Disclaimer - I don't own Doctor Who. I just own this and the other multiple universes I'm writing.

Feedback would be nice. Please tell me how you feel when you've read this story. Thanks.

Author's note - This story is one of my alternative Doctor stories where the Doctor as a child saw something different in the Untempered Schism. In this reality, all of the Doctors faces from canon are here, they're jumbled up, thats all.

First Time to Earth.

At the age of 336, Theta Sigma had graduated from the Time Lord academy with good marks, that was over a century ago when he was aged 236. Now a century older, Theta was bouncing around the TARDIS with excitement; granted, he was having to do it without his supervisor's notice, but it was good to actually feel excitement though he would have preferred to be the one operating the controls. He was just glad that his time demanding the High Council send him on a research mission had paid off along with all the trouble he'd caused them over the years.

Annar wasn't a bad person to be around, but he wasn't good company. The 790 year old Time Lord was much more of a maverick than other Time Lords, but he could still and would report Theta for any transgressions. For Theta, who had been working for years to secure the rights to own a TARDIS of his own and someday leave Gallifrey since he was so bored and thoroughly sick and tired of his family and their never-ending prattling about him becoming a member of the High Council.

Theta knew that his family wanted the best for him, but ever since that meeting with the Corsair when he was twelve years old, and when he'd heard the stories from the older and more experienced Time Lord, Theta's wishes to one day grab a TARDIS of his own and leave the Time Lords and Gallifrey behind and travel on his own to explore the universe for himself had just grown. For Rassilon's sake, he'd even begged the Corsair to let him come with him, he'd be the best assistant ever, but the Corsair had refused. Although he'd been hurt at first, it had taken a while for Theta to realise that he would need to find his own path for himself, and the Corsair was just the pointer down that path he wanted to take.

Theta thought about all those years he'd spent at the Academy as a result as the teachers and tutors working there had seemed to share his family's dream of him one day becoming the next Lord President. All of those endless rituals, those elaborately costumed ceremonies, the endless accumulation and steady pouring of second-hand knowledge gleaned from centuries of work which would never even be put to use in the future, all of that had frustrated Theta no end when he grew up.

He also remembered the steady increase of anger and frustration that the Time Lords were throwing shackles over him and his friends at the Academy, just to keep them locked on the planet where they'd spend all of their lives. Sure, some students like Runcible the Fatuous would love to remain of Gallifrey, and never see the point of leaving the planet to travel on their own, but Theta wasn't one of them. Then again Runcible was fascinated by those drab and boring rituals and traditions. As far as Theta knew, though he didn't really care, Runcible was going into the Public Register Video where he'd have time to admire all those rituals for the rest of his incarnations. Personally Theta imagined that it was a boring way to spend a few regenerations, but if Runcible wanted to go through all that, he wasn't going to say a word.

He just found it funny that although Runcible loved those rituals, loved to drone on about them in that solemn, boring, dull, pompous and reverent voice of his, he wanted nothing to do with the High Council or join them either. There Theta and he agreed.

Some Time Lords would argue and would say it was a great honour to even be a member of the council but not Theta, who knew only too well what kind of life he'd have. Never-ending parties, boring speeches, uninteresting topics, having to deal with Time Lords who should have been put out of pasture decades or even millennia ago, who were so used to being respected because of their family ties and their positions in society. Theta knew only too well that many of his class in the Academy wanted nothing more than to be members of the High Council themselves, but he didn't want anything to do with them.

The thought he would have to spend decades and the rest of his lifetimes having to stab and be backstabbed himself more than once, and having to endure having to live amidst gossip and scandal filled him with dread, and it didn't stop the bile moving up through his torso either.

Let them waste their lives, he thought to himself, its their lives, not mine. I want to save my regenerations for something worth while.

Theta looked around the TARDIS to distract himself from his thoughts, and then walked up to Annar. The older Time Lord looked middle aged with thick wavy hair that was dark with tones of white and grey in various shades, and solemn but piercing grey eyes.

"How soon before we arrive on Earth?" Theta asked him.

Annar glanced at him for a moment before he turned back to the console - the Type 53 TARDIS was one of the latest modern designs of TT capsule, but it was versatile. Theta's hands itched just to grab hold of them, he was a fully qualified pilot since he'd had motivation to since he wanted to leave Gallifrey and be a traveller like the Corsair.

And the other renegades, a treacherous part of his mind said. Theta didn't bother burying it since he'd long since wanted to become a renegade for years.

