"So is that why I got an invite?" Donna's matter of fact voice broke the silence once she got bothered by how long it had lasted. It hurt a little to learn of this because of course it was about the Doctor again, but she steeled up for another adventure. They needed everyone to be ready for it, every passing second carrying a sense of doom and no one would be hurt if it was up to Donna Noble.
"I wrote your name on it, didn't I?" Ophelia gently squeezed the ginger's forearm. This woman had been there when Adipose industries was taken down, a cautionary tale commonly told among business people in hushed whispers. It served as a warning for those around meeting tables but for the ones in the background, people who often prayed for impossible miracles, these stories sparked a stubborn hope.
"Doctor, you promised me a normal party." Bill's voice sounded amused more than anything else, a realization dawning that nothing would ever be normal again so long as her company was a certain Time Lord. Donna's brow furrowed at how another man got called 'Doctor', he seemed a lot older but it was hard to tell much given he had yet to face them.
"I..." His Scottish voice sounded cautious. "Sorry."
While his older version tried to figure out just how this was possible (why hadn't the TARDIS recognize itself hanging around? Was someone messing with his ship? What consequences could this bring to him? Why had this never come up as a memory? It seemed major enough to not be forgotten), his younger self felt a different kind of bewilderment first.
To his tenth incarnation this face belonged to Caecillius, a man who by all means should be in Ancient Rome with his family after surviving Mount Vesuvius. How had he ended up in a boiler room from the future? And his hair, a puffy wild mess mirroring his eyebrows, how'd it grown so fast? None of his brains worked properly enough to give him answers.
"How are you here?" His younger self questioned, eyebrows so high up that they disappeared into a stray portion of hair. "Why did she call you 'Doctor'? You can't be the Doctor, I'm the Doctor." Donna hid a snicker at his befuddlement, loving how for once she was more put together. F-One's throat made a strangled noise, this is so not going to plan. "What is going on?"
Ophelia's skin tingled from all their expectant stares. People did pay attention to helpers unlike what had spread around due to popular belief; it was just an unsavory kind. Stares were judgmental and one could even grow used to them, suspicious bosses disguised as 'detail oriented' got praised for their behavior; even 'perfect' helpers had their every step followed around by hidden cameras. This mansion had so much spying equipment that it could easily be converted into a gilded version of Big Brother's house.
This was a whole other situation though. These people weren't angry, all they wanted were some answers and not one scenario in her practice runs included this.
Bill's eyes looked confusedly between Attack Eyebrows and Black Tie, mentally using nicknames to avoid confusion, quickly glancing to their anxious tour guide before repeating her surveillance routine. Donna, on the other hand, just hoped to solve this problem soon; not having patience enough to handle two Doctors for long (specially if the second one was half as bad as hers). Ophelia's sharp mind turned into a frantic mess of thoughts as it tried to get back on track.
"How is it possible for us both to be here?" Black Tie got out his sonic screwdriver and put on some funny looking 3D glasses. His voice lowered to an incoherent mumbling, a few words about paradoxes and timelines reaching them. His counterpart put on a stylish pair of black sunglasses to scan each being in this room discreetly.
Human, very angry looking human, a human he'd miss terribly for as long as he lived. Looking at Donna brought back so much that he moved on out of instinct. Human, a student caught up in this mess. Not quite human, the one who'd gone to such great lengths to summon him had closed her eyes in a silent meditation. Time Lord, his younger self looked disgruntled at whatever the sonic showed. Had he really looked like this?
"My best guess is all the Artron energy we're carrying, plus every paradoxal possibility generated by this encounter is being absorbed by a very greedy lab upstairs." Attack Eyebrows kept looking at the ginger woman, almost as if waiting for her to vanish.
The TARDIS has insisted they come here, his ship whom he trusted with all of his lives had brought him to this place. Not once had it sent her dear Doctor somewhere he didn't need to be and he'd trust this time was the same. Looking back at all he'd gone through, all the people he had been, not much made perfect sense; he shouldn't even be alive for Rassilion's sake!
"You are correct." For God knows how long, Ophelia had been planning this very moment. So what if it wasn't going exactly according to how it'd been planned? Twice as many people should help their odds of being successful. "From what I gathered, Corin has been using these repetitions as a sort of... do over."
"So he's trapped a planet in the same fifty years just for what? Making a little more money?" Donna looked disgusted. "This is sick."
"While we're alive none of us are aware of how much our actions truly matter, humans specially." A collective cry of indignation left both women. "You go around living your short lives without stopping to consider how each action affects your future."
"Then let's say you made a mistake so big it changed everything and got a chance to do it all over again, wouldn't you take it?" I would, each of them thought to themselves. "So maybe we shouldn't be so quick to judge."
The Doctor's rant made them lapse into a thoughtful silence. Ophelia just wanted to be free from this, Coraline had made a home in her heart but that wasn't enough. She'd give her very life if it meant being able to walk out of these doors. For once Handmaiden Fifty-One would be selfish.
"It's still wrong." She deadpanned, getting an approving glance from Attack Eyebrows. His other self seemed to agree with her and soon they all gathered in a circle. "I have almost a whole plan but I hoped you could help."
Her eyes met his stormy grey ones, feeling every outcome, endless possibilities, converge in this very moment.
"Well, both of you."
༓☾☽༓
Corin Canassis was a very angry man but in all fairness it didn't take much to make him loose his temper. While a party continued to rage on downstairs after a brilliant speech by his adored sister, the ill tempered man stormed into his quarters.
"Get out." Half a dozen staff members ran away with arms full of linen table cloths. "Get out!" Two security guards left their post outside the door to his private study. "GET THE HELL OUT OF MY SIGHT! ALL OF YOU!"
No one survived working for this family without the knowledge of this legendary tantrums, so they got out of the way and waited for whatever would happen once it was over. His head rested against the coolness of wood for a moment until a foreign accent reached his ears.
"Hard night?" The first man sounded Scottish, too much like his father. He had white hair and was dressed in a beautiful velvet long coat, browsing through a full bookshelf.
"Who are you?" Corin reached for his panic button but another voice reached his ear.
"I wouldn't do that." This one had a spiky hair, neatly styled, and a tan colored trench coat over an elegant black suit. "I've reprogrammed it to blow up a laboratory downstairs, hope it isn't too important."
"How did you get in here?" Both men leaned against his writing desk, pulling out similar devices with blinking lights on their upper ends.
"We are..." They looked at each other with mischief. "The Doctor and we have business to discuss with you."
‧͙⁺˚*･༓༓･*˚⁺‧͙
look at me posting two whole ass hours before my self inflicted deadline. I had a bit of trouble with the chapter so let me know what you thought (you can even send me a pm)! Thank you to all reading this, stay safe💙
(i know that I said this would be the last chapter but there's one more bc of how I planned on ending this storyline.)
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ADIUTRIX | DOCTOR WHO
Fanfiction"you can always trust the helper." The Doctor expected many things from a twentieth-second century party, not one of them had included a new companion. {I also don't own Doctor Who}
