[oncoming_storms] - Trapped in a maze
Title: Time-crossed
Part: 2/3(?)
Prompt: Trapped in a maze (oncoming_storms)
Rating: PG
Word Count: 2795
Other parts: Part 1 / Part 3
The companions were both silent for a moment.
“And this is a good thing?” Lucie finally asked.
“No, of course not,” the Doctor said, raising an eyebrow at her. “The universe could be in even more danger now. My past could be in danger. I could potentially die in the past and cease to exist in the present. And who knows what sort of effect that would have on the Web of Time. But...”
“But?” C’rizz pressed, eager for some good news in a situation that seemed to be becoming more dire with each passing second.
“That, at least, explains a few things.”
Lucie groaned, information alone obviously not quite the ray of hope she was expecting. “Like what?”
“Well, why the TARDIS won’t leave, for one. As far as she’s concerned, I didn’t cross my timeline to get here. That timeline didn’t exist. But now that it does, the TARDIS refuses to cross it in order to leave. Which is probably for the best, considering I wouldn’t want to leave my past self alone to deal with this mess.”
“You’d rather put the universe in more danger by being here than trust yourself to solve the problem?” Lucie asked, raising an eyebrow back at him.
“I’m afraid it’s gotten rather more complicated than that. Lucie, C’rizz. We need to find that deadlocked room.”
The way he said it, they both knew there was no point in any further discussion or protest.
“I’ll go first and make sure you’re not out there,” C’rizz offered.
“We could guard the doorways as we go along,” Lucie suggested.
“And you should probably pick up a disguise, Lucie,” the Doctor added.
“What? Why?”
“Because I haven’t met you yet, and I’m afraid getting to know you ahead of time could have a negative impact on the circumstances of our first meeting.”
“You mean that if they knew you already knew me, you’re afraid that the-” Lucie cut off at a look from the Doctor. She glanced nervously at C’rizz. “Sorry. No talk about the future. Got it.”
“So go into the wardrobe and grab a wig, at least,” the Doctor pressed. “Ideally I--the past me, that is--won’t be meeting you right now at all, but this way, even if I get a glimpse, it shouldn’t matter. People always remind me of other people. Side effect of meeting so many.”
Lucie rolled her eyes, grumbling, but obeyed. She disappeared inside the TARDIS.
“What about you, Doctor?” C’rizz asked. “Can’t you hide your identity?”
“Considering part of the universe is likely to explode the moment we set eyes on each other, C’rizz, I have a feeling our clothing is going to have very little effect on the situation.” He frowned thoughtfully, pulling out his sonic screwdriver and fumbling with it. After a moment, he called, “Lucie, are you ready?”
There was no answer. The Doctor frowned. “I wonder if the wardrobe’s moved again.”
C’rizz made a face and decided it was best not to comment.
And after several moments, Lucie returned to the console room, sporting a very long--and rather wild--mop of dark hair. “Somehow this feels like Glam Rock all over again.”
“Minus the music,” the Doctor replied absently. He blinked. “In fact...I haven’t heard anything since we’ve arrived. C’rizz, have you encountered anyone else in this building? Or seen outside at all?”
C’rizz frowned, shaking his head. “No. We’ve been alone. Except for a scream that we heard earlier.” He realized then that, in his hurry to keep the Doctor and Charley away from the other Doctor and Lucie, he hadn’t even asked them about what they’d discovered when they’d followed it. But they certainly hadn’t had anyone with them when they’d met up again. Not to mention there was something else odd to consider...
“I haven’t seen any windows, either. That doesn’t make any sense...”
“What doesn’t?”
“The doors keep blowing shut around us. How can that happen if there aren’t any open windows? I can’t even remember feeling a breeze.”
“Curiouser and curiouser.” The Doctor grinned. “Shall we have a look outside?” He stepped up to the TARDIS doors and, without waiting for a response, opened them.
“I’ll go first!” C’rizz spoke up, quickly moving in front of the Doctor and peering outside before leaving the TARDIS. “No sign of the Doctor and Charley.”
The other Doctor and Lucie came out of the TARDIS behind him, looking around at the plain room.
