![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Title: Finding A Way Home: Monster in the Dark 1/3
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
katherine_b
Rating: G
Summary: The Doctor is still in trouble.
Characters: The Doctors and Donna Noble
A/N: This is a sequel to Finding A Way Home: A Little Bit of Vengeance. It was requested bydrakochi as part of my current Timestamp meme. She wanted “to see Donna and the Doctors on a proper adventure. But this time because of the two Doctors, Donna gets captured by some sort of alien/mad man. Now what I would like to see is the two Doctors trying to rescue Donna and defeat the enemy. I wonder if they will argue over who got the best plan for the rescue. *hinthint*”. Subtle as a brick, aren’t you, hun? *g* Hope this satisfies!
“Please, please, please, please, please, please, please…”
The Doctor's finger is aching on the button of the sonic screwdriver as he presses the remote control that he hopes will bring the TARDIS to the silent, dark planet on which he has found himself.
His last memory on board the TARDIS was finding a small cubbyhole from which to hide from an angry Doctor and a furious Donna. He's not entirely sure how he managed to fall asleep, but he suspects the TARDIS worked with the other two people on board to transform the cupboard into a teleport that sent him to this planet.
He can't help wishing he'd tested out the remote recall of the TARDIS before now.
However the first sound that hits him isn't the welcome whine of the TARDIS engines.
It's a dull thud that seems to shake the ground and causes his eyes to snap open to meet utter darkness.
The glow-worms have clearly all turned off their lights.
The first thud is followed by a second and then a third.
The shaking of the ground becomes more distinct.
Hesitantly, the Doctor begins backing away from the direction he hopes the sound is coming from, stumbling over the uneven ground and winding up on his back in a small indentation in the ground, all of the breath knocked out of him and his single heart thudding almost painfully against his ribs.
“I know you're there.”
A voice from nearby – a voice that the Doctor can only believe comes from the owner of those massive footsteps – startles him and makes him gasp as he scrambles to his feet.
“I can hear that little jingle,” the voice tells him, and the Doctor claps his hand to the pocket where, a few minutes earlier, he had shoved all his possessions away. It takes him a moment, as he lowers himself into a position reminiscent of someone waiting for the starters gun to go off at the start of a race, but he finally hears the almost inaudible ting of the bell.
Whatever enemy he’s facing, it must have incredible hearing.
If it wasn’t threatening him, he’d be fascinated.
“I'm going to get you,” that unknown voice taunts him again. “Find you. Probably kill you. Possibly eat you. I haven't decided that yet.”
The next instant, even as the booming voice is dying away, the Doctor gasps in relief at the sound of the materialisation sequence of the TARDIS. Staring around into the dark so hard that his eyes hurt, he tries to glimpse something that would show where he should flee, but he's a little afraid he might run into the arms – if it has arms – of this unknown threat.
Finally, however, he feels the air moving vigorously against his face and turns towards its source, seeing a glowing white light increase and then fade several times before the familiar lines of the box begin to form – thankfully in the opposite direction from what he thinks – hopes! – is the creator of the thudding footsteps
Taking to his heels, he's horrified to hear a threatening growl from behind him and puts on a burst of speed, finally running at full-tilt into the wall of the reassuringly familiar wooden surface.
Clawing at the side of the TARDIS, he scrabbles at the wall he hopes is actually the door, more grateful than he can express when his fingers close on the handle and he pushes desperately against it, knowing he has no time to find his key in the depths of his pockets.
The creak of the hinges is music to his ears.
With a relieved gasp, he shoves the door open and all but falls inside, slamming it shut and spinning around to see Donna and the other Doctor staring at him from the far side of the console.
“The next time,” he gasps, panting for breath and leaning against the white wooden doors as the other two stare at him, “you decide you – want to – abandon me – on a – deserted planet – could you – make sure it’s – you know – actually deserted?!”
“What?” the man in brown demands.
“Doctor?” Donna takes a step forward before turning to look back at the man beside her. “What happened? Why are we here already?”
“I used this to bring the TARDIS back here,” the man by the door explains, recovering his breath and waving the sonic screwdriver at her. “Luckily for me, it worked before whatever's out there managed to kill me.”
“What is it?” the Doctor demands. “What's out there? I mean, the TARDIS didn't tell us there was anything dangerous. Just a whole lot of furrenvliege. Fireflies,” he adds, seeing Donna give him a puzzled glance.
