Theta regained consciousness. His vision was blurry and his mind was fuzzy.
As he started seeing clearer, the young Time Lord noticed that he was in some sort of dark cavern, far away from his TARDIS and his friends.
“Alice…Clara…?” He called for his companions, without any response. "Wha…What happened? What is this place?"
Theta looked around and realised he wasn't alone. Not too far from him, Susan was still unconscious.
"Hey! Are you ok?" Theta rushed to the young Time Lady. He came closer to her and heard her breathing
"Oh, she's just sleeping…Hold on a second…" he concentrated more and heard her heartbeats.
*THUD-THUD THUD-THUD! THUD-THUD THUD-THUD!*
"Wait…She has two hearts! Is she a Time Lady too?"
Susan woke up too, confused. “Grandfather…?” she whispered.
“Sorry, but I don’t see your grandpa anywhere,” Theta said. “You’re a Time Lady, right? What’s your name?
Susan’s eyes widened when he saw Theta, “He’s identical to Grandfather, he even has his same clothes….Maybe it’s him from the past?” she thought, “Susan…My name is Susan.” she smiled.
“Susan, eh? What a lovely name. You can call me Theta, Theta Sigma.” Theta introduced himself, “Now, back to business: Do you have any ideas on where we are?”
Susan shook her head, “Not at all. I remember I was in our TARDIS with my grandfather, and then…Completely blank.”
“Did you also see something like a rainbow gash?” Theta said, “Because I saw it too.”
Susan nodded, “I think that gash is connected to wherever we are now. And if we both went through these gashes and ended up here…”
“Maybe Grandfather is somewhere here, too!” Susan said.
“Precisely! And so are my friends! Come along, Susan! We’ve got work to do!” Theta said.
Susan nodded and the two went for exploration.
However, without the two young Time Lords’ knowing, a creature with red eyes was observing them, lurking in the shadows.
On another side of the cave, the Child Doctor woke up in his TARDIS, without Conan or Shiho in sight.
The Child Doctor, alarmed, quickly stood up and went outside to look where he was, seeing the same exact cave, plus a pond surrounding the TARDIS.
He scanned the zone with his sonic screwdriver: No data available.
“Tch, splendid.” he thought, annoyed. “I’m stuck in here without my friends in sight in a bizarre place. It’s the Death Zone all over again!”
He closed the door and went to explore.
"Conan! Shiho!" He yelled, "Where are you, guys?!"
"HELP!" A female voice screamed in terror.
"Hold on! I'm coming!" The Child Doctor said as he rushed to her rescue.
"Come back here, you human scum!" A male voice spoke, it was a Sontaran, chasing Hikari.
The Child Doctor, without getting noticed, went behind the Sontaran and hit his probic vent with enough strength to not kill him.
"There we go." The child-looking Time Lord said, "Are you okay, did he hurt you?"
"I'm fine…Thanks, I thought I was dead meat!" Hikari said, "I'm Hikari, nice to meet you!"
"Nice to meet you, Hikari, I'm the Doctor."
Hikari looked at him with a puzzled expression, "Did you say…The Doctor?"
"The one and only!" The Child Doctor happily grinned.
"Weird, my friend is also called "the Doctor"," Hikari said. "He's older than you, though, and Asian."
"Maybe she travels with a future incarnation of mine?" The Child Doctor thought. “Anyway, Hikari, do you have any idea how you got here?"
"I think I do…I was running away from those Cyberkumas until the Doctor and I found something weird behind a door…Like a portal or something." Hikari said.
"A portal, you say…?" The Child Doctor mumbled, "Anyway, let's find your friend, he must be somewhere in this"cave "."
The girl nodded and the two walked away.
"Hikariiii!" the Tragedy Doctor called for his little friend, without response. "Where the devil is she?"
He continued walking until he encountered Conan.
"A kid?" the Tragedy Doctor thought, he then smiled "Hey there, little one. Did you get lost, too?"
"Yeah, I got separated from my friends." Conan said he took his Detective Boys radio transmitter badge, "And I can't even contact them, either. Something is blocking the signal."