When he'd walked into this TARDIS, he had felt the telepathic circuits call out to him, hoping to link with him. But he had resisted, knowing that Annar would stop him, but he knew one thing. This TARDIS was going to be his. He just didn't know how, yet.

"We're almost there," Annar said, glancing casually down at the controls. "What do you know of Earth?"

Theta wondered if he wanted the text pad answer, but decided to mix it up. "It's the home world of the human race, the centre of multiple fixed points in time and space, making it a nexus point in causality. Once the home of the saurian species known to the humans as the Silurians and the Sea Devils, their aquatic cousins, Earth becomes the centre of numerous interstellar and intergalactic empires and federations, alliances, and republics. It's also the twin planet of Mondas, which is the home planet of the Cybermen. At the moment, we're travelling to Earth during its 18th century when human science and technology are still in their infancy."

Annar's face was borderline expressionless, but he nodded. "Good," he replied, "it's a relief you looked through the material, though I'm surprised as well. Your father told me before we left you were very lax about studying ahead."

Theta stepped back as he tried and failed to hide the hurt he felt, but hearing it again and again in his head made the young Time Lord angrier than ever; ever after demanding so much from him, making him have to jump through hoops only to be told he wasn't good enough, having to listen to him and mother go on and on and on about joining the High council, they still had no faith in him.

Hiding his emotions as he could, Theta managed to muster a good reply. "Well, what my father knows about my time at the Academy and what actually went on are two different things," he said.

Annar shrugged, seemingly uncaring about the issues between father and son. He'd probably had to see it so many times in the past it no longer bothered him that much. Finally the TARDIS materialised on Earth. Annar glanced at the computer once more and read off the readings. "Yes, Earth. In the country known as England, in their year 1796. Come, Theta," he said, leading the younger man away from the console room. "It's time we went to the wardrobe room."

Theta was surprised by that. "You mean we're going out there?"

He was surprised because until now, Annar had struck him as the by the book Time Lord, which meant that their time on Earth would be spent in the TARDIS in accordance with the Doctrine of Non-Intervention.

"Of course, how else do you expect us to learn more about humans just by staying inside the TARDIS?" Annar asked as though the whole thing was ludicrous.

Theta shrugged, personally he didn't really care about that stupid law since he had no intention of playing games with human history. He wasn't Mortimus who'd more than once complained how boring it was to monitor the same events happening throughout the universe, and always debated with the other members of the Deca about the ways history could be changed.

The sensation of the unfamiliar air on this primitive world was good for Theta since he had long since wanted to travel to worlds like this. He brushed his hands down his clothes, amazed that despite how ridiculous they appeared to him they were more comfortable and liberating than his normal everyday robes. Dressed in a bladder brown jacket with simple metal buttons, a white shirt, waistcoat and black breeches topped by a tricorn hat, Theta glanced back at Annar. Human fashions for this period of time were limited, and Theta had warned the other Time Lord about wearing anything too extravagant, telling him that humans who wore rich clothing and ventured out were victims of robberies in public.

So Annar was dressed much like he was, and together the two Time Lords walked through the crowded streets. They knew they were in a city called London, but that was as far as their knowledge extended. But it was crowded and their transport system was incredibly limited to some kind of carriage pulled by animals. Theta wanted to explore on his own, but he didn't dare since the humans knew this city better than he did, and he didn't want to look like a fool by asking one of them directions.

As the two Time Lords walked through the city, confident the TARDIS was scanning the planet even though it was made trickier since there were no radio waves, no primitive internet that the ship could use to gather information, but as they passed through the city the similarities and differences between them became more apparent.

"Are you sure you want to buy that?" Theta asked Annar as the older Time Lord led him inside a shop where clocks and watches were made. Annar wanted to buy an ornate silver fobwatch.

Annar passed the shopkeeper the appropriate money, and then spoke to Theta telepathically. "Of course I want to buy it. You should buy one, too. We are Time Lords."

"We don't even need them," Theta argued back though the thought of how good those fob watches looked did tempt him, "and besides, I don't think its a good idea to flaunt our money around either."

"Nonsense. We're perfectly safe."

Theta didn't say anything else as they went through the markets where Annar showed that he wasn't afraid to buy everything in sight. Along with the two fob-watches he'd purchased (Annar had insisted he had one of his own), he also bought a number of other trinkets that looked good rather than practical.

When the pair had finished their spending spree, though it was more Annar than Theta that spent the money, they'd gone to an eating establishment though it looked rather primitive, and the conditions inside were beyond filthy. For members of an advanced civilisation who knew the dangers of food poisoning, they opted to be as safe as possible. The two Time Lords avoided the worst of the mess and the filth, and as Theta ate his meal, and drank some of the beer he was given, he looked around listening as the humans chatted to themselves and gambled. He noticed that a few of the human women who wore less clothes, sat on the laps of some of them men, and by their manner Theta could guess they were about to go off for intimate relations.

