The Time War – 11 + Clara
"Okay then Clara!" "Where to next?"
The Doctor bounded around the Tardis, spinning in circles, a huge stupid grin plastered across his face. She waited at the top of the stairs, looking defiant but cautious and unsure.
"Oh c'mon, no time for waiting around! We've got whole universes to explore! Worlds of impossibilities, galaxies of untold mysteries and you're just standing there! C'mon!"
He paused, looking puzzled at her reaction.
"Clara, what's wrong?"
She started, as if roused from deep thought.
"Nothings wrong Doctor," she replied.
"I...," she stopped. "I was wondering if we could visit a certain place."
He smiled.
"Already got one chosen out have we? C'mon then, I can show you anything!"
She swallowed hard.
"Gallifrey," she said.
His face fell, he suddenly looked very serious and almost hurt.
"It's just you described it so beautifully and...well I would love to see it," she explained rapidly.
The Doctor retreated to sitting on the steps at the front door of the Tardis. He sighed and held his head in his hands.
"It's gone," he said simply.
Two simple words that seemed to crush him.
He patted the seat next to him and she sat down.
"There was a war Clara." "The Time War." He paused and looked up towards her.
"The Timelords fought the Daleks, a race as old as themselves but bitter and twisted.
He spat out the word 'Dalek' as if it were burning his insides.
"Their leader, Davros, was fierce and the Timelords were outnumbered thousands to one." "We fought, we went in to battle with valour and honour, our head held high, but many died." "We fought and we killed many...I killed."
He closed is eyes. He felt great shame and the weight of his guilt pressing down on him.
"I could see the war was going to be lost, I wasn't what the Old High Senate wanted me to be! Those old, dusty Senators, so stuck in their ways, it was all about tradition and fighting for honour, I was different." "I wanted to see the stars, Clara. You have to understand that."
He looked deep in to her eyes, almost pleading. She nodded in response.
"I ran away. I left them Clara. I took a Tardis and I ran as far as possible" "The war was timelocked and I can never go back. "Now I have to live with what I did, the Timelords are all but extinct and I am the only one left."
He finished and sat very still, looking tired and weary. For the first time Clara saw his age, what guilt and fear had done to him and how terribly lonely he was.
"I'm so sorry," she began.
"I...I didn't know."
He smiled at her kindly.
"You weren't to know" "I live on, I regenerate, its the curse of the Timelords."
"No one deserves loneliness Doctor," she replied, hugging him tightly, "not even a Timelord."