Time Crash
The Doctor and Angel smiled as the door shut behind Martha, Angel took a breath and went to put the mobile on a small frame on the console so it would always be out and secure while the Doctor moved around the side of it, pulling the handbrake, sending them off into the Vortex, off into space.
"So," the Doctor smiled, walking around to her side, pulling her close and putting his arms around her waist, just looking at her softly, his hearts tugging at seeing her smiling up at him, looking better than he could remember seeing after a year of watching her slowly die.
"So?" she laughed, bopping her nose with his, wiggling it against his in an Eskimo kiss.
His grin widened as he leaned forward, resting his forehead to hers before leaning in more to kiss her…
When they were thrown to the ground as the TARDIS shook violently, the klaxon going off. They scrambled to their feet and ran to the controls, setting them, "Stop it!" he shouted, pulling levers.
"What happened girl?" Angel looked up at the rotor before kneeling by the hand, patting it to calm it as it started to bubble.
The Doctor made his way along the console, "What's your problem?" he muttered at the box as things started to calm.
"Right," another voice said, "Just settle down now."
"Excuse me," the Doctor murmured, thinking he had bumped into Angel in his work.
"So sorry," the man replied, both of them fiddling with the console as Angel stood slowly, staring wide eyed at them.
The Doctor had shown her his previous incarnations in his mind ages ago, and that man, working away beside him, was his fifth self, looking much older, but still him.
The two men paused, before sharply looking up at each other, "What?" the Doctor stared at him.
"What?" his fifth self's eyes widened.
"What?!"
"Doctor?" Angel stepped closer, "What happened?"
"Who are you?" Five eyed them.
Angel just tugged on his arm, "There's two of you," she whispered to him.
He could only nod, "Oh, brilliant!" Ten exclaimed, "I mean, totally wrong," he glanced at Angel, "Big emergency, Universe goes bang in five minutes but..." and back at himself, "Brilliant!"
"I'm the Doctor, who are you?" Five eyed them.
"Yes, you are!" Ten beamed, "You are the Doctor."
"Yes, I am," he nodded slowly, "I'm the Doctor."
"Oh, good for you, Doctor. Good for brilliant old you."
Angel shook her head, blinking before realizing she was being rude and stepped up, holding out a hand, "Hello," she smiled at him, "I'm Angel, nice to meet you."
Five smiled in return and nodded as he shook her hand, "The Doctor."
Ten grinned, "She's my, well I suppose OUR, Ma…"
"Companion," Angel cut in quickly, clearly Five couldn't sense them as Time Lords, being from another point in his timeline...and given all the time distortions making things wonky, he should have at least sensed the Doctor as he was the Doctor. Though saying that just seemed to make the Doctor frown and start to sputter.
"Is there something wrong with you?" Five eyed him.
Angel laughed as the man frowned, "There it is!" she cheered, turning to Ten, "The frowning face you told me about! It's really him!"
Ten smiled at her softly, choosing not to say anything about how she'd basically lied to the man, before nodding at the Fifth Doctor, "Mind you, bit saggier than it ought to be, hair's a bit grayer."
"That's only because of you," she pointed out, both of them not noticing the man looking between them, "The two of you being in the TARDIS at the same time shorted out the time differential," Five's eyes widened at her words, Ten grinned seeing the man as impressed with her as he always was, oh he loved hearing her talk about time and TARDISes, so confidently, "But it should be fine as soon as we get him back home."
The Doctor laughed and tugged on Five's white coat, "Be able to close that coat again. But never mind that! Look at you!" he gestured at the man, getting excited again, "The hat, the coat, the crickety cricket stuff, the..." his eyes fell to the celery pinned to the front of the man's jacket, "Stick of celery, yeah. Brave choice celery, but fair play to you, not a lot of men can carry off a decorative vegetable."
"I know of only one," Angel smiled at him softly.
Ten winked at her as she moved to the console to help prepare for sending Five back.
"Oi!" Five cried, "Don't touch that! You don't know what you're doing!"
Ten just moved into his way, "Trust me, she's got a better idea than either of us combined," he laughed, she really did. A lifetime around the TARDISes.
Five glared at him, "Shut up! There is something wrong with my TARDIS and she's probably not helping," he looked up as the TARDIS seemed to hum angrily, "See!" he nodded, taking the humming as agreement before he turned to the console as Angel quietly sniggered, knowing the TARDIS was more humming at his insult to her abilities than agreeing, "I've got to do something about it very, very quickly, and it would help, it really would help, if there wasn't some skinny idiot ranting in my face about everything that happens to be in front of him!"
"Oh," Ten smirked, holding up his hands, "Ok. Sorry, Doctor."
"Thank you."
"You're welcome," Angel called with a laugh from the other side of the console.
"Oh!" Ten murmured, frowning as Five turned away, "The back of my head!"