He shrugged indifferently, he'd never really bothered with love or relationships after getting that grade during his time at the Academy about love. The humiliation and the scorn had made his family annoyed since they'd hoped he would be married off to a girl of their choosing, not his, and now as a result the young Time Lord had not bothered with love. He had no intention of staying in a relationship with a boring sycophantic, simpering little airhead simply because his parents deemed it right, and besides he didn't want anything to do with his parents if they pushed their hopes and their dreams down his throat.

"So what have you learnt today, Theta?" Annar asked him. He was presently eating a meal that looked brown, greasy, and disgusting. It made Theta sick just to look at it, but although he'd tried to avoid looking at the meal Annar was presently consuming he could still hear the sounds Annar made each and every time he ate or swallowed, and the sounds of him licking his lips made him more sick.

Theta decided not to tell him that humans had disgusting food, terrible hygiene, and poor cleaning habits, and opted to tell the other Time Lord something different instead, "It's crowded, very busy. They have dozens of markets that sell animals and vegetables and fruit, and I saw ships on the river. They carried a lot of cargo, so there's a booming trade."

Annar nodded, chewing thoughtfully before he reached for the beer tankard he'd been given, and took a generous gulp. Alcohol wasn't a common drink on Gallifrey, except in wines and half decent spirits and ales found in the under cities so it made sense that Annar was fascinated by the beer. "I noticed those ships as well, it would be fascinating to visit them."

Theta quirked a brow. "Sounds like you've no intention of visiting them," he commented.

"We might be," Annar said, though it sounded like he didn't care either way.

Leaving with a full stomach each, their heads not even swimming with the amount of beer they'd both drunk, Theta and Annar walked through the busy streets of London, noticing that despite the way most of the city was crowded, filthy and looking dilapidated, the two Time Lords couldn't help but compare the human city with the Capitol of the Time Lords.

Dominating the entire city was the mighty glass dome sitting above the under city, which rested inside a massive underground pit exposed to the open air. The over city was beautiful under the glass dome which shimmered under the light from the twin suns while the mountains shone, with the long grass soaking up the light, while the sunlight made the tree leaves look like silver fire.

The under city of the Capitol, and of the other cities covering Gallifrey, were where the Gallifreyans and the Shobogans lived. Theta had seen many cruel and callous pictures of the Time Lords being held above the ordinary Gallifreyans, knowing the people who'd depicted them as stupid and useless people had forgotten that Rassilon and Omega themselves had both been born Gallifreyans, and it was only through the centuries that they became Time Lords.

Here on Earth, London seemed a mixture between the dirty and the clean, and he could see the richly dressed men and women who travelled with his carriages. Theta also saw men with long guns carried by the hand and pressed into their left shoulders, wearing red uniforms with white and yellow added on, wearing neat looking black hats like the ones everybody else was wearing. Here and there, Theta saw children sneakily creep up behind adults and pick their pockets, always making sure to avoid being caught.

The sight of those children made Theta look around him and Annar in case one of them decided he and the older Time Lord looked like attractive prospects for having their pockets picked. After walking through the city for hours, they were both very far from the TARDIS, but they were both confident they could return to their timeship soon. In the meantime Annar had been spending a bit more, and they'd gotten quite a bit of stuff Theta was willing to call junk.

They were both on their way back to the TARDIS, as it was beginning to grow darker and humans went around lighting the lights on top of the tall posts, passing through the street with a carriage and two animals poised to ferry it on its way, when 3 humans stepped out of nowhere. Footsteps echoing on the cobbles behind them, Theta and Annar turned to find 4 other humans standing there, each one of them cradling knives and primitive looking firearms and clubs.

"What do you want?" Theta asked them, hoping that this was a mistake.

"We saw you spendin' that money around," one of the humans smiled, showing off crooked and yellow stained teeth.

"Now you're going to give it to us," one of the firearm waving humans ordered, pointing his weapon at the two Time Lords.

Annar sniffed, and Theta flinched when he realised that the other Time Lord believed he could make a stand and not get hurt, but these humans had no idea they were Time Lords. For crying out loud they didn't know about aliens yet.

Unfortunately, Annar's attitude instantly made the humans annoyed and more than a little disgruntled. They'd evidently come across attitudes like the older Time Lords' before, and they didn't like it. Two of the humans snarled and advanced on the two Time Lords, but two more of them lunged towards Theta, grabbing the young Time Lord by the arms.