“You’re right. No windows. Hm, I can’t believe my other self hasn’t noticed this. Very disappointing of him.” The Doctor frowned disapprovingly, but the expression was gone in an instant. “Right. Any idea which direction that deadlocked door is in?”
C’rizz shook his head, wishing he hadn’t wandered quite so randomly after he’d gotten separated from his friends in the first place. Then again... “But I know Charley and the Doctor went that way.” He pointed.
“Then we go the other way,” Lucie said, heading for the closed door opposite.
“Let’s keep C’rizz in front,” the Doctor reminded.
“I know!” Lucie made a face, but she paused all the same.
“Thanks.” C’rizz stepped in front of her and then continued to the door, trying the knob. It was unlocked. He opened it a crack, peering around it and into the next room before pushing it open the rest of the way. “No one there.”
The Doctor followed him into the room, Lucie waiting so she could stand in the doorway behind him.
“No windows in here either. Very odd indeed.”
“The whole building has been completely empty so far,” C’rizz said. “No furniture, no windows. No people, except for that scream.”
“Now that’s very odd. And you’re sure we’re on Earth?”
“The TARDIS said we were.”
“So sure might not be the word,” Lucie piped up. “Especially since our TARDIS wouldn’t tell us anything about where--or when--we are.”
“Where on Earth did it say?” the Doctor asked C’rizz, ignoring her.
“It didn’t. That was the problem. It said Earth, but the Doctor couldn’t get anything else, so he decided that we should take a look.”
“Typical.”
“Lucie, has my TARDIS really treated you that badly?”
“Do you want the honest answer to that?”
The Doctor sighed. “Neither of you appreciate what my TARDIS has done for you.”
“It’s a bit hard to when, for us, it’s missing again,” C’rizz said.
The Doctor blinked, thoughtful. “Speaking of...maybe we should be searching for more than just that locked room.”
“You mean...so we could leave in their TARDIS?”
“Lucie, I don’t think stranding my past self here would solve anything. But, on the other hand, if the only reason we can’t leave in our TARDIS is because my other self is here, then I would imagine helping them leave in their TARDIS--and getting my timeline back on track--would allow us to leave, too.”
Lucie and C’rizz looked at him for a moment.
“Wow,” Lucie finally said. “You actually do have a plan.”
The Doctor was offended. “I usually do!”
“Could’ve fooled me.”
“Then shouldn’t we be looking for the locked room and the TARDIS now?” C’rizz broke in.
“Without losing track of mine, I think.”
They all glanced back at the door from which they’d come, then at the completely unmarked room around them.
“Well... how about we tie some string on that doorknob?” the Eutermesan suggested. “And we could tie it on the knobs of all the doors leading to the room where your TARDIS is.”
“That’s a great idea, C’rizz!”
C’rizz was actually just thinking of their experience on Lucentra, but he didn’t think he needed to mention that.
“Yeah, but who’s got string?”
The Doctor reached into one of his pockets. “If memory serves...” A few things slipped out of the pocket as he dug about in it--a spinning top, an English-Zablerk dictionary, several trading cards for some sort of sports team, a copy of something called Tomb Raider, and a bag of jelly babies. He stopped then, picking those up and offering one each to C’rizz and Lucie before eating one himself. Then he put the jelly babies in his other pocket and resumed his search.
“I should’ve expected that,” Lucie mumbled.
“Ah!” the Doctor exclaimed triumphantly. “Here we go.” He withdrew a rather large ball of string from the confines of his pocket, followed by a small pair of scissors. Then he sucked his finger. “I really do need to remember to put covers on sharp objects before I put them in there.”
“Okay,” C’rizz broke in, “Let’s tie a piece to every one of the doors adjacent to your TARDIS.”
“And then leave a trail of string behind you,” Lucie added. “That way we either find the doors with the string, or we follow our own string back. How’s that for a plan?”
C’rizz resisted the urge to mention he, for one, knew the Doctor had used the same plan before. He just took the strings as the Doctor offered them, and they split up for a moment to put them on the doors.
Then the Doctor started the ball of string unraveling on the ground. “And off we go.”
***
The rooms were all identical, and they definitely did loop back on themselves. They had already run back into the TARDIS--the future one, that was--twelve times, and their string idea had turned into rather a mess by about the eighteenth time they’d crossed their own path. And they had only been searching for an hour!
