Hello, it's me - a random Doctor Who fan. I've been a fan of Doctor Who since the revival in 2005, although I have watched many of classic episodes from 1963 - 1989 (the ones that weren't lost, anyway). After an incredibly disappointing Season 11 (in my opinion) and mostly lacklustre New Year's special (look at the ratings), I decided to have a crack at DW fanfiction. Plus, I wanted to practice my writing skills for the sequel to my Borderlands fic, Someone Else.
So, I was endlessly confused by how the Doctor's new companions not once ask who she is and her origins. They know that she's an alien, but yet never ask what species. Also, in Resolution, I wondered how the Doctor would react to the Dalek on Earth in present day, after not having seen them for (presumably) centuries. She is visibly scared at their presence, and is confident afterwards to scare the Dalek itself, but you'd think she'd act a little more remorseful, since she got a lot of people killed because she couldn't see the glaring obvious in that the Dalek was using someone as transport.
Anyway, I figured I should just get on with this one-shot...
Remains
The Doctor boarded the TARDIS in silence, finally concluding her pleasant disposition at Yaz's family's belated Christmas dinner. Apparently, since Yasmin had arrived late to the first one – the TARDIS had always been unreliable on that aspect – they conceived a "New Year's Dinner" celebration instead. The Doctor was pleased to be invited, not particularly desiring to be alone – much like she had for the past few centuries, whenever the Time Lord felt festive.
Mesopotamia was always fun, as it had been the past six times she had visited the place, but the Doctor did enjoy spending her time around humans she had grown attachments with. Her new companions were a good option, and it certainly hadn't been the first time she'd experienced festivities with her friends.
Ryan seemed happy with Graham, as well as the return of his absentee father, whom she admitted she had judged very harshly. Aaron had almost died, so it made sense – that coupled with the father's drive to make a comeback, despite the fact that he openly avoided his absence at Grace's funeral. However, Yaz had managed to deflect the topic at the dinner, and maintain the pleasant atmosphere that her family had been keen to portray.
But that time had passed now. She had left rather abruptly, which the Time Lord knew was rude, but there were important things at hand. The Daleks were somewhere out there in the universe, in 900AD, so it was worrying that they may be somewhere in 2019 – when they should all have been destroyed by now. The Last Great Time War had consumed most of them, and the very few that remained were wiped out by the Doctor or by other races. The Daleks should not return until far in the future, when they are remade by a genetic descendant race of the Kaleds, at some point. Even if the Doctor knew when that time was, she could not change it – for it was a fixed point in time.
Derisively, she walked towards the console of the TARDIS, before angrily kicking it with a frustrated groan. The TARDIS beeped in defiance, but the Doctor ignored it.
Her efforts to wipe them out felt continually worthless, as each time she believed they were gone, they would come back to haunt her. She may have saved Gallifrey from destruction, but she had still had the memories of destroying it, the first time, before she learned of her efforts to save it. In particular, that event reminded her of how far she would go to destroy the Daleks: willing to commit genocide of her own race, killing all on the planet at the time. Yet, the Doctor would always lecture against the very act, with a feeling of hypocrisy deeply rooted within her subconscious. Before, the Time Lord had opted not to end the Daleks before they were even created, when she had the chance, sensing she had not the right to do so.
A lone tear fell down her face, but the Doctor wiped it away almost immediately.
And now, one sole Dalek had almost ended all life on Earth. Her blindness had endangered her friends once again. Van Statten would be laughing at her now, learning of her hypocritical irresponsibility. The Doctor knew the Daleks' return was inevitable, but she was sick of getting the ones she cared about killed.
Sighing, the Doctor flicked a few switches on the console, and pressed a few buttons. She activated the Briode Nebuliser, gearing the TARDIS for flight. The Synchronic Feedback Checking Circuit beeped as the Time Lord twisted a few dials. Upon checking it, the Doctor harmonised the feedback, desperate for something Dalek-less to do.
She scanned for evidence of the Daleks within the solar system, using the DNA she had collected earlier, pulling the system monitor to her eye line. The scan would take a little while, but it was worth it if it meant she could be rid of the Daleks completely. At least, until hundreds of years into the future.
