She did not know just where they were or for how long it was that they had been there. Barbara had fallen into unconsciousness, carried by Ian as they wandered aimlessly through what seemed to be an endless void.
"Is there... is there nothing here?" Ian asked.
"No, I suppose there isn't." Susan said. After so long a time, she was beginning to feel the pressure of this place affecting her. She could see the signs of fatigue hitting Ian as it had Barbara, the two of them already beginning to compress to fit the matrix of this two-dimensional space. Whether or not either of them were able to survive said compression was another matter, and one that Susan did not want to think on as anything more than a pure academic speculation.
"Well, we aren't getting anywhere. Or nowhere." Ian said, gently setting Barbara down and taking off his coat, folding it up and setting it under her head to serve as a pillow for her. "I'm not feeling particularly wonderful myself."
"I know. I know." Susan sighed. "I just... I don't know what to do."
"Susan, this isn't your fault by any means!"
"No, but I-" Susan turned to her schoolteacher, tears brimming in her eyes as she prepared to unleash the despair she'd been carrying for the last infinitude. As she opened her mouth to do so, however, Susan suddenly stopped. "...Ian. Do you hear that?"
"Hear what, Susan?" Ian asked her. Susan raised a finger to stop his words, and the two listened for a moment. Then, they heard that familiar wheezing.
"It's the TARDIS!" Ian exclaimed. "But where is it coming from?"
"Over there! Look!" Susan pointed over his shoulder, the pair able to see the familiar form of the tall, blue police box materializing within the vast void they had been imprisoned within.
"Is... is it a mirage?" Ian asked.
"Not unless we're both seeing it." Susan said, reaching under the collar of her shirt and producing her key to the TARDIS. "C'mon. Get Barbara! Quickly!" Ian nodded and went to pick up Barbara once more, leaving the coat behind as Susan approached and unlocked the TARDIS door. Susan entered and was immediately taken aback by what she saw.
The console room was... different. A pair of staircases led up from the console to a secondary level, complete with bookshelves. The console itself looked quite different as well. The controls were altered in placement and appearance (even a cursory glance as she gave over it revealed that) and the central column was indeed now a column that seemed to rise up into the ceiling itself. The place was also a bit more dimly lit.
'This desktop theme is very different to Grandfather's.' Susan thought as she looked over it. If this wasn't the Doctor's TARDIS, then where had they ended up? Could someone had come for them from Gallifrey? So soon and-
Her eye caught a piece of paper that had been taped to a small monitor that had been built to rotate around the central column, seeing that it was addressed to her in a handwriting she recognized to be her grandfather's.
"Where are we?" Ian asked as he carried Barbara in. "This isn't the Doctor's TARDIS, is it? How do we know?"
"I think it is." Susan said, taking the paper from where it had been taped on the console and opening it, seeing more of her grandfather's handwriting, which she began to read aloud. "'Alright, Chesterfield. Give this to Susan now that you've ignored who it was actually addressed to. Rude.'" She glanced toward Ian, who almost looked insulted.
"...alright, yes. It's definitely the Doctor's."
"'I've left a relative stabilizer on the console by this note.'" Susan read, then glanced up from the note and saw the device in question, picking it up. "'When you pick it up, the TARDIS should activate.'" The gentle humming of the engines was replaced as they came alive, that wheezing heard as the TARDIS began to dematerialize, taking the three travelers with it. Still holding Barbara in one arm, Ian grabbed one of the staircase rails for balance while Susan leaned against the console.
"What's... what's happening?" Barbara seemed to be regaining consciousness. She gasped in surprise and shock as she blindly grasped onto Ian.
"Here, Barbara! Hold the railing! Hold the railing!" Ian said, helping her to grab on.
"'It will materialize in the console room. Don't worry, it'll leave right after. When you land, run out and plug the stabilizer in. The rest will take care of itself. Save me! - XOXO, Grandfather.'" Grasping the stabilizer in one hand and part of the console railing with the other, Susan looked up at the column rising and falling. She had faith in her grandfather. This plan would work... it had to...
The Doctor collapsed against the floor of the console room, wheezing and panting. 'Ian' pulled the headset from his head and pried the fob watch out of it, holding it out to Sister.
