Fic: The Best Possible Outcome - part 6
Title: The Best Possible Outcome
Genre: fixit, romance/friendship, adventure
Rating: PG
Characters: Donna, Ten, Mr. Aluminum Foil & Co.
Summary: Donna's mind is once more at stake
Warning/Spoilers: probably a bad attempt at scifi
Words: 1795
Disclaimer: The characters (save Mr. Aluminum!), the show, even the story idea, are not mine.
A/N: kind of unsure about this chapter, but enjoy anywayssss.
Previous parts (by donna_decem )
1 - 2
by me
3 - 4 - 5
At one point, the ship had crashed moments ago. To Donna, it felt like forever. She was bleeding, the damn glass container, the damn glass table, that one shard that had managed to get deep into her stomach.
"Donna!"
His voice was so far away at this point. She closed her eyes and all she felt was her head drifting as if to run away from the pain and blood and tears. Her whole world rose upwards and she assumed she was in his arms, but made no effort to listen to two desperate voices, telling her to hang on, because she had already let go and hated herself for it.
In another, Donna lived. But he did not.
"No, damn you!" she cried in anger and in fear. "Regenerate or something!"
The heavy metallic walls had crushed his body. He couldn't get out.
"It's a bit too early for that," he huffed as he winced. He had a sad smile. In other instances he was crying, too. In other instances, he tried his best to regenerate, he tried to push off the lumps of metal from his broken body but had no avail. In other instances, he said and did nothing at all.
And in others, all three of them lost their lives. All three of them lived. One lived and two went. Deaths were given different ways to different people. First it was the glass, then it was by gunpoint, then it was by the ship's destruction. Chiswick was obliterated. Chiswick was saved. Chiswick was saved by a second. Chiswick was saved a second too late. Each possibility let to the fate of the world, to the fate of the universe, to the fate of creation all over again.
Branches and branches of possibilities extended, and they saw them happen one by one, yet all at once. It hurt.
"Stop!"
The Doctor forced himself to break with the Seed. He didn't need to go through what he could everyday without some orb. He shook his head to expel it all from his head, and then he noticed that it was only his head shaking and not the entire ship.
The Seed was where it had fallen, not rolling about on the sleek floors. Bureagard and Donna were still in their trance; Donna was laying flat on the floor with her eyes open and glossy, staring into green while Bureagard was slumped over a random chair that had flung about. He cursed to himself and gripped on the doorframe to peek outside, finding Ueslivan still unconscious, his body all the way at the end of the hallway.
Broken glass was everywhere. The table had tipped over and shattered everywhere, now bits of tiny shards were embedded on parts of their arms and face.
The Doctor rushed over to Donna first, brushing away bits of glass from her clothes and away from her, carefully picking tiny pieces from out of her hands and forehead (those were going to hurt when she was conscious again), and propping her up against the wall so that she was sitting.
"Donna," he called, holding her head so that it wouldn't fall to the side. "Donna, snap out of it, look at me."
She didn't respond, her eyes were still reflecting with a glossy green.
There was a sound of movement behind him and he turned his head to face Bureagard, who was only waking.
"How'd you manage to do that?" The Doctor asked him.
Bureagard fumbled to stand up. His skin was unscathed by the glass, though there were dark gray marks on him, probably bruises. "The eyes of a loyal Gaureen," he reminded.
"But..." something in the Doctor's head clicked, but now wasn't the time for that, so he'd explain it later.
"She is in a healthy state?" Bureagard asked, referring to Donna. The Doctor faced her and looked again into her lost eyes.
"We were out for about half an hour. That's too long for her. I need to take care of it, meanwhile, you go check on the ship, find out what happened and make sure it doesn't have another fit, and make sure all the fleets are in fact not causing any damage."
Bureagard nodded. "Yes, Doctor. My wishes to Donna."
He quickly paced out of the room to his destination (halting for a while, probably being startled to see Ueslivan laying all the way at the corner of the hall).
The Doctor took Donna's temples with his fingers, his thumbs resting gently on her cheeks. He closed his eyes, slowly entering her mind. The black in his eyelids turned to a series of colors--mostly green. There was a numb feeling around him, like all parts of Donna's brain stopped to turn their metaphorical heads to face the universe.
Donna? Can you hear me?
He got no reply and delved into her mind a bit deeper, knocking on her doors but finding that no one was home and the locks were left open. The green faded into images of what Donna was seeing. She was standing there, watching it happen.
