Fic: Pockets in Time Part 6
Author: helloprilly
Characters: Ten/Donna
Rating: Teen
Word Count: 3670
Part 5
"And the vision that was planted in my brain..."
The corridors began to slowly change around them as they made their way towards the center of the Tardis, the long walls gradually giving way to large open spaces and catwalks that crisscrossed over yawning chasms beneath.
Donna had always known, in a sort of abstract way, that the Tardis was immense but she had never imagined just how massive the ship truly could be. The Doctor was leading the way now, as they entered parts of the ship that Donna had never visited and they had had to turn back several times as the catwalks in front of them had collapsed into the emptiness below.
"Doctor, you never explained to me why I would see the both of you at that specific time in your lives. It's strange that after you had so recently told me about the visions that you had experienced at the untempered schism, I would then be sucked into a memory that touched on that specific event."
The Doctor looked back at Donna, his smile was faint and tinged with the pain that he was struggling with as well from his own injuries. His gaze wandered through the aura around her body for a moment, reminding her with a jolt of his younger self and how that man child had seen so much in so little time.
He pursed his lips, trying to think of the right words to say before he just blew his breath out in a frustrated sigh. "I honestly don't know why, Donna. I have no memory from the academy of anyone having ever actually been inside a Tardis when a transducer failed, so I don't know what could be expected or even what might be normal. The fact that you saw both the Master and myself makes me think that you had more control over that event then you realize and that your own recent memories were able to guide the memory that formed in your bubble of time."
Donna cocked her head as she thought about his words, her hand was trembling as it moved along the railing beside them. It was getting harder for Donna to focus as they went further into the bowels of the ship, she could hear a faint weeping in her mind from time to time as well as the Doctor's voice gently whispering in Gallifreyan before the sensation would fade.
The change in the landscape around them also meant that the behavior of the spheres changed and they had to stop several times as they waited for a sphere or two to drift across their path before they could continue. She could see spheres all around them, both light and dark spheres that seemed to be quivering in the strangely warm air and the Doctor would pause to join his mind with hers from time to time before he would pull away with a grim frown and press them forward.
Something the Doctor said though stuck out to her as she clambered over yet another pile of debris, her gaze rising to catch the flash of pain on the Doctor's face as he saw the damage that had been inflicted on his beloved ship. She reached up to him, breath hissing as a stab of pain ripped through her temples, but that didn't stop her from turning his bruised cheek towards her. "Hey, we're going to fix her, Spaceman. Don't start losing hope now."
The Doctor paused mid stride at the touch of her hand, his eyes locking with hers so that she could catch the faint shimmer of tears before he resolutely blinked them away. "I'm worried, Donna. I can feel the Tardis fading in my mind, I'm worried that we're not going to be able to fix her in time."
Donna paused to lean against the railing for a moment, her eyes closing for a brief, blessed moment in which she listened to the soft weeping that had once more thrust itself to the forefront of her thoughts. "You say she's fading from your mind, Doctor?"
The Doctor nodded distractedly, his eyes moving restlessly over the cavernous space around them to try to find the quickest way to the temporal core. "Yes, she's fading away and has been for a while now."
"Maybe she's fading from your mind, because she's managed to find mine?"
The Doctor's gaze jerked back to Donna, his mouth opening wide before a huge smile suddenly blossomed on his face. "You can hear her now?"
Donna nodded softly, her own eyes filling with tears when she realized that they were getting closer to the consciousness of the Tardis. "I can, Doctor. It's only been for a little while though and it's not a constant connection, but I can hear her crying and I can hear you as well trying to comfort her."
The Doctor sagged against the railing for a moment, his hand rising to scrub the fear from his face before he leaned forward and pulled her close in a tight embrace. The Doctor cried out as his forgotten ribs screamed in protest against the tight embrace, and he could tell from the sharp feeling of rebuke in his mind, that Donna wasn't going to let him live it down.
"You're not invincible, Spaceman. Just remember that when we do whatever it is we need to do in order to get the Tardis back to normal."
The Doctor pulled back with a muffled laugh, his hand holding tightly to hers before he pulled away and led the way along the walkway once more. "I know I'm not, Donna. I've just never felt my years as much as I am at this moment."
"Maybe I could find you a cane somewhere in this mess?"
"Oi! Watch it, Earthgirl!" the Doctor retorted, his eyes were laughing though as he murmured. "I'm just glad that the Tardis isn't as far away as I had begun to fear she was, it's the first bit of good news we've had in awhile that's for certain!"
Donna laughed at the disgruntled retort from the Doctor, her mind drifting back to the conversation that they had just been sharing and the thought that had suddenly struck her as odd. "You'd said that my recent memories were able to guide the formation of that bubble, Doctor. How is that even possible when you weren't able to do the same thing? You were in a dreamless state while I experienced a completely different reality."
The Doctor frowned as he scanned the walkways ahead of them, his hand reaching out to halt her progress when he scanned several spheres drifting towards their path though Donna was already well aware of their approach. He was distracted by the readings from the sonic and the waves of energy that seemed to be building in the temporal core. He didn't know if the ship would survive another burst like the last one that they had experienced but he also knew that they couldn't move any faster, not without the risk of becoming trapped in another sphere and losing all chances of saving the Tardis and themselves.