Theta grunted and he tried to fight back, but his opponents were strong, really strong. It was hard for him to fight back, and it didn't help matters that he was being turned around and round like a circle so he couldn't see what was going on with Annar. Suddenly he felt a clubbing blow to the back of his head, and he collapsed to the ground, dizzy from the pain and being spun around. His knees painfully impacted on the ground, and one of the humans came with him and crudely searched through his pockets, taking some of the coins Theta had taken from Annar. They also took the fob-watch from him and then left him on the ground before rushing off to help their friends deal with Annar.

Theta looked on.

Annar was actually a good fighter, he was holding on alright, but he was outnumbered and he was unarmed so Theta had no idea how he was able to fight back, but he imagined Annar was using sheer willpower to stay alive. The humans waved their clubs and knives around, but Annar always kept the humans away, always kicking the guns out of their hands whenever they tried to level them. Pushing his pain aside, Theta picked himself up to try to help his fellow Time Lord; they didn't care much about the trinkets, or at least they shouldn't, but Theta and Annar had the TARDIS key to worry about.

Theta pulled one of the humans off but didn't give him a chance to react, he just pulled his fist back and punched him int the face, and then in the gut. The human cried out in pain before dropped to the ground, but his cry of pain had caught his friend's attention and before Theta even knew it, three of the humans attacked him, and started beating him up.

Theta punched one of the humans, and grabbed the other and shoved him against the other, knocking them both to the ground, but the third human had finally gotten tired of the young Time Lord. Theta's eyes caught a flash of metal just as the knife blade went into his chest. Theta cried out in pain as he felt the knife slice through his lung, and nearly punctured his heart, and he felt himself weaken but he didn't let the injury get him down even though he knew that he was going to regenerate.

He ignored the humans asking why he was still upright, but they'd gotten tired of him and went to Annar. Theta staggered over to him, but he was too late. He saw one of the humans on the ground lying there after being kicked by Annar pick up his gun and aim it at the Time Lord.

"Annar, look out," Theta called out, but it was too late.

The gun fired, and the Annar staggered.

"The bullet…..I think it's gone through both of my hearts," Annar said telepathically, falling to the ground.

"Annar, no," Theta whispered telepathically.

The telepathic contact with Annar was fading with each nanosecond, but he had enough mental strength to say something important to Theta. "Theta, the Time Lords…..don't contact them, they won't help."

"What do you mean?"

"The Time Lords allowed you to come on this mission because they wanted to exile you," the older Time Lord said, "you have been causing them problems recently, and so they decided to get rid of you. I was ordered to bring you here to Earth and leave you here. But I have grown fond of you. They'd described you as a menace, but when I met you my mind was changed."

Mission completed, Annar fell to the ground, but he used the last of his strength to reach into his pockets and throw the TARDIS key towards Theta, who caught it with the last remnants of his strength, still staggered and horrified by the lengths his own people were willing to go to get rid of him.

The humans saw the throw just as Annar collapsed to the ground, dead. Theta saw the humans' expressions and he staggered back in pain, feeling the regeneration beginning. He was too busy keeping the humans back - he was dimly aware of a door opening, and laughter behind him, but he didn't pay attention, even as he leaned against the carriage.

"Yaa! Yaahhh!" A voice behind him bellowed, and the animals that pulled the carriage began to surge forward, and an idea popped into Theta's mind, and he grinned weakly and jumped onto the carriage even as it pulled away. The last thing Theta saw as the carriage picked up speed were the humans trying, and failing to chase after the carriage.

Weakened from the injury, Theta gave in and held on as tightly as he could, mentally programming his body to hold onto the carriage as he closed his eyes and tried to hold the regeneration back for a while to try to heal. If he was going to regenerate he was going to want to be rested.

When he woke up, it was absolutely pitch black, and the carriage rattled as it sped towards it's destination, Rassilon only knew where it was, but he knew he was out of the city, and that wasn't good. The roads weren't exactly smooth, and Theta's body paid for it with each jump the carriage made as it came across potholes. He groaned each time as the potholes sent pure pain through his chest, his body feeling sore and he looked at his hand. It was beginning to glow. Theta groaned and rested his head on the back trunk of the carriage, but that wasn't a good idea. The next pothole jerked his head upwards.

