If you want to help me financially, you can do it on
https://ko-fi.com/neverluckysmile
The next day found them at the school, under no pretences of teachers or reporters, ready to crack the strange mystery wide open. Krillitanes assimilated parts of the species that they destroyed, making themselves the 'best' they could be. They never waited, they just attacked, so for them to be settled in at a school was disconcerting, and the Doctor was determined to find out what their plan was. Sarah Jane had picked them up just in time to meet the kids heading to class for the day. The Doctor, with a grim, resolved look on his face, stopped in the middle of the moving crowd.
"Rose and Sarah, you go to the Maths room." He told them, "Crack open those computers, I need to see the hardware inside. Here, you might need this." He pulled out his screwdriver, handing it to Sarah Jane and completely missing Rose's annoyed look as she held her hand out, waiting, "Mickey - surveillance. I want you outside."
"Just stand outside?" Mickey asked, chucking his arms out in disbelief. Sarah Jane, with a smirk on her face, chucked her car keys to the young man.
"Here, take these - you can keep K9 company." She teased lightly as the rest of the group headed towards the front doors.
"Don't forget to leave the window open a crack." The Doctor called over his shoulder.
"But he's metal!" Mickey protested, angry he was being left out of the action again.
"I didn't mean for him." The Doctor retorted. Danni tugged on his sleeve gently.
"Want me to stay with him?" She asked uncertainly and the Time Lord shook his head.
"No, I don't want you out of my sight." He explained and she began to smile because he sounded worried, "You're not going to mess this up." The smile immediately fell. Or maybe not.
"What're you gonna do?" Rose asked the Doctor, plainly ignoring her new partner.
"It's time I had a word with Mr Finch."
~0~0~0~
The Doctor's strides were always too long for Danni to keep up with, so she had to occasionally jog to fall by his side for even a moment. More often than not, he would notice and try and slow down for a little while before his gangly legs got the better of him, but Rose-Ten was never in that good of a mood to wait for her. So, when he came to a stop at the top of the bottom of one of the many sets of stairs she was very grateful, panting lightly as she also lent on the metal frame. Down below Mr Finch stood, observing his new kingdom when he suddenly turned on the spot, looking up at the pair in intrigue. The Doctor stared back down, a cold, forceful look on his face that showed the promise of his intentions. Then, with a one last glance, Mr Finch turned and walked away, leaving the pair to watch him depart.
"What are you going to do?" Danni asked timidly and the Doctor barely spared her a glance as he strode off. Danni sped up to fall next to him, "You're going to give him a chance, aren't you?"
"Why should I?" He retorted, "There are children at risk."
"Because everyone deserves a chance, don't they?" She replied, "That's what you do." He paused, the last of the children darting around the pair to make sure they weren't late for class.
"Don't assume you know me." He told her.
"Then what was last night about?" She pressed, "You were truly worried, and you came to me."
"You were there." He corrected, "It won't happen again." He turned and started to walk away from her.
"Yes I was." She agreed, not allowing him to run away, "But you didn't have to be. Why were you still there?" He refused to answer, maybe because he really didn't know why, or maybe because he was too annoyed at himself for the real reason, Danni didn't know. But when they reached the swimming pool, where Mr Finch was waiting for them, he held the door open for her, something he hadn't done before. On the other side of the pool stood Mr Finch, leaning against the wall, his black suit on and his hair slicked black, looking just like that guy out of Buffy. Danni couldn't remember his name, but she remembered the face.
"Who are you?" The Doctor called over, hands in his pockets as he stopped at the corner of the pool.
"My name is Brother Lassa. And you?" Finch replied calmly, as if he didn't think either of the people standing across from him were a threat.
"The Doctor." He replied, not introducing Danni at all, "Since when did Krillitanes have wings?"