In that time, those two facts--that the rooms were identical and did loop back on themselves--were all they had managed to discover. They had not seen any sign of the Doctor--C’rizz’s Doctor--or of Charley, their TARDIS, or the deadlocked door. They had, however, encountered 22 locked doors that were easily opened by the sonic screwdriver.
“Well, this is rather disheartening, isn’t it?” the Doctor commented, stopping in one of many random rooms and taking a seat on the floor. “I vote we take a rest.”
Lucie plopped down beside him. “Best idea I’ve heard in a while.”
C’rizz was more reluctant. “But what are we going to do, Doctor? We can’t get anywhere like this!”
The Doctor nodded absently, already considering that problem. “Very true.” He was quiet for a moment, pondering.
C’rizz stayed silent as well, letting him think. Lucie didn’t seem particularly concerned about his concentration, however, as she yawned and noisily began shifting about, doing some stretching and a bit more yawning.
The Doctor was likely used to this behavior, as it didn’t faze him in the least. He was silent for several moments before abruptly muttering, seemingly to himself, “Ah! Why didn’t I think of that earlier?” He stood and stepped up to one of the other doors in the room--a closed one. He opened it, looked at the blank room beyond, closed it again, and then drew the sonic screwdriver out of his pocket. He fiddled with the apparatus for a few moments, its humming and whirring changing as he adjusted it. Then the door popped open.
The Doctor’s eyes widened, and he stumbled backwards with a cry.
No, make that two cries.
C’rizz and Lucie jumped to their feet as the Doctor swiftly stepped backwards away from the door, almost falling over himself with the effort. And as C’rizz looked at the doorway, he knew why.
There was another Doctor--his Doctor--on the other side of the door, practically falling over himself also trying to get away from it.
“Paradox!” the Doctors cried in horror.
And C’rizz waited for everything around them to explode.
***
It was too quiet.
It took C’rizz a moment to register exactly what was too quiet about it. He was too busy thinking of L’da and wondering if being destroyed by a paradox allowed you to go properly to the next life. Was that why it was so quiet? Because he was nowhere?
But then the pieces began to fall together. There was a very good reason why it seemed too quiet--he hadn’t heard an explosion. Had he died too fast to even hear it?
“C’rizz? C’rizz, are you all right?”
At the voice, C’rizz opened his eyes. “Doctor?”
The man was standing in front of him, looking at him with concern.
“Oh, good. You aren’t hurt, are you?”
C’rizz shook his head, looking down in surprise to find that he was, in fact, still all there. “No. But I thought...”
“You thought the world should have exploded.”
C’rizz nodded.
“Well,” came the voice of the Doctor, but from behind the one to which C’rizz had been speaking. “Apparently it hasn’t.”
C’rizz’s eyes widened as he peered around one Doctor at the other, then took a step back and looked at them both. It had been bad enough trying to get his mind to take in the fact that there were two Doctors in this place, but seeing them both at once, wearing the exact same clothing, looking at him with the same worried expression, was almost too much to believe. And that was saying a lot, considering all the things he’d seen.
“Doctor?” Charley asked. She was just stepping through the doorway into the room, looking even more shocked and confused than C’rizz felt. “How did this happen?” Spying Lucie, she added, “And who is she?”
“Oh dear,” said one of the Doctors, looking at Lucie as well. “It might be best if you don’t say.”
“How about we call her...Amy. For now,” the other suggested.
“Amy?” Lucie asked, raising an eyebrow. “You better not have just named me after one of your-”
“So to get back to your questions, Charley,” the Doctor quickly interrupted, “I--we--don’t know how this happened. But we’re going to find out.”
“Especially since I now have the proper frequency of the sonic screwdriver to get through some of the buildings’ looping,” the other Doctor--Lucie’s Doctor, it seemed--added with a proud smile.
“You do?” the Doctor asked in excitement, pulling out his own sonic screwdriver. “And which frequency would that be?”
C’rizz lost the train of conversation then as the Doctors began to babble rather technologically. Charley moved over next to C’rizz.
“So what exactly is going on here?” she whispered, eyeing the two men as they obliviously continued their discussion. “And why the string?”