"I agree, my sonic screwdriver doesn't work properly, too." the Tragedy Doctor said, "Oh, by the way, I'm the Doctor, what's your name?"
"Conan Edogawa, Detective." Conan introduced himself, "The Doctor, huh? Is he a future incarnation of him? He even has a sonic screwdriver…"
"Say, Conan, have you seen by any chance a preteen girl with dark hair and pink eyes?" the Tragedy Doctor said.
"Huh…No, I didn't." Conan said, "Pink eyes? Does she have albinism? What about you, "Doctor"? Have you seen a brown-haired boy wearing a green suit and a brown-haired girl wearing a lab coat and a turtleneck jumper?"
"No, unfortunately." the Tragedy Doctor sheepishly chuckled, "Anyway, how about we go search for our friends toge-"
"EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!" A voice awfully familiar to the two spoke.
"It's a Dalek!" Conan said.
"Stay back! It's dangerous!" the Tragedy Doctor said. "When I say run, run!"
The two were ready to run away from the Dalek until suddenly, thousands of webs hit the Dalek, immobilising and neutralising him.
"EMERGENCY! EMERGENCY! I CANNOT MOVE! I CANNOT MOVE!" The Dalek panicked.
"Wha…What just happened?"
The Tragedy Doctor scanned the material blocking the Dalek, "It's made of silk…It's a spider web!"
"But who made it? To trap something like that it must be an enormous spider." Conan thought, "Unless…Our rescuer is a big spider but of a different kind. Anyway, I’ll think about this later, I need to find the Doctor and Shiho as soon as possible, “But I still wonder, what was the creature that saved us, presumably a spider humanoid? And most importantly, what are they doing here?”
On another side of the cave, the First Doctor was exploring, looking for Susan until he heard two voices.
"Great Thetaaaa!"
"Thetyyy!"
"Who's there?!" the First Doctor said.
The two encountered the old man: They were Alice and Clara, looking for Theta.
"Why, hello there." the First Doctor said, "It seems that you got lost too, hmm?"
Alice and Clara were shocked, the old man they were talking to was completely identical to their friend.
"W-Well, we-"
"It's an old Thety-" Alice immediately covered Clara's mouth.
"I…We are sorry, sir, we're looking for our friend, his name is Theta Sigma." Alice said politely.
The First Doctor raised an eyebrow, "Theta Sigma, you say? My, I haven't heard that name in ages!" He chuckled.
The two Demons were confused. "What do you mean…?"
"Theta Sigma was my nickname when I was at the Academy, dear boy! You can call me “the Doctor”.” the First Doctor said.
“So he’s the Great Theta from the future? He’s identical, he even wears the same clothes…” Alice thought
“However, there is something I don’t understand…” the First Doctor said, “I don’t remember meeting you in the past, yet you know “Theta Sigma''...Well, It’s a mystery, but we don’t have time for it at the moment. Come along you two, let’s find your friend! I’m curious to meet him, hmm!”
The two Demons looked at each other, a bit perplexed by the old man, but then followed him, determined to find their friend.
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Meanwhile, the Warrior was cautiously exploring the cave.
“This cave looks endless…I wonder where I am. Is this another trap set by the Daleks? No, I doubt they would do something like that." He thought.
He then noticed an unconscious Shiho, he went to check.
"It's a kid…A human kid." He thought.
Shiho woke up, "Where…Where am I?"
“That’s a good question.” the Warrior said, “Are you okay?”
“This man…I think I recognise him…” Shiho thought, looking at the Warrior, “It was in the picture the Doctor has in his room, he’s the guy with the rainbow coat…But somehow, he looks different…Why is he wearing those dirty clothes?”
“Are you coming or do you wanna stay there?” the Warrior said, annoyed.
“I’m coming.” Shiho calmly said, “Who exactly are you?”
The Warrior flinched, “...No one.”
“Alright then, Ulysses.” Shiho said, “Before arriving here, I was with two friends: One of them is called the Doctor, have you seen them?"
The Warrior flinched again at hearing the word "Doctor".
"You seem to recognise that name." Shiho said, "I saw your face before, you're one of his previous incarnations, isn't that right, Doct-"
"DON'T CALL ME THAT!" the Warrior yelled, "the Doctor died long ago."
