Notes: This one came out of nowhere. Well, I say nowhere. Watched the 'End of Time' again, heard the news that Lis Sladen had passed, and just happened to watch 'Genesis of the Daleks' again for the first time in about twenty years. This is also me trying to give a reason for Ten's regeneration into Eleven frying the TARDIS the way it did. Did that bug anybody else, or was it just me?
Disclaimer: It's time for the Disclaimer Song! What? Nobody's come up with one yet? Crap…
HIS REWARD
By screaminheathen69
Ood Sigma had said they would sing him to his sleep. He didn't want to sleep. He didn't want to change. Seemed he was using up his lives so quickly these days…
He stood at the console, holding back the forces building within him by sheer force of will, by sheer force of rage. He couldn't help the rage. He'd been forced to quite literally pull the trigger on his people for the second time, and something deep inside of him had broken.
Not yet…
But the change was coming. And, just as he had told Wilf, it felt like dying.
Not yet…
It was going to be bad this time. The raw energy he had absorbed was combining with the regeneration energies, twisting them into something different. Powerful. Potentially disastrous.
Not yet…
He started working the controls, setting his beloved TARDIS into motion, knowing he needed to get clear of Earth.
This would be when the thought occurred.
Wait. What if…
It could work. Take some doing, this, but it could work. He doubled over in agony, screamed.
Just a bit longer…
He pulled himself back upright, entered a set of coordinates from memory. It could work, the time-lock might still be weak, the walls stretched thin. Gallifrey had just made the trip, after all.
Not yet…
It worked. He was there. Just where he wanted to be, in spite of the fact that he had hoped to never set eyes on this misbegotten world again.
Skaro.
Not! Yet!
He'd timed it right. Skaro, just after his fourth self had left, along with Harry and Sarah Jane. After he'd failed to do what he should have done.
Almost…
He wasn't going to fail. Not this time. Not ever again.
Goodbye, Rose…
It was time to get his reward.
NOW!
He let go, finally. The regeneration energy poured forth, but instead of beginning the changes in his body, he channeled the power, force feeding it into the time rotor, causing it to feed back into the engines of his living TARDIS.
In the blink of an eye, Skaro, and the entire future history of the Dalek empire, was no more.
A long time from now and long, long ago, a white haired old man studied the controls of his TARDIS, a somewhat confused expression on his face.
"Something wrong, Grandfather?"
"Hmm? No, not wrong. Interesting, perhaps."
Susan walked over and stood next to him. "What's that?"
"We've materialized. According to the TARDIS, we should be on a planet called Skaro."
She smiled. "Are we on the wrong planet again?"
"No, no. The coordinates are correct, but no planet. It was destroyed some time ago, apparently."
Susan could tell by his body language that something was bothering him. "Grandfather, are you alright?"
He shook off the uneasy feeling that something was slightly off, then turned a smile towards his granddaughter. "Yes, my dear. I'm quite alright. Let's move on, shall we?"
He set the TARDIS in motion again, making a note in the navigation logs that Skaro had been destroyed. He couldn't quite shake the feeling that something in the universe had shifted, but for some reason, he felt that whatever had changed had changed for the better.
Time to move on…
It was an awfully big universe, after all.
'To thee no star be dark, both Heaven and Earth, friend thee forever…'
For Elisabeth Sladen. Godspeed Lis, you will be missed.