“The Doctor and Luc-” C’rizz caught himself just in time. “Amy,” he corrected, “haven’t lost their TARDIS, and they don’t want to risk doing so.”
“I don’t think there’s any need to hide her identity from me, C’rizz,” Charley replied, sounding slightly annoyed. She looked at Lucie disapprovingly. “That’s an...interesting hairstyle.”
“Yeah, well, just feel lucky you’re not the one stuck wearing a disguise to protect the future.”
“Oh.” Charley looked slightly embarrassed. Before she could say more, however, she was interrupted.
“All right, we’re off!” declared one of the Doctors.
C’rizz turned and realized he had lost track of which was which. “Which way?” he asked, addressing both at once.
“That way.” Both Doctors spoke and pointed in unison--thankfully in the same direction. They turned to each other.
“After you,” one said.
“If you insist,” replied the other, stepping up to the door and turning on the sonic screwdriver, holding it against it. Noticing the ball of string, C’rizz realized this was Lucie’s Doctor. After a moment, the man pushed the door open. “Shall we?”
“It’s kinda disorienting, isn’t it?” Lucie commented.
“You’re certainly right about that,” Charley agreed.
C’rizz was feeling a bit too dumbfounded by the situation to reply. He just started forward, following the Doctors through the doorway.
“Hey, don’t leave us!” Lucie protested from behind him.
Her cry wasn’t quite as unfounded as it sounded. Charley was barely through the door when it suddenly seemed to blow shut.
“I think that must be a sign we’re on the right track,” Lucie’s Doctor commented. He went nonchalantly across the room to another door and used the sonic screwdriver on it as well.
The door didn’t open.
“More on the right track than we thought!” the proper Doctor declared, rushing over beside him and pulling out his own sonic screwdriver. “This is it! This door is deadlocked.”
Just as he said that, the door across from them that had shut suddenly blew back open. Then the door on the other wall did as well. And so did the other, so that only the deadlocked door remained closed.
“What’s happening?”
“An attack of some sort, I would imagine.”
The words had barely left the Doctor’s mouth before a rush of air came blasting through all three doors at once, taking bits of doorframe with it, and slammed into them full-force.
Part: 2/3(?)
Prompt: Trapped in a maze (oncoming_storms)
Rating: PG
Word Count: 2795
Other parts: Part 1 / Part 3
The companions were both silent for a moment.
“And this is a good thing?” Lucie finally asked.
“No, of course not,” the Doctor said, raising an eyebrow at her. “The universe could be in even more danger now. My past could be in danger. I could potentially die in the past and cease to exist in the present. And who knows what sort of effect that would have on the Web of Time. But...”
“But?” C’rizz pressed, eager for some good news in a situation that seemed to be becoming more dire with each passing second.
“That, at least, explains a few things.”
Lucie groaned, information alone obviously not quite the ray of hope she was expecting. “Like what?”
“Well, why the TARDIS won’t leave, for one. As far as she’s concerned, I didn’t cross my timeline to get here. That timeline didn’t exist. But now that it does, the TARDIS refuses to cross it in order to leave. Which is probably for the best, considering I wouldn’t want to leave my past self alone to deal with this mess.”
“You’d rather put the universe in more danger by being here than trust yourself to solve the problem?” Lucie asked, raising an eyebrow back at him.
“I’m afraid it’s gotten rather more complicated than that. Lucie, C’rizz. We need to find that deadlocked room.”
The way he said it, they both knew there was no point in any further discussion or protest.
“I’ll go first and make sure you’re not out there,” C’rizz offered.
“We could guard the doorways as we go along,” Lucie suggested.
“And you should probably pick up a disguise, Lucie,” the Doctor added.
“What? Why?”
“Because I haven’t met you yet, and I’m afraid getting to know you ahead of time could have a negative impact on the circumstances of our first meeting.”
“You mean that if they knew you already knew me, you’re afraid that the-” Lucie cut off at a look from the Doctor. She glanced nervously at C’rizz. “Sorry. No talk about the future. Got it.”
“So go into the wardrobe and grab a wig, at least,” the Doctor pressed. “Ideally I--the past me, that is--won’t be meeting you right now at all, but this way, even if I get a glimpse, it shouldn’t matter. People always remind me of other people. Side effect of meeting so many.”
