If the last few minutes had been chaotic, the next ones were worse. Now everyone was awake… and everyone had questions.
"Where are we?"
"Is this… a ship?"
"Why does it feel bigger on the inside?"
The Doctor, leaning against the TARDIS console, massaged his temples with a look of utter exasperation.
"Oh, brilliant. Multiversal tourists with an existential hangover. Exactly what I asked for today."
Some of the newly awakened had heard rumors about the strange blue box while being rescued, but seeing the inside was another thing entirely. They had no idea if they were in a shelter, a machine, or the lobby of an interdimensional hotel with dreadful Victorian decor.
Usagi tried to calm the little girl, while Erina kept as far as possible from Endeavour, who burned like a walking furnace. Jack Sparrow, on the other hand, was smiling with that shameless grin of his, eyeing every detail with the calculating gaze of a man who's always thinking about stealing something.
"So…" Jack said, leaning carelessly over the console—until Endeavour shoved him back with a flaming hand. "Is this… some sort of ship? Because I don't see sails. Or cannons. Or rum, for that matter."
The Doctor ignored him. He was busy staring at the system panel that had just appeared before him:
[Alert: Temporal Anomaly Detected]
Location: Timeline – Jack Sparrow
Severity: Critical – Foreign element detected in native chronology
The Doctor's smile froze for a second. Then he exhaled slowly.
"Oh… fantastic. Not just storms and cracks. Now we have cross-universe contamination. Wonderful."
He turned toward Jack, his expression a mix of fury and fascination.
"Jack, tell me you didn't bring anything with you."
The pirate raised an eyebrow, offended.
"Me? Captain Jack Sparrow doesn't need to bring things. Things follow me."
The Doctor pressed his lips into a thin line.
"Yes, and one of those things does not belong in your world. Something slipped into your story, and if we don't fix it… your timeline collapses. And when it collapses, guess what happens next?"
Jack smiled.
"Something spectacular, I hope."
"Yes," said the Doctor darkly. "A spectacle called the end of the multiverse."
Everyone else fell silent, not comprehending the magnitude of what they'd just heard. The Doctor glanced at them and raised his hands.
"Don't try to understand it. Just hold on to something."
With a leap, he slammed the main lever down. The TARDIS roared like a living beast. Lights flickered, the floor shook, and the central column spun, sending out pulses of golden energy.
"What's happening?!" Usagi screamed, clinging to Erina, who looked like she was debating whether she'd die by fire or by vertigo.
The Doctor grinned, chaos blazing in his eyes.
"What's happening? We're about to save a pirate universe before it gets eaten by a hole in reality!"
Jack raised the imaginary cup he didn't have.
"Well, sounds like a Tuesday to me."
The TARDIS gave one last violent jolt and, with a deep WHOOSH, vanished—hurling itself through the vortex toward the origin of the error.