Chapter Text
Antigravity
The Doctor monitored the neighboring planets in search for something to do. He had been on his own for too long and started to make mistakes, or rather, moral errors in judgement. He directed the Tardis away, not seeing too much to entertain himself with, until a spike reading caught his attention. Before he could do anything, the Tardis decided to dive toward the readings, knocking the Doctor away from the console. When he regained footing, he did what he could with the controls to steady her landing.
The readings showed an emergency setting: the temperatures and pressures were rising to catastrophic heights. The gravitational pulling shook the outside of his Tardis, so the Doctor studied the numbers on the screen, before thinking to himself, it would be faster to just look.
So, he did. He went to the doors and found himself staring a stone-faced structure leading inside a temple of sorts, only it was upside down. Crimson lights cast from below, so he stepped to get a better view, only to find the sky beneath him with a moon coming towards the ground he stood. The whole world was upside-down, or at least appeared that way at first glance. There was a more pressing issue, however…
This world was nearly ruined. Two masses nearly collided and would wipe out any existing life on the planet within precious hours.
“Oh, girl. Why did you bring me here?” The Doctor asked. He turned to return to the Tardis, “If I had more time, maybe – why didn’t you land me sooner?”
“Wha – What did you do this time!” A girl shrieked. The Doctor peaked behind the box and saw a child, with a massive shield with a gray gloomy face, hiding much of the child’s features. At a guess, the Doctor presumed he looked down at the sky.
“’It shall rearrange things, in which the earth is born in the heavens and the moon is born on the earth.’”
A golden light ball flew from the child’s hat and said, “What sort of nonsense is that!?”
The child pointed, “That sort of nonsense.”
“Don’t get smart with me! What happened?”
“This is what the Garo Master told us about.”
The fairy ball looked chilled, and she dove back into the child’s green Phrygian cap, “Well … wait. You’re going back to the temple, right? Well, get on with it. We don’t have much time.”
The child stood up and turned. Now that the Doctor could see him clearly, he saw the boy wore tunic styled garb, armed in medieval gear. The child was instantly set on guard once seeing the Doctor, however, going as far as to reflexively grab at the sword at his back.
The Doctor raised his hands, “I’m not going to hurt you. I promise. Can you tell me your name?”
“Who in the heck are you!?” The fairy got between the two humanoids, “Creep! Have you been watching us?”
The boy had a concerned look on his face. He did not lower his arm, nor did he grasp the hilt. He waited.
“Okay, sure.” The Doctor nodded, “I’ll go first. I’m the Doctor. And you are?”
“What a bogus– ” The fairy said.
“Link.” The boy answered at the same time.
“Are you daft? Don’t tell him anything! ‘The Doctor’ isn’t a name.”
The boy Link finally lowered his hand, only to scratch at the back of his neck, then said, “We don’t have time for this.”
The Doctor eyed the sky and said, “No, you really don’t. “
The fairy sneered, “Thanks for the update, genius, but we already know.”
“You said before, you were going to the temple?” The Doctor pointed over to the stone mouth, “I’m guessing you mean that. Why? What’s there?”
The fairy sighed, “Look, if we stopped to explain everything to you clueless strangers, we’d already be crushed by the moon! C’mon, Link, let’s just go.”
The Doctor rested his arms and said, “So, you are trying to stop the collision. And there’s a solution in the temple? Well then.”
“Well then what?” The fairy asked. Link went to the edge where four suspended blocks formed their only path to the entrance. The Doctor looked up to the endless bottom of the tower, now flipped in their perspective.
“Judging by your clothes, I’d think your technology isn’t all that advanced. Looking at the state of this place, however, it tells a different story.”
“Huh? ‘Your technology’? Who are you?” The fairy asked.
“Just a passerby, don’t mind me. It’s just that … well, this entire temple is generating a massive gravity field. It was designed specifically to ‘flip’ the environment, so to speak. That is advanced technology. And it’s spirally down to the depths. Problem is, with that much power surging, it needs a source. A generator? How is it powered?”
Link asked, “Does it matter?”
The fairy answered, “Nope. Let’s go.”
Link agreed with the fairy and took a running leap toward the first suspended block. The Doctor watched in amazement. Not many adults would make that leap without flinching. The Doctor looked back at the Tardis and wondered if she honed onto Link? By the time the Doctor looked back, he was already at the temple mouth, and ran out of view entirely.
