What If... the Doctor remained Time Lord Victorious? (Part 9)

Happy Birthday to me!

Hey, everybody! Been a while, hasn't it? Last time... look, a bunch of things happened and it turned into a massive cluster. Honestly, if it didn't, this wouldn't be a Doctor Who story, but let me try to sum up as best I can.

The Chaos Doctor (resembling the Seventh Doctor of the main universe) managed to outwit Team Jenny to take their pieces of the Key to Reality, leaving them with a recently regenerated Guardian Doctor (who has just taken on the form of the Fifth Doctor) and careening into a star with seemingly no chance of escape. In another universe, the Roseless Doctor and the Master are contacted by the Black Guardian, who has chosen them as his champions in this conflict. He claims to be working for the same goal as the White Guardian, but the two of them obviously aren't believing it for a second.

Also elsewhere, the Wolf Doctor and his version of Captain Jack Harkness were captured by the Chronarch and the Wolf Doctor strapped into the Conduit, a battle computer made up of the joined minds of multiple individuals from the various Doctors. As it began to predict that the joined Doctors would nonetheless win and defeat him, the Chronarch vowed to begin removing all of the obstacles in his way.

Indeed, it is with him that we pick up. The Chronarch has ordered a move into the next universe based on another calculation by the Conduit. While the Wolf Doctor attempts to resist, he finds himself buried under the overwhelming force behind it, his mind sinking into a Matrix-like landscape. Here, he finds Adelaide Brooke. Given that the events of The Waters of Mars haven't happened yet for him, he naturally has no idea who she is apart from being a historical figure. However, the two form an alliance as Adelaide knows enough to know that it would take a Doctor to take down a Doctor, and thus throwing her support behind the Wolf Doctor. The two make plans to escape the mini-Matrix.

Back with the Roseless Doctor and the Master, they agree to work with the Black Guardian, which seems to work well enough for the entity in question. He returns the TARDIS to them as well as bringing the Master's along and pointing them in the direction of the next fragment of the Key. They follow the trail, ending up in a version of The Pirate Planet, doing their best to avoid that universe's version of the Fourth Doctor and Romana. Unfortunately, due to the Master's far more brutal methods of dealing with things, The Pirate Captain ends up getting melted in acid, which perturbs the Roseless Doctor. They do find the sixth fragment, giving them two.

We look back now to Team Jenny plus the Guardian Doctor, who are careening into a nearby star with seemingly no power to the TARDIS and no way to escape. Jenny's Doctor attempts multiple methods to get the TARDIS up and running again, but they all seem to fail. Just before they would all be burned to death with the TARDIS' interior and exterior dimensions falling apart, they suddenly find themselves stopping and the TARDIS being pulled back.

"Hmm... hello? Calling the Doctor... this is the Doctor."

As power returns, the image of a wizened old man in a nice suit comes up on one of the monitors. Another Doctor has entered the fray, along with his granddaughter Susan. We shall call him Susan's Doctor. It seems the White Guardian has contacted him as well and not only is he able to tow Jenny's Doctor's TARDIS away from the star, not only is he able to help with the Guardian Doctor's regeneration transition, but he's also managed to track the Chaos Doctor's TARDIS... by a link within the Guardian Doctor's TARDIS, which the Chaos Doctor has taken.

The Chaos Doctor, meanwhile, is contacted by... Estra, or rather Missy from the Roseless Doctor's universe. 

See? I told you the Master wasn't really dead. Again.

While she was not able to keep from being sucked back into Gallifrey and the Time War on her universe, she appears to have returned to her normal size from the use of the TCE and has somehow stolen her version of Rassilon's gauntlet to boot. She and Chaos enter into an uneasy alliance, though it's clear from the beginning that the pair of them are simply waiting for the opportunity to betray the other. Chaos keeps Missy from getting the pieces of the Key to Reality that he rightfully stole, but soon both get distracted as pair of TARDISes arrive - those of Jenny's and Susan's Doctors. They have a struggle that takes them through an entire nebula, the piloting skill of Jenny's, Susan's, and the Guardian Doctors eventually managing to not only overtake Chaos and steal back Guardian's TARDIS, but forcing Chaos and Missy to land on planet Aridius. There, Ross puts Chaos at gunpoint and demands the fragments of the Keys back. Missy gets into the fray with Rassilon's gauntlet and going wild with the lightning bolts.

Jenny, echoing how Mickey took her out in her universe, knocks Missy out with a precise chop to the neck. With her rendered unconscious, Jenny now has the Gauntlet, claiming it as a spoil of war. As Guardian seals Missy and Chaos in the Zero Room of his own TARDIS, having searched both and making sure that they're securely locked up, Jenny's and Susan's begin to work to slave the three TARDISes together to better increase their potential defensive power as well as expand their ability to search for more fragments.

Elsewhere, the Chronarch has gotten Wolf's fragment of the Key and is attempting to use the Conduit as well as the jimmy-rigged TARDISes within his own to locate the rest across the multiverse. It is here, however, that he finds a new foe has risen up to stop him. As his forces prepare to head to another universe, they are suddenly attacked... by a massive armada. This armada has ships from dozens of races both known and unknown to the Chronarch, but a race very familiar to the Chronarch begins materializing on his TARDIS... or, rather, a type of robot.

Specifically... robotic yetis.

A face materializes on every screen near the megalomania-driven Time Lord. The Great Intelligence has come for its final revenge against its most hated enemy, knowing about the Key to Reality and planning to use it to achieve the heights it once had in the previous universe. As the Chronarch prepares for battle, Captain Jack is able to slip free of his entrapment, kills an Ogron for its laser rifle, and fights his way back up to the bridge. Facing the Conduit again, Wolf is able to speak to him through it, telling him to take the emergency recall beacon and get out of there. Jack manages to do one better, going through the chaos of the battle to face down against the Chronarch and trick him, managing to get the fragment of the Key from him while the crazed Time Lord is trying to beat him to death.

Jack escapes, teleporting out with his vortex manipulator charged up to insane levels of power by the Chronarch's regeneration energy-empowered punches. The Chronarch is enraged, but there is little he can do about it now - the Great Intelligence's forces are putting him and his own forces on the backfoot. Annnnnnd that's where we're going to leave off with Part 9!

Oh, and for those keeping score...

• Jenny's, Susan's, and the Guardian Doctor have retrieved their three pieces from Chaos and Missy.
• Roseless and the Master have two pieces.
• The final piece is currently in the hands of Jack Harkness... wherever he is now.
• The Wolf Doctor is currently trapped within the Conduit.

That's more for me when I write the next part than for you, but it's handy to keep track of everything.  All six pieces are currently found... but getting them back together, ah, that'll be the most difficult part, now won't it? Where has Jack gone? Will the other Doctors be able to get to him before the Chronarch can recover from the attack? Will the Great Intelligence take it all? Will Chaos and Missy be out of the running for good? Will there be even more cross references to Doctor Who lore? Find out the answer to... at least some of these questions soon!