at those things...”
The Doctor turns in a slow circle. “There are hundreds of these things…if Missy was here...she could have created a web all through space and time. And we can't do anything about it. The whole thing is locked in place by a single point. If we un-do any of it, the whole thing falls apart. And takes the universe with it.”
The Doctor's eyes widen.
“I know that look.” John says. “You figured it out.”
“Right- and it all starts just before I met you two.” The Doctor says. “I told you that it snagged me right after I stepped out of the Tardis- well, I was responding to what I thought was a distress signal. Now, I think it was a trap- Missy set these things up, and once they grabbed me she took the Tardis and set about her mischief. For whatever reason, she became stranded here. She found herself in the employ of Dr. Kelsey, and probably figured out what was going on rather quickly. She then kept an eye on the situation, assisting Kelsey, until faking her own death. She came back to the old barn site, where the Tardis still was- that was the sound Kelsey heard, her taking off.
She left in the Tardis, set it to automatically transport and make it look as though it had been stolen from here later, and she returned by the mechanism of these Mog Doth creatures.” The Doctor says. “Perhaps they were defending themselves. She was sent back in time from the point she started as Penny, where she ended up at the old barn site and regenerated. Kelsey brought her in, and she started cahootin with herself. She then faked her disappearance, set Lean and Arrow after us. "
“Wait-΅ Rose waves a hand. “So, the Tardis that we were in...”
“Was the one that was taken from here earlier” The Doctor says.
“So, where's the one you came from?” Rose asks. “Originally?”
“Right where it's always been- here.” The Doctor says. “She even drew us a picture.”
She lifts the sonic screwdriver and it emits a beep, there is a responding chirp from the shadows at the far end of the cavern and the Tardis lights flash.
“So, where is she now?” Rose asks.
“She had to drop the Tardis on that train at Victoria station.” The Doctor says. “We'll have to start there. She must have these things set up, growing somewhere, maybe on a coal stop, or in the train itself.”
The egg creatures remain still as they walk past, the Doctor unlocks and opens the door and the four of them step inside. The doors close, the engines engage, and the Tardis begins to flicker and shimmer as it dissolves. As the box emits a final burst of light, the things in the cave finally stir, begin to move, crawling on their tentacled legs to converge on the place that the Tardis had been.
This time, the ride is not as smooth. Fisher stumbles and presses himself against the wall as she ship twists and bucks as though slammed by a turbulent current.
They settle with a heavy bump, and after a moment the Doctor pulls the door open to look outside.
“Oh...oh dear.” The Doctor says quietly.
John, Rose, and Fisher join her at the door.
Victoria Station has become a tangled mass of heavy dark vines. They can see more of them growing on the buildings visible through the broken roof. The air is heavy with the sickly sweet rotting stench.
“Oh, Missy.” The Doctor murmurs. “What have you done?”
The world seems to shift, darkness sweeps down from the end of the station, passes them before they can react. The vines and smell stay, but now the air smells like exhaust and chemicals, the cement under their feet slightly damp.
“This is New Shanghai” Fisher says. “Where we first got taken.”
“It's to big.” The Doctor says. “This mechanism, it's out of control.”
There is another shudder, the tunnel vanishes and is replaced by a starry sky, they are standing by the ruins of Kelsey's house now, wreathed in heavy vines which extend out, creeping along the ground to reach up into the trees, vanishing down toward the other houses.
“Back in the Tardis.” The Doctor says.
Rose is happy to comply, the shifting scenery and smell are making her queasy.
“That's how you got here.” The Doctor says. “It's starting to break down the barriers between dimensions. We have to find some way to stop it.”
“I thought you said that would make the universe explode or something.” Rose says.
The Doctor doesn't answer, flipping switches, turning dials, pulling levers. There is an intensity in the way she moves, her face set in concentration.
The Tardis slams through time, skidding as she chases a bright point, catches it and anchors herself.
The Doctor pulls the door open and steps out. There is a muffled scream, the sound of a struggle, then the Doctor drags a blanketed bundle through and slams the door.
“Go.” The Doctor makes a motion at John. “Go!”
He shakes his head, leans over to engage the engines. The Tardis reels, shudders, fights for a moment then seems to gain traction. The Doctor puts the struggling parcel on the floor, where it throws the blanket off in an explosion of hands and feet.
