The Apocalypse Stops For No Time Lord [Part Three]
Part Three
Five minutes later and there were three crates of industrial cleaner in the TARDIS and Sam’s credit card (or Scotty Varoski’s) was maxed out. They were parked rather conspicuously in the middle of a supermarket carpark but the Doctor had assured them that ‘you humans never care about things that don’t make sense’. Meanwhile Bobby had picked up the habit of glaring at the Time Lord whenever possible.
The crates of industrial cleaner were quickly shifted into the TARDIS and moved onto handy tables which seemed to fold out of the blue box’s walls. The Doctor had disappeared into the depths of the space-ship, returning with an armful of water guns. Bela had promptly declared the Doctor fantastic, propping the guns next to the cleaning fluid to be filled later.
“This is some of the best technology I’ve ever seen.” Now they were clustered around the tablet that the thief refused to part with. On it was a basic map of the fields of Trenzalore, potholed by a lake in the centre and marred by a ridge that ran through it. There were masses of red, green and white dots on either side of the lake, pulsating like infra-red vision.
“Torchwood uses it to track alien life-forms,” Jack explained. “It’s good to know what we’re supposed to be fighting.”
“The tracking system can even identify the individual species around the lake based on the signs we discovered.” Bela pointed to the west bank where most of the white dots were. “These ones here are Leviathans. The red and green ones on the other side are various member of the silence, some of them human and some are creatures called ‘The Headless Monks’. All of them seem to be massing around buildings.”
“Alright then.” Dean looked to the Time Lord. “What’s the plan, Doc?”
Carefully, the Doctor pulled out one of the magnets and passed it to Crowley. “Canton-Crowley and Bobby, you’ll be on the west side of the lake dealing with the Leviathans.”
“Delightful,” Crowley replied, inspecting the magnet.
The next one went to Jack. “You and Bela are on the east handling the Silence, and be good.”
“Always am,” Jack smirked, winking at Bela.
Then the Doctor turned to the Winchesters, handing Sam the magnet. It was lighter than he expected, barely there, like something ethereal. It felt wrong, a wonder that should be in a museum instead of war. He looked up at his time-travelling astronaut and figured it fitted in.
“Sam and Dean, you’ll be on the ridge to the north.” Sam just nodded, not trusting himself to speak.
“Where will you be, Doctor?” Jack’s voice was tight, although he still managed to look infuriatingly calm, as if war was everyday business for him.
“We’ll be on the south side,” the Doctor replied, walking over to lean against the TARDIS console.
“15 minutes,” Bela said quietly, looking down at the tablet. “We should get ready.”
Everything seemed quieter then, as though the world inside the TARDIS was muted by some godly power. Even the Doctor vanished into the heart of his spaceship. Eyes didn’t meet, focused on what they were doing and definitely not thinking for one second about who might not come back. Subconsciously, the question was still screaming at them though and, without anyone really realising it, personal space seemed to disappear.
It didn’t matter too much though, not really. They had a war to prepare for and maybe it was better if they didn’t talk. Sam suspected that if he did perhaps all his fears and doubts and howmanyapocalypsescantheysurvive? might come flooding out of his mouth in a tangled mess.
Desperately he tried not to think about it, tried to push other thoughts to the front of his mind. If he focused on something else maybe he would forget the dipping blood and the crunching bones and Lucifer laughing next to him. He stabbed a nail into the stitches running a heart-line across his palm and it’s all in his head. He knows it’s all in his head. The devil laughs.
“You okay, Sammy?” Dean was brushing against his side, not meeting his eyes but standing close enough that Sam knew he was not alone. “All safe in your melon?”
“Yeah,” Sam replied and if his voice cracked it was okay because there was an apocalypse knocking on the door. “I’m fine.”
“Okay.” Dean knew he was lying. The brothers knew each other too well for their lies to pass for truth. “If you say you’re fine, then you’re fine.” The problem was it didn’t matter, not right now. They had more important things to think about than lies covering up a broken picture.
They looked at the cleaning fluid they were mixing and didn’t meet each other’s eyes.
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By the time they were prepared and standing in a ring around the console, the countdown had fallen to 8 minutes. Crowley and Bobby were equipped with water guns that the Doctor had uncovered from somewhere in the TARDIS, filled with the deadly cleaning solution, and machetes. Sam would have laughed at how ridiculous they looked holding the brightly coloured plastic but it didn’t seem appropriate.
“Seven in the TARDIS again!” The Doctor appeared out of nowhere and instantly Sam felt a little safer, a little lighter. “Haven’t had this in a while, right old girl?”
“It was a long time ago,” Jack replied, the only one who knew the Doctor from any kind of ‘before’. Then his smile fell short and his face looked odd without it.
“Well you’re a depressing lot,” the Doctor muttered. “Did someone die? Oh no, better not ask that. It got me kicked out of Buckingham palace last time.”
And that, that was so like the strange Doctor and his eccentricities and peculiarities. It was all those little stories and frozen moments in time remembered like sudden coincidences and small ironies. It was the Time Lord and the TARDIS travelling through stars and galaxies to times Sam couldn’t quite believe would ever be reached. It was the Doctor and his flourishes and Sam just couldn’t stop a smile.
“Ah, see,” the Time Lord grinned and pointed at Sam. “I knew there was a smile in there somewhere.”