"Thank you, my friend." Sister said, holding the watch in her hand not occupied by the balloon. "Such a small thing, brimming with such power in it."
"That... that will not give you what you seek, child." The Doctor managed out through haggard breaths. "I promise you, it won't-"
"I don't think we need any more words from you." Sister said. She turned to 'Ian', 'Susan', and 'Barbara'. "I believe the three of you have some revenge to exact?" The Doctor gasped out as 'Ian' snatched him up by his collar. Pure murder burned in the facsimile's eyes, as it did in the eyes of both 'Susan' and 'Barbara' as they loomed in close. 'Ian's' other hand began to twist and distort, as if it were jerking around spasmodically, reaching out toward the Doctor's head. Just before the fingers would have touched the man's flesh, a sound was heard. The deep, echoing hum of the engines of the TARDIS. However, the central column at the center of the console was not rising and falling as though the ship were taking off or landing. No, instead, a wind picked up and the form of a tall, blue box materialized only a few feet from where they all stood. "...impossible."
The door opened up and out ran Susan, seeing the sight before her. "Grandfather!"
"Susan, my child! The panel! Put the device in the panel!" The Doctor urged.
"Stop her!" Sister yelled to the twisted versions of the companions, who quickly moved into action. Out of the TARDIS also came Ian and Barbara, Ian immediately running and tackling into his counterpart, the two squaring off. Barbara came face to face with her own and the two began to struggle. Susan scrambled up and around her double, doing her best to remain out of reach. The Doctor, shakily getting to his feet, moved to try and assist her, only to be stopped by Sister.
"Out of my way, now!" The old man grumbled.
"I don't think so." Sister smirked up at him as she held up her hand to stop him. She glanced back toward Susan and 'Susan', the latter of which had grabbed the former by the ankle as she'd tried to dive toward the panel. "Kill her! Now!" Susan screamed, kicking with her other leg back at 'Susan' and forcing her away. This gave the girl just enough time to place the relative stabilizer in its appropriate slot. "You imbeciles!"
"Susan! The engines! Quickly, my girl! Quickly!" The Doctor said.
"Alright, yes!" Susan said, rushing over and beginning the start up sequence, flipping dials and switches. Soon enough, the central column began to rise and fall as the dematerialization sequence had begun. "It's working! It's-" A pulse of energy shot forth from the console, knocking the doubles of the companions back. Another pulse pushed them further back, away to the far enter of the console room, a field of light keeping them pinned there as they struggled against it.
"No! No, you mustn't!" Sister yelled out, but far too late. A third pulse shot forth from the console and the faux companions screamed out as they were blasted away, their forms breaking up into pieces that broke up into smaller ones and smaller ones and smaller ones yet still until they were all completely gone, faded away into nothing. The engines suddenly slowed and stopped entirely, they'd landed... somewhere, it seemed.
"Now, then... I believe you owe us an explanation." Ian said, rounding on the little girl.
"I owe you nothing, human!" Sister spat at him, holding up the Doctor's fob watch. "I am owed so much, and I intend to take it... right now." She opened the watch, inhaled deeply... and nothing seemed to happen. Sister's eyes snapped open as she regarded the watch. "It's... Is it empty? How?! How can it be empty?!" The Doctor was chuckling heartily. "What's so funny, old man?!"
"Oh, dear dear dear, you didn't realize it, did you?" The Doctor asked.
"Realize what? What are you talking about?" Sister's eyes blazed at the man with pure hatred.
"Everything was reflected, wasn't it?" The Doctor asked. "Your world and the world of your little friends. Why, it was just a mirror of our own. The letters were wrong. Even in my ship, you managed to invert everything. That machine did not do what it was supposed to do at all." He chuckled. "I'm afraid, my dear, that your plans were all for naught."
"This... this can't be!" Sister said, shaking her head. "This can't be!" She dropped the fob watch onto the floor, holding her hands to her head and finally letting go of that red balloon, which floated up unrestricted toward the ceiling.
"I'm afraid it is so." The Doctor said.
"You! You did this to me!" Sister yelled at him. "And you!" She turned on the police box that still stood in the console room. She jabbed her finger at it. "You took my Family from me, Doctor! Took them all!" As she pointed, her finger began to flicker in and out of view. "...no! No! NO!" Soon not just her finger, but her arm and then the rest of her began to flicker in and out of view. The last sound they heard from her a scream that faded out with her physical form.
