Prologue

From the Gallifrey Matrix: All TARDIS are equipped with trans-dimensional perforators. This enables users of craft to project information, such as images or sound, across parallel dimensions or "universes." This function however requires immense amounts of energy to fuel the necessary circuits to facilitate the tearing of space-time. Supernova-imminent stars or quasars are ideal sources from which to extract this energy. WARNING: The use of this device may lead to the collapse and/or extrapolation of personal timelines, which may allow possible Time Lord Incarnations - past or present, complete or incomplete – to appear within current space-time. Use ONLY if absolutely necessary.

In Flight, c. 2.1x106

The eerie fluorescent orange liquid stared back at him with as much contempt as he did for it. He eyed it off as if it were the most grotesque creature he had laid his eyes upon, and he'd confronted Silurians, Sontarans and Daleks straight in whatever they had for a face. As he held it in front of his face his lips scrunched up like a kid being forced to eat broccoli or something much more sinister. "Do I really have to drink…this…stuff?" His similarly glowing counterpart nodded authoritatively with hands on her hips. "Doctor, it's good for you. You'll never get fit otherwise."

His white bouffant mane seemed to stand on end hearing that. Fitness wasn't in his vocabulary. He'd survived five quite unfit encounters and emerged unscathed, his ever-morphing face bearing his only scar. That and his wardrobe. Hesitantly, he guzzled the concoction down as if it were poison, holding his breath as it oozed all the way down. Mel's smile widened.

"There, was that so bad?" Her cheerful response irritated the Doctor to no end.

"That was horrible! I'm ever so pleased that carrots are only indigenous to Earth and this repugnant cone-shaped…thing can't be found anywhere else." He wiped to clean his mouth, however unfortunately not the taste that lingered within. The Doctor's eyes darted around for a mirror, just in case.

His gaze eventually wandered, turning his attention to the TARDIS console. He paced around it, gingerly caressing its surface like warmly embracing a long lost friend. The Time Lords threatened to take her away from him, but he knew they wouldn't prize it out of his hands so easily. Mel was sitting about, knocking her feet together like a schoolgirl at the end of a pier on a lazy summer's day. She let out a sigh. "Doctor?"

He regally turned to reply. "Yes?"

"Doctor," she carefully treaded, eyeing the floor more so than the Doctor, "who was that…man? That evil man, who put you on trial?" The air took on a sudden chill.

His tender smile faded into something much more serious. He was no more a man than a malicious beast, he thought to himself, restraining his anger with all his power. With an inquisitive finger held closely to his mouth, he began to put delicately what he wished he could explain as coarsely as possible.

"That man," he began with a flourish "was me – possibly, me. When I regenerate I could take on many different guises, behaviors, many proclivities" – he indulged himself with another liberal helping of his infinitive intelligence – "and that was one possible one. The Valeyard was a manifestation of a body and mind I could inhabit, under certain conditions and variables that may come to pass. The Time Lords used one of their plentiful pilfered devices to synthetically extract him from a possible timeline to prosecute me, with my remaining regenerations as …well, a carrot on a stick." He shook his head in displeasure with that one.
"I could be him, but then again, I could be someone much more pleasant and handsome…someone similar to me for instance." His fluorescent sleeves also wore his inescapable smugness. Mel's not often solemn face burst into life again. She began wagging her finger at him like a gleeful puppy.

"I'm so glad that he isn't you and that you aren't … well, him!"

"Yes, of course, and doubly so am I!"
His smile retreated into himself as he gazed into somewhere less than joyful.

"Though I could be," He thought. "I could become something far more sinister, more cunning. Something devastating. If I let my emotions get the better of me, I could unleash a heinous terror across the universe…"

He clapped his hands, deadening any wild and unlikely notions. Flamboyantly raising his arms to the roof and rolling his sleeves back, he prepared the TARDIS to embark on yet another journey.

"So Mel, have you ever been to Barcelona?" He said, impishly grinning.