Chapter Text
“Ah! You know where I’ve always wanted to go? The Midnight Havens! Famous for the Chaos Forest adjacent to the Twin Moons of Archipelago.” The Doctor excitedly blabbered on about his newest planet fascination of the week as he dashed around the console room.
“…Right.” Donna pretended she could keep up with his speedy drivel. “Look, I might be a temp in Chiswick, a hundred words per minute by the way, but I cannot understand a word you’re—"
“It’s populated by the Sapphire Vancoda,” The Doctor continues anyway, “Half their face has the scales of a mermaid. Can you imagine? The rest of them looks human!”
“Mermaids aren’t real.” Donna glared at him disbelievingly. “Planet of the mermaids? You’re kidding.”
“They’re not mermaids, they’re Vancoda. A civilisation built upon their ancestors’ underwater treasures.”
“So, they are mermaids!”
“No, they descended from mermaids.”
“What—”
“Right then!” he shouts and leaps across the console room. “The Midnight Havens. In the winter! The ocean is like a multicoloured winter wonderland! You can go for a swim!”
“It’s gonna be cold!”
“Well, there’s no winter wonderland without snow!”
“You made it snow once; can’t you just reverse it?”
“Why would you want to reverse it?”
“Because it’s cold!”
The Doctor stares absently at her for a second before breaking out in a grin and slamming down on the handbrake. The TARDIS jolts as it thrums into action, Donna yelping and clutching the railings.
“I’m not flippin’ going swimming in the snow!” To be frank, Donna just wanted to sit somewhere nice and warm on a beach somewhere. Even an alien beach.
She was tired of cold, freezing planets of certain death.
“You’ll be fine! Wear a coat, nice and relaxing.”
Donna was not wearing a gigantic coat while swimming. She'd probably drown.
Or maybe the gravity was different. Alien worlds were so weird.
“Right, here we are then! Donna Noble, welcome to the Midnight—”
“Yeah yeah, forget the grand opening spiel,” she sprints past a befuddled Doctor and heads for the doors, “Let me see!”
“No, no, hold on, I haven't—”
The TARDIS doors flew open regardless. But the view wasn’t exactly the spectacular image that the Doctor had put in her mind.
“Great big snowy ocean?”
“Yeah.” He jumps up, “Did we land in the summer? That’s terrible, summers are boring.”
“Nah, I think we landed on a different planet.”
“What?” The Doctor pushes past her and leans out the door.
“Looks like a desert.” Donna peers out the door to the world that definitely did not look like a haven. “No mermaids...”
“No way...” he charges back to the TARDIS console and checks the monitor.
“You’ve landed us in the Sahara desert.”
“No, look, you can still see the Twin Moons of Archipelago.” The time lord frowns and whips on his reading glasses. “Two million years off course?”
“Well, at least it’s not cold!” Donna throws her now unnecessary winter coat off and steps onto the alien planet.
This was more like it! It was basically a beach with no water.
“Careful!” The Doctor shouts and storms after her, “You don’t know what’s out there!”
“Where’s this forest of chaos then?” Donna wanders several feet away from the TARDIS and observes the dusty ruins of the barren planet. “Not exactly the picture of tranquillity is it? Looks like it’s been blasted to bits!” she pauses and turns back towards the Doctor. “Are we in the forest of chaos right now?”
The Doctor shuts the TARDIS door behind him whilst still trying to shrug his coat on. “Chaos Forest, and no, this is exactly where the crystalised lake should be.”
“Oh, there’s a crystalised lake.” Donna rolls her eyes as the Doctor reaches into his infinity pocket and pulls out his sonic screwdriver.
The sonic bleeps every few seconds as it scans the area for lifeforms. His frown deepens as he does the same scan again, unsatisfied with the result of the first scan. And yet, the result was the same.
“No lifeforms but us. It can’t have…”
“You mean we’re the only people on this entire planet?” Donna steps back with a gasp, “The entire planet?!”
