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→Issue 6: Reunion
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===Issue 6: Reunion=== | ===Issue 6: Reunion=== | ||
''to be | Just as soon as the Meta-Crisis Tenth Doctor finished his threat, the real Doctor laughed it away, as he knew it was a poor fabrication of the creature who was truly responsible for the entire mess, using bits and pieces of the Master, the Valeyard and the Meta-Crisis Doctor to fabricate a poor amalgam with which he expected to bedevil the Doctor. | ||
Infuriate with how his plans had been so easily exposed, the being identified itself as [[Escartr'ss]] of the [[Tactire]], a parasitic race known as the Cranial Parasites. It also told of how his planet was one of the many the Daleks had sequestered away to power up the Reality Bomb, and he managed to infiltrate the Crucible until its destruction, when it entered the Doctor's TARDIS and attached itself to him in the effort that began the story. | |||
The Doctor used the distraction to flee, and "Martha" gave him the last clues to realize what it truly was - the TARDIS' own mind, desperately trying to help its pilot shake off the parasite. The entire place was actually the TARDIS matrix, and once the Doctor realized it, he began to realize other things-namely, the TARDIS could assume the form of anyone who had ever traveled with him. | |||
Prompted by the Doctor, the TARDIS assumed a variety of disguises from many past companions geared for combat, such as [[Steven Taylor]], [[Leela]], and [[Harry Sullivan]], while the Doctor examined the baseball bat, realizing it was, in fact, a chameleon circuit covering the Great Key of Rassilon, the final key designed to open the last door of the Matrix, the one the robots had been so desperate to keep them away from. | |||
The TARDIS began assuming other shapes, were more suited to specific tasks, like [[Kamelion]], who shrugged off attacks by the Voc Robot and the Clockwork Droid to open the door with the Great Key, [[Sarah Jane Smith]], and [[Adric]], whose intellect allowed him to design a way to break the parasite's hold on the Matrix by blowing himself, the infected Matrix components, and the droids, with one of Ace's old Nitro 9 cans. | |||
Confronted by the Last of the Tactire, the Doctor implemented his plan-reminding the Matrix there was only one Time Lord in existence-himself. As he spoke, the power of the items he had gathered coalesced, and summoned all of his other forms at once-ten Doctors against a Tactire. He offers his enemy a final redemption chance, and Escart'rss rejected it. Sighing, the Doctor asked the Matrix to eliminate all non-Time Lords from itself, purging the system of Escartr'ss. | |||
The Doctors briefly converse, with the Tenth a bit surprised, as he didn't know it could be done, and some squabbling and annoying on each side. Leaving his memories, the Doctor and "Martha" walk through the museum until the exit, modelled after the TARDIS, appears. Having lost his key, the Doctor wonders how to open the doors, until Martha reminds him River Song already taught him how. Smiling, the Doctor thanks him and snaps his fingers, opening the doors and flooding the museum with light. But before leaving, he asks the TARDIS to assume a final form, and she acquiesces. | |||
Susan Foreman appears before her grandfather, who begs for her forgiveness and asks if she's had a good life. She hugs him back, and soothes him, saying she understood his thoughts and that she always knew he was doing the right thing. She then beckons him to walk into the light, and the dream ends. | |||
The Doctor awakens inside the real TARDIS, and kicks away the now-mindless Tactire out of the way. Reflecting on how he's never truly alone with his oldest companion, he thanks her and decides to go on a little adventure-to Barcelona. | |||
==Characters== | ==Characters== | ||