ruler of the fourth dimension page 2

We stepped out into a large laboratory, full of various, strange looking machines and test tubes full of chemicals of the like I’d never seen before, which is saying something, seeing as my brother was always keen to show me some. There were Bunsen burners and syringes and all the other kind of things you’d expect in a lab, though, the lab was currently empty apart from us.

'Reminds me of my science lab at UNIT.' The Doctor remarked.

'UNIT?'

'Company I used to work for in the 1970s. I was their Scientific Adviser. Long story.'

It wasn't long before we were joined by a large, bald man wearing strange, multi-coloured clothing. He seemed to be feeling a particular patch on his head as if there was something there. Hidden. I could see by the Doctor's face that he somehow recognised the person before us, but he didn't acknowledge the fact, so I assumed that he didn't.

'You must be the guy who made time go backwards, right? I’m the Doctor. Just the Doctor. Although, I did once get a job as a proper Doctor. Didn’t work out too well when I accidentally turned a patient into an Ood. ' He was rambling about some nonsense  again.

'How impressive, Doctor.  Although, I'd advise you to stay out of my business.'

'Is that supposed to be a threat? Lesson one: if you want to threaten somebody, don’t wear multi-coloured clothes. It just makes you look ridiculous. I learned that during my sixth incarnation, or was it seventh.'

'I don’t need words of wisdom from you. I despise people who think they’re wise. Nobody tells me what to do. NOBODY!'

'Very cheerful,' I quipped, 'but what do you do when you get a job? Tell your boss where to stuff it?'     

'Er, I think a more important question is, who are you, time-go-backwards person?'

'I am Zxarr. Ruler of the fourth dimension. I control all of time. I am the stop, pause, rewind, fast-forward and play buttons all in one. I decide how time plays out. I decide when time plays out. Time obeys me.'

'How very grand,' the Doctor sneered. 'Only if you allow it to. Fiddling with time can have dangerous consequences, Zxarr. Do you know why people call me a warrior? Because I’ve defeated countless aliens, saved countless alien civilizations, even killed my own people. And if none of that happened, imagine how much worse the universe would be. Is that what you want? A universe under control of an evil entity?'

'Oh, but that’s who I am, Doctor. An evil entity.'

'You don’t have to be. You can be like me. You could be my companion. It isn’t too late, Zxarr. Continue controlling time and you’ll make the future worse. Follow my lead and time will be safe.'

'I never want to be like you. Not after what you did with me.'

I watched as Zxarr grabbed a weapon and pointed it directly at the two of us. We held our arms up in surrender and reluctantly, allowed Zxarr to tie us up to what appeared to be a radiator at the back of the room. I thought it was over. How wrong was I?

~~~

'Come on, we’re going.' The Doctor whispered to me.

'Er, Doctor. I hate to remind you, but we’re tied up by a delusional maniac, remember?'

'When you’ve learned tricks off Houdini, David, I think it’s rather easy to escape from a situation such as this.'

'But I haven’t learned any tricks off Houdini.'

'Humans.' he mused, 'You may not have, but I did a few months ago. After we defeated the Space Cuckoos,  I reappeared in the TARDIS after the show and he agreed to teach me his tricks. Tricks such as this.' The Doctor began twisting and wriggling. At first, I thought he was having a fit. But then he began to lower his body too and a few minutes later, he was free. He came over and untied me, as Zxarr clapped with enthusiasm.

'Very good. But that matters not, when I can rewind time itself and make you do it all over again, until even you, Doctor, run out of energy.'

The Doctor drew a strange, metal tube with two claws at the end. A strange whirring noise surrounded us and equipment exploded around Zxarr.

'Now, what were you saying? I mean about rewinding time, not that bizarre running out of energy thing. By the way, you sound like one of those cheesy 80’s villains. Although, I do like cheese.'

'I can still rewind time, Doctor. The machine can self-repair itself. Time shall be and always will be mine.' Zxarr knelt over a machine and pressed various buttons. Nothing seemed to happen, surprisingly. 'It isn't  working!' he snapped, 'Why aren’t you going backwards? Why?' he shouted checking over all the controls before him.

'We’ve travelled in time. It’s made us immune from your time travelling shenanigans. That’s why we saw David’s brother Ian walk into the scrapyard, instead of out. Your brother, David, has travelled in time. Therefore it makes him immune in his past, present and future. Same with Barbara Wright and all my other companions. That’s why we had to jump onto the hovercar to figure out what was going on. That’s why we were able to run forwards and stop time rewinding.'

'Interfering with my plans, Doctor will only lead to one outcome. Your death!'

~~~

The alien Zxarr threw us into a dark, grimy cell with no food or drink. His plan was to leave us starving to death, but it didn’t work, of course. But it did begin to feel like it would.

'Now, all I need to do is get out my sonic screwdriver and Bob’s your uncle. Only Bob isn’t your uncle is he? Is Bob your uncle?' he rambled again.

'No, Doctor. Bob isn’t my uncle.' I smiled

'What about Angel Bob?'

'Angel Bob?' I'd never heard of him. Was he another of the Doctor's friends I wondered.