“Bit hard to see,” the other man snaps, walking up the ramp to the console. “It's pitch black on the other side of those doors. But it's got to be pretty big considering that it shakes the ground when it moves. And it's threatening to kill – possibly eat – me. So,” he goes on, sarcasm in his voice, “if we could get out of here as soon as possible, I might be willing to forget that you dumped me like that.”
“Well, we'd love to and all,” the Doctor retorts in equally snide tones. “But unfortunately, because someone yanked the TARDIS out of its intended trajectory through the vortex, we won't be going anywhere for quite a while.”
“What?”
The word comes from both Donna and the other Doctor. The latter steps forward and slides a hand down the central core, feeling the echo of the pain the TARDIS is feeling.
“I’m sorry,” he murmurs. “I didn’t realise.”
The TARDIS gives a faint, choking hum in reply and the lights flicker.
“God, this feels like bloody déjà vu all over again,” Donna suggests, leaning against the jumpseat. “Maybe I should go and see if there’s a wedding dress in that wardrobe of yours.”
But the Doctor notices that her hand is lightly stroking the yellow leather and he smiles at the knowledge that Donna is as fond of the TARDIS as either of the Doctors.
The original Doctor, however, is running a series of tests on the world outside. “There shouldn’t be anything out there,” he says in the end. There’s nothing else native to this planet except the furrenvliege.”
“Well, unless the furrenvliege have learned to talk,” the other Doctor tells him, “I think we can safely assume that whatever’s out there isn’t native.”
“And you haven’t seen it?”
“It’s dark out there!” he exclaims in exasperation. “You know, no light. Makes it hard to see things.”
“Maybe for half-human eyes…”
“Oi!” Donna leaps up from the jumpseat and glares at the Doctor in brown, who is looking scornful. “We talked about this. His eyes are just as good as yours!”
“All right, sorry,” the Time Lord says quickly, his tones revealing he’s not sorry at all. “But let’s get out there and find out what it is before it escapes!”
“Or we could stay in here and not get eaten while we wait for the TARDIS to recover,” Donna suggests, clearly not expecting either Doctor to pay attention.
They don’t.
Both dive for the door, but at the sound of Donna’s feet on the grating behind, they turn, almost as one, to look at her.
“Stay here!” The order is accompanied by two identical glares that would silence most people.
Perhaps predictably, however, not Donna Noble.
“Why should I?”
“Umm…” Wrong-footed, the man in brown exchanges glances with his twin. “Because its – dangerous?”
“And I suppose the Daleks were just a party game, were they?” she demands, her eyes glittering and her voice containing that tense tone that both men know well.
“Er…”
“No, Donna, he didn’t mean it like that.” The man in blue takes a half step forward as he interrupts. “It’s just that we need someone to keep an eye on the TARDIS. Thanks to me dragging you back here, she’s in as bad a state now as she was after we chased you down the freeway when you were being kidnapped by that robot Santa.”
He watches as her furious stance softens a little and she reaches out to place a gentle hand on the console.
“All we’re going to do,” he vows, “is take a quick look to determine exactly what’s out there and how dangerous it is. Then we’ll be right back, and we’ll get away as soon as the TARDIS can take us.”
“So,” Donna says slowly, “why can’t I go and one of you stay here?”
“You think the TARDIS will want me around considering I just dragged her out of the vortex?” the Doctor asks with a smile that he hopes doesn’t look too placating. “Besides, she knows you won’t break out the mallets at the least provocation.”
“We won’t be long,” the other Doctor promises, his hand already opening the door, and they duck outside before Donna can protest any further.
“Thanks,” the Time Lord murmurs as they take a step away from the TARDIS. “You got me out of a hole that time.”
Before the other Doctor can respond, however, they are interrupted.
“Doctor,” the voice that the man with one heart finds all too familiar growls from nearby, “who are you talking to?”
The first Doctor stops dead, so that the second man bumps into him.
“How did it hear…?”
“Got another little friend there, have you?” The beast gives a chuckle. “Another Time Lord, is it? Brought it with you in your TARDIS?”
What is that?
The man in blue picks up on the thoughts he is receiving from the Time Lord and can’t help being relieved when it becomes obvious that the creature can’t detect telepathy.
No idea, he admits. More to the point, how does it know about Time Lords and TARDISes?
Have we met this thing before?
Not that I can recall.
Great, something else to look forward to!
The other Doctor suspects that he’s rolling his eyes, but in the darkness, it’s impossible to tell.