"I may understand, but there's no need to yell, y'know?” an old male voice with a Scottish accent spoke: It was the Twelfth Doctor.
“Who…Are you?” the Warrior and Shiho asked in unison.
“I’m the Doctor.” the Twelfth Doctor introduced himself. “I suppose you two also saw that gash, didn’t you?”
The Warrior and Shiho nodded.
“Got any luck at finding an exit?” Shiho asked.
“No, unfortunately. As for you…” the Twelfth Doctor turned to the Warrior, “What about you? I don’t remember being in this cave in the base.”
“Huh? What do you mean?” the Warrior said.
"Well, you're one of my past incarnations, the sixth." the Twelfth Doctor said.
“Sixth…? No, I’m not! I only regenerated 4 times!” the Warrior said.
The Twelfth Doctor raised an eyebrow, “Well, that’s bizarre. My fifth incarnation didn’t look like that, you know, the blonde guy with the celery.”
The two incarnations continued arguing, while Shiho noticed something that alarmed her immediately.
She saw a statue made of stone, depicting an angel covering their face with their hands as if they were crying….Or rather, weeping.
“Hey, you two…” She said, worried, “Look, over there.”
The two turned and saw the Weeping Angel.
“What’s tha-
“Don’t blink.” the Twelfth Doctor interrupted, “Don’t look away and don’t blink.”
“It’s a Weeping Angel, right?” Shiho said, “What should we do? The moment we look away they’ll send us centuries back in the past."
"Someone did their homework, eh?" the Twelfth Doctor said, "Anyway, keep looking at the Angel while moving away slowly."
The Warrior and Shiho nodded and the three slowly walked away, but suddenly, spider webs hit the Weeping Angel and dragged them into the shadows.
"What happened?" Shiho said, confused.
"I don't know…" the Twelfth Doctor said.
"Were those…Spider webs?" the Warrior said.
Once again, red eyes observed the trio from the shadows.
As Theta and Susan kept walking, the young Time Lord decided to get to know her temporary companion better.
"So, Susan…You said that you travel with your grandfather, right? What is he like?" He asked.
"Well…Grandfather is a kind person." Susan said, "Sometimes he can be very overprotective with me, but I know it's because he's worried for me."
"Well, I don't blame him." Theta said, "You both left Gallifrey and landed in an unknown world, I would be overprotective too if I were in his situation. "
Susan chuckled, "What about you? Did you leave Gallifrey too?"
“Yeah. Not too long ago. I stole an old TARDIS and left the planet…Then I crashed into another world. Now I live there, it’s quite a nice place, actua-”
Suddenly, the ground fell under their feet, but spider webs caught them one second before the disaster.
“Are you okay, Susan?” Theta asked, worried.
“I-I think so…” Susan said, looking around. “There spider webs…”
“They’re mine. I hope you guys don’t mind.” A female, soothing voice spoke.
“Who tal-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” Theta and Susan got dragged towards the darkness upwards until they found themselves in a mysterious and barely lit section of the cave.
“I apologise for the abrupt rescue, are you two alright?” the voice spoke again.
“We are, thank you.” Theta said, “Where are you, exactly? We can’t see you in this darkness.”
The figure approached two, making them more visible and causing the two young Gallifreyans to widen their eyes in shock.
The figure was huge, probably 2 metres tall or even more. She had long black greying hair, even if her face was young. She had 6 pupil-less eyes, with only two visible due to her bangs. She was wearing a ragged black coat, a white shirt unbuttoned on the top and a black and blue loincloth. The most noticeable trait however was the giant spider body her upper human body was attached to, like some sort of centaur.
“Hello, I’m the Doctor.” the “Spider” Doctor introduced herself.
“Those clothes…They are the same ones I’m wearing…” Theta looked at his coat.
“Grandfather…” Susan whispered, shocked.
“You’re…Me from the future, right? A future incarnation.” Theta asked.
“Well, yes, I probably am.” the Spider Doctor said.
“Wha…What happened to you, Grandfather?! Why did you regenerate into…This?!”
