The TARDIS continued to fly violently through the Time Vortex, her occupants all grabbing onto the console to steady themselves. "What the hell's it doing?" Donna shouted.
"Controls aren't responding." the Artist answered as she and the Doctor struggled to regain control.
The Doctor looked down to the jar containing his severed hand, which was bubbling wildly. "Dunno where we're going, but my old hand's very excited by it." he remarked.
Donna stared. "I thought that was some freaky alien thing. You're telling me that's yours?!"
"Well..."
"It got cut off." Martha explained, "He grew a new one."
"You are completely impossible!" Donna said to the Time Lord.
"Not impossible, just a bit unlikely." the Doctor said in a cocky tone.
"Oi, stop freaking our friends out and help me!" the Artist called to him from where she was struggling with some controls. But before the Doctor could comply, the console sparked, knocking everyone to the floor, then the box came to a screeching halt.
The Doctor jumped to his feet and raced to the door while the Artist went to the monitor to check the environment outside.
The Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS to find that they'd landed in an underground tunnel, littered with rubbish and abandoned equipment. "Why would the TARDIS bring us here?" he wandered as the women joined him.
"Oh, I love this bit!" Martha smirked.
"I thought you wanted to go home." Donna reminded.
"I know, but all the same... It's that feeling you get." Martha replied.
"Like you swallowed a hamster?" Donna smirked.
At that moment, they all heard footsteps and three soldiers came charging up to them and aimed rifles at the quartet. "Don't move, stay where you are!" one of them, a young man, demanded, "Drop your weapons!"
"We're not armed!" the Doctor said, he and the women putting their hands up, "Look, no weapons. Never any weapons, we're safe."
"Alright, process them." the young soldier ordered his comrades, "Them two first." His comrades came forward and grabbed the Time Lords, then dragged them towards a strange machine.
"Oi, oi! Ease up!" The Doctor grumbled. He did not like being dragged unless it was by the Artist, she could drag him anywhere.
"What's going on?" Martha questioned the soldiers.
"Leave 'em alone!" Donna demanded.
When they reached the machine, the soldiers forced the Doctor's right hand and the Artist's left hand into a slot on the machine, which whizzed into life. "Something tells me this isn't about to check our blood press... Aagggh!" the Doctor groaned.
"What're you doing to them?" Donna demanded.
"Everyone gets processed." the young soldier.
"It's taken tissue samples from us." the Artist called out, only to yell out in pain, as did the Doctor.
"And extrapolated it." the Doctor finished, "Some kind of accelerator?"
Finally, the machine stopped and both Time Lords staggered backwards, now with identical Y-shaped grazes on the backs of the hands that had been inside the machine.
"You both alright?" Martha asked, rushing over to them.
"Yeah, but that's all I need, marks on both hands." the Artist grumbled.
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Halfway Out Of The Dark || The Doctor
FanfictionFollow the adventures of The Last Time Lady, The Artist, saved by the eccentric time-traveler known as The Doctor at the end of the time war, which sees their home plant of Gallifrey lost, as they travel through all of time and space in his unique c...