The next audible noise is a soft, regular beat, which makes the ground around them tremble a little. It’s not as bad as when the beast was running, but it’s still like a small earthquake.
We have to see what that thing is, the Time Lord projects at last, his thoughts showing his obvious frustration. We can’t keep waiting for something to happen.
What are you going to do?
There’s a rustling noise, and the Doctor guesses that the other man has reached into his pocket. The hum of the sonic screwdriver is muffled, its beam aimed at the blue box nearby, but clearly the creature hears it.
“Playing with your little toys again, Doctor? Trying to defeat me with some primitive sonic technology? It didn’t work last time and it won’t work now!”
Just once, the Doctor thinks in aggravated tones, and particularly at moments like this, I do wish life would sometimes happen in the right order!
The other man chuckles mentally, still pointing the sonic screwdriver at the TARDIS, and the light on top gradually lights and slowly strengthens. Before it becomes too bright, however, the Doctor stops the beam and the two men stare around them into the twilight.
They find themselves on a barren, rocky landscape. They have moved several feet away from the TARDIS, but there is less distance between them and the ship than between a huge mound off to one side that is clearly not rock.
“Oh, that is beautiful!” the Doctor exclaims before he can stop himself.
A hand in a blue sleeve that firmly covers his mouth cuts off any further exclamations.
The creature he had just described as beautiful is what Donna would call an ogre. A massive, hulking beast with small horns on either side of its head, massive canine teeth poking up from a protruding lower jaw. Its skin is tough, stretched taut over rippling muscles, and it’s probably four times the size of the TARDIS in height.
A Hongorat! The Time Lord’s mental voice reveals his delight. I thought they were just legend!
Well, of course they are! The other Doctor can hear what he privately calls his ‘Donna voice’ coming to the fore. This is all just a figment of our joint imaginations, don’t you know? He stifles a sigh only with difficulty. The real question is, what are we going to do with it?
Why do we have to do anything with it?
I’m sorry. He can hear the sarcasm in his tones, and only hopes the Time Lord can, too. Did you miss the bit where it said it wants to kill us? Well, me. Actually, since you are me, that would mean both of us!
Oh. There’s a pause. True.
“Doctor!” The Hongorat speaks again. “I grow impatient. Must we do this the hard way?”
Next Part
Author:
katherine_b Rating: G
Summary: The Doctor is still in trouble.
Characters: The Doctors and Donna Noble
A/N: This is a sequel to Finding A Way Home: A Little Bit of Vengeance. It was requested by
drakochi as part of my current Timestamp meme. She wanted “to see Donna and the Doctors on a proper adventure. But this time because of the two Doctors, Donna gets captured by some sort of alien/mad man. Now what I would like to see is the two Doctors trying to rescue Donna and defeat the enemy. I wonder if they will argue over who got the best plan for the rescue. *hinthint*”. Subtle as a brick, aren’t you, hun? *g* Hope this satisfies!“Please, please, please, please, please, please, please…”
The Doctor's finger is aching on the button of the sonic screwdriver as he presses the remote control that he hopes will bring the TARDIS to the silent, dark planet on which he has found himself.
His last memory on board the TARDIS was finding a small cubbyhole from which to hide from an angry Doctor and a furious Donna. He's not entirely sure how he managed to fall asleep, but he suspects the TARDIS worked with the other two people on board to transform the cupboard into a teleport that sent him to this planet.
He can't help wishing he'd tested out the remote recall of the TARDIS before now.
However the first sound that hits him isn't the welcome whine of the TARDIS engines.
It's a dull thud that seems to shake the ground and causes his eyes to snap open to meet utter darkness.
The glow-worms have clearly all turned off their lights.
The first thud is followed by a second and then a third.
The shaking of the ground becomes more distinct.
Hesitantly, the Doctor begins backing away from the direction he hopes the sound is coming from, stumbling over the uneven ground and winding up on his back in a small indentation in the ground, all of the breath knocked out of him and his single heart thudding almost painfully against his ribs.
“I know you're there.”
A voice from nearby – a voice that the Doctor can only believe comes from the owner of those massive footsteps – startles him and makes him gasp as he scrambles to his feet.
“I can hear that little jingle,” the voice tells him, and the Doctor claps his hand to the pocket where, a few minutes earlier, he had shoved all his possessions away. It takes him a moment, as he lowers himself into a position reminiscent of someone waiting for the starters gun to go off at the start of a race, but he finally hears the almost inaudible ting of the bell.
