My Doctor-Donna: Yelling Solves Everything!
Chapter 1: Journey's Beginning
The Tardis doors closed on Darlig Ulv Stranden for the last time, bidding a fond farewell to his long-lost love. The Doctor knew that she would be alright, the other him he'd left behind with her would see to that. She'd be happy with him, and he was happy that she'd be happy. However, there was still one more issue at hand that weighed heavily on his mind.
His best friend was already showing signs of being overwhelmed by the process that created his other self. A two-way biological meta-crisis. His old decapitated hand that he'd once charged with excess regeneration energy reacted with her DNA when she touched its case. She brought a new life to that old hand, and it grew to fit his biological template. She gave him a human existence, but it also gave her something in return.
A time lord consciousness.
But there was a reason why there'd never been a Human-Time Lord Biological Meta-Crisis. A human brain could never hope to contain a time lord consciousness. If nothing was done, it would burn up entirely.
Donna Noble would die.
The genius that comes with a time lord's mind, the same genius she'd used in concert with her own brilliant talents to save all of existence in the universe, was going to kill her. Even as he thought this, the stream of information running through her mind was causing her train of thought to jump its metaphorical tracks multiple times in the span of half a minute, and while she tried to cope with the strain the best she could, it was only a matter of time now. However, there was a way he could save her life.
But he didn't like it.
It would require him to instigate a psychic connection with her and lock away all of her memories of him and anything they'd done together in order to fool her brain into thinking it was still that of an ordinary human. She would go back to being angry, indignant, insufferable Donna Noble who would yell at anyone if it would make them listen to her. It would be a horrible injustice to her and everything she'd just accomplished, but it would save her life.
He really didn't like it.
He was a Time Lord! He'd saved entire planets! He'd foiled plot after plot by his enemies in whatever form they'd taken. He was the Doctor! It was his responsibility to safeguard those in need from all who threatened them, but this time... This time that very essence of who and what he is was the threat.
No.
She was his best mate, his best friend. She was the first face his face saw that didn't want to complicate their travels with romance. She wasn't like Rose, or Martha, or Astrid, or...
There was a way!
After the debacle with the Titanic, he felt he needed some time away from the reality he knew to recover from having to say goodbye to two good friends in as many days, so he flew the Tardis through the rift at the Medusa Cascade and had the old girl take him to whatever dimension she felt he needed to go. Where he ended up, though, was someplace he'd never imagined even existed. The vacation had certainly done him a world of good, and with what had happened to him upon his arrival, and everything he'd seen and learned about how that place worked...
He could save her.
"Donna, do you know what's happening to you?"
"...Yeah."
He smiled, "Well, don't worry about a thing, because I'm going to save you."
Donna gasped, "But how?"
"Just follow my lead! There's not much time!"
With that he was flying around the Tardis's controls with Donna hot on his heels. Soon, her time lord genius kicked in as she recognized the pattern of the adjustments he was making, and she immediately deduced where he was having the Tardis take them.
"Doctor! Why are we going back to the Medusa Cascade?!"
"Not to it, through it!"
"Doctor, it's a rift in time and space! Once we go through it there's no telling where we'll end up!"
"The Tardis can tell!" the Doctor shouted over the din of the Tardis's engines and the sparks that were flying around them. "She's been through there and back once before, and she knows that it's really the only other shot we've got!"
"Other than what, Doctor?! What's the first shot?"
The Doctor said nothing as he continued to work the controls.
"Oi!"
After pulling another lever, the Doctor leaned over the console to look Donna directly in the eyes. They'd nearly passed into the rift by now, and there was little time now to say what needed to be said.
"Donna, listen to me. As long as your mind's aware that you've got a time lord consciousness up there, it'll be burning you up. The only way I know how to prevent that from happening on my own is to psychically remove from your mind anything that could even remotely remind you of how our last adventure ended.
"Everything would have to go, Donna. Everything! From Midnight and the Library all the way back to the Racnoss. All our adventures. Gone! You'd never be allowed to remember them; just one would be all it would take for you to start burning up again. You'd have to go back to being the you you were before we met, and I could never ever see you again.
"I can't accept that, Donna. I-I can't."
Donna saw the tears start to run down his cheeks before another convulsion shot up her spine and threatened to render her unconscious. However, if there was ever just one thing that Donna Noble was better at than anyone else in the universe, barring maybe the Doctor himself, it was being stubborn. She shouted back to the Doctor as the Tardis continued to topple wildly back and forth.
"Well, it's a bloody good thing we've got this other shot we're taking, because that idea sounds absolute rubbish if you ask me!"
The Doctor smiled.
Another violent jolt to the Tardis control room sent both travelers to the floor, but the Doctor was back on his feet again in no time.
"Right! Final adjustments. Can't come in too sharp, or I'll risk cracking their reality's barrier wide open like last time. They may have beefed up their borders, but they also gave me the Harmonic Resonance Pass Key in case I ever needed to come back. Lovely folks, they are! Bit thick, most of them, but that's not their fault. Sending this frequency through the Tardis hull will allow us to vibrate at the proper wavelength to phase right through the edge of their reality and let the old girl lock onto our destination!
"All set! Allons-y!"
The Doctor slapped down one final button, and suddenly Donna swore she could hear music coming from everywhere at once. All she could do was desperately try to prop herself up with against the floor with her arms as the short harp intro quickly led into a female voice singing.
My Little Pony, My Little Pony~
Ah~Ah~Ah~Ah!
"Oh, you have got to be joking!"