"It's been our form for nearly ten generations, now." Finch explained as he pushed off the wall and began walking slowly down the side of the pool, hands clasped behind his back and the Doctor mirrored his movements until the trio met in the middle, "Our ancestors invaded Bessan. The people there had some rather lovely wings. They made a million widows in one day, just imagine." A sickly smile pulled across his face, showing just how proud he was of that feat. Danni backed away slightly, disturbed with how easily he talked of genocide and bumped into the Doctor's arm.
"That's horrible." She replied shakily and the headmaster turned his gaze to her, his smile growing.
"And so much fun." He explained calmly, "Nothing is quite sweeter than the screams of your lunch, wouldn't you agree?" She shook her head.
"N-No, I can't say I would." She stuttered. The Doctor, unhappy with the way the Krillitane was eyeing the woman next to him, took a step forward and slightly to the right, almost in front of her.
"And now you're shaped human." He continued, pulling the other alien's attention back to him.
"A personal favourite, that's all." Finch brushed off.
"And the others?" The Doctor asked with a nod of his head towards the door.
"My brothers remain bat form. What you see is a simple morphic illusion. Scratch the surface and the true Krillitane lies beneath." Finch explained, "And what of the Time Lords?" He asked as he began walking around the pool again. The Doctor changed direction, heading the same way the Krillitane was, "I always thought of you as such a pompous race. Ancient, dusty senators, so frightened of change and... chaos. And of course - they're all but extinct. Only you. The last." He taunted, turning the corner, "You, all alone, with this strange young thing." Again, his gaze fell onto Danni, "A fixed point on your arm, I would love to know how you pull that off. Perhaps you could," He smirk widened, "share it with me sometime." She gulped, shaking her head.
"This plan of yours - what is it?" The Doctor snapped, now annoyed and done with the back and forth.
"You don't know." Finch replied, actually rather surprised. A delighted look fell over his face as the Doctor narrowed his eyes.
"That's why I'm asking." The Doctor replied.
"Well, show me how clever you are. Work it out." Finch commanded lightly. The Doctor rolled his eyes as Finch reached, standing just a fraction too close for Danni's liking.
"If I don't like it... then it will stop." The Doctor warned and Finch's head tilted to one side.
"Fascinating." He breathed, "Your people were peaceful to the point of indolence. You seem to be something new. Would you declare war on us, Doctor?"
"I'm so old, now." The Doctor answered, his teeth clenched together, "I used to have so much mercy." He paused for a moment, "You get one warning. That was it." Surprising her completely, he pulled a hand out of his pocket and grabbed Danni's forcefully, pulling her behind him as he headed towards the door. Something that never changed throughout his regenerations was the tightness of his grip when he was worried about her; the Krillitane had truly shook him up. She let him drag her, squeezing his hand back in response, hoping he'd calm down once they were away from the alien.
"But we're not even enemies. Soon... you will embrace us." The Doctor stopped at this, turning to look at the headmaster who strode towards them, still too calm for either of them, "The next time we meet, you will join with me. I promise you." With that, he exited the pool, leaving the two stood there. The Doctor kept his gaze trained on the door as the school bell rang, not moving and not letting go of Danni.
"Doctor?" She asked, but he didn't reply. She stepped closer, placing her free hand on his arm, "Doctor?" She tried again, worried and his head snapped to the side, looking down at her hand on his bicep, "It's okay." She reassured gently, "He's gone now, you can let go." His brows furrowed slightly, obviously having no idea what she was talking about, then his gaze dropped to their hands. Her fingers were intertwined with his, and her knuckles were turning white with the pressure from his own, strong grasp. Quickly, like she was made of fire, he dropped her hand and stuffed his hands into his pockets.
"Let's go." He snapped, storming out, scared by just how worried his was about Finch's threat towards the red-head.
~0~0~0~
He didn't say a word as they headed towards the computer labs, but for once Danni was grateful to be ignored. Five years she'd been at this now, and she still became so frightened in the face of some of the monsters that they would face. Most of them didn't bother her anymore, she knew the Doctor would win so the majority of the time, when she was in episodes she recognised, she would just go along with the flow. Then, sometimes, like with Finch, or the Cybermen, she'd be scared out of her mind because it was all so real. Finch wanted to eat her, the Cybermen were going to convert her. The Weeping Angels were going to take Rory and Amy away and she was just one person, she couldn't do anything.