“You know, we’re facing an apocalypse,” Dean grumbled. “It’s not really that surprising if we’re a little bit concerned.”
“Dean Winchester.” The Doctor spun around the TARDIS to the hunter, straightening his jacket in a way that Sam was sure his brother would kill anyone else for doing. “Don’t give up on me before the battle has even begun. You don’t know me, not yet, but I promise you, I promise all of you, everybody lives.”
For a moment Dean was silent, staring at the alien that seemed so human. Sam thought he would argue in that way that he so often did. Dean would always argue against a plan he didn’t believe in, that was just who he was.
“Okay.” Sam’s brother was agreeing with the mad man telling him to magnetise a prince of Hell to death. “Okay, Doctor.”
Bela glanced down at the tablet still in her hands. “6 minutes.”
“Then off we go.” The Doctor danced around the TARDIS, giving everyone something to pull or push or crank or hold. All of them have something to do. Finally he pushed a lever and the TARDIS started her whooshing. “To infinity and beyond!” There was laughter in the spaceship.
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The Winchester’s home had been the road for as long as Sam could remember. For them, travelling was second nature and Sam had never felt motion sickness like he did then. His stomach lurched and roiled and his heart pounded in his temple like drums beating in his head.
It was as though the surreal nature of this apocalypse, the travelling through space, real aliens, the Doctor and his mad smile it all made everything feel so real.
They stopped on the east side of the lake first, touching down for just a second so that Jack and Bela could climb out.
“Keep an eye on her,” Dean growled at Jack, voicing his permanent suspicions. “She’s a demon.”
“That’s never bothered me before,” Jack replied, winking at Bela. Then they were gone and Sam couldn’t stop himself wondering if he would ever see either of them alive again - or in the body in Bela’s case. A second after they disappeared out the TARDIS door, he heard gunfire and decided not to think anymore.
Bobby and Crowley were next, faces grim. Bobby pulled each of the brothers into a hug and Sam felt a surge of gratitude for their old friend. They so often took Bobby for granted in their blood-drenched lives, forgetting that, unlike the Winchester brothers, his life wasn’t limited to two people and the monster of the week.
Whilst Sam’s thoughts rambled, the hunter and the demon drifted out the TARDIS door. More plastic soldiers that might never come back, lost in a ventilation world. Once again, the departure was marred by gunfire shouts as another battle began.
Finally it was the Winchester’s turn. From the door of the TARDIS, the world seemed made of green and blue. It was easy to see across the lake and Sam could spot run-down buildings to the east and west, where he supposed Bobby and Crowley and Bela and Jack were fighting. He could see the south side as well, waiting for the Doctor.
The strangest thing was the noise. It was as though everything was amplified where they stood. The birds cawed louder; the sounds of battle could be heard clearly across the lake. Even the water itself seemed to gurgle and churn with energy.
“The fields of Trenzalore,” the Doctor said, voice fighting against the strange soundtrack. “At least it’s nicer to look at than Demon’s Run.”
Without thinking Sam reached out and grabbed the Doctor’s hand. “Please come with us.” His voice cracked under the strain of all the things he wanted to garble out in a moment of truth, all the ‘please’s and ‘don’t’s and ‘stay’s, but he held back as much as he could.
“Please, Doctor.” Dean was beside him agreeing with that look in his eye that even Sam barely saw, that look that said he was scared. “We’ve fought the Devil. We know how to kill these evil sons of bitches.”
“How do you know you won’t die out there?” Sam gripped the Time Lord’s hand tighter. “How do you know that you won’t die and we could’ve saved you?”
“I’ve fought a devil too and I’ve still got all my limbs,” the Time Lord said, smiling at Dean. “It’s a small universe after all. Don’t ever let me sing that song at karaoke; it never ends well.”
“How do you know?” Sam’s voice was a thin wisp of sound, repeated words becoming weaker every time. “How can you be sure?”
“Because, Sam Winchester.” The Doctor’s eyes were smiling, a slightly crazed smile that laughed in the face of danger. “Brave, brave Sam Winchester, always dreaming of another life for him and his older brother, some other world where he was just a normal boy. There is something you have to know.” Hand gripping the TARDIS door, the Doctor leaned in until his face was inches from Sam’s. “Normal is so very boring and I always save the day.”
“Wait!” Sam wanted to let go, knew he had to let the Doctor go, but he couldn’t. There was something stopping, a question that he had asked so many times that it sounded funny now. It had been the nursery rhyme in his head and the mantra that was keeping his heart beating. “Tell me one thing, I have to know. What’s your name? I mean your real name. Doctor Who?”
For a moment it seemed like the entire world stopped, complete silence falling over the rolling fields of Trenzalore, like those moments when the world seemed to pause and sniff the roses. Sam was sure he was holding his breath, but he couldn’t seem to let it out. Slowly the Doctor’s face fell, collapsing into an uncertain expression.
Sam wondered if this was the end, if the momentary lull was the herald of the apocalypse and the final, inevitable end of the world. With an, increasingly permanent, grim look on his face, the Doctor opened his mouth to reply. Without warning he was drowned out as sound suddenly returned to the world. As quickly as the silence had fallen, it was swept away and the Doctor’s reply lost with it.
Then he was smiling again and Dean was tugging Sam backwards. The TARDIS was disappearing into space and time, and even with the cacophony of a world returning to sound, Sam heard one word echoing back to him, “GERONIMO!”
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| Part Four |