Revenge of a Time Lord

Chapter 45

Completely in panic, the Doctor rushed back through the halls of the TARDIS back to the control room. When he encountered Donna halfway, he ignored her entirely. He had to find out what happened to the his ship. With his two companions following him, he entered the control room and he looked around to see what was wrong. It was hard to see anything at all, because the room was filled with thick, white smoke. And the smoke came from the control panel. The Doctor covered his mouth with one hand, while trying to reach the panel.

'Doctor?' Rose called. 'Is it bad? What happened?'

'I don't know! Just stay away!' the Doctor shouted, and he studied the wires under the panel. 'It is a short circuit! Something has caused the TARDIS to stop functioning! I can repair it, but it will take me a while...'

'DOCTOR!' Rose cried suddenly, much louder than first.

'What?'

'It's Donna!'

The Doctor completely forgot about his broken wires and he ran over to where Rose and Donna were. Rose was standing next to Donna, but Donna wasn't exactly standing next to Rose. She was on the floor, unconscious.

'Of course...' the Doctor said, panic reaching his eyes. 'The TARDIS kept her stabilized, now that my ship isn't working anymore, Donna isn't working either. She was still healing. Her mind... She is dying... I need to repair my TARDIS.'

The smoke drew away slowly, revealing more of the control room. And that was when the Doctor discovered what, or rather, who the cause was for this chaos.

'You... You did this...' he growled, pointing at the very frightened young man behind the console.

Mickey was standing there, with a tray in his hands and with a face that was clearly paler than usual. He was trembling, and he couldn't find any words to speak.

'You killed Donna and my TARDIS...' the Doctor hissed, clenching his fists.

'It- it was an accident! I swear!' Mickey stammered.

'You call this and accident?'

'Doctor, calm down,' Rose said softly, her eyes flashing nervously from the Doctor to Mickey.

'I wanted to make tea for myself. And then I- I wanted to take a look here. I was just curious, that's all! I didn't mean to cause this!' Mickey tried to defend himself.

'If Donna dies, I know who I can hold responsible for it. This is going to take me a while to fix. And you are to blame,' the Doctor said a little bit too calm.

Rose knew that the calmness the Doctor radiated was only silence before the storm. Soon hell would break loose upon poor Mickey.

'Doctor, come on, let's see what we can do about the TARDIS...' Rose said quietly, her hands on his shoulders in an attempt to soothe him.

'Let me give you some advice,' the Doctor continued with his eyes fixed on Mickey, ignoring Rose completely. He waited for a couple of seconds before finishing his sentence, only to see how Mickey was starting to sweat.

'What?' Mickey barely whispered.

'Kill yourself before I get my hands on you,' the Doctor snarled, before starting to walk towards Mickey with his fists still clenched and his teeth bared.

'No! Doctor! Stop!' Rose shouted, pulling on the Doctor's arm, trying to pull him back.

But the Doctor ignored her and he yanked his arm back. He kept advancing on Mickey like a predator with blazing eyes, ready to crush his prey.