It hurts, he hears her think. He can feel it hurt, too. It felt like another metacrisis aftereffect, like she was going to burn up into flames again. He couldn't let that happen, not again, not after he had just gotten her back.
Donna, you need to stop looking. Listen to me.
She could not. He could feel her mind crumbling slowly, and immediately he made an effort to force it out of her head.
This might burn, he warned to her even though she couldn't hear. It's like tearing a hangnail... for lack of a better comparison.
He was set to do this until there was the sound heavy feet hobbling behind him.
"You!"
Ueslivan made his way to grab the Seed, and before the Doctor could stop him, he had held it up, making the emerald glow brighter, a misty wave of aura surrounding the room.
Donna responded, jerking up as if to choke.
"Ueslivan!" The Doctor shouted. "Stop it! Now!"
He was ignored.
"I have finally done it," Ueslivan laughed, "all that practice, all that exposure...I can finally get to the Root!"
~
"Doctor?" Donna called, alarmed. "Where are we?"
The Doctor was silent as he stared above and around him. None of them were on board the ship anymore. They weren't even awake. They were inside the roots of creation. It was like being surrounded by countless holes that let you peek through every chance of something happening.
"Donna close your eyes, don't look at it," he commanded and she did so immediately. She still saw everything.
"Will this even help?"
"No, but you can try," he replied with all seriousness.
Ueslivan was by them, standing in awe. "I've done it..."
"Oh you really have," the Doctor said with anger, "Now pull back before you make things worse for yourself."
"I can get my hands on it all," he replied absently.
"Well your hands aren't big enough. No one's hands are big enough, Ueslivan, if you don't stop it now, you will die."
The last three words echoed in Donna's ears because it applied to her, too. She covered her eyes with both hands, as if it were to help and tried to think of anything that did not have to do with what could happen, what will happen, what will not happen. She didn't want that feeling again, from when she had held the Doctor's mind in her own, when she saw everything that he saw and knew everything that he knew. The feeling of her entire brain crashing and short circuiting like a computer whose software was too much for the hardware was one she never wanted again. It would only mean one thing, for her to leave again. To have it all taken away again.
Ueslivan saw something, something that stood out so clearly, and his awe fell into panic.
The Doctor looked at him with a sullen look. "You see it too then."
He faced the Doctor. "This can't be, I..."
"From this point, Ueslivan, of all of those timelines that diverge from this one, all of yours end. Every single one of them. I told you, it was impossible."
"No!" Ueslivan roared, "I can change that! That is the power of the Root and I have become it's master!"
"But you can't," the Doctor shook his head, almost sorry for him. "I'm sorry. But you're already dead."
And just like that, Ueslivan was gone.
"Doctor," Donna whimpered from his side, "don't tell me I've died too?"
"No," he said softly and took her head in his hands. "Open a little, I'll get us out of here."
She did as he said, and soon she opened her eyes to see the Doctor in the same place in front of her only crouching, but behind him was the room and not the indescribable Root of existence.
Consciousness was followed by a searing headache--the tiny cuts on her head from the glass did not quite help with that. "Augh, God," she groaned, "talk about Inception."
The Doctor gave a sad smile. "You'll be alright. Just sit still, okay?"
She looked through his expression. "What's that look for? Is something wro--mmph," Donna held at her head, feeling a familiar pain. "No..."
"Donna, calm down, I assure you," he said, holding her face to make her look up at him. "This will not be like the last time. But you have to hold on, do you understand?"
He felt his fingers slowly creep up her temples and she immediately took them away with hers. "No, you're not doing that again."
"I won't, I swear."
Donna choked back her cries. "You will," she said in a low, broken, almost angry voice. "I can see it."
He shook his head and took her two hands with his own. "This isn't the timelord consciousness. This is only the Seed. It'll fade, but you were in there for a long time. No one's supposed to have been in the root, not even me, had I been in there any longer I would have died as well. I just need to take the Seed away, not your memories, I won't touch them, I promise."
She didn't stay anything, but still kept his hands down to keep them away from her head.
"Donna, you have to stop forcing yourself to look into those timelines and branches, it'll make it worse and harder to remove. Just," he paused, "think of the best possible outcome instead, yeah?"
She sniffed and nodded as she let him brush off her tears and settle his fingers on the sides of her forehead, thinking of, as he instructed, the best.