Groaning, the Time Lord let go of his hand hold of the carriage, only briefly preparing himself mentally for the impact. Theta let go and when he impacted on the ground travelling at 34 mph, he felt several of his bones break and he rolled over himself again and again with the momentum until he finally stopped, crying out in pain with each roll. Somehow, and he had no idea how, but he

Theta stopped, groaning and gasping in pain. He felt as though each and every bone in his body had either shattered or were on their way to breaking completely if he moved at all. For a long while, he wasn't sure how long since the impending regeneration was making it hard for him to use his Time Lord senses to get an idea of what time it was, never mind how many bones had been broken.

It took Theta a long time - years later he'd estimate he'd been lying there, alone with Annar, separated from the TARDIS and completely away from Gallifrey, but he would never know for sure, though his best guess was half an hour - to muster the energy to move from his spot. He would have loved to stay in the same position, but he knew he couldn't; for a start he didn't want to regenerate here and move his body out of an awkward position lying down. His body would be under enough stress as it was after it's rejuvenation, and besides this was a road. How long would he have to wait before another coach or even a cart laden with heavy materials came clattering up or down this road? And besides, first regenerations were very dangerous for the Time Lord and they left the body in an unstable state for a while before it settled, and if a cart plowed into or over him if he lay down, then the change could be triggered again, putting a lot of stress on the body.

Concentrating his mental energy into pushing the regeneration back even if he could feel it beginning to build up and using the same concentration to pick himself up from the ground, Theta nearly cried out again as he lifted himself off the group, feeling his broken bones and he nearly collapsed again, but he managed to right himself. He sighed when he realised he didn't have much choice.

Closing his eyes, Theta concentrated on his regeneration energy, and let go of some of the dams he'd placed to prevent the regeneration happening with him just laying there. He instantly felt the regeneration energy surge through his body, he felt his muscles and flesh tingle and he felt and heard his broken bones snap back into place, and he gasped at the sensations as they crossed over his body. Feeling stronger now, Theta crawled towards the edge of the road, and he didn't stop until he was hidden behind a mass of thick trees and bushes. The local fauna scratched at his native clothing, but Theta simply didn't care. Ignoring the wish of simply laying flat on the ground to rest, Theta pushed himself into a painful position where he was sitting on his knees.

He closed his eyes and let go of his control and concentration of holding the regeneration back; he hated the thought of losing a regeneration because of a band of humans, but he knew it was the only way to stay alive. He couldn't die now. He was too young, and he knew that Annar had died to give him a chance to escape. How could he spit on something like that?

But he didn't want to lose his first incarnation, not like this. He'd wanted his first life to die naturally, smoothly and preferably when he was travelling the universe in his own TARDIS. All the time he was thinking this Theta's body had begun to glow, and then the regeneration went critical. He screamed in pain as the energy ripped through his body. When it was over, he collapsed to the ground unconscious.

The cool air was what woke him first, but as he turned on his bed of soft but gritty soil, but as soon as he moved he gasped in pain as he moved his limbs. Moving into a position where he was leaning on the ground, propped up by shaking hands, he closed his eyes and mentally checked his body as his memories returned to him.

Like when you've woken from a heavy sleep and your brain is so fogged you needed a moment to clear your mind, he needed the same thing. After a minute his mind began to clear again, and his memory returned.

He knew his name was Theta Sigma, well his Academy nickname, though he was still trying to think of a name that defined him. He was 336 years old, and he was a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey, here on a research mission to Earth with another Time Lord called Annarand then the memory of what had happened to the other Time Lord and his final act of giving him the TARDIS key, hopping onto that coach and then falling unconscious and then finding himself alone in this forest in the dark.

Then he'd regenerated after pushing the effects from him for hours, and then finding himself without any clue at all to where he was, and he realised he hadn't bothered to look up at the stars in London before falling asleep in that healing coma and when he'd woken up from falling off that coach. He knew he was somewhere but he didn't know where he was. It didn't help that his geography of Earth was so limited anyway, but this was important - hehad to get back to London, get back to the TARDIS.

Remembering the TARDIS, Theta gasped as he felt for his TARDIS key, and found it lodged in his boot. He sighed with relief. Without the key he'd never have managed to get it unlocked. Slipping the key back into his pocket - he'd think of a more decent hiding spot later - Theta stood up painfully, and he ran a hand over his face - he frowned when his fingers felt the new physiognomy, and his hair felt longer and rougher, too. That was the secret of regeneration - while the mind stayed the same, with no personality deviances, the face changed completely, and so did the body

Taking in deep breaths, Theta walked away from where he'd been. He still groaned at the aches in his body, but he pushed them aside as he walked away. It would take time, but he'd get used to his new incarnation before long.