Whatever enemy he’s facing, it must have incredible hearing.
If it wasn’t threatening him, he’d be fascinated.
“I'm going to get you,” that unknown voice taunts him again. “Find you. Probably kill you. Possibly eat you. I haven't decided that yet.”
The next instant, even as the booming voice is dying away, the Doctor gasps in relief at the sound of the materialisation sequence of the TARDIS. Staring around into the dark so hard that his eyes hurt, he tries to glimpse something that would show where he should flee, but he's a little afraid he might run into the arms – if it has arms – of this unknown threat.
Finally, however, he feels the air moving vigorously against his face and turns towards its source, seeing a glowing white light increase and then fade several times before the familiar lines of the box begin to form – thankfully in the opposite direction from what he thinks – hopes! – is the creator of the thudding footsteps
Taking to his heels, he's horrified to hear a threatening growl from behind him and puts on a burst of speed, finally running at full-tilt into the wall of the reassuringly familiar wooden surface.
Clawing at the side of the TARDIS, he scrabbles at the wall he hopes is actually the door, more grateful than he can express when his fingers close on the handle and he pushes desperately against it, knowing he has no time to find his key in the depths of his pockets.
The creak of the hinges is music to his ears.
With a relieved gasp, he shoves the door open and all but falls inside, slamming it shut and spinning around to see Donna and the other Doctor staring at him from the far side of the console.
“The next time,” he gasps, panting for breath and leaning against the white wooden doors as the other two stare at him, “you decide you – want to – abandon me – on a – deserted planet – could you – make sure it’s – you know – actually deserted?!”
“What?” the man in brown demands.
“Doctor?” Donna takes a step forward before turning to look back at the man beside her. “What happened? Why are we here already?”
“I used this to bring the TARDIS back here,” the man by the door explains, recovering his breath and waving the sonic screwdriver at her. “Luckily for me, it worked before whatever's out there managed to kill me.”
“What is it?” the Doctor demands. “What's out there? I mean, the TARDIS didn't tell us there was anything dangerous. Just a whole lot of furrenvliege. Fireflies,” he adds, seeing Donna give him a puzzled glance.
“Bit hard to see,” the other man snaps, walking up the ramp to the console. “It's pitch black on the other side of those doors. But it's got to be pretty big considering that it shakes the ground when it moves. And it's threatening to kill – possibly eat – me. So,” he goes on, sarcasm in his voice, “if we could get out of here as soon as possible, I might be willing to forget that you dumped me like that.”
“Well, we'd love to and all,” the Doctor retorts in equally snide tones. “But unfortunately, because someone yanked the TARDIS out of its intended trajectory through the vortex, we won't be going anywhere for quite a while.”
“What?”
The word comes from both Donna and the other Doctor. The latter steps forward and slides a hand down the central core, feeling the echo of the pain the TARDIS is feeling.
“I’m sorry,” he murmurs. “I didn’t realise.”
The TARDIS gives a faint, choking hum in reply and the lights flicker.
“God, this feels like bloody déjà vu all over again,” Donna suggests, leaning against the jumpseat. “Maybe I should go and see if there’s a wedding dress in that wardrobe of yours.”
But the Doctor notices that her hand is lightly stroking the yellow leather and he smiles at the knowledge that Donna is as fond of the TARDIS as either of the Doctors.
The original Doctor, however, is running a series of tests on the world outside. “There shouldn’t be anything out there,” he says in the end. There’s nothing else native to this planet except the furrenvliege.”
“Well, unless the furrenvliege have learned to talk,” the other Doctor tells him, “I think we can safely assume that whatever’s out there isn’t native.”
“And you haven’t seen it?”
“It’s dark out there!” he exclaims in exasperation. “You know, no light. Makes it hard to see things.”
“Maybe for half-human eyes…”
“Oi!” Donna leaps up from the jumpseat and glares at the Doctor in brown, who is looking scornful. “We talked about this. His eyes are just as good as yours!”
“All right, sorry,” the Time Lord says quickly, his tones revealing he’s not sorry at all. “But let’s get out there and find out what it is before it escapes!”
“Or we could stay in here and not get eaten while we wait for the TARDIS to recover,” Donna suggests, clearly not expecting either Doctor to pay attention.
They don’t.
Both dive for the door, but at the sound of Donna’s feet on the grating behind, they turn, almost as one, to look at her.
“Stay here!” The order is accompanied by two identical glares that would silence most people.