No Dalek DNA detected.
Of course. The Doctor didn't find the Daleks. The Daleks found the Doctor. She'd stumble upon them, but almost always, they were looking for the Time Lord. Because they wanted her dead. The Oncoming Storm, but yet it was the Daleks that were oncoming.
She reinitiated the scan, silently listening to the drums and ambient noises of her timeship.
No Dalek DNA detected.
The Doctor tried again.
No Dalek DNA detected.
Again.
No Dalek DNA detected.
There were no Daleks near Earth. Not now that the Dalek from 900AD had been destroyed. No more to threaten them.
'Doctor?'
The Doctor turned to her left, realising the door had been opened, bringing in the sunlight of Sheffield. Yaz looked at her expectantly. Upon noticing the appearance of her companion, the Doctor summoned a smiling countenance and upbeat behaviour.
'Yeah?' She asked vivaciously.
'I was just wondering where you ran off to,' Yaz explained, laughing awkwardly at the memory of the Doctor quickly departing.
'Oh, you know me – not used to human interaction,' she responded uncomfortably. 'Sorry I ran off like that, I just needed to think.'
'I'm not surprised. You said you keep coming across those Dalek things, so it must've struck a nerve when you saw one.' The Doctor smiled.
'That's a neat way of putting it,' she complimented. The Doctor walked back over to the console. Yaz attempted to see what was on the monitor, which her friend had been staring at when she walked into the console room, but the Time Lord hastily pulled it away and deactivated it.
There was an abrupt sound of the TARDIS doors opening again, and Yaz turned to see Ryan and Graham stepping through the doors.
'Alright, Doc?' Graham spoke politely, with his hands in his pockets. Ryan nodded at her, and the Doctor beamed at them.
'Right then, now that you're all here,' the Doctor breathlessly addressed, briefly looking dark and serious. Graham noticed this, but it was replaced by an more upbeat expression almost immediately. 'Shall we be off?'
There were unanimous nods about the crew, ready to go and see where the Doctor would take them next. The Doctor gave an excited look, like a child, almost, and danced around the console, interacting with the console happily and pulling the dematerialisation lever. The sound of the TARDIS dematerialising echoed throughout the console room almost gracefully.
'Doc? Are you OK?' Graham asked her, as the Doctor still moved quickly around the controls.
'Yeah, 'course I'm OK. I'm the Queen of OK,' she brushed off, moving past him to turn a few dials on the console.
'You don't seem like it,' Graham noticed. 'Is this about those Daleks? It was clear you had a personal relationship with them.'
'I said I'm fine, Graham,' the Doctor snapped at him, with uncharacteristic anger, her childlike excitement disappearing within an instant. Ryan and Yaz looked at the Doctor in worry.
'Doctor,' Ryan called, and she looked at her exasperatedly. 'What's wrong?' Upon noticing the empathetic look on his face, the Doctor's expression softened to a more distant look.
'I almost got you all killed,' she reminded them. 'That Dalek…one misstep and it could've shot you and killed you.'
'But we aren't dead, though,' Yaz pointed out.
'Yet,' the Time Lord corrected. 'If I had figured out its plans faster, and destroyed it faster, then I wouldn't have had to risk your lives to get rid of it.'
'You can't just blame yourself for that,' Graham told her. 'An' you said they were intelligent, too.'
'People died because I wasn't fast enough,' she replied persistently. 'I've lost friends at the hands of the Daleks before; don't think you're an exception to their wrath.'
Sara Kingdom; Katarina; Lucie Miller; Tamsin Drew; Captain Jack Harkness, the first time; Tegan, technically, since she ran away; those were just by the Daleks.
The Doctor looked away from her friends.
'We're not stupid, Doctor,' Yaz told her. 'We knew how dangerous travelling with you could be. But we decided to anyway because, honestly, there was little chance we would ever get the opportunity to experience the universe ever again. The chance to see the beauty of space and time? How could we refuse the offer?'
'She's right. We've seen the evil out there. But we've also seen the good,' Ryan added confidently.
You haven't even begun to see the evil out there in the universe, the Time Lord contemplated, opting not to respond in an antagonistic fashion.