"What are you crying about now?" The Doctor snapped, pausing outside the door to the lab, "I don't want Rose thinking I've upset you again."
"I can't save them." She sobbed quietly, "I can't save them from the Angels." He frowned further.
"Angels?" He repeated, "What angels?" She sniffed, shaking her head.
"Doesn't matter." She mumbled, "We're busy, right?" He nodded, agreeing but actually feeling rather concerned about her crying, heading inside.
"How's it going?" He asked the two women in the room, who both turned, laughing hysterically. When they both saw him, they seemed to laugh harder and Danni, who was still feeling rather down, let out a little giggle of her own, "What?" The Doctor asked, confused, "Listen, I need to find out what's programmed inside these." Neither of the women stopped, Rose pointing the sonic screwdriver at him in amusement, "What? Stop it!" He demanded, bewildered and uncomfortable.
"All pupils to class immediately. And would all members of staff congregate in the staff room." A voice declared over the loudspeaker and the Doctor glanced up at the ceiling.
"Oh, now we're in trouble." He muttered.
~0~0~0~
Rose was put on diversion duty, directing any children who tried to enter the lab somewhere else, anywhere else as long as it wasn't there. The Doctor was ripping out wires from the back of the computer at the head of the room, sonicing the router that connected them all together. Danni and Sarah Jane watched him anxiously as he tried to break into the box to see whatever was inside. Whatever it held was being used on the children, and he had to stop it.
"I can't shift it." He grumbled in frustration, taking a look at the front of it again, hoping something would jump out at him.
"I thought the sonic screwdriver could open anything!" Sarah Jane pointed out.
"Anything except a deadlock seal. There's gotta be something inside here. What're they teaching those kids?" He replied.
"You'll work it out." Danni reassured him, "You said they're using all the kids, but why? Why do they need all of them?"
"Power in numbers?" Sarah Jane suggested. The Doctor shrugged, changing tactics and rushing over to another computer, ducking underneath the desks and attacking the wires.
"They're using the oil to increase their intelligence." He reasoned, "They must want them to work on something, but what?" He soniced something else as Rose joined them, "See if you can log onto the system." He commanded them and the three women all chose their own work station, typing in anything to get to the main system. Suddenly, each screen went green, lines of lines of letters and symbols scrolling downwards.
"You wanted the program - there it is." Sarah Jane declared and the Doctor jumped up, pushing Danni roughly out of the way so he could see what was happening. She grumbled, pushing her way in front of him.
"Some sort of code..." He muttered, trying to process through the fast-scrolling information. His mind quickly picked out the patterns, but where did he recognise them from?
"It's something to do with the Vortex." Danni told him, "I think, anyway."
"No... no, they can't be..." The Doctor breathed, his eyes widening in realisation, "The Skasis Paradigm. They're trying to crack the Skasis Paradigm!"
"The Skasis what?" Sarah Jane asked.
"The... God-maker." The Doctor settled on, "The universal theory. Crack that equation and you've got control of the building blocks of the universe. Time and space and matter, yours to control." It was horrific, no one should have that kind of power. To manipulate and change the order of anything, nothing was fixed, everything was at the hands of the person who held that knowledge.
"What, and the kids are like a giant computer?" Rose asked and he nodded slowly.
"Yes." He turned, pacing as his mind ran over what was happening, trying to find a way out of this. He had to save the children, but more importantly he had to stop Krillitanes, "And their learning power is being accelerated by the oil! That oil from the kitchens, it works as a- as a... conducting agent. Makes the kids cleverer."
"But that oil's on the chips. I've been eating them." Rose pointed out, disgusted and he shot her a look.
"What's fifty-nine times thirty-five?" He demanded.
"Two thousand and sixty five." She replied instantly, the colour draining out of her face at her instant ability to do the sum, "Oh my God..."