"Is... is it over?" Barbara asked.
"Yes. Yes, I think it is." The Doctor said, nodding firmly. "It's done."
"Dare I even ask what that was?" Ian asked.
"Something from my future, from what she said." The Doctor said. "I wouldn't go prying too far into that if I were you, my boy. I certainly won't be. No, won't be at all." He shook his head, and once more went back to puttering around with the controls, checking them all. The dials and gauges, it seemed, had reverted to the proper left to right lettering.
"But those creatures. The ones that looked like us. They weren't like her, were they?" Barbara asked.
"No, I expect not." The Doctor said. "She said they were friends of hers. Something from the future as well."
"What?" Ian asked.
"Time goes round and round in circles." Susan said. "You can get off wherever you like in the past or the future."
"What do you mean, Susan?"
"Whatever it was, it hasn't happened yet for Grandfather." Susan said. "That's why the note was talking about this all like it had already happened. Grandfather clearly wrote it from a time where it had."
"That would explain this, yes." The Doctor said, glancing to the tall, blue box still sitting in the console room. "I thought my own knowledge would include that materializing a TARDIS inside the same TARDIS is a bad idea!" Just as he said this, the light at the top began to flash and the noise of the engines was heard as the TARDIS disappeared from view, leaving them all standing in the console room.
"So... that's it, then." Ian said.
"Yes, so it would seem." Barbara said. "But is everything back to normal?"
"As normal as our lives are. Yes." The Doctor nodded, pulling a note out of his pocket and looking it over once more. "When Susan replaced the relative stabilizer, we were able to return to our proper dimension. All's well that ends well." He moved away from the others, slipping the paper back into his coat as he went back to managing the controls.
"But I don't understand." Ian said. "If those things came from the Doctor's future... it's not ended at all, is it?"
"Well, you have to remember, time is relative." Susan said. "Just because it hasn't happened yet doesn't mean it hasn't happened yet."
"What?" Ian and Barbara both asked, looking utterly confused.
"Exactly." Susan said with a smile, walking over to join her grandfather at the console. After a moment, and a look of mutual confusion, Ian and Barbara moved to join them, confident that the future for them was, at least, brighter than it had been.
"Of course, it's all done up in a nice little bow, isn't it?"
"Really get yourself around, don't you?" Clara asked the old man with the wild white hair. "An Aubertide and the Boneless all in one day. Where'd you even run into one of those, anyway?"
"What, the Boneless? Bristol! You were there!" The Doctor insisted.
"No, not them. The other one." Clara shook her head.
"Oh, her. Yeah, that was a bad one. She and her family were trying to steal my lives, live forever as Gods. Bad news for the universe. Got it sorted, then. Or at least I thought I had." The Doctor said.
"Clearly not." Clara said.
"There were three other ones, but I don't think they're getting out any time soon." The Doctor said. "Got one lashed in unbreakable chains, one in a collapsing galaxy, got another in a field in England. Never mind it, it's all done."
"And you had her trapped inside a mirror?"
"I had her trapped inside every mirror." The Doctor corrected. "I was really into the ironic punishments a few lives ago. Bit pretentious of me, really."
"Why did you trap her in... every... mirror, then?" Clara asked. "Why her? Why was she so special?"
"Well, she was the baby sister. I thought, maybe, she'd learn. Try to atone." The Doctor said. "Didn't think she'd figure out how to slip out through a backdoor to the past. That was clever thinking, I admit. Really should have planned for that. Big on pretension, poor on looking ahead. Or behind."
"She was smart, though. Trying to go after you at your earliest days." Clara said.
"Devious, even." The Doctor said. "Had to throw the old man a bone, though. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't be the man I am today."
"Literally, in fact."
"Absolutely." The Doctor grabbed a lever as he gave one last look to the monitor. Those four time travelers, such adventures they had ahead of them. "At the very least, I am definitely not the man I was... thank goodness!" He pulled the lever as the image cut out, he and Clara being sent off through time and space for another adventure.
NEXT TIME
PLANET OF THE GIANTS
(The Ghost of the Warlord)
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