“Afraid so…” he narrows his eyes and repeats the scan again but at the sky this time, as if that would make a difference. “Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Zilch.”
“Well, where've they all gone? It’s just like the library…”
“No idea.”
“Hang on, what’s this?” Donna spots a patch of fog above the dead sand and sprints over to it.
Upon closer inspection, some nice green foliage seemed to be growing. “Look, it’s only in the patches of fog. Grass, flowers and things. Everything else is gone.”
The Doctor catches up and his eyes widen, “Oh, good work, Donna!”
He kneels cautiously down outside the area of fog and points his sonic towards it.
His scowl remains present for all of five seconds before it turns into that of mortal dread, like he'd just been offered a buffet of pears.
“What's the matter?” Donna notices instantly.
“Donna, we should go back. Really, really go back.”
“Why? Swimming in the sand not doing it for you?”
The Doctor backs away from the fog of dust immediately. “Something like that.”
“You figure out where everyone's gone?”
“They're dead. The fog emits a chemical reaction that encourages plant growth in dry environments. Problem is, the plants emit a class five virus containing spores that are specifically fatal to lifeforms with a binary vascular system."
Donna gently kicks a pile of sand. “Okay...” she definitely didn’t understand a word he said. “And the desert is too perfect. Spreading the spores fast. All these people...”
“Killing them stone dead in a year.”
“What about me? Am I safe?”
“Yeah, singular vascular system.”
“And you’re a spaceman from time land, so you’re fine yeah?”
The Doctor hesitates... but quickly nods. “Yeah! Yeah. ‘Course.” He exhales. “Time Lord.”
“Then why are we leaving?”
“Just to be safe!” He grins manically and begins walking backwards hoping Donna will follow. “You can never be too safe Donna.”
Donna chases after him but her suspicions rise every second that passes. “Not like you to be all safe and sound. Are you scared?”
“No! Better to be safe than sorry. I have to take care of you.” His smile was an amazingly well-disguised mask. It was impossible to fathom what his emotions were sometimes.
“Right.” Donna deadpanned. He seemed to be in quite a rush to reach the TARDIS. “Then you can take us to an actual beach. One with sand and real water. Swimmable water.”
The Doctor and his abrasive companion reached the TARDIS at record time, the lord of which jammed the key into the lock and ushered her in.
“God, you’re in a hurry.” Donna quips as the door slams shut.
The Doctor made a noncommittal grunt, “Places to go, people to—” then he somehow manages to stumble over himself and nearly faceplant into the TARDIS grating.
Donna stares at him with a sardonic raised brow. “Did you just trip over your own feet?”
“Yes. It keeps me on my toes.” He grins widely at the joke that Donna wasn’t proud of. “Toes. Because I tripped over. Toes. No?”
“No. Why are you being so weird?” There was a noticeable fatigue to his speech now and Donna wanted to hit herself for not noticing sooner.
“A beach!” The Doctor suddenly bursts out and darts towards the console again, smashing random instruments that supposedly did something other than hurt the TARDIS’ insides. “The planet Chion, also known as the Enchanted Forest. Now, I know how it sounds—”
"Doctor.” His complexion was quite clearly a sickly white.
“There’s a gigantic ocean right in the centre of the forest, the water painted an emerald, greenish-blue like a deep tone of teal, shimmering alongside the rays of the illuminated—" he stops himself mid-sentence and bows his head over the console for a second, seemingly to catch his breath before continuing his charade. “…sun.”
“Yeah, you’ve sold me. Now go and sit down before you end up drowning at the beach.”
His head still hanging over the console, he murmurs, “It’s not a beach, it’s a forest with an ocean inside it.”
“Same thing.” Donna tries to keep the mood light but she knows something is wrong. Perhaps a little prodding wouldn’t go amiss, so she captures his arm. “C’mon, there’s two perfectly good chairs right here just waiting to be sat on.”