'All I am asking is that you try to be more careful,' the Doctor resolved, concluding her reverie. Her countenance lightened, and she straightened her back, away from the console. 'Where to next?' She moved around and interacted with the console manically. 'I like the sound of Akhaten. Love visiting that place, me. Been there several times. Went there with my granddaughter once. It's beautiful.'
Ryan, Graham and Yaz mostly ignored the Doctor's usual babble, only frowning at the mention of her granddaughter. However, they didn't ask her about it, or, rather, couldn't, since she merely continued her out loud thinking.
'Do you remember that Dalek's casing, though?' Yaz absentmindedly commented, with humour in her inflection.
'Oh, yeah, it looked like a rust bucket!' Ryan joked jovially.
'Guys, I don't think we should be joking about this,' Graham reasoned, looking worriedly at the Doctor.
'C'mon Gramps, enjoy a little mess-around,' his grandson urged him, not noticing his sideways glance towards their resident Time Lord. She turned back to Yaz, who also noticed the Doctor. 'There was that plunger too. What was that meant to do? Suck me to death? Oh no, don't plunge my toilets or anything!'
The Doctor had stopped dancing gracefully around the console, having frozen while staring down at the controls. She had stopped smiling, and was grating her teeth together, gnawing in frustration.
'It doesn't exactly look like the "most dangerous creature in the universe"!' Ryan continued, but Yaz elbowed him hard to catch his attention. The Doctor rose from her position, and furiously stomped over to Ryan, who quickly realised his mistake.
'You want to know why the Daleks are so feared and dangerous?!' She angrily yelled at him, not too loud but certainly not quiet. 'I'll show you.'
The Doctor bounded back over to the console, redirecting the Atom Accelerator, and twisting the Helmic Regulator. The TARDIS shook as it abruptly changed direction in the Time Vortex, away from Akhaten and towards…somewhere else. She angrily pressed the buttons and twisted the dials, frustrated with Ryan's belligerence.
You would make a good Dalek.
'Doctor?' Yaz attempted to get her attention, but the Time Lord merely ignored her. Cautiously, she stepped towards her. 'Doctor?' She cast an annoyed glare at her for a moment, warning her to shut up. She ignored her warning. 'Doctor, where are you taking us?' The woman ignored Yaz's enquiries. 'Where are you taking us, Doctor?'
'Somewhere that'll give you some perspective,' the Doctor finally responded, gravely, moving around the console without her usual excitement and delight.
'Doctor!' Ryan called, with a remorseful look on his face. The Time Lord batted a livid eye at him, long enough for him to say something. 'I'm sorry.'
'I don't care,' she ruthlessly disregarded. The TARDIS beeped at her fury. Eventually, the Doctor found her way to the dematerialisation lever, which also doubled as the materialisation lever. She pulled it down, and the sound of the TARDIS materialising could be heard within the machine throughout the control room. After the sound faded, the TARDIS flight noise sounded continuously, making it clear that the timeship was most definitely not on the ground.
'Where are we?' Graham wondered, but the Doctor snubbed his question, still very annoyed. She signalled for her friends to follow her as she walked towards the TARDIS doors.
'Doctor, what's out there?' Yaz demanded, not fazing the Doctor with her frustration.
'Take a look.' The Time Lord swung open the doors, with her companions behind her. They were anxious to learn where they were and what this had to do with the Daleks.
Out the window, they saw the infinite depths of space, in all its brightness and darkness. The stars and constellations could be seen in the background; blues, reds, greens and yellows, bright and beautiful. A large planet sat in the background, luscious and green, with an atmosphere that was rich and large, supporting a wealthy ecosystem. However, the expanse of space wasn't centre stage of what the Doctor was showing them.
There was a massive platoon of spaceships spread out across the scene. It was not too close nor too far from the TARDIS – just close enough to be seen, but not for them to seen. There were two main designs of the ships: one was sleek and white, rounded like classic Earth jets with thrusters at the back; the other was round, comprised of brown metal, with round "humps" on the top. The round ones seemed to hover towards the ships, ominously, while shooting laser-like beams from their guns. The jet-like ships didn't pull any punches though, shooting back at them with their lasers as well. However, it was very clear that the jet ships – which were noticeably less frequent compared to their enemies – were running away, rather than leading any kind of offense.