"But why use children? Can't they use adults?" Sarah Jane asked.
"No, it's gotta be children. The God-maker needs imagination to crack it. They're not just using the children's brains to break the code... they're using their souls." He told them grimly.
"Let the lesson begin." They all turned to see Mr Finch stood there, looking triumphant.
"You can't do this!" Danni exclaimed, "They're just children!"
"They're just a tool." He replied, turning to the Doctor, "Think of it, Doctor - with the Paradigm solved, reality becomes clay in our hands. We can shape the universe and improve it."
"Oh yeah? The whole of creation with the face of Mr Finch. Call me old fashioned, but I like things as they are." The Doctor snarled in reply.
"You act like such a radical, and yet all you want to do is preserve the old order." Mr Finch tutted lightly, "Think of the changes that could be made if this power was used for good."
"What, by someone like you?" The Doctored retorted sceptically.
"No... someone like you." Stunned, the Doctor didn't answer. Someone like him? What was that supposed to mean? "The Paradigm gives us power, but you could give us wisdom. Become a God. At my side. Imagine what you could do - think of the civilizations you could save. Perganon, Assinta... your own people, Doctor. Standing tall. The Time Lords... reborn."
"Doctor, don't listen to him." Sarah Jane pleaded but she could see the Doctor was seriously considering his proposal. Mr Finch walked past the Doctor, towards the three women who were staring, horrified at what he was suggesting.
"And you could be with him throughout eternity. Young... fresh... never wither, never age... never die." He turned to the Doctor briefly, "Their lives are so fleeting. So many goodbyes." Suddenly he reached out, grabbing Danni by the arm despite her protests, "This is so troublesome, isn't it Danielle?" Her eyes widened, her voice catching in her throat because the Doctor hadn't introduced her, no one had told her his name, "Surprised I know who you are?" He asked and she nodded slowly, "Don't be, UNIT have quite the file on you. Always jumping around, never staying with the man you love, just with a man who resents you." He turned to the Doctor, "How wonderful it would be, with the universe pliable and moldable, you could send her out of you life forever. Join us."
"I could save everyone..." The Doctor breathed, looking into the distance, thinking about the terrible loss he'd suffered at his own hands. He could bring them all back, and better as well. No more fighting, no more Daleks. Gallifrey in the sky, where it should be. Beautiful and glowing, not burnt and dead.
"Yes." Mr Finch drawled, seeing he was getting somewhere.
"I could stop the war..." The Doctor continued and Danni yanked her arm out of Mr Finch's grasp.
"No!" She declared so firmly they all looked down at her, "No, I don't care. I won't let you do it." Mr Finch smirked at her.
"You think you can stop us?" He asked lightly and she nodded.
"I'll find a way." She promised passionately, "It doesn't matter, none of it matters. I won't let you take this from me!" She waved her manipulator at the man, "Time Lords or not, deaths or not, you won't take my life from me!"
"But what a life is it?" He asked her, "Never staying still, never being able to say goodbye..."
"You may not like it, but I wouldn't have it any other way!" She argued, "This week alone I..." She pointed over at Sarah Jane, "I met Sarah Jane Smith! I mean, this woman is absolutely beautiful and brilliant and I met her! Next week I might meet Agatha Christie, or go to..." She growled in frustration, "Just go anywhere! And it might be with Ten, or Eleven, or Nine but as long as I am with him I don't care!"
"But you will die eventually." Mr Finch pointed out, "Imagine being young forever, living for eternity by your precious Doctor's side?"
"Everything dies." She replied, straightening up, "Everything ends and everything dies. But the chance to live the in between bits with the people I love? I'd never give it up for anything."
"The universe has to move forward." Sarah Jane spoke up, agreeing, "Pain and loss - they define us as much as happiness or love. Whether it's a world, or a relationship... everything has its time. And everything ends." She repeated and Danni stepped back, taking her hand as Sarah Jane came to a personal realisation of her own. Furious because she was right, despite the fact the Doctor desperately wanted her to be wrong, he grabbed a chair and chucked it through the screen, smashing the glass.