“It’s a long story…” the Spider Doctor nonchalantly dismissed Susan’s worry. “And unfortunately, we don’t have time for that. I suppose you two went through those rainbow gashes, right?”
Theta and Susan nodded.
“As I expected. Have you met the others, too?”
“Others?”
“You know, the other Doctors. We’re not alone in this cave.” the Spider Doctor said. “You can easily access various points of this place from here. I’ve counted them: 5 incarnations of us and 5 humans, three of them are kids, and the other two are teenagers.
“Have you found an exit?” Susan asked, hopeful.
“No, at the moment.” the Spider Doctor said, "I've seen something…Interesting, while exploring."
"Really? Can you show us?" Theta asked.
"Of course! Follow me!" the Spider Doctor walked away, followed by the two teenage Gallifreyans.
The Child Doctor and Hikari kept looking for their friends.
While walking, the Child Doctor noticed something weird: The Seal of Rassilon with the letters “DW” forming the silhouette of the TARDIS.
“What’s that?” Hikari asked.
“It’s the Seal of Rassilon, the emblem of my people.” the Child Doctor explained, “However, there is something I don’t get…Why is there a silhouette of a TARDIS?”
“ “DW”...What does it mean?” Hikari asked.
“That's a good question-Wait, maybe I know…” the Child Doctor mumbled.
“Hello? Is anybody there?” a male voice familiar to the Child Doctor spoke: It was Conan, escorted by the Tragedy Doctor.
“Conan!” the Child Doctor rushed to hug him.
“Doctor!” Hikari did the same with the Tragedy Doctor.
"Oh, thank goodness you're okay, Hikari." the Tragedy Doctor head patted the little girl.
"Hey, where is Shiho?" Conan asked.
"I don't know, she wasn't with me when I woke up." the Child Doctor said, worried. "I hope she's safe…"
The two Doctors then looked at each other.
"So, you're the Doctor Hikari was talking about." the Child Doctor said.
"Yes, I suppose I am." the Tragedy Doctor said, "Which incarnation are you? I don't remember regenerating into a child."
“I’m the eighth.” the Child Doctor said, “And you?”
“Fourteenth…” the Tragedy Doctor said in mild confusion, “Hold on, you said that you’re the eighth incarnation?”
“Huh…Yes, why do you ask?”
“Because my eighth incarnation didn’t look like that.” the Tragedy Doctor said, “Yes, you look similar, but it was an adult!”
"Huh? Really?" the Child Doctor was surprised. "Then maybe we're not the same person."
"Oh, my dear fellow, I think that there is a possibility that you two are the same person." The voice of an old man spoke: it was the First Doctor, escorted by Alice and Clara.
The Child and Tragedy Doctors were shocked and so was Conan.
"It's you…" the two Doctors said.
"Who is he?" Hikari asked.
"I'm the Doctor, the original, you might say." the First Doctor said. "As for these two young fellows, their names are Alice and Clara. They're for their friend, Theta Sigma."
"Did you say…Theta Sigma?!" the Tragedy Doctor said.
"But…We never met those two, did we?" the Child Doctor asked.
"Yes, that confused me too at first." the First Doctor said. "But there might be an explanation to that."
"You're talking about the Multiverse Theory, correct?" A calm female voice spoke: It was Shiho, escorted by the Twelfth Doctor and the Warrior.
“Shiho!” the Child Doctor and Conan said.
"Glad to see you two alive," Shiho smirked.
"Hey, Doctor…" Hikari pulled the Tragedy Doctor's coat, "What's the Multiverse Theory?" Theory?”
“The Multiverse Theory is a theory that states the idea that parallel universes exist to ours. They’re identical in every single aspect but one, usually.” Shiho explained.
“Normally I would consider this as something purely science fiction, but since I’ve met the Doctor…This may be extremely plausible." Conan said. The human companions chuckled.
“A flawless explanation: Not bad, kid.” the Spider Doctor emerged from the shadows.
The other Doctors were startled by the Spider Doctor’s eerie appearance, while their companions (minus Susan, Alice and Clara) were visibly horrified.
“What the…?!” Conan said.
“Goodness me…” the First Doctor said
“EEEK! A spider!” Hikari flinched. “Gross!”