Lucie rolled her eyes, grumbling, but obeyed. She disappeared inside the TARDIS.
“What about you, Doctor?” C’rizz asked. “Can’t you hide your identity?”
“Considering part of the universe is likely to explode the moment we set eyes on each other, C’rizz, I have a feeling our clothing is going to have very little effect on the situation.” He frowned thoughtfully, pulling out his sonic screwdriver and fumbling with it. After a moment, he called, “Lucie, are you ready?”
There was no answer. The Doctor frowned. “I wonder if the wardrobe’s moved again.”
C’rizz made a face and decided it was best not to comment.
And after several moments, Lucie returned to the console room, sporting a very long--and rather wild--mop of dark hair. “Somehow this feels like Glam Rock all over again.”
“Minus the music,” the Doctor replied absently. He blinked. “In fact...I haven’t heard anything since we’ve arrived. C’rizz, have you encountered anyone else in this building? Or seen outside at all?”
C’rizz frowned, shaking his head. “No. We’ve been alone. Except for a scream that we heard earlier.” He realized then that, in his hurry to keep the Doctor and Charley away from the other Doctor and Lucie, he hadn’t even asked them about what they’d discovered when they’d followed it. But they certainly hadn’t had anyone with them when they’d met up again. Not to mention there was something else odd to consider...
“I haven’t seen any windows, either. That doesn’t make any sense...”
“What doesn’t?”
“The doors keep blowing shut around us. How can that happen if there aren’t any open windows? I can’t even remember feeling a breeze.”
“Curiouser and curiouser.” The Doctor grinned. “Shall we have a look outside?” He stepped up to the TARDIS doors and, without waiting for a response, opened them.
“I’ll go first!” C’rizz spoke up, quickly moving in front of the Doctor and peering outside before leaving the TARDIS. “No sign of the Doctor and Charley.”
The other Doctor and Lucie came out of the TARDIS behind him, looking around at the plain room.
“You’re right. No windows. Hm, I can’t believe my other self hasn’t noticed this. Very disappointing of him.” The Doctor frowned disapprovingly, but the expression was gone in an instant. “Right. Any idea which direction that deadlocked door is in?”
C’rizz shook his head, wishing he hadn’t wandered quite so randomly after he’d gotten separated from his friends in the first place. Then again... “But I know Charley and the Doctor went that way.” He pointed.
“Then we go the other way,” Lucie said, heading for the closed door opposite.
“Let’s keep C’rizz in front,” the Doctor reminded.
“I know!” Lucie made a face, but she paused all the same.
“Thanks.” C’rizz stepped in front of her and then continued to the door, trying the knob. It was unlocked. He opened it a crack, peering around it and into the next room before pushing it open the rest of the way. “No one there.”
The Doctor followed him into the room, Lucie waiting so she could stand in the doorway behind him.
“No windows in here either. Very odd indeed.”
“The whole building has been completely empty so far,” C’rizz said. “No furniture, no windows. No people, except for that scream.”
“Now that’s very odd. And you’re sure we’re on Earth?”
“The TARDIS said we were.”
“So sure might not be the word,” Lucie piped up. “Especially since our TARDIS wouldn’t tell us anything about where--or when--we are.”
“Where on Earth did it say?” the Doctor asked C’rizz, ignoring her.
“It didn’t. That was the problem. It said Earth, but the Doctor couldn’t get anything else, so he decided that we should take a look.”
“Typical.”
“Lucie, has my TARDIS really treated you that badly?”
“Do you want the honest answer to that?”
The Doctor sighed. “Neither of you appreciate what my TARDIS has done for you.”
“It’s a bit hard to when, for us, it’s missing again,” C’rizz said.
The Doctor blinked, thoughtful. “Speaking of...maybe we should be searching for more than just that locked room.”
“You mean...so we could leave in their TARDIS?”
“Lucie, I don’t think stranding my past self here would solve anything. But, on the other hand, if the only reason we can’t leave in our TARDIS is because my other self is here, then I would imagine helping them leave in their TARDIS--and getting my timeline back on track--would allow us to leave, too.”
Lucie and C’rizz looked at him for a moment.