“Oh my God, look at you.” The Doctor says. “You're absolutely adorable.”
“What do you think you're doing, kidnapping me!” The girl snaps.
“Kidnapping you? You shouldn't even be here. Do you have any idea how much trouble you caused? Those...things...have taken over the world.”
“Hmpf.” She crosses her arms and looks away.
“Rose, Fisher, John- this is the Mistress, aka Missy, aka Penny Kelsey.”
“I hate you all.” Penny says.
“Shut up.” The Doctor leans down and grabs her arm, dragging her to her feet. “Tell us how to stop this stuff.”
“Ow! Leggo.” Penny twists away.
“How do I stop it!” The Doctor demands.
“Ok, ok, it causes interdimentional galls. You have to break a fixed point in time and merge the two universes.”
“Like the death of a Time Lord.” The Doctor sighs.
Penny smiles at her sweetly.
“Alright.” The Doctor says. “You came and snatched the Tardis from me, if you hadn't done that none of this would be possible. We need to go back and alter that point.”
The Tardis protests when the Doctor sets a course, seems to fight landing but finally settles.
The Doctor pulls the door open. She can see the Tardis, the Tardis from the past, sitting just around the corner of a building. She hears the door open, there is a brief flash and a puff of snow, then the street goes still. The Doctor steps out quickly, motions for the others to follow.
“Come on.” She pushes the door open and waves them all inside.
“Won't she just take the other Tardis?” Rose asks.
The Doctor shakes her head. “That one will vanish as soon as we leave. Or rather, it will never have been here.”
The engine turns over with a heavy whooshing pump. The Tardis shudders, there is a strange feeling as though the world outside is falling away. The lights flicker, the ship groans as if under immense pressure.
In the street they have just left, Missy steps out of an alley, frowns and looks around. She was sure the Tardis had been here...but no, nothing. She shrugs, shoves her hands into her pockets and turns, nodding to the two men in the alley as she passes. Lean and Arrow fall in on either side of her, heads lowered under the collars of their long coats.
Dimensional barriers ripple, begin to break but, unable to tear apart due to the lattice between them, merge like two soap bubbles. The whole of creation buckles, galaxies explode into being, bizarre new life forms are born and die in the blink of an eye.
The Tardis smashes into something which turns out to be the ground, the engines falter and stall, the ambient noise dropping to a barely audible hum.
“Oh...ow.” The Doctor pulls herself up on the console. “Any survivors?”
Rose and John stumble to their feet.
“Fisher? Penny?” The Doctor says loudly, then sighs.
“The paradox took them.” John says.
“To bad, I rather liked him.” The Doctor says. “Oh well, come on, lets see how bad it is out there.”
She pulls the door open and leans out, then steps through.
“This...this is our house.” Rose says
“Is it?” The Doctor says. “Well, that's convenient, isn't it.”
Rose walks up, takes the key hidden under a rock and unlocks the front door. The lights downstairs are still on, mail has been pushed through the slot and scattered on the entryway floor.
“Come in for a minute?” John asks.
“Yeah, Ok.” The Doctor says.
He slides an arm around her, squeezing her shoulders as they walk up the short garden path. John holds the door for her, stops to turn before closing it to look out, sharp eyes sweeping carefully over the street. Then the door snaps shut, latch clicking into place.
A little girl steps out of the house next door, pulls out a jump-rope and begins to skip down the sidewalk, singing softly, almost under her breath.
“Grandfather, grandfather, has a box...”
She is sitting on the bed, legs crossed at the ankle, flipping through a stack of complicated looking medical formulas. “Ten, twenty years out, maybe, I think...” The Doctor wipes the lenses on her shirt, peers at them then scrubs at a persistent smudge.
Fisher has been walking around the room, looking at things. He pulls books down and opens them, takes small ornaments down and turns them over in his hands to check the bottom.
The door opens, and Rose comes back in, her hair wrapped in a towel which she removes and hangs beside the hearth. She leans down to kiss John on the forehead as he pokes at the bottom log, then slides onto the bed and scoots up beside the Doctor.
“What are you looking at?”
“Kelsey's formulas- the one our mystery girl helped him with.” The Doctor tilts the pages so she can see.
Rose takes one of them, looks it over. “This looks...”