"What?" he looked over.
"Sorry, sorry, not something you see every day, is it, the back of your own head? Mind you, I see why you wear a hat. I don't want to seem vain, but...could you keep that on?"
Five just ignored him to storm around the console to Angel, "What have you done to my TARDIS?" he demanded of her, knowing she was the one working at the controls for some reason, "You've changed the desktop theme...what is this one then, coral?"
Angel blinked, not at all alarmed or hurt by the man's shouting, "Actually she changed herself," she leaned in to whisper conspiratorially, "They tend to do that. Oh!" she cheered, "We can go see yours if you'd like, she's wonderful at archiving them."
Ten looked at her, startled at that, at the thought that the old console rooms still existed somewhere, "She has?"
Angel nodded, "You wouldn't believe the things she can do," she patted the rotor, "She's amazing."
Ten smiled, "Like you," he winked at her, lifting her hand to kiss the back of it, Five not even noticing as he grimaced around at the new desktop.
"It's worse than the leopard skin," he turned to the console again as Angel pulled her hand away from Ten, taking his half-moon glasses out and slipping them on.
"The glasses!" Angel laughed, pointing to them before taking them off the man's face for a closer look.
"There they come!" the Doctor walked around to Angel, putting his arm around her shoulders as he looked at them too, "The brainy specs!" he looked at Five.
Angel smiled, "You don't even need them, you just think they make you look clever," she remarked, before turning to kiss Ten's cheek, making him beam as Five looked at them, confused, "And they do."
The klaxon went off again.
Five looked up, alarmed, "That's an alert. Lev…"
"Level Five," Angel nodded, putting his glasses back on him to walk to the monitor, "Which indicates a temporal collision. Which means two TARDISes have merged but only formed in one of them. Which creates quite a tug-of-war within the Heart of the TARDIS. Which is equal to a paradox the size of," she turned the monitor to them, "Belgium."
She blinked as she saw the men staring at her, Ten proud and awed, Five a mix of confused, amazed, and impressed.
"That's a bit undramatic, isn't it?" Five murmured, glancing at Ten and back at the mysterious girl who knew all about time and space and TARDISes, "Belgium?"
Ten just pulled out his sonic, offering it as the man walked to the console, "Need this?"
"No, I'm fine," he shook his head at Ten.
"Oh no, of course," he put the sonic back in his pocket, "You mostly went hands free didn't you? It's like 'hey, I'm the Doctor, I can save the Universe with a kettle and some string, and look at me, I'm wearing a vegetable!'"
Five turned to frown at him, eyeing him closely, "Who are you?"
"Take a look," Ten grinned.
"Oh..." his eyes widened, "Oh no..."
Angel started to smile before she made her way to the captain's chair to watch, she knew what was going to happen next, and it was funny.
"Oh yes."
"You're...oh no, you're…"
"Here it comes, yep, yep I am."
"A fan!" Five gave him a irritated look and turned back to the console as it beeped.
"Yep!" Ten beamed, before blinking, realizing what Five had said, "What?"
Angel giggled quietly before calling out, "Level Ten now."
Five looked over at her, startled that she knew what the readings were without seeing the monitor, but there was little time to think on that what with the TARDIS in crisis, "This is bad. Two minutes to Belgium."
"What do you mean 'a fan?'" Ten pouted, more concerned with that than the TARDIS's near explosion, Angel would take care of it, she loved that old box too much to let it explode, "I'm not just a fan, I'm you!"
"Ok, you're my biggest fan. Look, it's perfectly understandable. I go zooming around space and time, saving planets, fighting monsters, and being, well, let's be honest, pretty sort of marvelous..."
"That you are," Angel gave a soft smile and a nod as both men looked at her, smug in that fact.
"And naturally every now and then people notice me," Five continued, "Start up their little groups. That LINDA lot...are you one of them? How did you get in here?" he pointed warningly at Ten, "Can't have you lot knowing where I live."
Ten rolled his eyes, "Listen to me, I'm you! I'm you with a new face," he slapped his own face, "Check out this bone structure Doctor, because one day, you're going to be shaving it. Though," he paused, considering it, "Maybe not, Angel thinks we might look rather dashing with a beard, never had a beard before," he nodded, "We should try and grow one out for her. We love…"
"The way she thinks," Angel cut in again, hopping off the captain's chair a moment before the Cloister Bell sounded and made her way to the console.
"The Cloister Bell," Five breathed as Ten watched Angel with a frown, confused as to why she kept trying to deny who she was to him, how he felt about her, how important she was to him.
"Yeah…" Ten murmured, distracted as Angel set some commands.
"In less than a minute we're going to detonate a black hole strong enough to swallow the entire Universe!" Five cried, pulling his attention back.
