We Don't Get Fooled Again (Eleven & Emilie)

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The Doctor had truly believed that his latest trip to Gallifrey would end up being the last trip he ever took. But, of all of the things that could have happened, the Master had brought him Mel and Sabalom Glitz to him and had done all he could, for his own reasons, to stop the Valeyard from killing him. Of course, his old friend had his own reasons for helping him out; the Doctor was a far easier enemy to beat, in the Master’s humble opinion, than the Valeyard could ever be. But, if hadn’t been for the Master, then the Doctor might never have figured out who the Valeyard really was and the darker side of him might actually have pulled off killing all of the Time Lords in the court room.

After turning down the position of Lord President (being Lord President once was enough for the Doctor), he had left Gallifrey in a hurry, returning Mel to her home so the future adventure he had shown the court using the Matrix would still happen. But, time being the relative concept that it was, the Doctor could spend as much of it as he wanted to traveling on his own before having to pick up Mel again to go on his adventure with her.

Rarely did he ever travel on his own; it was more dangerous that way. As much as this incarnation of the Doctor didn’t want to admit it, his companions had saved him time and time again. He might have met his death a long time ago if he had decided that traveling on his own was preferable to having human beings with him. But, now that he was on his own for the foreseeable future, he didn’t fancy getting himself into serious trouble that he might not be able to get out of without anyone watching his back.

And that was why he found himself plotting a course for Space Station Chimera. The last time he had been on the space station, it had been utterly ruined, thanks to the Sontarans, whom Chessene had been working with. Augmenting Androgums had been one of Dastari’s not so bright ideas, but, with the help of one of his past selves, Chessene and the Sontarans had been defeated. None of that, however, meant that Space Station Chimera was still in disuse. Any scientist bright enough may have made up his or her mind to spruce the place up again and continue on with Dastari’s work—or, quite possibly, begin even more dastardly experiments than the augmentation of Androgums.

The Doctor had to be sure that the space station was nothing more than an empty relic that had once been filled with some of the greatest minds in existence. His TARDIS materialized in one of the many corridors. He stepped out, noticing immediately that the smell of freshly decaying corpses wasn’t present. Fifty years in the future from when he had last been here he had wanted to land; it was too early to say if it was fifty years in the future but at least it was long enough in the future for that awful smell to have completely vanished.

”Hello?” he called out, looking to his left and then to his right down the empty corridor. He didn’t expect an answer, and no answer was exactly what he got. The computer he had had to disable the last time he was here hadn’t been fixed. Still, that didn’t mean that no one was here. Maybe they hadn’t felt the need for that dratted computer anymore. The Doctor turned to his right and began walking down the corridor but hastily spun on his heels deciding that there might be more to discover down the left path.

He couldn’t fail to note the repairs that had been done to the walls that had been damaged during the Sontarans’ attack. ”Hasty repairs.” The Doctor looked towards the ground as he continued walking along. ”No dead bodies and no signs of blood.” The Doctor then looked up towards the ceiling. ”And operational lights. Even if no one is here right now, someone has been here recently getting the space station ready…but for what?” If he had Peri or Mel with him, then they would no doubt say something that would help him answer that question but he was going to have to rely on no one but himself to figure this one out. Little could he know that another him and that human spark of innovativeness that he needed would be joining him very soon.

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The Doctor and Emilie had been traveling together for some time now. At least nine months, not that he had been counting or anything. And thankfully, in his mind, they hadn't run into a past version of himself in about two of those months.

It was a relief, because whatever had been dragging them together seemed to have gone away. The Doctor was more than grateful, because whenever he was with another version of himself, there was always some incredible danger coming their way, not to mention the possible problems with his own timeline.

He'd decided to show Emilie some other parts of space. Going back and forth to different points on Earth was great, but they'd been there for quite some time now. It was time to expand her horizons a bit. Most of all, he was happy that she was starting to warm up to him again. He hadn't told her about meeting her in his Ninth incarnation, and that had caused a bit of friction.

With that settled now, The Doctor could focus on bigger problems, like the fact that they were caught in a tractor beam. Spinning on his heels, The Doctor turned to face his companion before saying, "It appears, our original plan for today has been cancelled. We're caught in a tractor beam, so we'll have to see where it takes us, Emilie."

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After everything that had happened with the Fifth Doctor and the TARDIS... Emilie had started to work through the complicated knot of emotions the Doctor evoked for her now.

There was the fact he hadn't mentioned she had actually been a companion of his Ninth incarnation, although Emilie could intellectually understand that at least. There was the fact Emilie had lost the relationship she had with Nine well and truly, even though part of her wanted nothing more than to hunt him down again... somehow.

