Chapter 10

"Thank you," the Doctor said, knowing what the Vashta Nerada had done couldn't have been easy.

Silence was his only reply before the Nanite Controller's travel Machine shut down completely, a black cloud rising from it to seemingly disappear into the rest of the darkness within the TARDIS.

Then he heard the Dalek cries beyond the walls of the TARDIS and remembers where he was.

The Doctor rushed over to the TARDIS console and punched in the coordinates to return to the spot where he had landed when he first came back to the Library. Then he finally looked at Clara, who had been standing silently on the other side of the control panel, watching events unfold. She had probably been operating the controls at under Sexy's direction. "Are you alright?"

"I feel like I should be asking you that," She replied.

"Don't worry about me. What happened to you?"

The Doctor was thankful when rather than press the issue, Clara replied, "The teleporter took me right back to the TARDIS. She told me how to fly, and we came to rescue you. What happened? One moment you were jumping into the teleporter with me and the next, you were gone." The silence filled the void between them for a beat.

"The Daleks wanted me to stick around for a while." The Doctor said as he placed one hand on the TARDIS, taking comfort in the heightened connection between them. "They generally have a habit of making sure they get what they want." The Doctor fell silent for a moment, thinking about what they had planned to do to him as he pressed the button to take off, refusing to look at the empty Mark Three Travel Unit across the room. "I don't think this lot's done with me yet."

"Well, they are for now, right?" Clara asked as the familiar groaning filled the air around them.

The Doctor nodded. He finally glanced at the Dalek travel unit that the Vashta Nerada had taken moments ago. Unable to unhear the creatures begging, nor the reminder of the darker side of the Vashta Nerada's nature emerging as they kept 'her' lingering presence in their vengeance. That they had risen above it made him proud for them.

Still, he couldn't help but reflect on the Nanite Controller, itself…Herself? And the words exchanged in the control room. It was rare that Daleks could stand out as individuals in his mind, but it always unsettled him when it happened.

He forced his dark thoughts away, choosing to bury them deep rather than linger on them.

"The Nanite Controller was all that was supporting their nanites. Without it to maintain them, the Daleks won't be able to hold back the Vashta Nerada any longer. They can either run or die. Most of the ones who can't fly or don't have technology to survive the vacuum of space will do the latter, but some will still get away. Probably several thousands." He sighed tiredly.

"That's still a lot better than millions, isn't it?"

The Doctor nodded as his beloved time machine landed with a thump. Then he shook off his dreary mood and clapped his hands. "Okay. This is a message for all the Vashta Nerada guests." he called out to the surrounding darkness. "We're back in the Library now. Your ride in the TARDIS is over and you can go home now. I'll leave the door open for you, while Clara and I take care of a few things and I expect you all to be gone when I get back."

Even as they walked toward the door, the room was darkening around them. It lightened up the moment he snapped his fingers, opening the doors and releasing them back into the Library, a group even wheeling out the Nanite Controller's travel machine…

Just outside the door were the Vashta Nerada in the other Dalek travel machine. Before they began to talk, the doctor asked, "Are you speaking to me with your own voices or are you holding the Dalek's mind hostage?"

"This particular design of the communication device allows us to speak without use of the original occupants mind and the machinery was not complicated enough to hold it here."

The Doctor relaxed and asked, "Are the Daleks leaving?"

"Yes. Your plan to use Cal's system to expand the hunt worked well. We were able to chase down all the Daleks much quicker than we would have otherwise. We have all been released through the teleporters and the Daleks will either flee or fall as our prey."

"Good. I'm glad to hear it. Speaking of which," He turned to his companion and said, "Clara, I'm going to pop into the teleporter for a few minutes, I'll be back soon."

"Where are you going?"

"Oh, just to check and make sure the computer's systems are alright," The Doctor stated with a smile as he pointed his sonic at the machine. "I'll be back before you know it." Then he thought again and said, "actually, it might be a little while, now that I think about it but still, don't worry about me. Everything's fine."

The Doctor stepped into the teleporter and soon found himself standing in what seemed like a large lawn leading up to a sprawling building. He smiled when he saw the greeting party. Cal, a serious looking man and his River.

"Hello, Sweetie."

"River." He said as he ran up and embraced her. "Those Daleks didn't cause you too much trouble, I hope."

"Oh, they were a bit of a bother, but we got through it, didn't we?" She looked pointedly at the people behind her as she said this, and they smiled.

"Cal, it's good to see you again." The Doctor said as he walked over to the little girl.

"And this time, I can actually shake your hand. Nice virtual reality, by the way." To be honest, seeing this, he couldn't help but be reminded of the Matrix on Gallifrey. It was similar in many ways. Still, now was not the time for getting depressed.

She took the offered hand with a smile and said, "I've read your books."

"The ones about me or the one's I've written?"

The little girl smiled and said "Both. You're joke book about the history of the universe was great."

The Doctor grinned back before looking at the man next to her, "And who might you be?"

"Dr. Moon," He stated and offered his hand.

"Dr. Moon. Oh, you're the Doctor Moon that I saw that first time I was here, aren't you? Great signal interference, not many things can do that to my sonic screwdriver. It's a pleasure to actually meet you."