“Blimey, he’s fast!” The Doctor made the leaps himself and stopped pursuing to inspect a red jewel at the ‘base’ of the entrance. It felt eerily familiar. After inspecting it, he was sure. He knew exactly what it was… Artron Energy. Out of place and out of time – how did it end up here?
“Artron energy is fueling the gravity field.” The Doctor said. It would definitely be enough, but those nagging who and why questions swirled in his mind. The Tardis definitely responded to the energy’s activation, so it was triggered fairly recently, and the only person within proximity was Link…
The Doctor dismissed it, for now. He pressed on and found himself at a narrow crossroad. Looking up, the original floor hovered just above them. Whoever designed and built this place had an artistic eye, and the whole thing did feel surreal, even to him.
“A temple in the sky … But what for?”
“Link, he’s following us …” The fairy said from the right fork, just before a door. They must have stopped to figure out this new environment, allowing the Doctor just enough time to catch up.
The boy in green faced the Doctor and asked, “How’d you get here?”
“Same as you: I jumped.” The Doctor explained. Link’s expression mirrored the shield he wore. The Doctor smirked, “Don’t look so surprised. If you could do it, I could.”
“…True. But why?” Link questioned.
“I’m rather curious about this temple. I figured it out. The gravity field, I mean.” The Doctor said.
“What’s gravity?” Link asked.
The Doctor raised an eyebrow, “You don’t know?”
Link shook his head, “You said it before. A gravity field … what is that?”
“It’s pretty basic, really. It’s how you walk about this planet without falling into the sun … or in this case, a moon. You’re normally centered to the ground by the laws of gravity. But anyway, this temple created a field where the center has shifted to its ceiling.”
“Meaning?” The fairy asked.
“Meaning … the Temple is not upside-down. We are.” The Doctor explained.
“What?” The fairy exclaimed, then more calmly thought it through. “Hm. Wait. In a way, I suppose that makes more sense … Maybe.”
Link looked down at the sky and side-eyed a box to his right. Being a traveling tinkerer himself, he decided to ‘test’ the Doctor’s theory, picked up the box, and threw it down toward the sky. After falling a few feet, it ‘caught’ on something and started to fall back to their feet, shattering next to Link’s boot.
The Doctor chuckled, but his fairy companion was not amused.
“What are you doing?” She asked.
“Seeing if I can just jump to the moon.” Link said.
“WHY would that thought even cross your mind!? Oh, you are going to be the death of me, I swear!”
“I’d be more worried about the moon…” Link responded.
“Smart mouth.” She grumbled.
“Unfortunately, no. You couldn’t just jump down. Well, up. It just doesn’t work like that. The field is extended to … say … just about where that structure was pointing outside those doors. You basically threw it up, the gravity field caught it, then pushed it back to the center.”
“This is confusing. Does it even help us?” The fairy asked, “You’re wasting our time. The world is ending!”
“Right, sorry. There was a point, though. The gravity field became active only a short while ago – and I know how it was powered.”
“Yeah?” The fairy questioned.
“Artron Energy.”
“What?” She sighed, “I don’t care to know what that is. Link! We have barely an hour left!” Link nodded and went for the door.
“Also known as ‘Time’ radiation.” The Doctor reiterated. Link stopped. He looked over his shoulder. While the Doctor had his attention, he asked, “You know what that is, don’t you?”
Link nodded.
“Good. How did it power the temple?”
The fairy grabbed Link’s attention, “You don’t have to answer to him. Him being knowledgeable only makes him more suspicious to me. I don’t trust him. And we do not have time for this. Understand?”
“Yeah.” Link walked away and opened the door. The Doctor followed after him, though their path was blocked by a tall blue cube with a sleeping sun’s face.
“Okay, dead end. Tell me where the Time energy came from. You know, don’t you?” The Doctor asked.
“Back off!” The fairy said. While the fairy distracted the Doctor, Link took out his bow.
“There’s no need for violence. I just need to know where the energy is coming from.”
“What does it matter? This world is going to end if you don’t shut up and just let us work!”
Link pointed the bow at the blue cube and took a deep breath. The arrow glowed in brilliant light. It was gold from a visual standpoint, but deep within it rays crackled pure blue time energy. Link unleashed the arrow and hit the block, dispelling it from his path.
“It’s you. You’re the source.” The Doctor said. He pulled out his screwdriver and scanned Link with it. He was far from being a Gallifreyan, but the read was unmistakably Time Lord.