'What's going on?' Ryan asked. 'Who are they?' He pointed towards the white ships in confusion.
'They are the Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire,' the Doctor explained. 'Or what remains of them. And that' – she pointed towards the other ships that were chasing them – 'is the Dalek fleet. 301st battalion. One of the largest armadas ever produced. The planet you can see over there is Lavadas. It's a luscious planet supporting a diverse range of life. Many of the civilisations on Lavadas are pacifistic; they are accustomed to believing peace can only be achieved by lack of violence.'
'When are we?' Graham inquired, almost fearfully.
'And why are you showing us this?' Yaz added.
'This is the 31st Century. 3119, to be exact. 1100 years in your future,' the Doctor clarified sombrely. 'And as for why I'm showing you this: well, just wait.' She pointed towards the Daleks, who were just about finishing up destroying the Human race. Yaz instinctively stepped forward, wanting to prevent the Daleks' onslaught and help her species. The Doctor held an arm out in front of her, stopping her in her movements.
The Daleks easily destroyed their threat, but that wasn't the issue. There was a metal glint as a massive turret moved from the Dalek mothership, catching the companions' attention. They frowned in confusion at the sight of it, unsure what it would do. It charged a green beam for a moment, before firing it at Lavadas. Only a few seconds passed before it hit the planet.
And then, there was silence. Nothing seemed to have happen. Lavadas was intact, and all of its unsuspecting citizens were unaffected by the wrath of the Daleks. All was calm, and the planet was safe.
Then it wasn't.
Cracks briefly appeared across the surface of Lavadas, revealing a vast ocean of lava within the mantle. The lava began to cover the surface, much to the horror of the three, as the planet began to deconstruct itself.
Without much warning, Lavadas expanded and exploded into a fiery monster of death and destruction. Chunks of the planet flew past the Dalek fleet, almost hitting them, before a warp-drive shift was initiated and they disappeared out of sight. The remains of the planet flew out into the emptiness of space, still hot, leaving almost nothing behind. The space where the planet had been was just a mere collection of rocks, now completely lifeless and barren. That luscious atmosphere had floated away, mostly, with only mere echoes of it in the form of hydrogen and nitrogen gas. They clung to the larger rocks like an infection, trapping the heat in them like an aggressive virus, almost ensuring that life could not form on them for the rest of time. Soon, there would be no evidence that the planet had even existed, or that a vast region of life prospered in this part of the universe. There was no life left in Lavadas's wake, apart from the uncaring metal abomination of the Daleks, who were gone without a thought in the world to the genocide they just committed.
All Ryan, Graham and Yaz could do was look on in pure shock and horror at the sight of it, unable to process the evil that just unfolded so easily before their eyes.
The Doctor stepped back towards the console, thoughtlessly pushing her friends aside. She snapped her fingers and the doors to the TARDIS closed, pulling the three out of their horrified stares. The Time Lord moved around the console with a grave expression, pulling the dematerialisation lever and entering the Time Vortex.
'Why did they destroy that planet?' Yaz demanded, tears in her eyes. The Doctor looked up, somehow annoyed at the question.
'Because it was in their way,' she elucidated, in the simplest and most basic way possible. 'The Daleks want to destroy all non-Dalek lifeforms in the universe. They saw a planet they didn't need, so they destroyed it.'
'Just like that?' Ryan asked, tears also welling in his eyes.
'A whole planet of people…gone in an instant,' Graham summarised, unable to fully comprehend the evil.
'That's what the Daleks do,' the Doctor continued. 'Do you see now why they are so dangerous? One Dalek is capable of wiping out all life on Earth. So when it turned up in 2019, that is why I was so scared. I wasn't scared of the Daleks; I was scared of what they would do – of what would happen to you lot if I didn't stop them immediately.'
'And you're totally fine with letting an entire planet be destroyed, just to what? Prove a point?' Ryan argued, angry and upset.