He didn't like the readings he was getting from Donna either, he could tell that she was struggling and the constant influx of temporal energy was not giving her any chance to gather her wits. If they managed to make it out of this, then he promised himself that he would take her on a much-needed getaway to anywhere she wanted to go.
"You keep forgetting that you have more control over time and energy now than you ever had before. You're no longer completely human and it is those differences that most likely allowed you to exert some control over the reality that formed around you."
"But was it a memory or something else, Doctor?" Donna hated asking all these questions but she was still struggling to make sense of what had happened and why she had seen such a specific time in the Doctor's life. Her vision continued to swim as a crippling sense of vertigo seemed to wash over her, causing her to momentarily lose her footing and stumble against the railing beside her.
The Doctor looked back at Donna just as she staggered hard into the railing beside them, her hands flying to her head and her body teetering towards a fall. "Donna? Donna, be careful!" He leaped forward to catch her as she staggered, her wild gaze rising to meet his as she struggled to find a focus through the sudden chaos in her mind.
She felt like she was looking at the Doctor through a long tunnel, his voice seeming to come from so very far away before she lost her grip on consciousness and slid through the Doctor's embrace and into a boneless heap on the floor.
"No, no, no! Donna, come on you can do this."
The Doctor was frantic as he felt her mind slipping away from his, the strain on her brain of having to deal with not only a very significant head injury but also the total sensory overload from the ship around them was finally too much for her. He should've known that she would need to rest, especially after her recent experience in the time bubble, but he had been too focused on trying to keep them moving before he lost contact with the Tardis forever.
Donna's complexion had gone completely ashen, and her eyes were huge sunken pools in her face as the blue-green orbs stared sightless over the Doctor's shoulder. He hated how everything that was Donna just seemed to be missing from that empty stare.
"I need you to come back to me, Donna. Please just focus on the sound of my voice and come back to me."
He thrust the sonic into his pocket, one of the only pockets that still seemed to be intact in his tattered suit before he rummaged deeper into his pocket for the case that held the loaded syringes of medication that he had managed to find earlier. He hadn't wanted to give Donna another dose of the medication unless it was absolutely necessary, but now he was out of options and so with a growl of pure frustration he slid the syringe into her vein and pushed the plunger down.
"I'm so sorry, Donna. I'm sorry for having to force you through this and wish that I could fix the Tardis myself while you healed, but I need your help." He threw the syringe over the edge of the walkway, knowing that when the Tardis repaired herself it would be absorbed into her systems once more. He tried to reach out to Donna, unable to control his fear when he could barely feel her presence in his mind.
He'd been too cautious in touching Donna's mind for fear of inflicting even more pain and damage on her brain, but now he couldn't even make a connection through the haze that seemed to be growing thicker between them.
"Oh no you don't, Donna. I'm not letting you go, do you hear me?" He wasn't aware of the tears that had begun to stream down his cheeks at the silence that greeted his words, even the Tardis had gone quiet in his mind while he frantically scrabbled at the empty space that suddenly yawned within.
The Doctor lowered his head, letting his forehead rest against Donna's flushed brow as he struggled to bring his panicking thoughts back under control. Yes, he had pushed Donna hard, but something else had to have happened to suddenly overload her mind in this way.
He'd been monitoring her condition with the sonic while he had been scanning the way ahead of him and though she had shown she was declining, she shouldn't have crashed in such a dramatic manner.
Come on, Doctor, think! he angrily thought to himself.
He felt a faint glimmer deep within his mind and instantly pounced on the sensation, his arms loosening themselves from around Donna's body as he let his hands rise to rest against her temples.
He let the world fall away from him as he thrust himself fully into her mind, he held nothing back in his push to find the spark of her essence, drawing on every thread of their bonded souls to guide him to her presence.
He thought he could feel the Tardis with him for a split moment before the sensation faded away, but he would not be deterred as he pushed deeper into her mind. He wasn't going to lose her to the darkness, not like this and certainly not without one hell of a fight.
He gathered his flagging strength about his mind, forging his seeking presence into a white hot light of power that simply obliterated any shadows in her mind. He was the Oncoming Storm and he would NOT fail.
The Doctor slumped against Donna's as his essence retreated from his body into hers, but he was completely oblivious to the motion as his soul chased that flicker that seemed to be fading further away.
Donna, come back to me. The Doctor's calls seemed to echo endlessly through the void, but the glimmer seemed to pause at the sound of his voice. The faint shimmer in the golden light was all the answer he needed as his essence reached out and wrapped itself around Donna's frightened spirit.
I need you, Donna, I need you more than you can possibly know. Come back with me, please.
He could feel Donna's confusion as she had fallen so deeply into herself in such a short amount of time, she hadn't even realized she was balancing on the edge of such an abyss until she had fallen over it. Once she fell, she hadn't known how to arrest her descent.
He could feel Donna reaching out to him, her spirit opening and allowing itself to be enfolded completely in the heat of his mind. I'm so scared, Doctor. I don't know where I am, help me please!