“Hikari!” the Tragedy Doctor said with a scolding tone.
“Hey! How incredibly rude!” the Spider Doctor faked being offended.
“Please, anyone would be scared of you,” Theta said, Susan softly chuckled.
“Great Theta!/Thety!” Alice and Clara said happily, as they rushed to their friend.
“Susan!” the First Doctor hugged his granddaughter, “Ah, thank goodness you’re alright!”
"Likewise. Luckily I was with Theta, I think it's you from the past!" Susan said.
The First Doctor looked at Theta, who waved at him.
"So that's how I'll look?" Theta asked, "Huh, I've aged well, I see."
"Indeed, young man!" the First Doctor chuckled.
"Now, back to business: How do we get out of here?" the Warrior said.
"Has anyone seen anything weird while exploring?" Conan asked.
"There are tunnels up there, but we couldn't find anything that looked like an exit." the Spider Doctor said.
"I found a symbol, the Seal of Rassilon with the letters "DW", forming the silhouette of the TARDIS." the Child Doctor said.
"Hey! We've found that symbol too at Babyls, in our world!" Theta said.
"But what does it mean, I wonder?" Alice said.
"...I think I know what its meaning is." the Twelfth Doctor said, "Question: When we introduce ourselves to someone, what's the first question they ask?"
"Doctor…Who." Conan said.
Everyone was shocked.
"Y-You mean…?!" the Tragedy Doctor said.
"I'm afraid so, child. The person that kidnapped us…It's us!" the First Doctor said.
"B-But…Why?! Why would someone want to kidnap their alternate selves?!" Hikari asked.
"That's an excellent question!" A male voice spoke: It was the Victorious, who appeared before our heroes via a hologram.
Everyone was confused, while the Twelfth and Tragedy Doctors were horrified, recognising the Victorious' face.
"I know that face…" the Tragedy Doctor said.
"Yeah, me too…" the Twelfth Doctor said.
"I presume you're us from another universe, sir." the First Doctor said.
"You guessed right, allow me to introduce myself: I am the Time Lord Victorious, “the Victorious” for short.” the Victorious introduced himself.
“Sounds kinda edgy,” Hikari whispered.
“Yeah, I was in a midlife crisis…” the Twelfth Doctor whispered.
“So, “Victorious”, what do you want from us? Why are we here?” the Child Doctor asked.
“Oh, it’s quite simple. Usually, when people want to conquer the universe, I always stop them, so this time, I’m playing in advance. You're gonna stay here while I happily invade your universes! Pretty simple, eh?"
“Great, so we became yet another power-mad conqueror with an inferiority complex in another universe?” the Spider Doctor rolled many of her eyes.
“Now, off I go! Have fun!” the Victorious snapped his fingers and the hologram disappeared.
The ground below them began to crack and fall apart.
They quickly ran away from the falling ground and, thanks to the Spider Doctor’s webs, managed to reach a higher place.
“Phew, that was close!” the Child Doctor said.
“Guys, look!” Hikari pointed at another gash opening.
“It’s another gash!” Alice commented.
“Should we try to go through it?” the Tragedy Doctor asked.
“It’s not that we have many options, do we?” the Twelfth Doctor said, he was the first to jump.
“Well, here goes nothing. GERONIMOOOOOOOOOO!” the Child Doctor jumped inside.
One by one, all the Doctors and companions jumped into the unknown while entering the gash.
On the other side, they arrived in some sort of abandoned lab.
All of them were unconscious due to the unstable travel. Hikari was the first to regain some consciousness. The first thing she saw was a calendar, with a circular marking on a specific date,
1 January 2010.
Then, she heard people talking and in a matter of seconds, the group was surrounded by many soldiers. Leading was a woman in her 40s with short blond hair, wearing a black coat and a scarf.
“Are those the intruders?” She asked.
“Yes, ma’am.” a soldier said, “What should we do with them?”
“Seize them. We’ll interrogate them once they wake up.” She ordered as she left the room.
That woman was well known and respected among those soldiers, in part because of her family name, one that is familiar to the Doctor.
Because that woman’s name was…
Kate Lethbridge-Stewart.
<------To Be Concluded on the 25th of November------