'It was a fixed point in time; it had already been witnessed. There was nothing I could do to prevent it,' the Doctor reasoned, upset with herself for effectively playing apart in mass genocide. Again.
'How many people were on that planet when it was destroyed?' Yaz demanded, as the Doctor looked at her sadly.
'8.22 billion.'
'That's not much more than the population of Earth!' Graham realised, putting a hand to his face in shock, before wiping it down his face almost satisfyingly.
'This is the nature of the Daleks,' the Doctor grimly told them. 'They wipe out races without a second thought, destroying entire solar systems, ruining lives – killing and killing and they won't ever, ever stop! I've seen first-hand what they can do, and no matter how hard I try, I can never be rid of them.'
'And they're never rid of you, either,' Ryan reminded her. 'You know? "Backed up by the best of humanity"?'
'True,' the Time Lord admitted. 'But I've been fighting them so long that sometimes it doesn't feel like it's worth it. I'll always be there to stop them, but…it often feels like no use since they'll always come back.'
'How long have you been fighting them?' Graham queried.
'Too long. "The Oncoming Storm" – that's what they called me.' The Doctor adjusted a sole outlying strand of hair. 'Oh, you would not believe the things they've done, or tried to do! They've tried to turn Earth into a battleground; they've used technology to age people to death; they've tried to enslave whole races; tried to use me to end their own revolution; harvested humans to revitalise themselves; they have even attempted to destroy all reality as we know it! They destroy whole civilisations for the sake of being different!'
The Doctor briefly had flashbacks to Davros, and the Reality Bomb, but she shook them off.
Yaz put an arm on her shoulder, realising what the Doctor was implying.
'That's what happened to you, isn't it?' Yasmin lightly queried. The Doctor looked up at her with aged eyes. Those eyes that was so big and sad. 'Your people. You never talk about them.'
'The Daleks didn't wipe out my race,' the Doctor denied, which brought semi-hope to her companions, but her despair unnerved them. All hope was gone when she continued her statement. 'I did.'
She had doomed them to a pocket universe, unable to expand, leave, or prosper. They could only be alone, slowly whittling down in numbers as they exhausted their own natural resources. Later being sent to the end of the universe was not much better.
The Doctor maintained the memory of activating the Moment, but, it was perhaps a fate worse than that, compared to the truth of their fate. The Gallifreyans were now without wise leaders, or austerity to whip them into shape; not now that Rassilon had been removed from power and the War Council was dismantled. As terrible of a person Rassilon was, he did at least know how to keep them in line – even if they ended up betraying him, although the Doctor was the reason for that. But she wasn't going to tell them that.
'I…I don't understand,' Yaz stuttered, unable to compute why the Doctor would kill her own race.
'It's a long story.' The Doctor sat down on the seat, rubbing away the tears in her eyes that had just started to form.
'We're not going anywhere,' Ryan pointed out.
'Doc, you showed us that planet for more than just to prove the threat of the Daleks, didn't ya?' Graham recognised, sitting down on the seat next to her. The Doctor sniffed, uncertain how she wanted to word it.
'There was a war,' the Time Lord began, fire burning in her eyes as she began to recollect the trauma she had experienced. 'A Time War – Last Great Time War, in fact. My race, the Time Lords, fought the Daleks, in a conflict so large, so unfathomable, that it was said it could cause trauma in even the toughest of soldiers – just upon seeing its sheer scale. The Eternals witnessed it, feeling from the universe forever. It raged across the whole of time and space, causing the universe itself to convulse. There was so much…fire. Death. Devastation and destruction. All in the name of peace and order. So many participated, and so many died. Ascinta, the Verpad, the Alumni, the Horde of Travesties, the Skaro Degradations, the Couldhavebeen King and his army of Meanwhiles and Never-Weres…
'But it was always leading back to the Time Lords against the Daleks. I watched as Davros, the creator of the Daleks, flew into the jaws of the Nightmare Child at the Gates of Elysium in the first year of the Time War, and I failed to save him. I took the lives of many just because they were in my way, because I wanted my race to survive. I witnessed the Dalek Emperor take control of the Cruciform, and I, like many, ran.