Ten just grinned, KNOWING what Angel was doing, she was in her element at the moment and he knew that everything was under control because of that. There was no one he trusted with the TARDIS as much as he did her, so he just turned to Five, leaning against the console, "Yeah, that's my fault, actually, I was rebuilding the TARDIS. Angel told me to put the shields up but I forgot. Your TARDIS and my TARDIS...well the same TARDIS, different points in its own time steam...collided and, oops, there you go, end of the Universe butterfingers. But don't worry, I don't need to be a precog to know exactly how this all works out," he turned and pointed at Angel.
"Venting the Thermal Buffer," she murmured, doing just that, "Flooring the Helmic Regulator, and frying the Zeiton Crystals."
Five's eyes widened as he tried to leap towards her to stop her, only for Ten to hold him back, "You'll blow up the TARDIS!"
"It's the only way out," Ten told him.
"Who told you that?"
Angel just looked up with a smile, grabbing a lever, "I did."
She pulled it and the room filled with a white light…
Fading slowly to reveal the three of them still standing there, alive and well.
"Supernova and black hole at the exact same instant," Five breathed, staring at Angel in awe, "That's genius."
"Explosion cancels out implosion," the Doctor nodded, "And yes, yes she is."
"Matter stays constant."
"Brilliant!" Ten winked at Angel.
"Far too brilliant," Five eyed her, suspicious, "I've never met anyone else who could fly the TARDIS like that."
"Trust me," Ten laughed, "We've never met anyone like her before."
Angel blushed.
"How did you work all that out?" Five eyed her, "Even I couldn't do it."
"She's psychic," Ten said, though Five looked skeptical, taking his words as them not wanting to say, "I knew she'd work it out, fix it all up, it's why I stopped you."
Five blinked, "You remembered," he realized.
"Because you will remember," he nodded, remembering himself standing there, watching a lovely ginger woman work the TARDIS in such an incredible way…so confidently…and she was so beautiful…
He blinked, perhaps THAT was why he'd wanted to be ginger so badly? Hmm...interesting...
"You remembered being me, watching her doing that. You already knew that she'd do it because I watched her do it."
"Wibbly wobbly…"
"Timey wimey!" Angel finished with a little grin.
Ten laughed made his way to Angel's side again, wrapping an arm around her waist and smiling softly at her…when the alarm sounded again.
"What?" Ten looked up.
"It's alright," Angel answered, patting his hand as it was wrapped around her, "It's just the TARDISes separating."
He nodded and looked at Five again, "Sorry, Doctor, time's up, back to long ago..." he frowned, "Where are you now? Nyssa and Tegan, Cybermen and Mara and Time Lords in funny hats and the Master? Oh he just showed up again, same as ever."
"Oh no," Five grimaced, "Really? Does he still have that rubbish beard?"
"No...no beard this time...well, a wife."
Five looked down at himself as he started to fade, "Oh, I seem to be off. What can I say?" he looked at Angel, "Lovely to meet you Miss Angel."
"Likewise," she nodded.
"And thank you...Doctor."
"Thank you," Ten grinned.
"I'm very welcome," Five laughed, fading completely before Ten hit a switch to bring him back, handing him the hat he'd nearly forgotten.
"You know..." he began, "I loved being you. Back when I first started, at the very beginning, I was always trying to be old and grumpy and important, like you do when you're young. And then I was you...and it was all dashing about and playing cricket and my voice going all squeaky when I shouted..."
"He still does that," Angel added with a laugh, "I love it."
He nodded, "I got that from you. Oh!" and then put his foot up on the console to show him the trainers he wore, "And the trainers and..." he pulled out his own square brainy specs, "...snap. 'Cos you know what, Doctor? You were my Doctor."
Five tipped his hat at him, "To days to come."
"All my love to long ago."
He watched as Five disappeared completely, for good, before turning to Angel, "Why did you…"
"I didn't want to create the future," she cut in, knowing he was going to ask about why she'd said she was a companion and not a Time Lady, why she hadn't let him say he loved her, among other things.
"What do you mean?" he frowned.
"You didn't know another Time Lady existed," she reminded him, walking over to take his hands, "After the War…" she shook her head, "What you knew made you who you were. You didn't know then, so your past self couldn't know now. And…" she blushed a bit, "I couldn't let you say you loved me because I didn't want to influence him," she added, "You. I didn't want you to come to love me because you saw that a future you would love me. I wanted those feelings to be genuine," she kissed his scarred knuckles before leaning in, "Like mine," and kissed him as well.
He smiled softly at her, about to kiss her once more, when…
"Oh, Doctor," Five's voice called on a whisper, "Remember to put your shields up…"
Angel laughed and hit a button…right when a blaring of ship horns sounded and something crashed into the TARDIS, knocking them off their feet again. They looked up to see the bow of an ocean liner had broken through the wall, sticking into the side of the TARDIS.
