Last time, the Doctors working under the White Guardian had managed to acquire the five pieces of the Key to Reality. Captain Jack Harkness from the Wolfverse has the sixth, and has teleported away to parts unknown. The Chaos Doctor and Missy were imprisoned by the Doctors and the Chronarch found himself at the mercy of the Great Intelligence. Things are spinning out, and we seem to be heading toward the final battle for the fate of reality itself!
What's gonna happen next?!
We return to the Chronarch's ship, where the insane Time Lord's forces battle the Robot Yetis under the command of the Great Intelligence. Robot Yetis are soon joined by Spoonheads and finally the Whisper Men who start causing a great deal of trouble and whispering their creepy little rhymes about the past and the future. In particular, the Chronarch gets to hear some of his own past:
"The wolf who runs away from the ruin he's caused, but he cannot clean the blood from off his paws."
And his future:
"The gambler plays his final card. He loses all, becomes the Vale-"
The Chronarch cuts them off by drawing them into the Matrix. The Whisper Men are disoriented, but soon find the Wolf Doctor and Adelaide. Being that the Doctor is recognized as an enemy of the Great Intelligence, they pursue the new prey in spite of the circumstances.
The Chronarch utilizes a variant of the weapon Torchwood used against the Sycorax and starts tearing through the Great Intelligence's fleet. Without the Whisper Men to bolster their forces, the Intelligence's boarders are soon repelled or destroyed and the Would Be King of Time works to entrap the entity through the use of one universe's version of the Enlightenment diamond (though clearly very heavily corrupted). This... seems to work, strangely enough, the Intelligence is trapped and its forces are broken. With the Great Old One now entrapped, the Chronarch attempts to track the energy signature of the fragment of the Key of Reality stolen by the Wolfverse Jack Harkness from across the multiverse.
And where has Jack landed? Why, in the TARDIS of Roseless. Given his somewhat frosty relationship with his own universe's Jack that is only just now on the mend, Roseless thinks that he's his version until Jack showcases that he's not. They explain what's happening with the Guardian and the Key to Reality, Jack showcasing the piece he retrieved from the Chronarch, now giving them three. Roseless and the Master use the three pieces to try and locate the others and they find them... onboard three TARDISes heading their way.
The Doctors from multiple realities have all united and they have with them the six pieces of the Key to Reality. Once assembled, the White Guardian appears... but the Doctors (save for Susan's) are all aware of the trick from previous encounters and the defenses of the TARDIS get activated. The Black Guardian reveals himself and declares that Roseless and the Master must turn over the key as they are his Champions. Needless to say, because they aren't complete morons, they refuse. With the now four TARDISes linked, the Doctors jettison off into the multiverse at random, escaping the Black Guardian... or so they think.
Deep within the Guardian Doctor's TARDIS, within his Zero Room in fact, the Black Guardian appears to Missy and Chaos. He promises them a spot in his new order when he uses the Key to Reality to remake the universe in his own image. They agree and renew their pact to work together but, again, it seems like only a matter of time before the backstabbing starts. The Black Guardian is able to free them from the Zero Room, and they begin to put a plan into action.
Back in the Matrix, the Wolf Doctor and Adelaide flee the Whisper Men and find the minds of others that the Chronarch has slaved to the computer. This includes a version of Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, Zoe Heriot, Harriet Jones, Borusa, Sil from Vengeance on Varos and Mindwarp, and finally Adam Mitchell from the Master's universe. Given how the Master unintentionally crafted a sociopath, the consciousness of Adam within the Matrix has become all the more... unhinged. He's behaving erratically, something that Adelaide cannot explain, though Wolf recognizes as his mind degrading into even baser instinct. While he does attempt to fix Adam's mind (using a technique similar to the one that the Prime Doctor used in the Shakespeare Code), Wolf's guilt and regret over what he chose to do to Adam in his universe is not mirrored in Adam, who doesn't know the Doctor and was handcrafted by the Master into becoming a companion... something that Wolf sees in Adam's mind right before Adam tries to stab him to death.
Yes, Adam's... gone, for lack of a better term. Enslaved within the Conduit and left adrift in the Matrix, he's now murderous id run wild and little more. Wolf and Adelaide escape from him, but Adam remains in pursuit, chasing them through the dreamscape of the Matrix.
Meanwhile, on the TARDISes, the Doctors and Master and the assorted companions are attempting to return to the White Guardian's realm. Missy and Chaos spring the trap on them, locking them all out of the room with the Key to Reality. A safeguard put on it by Susan's Doctor keeps them from putting it to use, however. The Black Guardian is able to infiltrate the TARDISes once the duo on his side bring down the defenses, allowing him to summon up all sorts of terrible creatures from across the Multiverse and use the TARDIS corridors to keep the Doctors and their companions trapped. These creatures include, of course, such favorites as the Daleks and the Cybermen and my personal favorite one-off monster The Raston Warrior Robot from The Five Doctors.
The Chronarch, meanwhile, brings his war fleet in toward the TARDISes and begins his own attack. The Black Guardian sends his own envoy, the Shadow, to entreat with the Time Lord and attempt to work out an agreement: shared use of the Key of Reality. The Chronarch tells the Shadow to stuff it, sending him back to the Black Guardian's realm literally to fall apart as atoms upon arrival.
Clearly, this is not going to be a partnership of any kind.
So, we have a cluster of the Doctors and companions attempting to escape the Doctors and get back to Susan's Doctor's console room, we have Missy and the Chaos Doctor trying to break the lock on the Key to Reality, we have the Chronarch and the Black Guardian clashing for control of said Key, and we have Adam attempting to kill the Wolf Doctor and Adelaide Brook within the Matrix. Would be a pretty dick move to just leave this one on a massive cliffhanger for the moment.
...oops.
Stay turned for Part 11!
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