What had compounded and jumbled everything into a ball of wibbly wobbly mess was the Valeyard. And worse, the fact she couldn't precisely confront the Doctor about him. How would that conversation go?

'I met a possible future version of you whose first reaction to me was to want to rip me apart molecule by molecule, and don't get me started on what happened next!' ?

So, while she had been tentatively excited about the Doctor's idea of a trip, a tractor beam wasn't the height of depression for her. It was all a matter of perspective. At least they weren't being forced apart, yeah?

"As long as we aren't going directly back to Earth, it still counts as a change of scenery, right?"

What do you know. Optimism isn't quite dead.

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The Doctor hadn't been wandering along the corridors of the space station for long before he reached the control room. Everything was up and running, just as it should be if beings were occupying the space station. But the Doctor had yet to come across another living soul in this place besides himself yet, and the Time Lord seriously doubted that everyone on board the station had decided, at the same exact time, to leave for a short vacation to the nearest planet.

Something else had happened here, instead; this place was always going to be bad news for him when he landed here it appeared. He was going to leave the control room and explore further but, before he could get one foot out of the door, a monitor caught his eye. "What's this?" he said to thin air. A short and closer inspection showed the Doctor exactly what it was: a tractor beam was on and currently in the process of dragging a small spaceship towards the space station.

Perhaps experiments were still going on here, only this time on any travelers who unluckily found themselves flying just close enough to the station to be ensnared by the tractor beam. The Doctor started to fiddle around with the controls, trying to shut the beam off, but it was all to no avail. Whoever was on that spaceship was going to land in the station. At least all of the experimenters appeared to be out of town right now and they had the Doctor here to help them out. ”Assuming that they’re friendly and want my help,” he said, finishing his thoughts out loud. There was only one way to find out. The Doctor exited the control room and leaned up against the wall of the corridor. By his calculations, this spaceship should be landing about a hundred yards or so up the hallway. Whomever these wayward travelers were, they would soon be walking his way.

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"As long as we aren't going directly back to Earth, it still counts as a change of scenery, right?"

"That's the spirit!" The Doctor announced as he tuned on the scanner so that they could see what was happening outside of the TARDIS. The tractor beam was mighty, it had to be, to have snagged a TARDIS and successfully pull it in. Still, the ride was slow, steady, but slow. The Doctor began to tap his foot, "You'd think that if our captors could speed this up a bit, this is just rude."

Finally arriving on the ship, The Doctor took a deep breath before spinning to face Emilie, "Well then, we've arrived. And it appears no one has come to greet us. They really are being rude." With a step toward the door, The Doctor looked back to Emilie once more before saying, "Let's go have a look, see what the big problem really is."

Both exiting the TARDIS, The Doctor looked around the empty room. It was bright white and pristine looking, "It's as though no one is here at all." He spotted an open door and grinned, "Do you know what they say about open doors Emilie? They always hold an amazing opportunity at the other end." Okay, he'd made that up, but it sounded good in his head! Making his way to the door, The Doctor spotted a man standing down the hall.

"Well, look at that!" The Doctor's words slowed, "He's got a multicolored, oh no." Sighing, he began to walk up ahead. When was this going to stop happening?

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The doctor really was sort of cute whenever he got impatient. He was a master at multitasking and then hopping directly into the next chaos event. So much so that waiting for longer than a minute had the man fidgeting like a five year old.

"Well then, we've arrived.

And they took their time about it, his body language said, making Emilie stifle a grin.

"And it appears no one has come to greet us. They really are being rude."

"You're just upset that you can't order anyone to take you to their leader yet," Emilie teased, following him good naturedly out of the TARDIS to explore.

"Well, look at that!" The Doctor's words slowed, "He's got a multicolored, oh no."

It had taken Emilie a moment to place just where she had seen that bright of an outfit before. The figure just ahead had been one of the holograms the Ninth Doctor had shown her. His sixth, if she remembered correctly.

"All of time and space, Doctor. And yet you still manage to visit everywhere and when twice?" she called out exasperatedly as she followed her Doctor closely.

There had been a time when meeting other Doctors was interesting and a bit exciting. But the Valeyard had rid her of that naive desire to jump right in and get to know every him.

At long last, Emilie had learned the meaning of caution.

And that meant sticking close to the Doctor she did know for at least the introductionary phase.

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The Doctor didn't have to wait long before the newcomers appeared. And it wasn't long before they spotted him; it was kind of hard not to in his multicolored coat that very easily stood out wherever he went. Sometimes he wondered why he hadn't chosen something that would help him blend in with his surroundings. But with each new face of his came a different style. This incarnation of him quite like being noticed by everyone he came across.