Perhaps predictably, however, not Donna Noble.
“Why should I?”
“Umm…” Wrong-footed, the man in brown exchanges glances with his twin. “Because its – dangerous?”
“And I suppose the Daleks were just a party game, were they?” she demands, her eyes glittering and her voice containing that tense tone that both men know well.
“Er…”
“No, Donna, he didn’t mean it like that.” The man in blue takes a half step forward as he interrupts. “It’s just that we need someone to keep an eye on the TARDIS. Thanks to me dragging you back here, she’s in as bad a state now as she was after we chased you down the freeway when you were being kidnapped by that robot Santa.”
He watches as her furious stance softens a little and she reaches out to place a gentle hand on the console.
“All we’re going to do,” he vows, “is take a quick look to determine exactly what’s out there and how dangerous it is. Then we’ll be right back, and we’ll get away as soon as the TARDIS can take us.”
“So,” Donna says slowly, “why can’t I go and one of you stay here?”
“You think the TARDIS will want me around considering I just dragged her out of the vortex?” the Doctor asks with a smile that he hopes doesn’t look too placating. “Besides, she knows you won’t break out the mallets at the least provocation.”
“We won’t be long,” the other Doctor promises, his hand already opening the door, and they duck outside before Donna can protest any further.
“Thanks,” the Time Lord murmurs as they take a step away from the TARDIS. “You got me out of a hole that time.”
Before the other Doctor can respond, however, they are interrupted.
“Doctor,” the voice that the man with one heart finds all too familiar growls from nearby, “who are you talking to?”
The first Doctor stops dead, so that the second man bumps into him.
“How did it hear…?”
“Got another little friend there, have you?” The beast gives a chuckle. “Another Time Lord, is it? Brought it with you in your TARDIS?”
What is that?
The man in blue picks up on the thoughts he is receiving from the Time Lord and can’t help being relieved when it becomes obvious that the creature can’t detect telepathy.
No idea, he admits. More to the point, how does it know about Time Lords and TARDISes?
Have we met this thing before?
Not that I can recall.
Great, something else to look forward to!
The other Doctor suspects that he’s rolling his eyes, but in the darkness, it’s impossible to tell.
The next audible noise is a soft, regular beat, which makes the ground around them tremble a little. It’s not as bad as when the beast was running, but it’s still like a small earthquake.
We have to see what that thing is, the Time Lord projects at last, his thoughts showing his obvious frustration. We can’t keep waiting for something to happen.
What are you going to do?
There’s a rustling noise, and the Doctor guesses that the other man has reached into his pocket. The hum of the sonic screwdriver is muffled, its beam aimed at the blue box nearby, but clearly the creature hears it.
“Playing with your little toys again, Doctor? Trying to defeat me with some primitive sonic technology? It didn’t work last time and it won’t work now!”
Just once, the Doctor thinks in aggravated tones, and particularly at moments like this, I do wish life would sometimes happen in the right order!
The other man chuckles mentally, still pointing the sonic screwdriver at the TARDIS, and the light on top gradually lights and slowly strengthens. Before it becomes too bright, however, the Doctor stops the beam and the two men stare around them into the twilight.
They find themselves on a barren, rocky landscape. They have moved several feet away from the TARDIS, but there is less distance between them and the ship than between a huge mound off to one side that is clearly not rock.
“Oh, that is beautiful!” the Doctor exclaims before he can stop himself.
A hand in a blue sleeve that firmly covers his mouth cuts off any further exclamations.
The creature he had just described as beautiful is what Donna would call an ogre. A massive, hulking beast with small horns on either side of its head, massive canine teeth poking up from a protruding lower jaw. Its skin is tough, stretched taut over rippling muscles, and it’s probably four times the size of the TARDIS in height.
A Hongorat! The Time Lord’s mental voice reveals his delight. I thought they were just legend!
Well, of course they are! The other Doctor can hear what he privately calls his ‘Donna voice’ coming to the fore. This is all just a figment of our joint imaginations, don’t you know? He stifles a sigh only with difficulty. The real question is, what are we going to do with it?
Why do we have to do anything with it?
I’m sorry. He can hear the sarcasm in his tones, and only hopes the Time Lord can, too. Did you miss the bit where it said it wants to kill us? Well, me. Actually, since you are me, that would mean both of us!
Oh. There’s a pause. True.
“Doctor!” The Hongorat speaks again. “I grow impatient. Must we do this the hard way?”
Next Part
grumpy