"What..." the Doctor coughed as he helped Angel up, "What?" he looked over to find a life preserver reading TITANIC, "What?!"
To be continued...in...Fading!
A/N: Lol, I loved writing Five with Angel, I really wanted to make him all confuzzled by her but still very impressed. I could see him as believing Angel was either a VERY well-taught human companion (if his future self decided to teach one to fly the TARDIS -cough-Donna-cough-) or a more advanced human, like Captain Jack since he couldn't sense her at the moment :) And I could just see Angel LOVING having two Doctors there and actually getting to meet one of his past selves and showing off just a little, she's happy here, she's alive, she's healthy, and she's working a TARDIS, completely in her element as the Doctor said :)
And...before I say anything else...can I just say you all have been SO incredible during this story. Your reviews/comments/suggestions/questions have meant the world to me. I was literally floored when I saw how many reviews this story had hit just before this chapter and...I'm really trying not to get my hopes up too high but...if this keeps up with Series 7 (70ish chapters so far)...I might actually reach the 1,000 reviews I've only ever dreamed of. I know it is a VERY long way away and so many things can happen before then but I just wanted to say, for this story especially, you guys are truly amazing. Thank you to anyone who ever read/reviewed/favorited/followed/anything this story, you have no idea how much it means to me that you're enjoying the saga so far and I will do my best to keep up the good work in the future :)
The next story will be a big one, not only do we get Donna but Jenny and Rose returning and the Crucible and River Song and...the Doctor losing Angel somehow. Oh I can't wait! Just to tempt you to keep reading lol, but there's so much fluff in the first chapter of the next story it's insane :)
Today will also be the last day to vote for a pairing name, which will be officially announced at the start of the next story :)
Some notes on reviews...(if there are any questions, feel free to ask and I'll answer them at the start of the next story!)...
This chapter sort of answered how he didn't know she was a Time Lady, with the time differential shorting out, if he couldn't sense himself as a Time Lord right in front of him, he probably couldn't sense Angel as a Time Lady, or at least that's how I saw it :)
Oh Rory will definitely be Angel's companion. I've had that planned WAY back in my Sneak Peeks story lol :) He HAS to be her companion because Rory is just awesome like that :) But as for Angel's relationship with Amy...well, only time will tell :)
Nope, just this one chapter for Time Crash. All the mini-sode/prequel chapters will be just 1 chapter :)
The Runaway Bride (and Christmas Invasion...and Voyage of the Damned) was 5 chapters because I've made all the specials 5 chapters long since they're longer than a typical episode :) They will probably be the only 5-chapter portions of the saga :)
I've actually already reached my word goal of 3,000,000 words on the 17th :) I am SO excited about that ^-^ Now I just have to see if I'll reach my next goal of 5,000,000 which I think I might. I think I might make it to another million just finishing this saga alone and then there's the Academic Series, the Lunar Cycle, the spin-offs, and (hopefully) my Merlin fic too that should be up this year as well. Who knows, I might just make 5,000,000 by the end of this year! :)
It makes perfect sense to me. I always start with a plan in mind but sometimes the characters steal the ideas from me and write the scene the way they want it to go. Like...in the Academic Series, I completely was going to have the Professor duke it out with Rose, but the Doctor butted his way in and stole the show :)
Oh...Turn Left and the TARDIS. I won't say what will happen, but I've got quite a few twists for that episode :)
I will say, officially, we'll be getting a Torchwood crossover chapter in the very next story :) I won't say when it'll pop up or what episode of Torchwood it'll fall on but it'll be there :) I actually have 'Angel's meeting Ianto' moment written up and I laughed, she's just adorable :) As for the Library and Midnight...good, you should be lol :) But I won't say what happens there...or with Donna...or the Titanic, that'll be a surprise :) But I'm glad I made you scream at your laptop for the Lunar Cycle. I think I screamed at myself for doing that :) Oh Clara and the TARDIS...I can say that Angel will definitely find out what Clara said.
As for Space/Time...I'm honestly not sure at the moment how I would do the mini-sodes that are semi-2 parter ones. Originally I planned to do them as separate chapters but...adding in some other prequels and the Torchwood chapter and some original chapters for Series 7, it depends. If I end up with more than 365 chapters (total) saved to my computer by the time I get to Series 5, we might get the 2-parter (or 5-parter) mini-sodes as just one chapter. I'll have to wait and see how that plays out :) And in Wibbly-Wobbly Timey-Wimey, the Professor and the Doctor were right after AOTD but before DOAS in Series 7. Evy and the Doctor were just after TWOSJS crossover in the 10-specials. And Angel and the Doctor were right after The Doctor Dances but before Boom Town in Series 1 :)
Nice video! It's going on tumblr too :)