"Out!" He shouted, ducking out of the room, the three women trailing after him.
"Thank you, by the way." Sarah Jane panted, smiling at Danni who shot her a shaky one of her own.
"No, thank you!" She replied.
~0~0~0~
Mickey saved all the children, ushering the last of them out of the building he'd crashed Sarah Jane's car through the front door just as Danni, Rose, Sarah Jane and the Doctor made it out. With a huge bang, the school went up in flames, shaking the ground with the force of the blast. The children did as anyone would expect them to, cheered in joy at the destruction of their school, oblivious to the Krillitanes or the tin dog that perished along with their homework. Rose cheered at the stopping of their evil plot, Mickey was hailed as a hero amongst the students but the Doctor, Sarah Jane and Danni stared sadly, remembering the very good dog who saved them all. Danni reached out, slipping her hand into Sarah Jane's.
"I'm so sorry, Sarah Jane." Danni whispered mournfully.
"It's all right. He was just a... daft metal dog. Fine, really." She replied adamantly before she burst into tears. The Doctor reached over, pulling her in for a hug and Danni caught Rose's eye. Seeing how upset the blonde looked, she squeezed Sarah Jane's hand once before heading over to her.
"You know you're his favourite, don't you?" Danni told her.
"She was his favourite once." Rose replied bitterly, "I'm just his favourite because I'm his current assistant."
"Rose Tyler." Danni said slowly, purposefully, in such a way Rose couldn't help but turn her entire attention away from the school and onto the ginger woman. Danni stood there, a pensive look on her face as she stared at the flames raging through the building, "I have seen the future, I've lived it. There is not a day you're not the most important person in his life." Then she turned, shooting Rose a beaming smile, "And even if you're not, you're the most important person to me." The smile turned slightly surprised, as if she'd just realised something, "It's your fault I enjoyed the Doctor so much. Your fault that I became a fangirl, which ultimately had Claire buying me a toy manipulator for my birthday. I don't think I ever thanked you for that." She wrapped her arms around Rose, "Thank you, Rose."
"You are very welcome." Rose replied with a bewildered laugh, giving the woman a huge squeeze in return.
~0~0~0~
The park was beautiful, Danni had been very vocal about that as she and Sarah Jane walked around it. The Doctor, Rose and Mickey had snuck back into the school to fetch the TARDIS, but Sarah Jane couldn't face going inside. Instead, she had decided to wait for him in the park just down the road, and Danni had decided to join her. They both had ice creams, bought with the money the Doctor had lost to Danni, Sarah Jane with rum and raisin, and Danni with her favourite – vanilla.
"What about Four?" Danni was asking eagerly, "What was he like?" She never had the chance to talk to anyone who knew the Doctor's past selves, everyone she knew was post Time War and as much as she'd asked the Doctor about them, getting an account for someone who was actually there was a chance she wasn't willing to give up.
"He was..." Sarah Jane trailed off with a wistful look, "Infuriating. And loud, he had a booming voice that could pull the attention of a king. He had the strangest sense of humour, I don't even think he thought he was funny sometimes." She smiled bittersweetly, "He was so different from his previous self, but then he wasn't. He was just..."
"He was just the Doctor." Danni finished for her and Sarah Jane laughed, nodding in agreement.
"It was hard to get my head around, at first." She admitted, "But it soon became apparent he was still the same man inside. His values hadn't changed, that's what counted in the end." They both spotted the TARDIS at the same time and headed towards it happily, until Sarah Jane grabbed Danni's arm, stilling her.
"He doesn't hate you." Sarah Jane told her gently, "I just think you confuse him." Danni shrugged.
"Oh, I know." Danni replied, "I know where he ends up, who he ends up with." She wiggled her ring finger at Sarah Jane, who looked delighted her hunch was correct, "I just like to wind him up. It's always so easy, Eleven's just the same. And so was Nine." She grinned, "Same man, aren't they?" She grinned cheekily, pushing the door open, "Look who I found!"