This Fire Burns Always [Five, Eleven, Emilie]

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"Oh, yes please. May I, Doctor?"

Emilie looked between the two of them hopefully. Once her friend agreed, Emilie clapped in excitement before promptly following his advice. Once the younger Doctor had moved to accomadate them, she actually had to consider how one navigated such a venture.

Deciding a direct approach couldn't hurt, she removed her shoes as she rose to her feet from a previous crouch. Grasping the mantle lightly for some kind of support, Emilie put her feet throught first, pushing on the wall to help lower herself in before finally scrambling out the other side with a slight cough.

"Not my favorite version of the Limbo, but eh."

Greeting this new young Doctor with a cheery wave, Emilie turned back to the 'proper' side of the fireplace, as she thought of it.

"Come along, Smith."

[Deleted]

Five stood to the side as Emile swang through the fireplace.

"'ello there,"

"Yes, come along Smith."

Smith?

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"Oi, don't you start too," The older Doctor said as he crawled through after his companion. He stood up and nodded to them before dusting off his knees.

"Well then," Eleven started, "Whatever it is drawing us together, I'd say it's an internal TARDIS problem. So, let's have a pop around here and see if she's going to give us any clues then." The older Time Lord patted his younger self on the shoulder before shoving off like he owned the place.

In a way, he sort of did, but he was taking the lead of the group, "Oh my, I haven't been down these halls in some time. Few hundred years since I changed it up a bit."

[Deleted]

"You're the one who mentioned me taking over and letting you retire," Emilie helpfully reminded him. "I'm just filling the role."

Looking down at her outfit, initially to note the lack of 'Doctorness' about it, she realized that her swing in had gotten her coat all ashy.

Well that was a little depressing, certainly.

"Ooh, console room then?" she asked hopefully as she trailed after the moving Doctor.

[Deleted]

Oh brother, he's like this, oh well, I may as well entertain him, I'm going to be him one day.

He walked next to Emile, and commented, "Unless tanning beside a pool is your way of solving problems, you're going the wrong way," and turned in the opposite direction.

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The Doctor turned around and said, "Says the man who jettisoned his Zero Room on his first day. Maybe I was. Pools can be very dangerous." The Eleventh pointed an said, "That's why I put my pool in the library, so the books will make sure it behaves."

He moved to the back of the group and began walking the other way, walking in the other direction, "So then," he said addressing his Fifth self, "Where are we in relation to your time line, what was the last big event? Don't want to spoil anything."

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He stopped at this question, pausing, and trying to keep a straight face.

"Adric..."

A tear managed to slip through his defense, he wiped it up, hoping no one would notice.

[Deleted]

The older Doctor froze. Adric's ghost haunted him to this day. As the trio slowed to a stop, he turned to face the blonde Doctor. They took a moment to glance at each other, then he offered him the only words he could thing to say.

"I'm so sorry."

The memories flashed through his mind for just a moment, it was all there. He looked to Emilie for a moment, reminding himself how precious his friends were. They needed to be protected, no matter what.

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Emilie had not planned to comment on their repartee, not even to satisfy her curiousity by asking precisely what a Zero Room was or what it was for.

But then an unfamiliar name was brought up, along with the key words 'I'm so sorry'.

Oh, no, no not good. Never good.

So much loss.

Emilie reached out hesitantly to the Fifth Doctor, standing so close and yet so distant, in his own cracked world.

Turning back to the Doctor she knew best, Emilie reached out an upturned hand in her own peace offering.

Maybe this was why the TARDIS had chosen this moment to introduce them. When they needed it most.

When she needed it?

Impossible to say.

[Deleted]

The Doctor started to walk while he still could, making the all to familiar journey back to the TARDIS console room, and feeling every minute of it.

Out of all the people in the universe, it was him, and this other him, which defended, a blessing, and a curse.

As he reached the console room, he looked around, nothing unusual,

"So, what have you planned today? You strange thing," the Doctor said, stretching his arms out wide.