'The Time War lasted centuries, and the Time Lords were getting desperate. They used every single weapon in their weapons vault to combat the Daleks, but none of them truly and conclusively worked. Well, actually that's a lie on both fronts. They didn't use every weapon in the vault. All, but one. The Moment. A weapon so ancient and so powerful that its operating system became sentient. And I stole it.
'The Daleks of Skaro; the Time Lords of Gallifrey – I believed they had left me no choice but to destroy them.' The Doctor paused for a second, closing her eyes and hearing all the screams echoing in her subconscious, and the explosions and deaths caused.
'I thought you wanted your race to survive,' Yaz reminded her.
'War changes people, Yaz,' the Doctor replied. 'The Time Lords were already corrupt, after ten million years of absolute power. Think what the desperation and need for adaptation of war would do to them. They weren't the same. They became more like the War Lords, even under Presidency of Romanadvoratrelundar, at one point. They had descended into twisted creatures of war.
'It had to stop. I was the one who started the war, technically, so I had to be the one to end it.' The Doctor decided to simplify the nature of what happened, going with the original order of events. 'I didn't intend to survive it; I had lost the way of the Doctor a long time ago, I did not deserve to live on. But I would, for that was my curse. Whatever I did, I had to live with it. It was on the Final Day, during the Fall of Arcadia, that the Time War ended in utter annihilation. I had committed mass genocide.'
'So when you saw that Dalek again,' Ryan realised. 'It reminded you of what you had to do during the War.'
'I've already seen the Daleks after the Time War – I knew they survived,' the Doctor re-joined. 'But it didn't stop me from feeling like everything I did was in vain.'
'I'm…sorry, Doctor,' Yasmin consoled, trying to imagine the sheer trauma her friend had been through, and her own inexperience in the matter. The Doctor was even older than she thought, and had spanned an existence longer than Yaz could ever have conceived.
'I counted, one night.'
'Counted…what, Doc?' Graham nervously asked.
'How many children were on Gallifrey that day.' The Doctor had a distant expression on her face, her eyes imagining the horror of the Time War, while the three remained frozen at her sudden mention of children. They had not considered the children: the young who had so much to live for, so many possibilities and opportunities in their lives. All of that was snatched away from them in an instant, and they were completely unaware of their incoming demise. '2.47 billion. Some of them were mine.' Her friends' eyes widened. The Doctor used to have children?! 'All of them…gone in a blink of an eye.'
'You can't keep blaming yourself for this. You had no choice,' Yaz counselled. 'I'm guessing this was a long time ago, you must've been a different person back then.'
'I'm so old now. I used to be so merciful. Then the Time War happened. It does feel like lifetimes ago, but I can still imagine myself as I was back then, standing before the Moment, ready to destroy everything…' The Doctor was lost in her own recollection, but swiftly pulled herself out of her reverie. She swiftly rose from her chair happily. 'But never mind. Believe it or not, I actually managed to save Gallifrey.'
'Really?' Yaz wondered in disbelief.
'Hard to explain, but it's to do with pocket universes and Gallifreyan art,' the Doctor rambled, blinking a few times to attend to the tears forming in her eyeballs. 'Now, where were we? Oh, that's right. Akhaten! Ooh, actually I could take you to Barcelona instead. Not the city – the planet. Yeah, they actually named a planet after the city…almost went there once, but I regenerated and got a bit distracted when the TARDIS crashed. That's a good story, actually. About ten years ago in your timeline – do you remember when all those people in London got brainwashed and stood on the top of those rooftops? You might've seen that on the news.' Graham nodded, but didn't answer. The Time Lord had just divulged information that was entirely personal to her and incredibly traumatic, so it was hard for them to say anything afterwards.
Ryan was also similarly silent to Graham, not entirely certain what to say. He could never have fathomed the experience of his Gallifreyan friend, or the things she had had to do in response. At least she didn't actually have to destroy her own planet and kill everyone on it.
Yaz seemed to be the only one who was acting social.
'Not sure I remember that, Doctor,' Yaz commented.