Saving them the trouble of having to walk all the way down to him, the Doctor met them halfway up the corridor. He gave them both a good, long look before speaking. "So, you're the two foolish enough to get near the tractor beam." It wasn't a question; it was a mere statement of the facts of the situation. Any other pilot of a spaceship would have made a wider berth around the space station, just wide enough to slip past the tractor beam without any incident happening.

Right now, the last thing the Doctor wanted to have to do was deal with two people who just accidentally happened to end up on this space station with him. There was something going on here, and he needed to find out what it was. These two would probably only get in his way. "If you want to prove to me that you're not as foolish as you like, then I highly recommend you climb back on board your ship and get back to going wherever it was that you were going."

The Doctor knew how rude he was being right now but he didn't have the time to explain to them why he needed them to leave. It was in their best interest to simply listen to him. If they left, then they couldn't become a part of whatever experiments were going on here right now as soon as the performer of those experiments came back, which could be any minute for all the Doctor knew. He didn't even know what was going on here yet, hence the need to hasten them on their way so he could have as much time as possible to explore the space station while he was still the only one here.

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"So, you're the two foolish enough to get near the tractor beam."

The Doctor cracked a small smile. This was always a fun part, the period of time that his previous incarnation didn't recognize that he was speaking to a future regeneration. He waited patiently as the younger Doctor was talking down on him. Oh, such fun this was.

"If you want to prove to me that you're not as foolish as you like, then I highly recommend you climb back on board your ship and get back to going wherever it was that you were going."

The Eleventh turned to face Emilie and said, "Well, you heard me Emilie. I suppose we're fools. To be fair though, I'm only half-foolish, on my Mother's side. Isn't that right Doctor?" He turned to face his former face and said, "This was me when I was actually 906. I had such an awful midlife crisis, you can tell by the coat."

He waited a moment before cutting to the chase, "Looks like we've been drawn to another previous regeneration of myself Emilie. My sixth." To infuriate himself, The Doctor spoke to his companion like the younger Doctor wasn't even there.

"I was brilliant, but a bit impatient, and so, so rude."

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It was very hard to stay serious with the Doctor joking like this, and Emilie soon found herself grinning again.

"The coat's very... distinctive, but at least it isn't edible. It only took you... what... an hour to break down and eat that celery?"

Emilie did her very best to look stern, but she was a bit more invested in making a good impression on the younger Doctor than her Doctor needed to be.

I was brilliant, but a bit impatient, and so, so rude.

"Good to know nothing changes, Doctor."

Winking at his sixth incarnation, Emilie held up her hand in a slight wave.

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This wasn't the first time this particular face had run into another of his incarnations. The last time he had been on this space station he had become involved in the adventure that led him to running into his second self again. He hadn't minded that meeting because he had had the upper hand in being from their future. He knew everything about his second incarnation, and his second incarnation could hardly judge his sixth based on their short time together.

But this incarnation of him was from the future. The tables were being turned on him. And this future him was clearly enjoying the advantages that he had, doing what he could to try and push his younger self's buttons. The Doctor had learned a long time ago that the TARDIS took him where he needed to be, but he couldn't figure out why she would think he needed to be here to meet his future self. He could only surmise that the TARDIS thought they needed to work together to solve whatever was going on in the space station these days.

However, the way his future self was acting right now, cooperation was the farthest thing away from the younger Doctor's mind. Not even Emilie's pointedly trying to be kinder to him than the Doctor she traveled with was being was enough to make the younger Doctor feel more inclined to work with them. "There is absolutely nothing wrong with my coat!" he said, indignantly, "But you're bow tie...Now that's another matter."

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"There is absolutely nothing wrong with my coat!" he said, indignantly, "But you're bow tie...Now that's another matter."

"Don't knock the bow tie," The older Doctor responded, clearly a bit annoyed, "You're going to be wearing it one day." He fixed the bow tie and grinned before looking to Emilie and saying, "Just like I said, brilliant, but rude." He wasn't sure if it was teasing or just flat out arguing. It was tricky with this incarnation, "Well then Doctor, looks like we meet another version of ourselves on this ship again."

That seemed to happen here, once was coincidence, twice was by design. Something about this place was particularly dangerous, what that was, The older Doctor didn't know. "However, instead of arguing, I suggest we work together to shut this place down."

There was something he was forgetting, "Oh yes. Doctor, this is Emilie. Emilie, this is me, well, the Sixth me. I forgot how blonde I was."

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Idly, Emilie wondered at the fact half the time the Doctor remembered her on his own, and the other half he had to be reminded. She couldn't have guessed, really, putting it down to simple age, but the Doctor's timeline had been rewritten around her based off one meeting in that aborted timeline.

If she would have formulated such a hypothesis however, Emilie's personal phrasing would probably be more along the lines of 'I'm the stray the TARDIS picked up'.