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The Eleventh spun on his heels to face the other two after he reached the console room, "I forgot how, bright it was in here back when I was you and the other four. Not to say my TARDIS isn't bright, it's just, a different kind of bright." He was rambling, trying to take his predecessor's mind of the loss of Adric.

He remembered the pain so well, an ache in both his hearts that wouldn't ever leave him.

With a nod, The Doctor said, "Oh look at that computer screen, how very, 1980s Earth. Come along then, let's see if the TARDIS has any idea what's bothering her then."

Off the top of his head, where Tegan and Nyssa were at bothered him. Why couldn't he remember. "Must be getting too old. I need a bigger head to fit all this stuff."

[Deleted]

Withdrawing her hands to cross protectively across her chest, Emilie had withdrawn into silence. Both Doctors were in their own heads right now, and in their own grief.

The TARDIS had punched a hole into the time space continuum, and all she had scooped up were three miserable people.

Visually, this TARDIS' appearance had come to look familiar, if not what she associated with the beauty. So while she spared a brief glance at the indicated screen, the girl was more interested in reaching out to the TARDIS.

The Doctor had told her so long ago that his ship was sentient and telepathic besides, and since then, Emilie had often talked to the TARDIS or reached for her mentally. It was not that she ever expected to get a response, as nice as that would be, but more because she needed a friend.

And it felt more polite, besides.

So as the Doctors talked to himself, Emilie sat cross-legged on the floor next to the console. Leaning her ear against the structure, she closed her eyes and simply listened.

[Deleted]

Why did I change the desktop? I...well I suppose I wouldn't change it...

"Oh look at that computer screen, how very, 1980s Earth. Come along then, let's see if the TARDIS has any idea what's bothering her then."

Says the one with the bowtie.

The Fifth Doctor sighed again, and ducked under the console, unscrewing a panel underneath and looking at some wire.

"I figure it might be something to do with the cross-stream manipulators, I didn't happen to hear a huge bang, so we can't have crashed..."

He broke off, and curled his face up in confusion, as he came back up from underneath the console, he turned to his older self, "Nothing wrong that I can see, you take a look."

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The older Time Lord crawled down to have look around inside the console, "You know, eventually she's going to make it much easier for you to have a look at her circuitry. I forgot how tight everything was in this console. Let's see here."

Minding the cross-stream manipulators, The Eleventh whistled and said, "Of course it's not the cross stream, I think the TARDIS is looping herself, rather than either of us crashing into each other." A faint green glow was capturing his eyes though.

The Doctor reached for his Sonic Screwdriver and managed to find it, "There we are, let's have a gander." He scanned the inside and then checked the results on the Screwdriver, "Well, that explains everything!"

Crawling back out, The Doctor explained, "We have an energy thief, gorging himself on Arton energy. The TARDIS pulled herself into a loop, and it just so happened that you and I were the ones who'd gotten luck." He looked from his Fifth self to Emilie and said, "Looks like something must've gotten in the door from wherever we were last Emilie."

[Deleted]

For the most part, Emilie had been politely ignoring the Doctor, both versions of him. She couldn't feel the TARDIS nearly as well when she wasn't with the one she first met. Emilie wasn't sure if that was because by that age the TARDIS had met her enough to be receptive or if it was just the telepathic enhancer board or whatever it was the Doctor had mentioned having installed a while back for him.

But despite her current, probably misplaced, anger with her friend, Emilie wasn't going to ignore him when directly addressed. Biting back a comment about having run into the wrong TARDIS where they were last, Emilie simply opened her eyes.

“In the door on your TARDIS… that you can see effecting the younger? How would it stretch all the way back to this when?”

But that wasn't the most important question. The most important were how do we identify it and remove it from the TARDIS. Emilie knew those didn't need to be said aloud though, so she simply moved to the other side of the console and waited.

There also had to be a reason that the TARDIS looped them with a previous self. The wires here were much more cramped and confined than the version belonging to the elder Doctor. Even Nine's hadn't had so much room. There were nights where Emilie would find the Doctor swinging by cables as he worked on patching up little idiosyncrasies.

What possible benefit would there be in a smaller space? Or was it this particular version of the Doctor that mattered?