“I’m fine Donna, just a bit of a funny turn.” The Doctor grumbles as they both collapse onto the very unstable tan chairs opposite the console. “Though I suppose… a moment’s rest is good for the soul…”
Donna couldn’t stop staring at him. He looked like he was going to faint. Do time lords faint? “You look like you’re gonna pass out, spaceman.”
“Do I?” The Doctor looked surprised. “That’s odd, I don’t pass out. I never pass out. Except maybe after I regenerate, that’s normal. Or maybe if someone hits me really—”
“I’m gonna hit you in a minute if you don’t tell me what the hell is going on!”
“I’m fine, Donna! I’m fine!” The Doctor exaggerates, jumping up from the chair and reclaiming his throne in front of the console. “See? I…”
The remaining colour in his face somehow manages to drain to a deathly pale pallor in a matter of seconds before his eyes roll back and—
CRASH!
And there he goes, his limp body slamming against the console and landing in a heap on the floor.
“Oh my god! You idiot!” Donna cries as she scrambles to crawl next to him, confused and afraid about what the hell’s going on. “Doctor! What’s wrong? What’s happened?”
No response, no surprise there.
“What do I do?!” she yells at thin air, “How the hell do I call the space ambulance?!”
A small beep sound resounds from above her. Upon the console, there was a base for a phone holder highlighted in a dim circle of green, like the TARDIS was trying to tell her something.
Like it was alive.
“You have got to be kidding me.”
Donna gently puts the Doctor back on the floor and peers above the console. “What’s this then? What do you want me to do?”
The circular green light flashes to alert Donna of its presence. She stares at it for a moment, trailing her fingers over the illuminated glow before catching sight of a screen lighting up to her left.
It was the TARDIS phone.
Oh.
“You want me to call someone? Is that it?” She picks up the telephone, stares at it and promptly comes to a stunning realisation. “Who the blinking hell do you expect me to call? We’re in space!”
The phone screen flashes again, so Donna peers closer with a sigh of annoyance and reads the screen. There’s only one contact on there. “He’s dying and you want me to call Martha? What’s she gonna do, fancy him back to life? Oh, never mind, she’s married now.”
“Donna…”
Donna immediately turns at the strained voice and finds the Doctor now semi-conscious on the floor looking like picturesque description of hell. “God, you look like crap.” She ignores the phone and crouches down next to him.
“Donna.” He hisses again through gritted teeth. “I can’t…”
“What do I do?”
“I need…” he grunts and squeezes his eyes shut, making Donna worried he was gonna faint again.
“Oh no you don’t.” She forces a confident tone to her voice, “You better stay awake, time man.”
“Timelord…”
“Whatever—timelord—but what do I do?”
“The spores…” he growls through his teeth, “…contain virus… fatal… binary… s-system…” he hisses and inhales the oxygen needed to produce a longer sentence, “Venecus Maraxia…”
“Well, doesn’t that sound ominous.”
A slight smile forms on the Doctor's face, but he quickly slams his eyes shut and grunts in pain, to which Donna has no idea how to react. How could she? He was an alien and this was alien bacteria.
“Doctor. Tell me. What do I do.”
"I'm sorry…” He seems to be in a lot of pain, but continues to speak. "There's nothing you can do… I'm sorry..."
“But you said you were fine! The…” Donna frantically tried to remember what he said all of ten minutes ago, “Timelord! You can fight it off, yeah? Superior and all that stuff?”
“Haven’t you… been paying attention?” he grunts and tries to smile but fails, “I lied.”
“There must be something I can do!”
“I’m sorry…”
Donna was getting sick of hearing that word now. “But the TARDIS! I saw lights! When you fainted…”
What was the TARDIS trying to tell her? The flashing green light? The telephone?
Wait a minute.
The telephone!
Martha!
“Hold on, I need to try something!” Donna jumps up and returns to the console, much to a confused timelord still in agony on the floor.
“What?” The Doctor hisses and tries to roll onto his front to get a better look, “What are you… doing?”