The Doctor paused when he heard the fear in her thoughts, his own mind shuddering against the wave of terror that beat against him. In that moment, he drew on the strength of their combined souls to gently pull her out of the darkness and back into the light.
Follow me, Donna. I'll show you the way, and I promise I won't ever let you go.
Donna rose with him through the hazy layers of consciousness, her mind cowering within the protective embrace of his thoughts as the never-ending pain in her body exploded through her awareness once more. I'm so tired, Doctor. I just want to rest for a while so that it will stop hurting.
The Doctor felt his distant hearts clench in fear at her words, the adrenaline spiking in his system as his spirit suddenly re-entered his body with a sharp jolt. He took a deep breath and opened his eyes, body sagging in relief when he saw that life had returned to her gaze.
"You'll be able to sleep soon, Donna, I promise that you'll be able to sleep for however long you want to. Can you hold on for a little longer? The core is just a few levels away, we're almost there and then we can finally get the Tardis back."
Donna blinked slowly up at him, her mind swimming through the layers of pain and medication that were racing through her system, but she felt the Doctor's mind still firmly enmeshed in her own as he helped her shoulder some of the pain that never seemed to end. He was not surprised that she had managed to hide the extent of her pain from him, and he should've known that she had been in rougher shape than she had let on. In trying to protect her, he had unwittingly let her suffer needlessly.
Donna's tongue darted out to moisten bone dry lips, her thoughts finally beginning to settle as the medication began to dull the incessant throb in her temples. "I just need a minute, Doctor. If I try to move right now, I'm afraid I'm going to be sick."
The Doctor nodded and settled on the catwalk next to her, his arms opening to pull her into his embrace as he tucked her head under his chin. "You take all the time you need, Donna. We won't move a minute before then."
Donna sighed softly and just rested against the Doctor, her hand reaching up to stroke gently along the angry bruise that covered most of his chest. They sat listening to the disjointed thoughts of the Tardis as she struggled to maintain her connection with them. It had taken a lot of her flagging energy to find and connect with Donna, and now that energy was fading fast.
"What just happened to me, Doctor? I felt like I was falling into a black hole and I couldn't find any way to stop myself from falling?" Donna shuddered against the Doctor as she remembered the terrifying cold of the place she had fallen into, the shadows that had pressed in on all sides until she feared she would be consumed by the blackness.
The Doctor took a breath, wincing at the pain that stabbed through his chest with the motion, before he let his head fall back against the railing. "I'm not entirely certain what happened, Donna. It felt like your mind was separating from your body for some reason and you'd lost the ability to come back on your own."
He closed his eyes for a moment, trying not to let the feelings of terror rise to consume him once again as he realized just how close he had come to losing her in those moments. "I don't know why it would happen now so suddenly, other than the fact that you're nearing the limits of what your body can physically handle and your connection to your mind is weakening." He paused as he thought about his own words, his mind racing when he suddenly felt a connection with the events that were transpiring around them. "Perhaps it was because of your renewed connection with the Tardis that the link is beginning to weaken, your mind might be trying to join with her presence wherever it's hiding at this moment."
Donna could tell that the Doctor didn't like not knowing what had happened to her, his thoughts were racing in a million directions faster than her own clouded mind could follow. She could feel the very real fear that still seemed to be clawing at his senses, overriding nearly every other thought until the fear itself was the only thing on which he could focus.
"Hey, Spaceman, I'm here now. You found me. I'm okay, aren't I?"
The Doctor shifted so that he could look down at her, the depths of his eyes were blazing with the fire and purpose that she had long since come to associate with the Oncoming Storm. He was resolute and completely focused on a single goal, and it humbled her to realize that she was the focus of that terrifying power. "You're safe now because I won't let it be any other way, Donna. I've anchored your mind inside my own right now, and nothing short of death will be able to take you from me until I let you go. I'm not going to let you fall away from me again, not if I can stop it. And trust me, I most certainly can."
Donna swallowed convulsively at his words, her mind quivering within the embrace of his own terrifyingly powerful thoughts. She felt the conviction in his words and also felt the difference in their connection as well. Though they were bound nearly as one being, it was in this moment that she realized he had bound them in a way that they had never been bound before. They truly were one being, and what happened to one of them would happen to the other as well until he allowed the merging to dissipate into its normal state.
She looked deep into his eyes, her mind working through everything he had said in the last few hours and she finally asked the question that she had been dreading. "Is the Tardis dying?"
She was fascinated when the hood fell over his eyes, though he couldn't hide the burst of fear and uncertainty at her words. "She's going to be fine once we're able to repair the damage that has…"
Donna growled and reached up to press a finger to his lips. "Don't evade the bloody question, Doctor, just give me a straight answer."
The Doctor sighed softly before he nodded. "Yes, Donna. The Tardis is dying, she's actually very near death right now and you would have died as well if I hadn't brought you back."
She gasped at his words, her body trembling as it melted back against his chest for a moment's respite from the adrenaline that suddenly seemed to pound through her system. She hadn't realized just how serious the situation had been for either of them, and she now knew for certain that the stakes had never been higher.
Donna knew that she couldn't rest for long though, because they all were very quickly running out of time.
Part 7