'Oh I'm not surprised,' she said casually. 'It was ages ago for me, too. But there was a giant rock spaceship flying over London. Sycorax ship. Not Sycorax as in Tempest, but an alien race named after them. Interesting times…'
'Doctor, just calm down a bit alright?' Graham finally addressed. 'You did just drop a massive bombshell on us.' The Doctor paused, understanding their state of shock, before smiling a little.
'Hold on,' she ordered light-heartedly, putting a finger out to her to shush them. The Time Lord moved energetically around the console, relighting her confidence as she imagined where she was going to take her friends. Yaz knew it was pointless to ask her where they were going; the Doctor was too invested in her piloting of the TARDIS to answer, and was evidently planning for the destination to be a surprise to them. Wherever they were going, it was sure to lift the companion's spirits.
The TARDIS whirred in compliance with the Doctor's attitude, increasing the lights in the room from a darker orange to a brighter yellow. The top tendrils that connected to the time rotor became more energetic, bobbing up and down faster but still smooth and easy. Lights on the console stopped flashing annoyedly and became more static, welcoming shades of orange and red. The TARDIS still remained shaky in flight, abruptly making the Doctor consider turning on the blue stabilisers, but she decided against it since she liked the sound the ship made with the brakes on.
The Doctor's grin was from ear-to-ear, like an overjoyed child. The universe was such a vast expanse to explore, at any and all points in time. So many moments, and the Doctor, even at her millennia-old age, had not seen all of it yet. That was what perhaps enticed her adventurous instincts – the idea that she might never experience all moments in time and space. That truth meant the Time Lord could keep travelling around the universe without much fear of being bored, since there would always be somewhere to go next.
The Doctor always enjoyed revamping herself after regeneration, and that was likely why she had not previously shared details of her past: because the Time Lord wanted a new start, no longer weighed down by the tragedy that was her life. After all, her previous incarnation refused to regenerate at first because he didn't think his life and adventures were worth it anymore.
But that Dalek had triggered something in her. Maybe it was the reminder that the Doctor should stop running away from her past and face it head on, or simply the sight of her old enemy had reminded her of her sacrifices. For the Doctor, perhaps one of the biggest sacrifices was losing who she was. Being the Doctor no longer was a crushing inevitability; you could not possibly be the same person forever. However, it meant losing who she was – and her own moral standing.
It had happened before, of course. The Time War did not warrant a doctor; it warranted a soldier. That was who the Doctor became in those lonely centuries: a soldier. A warrior to combat the threat of the Last Great Time War.
That was over now. The Time Lords was gone, and the Time War was over. While the Daleks were a constant threat throughout history, Ryan had been right in the Doctor was a constant threat to them as well. No matter where the Daleks turned, the Doctor would be there, and there was nothing they could do about it. There would always be that small lying ounce fear within that metal casing, as the Oncoming Storm was arriving to destroy them once more.
Batting an eye towards the monitor, the Doctor realised she was getting close to her desired destination. She pulled down the lever beside her, and the TARDIS began to materialise. The Doctor directed a wide smile towards to her companions, who were still very confused by her suddenly elated behaviour compared to her traumatised disposition only a few minutes prior.
'C'mon,' the Time Lord ordered them with a smile, jerking her head towards the TARDIS doors. Reluctantly, her companions walked over to where the Doctor was waiting. Abruptly, she exited the TARDIS, leaving the doors open a fraction, allowing them to follow her. They stepped out the TARDIS to see what the Doctor had been so excited about.
The planet the TARDIS had landed on was both dark and light.
The sand at their feet was almost unnoticeable in the patches of tall grass strewn about the landscape. Small, bright plants with funnelled leaves swayed in the wind gently, unimposingly absorbing the sunlight. Most of the ground was a hard, light grey stone, gently smeared with mud. There was noticeable weathering on the stone, since the corners had turned slightly yellow and cracks were evident throughout their structure. Lone strands of grass lay on the natural, jagged rock off to the side, yet to be smoothed to stone by erosion.
Absentminded insects crawled around, not menacingly or frighteningly, but peacefully, going on about their merry way around them. Flying creatures of some kind glided in the air space above them, chirping peacefully. They were like a hybrid between eagles and pterodactyl, but lacked the aggressiveness of both. They soared gracefully in the air, doing some sorts of air tricks and flips, rather than finding any prey to eat.