“I think your funny little machine was trying to tell me to call for help.”
“Donna!” he shouts with his voice accidentally going up an octave. “You ca—ahh! Ahh—”
While she listens to her friends painful noises, Donna can only ignore them, as she tries to focus on the task at hand. She desperately wants to help him, but she can't do anything at the moment - and it's killing her.
The phone rang and rang, and for a moment Donna was afraid Martha wasn’t there.
“Hello? Doctor!”
“Martha, it’s me. It’s Donna.”
“Oh. Donna? What’s happened? Where’s the Doctor?”
“Rolling on the floor grunting something in a martian language.”
“Oh, God. Is he okay? Where are you?”
“In the TARDIS. He got infected with some alien thing. I think the TARDIS wanted me to call you.”
“Ah. I’m trained in the medical field of non-terrestrial lifeforms by UNIT. The TARDIS must have found me as someone safe he can go to.”
“We can’t take him to hospital?”
“No, absolutely not. One drop of his blood can change the future of the human race."
“Okay, then you’ll have to come to us.”
“The TARDIS needs to fly to me first.”
Donna blinks dumbfounded. “Oh yeah.”
Out the corner of her eye, Donna spots the green circle on the console flashing again, the sentient machine once again trying to guide her. Looks like she had to put the phone in the slot.
“Gotta go.”
“What? How—"
Donna fits the phone in place, secured with a click and awkwardly pats the console. “Thanks.” Then she scoffs, “I’m talking to a machine.”
Nothing seems to happen at first, which isn’t surprising to Donna as she apparently can’t do anything right.
But then several instruments on the console slam down on their own, the column in the centre gliding to life as the TARDIS lurched into action.
With that out the way, she turns back towards the Doctor. He looked on the brink of death. His face was paler than her granddad's hair, sweat sticking his hair to his face as he moaned in pain.
Donna kneels next to him. “I’m sorry, what can I do?”
The Doctor doesn't answer, hissing in and out as if his body had forgotten how to breathe. He stares at her fiercely as if desperately wanting to say something but was unable.
“Oh, you can’t speak? Well, isn’t that a first!” Unnecessarily rude of course, but it made him smile. Aforementioned smile quickly dropped however, when a look of confusion dawned upon his face. “What? What is it?”
“Why are we moving?” The Doctor’s eyes were suddenly and miraculously full of life, teeming with an urge to dash around the room to find out, but his body refused to do anything but sit on the floor.
“I dunno. The TARDIS started moving on its own.” She knew she’d regret saying that the second his brows furrowed and he started dragging himself across the floor. “There was this light, like it was trying to tell me to do it. Put the phone in the… thing.”
He kneels over the console and starts pressing random buttons with his index finger.
“I called Martha, we’re flying to her. I think.” Donna quickly added. “Probably should have mentioned that earlier.”
“Martha?” he turns back a tad too fast and nearly hits his head on the console. “Whoops. Looks like you pressed the wrong button and now we’re spinning in circles.”
“You’re spinning in circles.”
“Am I?” he asks, gazing at himself and blinking slowly. And then keels over sideways.
He smiles awkwardly as he stares up at Donna from the floor. “Ah. I appear to be suffering from a smidge of vertigo.”
“A smidge? I can’t tell whether you’re going to faint or fall over.” Donna sighs. “At least you’re not gasping for breath now. That was disturbing.”
“Oh, yes. Respiratory bypass system decided to kick in. Very handy. If it doesn’t take more than two minutes to get to Martha, that is, in which case I’m dead.”
“Respiratory what?”
“Resp- doesn’t matter. Need to save oxygen.”
“Stop talking then!”
“Stop asking me questions!”
“Stop answering them then!” She abrasively slaps his shoulder, “If you move again, I’m gonna kill you before this disease ever does!”
The Doctor quirks a smug brow and thumps back down.
Of course, knowing him, it was going to take a lot more than that to ensure a timelord stays immobile.