'Ah. Clearly not.' he said. The look on my face said it all. He ferreted around in his pockets for this “sonic screwdriver” but he couldn’t find it.

'There’s no sonic. It must have dropped out of my hand when I soniced the equipment.'

'Oh, great. So this Sonic Screwdriver, which I gather would have been useful, is no longer there to use?'

'Nope, no longer there to use. Which means we’re trapped.'

'Well, I guess this is goodbye then.'

'My first companion to die through meaningless torture. Nobody deserves starvation.'

We sat for hours, chatting about our lives and what we had done. The Doctor told me this amazing story about a blonde woman who absorbed the TARDIS’s heart. He seems to have lived a fascinating life. The most exciting thing I could tell him about was the day I accidentally drove away in the wrong car as the car’s owner ran after it furiously. I was halfway through telling him about the day I wore my wife’s skirt to work  thinking it was a kilt (I lived in Scotland for a few years), when a young, brown haired woman who must have only been in her twenties unexpectedly walked up to the cell and opened the cell door.

'CLARA!' The Doctor exclaimed excitedly.

Clara frowned. 'How do you know my name? The Doctor said you shouldn’t have met me properly yet.'

'You must be from a future time. Which means I find you. No, wait, I’ve already found you. No, you found me. This is all turning into a River Song.'

'Did River Song ever bake soufflés? I like baking soufflés.'

'I never even let her near the TARDIS kitchens. Her fish fingers and custard never taste as good as Amelia’s did.' his words tailed off as he remembered his dear friend. Just the mention of her name hurt.

'I’ll have to teach her. Oh, and perhaps you too, chin boy, although if you don’t cook your own fish fingers and custard, then I surprisingly don’t have high expectations for you.'

'Okay, less talking, more getting out of here.' I said confidently. 'This isn’t exactly a leisurely walk through a park, you know.'

'I think I like you, hairy boy.'

'Hairy boy? Am I really that hairy?' I asked nervously.

'Let’s put it this way.' Clara smiled and took a hold of my chin, 'You’re in desperate need of a shave.'

~~~

Clara left us not long after she aided our escape. She had to re-join the future Doctor.  Apparently, the future Doctor had said that if she didn’t save us, it would’ve created an unstable parallel universe where we actually do starve to death.  When we asked if the future Doctor had told her how he stopped Zxarr, she refused to say anything. Apparently we were supposed to work it out for ourselves. I don’t think my brother Ian would be very popular if he said that to a student’s question in class.

We were back where we started. That lab.  No sign of Zxarr yet.

'Now, which machine did he use?' the Doctor muttered, running towards the machines running along the wall, on the right hand side of the room. 'Ah, that’s useful. They’re labelled. Neutron flow polarizer, time converter, dematerializer…. here it is, time control.' The Doctor studied the controls for a moment or two then pushed a button labelled ‘reset’. Nothing happened.

'I believe the controls are isomorphic.' The Doctor said. 'We can’t use them. Which means we need to find another way of stopping Zxarr without resetting his machine to factory settings. It’s going to be harder than I thought. Perhaps if we use some of Zxarr’s DNA,though-'

'Nobody is using my DNA,' said a voice. It was Zxarr, he had entered quietly into the room. We turned around slowly to face him. 'You lost your sonic screwdriver, I gather?'

'How do you know? Have you been spying?' the Doctor asked.

'You were rather careless losing it like that. Oh, the things I could achieve with it.' He walked around the room constantly aiming his weapon at us both. 'I could have your TARDIS leave and abandon you just like that.' he said, snapping his fingers.

'If you do anything to my TARDIS, you’ll have me to answer to, Zxarr.'

Zxarr laughed. 'And why should I be scared of such a puny man like you, Doctor? You’d never be able to harm me. Look at you, you're weak without the trappings of a Time Lord.'

'I’m the last of the Time Lords and believe me, Time Lords are certainly not weak.'

'Yet they died out. That’s not my definition of strong. You don’t scare me, Doctor. You see, you could say I have a door to my mind.'

'A door?' That same puzzled look came over the Doctor's face as he studied Zxarr closely. And then, like a light switch he clicked his fingers and pointed at him, trying to get his words

 

 

out as he realised who it was that now stood before us.

'Yes, Doctor, a door. Don’t you remember? Back when I was young and foolish. Oh, how things have changed.'

'But you can’t be. You look so different.' He smiled in recognition but he still wasn't absolutely sure. 

'I am, Doctor. I’m Adam Mitchell. After you abandoned poor, young, innocent me at my home, my mother saw me, and do you know what she did? She clicked he fingers at me and that silly little door in my head opened. And you know who I blame? Who I still blame? You!'

The Doctor turned away looked and me, a worried look now crossed his face.

'My mother took me to see many doctors after you left. I was rushed to hospital where nobody could figure out what to do with me. So I was sent away to be a lab “pet” of a scientist. A scientist’s plaything. They did numerous tests on me; put me through years of pain with torture and hell.  I managed to get away, had plastic surgery, changed the way I looked so I wouldn't be recognised.  Years passed until I reached the age of sixty. I just happened to be walking around in the right place at the right time when I found a vortex manipulator. Imagine how much money I could make if I used this to make a device that can manipulate time?'

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