“Like a bad idea?” The Doctor laughs. “Yeah, well, actually this is...better...than most of what they'd get around here. Almost suspiciously advanced...he might have gotten caught if they'd been at it much longer.”
Rose pats the Doctor on the the shoulder, and she shifts an arm to let Rose put her head on her chest.
“You're wet.” The Doctor comments.
“A little.” Rose says.
“Do I need to separate you two?” John says loudly.
“So, what's the deal with Mrs Turner and Penny?” Fisher asks.
“I think they're the same person.” The Doctor says.
“What? How's that possible?”
“People like...us...her and me, we don't die properly.” The Doctor says.
“Like you.” Fisher says.
“Yes.” The Doctor says. “Time Lords. Time Ladies, I suppose. Same thing.”
“Lady.” Rose sniggers.
“I know.” The Doctor grins. “ Anyway- when we get hurt badly enough, we regenerate, get a new body.”
“As a kid?” Fisher asks.
“Sometimes.” The Doctor says. “Not very often. It's sort of...random. Most of the time. What Kelsey saw, what he described as fire, was a regeneration. Now, theoretically it could be two different people, but you see this one, Missy, she's always up to something. And she really, really likes to irritate me as much as possible. And she has an MO of stealing my Tardis.”
“Wait- how many of you are there?” Fisher asks.
“Um...well, not many.” The Doctor says. “It's...complicated.”
“So, what do you guys do, run around fixing things?”
The Doctor bursts into laughter. “Oh my, no. Well, we're not supposed to. I do. Sort of. Sometimes. Not really.”
Rose hugs her. “You do fine.”
“Thank you, dear, I appreciate that.” The Doctor closes the folder, taps it against her leg with her free hand as she thinks. “Tomorrow we probably need to go pull down that wall, see what's behind it.”
“And tonight?” Rose asks.
“Tonight-” The Doctor blows out a breath, gives Rose's shoulder a squeeze “we should all try to get some rest. And keep an eye and ear out for these so called snakes in the walls. Maybe the damp will bring them out.”
There is a knock on the door, John is closest and rises to open it. Kelsey stands in the hall, wearing an overcoat, a wide brimmed hat in his hand.
“Ah, Dr. Kelsey. Found someplace to stay the night?” The Doctor calls from the bed.
“I'm going to go to my practice. I still have a few things to pack up.” Kelsey sighs. “I...appreciate you doing this.”
John follows him down to the front door, watches him climb into his covered wagon and set the horse moving with a shake of the reins. When he comes back up into the guest room he finds the Doctor standing by the fire. When he steps in, she starts talking.
“Alright, as of now, here's what we have to go on- this person, Missy, identifying herself as Mrs Turner, comes here for reasons unknown- maybe she got stuck, maybe she has a plan. After she 'died', she was taken to the morgue, and then vanished. She must have been transported somehow, it's even possible that she faked her own death simply to be removed from the house, and later just got up and walked away. Whatever the circumstances, she then appeared after having traveled back in time and regenerated, where Kelsey found her.”
“But, wait, if she just wants the Tardis, why didn't they take it from the train?”
“Because she needed it to leave from here” The Doctor says. “That whole thing on the train could have been set up at any time, and if she just dumped us into the basement we wouldn't be doing all this running around. Which she obviously wants us to do.”
The Doctor sits down on the bed, looks around the room. “She wanted an investigation, she wanted records...her death creates a fixed point in time, events here can't be altered...but why did she bring us here?"
The wind kicks up, making the roof creak. The howling dies down, but the sound in the walls persists. The four of them freeze, listening. Something slowly sliding up inside the hollow parts of the structure.
“Snakes in the walls.” The Doctor says in a hushed voice.
The floor shudders, dust drifts down from the ceiling. The group moves as one, streaming out into the hall and down the stairs.
The basement door is rattling on it's hinges, greenish light and mist pours from the cracks. The Doctor wrenches it open and they stand, looking down.
The basement is full of mist, the back wall crumbling away as light presses in from the other side. The Doctor is going down the stairs, they follow, the mist wraps up around to their thighs.
The Doctor lifts the sonic screwdriver and aims it at the wall. The last bonds sepperating the two realities pull apart and the wall breaks away, dissolves into bright green light which burns into pulsing darkness.
The Doctor pulls a flashlight out of her pocket and aims it down into what has become a deep tunnel.