“Wow,” Lucie finally said. “You actually do have a plan.”
The Doctor was offended. “I usually do!”
“Could’ve fooled me.”
“Then shouldn’t we be looking for the locked room and the TARDIS now?” C’rizz broke in.
“Without losing track of mine, I think.”
They all glanced back at the door from which they’d come, then at the completely unmarked room around them.
“Well... how about we tie some string on that doorknob?” the Eutermesan suggested. “And we could tie it on the knobs of all the doors leading to the room where your TARDIS is.”
“That’s a great idea, C’rizz!”
C’rizz was actually just thinking of their experience on Lucentra, but he didn’t think he needed to mention that.
“Yeah, but who’s got string?”
The Doctor reached into one of his pockets. “If memory serves...” A few things slipped out of the pocket as he dug about in it--a spinning top, an English-Zablerk dictionary, several trading cards for some sort of sports team, a copy of something called Tomb Raider, and a bag of jelly babies. He stopped then, picking those up and offering one each to C’rizz and Lucie before eating one himself. Then he put the jelly babies in his other pocket and resumed his search.
“I should’ve expected that,” Lucie mumbled.
“Ah!” the Doctor exclaimed triumphantly. “Here we go.” He withdrew a rather large ball of string from the confines of his pocket, followed by a small pair of scissors. Then he sucked his finger. “I really do need to remember to put covers on sharp objects before I put them in there.”
“Okay,” C’rizz broke in, “Let’s tie a piece to every one of the doors adjacent to your TARDIS.”
“And then leave a trail of string behind you,” Lucie added. “That way we either find the doors with the string, or we follow our own string back. How’s that for a plan?”
C’rizz resisted the urge to mention he, for one, knew the Doctor had used the same plan before. He just took the strings as the Doctor offered them, and they split up for a moment to put them on the doors.
Then the Doctor started the ball of string unraveling on the ground. “And off we go.”
***
The rooms were all identical, and they definitely did loop back on themselves. They had already run back into the TARDIS--the future one, that was--twelve times, and their string idea had turned into rather a mess by about the eighteenth time they’d crossed their own path. And they had only been searching for an hour!
In that time, those two facts--that the rooms were identical and did loop back on themselves--were all they had managed to discover. They had not seen any sign of the Doctor--C’rizz’s Doctor--or of Charley, their TARDIS, or the deadlocked door. They had, however, encountered 22 locked doors that were easily opened by the sonic screwdriver.
“Well, this is rather disheartening, isn’t it?” the Doctor commented, stopping in one of many random rooms and taking a seat on the floor. “I vote we take a rest.”
Lucie plopped down beside him. “Best idea I’ve heard in a while.”
C’rizz was more reluctant. “But what are we going to do, Doctor? We can’t get anywhere like this!”
The Doctor nodded absently, already considering that problem. “Very true.” He was quiet for a moment, pondering.
C’rizz stayed silent as well, letting him think. Lucie didn’t seem particularly concerned about his concentration, however, as she yawned and noisily began shifting about, doing some stretching and a bit more yawning.
The Doctor was likely used to this behavior, as it didn’t faze him in the least. He was silent for several moments before abruptly muttering, seemingly to himself, “Ah! Why didn’t I think of that earlier?” He stood and stepped up to one of the other doors in the room--a closed one. He opened it, looked at the blank room beyond, closed it again, and then drew the sonic screwdriver out of his pocket. He fiddled with the apparatus for a few moments, its humming and whirring changing as he adjusted it. Then the door popped open.
The Doctor’s eyes widened, and he stumbled backwards with a cry.
No, make that two cries.
C’rizz and Lucie jumped to their feet as the Doctor swiftly stepped backwards away from the door, almost falling over himself with the effort. And as C’rizz looked at the doorway, he knew why.
There was another Doctor--his Doctor--on the other side of the door, practically falling over himself also trying to get away from it.
“Paradox!” the Doctors cried in horror.
And C’rizz waited for everything around them to explode.
***
It was too quiet.
It took C’rizz a moment to register exactly what was too quiet about it. He was too busy thinking of L’da and wondering if being destroyed by a paradox allowed you to go properly to the next life. Was that why it was so quiet? Because he was nowhere?