TBC.
Genre: fixit, romance/friendship, adventure
Rating: PG
Characters: Donna, Ten, Mr. Aluminum Foil & Co.
Summary: Donna's mind is once more at stake
Warning/Spoilers: probably a bad attempt at scifi
Words: 1795
Disclaimer: The characters (save Mr. Aluminum!), the show, even the story idea, are not mine.
A/N: kind of unsure about this chapter, but enjoy anywayssss.
Previous parts (by donna_decem )
1 - 2
by me
3 - 4 - 5
At one point, the ship had crashed moments ago. To Donna, it felt like forever. She was bleeding, the damn glass container, the damn glass table, that one shard that had managed to get deep into her stomach.
"Donna!"
His voice was so far away at this point. She closed her eyes and all she felt was her head drifting as if to run away from the pain and blood and tears. Her whole world rose upwards and she assumed she was in his arms, but made no effort to listen to two desperate voices, telling her to hang on, because she had already let go and hated herself for it.
In another, Donna lived. But he did not.
"No, damn you!" she cried in anger and in fear. "Regenerate or something!"
The heavy metallic walls had crushed his body. He couldn't get out.
"It's a bit too early for that," he huffed as he winced. He had a sad smile. In other instances he was crying, too. In other instances, he tried his best to regenerate, he tried to push off the lumps of metal from his broken body but had no avail. In other instances, he said and did nothing at all.
And in others, all three of them lost their lives. All three of them lived. One lived and two went. Deaths were given different ways to different people. First it was the glass, then it was by gunpoint, then it was by the ship's destruction. Chiswick was obliterated. Chiswick was saved. Chiswick was saved by a second. Chiswick was saved a second too late. Each possibility let to the fate of the world, to the fate of the universe, to the fate of creation all over again.
Branches and branches of possibilities extended, and they saw them happen one by one, yet all at once. It hurt.
"Stop!"
The Doctor forced himself to break with the Seed. He didn't need to go through what he could everyday without some orb. He shook his head to expel it all from his head, and then he noticed that it was only his head shaking and not the entire ship.
The Seed was where it had fallen, not rolling about on the sleek floors. Bureagard and Donna were still in their trance; Donna was laying flat on the floor with her eyes open and glossy, staring into green while Bureagard was slumped over a random chair that had flung about. He cursed to himself and gripped on the doorframe to peek outside, finding Ueslivan still unconscious, his body all the way at the end of the hallway.
Broken glass was everywhere. The table had tipped over and shattered everywhere, now bits of tiny shards were embedded on parts of their arms and face.
The Doctor rushed over to Donna first, brushing away bits of glass from her clothes and away from her, carefully picking tiny pieces from out of her hands and forehead (those were going to hurt when she was conscious again), and propping her up against the wall so that she was sitting.
"Donna," he called, holding her head so that it wouldn't fall to the side. "Donna, snap out of it, look at me."
She didn't respond, her eyes were still reflecting with a glossy green.
There was a sound of movement behind him and he turned his head to face Bureagard, who was only waking.
"How'd you manage to do that?" The Doctor asked him.
Bureagard fumbled to stand up. His skin was unscathed by the glass, though there were dark gray marks on him, probably bruises. "The eyes of a loyal Gaureen," he reminded.
"But..." something in the Doctor's head clicked, but now wasn't the time for that, so he'd explain it later.
"She is in a healthy state?" Bureagard asked, referring to Donna. The Doctor faced her and looked again into her lost eyes.
"We were out for about half an hour. That's too long for her. I need to take care of it, meanwhile, you go check on the ship, find out what happened and make sure it doesn't have another fit, and make sure all the fleets are in fact not causing any damage."
Bureagard nodded. "Yes, Doctor. My wishes to Donna."
He quickly paced out of the room to his destination (halting for a while, probably being startled to see Ueslivan laying all the way at the corner of the hall).
The Doctor took Donna's temples with his fingers, his thumbs resting gently on her cheeks. He closed his eyes, slowly entering her mind. The black in his eyelids turned to a series of colors--mostly green. There was a numb feeling around him, like all parts of Donna's brain stopped to turn their metaphorical heads to face the universe.
Donna? Can you hear me?
He got no reply and delved into her mind a bit deeper, knocking on her doors but finding that no one was home and the locks were left open. The green faded into images of what Donna was seeing. She was standing there, watching it happen.