She kept silent at first, although the argument over the bow tie was amusing. Quite a few of his incarnations had been pleased by the sight, and now here Dr. Technicolor found it over the top.

"Bow ties are also not edible. Eatable? Edible."

The Doctor had seemed rather put off by her offer to eat his anyway, and the comparison to the coat seemed sound enough to Emilie anyway.

"Oh yes. Doctor, this is Emilie. Emilie, this is me, well, the Sixth me. I forgot how blonde I was."

"Hello," she greeted Six directly. "Since you aren't explaining," Emilie tapped her friend's shoulder, keeping her gaze on the curly haired Doctor, "Would you mind telling me where we are? It's very nice that someone knows, but...."

After all, 'her' Doctor had made it quite clear by his statement that both he and his younger self knew where they were and so, presumably, had some idea of what was going on.

All Emilie knew was that it was a space station with one hell of a tractor beam.

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"Don't remind me," the younger Doctor muttered under his breath. It appeared that he was never going to have a reasonable fashion sense, even if he was fond of the coat he was currently wearing. He supposed things could always be worse than a bow tie; and he wasn't a stranger to that piece of clothing, seeing as his first two incarnations wore one too.

It didn't take longer for his future self to suggest that they cooperate with each other. "I agree," he said with a tone suggesting that he was the one that had come up with that brilliant idea in the first place, which in a way he had because they were the same man, after all.

He was then introduced to his future companion. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Emilie...again." Well, for the third time, really, since she seemed to have met his previous incarnation as well. Time traveling and regenerating could make everything complicated very quickly.

Everything that had happened at Space Station Chimera hadn't happened as long ago for the younger Doctor as it had for the older him, so it was only right that he should be the one to explain everything to Emilie. "As I said, I've met another me on this space station before, where a brilliant scientist by the name of Dastari was performing experiments on Androgums--a primitive and barbaric race. He was augmenting them, turning them into much more intelligent beings. One of the augmented Androgums worked with the Sontarans to capture my past self because they needed my cells to get their makeshift TARDIS working. I decided to come back here about fifty years into the future to make sure the station is no longer being used, which--" The Doctor gestured towards the working lights. "seems not to be the case, but where everyone working on here now has run off to for the moment, I haven't a clue."

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The older Doctor waited as his younger self filled Emilie in on the situation. He recalled the events leading to himself and Peri meeting his Second self and Jamie again. He recalled not particularly enjoying it, probably because when he'd been the Sixth's age, he had become a bit volatile. This adventure was going to be quite the interesting one indeed.

"Such an adventure. Doctor, remind me to tell you about when I saw Peri again. I didn't get a chance to say hello, but she was well," he knew that his younger self would appreciate hearing that. Before he'd died and regenerated again, he'd visited everyone, Peri included.

"Well then," The Eleventh Doctor clapped his hands to bring the attention onto him, then he continued, "We investigate, find out where the crew has gone, then shut down and render this ship inhabitable on our way out. That way we can be sure it's not used again for anything nefarious. Agreed?"

He looked to his younger self and said, "Oh, and we'll have a bit of fish fingers and custard before you head off. Oh, you're going to love it Doctor, just about the greatest combination of foods I've ever had." He looked to Emilie and said, "What? He's been on a vegetarian diet for nearly a year. Trust me, he'll love it." At least, The Doctor assumed he was speaking to himself after he'd encountered the Vervoids, which had put him on a vegetable kick for quite some time.

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Emilie supposed that she should not be so easily amused by the Doctor's interactions with himself (she'd never had to meet an alternate version of herself after all). But it still was entertaining.

The acknowledgement of ‘again’ was encouraging, although there was no way of knowing how often he remembered meeting her. Time travel was probably just tricky that way, especially for a Time Lord, remembering so many possible memories or however it worked.

“Sometimes it feels like meeting you is all I do, Doctor. But it is still a pleasure six... five times later.”
She really shouldn’t count ‘The Valeyeard’ as the Doctor. More, she still was not comfortable with bringing up that past experience to the Doctor.

It wasn’t that she liked to hide things from him, but the Doctor always gave her so much leeway anyway. If he asked, she would answer, however....

For now, Emilie occupied herself by focusing on her asked for explanation.

From the sounds of it, this space ship center place was Trouble and enough to have drawn the Doctor into a partnership with himself before.

Then her Doctor began to speak and while Emilie did listen to him through most of plan, it was hard to stay serious when he reached the fish fingers and custard bit.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”

No need to isolate the other Doctor if he thought his future self was nuts. Especially not with several good reasons to not antagonize him against her.

Emilie never wanted to meet the Valeyard again.