But then the pieces began to fall together. There was a very good reason why it seemed too quiet--he hadn’t heard an explosion. Had he died too fast to even hear it?
“C’rizz? C’rizz, are you all right?”
At the voice, C’rizz opened his eyes. “Doctor?”
The man was standing in front of him, looking at him with concern.
“Oh, good. You aren’t hurt, are you?”
C’rizz shook his head, looking down in surprise to find that he was, in fact, still all there. “No. But I thought...”
“You thought the world should have exploded.”
C’rizz nodded.
“Well,” came the voice of the Doctor, but from behind the one to which C’rizz had been speaking. “Apparently it hasn’t.”
C’rizz’s eyes widened as he peered around one Doctor at the other, then took a step back and looked at them both. It had been bad enough trying to get his mind to take in the fact that there were two Doctors in this place, but seeing them both at once, wearing the exact same clothing, looking at him with the same worried expression, was almost too much to believe. And that was saying a lot, considering all the things he’d seen.
“Doctor?” Charley asked. She was just stepping through the doorway into the room, looking even more shocked and confused than C’rizz felt. “How did this happen?” Spying Lucie, she added, “And who is she?”
“Oh dear,” said one of the Doctors, looking at Lucie as well. “It might be best if you don’t say.”
“How about we call her...Amy. For now,” the other suggested.
“Amy?” Lucie asked, raising an eyebrow. “You better not have just named me after one of your-”
“So to get back to your questions, Charley,” the Doctor quickly interrupted, “I--we--don’t know how this happened. But we’re going to find out.”
“Especially since I now have the proper frequency of the sonic screwdriver to get through some of the buildings’ looping,” the other Doctor--Lucie’s Doctor, it seemed--added with a proud smile.
“You do?” the Doctor asked in excitement, pulling out his own sonic screwdriver. “And which frequency would that be?”
C’rizz lost the train of conversation then as the Doctors began to babble rather technologically. Charley moved over next to C’rizz.
“So what exactly is going on here?” she whispered, eyeing the two men as they obliviously continued their discussion. “And why the string?”
“The Doctor and Luc-” C’rizz caught himself just in time. “Amy,” he corrected, “haven’t lost their TARDIS, and they don’t want to risk doing so.”
“I don’t think there’s any need to hide her identity from me, C’rizz,” Charley replied, sounding slightly annoyed. She looked at Lucie disapprovingly. “That’s an...interesting hairstyle.”
“Yeah, well, just feel lucky you’re not the one stuck wearing a disguise to protect the future.”
“Oh.” Charley looked slightly embarrassed. Before she could say more, however, she was interrupted.
“All right, we’re off!” declared one of the Doctors.
C’rizz turned and realized he had lost track of which was which. “Which way?” he asked, addressing both at once.
“That way.” Both Doctors spoke and pointed in unison--thankfully in the same direction. They turned to each other.
“After you,” one said.
“If you insist,” replied the other, stepping up to the door and turning on the sonic screwdriver, holding it against it. Noticing the ball of string, C’rizz realized this was Lucie’s Doctor. After a moment, the man pushed the door open. “Shall we?”
“It’s kinda disorienting, isn’t it?” Lucie commented.
“You’re certainly right about that,” Charley agreed.
C’rizz was feeling a bit too dumbfounded by the situation to reply. He just started forward, following the Doctors through the doorway.
“Hey, don’t leave us!” Lucie protested from behind him.
Her cry wasn’t quite as unfounded as it sounded. Charley was barely through the door when it suddenly seemed to blow shut.
“I think that must be a sign we’re on the right track,” Lucie’s Doctor commented. He went nonchalantly across the room to another door and used the sonic screwdriver on it as well.
The door didn’t open.
“More on the right track than we thought!” the proper Doctor declared, rushing over beside him and pulling out his own sonic screwdriver. “This is it! This door is deadlocked.”
Just as he said that, the door across from them that had shut suddenly blew back open. Then the door on the other wall did as well. And so did the other, so that only the deadlocked door remained closed.
“What’s happening?”
“An attack of some sort, I would imagine.”
The words had barely left the Doctor’s mouth before a rush of air came blasting through all three doors at once, taking bits of doorframe with it, and slammed into them full-force.