The basement ceiling cracks loudly, the walls buckle as the foundation begins to give way. Muddy water trickles between the stones.
“Come on-” The Doctor motions them into the tunnel. “Quick, now!”
She steps in just as one of the beams gives way, the floor above crashing down with an explosion of dust and debris.
The mist covers the ground under their feet, and after a few yards the mist clears enough so they can see that they are walking on millions of tiny bones, birds and rodents, occasionally something the size of a small cat.
A wind begins to drift over them, carrying with it a sweet, mildewed smell, like rotting fruit. The tunnel widens, opens out into a cave which glows green with phosporescent fungus. The walls and floor are lined with the egg creatures, all perfectly still.
“The Temple of MogDoth.” The Doctor says. “Oraxacon Beta.”
John is shaking his head in disbelief. “How far back have we come?”
“Millions of years.” The Doctor says.
Rose is staring at the statues. “Look at those things...”
The Doctor turns in a slow circle. “There are hundreds of these things…if Missy was here...she could have created a web all through space and time. And we can't do anything about it. The whole thing is locked in place by a single point. If we un-do any of it, the whole thing falls apart. And takes the universe with it.”
The Doctor's eyes widen.
“I know that look.” John says. “You figured it out.”
“Right- and it all starts just before I met you two.” The Doctor says. “I told you that it snagged me right after I stepped out of the Tardis- well, I was responding to what I thought was a distress signal. Now, I think it was a trap- Missy set these things up, and once they grabbed me she took the Tardis and set about her mischief. For whatever reason, she became stranded here. She found herself in the employ of Dr. Kelsey, and probably figured out what was going on rather quickly. She then kept an eye on the situation, assisting Kelsey, until faking her own death. She came back to the old barn site, where the Tardis still was- that was the sound Kelsey heard, her taking off.
She left in the Tardis, set it to automatically transport and make it look as though it had been stolen from here later, and she returned by the mechanism of these Mog Doth creatures.” The Doctor says. “Perhaps they were defending themselves. She was sent back in time from the point she started as Penny, where she ended up at the old barn site and regenerated. Kelsey brought her in, and she started cahootin with herself. She then faked her disappearance, set Lean and Arrow after us. "
“Wait-΅ Rose waves a hand. “So, the Tardis that we were in...”
“Was the one that was taken from here earlier” The Doctor says.
“So, where's the one you came from?” Rose asks. “Originally?”
“Right where it's always been- here.” The Doctor says. “She even drew us a picture.”
She lifts the sonic screwdriver and it emits a beep, there is a responding chirp from the shadows at the far end of the cavern and the Tardis lights flash.
“So, where is she now?” Rose asks.
“She had to drop the Tardis on that train at Victoria station.” The Doctor says. “We'll have to start there. She must have these things set up, growing somewhere, maybe on a coal stop, or in the train itself.”
The egg creatures remain still as they walk past, the Doctor unlocks and opens the door and the four of them step inside. The doors close, the engines engage, and the Tardis begins to flicker and shimmer as it dissolves. As the box emits a final burst of light, the things in the cave finally stir, begin to move, crawling on their tentacled legs to converge on the place that the Tardis had been.
This time, the ride is not as smooth. Fisher stumbles and presses himself against the wall as she ship twists and bucks as though slammed by a turbulent current.
They settle with a heavy bump, and after a moment the Doctor pulls the door open to look outside.
“Oh...oh dear.” The Doctor says quietly.
John, Rose, and Fisher join her at the door.
Victoria Station has become a tangled mass of heavy dark vines. They can see more of them growing on the buildings visible through the broken roof. The air is heavy with the sickly sweet rotting stench.
“Oh, Missy.” The Doctor murmurs. “What have you done?”
The world seems to shift, darkness sweeps down from the end of the station, passes them before they can react. The vines and smell stay, but now the air smells like exhaust and chemicals, the cement under their feet slightly damp.
“This is New Shanghai” Fisher says. “Where we first got taken.”
“It's to big.” The Doctor says. “This mechanism, it's out of control.”
There is another shudder, the tunnel vanishes and is replaced by a starry sky, they are standing by the ruins of Kelsey's house now, wreathed in heavy vines which extend out, creeping along the ground to reach up into the trees, vanishing down toward the other houses.
“Back in the Tardis.” The Doctor says.