He stepped back beside River as he asked, "so, are you two going to be alright?"

"We survived the Daleks attack. A lot of our systems were damaged but the Vashta Nerada have said they'll help fix things until the self-repair systems are operational enough to take over. It will take a while, but we think we can get everything working again eventually," Doctor Moon stated.

"That's great." The Doctor said.

"Then I'm going to try to talk to the Vashta Nerada about maybe letting people come here again," Cal said. "Maybe they'll be willing to open up to becoming a part of the system and we could actually open the Library again one day."

"That's a lot of work, you know," The Doctor stated.

"If we can handle the Daleks together, I'm sure we can do anything else we want to."

The Doctor smiled and said, "Look at you. You've just had the Daleks beating at your gate, had the voices of millions of Vashta Nerada coursing through your head and already you're talking about hope for the future. Humans! You lot are amazing, you know that? If I could, I would offer you the chance to ride with me in my TARDIS right now."

Cal and Dr. Moon both smiled at him. The man finally said, "Come on Cal, we have some work to finish and I'm sure that River and The Doctor have a lot of catching up to do before the Doctor leaves." He glanced up and said, "Just say that you're ready to go and you'll be teleported right to where you left."

The Doctor nodded and smiled before the man lead the child toward a nearby road.

After a moment, he turned to River and said, "So, what do you want to do, now?"

"Well…"

Suddenly, they were in a house and although he knew it couldn't have happened in the split second his time senses indicated, he remembered having a lovely walk there with River, excited about spending time together alone. He smiled at her again and said, "I missed you so much. So, how were the Singing Towers of Derillium?"

"Spoilers," River replied.

It was a couple hours later when the Doctor finally returned to the teleporter, happy that he got to spend more time with River but was sad that it was over, probably for good this time on her end.

He stepped out to find Clara, the Vashta Nerada in the Travel Machines and Cal's face on the interface all chatting away. It looked like it was more social than business and for the first time, he actually believed that the Library could open again one day.

"I'm back," he called out, to which all the participants in the conversation looked back at him.

"I suppose we ought to get going," Clara said. "I've got papers that need grading and students that need teaching." She looked back at the others and said, "It was nice to meet you all."

"You, too," Cal stated.

"We hope to hunt with you again." The Vashta Nerada told her before adding, "You as well, Doctor."

"Goodbye," Cal said to both, "have fun."

The Doctor smiled and said, "Good luck to all of you."

As he and Clara entered the TARDIS, he asked, "Have all the Vashta Nerada gone home."

The TARDIS gave an affirmative, though something felt odd about it. He quickly marked it off as his psychic senses still settling after dealing with being digitized for hours and went to the controls.

"So, are we heading home?" Clara asked watching the Doctor.

"Just after one quick stop." The Tardis took off and quickly landed with a thump. "Five hundred years in the future, that should do it."

"For what?" Clara asked as she followed the Doctor to the doors of the TARDIS.

The Time Lord snapped his fingers and the doors opened to reveal a surprised person sitting on a couch with a book in his hand. He poked his head out to see a few more people in the room, all startled by the box that materialized out of nowhere.

"Is this still the Library?" He asked the guy on the couch.

"What?"

"Are we in the Library? I don't always land where I mean to."

The man, who now looked more confused than scared, finally nodded.

"And you're all guests here?" The Doctor Continued.

"Yes." The man said, confused.

He saw the shadows gathering in the corners and noticed that, while people seemed a little off set about it, they weren't running for their lives. The Doctor smiled and said, "They did it. Excellent." Then he quickly said to the man, "Thanks for your help. Enjoy your time here."

He closed the Door and the TARDIS dematerialized, leaving the people in the room confused as to what the just saw and the local Vashta Nerada relieved that nothing was about to happen, as their trees seemed to hint often did when the time lord showed up.

Some of the people would later look up information about a man in a blue box and realized that they had just met a legend.

Meanwhile, deep in the TARDIS, a small shadow that had been trapped in a looped hallway suddenly found itself in a garden. The Vashta Nerada decided they could settle in here, amongst the plants and the insects and live just fine. Within a day, eggs would be laid, and the first generation of TARDIS born Vashta Nerada would soon be underway, all with a deep telepathic connection to Sexy herself.

The TARDIS was proud of the environment she had made within her. She could see that the Vashta Nerada would make a nice addition to her collection of plants and animals from multiple planets, which were mainly kept in secret gardens beyond where the Doctor wondered. They would eventually grow in numbers to become a good defense and repair system, treating entropy issues that had been plaguing her for millennia now.

In return, she would happily provide them with food, a place to live, books and entertainment to keep their culture intact and the freedom to wonder around and occasionally leave her walls.

And as long as they were willing to leave her Thief alone, she was happy to take them with her. By the time he found out, the Vashta Nerada would already be too settled into their home and had spent generations getting exposed to the Vortex to the point where dumping them on a planet in large numbers was not safe to do at all.

Well, that's it. I hope that you enjoyed the story. I don't know for sure if I'll ever write a sequel or not but I'm glad I was able to finish this one. I hope that you enjoyed it.