It hurts, he hears her think. He can feel it hurt, too. It felt like another metacrisis aftereffect, like she was going to burn up into flames again. He couldn't let that happen, not again, not after he had just gotten her back.
Donna, you need to stop looking. Listen to me.
She could not. He could feel her mind crumbling slowly, and immediately he made an effort to force it out of her head.
This might burn, he warned to her even though she couldn't hear. It's like tearing a hangnail... for lack of a better comparison.
He was set to do this until there was the sound heavy feet hobbling behind him.
"You!"
Ueslivan made his way to grab the Seed, and before the Doctor could stop him, he had held it up, making the emerald glow brighter, a misty wave of aura surrounding the room.
Donna responded, jerking up as if to choke.
"Ueslivan!" The Doctor shouted. "Stop it! Now!"
He was ignored.
"I have finally done it," Ueslivan laughed, "all that practice, all that exposure...I can finally get to the Root!"
~
"Doctor?" Donna called, alarmed. "Where are we?"
The Doctor was silent as he stared above and around him. None of them were on board the ship anymore. They weren't even awake. They were inside the roots of creation. It was like being surrounded by countless holes that let you peek through every chance of something happening.
"Donna close your eyes, don't look at it," he commanded and she did so immediately. She still saw everything.
"Will this even help?"
"No, but you can try," he replied with all seriousness.
Ueslivan was by them, standing in awe. "I've done it..."
"Oh you really have," the Doctor said with anger, "Now pull back before you make things worse for yourself."
"I can get my hands on it all," he replied absently.
"Well your hands aren't big enough. No one's hands are big enough, Ueslivan, if you don't stop it now, you will die."
The last three words echoed in Donna's ears because it applied to her, too. She covered her eyes with both hands, as if it were to help and tried to think of anything that did not have to do with what could happen, what will happen, what will not happen. She didn't want that feeling again, from when she had held the Doctor's mind in her own, when she saw everything that he saw and knew everything that he knew. The feeling of her entire brain crashing and short circuiting like a computer whose software was too much for the hardware was one she never wanted again. It would only mean one thing, for her to leave again. To have it all taken away again.
Ueslivan saw something, something that stood out so clearly, and his awe fell into panic.
The Doctor looked at him with a sullen look. "You see it too then."
He faced the Doctor. "This can't be, I..."
"From this point, Ueslivan, of all of those timelines that diverge from this one, all of yours end. Every single one of them. I told you, it was impossible."
"No!" Ueslivan roared, "I can change that! That is the power of the Root and I have become it's master!"
"But you can't," the Doctor shook his head, almost sorry for him. "I'm sorry. But you're already dead."
And just like that, Ueslivan was gone.
"Doctor," Donna whimpered from his side, "don't tell me I've died too?"
"No," he said softly and took her head in his hands. "Open a little, I'll get us out of here."
She did as he said, and soon she opened her eyes to see the Doctor in the same place in front of her only crouching, but behind him was the room and not the indescribable Root of existence.
Consciousness was followed by a searing headache--the tiny cuts on her head from the glass did not quite help with that. "Augh, God," she groaned, "talk about Inception."
The Doctor gave a sad smile. "You'll be alright. Just sit still, okay?"
She looked through his expression. "What's that look for? Is something wro--mmph," Donna held at her head, feeling a familiar pain. "No..."
"Donna, calm down, I assure you," he said, holding her face to make her look up at him. "This will not be like the last time. But you have to hold on, do you understand?"
He felt his fingers slowly creep up her temples and she immediately took them away with hers. "No, you're not doing that again."
"I won't, I swear."
Donna choked back her cries. "You will," she said in a low, broken, almost angry voice. "I can see it."
He shook his head and took her two hands with his own. "This isn't the timelord consciousness. This is only the Seed. It'll fade, but you were in there for a long time. No one's supposed to have been in the root, not even me, had I been in there any longer I would have died as well. I just need to take the Seed away, not your memories, I won't touch them, I promise."
She didn't stay anything, but still kept his hands down to keep them away from her head.
"Donna, you have to stop forcing yourself to look into those timelines and branches, it'll make it worse and harder to remove. Just," he paused, "think of the best possible outcome instead, yeah?"
She sniffed and nodded as she let him brush off her tears and settle his fingers on the sides of her forehead, thinking of, as he instructed, the best.
TBC.