Rose is happy to comply, the shifting scenery and smell are making her queasy.
“That's how you got here.” The Doctor says. “It's starting to break down the barriers between dimensions. We have to find some way to stop it.”
“I thought you said that would make the universe explode or something.” Rose says.
The Doctor doesn't answer, flipping switches, turning dials, pulling levers. There is an intensity in the way she moves, her face set in concentration.
The Tardis slams through time, skidding as she chases a bright point, catches it and anchors herself.
The Doctor pulls the door open and steps out. There is a muffled scream, the sound of a struggle, then the Doctor drags a blanketed bundle through and slams the door.
“Go.” The Doctor makes a motion at John. “Go!”
He shakes his head, leans over to engage the engines. The Tardis reels, shudders, fights for a moment then seems to gain traction. The Doctor puts the struggling parcel on the floor, where it throws the blanket off in an explosion of hands and feet.
“Oh my God, look at you.” The Doctor says. “You're absolutely adorable.”
“What do you think you're doing, kidnapping me!” The girl snaps.
“Kidnapping you? You shouldn't even be here. Do you have any idea how much trouble you caused? Those...things...have taken over the world.”
“Hmpf.” She crosses her arms and looks away.
“Rose, Fisher, John- this is the Mistress, aka Missy, aka Penny Kelsey.”
“I hate you all.” Penny says.
“Shut up.” The Doctor leans down and grabs her arm, dragging her to her feet. “Tell us how to stop this stuff.”
“Ow! Leggo.” Penny twists away.
“How do I stop it!” The Doctor demands.
“Ok, ok, it causes interdimentional galls. You have to break a fixed point in time and merge the two universes.”
“Like the death of a Time Lord.” The Doctor sighs.
Penny smiles at her sweetly.
“Alright.” The Doctor says. “You came and snatched the Tardis from me, if you hadn't done that none of this would be possible. We need to go back and alter that point.”
The Tardis protests when the Doctor sets a course, seems to fight landing but finally settles.
The Doctor pulls the door open. She can see the Tardis, the Tardis from the past, sitting just around the corner of a building. She hears the door open, there is a brief flash and a puff of snow, then the street goes still. The Doctor steps out quickly, motions for the others to follow.
“Come on.” She pushes the door open and waves them all inside.
“Won't she just take the other Tardis?” Rose asks.
The Doctor shakes her head. “That one will vanish as soon as we leave. Or rather, it will never have been here.”
The engine turns over with a heavy whooshing pump. The Tardis shudders, there is a strange feeling as though the world outside is falling away. The lights flicker, the ship groans as if under immense pressure.
In the street they have just left, Missy steps out of an alley, frowns and looks around. She was sure the Tardis had been here...but no, nothing. She shrugs, shoves her hands into her pockets and turns, nodding to the two men in the alley as she passes. Lean and Arrow fall in on either side of her, heads lowered under the collars of their long coats.
Dimensional barriers ripple, begin to break but, unable to tear apart due to the lattice between them, merge like two soap bubbles. The whole of creation buckles, galaxies explode into being, bizarre new life forms are born and die in the blink of an eye.
The Tardis smashes into something which turns out to be the ground, the engines falter and stall, the ambient noise dropping to a barely audible hum.
“Oh...ow.” The Doctor pulls herself up on the console. “Any survivors?”
Rose and John stumble to their feet.
“Fisher? Penny?” The Doctor says loudly, then sighs.
“The paradox took them.” John says.
“To bad, I rather liked him.” The Doctor says. “Oh well, come on, lets see how bad it is out there.”
She pulls the door open and leans out, then steps through.
“This...this is our house.” Rose says
“Is it?” The Doctor says. “Well, that's convenient, isn't it.”
Rose walks up, takes the key hidden under a rock and unlocks the front door. The lights downstairs are still on, mail has been pushed through the slot and scattered on the entryway floor.
“Come in for a minute?” John asks.
“Yeah, Ok.” The Doctor says.
He slides an arm around her, squeezing her shoulders as they walk up the short garden path. John holds the door for her, stops to turn before closing it to look out, sharp eyes sweeping carefully over the street. Then the door snaps shut, latch clicking into place.
A little girl steps out of the house next door, pulls out a jump-rope and begins to skip down the sidewalk, singing softly, almost under her breath.
“Grandfather, grandfather, has a box...”
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