The landscape was dotted by large pillars of lopsided stones, piled on top of each other in an irregular fashion. Some stones even created large arches, casting giant shadows on the land below. The detrital rocks balanced to near-impossible heights, and held very securely, despite what the aging and deterioration on them would suggest.
The sky was a deep blue-black, with many bright stars, galaxies and planets noticeable, far in the distance. A solitary moon sat close to the planet, up in the night sky. It was a burnt-orange pigment that reflected the light of the twin suns that the planet itself revolved around in a binary systemic orbit. The serene moon was silent and stationary, barely far enough away to be unaffected its parent planet's strong tidal forces.
Awed by the sight, the companions followed behind the Doctor, who was walking towards the three central pillars, which connected together to make some sort of bridge. She stood under it, waiting for her friends to catch up, hands in pockets. Once they did, the Doctor began her explanation.
'Welcome to the planet known as Vakhtar,' she introduced. 'The Jewel of the Dundra System. In particular, we're in the ancient region called the Pillars of Garcillius. It's mythical. According to the mythos, millions of years ago, an Eternal was cast out by his fellow compatriots, sent to this planet to ruminate on his actions. Legend has it that the Eternal became so bored that it tore out the rocks from the land, and stacked them on top of each other. Looking upon the fruits of his endeavours, his prized pillars, he thought to himself that, perhaps, his exile would not be so bad.'
'It's beautiful,' Yasmin remarked in amazement.
'Yeah,' Ryan agreed, left mostly speechless from the sight of the Pillars.
'Just wait,' the Doctor told them in a nostalgic tone. 'Look! Up there!' She pointed towards the night sky, just off the side to the moon.
The stars seemed to shine brighter, and move closer together. Leaving a small black space in their wake, they aligned perfectly. It was a complete straight line; no imperfections or misalignments, it was faultless. The line of stars horizontally wrapped around the entire sky of Vakhtar, impossibly, apparently ignoring their constellations in favour of unnatural beauty.
'Woah…' Graham marvelled.
'It's called the Garcillium Belt. It's a phenomenon that occurs every 250 years or so, where the stars in the Associated Constellations of the Great Cascade appear to scatter themselves out of orbit. They move to form a line that can only be observed from the Pillars of Garcillius. Even when people move to approach the stars, they return to their proper position, as though it was a simple mirage. Most people regard it to be one of the greatest scientific mysteries ever discovered.'
'Do you know why it happens?' Yaz asked her.
'Nope,' the Doctor freely admitted. 'That's the beauty of it. I brought you all here to show you the true magnificence of the entire universe. The Daleks cause endless destruction, but that's not all that the universe has to offer. There are beautiful things out there, as well as terrible things. One cannot exist without the other, because they define each other. So no matter how much devastation the Daleks – and any other race – cause, there will always be splendour to be seen. And do you know what the greatest thing about the Garcillium Belt? The Daleks can't destroy it, no matter how hard they may try.'
'Doctor?' Ryan called. 'Are there more things like this in the universe?'
' 'Course! That's what I was saying!' The Doctor confirmed ecstatically. 'You wanna see some more?'
'Uh, yeah!' He replied enthusiastically.
'Where are we going next, Doc?' Graham wondered, still astounded at the sight of the Garcillium Belt.
'I want to see more of things like this!' Yaz added.
'Oh, we will,' the Doctor said with a smile. 'But for now, I just want to enjoy the view.'
And that is where it leaves off.
I'm no master writer, nor do I claim to be, but I hope it was interesting enough. I don't plan to write full Doctor Who stories in the future, but it depends on if people like this story.
A dependent thing in this story - a little anyway - is the whole "fixed point" concept. In the show itself, how and why they happen is mostly unclear, but I judge (most of) them by if (a significant amount of) people see an event occur already, from the perspective of the time traveller, then the time traveller cannot significantly alter it since people already saw it. If something happens that the traveller observes, then completely rewriting the event is out of the question.
If it's written, though, then it doesn't count since historical accounts can be incorrect.
Anyway, I hope you liked this one-shot!